Nigerian observer 17 12 2013

The Nigerian

PUBLISHED SINCE MAY 29, 1968 • Vol. 38 • NO. 377 • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 20 13 • N100. 0 0 NUTRITIONAL HEALTH & DIETETICS Page 14 Causes of Ill-Health and what to do

Oshiomhole swears-in Didi Adodo said: as Commissioner “letOshiomhole me welcome back BENIN CITY -

By ADAMS OSYIBOKE

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has sworn in Mr. Didi Adodo as the State Commissioner for Establishments and Special Duties.

Performing the ceremony in Benin City, yesterday, Oshiomhole said Adodo, who was f o r m e r l y Commissioner for

Special Duties (Labour) during his first tenure was reappointed based on his commitment and vision to reposition the state.

Comrade Didi Adodo to this Executive Council as a Commissioner responsible for Establishment and Continues on page 2

Agreement with FG

DRUMBEATS Page 14 People who lived focused lives ... their end results

ASUU holds NEC meeting MINNA - The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday convened a crucial National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to review its signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Government.

Our correspondent between ASUU and the gathered that the meeting Federal Government. has been scheduled to Last Wednesday, hold at the Federal President of the NLC, University of Technology, Abdulwahed Omar, the Minna, Niger State.

Minister of Education, Yesterday’s meeting is Nyesom Wike and on the heels of a peace Permanent Secretary of deal brokered by the the Ministry, MacJohn Nigeria Labour Congress Nwaobiala, among (NLC) on the impasse

others, witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The MoU had stated that

none of the striking lecturers would be victimised because of the strike.

The MoU, which

ASUU President, Nasir Fagge presented before the NEC members yesterday for further deliberation, includes agreement on the

N200billion deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the universities as Continues on page 2

Court orders police to exhume bodies of Ute 4

BENIN CITY - A Corona Court sitting in Benin City, presided over

by Mr. F. E. N. Igbinosa has ordered the Edo State Police Commissioner , Funso Adebanjo and the Nigeria Police Force, Edo State Command to exhume the bodies of four persons killed by the police on the controversial allegations that they were armed robbers and produce them immediately for examination by medical experts order than the

police pathologists to ascertain the actual cause of their death.

Handing down the judgment yesterday in Benin City, the Magistrate ordered that “Mr. Samuel Imaikop, 42 years, and the three unknown persons, extrajudicially killed by police from Edo State Command be exhumed for the purpose of examining the corpses to ascertain the cause of their death.”

Magistrate Igbinosa

TIT BIT “In today’s evil world; man is not even spared the thought of smuggling a gun to heaven’s gate and demanding a forceful entrance from the gatekeeper”.

- Kingsley-Ogbeide-Ihama

also ordered that medical experts other than the police pathologists to carry out the examination or be part of same.

Police Prosecutor, Inspector Adah John had appealed for more time to enable the police prepare for the case. His Continues on page 2

SWEARING-IN: Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State (right) congratulates Comrade Didi Adodo after being sworn-in as Commissioner for Establishments and Special Duties at Government House, Benin City, yesterday. Photo: CHARITY OZIGBO-ESERE.

2015 elections hold Jan-Feb - Jega

By JOSES SEDE

ABUJA - All things being equal, the next general elections would hold between January and February 2015, as against the traditional April month since the country’s return to civil (democratic) rule.

Making the disclosure yesterday while fielding questions from Senate panel chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega added that the elections would not hold

in areas affected by State of Emergency.

“It is my hope that the challenges in the North East will be resolved before 2015. If the security is such that we cannot do election, then

we may need to fall back on the law to suspend it or postpone it; INEC cannot continue to conduct elections under a period of emergency because same is brought about by generalized

insecurity.

The situation under a state of emergency is that you cannot do a free and fair election. Ideally, you cannot conduct election under a period of emergency,” Professor

Jega said”, he continued.

He further told the Sen. Andy Uba led Senate Committee on INEC, that the Commission was going to spend US$7.9 Continues on page 2

to pay homage to the Oba, was celebrated yesterday at the Oba’s palace, Benin City, with pomp and ceremony.

The event attracted top ranking Benin Chiefs and multitude of keen enthusiasts with Oba Erediauwa of Great

Benin Kingdom, presiding over the ceremony.

Chiefs present at the Continues on page 2

Pomp, as Chiefs pay homage to Oba Erediauwa

By RAYMOND OSOGBE

BENIN CITY - The Benin Royal Monarch, Oba Erediauwa’s much celebrated and applauded annual ceremony (Otue Igue Oba) all Chiefs come

News

Oshiomhole swears-in Didi Adodo as Continued from page 1 Commissioner in humour, absolutely loyal other Special Duties, and dedicated and totally “I am sure those of us who have worked with him will readily agree with me that we have lost a lot in

these few months of his not sitting by us and with us.

“He is a very warm, complete gentleman, rich

names were yet in the Continued from page 1 their register or not.

the Commission, established new policies to guide its work and embarked on far reaching of its activities through a Strategic Plan and a Election Project Plan; these are vigorously being executive”, he stressed.

He however noted that there were yet “a number of constraints and challenges facing the Commission”, adding, “for want of better characterization, I name them as insecurity, funding, attitude of the political class and an inactive citizenry”.

Meanwhile, the 25 political parties in Nigeria has canvassed government funding to the tune of at least, N1 billion per party as annual subvention, to enable them executive their election and general administration.

Speaking through Dr. Tanko Yinusa, chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) the political parties also canvassed setting up of Electoral Offences Commission and Electoral Mobile Courts to try cases on the spot.

especially NonGovernment Organisations and Civil Societies.

2015 elections hold Jan-Feb

(N1,264.00) per voter in the exercise and that the current Voters Register consists 73.5 million registered voters.

“Our estimate is that the cost of election per voter, which is an international standard for viewing the cost of elections, is coming down in Nigeria; we project that for the 2015 elections this would come further down by almost $1 - from $8.8 in 2011 to $7.9, representing almost a 10% drop”, he continued.

The INEC chairman also declared that in the forthcoming elections, there would be no “addendum” register besides the Electronic Register for voters, and urged all eligible voters to cross-check their names in the revised register that would be used for the 2015 elections.

To this end, Prof. Jega announced that in January 2014 (next month), INEC would launch an SMS service programme that would enable voters cross check their status, whether

On the election date, the INEC boss asserted that the elections could be conducted as early as January and as late as April of the same year but that in order to allow for adequate time to dispense with election petitions arising therefrom, the Commission hope to conduct the election in January or February 2015.

Earlier in his presentation on INEC preparations and challenges ahead of the 2015 General Elections, Prof. Jega assured the Stakeholders Forum, that INEC was “convinced that the prospects of having remarkably much better elections in 2015 are bright”.

“We can give the assurance that preparations

by INEC for the 2015 general election are proceeding in earnest; learning from the experiences of 2011, especially regarding the need for early preparations, the Commission has undertaken the task of fundamental restructuring of

plea was countered by Counsel to the Ute 4, Benjamin Iluobe Esqwho who noted that the police were duly and properly served notices of summons, but in their usual lackadaisical attitude comes arguing for delay of the hearing when it was human bodies which is subject to decomposition that was the matter before his Lordship.

Magistrate F. E. N. Igbinosa, however, upheld the plea of counsel to the applicants and ordered that the bodies of Ute 4 should immediately be exhumed, produced and examined.”

It will be recalled that Samuel Imaikop Brownson, and three others were killed by men of the Nigeria Police Force, Edo State Command, along with three of his labourers in Ute Community along the Benin bypass.

Counsel to the Applicants, Benjamin Iluobe in his reaction to newsmen yesterday described the judgment as a landmark judgment. “The order was a proper one because we are tired of the arrogant use of power by the Nigeria Police on citizens. They killed the Ute 4 in order to make the public believe that they are fighting crime. This is bad for a democratic society and a flagrant violation of the right to life, right to fair hearing of citizens.”

The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, a human right organisation in Benin has hailed the judgment of the

Corona Court and described it as “a big victory for the human right community in Edo State in particular and Nigeria in general.”

“We have been advocating for the stoppage of extrajudicial killings and impunity of the Nigeria Police Force. It was confirmed in court that the police did not even obtain the necessary documentations to bury the so-called suspects, yet they hurriedly buried the Ute 4,” says ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor.

“We condemn the crude deployment of lethal weapons for killing crime suspects in

Court orders police to exhume bodies Nigeria. From the video clips Continued from page 1 of Ute 4 of the police to the public, the suspects should have been apprehended alive and taken to court because there was nothing shown to justify their killing by the police. When you take them to court, the law will then take its full course on them. But now that they have been killed, they cannot come back to give their own side of the story told by the police.”

Ugolor asserted.

“We urge Nigerians to join the struggle to sanitise the Nigeria Police, because if it does not concern you today, it will concern you tomorrow when your household, friend or relation is affected,” Ugolor said.

committed to our shared vision to reposition this great state and take it to the next level.

“Didi is one fellow that I can write his testimonial in the sense that we both come from the Trade Union Movement and having him back is like having your partner back.

“I also believe by assigning him to Establishments, the avoidable gap in communication between government and trade unions and the central labour organisations in the state and outside the state will now be a thing of the past and there will be more effective liaison and a coordinated attempt to issues as they arise,” he said.

The Governor also expressed belief that the new commissioner will be at home with the civil society movement and other non-governmental organisations, adding that Adodo has been part of the largest non-governmental organisation which the Nigeria Labour Movement represents.

The Governor said: “Didi I want to congratulate you.

I regret the delay in your coming back, but as they say, the time you wake up is your morning hours.

“I need not reassure you of my readiness to cooperate and collaborate with you and we will do everything we can to ensure that your membership of the Executive Council will enrich the people of the state”.

Responding, Comrade Adodo thanked the Governor for the confidence reposed in him.

Pomp, as Chiefs pay homage to Oba in one of such festivals as Continued from page 1 Erediauwa Ugieoba. ceremony were called one at a time to pay due homage to Africa’s greatest monarch to reaffirm unflinching loyalty and after this, each of the chiefs in the spirit of the renewed covenant were then presented with a kolanut as a token of appreciation by the monarch.

At the end of the ceremony, musical bands situated at the palace grounds started to entertain the enthusiastic audience, just as subsidized assorted drinks were offered by various companies who were on hand to take advantage of the ceremony.

It is usual that once the festival begins, it’s celebration galore at the Oba’s palace, Benin City.

Meanwhile, today is Igue Oba also holding at the great Benin Monarch’s palace, by 3pm.

It is of essence to reflect here that, today’s event is strictly an indoor affair of the Oba of Benin social cultural heritage that astounded British Imperialist and is reflected and re-enacted

Meanwhile, though many precolonial Kingdoms are no longer heard of, anymore, great Benin Kingdom continuously remain an issue of topical global interest.

Edo 2014 budget scales second reading

By KEN ABU BENIN CITY - The Edo 2014 Appropriation Bill on Monday in Benin scaled the second reading in the State House of Assembly.

Mr Philip Shaibu, (APC Estako West) who led the debate on the bill, said the budget was targeted at completing all ongoing projects in the state.

“The budget is aimed at opening up the state’s economy for rapid socioeconomic development.

“The objective of the budget is also to create an enabling environment for the private sector.

“The budget would also provide qualitative and affordable education and health care delivery services, ‘’ he said.

Shaibu, who is the Majority Leader of the House, urged the assembly men to support the bill, to sustain the developmental strides achieved in the state.

Mr Paul Ohonbamu (APC Egor) said the essence of a

budget was to create a road map for any government.

Ohonbamu said that the 2014 budget, as presented by the Governor, showed that the state government was ready for development.

“The budget was designed in such a way that all areas were covered and it is all encompassing,’’ he said.

Other members supported the bill.

The Speaker, Mr Uyi Igbe, said that the budget, if passed, would enable the government to complete all ongoing projects in the state.

Igbe directed the bill to the House Committee on Appropriation and Project Monitoring with a mandate to report back to the house by the second week of January 2014.

Reports say that Gov. Adams Oshiomhole on Dec.11 presented the budget to the house for consideration.

Be serious with your academics, Odubu urges children

By CLIFFORD AGBAJOR BENIN CITY – Wife of Edo State Deputy Governor, Deaconess Endurance Odubu has stressed the need for children to be serious about their academic activities to enable then achieve greater heights in life.

She made the remark at a get-together for children drawn from several orphanages organized by wives of the members of Edo State House of Assembly, which took place in Benin City, on Sunday.

Deaconess Odubu emphasized the need for the

children from the various orphanages to fear God and keep His Commandments, just as she stressed the need for the children to lay a solid foundation that would guarantee a better future for them.

The wife of the Deputy Governor thanked the organizers of the children’s party for making it a yearly tradition to give the children a sense of belonging.

Wife of the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Mrs. Jennifer Igbe said the party was organized for the children in line with the spirit of Christmas season.

Transformer repairs: Ugbiyogho

landlords laud BEDC

BENIN CITY – Landlords and tenants in Ugbiyogho using the Blessed transformer has commended the prompt response of the Evbotubu District office of Benin City Electricity Distribution Company, (BEDC) for the prompt repairs on their faulty transformer within one week.

A delegation of the community led by Mr. Jerry Alegbe commended Engr.

Fola Jinadu, the Business Manager and the service Engineer, Mr. Chiaka Leonard for their initiative to the people to reciprocate this by the prompt payment of

outstanding bills.

The Business Manager appealed to consumers to see the New Benin-City electricity Distribution Company, (BEDC) as partners in progress.

He appealed to consumers to see BEDC property as theirs adding that they should protect them.

He told the consumers to report any staff who extorts money to his office. The leader of the delegation Jerry Alegbe told the BEDC to establish a community relationship department to liaise consumers with (BEDC).

ASUU holds NEC meeting Continued from page 1 intervention fund. Details of the deliberations was unknown as at Press time yesterday.

On Saturday, Professor Ike Odimegwu, Chairman of ASUU Chapter, Nnamdi Azikwe University, told newsmen that the Union

stands by its promise to make public its decision on or before Wednesday, December 18, 2013.

“You know we reached that agreement and signed it 6pm last Wednesday (December 11), he said.

“After that, we promised Nigerians that we will

communicate our decision within a week.”

“What that means is, there is still ample time to do so until 6pm of next Wednesday. The people should not be agitated.

On our part, we are ready to effect our side of the deal, so no cause for alarm.”

The Union action which clocks 169 days today,

brought academic activities on campuses nationwide to its knees .

Their action was a response to Federal Government’s failure to implement the 2009 pact both parties reached.

The strike is expected to be called off today as Nigerians await the outcome of ASUU NEC meeting.

Inside Edo Road Rehabilitation

Community Applauds Edo Govt, Appeals For More

By AUDU ADAMA

Rev. David Ugolor, (2nd left) Executive Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) with Mrs. Florence Igbinigie, President, Forum for Women in Politics (FONWIP) with others during the International Human Right Day 2013 at a rally in Benin City recently. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

Obasanjo’s Letter To President Goodluck Jonathan, Hypocritical - Clergy

BY RICHARD EWEKA BENIN CITY – A former National chairman of the Youth Wing of Christian Association of Nigeria and the Patron of Association of Gospel Minister for True Leadership (AGMTL), Benin City, Dr. Dele Oluwatade said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan is hypocritical.

Dr. Oluwatade disclosed this in Benin City in a lecture titled: “Protect Your Life.”

While he delivered as part of activities to mark the end of year programme/Luncheon of

AGMTL. He queried the tone of the letter, saying that Obasanjo who contributed to the problems the nation is presently contending with has no moral right to probe into the issues contained in the letter.

He declared: “Many of the problems we face today as a nation are part of the issues Obasanjo handed over; he has succeeded in publishing his wrong doings over the years.”

“At his age, he ought to keep quiet, observe and talk with respect, not through the media.

“He should have called the

President and spoken to him privately or use the Council of State which is made up of former president to address the issue rather than heating up the political atmosphere with such a letter.”

“This letter would either destroy the political relevance of Jonathan or Obasanjo,” he concluded.

National co-ordinator of AGMTL, Pastor J. Otezi Edovie in his remarks disclosed that the goal of the association is to promote good governance and exemplary leadership.

Inspite of numerous challenges, he said they have

commenced the process of registering AGMTL with relevant government agencies with a view to making it have legal status.

commissioner in his remarks appreciated the Elawure, leaders and chiefs of the community for providing the enabling environment for

their children in diaspora to assist the government.

He promised that the equipments would be put to judicious use.

LG Boss Commissions Projects

BY AUDU ADAMA AUCHI - The people of Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State have been assured that the footsteps of Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole would be followed in delivering Dividends of Democracy to the nooks and crannies of the

Usen Indigenes In Diaspora Donate Medical Equipment To Govt Hospital USEN – Edo State government has taken delivery of medical equipments donated by indigenes of Usen Community resident in the United States of America (USA) The medical equipments, including wheel chairs, and drip-hangers which are meant for the Usen General Hospital, Usen, Ovia South West Local Government Area were received by the Iguobazuwa Zonal Medical Director, Dr. Aghedo on behalf of the state commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Aihanuwa Eregie.

Presenting the items, a representative of the Eson of Usen, His Royal Highness, Oluogbe II, the Elawure of Usen noted the indigenes, in 2008 committed about N4.5 million for the renovation of the female ward of the hospital.

He said it was their own way

of complementing state government efforts in repositioning the health sector in the state.

The representative of the

BENIN CITY - The Edo State Government has been commended for regrading and reasphalting.

The Ikhin/Urhue axis of the Otuo / Arokho / Ikhin / Urue road which before now had been in deplorable condition.

The commendation was made by the Ogie 1 of Ikhin clan, HRH, Thomas Ola Okpede in a chat with The Nigerian OBSERVER at his Palace in Ikhin, Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State.

Ola Okpede however enjoined the state government to do same to the Otuo / Arokho/ Ikhin axis of the road to enable his people have easy access to their administrative headquarters in Afuze While thanking the State Government for providing a block of three classrooms at Ekpenga Primary School, Ikhin, the Royal father however enjoined the state government to carry out general renovation on the School Hall and Science Laboratory at Ikhin Mixed Secondary School Ikhin which he alleged was engulfed by inferno in 2007.

While acknowledging that though the European Union had

provided a solar energy – powered borehole for part of his community, he expressed worry that the water project does not extend to his entire domain and therefore prayed the state government to provide an additional water borehole for his people In a related development, the Owan East Local Government Chairman, Hon. Barrister Jimah Ijegbai has been commended for constructing a block of three classrooms in Ekpenga Primary school, Ikhin.

The royal father however appealed to the council boss to fulfill his promise to renovate the remaining dilapidated blocks of classrooms in the school premises.

Ola Akpede also appealed to Hon. Ijegbai to grade and asphalt the market road and Ukpe Street, both in Ikhin The Clan Head enjoined the Council Boss to build a Town Hall, Market Stalls along with Conveniences in Ikhin Community.

On behalf of Ikhin Community, he assured the two tiers of government in the state of their continuous support and loyalty.

He promised to continually partner with them in the area of development.

locality.

The chairman, Etsako West Local Government Area, Hon. (Barrister) Hassan kadiri made the disclosure in his address before commissioning the new Chairman’s office building, office building for Etsako West Local Government Traditional Council and the renovated Engineering Workshop at the local Government Secretariat Complex, Auchi.

He stressed that after undertaking a careful study of the entire Secretariat premises, he discovered that there abound a lot of abandoned and uncompleted projects that are people

Indigenes of Usen Community in Diaspora presenting m e d i c a l equipments to Edo State government for transmission to Usen general hospital

oriented.

Consequently, he said he promised not only their completion but also to complete those he already initiated and those yet to be initiated based on available resources.

While appreciating the contractors for executing the commissioned projects according to specifications, the local government boss disclosed that within a short term in office, he has executed at least two projects each in all the 12 wards in the locality.

He promised that at the end of his tenure, Etsako West would be a role model in the comity of Local Government, not only in Edo State, but also in Nigeria.

Hon. Kadiri appealed to security operatives in the locality to be red alert in view of the spate of kidnappings and other security challenges that are being experienced across the globe and to ensure a crime – free yuletide in the area.

He also appealed to youths and community leaders in the locality to secure government property in their domain.

The council boss told the people that the projects being commissioned were initiated by past administration and thanked and charged those that have been supporting his administration to equally support the state government as well as the All Peoples Congress (The APC) in order to make for a better Nigeria.

Across The Nation Egor LG Boss Distributes School EGOR – The Chairman, Uniforms To Pupils Egor Local Government Council, Hon. Victor Enobakhare has commenced the second phase of distribution of free uniform to primary school pupils in all the public primary schools in the locality.

Speaking at Olua Primary School where he commenced yesterday’s distribution, he said the gesture was part of the local government efforts to complement the state governments policy of bequeathing a legacy of sound education to children in the locality.

He revealed that some teachers during the first phase engaged in sharp practices by selling the free uniform provided by the local government authority to

primary school pupils and therefore appealed to heads of schools to avail themselves the opportunity by personally distributing the uniform to the intended beneficiaries.

The council boss who led principal officers of the council for the distribution exercise which he described as eventful noted that the reality of the deprivation of majority of primary school pupils due to poverty accounted for the gesture.

He reiterated the local government commitment to giving a sense of belonging to the ‘growing child’ and enjoined the primary school heads to ensure that the less privileged pupils are given priority during the

distribution.

The schools that have so far benefited included Olua, Aghahowa, Iheya, Uselu and Estate Primary Schools.

In a separate interview the councillor representing ward 7, Hon. Sedrick Omoregbe Edogun thanked the council chairman for fulfilling his electioneering promises to the people.

In ward 10, the legislator, Hon. Michael Aigbekaen lauded the effort of the council chairman in ensuring that people in his locality get the benefit of good governance.

Hon. Aigbekaen said the council will in 2014 provide notebooks to the pupils.

healthcare delivery and development, but it is regrettable that this is not given priority in our country,” the NIMR directorgeneral said.

Ujah said one of the major ways to address the challenges of health system and improve human development was through health research, with the findings translated into policy.

“The various stages of research, basic, applied and operational researches will aid prevention and control of

diseases endemic in the country.

“Through research, it will be easier to discover the prevalence of communicable and noncommunicable diseases in the country,’’ he said.

The institute director-general, however, urged government at all levels to encourage and invest in health research to prevent and control the outbreak of diseases as well as aid healthcare development.

He also called on private organisations, public-spirited philanthropists and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to fund and support research as government alone could not solely fund it.

L-R: Dr. William Odion; Mrs. Obaghagie Q.E; Mr. Peter Odion Irumudomon (Aka Zonnes); Hon. Henry Irene, Secretary, Esan West Local Government Council; Mr. Oboye Julius and Mr. Matthew Osagiede, Commercial Services Manager of Bendel Newspapers Company Limited, Publishers of the Observer titles at the wedding ceremony of Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy Iyoha.

LAFIA- Mr Francis Udoma, the Nasarawa State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has cautioned

drivers against reckless driving during and after the yuletide festivities.

The commander gave the advice in an interview with

The marriage ceremony between former Miss Celestina Ibhade Okpere and Kennedy Aiziegbemhin Iyoha took place on December 7, 2013 at Efandion, Uromi.

Here, Sister of the groom (Kennedy), Mrs. Obaghagie Q.E. (left) congratulates the bride, Mrs. Celestina Iyoha at the ceremony.

NIMR DG Decries Poor Funding LAGOS- Prof. Innocent Ujah, Of Research the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) at Yaba, has decried the poor funding of research in the country.

Ujah told newsmen that it was regrettable that priority to research was very low in Nigeria compared to countries in the developed world.

He said health and science research was vital and also a driving engine for the development of any country.

“A lot of development and innovations originated from research. Health research drives

Clara Oshiomhole Foundation Organises Free Health Care BENIN CITY – The late Programme first Lady of Edo State, Mrs. Clara Oshiomhole Health Foundation for Maternal and Child care, in collaboration with the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Edo State chapter is organizing a one week free medical health care progreamme for members of the society.

A statement by the chairman of the foundation’s Board of

Trustees, Mr. Victor Eboigbe said medical personnel from different parts of the world would be avialbale to offer treatment in various ailment.

The statement indicated that, the one week programme would last from today till Sunday December 22, 2013 at the General Hospital, Okaigbe-Ewohimi, Esan South East Local Government Area of the state.

BENIN CITY - Friday Okonofua, a Programme Officer for Ford Foundation (West Africa), says Nigeria will continue to experience high women and children mortality rate unless government gives priority to the health sector.

Okonofua, who is a professor of Gynecology, said this in an interview with newsmen in Benin City.

He said the high women and children mortality rate in the country was mind-boggling and alarming.

“Nigeria has the highest child mortality and second highest women mortality rate in the world. Nearly one million children under the age five die every year in this country.

“For Nigeria to continue to record a million deaths of children under the age of five yearly is alarming.

“We have the primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare systems which are not working in harmony with one another, and the way it should,’’ the programme officer

FRSC Warns Motorists Against Reckless Driving

Health Expert Laments High Rate Of Women, Children Mortality said.

Okonofua explained that the preventive services like child immunisation were supposed to bridge the gap created by the disharmony.

“The funding that ensures that children in rural areas have access to basic health services is not available.

“The local government authorities that are in charge of primary healthcare are not working. They have almost abdicated this responsibility,’’ he said.

The professor of gynecology

said the only way to begin to address this anomaly was for government to give priority to the health sector.

“Information should be provided to parents and children on how to assess the right healthcare services and this is where the media comes to play a crucial role.

“For example also, studies have shown that most pregnant women especially in the rural areas don’t go to clinics but prefer to deliver at home. This is one of the things to correct,” he said.

newsmen in Lafia.

He said the advice became necessary to reduce accidents on the highways because the remaining period of the year was often characterised with festivities and increase in vehicular movement.

‘Motorists should desist from drinking alcohol, but if they must drink, they must not drive,’’ the sector commander said.

Udoma warned that violators of traffic laws during the remaining part of the year would be arrested and their cars impounded.

He said the command would organise series of activities to sensitise the public on traffic rules and regulations in the remaining part of the year.

Udoma also called on drivers to check their tyres and ensure that their vehicles were roadworthy before embarking on journeys.

He said most accidents were caused by drivers who disregarded speed limit regulations and indulged in reckless driving in order to make huge profits.

“We have commenced our end-of-year patrols on the highways to ensure that motorists observe traffic regulations,’’ Udoma said.

He also appealed to parents and guardians not to allow their children and wards below 18 years to drive vehicles in compliance with traffic rules and regulations.

Across The Nation 19 Die In Illela-Sokoto SOKOTO- The Chairman of Road Illela Local Government,

Yuletide Ogbemudia Greets Uwayoba Of Benin Kingdom BENIN CITY – The ProChancellor and Chairman of Council, University of Abuja, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia has extolled the virtues of the Uwayoba of Benin Kingdom, Chief Solomon Nosakhare Ogbewe as a courageous ally over the years.

Dr. Ogbemudia, who in his yuletide message noted with satisfaction the feat and contributions of the Benin Chief to the Kingdom, describing Chief Ogbewe as a dependable and valiant ally.

Dr. Ogbemudia’s message that was contained in an enclosed case reads: “Congratulation on your victorious, yet for a big battle ahead. I deem you a valiant ally. Merry Christmas and happy New Year 2014.”

It would be recalled that Dr. Ogbemudia’s annual message is exclusively reserved for selected personalities who have distinguished themselves in the society.

Chief Solomon Ogbewe

Chairman of the Adhoc Committee set up by Edo State Government to probe into the unauthorised trip abroad of officials of Orhionmwon Local Government Area, Barrister Osagie Obayuwana (middle) flanked by Hon. Peter Ekhator (left) and Hon. Andrew Egbadon both members of the Committee’s during inaugural meeting in Benin City. Photo: SOLOMON ENAIGBE

Rotarians Want Policy To Empower Physically Challenged Perons

ABUJA- The Rotary Club has called on the Federal Government to evole a policy that will enable physically challenged persons to become economically independent and stop begging.

Mr. Kanayo Chukwumezie, the Vice President of Asokoro chapter of the club in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), made the call , in Abuja, at a gathering of the Rotary Family.

Chukwumezie said that if they were adequately empowered economically, the physically challenged

would certainly avoid begging.

The vice president regretted that physically challenged persons were being neglected when they needed to be carried along and given a sense of belonging.

“Some of them (physically challenged) already have vocations, all they need is a little encouragement and support from the Federal Government, wealthy individuals and organisations to boost their trades.’’

Chukwumezie urged the government to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to identify the physically challenged for empowerment.

The vice president advised

Body Of Nigerian Killed In India Arrives clashing with Goa Police and ABUJA- The body of Mr Home locals.

Simeon Obodo, the 35-year-old Nigerian killed in Goa, India, on October 31, has arrived Nigeria and has been deposited in a mortuary in Port Harcourt.

A representative of the family, Mr Ejike Esinkonye, confirmed the arrival of the corpse in a telephone interview with newsmen in Abuja.

He said the corpse arrived the Port Harcourt International Airport at 7p.m on Saturday, via an Air France commercial flight.

Esinkoye said that some family members travelled to India to accompany the corpse home.

The family representative said that about N6.5 million was spent to fly the body to Nigeria, including funeral home and mortuary costs in India.

He said the family and the community members felt abandoned by the Indian and Nigerian government, claiming they had received no financial assistance till date.

Esinkoye was part of a delegation of the Ohaji Egbema community in Imo that met with the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri after Obodo was killed.

He appealed to the Federal Government to impress on the Indian government to respond to the family’s demands.

“Our brother is survived by an aged mother, wife and kids; who

Alhaji Garba Sabon-Gari, said the death toll in the accident at Gidan-Sandaga village, along Sokoto-Illela village, has now risen to 19.

Sabon-Gari disclosed this to newsmen in Sokoto on Sunday in a telephone interview.

Reports say that 13 people were earlier reported to have died in the Sunday mid-day accident which involved two articulated vehicles from Fura-Girke and Inwala villages.

The two vehicles, with

will take care of these responsibilities?’’ he queried.

He said the burial of Obodo had tentatively been fixed for December 28, in his community in Imo. It would be recalled that on November 25, Onwuliri had announced that the Federal Government would dispatch a high-level delegation to India to sign three agreements with the Indian government on the safety of all Nigerians in that country.

The agreements include the Mutual Legal Assistance, Extradition Treaty and Transfer of convicted persons.

However, newsmen learnt that both governments were still negotiating different clauses in the agreements.

Onwuliri, who had earlier described the death of the Nigerian as reprehensible, said the Indian government had tendered an apology to Nigeria on the incident.

She appealed for calm and restraint after youths of Ohaji Egbema community in Imo threatened reprisals against Indians working in oil companies in the community.

Obodo was murdered during a violent clash in Goa village, India.

Following his death, around 200 Nigerians protested by blocking a national highway and

Fifty-three of the protesting Nigerians were arrested and later released, after paying fees to secure their release.

physically challenged persons against begging, saying that they should rather take to various trades to enable them to earn a better living.

Chukwumezie said the club had donated 70 ante-natal kits to expectant mothers in Mpape this year, and decorated 85 women cleaners with new wrappers in the FCT for keeping the streets clean.

He said the club drilled three boreholes in Panada, Kobi and Kpaduma villages, while planning to build a library with computers in a school at Kobi and toilets in FCT schools.

He said that 47 rural women had benefitted from two club micro-credit projects in Kuje and Takuchra in the Abuja Municipal Area Council, and that they were all dong well.

Reports say that during the gathering, the club empowered 12 physically challenged persons with

N15,000 each to boost their various trades.

The President of the club, Mrs. Tonia Ibeneme, said that the effort was to encourage and support them so that they could expand their trades.

The beneficiaries are already engaged in trades, such as selling recharge cards, shoe-making, welding and hair addressing, among others.

One of the beneficiaries, who also got a wheelchair, Mrs Oby Nwosu, said that she was overwhelmed and prayed for the club.

Another beneficiary, Malam Sadiq Abdulrahman, a recharge card seller, thanked the club and urged other Nigerians to emulate its members.

Abdulrahman, who holds a diploma in computer science from UNIJOS, said that the gesture would boost his business, adding that he had been given a sense of belonging.

registration numbers LLA 22 XA and ABJ 801 XE, were going to Illela market when the accident occurred.

“Six more persons died some hours ago at the Illela General Hospital,’’ SabonGari said.

Reports say that 12 of those who lost their lives earlier died on the spot while one victim later died at the hospital.

Thirty-two others who were injured in the accident were rushed to the same hospital for treatment.

Sabon-Gari said the state government and the Illela local government had mobilised additional medical personnel who were assisting the hospital staff.

He said the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Sahabi Gada, had mobilised more medical doctors from Sokoto and Gada local governments in the same direction.

“He (Gada) is here himself, overseeing the emergency operations to save the lives of the remaining injured victims,” Sabon-Gari added.

Dr Kenneth Emordi, the Medical Director of the Illela General Hospital, had earlier told newsmen that the hospital staff were working round the clock to save the situation.

“We are trying to save the lives of the injured persons, although most of them are in a critical condition,” he said.

The Acting General Manager, Bendel Newspapers Company Limited (BNCL), Pastor Monday Aigbe (left) Guest Speaker, Pastor Oladepo Shola and AGM Finance, Mrs. Rhoda Akhanolu at The OBSERVER Fellowship Thanksgiving Service yesterday. Photo: OSADEBAMWEN SUNDAY.

EFCC Is Broke

Across The Nation NUJ Donates To Orphaneges

- Executive Sec

By JOSES SEDE ABUJA - Executive Secretary of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Mr. Emmanuel Aremu, yesterday, stunned Senate panel that the Commission is broke.

Speaking at the Public Hearing on A Bill for an Act to Establish the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency (NFIA) Bill 2013 by Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Economic Crimes, the EFCC scribe also disclosed that the Commission currently has less than N2 million at the bank.

According to the EFCC Executive Secretary, the problem of financial insolvency crippling the activities of the anti –graft outfit arose from non remittance of appropriated funds for the agency by the federal government over the months. “ I could recollect when the committee paid an oversight function, we did make our financial position known to the committee that as at now, EFCC does not have 2 million Naira in its accounts. We don’t have money.

“We have been complaining that no money has been released for us for operations. As at now, we don’t have up to 2 million Naira, If we can afford to pay salary this month, that is all.

That is the position under which we operate presently”, he disclosed.

EFCC kicked against the creation of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency on the grounds that in line with recognised best practices in United Kingdom, France and the United States of America, such agencies shoud remain a “secret” agency under an existing anticorruption agency.

EFCC’s presentation by its Executive Secretary, again faulted the “regulatory”

powers granted the proposed Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency.

He said the Financial Intelligence Agency if independent with enabling laws, will be exploited by corrupt persons to open a floodgate of injunctions, retraining orders and other litigation to stall anticorruption trials.

“The Bill is unnecessary and we should jettison it”; “FIU as intended by the Bill should not be exposed to the public as a separate body on its own. It should be kept at the background as it is in most climes of the world”, The EFCC’s Executive Secretary told the Senate panel.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) backed the establishment of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency with a condition that Section 6(g) of the proposed Bill be deleted.

CBN’s Director, Legal Services, Amusa Ogundana in relation to the contested Section 6(g) faulted the “supervisory” function provided for in the proposed Bill. He told the Senate panel that the Section was in breach of the Money Laundering Act. In separate submissions, other stakeholders, including the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC); National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP); National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and National Intelligence Agency (NIA) backed the creation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency.

A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief Amos Osunbor (left) presenting Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Prestigious award plaque to a former Vice Chancellor, Ambrose Alli University, Prof. Dennis Agbonlahor for breakthrough in Research on Lassa Fever eradication and DNA Testing during the Edo NUJ 2013 Press Week in Benin City. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

The Primary School chairs and desks presented to Urhonigbe Primary Schools

by Hon. Friday Ogierhiakhi, member representing Orhionmwon South Constituency Edo State House of Assembly recently. Photo: GODWIN ISEGUAN.

Tarok Community Holds Carnival For Late Lar LANGTANG (PLATEAU STATE) - The people of Tarok in Langtang, Plateau have staged a carnival to celebrate the life and times of the late Chief Solomon Lar.

Lar, who held the traditional title of Walin Langtang, died in the U.S. on October 9 at 85 years.

The people trouped to the Langtang Stadium singing and dancing in honour of the

Collective Embarassment (OYO To All Religions - Minister Abdur-

Boko Haram:

OGBOMOSO STATE) - Sheikh Rahman Ahmad, the National Missioner, Ansar-ud-deen Society (ADS), has declared the Boko Haram insurgency a collective embarrassment to all faiths in the country.

Ahmad, who spoke with newsmen, in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, said the group represented no religious interest, adding that their objective had yet to be known.

He said that it was difficult to know in whose interest they were fighting as they had attacked all faiths.

ZARIA (KADUNA STATE) - The Kaduna State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has donated food worth thousands of naira to two Zaria based orphanages.

The beneficiaries were the State Government Orphanage and the Beth-Torry Home in Zaria.

Chairman of the Union, Alhaji Yusuf Idris, said the gesture was to give the orphans a sense of belonging. idris, represented by his deputy, Malam Isma’il Onipidan, said the donation was part of activities to mark the union’s Press Week.

“These items are for the benefit of the children/inmates of these orphanages.

“As journalists, we believe that we should not only gather and disseminate information, but also assist in whichever way we can.

“The council holds its press week annually and goes to orphanages to make donations”, he said.

The chairman said his council had facilitated the release of 10 prison inmates as part of the activities marking the week.

He, therefore, called on the management’s of the homes to make judicious use of the items donated.

The Officer-in-Charge and the Matron of the homes, Malam Kabir Is’haq and Mrs. Ruth Andrew respectively, thanked the union for the concern and urged it to sustain the tempo.

They described the gesture as a clear indication of interest in the orphans and inmates, recalling that the council had extended a similar gesture to both homes two years ago.

The officials assured the council that all the items donated would be used judiciously for the good of the beneficiaries.

Reports also that items donated included rice, spaghetti, detergents, sugar, cooking oil and noodles, among others.

“I state unequivocally that Islam is different from Boko Haram. We don’t know who they are, their sponsors and why they are killing people.

“They ought not to be killing Muslim scholars, if truly they are fighting in the interest of Islam,” Ahmad said.

He described the group’s action as anti-Islam, and ungodly, noting that Islam is a religion which appreciates knowledge and research.

“The Muslims were the frontrunners in scientific education

before the industrial revolution and would not have negated education.

“In this regard, the ADS and other notable Islamic organisations had contributed immensely to the nation’s educational development,” the missioner said.

Speaking on the use of hijab, Ahmad said that the Muslim community had designed one that was moderate for use in schools.

He stressed that everyone was entitled to his or her religious conviction.

deceased whose remains were interred on Friday.

Cultural troupes from the communities added colour to the occasion.

Many said the man, popularly called the Emancipator, was a leader, father and mentor who lived a good and fulfilled life.

Women and children were all in dancing mood while some were in tears eulogising the deceased.

Others smiled over the demise of the man they fondly called “Baba.”

The troupes displayed colourful traditional attires with delicate and intricate dance steps to give the occasion heightened impetus.

Prof Mary Lar, widow to the deceased, was heralded into the venue with thunderous shouts of “mama oyoyo, mama oyoyo“ as celebrants rushed to her car to welcome her.

Mary, who initially succumbed to sobbing, however, said her family was grateful to God and the people for the show of love and emotion over the passage of her life partner, Solomon.

“We only pray that God will keep all the Langtang nation, Plateau people and all Nigerians united for growth and development in line with the aspiration of my husband”, she said.

Retired Gen. Jeremiah Useni who hails from Langtang, told newsmen that the traditional and cultural displays were in order because Lar was an illustrious son of the land.

“When you are remembering a successful man who lived a fulfilled life here on earth, you don’t mourn, rather you celebrate.

“Gone are the days when we in Tarok land used to cry and mourn a day after burying our

dead.

“These days, we troop out in traditional and cultural dances to give thanks to the Almighty God. “You can see how happy the people of Langtang are for the achievements made by the late Lar. “He brought so much transformation into the lives of many in Plateau communities and Nigeria as a country”, he said.

He said that Lar made the Langtang people proud. “Why won’t we celebrate him? Yes we have lost him and won’t see him again, but he put smiles in virtually all faces in Nigeria.”

Reports say that it was fun all through the gathering at the stadium with eating and drinking for more energy to dance.

Lar was the first civilian Governor of Plateau and the first National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

News C’ttee Probing Orhionmwon LG Officials Begins Sitting

Engage More Youths In ICT, Expert urges State Govts

By ESTHER JOSEPH/ RUTH ATSEGOR BENIN CITY – The Committee set up by Edo State government to probe the alleged unauthorised trip abroad by the principal officers of Orhionmwon Local Government Council commenced sitting yesterday.

Chairman of the committee, Barrister Osagie Obayuwana told the officials that the committee is on a fact-finding assignment.

According to him; “This committee is not set up to witch hunt anybody but to find out the truth on the trip and to ascertain the whole circumstances surrounding the issue.

I urge you all to co-operate with the committee in all aspect and to tell the committee only the truth so as to ascertain the allegation”, he said.

Members of the committee are Hon. Osagie Obayuwana (chairman), Revd Solomon Ohonba (secretary), Hon. Peter Ekhator and Hon. Andrew Egbadon.

Chairman of the Adhoc Committee set up by Edo State Government to probe into the unauthorised trip abroad by officials of Orhionmwon Local Government Area, Barrister Osagie Obayuwana (middle) flanked

by Hon. Peter Ekhator (left) and Hon. Andrew Egbadon members of the committee during the committee’s inaugural meeting in Benin City. Photo: SOLOMON ENAIGBE.

Court Fixes Jan 22 For Arraignment Of Doyin Abiola, Others LAGOS - A Federal High Court in Lagos fixed January 22, 2014 for arraignment of Doyin Abiola and three others, over an alleged misappropriation of over N500 million.

Doyin, one of the wives of the Chief M.K.O. Abiola, and three other directors of the defunct Integrated Micro Finance Bank, are facing a five-count charge of misappropriation of funds and granting credit facilities to themselves without collateral.

Other defendants in the case are the Managing Director of the bank, Akinteye Ademola, Jerry

Orimovuohoma and Oladapo Bello, who were directors of the bank between 2006 and 2008.

Reports said that the matter which was in court for the second time was stalled, following the absence of Abiola and the two other directors.

At the last adjourned date on November 15, only the first accused, Ademola, was present in

EDP, Novartis Hold Health Seminar Tomorrow

BENIN CITY – The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), yesterday donated assorted Relief materials to victims of rain storm disaster that affected Seven Local Government Areas of Edo State.

The move is part of efforts to complement the state government’s efforts at providing succour to the victims.

The seven local government areas included, Etsako west, East and Central, Esan West, Esan South East, Owan East and Ovia North East Local Government Areas.

Receiving the Relief Materials from the South South Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Emenike Umesi, on behalf of the state government for transmission to the local governments, the state commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Blessing Maigida expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for complementing the state government efforts as well as the prompt response at cushioning the effects of the natural disaster on the victims.

Hon Maigida expressed confidence that the relief materials would go a long way

BENIN CITY – The Edo State Essential Drugs PROGRAMME (EDP), Ministry of Health, Benin City in collaboration with Novartis Pharma Services is organizing a one day seminar for Health Care Providers, tomorrow, December 18, 2013 at Bishop Kelly Pastoral Centre, Airport Road, Benin City.

A statement issued by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Peter Ugbodaga said that the programme will feature lectures on Managing Hypertension Beyond Blood Pressure Control and Hospital Administration and Management.

He called on all health workers from both public and private health facilities to endeavour to attend the event which will be chaired by Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Aihanuwa Eregie.

court for his arraignment.

This prompted the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, to adjourn the case, to enable the prosecution to produce the remaining accused in court.

When the case was mentioned again on Tuesday, the Prosecutor, Mr Ernest Ezebilo, from the Federal Ministry of Justice, informed the court that the three

others were still absent.

The judge, therefore, ordered hearing notices to be served on them and adjourned the case to January 22 for their arraignment.

Reports say that the accused were charged before the court, over alleged misappropriation of over N500 million, property of the bank.

The accused were alleged to

NEMA Donates To Edo Rainstorm however called on

By FUNMI BABATOPE Victims commissioner other spirited individuals and in providing relief to the victims which include several bundles of roofing sheets, mattresses, building materials, Mosquito treated nets, bags of cement, bags of Rice, Cartons of detergent, mats and cartons of beverages.

She however promised to ensure that the materials are equitably distributed to the seven local government areas. The

philanthropic organizations to emulate the gesture of NEMA by being their brothers keeper at all times.

The presentation ceremony was witnessed by the permanent Secretary in the Ministry Barr.

Augustine Ekhuamenkhun, Esq; Director, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Andy Osigbeme and other state government officials.

have granted credit facilities to themselves and associated companies to the tune of N327, 566, 000.

It was also alleged that Akinteye, while MD of the bank, directed one Adewale Ayoade, the head of the bank’s treasury to withdraw N131.176 million, which the accused converted to his personal use.

According to the charge, Abiola, Orimovuohoma and Bello, while being directors of the bank, also recklessly granted credit facilities in the sum of N27 million, N26 million and N3.2 million, respectively to themselves.

The offence is said to have contravened the provisions of Section 19(1) (d), 20(1)(a), and Section 23(4) of the Failed Banks(Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act (as amended), 2004.

Also the alleged infraction contravenes the provisions of Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, 2004.

LAGOS - An expert on Information Communication Technology (ICT), Mr Adeolu Badejo, has advised state governments to engage more youths in ICT-related programmes to empower them economically.

Badejo, the Chief Executive Officer of Global Communications Ltd, told newsmen in Lagos that such programmes should not be left to the Federal Government alone.

The expert said that he was worried that the average Nigerian youths could not compete favourably with their counterparts in other parts of the world due to the lack of appropriate ICT skills.

He, therefore, urged the state and local governments to design ICT programmes that would encourage youths to be innovative and creative through the acquisition of such skills.

Badejo said that the acquisition of such skills by the young Nigerians would promote the image of the country.

“How can we compete with the rest of the world when we neglect our youths, when they engage in social vices and fraudulent activities such as cyber crimes?

“Yet, we are clamouring to become one of the 20 developed countries by 2020, but we are not developing our human capacity towards that goal.”

Badejo said the dream of Vision 20:2020 was realisable if conscious efforts were made to build and unlock the innovation capabilities of the youths.

“Nigerian youths are blessed with talents, but we need to help them discover their talents through training and empowerment.

“The issue of insecurity in the northern part of the country may be put to rest if the local councils could develop the minds of the youths at the grassroots.”

Badejo advised governments to introduce ICT competition to harness the potential of young and intelligent youths in the rural and urban centres.

LAUNCH OF EMBLEM: L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan; former President Shehu Shagari and the former head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan arriving for the launch of the Emblem for the 2014 Armed Forces Rememberance Day Celebration in Abuja yesterday.

Business + Economy AFAN To Provide Tractors To Large Scale Farmers SOKOTO - The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Sokoto State chapter, said it had

concluded plans to start giving tractors to large-scale farmers in the state as loans.

Loan refers to an amount of money given to somebody on the condition that it will be paid back later or to allow somebody to

borrow something on the condition that it is returned, or the act of letting somebody use something temporarily.

The Chairman of the association, Alhaji Murtala Gagado, made the disclosure in a telephone interview with newsmen in Sokoto.

Lawmaker Donates To Physically Challenged DUTSE - Alhaji Adamu Sada, a member representing Dutse Constituency in Jigawa House of Assembly, has donated an 18seater Peugeot bus to people with disabilities in the state.

Sada, who was on wheel chair while presenting the bus, said the gesture was to ease the peoples’ movement.

He said “the bus donation will ease the movement of my brothers and sisters that were living with disabilities like me.’’

The lawmaker said movement was one of the greatest challenges of such group of persons, adding that the bus would enable them to move freely within and outside

the state.

He added that “I will continue to be the voice of people with disabilities in the Assembly and will always be ready to champion our course.’’

He said he had earlier donated 30 wheel chairs to students with disabilities in the state to ease their movement to school.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Joint Association of Persons Living With Disabilities, Malam Usman Mohammed, thanked the legislator for the donation.

He said the lawmaker was helpful to his members since his election to the House and urged others to emulate him.

Jigawa Sponsors 240 Varsity Staff For Post Graduate Degrees

Chairman, Egor Local Government Council, Edo State, Hon. Victor Osayande Enobakhare (left) giving out Free School Uniforms to Primary School Pupils in the locality.

DUTSE - The Jigawa government said it had sponsored 240 academic staff of the newly established state university in Kafin-Hausa to undergo masters degree in various courses.

The Commissioner for

NDE Trains 1,000 Youths, Women UYO - The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says it has trained 1,300 youths and women in Akwa Ibom in 10 marketable skills and businesses this year.

The NDE Coordinator in the state, Mrs Patience Osunkwo, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Uyo. Osunkwo told newsmen that 200 of the youths were trained in different agro-allied businesses.

She explained that the trainees for the agro-allied programme were given one month theoretical training, and later posted to some private farms in the state for practical knowledge.

She said others were trained in trades such as welding and fabrication, plumbing, catering, hairdressing, computer repairs and mobile phone repairs.

“We also trained people in outboard engine maintenance,

video production, photography and cane chair production,” she said.

The coordinator also said that each of the beneficiaries underwent the training programme for six months, and was paid a monthly stipend of N5,000.

She noted that each of the five graduates trained in small-scale enterprises was given N600,000 loan to start a business at the end of the training.

Osunkwo said the graduates who engaged themselves in oil palm processing, poultry farming and fish production were given a six-month period of grace before repayment.

The NDE official said the directorate, in collaboration with two members of the National Assembly from the state, also trained 200 youths and women in skill acquisition.

Purchase Of Tricycles

Sokoto Earmarks N90m SOKOTO - Alhaji Abdullahi Abubakar, the Sokoto State Commissioner for Special Duties, said the state government had earmarked N90 million for the purchase of 300 tricycles, popularly known as Keke NAPEP. Abubakar told newsmen on telephone in Sokoto that the tricycles would be given to unemployed youths in the 23 local government areas of the state.

He said that beneficiaries of the tricycles, which would be given on loan basis, were expected to pay a total of N300,000 for each tricycle.

He added that the beneficiaries

would pay in installments, which would be worked out by the state government “as it is an interestfree loan.’’

The commissioner said “the gesture is part of the sustained state government’s initiatives to further alleviate poverty in the state.

“It is aimed at empowering the youths, as the tricycles will be given out on loan basis to them.’’

Abubakar added that the tricycles would go a long way in reducing transportation problem in Sokoto city and its environ.

The state government would continue to initiate and implement policies that would further improve the living standards of the people, he said.

She gave the names of the legislators as Sen. Alloysius Etok, representing Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district and Mr Robbinson Uwak, representing Oron Federal

Constituency in the House of Representatives.

She urged other individuals and organisations in the state to join hands with NDE in training the youths and providing starter

packs for them to start business.

She said “we need to resettle these trained youths so that they will become useful to themselves and employ others; we have so many of them in our data bank.

Hon. Philip Shaibu, Majority leader, Edo State House of Assembly (Centre), cutting the tape flanked by Hon. Friday Ogiehiakhi, member representing Orhionmwon South Constituency, Edo State House of Assembly and Comrade Godwin Erhahon, EDO APC Publicity Secretary as he Commissions the 300KVA transformer for Urhonigbe Township Street light by Executive by the lawmaker, Hon. Friday Ogierhiakhi at Urhiongbe recently.

Photo: GODWIN ISEGUAN.

Education, Prof. Haruna Wakili, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Dutse.

He said the move was aimed at starting the school on a sound foundation, with qualified lecturers in all the courses it would be running.

He added that 80 of the university staff were sponsored for PhD courses, while 160 of them were for masters programmes.

Wakili said the programme, which would be conducted in batches, would be completed in the next three years, pointing out that the step would also facilitate the accreditation of courses in the school.

The university had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanta University of Egypt in the area of staff development and joint research, he announced.

According to him, the collaboration will also include design, construction and staff exchange, among others.

The commissioner said Prof. Mohammed Dabaon, the Vice President of the Egyptian university and Chairman of a visiting team had visited the university and inspected its facilities.

Ex-Nigeria Airways Employees Protest Non Payment Of Entitlements KANO - Some former employees of Nigeria Airways in Kano have staged a peaceful protest over non-payment of their entitlements for 20 years.

The protesters, who thronged their former office on Bank Road in Kano at about 2p.m., carried placards with inscriptions as: “pay us our entitlements”, “we are dying.”

The National Vice Chairman, Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Airways Branch, Alhaji

Mohammed Adamu, said the protest was informed by the failure of the Government to pay their entitlements.

According to him, over 900 of their members have so died of frustration while a number of them are still battling with one sickness or the other at home.

“As I am talking to you now, many of us cannot feed our families while our children have been sent home from schools

due to our inability to pay their fees.

“If government liquidates an airline, it has to pay 25 years entitlement to all the disengaged workers; it is the law of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

“But in our own case, we were only paid five years of the entitlement while our colleagues abroad have since been paid”, Adamu said.

He said most of them had served the nation for many years but the payment of the entitlement had now become a problem despite earlier promises by the Ministry of Aviation.

He, therefore, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the matter.

“When we took the matter to court, we were asked to withdraw the case with the hope that the money would be paid”, he added.

Issues

Curbing Corruption Among Nigerian Leaders CORRUPTION in high places has been a major factor impeding Nigeria’s economic development since we got our Independence.

This cankerworm has eaten so deep that one continues to wonder if it will ever come to an end.

Nigeria is a corrupt country.

Corruption may never end.

All efforts by the government so far to fight corruption, seem to be an illusion.

Fighting corruption is one of the most urgent tasks facing Nigeria today. The core issue before our President and every Nigerian Citizen is to confront how to significantly reduce corruption.

It is only an exemplary leadership that can significantly reduce corruption in Nigerian.

Without a great leader, Nigeria will continue to wallow in corruption. ‘’Corruption cannot be stopped from the bottom because those at the bottom often react to the impunity at the top. Only a leader with enormous discipline and restraint can solve Nigeria’s corruption problem. It is not the place of EFCC or ICPC, but the place of the number one leader in this country’’.

When Olusegun Obasanjo was President of Nigeria, he persistently impressed it upon Nigerians and the international community that the uniqueness of his administration lies in his single-minded commitment to fight corruption. According to him, “Nobody, nobody, I repeat nobody, is above the law. If you commit any criminal offence, I will not arrest you. The Inspector General of Police will do that’’.

He followed this up by setting up the national anticorruption commissions like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial

By FAMOUS IGUISI

Crimes Commission (EFCC) to fight corruption to its barest minimum.

But most unfortunately, the anticorruption stance of the past and present administrations has not yielded positive results.

Almost on a daily basis, we hear billions and now trillions of Naira either allocated or voted for roads rehabilitation or construction, but year in year out not one road has been rehabilitated; rather more and more are allocated.

The issue of corruption in Nigeria has become a societal malice. This is a classical case of a sign of a failed state, especially when people who arrogate to themselves the authority to lead, turn around to steal people’s common wealth Thank God President Jonathan has equally vowed that his administration will not shield any corrupt person from investigation or prosecution by the anti-graft agencies in the country.

He has promised that government would continue to support and encourage the EFCC and other anticorruption agencies to confront the monster of corruption more decisively and charged them to spare no culprit regardless of his status or position.

According to him, “We will give all the necessary support and encouragement to all the anticorruption agencies to vigorously enforce the enabling anti-corruption laws.

I urge these agencies to do their work fairly but firmly within the ambit of the law without regard to position or status. There shall be no sacred cow. This government will not protect any so-called sacred cow. The wheel of justice must run its full course in tackling anti-corruption cases”.

It is my expectation, that our President is concerned about the economic future of all Nigerians, including himself, such that instead of being distracted by uncertainties about his future, he is busy building the future for all Nigerians.

“All well-meaning Nigerians must, therefore, not only say no to corruption but also do something about it.

contribute to strengthening accountability and transparency in the public sector’’.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, once said that corruption in high places will continue to mar the nation’s development. He said that Nigeria has been governed in the past 30 years by “very unserious characters.”

According to him, “there is no record of how much the

was an item on it which says unspent funds. These are monies to be returned to the National Assembly at the end of the year and it was N21 billion.

“This is a budget of over N650 billion and you are returning N21 billion. What this means is that the budget must have performed over 95 per cent.

“The budget apparently performed about 30 to 40 per cent just like every other budget. I went to see the late President to tell him that I was not going to agree to this because where I come from; they will ask me about the money. “Within six weeks, N21 billion became N450 billion that was returned to the treasury’’.

Ibrahim Lamorde, EFCC Chairman

Every little effort counts; whistle blowing, vigilance in budget implementation and projects monitoring, calling public officers to account; all go a long way towards assisting the anti-corruption effort. The historic signing of the Freedom of Information Bill into Law in 2011 has provided citizens with a veritable instrument to

nation earns and spends’’. He recounted how the Ministry of Works brought a budget of N100 billion to spend and later discovered that N40 billion of that money was dedicated to roads already built and completed.

“A week after I became Speaker, the late President brought a budget to the National Assembly and there

“Therefore, it is critical for the EFCC and other financial Agencies to brace up and carry out their constitutional responsibility without fear or favor; stop the international community from accepting looted funds from government officials. Corruption in government must be nip in the bud if Nigeria must achieve its vision 2020:20.”

If this is true, then one would like to know what could have happened to the balances within the last 12 years of our Democracy.

Since corruption constitutes the greatest bane of all vices hunting Nigeria it is high time that National Assembly began to explore legislative intervention as well as constantly build workers’ capacity in order to enhance their wellbeing and productivity as well as facilitate industrial peace and harmony.

Until Nigeria changes and undergoes a reform, the future for Africa’s development is bleak since Nigeria represents a regional influential.

Greed in government officials is thriving in a way

we as a people do not and cannot approve of. It is heartbreaking to continue to hear of the unending craze among government officials to loot public fund without a blink of the eye or even considering the effect this could have on the people.

Most government officials and other public officers have created a tradition: “get to the scene, loot and disappear from the scene.” They do this without a genuine desire to serve. There is no doubt that there cannot be any meaningful economic development if government officials continue in their illicit looting activities.

We will definitely not go beyond being a developing nation, while other developing countries, especially in Asia, who had the same economic indices with Nigeria have all gone ahead; because they have a sense of purpose.

Therefore, the relevant anticorruption agencies, EFCC and others must step up their game. Nevertheless, I must give it to them for the several land mark achievements in this regard especially the indictment of the former speaker of the house of Representative and his deputy over a controversial loan scam. But there is need for them to do more. There should be no sacred cow in this fight. It requires courage and selfless service to be able to break the big head of corruption in Nigeria. I quite agree with former president Obasanjo’s comments recently in Geneva Switzerland when he accuses the EFCC and ICPC of ineffectiveness and inefficiency because the EFCC was supposed to have gotten him arrested the moment he left office and investigate his obscure dealings while in office. There are indeed a score of corrupt public officials who walk the streets freely today with impunity.

Therefore, it is critical for the EFCC and other financial Agencies to brace up and carry out their constitutional responsibility without fear or favor; stop the international community from accepting looted funds from government officials.

Corruption in government must be nip in the bud if Nigeria must achieve its vision 2020:20. Otherwise, I see an upsurge of the kind of revolution that is currently swiping across the Arab World in Nigeria very soon.

UNDOUBTEDLY, the recent ASUU and Federal Government’s tangle has made it absolutely necessary for urgent and long-lasting reforms in the education sector.

MORE than any other sector today, the education sector in Nigeria needs to be totally transformed to meet with the demands of the present global realities, bearing in mind, the imperative of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), anchored on the internet.

ONLY recently, the Federal Government said it had concluded plans to change the nation’s education policy of 9-3-4 system to a 1-6-3-3-4 education structure. The then Minister of education, Prof. Ruqquayat Rufa’i while announcing the imminent change, said the proposed structure would be a re-modification of the current 9-3-3-4 system which came into effect in 2009 when the old 6-3-3-4 system was dropped.

RUFA’I said the new move was sequel to the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force on Education, which President Goodluck Jonathan has already approved. The new system which is already proposed to the National Assembly is said to be planned to include exposure of five -year -old learners to one year of early childhood education before they proceed to the six-year primary education.

WE see the proposal of the federal government as unnecessary distraction of children of public school system who are already overburdened by several policy somersault and this move is not any different previous policy rigmarole. In any case, the system is not anything novel as it is already being practiced by the private school system where some children are enrolled in kindergarten classes at three or four. They run it full three years and move on to primary one when they are six. However, such children end up doing only five years primary education and move on to the junior secondary school and they do very well because of the background knowledge they are given from age 3 while blending with the school environment.

THE NIGERIAN

Transforming Nigeria’s Educational System NIGERIANS know too well that before this proposal, the nation’s educational system had gone through many modifications. In the late 70s and 80s, it was the 6-5-4 system that was in place.

It provided for six years in Primary school, five years in secondary and four years in the university. Another shift in policy later gave birth to the Higher School Certificate (HSC) which gave birth to another two-year stop gap of learning to pupils after secondary school, before they proceed to the university this time to spend three years. All these gave way for the 6-3-3-4 and later 9-3-4 system.

ORDINARILY, there is nothing wrong with a nation desiring a change for the better or best, but we condemn the frequency of change in the education sector which has left the sector worst for what it since the change episode started. It is a fact that Nigerian graduates of the 70s and 80s remain the best ever produced in the country and they remain reference point in our national history, the advent of technology in the late 80s and 90s notwithstanding.

RATHER than piecemeal changes, we will encourage the federal government to come up with a once -and -for -all change that can stand the test of time. Government should introduce the nursery system into its policy whereby children are enrolled in schools from age 3 to formalise nursery education in Nigeria. We believe such policy will now cover what private schools are already operating, instead of the proposed one year starting at age five. Our worry about the looming policy is how long it will last if it eventually sails through?

HOWEVER, Nigerians expect an educational policy that will ensure that children begin primary school at six. We deplore a situation where at age 4 or five, a child is already in primary school. Some parents are in such a hurry for their children to climb up the education ladder without taking into account the repercussions of such a rush on their children. These set of children create problems for the teachers, because many of them do not know their right from their left at the end of the day, only whiz kids are able to cope in such circumstance.

WE believe that there is no much problem at the moment with the current policy, except that any new government devices a way of siphoning public funds, otherwise we know that there are a number of teething problems buffeting the education sector at the moment begging for the federal government’s attention.

The questions to ask at this point are: Is the 16-3-3-4 system going to turn the flooded classrooms or under- the- mango tree classrooms to model classrooms as being done by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State? Is it going to provide adequate text books, reading and instructional materials to the pupils and their teachers? Is 1-6-3-3-4 system the priority, more than an enabling environment for teaching and learning?

INTERESTINGLY, these are the issues being pursued by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities who are currently up in arms against the Federal Government. We implore government to shore up funding of education to remove the decadence that has characterised schools from primary, secondary up to tertiary with very few exceptions. We expect that President Goodluck Jonathan coming from an academic background is in a better position to appreciate the level of decay in the system, more than anyone else. We implore him to do the needful to salvage Nigeria education sector which holds the key to the future of the country and halt the distraction being provided by the policy somersault mongers.

I wait for the lord, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope -Psalm 130:5 This generation is engulfed in a maze of crisis. These crises are unique because each one of them is capable of annihilating our civilization.

Some world authorities have even gone ahead to postulate that we might not even survive

on a hydro-carbon pinnacle; a world gone madly amok. In seeking answers to the various questions thrown up by man’s sad state, many have taken different routes: Alcoholism, drug addiction, occultism, false religions, mysticism, philosophies, et al. But these roads have all ended in cul-de-sacs, resulting in more broken lives and shattered hopes.

destroy capitalism” (Karl Marx); “To completely hate life with a passion (Soren Kierkegaard). Where am I going? God is dead, so man is doomed to live and die to no purpose on this earth. The seeds sown by the philosophies of these men are still with us today. No wonder there is little acceptance of God and his absolutes in our primary and tertiary

They have left men more confused than they were prior to embarking on their fruitless journeys.

The major reason why man continues to grope in the darkness of life, when he should naturally be living on the bright side is because he has misplaced his priorities.

He has chosen philosophy above reason in his quest for answers to life’s most stirring questions: Where did I come from? Who am i? Why am I here? Where am I going?

Man has allowed the Philosophical postulations of fellow men to condition the way he lives and thinks.

Philosophy has become the foundation of every human society. Philosophical ideas like the non-existence of truths- only opposite views or forces- (thesis and antithesis), and the non-existence of absolutes (principle of relativity), govern our daily lives. The grandfather of this movement (which started from the eighteenth century and is still evolving) that now permeates virtually all aspects of our lives was the German, Hegel, whose theory of relativism provided the foundation for the western philosophies of pragmatism, humanism, scientism, and existentialism.

Hegel’s disciples, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, expanded on his thoughts and took them to heights never thought of. The relative thinking of these men forms the fulcrum of our academic systems which has eroded our cultures and coloured our beliefs in absolute truths and morality.

To the basic questions of life, these men answer thus: Where did I come from?

“Man is here by chance, his existence is meaningless and his identity an uncertainty”.

Who am I? “Man is a helpless victim of ignorance and fear; he is nothing”. Why am I here? “To dethrone God and

institutions. These men have gone to extreme lengths to make God unnecessary and push him out of our minds.

They have influenced us into rejecting our sense of reasoning in order to totally embrace the philosophical systems of relativism and atheism (2 Peter 3:3, 5 NIV).

of the major themes of the Bible and runs through the Book from Genesis to Revelation. Proof of this is demonstrated by its several Hebrew versions: Qavah (hope that gives strength: Isaiah 40; 31), Yachal (hope that gives endurance: Job 13; 15), Batach (hope that inspires trust: Psalm 22:9; 16:9, 10;

(John 14:1-3 NIV). Modern Christians also look forward to the later promise.

The modern dictionary defines hope as to “wish for”, “to expect (without certainty)”, “to desire very much (but with no real assurance of obtaining your desire)”. The book of life, the

from? We are from God, Created in His image and likeness (Gen 2: 7; 1:26, 27; Matt 19:4). Who are we? We are special people, unique creations of divine intelligence, fashioned with love and care (psalm 139:1316). Why are we here? To get to know God better (John

Virtually everything that touches our lives today is connected to the teachings of these men. But funny enough, we are ignorant of this fact.

That is why most people, including modern day Christians, are unable to answer the four most important questions of life.

This has tended to produce the same uncertainties, the same confusion of minds that it elicited in those men who postulated these theories. Is there no hope for this obviously hopeless generation? What is the Bible’s take on this?

Now, hope is one of the most significant words in life and one of the building blocks of Christianity. It is also one

Romans 4: 18 KJV), Chasa (hope that gives refuge: psalm 104; 18; Proverbs 14:32) and Sabar (hope that looks intently to the promise: Isaiah 38: 18, 19). The ancient Jews and later, early Christians hoped for the fulfillment of several prophecies and promises related to them, their religion and nation. While the Jews looked forward to the coming of their promised military Messiah who would free them from the brutal yokes of their Roman overlords, early Christians looked forward to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Christ’s Second Coming and the deliverance of all who surfer oppression for his sake

Bible, defines hope as an indication of certainty. It is first an attitude of faith in the things we are promised in the future. It is something we choose to have, subject by subject. Biblical faith believes everything that proceeds from God’s mouth and then acts upon the truth therein. This is the kind of hope that liberates us from all our fears, both real and imagined, and keeps us going in a world of frightening uncertainties.

With this kind of hope, we can boldly answer the four basic questions of life in a lifetransforming, hope eliciting manner.

This is how the Bible answers the basic questions of life. Where did we come

17:30), to mature in faith and grow in the knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18 NIV), to be role models and do good (Titus 2; 14 NIV), to enjoy life through our relationship with God (Philipans4:4 NIV). Where are we going? We are going to our eternal home, heaven, where our lord and saviour Jesus Christ has prepared incredibly beautiful mansions for us (John 14:1-3). These succinct answers (and not the sterile, whacko philosophies of these end times) gives more meaning to our existence and lives on this earth. They are the foundations of real hope for this hopeless generation.

Merry Christmas!

Cutting Edge With Obuseh Jude GSM: 08033510173

Hope For A Hopeless Generation

this millennium; that ours is the “Terminal Generation”.

Evidence of a world in dire straits are sadly obvious: an ever increasing void between the haves and have-nots, a regime of anomie, economic downturns, political unrests, moral decline, a regime of anomie, changing weather patterns, an increase in the spate of natural disasters, hunger, famine, mutation and migration of deadly disease across borders, balkanization of family ties, wars and rumors of war, to mention just a few.

Many are being gradually pushed beyond the Rubicon of tolerance into a world of fear, despair and hopelessness.

As this generation faces a greater external crisis, we are less able to cope. Men are becoming more depressed, women confused and children lost in an avalanche of decaying values, overwhelmed by the complexities of a directionless world. Our shock systems are no match for the formidable armada of disintegrating values and sundry other challenges we’re daily confronted with. Stress permeates virtually every stratum of our world, afflicting both the rich and the poor. This worry epidemic lives us fatigued and helpless. “Help me” is the cry of most people you see everyday on the streets pretending that all is well, going through the motions of living their miserable lives, not knowing where all this is leading. Life has lost its meaning for many who are merely hanging on to the cliff waiting for their inevitable end and freedom from the whole nonsense.

A global outcry of earthquake proportions ricochets left, right and centre: What is happening? Where did we go wrong? What can we do to remedy the situation? These questions stem from the fears that grip us in the face of a world teetering precariously

Nutritional Health And Dietetics

Causes Of Ill-Health And What To Do

WORRY, anxiety and emotional out bursts if continued for a long period will cause great over activity of the thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands whose increased secretions in the blood are antagonistic and suppressive to the insulin secretion of the pancreas.

This suppression of the insulin secretion stops the final break-up of glycogen into lactic acid and the lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water in the tissues and muscles. So that, some intermediary and harmful product (possibly, pyruric acid) whose nature is not definitely known is retained in joint tissues and especially in muscles, causing a chronic irritation of these structures leading often to the formation of calcified and fibrotic deposits causing spasm and wasting of muscles and immobility of the joints accompanied by unbearable pulling, pinching and shooting pains.

Nothing will relieve this type of arthritis except rest, relaxation, freedom from worry and anxiety.

Overeating, poor digestion and assimilation. They cause excessive production of cholesterol and its retention in the body in excessive amounts.

Excessive formation of cholesterol in the blood causes butter yellow deposits and stroke (apoplexy), heart disease, angina fectoris or coronary thrombosis will result.

If kidney blood vessels are affected-nephritis or thromboingitis obliterans will be produced. This is as a result of tobacco. The lower limbs are most usually affected by this disease.

Nicotine in the tobacco has been shown to be a primary cause. The disease contracts and occludes the blood

vessels, producing a blue discoloration (cyanosis).

When the limbs is down and an extreme pallor when elevated. At first, pain comes only on exertion, the pain gets severe and continuous after inflammation of the blood vessels later on.

Disappearance of the pulse and development of gangrene can be checked if smoking is stooped early enough and other treatment instituted.

Overeating and overweight, overexerting and over exercising when rest is needed over excitement, constant irritability and worry are all to be avoided if you wish to avoid high blood pressure.

Overwork, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, syphilis, infectious disease, focal infections and certain heart diseases are of high blood pressure. frethulness and excitement increase the adrenal secretion and the blood pressure.

Taking large quantities of fluid into the stomach, especially, salt or salty food consumed is not good.

Excessive emotionalism and excitement make the adrenals secrete large quantities of adrenalin, which keep thus offering great resistance to the heart action, causing high blood pressure and in the end arterosclerosis. Too much adrenalin in the blood also, acts as a poison which directly injuries the arteries.

Appetite-poor appetite is a sign of physical ailments.

Refusing all food or overeating indicates a mental condition or phobia or mania brought on by fear of the life one is leading or by a desire to substitute the physical joys of food for mental activity.

The substitution may be in either direction with opposite results.

If loss of or excessive appetite is caused by physical

With

O.C. Madu GSM: 08056379608

ailments, the cause should be found and cures. Mental states causing perversions of appetite require adjustment of the outlook on life and a realisation that there is a time and a limit for everything and that there is a balance and a rhythm to life, which must not

coronary arteriosclerosis and angina just as physical overstrain will.

A man taking on two many responsibilities, being overambitious, socially or politically, depriving himself of rest, relaxation and the pursuit of spiritual happiness

These precautions are to be taken if you have already had an attack and they will actually save your life until a ripe old age.

Relaxation is youthfulness, unless you are able to let go and relax, all the vitamins and

art of being at ease with himself and others, he is a normal healthy, warm human being. Man does not like to be in the presence of tense, twitchy individuals, regardless of their name or fame. To me, they seem

be disturbed, else, serious illness will result.

Overwork, hurry, worry, anxiety, alcohol, tobacco, infectious disease and heart disease all contribute to cause arteriosclerosis of the heart arteries which supply nourishment to the heart. The narrowing of the heart’s blood vessels (coronary arteries) is what causes the angina attack.

MENTAL WORK- As such doesn’t cause heart disease, but mental work associated with great hurry, worry and anxiety will cause overstrain of the heart,

is likely to develop angina attacks early in life. If he is so foolish as not to heed the warning and if he continues with all the social obligations, exaggerated ambitions and golf games, he will as sure as not end with a fatal coronary attack.

The best way to prevent anginal heart attacks is as a general rule, avoid overwork and too much stress and strain, have a time limit for work and play, don’t walk against the wind and chill or overheat yourself, avoid poisoning your body with alcohol and your body with alcohol and nicotine, get plenty of sleep and fresh air while asleep and awake, do not drink tea or coffee exclude chocolate.

Never overload your stomach, eat only one small portion of plenty of lemon juice and citrus fruits, keep a clean bowel and anginal rectoris will not trouble you.

minerals in the world will not give you a healthier longer life. Act of relaxation is important to avoid waste of energy. Tension, ages and relaxation reguvinate, therefore, tension is ugliness and relaxation is beautiful. So, relax and remove the ugly tensions from your face and it will become tranquil, more harmonious and attractive, no matter what your ages or features are.

If you relax, your body, it will serve you better, no matter what your age or figure, the men and women of all ages who are naturally attractive are not necessary those whom nature has endowed with beauty, they may be far it. They are the ones you like to be with, the people who never make you uneasy because, they are so completely at ease themselves.

Every man or woman who is truly great has learned this

immature, they have not learned the first law of successful living to relax.

When you are tensed up, when you are not relaxed, your energy flows where your attention is directed to.

Psychologists know this philosophers knew it before psychology was invented.

Mystics know it, they tell us that prayer is merely a way of talking to our inner self.

Doctors know it. They tell us that pain is nature’s way of injured part of the body and directing to it the extra supply of blood needed for fighting infection and for healing.

When I ask you to relax, do not force yourself, forcing will create more tension. You must really want to let go, then and only then, will you feel your muscles giving in and the warm tingle of invigorating blood flowing your attention is directed.

Thanks for reading.

“Overwork, hurry, worry, anxiety, alcohol, tobacco, infectious disease and heart disease all contribute to cause arteriosclerosis of the heart arteries which supply nourishment to the heart.”

Issues NIGERIA has all the endowments needed for greatness but corruption, cupidity, indiscipline, i n e p t i t u d e , incompetence, mediocrity and lack of patriotism have seriously inhibited her desire to achieve greatness. These vices must be drastically reduced so that they can no longer impede development and growth by creating strong Institutions, Traditions and Laws which will make it extremely difficult for people in public positions to corruptly acquire, steal or peculate public funds.

Institutions must be strong and made accountable to citizens but citizens must also have the education, knowledge and training needed to hold Institutions accountable.

Three things are basically wrong with Nigeria. The trio are, political stability, social harmony and economic growth. They are paripasu mutually reinforceable.

The electoral process must be fair, free, peaceful and transparent as per option A4 to produce credible leaders. It will produce generally acceptable leaders who will ensure strong political stability, promote economic growth and strengthen social harmony. The System will reduce corruption greatly to insignificance.

Sadly, Nigeria is one of the six in Africa out of the ten most corrupt Countries in the World where clueless, greedy and deficient politicians

are majorly in leadership positions. A free society that cannot help many despondent and poor people cannot definitely save a few who are rich.

Nigeria in 2012 scored 0.471 in human development index which fell below the SubSaharan Africa average of 0.475 and far below the World’s average of 0.694.

Social security is still a miracle to Nigerians. The Country’s Federal Office of Statistics also attests to the fact that over 67 million Nigerians now live in poverty unlike in 1980 when the figure stood at only 18 million.

So, it is very lamentable that 53 years after Independence, Nigerians who have no employment cannot look up to Government for any benefits. Of course, it is popularly known that in Europe and America people who do not have jobs get unemployment benefits. On the average, Nigeria is 37.17 years less than the current norm when compared with Monaco which has the highest life expectancy of 89.63 years for the entire population. Through fiscal discipline and sound management, Botswana, an African Country, transformed herself from one of the poorest Countries in the World to a middleincome Country with a per capita GDP of $16,800 in 2012. Nigeria can do better. Fortune favours the brave.

N I G E R I A N CONSTITUTION. Decree No. 24 of 5 May, 1999 as amended is the Constitution of the

Nigeria’s 100 Years Of Slow Development

By DR PRINCE OYAKHIRE OON, Ph.D, NPM

Federal Republic of Nigeria. In Chapter two which deals with fundamental objectives and directive principles of State Policy, No. 22 particularly deals with the obligation of the Mass Media. The Obligation of the Mass Media which

ethics shall be Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social Justice, Religious Tolerance, Self reliance and Patriotism.

Security in Nigeria is generally not healthy. In recent times, Boko Haramists in particular

President Goodluck Jonathan

includes the Press , radio, television and other Agencies shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of Government to the people. Beside, No 23 deals with National ethics. The National

have continuously come under fire for a catalogue of tragic and serious failings. The unislamic activities of the Sect have brought the impeccable reputation of Islam in Nigeria into tartars.

Islamic Tradition has since the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency been seriously vilified and Believers severely

“Three things are basically wrong with Nigeria. The trio are, political stability, social harmony and economic growth. They are pari-pasu mutually reinforceable. The electoral process must be fair, free, peaceful and transparent as per option A4 to produce credible leaders.”

castigated. Many citizens have been slain by Boko Haram Terrorists anywhere and. everywhere including Holy places of Worship in many States mostly in Northern parts of Nigeria.

Indeed, Boko literally means “Book (i.e Education) and Haram

Prophets including Moses, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Jesus Christ and Muhammad.

Islam strengthens the FAITH of true Muslims.

Faith is the tree of life. By faith, Believers have access to grace. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith secures

Arch Namadi Sambo, Vice President

means abomination (evil)”. Education and abomination are incompatible, uncomplimentary and are at variance in philosophy and practice. Islam is not against Western Education.

Slam compels mankind to seek knowledge as far as to China. Prophet Muhammad states clearly that the ink of a scholar is more precious to Allah than the blood of a martyr. Boko Haramists are ignorant of Islam which regards life as sacred. Islam is God’s Religion. It is also the Religion of all the 25

God’s presence and obedience sustains it.

Faith is mentioned in both the Bible and Quran in the following chapters — Q385&116 Q4136, Q839 and Hebrews 11:1-40.

MEDIA IN NIGERIA NEED RADICAL AND U R G E N T IMPROVEMENT The Press has a Constitutional mandate to call Political office holders to order in terms of accountability, integrity and performance. Ordinarily, the Press has a conventional and a primary duty to educate, Continues on page 23

Perspective

New Born And Child Health: Africa

By ERANGA ISAAC

Afri-Dev.Info, Africa Coalition on Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, with Pan African Campaign Against Forced Marriage of Under Age Children Publish Two New 2013 Africa Region Multiple Indicator Scorecards on Violence Against Girls and Women Highlights and findings from scorecards are: Available recent data and

research for new scorecards underlines that Violence Against Girls and Women has become more sophisticated - encompassing a wider spectrum of interconnected harmful practices impacting negatively on their rights, health and human development.

State certification of forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls has created a false legitimacy for institutionalized sexual violation of / sexual violence against under age girls greater and more widespread than sexual violence in conflict zones becoming the new fulcrum around which a more diversified continuum of violence against millions of African girls and women rotates. ?Forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls and accompanying continuum of violence, injury to health, and increased maternal death risk underpins lower life expectancy for females through - increased beatings and intimidation to ‘tame’ girls from a young age; forced domestic labour; repeated sexual violations; resulting in multiple under age child bearing and higher total fertility

rate of between 4 and 7 children per girl child or woman; increased regional maternal death risk as high as 1 in 39 deaths from under age pregnancy, and multiple un-spaced pregnancy; and for many that survive, serious injuries such as Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF); and increased HIV risk through inability to negotiate safe sex.

Under age girls forced into ‘marriage’ and brutalized with little or no protection from the state are more likely to accept violence against them as normal.

ECOWAS sub-region, with Central Africa are worst regions for growing epidemic of forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls and accompanying continuum of violence.

Along with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, widespread forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls and accompanying continuum of violence constitutes an unacceptable epidemic of gender-based violence.

Research and data underline that neither the Millennium Development Goals on reducing maternal mortality, improved girl child education, and reduction of HIV - nor the new Post 2015 Development Agenda Goals will be met in

Africa for as long as forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls is tolerated.

Advocates call on all African governments to uphold the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child – to recognize and declare forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls as a form

domestic trafficking of girl children, and a source of institutionalized violence against girls and women.

Speaking to the new scorecards, spokesperson for the publishers - Africa Health, Human & Social

Development Information Service (Afri-Dev. Info); Africa Coalition on Maternal Newborn and Child Health, and Pan African Campaign Against Forced Marriage of Under Age Children Mr Rotimi Sankore stated: “Violence is universally recognised as behaviour or action having the consequence of intimidating, inflicting psychological or physical abuse, torture, damage or injury to health, or leading to death of someone, or a specific group of people.

“In this context, state certification or tolerance of a continuum of behaviour and actions resulting in injury to health, or death of hundreds of thousands of African girls and women has to be recognised as gender based violence on a mass scale. A situation in which 30, 40 or 50 year old men coerce millions of 13, 14, or 15 year old girls in individual countries into forced ‘marriage’ is clearly infliction of violence of epidemic proportions, especially when it is clear this will result in mass psychological or physical abuse or injury, beatings and intimidation; repeated sexual violations, repeated underage child bearing leading to higher total fertility rate of between 4 and 7 children per girl child or woman; increased maternal death risk from under age pregnancy, and multiple unspaced pregnancy; and for

many of those that survive, serious injuries such as Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF); and increased HIV risk through inability to negotiate safe sex.

A combination of this continuum of gender-based violence has contributed to shortening the average life expectancy of African girls to 20 to 21 years less than girls and women in countries where their rights and human development are better protected. In the Africa region female life expectancy is an average of 58 years, whereas in the Americas and Europe it is 79 years, and in Western Pacific 78 years.

“On this evidence the majority of African governments have not only created a false legitimacy for mass gender based violence, most have abdicated their responsibility to protect girl children from violence, injury to health and increased death risk from pregnancy and HIV. It is impossible to imagine a reversed scenario in which 40 or 50 year old African women decide to coerce hundreds of thousands 14, or 15 year old boys into forced ‘marriage’ without this being recognised immediately as a form of domestic trafficking and abuse of boy children for purposes of domestic labour and sexual violation”.

The evidence is as clear as can be. The 30 countries

where between 30% - 75% of underage girls are forced into ‘marriage’ also include 26 of the 30 countries with the highest maternal mortality: Chad, Somalia, Central African Rep, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Guinea, Niger, Zimbabwe, Congo, DRC, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Cote ‘d Ivore, Senegal, Gambia, Benin, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burkina Faso. In these countries, between 1 in 15 and 1 in 67 females will die in each country as a result of under age or adolescent pregnancy, multiple un-spaced pregnancies and related causes worsened by weak health systems.

In all of the 30 countries where 30% - 75% of under age girls are forced into ‘marriage’ (except two, being Madagascar and Somalia) – girls and women aged 15 years and over constitute the greater majority of those living with HIV – approximately between 55% and 74% of all people 15 years old and above living with HIV. In addition, the 30 countries where between 30% 75% of under age girls are forced into ‘marriage’ also include 24 of the 30 countries with the highest child mortality.

The evidence further underlines that if forced marriage of under 18 girls is bad enough, widespread forced

marri picab Ver again count under least a riage’ deepe under Guine bique, gasca lia, an San numb tries i are su indica in for wides confli “In an est forced

by Nig Ethiop 1.8 m 1.4 m lion; M lion w and h contri and co pende lence, relate In t regard to per dren’s fail to onto t In t is the tinuu countr der 18 these ECOW Mali, egal, L – Alo Chad, Gabon Centr collec forced Not excep with h dren p popul woma Spe ‘marr conti Sanko and in as nor “Fo also re and in cept v of the betwe 15 yrs beatin sons –

Perspective

a’s Coalition On Maternal

iage of under 15 girls is even more desble ry worryingly, state certification of violence nst girls and women means that in the 30 tries where 30% to 75% of young girls r 18 years are forced into ‘marriage’, at a quarter to half were forced into ‘mar’ before or by 15 yrs of age, indicating a er rooted trend. The worst 15 countries for r 15 forced marriage being Niger, Chad, ea, Central African Republic, Mali, Mozam, Malawi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Madaar, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Uganda, Somand Zambia. nkore also emphasised that in absolute bers there are at least 10 African counin which well over a million girls each ubjected to this continuum of violence ating that sexual violence against girls rced ‘marriage’ situations is now more spread than sexual violence in armed ict. n at least 10 countries African countries, timated over one million girls each were d into ‘marriage’ before age of 18 topped geria, with an estimated 6.8 million girls; pia 5 million; DRC, 3 million; Tanzanian illion; Uganda 1.8 million; Mozambique, illion; Niger, 1.3 million; Egypt 1. 3 milMadagascar 1.1 Million; Kenya 1.1 milwhich has robbing them of education, skills human development; of an opportunity to ibute meaningfully to Africa’s development; ondemning them to essentially a life of deence, domestic slavery, unmitigated viosexual abuse, high maternal death, birth ed injury, and HIV / AIDS. these circumstances no Health Minister dless of how hardworking can be expected rform miracles on girls, women and chils health - if the Justice sector and others o protect girls and women from being flung the downward spiral of injury to health. terms of regional distribution, ECOWAS sub-region is most affected by this conm of gender based violence. In the 30 ries where 30% to 75% of young girls un8 years were forced into ‘marriage’ 11 of e countries are from the 15 member WAS sub region being – Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, SenLiberia, Gambia, Cote d’Ivore, and Benin ong with 6 Central African Countries , Central African Republic, Cameroon, n, Congo, Sao Tome – making West and ral Africa the sub regions with the highest ctive concentration of countries where d marriage is practiced. t coincidentally, all ECOWAS Countries pt Cape Verde are in the group of countries highest total fertility rate of 4.0 to 7.0 chilper girl or woman. (Nigeria Africa’s most lous country has a total fertility rate per an of 5.5) eaking to key evidence on why forced riage’ of under age girls underpins the inuum of violence against women, ore elaborated on psychological damage ndoctrination of girls to accept violence rmal. orced ‘marriage’ of under age girls has esulted in a deeply damaging socialisation ndoctrination of girls and women to acviolence against them as ‘normal’. In 34 e 37 countries for which data is available een 30% to 87% of girls and women aged s to 49 yrs consider a husband justified in ng a wife - for at least one of these rea– (1) Burning the Food; (2) ‘Argues’ With

Him; (3) Goes Out Without Telling Him; (4) Neglects the Children; (5) Or Refuses Sexual Relations. This in turn has serious negative conse-

trenchment of poverty.

All the research and data available underlines that neither the Millennium Development Goals on reducing

‘Marriage’ Of Under Age Girls, Can Be Likened To Domestic Trafficking Without any doubt, both the circumstances surrounding

Child Abuse and Torture underlines that states shall take “ specific legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading

President Goodluck Jonathan

“Forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls has also resulted in a deeply damaging socialisation and indoctrination of girls and women to accept violence against them as ‘normal’ ”. quences for women’s human rights, gender equality, women’s education and development, ability to contribute to social and economic development, and overall health. Without an iota of doubt, protection of girls and gender equality are key social determinants of women’s health.

Impact Of Violence Against Girls And Women On Millennium Development Goals And Post 2015 Development Agenda This psychological and physical damage to girls and women is not consequence free for African development goals. There is a correlation between the institutionalisation of this continuum of violence against girls and women, poor social and economic development, and en-

maternal mortality, improved girl child education, and reduction of HIV - nor the new Post 2015 Development Agenda Goals will be met in Africa for as long as forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls is tolerated.

Forced Marriage of Under Age Girls, and Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting - a Brutal Combination.

Combined with the brutalisation of girls through female genital mutilation and cutting especially in the 16 countries where between 30% to 98% of women suffer terribly mostly in the Horn, North ,Central and West Africa the future of the African girl is really looking bleak unless citizens convince governments to redress gender based injustice.

The Arrangements Surrounding MostIGP Forced

forced ‘marriage’ of most under age girls, and the subsequent continuum of violence against them is indicative of a domestic trafficking scenario on a mass scale. The attempts to describe forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls as legitimate ‘marriages’ is a shallow attempt to sanitise gender based violence against girl children with the name of marriage.

The individual components of the continuum of violence against girls are already recognised by the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child as forms of abuse, torture, injury to health, and violence.

Article 2 of the charter for example is clear that “a child means every human being below the age of 18 years.” Article 16 on Protection Against

treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse” Article 21 on Protection against Harmful Social and Cultural Practices emphasises that “States shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful social and cultural practices … prejudicial to the health or life of the child… discriminatory to the child on the grounds of sex or other status” and more clearly that “Child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years.”

Article 27a on Sexual Exploitation further clarifies that states shall take measures to prevent “the inducement, coercion or encouragement of a child to engage in any sexual activity” Article 14 on Health and Health Service caps it all by stating un ambiguously that “Every child shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical, mental and spiritual health”.

We call on all African governments to uphold the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child – to recognize that taken together, the circumstances of the continuum of violence around forced ‘marriage’ of under age girls equates with domestic trafficking of girl children, and is a source of institutionalized violence against girls and women; and for African Union member states to take necessary legislative, judicial, administrative, and law enforcement actions to end these evil practices.

Issues Youth Unemployment:

The Way Forward

IN Nigeria, Youth Unemployment is soaring high by the day, the fact that government at all tiers have provided laudable programmes to curb the growing concern of joblessness among the teeming population in the country in recent times, according to the Nigeria voice.com.

President Goodluck Jonathan recently launched the Youth Enterprise With New Innovation in Nigeria

Youth unemployment should be blamed on both the private and public sectors of the country. Government has abysmally failed to provide for unskilled, semiskilled and skilled people at all levels.

Unemployment is defined as a state of people living in absolute joblessness with age ranges falling between the 20-40 while underemployment also refer to people who are gainfully employed but not financially rewarding to authenticate

security is not guaranteed, government has not done any credible programmes to effect change on the society and the Nigerian youth.

During the 2011 presidential campaign when Goodluck Jonathan launched out his books to enable Nigerians youths imbibe the culture of reading, that is noble, but the youths of Nigeria are ready to further their education to the highest level whereas job security is the major bane to the vision.

work. It is of record that only graduates with first class degrees are employed while those with second class and third class degree are not given opportunity to work.

Some job offers are given to those who live in highbrow areas of the country. For instance in Lagos, those that are living in ghetto area like Ajegunle and Mushin are not given opportunity to work even when they qualified because their Cvs are traced to slum

(YOUWIN) in other to reduce the high density of unemployment of graduates being churned out from the Nation’s Universities. In the 60s and 70s, unemployment was not as pronounced because the government then was proactively providing for graduates thrown out from the universities into the labour market, with full job security, with no qualms.

Unemployment and underemployment are seriously confronting the Nigerian youth in all ramifications. The increase in Nigeria’s population is one of the challenges facing the labour market which the government has created for it citizenry. Increase in government spending and inflation have prevented political and economic development in the country.

their qualifications. Many Nigerians today are underemployed despite the intimading credentials being possessed in high flying institutions paraded in the World; all this put together, economic recession and inconsistent polices in the country.

Our micro-finance and commercial banks are not helping matters where it behooves on them to lend money to young entrepreneurs who intend to do their private businesses with no dependence on the government. The so-called oil marketers have created job employment to Nigerians which the National Assembly described as “phoney jobs by the cabals.” The Micro and macro objectives of creating jobs for Nigerian youths are still a mirage. Job

Time without number, politicians have promised youths instant employment on graduating yet nothing has been done to reduce the situation at present. It has all been empty promises, none being actualized except the youth is connected to the powers that be.

In the Labour market, unemployment is growing at geometrical progression due to inability of job agencies to identify qualified persons to

communities.

The government is not helping matters, not making concrete efforts to create jobs for the teeming youth population being constantly spewed out of the nation’s universities.

Our tertiary education system is not training human capital development or job creators rather than job seeker with no entrepreneurial skills to be self-employed. A few institutions of learning are

only introducing entrepreneurial sources without putting them in practice. Despite the creation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) by individuals, with the aim of alleviating poverty in the country, the poverty index is unquantifiable and unquestionable.

The parameters to create jobs by government and private sectors are non existent to the extent that crime rate becomes alarming, all to the detriment of the Nigerian economy.

Unemployment is a worlds problem which some advanced countries have dealt with by providing jobs for their citizens in one way or the other.

No day passes by without seeing youths in various places searching for jobs through internet, vacancies placed on doorpost and others. Most job vacancies in the daily newspapers and magazines are mostly fake, not existing ,and sometimes with incorrect websites, emails and contact phone number, sometimes they could be scam! It’s a shame.

The job desperation by our teeming youths in Nigeria has on its part transpired into high levels of crime such as pen robbery, cyber crime, prostitution, illegal involvement in oil wells and bunkerings, fraudulent activities and others. The population of Nigeria youths are growing astronomically while those graduating from various higher institutions of learning are innumerable.

The Macro objectives and econometrics of creating jobs in Nigeria in spite of creation of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPLP) and National Directorate of Employment (NDE), are mere political

jargons and are non functional.

Unemployment, frustration and crime are economic maladies of the day.

Different administrations with different economic agendas, with vision 2012 still in the pipeline. It’s sickening!

How many Nigerians are gainfully employed? The system has not really provided for unskilled workers. In the developed and advanced countries, unskilled, and semi skilled workers have their stakes in government but in Nigeria only those with university or polytechnic certificates who know the man at the top, are given opportunities to work and nothing else. Even some polytechnic graduates are underpaid and marginalized in the labour market.

Job desperation due to family pressure and others have led some youths astray without considering its implications. The Minister of Youth Development, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi recently organized a youth forum to help youths realize their goals in life. This was a good move to kick-start a youth development programme in the country if the government is really sincere in policy strategisation. If China as a country can discover its goal then Nigeria can likewise do same.

In every home in China, all her citizens are electronic producers so to speak; Nigeria is the highest consumption of imported goods and services despite the country’s position as the 6th largest producer of crude oil and gas. The question therefore remains: When would we begin to look inward and tap from the enormous resources that abound within? Let’s ponder that awhile.

“No day passes by without seeing youths in various places searching for jobs through internet, vacancies placed on doorpost and others. Most job vacancies in the daily newspapers and magazines are mostly fake, not existing ,and sometimes with incorrect websites, emails and contact phone number, sometimes they could be scam! It’s a shame.”

Drumbeats

People Who Lived Focused Lives...Their End Results PEOPLE driven by this phenomenon are bound every where in the world. Through focused minds, they achieved great successes that marvelled every one. Below are some of them.

JESUS OF NAZARETH No other person has changed history as much as Jesus of Nazareth did. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The name of Jesus” is not so much written as plowed into the history of the world: more books have been written about his that any other person.

His life impacted all sector of human existence. He wrote no poetry, but Milton, Dante, and scores of the world’s finest poets were inspired by him. He composed no music, but Handel Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their height perfection when composing hymns, symphonies, and oratories to his praise.

He painted no pictures; but Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci where inspired to greatness in painting his life and ministry.

Jesus taught, preached, and healed the sick.

Raised the dead and fed over five thousand.

People with few loaves of bread and two dishes in ‘active ministry for only three years, where as many of the worlds most noted “Philosophers” taught much longer Socrates for forty years, Plato fifty. Aristotle for forty, yet His teachings transcend the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching by these three men of antiquity. The calendar of the roman (western) world was changed to reflect his death, wit B.C meaning “Before Christ” and AD. Referring to after the death of Christ.

His impact on the world is not based upon what he said nearly as much as what He did.

The divinity of his life is clearly expressed in the “Nicene creed” perhaps the foremost statement of belief in Jesus as the saviour.

Through him all things were made” Jesus was able to achieve all these because he was focused on his heavenly father’s giving assignment while on earth.

WINSTON CHURCH HILL Sir Winston church Hill held most of the high offices of state in great Britain. He was a member of Parliament for more that sixty years and twice served as Prime Minister. He was Britain’s leader through most of world war II. From his childhood, he loved to read history and poetry and had an outstanding memory.

Churchill Was the third son of the seventh Duke of Man borough”, his mother was an American.

He rejected the idea of attending a University.

However, he enrolled in the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He served in Cuba and India and took part in the Battle of Omdur man in the Sudan (1898) while in the military, he wrote for British newspapers. Later, the morning post sent him to cover the South African war, and his capture and daring escape from the Boers made him an overnight celebrity.

Elected to Parliament as a conservative in 1900, Churchill at first found speaking an ordeal. In 1904, he changed his political affiliation to become a liberal. He worked closely with Admiral Lord Fisher of Silverstone to prepare the British Navy for World war I and himself served a period of active service in France. In 1920, he again aligned himself with the conservatives, nothing that “any fool can rat, but I flatter myself that it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat”. He did not hold office between 1929 and 1939, but he voiced strong opposition to England’s “India policy and warned repeatedly against the ambitions of Nazi Germany. He became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940, and he served until 1945. He was largely responsible for many aspects of England’s war policy. He again served as prime minister from 1951 to 1955.

In addition to his political contributions, he remained a noted historian, producing the four volume History of the Englishspeaking people, four-volume the world crises, four-volume Marborough, and sixvolume the second world war.

Churchill is perhaps best remembered for his radio addresses that rallied his nation and instilled courage in his fellow citizens when German invasion seemed likely. He pledged his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” to the defeat of Germany. Undoubtedly his most famous statement was this.

“We shall go to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island. Whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by British fleet, would carry on the struggle until, in God’s good time, the new world, with all its power and might steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old”.

Churchill. succeeded where others failed because of his focus life and his determination to affect his generation positively.

NELSON MANDELA Nelson Mandela was born to leadership, but not necessarily the leadership that many expected.

“Rolihlahla” was the tribal name given to Nelson Mandela at his birth. His father was a poor but respected chief of the Tembu, a Black African group in southeastern south African. Dying, the elder Mandela called the paramount chief of the tribe of his bedside and asked him to raise Polihlahla, saying, “I can say from the way he speaks to his sisters and friends that his inclination is to help the nation.”

The tribal chief sent Nelson Mandela to a Christian High School, and he later enrolled in university college at Fort hare, one of the few colleges that accepted black Students. During his third year of college, school authorities took away all powers of the students representative council, of which Mandela was a member. He protested, and was suspended. The chief decided it was time for Mandela to settle down and get married, and Mandela responded by running away to Johannesburg. There, for the first time in his life, he saw the ugliness of segregation and discovered what it meant to be a second class citizen.

With Apostle Dr. Raphael O. Ayemere 08035459593

Late Nelson Mandela Mandela made a decision that he will help his people struggle for freedom and human dignity. He finished College, pursued a law degree, married and became a member of the African National Congress. He was also instrumental in founding and leading congress youth league to end discrimination throughout South Africa.

In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party came into power, and the all-white government passed laws of apartheid (separate development for the white and black races).

Mandela and the other youth members protested the imposed curfew for blacks, and he was arrested, the first arrest of what was to become twenty-seven years off and in imprisonment. In the beginning, Mandelas efforts were geared towards nonviolent protest, but as protesters began to be shot by police, he and other black leaders formed “Spear of the nation,” a military wing of the ANC. In 1964, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of attempting to over throw the government. He said to the court, during my life time, I have dedicated my self to the Africa people. I have fought

against white domination, I have cherished the ideal of democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die In December 1990, the Prime Minister of South Africa declared “apartheid cannot succeed,” and two months later, he announced Mandela release from prison. Throughout his year of prison, Mandela has fought to maintain his dignity and his health. After his released, he renounced all use of violence for political aims, and for four years, he worked with the Prime Minister, F.W. De Klerk, to bring about democratic South Africa. In 1994, the boy who had being born a prince, who as a young man became a politician an then a prisoner, was elected president in South Africa in the nation’s first open election.”

Friends, a man who has no focus and foresight over his future will not endure twenty seven years in imprisonment. His focus on a better future made a way for him, brightened his life and made him a world figure.

“His impact on the world is not based upon what he said nearly as much as what He did.

The divinity of his life is clearly expressed in the “Nicene creed” perhaps the foremost statement of belief in Jesus as the saviour.”

Viewpoint Politicians And Values Of Promises In Public Life

How effective can a promise be? Are there consequences for breaking promises made to a person, knowing or unknowingly?

We all know that making promises is one thing and keeping it is a different ball game.

According to the longman dictionary of contemporary English, a promise is “to tell some one that you will definitely do or provide something or that something will happen”.

A promise is a commitment by some one to do or not to do something. A promise is a declaration assuring that one will or will not do something.

In the law of contract, a promise is an exchange of promises usually held to legally enforceable.

There are many types of promises. There are solemn promises such as marriage vows or military oaths. There are legal contracts enforceable by law, or there are fairy take promises regrettable and problematic at the time they may be honoured.

There are also election promises commitment that most people realize will later be shaped by politics and compromise.

Why do we always make promises that we find it difficult to keep? Very few people realize that one of the worst experiences in life to an individual is a broken promise.

Making and not keeping promises is common among our politicians.

They promised heaven and earth to voters when contesting an election but fail to fulfill them when elected to the political seats they canvassed for.

The Bible says in Number 30:2, “ if a man vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bound, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceed out of his mouth”.

It is better not to vow than to vow and not fulfil, so says the Holy book, the Bible.

Bernard M Barlich gives an advice to all voters during election saying “vote for the man who promises least, he will be the least disappointing”. This implies that the candidate who promises less when elected might not disappoint his voters that much because he might fulfil, if not all but most of the things that he promises. Promise are like babies easy to conceive but difficult to deliver.

Every politician knows that the key to winning elections is to make great promises.

They might attempt to extract a few additional votes by promising to improve a specific problem that an interest group care about most.

In many ways, voters are the eternal optimists who can’t learn from experience, we want to believe that our politicians will improve our lives.

No wonder Shirley McClain said “its useless to hold a person to anything he says while he is in love, drunk or running for office”. People are so ambitious that they make promises to get into the hearts of the people they want in whatever thing they are aspiring to have.

Politicians love to make promises. They find it easier to make promises than to keep them. A politician is known by the promises he keeps.

It has been argued that government in general should not be elected for what they promise but for their ability to deal with the unexpected.

The constant stream at broken promises has provoked many voters, and politicians have responded with new techniques to make their promises more believable.

Promises mean a lot to people because they appreciate, value ad empathize and carry some pleasures on fulfillment.

By ESTHER JOSEPH

Broken promises gives a feeling of false competence, they keep the person stick in a mood of regret and rarely associated with success. Your promises is dependent on somebody else’s promise in order to make sure you will be able to keep yours.

promises you can’t keep because it could have an impact on them more than you can ever imagine.

Make the promises you think you can keep, if you ever have to break a promise, make sure you tell the person involved and give good reasons.

Promises are like laws, keep them and be safe, break them and face the consequences.

One should be careful about making promise because it is not a must for you to make one, just be yourself.

Some circumstances can happen beyond your control

President Goodluck Jonathan Some people have never had a problem with not keeping promises because they have committed themselves to anything.

Keeping promises create a safe culture of interdependence that encourage inter-personal relationship and co-operation. Abraham Lincoln made it clear to us that “we must not promise what we cannot do”.

A promise is a comfort for a fool and when not fulfilled, it becomes a debt.

Promises are something that we make everyday, either to ourselves or to others.

Some people don’t intend to keep their promises while some do, but obstacles could come along the way.

If you value someone’s friendship or truly respect them or you value the people you rule or represent, don’t make

that can make you to break promise in that you can be forgiven.

However, if you are known to make promises and don’t keep them, then your words won’t mean anything to anyone. Your words should be a bond.

Nothing is guaranteed in life and anything can happen.

Every promise unfulfilled is a sin against God and humanity, so many have black their ways in life because of certain unfulfilled promises made to fellow human beings.

Promises are modernizing oaths, not keeping to promise erodes trust. A promise is a debt, unfulfilled ones are very consequential.

In life, never make promises you cannot keep because promises are meant to be kept.

“Keeping promises create a safe culture of inter-dependence that encourage interpersonal relationship and co-operation.

Abraham Lincoln made it clear to us that “we must not promise what we cannot do”.

Issues Family Matters

Infertility: Assisting Couples

INFERTILITY is fundamentally the inability to conceive a baby. Infertility also refer to the state of a woman not being able to carry a pregnancy to full term.

Infertility is the inability to conceive. A couple may be considered infertile if, after two years of regular sexual intercourse, without contraception, the woman has not become pregnant.

Primary infertility is infertility in a couple who have never has a child, while secondary infertility is failure to conceive following a previous pregnancy.

Infertility may be caused by man or woman, but often there is no obvious underlying cause. Men and women are affected by infertility in different way. Most couple experience the struggle in much the same way. This is related to the traditional ways men and women have be trained to think, feel, and act.

Women are typically seen, by others as well as themselves, as the emotional caretakers or providers in the relationship. Women typically feel responsible, not only for everyone’s bad feelings, their emotional can become more ominous until they finally feel out of control. Their emotions… can become a monster about to swallow them whole.

Break The Jinx

By BLESSING OBUH

Women in infertile couples often protect their husbands from their own pains and feeling of failure by taking much of the responsibility for the treatments upon themselves. When it is suggested that men accompany their wives

conception process and from their own feelings, which could easily be intensified by so much contact with the medical process.

Men are traditionally seen as the financial

They are trained to be more instructional to take charge, to make decisions and to think without being sidetracked by emotions.

Males in infertile couples often feel overwhelmed by the

for appointments. Couple get concerned about issues like income loss, use of time, etc while these concerns are usually relevant and important, they also serve the purpose of protecting husbands from their own responsibility in the

providers of the relationship and are responsible for protecting the family from real or imagined dangers.

Men usually feel more threatened expressing themselves since they have been conditioned to repress their emotions.

intensity of their partner’s emotions as well as an inability to assess their own. They tend to focus their energy back into their work, and a place where they feel they can get more success.

As a result of taking responsibility for the

“Men usually feel more threatened expressing themselves since they have been conditioned to repress their emotions. They are trained to be more instructional to take charge, to make decisions and to think without being sidetracked by emotions.”

emotional impact of infertility, the woman experience intense feelings such as pains, anger, fear, and so on which combined with the message … things is in some way dysfunctional or “crazy” causes her to feel an anxious

depression. As feelings spill our, she feels out of control and doesn’t really know how to ask for what she needs especially from the husband she is struggling so hard to protect. She may yearn for emotional connection/ interaction at one moment and in the next withdraw emotionally from her disappoinment.

Men also find themselves in a position where, regardless of how well they have been trained to solve problems, they are helpless to make this situation better for the woman and, as a result, may give off messages

that she is too emotional or sensitive hoping that this will calm her down.

But the wife hears this as criticism of her coping and care taking skills rather than as an expression of her husband’s fears. This is the time when couple cling together for their life, feeling that they have failed in the most basic of all roles- reproduction.

Couples are hesitant to admit problems in their marriage, feeling that having difficulties would mean that their marriage is also a failure.

Luckily, there are ways that both men and women can help each other balance thinking and feelings they… struggle side by side on their journey towards priesthood. The question then arises: How do I get what I need from my partner? How can I support my partner during this difficult time?

Here are some suggestions to help both partners during the infertility period: !

Communicate openly with each other !

Ask your partner what she/he needs rather than assuming that you can /cannot give it. !

Recognize the psychological and emotional differences between men and women !

See if you can teach each other some of the skills you have learned from your own experiences as man and woman. !

Share more in the process of treatment share both the burdens and joys of your different perceptions/ experiences of infertility. It will help to balance the intensity and bring you closer with a deeper respect for each other.

View Point

Why Does ASUU Always Go On Strike STRIKE is an organised work stoppage by a body of workers to enforce compliance with demands made on an employer or a group of employers, It is usually a form of protest to force recalcitrant employers to respect the value of labour and accord the latter its rightful place taking into consideration the historical exploitative relationship between labour and capital. In organisations or countries where the principle of collective bargaining is not respected by the employers of labour, the tendency for workers to employ the strike option is very rife. Workers with deep class consciousness and a strong capacity to understand the intriguing manipulations of their employers always exercise their democratic right to fight industrial injustice and dictatorship.

The implication of the above is that the character of states and the nature of employers determine the frequency of work stoppages in a country or in an industry. Experience has shown that societies that are under-developed with an accompanying irresponsible leadership go through all kinds of strikes and industrial crises with their deleterious consequences on the people. This is because, as usual, the ultimate sufferers of these strikes and industrial conflicts are the ordinary people and other victims of the society including the striking workers. Apparently, because of the hypocritical nature of the society the striking workers who ought to deserve the sympathy of the public at all levels become derided and dismissed as agents of destabilisation. In most cases, the issues that would have led to the strike are ignored by commentators who in their exasperation would want the workers to go back to work. Some do not even want to know who is right or wrong all they want is industrial peace.

Quite a lot of people have responded to the on-going or about to end strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). There are three broad categories of people: Those who are in support of the union: those who are opposed to the strike and even strikes in general and those who also playing the Ostrich game. This piece is meant for all the three categories of people. It is true that strikes by their nature are disruptive and that the university lecturers’ strikes have been too frequent. The immediate question is: Why does ASUU always embark on strike?

In answering this question, it will be Important to look at the whole gamut of ASUU/FGN relationship over the years since the coming into being of ASUU. ASUU grew out of the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) which was formed in 1965 Those who formed ASUU in 1978 felt that NAUT was more like a “middle class fraternity which did not have the much needed vigour and orientation suitable for the development of Nigerian’s university system in particular and education in general. Nigeria’s post-colonial state had been hijacked by the Military and allied forces who mismanaged the oil boom of the period The freedoms of the people had been eroded; education at all levels was not getting the required attention; the oil boom, instead of catalyzing the development of the country became ironically a source of underdevelopment and real curse to the nation. It was in the midst of these contradictions and disabling environment that ASUU emerged as an intellectual force to challenge the powers-that-be and offer a credible alternative for our country.

Universities by their nature are democratic institutions hence they are opposed to any manner of imposition either from within or outside.

The 1978 Uthman Mohammed Commission Report which took away the disciplinary functions of the Governing Councils of Universities provided a litmus test for ASUU. This was because the government of the period in question used the report as a basis to direct some University Governing Councils to dismiss certain members of staff from their posts without giving them fair hearing. In 1950. ASUU declared a Trade Dispute with the Shagari government! making the issue of autonomy an important matter.

ASUU also fought Shagari’s government following Justice Balonwus Visitation Panel Report which had directed the Council of the University of Lagos to remove six senior members of the academic staff from their jobs. Given the nature of its mandate, ASUU fought the federal government under Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1980 and 1981 on issues bordering on funding, salaries, autonomy and academic freedom, brain-drain, the survival of the university system in particular and the direction of the country in general.

Throughout the Military era. ASUU waged a lot of struggles revolving around conditions of service; funding; university authority/ academic freedom; the defence of the right to education; broad national issues such as the anti-military struggles; actions against privatization, SAP and other neo-liberal policies of the government including the World Banks attempts to take over the Nigerian University system through its loan under the regime of Babangida.

It should be recalled that ASUU had battled the Buhari/ldiagbon regime’s policy of retrenchment of workers and freezing of wages: gave support to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) when they went on their patriotic strike to rescue the deteriorating health services in Nigeria. In 1984 ASUU, through strikes, also supported the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to protest the brutal murder of the Ahmadu BeIIo University (ABU) students by Mobile Policemen in 1986. Again: in 1987 and 1988 the Union was in the trenches. The Union fought the

By ADESUWA OBHIOKENAN illegal dismissal of its president. Dr. Festus Iyayi and others in 1987.

It participated fully in the 1988 general strikes occasioned by the effects of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which the Babangida government had imposed on the country.

The earlier Elongated University Salary Scale (EUSS) which the government was to implement was abandoned. ASUU was banned but the academics organised themselves the platform of Universities Lecturers Association (ULA) and it was under this that the anti-World Bank Conference to resist the Babangida regime’s attempt to $120 million loan from the World Bank was held at OAU, Ile-Ife, in 1990.

Nasir Fagee, ASUU President The failure of the FGN in 1991 to negotiate with the union led to the 1992 strike which was declared on May 14. 1992 but was suspended a week after in deference to an IAP order that the strike should be immediately suspended. Although the IAP ruling compelled both parties to the negotiating table, the government did not resume the negotiation and this pushed ASUU into resuming its strike on July 20, 1992. ASUU was again banned for the second time on August 23, 1992, but when the government failed in all its tricks to break the strike, it appointed the Owelle Chkelu team to negotiate with ASUU. It was this negotiation with a banned’ union that produced the 1992 agreement on October 3, 1992, which Prof. Nwabueze, the erudite scholar and lawyer, in his legal sophistry described as an agreement of imperfect obligation”. This agreement, among other things provided for a periodic review of every three years.

The Abacha dictatorship presented a greater challenge to ASUU because of the former’s brutal and tough undemocratic credentials and no wonder ASUU opted to join other patriotic forces to fight to end Military rule. In 1994 ASUU went on strike demanding from the government of Abacha: a re-negotiation of the agreement: the reinstatement of over eighty lecturers sacked at the University of Abuja by the then Vice-Chancellor. Prof. Isa Mohammed and the deannulment of the June 12, 1993 elections ostensibly won by Chief M.K O. Abiola.

Another strike was declared in 1996 by ASUU to press its demand for the re-negotiation of the 1992 agreement and the re-instated of the UNI ABUJA sacked academics. This strike lasted for six months.

When the strike was suspended, the Abacha government set up the

Prof. Umaru Shehu-led Negotiating Team. The government wanted individual Councils of Universities to negotiate with the individual branches of ASUU as part of its decentralization of negotiations.

This was met with stiff resistance leading the Abacha government into sacking some ASUU leaders including the then National President of ASUU. Prof Asisi Abobie of UNN through a letter from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to their Vice-Chancellors.

But the Abdulsalami’s regime, as part of its efforts to gain legitimacy, through its Minister of Education, Chief Ola-lya Oni made overtures to ASUU and re-instatated ASUU leaders who were unjustly sacked by the Abacha junta for their involvement in the 1996 strike and those earlier dismissed in 1984 through Decree 17 of 1984. On May 25, 1999 the government signed an agreement on percentage increases in the allowances of academics. This agreement was without prejudice to a comprehensive negotiation at a future date’ between the two parties The Obasanjo regime after much pressures agreed to set up its Negotiating Team led by Prof. Ayo Banjo and the negotiations began on August 28, 2000. The Agreement was to be signed in December 2001. The FGN did not sign the Agreement as Dr Babalola Borisade who replaced Prof Tunde Adeniran as Minister of Education prevented the Federal Government’s Team from signing the Agreement. ASUU rejected Borisades moves and resumed its suspended strike. This forced the government to resume negotiations and the subsequent signing of the Agreement on June 30, 2001.

The Government of Obasanjo did not implement the 2001 agreement, prompting ASUU to embark on another strike on December 29. 2002. Obasanjo had wanted to cancel the central bargaining process and to introduce school fees in the university system He also wanted to take a loan of $68 million from the World Bank to implement a World Bank- sponsored Nigerian Universities Innovation Project (NUSIP). William Saint, the World Bank anchor man was everywhere in Nigeria campaigning for the implementation of NUSIP. The strike was suspended in June 2003 on the orders of the AP. The ding-dong between the FGN and ASUU continued until December 14, 2006, when the then Minister of Education Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili on behalf of the FGN inaugurated the FGN/ ASUU Re-negotiating Committee under the leadership of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode to re-negotiate the 2001 Agreement which had been due for re-negotiation since June 2004. The re-negotiation which started on January 23, 2007 was concluded in January 2009. After the grueling two years of negotiation, Onosode said he had not the mandate of his principal to sign the Agreement. This position forced ASUU into another round of strike for four months leading to the signing of the Agreement under Yar’adua.

It is instructive to note that the 2009 Agreement which took many years of struggles to come into being is the basis of the current industrial action as many aspects of the Agreement are yet to be implemented even though the Agreement had been due for renegotiation since January 1, 2012. Those who blame ASUU for the frequency of strikes in the university system ought to understand that the constant punctuations experienced in the system are caused by the irresponsibility of the successive governments in Nigeria. From 1978 to date, successive governments have not demonstrated commitment to education and Nigeria’s development as can be seen in their willingness to run after and implement ill-digested programmes foisted on them by their international masters that do not have relevance to the needs and aspirations of the people of our country.

Government willingly enters into agreements with workers after many strikes only to abandon the implementation half way Government must own up to its responsibility by being sincere with the citizenry at all levels. Government officials who are inebriated with power should weigh the consequences of their utterances. The reported dismissive claim of the Minister of Labour and Productivity!

Mr. Emeka Wogu to the effect that the 2009 Agreement between ASUU and the FGN, is unimplementable, if it is true has the capacity of deepening the face-off. Government officials like Wogu and the NUC Secretary, Prof Julius Okojie who fawningly and ingratiatingly engage in bizarre displays with a view to currying favours from their boss, are liabilities to the government they serve. Agents like them have made our universities a hot bed of industrial conflicts. Respect to agreements genuinely entered into by government with workers in the university system and elsewhere will definitely guarantee industrial peace and harmony.

“The freedoms of the people had been eroded; education at all levels was not getting the required attention; the oil boom, instead of catalyzing the development of the country became ironically a source of underdevelopment and real curse to the nation. It was in the midst of these contradictions and disabling environment that ASUU emerged as an intellectual force to challenge the powers-that-be and offer a credible alternative for our country.”

Issues Issues Continued from page 15

inform and entertain Society. By implication, the Press is expected in all ramifications to be well educated so as to be able and be capable to educate, inform and entertain society adequately and correctly.

Education per se particularly of the Media goes beyond mere literacy. A well-educated and happily disposed Press is a true reflection of a healthy Society.

Qualitative and all- round education implies education of the mind, soul and body. Education is a fundamental catalyst for knowledge acquisition. Knowledge gives confidence and enhances the capacity to perform. Knowledge is not sold in Mr. Biggs or Kingsway Stores but acquired through Continuous learning and research..

Acquire knowledge fully and be well-informed. Education is for public good because it is a resource, an empowerment and is the greatest investment in mankind. Educated and well informed people are powerful. If we cannot live comfortably and directly in the heart of knowledge by tomorrow, then, what is there in tomorrow to be lived?

The Media need to be constantly and properly educated, trained and retrained so as to avoid common errors and be in a vantage position to be able to significantly educate, inform and entertain society accurately and satisfactorily. Indeed, ignoratia stilae Mediae

est populi calamitia - the ignorance of the Press is the calamity of Society. It is shameful and ridiculous to observe that many Press officials are unable to pronounce Nigerian names correctly and properly. It is as if they did not study A,B,D in elementary school. We must be able to present ourselves in a manner analogous to what the CNN reporters symbolise or epitomise in their network.

Candidly, we need to be up and doing and to actually work harder. We need to learn more and more because only the grave terminates the acquisition of knowledge.

It is desirable here to give some specific examples of errors often committed by the Press. He was speaking at the occasion instead of he spoke at the occasion because the ceremony has since last week or yesterday ended.

The individual gained “entry” not entrance.

Lots of people have gone home and not a lot of people have gone. It is wrong to say a lot of people have gone. “A lot” is the subject in the sentence and not the word “people”. A lot is collective and is reflective in singular in the sentence. It is advisable to avoid the use of “a lot” as many people do today wrongly.

It is better to use words like some, many, most and so on. “A lot” is wrongly used daily by many educated people.

The potency or strong use of English language in recent years in Nigeria has greatly declined.

Power Sector Fund

... 100 Years Of Slow Development Other examples include, seek for funds instead of seek funds, Reach out to the people instead reach the people. Solicit help and not solicit for help.

Other; include between John and I instead of between John and me; travel and not travel out; return and not return back; reverse and not reverse back; provide for and not provide to etc, etc. Surprisingly, the Press often refers to the Nigeria Police Force as the Nigerian force. There is nothing like Nigerian Police. It is not known to Law. What is immutably known to Law is Nigeria Police Force. It is NOT described like the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Air Force.

Nigeria’s success in democracy will depend

largely on effective p e r f o r m a n c e , commitment, integrity and patriotism. Currently, Nigeria’s democracy is troubled by many factors and is indeed seriously on trial. Nigeria will be a good Country when governed by leaders who are truly, freely, fairly, peacefully and transparently elected.

Such leaders shall be selfless and committed to the Service of the people and shall be willing to sacrifice self interests for the common good of Nigerians. They will open their ears, eyes and hearts to the needs of people.

They will be strong, compassionate, courageous, competent,

“A good political arrangement in Nigeria will fundamentally ensure that there is cohesion, peace and stability that will enhance sustainable development and growth. It should be such that accommodates plurality of views, opinions, ideas, interests and choices.”

knowledgeable, merciful, pragmatic and God fearing. Besides, Nigeria will indeed perform better in her body polity by the involvement of tried, tested and trusted persons with attestable track records of patriotic service. All the three Arms of Government, notably, the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary shall truly be independent and strong in the execution of their duties.

They shall be supported by a free and responsible Press and an enlightened citizenry.

A good political arrangement in Nigeria will fundamentally ensure that there is cohesion, peace and stability that will enhance sustainable development and growth. It should be such that accommodates plurality of views, opinions, ideas, interests and choices. Basically, it should be rooted in compromise, freedom,

persuasion and tolerance.

I may not have the strength of a lion or the resistance of a tiger but I have the indomitable courage of a spider whose webs are found inside the King’s (or Emir’s) Palace without the King’s permission. Brothers and sisters, if you belong to the right caucus, you must ensure that you are and you take an honest insurance policy, no weapon fashioned by detractors against you including the EFCC will prosper. The ideas expressed in the above synopsis by a mere messenger, Prince Oyakhire, CON, PhD, NPM, AIG, LLD-honoris causa etc, etc, represent in a summary the best of goodwill and the most honest of intentions for mankind. May, Allah continue to protect preserve and provide our needs. Thank you for your decorum, patience and time. Oba ghato okpe e ise

International Death Toll In Syrian Bombing Raid On Aleppo Rises BEIRUT - Seventy-six people, including 28 children, were killed on Sunday when Syrian army helicopters dropped “barrel bombs” on the northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

Barrel bombs are explosivefilled cylinders or oil barrels, often rolled out of the back of helicopters with little attempt at striking a particular target but capable of causing widespread casualties and significant damage.

The Britain-based Observatory said that rebel groups in Aleppo issued a statement asking civilians in government-held parts of the city to move away from state security buildings, which they said would be targeted in retaliation for the bombings.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, battling rebels in a 2-1/2 year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people, frequently deploy air power and artillery against rebel-held districts across the country.

They have been unable to recapture eastern and central

parts of Aleppo, which rebels stormed in the summer of 2012, but they have driven rebel fighters back from towns to the southeast of the city in recent weeks.

The conflict has grown sectarian, with majority Sunni rebels battling Assad’s own Alawite sect and Shi’ite militia.

The Observatory - which has a network of opposition, progovernment and medical sources - also said on Monday that rebels in northern Aleppo province were threatening to strike two Shi’ite villages they have surrounded with missiles if barrel bombs were used again by the army.

An Iraqi policeman is seen standing near a mosque on Baghdad’s Al-Rashid Street.

China To Launch Moon Rock Collecting Probe In 2017

BEIJING— China said Monday it was on track to launch a fifth lunar probe with the aim of bringing back lunar soil and rock samples following the successful moon landing of a space probe.

The new mission planned for 2017 would mark the third and final phase of China’s robotic lunar exploration program and pave the way for possibly landing

an astronaut on the moon after 2020.

On Saturday, Chang’e 3 set down on the moon, marking the first soft landing of a space probe on the lunar surface in 37 years.

The landing vehicle will conduct scientific research for a year and its accompanying rover will survey the moon’s structure and probe for natural resources.

A challenge for both is to

withstand temperatures ranging from 120 degrees Celsius (248 Fahrenheit) to minus 180 C (minus 184 F), said Wu Zhijian, spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Chang’e 4 is intended to be an improved version of the Chang’e 3 that will pave the way for the fifth probe.

Thai Opposition Debates Whether To Run In Feb Election BANGKOK - Thailand’s main opposition party opened a meeting on Monday to decide whether to take part in a snap election called by the government to defuse street protests but one senior member said reforms demanded by the protesters should be implemented first.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called the election after weeks of protests against her and her brother, ousted ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and his influence on Thailand’s political system.

The protesters, backed by Bangkok’s elite, have rejected the election and want to set up a “people’s council” that would eradicate the influence of the “Thaksin regime” and introduce reforms following a decade of election wins by Thaksin or his allies with support from the urban and rural poor.

The protests have also been supported by the main opposition Democrat Party, Thailand’s oldest party. All Democrat lawmakers resigned from parliament this month and some joined the protests, including leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was prime minister from late 2008 until 2011.

But the party has yet to announce its stand on the February 2 election. A boycott by the Democrats would rob the vote of much of its legitimacy and prolong political uncertainty.

Korn Chatikavanij, widely respected as finance minister under Abhisit, said he would not be standing for the party executive at the meeting, which ends on Tuesday. His intentions are not clear and he was not immediately available for comment.

Korn has crossed swords with protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, another long-time Democrat lawmaker who had stepped down earlier, and has largely stayed away from his rallies, but he played down any differences in a Facebook posting.

“I agree with the need for reforms and want to see reforms before elections take place ... You know well where I disagree with the protest leaders but this is a minor issue and doesn’t affect our overall goal,” Korn wrote.

Suthep says reforms, taking in the electoral system, should be pushed through by an unelected “people’s council” of people from various professions plus members nominated by his movement.

The Puea Thai Party of Yingluck Shinawatra, who remains caretaker prime minister until the election, is well placed to win again with its bedrock support in the populous rural regions in the north and northeast.

Thailand’s eight-year political conflict centers on Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon who won over the rural

poor with healthcare and other policies when he was premier.

The army ousted him in 2006.

Since 2008, he has chosen to live in exile rather than come home to serve a jail sentence for abuse of power, a charge he calls politically motivated.

Suthep’s protest gained impetus in early November after Yingluck’s government tried to push through a political amnesty bill that would have allowed

Thaksin to return home a free man.

The politically powerful military has rebuffed Suthep’s call for it to intervene on his side and has offered to help hold a “fair and clean” election next year.

General Nipat Thonglek, the Defence Ministry’s permanent secretary, said at a governmentsponsored forum: “The military wants to see the February 2 election. If there are signs that the election will not be fair, the military is ready to make it fair and clean.”

Anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban Thai Armed Forces Headquarters in Bangkok.

First explored by the former Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960s and 70s, the moon has become the subject of renewed interest, even as the focus shifts to Mars exploration.

The U.S. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is currently circling the moon to detail its features and resources as a prelude to building a lunar outpost. In 2009, India’s lunar orbiter, the Chandrayaan-1, detected water on the moon. Two years earlier, Japan sent a spacecraft to orbit it.

“People have started saying we’re looking for water and we’re looking for minerals and it’s becoming a much more interesting place to go to,” said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane’s Space Systems and Industry. “Especially for new countries like China and India who are testing out new technologies — it’s an ideal place to practice these before they go

to Mars and beyond.”

China says its moon exploration program is about gaining a scientific understanding of the moon and developing space engineering and other technologies to prepare it for deep space exploration in the future. It is also a source of national pride.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang were at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center to hear lunar program chief commander Ma Xingrui declare the Chang’e 3 mission a success, the official Xinhua News agency reported.

“China’s moon probe is a way to exhibit to the world that we have acquired advanced space technology, which is more sophisticated than nuclear technology, and it is also a way to win international recognition as a big power,” said He Qisong, a space expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. He said that finding and developing mineral resources on the moon could help solve future problems on Earth.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. It launched the Tiangong 1 prototype space station in 2011 and plans to replace it with a larger permanent station seven years from now.

The space program’s close military links have raised questions about its ultimate intentions and dissuaded other countries from cooperating too closely with it. In 2007, the military shot down a defunct weather satellite in an apparent show of force that created a large (middle) leaves The Royal amount of debris imperiling other spacecraft.

International Baghdad-Area Bombing Kill At Least Nine BAGHDAD - A series of bombings in and around the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed at least nine people on Monday, security and medical officials said.

The three car bombs and one magnetic “sticky bomb” attached to a vehicle also wounded at least 25 others, the sources said.

The latest bloodshed came a day after attacks in various areas of Iraq, including another string of bombings in Baghdad province, killed 19 people, including a TV presenter and a

family of five.

The presenter, Nawras alNuaimi, was the sixth journalist to be killed in Iraq since October, five of whom died in the northern city of Mosul.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was emerging from a period of brutal sectarian conflict.

More than 6,450 people have been killed in violence since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

Bachelet HasBig Win In Chile Presidential Vote SANTIAGO, CHILE — Michelle Bachelet’s landslide presidential victory was the biggest in eight decades, yet turnout was the lowest since Chile’s return to democracy, suggesting she’ll lack a clear mandate to push for radical change when she begins her second turn in the office next year.

Bachelet, a moderate socialist, ended her 2006-10 presidency with 84 percent approval ratings despite failing to achieve any major changes. This time, Chilean leftists vow to hold her to her promises, which include a $15 billion spending program to overhaul education, improve health care and reduce the vast gap between rich and poor.

“The social and political conditions are here and at last the moment has arrived,” Bachelet said in her victory speech after Sunday’s election. “If I’m here it’s because we believe that a Chile for everyone is necessary.

It won’t be easy, but when has it been easy to change the world?”

Chile is the world’s top copper exporter, and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. But millions of Chileans who have protested in the streets in recent years say more of the copper wealth should be used to reduce income inequality and fix public schools.

Bachelet won 62 percent of the votes, easily defeating her conservative rival, Evelyn Matthei, who got only 37 percent in the worst performance by the right in two decades.

Bachelet needs momentum to overcome a slowing economy and congressional opposition.

The general election in November gave her center-left New Majority coalition a slim majority in both houses, and she’ll need the votes of centerright lawmakers to accomplish some of her proposals under Chile’s complicated, multi-tiered congressional voting system.

For now, she has enough votes in Congress to pass tax increases and will likely get support for educational reform. Changing the Pinochet-era electoral system and constitution, however, require super-majorities.

“She’ll achieve some things: The tax reform is in her pocket. ... I think student leaders who

have been elected to Congress will sign off on educational reform. Bachelet’s expectations are high, but things will be achieved,” said Kenneth Bunker, a Chilean political scientist.

Patricio Navia, a Chilean political scientist at New York University, sees a tough road for Bachelet, who ran the U.N.’s women’s agency after leaving the presidency.

“Her biggest challenge will be to match expectations with reality,” Navia said. “She campaigned that the country was going to continue growing at 6 percent a year and it’s barely going to grow at 3 percent a year.

The expectations are much higher than what she’ll be able to deliver.”

This was Chile’s first presidential election after voter registration became automatic, increasing the electorate from 8 million to 13.5 million of the country’s nearly 17 million people. But voting became optional with the change, and only 5.5 million voted in the runoff — 41 percent.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zaril holds a joint Press Conference Russian Counterpart Sergey Larov in Tehran, Iran Wednesday, December 14, 2013.

US Secretary of State John Kerry rides boat through the Sokoat River.

Turkish Cleric Challenges To Erodogan’s Might

ANKARA - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has won three general elections, weathered summer riots, subdued a meddling army and changed Turkey like few leaders before him in a decade in power.

But a rift with an enigmatic U.S.-based Islamic preacher, whose quiet influence in the police, secret services and judiciary looms large over the Turkish state, threatens to shake his hold on power ahead of elections next year.

The powerful network of Fethullah Gulen, who leads a worldwide Islamic movement from a forested compound in the United States, had helped Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party win a growing share of the vote in three successive elections.

“This is a nasty and bloody divorce,” wrote Kadri Gursel, a columnist critical of the government but who writes for the broadly pro-Erdogan Milliyet daily.

Summer protests and riots in central Istanbul underlined growing concern especially among secularists about

Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of government.

Recent months have also brought into the open conflicts with Gulen’s “Hizmet” (Service) movement. Chief focus in recent weeks has been a government plan to abolish private “prep” schools, many financed and run

by Gulen, on the grounds they give unfair advantage to wealthy parents.

Gulen has set up schools across Africa, the Middle East, the United States and Asia. They are a key source of income but also a powerful instrument of influence, especially in Turkey, creating a network of elite contacts and personal loyalties.

The Hizmet movement is widely seen as having helped break the grip of the army, selfappointed guardians of secularism, over Turkish politics, arguably Erdogan’s greatest achievement, through its influence in the judiciary, with

hundreds of officers convicted on coup plot charges.

Erdogan has built his own body of wealthy loyalists since he came to power in 2002, largely from the same religiously-minded professional class that revere Gulen, but a rift between the two risks fracturing that support base as polls approach.

When Erdogan visited Washington this year he sent an ally to Pennsylvania to sound out the plans of Gulen, who left Turkey in 1999 after being charged with plotting to establish Islamic law. But the power of Gulen, who was acquitted but has remained in America, lies partly in his enigmatic style.

There have long been ideological differences, many of Gulen’s followers seeing him as a more progressive and proWestern influence on Turkey than Erdogan, whose views on issues from abortion to alcohol consumption have triggered

accusations of interference in Turkish private life.

Those tensions have spilled into the open in a power struggle at the heart of the ruling party that could shape Turkey’s political landscape for the next decade.

Hizmet’s power lies more in its influence within the AK Party bureaucracy than any ability to sway voters at the ballot box.

With most of the electoral map AK Party orange, there is little sense it could unseat Erdogan even if it wanted.

But it could act as a check on what it might see as Erdogan’s excesses, throwing its weight for example behind the opposition in March local elections, with the commercial capital and largest city Istanbul the key prize.

An AK Party loss in Istanbul, which experts and pollsters see as broadly unlikely but do not rule out, would be a massive blow for Erdogan, who served as mayor in the city in the 1990s.

Even a reduced margin of victory would dent his standing.

Erdogan’s eyes may also be on August presidential elections which he is expected to contest and 2015 parliamentary polls.

“Just ahead of the local elections, to wage such a serious battle with the Hizmet movement gives an opportunity to test its electoral strength,” said Ahmet Sik, a journalist detained for a year over his book on Gulen’s life and influence.

“Erdogan will be able to see exactly what he is up against,” Sik told Reuters.

Mustafa Sarigul, the popular mayor of Istanbul’s upscale Sisli district for almost 14 years, is expected to stand for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the Istanbul mayoral race.

Born in eastern Turkey, he is not seen as typical of a CHP breed viewed by many AKP supporters as staunchly secularist, elitist and disconnected from the religiously conservative Anatolian heartlands where Erdogan draws core support.

International Militants Occupy City Councils As Iraq Attacks Kill 24 TIKRIT (IRAQ) - Militants detonated a car bomb at the Tikrit city council headquarters on Monday and occupied the building with employees inside,

as violence across Iraq left 24 people dead, officials said.

The city council assault, which came hours after another by

suicide bombers on a police station, illustrates the impunity with which militants in Iraq can strike even targets that should be

highly secure.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was emerging from

North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un (right) salutes as a honour guard match past as he and his aunt Kim Kyong-hui (left), Premier Pak Pong-ju attend the opening ceremony of the Cemetery of Fallen Fighters of the Korean people’s Army (KPA) in Pyongyang recently.

a period of brutal sectarian killings, raising fears it is slipping back into all-out conflict.

Security forces from both the army and police deployed around the city council building in Tikrit, near the village of late dictator Saddam Hussein north of Baghdad, an AFP journalist said.

Casualties from the attack were not immediately clear, nor was the number of council employees who were still inside the building, police said.

Security forces also ordered all government employees in the city, including teachers, to go home for the day.

The attack came after suicide bombers attacked a police station in the town of Baiji, which like Tikrit is located in Salaheddin province.

One bomber detonated a car bomb at the gate of the station, after which three entered, shot dead an officer and a policeman, and waited at the station.

SWAT forces then attacked, killing one of the militants, while the other two blew themselves up, killing three police.

And gunmen killed three soldiers guarding an oil pipeline in Tikrit.

Also on Monday, four car bombs and a magnetic “sticky bomb” on a vehicle exploded in and around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 38 — the second series of blasts in the area in 24 hours.

In one of the deadliest attacks,

Ukraine Ruling Party Demands Govt Reshuffle KIEV - Ukraine’s ruling party yesterday demanded a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, as political leaders seek to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis in a decade.

President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to scrap key agreements with the EU last month and then use police force against protesters sparked the largest demonstrations in the ex-Soviet country since the 2004 prodemocracy Orange Revolution.

Yanukovych has offered a number of concessions, sacking senior officials over police violence and announcing an amnesty for arrested protesters, in a bid to defuse the tension.

But the pro-EU opposition has dismissed these moves as halfmeasures. It is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and early presidential and parliamentary elections.

“We have put forward a

demand before Azarov to reformat the government by 90 percent,” Anna German, a lawmaker with Yanukovych’s Regions Party, told reporters after talks with Azarov.

“Azarov said that he will today let the position of the faction be known to the president and conclusions will certainly be made,” she told reporters after the closed-door meeting attended by the entire cabinet.

German, a former Yanukovych aide, said the resignation of Azarov was not discussed.

Party talks ‘emotional’ The president’s parliamentary representative, Yuriy Miroshnychenko, told reporters “decisive steps” were needed.

“An emotional conversation based on principals was held. We have to take the decisive steps necessary to solve the problems,” he said.

Azarov proposed creating a

working group, but the details and timing of any reshuffle had yet to be hammered out, Miroshnychenko added.

The announcement comes after the first direct talks between Yanukovych and the opposition collapsed on Friday.

On Sunday nearly 300,000 protesters flooded central Kiev despite freezing temperatures to demand the government sign the EU pact.

The authorities staged a counter rally bussing in thousands from the provinces.

The protest movement, now in its fourth week, is planning another major rally on Tuesday when Yanukovych is due to discuss a strategic partnership treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Kremlin aide, Andrei Belousov, told reporters ahead of the talks on Monday that Russia may give Ukraine a much-needed loan.

Bomb, Suicide Attacks Kill At least 21 TIKRIT - Suicide attacks and bombings across Iraq killed at least 21 people on Monday, medical and police sources said, the latest in a series of attacks that has brought violence in Iraq to its highest level in five years.

The deadliest attack took place in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, where four bombers wearing explosive belts took over a police station after detonating a parked car bomb outside the building, police sources said.

Two blew themselves up inside the station, killing five policemen. The other two took control of the station for about an hour before detonating themselves as Iraqi special forces

raided the station, the sources said.

“We believe that the attack was aimed at freeing the detainees who are being held in the building next door,” said Major Salih al-Qaisi, a police officer who was at the scene.

“All militants were killed before they reached the police department building where the detainees are held,” he added.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, but suicide bombings are the trademark of al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing, which merged this year with its Syrian counterpart to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In Baghdad, a string of car bombs and roadside bombs killed at least 14 people and wounded 34, police and medical sources said.

This year has been Iraq’s most violent since 2006-7, when tens of thousands died in strife between Sunnis and Shi’ites.

The government blames groups mainly linked to al Qaeda for the spike in violence, which it says has been stirred by the civil war in neighboring Syria where mostly Sunni rebels are battling a government allied to Shi’ite Iran.

Hundreds of Iraqis were killed last month, figures from the United Nations and the Iraqi government showed.

‘Selling Ukraine into the Customs Union’ Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in the capital and in western Ukraine over the past three weeks, putting intense pressure on Yanukovych to choose between the EU pact and the alliance with Moscow.

Analysts say either choice will further split the politically volatile country caught up

between a Ukrainian-speaking, pro-EU west and a Russianspeaking, Moscow-leaning east.

“On December 17, Viktor Yanukovych is flying to Moscow where he is planning to sign an agreement on selling Ukraine into the Customs Union in exchange for salvaging his own political fate,” opposition lawmaker Borys Tarasyuk said at the Sunday protest.

a car bomb exploded in a car park near the Baghdad provincial council headquarters, killing at least four people and wounding at least 11.

The attacks came after another series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least nine people on Monday night.

And violence elsewhere in the country on Monday killed a further 11 people, among them a TV presenter and a family of five.

The presenter, Nawras alNuaimi, was the sixth journalist to be killed in Iraq since October, five of whom died in the northern city of Mosul.

Iraq has come in for repeated criticism over shortcomings in media freedom, and ranks first in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index, which tracks unsolved murders of journalists.

More people died in the first eight days of this month than in the whole of last December, and over 6,450 people have been killed since the beginning of 2013, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

Officials have blamed the violence on Al-Qaeda-linked militants emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, but analysts and diplomats also say the government has not done enough to address underlying domestic grievances fuelling the violence.

Members of the country’s Sunni minority, who complain of discrimination at the hands of the Shiite-led government, have held demonstrations for almost a year.

Unrest spiked after security forces stormed a Sunni Arab protest camp north of Baghdad in April, sparking clashes that killed dozens of people.

The government has made some concessions aimed at placating Sunni Arabs, including freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, and has also trumpeted security operations against militants.

But daily attacks show no signs of abating.

Clash In China’s Xinjiang Kills 16 BEIJING - Sixteen people were killed in a clash in China’s Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority. Reports said, less than two months after a fiery attack in Tiananmen Square. Police attempting to detain criminal suspects in Shufu county near the Silk Road city of Kashgar, deep in far western China, were attacked by several “thugs” armed with explosive devices and knives, reported the tianshannet news portal, which is run by the Xinjiang government.

Two police officers were killed and 14 of the “thugs” shot dead on Sunday, it said, adding that two criminal suspects were detained.

The incident come less than two months after an attack in Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the Chinese state, when according to police, three Xinjiang Uighurs ploughed into crowds of tourists, killing two people and injuring 40, before crashing outside the Forbidden City and setting their vehicle ablaze.

The three attackers — named by authorities as Usmen Hasan,

his wife and his mother — all died.

Beijing described the assault, the first blamed on Uighurs outside Xinjiang, as “terrorism” and said separatists backed by the militant East Turkestan Islamic Movement were responsible.

But outside experts pointed to the unsophisticated nature of the attack and the lack of an established Islamist extremist foothold in China.

Xinjiang, a vast area bordering Pakistan and Central Asia beyond the furthest reaches of the Great Wall, has followed Islam for centuries.

For years it has seen sporadic unrest by Uighurs which rights groups say is driven by cultural oppression, intrusive security measures and immigration by China’s Han majority, but Beijing attributes to religious extremists, terrorism and separatism.

In the worst outbreak of sectarian violence in recent years, around 200 people died and more than 1,600 were injured and hundreds arrested in riots in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009.

A total of 11 people — nine attackers and two auxiliary police

officers — were killed in an attack on a police station in Serikbuya township near Kashgar last month, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Another incident in June in the Turpan area left 35 people dead, and 139 people have been arrested in recent months for spreading jihadist ideology.

Information in the area is tightly controlled and difficult to independently verify.

In August, a Chinese policeman was killed in an incident in Yilkiqi described by state media as an “anti-terrorism” operation, but overseas media said 22 Uighurs were shot dead in the confrontation.

Authorities in Kashgar were not immediately available for comment on the latest incident when contacted by AFP on Monday.

More than 190 “terrorist” attacks were logged in Xinjiang last year, rising “by a significant margin” from 2011, state media reported last month.

Most of the attackers were in their early 30s or younger and increasingly act in small groups or individually as “a lone wolf”, they added.

Issue Problems And Challenges Of Insecurity In Nigeria: IT is imperative in this presentation to come to certain terms with what we are going to talk about. This is because when we say insecurity, we must first begin by making it clear that more lives are lost in our country through road crashes, diseases which could have been prevented, by reason of lack of commitment and care by our various governments.

(I will call this social insecurity).

In fact morality; Ignorance, illiteracy and poverty is also ravaging the land. I will indict successive governments for causing so many deaths of Nigerians, directly or indirectly, mostly as a result of massive and unchecked corruption, greed, selfishness, lack of political will and conscience and of course lack of vision and purpose.

Insecurity, especially internal insecurity, is not a problem that is peculiar to Nigeria alone. The U.S, U.K and many other countries face the challenges of insecurity within their borders on a daily basis. The difference between them and our country Nigeria is how they manage the threats, how knowledgeable and prepared they are, how they deploy resources against the threats; how effective they are; how patriotic and united these people are against threats of insecurity. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria Section 14, ( F U N D A M E N TAL OBJECTIVES AND DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY) state that: It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform, to observe and apply the provision of this chapter of this constitution.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice.

It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government and, (c) The participation by

The Way Forward

the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provision of this constitution.

From this, we see that it is expressly stated in our constitution that government(s) is ultimately responsible for the security, of lives, property e.t of the people in Nigeria.

INTERNAL SECURITY – It is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other self governing territories. This is done generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats.

Responsibility for internal security may range from police to paramilitary forces and in exceptional circumstances, the military itself.

FORCES AND AGENCIES Governmental responsibility for internal security will generally rest with an interior ministry, as opposed to a defence ministry.

Defending on the state, a state’s internal security will be maintained by either the ordinary policies or law enforcement agencies or more militarized police forces (known as Gendarmeric). In some states, internal security may be the primary responsibility of a secret police force. What every Nigerian should be doing is asking and demanding answers on what has been done so far since October 1st 2010 Independence Day. Twin bombing not to mention numerous bombing in Maduguri, Bauchi and Adamawa. Mind you these are not the first instances of such insecurity. Insecurity has been our problem probably since we became a Republic, only we decided to turn blind eyes to it.

When the CIA report of 2005 predicted the collapse of Nigeria in about 15 years time, patriots and critics alike reacted differently to the report. For me, as much as I wanted to dismiss it, something kept niggling my mind that this might be a true prophetic position on the state of Nigeria. Not because CIA is dependable in its security analysis, after all they didn’t get it right to prevent 9/11

2001 from happening, but events in Nigeria seemed to suggest that while other countries in the sub-region were developing, Nigeria was retrogressing despite its claim to democracy.

People expected the then Government of Obasanjo to take this warning as a chance for Nigeria to look inwards, engage with the report, and work on those predictive

indices that could lead to the predicted failure. But, inopportunely, the Obasanjo government dismissal is not entirely a surprise, since our leaders, over the years, are prone to such habits of shielding the truth from their people, not caring as long, as it does not happen in their time, are actually very ignorant of what is going on around them, and are obstinate and tyrannical in their nature.

The current general state of insecurity in Nigeria has now lent weight to the report. It must be recalled that while the report was released at the advent of the so-called Niger Delta crisis, since then several acts of bombings and killings by the extremist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the carnage between ethnic Birom and the Hausa/Fulani in Jos, and the political violence that followed immediately after the 2011 elections results, mostly in the northern part of

the country, have further cemented the insecure state of the country.

Starting with the usual religious/ethnic oriented conflicts to the jos ethnic/ religious/political conflict of 2008. Regrettably, the northern states have shown the security of persons and properties is still far from being realizable. However, the current crisis which

insecurity. For instance, state like Euugu and Bauchi that have huge tourism potential would be losing out and this front.

On different terrorist attacks listen to what leaders with political will had to say: on 9/ 11: “This is an act of war against the United States.

We’ll hunt down the terrorists.

They can run but they can’t hide…George Bush, London

immediately after his election raised questions which are still unanswered, about security preparedness. At least 800 people were said to have been killed in these Muslim – Christian electoral violence.

In all, what we need is a good government, no more no less. And a good government is possible in as much as people who are put in positions of authority are allowed and are committed to discharge their duties without fear or favour; are determined to serve with zeal and patriotism; are ready to sell

started in Bauchi and has engulfed other states in the north has element of theocratic opinionated ambition in it while the fundamentalist group – Boko Haram’s demand for the jettisoning of a western behavioural pattern and the imposition of strict sharia law can be described as absurd to say the least, we should equally view it with all the seriousness it deserves.

What the current trend of violence is imprinting on the psyche of Nigerians is that the government security apparatus is incapable of guaranteeing the safety and security of its people. This would, therefore, Impact on the general human security of the people as the situation promotes fear, while at the same time limiting the peoples ability to develop economically. At the same time, the state’s capacity to attract investors becomes limited as a result of the

Bombing: “We’ll track down the terrorists and bring them to Justice” – Tony Blair UN House Bombing: “Terrorism is a global phenomenon. May be it is Nigeria’s turn”. Goodluck Jonathan.

So what our supreme leader is saying is that, “why not, it’s our turn to start getting blown up” how much more should we expect that shows you the depth of intelligence and care of our leaders.

Security was a driving issue in the last presidential campaign following bomb blast by Niger Delta militants and attack of police by members of the extremist Islamic group, Boko Haram in the Northern part of the country.

President Jonathan campaigned very hard to convince Nigerians that his government were meeting those security challenges. But the noting, mostly in the North that followed

out to international capital and are ready to stand by the truth and die for it. In all, there is no mono culture theory that Nigeria should evolve into six regions, each region having its premier or governor, each region has a right to retain its states or to abolish – the choice is theirs in the region to make; each region should be in charge of its education, security, health, Agriculture, Housing Transport and Energy policies. The Central government should be in charge of the Army. Central Bank, Customs, prisons and Immigration services, MOPOL and Interpol, ALL WORKING are the same time IN THE INTEREST OF THE COUNTRY. The objectives to this sovereign national conference are coming significantly from the region that the fall out from that conference would sufficiently be in their favour pessimism is a social disease but in a society of rights, it is right.

Andre Villas-Boas Sacked

By Spurs

TOTTENHAM Hotspur head coach Andre Villas-Boas insists he has no thoughts of quitting despite a 5-0 humbling at the hands of Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.Tags: Soccer, Epl, Premier, League, Liverpool, Tottenham, Hotspur, Spurs, Avb, Andre, Villas-boas, Barclays track.”

Tottenham Hotspur have Villas-Boas was not afforded announced that head coach Andre the time he craved to get results Villas-Boas has left the club by back on track as his dismissal mutual consent. came swiftly after the Liverpool The Portuguese coach, who defeat, with former Tottenham took over at Tottenham in the midfielder Jamie Redknapp summer of 2012, leaves the club among those who expected the following Sunday’s 5-0 move from Spurs chairman hammering at home to Liverpool. Daniel Levy.

“The club can announce that “Daniel Levy likes sacking agreement has been reached with managers, so this is not a head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, surprise,” Redknapp told Sky for the termination of his Sports. “I don’t know if they have services,” said a short statement someone else lined up, but we on the club’s official website. have to be honest and say he was “The decision was by mutual very lucky to get that job after consent and in the interests of all what happened to him at parties.

Chelsea.”

“We wish Andre well for the Last season, Villas-Boas led future. We shall make a further Spurs to their record points haul announcement in due course.” for a Premier League campaign Villas-Boas leaves White Hart with 72, but that total was not Lane with Spurs seventh in the enough to see them return to the Premier League table, five points top four and earn a Champions off the top four and eight points League place. His overall record off leaders and local rivals in the job makes for impressive Arsenal. reading, as he has averaged 1.83 The loss to Liverpool was points per league match, the Spurs’ third heavy defeat this highest of all Spurs bosses in the season, with October’s shock 3- Premier League era.

0 defeat at home to local rivals However, the club’s ambition West Ham putting a dent in their to regularly compete in the then-impressive defensive record Champions League appeared to long before they were humbled be under threat as Villas-Boas 6-0 at Manchester City in lost the confidence of the club’s November. Their latest heavy supporters and ultimately the defeat heaped the pressure on the White Hart Lane board. youthful Spurs boss as he met the The proceeds of the worldmedia for what proved to be the record sale of Gareth Bale to Real final time at White Hart Lane.

Madrid was spent on a host of “Regarding my position it’s not attacking players such as Roberto me who decides. I can only work Soldado, Erik Lamela, Christian to make things better,” he told his Eriksen and Nacer Chadli, but postmatch news conference. “I Villas-Boas was unable to get assume the responsibility of the technical director Franco failure. I won’t resign and I’m not Baldini’s summer recruits to gel a quitter. The only thing I can do on the pitch quickly enough for is work hard with the players and Tottenham’s liking. try and get the results back on

Yaya Hails City Win YAYA Toure has hailed Manchester City’s 6-3 victory over Arsenal on Saturday and has thanked the fans for their support. he Citizens threw open the title race with their impressive victory which saw them move three points short of leaders Arsenal in the Premier League table.

Toure, who made his return to the starting line-up after missing

the midweek Champions League match to Bayern Munich, due to suspension, took to Twitter to express his joy.

“Great win today! Thanks to all our fans for the support..there is no city without you!!!” he wrote on his official account.

City have currently won ten games, drawn two and lost four in their opening 16 league matches.

Former England manager and current Russia coach Fabio Capello is among the bookmakers’ favourites after the Italian was spotted in the crowd at White Hart Lane watching the Liverpool game on Sunday.

Swansea boss Michael Laudrup, Guus Hiddink, Spurs technical coordinator Tim Sherwood and Ajax boss Frank de Boer are also thought to be among the potential candidates.

Andre Villas-Boas

JOSE Mourinho is demanding Chelsea develop a ruthless streak in front of goal to avoid the feeling of panic which can set in when a side is struggling to kill off opponents.

Chelsea are within sight of Christmas Day at the Barclays Premier League summit after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat of Crystal Palace saw Mourinho’s men move two points behind their next league opponents Arsenal.

“The base of our game is to kill opponents by scoring goals, because we don’t want to go in the direction of being a more defensive team,” Mourinho said.

“This is the easy direction to go: to build a team, to close the team, to make it compact, to wait for a goal, waiting for a counterattack.

“This is not what we want to do and because it’s not what we want to do, the way to kill opponents is to score goals.”

Arsenal lost 6-3 at Manchester City, who are demonstrating a clinical cutting edge, particularly at home.

But asked if Chelsea should be more like City, Mourinho said: “Man City is one point behind us, so they need to be more like us.”

Chelsea beat City in October, when Fernando Torres scored his most recent Premier League goal prior to his opening strike against Palace.

But Mourinho is eager Chelsea show the ruthlessness of a team like City, who also netted six against another title rival, Tottenham.

“When you don’t kill opponents playing well, when in the game you have bad moments - because you always have bad moments in the game - you are in trouble,” Mourinho added.

“You put yourself into trouble and you panic a little bit. When you lose possession of the ball or when they get a free-kick or when they get a corner or when they put a long ball in the box, you shake. And because you shake, you make mistakes.”

Jose Mourinho

Wilshere Awaits FA Review For City Gesture

ARSENAL are waiting to hear what punishment could be coming Jack Wilshere’s way after the midfielder aimed an abusive hand gesture towards Manchester City supporters during Saturday’s 6-3 loss at the Etihad Stadium.

The Football Association will review referee Martin Atkinson’s full match report before deciding whether to launch a disciplinary case against Wilshere after television cameras showed him raising his middle finger in the direction of home fans.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the club will accept any punishment the FA hands down.

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was suspended for one match, fined £20,000 and warned about his future conduct after he made the same gesture to home fans

as he walked off the pitch following a 1-0 defeat at Fulham in December 2011.

A possible ban for Wilshere could be compounded by bad news on the injury front, with

Arsenal awaiting an update on Laurent Koscielny after the defender suffered a deep cut attempting to prevent Alvaro Negredo scoring City’s second goal.

Jack Wilshere

Krul Hails Magpies’ Resilience

Yaya Toure

Mourinho Demands Killer Instinct

GOALKEEPER Tim Krul has praised Newcastle’s newfound resilience after seeing his side weather a Southampton fightback.

The Magpies were left kicking themselves after passing up a series of chances to see off the Saints at St James’ Park on Saturday, and they ultimately had to make do with a point as Jay Rodriguez’s second-half strike secured a 1-1 draw for the visitors.

But while there was

disappointment for Alan Pardew’s men at their failure to claim a sixth Barclays Premier League win in seven attempts, Krul was able to take positives from their refusal to succumb as Southampton mounted their big push.

He said: “It was a good point.

It keeps Southampton at a distance.

“Last year, we would have lost these type of games, so I’m pleased we took a point in the

end.

“Both sides had their chances.

We had a couple of good chances and they hit the post.

“They had their chances as well and Adam Lallana made the difference when he came on. It could have gone both ways.

“Now we have Crystal Palace away and it’s a difficult game but a game we look forward to, and we go there with a lot of confidence.

“You can’t win every game, so I am pleased with a point.”

The heavy defeat at City saw the Gunners’ lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League cut to two points, with the visit of second-placed Chelsea next up on December 23.

Wenger believes his side’s response to the bitter disappointment of Saturday’s humiliation could define their season.

“It is how we respond in the next game, that is what makes a season. It can happen,” Wenger said.

“You could see we played on Wednesday away from home and we were not as fresh as we can be, but it is how we respond now.

“There are always positives in a game and there were a lot of them, but still we have to come back to reality.

“It is about us defending together in games like that and we did not do that.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Mesut Ozil has apologised for failing to applaud the visiting fans at full-time in Saturday’s match.

“Sorry I didn’t thank the fans at the end of the game!”

Arsenal’s record signing said on his Facebook page.

“You have been brilliant to me and I know you had travelled a long way and spent your money to support us.

“I was upset with the result and know I should have come to you to say ‘thank you’ and I know it is a big Arsenal tradition win, lose or draw.”

Kalou Sparks Lille To Victory IVORY Coast striker Salomon Kalou snapped his eight match scoring drought in style as he struck twice to help Lille to a 2-1 win over Bastia and back into the Ligue 1 title race.

The 2012 Champions League draw and fall 15 points back of winner, who was Lille’s top scorer leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

Andre-Pierre Gignac pulled the last season with 16 goals, took his tally this season to five with a brace Velodrome giants back into the tie of first-half strikes that ultimately with a goal just before half-time downed the Corsican visitors. before Florian Thauvin smashed Also on Sunday, seven-time home a desperate equaliser with 11 champions Lyon were driven by minutes remaining. first-half goals from Alexandre At Lille, Ludovic Genest gave Lacazette, his ninth of the season, Bastia a stunning start to the match and French international Bafetimbi Gomis to put them 2-0 up before Marseille launched a stirring CHANGE OF comeback to snatch a 2-2 draw.

NAME Remi Garde’s team remain in the top ten amidst a mini-revival, while BRAIMAH – I formerly new Marseille coach Jose Anigo known and addressed as picked up his first league points since taking over from fired Miss Braimah Sadrait predecessor Elie Baup.

Animatu now wish to be Marseille drop to sixth with the

RECONCILIATION OF NAME I, MRS. PHILOMENA EHOMAHENMWEN NEHIKHARE wish to bring for the information of the general public that I am the same person as Miss Patience Omorodion and Miss Philomena Ehomahenmwen Omorodion as appeared in my various documents.

Henceforth, I am properly known and addressed as Mrs. P h i l o m e n a Ehomahenmwen Nehikare.

All former documents remain valid. Edo Development and Property Authority (EDPA) and the general public should please take note.

known and addressed as Mrs. Animatu AbdulLawal A. Momoh. All former documents remain valid.

Concerned authorities and the general public should please take note.

DISTINGUISHED SENATOR, CHIEF J.E MANAGER’S FANS/ SUPPORTERS CLUB, TORUGBENE, GREET THEIR AMIABLE LEADER / FATHER.

when he hit the target after only three minutes with a long distance volley that flew past Lille’s African champion goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

However Rene Girard’s men refused to buckle and took an important stride towards their 12th win in 18 matches when Kalou scored twice in five minutes.

CHANGE OF NAME AGHOMON – I formerly known and addressed as Miss Stellamaris Agbons Aghomon now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Stellamaris Chukwudi Njoku. All former documents remain valid.

Concerned authorities and the general public should please take note.

RECONCILIATION OF NAME I, OSAHON ASEMOTA whose full name is Osahenrhunmwunmwen Asemota has been officially called Osahon Asemota since I was registered in primary school by my parents in 1985. Osahon is the abbreviated form of Osahenrhunmwunmwen. All my other documents bearing Osahenrhunmwunmwen Asemota remain valid. The Nigerian Government, the general public in Nigeria, the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency of Jamaica (PICA) the government of Jamaica and the general public in Jamaica to take note, please.

SEN. JAMES EBIOWOU MANAGER We the fans / Supporters Club of Distinguished Senator, Chief J.E. Manager, Torugbene, hereby felicitate with our amiable Father, Leader and a true genius for his benevolent acts across the Niger Delta Region, especially the 120n nation at large Sir, your leadership has made the120n nation more transparent and visible to other tribes across the country.

Infact, we have true, transparent, viable and accountable leaders across the 120n nation but your leadership is incomparable in terms of infrastructural development, and human empowerment. The whole 120n speaking people across the Delta state in particular know fully well that it is through your effort and support, we have the bridge across Bomadi overside to Bomadi main town, motorable road from Bomadi to Gbaligolo Town, from Gbaligoio Town to Ogiriagbene Town, from Oginagbene Town to Torugbene Town and from Bomadi to Torugbene Town.

Moreover, we, Torugbene citizens mostly your fans club cannot forget to mention your good deeds and support you have rendered to Torugbene community at large.

In totality, Torughene citizens, mostly your supporters club, hereby appeal to the Federal Government to give our leader, Distinguished Senator Chief J.E. Manager the chance to rule Delta State in the forthcoming general election and be patient to see how he will transform the entire state.

Courtesy: CHIEF J E. MANAGER FANS CLUB —TORUGBENE:

SIGNED: COM. ISAIAH OJOTO PRESIDENT

COM. BRIGHT TEBEYEI SECRETARY

Gyan Extends Lead On UAE Scorers Chart GHANA striker Asamoah Gyan extended his lead on the UAE Arabian Gulf League scorers chart with a brace for Al Ain who thumped Al Shaab 5-2 on Sunday afternoon.

Gyan has now scored 13 goals in 10 league appearances for the Boss.

The 27-year-old opened the scoring with a neatly converted spot-kick on 24 minutes after he was fouled inside the box.

He made no mistake to send the goalkeeper the wrong way for the game’s first goal.

But Michael Laurent N’dri levelled for Al Shaab on 43 minutes and just before the half-time whistle gone,

Chiefs Put Pressure Back On Manyama KAIZER Chiefs have piled the pressure back on the agent of Lebogang Manyama by calling off the player’s transfer from Ajax Cape Town.

Chiefs agreed terms with Ajax last week and submitted a threeyear contract proposal to Manyama’s agent, former Bafana Bafana midfielder Maimane Phiri.

Phiri has gone on record as saying that Chiefs is his client’s second choice though and that he is holding out for a European move.

There does appear to have been interest in the forward from at least one overseas club and Chiefs have essentially given Manyama and ‘take it or leave it’ option by publicly calling off his transfer.

If he does want to complete his move to Naturena then he will have to return to the negotiating and may arguably have to settle for less than the original contract offer.

Manyama is free to negotiate with any club of his choice in January as he will have just six months remaining on his contract at Ajax.

Mohanad Salem gave Al Ain their lead.

Michael Bastos made it 3-1 when he fired in a low grounder at the near post in the 55th minute.

Gyan provided the assist for the fourth goal which was headed in by Alex Brosque four minutes later The Ghana captain then headed in the fifth goal and personal second in the 79th minute.

Michael Laurent N’dri then pulled one back for Al Shaab.

Asamoah Gyan

CHAN 2014

Home-based Super Eagles To Train Twice Daily THE Super Eagles will as from Monday, Dec. 16 train twice a day in preparation for the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN), an official said on Sunday in Abuja.

A statement by Ben Alaiya, the team’s Media Officer, said the team would henceforth train both in the morning and in the evening.

It said the training would be shifted from the astro-turf FIFA Goal Project pitch to the training pitch of the Abuja National Stadium.

The statement quoted Alaiya as saying this was to enable the players get used to playing on natural grass.

“Organisers of CHAN 2014 will use natural turf for the tournament,’’ it said.

The CHAN 2014 is scheduled to hold in South Africa from Jan. 11 to Feb. 1.

The statement further explained the decision by the team’s Stephen Keshi-led

technical crew to return the team to its usual twice daily training session.

It said it was for the crew to quickly prune down the number of players in the team’s camp in Abuja from 30 to 23.

“There is little time left for the technical crew to prune down the present squad from 30 players to 23.

Osaze Salutes Cardiff Team Spirit

OSAZE Odemwingie has hailed Cardiff City’s team spirit after a vital 1-0 victory over his former club West Bromwich Albion.

Peter Whittingham’s bravery was rewarded in the second-half as he headed home a fantastic Craig Noone delivery at the far post, capping off a performance of endeavour from the Bluebirds to claim three vital points.

And delighted with the victory against his former side, Nigeria international Osaze said: “As a team we are very strong. We showed that today, you can’t pick out a stand out performance, it was a team effort.

“Since I arrived, the team spirit has been fantastic and the camaraderie is very good between the boys. There is a strong relationship between the players and the manager and I think that makes us work as a unit.

“It was a very important three points that came at the right time for us. We lost our last game and needed to bounce back - they were the instructions from the manager.”

It’s a victory that sends ‘The Bluebirds’ into a frenetic festive period full of confidence, with the three points against ‘The Baggies’ all the more important with an

away trip to Liverpool and Anfield up next for Malky Mackay’s side.

“We’re happy to be back winning,” said Osaze. “We’ve got some difficult games coming up so the win over West Brom was important to give us confidence heading into the next few weeks.

“I think December is one of the most difficult times for any club.

As a group we are very strong here and I hope that our performance today can bode well for us in that run.

“We’ve had good performances this year, against Man City, against Swansea and now against

West Brom that will give us plenty of confidence and can only serve to inspire us in every game we play.”

It was the first time the Nigeria star had faced his former club since leaving the Hawthorns for Cardiff in the summer, with the City forward maintaining fond memories of the West Midlands side.

“It’s a great club, they are a part of my success,” explained Osaze.

“I scored a lot of goals there and have some great memories.”

West Brom manager Steve Clarke will be sacked soon after this loss.

Stephen Keshi

‘Eto’o One Of The Best’ FORMER Arsenal striker Theirry Henry hopes to see Samuel Eto’o return to scoring, claiming he is one of the best ever.

Despite their star-studded lineup, Chelsea have been guilty of misfiring of late in which they struggled to claim a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Fernando Torres bagged the opening goal, but that was just his second Premier League goal of the season. Demba Ba only has

Osaze Odemwingie

Unpredictable Matsatsanta

Lebogang Manyama

“Hence, there is the need to intensify training and get the best out of the players in the camp.

“It’s expected that by the end of the week the team would have been pruned down in preparation for departure to South Africa in the first week of January,’’ Keshi was quoted in the statement as saying.

The statement also said the Eagles training session was returning to twice daily following the conclusion of the National Youth Games (NYG).

MAMELODI Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane says that SuperSport United’s unpredictability makes them difficult to play.

‘Downs and United will clash on Monday night in Pretoria in what is expected to be a thrilling derby match. The first-placed Brazilians have a five point lead over fifth-placed United.

“We will be very cautious against SuperSport because we remember what happened the last time we played them,” Mosimane

told his club’s official website.

“We dominated them and we should have won the match but their wonder goal stole the show.

“This is a very big match, more so that it’s a derby but we are not into the bragging rights hype.

Our focus is getting maximum points especially against such a team.

“They will be difficult to play against because they change their team a lot. Their coach seems not to have found his combination yet, so you can’t predict them.”

Samuel Eto’o

the one goal to his name while Samuel Eto’o also has just the two goals.

“In an ideal world you would want them to score more goals, but the quality that you see there - Samuel Eto’o, one of the best strikers in the history of the game,” Henry told Gary Lineker in studio.

“Hopefully for Chelsea they will be back scoring and I’m sure they will, they have too much quality to stay like that.”

CMYK

THERE has been no stronger vindication of public fears about the lack of sincerity of the current administration than the recent letter to President Goodluck Jonathan written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Even if we have genuine reasons to question the right of the “pot” to call the “kettle” black, we must admit that what is important here is that the “pot” has decided to speak up and confirm the fears that some of us have always nursed about this administration.

The issue here is no longer who is worse off but that the gang has decided to break it’s code of silence and let us in on the vile realities that have defined their activities so far.

Of course, most Nigerians cannot be shocked by allegations of corruption anymore. We do not need a letter to know how much of a festering sore this has become. It has become so rampant that it now feels like the norm for many since the government has consistently ignored it’s responsibility to address the issue, but it certainly is interesting to hear One of the key actors in Nigeria’s political inner circle making such weighty allegations against a man he had forced on Nigerians against their wishes.

What is also interesting is the fact that Obasanjo has joined a growing list of “former” Jonathan supporters who have jumped ship and have made public their doubts about his sincerity to fight corruption; this is not a good sign. Obasanjo is not the only one who has spoken out about the malfeasance in the NNPC, several i n t e r n a t i o n a l organisations, and even national institutions, have raised these same issues many times before.

Recently, the governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, recently expressed concerns over huge sums that were not

remitted by the National Petroleum company. We cannot simply dispel these worries as part of a surreptitious plot to undermine the president’s efforts, which seems to be the most common retort of the president’s men these

Obasanjo expressly reveals his own doubts about the authenticity of the same man he went to great lengths to impose on Nigerians and he also buttresses the worries of many Nigerians about the dangers that lurk in

OBJ’s Letter

A Letter To Ponder On

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan days.

There is no better vindication of the many allegations levelled against the government than to read about the creator’s dissatisfaction with his creation and the sly insinuations that his 2007 game plan has come back to bite him hard; a priceless peep into the inner doubts that we have been prevented from knowing all this while.

I find some particular points pertinent to note here: first is the admission that Mr. President did promise to do one term, which the Presidency has gone to great lengths to deny; the admission that a surreptitious plot exists to exploit ethnic and religious sentiments for personal ambition and how this has been played out in the constant threats of violence by the “Ijaw Nation” if Mr. President is not re-elected in 2015. By these two claims,

personalising the 2015 political programme.

Obasanjo expresses the same fears that most Nigerians have expressed over the years. If Obasanjo admits this, I do not see anyone countering that claim since he was almost single-handedly responsible for creating the president’s national political profile.

Consistently, there have been allegations of presidential influence in cases of political witchhunting, some of which Obasanjo candidly speaks about in the letter such as the crisis in Rivers State.

He even goes further to reveal some frightening allegations that he says he has been informed about: the compilation of a political watch list that contains the names of a thousand people should not be taken lightly, neither should such claims as the training of a sniper squad be considered the rantings

of a senile old man. Coming from a former president who most probably still has a few eyes and ears within the Presidential villa and in the state security agencies, it would be difficult to wave off these allegations as mere rantings. There might be some element of truth to them.

For me, there is also a personal satisfaction that comes with reading about the same issues that I have always raised and also some of the suggestions that I have made. On President Jonathan’s support for some opposition party governors in order to secure their endorsement of his candidacy, I believe many Nigerians have always voiced their doubts about the sincerity of the country’s political process. Obasanjo is the last person to voice dissatisfaction with this as his hands in the Imo elections that saw Ikedi Ohakim emerge as

Governor was nothing different. However, it would be diversionary to respond to his allegations by simply referring to his own past misdeeds.

Obasanjo has raised salient issues and they must be looked at sincerely.

While I do not think he has the moral right to castigate anyone for political hooliganism I am aware that the political challenges in the country today raise serious concerns for all of us and Obasanjo’s allegations speak the minds of many Nigerians. I do not know if he has done this for ulterior reasons but I know that it is timely and suspect it is inspired by the fear that the growing tide of public anger may sweep him too.

The president’s men who intend to respond to the letter must think long and hard about their responses and must not concentrate on just casting aspersions on Obasanjo’s person or stressing on his political

antecedents. They should rather be ready to counter the points raised in the letter with rebuttals that clearly exonerate Mr. President.

While I have my doubts about his sincerity, I share Obasanjo’s views on the failure of the president’s tactics in the fight against terrorism in the north.

Some successes may have been recorded in stemming the spread but very little has been achieved in eradicating the threat. Just as he says, I believe we have put too much effort in conventional approaches to fighting the scourge rather than concentrate on the key areas that need attention.

As Obasanjo says, “there are many strands or layers of causes that require different solutions approaches or antedotes.

Drugs, indoctrination, fundamentalism, gun trafficking, hate culture, human trafficking, money laundering, religion, poverty. Unemployment, poor education, revenge and international terrorism are among the factors that have effect on Boko Haram.” if the government fails to address all these key issues it would be impossible to defeat the scourge.

Even as we recognise Obasanjo’s penchant for fuelling controversy, as he has done since the Babangida days, It is disheartening that those who claim to support the President have chosen to dwell on Obasanjo’s personal flaws than address the substance of the letter. The issues he has raised are pertinent and potential fuel for conflict.

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