Nigerian observer 14 07 2014

The Nigerian

PUBLISHED SINCE MAY 29, 1968 • Vol. 39 NO.033• MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014 • N 100.00

OPINION Pg. 15

Deconstructing Religious Fundamentalism

Capacity building: EIRS boss tasks ICAN

By VICTOR OMOALU BENIN CITY – The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has been charged to ensure

internal capacity in the grooming of professional accountants for effective and efficient tax administration.

The Executive Chairman of the Edo

State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS), Chief (Sir) Oseni Elamah gave the charge when he played host to the

leadership of ICAN led

by Mr. Efe Iserhienrhien in Benin City.

According to Chief Elamah, the core foundation of any Continues on page 2

cmyk

PDP leader, 3000

ARCHIVAL MATTERS Pg. 21

Nigeria On Trial

supporters join APC

By LUCKY EFESE

BENIN CITY - A leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Chairman of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) in Edo State, Comrade Johnbull Asemota, the present Chairman, Comrade Osahon Osamuyi, 20 members of the PDP Executive in Uhunmwode Local Government Area and members of the NUPENG union numbering over three thousand, have formally joined the All Progressives Congress at a mass rally in Benin City.

Comrade Asemota said he decided to join the APC to lend support

to the Governor in his quest to quickly develop the state.

Comrade Oshiomhole

who addressed the defecting PDP leaders and their massive supporters said “I am

happy today that many people have continued to see the Continues on page 2

Boko Haram: APC wants Int’l

enquiry to unravel sponsors LAGOS - The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday called for an international inquiry into the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said that the inquiry would help to determine those who might have links with the insurgents and unravel its mode of operation.

“The inquiry will end once and for all, the debate over who is behind the insurgency and also to facilitate efforts to tackle it decisively.

“The inquiry should

include intelligence experts from the US, UK, France and Canada, as well as representatives of the UN and Nigeria’s neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger,” it stated.

It also suggested that some specific groups be members of the panel of inquiry.

“Representatives of the Nigerian military and other security agencies, especially the police and the Departments of State Security, Governments of the states worst-hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, including Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Jigawa, the

TIT BIT

“The only discipline that accommodates the practice of being a successful failure is politics”.

- Kingsley-Ogbeide-Ihama

Federal Capital Territory should be part of the panel.

“Also the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Civil Society Organisations, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, Continues on page 2

L-R: Mr. Charles Idahosa, APC Leader, Uhunmwode Local Government Area, Mr. Anselm Ojezua, APC Chairman, Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State; Comrade Johnbull Asemota, PDP defector, his wife, Mrs. Asemota and Dr. Victoria Amadasun, APC Woman Leader, Edo State at the decamping of Comrade Asemota, a Leader of the PDP to the APC in Benin City weekend.

Oshiomhole hails Soyinka at 80 BENIN CITY Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has congratulated Professor Wole Soyinka on his eightieth birthday, saying he remains a source of inspiration and

pillar of support.

In a congratulatory message to the Nobel Laureate, the Edo State Governor said: “over the years, whereas many to whom our nation has given so much often conduct themselves in a manner that undermines

national unity, Soyinka, who has brought global glory to Nigeria, has done more to cement our nationhood without demanding much. You have not only written volumes seeking to cement our nationhood, but at some point even

had to endure 20-month solitary confinement to keep Nigeria one.

“As a Global Statesman today, your greatness lies not only in your extra-ordinary literary talent and creativity but also the tireless energy you

ABUJA - The Federal Government will soon review the1964 Explosive Act and 1967 Explosive Regulation to curtail the proliferation of

explosives in Nigeria, a senior official of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has said.

The official, Mr Dauda

Awojobi, Acting Director, Mines Inspectorate, gave the hint yesterday in Abuja in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said the review had become necessary as issues relating to the use of explosives were

By LUCKY EFESE

FG to review explosive act Continues on page 2

always exert in the pursuit of your convictions.

“For you, art is nothing if not deployed as a weapon to extend the frontiers of liberty and elevate the human civilization. From your classic, “The Man Died”, we draw timeless inspiration never to be afraid of telling truth to power. That it is more honorable to die fighting on our feet than on our knees before the oppressors.

Continues on page 2

News

APC leader, 3000 supporters join APC Continued from page 1

developmental projects of this administration especially Uhunmwode people by joining the All Progressive Congress (APC).

“This man you see with me is a Comrade like me and those people who separated us before now have gone and he is with us today. In fact, PDP is finished in Uhunmwode Local Government.

“For too long, few people have held Edo State in bondage, they pocket everything they see and reduced the State to a laughing stock.

He said “when I arrived here in 2007, PDP said I was joking; that they will rig the election because everybody as at then believed that rigging was a way of life, but we have demobilized them”.

Oshiomhole stressed “in all elections conducted from the units to the 192 wards in the state, we have defeated the Peoples Democratic Party.

God has used us to deepen their graves because God can see our heart.

“I read a report in one of the National newspapers last week where the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh said the trouble in Edo is caused by the Comrade Governor because he wants to become the next Vice-President of Nigeria.

Oshiomhole said “right there in the Villa in Abuja, I told them that I am qualified to be the President of Nigeria because I have the qualifications, the integrity, the pedigree and the capacity to do so. I have commanded the productive forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

According to him, “the issue of President or VicePresident is not the problem.

I have a job which I applied for. I have asked for the

mandate to govern Edo State and I promised to deliver on my promises even without any stated point or agenda.

He said “the water, the roads, the schools and electricity supply delivered to the people have become my own agenda. The APC government does not believe in any 4-point or 7-point agenda. Ours is eye-marked and not ear-marked.

Comrade Oshiomhole further said that “PDP in its desperate move to win elections by all means come 2015 have decided to use millions of naira from Abuja to buy over APC lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly.

“Some of the lawmakers in their bid to complete their various hotel projects sold the peoples mandates that were never bought with money.

Oshiomhole said “the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly is a result of the failure of the four (4) PDP lawmakers to obey court orders. Those who make law should not be seen breaking the laws. The four PDP lawmakers are seen to

perpetrate illegality by disobeying court order and as if that were not enough, they went to the Federal Court of Appeal to restrain the rest of the APC lawmakers led by Rt. Hon. Uyi Igbe from suspending them from the House. Yet, the court disgraced them and asked that they first go and obey the order of the state High Court of Justice”.

Governor Oshiomhole however assured the PDP defectors that his administration will continue to provide dividends of democracy to the people of Uhunmwode Local Government and urged their leader, Comrade Johnbull Asemota to join other leaders at the Local Government and mobilize for the APC. Leader of the decampees, Comrade Johnbull Asemota who was a one-time House of Representatives aspirant on the platform of the PDP said “before the coming of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, when it’s going to rain, cellophane bags are seen flying everywhere.

Today Oshiomhole has

Continued from page 1

left at the barricade at home to deepen the struggle for liberation.

“With the return of democracy in 1999, age would still not deter you from joining us in street marches against government’s antipeople policies, even in the face of the ambush of Armoured Tanks.

“For us, the Government and good people of Edo State, you have remained a source of inspiration and pillar of support, in our determined effort to liberate our people from the shackles of political oppression by a few political “godfathers” and expand in a meaningful way, the frontiers of good governance, democracy and development.”

Oshiomhole hails “As a hardcore labour man myself with the privilege of leading the Nigerian workers’ movement as two-term president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), I attest that you are a true comrade at the barricade in the true sense of the word.

“In the popular resistance of military dictatorships in the 1990s, you joined us on countless occasions on the street to fight for freedom.

Even when the Praetorian Guard drove you into exile and sentenced you to death in absentia, you never failed to connect with those of us

Capacity building:

Continued from page 1

organisation is accountancy.

To this end, he urged chartered accountants to strive towards imparting the necessary professional knowledge to their colleagues wherever they find themselves.

He remarked that the EIRS is a viable professional agency equipped with men/ women of characters, integrity and track records, urging the chartered accountants in EIRS to impart the necessary professional skills to their colleagues.

Chief Elamah further pointed out that for any professional organization like the EIRS, the human element is the most critical success factor, maintaining that the absence of adequate training and retraining leads to lack

of well equipped and professional organs.

He acknowledged the support of ICAN towards the burial ceremony of the late Elder Sunny Okundia, former EIRS Board’s Secretary, assuring of his full support for the institute, using the instrument of goodwill to reach out to other corporate bodies.

In his remarks, the chairman of ICAN, Mr. Efe Iserhienrhien said the visit was to specifically appreciate the EIRS Executive Chairman for his support towards the accountancy profession, human capital development and to appraise his transformation in the revenue sector of the state.

He said, Chief Elamah has brought professionalism to bear in tax administration, pledging the institute’s partnership with the EIRS towards enhancing tax administration in the state.

Boko Haram Continued from page 1 National Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Bar Association and any other relevant individuals or groups should be included” it further stated.

APC also stated that major political parties, including the PDP and the APC must be represented on the panel of inquiry.

It said findings of the inquiry must be made public and those found to have any links with the insurgents be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The party pledged its total support for the inquiry anytime it is launched. ‘’Enough is enough. The daily killing, maiming and abduction of innocent Nigerians, must end” it added.

cleaned the environment.

“There are street lights everywhere, traffic lights on every junction in Benin City, there are good roads, and schools have been modernized; if there is anything like 3rd term, we would have given it to Oshiomhole, he has done well for the state. Since there is no 3rd term, we will support whoever APC projects to continue from where he stops”.

Also, the present state chairman of NUPENG, Comrade Osahon Osamuyi on his part pledged to support Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and APC in the state, stressing that those who have been obstacles in their contribution toward the support of the Comrade Governor in the past have returned to the destination.

The APC State Chairman, Mr. Anselm Ojezua later decorated the Leader of the defectors, Comrade Johnbull Asemota, the present NUPENG Chairman Edo State, Comrade Osahon Osamuyi and others with APC emblem while their former PDP membership cards were openly destroyed.

Among the decampees included Hon. Godwin Osaretin Omobude, the former Speaker, Legislative Arm, Uhunmwode Local Government Council, one time supervisory Councilor in Uhunmwode and the PDP women leader in Uhunmwode, Princess Ann Onaghise. Others are the current PDP Auditor in Uhunmwode, Ward 8 Chairman, the state leadership and members of NUPENG led by Comrade Osamuyi Osahon and fifteen others executive members of all the Wards in Local Government PDP.

Mining:

FG generates N5.2bn from royalties

ABUJA - The Federal Government generated N5.2 billion between 2009 and 2013 from royalties in mining, Mr Dauda Awojobi, Acting Director of Mines Inspectorate, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has said.

Awojobi made the disclosure in Abuja yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said that N736. 92 million was generated in 2009; N889, 46 million was generated in 2010, while N970. 78 million was generated in 2011.

He added that N1.12 billion was generated in 2012, while N1. 45 billion was generated in 2013.

“In 2009, we generated N736.92 million compared to N1.45 billion generated in 2013. This is significant as the increment is in geometrical progression,’’ he said.

Awojobi said the revenue accrued from more than 44 minerals that were mined across the country.

He said 153.9 million tonnes of minerals were mined in five years.

“Generally, we have a royalty template whereby royalties are calculated based on three per cent to five per cent of the value of the minerals.

“It is as a result of this increase in production that we are able to make significant progress through royalties generated between 2009 and 2013,’’ he said.

The acting director listed the minerals mined during the period under review to include: gold, coal, iron ore, clay, limestone, lead/zinc, kaolin, gypsum, baryte, columbite, copper, garnet, manganese, phosphate, talc

and tantalite.

Others included: aquamarine, basalt, coltan, dolorite, domomite, feldspar, granite, laterite, marble, shale, sapphire, talc, tin ore (cassiterite), topaz, quartz, wolframite, tourmaline, zircon, silica and sand, among others.

Awojobi said the ministry had a databank on the minimum work programme approved for each mineral title.

He said that operators were expected to state the timeline of the activities to be carried within a particular period.

He said that the minimum work programme would not only be used to monitor the activities of the operators but would also be used to monitor their progress.

He said that permits for mining minerals issued by the ministry were either for export, analysis or for commercial purposes.

He said the ministry was also planning to establish a databank on the statistics of accident recorded from mineral exploration.

According to him the databank will enable the ministry to monitor accidents in particular mining titles, the causality figures and the number of injured persons.

“We will be able to know the magnitude of the accidents and the causes.

We want to be proactive in this area because the mining environment ought to be safe and healthy,’’ he said.

The acting director said the ministry was also collaborating with the National Bureau of Statistics to ascertain the contribution of the mining sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

FG to review explosive act becoming critical in view of the security challenges facing the country.

“The world is not rigid and things that are being done in the past may not suit the circumstances of today; we want to update the law which was made in the 1964 and the regulations of 1967.

“From 1964 to date is about 50 years; we believe that the law is due for review. The world itself is changing; technology has over taken events and issues,’’ he said.

Awojobi said that stakeholders in the mining sector, importers and manufacturers of explosives, as well as law enforcement agencies would be involved in the review.

He said that a selected stakeholder forum would be held where the draft bill would be presented, discussed and areas of amendment made before the bill is forwarded to the Ministry of Justice.

He added that during the review, efforts would be

made to provide adequate security arrangements for monitoring the transportation, usage and storage of explosives.

The acting director said that in the amended law, sanctions would be provided to punish offenders.

He said that efforts were underway to track the use of explosives and improve their monitoring mechanism.

Awojobi said the 1964 Explosive Act and 1967 Explosive Regulation provided that dealers and users of explosives should have about four or five different types of magazines (explosives storage facilities).

He said the ministry had issued notice to stakeholders to upgrade their magazines to the required standards for safety purposes.

He added that standard prototype guidelines would soon be released to guide operators.

Awojobi added that in the new policy, only mining

engineers or mining technologists or geoscientists knowledgeable in explosives technology would be registered to handle explosives.

“Only those who are knowledgeable in explosives technology will be allowed to be in charge of explosives.

“Such persons should be able to identify different kinds of explosives and know the basics of their chemical composition.

“We are looking at improving on the provision of security for explosives in transit.

“We meet regularly with the law enforcement agencies to devise methods of solving problems relating to the proliferation of explosives; we want to strictly regulate and control the use of commercial explosives,’’ he said.

Awojobi said that though ammonium nitrate in its free state was not an explosive, it had been classified as an explosive because of the way it was being used.

Inside Edo Assembly Crisis

Aspirant Applauds Court Judgement BENIN CITY – The member representing Orhionmwon constituency on the Board of the Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC), and an aspirant to the State House of Assembly in the 2015 general election, Hon. Fidelis Okunzuwa has applauded the recent Appeal Court judgment which was in favour of the APC lawmakers in the State Assembly.

Okunzuwa said the judgment re-affirmed the judgment of a lower court which restrained the lawmakers who defected from APC to the PDP from entering the premises of the House.

He posited that the Appeal Court judgment has rekindled the hope of the common man on the judiciary arm of government.

He praised the transparent disposition of the justices of the court in delivering such a convincing judgment that could stand the test of time.

Hon. Okunzuwa who spoke with newsmen in Benin City noted that, with the development, the nation’s democracy has been strengthened and therefore, urged other organs of government to emulate the integrity of the judiciary.

He therefore, sued for peace among the APC legislators with a view to bringing development to the state, just as he advised the aggrieved lawmakers to seek court action, if dissatisfied with the situation on ground.

Okunzuwa averred that disobedience to court order is a great offence which carries a penalty of imprisonment for anybody.

Hon. Okunzuwa thanked the state leadership of the party and the APC legislators in Edo State House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Hon. Uyi Igbe for their relentless efforts iin pursuing the case to a logical conclusion.

L-R: Mr. Charles Idahosa, APC leader, Uhumwode Local Government Area; Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State; Comrade Johnbull Asemota, PDP defector, his wife, Mrs. Asemota and Dr. Victoria Amadasun, APC Woman Leader, Edo State at the decamping of Comrade Asemota, a former leader of the PDP in Benin City at the weekend.

Pakistani Girl Child Campaigner Wants Abducted School Girls Freed ABUJA Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girlchild education campaigner, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, has called on Boko Haram terrorists to free the abducted Chibok school girls.

Malala, who commenced a three-day visit to Nigeria weekend, celebrated her 17th birthday in Abuja at a dinner

held in her honour at Transcorp Hilton hotel.

She spoke exclusively to journalists after the dinner that ended at about 10.40 p.m.

“On my 17th birthday my wish is to see every child go to school and I want to see my Nigerian sisters being released from their abduction and I want them to be free to

L-R: Comrade Johnbull Asemota, PDP defector, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and others at the decamping of Comrade Asemota, a leader of the PDP to the APC in Benin City at the weekend.

go to school and continue their education,’’ she said .

Malala was accompanied to the dinner by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai and members of Malala Fund, including Shiza Shahid, the 25-year old founder of the organisation.

A 32-man guest list at the event included members of civil society organisations and representatives of international organisations in Nigeria such as USAID, DFID, British Council and DFID. The Managing Director of NAN, Ima Niboro, presented a birthday card and flowers to Malala on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Thank you Malala for coming to Nigeria, Mr President personally signed this card, he shares your vision, your dreams and your ambitions and he is happy that you are here,’’ Niboro told Malala.

During her three-day visit to Nigeria, the 17-year old Pakistani girl is scheduled to meet President Jonathan and other top government officials.

NEPC Boss Visits Agric Ministry

BY DOROTHY EGBOBAMWONYI BENIN CITY – Towards exploring areas of mutual cooperation with the Edo State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources aimed at developing non-oil export subsector in Benin zone, the Acting Controller, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Salami Akinshola has paid a working visit to the ministry.

Receiving the Acting Controller and his team in Benin City, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon. Abdul Oroh, reiterated the ministry’s

readiness to partner with the NEPC whose activities he said the ministry has followed over the years.

Oroh said tropical fruits like cashew, pineapple, banana were produced in large quantity in Edo State owing to the 11 months of annual rainfall in the state and therefore, sued for NEPC’s intervention in the area of storage and exportation.

He informed that Edo State is also blessed with large quantity of oil palm has also made a case for the establishment of oil processing zone in the state so as to further expand its economic base.

The Acting Controller, NEPC, Mr. Salami Akinshola had said they were in the ministry to intimate the Commissioner of his assumption as the new Controller of the Benin Zonal Office, its activities as well as chart the way forward in terms of developing the non-oil export sub-sector in the zone.

He commended the Commissioner for his clear demonstration of commitment and support towards Federal Government effort in diversifying the productive base of the nation’s economy through aggressive

development and promotion of non-oil exports, adding that the council recognizes the ministry as a partner in progress.

Speaking on the role of NEPC, Mr. Salami enumerated the responsibility of the Council to include registration of Nigerian exporters, cooperative society, government and nongovernmental organizations, collection, collation and dissemination of information on exportable products and services from Nigeria, export market opportunities, local commodity prices and international market prices.

She will also mark the Malala Day on July 14, in Abuja to champion her cause for free and compulsory education for every child around the world.

The education advocate informed the guests at the dinner that she would welcome ideas and opinions from them on how to ensure the safety and education of every child in Nigeria.

“I also hope to listen to those girls who were abducted and later ran away from their abductors and it would be really nice to listen to the parents of the girls.

“They are the ones who can really tell us what their daughters are suffering and what they are suffering too,’’ she said.

In his remarks, Malala’s father, Ziauddin said “since centuries we have been ignoring half of our population, so we should stop it now.’

“We feel very honoured and I want to share with you one thing: what you can do for your society as a social activist, women rights activist nobody else can do. “ In the Swat District (in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) I was contributing to my community in education, I

had a school and I was a poor man in terms of money but I had an institution I started from the scratch.

“I was able to send 120 students on scholarship to my school so your existence in your community is the biggest capital you have, your involvement with your community is the biggest capital you have which I have lost.

“I will regain it one-day but the difference I was able to make when I was there, I can’t make it now so you should capitalize on your being in your communities,’’ he said.

In a telephone interview with the newsmen, Pakistani High Commissioner to Nigeria, Amb. Muhammad Saleem said the High commission “was not informed of her visit to Nigeria.

“However, we welcome her to Nigeria because she is doing a great job.

“She is a daughter of Pakistan and we are proud of her achievements and we hope her visit to Nigeria will go a long way in resolving the issue of the kidnapped Chibok school girls.

“She’s a great daughter of Pakistan and we welcome her campaign for education,” Saleem said.

BENIN CITY – Peace has finally returned to Evbuovbioba community in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State following the lifting of the suspension of the Enogie of the community, His Royal Highness, Edwin Aigbe Izevbokun by the Benin Monarch, His Royal Majesty, Oba Erediauwa.

With the lifting of the suspension, The NIGERIAN OBSERVER gathered, there

is a cessation of factionalisation and a return to the status quo ante.

The community in a statement by its Chairman, Mr. Lucky Enobabor and Secretary, Mr. Odion Nicholas, applauded the decision of the Monarch in lifting the suspension, describing it as eventful.

The community in the statement also appreciated all the persons who contributed to the peace process.

Peace Restored To Evbuovbiba Community

South-South 2015: APC Cautions FG Againsts Troops Deployment

By ELIZABETH AGBOEGBULEM PORT HARCOURT – The All Progressive Congress has said that the people’s vote will only count in 2015 elections if the militarization of election venues was prohibited.

The leader of the APC in Obio/ Akpor Local Government Area, Chief Tony Okocha, made this remark on over the weekend shortly after inaugurating the Elders’ Advisory Council of the party in the area.

Okocha, who maintained that the APC in Rivers State was close to the grassroots, maintained that the military had no business in politics and must stay away from election venues?

Okocha, who is the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, explained that soldiers were expected to protect the territorial integrity of the nation and not to be present in areas holding election, According to him, the electorate will refuse to participate in the electoral process the moment they observe heavy military presence within

their environment during election period.

He said, “The business of the military is not in politics at all.

They are to protect the territorial integrity of a country or a sovereign nation and they (military) have no business in a civil arrangement.

“So, anybody will naturally express fears, especially when you see people boasting that the only way they can win elections is by militarizing the entire place so that people will stay away.

“The militarizing election venue is a vice and is not obliged by any standard whatsoever and this should not happen in 2015.

I am happy that the National Assembly is even debating on it.

The National Assembly holds the powers to assign military to a particular place.

“In 2015, the people’s vote will count because we are in the business of mobilizing people in all the nooks and crannies of the local government areas. APC is deeply rooted in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area because it is all about grassroots in 2015,” he added.

Okocha, however, urged

IPMAN Decries Kerosene Scarcity CALABAR - Mr Michael Udofia, the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Calabar chapter, has expressed concern over what he called prolong scarcity of kerosene in Cross River.

He made the remark in an interview with newsmen in Calabar on Sunday.

The chairman said the situation resulted from nonsupply of the product to Calabar depot through the pipeline.

He added that Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and states in the NorthEast which received their petroleum products from the Calabar depot were also experiencing scarcity of kerosene.

The IPMAN boss said that presently, the product was being supplied to the depot through the waterway, and that the situation had caused untold hardships to residents of the area.

“We have been experiencing this scarcity for 18 years and this is very worrisome,” he said.

He noted that the situation had pushed the price of kerosene up from the approved pump price of N50 per a litre to N150 per litre.

Udofia said many households in Cross River used kerosene for cooking because of the ban on felling of trees in the state.

“Access to firewood has become very difficult and almost all households are depending on kerosene for domestic use.

“So, except the pipelines are used, supply will always be scarce.’’

The chairman also said that the non-utilisation of the pipeline had resulted in its vandalism.

He urged the Nigerian

National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to quickly resume supply of the product to the depot to end the scarcity.

“NNPC should declare a state of emergency as far as kerosene distribution in this part of the country is concerned. We have been neglected for too long,’’ he added.

members of the elders’ advisory council in the area to be the conscience of the APV in their localities and work hard to mobilise the people ahead of the 2015 elections.

He expressed optimism that the

APC will win the forthcoming elections in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area no matter the level of intimidation or threat against members of the party.

Calling on members of the elders’ advisory council to note

that their appointment does not confer on them the powers of the chairman of the APC in the area, Okocha maintained that the leadership of the party remained under the Mr. Solomon

Ikegwuru.

“As members of the party, we must eschew rancour and enmity. We must be united. We are conscripting you legally to win people for the party,” Okocha told the elders.

L-R: Hon. Charles Idahosa, Political Adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Prince Malik Afegbua, APC leader Edo North and Chief Joseph Arogundade, APC Chieftian, during a reception for Chief John Odigie Oyegun, newly elected National Chairman, All Progressives Congress in Benin City recently. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

Port Harcourt To Experience Power Outage

By ELIZABETH AGBOEGBULEM

PORT HARCOURT The Port Electricity Distribution Company, (PHED), is set to cut electricity supply in the capital city between July 1323 to enable it effect repairs and upgrade its facilities.

PHED set to cut electricity

supply in Port Harcourt.

The company’s Public Affairs Manager, Mr John Onyi, told newsmen in Port Harcourt, yesterday, that residents would experience electricity outage from the hours of 9am to 4pmdaily during the period.

Cultural display at Benin Airport during a reception for Chief John Odigie Oyegun in Benin City recently. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

He explained that the outage was to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) improve facilities that would enable PHED boost electricity distribution in the city.

Onyi stated: “PHED wishes to inform its customers of plans to cut electricity supply from July 13 to July 23 in the hours of 9am to 4pm each day.”

“This planned outage within this period is to enable TCN improve some sections of its transmission line that transports power supply to Port Harcourt.

“This upgrade when completed will enhance the power wheeling capacity of the transmission lines, thereby, enabling PHED provide better services to its customers”.

Onyi promised.

“PHED will make concerted effort to resume normal electricity supply to its customers from 4pm to 9am the next day.”

Onyi, however, disclosed that the current shortage of

electricity supply witnessed in the state was due to insufficient megawatts the company received from the national grid.

He added that the company presently received between 150 to 164 megawatts as against the 694 megawatts needed for the city.

According to him, this shortage of megawatts forced the company to embark on load shedding to ensure the limited-electricity available go round users.

Onyi said the loss of nine of its distribution transformers to vandals was responsible for current electricity outages presently experienced at Ada George, Mile 3, Ikwerre road, Iwofe road and parts of Rumueme community.

“Also, work is still ongoing at the vandalized five towers (132kv lines) that feed electricity to Mgbuoba, NTA, Rumuosi, University of Port Harcourt, and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital,” he noted.

The PHED spokesman called on customers to exercise patience, stressing that efforts were being made to improve electricity supply in the state.

Enabling Environment: Medical Practitioners Tasks FG

BENIN CITY - The association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) has prayed the Federal Government to provide the enabling environment for its members to provide qualitative acceptable and affordable health care delivery for Nigerians, saying they have the human capacity to deliver.

President of the association, Dr Frank Odafe who addressed newsmen at the end of the association’s National Executive

Council (NEC) meeting in Benin City said the association has members “that can offer the best in medical services as obtained anywhere in the world, if we are encouraged by government”.

Expressing the association’s commitment to ensuring quality health care delivery, he disclosed that AGPMPN is made up of private medical practitioners either in private practice or with government but also in private practice.

Dr Odafe listed the enabling environment to include incentive

for private medical practitioners, provision of infrastructure, empowering the macroeconomic environment as well as addressing the issue of multiple taxation in the form of tenements rate and registration fee, adding, “We want government to make all this rates affordable”.

Addressing them, he noted, are part of government policies that are favorable to medical entrepreneurship, He said they have the capacity to reduce ‘medical tourism’ and ‘capital flight’ among Nigerians which he said cost the nation

between $500million and $1billion annually.

“We, as private practitioners can do something to help this capital flight if government empowers us in every way possible; we are going to ensure that the entire Nigerian citizens enjoy robust quality health care delivery”, he added.

According to him, government role is central to providing quality health care delivery in any nation, as “We have the human capacity; what we need as a boost is infrastructural development”.

Expressing the association’s collaboration with President Goodluck Jonathan transformation agenda in the health sector, he said members of the association provide 70 percent of the health care delivery in Nigeria.

As part of activities for the NEC meeting, he said the association provided free medical services to 500 indigent Nigerians while they have at various times partnered with government in attending to victims of bomb explosions in Abuja.

Across The Nation Applicant Arraigned For Stealing Perfume ABUJA - The police has arraigned an applicant, Babayo Ahmed, 29, in a Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, for theft.

He is alleged to have stolen a perfume in a store at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Monday Akor, said Mary Willis of Chemonlly Pharmarcy and Store at Transcorp Hilton Hotel reported the accused at the Maitama Police Station on July 4.

He said Willis told the police that on the same day, at about 10.30 p.m., the accused entered the store and pretended he came to make a purchase.

According to Akor, the accused stole a perfume from the store which was later found in his possession.

He said the offence of theft is contrary to Section 287 of the Penal Code.

If convicted, Ahmed shall

be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or with fine or both.

The accused pleaded not guilty.

The judge, Mrs. Binta Dogonyaro, granted the accused bail in the sum of N50,000 with one reasonable surety who must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court.

She said both the accused person and the surety must deposit their passport photographs with the court’s registry.

Dogonyaro adjourned the case until August 20.

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) with other ECOWAS Heads of State and Government during their 45th Ordinary Session in Accra Ghana recently.

17 Lawyers Awarded SAN

ABUJA - The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) has conferred Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on 17 distinguished Nigerian legal practitioners.

Mr Sunday Olorundahunsi,

the LPPC Secretary and Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, announced this while briefing newsmen at the Supreme Court.

Olorundahunsi said that the committee found the awardees worthy for the title at the end of

its general meeting held in Abuja weekend.

According to him, out of an initial 109 legal practitioners that applied, 23 were shortlisted before the final confirmation of the new Senior Advocates.

Doctors Strike: Health Workers Render Skeletal Services

LAGOS - As the Nigerian Medical Association remains resolute on its strike, health workers in some governmentowned hospitals in Lagos State rendered skeletal services.

Reports state that nurses, laboratory scientists, pharmacists and some other categories of workers were seen going about their duties.

The hospitals visited include the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Surulere General Hospital, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, and the Federal NeuroPsychiatry Hospital, Yaba.

The other hospitals are the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ebute Meta.

Our correspondents who visited some the hospitals report that the strike paralysed healthcare services as only few patients were seen in the various wards.

Check at Igbobi showed that only few patients were at the out-patients department and accident and emergency department of the hospital.

Nurses and pharmacists were attending to the few patients still in the hospital.

A senior officer at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, told newsmen that the hospital had not been admitting new patients.

The source said that consultants had not been attending to patients.

“Only few consultants had been coming, and they have not really been attending to patients.

“Some consultants have not even been working since they opted out of the strike, “ he said.

A patient on admission at the hospital, Miss Amaka Umeh, said that no doctor had come to check her since the strike commenced.

“Nurses have been attending to us, but they have their limit.

“They will always tell us that a doctor will come, but I have not seen any of them,” she said.

Umeh appealed to the Federal Government to meet the demands of the doctors to enable them to resume work

and alleviate sufferings of patients.

Another patient at the outpatients department, Mr Collins Osamena, claimed that Nigerian doctors lacked sympathy for patients.

“It is not fair that our doctors can decide to go on strike almost all the time without considering the health status of patients.

“I am hoping that the government will find a way to resolve this strike in the health sector for the sake of patients.

At the FMC, the situation was different as the Medical Director, Dr Yewande Jinadu, and three other doctors were on ground attending to the

patients.

Some patients were seen receiving treatment at the outpatients department of the hospital.

Mr Henry Etim, the Head of Corporate Affairs of the institution, said, “We are doing everything within our powers to see that our patients’ lives are not in danger as a result of the strike.”

At the neuro-psychiatric hospital, the Medical director, Dr Lawal Ramaan, said that he had been attending to the patients in critical conditions, with the assistance of some other senior management staff.

Ramaan said: “Skeletal works are going on; we are trying to run the clinic and also attend to the patients on admission.

He explained that two academicians made the final list and no female lawyer got the award this year, although three of them had applied.

The chief registrar said that this year’s award process was very rigorous, adding that the provisions of the LPPC were strictly adhered to in the selection process.

He said that the awardees would be inaugurated at the beginning of the new legal year in September.

The new Senior Advocates

are: Dr Olu Onagoruwa (OFR), Prof. Joash Amupitan, Mr Olusola Idowu, Dr Ernest Ojukwu, Mr Ahamefula Ejelam, Chief George Onyemenam and Mr Tawo Eja Tawo.

Others are Mr Olatunde Adejuyigbe, Mr Sylvanus Ogwemoh, Dr Adewale Olawoyin, Dr Joshua Olatoke, Mr Teslim Busari, Mr Kevin Nwufo, Dr Amuda-Kannike Abiodun, Mr Oluwakemi Balogun, Mr Hakeem Afolabi and Mr Gerald Ezeuko.

TALATA MAFARA (ZAMFARA) - Governor Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara has urged Muslims to use the Ramadan period to pray for peace and stability of the country.

The governor made the call when a delegation of Community Leaders Association in the state paid him Ramadan homage at his residence in Talata Mafara.

Yari noted that the country,

especially the Northern part, needed prayers considering the issues of insecurity.

“It is only when there is peace and stability that the government can perform its primary obligations thereby leading to socio-economic development of the general public.”

The governor further called on Nigerians to support their leaders with prayers so that they would work based on the interest of the general public.

“It is only with prayers that the leaders could deliver on promises so that the public can enjoy the dividends of democracy.”

Earlier, Chairman of the association, Alhaji Abdurrazak Shobanke, said they were at the governor’s residence to register their solidarity and support.

He commended the present administration for its ‘wonderful agenda’ aimed at transforming the state.

Shobanke noted that the projects executed by the present administration had contributed immensely to the socioeconomic development of the state especially in the rural areas.

Pray For Nigeria, Gov Yari Urges Muslims

L-R: President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic; President Goodluck Jonathan; President Alasane Ouatarra of Cote’dIvoire and President Ibrahim Keita of Mali at the 45th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in Accra Ghana recently.

South West

Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola after test driving one of the newly commissioned Amoured Personnel Carrier (APC) his adminsitration distributed to the State Security Personnel during the commissioning in Osogbo, recently.

2 Suspected Cultists Arrested

By RAHEEM IBRAHIM LAGOS - Two suspected cultists alleged to have been terrorizing residents of Ikorodu and its environs have been apprehended by the Police during a raid of their den.

Authoritative source revealed that on 8 July, 2014 at about 0200hrs, upon a tipoff that a group of hoodlums suspected to be cultists assembled at Odo- Kekere area of Ikorodu. Policemen attached to Shagamu Road Division stormed the area and arrested two members of the group namely Sunday Onwe ‘m’ and Ijoko Samuel both of no fixed address while other members escaped.

Items recovered from the hoodlums are one locally made pistol, four (4) live cartridges, three (3) Axes and four assorted handsets.

The case is under investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba.

Similarly, one Ugochukwu Nwafor ‘m’ who was trying to rob his victim at the front of a hotel in Lagos was hit with a vehicle by a Good Samaritan who sported him at a distance.

The hitting by the vehicle demoralized the suspect who was descended on by angry mob at Havannah Hotel Gowon Estate before the Police rescued him and arrested with one revolver pistol.

The case is under investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba.

Meanwhile, on the same day, one Ojo ‘m’ whose other name was unknown was rescued from angry mob and

arrested by the Police for alleged trying to kidnap a 10years old boy.

According to source, on 7 July, 2014 at about 2100hrs, policemen attached to Oworonshoki Division rescued and arrested one Ojo ‘m’ from angry mob with allegation that he tried to

kidnap one small boy.

The suspect allegedly wounded one Moses Idowu ‘m’ aged 10years old of Agbareju Street, Oworonshoki while attempting to kidnap him with a big cloth he tried to force into the boy’s mouth.

The case is under

investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba.

The Police Public Relations officer, Ngozi Braide who confirmed the cases stated that the suspects would soon appear at different courts for their crime after investigations have been concluded.

Lagos To Create Jobs, Generate Revenue From Ceramics IKEJA - The Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources says it is considering the utilisation of clay and local raw materials to produce ceramics and glass to increase employment and revenue generation.

The ministry made the disclosure in Lagos in a statement by its Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Regina Obasa.

The statement said that the ministry disclosed the plan at a capacity building workshop on ceramics manufacturing organised in Ikeja.

According to the statement, ceramic industry has huge potential for job creation, natural resources utilisation, poverty reduction and revenue generation, if fully harnessed.

It said that the state government was working toward developing the industry because of the huge availability of raw materials for it.

It added that the workshop was to jumpstart interest in ceramics production in the state as well as provide a roadmap to the setting up of a Ceramic Production Skill Acquisition Centre.

“The ceramic industry is a huge manufacturing operation that touches every facet of major industrial processes that needed

Ajimobi Showers Encomium On Journalists

By ABIODUN AFOLABI IBADAN - Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has said that he has great respect for the journalism profession.

The governor stated this while hosting members of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) who were at the Government House to break fast with him, described the practitioners as the conscience of the nation.

His words : “I want to use this occasion to say that I have great respect for the journalism profession. It is a noble profession. Besides, the constructive criticisms always being offered by journalists have helped tremendously in entrenched good governance and ensuring a better society “.

The state chief executive particularly commended the media practitioners in the state for their cooperation and support for his administration, describing them as partners in progress.

Governor Ajar who ascribed the successes recorded by his administration to the unflinching support and cooperation received from the gentlemen of the press by his regime in the last three years, deposed that the modest achievements so far recorded by his administration would not have been possible if not for the focused government his administration runs and the friendly disposition of the journalists operating in the state without necessarily

compromising the ethics of their profession.

He then assured them that his administration would continue to treat them with great respect, particularly for not allowing themselves to be unnecessarily influenced by the enemies of the society.

He stated that his administration had decided to embark on urban renewal program me and environmental sanitation having tackled the

security problem which it inherited from the immediate past administration.

Governor Ajar expressed satisfaction that the urban renewal and the environmental sanitation program me of his government had succeeded in changing the environmental landscape of the state and its hitherto typecast as one of the dirtiest states in the country.

Earlier, in their separate addresses, the state NUJ

Chairman, Mr. Gbenga Opacity and NAWOJ Chairperson, Mrs. Addiction Adept commended the Number One citizen in the state for the restoration of peace and security which had eluded the state prior to the emergence of his administration.

They also expressed satisfaction with the performance of the governor so far, saying that he had not disappointed the people of the state.

to be harnessed to create jobs and wealth.

“Such is in the paint, pharmaceuticals, foods, computers, building construction, motor vehicles, electricity, power supply, electronic, iron and steel production, aeronautics among others,” it said.

The statement said Mr Peter Oaikhenan, a renowned Professor of Ceramics Engineering and Chief Executive Officer, Epina Technologies Ltd, delivered a paper at the workshop on ceramics production.

It quoted Oaikhenan as saying that the workshop was designed to equip people with skills and knowledge in ceramics manufacturing business, develop their capacities and enhance revenue generation for individuals and the state.

It added that the professor attributed low investments in ceramics manufacturing business to lack of clear understanding of the meaning of ceramics and absence of interested people.

The statement explained that capacity building would address low investments and equip those ready to partner with the government in the development o a world class ceramics industry.

It noted that the gains of the Ceramic Skill Acquisition Centre included establishment of ceramics manufacturing business clusters in key areas to drive the industry productivity and competitiveness.

Other gains are training of youths and unemployed people in ceramics production, awareness of the exciting and challenging career opportunity that are available in the industry among others, it said.

Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (Middle in white); his deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye Tomori; Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salam (left); Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 11, Mr David Omolaja (2nd left); Osun Commissioner of Police, Mr.Maishanu Ibrahim (5th left); Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Barrister Amos Adekunle (6th left) and others, during the commissioning of Amoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in Osogbo, recently.

Lagos LASG Assures Of Students Safety

LAGOS - The Lagos State Government will beef up security in schools to ensure safety of pupils, an official reinfated.

The Executive Secretary, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Mrs Gbolahun Daodu, said the measure was to avert any unpleasant developments similar to those in some parts of the country.

Daodu told newsmen in Lagos that the government was not oblivious of the security challenges being experienced in some parts of the country.

She said that teaching and nonteaching staff in schools had been sensitised to be more alert to happenings around their environment.

“We are aware of the security challenges in the country and you would have seen that the state government is doing a lot to contain the situation.

‘We have told our head teachers and non-teaching staffs in all our schools, whether primary, junior or senior secondary schools, to be more vigilant.

“We have told them to be more security conscious.

“Efforts are being made to ensure that additional hands are posted to the schools, either Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officers or other security personnel,“ she said.

Daodu said that government was also considering the employment of professional security guards in schools and other areas where they are lacking.

“Generally, we do not have enough security personnel around, except if we will employ from the private security guard companies.

“The government agency in charge of security is working towards that ,’’ she added.

Meanwhile, the state wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), has called for the retraining of personnel of the Neighborhood Watch Security and other groups employed by government to secure the schools.

The State Chairman of the NUT, Mr Segun Raheem, said

that the vigilance groups should be trained, to enable them to be able to combat insurgency and terrorist attacks.

Raheem, who was reacting to the attacks on some schools in Northern Nigeria by insurgents, said that no part of the country was completely safe from their attacks.

“Security is extremely important at any gathering of youths and children; schools must be made safe for teaching and learning, the environment must also be conducive.”

Raheem, who commended the effort of the government in providing security in schools, also urged governments at various levels to be more proactive with regard to security issues.

“A stitch in time, they say, saves nine; we should not wait until we experience insurgency before seeking a remedy.

“Government should be a step ahead at any given point in time,” the chairman said.

The unionist said that in the past, public schools in Lagos State were secured by military personnel, who also assisted in curtailing hooliganism.

The State President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Chief

Yomi Otubela, told newsmen that some private schools in the state had installed Close Circuit Television cameras(CCTV).

Otubela said that the cameras were installed to monitor strange movements around and within

the school environment.

“Aside from the cameras, the services of trained security personnel in mufti have also been engaged and children have been advised not to talk to strangers.

“No stranger is allowed to come for any child in the schools anymore, while members of staff have been advised to be security conscious,” he said.

Otubela, however, said that there would be a sensitisation

seminar on security for teachers and staff of private schools in October.

Also, the state President, All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Mr Babatunde Philips, also urged school authorities to be vigilant and security conscious.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos (3rd-left), Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje (2nd-left) Officials and winners of 5th draw of Lagos House ownership scheme in Lagos recently.

Lagos To Combat Overcrowded Classrooms

LAGOS - The Lagos State Government has said that it would channel its available resources to combat overcrowded classrooms in public schools in the state.

Mrs Gbolahan Daodu, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), disclosed this to newsmen in Lagos.

Daodu said that the state government was working toward having not more than 50 pupils in a classroom, as required by standards.

She stressed that the influx of people to the state everyday poses a serious challenge to the policy.

“We will try and accommodate all pupils but the influx of people into the state is a challenge.

“Lagos is a small state with limited land space, yet millions of people come in on a daily basis and they expect the government to cater for them.

“We are striving to meet the need of all of them.

“Our attempt is to ensure that we do not have more than 50 pupils at the maximum, in each class,“ she said.

Daodu said that state government would provide access to education for pupils, irrespective of the challenges confronting

Traffic gridlock on Funsho Williams Avenue, Surulere, in Lagos recently.

schools in the state.

She, however, said that the lack of land space, funds and construction timeframe had been responsible for the overcrowded classrooms in some schools.

The SUBEB boss said that the state government would overcome the challenges with more financial resources at its

disposal.

“In a state where there are no lands to build new schools, paucity of funds and longer construction time, we will definitely have overcrowded classrooms.

“Within the available resources, government is making efforts to combat overcrowded classrooms in

our schools.

“We will accommodate all pupils that want to go to our schools, not minding the challenges that come with it, she said.

Daodu, however, appealed for more financial resources to be provided to SUBEB to enable it to effectively tackle the challenges.

Govt Working On 205 Roads - Fashola IKEJA – Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said that the state government was executing no fewer than 205 road projects in different parts of the state.

Fashola said this in Ikeja at a programme to commemorate the

2,600 days of his administration.

The governor said that the road projects cut across all the 20 local government areas and the 37 local council development areas of the state.

He said that the projects were part of his administration’s efforts to promote development.

The governor said that the roads included: Langbasa and Unity roads in Ajah, Ibeshe Road in Ikorodu, Ikotun-Ijegun Bridge, Ayobo-Ipaja Road in Alimosho, and Ago-Palace Way in Okota.

Fashola said that he was aware of several other roads requiring intervention in different communities.

The governor said that it would be impossible for the government to work on all roads at the same time.

He gave the assurance that the government would touch all roads in due course.

Fashola said that the government had always given a priority attention to roads with large traffic and those with more socio-economic impact on the lives of residents.

The governor said that no road was for the exclusive use of residents in a particular area.

“The impression of some people that until their street is done, government is not working, is not the right impression.

“This is because the assets that we build are collective assets.

They do not belong to certain streets and certain residents.

“If you look at the roads across the state, they don’t belong to only the people who live in that community.

“The roads facilitate transportation to their homes, to their businesses and to their schools.

“Residents from other areas cannot be stopped from using such roads; so, our roads are our collective assets,“ he said.

On the Ago Palace Way , Fashola said that litigation over right of way was responsible for the delayed delivery of the project.

He apologised to commuters for inconveniences experienced on the road, and gave the assurance that the project would be completed soon.

The governor also said that work was at an advanced stage on the Ikotun-Ijegun Link Bridge, giving the assurance that the project would be delivered soon.

He reeled out some of the achievements of his administration in the last 100 days, and said that the state government had delivered two housing estates within the period.

According to him, the estates are Pa Omojola Estate in Gbagada and Oba Lateef Adams Estate in Agege.

He said that the housing projects would reduce accommodation problem.

Across The Nation Governor’ Wife Hand Over 2Bedroom Bungalow Indigent Widow:

Some women reading the hearing notice pasted by the investigation panel at the main entrance of Adamawa Deputy Governor in Yola on Wedenesday (9/7/14). The Panel was appointed by Adamawa acting Chief Judge, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, to investigate the alleged gross miscounduct against Gov. Murtala Nyako and his Deputy, Mr Bala Ngillari.

Soil Mining: Enugu Warns

Citizens, Contractors, Others ENUGU- The Enugu State Government has warned citizens, contractors and construction companies against soil mining especially along newly constructed roads in the state.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Goddy Madueke, gave the warning in Enugu while inspecting the Ninth mile-Udi-Oji River-Ugwoba-Anambra Boundary Road in Enugu State.

Madueke said that excessive soil mining could cause erosion, landslide and flooding, adding that the government would punish any citizen caught in the act.

Madueke said the ministry would come up with a mitigation plan of tree planting around newly constructed roads to curb soil excavation.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Resident Engineer at the Ministry of

Produce Complainant’s Statement Court Orders Police M A R A R A B A

(NASARAWA STATE) - The Mararaba Chief Magistrates’ Court has ordered the Police to give counsel to an accused a copy of the complainant’s statement to enable him prepare his case.

The accused, Mr Awwal Bashir, was sued by the police for criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The court ordered that Bashir’s counsel, Mr Yunusa Umoru, be given a copy of the initial statement made by the complainant to enable the defence prepare its case for the trial Umoru had told the court that the defence was unable to prepare its case because the police refused to give him the complainant’s statement.

The counsel quoted Section 36, Sub-section 6b of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to support his request.

According to him, the section states that “any accused person standing trial for any criminal offence should have access to

any document or facilities that would enable him/her to prepare for defence’’.

The Magistrate, Mr Habila Abundaga, corroborated Umoru’s submission that it was the fundamental right of any person standing trial on criminal charges to have access to court documents for defence.

Abundaga then ordered Mr Steven Kwaza, the police prosecutor, to ensure that Umoru get the statement before the next adjourned date.

The reports state that on January 31, one Mrs Franca Abubakar, the nominal complainant in the case, reported the accused to the Abacha Road Police Station in Mararaba.

According to the police, Abubakar alleged that she gave Bashir N200,000 to process land documents for her in the FCTA. She claimed that the accused did not process the land papers and failed to return her money.

Abundaga adjourned the matter to August 18 for further hearing.

Works, Mr Stephen Igboekeamu, advised the citizens and construction companies to desist from the act in order to safeguard the environment.

Some residents of Oji River Local Government, appealed to the state government to take decisive measures in handling soil mining, to prevent flooding in the area.

OWERRI- Mrs Nkechi Okorocha, the wife of the Imo Governor, has handed over a two-bedroom bungalow to Mrs Susan Obasi, an indigent widow from Umuebi Amuzu in Aboh Mbaise local government area of the state.

The bungalow was constructed as part of the third phase of Okorocha’s pet project known as “She Needs a Roof Project (SNARP)”, designed to provide homes for indigent widows in the state.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Okorocha said the project was designed with the welfare of the poor in mind.

She reiterated the commitment of the state government to improve the lot of the masses in the state.

“This government is totally committed to improving the welfare of the citizens of this state, which is why this project has been largely successful.

“It is not a politically

motivated venture and my office will continue to look out for genuinely poor women who are in desperate need of a roof over their heads.”

The governor ’s wife appealed to privileged citizens of the state to contribute their quota to improve the welfare of the less privileged in their communities.

In an interview with newsmen, the beneficiary and mother of four, expressed gratitude to Okorocha for the gesture.

She said that she neither gave bribe nor lobbied before she was chosen to to benefit from the project and commended Okorocha for raising funds to enable her to start a business to support her family.

“I am very happy today because I am now a proud owner of a beautiful house.

“I did not bribe anyone to be selected as a beneficiary. I am grateful to our governor and his wife,” Obasi said.

Taraba Crisis: Kano Receives 1,080 Displacd KANO- The Kano state Indigenes refugees hail from 10 The scribe said the Government has said that it had received 1,080 indigenes of the state who were displaced by the recent crisis in Wukari, Taraba.

Alhaji Ali Bashir, the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (SERERA), said this in an interview with newsmen shortly after

receiving the refugees at Unguwa Uku, in Kano.

He said the refugees, who arrived the state were in dire need of shelter, food, clothing and drugs.

“There are 613 households among them, while the remaining 467 are women and children,” he said.

According to him, the

local government areas of the state.

“After screening them at Unguwa Uku quarters we found that they are from 10 local government areas of the state.

“The local governments are: Fagge, Gaya, Garko, Gwale, Kura, Kumbotso, Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Sumaila and Wudil,’’ he said.

agency would forward its report to the office of the Deputy Governor to enable the state government assist the refugees immediately.

He called on wealthy individuals in the state to also assist them in order to alleviate their sufferings as most of them had lost everything to the crisis.

Hearing notice by investigation paenl pasted at the main entrance to A d a m a w a Governonment House in Yola recently.

Business + Economy Public Finance Management

World Bank, FG, States Partner ABUJA - The World Bank says it will partner the Federal and State Governments to improve Public Finance Management and ensure effective delivery of government’s policies and projects.

The disclosure is contained in the World Bank Group Nigeria’s Country Partnership Strategy 2014 to 2017 report released in Abuja.

It said the partnership would help government to tackle the challenge of translating wealth into tangible welfare for the benefit of the population.

“While Nigeria has made notable progress over the last decade in building institutions for more effective and transparent management of public resources, major weakness still remain at all level of governments.

“Limitation in the quality and availability of statistics and other information constrain the efficacy of economic policies and the degree to which public officials can be held accountable.

“Corruption increases the costs of procurement and other areas of public policy,’’ the report said.

It said the World Bank would partner the Federal and State Governments in areas of investment, loan, development, policy, operations, communities’ practice and technical assistance.

According to the report, the bank in partnership with civil society would scale up monitoring and demand for the timely disclosure of quality information on public finance and policy.

“Supporting improvement in the quality and availability of statistics in core areas for economic policy, public finance and service delivery at the federal and state levels.

“Engaging with the government and National Assembly with the goal of facilitating communication and understanding on the federal budget,’’ it added.

It said this would help to bring change in the society and help government to be more accountable.

It commended the various reforms of some States and

ABUJA - Ahead of the 2015 general elections, the Balarabe Musa-led deregistered Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, has asked an Abuja Federal High Court to stop INEC from receiving foreign funding.

In the originating summon, slated for hearing last

L-R: Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Hadiza Mustapha; Head of Nigerian delegation, Maj.-Gen. Babatunde Samuel; National Security Adviser, Retired Col. Sambo Dasuki; Head of Cameroon delegation and Minister of Terrirorial Administration and Decentralisation, Mr. Rene Sadi and Cameroon High Commissioner to Nigeria, Salaheddine Ibrahima at the second session of Nigeria/Cameroon Trans-Border Security meeting in Abuja recently.

PRP INEC Wants Barred

Foreign Funding: Wednesday, PRP and two others urged the court to compel INEC to comply with financial accountability as a condition for accepting further foreign donations.

They contended that INEC failed to account for the previous funds it had received from foreign donors.

The plaintiffs also claimed that INEC was discriminating against them in its preparations for the 2015 general elections.

The other plaintiffs to the suit are the de-registered Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and People Progressive Party (PPP).

The reports state that Musa, the first civilian governor of old Kaduna State was in court for the case.

Also in the court, were the national chairmen of the HDP and PPP, Chief Ambose Oworu and Dr Damian Ogbonna.

The Centre for Public Probity Studies (CPPS), the National Assembly, the European Union and the

Illicit Drugs: NAFDAC, NDLEA Collaborate

ABUJA - The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is partnering with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to address the use of narcotic drugs.

The NAFDAC DirectorGeneral, Dr Paul Orhii, made this known when NDLEA Director-General, Mrs Roli Geoge, visited him in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.

Orhii said NAFDAC had recorded success in the control of drug abuse in the country.

According to him, the recategorisation of codeine containing syrup, which is

widely abused more than overcounter drug, has been drastically reduced.

He said the drug was now being sold strictly on prescription.

Orhii said that increased monitoring, inspection and surveillance of narcotic drugs from point of importation to distribution would help in curbing diversion and abuse.

Earlier, Geoge commended the activities of NAFDAC in combating counterfeit and fake products.

“I commend NAFDAC for its determination and proactive

L-R: Enugu Sate Commissioner for Education, Prof Christopher Okolo; National Orientation Agency (NOA) Enugu State Director, Mr Isaac Onukwube and Deputy Director NOA, Mrs Rita Amechi at the NOA value re-orientation programme for Secondary Schools in Enugu recently.

efforts to control the use of narcotic substances in the country.

“The activities of the two agencies complement each other in fighting against the use of illicit drugs in Nigeria,’’ George said.

George said NDLEA would

continue to collaborate with NAFDAC to ensure adequate control of illicit drugs in the country.

The reports state that both agencies are working on a draft National Drug Control Master Plan.

The draft covers a period of four years to ensure strict control of the proliferation, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were named as defendants to the suit.

Other defendants are, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department for International Development (DFID) are also joined as co-defendants.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare, among other prayers, that INEC was not entitled to receiving further foreign funding from the EU, USAID, UNDP and other financial donors for its activities.

They also contended that INEC’s decision to de-register 28 political parties, including the plaintiffs was voided by court, but the electoral body had refused to obey the decision without appeal.

“The first and second defendants’ (INEC and National Assembly) earlier efforts through insertion of questionable and illegal clauses in the Electoral Act to enable them deregister political parties at will was recently voided by a court.

“They have, instead of obeying the court judgment, resorted to acts of subterfuge to trample upon valid judgments of court of law.

“The fund they seek from donor foreign countries have never been accounted for or used for the purpose of mobilising or supporting needed structures for free and fair elections,’’ the plaintiffs said.

10,000 Rural Teachers To Benefit

World Bank Education Project: ABUJA - No fewer than 10,000 teachers from rural communities will benefit from the planned Global Partnership for Education Project of the World Bank to enhance teaching skills in rural areas.

The information is contained in the World Bank Group Nigeria Country Partnership Strategy 20142017 document launched in Abuja.

According to the bank, the project will adopt a resultbased approach of state-based education project done in three states at pilot scheme to increase the number of qualified teachers in rural areas.

“The planned Global Partnership for Education project will promote a resultbased approach in nine states

in the north in close coordination with the Department for International Development (DFID), USAID and UNICEF. “All already have existing interventions in the areas,’’ it said.

It added that the project would also ensure a regular system of state level standardised assessments and improve quality and relevance of technical and vocational education.

According to the document, education is key for Nigeria’s economic growth and poverty reduction.

It added that poverty had been consistently found to be the dominant factor that prevented many children to start school on time or even set their feet in school.

“About one in every three of primary school age children

does not have access to primary education. Even after completing primary school, many students are still not able to read.

“About 10 per cent cannot add numbers at the end of primary school. Most of them are concentrated in the north, rural areas and poor households,’’ it said.

It added that at the national level 60 per cent and 44 per cent of students after completing grade four and six respectively could not read a complete sentence.

It commended the Federal Government’s current institutional reform in the education sector which would help to improve education access, quality and equity and national awareness to improve education service delivery.

NSE DAILY ACTIVITY SUMMARY (EQUITIES) AS AT FRIDAY (11/07/2014) Stocks

Open

Close

Change

Deals

Units

Value

MORISON

1.91

1.91

0

0

100

182

7UP

102.53

102.53

0

0

109,201

11,551,276.28

MRS

63.18

63.18

0

0

55,379

3,331,252.29

ABCTRANS

0.9

0.9

0

0

2,921,900

2,628,532.00

MTI

0.5

0.5

0

0

5,000,000

2,500,000.00

ACADEMY

1.71

1.71

0

0

1,142

1,861.46

NAHCO

4.9

4.99

0.09

0

1,033,189

5,151,050.21

ACCESS

9.8

9.8

0

0

9,058,005

88,520,861.33

NASCON

11.5

11.4

-0.1

0

398,005

4,543,382.98

AFRIPRUD

3.37

3.39

0.02

0

5,247,143

17,515,939.09

NB

174.5

174.43

-0.07

0

1,151,750

200,959,255.80

AGLEVENT

1.33

1.39

0.06

0

152,542

208,533.38

NEIMETH

1.22

1.21

-0.01

0

599,295

728,029.20

AIICO

0.8

0.82

0.02

0

2,300,176

1,838,671.06

NEM

0.8

0.81

0.01

0

4,634,750

3,748,693.50

AIRSERVICE

2.34

2.23

-0.11

0

178,750

398,612.50

NESTLE

1111.2

1110

-1.2

0

467,421

519,396,163.80

ASHAKACEM

31

32.55

1.55

0

1,268,771

40,901,255.36

NIGERINS

0.52

0.54

0.02

0

8,773,700

4,423,212.48

AUSTINLAZ

2

2

0

0

100

190

NIGROPES

7.46

7.46

0

0

500

3,545.00

AVONCROWN

1.69

1.69

0

0

900

1,521.00

NPFMCRFBK

0.96

0.98

0.02

0

261,617

255,738.32

BERGER

9

9

0

0

36,241

312,366.61

NSE30

1951.09

1945.69

-5.4

0

178,361,671

3,577,937,391.00

BETAGLAS

16.3

16.3

0

0

19,878

327,334.80

NSE50

2108.19

2102.61

-5.58

0

254,159,801

3,750,715,863.00

BOCGAS

5.76

5.76

0

0

12,000

67,200.00

NSEASEM

945.65

948.56

2.91

0

56,500

75,710.00

CADBURY

74.25

74.25

0

0

160,537

11,631,480.86

NSEASI

43004.41

42832.85

-171.56

0

328,364,773

3,855,378,405.00

CAP

39

39

0

0

296,633

11,698,485.30

NSEBNK

439.5

438.08

-1.42

0

53,236,345

631,143,836.00

1051.82

1053.69

1.87

0

10,340,000

833,400,674.20

CAVERTON

6.8

6.47

-0.33

0

319,283

2,068,726.79

NSECNSMRGDS

CCNN

11.5

11.4

-0.1

0

361,176

4,135,123.55

NSEINDUSTR

2709.75

2705.31

-4.44

0

3,770,787

277,404,798.10

CHAMPION

10.17

10.17

0

0

10,000

96,700.00

NSEINS

148.8

148.19

-0.61

0

24,364,235

21,479,725.57

2847.93

2836.03

-11.9

0

5,436,480

886,333,372.30

CHELLARAM

3.95

3.95

0

0

3,000

11,280.00

NSELOTUSISLM

CILEASING

0.5

0.5

0

0

82,000

41,000.00

NSEOILGAS

466.69

477.63

10.94

0

11,313,707

472,679,702.70

CONOIL

65.6

65.6

0

0

216,114

14,184,540.27

OANDO

28.48

27.99

-0.49

0

10,127,457

283,702,390.60

CONTINSURE

1.18

1.14

-0.04

0

2,313,705

2,658,208.75

OKOMUOIL

33

33

0

0

154,644

5,091,249.80 75,708.54

COSTAIN

1.37

1.37

0

0

1,943,689

2,614,104.40

PHARMDEKO

1.5

1.5

0

0

48,222

COURTVILLE

0.58

0.56

-0.02

0

178,000

100,680.00

PORTPAINT

5.4

5.13

-0.27

0

452,940

2,329,979.70

0.77

0.77

0

0

500

400

CUSTODYINS

3.86

3.71

-0.15

0

4,519,582

17,009,499.72

PREMBREW

CUTIX

1.82

1.8

-0.02

0

238,000

437,695.10

PRESCO

38.06

38.06

0

0

14,300

544,639.00

CWG

5

5

0

0

200

950

PRESTIGE

0.53

0.53

0

0

30,000

15,500.00

2,250.00

PZ

36.75

36.75

0

0

291,996

10,670,533.86 5,495,165.66

DAARCOMM

0.5

0.5

0

0

4,500

DANGCEM

245

241

-4

0

733,245

176,460,436.70

REDSTAREX

4.93

4.85

-0.08

0

1,127,693

DANGFLOUR

8.19

8.09

-0.1

0

164,441

1,328,384.73

RESORTSAL

0.5

0.5

0

0

5,000

2,500.00

0.54

0.54

0

0

134,553

72,398.62

DANGSUGAR

9.11

9.1

-0.01

0

1,539,573

14,097,317.62

ROYALEX

DEAPCAP

0.91

0.91

0

0

20

17.4

RTBRISCOE

1.16

1.14

-0.02

0

295,605

341,779.69

DIAMONDBNK

6.25

6.24

-0.01

0

3,557,388

22,225,975.84

SEPLAT

702

702

0

0

16,593

11,294,613.50

DNMEYER

1.26

1.26

0

0

8,400

11,088.00

SKYEBANK

3.27

3.27

0

0

4,437,488

14,470,658.97

DUNLOP

0.5

0.5

0

0

13,500

6,750.00

SOVRENINS

0.5

0.5

0

0

100,000

50,000.00

EQUITYASUR

0.5

0.5

0

0

500

250

STACO

0.5

0.5

0

0

900

450

ETERNA

4.5

4.45

-0.05

0

169,890

754,985.56

STANBIC

27.05

27.05

0

0

62,711

1,710,771.83

ETI

17.22

17.22

0

0

60,006

1,021,267.95

STERLNBANK

2.3

2.31

0.01

0

6,483,388

14,968,372.10

EVANSMED

2.43

2.31

-0.12

0

250,572

580,021.32

TANTALIZER

0.5

0.5

0

0

500

250

FBNH

16.14

16.23

0.09

0

71,757,576

1,160,693,485.00

TRANSCORP

5.95

5.8

-0.15

0

39,775,374

232,253,021.60 8,240.00

FCMB

4.29

4.15

-0.14

0

6,303,787

25,876,958.60

TRANSEXPR

1.97

1.97

0

0

4,000

FIDELITYBK

1.99

2

0.01

0

6,125,899

12,263,607.65

TRIPPLEG

1.97

1.97

0

0

25,449

47,844.12

FIDSON

3

3

0

0

570,800

1,703,192.89

UAC-PROP

17.4

17.44

0.04

0

634,608

11,012,621.40

FLOURMILL

78

78

0

0

48,866

3,708,097.75

UACN

62.4

61.59

-0.81

0

261,295

16,018,168.33

FO

231.52

234.06

2.54

0

679,664

161,007,266.20

UBA

7.81

7.85

0.04

0

8,492,593

66,592,047.37

GLAXOSMITH

69.99

69

-0.99

0

542,126

37,383,734.45

UBCAP

2.27

2.17

-0.1

0

4,452,765

9,820,779.55 5,321,710.50

GUARANTY

30

29.97

-0.03

0

8,704,921

260,839,737.30

UBN

10.15

9.65

-0.5

0

551,470

GUINEAINS

0.5

0.5

0

0

500

250

UNILEVER

51.5

51.5

0

0

76,606

3,920,600.98

GUINNESS

200

205

5

0

99,824

20,076,376.65

UNIONDAC

0.5

0.5

0

0

200

100

HONYFLOUR

4.12

4.27

0.15

0

4,446,467

18,817,008.46

UNITYBNK

0.5

0.5

0

0

44,430,665

22,215,332.50

IKEJAHOTEL

0.8

0.76

-0.04

0

599,138

475,564.88

UNIVINSURE

0.5

0.5

0

0

55,000

27,500.00

INFINITY

1.61

1.61

0

0

45,400

73,172.00

UPL

4.45

4.23

-0.22

0

285,754

1,233,354.75

INTBREW

29.5

29.5

0

0

264,546

7,780,635.74

UTC

0.5

0.5

0

0

22,000

11,000.00

INTENEGINS

0.5

0.5

0

0

20,000

10,000.00

VETGRIF30

19.53

19.49

-0.04

0

125,000

2,435,350.00

JAPAULOIL

0.55

0.57

0.02

0

5,912,533

3,325,669.21

VITAFOAM

4.38

4.38

0

0

1,110,767

4,823,458.73

JBERGER

68.05

68.05

0

0

45,822

3,135,996.24

VONO

1.44

1.44

0

0

100

137

JOHNHOLT

1.15

1.15

0

0

8,000

8,800.00

WAPCO

111.01

112.03

1.02

0

363,903

40,802,121.03

JOSBREW

2.58

2.58

0

0

3,980

9,790.80

WAPIC

0.85

0.86

0.01

0

3,302,043

2,839,856.06

LASACO

0.5

0.5

0

0

17,000

8,500.00

WEMABANK

0.96

0.98

0.02

0

1,280,440

1,222,364.99

ZENITHBANK

25.3

25.01

-0.29

0

5,765,187

144,919,597.00

LAWUNION

0.5

0.5

0

0

21,519,883

10,759,941.50

LEARNAFRCA

1.74

1.66

-0.08

0

843,759

1,414,714.54

LENNARDS

3.15

3.15

0

0

110

330

LIVESTOCK

3.05

3.05

0

0

1,224,050

3,748,768.62

MANSARD

2.59

2.52

-0.07

0

2,138,000

5,503,464.00

MAYBAKER

1.77

1.77

0

0

146,340

253,297.65

MBENEFIT

0.54

0.54

0

0

728,461

380,919.72

MCNICHOLS

1.28

1.34

0.06

0

56,500

75,710.00

MOBIL

133.02

135

1.98

0

41,851

5,652,750.67

TOP 10 GAINERS Stock NSEOILGAS GUINNESS NSEASEM FO MOBIL NSECNSMRGDS ASHAKACEM WAPCO HONYFLOUR FBNH

Close 477.63 205 948.56 234.06 135 1053.69 32.55 112.03 4.27 16.23

TOP TOP 10 10 LOSERS GAINERS Gain

Stock

Close

Loss

10.94 5 2.91 2.54 1.98 1.87 1.55 1.02 0.15 0.09

NSEASI 171.56 NSELOTUSISLM NSE50 NSE30 NSEINDUSTR DANGCEM NSEBNK NESTLE GLAXOSMITH UACN

42832.85

-

2836.03 2102.61 1945.69 2705.31 241 438.08 1110 69 61.59

-11.9 -5.58 -5.4 -4.44 -4 -1.42 -1.2 -0.99 -0.81

TERROR groups in Northern Nigeria have, since the inception of the Jonathan administration unleashed mayhem on innocent citizens in most parts of the region with security agencies and the presidency promising almost on a daily basis to deal with the insurgence without any headway till date.

LITTLE wonder then that the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Mr. Peter Voser raised the red flag that security situation in Nigeria had worsened in the last two years. Voser in a speech posted on the company’s website noted “the stealing and sabotage of crude oil intensified during the year under review thereby threatening our multi-billionaire-dollar business” and opined that shell alone cannot tackle the issues. THE Company’s chief executive recommended a multi-stakeholder approach as they have pushed for several years which has gone unheeded by the Nigerian authorities.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER, is disturbed over the security situation in the country as the United States of America recently raised alarm over escalating insecurity of lives, property and businesses necessitating in its restricting the movement of its citizens within some states in Nigeria.

WE are even more worried over the implications of corporate citizens’ perceptions of our security on larger businesses and in particular, growth and development of the country.

Unfortunately, efforts by Nigerian

THE NIGERIAN

Need To Tackle Terror Groups Now security to address the challenge have not yielded the desired results.

IT is an incontrovertible fact that there could be no meaningful development in any society where security of lives and property is heavily under threat. Shell’s expose reveals of colossal sums of money lost through oil theft by criminals who, in our view act in concert with powerful and well connected Nigerians including even some unscrupulous officials of the nation’s security organisations.

THE sad situation the nation finds itself is an attestation of the lack of political will by government over the years to deal decisively with the various security challenges that have arisen with one leading to the other, some of which now have ethnic, and religious colourations.

Kidnapping of multinational oil workers in the Niger Delta went on for too long unaddressed until it metamorphosed into kidnap of innocent low income earners, a situation which speaks volumes of our unpreparedness to tackle the menace of kidnappers until the mother of the Finance Minister and Head of the economic team

of Mr. President was kidnapped by hoodlums to the utter embarrassment of the whole nation.

THE political class have equally not helped the situation as most of them are involved in arming youth groups to do their political billing who in turn go back to the trenches with such arms to perpetrate criminality against the people and the state.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER is strongly of the view that if Nigeria must attain its national goals and objectives, the present administration must take proactive steps to fight insecurity in the land and restore hope and confidence amongst all stakeholders.

BUT in all, we believe the President needs to exercise the political will to make this happen. Mr. President needs to throw away ethnic, sectional and other sentimental garbs and wear his nationalistic apparel to deal with insecurity in the country.

GOING forward, we join shell Petroleum Plc to recommend a well organised, multi-stakeholder approach to dealing with insecurity in the country. The Nigerian Army, Navy, Air force, Department of State Security Service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, Nigerian Immigration, Nigerian Customs and most importantly, the Nigeria Police Force need urgent overhaul. All outfits need better coordination to arrest the situation and make the country safer for all.

Political Platform

The Quality Of A Good Politician

MY little Oxford dictionary defines politician as “person engaged or interested in politics” and politics as “science and art of government; political affairs or life or principles etc.” Politics consists of “social relations involving authority and power”. A politician is defined as one who is actively involved in politics or one who holds or seeks a political office.

A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making in government. Politicians play a central role in our lives. They are the concentrated voices of the people that make all efforts to improve their constituencies and peoples’ welfare. Good and dependable

By Adewale T. Akande politicians are delight to serve the people and consider themselves as servants and people their paymasters.

They represent the hopes, aspirations and the interests of every citizen in the state. The government instituted among men is the elected representatives who are also known as the politicians.

These politicians are required to implement social reforms and policy measures that contribute to the general welfare of the populace.

A politician’s qualities are his characters that are natural, while some of the qualities are as a result of external influences.

Promising politicians qualities are often backed by skills, experiences,

intelligence, integrity, with instincts -all combined together to achieve their goals. First and foremost, the best quality of a politician is honesty, God fearing and loving. A faithful and effective politician is trustworthy and reliable.

He must capture the essence of truth, display sincerity, candour and practices what he preaches. He makes decisions and accepts responsibility for his actions and his words.

The same is true in his dealing with his people.

He makes promises and keeps those promises.

Somebody that people may be relied upon.

Loving people with all his heart, might, mind, soul and striving to help them

as a true mark of responsible politician.

Moreover, a fake politician, will after taking the oath of office with the Holy book and lousy thanksgiving services, use their power as an end in itself, rather than for public good, making them indifferent to the progress of their citizens. A good politician becomes the image of his creator. A good and responsible politician will give high regard for morality, law abiding with no tendencies to corrupt even a single cent or kobo. The greatest strength of good politicians is deriving joy in serving people and not to steal tax payers money.

They know that a fulfilling and meaningful life is created through service to others. To be an effective politician, your

followers must have trust in you. And the very best way for a politician to build trust is to display good sense of characters and qualities composed of values, beliefs, traits and skills.

Another important quality of a good politician is integrity and technical skills to handle those challenging assignments, fiscal matters, policies, plans, projects, ideas and initiative solutions to problems. Integrity is consistency of actions, methods, measures, values, principles, expectations and outcomes. It is doing what is right, both legally and morally at all time even when no one is looking. Since politicians play very significant roles in the administrative

processes, especially having hands in thousands of important laws and policies to their communities and country, they should be welleducated, modest, with experience in social welfare, volunteering or should have done some good work for the society.

A politician should have a thorough knowledge and up-to-date information about the constituency where he is going to contest an election.

Sir Winston Churchill, a famous British politician who served as Prime Minister twice (1940-45) and (1951-55) once said that “ a politician must have “the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t Continues on pg. 14

“The greatest strength of good politicians is deriving joy in serving people and not to steal tax payers money. They know that a fulfilling and meaningful life is created through service to others.”

Political Platform Continued from pg. 14

happen”. Hence, a political career is meant for the people of high integrity and additional skills to achieve results and finding better ways of making life better for the people they represent. Politics are not meant for dropped-outs, area fathers, thugs, assassins, criminals, illiterates’ god-fathers, inept, dubious and corrupt politicians. These person, apart from being greedy doesn’t know the importance of education and can never invest properly on it. Good g o v e r n a n c e , transparency and accountability will be eluding states and nations where these above mentioned set of people found themselves in the corridor of power.

An incompetent and irresponsible politician will make people to hang around his house like bees to honey to feed them with “amala”, “tuwo” or “eba” just for days. He prefers to give out expensive gifts, donations and bribes from tax-payers money to win elections. An achiever will not need to do such things to win elections or people to their side in all ramifications. That is why you will hear people saying “Politics is a bad game of deceit and hatred”, “Politics is a do or die affair”, “Politics is a dirty business”, “Politicians are very sick people” and so on. It is those politicians of limited merits and capabilities that are bad and not politics. They cannot do more than their moral and intellectual capacity.

A true democratic government is the best concept for the

growth of any nation. A good politician enriches lives and feeds souls of many people and not making them to become beggars, touts, kidnappers, armedrobbers and fraudsters.

A good politician should be of a well disciplined personality with selfless service to make live better for his people. This should be reflected in the community where he lives in all ramifications.

Discipline is necessary for an orderly society and political life, without it, the social life would become miserable. A selfless service is putting the welfare of the people you’re representing before your own.

Winston Churchill described it as “the first of all human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others”. A good politician firmly believes in taking care and maintaining the community of his people.

He believes that community service is about giving back.

According to Theodore Roosevelt, “the most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice”. A person or politician who is with criminal background, or any links with criminals or whose allegations on corruption have not been cleared by the law court should be disqualified to participate in elections.

Responsibility and party loyalty is another quality of responsible politician in a democratic state. A transparent politician is nearer to his people and meeting them to understand their problems. Only fake politicians are seen by

... A Good Politician

voters when an election is near or change parties as footballers change clubs. As every parent has its responsibility to teach their children the principles of moral, culture, truth, sincerity to be self- responsible, so politicians need to integrate its citizens with importance of political responsibility and

challenges, and finally develop strategies and political systems that will help implement those solutions automatically.

He is quick to give hand to his fellow man. A reliable politician should be very loyal and committed to his party which shares his vision and goals. The value of loyalty simply depends

collective action.

Finally, to become a great politician or statesman, you have to use your talents, skills, experiences, honesty, integrity, challenges and constraints with the positive effect that we can have in touching other human lives.

Politician must leave his constituency better than

show respect to the views and experience of others.

Nobody has a monopoly of wisdom. He who aspires to be a great politician should have the ability to find and analyse problems in their constituency and find the best solutions for all these problems. There is no problem in this world without solutions. A

democratic values. A politician leads by example and knows his m i n i m u m responsibilities as an elected representative. A politician comes to politics to work for his constituents and not to work against them. He is the beck and call of the people and ready to listen to everybody. All these build a strong foundation for a dynamic society which will create solutions for any

on trust. A citizen should belong to a party with most brilliant, skilful, patriotic and dynamic people with common goals and aspirations.

Team work best when they have common goals, mutual respect and understanding of each party member’s strength.

Politics is to unite and reach consensus and not to divide or create enmity among people. Power is only a product of

before elected. Greatness is within reach of a politician who consistently do things they out to be doing. He learns from mistakes and criticisms. It is a bad politician that will see that all the good is in his side and that all the bad lies with his opponent or just because someone does not agree with him, does not mean that all their ideas and solutions are bad. Good politicians

good politician knows that simply giving consistent effort in the little task of services, social reforms, kindness or sacrifice in day-to-day life leads to true greatness of a nation. If all politicians make it a point of responsibility to develop and make life better for people in their units, wards, constituencies, states and regions-we will definitely have a great country.

“Only fake politicians are seen by voters when an election is near or change parties as footballers change clubs.”

Opinion

Deconstructing Religious Fundamentalism

By BOBSON GBINIJE

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires Than him who conquers his enemies; For the hardest victory is the victory over self”.

ARISTOTLE (384-322Bc) WHEN Schizoid hysteria and lunatic martyrdom becomes the driving force in any sect, religious collectivity, society or individual, it precipitates weird characteristics manifested in sectarian violence, hate, intolerance and fundamentalism. Hence, religion has become the greatest predator on man and Percy Shelley posited that “Earth groans beneath religious iron-age and Priests and Imams dare babble of a God of peace even whilst their hands are red with guiltless blood”.

Religion is a belief in the worship of the ultimate power greater than man. It is like a burning candle in a multicoloured lantern, you see it from your own perspective.

But the desire to make others see it from our own religious stand point or die is the cause of religious schism in Nigeria.

It is a grotesque display of blind extremism and gross intolerance for one to be monotheistically fanatical.

Religion is supposed to bring out the best in us as Muslims, Christians, Hindus etc. The cardinal matrix of love remains the organic fibre of all religions, but it has turned out

to be otherwise. There is only one God which we call by many other names and He is the quintessence and perfect exemplification of love. We are therefore not serving God when we end up fighting and killing ourselves in the name of Islamism or Christianity. It is broad daylight solipsism for which we must all be ashamed.

Sometime ago, a Danish Newspaper made a sarcastic picturesque reflection of Prophet Mohammed and this immediately ignited Islamic violence all over the world. To compound matters the print media in France, Britain, America, Belgium etc re-ran the so-called offensive cartoon leading to and fueling more violence in parts of the world including Nigeria. It must be stated with unequivocal clarity that democracy in Denmark is not reflective of democracy in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Nigeria. In these other areas, democracy is still gestational and embryonic, and so matters that touches on what people love with passionate depth should be treated with some modicum of respect, but that does not justify the unleashing of horrendous mayhem on people of other faiths.

How a cartoon in far away Demark affects a Nigerian Christian remains a puzzle. Is the Boko Haram’s ongoing furore and rancid genocide in

Maiduguri, Kastina, Bauchi, Gombe etc that has led to the loss of properties and lives right? Is the practice of Sharia conductive to Nigeria’s peace?

Is the Islamic theology and practice inherently violent and intolerant? When will this recurrent decimal of Islamic fundamentalism and blind violence stop in Nigeria? Are reprisals by Christians the best way to respond? Wither goeth the principles, practice and tenets of Islamism and Christianity in Nigeria? Why have successive governments in Nigeria not been able to solve the problem of religious violence and intolerance in Nigeria? Is religion now equivalent to gangsterism? Is it now a Mafioso-like cult? Is religion a new version of terrorism? Is it an indirect protest against political, socioeconomic dislocation?

Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 the orgy of religious violence leading to a bounteous harvest of copses, loss of lives and properties has continued with unabated regularity. In 1962, 1963, 1964 Kano, Sokoto, Jos

and Kaduna were very volatile cities of religious violence.

The volatility was given a political colour in the 1966 pogrom that led to the mass decimation of the Ibos in Northern Nigeria, which led to the call for all Ibos to return home to Eastern Nigeria, culminating in the Nigeria/ Biafra civil war (1967 -1970).

In the 80s we witnessed in the Maitasine and Zak Zaki religious schism. Specifically, at the college of Education in the outskirts of metropolitan Kafanchan in Kaduna State at about 8:30pm on Friday March 4, 1987 activities were entering their second day of the “Mission 87 crusade” organized by the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS). It was holding at the Colleges’ convocation Square and the preacher, Reverend Abubakakar Bako, a one-time Moslem from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria mounted the dais and started to speak.

In the course of his remarks he made references to certain verses of the Koran in Arabic and sought to interpret what

these meant in English. There were some Moslem students in the library which was not too far from the convocation grounds. They were listening to what the preacher was saying and they took exception to his interpretation of the Koran, arguing that he had no authority to do so. This later led to a religious conflagration that left in its wake genocidal destruction of lives and properties that has now crescendoed in the Boko Haram holocaust and the Chibok saga. The examples are innumerably many. But for how long are we going to continue to put up with this religious madness in Nigeria?

It is now time to act. Enough is enough.

There must be a Federal Government Sponsored Bill seeking for life imprisonment and the death penalty for religious bandits and fanatics who terrorize, maim and kill others in the name of their god or whatever. The Federal government of Nigeria must educate and sensitise religious groups on the fact that Nigeria is a secular state and that they are statutorily obligated to the payment of Taxes to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

This must commence immediately. The government must stop sponsoring pilgrims to their holy lands and all Pilgrims Welfare Boards must be reorganised to reflect the present religious realities on ground The Bible and the Koran asserts that God Almighty or Allah can fight His own battles. He does not need a galaxy of hypocrites, criminals, terrorists, miscreants, hoodlums and ignorant looters to fight for Him. It must be courageously said that the violent antics of moslems over the years shows that Imams and Muslims scholars are preaching a PostModernism Intifada, Jihad and Fatwa for their selfish political ends and must be condemned in no uncertain terms. They must be prevailed upon to re-orientate themselves and their teachings. They must be told that love, friendship tolerance and brotherhood are the key words and that the idea of infidels does not exist as we are all children of Allah or God Almighty. The idea of a passport to Heaven for killing none Muslims is based on

parochial judgmental fallacy.

The Federal Government must set up a new and vibrant council on religious affairs incorporating a broad spectrum of the memberships of all faiths. We are sick and tired of religious violence in Nigeria and any consequent reprisal from Christians will deal a fatal blow to the fragile edifice of Nigeria’s Nation hood. Boko Haram’s callous spilling of human blood, the breaking of limbs, the senseless bombings, the overflowing preternatural rage and arson has done tremendous disservice to the country’s floundering search for a confluence of national interests. The Federal Government must ensure that adequate compensations are paid to those who lost their lives and properties. They must legislate against religious violence. The legal statute posts that Nigeria is a secular state.

Finally, the Nigeria Police and the Army must be told that their mission statement is to protect lives and properties not be partisan when there is a religious fracas. Their failure to apprehend and arrest the spread of killings, bombings and burning to other towns and states in Northern Nigeria raises fundamental and disturbing questions about their readiness to contain larger theatres of violence in the future. Christians’ must be told that reprisal actions are grossly ungodly and illegal. They must however be commended for suffering under the yoke of fanatical attacks for many years now. It must be said that Christians and Moslems serve one God or Allah. But beyond this shared position, a careful study of the two religions reveals a striking congruence on many matters of doctrinal weight. Then why the quarrel?

All Nigerians, worthy Christians and Muslims must declare that “Enough is Enough of religious madness in Nigeria.” Boko Haramism must be deracinated hook, line and sinker, President Goodluck Jonathan must show purposeful and cerebral leadership and the North Eastern Governors must shed the toga of brazen connivance and culpability. THE CHIBOK 234 ANGELS MUST BE RELEASED UNSCATHED IMMEDIATELY. It is a task that must be done with soldierly brevity.

“Finally, the Nigeria Police and the Army must be told that their mission statement is to protect lives and properties not be partisan when there is a religious fracas.

Their failure to apprehend and arrest the spread of killings, bombings and burning to other towns and states in Northern Nigeria raises fundamental and disturbing questions about their readiness to contain larger theatres of violence in the future.”

Footprint UNDERSTANDING Christopher Columbus is difficult without understanding the world into which he was born. The 15th century was a century of change, and many events that occurred during that time profoundly affected European society. Many of these events were driven by the centuries-long conflict between Christians and Muslims.

The event that had the most far-reaching effects on Europe in the 15th century was the fall of the city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) to the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Constantinople had been the capital of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire for centuries and it was an important center for trade between Europe and Asia. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire, which had already conquered much of southeastern Europe, captured the city, closing an important trade route from Europe to the east.

European merchants could still buy Asian goods from Muslims in places such as Alexandria, Egypt. However, Europeans longed for a sea route to Asia that would allow them to bypass the Muslims and purchase Asian products directly. In addition, European princes and kings quickly realized that the first nation to find such a route could become very wealthy by monopolizing the highly profitable Asian trade.

Portugal was the first European nation to begin actively seeking a sea route to Asia. The Portuguese had already begun exploring Africa in the early 1400s, and in 1415 they invaded northern Africa and conquered the Muslim commercial center of Ceuta on the Strait of Gibraltar.

This gained the Portuguese access to the lucrative African trade, which, until that time, had been dominated by the Muslims.

Under the tutelage of Prince Henry the Navigator, who established a school for navigators in southern Portugal shortly after the Ceuta invasion, the Portuguese began exploring the western coast of Africa, hoping to find a route to the riches of Asia by going around the southern tip of the continent.

Other nations, not wanting to be left behind, began sponsoring voyages of exploration as well.

Into this world, full of the excitement of exploration and discovery, Christopher Columbus was born.

Biographical facts on Columbus vary from author to author. However, most scholars generally agree that he was born in the Italian port city of Genoa, on the Ligurian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), between August 25 and October 31, 1451.

His name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo, which is translated into English as Christopher Columbus, into Spanish as Cristóbal Colón, and into Portuguese as Christovão Colom. Columbus used the Portuguese version of his name while in Portugal and the Spanish version after moving to Spain in 1485. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who was also involved in local politics. His mother was Suzanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of a wool weaver. The eldest of five children, Christopher had three brothers -

Bartholomew, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo - and one sister, Bianchinetta. The entire family moved to the nearby port city of Savona, west of Genoa, in 1470.

Although how much formal education Columbus received as a child is not known, the schools of Italian craft guilds (which Columbus, as the son of a wool weaver, would have attended) did offer a rudimentary level of reading and writing. As a boy, Christopher joined his father in the family business of wool processing and selling. He may have worked as a clerk in a Genoese bookshop as well.

However, as did many other young men who grew up in a major seaport, Columbus soon began a life of seafaring. From age 14, Columbus served on various ships in various roles, including messenger, common sailor, and, perhaps, even as a 21year-old privateer. Columbus’s son Ferdinand stated in History of the Life and Deeds of Christopher Columbus that in 1472 Columbus was given command of a ship on a privateering expedition to Tunis in northern Africa. In a lost letter, Columbus supposedly related to his son how René I, duke of the French province of Anjou, had commissioned Columbus to make a surprise attack on a large Spanish ship sailing off the coast of North Africa. Most historians doubt, however, that Columbus ever received command of the expedition.

Much more credible, though, is a subsequent expedition. In 1474 Columbus was hired as a sailor on a ship bound for the island of Khíos in the Aegean Sea, an arm of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This was his first long voyage and must have proved profitable, because after spending a year on the island he was able to become economically independent from his family. This voyage also represents a great irony in the life of Columbus—the trip to this small island in the Aegean brought him the closest he would ever get to Asia.

On August 13, 1476, a Genoese commercial expedition of five ships bound for England gave Columbus his first opportunity to leave the Mediterranean Sea and sail into the Atlantic Ocean. But it was an inauspicious beginning for Columbus: According to tradition, the entire fleet was attacked by French privateers off Cape Saint Vincent on the southwestern tip of Portugal.

Both sides lost ships; Columbus, one of the unfortunate ones whose ship was burned, had no escape other than to swim for the Portuguese coast. He made it the 10 km (6 mi) to shore by clinging to wreckage. After regaining his strength in the port of Lagos, Columbus made his way to Lisbon where by 1477, he was settled. Since the beginning of Portuguese voyages of exploration in the middle of the 14th century, Lisbon had become a haven for explorers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, merchants, and any others who saw their fortunes tied to the trade winds and ocean currents.

Columbus’s brother Bartholomew worked in Lisbon as a mapmaker, and for a time the brothers worked together as draftsmen and book collectors.

Later that year, Columbus set sail on a convoy loaded with goods to be sold in northern Atlantic ports.

In 1478 or 1479 Columbus met and married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, the daughter of a respected, though relatively poor, noble family. Felipa’s father, Bartolomeo Perestrello, who was already deceased when Columbus met Felipa, had served as governor of Porto Santo in the Madeira Islands, a Portuguese possession off the northwest coast of Africa. Soon after their marriage, the newlyweds accompanied the rest of the family back to Porto Santo, where Felipa’s oldest brother took over the governorship. Columbus and Felipa moved to the larger island of Madeira in 1480 or 1481, soon after their son Diego was born.

It is believed that Felipa died soon thereafter.

Columbus sailed to the Portuguese fortress of Elmina between 1481 and 1479, in what is now Ghana, on the western coast of Africa. Columbus was impressed with the riches Africa offered, especially gold. In addition, like all good navigators, he was eager to learn about winds and ocean currents from the local pilots and sailors.

In the waters off the coast of Africa and the nearby Canary Islands Columbus first observed the ocean phenomenon known as the Canaries Current.

Knowledge of this fast-moving current running west of the Canary Islands could well have been the reason that Columbus later chose to start his crossing of the Atlantic in the latitude of the Canaries, far south of Spain or Portugal.

The experiences of these years led directly to the genesis of Columbus’s plan to reach the east by going west, what he called his “Enterprise of the Indies.” (To Europeans in Columbus’s day, all lands to the east of the Indus River in Asia were “the Indies.”) Inspiration and assistance for his plan came from a number of sources. First, his marriage into the Portuguese nobility proved helpful because, although relatively poor, the family still had connections to the Portuguese court. Columbus apparently gained access to his father-in-law’s papers and found a wealth of information, including maps, charts revealing ocean currents, interviews with sailors, and stories about objects that had drifted to the coast of the Madeira Islands from the west.

Also contributing to the formation of Columbus’s plan, were his association with the Genoese community in Portugal and his expeditions to Africa.

Both furthered his knowledge of Atlantic waters, and his trips to Africa brought him close to the Canary Islands, giving him knowledge of the Canaries Current. Also, while in ports in England, Ireland, Iceland, and other northern regions, Columbus may have heard stories of lands to the west of Iceland. Although the histories of the Vikings, who settled Iceland and Greenland in the 9th and 10th centuries, never became part of the knowledge base of medieval Europeans, it is believed that stories of their encounters with unknown islands in the northern Atlantic

The Adventurous Christop

were widespread. Columbus’s genius was his remarkable ability to gather information from around the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and combine his own experiences with ancient theories from books in a way that few navigators could.

Columbus’s idea of sailing west to get to the east was not original with him, nor did he ever claim that it was. Columbus drew upon science and knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. In Greek and Roman times, for example, geographers theorized that there was only one body of water on the surface of the Earth and that it connected Europe and Asia. If so, one could theoretically sail from the west to get to the east.

Only the distance was disputed.

His ideas of the size of the earth and the distance between Europe and Asia were based on the descriptions contained in several geographic works. These works included the 2nd-century manuscript Geography by Ptolemy; Imago Mundi (Image of the World) by Pierre d’Ailly, published in the early 1480s; and The Travels of Marco Polo, written in 1298 after Marco Polo returned from China.

Unfortunately, his ideas did not prove particularly accurate.

He founded his theory on two mistaken propositions—that the Asian continent stretched much farther to the east than it actually does, and that Japan lay about 2,400 km (about 1,500 mi) east of the Asian mainland.

Columbus also greatly underestimated the circumference of the earth.

Columbus calculated that the Canary Islands lay only about 4,440 km (about 2,760 mi) from Japan; the actual distance is about 19,000 km (about 12,000 mi). Similar errors were made by other learned men of the time, including the Florentine geographer Paulo de Pozzo Toscanelli, with whom Columbus may have corresponded.

Neither Columbus nor anyone else in Europe suspected that two vast continents lay in the way of a westward passage to Asia.

Columbus decided to seek patronage for his plan first in Portugal. With few interruptions, the Portuguese crown had encouraged and supported exploration for over a century, and nearly all new discoveries in the Atlantic were Portuguese.

Furthermore, it was well known that the reigning monarch, King John II, was personally committed to sailing around Africa and discovering a direct sea route to the Indian Ocean and Asia.

The king’s strong support of geographical exploration made him a logical choice for Columbus to approach. In addition, Columbus had been in Portugal for seven years and had married a Portuguese noblewoman. According to tradition, in 1484 the king listened to Columbus’s proposal to sail to the east by going west and summarily passed it on to his Council of Geographical Affairs.

But after a public hearing, the council denied the request on the grounds that it was too expensive, that Columbus was

By OBUSEH JUDE

wrong about distances and measurements, and that such a plan contradicted Portugal’s commitment to finding an eastward route to Asia by traveling around Africa.

After his disappointment in Portugal, Columbus took his young son and moved to Spain in 1485 with the intention of presenting his plan to the Spanish monarchs, King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. Spain lagged far behind Portugal in exploration of the Atlantic. The two powers had engaged in open hostilities since Spain had begun to dispute some of Portugal’s claims in Africa and to Atlantic island groups, such as the Canaries and the Azores. In 1479 Spain had gained control of the Canary Islands, although Portugal did not abandon its claims. A fragile peace existed because neither side wanted to go to war over the issue. According to tradition, one of the reasons the Portuguese king rejected Columbus’s plan was his concern over aggravating the situation with Spain.

One of Columbus’s first stops in Spain was the monastery of La Rábida in the southern port town of Palos de la Frontera, not far from the Portuguese border.

At the monastery Columbus found not only a boarding place for his son Diego but also support from the friars, several of whom became great believers in his vision. One of them, Friar Antonio Marchena, spent many hours discussing geography with Columbus. He also helped shape Columbus’s plans by directing him to the writings of the ancients and of church authorities who were known to support the idea of a westward crossing of the ocean. Through Marchena, Columbus was introduced to powerful noblemen as well, including Friar Juan Pérez, one of the guardians of the monastery— and the confessor of Queen Isabella. Pérez introduced Columbus to the court of the Spanish monarchs Columbus moved to Sevilla (Seville) in 1485 and between May 1486 and September 1487, he was maintained at the expense of the queen. Although interested in his ideas, the king and queen were in the midst of a protracted war to conquer the province of Granada in southern Spain, which had been held by the Moors, a Muslim group, since 711. This war left the monarchs little time to consider Columbus’s plan. Finally, in 1487, Columbus presented his project to a committee of experts called to hear the case. The committee raised numerous objections, asked many questions, and, in the end, rejected the plan. Among the reasons given for the rejection was that the ocean was simply too large to cross.

While waiting for the war in Granada to end, Columbus established a liaison with a young peasant woman named Beatriz Enríquez de Arana.

During this period of great despair, Columbus’s one comfort was his love for Beatriz.

Although the two never married, in 1488 they had a son named Ferdinand, who later accompanied his father on his final voyage to the Americas.

In the last weeks of 1491 Columbus made his final appeal to the Spanish monarchs in the royal camp as the monarchs prepared for their final battle with the Moors in Granada. But again his plan was rejected.

Columbus had successfully won over many of the learned scholars and scientific advisers, but this time the rejection was due primarily to his excessive demands for

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Christopher Columbus rewards. His requested payment (one-tenth of all riches from the Indies), and his demands for the titles of admiral, which would give him the right to judge commercial disputes; of viceroy, which would make him the personal representative of the monarchs; and of governor, which would enable him to act as supreme civil and military authority in any new lands he explored, caused the king and queen to flatly refuse the project.

According to tradition, as Columbus rode away on his mule, Ferdinand’s treasurer, Luis de Santángel, interceded on Columbus’s behalf. Arguing that the investment was small considering the potential reward, Santángel convinced the king and queen to reverse their decision. A court official was dispatched on horseback to bring Columbus back. After several more weeks of negotiating a contract, in April 1492 Columbus left for Palos de la Frontera and his rendezvous with history The people of Palos were ordered to provide and equip two caravels (small, light sailing ships). The first, owned by Cristóbal Quintero, was called the Pinta; the second, owned by Juan Niño, was officially named the Santa Clara but known as the Niña. The third ship, a small,

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Footprint

pher Columbus

nd ship with a large hold, st likely a type of vessel own as a nao, was lumbus’s flagship. It was ed the Santa María and was ned by Juan de la Cosa. Little known about the actual struction of the ships, but dence suggests that the Niña the Pinta were small, about metric tons each and 21 to m (70 to 80 ft) in length. The ta María was 80 to 90 metric s and not much longer than other two. Of the three, the ta was the fastest. nitially Columbus had ficulty recruiting a crew ause many sailors feared a yage into the unknown. The al secretary tried to help by ering freedom to any convict

the islands, and explore and claim other islands.

To quicken the departure, in case another nation might attempt an expedition, the sovereigns did not hesitate to provide Columbus with whatever supplies he requested.

The cargo included horses, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, chickens, grain, seed, and all the supplies needed for sailing, fending off attacks, building settlements, and setting up an administration overseas.

The fleet left Cádiz and, as before, stopped at the Canary Islands to make repairs and to store more meat, wood, and water. After leaving the Canary island of Hierro, the fleet took a more southerly route than before. On November 2, 21 days later, land

enlisted. Some experienced men objected to this plan, but he end only a few convicts epted. More than anything, friars of La Rábida and rtín Alonso Pinzón, an erienced sea captain from s, persuaded local sailors to the expedition. Two other zón brothers also joined the age; all were commanding f f i c e r s . out 40 men including umbus sailed on the Santa ía. Between 20 and 30 men e each on the Pinta and Niña. st were Spanish, with the est number coming from und Palos. The crew was e up largely of experienced men and a few government cials. But the crew included priests, no soldiers, and no ers—this was a voyage of oration and discovery. he second voyage departed m Cádiz on September 25, 3, and was of a much larger e—17 ships and about 1,200 n accompanied Columbus. uded in the crew were two Columbus’s brothers, tholomew and Giacomo o, after moving to Spain, d the Spanish version of his e, Diego). The purposes of voyage were to return to La idad in Hispaniola to relieve men left behind from the first age, settle more colonists on

was sighted. This new group of smaller islands (known as the Lesser Antilles), were south and east of the large islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (part of the Greater Antilles).

Encountering the islands of Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico along the way, Columbus reached Hispaniola at the end of November. The sailors fired a cannon to announce their arrival, but no one returned the salute. To their horror, they discovered that the entire settlement of La Navidad had been massacred and the site burned to the ground. As they searched for any trace of their compatriots, the newcomers found a mass grave in which several Spaniards had been buried. They discovered also that the village of Columbus’s friend Guacanagarí had been burned and destroyed. No one will ever know for sure what happened at La Navidad. The popular theory is that local islanders destroyed the settlement out of disgust with the Europeans’ greed and avarice.

Having been cleared of any wrongdoing, and with the full confidence of the monarchs, Columbus left Sevilla with a fleet of six ships on May 30, 1498.

Separating the expedition, Columbus sent one

part to aid the settlement at Hispaniola, while he took the other part and sailed farther south than ever before.

Departing from the Cape Verde Islands, he crossed the ocean in hope of discovering new islands in the southwest, toward the equator.

Columbus had the misfortune on this trip of entering the doldrums, a dead space in the ocean where wind and ocean currents die and the heat is unbearable. After a little more than a week, the crew was saved by a wind that pushed them westward. Changing course to the north brought Columbus to an island with three mountain peaks, which he named Trinidad.

From there they sailed west into the Gulf of Paria and then to the coast of South America, where they found the mouth of the Orinoco River, the largest river any of the crew had ever seen.

Seeing the huge amount of water flowing into the sea, Columbus believed that he had found the Garden of Eden—in those days people thought that all great rivers flowed from there.

Without giving in to the idea that he was someplace other than Asia, he did manage to report, “I believe this is a very large continent which until now has remained unknown.”

After several weeks of exploring Trinidad, the Gulf of Paria, and nearby Margarita Island, Columbus headed for Hispaniola, where his brother Bartholomew had begun building a new settlement.

Bartholomew had decided to move the settlement from Isabela, which had a poor water supply, to a new site near a place where the Spaniards had encountered gold mines. The new settlement was named Santo Domingo. When Columbus arrived at the new settlement at the end of August 1498, however, he found not a city at work but a country at war. Many of the settlers, upset about the lack of opportunity and unwilling to put the effort into building a long-lasting colony, were rebelling. Two factions had formed: those who were loyal to the Columbus family, and the rebels, led by Francisco Roldán, whom Columbus had appointed mayor of Isabela before returning to Spain after his second voyage. It took two years to put down the revolt and restore order. To end the rebellion Columbus had to agree to give each of the rebels a plot of land and the islanders who lived on it.

Despite these measures, however, conditions in the colony continued to deteriorate over the next several months. In great anguish over his inability to bring peace to the island, Columbus requested that the Spanish king and queen send a judge to the island to deal with the situation. In response, the monarchs sent Francisco de Bobadilla. Unfortunately for Columbus, Bobadilla carried a decree stripping Columbus of the titles of governor and viceroy and appointing Bobadilla governor of the Spanish possessions in the Americas.

Shortly after his arrival, Bobadilla seized Columbus’s house and records and sent an order to have Columbus and his brothers found and arrested.

They were placed in chains and

returned to Spain. Columbus refused to have the chains removed until the monarchs themselves issued the order to do so. He arrived in Cádiz in November 1500. Upon hearing of the plight of the admiral, the sovereigns immediately ordered the chains removed and he and his brothers freed.

On December 17, 1500, Columbus went before the royal court. The king and queen instructed that whatever items were taken from Columbus at his arrest be restored to him. The monarchs would not reinstate Columbus’s titles, however.

Instead they removed Bobadilla and replaced him with Nicolás de Ovando. This was, however, neither victory nor vindication for Columbus. With his titles annulled, the former governor spent the next two years in despair and humiliation.

Meanwhile, a flurry of exploration had taken place in the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. In South America, ships reached as far south as Río de la Plata, which forms the southern border of what is now Uruguay, and far north along the coast of North America. Columbus clung desperately to his original theory that the islands he had encountered were part of Asia, but he was alone in his belief.

Other navigators saw it as a world hitherto unknown. Whatever it was, colonial activity in the Americas took on a life of its own, and Columbus could do very little to alter its course.

In 1488 the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias had successfully rounded the southern tip of Africa, and in 1499 Vasco da Gama had returned to Lisbon after a successful trip around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to India.

This gave the Portuguese their direct trade route to Asia and finally outflanked the Muslims who controlled the overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.

For Columbus, Portugal’s success was a new opportunity, and the Spanish monarchs were again receptive to his vision of finding a strait to mainland China. Rather than retiring with a pension and an estate, perhaps even a castle, Columbus suggested yet another voyage, his fourth.

The king and queen made it clear that the purpose of Columbus’s fourth voyage was to search for gold, silver, precious stones, spices, and other riches.

But above all, for fear of aggravating the situation in the colony, they forbade Columbus to return to Hispaniola unless absolutely necessary on his return to Spain.

Columbus’s fleet of four ships and 150 men set sail from Cádiz on May 9, 1502. On this fourth and final voyage, Columbus was accompanied by his son Fernando, age 14, and his brother Bartholomew. Columbus, now 50 years old, could not captain his fleet because of ill health and poor eyesight, but seamen loyal to him were honored to serve the admiral once again.

After stopping to take on wood and water on Grand Canary, in the Canary Islands, the expedition began its crossing on May 25. They stopped first at the Caribbean island of Martinique, where they provisioned the ship again. Then, despite having been

expressly forbidden to do so by the king and queen, Columbus headed directly for Hispaniola, where he dropped anchor at Santo Domingo on June 29.

Columbus felt this action was necessary for two reasons. First, one of his ships was in disrepair and he wished to purchase another. Second, and more pressing, was an oncoming hurricane. In a message to Governor Ovando seeking permission to enter the port, Columbus advised him not to allow any ships to depart for Spain. Ovando refused to allow Columbus and his fleet to enter the port and did not take the admiral’s advice. Columbus took refuge in a small harbor nearby and was saved, but the large fleet that Ovando ordered to sea was almost entirely destroyed.

Columbus must have felt that divine justice had been done. Not only did the two men he hated most, Bobadilla and Roldán, die at sea, but the ship carrying Columbus’s share of the wealth from the colony made it the entire way to Spain.

Columbus sailed southwest, past Cuba, after the hurricane, into open seas until he reached Central America. Tortuous sailing conditions and violent storms along the coast took their toll on both the ships and on Columbus. The admiral, sick with rheumatism, fever, and bad eyesight, was bedridden much of the time. Unsuccessful in finding a passage to the Asian mainland, Columbus was forced to leave the area he called Veragua (Panama).

Skirmishes with the locals, intense storms, and damaged ships meant that he had to head back to Hispaniola. It was December 1502.

One ship was lost on the coast of Panama and another at sea to sea worms (small mollusks).

Consequently, 130 men were forced to crowd onto the remaining, barely sea-worthy, worm-riddled ships. Once at sea, realizing that Hispaniola was too far to reach in such condition, Columbus turned north to Jamaica, which he had encountered on his second voyage. The ships were in such bad condition that they were beached, worthy only of being used as protection from the islanders. Columbus remained marooned there with his men for over a year. Half of the men mutinied when Columbus tried to instill order and discipline. A second problem surfaced that was potentially more disastrous: Tired of dealing with the Spaniards, the islanders stopped supplying them with food. In response, Columbus came up with an ingenious trick. Having an almanac with him, he threatened to punish the islanders by taking light away from the Moon. On the night of February 29, 1504, when the Moon began to disappear because of a lunar eclipse, the islanders became alarmed and agreed to reestablish trade with the Spaniards. The Europeans, however, were still stranded on the island.

Diego Méndez de Salcedo, a brave and loyal soldier, who had protected the life of Columbus on other occasions, agreed to try to cross the open channel by canoe to reach Hispaniola, a nearly impossible feat. The island was over 160 km (100 mi) away, and Santo Domingo, home of Governor Ovando, was almost

480 km (300 mi). In five days Méndez and one other sailor made it to Hispaniola in two canoes paddled by islanders. After finding Ovando on a mission inland, the men were kept waiting seven months before a ship was sent to check on their story. The rescue ship did not arrive until the end of July, and the shipwrecked sailors did not arrive in Santo Domingo until August 13. Not feeling welcome in the city, on September 12, 1504, Columbus took his last voyage across the ocean, this time as a passenger. On November 7 he, his son, and his brother arrived in Spain.

By the time the admiral returned to Spain, Queen Isabella was gravely ill, and she died on November 26, 1504, shortly after his arrival.

Weakened by rheumatism, exposure, and years of bad food, Columbus was very ill as well, and he spent many months in Sevilla recuperating at the monastery of Las Cuevas.

Over the next year and a half until his death, Columbus tried to regain his lost titles of governor and viceroy. He wrote letters, petitioned the crown, and persuaded others to intercede on his behalf. When he was well enough, he followed the court of King Ferdinand to several cities in Spain, hoping to see the king. In May 1505 King Ferdinand finally granted Columbus an audience in which the explorer was allowed to present his claims to his titles and the riches of the Indies. His titles were not returned, but the king did allow for arbitration regarding his financial claims. In the end, Columbus’s share was confirmed at 2 percent of the riches of the Indies, a considerable amount. Combined with the fact that Columbus already had a coat of arms and noble status, this afforded the Columbus family a lifestyle equal to that of the richest nobility in Spain.

In late 1505 Columbus became too ill to travel any more. He remained in the city of Valladolid until his death. On May 20, 1506, both of his sons, his brother Bartholomew, and his faithful friend Diego Méndez were at his side when the admiral murmured “Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit” and passed away. His body was buried initially in Valladolid, but in 1509 his son Diego transferred the remains to the monastery of Las Cuevas in Sevilla. The current location of Columbus’s remains is still debated. They were moved to the Americas in the middle of the 16th century, first to Santo Domingo and then, in 1795, to Havana, Cuba.

Then his remains supposedly traveled back to Spain in 1899 where, it is claimed, they are interred in the Cathedral of Sevilla.

Long after the death of Columbus, his family struggled to have his titles reinstated and his honor restored.

This struggle resulted in a small victory in 1509 when Diego became governor of Hispaniola. What seems to be the greatest injustice of all, however, is that the new lands that Columbus encountered were never given his name. That honor fell to a fellow Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, from the city of Florence, who explored the southern and eastern coasts of South America around 1500.

To exaggerate the historical significance of Christopher Columbus is difficult. Extraordinary changes resulted from his voyages.

Although he failed to find a new route to Asia, Columbus made the lands and peoples of the Western Hemisphere known to Europeans, setting in motion a chain of events that altered human history on a global scale.

Education UBEC: Dishonesty Mars 2015 Target For Universal Primary Education

PRIMARY education is seen as the fundamental right of every child. The United Nations, UN, identifies this under its Millennium Development Goals, MDG. It targets universal primary education for all children of school age by 2015. Against this backdrop, the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1999 established the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). The aim was to ensure quality of basic education throughout the country and provide access to 9-year formal education to every child of school-going age and, also, provide free and obligatory basic education.

Nevertheless pundits, dons, opinion leaders and stakeholders have bemoaned that education in the country has been fraught with corruption, strikes... A Professor of Educational Management at the University of Ilorin, Noha Bisi Oyedeji, while delivering the 140th Inaugural Lecture of the University on Thursday, December 5, 2013, reportedly said, “When strike or students riot occurs, school activities are disturbed, leading to some other distortions, such as lowered students’ academic performance, social menace by idle students...”

One of the manifests of the dishonesty in UBEC is that over 56 million Nigerians are illiterates, according to an account in a national broadsheet. Amongst others, it’s believed that if the UBEC has lived up to its expectation, the story would have been different. Owing to the revelations by investigation, it was certain that the UN was clairvoyance in forecasting that Nigeria would not keep to the MDG on education.

Today, the education sector is loaded with dirt like lack of basic infrastructures, unfortunate funding, bad management, lack of learning materials in schools...

These are as a result of poor policies and faulty implementation of them, which are most times the handiwork of lack of genuine and transparent officials monitoring these policies. It was observed that even where the learning materials are available, they are not redistributed for the purposes they are created. This, Nigerians have clamoured about how teachers’ salaries and allowances in some states across the country, are seemingly being withheld for

political reasons and many teachers face the avoidable issues of promotion and transfer as at when due them.

Scrutiny has proved that states and UBEC are in loggerhead over who has the right to the ostensible funds meant for UBEC that are in billions of naira haboured in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for project development. The cost of this is that some students have died in many decrepit schools across the country. The infirm schools are said were without roofs, walls, doors or windows. The issue of having desks, electricity and its appliances are said to be a tall dream.

Recently, there is an account that at a community primary school in Ado Odo/ Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, a pupil died and four others wounded when the school’s wall fell down. At Idimu Community Primary School of Lagos State and, Ikeja, Oshodi, Agege and Iju respectively, it’s observed that the students were meant to endure leaking zincs and ceilings and many sat on windows and cement blocks to take lectures. These are infinitesimal evident that UBEC has not lived up to the reason it was formed, according to sources, because in some states in the SouthEast – like Anambra and Imo – pupils still take studies from their teachers under trees and on the bare ground.

Explanations accounted that in Kwara, Kano, Bayelsa, Delta, Ondo, Benue and Nasarawa States, the story is not different. “It is absurd that this is happening in a country where free primary education was initiated in Africa by one of its regions in 1955... It is rather tragic that all the 36 states and the FCT combined have failed to draw down up to N44 billion of the sums provided as federal subsidies for primary education since 2005 through the Universal Basic Education Commission,” said a source.

In May 2010, there was a conviction that there were deceitful awards of contracts somewhat in surplus of N161 million to six companies for the “procurement of instructional materials for children with special needs” that took place in the UBEC, which was aimed at improving the wellbeing of the physically challenged children.

The items, according to a source, included wheelchairs, Braille, hearing aids and other audio-

Dr. ODIMEGWU ONWUMERE

visual devices. The funds were said to have come from an Education Trust Funds, ETF, grant.

According to Sahara Reporters: “The ministerial tenders board at its meeting of Friday, 19th December, 2008, approved the award of the contract for the procurement of instructional materials for children with special needs in favour some contractors – Al-Mala Nig. Ltd – N29, 286,000 (North west), Triangular

“The company’s incorporation took place on 7th May 2009, with its registered address, as 17 Atiku Abubakar Road, Jimeta, Yola. According to the CAC records in the possession of Saharareporters, three persons were listed as directors. According to CAC records, the company has 1,600,001 in total share capital. Of these, Aishatu Dahiru (Modibbo’s wife) owns 1,600,000, her sister, Hauwa Dahiru, has one share,

Communications Ltd. – N35, 453,000 (North east); Binwa Press Ltd. N36,721,300 (North central), Infinity Telecoms N24, 703, 000 (South east), Isani Ventures N31, 104, 000 (South-south) and Giniyike Ltd-N30,704 (South west),” concluding, “You are pleased (sic) requested to award the contract accordingly”.

The source continued: “The total contract sum came to N167 million.

Our investigations revealed that not a single pin was supplied to the physically challenged children, in whose name the ETF grant was drawn.

Besides, a certified copy of a search report of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) revealed that Binwa Press Ltd., RC816457, one of the six companies that benefited from the December 19th, 2008 contract awarded by UBEC, was not even incorporated until five months later.

whilst the third director, Ali Biu Adams, has none. Even though Binwa Press Ltd. had not been registered as at December 19th, 2008, Dukku and Modibbo nonetheless awarded the ‘company’ a supply contract in the sum of N36, 721, 300...”

The level of racket in the UBEC goes unscathed. Only in January this year, in a matter that commenced in 2009, N787m alleged case of fraud was discharged and acquitted and the legal team of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was thrown into a muddled situation over the judgment.

The accused persons were given as four directors of UBEC – Molkat Mutfwang, Michael Aule, Andrew Ekpunobi and Prof Bridget Sokan – who were given as “all members of the commission’s Bid Evaluation Committee”, as well as an American contractor,

Alexander Cozma and two companies allegedly used to siphon the funds, Intermarkets USA LLC and Intermarkets Nigeria.

Spectators are of the view that the fingered sums meant for UBEC that have seemingly gone into the pocket of few individuals are alarming. One commentator exclaimed: “Nigeria is finished with this kind of financial recklessness! It is disheartening to note the level of decay in the system.” The sad side of the matter is that all those who are players in the UBEC’s purportedly

scams have not been really made to cough out the money and face the wrath of the law of the country.

Gov. Jonah Jang of Plateau freshly decried in Jos, while receiving the Senate Committee on Education, the discrepancy in policies as what have been destroying the country’s education sector.

He, however, admonished that the National Assembly must quickly rise to this challenge before it gets out of control and destroys the future of the younger generation.

Giving instances, he said: “Nations like Germany practise the 6-3-3-4 (system) like Nigeria, but they have gone far because they have been very consistent with it.’’

He avowed that each administration in Nigeria should stop discarding the old policies for the introduction of new ones. Professor Pius Adesanmi, a Professor of English, French, and African Studies at Carleton

University, Ottawa, Canada also warned in a discussion with a Gbenga Adeniji.

Adesanmi said that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, says any country that wishes to become part of the 21st Century should be devoting 30-40 per cent of her total annual budget to education.

Authorities are, however, of the analysis that the disconnect between the education sector and the educated is enormous laced with the spiteful attributes of politicians and elites that have set the pace of improving on education in the country back for too long. Experts have deprecated such as not the way to run a country.

Adesanmi further revealed

that these groups run the public education like they are rigging elections or stealing public funds on a “stratospheric scale that suggests mental illness”. He wept that these groups have seen using impunity of ignorance and poverty among the majority as the raw materials they think they need to manufacture a followership ready to defend their perversities to death on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

“You will weep for Nigeria if you knew how much Europe and America are currently devoting to education... Sadly, only the elite have the means and the resources to impose their own meaning of education on Nigeria. Hence, they underfund and destroy it while sending their kids abroad to acquire that which they deny the people at home,” Adesanmi lamented.

Odimegwu Onwumere writes from Port Harcourt.

Family Planning

WITH ERANGA ISAAC-08059233001

“These intervention include detection of intrauterine growth restriction through clinical examination (such as fundal height measurement) or ultrasound screening and formal assessment of fetal movement by mothers”.

Maternal Health: Addressing

The Issue Of Stillbirths

THE lancet in one of its series on stillbirths revealed that over 2.65 million stillbirths occur yearly, of which 98% occur in low and middle income countries. It says that despite the fact that more than 45% of the global burden of still births occur intrapartum, the perception is that little is known about effective ways of tackling stillbirth, especially those ways that can be done with little resources. Still births that occur intrapartum means occurring during labour and delivery.

Stillbirth is when a baby dies in the womb of a pregnant woman.

According to the Marshfield Clinic, when the baby is still born, expectations, hopes and dreams are cruelly shattered and lives are changed. It is one cause of perpetual depression in the life of a married woman.

As indicated in the second paper of the Lancet’s stillbirths series, stillbirths are one of the

most important, yet most poorly understood and recognized adverse outcomes of pregnancy.

The figure quoted earlier, approximates the total number of early neonatal deaths and is almost equal to the number of deaths in children aged 1-5 years (3.2 million). Despite its enormous social and health implications stillbirths have not be taken seriously in polices and programmes globally, with little recognition of potential strategies for intervention. It is quite revealing that stillbirths are not included in tracking of the millennium Development Goals. Moreover, most countries do not include stillbirths in their vital statistics reporting systems and, even in the countries that do, stillbirths are generally under-reported.

The Lancet of April 20ll, further revealed that a major reason for stillbirths not being included in the worldwide policy agenda is the notion that little can

be done at scale in developing countries.

Although efforts have focused attention on the problem in its various dimensions, not much energy has been devoted to systematically assessing whether interventions are affordable and implementable in lowincome and middleincome countries.

To address the issue of stillbirths, the following should be adopted.

Provision of skilled attendants during childbirth Most intrapartum stillbirths are associated with complications that arise during labour and are potentially,

preventable with appropriate care, says law J.E Kinney M, Lee AC, et al, in their “Reducing intrapartum-related deaths and disability: can the health system deliver?

Cited from the int. J. Gynaecol Obstet 2009, 107. in high income countries where most women receive fairly high-quality intrapartum care, the proportion of intrapartum stillbirths is less than 10% of all stillbirths, says the World Health Organisation in her Neonatal and prenatal mortality: country, regional and global estimate, 2006. In lowincome and middleincome countries, an estimated 46% of women

give birth at home without the benefit of a skilled birth attendant (doctor, midwife, nurse or nurse aids). According to Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Mohammad Yawar Yakoob, et-al-in stillbirth” what difference can we make and at what cost?

For the Lancet’s stillbirth series steering committee, “… provision of a skilled birth attendant could reduce intrapartum stillbirths by about 23%.

Provision of basic and comprehensive emergency obstetrics care in facilities. Skilled birth attendance alone cannot address complications during childbirth that necessitate facility –based interventions to expedite delivery such as augmentation of labour, instrumental delivery , and emergency caesarean section.

Screening and intervention for high risk pregnancies and fetal compromise The Lancet adds: “A range of intervention have been developed to recognize problem during pregnancy associated with fetal compromise,

especially impaired growth and distress.

These intervention include detection of intrauterine growth restriction through clinical examination (such as fundal height measurement) or ultrasound screening and formal assessment of fetal movement by mothers.

Fetal movement counting is one of the oldest methods of monitoring fetal wellbeing and is based on the premise that fetal movements are an indication of CNS integrity”.

Nutritional interventions before and during pregnancy.

A range of nutritional interventions could be implemented during the periods before and during pregnancy, but preconceptional folic acid, balanced energyprotein and micronutrient supplements in pregnancy, and the potential roles of calcium.

Neural tube defects are associated with maternal folic acid deficiency and can be alleviated by supplementation in the perceptional period.

“A range of nutritional interventions could be implemented during the periods before and during pregnancy, but preconceptional folic acid, balanced energy-protein and micronutrient supplements in pregnancy, and the potential roles of calcium”.

View Point

Tackling The Menace Of Minors’ Rape

AWA, a 47-year-old mother of three children, says that her worldview changed dramatically when her seven-year-old daughter (now 17 years old) was raped by a close relation.

“I will never forget that day. I came home from selling my wares in the market and met my daughter sitting at the corner of our one-room apartment crying.

“I asked her what happened and then, I saw her blood-stained skirt. I picked her up and took her to the hospital.

“She told me that ‘uncle’ sent her on an errand, saying that when she came back, he lured her into his room and raped her.

“This ‘uncle’ is my husband’s cousin. After the incident, my husband’s relations prevented me from reporting the case to the police.

“Initially, they did not believe my story, even after I presented a doctor’s report on the state of my daughter.

At the end, I was sent packing out of my matrimonial and labelled a liar,’’ Awa narrates her ordeal in tears.

The helpless woman insists that her daughter has yet to get over the traumatic experience, years after the incident.

Mrs Ba’ana Imam, a social worker in Abuja, says that rape victims and members of their immediate families habitually undergo a lot of psychological and physical trauma.

“When rape or genderbased violence occurs, we need to believe the victim’s report and assure her that the problem is not her fault.

“We also need to

By SADIYA HAMZA

encourage counselling.

Mothers, friends and people around these victims need to seek help from professionals,’’ she says.

Ms Ladi Sati, a Jos-based psychologist, makes some suggestions on how to manage rape victims.

She stresses that victims of rape and sexual assault may experience severe feelings of anxiety, stress or fear, known as PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“We have seen some instances where victims would want to deliberately harm or injure themselves.

“In some cases, you find that some of the victims have contracted sexually transmitted diseases and there are also possibilities of the victims becoming pregnant,’’ she says.

Sati says that rape victims often face the problem of stigma in the society.

However, questions are often asked about what could push a man into raping a minor.

A civil servant, Mrs Mary Duncan, who recalls an incident involving a police officer in Kaduna who raped a toddler, says that rapists often have serious psychological problems.

“This is because rape; particularly rape of minors, is barbaric, inhuman and animalistic,’’ she says.

Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Adedotun Ajiboye, a Clinical Psychologist at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, insists that any man who has sexual intercourse with a toddler, for instance, must be in a state of mental or psychological disorder.

He, however, identifies joblessness as another factor that could make someone to commit sexual crimes such as rape.

“A jobless person has the tendency to engage in useless ventures; anyone one who has something doing cannot think of rape,’’ he adds.

showed that law enforcement agencies failed to keep records of the occurrences and nature of gender-based violence, as women and children continued to be the victims.

It said that in instances where cases of rape and domestic violence were reported to law enforcement agents, the officers did not

“For instance, when a woman approaches the police station to complain of verbal harassment either by her spouse or neighbour or colleague, the policeman on duty should not dismiss such reports as mere domestic cases.” based violence, followed by wife battery and physical assault.

The survey also revealed that no case of gender-based violence was documented in Lagos (South West

violence which is becoming rampant in the society.

She argues that the police ought to fully understand issues relating to the violation of the people’s

geopolitical zone), while 35 cases were documented in Maiduguri (North East zone).

It further showed that 204 cases were documented in Kano (North West zone), while 84 cases were documented in Port Harcourt (South South zone).

In Enugu (South East zone), 72 cases were documented, while 53 cases were documented in the Federal Capital Territory (North Central zone).

What then accounts for the poor documentation of cases of gender-based violence?

Ms Hauwa Shekarau, the President of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), underscores the need for the police to be change agents in efforts to tackle sexual

fundamental rights, particularly the rights of women and girls, and how to handle such violations.

Shekarau stresses that in cases of sexual violence, the police ought to be mindful of factors that could lead to the violation of the victims’ rights, while addressing them before the violation occurs.

“For instance, when a woman approaches the police station to complain of verbal harassment either by her spouse or neighbour or colleague, the policeman on duty should not dismiss such reports as mere domestic cases.

“Many times, what is labelled as a domestic affair turns out to be a crime which could have been averted if only the police

Rape Victim

Observers, nonetheless, say that the increasing menace of rape in Nigeria has been a source of concern to the citizens.

The National Human Rights Commission once painted a scary picture of the situation when it raised an alarm over the nondocumentation of rape and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases in Nigeria.

The report of a survey conducted by the commission in 2011

readily entertain such complaints.

The report further revealed that the police, who were the first point of contact after such incidents, often treated such complaints as minor offences.

The survey, which was conducted in selected states across the six geopolitical zones of the country, showed that rape was the most prominent of all the reported cases of gender-

“We have seen some instances where victims would want to deliberately harm or injure themselves. In some cases, you find that some of the victims have contracted sexually transmitted diseases and there are also possibilities of the victims becoming pregnant.’’

Continues on pg. 23

Archival Matters

Nigeria On Trial

GOD sat silently on His throne in infinite awesomeness, majesty, omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience. Before Him stood the prosecutorGeneral with Sodom, Gomorrha and Nigeria in the dock. And then God said: “Nigeria’s case first. What are the results of your investigations.”

The Prosecutor-General, realizing the trial would be devoid of witnesses, cross examinations and defence counsels, knew his investigations was very critical in the trial of Nigeria. So, he ensured they were thorough. Now, he placed his findings before God. Below are his presentations, as Nigeria stood in the dock.---Nigeria got independence in 1960, since then, her achievements pales into significance considering the vast resources she is endowed with. Imagine, each day she imports rice with about N1 billion inspite of her extensive arable land.

The elites don’t want to forego rice importation because it is through it fraudulent deals are made that enrich their pockets.

What is happening to rice is also fashionable in the petroleum sector.

Government claims it is subsidizing petrol and kerosene with billions of naira but the subsidy goes into the deep pockets of the elites – not those of the poor, hungry and neglected masses.

Corruption indeed is so rampant everywhere in Nigeria that one can poetically say that in the country “corruption corrupts corruption” to borrow from the dictionary of the word juggernaut late. Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe. Firstly, the nation’s streets are filled with grontesque mobile pornographies of women that are half naked. Then, of course, life is now built around the sex symbolism factor in the entertainment, investment, trade, cultural and manufacturing industry.

Business is sex while sex is business. Women’s natural endowments have literally been thrown to the dogs.

Therefore, sex, love and

Alamieyeseigha jailed for corruption as a former governor of poor Bayelsa State.

Hardly have Nigerians digested the malfeasance of Dieziani’s public insult than

country’s head of state. It is a pity greed pervades the country with impunity. See, Lagos socialite was in June 2011 paraded by Lagos Police Command for stealing goods worth N2.9m from a shop in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Meanwhile, greedy

the attorney-general of the country, Mohammed Adoke, entered nolle prosequi in the case of Mohammed Abacha who has been standing trial for stealing N446.3 billion of the country’s public funds between November 19931998.

A case of greed, indeed. Or how else can one explain a spectacle in which a single person like Mohammed Abacha helped himself to such a huge sum of public money? His father General Sani Abacha did worse. He stole 2.2 billion dollars not naira – while he was the

politicians are criss-crossing the party landscape after collecting bribes of jeeps, land, appointments and between N30m to N75m each from political parties.

Worse things happen in the house of God. In the Majidun area of Lagos State, a Pentecostal Church was discovered to be a den of ritualists. Human parts were uncovered there while a 6 year-old victim, Kelvin, was rescued from one of the church member. Over there in Oguta, Imo State, Charles Oputa – aka Charley Boy disrupted a funeral mass for

By MICHAEL ODIGBE romance is for the highest bidder.

Things are not better off in government. It celebrates corruption. Ms Oteh is, for instance, still in office despite that the resolution of the representatives that she should be sacked for gross misconduct as boss of the Security Exchange Commission. Princess Stell Odua was relieved of her position as aviation minister

by President Gooddluck Jonathan following her inappropriate act of squandering public funds on bulletproof cars. However, it took long days before he unwillingly ask her to leave office which anyway he had used to reward her for using her NEIGHBOUR-TONEIGHBOUR platform to help in his 2011 presidential election victory.

On leaving office, she is not even ashamed of her extant profile. Instead she is parading the country with heroine swagger garnering achievement awards. Mrs. Dieziani Allison-Madueke, petroleum minister, another kettle of fish.

Whistleblowers have accused her of spending N10 billion on private jets at a time a public servant in Benin can hardly afford N50 transport fare daily from Agip to Ring Road for work at the city centre.

Piqued by her conduct, the representatives invited her to explain her conduct.

However, her backers in the Presidency egged her into procuring a court order preventing the inspectorGeneral of Police from arresting and charging her to court over the matter. This was after she told the members of representatives to go to hell – that only the president can question her expenditure on the private jet.

Well, the president isn’t raising any airs about the issue. His body language is the evidence-in-chief that he tolerates corruption but “hates” stealing just as he told Nigerians during his last media chat with the nation.

Don’t forget, too, that he has pardoned Chief Deprieye

his late father where Rev. Father Hassan Mathew Kukah was officiating.

Charley Boy seized the microphone from Governor Rochas Okorocha’s hand while he was paying tribute to his father. And everything went haywire in the church, a house of God. Furthermore, witches are all over the place in Nigeria sucking the blood of

innocent victims rather than deploying their esoteria technology to promote sustainable development.

Earlier this year, an old witch fell from the sky as a bird in Lagos State after “missing” her chartered night flight back to Ibadan her base. Not too long ago, three kidwitches killed their grandmother in cross River State without compunction.

Yes, wickedness, insensitivity, unshockability, man’s inhumanity to man and disrespect for human life is now the name of the game in Nigeria. In a public

hospital in the South-South, for example a matron collected N2,500 into her purse from a groundnut seller for merely extracting pus from her baby’s abscess.

While the baby was still crying in pain and her mother was pacifying her, the matron had screamed at her: “Don’t waste my time!!

Money first, before your baby….” Poor woman. She paid the matron N2,500 leaving her only with N20.

After this encounter, she trekked home on a day the rain fell and the streets were flooded. She couldn’t afford the N200 fare hike buses were charging for a journey of N50 because of the rain and passenger crush.

Such a matron is not alone in bringing hardship to the poor in Nigeria. The nurses, laboratory scientists and doctors also contribute to their plight. Recently, the Nigerian Medical Association declared an indefinite strike in the country and directed that private hospitals to join it.

And, so sick people died in quantum. This isn’t all. So far; Nigeria has squandered over N50.7 trillion earned from crude oil since 1958………..

Before the prosecutorGeneral could proceed, God stopped him in his track with these words: “Enough of the atrocities in Nigeria. Enough of them. My ears are full and itching with their allergy.

Enough. Tell me no more of them. This is my judgment.

Sodom and Gomorrah, take a bow and leave. I once thought your sins were unparalleled.

Now, I know better…”

“Nigeria didn’t wait to hear of her sentence from God but rushed at Him with his Central Bank loot to mitigate or at best squash it. But he couldn’t get to God. He was gone. Yes, GONE!!

“Before the prosecutor-General could proceed, God stopped him in his track with these words: “Enough of the atrocities in Nigeria. Enough of them. My ears are full and itching with their allergy. Enough. Tell me no more of them.”

Science

Ways Of Improving Crop Yield And Storage

Food Production:

i. IMPROVED FARMING TECHNIQUES Mechanised farming by the use of machines leads to an intensive and extensive agriculture leading to a high crop yield. ii. USE OF FERTILIZERS When appropriate fertilizers are used. It brings out the quality and quantity of farm products. iii. CROSS BREEDING Take crops of desired agricultural qualities like taking plants with large grains, large tubers, short maturation and short fronting or you planting crops that are disease resistance. iv. PEST CONTROL Pest like nematodes, insects, fungi, rodents, birds and vectors should be controlled at appropriate times so that no damage is done to the crops V. DIFFERENT METHODS OF PLOUGHING This methods is needed for different climatic conditions, soil types and crops and having a good knowledge of this method increases crop yield VI. INTRODUCTION This involves the taking of crops species or variety from its native location and introducing it in another location e.g. cassava we have in Nigeria today was initially grown in South Africa.

CAUSES OF WASTAGE 1. Poor harvesting method may create wounds on the produce and cause food wastage.

2. High temperature and relative humidifies of the areas hasten spoilage because microorganisms will act fast on them thereby causing wastage.

3. Premature harvesting of crops method may cause food wastage.

4. Poor handling and inefficient transportation system for harvested food products due to bad roads leads to food wastage.

5. Wastage arising from processing of some certain foods like a great cake is lost when oil is extracted from palm kernel and groundnut.

6. Poor storage conditions exposes the crops to pests and spoilage organisms 7. Saprophytic action of bread moulds on bread result in the spoilage of foods.

8. Pest attack after harvesting and when stored do attack the seeds and grains like beetles and weevils.

9. Lack of market for the commodity after harvest e.g tomatoes after harvest cannot stay long, before it gets rotten.

10. Separation or extraction of Edible from non-edible part of crop. When this process is taking place. Some edible part of the crops are lost, e.g when peeling yam, cassava, cocoyam, pineapple and mango.

METHODS OF PRESERVING AND STORING FOOD 1. Salting raises the osmotic potential of meat and decreases the bacterial activity. It is used mostly for fish, meat and pork while organic acids are used for vegetables.

With Oyakhilome Clementina

2. Drying, when either fish or meat is dried, water is eliminated or it is been reduced to a certain level, whereby fungal and bacterial growth, cannot be achieved.

3. refrigeration when foods like meat, fish and fruit and kept in fridge where there is a low temperature, the fungi and bacterial activities for food spoilage are coresled, hence refrigerated foods leafs for a longer time.

4. Heating. Here foods are subjected to high temperatures in order to kill microorganisms, milk is heated at 600c for 30 minutes to kill the bacterial.

5. Smoking, it is usually used for fish and meat, this process, dries off the water and makes it unfavourable for the micro-organisms to act on thereby rendering it in active.

6. Canning. In canning, there is lack of air, which prevents the growth of microorganisms with high temperatures and pressures involved in canning, bacteria which are already present in the foods are destroyed automatically. It can be used in foods like vegetables, fruits, meat and fish.

7. proper sanitation or personal hygiene when foods are properly handled like washing of plates before dishing foods, clean hands and covering them properly micro-organisms from contaminating our foods.

8. Cooking whenever we cook our foods, the bacteria is been killed but some bacteria endos pores are able to survive and withstand high temperatures While grains are stored in silos, bags and sacks, bins, pots, yams in cribs, barns, cassava tubers in Boxes and under ground pits or trenches.

POPULATION GROWTH AND FOOD SUPPLY Population is the number of people living in a place or country. Food also is the materials eaten by people or animals to keep them living and promotes growth. When there is an increase in population growth, there is a question as to how will there by enough food for the populace is greatly a big concern to the nations leaders.

Nigeria has a population of 3.2% compared to the world average of 1.7%. it has caused a lot of problem as to where there would be enough farmland to produce food for the populace.

“Nigeria has a population of 3.2% compared to the world average of 1.7%. it has caused a lot of problem as to where there would be enough farmland to produce food for the populace.�

Continued from pg. 20

had been responsive in the first instance,’’ she says.

Shekarau bemoans the absence of protocol in the management of sexual violence cases in the country.

“If there is a protocol in place to ensure recognition, management and prosecution of sexual violence cases; if the people are aware of what steps to take in the event of a violation, rape cases would then be properly handled.

“In a situation where a victim of rape washes off herself before reporting at the police station or before presenting herself at the hospital, vital evidence, which could be used to knock down the perpetrator, is thus destroyed.

“However, while we are advocating the

development of protocols, we advise victims of rape not to tamper with the proof; they should rather go straight to the police.

“The police have the duty to immediately take the victim to the hospital where she can be immediately examined, while any available evidence is taken and preserved for the prosecution,’’ she says.

However, observers stress the need for a review of the country’s laws to prescribe stringent punishment for sexual offences.

The House of Representatives is, perhaps, thinking along those lines, as it recently approved life imprisonment for any person convicted of rape.

The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Abike Dabiri-Erewa (APCLagos), also approved a minimum of 20 years,

View Point ... Menace Of Minors’ Rape without an option of fine, for persons convicted of gang-raping someone.

Besides, the Lagos State Government is planning to compile a database of sex offenders, as part of its efforts to enhance the efficacy of justice system.

Mr Ade Ipaye, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, disclosed this at a three-day Action Planning workshop organised on justice sector reforms in Lagos State recently.

The workshop, which was geared towards achieving a sustainable approach to improve justice delivery in the country, was funded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) in concert with the European Union and the

Federal Government.

All the same, Mr Chris Olakpe, the Commissioner of Police in Plateau, advises parents and guardians to adopt pragmatic strategies to protect their daughters and wards against rape.

His words: “Parents should always strive to monitor their daughters while at home to know their whereabouts. Mothers should teach their daughters the virtue of leading a simple life that will not attract any regrets.

“Parents should caution their underage daughters against living ostentatious life which can expose them to the evil machinations of some men.

“The girls should be discouraged from collecting unsolicited gifts from other youths and men. They

What ‘Good Press’ In Nigeria Means

By DON BAEIDAN PhD

SINCE the “BringBackOurGirls” protests started after we learnt that about 276 girls were abducted by the radical Islamic group called Boko Haram on April 14th, 2014, there is nothing that many commentators have not compared President Goodluck Jonathan to in this trial period of our history as a nation. There has been what I perceive as induced slams on the President.

These slams are what is regarded these days in Nigeria as ‘good press’, especially by the opposition groups and some individuals.

Anything contrary and most appropriate is regarded as a ‘bad press’. Some have said that Mr. President is weak, clueless and runs no government. But in my own opinion, Jonathan for who he has always been is only demonstrating his true self: A man who is quiet, patient, tolerant, objective and unassuming. The President does not need to be boisterous in order to run his government, what people need to understand is his knack for productivity and appreciation for constructive suggestions/ criticisms.

Perhaps, what these agents of disinformation expect is

a President that is high handed and autocratic but unfortunately these are undemocratic methods that would rather fuel unimaginable crisis in the country and not expected of a man with the qualities earlier mentioned.

While we are all bothered by the current trend of militant activities and insurgency threatening our existence as a nation, it would be foolhardy to expect our President to engage in war of words with any religious sect after all our forebears have done to keep Nigeria together irrespective of tribe and religious beliefs. The subtle but yet firm approach of the Jonathan administration in tackling the Boko Haram menace has not yet given us respite but clearly we can see that the notorious sect has succumbed to negotiations through kidnaps like the sad incident of our 276 girls.

To get to the root of our discontents as a people,

Jonathan was able to put us together for a National Conference currently sitting in Abuja to address all our desires and misgivings. This in itself even in the face of criticisms is most welcome but the “good / bad press’’ issue would not give peace a chance. Criticism must be objective and constructive enough to prompt a sitting President to appreciate its value, however what we see in our dailies is completely at variance with progressive values. Politicians whether in a ruling party or not must desist from making inflammatory comments capable of causing problems that could ordinarily be contained.

Nigeria without doubt is becoming a great country under Jonathan’s transformation agenda with an unconfirmed population of about two hundred million people; it is noteworthy to know that most sectors of our economy

have improved appreciably.

The recent rating placing the Nigerian Economy as one of the top three largest economies in Africa, with an industrial/agricultural sector GDP of 32% and 30% growth rate even with all the threats of Boko Haram depicts the efficacy and savvy of the Jonathan team.

In the area of

should also be discouraged from soliciting gifts from people, as gifts can be used by rapists to lure them.’’

The police commissioner, nonetheless, solicits the involvement of religious and opinion leaders in the campaign against rape and other sexual offences in the society.

Ms Sandra Hamilton, an Abuja-based lawyer, says: “With regard to rape or any other kind of gender-based violence, we insist that after the criminal act, there should be time to grief, heal and most of all, there must be justice.

“Perhaps, a story that gladdens my heart is that concerning a 63-year-old man who was sentenced to death by stoning by a Shariah Court in Kano

State, for raping a 13-yearold girl and infecting her with HIV.’’ Hamilton calls on the National Assembly to enact a law that would prescribe severe punishment for rapists and other sexual offenders.

“Sex-related violence in Nigeria has indeed assumed very dangerous and alarming dimensions. By and large, the reported cases are very few, compared with those cases that are kept secret,’’ he adds.

All in all, analysts underscore the need for all Nigerians to make concerted efforts to address all the underlying factors behind the increasing cases of minor ’s rape in the country. (NAN)

unemployment which appears to be one of the issues frequently raised and has lived with us through successive administrations, Jonathan by providing funds in agricultural and other sectors has now provided the platform for genuine investors that would provide a vast number of employment opportunities to Nigerians. The privatisation of power is a major success of his administration. We

the spring board for millions of employment avenues as manufacturing and production would be quadrupled.

President Goodluck Jonathan needs our cooperation and understanding as this will enable him achieve the remaining part of his promises to our people. We have to use our collective abilities in a productive way that would ultimately bring

must all agree that one of the leading deficiencies we have suffered for generations now has been the lack of adequate power supply. This new development, a problem that only Jonathan has been bold enough to tackle, in no distant future will serve as

an end to the culture of violence and negative publicity that is fast becoming a trade mark.

While the world over is protesting with the slogan of Bring Back Our Girls, let us also Bring Back Our Coexistence.

President Goodluck Jonathan

“Anything contrary and most appropriate is regarded as a ‘bad press’. Some have said that Mr. President is weak, clueless and runs no government.

But in my own opinion, Jonathan for who he has always been is only demonstrating his true self...”

International Group Hands Back Army Camp To Yemeni Govt SANAA - Shi’ite Muslim tribesmen handed back an army camp to the Yemeni government on Saturday, a spokesman for the group said, to try to defuse tensions caused by the capture of a provincial capital north of Sanaa this week.

The fall of Omran, some 50 kms (31 miles) north from the Yemeni capital, has drawn condemnation from the U.N. Security Council and a threat of military action by President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi, who had ordered the army to raise its preparedness level to “carry out any tasks that may be assigned

CHANGE OF NAME KUKU – I formerly Miss Miyenbai Kuku, now wish to be known, called and addressed as Mrs. Miyenbai Bekewei Ajuwa. All former documents remain valid.

Concerned authorities and the general public should please take note.

to it”.

The spokesman, Mohammed Andul-Salam, said in a statement on the Houthi website that an army force despatched from Sanaa “had arrived to take charge of the 310 division headquarters and oversee the security presence in Omran province”.

Hussein al-Azzi, a politburo member of Ansarullah (Supporter of God), as the

Houthi group is officially known, said all measures had been taken to facilitate the handover of the camp to the army, which he said had come as a result of “understandings reached with official authorities”.

“And we are always ready for further understandings about the normalization of the situation in the province,” he added in comments posted on his

TRIPOLI - Heavy fighting broke out between rival militias vying for control of Libya’s main airport yesterday, killing at least three people and forcing a halt of all flights in the worst fighting in the capital for six months.

Explosions and anti-aircraft gunfire were heard from early morning on the airport road and other parts of Tripoli.

Residents said that Zintan militiamen who had controlled the airport came under fire and local TV footage suggested that the attacking rebels were from the western city of Misratis.

The fighting is part of growing turmoil in the North African oil

producer where the government is unable to control battlehardened militias who helped to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but continue to defy state authority.

Many Libyans are weary of militias whose members theoretically work for the government but who in reality appear to do as they please — fighting each other or seizing oilfields and ministries as they press their own financial and political demands on authorities.

Zintan forces from the northwest, which have controlled the airport since Gaddafi’s ousting, and Misratis had been put on the state payroll in an unsuccessful attempt by the government to win their cooperation and establish the rule of law.

At least three people have been killed and eleven wounded in the current clashes, medics at Abu Salim hospital said.

Local news channel al-Nabaa showed men in military vehicles with Misrata insignia opening fire with heavy weapons.

Smoke could be seen rising above the airport as an official said: “All domestic and international flights have been halted.”

Nabaa TV showed a Libyan Airlines plane and a transport aircraft engulfed in smoke while vehicles fired anti-aircraft volleys and fighters took up positions next to field of sheep.

Social media websites said that several rockets had hit the airport perimeter. Photographs on Facebook showed thick smoke at what was said to be the parking lot in front of the terminal. Families were trapped inside the building, local websites said.

The fighting was the worst in the capital since more than 40 people were killed in clashes between militias and armed residents in November.

Tripoli has seen a spike in kidnappings but has been mostly spared the kind of violence that has rocked the eastern city of Benghazi where clashes

Facebook page.

The fighting has killed at least 200 people, displaced more than 35,000 and sparked widespread fears of further turmoil in the U.S.-allied country of 25 million.

Yemen has been trying recover from political crisis that started with mass protests in 2011 that forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

The Houthi victories in Amran have added to instability in the

country which is also struggling with a secessionist movement in its south and a threat by militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The defense ministry’s 26 September news website reported that Hadi has replaced the commander of the 1st Military District, which is responsible for the provinces of Omran, al-Jouf and Saadah, apparently following the setback

between forces of a renegade general and Islamists occur almost daily.

The violence comes as the country awaits the results of the June 25 parliamentary elections.

Officials and Libya’s partners had hoped the vote would give a push to state building and ease political tensions.

The OPEC member is divided between rival militias from

urban communities and tribes, as well as Islamist and more moderate forces.

Oil production has fallen to a fraction of the 1.4 million barrels a day that Libya produced before July 2013 when a wave of protests erupted at oilfields and ports.

The loss of oil revenues has sparked a budget crisis as Libya depends on energy exports.

Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Near Tripoli Airport

AUCTION SALES There will be a public auction sales of abandoned, accidented and unclaimed vehicles, motorcycles and household items at the following Police Divisions, Edo State Command. Date of sales is three weeks From this publication. DEPT. OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, BENIN CITY: Toyota Corolla Reg. No. BD179KTU, M/Benz 230 Reg. No. AU165USL, M/ Benz 190 Reg. No. AU604, 2 Audi 80 Cars Reg. No. DR422ABJ, Toyota Avalon, Suzuki M/Cycle Reg. No. UB039 UWN, Cargo Super M/Cycle Reg. No. QH349NSK, and household items. OKADA DIVISION: Bedford Bus Reg. No. EDO EJ348 BEN, M/Benz 190 Reg. No. LAGOS UR719KJA, Toyota Bus, MAN Diesel Truck Reg. No. JJT 839XA, some Motorcycles and household items. Contact.

Abu Osodionahon (Police Auctioneer) 08060382828, 08074007087

PUBLIC NOTICE

RESTORE EYE SIGHT IN AFRICA FOUNDATION The general public is hereby notified that the above named Foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 1 of 1990.

BOARD TRUSTEES 1. Dr. Ogbedo Ernest Njuwe 2. Ogbedo Lawrentta Aidevuo AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. To identify people with Cataract in the community and provide services. 2. To detect other eye problems and provide appropriate treatment or referral. 3. To educate patients and communities about eye care. 4. To educate medical, paramedical and volunteer workers on contemporary safe eye care.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: EVBAYIRO USUNOBUN & CO. (LAWSON CHAMBERS) 08038356927

PUBLIC NOTICE

EDO PEOPLES FORUM FOR JUSTICE

The general public is hereby notified that the above named Forum has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 1 of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE (1) Mr Ken Igbinedion (2) Mr Ahunwan Idiagbonmwen (3) Mr Martins Ahunwan AIMS AND OBJECTIVES (1) To promote the welfare of members (2) To promote the cultural heritage of Edo people (3) To defend the fundamental right of the Edo people.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja with 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED: AHUNWAN IDIAGBONMWEN Secretary

Armed Shi’ite volunteers from brigades loyal to radical cleric Muqtada alSadr, take their positions during a military advance in areas under the control of militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), on the outskirts of Samarra recently.

Insurgents Attack Town North Of Bagdad BAGHDAD - Sunni Islamist insurgents who control large parts of northern Iraq attacked a town north of Baghdad early yesterday, seizing local government buildings, police and witnesses said.

They said militants in 50 to 60 vehicles stormed the town of Dhuluiya, about 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad at 3.30 am (8.30 p.m. EDT Saturday), taking the mayor’s office and municipal council building and fighting to take control of the police station.

Insurgents led by the al Qaeda

offshoot Islamic State seized swathes of Iraq’s northern and western Sunni Muslim provinces in a two-day offensive last month.

They were pushed back at Dhuluiya on June 14 by soldiers loyal to Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki’s Shi’ite-led government backed by fighters from the Shi’ite Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, but fighting has continued and they have taken other towns.

The police and witnesses said local police and tribes were battling the militants in Dhuluiya on Sunday. They said four

the flashpoint northern town of Kidal forced Paris to delay the pull-out.

“The president wanted a reorganisation of our troops in the (Sahel) zone,” Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday in a television interview.

He said French-led Serval had been successful. “Now there is a concern for us and for the countries in the area to make sure there is no upsurge (in terrorism) as there are still major risks that jihadists will develop in the zone that goes from the Horn of Africa to Guinea-Bissau.”

The new operation,

codenamed Barkhan, will kick off in the coming days and is being implemented in partnership with five countries in the Sahel-Sahara region, Le Drian said, without detailing which nations these were.

He added that the operation would consist of around 3,000 soldiers, and drones, helicopters and fighter jets would be used.

Le Drian did not mention what nationality the troops would be, but he had said in May that this “counter-terrorism” operation would consist of 3,000 French soldiers who would be present in northern Mali, the north of Niger and in Chad.

France Ends Mali Offensive PARIS - France said yesterday its military offensive that freed northern Mali from the grip of Islamists would be replaced by an operation spanning the wider, largely lawless Sahel region to combat extremist violence.

The so-called Serval offensive kicked off in January last year when French troops came to the help of Malian soldiers to rid the country’s vast desert north from Islamists and Tuareg rebels who seized control after a coup.

France had initially planned to put an end to Serval and redeploy troops to the Sahel region in May but a fresh bout of clashes between rebels and the army in

in the fight against the Houthis.

Hadi also replaced the military commander of the south-eastern Hadramout region, where AQAP had been active with a series of raids on military and government facilities in recent weeks, the website reported.

The Houthis captured Omran on Tuesday after days of fighting against government soldiers and allied Sunni tribal fighters in clashes that had threatened to turn into a sectarian conflict.

The fall of Omran came less than a week after a ceasefire reached on June 23 collapsed with both sides blaming each other.

The Houthis, named after the tribe of their leader, said their fight was against rivals loyal to the Islamist Islah party, and they had no intention of attacking the capital Sanaa, just south of Omran.

policemen were killed in the fighting, as well as two militants and two civilians.

Insurgents also bombed a bridge linking Dhuluiya to the nearby Shi’ite town of Balad to the west, they said.

Parliamentarians are preparing to meet on to try to make progress on agreeing a new prime minister, president and parliamentary speaker, three months after a parliamentary election. The main Sunni bloc announced late on Saturday they would nominate their candidate for speaker in yesterday’s session.

Iraq’s political elite are under pressure from the United States, the United Nations and Iraq’s own Shi’ite clerics to reach agreement so politicians can deal with the insurgency and prevent the country fragmenting on sectarian and ethnic lines.

Few doubt an inclusive government is needed to hold Iraq together, but there is no consensus on who should lead it.

Maliki’s opponents accuse him of ruling for the Shi’ite majority at the expense of Sunni and Kurdish minorities, and want him to step aside, but he shows no sign of quitting. His State of Law coalition is the biggest group in the Shi’ite National Alliance bloc.

International Features

Ukraine Jets Pound Rebels After Deadly Missile Attack

UKRAINIAN war planes bombarded separatists along a broad front on Saturday, inflicting huge losses, Kiev said, after President Petro Poroshenko said “scores and hundreds” would be made to pay for a deadly missile attack on Ukrainian forces.

In exchanges marking a sharp escalation in the three-month conflict, jets struck at the “epicenter” of the battle against rebels near the border with Russia, a military spokesman said.

The planes targeted positions from where separatists, using high-powered Grad missiles, bombarded an army motorized brigade on Friday, killing 23 servicemen.

Warplanes also struck at targets near Donetsk, the east’s main town where rebels have dug in, destroying a powerful fighter base near Dzerzhinsk, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the “anti-terrorist operation” said.

“According to preliminary assessment, Ukrainian pilots ... killed about 500 (rebel) fighters and damaged two armored transporters,” Lysenko told journalists.

In an earlier air attack on a base near Perevalsk, north of Donetsk, two tanks, 10 armored vehicles and “about 500” rebel fighters were destroyed, he said.

Rebel representatives, quoted

by Russian news agencies, denied they suffered big losses and said the Ukrainians were using outdated intelligence on where separatist forces were deployed.

“There were no volunteers (rebels) where the Ukrainian aviation was active yesterday,” said a spokeswoman for the Luhansk-based separatists, referring to the Peravalsk attack.

Earlier, the border guard service said jet fighters were scrambled to strike at the proRussian separatists after they resumed missile attacks on government forces deployed near the frontier with Russia, south-east of the city of Luhansk.

In the military action, which began on Friday evening and continued well into Saturday, five Ukrainian servicemen were killed, Lysenko said.

There were 16 overflights by Ukrainian fighter jets in all, he said.

The surge in violence on Ukraine’s border with Russia, south east of Luhansk which is controlled by separatists, sparked fresh Ukrainian accusations against Russia of involvement in the border fighting.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry demanded Russia stop supporting armed groups in its eastern region, and end “provocations” on the border.

“The Russian side cynically disregards the fact that Ukrainian servicemen and peaceful civilians are being killed at the hands of terrorists whom it is supporting,” the

Foreign Ministry said.

“But, on the other hand Russian border guards complained in a letter about Russian household pets being killed by a supposed Ukrainian artillery shell, 500 meters (yards) from the border.”

Rebels had also carried out mortar and missile bombardment of army checkpoints at Dyakove and Nyzhnoderevechka near Luhansk, the “anti-terrorist operation” said.

Journalists based in Donetsk said Ukrainian forces shelled Maryinka, a suburb, on Friday night and apartment blocks bore traces of fire on Saturday.

Igor Strelkov, separatist commander in Donetsk, said his men had headed off a plan to move fighters and armor into the area. Subsequent Ukrainian shelling had killed 30 civilians and the number of casualties could rise, he said.

Vladyslav Seleznyov, main spokesman for the “antiterrorist operation”, said the violence there had been caused by rebels out to discredit the Ukrainian armed forces.

Poroshenko, whose forces recently seemed to be prevailing over the rebels, vowed on Friday to “find and destroy” rebels responsible for the missile attack at Zelenopillya, which also wounded nearly 100 and was one of the deadliest yet against government forces.

The increasing violence will bring a new sense of urgency to diplomatic attempts to end the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold

War. After a pro-Western revolt in Kiev ousted a Moscow-backed president in February, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and pro-Russian separatists seized strategic buildings in towns in the Russian-speaking east, setting up “people’s republics” and declaring they wanted to join Russia.

More than 200 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since then, and hundreds of

civilians and rebels have also died.

The United States and the European Union have brought in limited sanctions against Russian businesses amid Ukrainian allegations that Moscow has fanned the conflict and turned a blind eye to military equipment and Russian fighters crossing the border.

On Saturday, the EU targeted 11 Ukrainian separatist leaders with travel bans and asset

freezes, swerving away from fresh sanctions on Russian business to avoid antagonizing its main energy supplier.

The rebels’ missile strike on Friday at a motorized brigade was against part of a contingent of troops sent to the area specifically to try to block military equipment and guns being brought in from Russia to help the rebels.

Rebel fighters said Ukrainian fighter planes had also carried out air strikes on Saturday in the eastern town of Horlivka.

“There were a series of powerful explosions. Details

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leaves his plane at Vienna International Airport as he arrives for talks with foreign ministers from the six powers negotiating with Tehran on its nuclear program in Vienna yesterday.

are being clarified,” a separatist representative, Konstantin Knyrik, was quoted as saying

by Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Friday’s military setback at Zelenopillya took the gloss off the government’s recapture of the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk last weekend.

The Ukrainian military, following the Slaviansk victory, says it has readied a plan to oust the rebels now from Donetsk, a city of 900,000 people where separatist forces are dug in.

Poroshenko has said the military plan will be aimed at protecting civilians there and had appeared to rule out the use of air strikes and artillery to crush the rebels.

Poroshenko, who was also urged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to use a sense of proportion in actions against the separatists, had further talks on Friday with Donetsk mayor Aleksander Lukyanchenko on the issue.

Western allies and Russia are pressing for a new meeting of the ‘contact group’ involving separatist leaders to try to negotiate an end to the crisis.

Poroshenko says he has proposed various venues for the talks but has said there will be no repeat of a 10-day unilateral ceasefire by government forces which lapsed on June 30.

The Ukrainian government says that ceasefire was repeatedly violated by the rebels and that more than 20 Ukrainian servicemen were killed while it was in force.

Courtesy Reuters

Kerry’s 48-Hrs Dash To Save Afghanistan’s Election

HE was only on the ground for 48 hours, but America’s top diplomat John Kerry may well have helped prevent Afghanistan from sliding into another bloody ethnic war.

The helicopters were waiting for the US Secretary of State when he arrived in Kabul from Beijing early Friday on a lastminute mission to broker an end to a tense political impasse.

Some 48 hours later they flew him back over the darkened city streets from the fortress-like US embassy compound to his plane — a deal triumphantly in his hand.

Few had believed it possible that Kerry could bring together two presidential rivals bitterly at odds over disputed elections, and help avert fears of ethnic violence in a country ravaged by decades of war.

But the indefatigable 70-yearold dropped a political bombshell when he announced that rivals Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani had agreed that every one of the eight million votes cast in their June run-off poll would be audited.

Just days earlier the two men were barely speaking, as Abdullah vehemently accused Ghani of stealing victory by

stuffing the ballots.

But standing next to each other with Kerry late on Saturday before the world’s cameras, they clasped hands, smiling, and raised them in the air.

With that single dramatic show of unity, Kerry may well have helped guide Afghanistan’s young democracy away from a return to the bloody ethnic civil war of the 1990s.

The announcement followed two days of marathon meetings, with Kerry and his staff shuttling between the two candidates and their teams in the embassy.

He also met for hours one-onone with each candidate.

With Kerry due in Austria for talks on a Iran nuclear agreement, Saturday’s window for a deal was closing rapidly.

“It wasn’t until the 11th hour... that we had a full agreement,” a senior US official who took part in the negotiations told journalists.

The talks had focused on the best mechanism for auditing the poll results.

A second track sought to persuade the feuding rivals to

meet to discuss their differences and clear the way towards a national unity government.

Afghan analyst Younus Fakour said the agreement had “prevented a disaster in Afghanistan, it prevented the creation of a parallel government, it prevented chaos” — and the national unity government element was crucial.

“Before, the candidates were afraid that if one wins, the other will be left out. But with this they are sure they will be part of the next government,” he told AFP. By midday Saturday it became clear that given doubts over a UN proposal to audit votes from around 35 percent of polling stations, it made more sense to work towards an unprecedented review of all ballots cast.

“While it’s more resourceintensive, while it’s timeintensive, a full audit stands to more significantly improve the credibility of the outcome just because it’s more extensive,” a second US official said.

As reporters awaiting a press conference at UN mission

headquarters broke the Ramadan fast with a hastily arranged “iftar” of take-away lamb, rice, bread and dates, Kerry persuaded the two men to meet face-to-face.

Ghani, a former World Bank economist, was asked to join talks with Abdullah as they also hammered out a structure for a national unity government.

“When Dr Ghani walked in, the two approached each other and immediately embraced and there was clearly a degree of affection between the two,” the first US official said.

“For those of us who had sat through these meetings over 48 hours it was a welcome sign, a signal that actually here is something that may stick because it’s going to require the personalities involved to be committed to it.”

The dispute had raised fears of an ethnic split, as Abdullah draws support from Tajiks and other northern groups while Ghani is backed by Pashtun tribes of the south and east.

Both US officials praised the role of the United Nations which

has been working intensively for weeks to break the deadlock, and which flew in its chief electoral official for the negotiations.

The US will now support calls from the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, for additional resources and manpower to help audit all ballots in coming weeks.

“You deliver miracles,” Kubis told Kerry, as they got the final seal of approval from outgoing President Hamid Karzai.

“Because what we witnessed today was not just a topmost diplomatic achievement, it was close to a miracle.”

Kate Clark of the Afghan Analysts’ Network hailed the US role and said the deal’s “strong international underpinning” gave cause for optimism.

While it still remains unclear how the agreement will play out, one Afghan official emailed a member of Kerry’s team voicing heartfelt thanks and adding that “most Afghans will sleep more peacefully tonight”.

Courtesy Reuters

International Features UN Warns Iraq Of ‘Chaos’ If No Political Progress

THE U.N. urged Iraq’s leaders Saturday to overcome their deep divisions and move quickly to form a new government that can unite the country and confront a surging militant threat, warning that failure to do so “risks plunging the country into chaos.”

The Sunni insurgent blitz over the past month has driven Iraq into its deepest crisis since the last American troops left in 2011, pushing bloodshed to levels unseen since the height of the Iraq war, sending SunniShiite tensions soaring and raising the specter of a nation cleaved in three along ethnic and sectarian lines.

Iraq’s new parliament is scheduled yesterday to hold its second session amid hopes that lawmakers can quickly decide on a new prime minister, president and speaker of parliament — the first steps toward forming a new government. It failed to make any progress in its first session, and postponed its second session until yesterday.

U.N special envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, called on lawmakers to attend the meeting and forge an agreement on new leaders. He warned of dire consequences if the current political deadlock drags on.

“It will only serve the interests of those who seek to divide the people of Iraq and destroy their chances for peace and prosperity,” he said in a statement. “Iraq needs a team that can bring people together.

Now is not the time for mutual accusations, now is the time for moving forward and compromising in the interest of the Iraqi people.”

In Baghdad, gunmen in fourwheel drive vehicles raided two buildings in a housing complex in the Zayounah neighborhood late Saturday, killing at least 33 people, including 29 women, police said. They say at least 18 people were wounded.

An Interior Ministry official and hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures.

The motive behind the killings was not immediately clear, but police said there are suspicions that the buildings were being used as a brothel.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki, who has ruled the country since 2006, is under pressure to step aside. His government’s inability to prevent the attack, let alone roll back the militant advance, has sapped public — and international — confidence in his ability to hold Iraq together and lift it out of the crisis.

Al-Maliki’s opponents, and even many of his former allies, accuse him of trying to monopolize power and alienating the Sunni community, and are pushing him to not seek a third consecutive term. Al-Maliki has so far refused to withdraw his candidacy, and points to his State of Law bloc’s capturing

the most seats in April elections to claim he has a mandate.

Even though parliament delayed its second session by five days, lawmakers appear unlikely to achieve a major breakthrough Sunday on choosing new leadership, setting the stage for further political wrangling in the days and weeks ahead.

The militants, who have

tapped into the deep disaffection among Iraq’s minority Sunnis with alMaliki, have swept through most of the country’s predominantly Sunni areas in the north and west. The front lines have largely stabilized since their offensive encountered greater resistance in majority Shiite areas, although heavy fighting rages

Iraqi parliament’s acting speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh, center, attends the first session of parliament in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, recently. Iraq’s new parliament ended its inaugural session Tuesday after failing to make any progress in choosing a new prime minister even as the country faces a militant blitz that threatens to rip it apart and a spike in violence that made June the deadliest month in at least two years.

on.

On Saturday, Iraqi troops supported by Shiite militiamen battled Sunni militants who had seized at least partial control of a military base outside the town of Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. The troops and progovernment fighters succeeded in pushing insurgents out of the nearby hamlet of Nofal, but the base remained split between the warring sides, police officials said.

Police and hospital officials said the bodies of 16 progovernment fighters — a mix of soldiers and militiamen — killed in the fighting were taken to the morgue in Muqdadiyah, and another 15 were taken to the provincial capital of Baqouba. They said a family of five, including three children, was killed in government airstrikes on Nofal.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

To the west of Baghdad, the government airlifted some 4,000 volunteers to Ramadi to boost their forces trying to defend the city from militant attack, said Gen. Rasheed Flayeh, the commander of operations in Anbar province.

The operation began Friday and finished Saturday.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, an overwhelmingly Sunni province and one of the most active battle fronts in Iraq.

The Islamic State extremist group and other Sunni militants seized control of the Anbar city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January. The government has since reasserted its control of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in insurgent hands.

The vast majority of volunteer fighters are Shiites who have answered a call from the country’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend Iraq from the Sunni militants led by the Islamic State group, which has unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic state ruled by Shariah law in the territory it controls straddling the Iraq-Syria border.

The government’s reliance on Shiite militias — who have deployed in sizeable numbers to several cities across the country — to help counter the militant threat has ramped up sectarian tensions, fueling fears that Iraq could return to the wholesale sectarian bloodletting that engulfed the country in 2006 and 2007.

Russia Threatens Ukraine After Shell Crosses Border

RUSSIA threatened Ukraine yesterday with “irreversible consequences” after a man was killed by a shell fired across the border from Ukraine, describing the incident in warlike terms as aggression that must be met with a response.

Although both sides have reported cross-border shootings in the past, the incident appears to be the first time Moscow has reported fatalities on its side of the border in the three-month conflict which has killed hundreds of people in Ukraine.

Kiev called the accusation its forces had fired across the border “total nonsense” and suggested the attack could have been the work of rebels trying to provoke Moscow to intervene on their behalf. The rebels denied they were responsible.

Inside Ukraine, where combat has intensified dramatically since a rebel missile attack that killed dozens of government troops on Friday, local officials said 18 people were killed in shooting incidents in the two main rebel-held cities.

Kiev said it had bombarded a convoy of 100 armored vehicles and trucks that had crossed into Ukraine carrying in rebel fighters from Russia. It also said seven of its troops had been killed in attacks.

Moscow’s bellicose response to the cross-border shelling

raises the renewed prospect of overt Russian intervention, after weeks in which President Vladimir Putin had appeared intent on disengaging, pulling back tens of thousands of troops he had massed at the frontier.

Russia sent Ukraine a note of protest describing the incident as “an aggressive act by the Ukrainian side against sovereign Russian territory and the citizens of the Russian Federation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement warning of “irreversible consequences”.

“This represents a qualitative escalation of the danger to our citizens, now even on our own territory. Of course this naturally cannot pass without a response,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Rossiya-24 state TV. Russia’s Investigative Committee said a shell had landed in the yard of a house in a small town on the Russian side of the frontier, killing a man and wounding a woman. The Russian town is called Donetsk, sharing the name of the Ukrainian city of 1 million people that the rebels have declared capital of an independent “people’s republic”.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman

for Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said: “There is a report that this shelling was carried out by Ukrainian forces. This is total nonsense and the information is untrue.

“The forces of the antiterrorist operation do not fire on the territory of a neighboring country and they do not fire on residential areas,” he said. “We have many examples of terrorists carrying out provocation shooting, including into Russian territory, and then accusing Ukrainian forces of it.”

The rebels denied blame.

Interfax news agency quoted the rebels’ self-proclaimed first deputy prime minister, Andrey Prugin, as saying he was “90 percent certain” it was Ukrainian troops that had fired

across the border, because the rebels were short on ammunition and cautious about where they fired.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April when armed pro-Russian fighters seized towns and government buildings, weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in response to the overthrow of a pro-Moscow president in Kiev.

The fighting has escalated sharply in recent days after Ukrainian forces pushed the rebels out of their most heavilyfortified bastion, the town of Slaviansk.

Hundreds of rebels, led by a self-proclaimed defense minister from Moscow, have retreated to the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, built reinforcements and pledged to make a stand.

Kiev says Moscow has provoked the rebellion and

allowed fighters and heavy weapons to cross the border with impunity. It has struggled to reassert control over the eastern frontier, recapturing border positions from rebels.

The past two days have seen an escalation in retaliation after dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed in a rocket attack on a base near the border on Friday.

Kiev said it killed hundreds of rebels in air strikes on Saturday, although there was no independent confirmation of such high casualties and the rebels denied suffering serious losses.

Ukrainian security spokesman Lysenko said yesterday that forces had used artillery to strike a convoy of about 100 armored vehicles and trucks after confirming that the convoy was carrying “a large number of recruits” into Ukraine from Russia.

“The forces of the anti-terrorist operation do not fire on the territory of a neighboring country and they do not fire on residential areas,” he said. “We have many examples of terrorists carrying out provocation shooting, including into Russian territory, and then accusing Ukrainian forces of it.”

IN its efforts to make medical service for chronic illness more affordable to the people, the Lagos State Government has opened a first ultra modern cardiac and renal centre for the use of the public at Gbagada area of the state.

This is in a bid to stop the spate of medical trips abroad as well as build local capacity especially for ailments that could be treated locally but for the absence of expertise and facilities.

The facility which is designed to handle heart and kidney related diseases also offers out-patient services, diagnostic services, ultrasound, CT scan, Echo cardiograph, Stress E l e c t r o c a r d i o g r a p h y, laboratory services, fluoroscopy, ocular investigation for complications from hypertension, diabetes and renal conditions, haemodialysis for acute and chronic kidney diseases with 24 dialysis machine, admission for all cardiac conditions that requires hospital stay, critical care in intensive care unit (ICU) and high dependency wards, cardiac cauterization, non invasive cardiology, open heart surgery, renal surgery, nursing and diabetic services, rehabilitation services and corporate wellness program.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris while giving reasons for embarking on the project noted that the State government through the Ministry of Health considers it appropriate and timely to have a befitting cardiac and renal centre due to the increasing number of patients presenting with end stage renal failure adding also that the lack of a purpose built renal specialist centre, the periodic nature of the cardiac and renal missions which has limited the number of beneficiaries and the need to conserve the financial resources currently being expended in the management of patients with renal and cardiac diseases in foreign countries are key reasons for

building the facility.

He noted that cardiac and renal diseases constitute a growing health burden globally stressing that there is what is called a triple jeopardy in the health sector especially in Lagos and Nigeria which require efforts of stakeholders in State health system to address.

Said he “we have what we call double jeopardy but now it is triple jeopardy in the sense that we do not only have problems with communicable diseases, we are now having problems with non-communicable diseases, and the third one has to do with mental health. But this project is trying to address the major aspect of the non-communicable disease burden”.

Idris added that the noncommunicable disease burden prompted the State government to embark on the screening of people for hypertension and diabetes which are major contributor to the cardiac and renal ailment burden as part of its preventive and health promotion strategy stressing that the study from screening conducted State-wide showed that roughly 20% of the people who were screened were hypertensive and between 5 and 6% were diabetic.

“Not only that, we also do know that these two diseases jointly cause serious complications in people who have these problems; and once you have these problems, you have them for life if they are not properly treated”, Idris explained.

The Commissioner also noted that State government had over the years earmarked as part of its free health policy quite a huge chunk of its budget to sponsor people abroad on various medical problems that could not be treated in the country where the needed expertise and facilities are not available stressing that it is the copulation of these factors that prompted the State government to build the cardiac and renal centre.

“A copulation of these

Health Making Medical Service For Chronic Illness Affordable

By RAHEEM IBRAHIM

factors prompted the need for us to build facilities locally, find a way of staffing them locally to provide the needed services to treat people of these ailments, reduce the number of money we are spending to sponsor people abroad, and more importantly to build local capacity, he stressed Idris also opined that setting up of the facility will help bring back home Nigerian medical specialists

if you established a facility with the right equipment and infrastructure, we can use that to attract the specialist abroad back home where they can exhibit their expertise and at the same time build local capacity here. That was the basic underlining reason why we decided to embark on this project, he said.

The Commissioner explained that the cardiac and renal centre building project started in 2008 when the

clinical and total facilities management required for the value-engineering Renal and Cardiac Centre.

He noted that the need to get a suitably qualified competent consortium that has the needed requirement to run the facility prompted the state to opt for a publicprivate partnership agreement through the office of public-private partnership adding that this aim results in the appointment of Renescor Health Limited Liability Partnership to run and

Gov Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State referring to it as a way of ‘brain gain’ to defeat the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon stressing that over the years quite a number of indigenous medical personnel have left the country for greener pastures outside of the country due to lack of infrastructure and facilities with which to exhibit their skills.

“We have over 2000 specialists in the United States, similar number in Europe and Canada. And this is one way of brain gain instead of brain drain because

award was made to Messr Deaux project Limited stressing that facility which was also equipped by the company will be managed privately through a five year operation and management concession by a suitably qualified competent consortium of medical professionals renewable for another five years term subject to satisfactory performance and mutual agreement of the parties wherein the proponent will provide all the health care services; clinical and non-

“He noted that cardiac and renal diseases constitute a growing health burden globally stressing that there is what is called a triple jeopardy in the health sector especially in Lagos and Nigeria which require efforts of stakeholders in State health system to address.”

manage the facility.

Idris listed training of local medical personnel especially the establishment of a state government sponsored foreign capacity building for medical personnel as part of the concession agreement aside the operation and management concession.

The Commissioner for Finance who doubles as the Supervising Head for the Public-Private Partnership Office, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi noted that the reason for opting for qualified competent consortium of medical professionals to manage the facility through a PPP initiative was due to dearth of appropriate competent staff in this environment and the highly specialized nature of the equipment and services to be rendered within the facility.

He added that the PPP office is quite convinced of the capabilities of the private managers stressing that they

are expected to provide quality services in line with international best practices, promote medical tourism, provide training field to develop the capacity of state’s own health personnel and facilitate a gradual paradigm shift on dependence on foreign expertise with the skilled empowerment of local professionals.

The Managing Director of Renescor Health Limited Liability Partnership Dr. Ladi Awosika who was present at the event to sign the concession agreement gave kudos to the State government for building the state-of-the-art facilities which he described as first of its kind in sub Saharan Africa taking out South Africa and Angola.

He added that the cardiac and renal centre has been built to very good specification that specialists who have signed up with the company attest to, stressing that the centre has facility for telemedicine which will make every procedure going on in the facility to be reviewed by colleagues anywhere in the world thereby ensuring that training and cutting edge facility therapy will be available at the facility.

Awosika explained that Messr Renescour is made up mainly of Nigerian specialists in Diaspora who could not get any space to work in Nigeria stressing that when they saw what was on ground, they pledged to contribute their quota through the facility.

“As at today we have about 200 Nigerian specialists who have signed on to be a part of this. Some of them have decided that it will not even be for money, rather they will take one or two weeks vacation to be at this centre to impact their knowledge and skills to the people of Lagos in particular and Nigeria in general”, he said.

Awosika noted that more facilities of the magnitude of the cardiac and renal centre is required in the State to be able to satisfy the demand of more than 21 million residents of the State and promote medical tourism in Lagos. He thereafter pledged that his company will not let the down.

LONDON’S football landscape has changed beyond all recognition over the course of the last 127 years but there has remained one constant: Arsenal’s undisputed position as kings of the capital.

From their humble beginnings as a munitions factory team based in Woolwich to the global behemoth they have become, constant innovation as well as strict adherence to the morals and values instilled by Herbert Chapman in the 1930s have seen the club maintain and grow its stature.

Despite the majesty and splendour of their art deco Highbury home, complete with marble halls, it wasn’t until Chapman’s appointment in 1925 that the club began to enjoy success on the pitch. Under his guidance Arsenal would dominate the game in the 1930s, winning seven major honours of which Chapman was responsible for three before his untimely death aged just 55.

The constant stream of silverware helped in terms of putting the club on the map but it was Chapman’s visionary ideas and innovations that helped spread the gospel and truly set the club on the path to greatness.

He ensured Highbury was to become one of the most iconic stadiums in world football, with his attention to detail key to the instillation of electronic turnstiles, a PA system and, of course, the famous clock that sat proudly atop the south stand for decades.

Chapman helped forge links with the local community by lobbying for the Gillespie Road underground station to be renamed Arsenal (the only stop on the entire underground network to be named after a football club) but also had the foresight to ensure the club’s name was known and revered far beyond their north London home.

The War years curtailed Arsenal’s dominance of the English game, allowing others to catch up, but the club remained synonymous with success. In 1970 they became only the second London club to win a major European trophy, lifting the Uefa Cup in front of over 50,000 fans packed in at Highbury.

They were to follow that success a year later by becoming only the third team in the history of English football to complete a league and FA Cup double – Charlie George providing one of the most iconic Wembley images of all-time with his celebration that followed the winning goal against Liverpool.

The club had to wait a further 18 years to win another league title but the circumstances of their last-gasp success made it worth the wait. Needing to beat Liverpool at Anfield by two clear goals,

Why Arsenal Remain London’s Biggest Club

• Arsene Wenger Michael Thomas provided, in legendary commentator Brian Moore’s words “an unbelievable climax to the league season” by scoring the decisive goal with practically the last kick of the entire campaign.

That success is part of a trophy collection unrivalled by any London club. The Gunners have won a total of 40 major honours – only Manchester United and Liverpool have won more in England – nearly double that of Chelsea and Tottenham despite the nine-year wait for silverware that ended at Wembley in May thanks to Aaron Ramsey’s dramatic FA Cup winning goal.

Roman Abramovich’s billions have represented the biggest threat to Arsenal’s position as London’s finest but although Chelsea have enjoyed an enviable period of success, they simply cannot match Arsenal for consistency or sheer size.

The Gunners have won 13 First Division and Premier League titles, compared to Chelsea’s four, and a joint record 11 FA Cups.

The club has accumulated the second most points in English top-flight football and holds the ongoing record for the longest uninterrupted period in the highest division.

Under Arsene Wenger, the club completed the 2003-04 league season unbeaten with a side that contained some of the finest players in Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp that English football has ever seen.

The club have also remained omnipresent in the Champions League and have qualified for the competition a record 17 seasons in succession, despite the financial constraints placed upon them by the move to the magnificent 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium – the second largest club stadium in England.

To gain a measure of Arsenal’s size and following, for the first two years back in Europe’s elite competition the club elected to play their games at Wembley Stadium where crowds of 90,000 flocked to see them play the likes of Barcelona and Dynamo Kiev – a remarkable turnout when you consider Chelsea regularly struggle to fill their Stamford Bridge home for Champions League matches.

Arsenal’s global reach has increased significantly as a result of their continued presence in the Champions League and commitment to fast, free-flowing football under Wenger. They are the only Premier League club to boast over four million followers on Twitter and 25 million likes on Facebook.

Home, as the 250,000 fans who greeted Arsenal’s FA Cup heroes by lining the streets of Islington, is very much where the heart of this great club remains.

Does Suarez Sale Undermine Or Underline Liverpool’s Ambition?

• Rodgers and Suarez GOAL’S weekly column looks at how Brendan Rodgers can go about suitably replacing the Uruguayan and the ongoing rivalry between the Reds and Arsenal On the face of it, a fee of over +88 million for a 27-year-old banned for the first two-and-ahalf months of next season is a reasonable deal for Liverpool.

Yet proper judgement of the value of the club-record departure of Luis Suarez should be reserved until this summer’s recruits are assessed

over a lengthy period.

As any Tottenham fan can attest, a multitude of mediocre signings is indequate when replacing a double-winning player of the year.

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group deserve credit for holding out for the full value of the release clause in Suarez’s contract. Now they need to be equally vigilant in demonstrating the ambition needed to build on the club’s astonishing improvement last season.

The club have been preparing for Suarez’s departure by being one of the most active Premier League clubs in the summer market.

Liverpool have completed the signings of Adam Lallana, Emre Can and Rickie Lambert, and put deals in place for winger Lazar Markovic, defender Dejan Lovren and striker Wilfried Bony as well as a buy-to-loan swoop for exciting Belgian forward Divock Origi.

This potential £100m+

outlay would considerably strengthen the squad ahead of the return Champions League football next season but despite the concentration of strikers and attacking midfielders, none would provide an adequate replacement for Suarez.

This is where FSG need to back Brendan Rodgers and provide him with a blue-chip forward. Liverpool’s American owners, and the tier of recruitment executives who work for them, have had considerable success at spotting value in the market, most notably in the cases of Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Joe Allen and Philippe Coutinho.

Origi, who demonstrated his exciting potential during the World Cup, and Markovic would appear to come into that bracket, while the signing of late bloomer Rickie Lambert could also be a masterstroke.

But there is more than one way to skin a cat. Liverpool must sometimes shop at the top end of the market if they are to become a team genuinely feared across Europe.

The feeling persists that FSG are happy to set some of the Suarez money aside for the Anfield redevelopment rather than invest it back into the team.

It is also highly likely that Rodgers has decided Suarez is irreplaceable and will re-tune his formation next season, building the attack around Sturridge and surrounding the lone striker with an abundance of technically gifted attacking midfielders.

Yet there is a great opportunity over the next seven weeks to recruit a potential world-beating attacker approaching his peak, much as the club did when landing Suarez from Ajax in the same window they sold Fernando Torres.

Liverpool had considerably the better of that £50m deal with Chelsea. Show ambition and recruit well, and there is no reason they can not come out of this window smelling of roses once again.

This window is proving that there remains no love lost between Arsenal and Liverpool.

Relations between the two big-hitters are still frosty a year on from the infamous £40million-plus-£1 Suarez bid that prompted so much anger in the Anfield boardroom.

The Merseysiders knew a long time ago that Alexis

Sanchez had indicated he would sign for Arsenal, but that did not stop senior Liverpool figures briefing the media that the Chilean could be a makeweight in the deal that took Suarez to Barcelona.

In reality, this was always extremely remote, if not impossible. Yet it suited Liverpool to be linked with a forward of Sanchez’s calibre at at a time when the supporters had to swallow the bitter pill that their double-winning player of the year was heading for Spain.

Liverpool also knew that Barcelona would not sanction Sanchez’s sale until the Suarez deal had been wrapped up.

Arsenal’s long-held plan had been to unveil Sanchez on the day the club’s new Puma kit deal was launched. Earlier in the week, Liverpool were keen to delay Suarez’s exit in order to prevent the Arsenal party getting started.

The hostility, from Boston to Merseyside, lingers.

With the two clubs at a similar level in terms of resources and ambition, the rivalry between Arsenal and Liverpool is only likely to intensify in the coming season.

Barca Expect Suarez Ban Reduction

PSG Set To Rival Man Utd In Di Maria Race THE Premier League club had hoped to agree a deal with Real Madrid, but the emergence of the Ligue 1 side could see the Old Trafford outfit outmuscled in transfer talks Manchester United could miss out on the signing of Angel Di Maria after Paris Saint-Germain emerged as frontrunners for the Argentina international’s signature, Goal understands.

The Old Trafford side had been confident of reaching an agreement with Real Madrid to sign the winger this summer as Louis van Gaal continues with a squad overhaul.

But the Premier League club are now aware they could be outmuscled in negotiations by PSG, despite the Financial Fair Play sanctions placed on the Ligue 1 champions.

And PSG president Nasser AlKhelaifi has reportedly held talks in Madrid with the Spanish giants.

The offer of Champions League football from the French capital club is also understood to appeal to Di Maria, despite the presence of Van Gaal at Old Trafford.

United have pressed ahead with their summer transfer plans during the World Cup despite the

Di Maria

Dutchman’s continued involvement with the Netherlands in Brazil.

Ander Herrera was signed from Athletic Bilbao, while Southampton teenager Luke Shaw made a big-money move from Southampton.

But Van Gaal could miss out on another primary transfer target after Toni Kroos previously turned down the chance to leave Bayern Munich for the Premier League.

Di Maria, meanwhile, is facing a race against time to be fit for the World Cup final clash with Germany after picking up a thigh injury in training.

Lindsay

Tennis

Lindsan Davenport Inducted Into Hall Of Fame

THREE-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one Lindsay Davenport was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday, saying she fell in love with the sport the first time she picked up a racquet.

“I was five years old when I first hit a tennis ball and a racquet was put in my hand,” the American said at her enshrinement along with legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, five time Paralympic medallist Chantal Vandierendonck, tennis executive Jane Brown Grimes and British broadcaster John Barrett in ceremonies at Newport,

Rhode Island.

“It was the third sport that my parents tried with me to get me out of the house clearly at a young age after school. I never wanted to learn another sport and I still don’t.

“Hitting the ball and making contact was always something that came very natural to me. Everything else about the game took work

and was a struggle. But that was the reason why I fell in love with it.”

Davenport, now 38, said it took her 20 years of practice and competition to reach her peak.

The Californian was rewarded with Grand Slam victories at the 1998 U.S. Open, 1999 Wimbledon and 2000 Australian Open. She also won an Olympic gold medal in 1996 during a career stretching from 1991 through 2011. She was ranked number one in the world for

Johnson Shares Lead With McGirt At John Deere Classic Golf:

FORMER Masters champion Zach Johnson shot a four-under 67 to share a one-stroke lead with William McGirt after the second round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois on Friday.

Johnson, 2007 winner at Augusta, and McGirt were 12-under for a total of 130, a stroke ahead of fellow Americans Johnson Wagner and Brian Harman, and Australian Steven Bowditch at TPC Deere Run. Johnson’s round was his 22nd in the 60s in succession on a course less than 100 miles from his birth place across the Mississippi River in Iowa.

“I can plot my way around here,” said 2012 winner Johnson, who is not a long hitter.

“I don’t feel like you have to kill it. There is some strategic golf involved. I could pick this round apart but it was a really good day.”

Steve Stricker moved into contention, ending the day in a group tied for sixth at nineunder, including South African Rory Sabbatini.

The 47-year-old American stormed home with five birdies on his inward half for a 65.

“At times I didn’t think it was going to happen and then the second nine I really started to do some nice things,” Stricker told Golf Channel.

“There were a couple of nice saves that kept the momentum going too.”

World number 19 Stricker considers himself a part-time golfer these days. He is playing only his ninth tournament of the year, and has pulled out of next week’s British Open, the second successive year he will skip the major.

“I’m cutting back,” said the 12-time PGA Tour winner.

“My expectations are still

high and yet I’m much more casual about the game and I’m having more fun with it

and I think that helps me in some ways but I still want to play well and I expect to play well.”

Zach Johnson

98 weeks.

Second-seed Ivo Karlovic and third-seed Lleyton Hewitt, meanwhile, will meet in Sunday’s final after semifinal victories on Saturday.

Tall Croatian Karlovic has bounced back in emphatic fashion from his first round loss at Wimbledon.

The 35-year-old’s latest victim was Australian Samuel Groth. Karlovic broke once in each set for a 6-4 6-4 victory.

Australian Hewitt, at home on the grass surface, took barely an hour to dust off American Jack Sock 6-1 62.

Hewitt is also seeking redemption after losing last year ’s final. As with Karlovic, he had an early recent exit from Wimbledon, where he lost in five sets in the second round.

BARCELONA will help Luis Suarez “successfully integrate back into football” following his four-month ban from all football activity, club president Josep Maria Bartomeu has said.

The Catalan club will also assist Suarez’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) alongside the Uruguayan Football Federation.

On Friday, Liverpool agreed to sell Suarez to Barcelona for a reported fee of 80 million euros with the move expected to be completed this week.

Bartomeu told Barcelona’s official website: “We are supporting the appeal being made by the Uruguayan Federation to the CAS and are convinced that FIFA’s initial sanction will be reduced.

“He recognised his mistake and Barca will be making sure he successfully reintegrates into the football world.”

He added: “Suarez will bring his top qualities as a footballer, with goals and the desire to compete and win. We’ll all help him and his family to adapt quickly to Barcelona and the team”.

Barcelona have also signed goalkeepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo and Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic as new manager Luis Enrique overhauls his squad ahead of the new season.

And Bartomeu is excited at the prospect of Barcelona’s new look.

He said: “I’m excited about it, because this is the in-depth restructuring that we’d talked about. Zubizarreta and Luis Enrique are working hard to make a team that can challenge for everything. The team is in good hands.”

More new faces could yet arrive at Barcelona, with Bartomeu highlighting defenders as a priority following the retirement of Carles Puyol.

He said: “We are focusing our efforts on finding what the coaches need, which as you know still means we have to sign some new players, probably in defence.”

The Great Debate: Is It Time For Nigeria To Move On From Keshi?

WOULD the Super Eagles be best placed moving away from the reign of the Big Boss and following a new direction?

Stephen Keshi has left the Nigeria hotseat, and while there is some scope for the Big Boss to renew his contract with the Super Eagles, would this be the right move for both parties?

In this feature, two of Goal Nigeria’s finest debate whether the time has come for the Super Ealges to begin to look towards a post-Keshi future, or whether the NFF should do all they can to keep the Big Boss on board.

There is a strong case to be made that the end of Stephen Keshi’s reign is a good thing for Nigeria.

For the first time in a long time, the Super Eagles went to a World Cup with none of the rancour and angst that had characterised previous campaigns. There was no unjustifiable change of management as with the

previous three participations in 1998, 2002 and 2010.

For the most part, the Big Boss was given leeway regarding personnel choices, a freedom not to be taken for granted considering the antecedents of the NFF. The players had the thorny issue of bonuses and allowances sorted beforehand, even though it proceeded to regenerate like a reptilian limb.

In short, there was really no excuse for failure (a relative term, granted). It cannot be said that the team failed, but at the same time, it cannot be said that Keshi got the best possible results given the resources available.

When the draw was made, it was clear to anyone with football knowledge that the Super Eagles were favourites to progress from the group behind Argentina. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger tipped Nigeria to make it out of the group before a ball was

kicked. It was a bare minimum.

It was achieved, but the team sure made heavy weather of it. A dire draw against Iran proved that the indifferent results of the pretournament friendlies had been a storm warning. The team lacked ideas, in spite of the fact Keshi has maintained

• Stephen Keshi

FIFA Was Misinformed, - Onigbinde THE respected Nigeria football exponent believes that lack of adequate information to the world football governing body was responsible for the ban on the country As reactions continue to trail Nigeria suspension by the Federation of International Football Association, CAF technical instructor Adegboye Onigbinde has asserted out that the world football governing body might have been wrongly briefed on what led to the sack of the Nigeria Football Federation.

Fifa frowned at government third party interference in football and clamped down heavily on the country after a law court in Jos sacked the Aminu Maigari led NFF board .

In a no hold barred chat with Goal, the former Fifa technical instructor said that there have always been government interference in sports and

• Adegboye Onigbinde

football to be precise because the government funds it. He also revealed that the world football governing body might have been wrongly misinformed.

“We cannot surrender our sovereignty to the regulation of anybody or any organisation.

The judiciary had given a judgement and the body concerned has not come out to state that it is appealing the verdict which means it abided by the verdict reached by the law court,” Onigbinde told Goal.

“Fifa rules and regulations state that any football body must be able to handle its affairs dependent of its own and without interference from anybody or organisation.

“What do we have in Nigeria?

Is it not the government that has been releasing the funds the NFF has been using to for their day to day activities? What is the interference if you ask someone to account for how he spent the money you gave to him for accountability?,” he queried.

“If the truth must be told, we have not been following Fifa statutes in the country and football has always been run dependent on the government and it will be difficult to say that government is interfering when

a pretty closed group since the Cup of Nations win of 2013.

The win over BosniaHerzegovina seemed to paper over the cracks of a dysfunctional midfield: Ogenyi Onazi toiled alone, and Edin Dzeko had a goal contentiously ruled out for offside. The professionalism

it is the same government that supply the funds needed.

“All the management of clubs in the country are on appointments and not democratically elected as stipulated in the FIFA statutes and if the government is to hands of football sponsorship in the country do you think we are going to have the NFF? “Don’t let fool ourselves, I believe Fifa was wrongly informed by some top stakeholders in the country to have meted this punishment on us,” he concluded.

THE Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) on Friday said that two of its players selected to represent the country at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Scotland had shun call-up to camp.

Edem Offiong and Cecilia Otu-Akpan both female players are part of the players selected for final camping in Lagos ahead of the commonwealth games.

The commonwealth games is scheduled for Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to Aug.3.

Anderson Bankole, NTTF technical director said that the federation made several attempts to contact the two players via telephone, but the

of the Bosnian Dragons ensured the Super Eagles progressed in spite of a loss to Argentina.

All the while, in addition to a worrying lack of structure to the team, it was clear the side was hamstrung by a very curious squad selection. The injury to Elderson Echiejile pre-tournament meant an untested Juwon Oshaniwa started the tournament with no outright backup; a hand fracture meant the absence for the Second Round loss to France of Babatunde Michael, another prior unknown, who assumed an inordinate level of importance.

For failing to address the squad’s glaring weaknesses; for selecting a team unfit for the profile of football premier showpiece (see Keshi’s shocking revelation that Reuben Gabriel had been unfit); for lacking the nerve to drop an underperforming John Obi Mikel; and for failing to contrive a clear and cohesive style of play,

Commonwealth Games

Two Nigerian Table Tennis Players Shun Call-up To Camp? duo refused to turn-up at the camp. ‘’They have refused to pick up calls from the members of the NTTF and they have not made reasons are not known to us their reasons to refuse to honour the national call,’’ he said.

Bankole said that the players had not been part of the camping and training for more than three week the players had been called to camp.

He said that they also missed out in the medical examination and briefing given to the other athletes on the games

Nigeria Suspended From World Amputee Football Federation Bookmark

PIUS Asaba, a member of the Amputee Football Federation for Africa (AFFA) weekend said that the World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) has suspended Nigeria from participating in its activities.

Asaba told in Lagos that the suspension was slammed because the country did not pay its annual affiliation fee since 2013.

He said that the sanction had denied the country’s national amputee football team from participating in the 2014 World Cup, scheduled to hold in Mexico from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10.

“We have been sanctioned by the world body, and the implication is that our national team will no longer be allowed participation in the World Cup, organised by WAFF. “ It is very painful because we are all aware of the implication of none or late payment of the dues, it’s so unfortunate that our country is now a victim this year.

“Now we have to pay dearly for this. All the preparation and aspiration of our national team to feature at the world Cup has gone to the wind,’’ he said.

Asaba, also a former NAFF scribe, expressed sadness over

Nigeria must look to move on from the Big Boss.

The reward for good work is supposed to be more work, not to get dumped.

Therefore, should the man who brought back a good measure of pride and stability in the national team be allowed to leave?

The man who won the Africa Cup of Nations within two years of taking charge (ending a 19-year search for silverware), qualified and led the team to the World Cup where they reached the round of 16 for the first time in 16 years.

The idea of a new face is appealing but it has become quite difficult to easily imagine a successful future for the Super Eagles without Stephen Keshi.

Since the highly-exalted 1989-1994 reign of Clemens Westerhof and his iconic squad, have Nigeria experienced such progressive fortunes under

the development.

He described it as a crack to the growth of amputee football in the country.

“This have unfavourable affect on players.

“This is a sport that has really kept some of our talented footballers off street and they are so committed in their training and preparations for this game. “ I am always impressed with what I see during their open camp training towards preparation for football fiesta, but they cannot accualise their dream of participating at the world cup,’’ he added.

guidelines. ‘’They have missed out in so many of the programmes linedup towards having a remarkable outing at the games,’’ he said.

Bankole said that the games was a major tournament that could not be taken with levity by any player or coach. ‘’We are in for serious business and we would not condole indiscipline among the athletes nor the official,’’ he said.

When asked if the players can still join others in camp he said that the federation could not guarantee their level of fitness and shape. ‘’I can’t categorically ascertain if they are in shape to compete because they have been part of our preparations for a while and nothing is known about them. ‘’ We do not know what they were up-to and if they have been training on their own or not,’’ he said.

He, however, assured that the absence of the two players would not affect the performance of the country at the games. ‘’There are other female players in camp who are equally good and can fit in the absence of the two players. ‘’There is no cause for panic we would do well at the games,’’ he said.

CMYK

“If anything his efforts deserve to be four). Women and men applauded, and if Nigeria must develop quickly, of all shades and the men of ability and substance must never shy elderly people trooped away from throwing their hats into the political out to dance and sing the ring just like what Ogbeni Aregbesola has praise of Mr. Governor of done” – Quoted in Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (In Osun State and waved the footsteps of Chief Obafemi Awolowo) Page. the flags and broom of the All Progressive 105.

Congress (APC), as the IT has been said in several quarters that Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is the greatest positive thing that has happened to the people of Osun what he has done and Governor’s convoy drove State, since he was what he still hopes to do slowly towards Ede. As we moved closer to sworn in as the is visible for any one that Executive Governor on visits Osun State to X- Ede, the entire town suddenly rose up to November 27th, 2010. ray.

Indeed, what I saw on welcome Ogbeni This fact above manifested clearly our way to Ede clearly Aregbesola’s campaign again when I visited the displayed that Ogbeni train. I will never forget has the experience. People State recently. It has Aregbesola been said correctly too that, no one leader or sitting Governor of the State of Osun has won the hearts of the m a s s e s overwhelmingly like Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, since Osun State was created out of Oyo State on August 27th, 1991.

Fact is sacred! When Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola invited me to join his campaign team to Ede, perhaps for me to see things for myself, I was excited to make the trip with him.

What I saw as we made our way to Ede and when we got to Ede proper exceedingly Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola warmed my hearts. It warmed my hearts attracted the attention of were recklessly because my more than the lowly, the humble and cheering, dancing and two years research into the multitudes that have singing on the streets. the activities of Ogbeni seen hope in his political What awaited us at the Aregbesola which has proclamations. As we palace of Timi of Ede, manifested into a made our way to Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal recent book on him, school children of all was quite unique. The has turned out to be a grades ran out of their mood at the palace was worthy and well school compound to indeed emotionally deserved venture. shout and cheer Ogbeni; irresistible as the orgy of What I saw in Ede on their faces one could celebration was total. has equally see exceeding joy and The crowd that had complimented the fact satisfaction. gathered within the that Ogbeni Rauf After all, Ogbeni Rauf palace listened Aregbesola’s idealism Aregbesola is feeding attentively and and fiery temperament them with hygienic food enthusiastically as has given hope to and clothing them as Ogbeni Aregbesola many who has hastily they go to school every addressed them on why flocked to his train of day, using his popular they should return him to political redemption. programme of O meal power on August 9 th This man is absolutely (reserved for pupils of 2014. sincere with power and between primary one-

The mood at the Seventh Day Adventist High School, Ede, venue of the Ogbeni Aregbesola’s re-election campaign rally was ecstatic, as people of all colours, the aged and

A Ride With Aregbesola the young, poor and the rich danced uncontrollably as Governor Aregbesola rode in .The spontaneous emotional outburst that gripped the venue of the campaign rally reached crescendo

with Ogbeni. It is clear without any shadow of doubt that Ogbeni Aregbesola came and prepared to lead the people of Osun to the glorious next level. 10 kilometer of roads are being constructed in

as Ogbeni Aregbesola made his way to the podium.

When Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the “Our administration has treated the various political districts equally w i t h o u t sentiment…What we have done in less than 40 months, surpassed what they did in seven years both in quantity and quality”, he was saying nothing but the truth.

I indeed saw completed township roads in Ede and the inhabitants were happy

every Local Government Areas of the State of Osun. The crowds in Ede were simply very large. The man is popular!

On Monday July 7 th, 2014, a day before the mega rally at Ede, Ogbeni Aregbesola commissioned the Ayegbaju Modern International Market in Oshogbo. I have reliably gathered that a replica of this gigantic market will soon appear in all the senatorial districts of the State.

There is something about the Ayegbaju Modern International Market, that

I have not seen anywhere in this country before.

The Ayegbaju market, apart from the massive size of land it occupies in Station road Oshogbo, has facilities like Hotels, Medical Centre, Banks, a Mosque, Church, Filling Station, and Car Park etc. It will be a miracle of the century if Senator Iyiola Omisore, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun 2014 Governorship election wins the race on August 9th 2014?The phase two of the market is presently being constructed.

With what I witnessed on Tuesday July 7 th , 2014, in Ede, and what I have seen on the ground in terms of honest pragmatic implementation of formulated policies like OPON IMO (Tablet of knowledge) O meal, O’Schools, O’tours, O’Ambulance, reclassification of schools, Agba Osun (scheme for the elderly), O’Yes (Youth Employment Scheme), O’Reap etc, Ogbeni Aregbesola will clinch the baton of re-election on August 9th, 2014, in the State of Osun.

Apart from Ede, the tumultuous crowds that normally trooped out to welcome Ogbeni wherever he goes on a campaign tour, is an indication that the man is the tribune of the silent majority in the state of Osun.

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