Nigerian observer 31 01 2014

The Nigerian

PUBLISHED SINCE MAY 29, 1968 INTERVIEW Pages 16-17 cmyk

I have performed creditably - AAU VC

ART AND CULTURE Page 19

Idolatries in culture

• Vol . 38 NO.410• FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2 0 13 • N100.00

Info Commissioner addresses community workers

BENIN CITY - The Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Information and Orientation Hon. Louis Odion has enjoined workers of Centre for Community D e v e l o p m e n t

Education, (GRA) Benin City to be deligent in their duties.

The Hon. Commissioner who was

represented by Amb. Femi Okuo, the Director Department of C o m m u n i t y

Development stressed the need for the workers to be punctual and dedicated to their duties.

Continues on page 2

Presidency Impeachment Amendment fails in Reps

By JOSES SEDE/EDITH IMOISILI

ABUJA - Amendment proposal to Section 143 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) on the removal of the President and his vice failed yesterday at the House of Representatives.

When the question The rejected proposal was put, 172 members had attempted voted in favour of the simplifying removal of clause, while 122 voted the President of the against it, with three Federal Republic and abstinence. Those in (or) his Vice through onefavour of the amendment third majority “Whenever could not garner the a notice of any allegation statutory two-third of the in writing, signed by not votes (240) of members less than one-third of required to amend the members of the House of section.

Representatives, is Out of the 19 clauses presented to the speaker contained in ?the report of the House of of the ad-hoc committee Representatives”, on the review of the 1999 instead of the hitherto Constitution, only the provided two-third.

impeachment clause did not scale through.

Highlights of the amendments include immunity for lawmakers for words spoken during parliamentary sittings and the removal of the clause that provides

that a lawmaker’s seat be declared vacant if he joins a board or commission of government.

Others are insurance for NYSC members against death and serious injury during

official duty and sanction for failure to refuse summons by the legislature.

The Deputy Speaker, Mr Emeka Ihedioha, described the successful voting on outstanding bills on the constitution

review as a triumph of democracy.

He said that the feat was the resolve of the house to always put national interest above all other considerations.

Continues on page 2

Senate confirms appointment ASUU insists on implementation of CDS, Service Chiefs of agreement ABUJA - The Senate yesterday in Abuja approved the appointments of the new Chief of Defence Staff and the service chiefs.

The confirmation followed the screening by the Joint Senate Committee on Defence, Army, Navy and Air Force and the adoption of the report by the Senate.

The committee was mandated by the Senate on January 23

to screen the nominees and submit the report within one week.

The Senate Minority Leader, George Akume (APC-Benue), said that contrary to beliefs in some quarters, the APC was not against their appointment.

Akume said that the party was in full support of the appointments.

“I wish to state here that we at the other side are in full support of the appointments of Chief of Defence Staff and

TIT BIT “That a people would have to abide with leaders who will not listen to their cries, is significantly in remembrance of the sin of opting for the government of man”.

- Kingsley Ogbeide-Ihama

service chief,” Akume said He urged the officers to work in line with democratic tenets and that they must see their appointments as service to their fatherland.

He also advised them to maintain peace and Continues on page 2

AU OPENING SESSION: President Goodluck Jonathan (left) FAO Director General, Jose Graziano da Silva and Nigeria’s Agric Minister, Dr. Kinwumi Adeshina at the opening session of the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on Wednesday.

Edo introduces monthly road walk for exco, others

THE Edo Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Christopher Okaeben, yesterday said the government had introduced monthly road walk for members of its state executive council and top civil servants.

Addressing newsmen in Benin, the newly sworn-in commissioner, said the road walk was meant to keep the state’s policy makers in top shape for carrying out their daily activities.

He said that apart from keeping them fit; the walk

would also prevent the problem of sudden death usually occasioned by cardiac arrest.

Okaeben said the walk which would also include members of the state legislature and the

judiciary, would take place on the last Saturday of every month.

“You will agree with me that the issue of cardiac arrest has become a Continues on page 2

Senate in rowdy session

By JOSES SEDE

ABUJA - Serenity that sign posts the 7th Senate of the Federal Republic since inception, was yesterday, jolted for the second time in two

... Mark’s absence frustrates defection

weeks, when defection resolve of about eleven senators of the Peoples Democratic Party extraction to the opposing All Progressive Congress was frustrated.

The interim national publicity secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had sold a dummy to the public when he issued a press statement on

Wednesday that eleven PDP Senators had defected to the APC, an assertion that turned falsehood on the floor of the Senate.

Continues on page 2

News

Marks absence frustrates defection Continued from page 1 At yesterday’s sitting, the Order of Business which included “Announcements (if any) was read out and followed but no mention was made on the much expected defection, until, the motion to consider the Report of Sen. George Sekibo (Rivers East) led Senate Joint Committee on Defence and Army; Navy; and Air-Force on the Screening of the Service Chiefs was moved and carried.

Sen. Sekibo was quite underway with the joint committees’ report when he was interrupted by Sen. Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central) Point of Order 15 of the Senate Rules that deals with the privileges of Senators.

He referred the presiding Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to a letter he jointly signed with 10 others, indicating change of political party from the PDP to APCP, stressing, “I felt that it was necessary for me to bring to your attention that the letter has not yet been read”.

The DSP then replied, “senate president has travelled and before he travelled he told me you had a discussion with him and agreed to have a meeting on Monday (05/02/14).

So, that was what he told me on the subject”.

“That is not the case, sir”, Sen. Saraki retorted, “I submitted the letter as of yesterday and he indicated the intention that he would like to meet with senators; but, the two issues, submitting the letter and his request for the meeting does not seem that the meeting was subject to the bringing of the letter. So I felt that the two are two separate issues” “Unfortunately, this is my own understanding of your dialogue with him and he is not here”, the DSP insisted; so, I believe that we would stand down any issue relating to that until he comes back”.

Thereafter, Sen. Sekibo continued his presentation.

Along the line, Sen. Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) walked in, took his seat, and raised a Point of Order informing the presiding officer that, he and 10 senators had communicated the Senate President, “formally informing him to inform the chamber that we have defected from PDP to APC”.

“We thought the letter would be read yesterday, it was not

read yesterday and feel it should be read today; I think it is our right and priviledge for that letter to be read; I have defected; ten other Senators who signed that letter have also defected from PDP to APC; so, I demand that that letter be read”, Goje submitted.

“Well, first of all, I think you

came late because we have discussed this matter earlier before you arrived and we have taken a decision on this”, the DSP replied Sen. Goje but he was greeted with a deafening Noooooo! from the APC senators.

“You did not sign any letter for defection, why are you saying no?! the DSP charged the Senate, “I am addressing those

who wrote a letter; Just to recap, I said before you came in that the Senate President has travelled and that before he travelled he told me that he had a discussion with distinguished Senator Saraki and that he will meet on Monday with those of you who want to defect from PDP. So he did not give me any letter to read”.

over the wide margin between the capital expenditure to the recurrent, among other issues.

Most senators were of the opinion that the capital expenditure should have been 74 per cent while recurrent should have been 26 per cent and not the

Other areas of concern were the need for the country to replace western economic theories with home grown ones.

The senators stressed the need to compel revenue generating agencies to remit such funds to the federation account.

Continued from page 1

can prevent that is constant exercising of the body.

“We need to be in good shape to be able to deliver democratic dividends to our people.

“The governor will lead the road walk starting in February,’’ he said.

Senate confirms appointment of CDS, Continued from page 1 Service Chiefs reverse.

order where necessary irrespective of parties involved.

On his part, Sen. James Manager (PDP -Delta), said the new CDS and service chiefs were eminently qualified for the positions.

Manager implored them to live above board in the discharge of their new duties.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said that for the first time in Nigeria’s democratic history, appointments of service chiefs were subjected to legislative scrutiny as required by the constitution.

Ekweremadu enjoined the appointees to justify the confidence repose in them by discharging their duties appropriately.

It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had on January 16, nominated, Air Marshal Alex Badeh as the new CDS to replace, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim Efence.

He also nominated Maj. Gen Tobiah Minimah, as Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin, as Chief of Naval Staff, and Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu, as Chief of Air Staff.

They replaced Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, (COAS); Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, (CNS), and Badeh, who was elevated to CDS. Jonathan had forwarded the names of the service chiefs to the Senate for confirmation.

The officers have since assumed duties in their new offices.

The Senate also deferred debate on the 2014 Appropriation Bill to another legislative day.

Debate on the budget began on Tuesday with most senators raising eyebrows

Edo introduces monthly road walk for exco, others

frequent thing in our society and one of the reasons for this is because we hardly take time out to exercise our body.

“In Edo, we don’t want to hear anything about somebody collapsing or dying suddenly and the only way we

Info Commissioner addrresses community workers Continued from page 1

According to the Hon. Commissioner, all workers must take the issue of time book very seriously, adding that they must sign in and out at the appropriate time.

He told them to be morally upright, advising that the male staffers must take the female student as their own children and that no student should be unduly exploited.

He reiterated that the Centre is not autonomous neither is it a parastatal but part and parcel of the Ministry, therefore the report of the activities of the centre must be forwarded to him periodically without fail.

The Commissioner reminded the workers of the present administration of Adams Oshiomhole’ emphasis on transparency, accountability and prudent expenditure, Stressing that all records of respective subject matters must be properly documented, kept and maintained.

He told the Youth Employment Scheme Staff (YES) to be committed to their work and be of good behaviour because it may be possible in future that Government may want to harmonise them into the main stream Civil Service.

Adding that if this should happen only the serious and dedicated ones will be recommended by the ministry.

He also counselled the junior Staff to respect their superiors warning that the ministry will not take kindly to insubordination reminding them that God Almighty recognizes authority.

Concluding the Commissioner said, plans were underway to contact NDDC, OIL and GAS Commission, Rapid Response Agency, Ministry of Higher Education and EDHA legislators from Oredo to assist in the development of the Centre, while the ICTA would be contacted to computerise the Centre and introduce the teaching of Computer studies.

Presidency Impeachment Amendment

Continued from page 1 Ihedioha, who is also the Chairman of the House adhoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution, noted that members had put behind them individual, political and ethnic differences to vote on the clauses.

“The 7th House has by this successful event, once again, showed that it is committed to the wellbeing and welfare of all Nigerians,” he said.

According to him, members take into cognisance the mood of the nation, the yearnings of their constituents and the dictates of their conscience in the voting process.

“This 7th House of Representatives has once again shown that it is more concerned about the welfare and well-being of Nigerians than any other interest,” he said.

Earlier, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal praised the deputy speaker for providing “firm and good leadership” to the adhoc committee on the constitution review.

Tambuwal said that the successful culmination of the review process in the house reflected the spirit of diligence and unity of purpose displayed by Ihedioha in piloting the affairs of the committee.

Edo Staff Training Centre to be upgraded BENIN CITY – In line with Modern Technology Drive, The Edo State owned Staff Training Centre, Benin City will be upgraded to status of an Institute.

This disclosure was made by the Head of Service, Edo State, Mr. Jerry Igbaekemen Obazele when he undertook a working tour to the Centre.

Mr. Jerry Obazele hinted that when the centre is transformed into a Manpower Development Institute, the envisioned Institute will be made to consult for private, State and Federal Government in the field of Manpower development.

The Head of Service stated that the centre presently has all it takes to achieve this vision when it metamorphose, saying that students from public and private organisation could be trained by the Institute.

Mr. Obazele said, the State Government’s philosophy of overall development will be extended to the centre and assured that he will appeal to the Comrade Governor whom he said have a niche for innovations to transform the centre into an enviable training centre.

According to him, following modern trend all over the world, Governor

Adams Oshiomhole has made concerted efforts to ensure that workers on its pay roll are trained.

He harped on the need for the workforce to key into this vision by applying to the Staff Training Centre to upgrade their skills, by attended the institute.

Mr. Obazele praised the Management term of the Training Centre for their efforts, assuring that the infrastructural needs of the centre will be looked into with a view of upgrading them when necessary.

The Acting Director of the Staff Training Centre, Mrs. Julie Olatunji announced to the Head of Service that she has been able to attract donations to the centre from non-governmental organisations.

She enumerated such donations to include flat screen computers with accessories, projector, new H.P. printer with centre network, adding that students of the centre now write their examination using the computers.

Mrs. Olatunji enumerated the challenges facing the centre to include, absence of official vehicles, generator to power the computer room and lack of advertisements to attract more students to the training centre.

The Head of Service later inspected the Computer Room, the Library, Typing Room.

Ministry shuts school of health technology, Benin BENIN CITY – Edo State Ministry of Health has ordered the immediate closure of the school of Health Technology, Benin City.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer in the ministry, Joes Apili, quoting the commissioner for the ministry, Dr. (Mrs.) Aihanuwa Eregie indicated that the directive was informed by the unruly conduct of students of the school outside the school’s premises.

According to the statement, the unruly conduct degenerated into serious fracas between them and commercial bus drivers on Murtala Muhammed Way, Benin City on Wednesday January 29, 2014.

The statement directed all students of the institution to vacate the school premises within 24 hours (beginning from yesterday) until further notice while advising them to remain calm and be law abiding.

PCRC laments destruction of property by community Chairman

By ROLAND OSAKUE BENIN CITY (OHONRE) – Members of the Edo State Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee (PCRC) have lamented the alleged wanton destruction of property worth millions of naira by the Chairman of Ohonre Community, Victor Ugiagbe.

The property which have been built up to roofing level was completedly razed down, while some others buildings were partly damaged, alongside the Palm Plantation in the area.

The committee members, who visited the scene of crime yesterday, upon a petition written to it by the affected developers said they were disappointed at the development, as they vowed to bring the perpetrators to book.

Speaking to newsmen after the inspection of the scene, the chairman of the committee, Chief Eduwu Ekhator (JP), said they were alarmed when they watched the scenario on television, which he noted was “man’s

inhumanity to his neighbours.”

Chief Ekhator, who further wondered why somebody could take the laws into his hands with impurity, stated that the state government’s committee would not tolerate or accommodate any person behind the heinous act.

He also explained how the committee had extended its invitation to the said Victor Ugiagbe, which he rebuffed, even on the day of the committee’s visit to the scene of crime.

The chairman, however, enjoined the developers to go about their legitimate activities, as well as remain calm as the committee would leave no stone unturned to bring about justice in the matter.

At the scene, one Mrs. Ifueko Omorogbe, Mabel Osakue (Mrs.), as well as John Osumah and John Uyigue alleged that the said chairman of Ohonre Community Victor Ugiagbe, brought a bulldozer caterpillar

to raze down their buildings which was already at the roofing stage over a seeming feud.

The victims however, called on the government to come to their aid and rescue them from the shackles of the said chairman, whom they alleged has wreaked terror on them.

Meanwhile, the committee has adjourned the case between Enogie Obazagbon of Evbuomoma and Osayande Osagie and others to a later date for hearing.

News

Minister To Establish Early Flood Warning System - Official

ABUJA - The Federal Ministry of Environment said it will install additional 303 WebBased Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) in 2014, to monitor flooding in the country.

A Deputy Director in the department of Erosion, Flood Control and Coastal Management in the ministry, made this known to newsmen in Abuja on condition of anonymity.

The official said the ministry would continue to adopt digital early warning models, to check conditions that could lead to flood disaster.

“One of such models is the web-based early warning system which covered 72 locations from inception and was upgraded to 307 in 2011, and targets to cover up to 610 locations in the country in 2014.

“In 2012, we focused on developing the digital flood model; this is not what you can wake up and do; we have to keep on building on what we have because the more areas we cover, the better forecast will be.’’

FEWS is an integrated package of data collection and transmission equipment, forecasting models, response plans and procedures involving human resources.

It involves human resources

working together with the sole objective of empowering individuals and communities threatened by flood hazard, to act in sufficient time and appropriate manner.

The aim of acting in appropriate manner is to reduce the possibility of personal injury, loss of life, and damage to property and the environment.

The official explained that the web-based model enabled subscribers to have access to predictions through the internet website address.

He added that this would clear doubts or panic as subscribers would have direct access to information needed for them to work upon rather than relying on rumours.

The official said that in 2014, the ministry would, through its community based early warning system, sensitise vulnerable communities on flood

predictions and the impact of climate change.

“We will go to communities and carry out awareness campaigns on flood management and tell them things to watch out for in order not to lose their lives and property in case of flooding.”

He said that early warning system had also been installed in almost all the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) in the country.

“The security challenge in the northern part has made us not to cover all the RBDAs; we have not gone as far as Chad Basin, but we have covered about seven RBDAs. “We want the states to participate in the installation, the one we did is just like a pilot project; it will not cost much for the state governments to replicate it in other locations.

“The essence of the installation is not only for

ABUJA - The Ministry of Environment has called for early release of water from dams across the country before

the peak of rainfalls, to prevent flooding in 2014.

A top official in the ministry told newsmen on grounds of

monitoring flooding but we also want to create awareness on climate change, let people be aware of the trend and one of the

areas we can prove it is in the amount of rainfall.’’

The official further said that the ministry had installed four stand alone automated FEWS facilities along Ogun-Osun River Basin and Benin-Owena River Basin.

A police post recently built by EDSOGPADEC at Obayantor II Community in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area.

...Urges Early Discharge Of Dam Water

A block of six classrooms recently constructed and furnished by EDSOGPADEC for the Senior Secondary School arm of Ozolua Grammar School, Ologbo in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area.

anonymity in Abuja, that the call became necessary to ensure the reduction of the water level in reservoirs before the rains.

“There was early release of water from Jebba Dam and Kainji Dam; they released water from their dams as early as May that is what the ministry has been advocating. “ We should not wait for rainfall to come before releasing water.

“Let us release before the rain comes and once an alert has been issued; because early release of water in some dams prevented the recurrence of flooding in 2013.’’

The official said that the method had worked effectively in checking the annual floods that affected Ikorodu area of Lagos, arising from the late release of water from Oyan Dam in Abeokuta.

“For the past two years now, the method has been working; definitely we are going to have rainfalls and the reservoir will be filled up.

“So, the best thing would have been to start releasing water as early as in May. “By the time the rain is coming, the reservoir is already drawn down so it will just fill up normally.

“You don’t need to wash out water at the peak of rainfall; it is going to cause too much flood.’’

The deputy director, however, called on the states and local governments to brace up to their responsibility of preventing and managing floods in their areas, stressing that the Federal Government could not do it alone.

“Every state, through its Technical Advisory Committee comprising relevant

Anambra ‘Destitute Persons’ Sue LASG For N1bn Damages LAGOS - A Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed February 19 for further mention of a suit filed by “seven destitute persons’’ against the Lagos State Government over what they called inhuman treatment.

The plaintiffs are Joseph Aniebonam, Osondu Mbuto, Osondu Agwu, Nnenna Ogbonna, Emily Okoroariri, Friday Ndukwe and Onyeka Ugwu.

The seven instituted the suit for and on behalf of 76 others.

Joined as respondents are the

He said that the ministry would gradually increase the number of facilities as exigencies demanded.

“It is very effective and efficient but very expensive; that is why we have started with two river basins.

State Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr Ade Ipaye and the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State.

When the case was mentioned on Wednesday, Counsel to the plaintiffs, Chief Ugo Ugwunnadi, told the court that the case was coming up for the first time.

He informed the court that he had only been served with court processes by the first respondent (AG), and had yet to receive any process from the second respondent.

He, therefore, applied for a

date for hearing.

Counsel representing the Attorney General, Mr Tayo Odupitan, told the court that he had filed a counter-affidavit, written address and an exhibit, all in response to the plaintiffs’ suit.

He, however, informed the court that Ipaye has indicated his intention to defend the suit personally.

Meanwhile, Counsel to the Commissioner of Police, Mr

Sam Adebeshin, told the court that he had yet to regularise the processes on behalf of the second respondent.

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia adjourned the case to Feb. 19 for mention.

The applicants had in their motion want the court to declare that they, as Nigerian citizens, were entitled to their fundamental rights as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.

They are seeking a declaration that their arrests and detention in various camps in Lagos and subsequent “deportation’’ to Anambra on July 24, 2013, for no offence, amounted to a serious breach of their fundamental rights.

They are also seeking an order mandating the respondents to tender a written apology to them by publishing same in three national newspapers continuously for 30 days for unlawful and gross violation of their constitutional rights.

stakeholders should implement the National Erosion and Flood Control Action Plan.

“They should also establish flood data bank and encourage participatory approach on flood management.

“The two tiers of government should ensure controlled urban and rural development, prevent unplanned and information settlements along river plains, provide adequate drainage and ensure that they are not blocked.

“It is also their responsibility to educate communities in erosion and flood-prone areas on flood information.’’

Edo NUJ Congress Holds Today

By JENNIFER OGEDEGBE

BENIN CITY – The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council holds its monthly congress today, Friday January 31, 2014.

According to a release signed by the State Secretary of NUJ Comrade Titus Akhigbe, venue of the congress is NUJ Press Centre, No 1, Reservation Road, GRA, Benin City.

The release requests all practising journalists to attend the congress slated for 4pm as important issues will be discussed.

News Fulfill Electoral Promises, Archbishop Urges Politicians

L-R: Mr. Eugene Anionwo, Principal Public Relations Manager, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company; Mr. Robert Dickerman, Managing Director and Mr. Vincent Ekwekwu, Business Manager, Umuahia Unit, during maiden visit of Mr. Dickerman to Umuahia yesterday.

Ogun Earmarks N21bn For Health ABEOKUTA - The Ogun Government has earmarked Care In 2014 N21billion for the health sector in its 2014 budget.

Christened the “Budget of Consolidation”, the budget N210.28billion, is slightly lower than 2013 estimate.

It comprised N16billion as salaries and recurrent expenditure, and N5billion for capital expenditure or 56 per cent for capital expenditure and 44 per cent as recurrent expenditure, respectively.

According to the budget, N21.1billion or 10 per cent of the total budget is allocated for efficient healthcare delivery services.

Its major focus included renovation and equipping of medical facilities in the five state hospitals as well as the general hospitals across the state.

It also provided for upgrading of equipment and facilities of the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) and recruitment of medical personnel.

Another area is the construction of model primary health centres in each of the nine federal constituencies of the state and provision of drugs.

It would also cater for the establishment of a state-of-theart diagnostic centre in Abeokuta and a cancer centre at OOUTH, Sagamu.

The amount would further take care of the construction of three additional general hospitals across the state and the introduction of communitybased health insurance scheme.

Others are preventive medical programmes such as routine immunisation, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, malaria, and screening and prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Commenting on the fiscal policy, Dr Soji Jagun, the state Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), commended the state government for the allocation.

Jagun told newsmen that even the Federal Government of Nigeria had not met the Abuja Declaration for African countries on healthcare.

The declaration states that the countries should strive to

allocate at least, 15 per cent of their annual budget, to health.

“It is good for the healthcare development of the state. A lot of our hospitals are now the shadow of themselves; things are not working in the health sector.

IGBOKODA (Ondo State) - The Archbishop of the Anglican Communion, Ondo Diocese, Gabriel Lasebikan, on Monday appealed to politicians to fulfil their promises to the electorate.

Lasebikan told newsmen in Igbokoda, Ondo State, that non-fulfillment of electoral promises made to the people was partly responsible for the country’s socioeconomic challenges.

“Politicians will always be politicians; there will always be political jobbers and crosscarpeting.

“My advice to them is to ensure they fulfil their electoral promises to the electorates because the only thing that gladdens God’s heart is to make promises and fulfil them,’’ he said.

The cleric also admonished Nigerians to draw close to God, especially ahead of the

Complaints Commission Resolves 301 Cases, Recovers N82Million JOS - The Public Complaints Commission resolved 301 cases and recovered N82 million for complainants in Plateau last year, the commission said in a statement in Jos.

The statement, signed by its Director of Investigation, Mrs H.H. Isandu, said it received a total of 598 complaints in the year with 297 cases still pending.

Of the monies recovered, the

Alleged N190,000 Fraud

Landlady Docked LAGOS - A Landlady, Funmilayo Lawson, 54, has appeared before an Apapa Senior Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, over allegedly obtaining N190,000 from Halima Isiaka, under false pretences.

Lawson, who resides at No. 27A, Rasaki Odun Ewu St., Ijegun, Egba, Lagos, is facing two-count charge of stealing and obtaining money under false pretences.

The Prosecutor, Cpl. John Iberedem, told the court that the accused committed the offences on March 7, 2013 at Ijegun area of Lagos.

Iberedem said that the accused obtained N190,000 from Isiaka under the pretext that she would give her a self- contained room.

He said that Lawson spent the money, without giving Isiaka a self-contained room as promised.

“When the complainant did not get any feedback from the accused as regards the apartment, she decided to ask for a refund.

“The accused could not refund the money, even after persistent efforts made by Isiaka.

“The complainant reported the case to the police and the accused was arrested,” Iberedem stated.

He explained that the offences contravened Sections 285 and 312 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Section 312 (1) and (b) of the

law stipulates 15 years imprisonment for obtaining under false pretences, while Section 285 prescribes three years for stealing.

statement said that some were unpaid salaries while others were terminal benefits and recoveries from breaches of trust.

It added that the commission was also able to facilitate the reinstatement of one person who had been sacked by his employers.

The commission explained that most of the complaints were against the government and private establishments, saying that the issues bordered mostly on dismissal from work, wrongful termination of appointments and non-payment of allowances.

2015 general elections in the country, He said that the dedication of a new chapel and Bishop’s Court of the Ilaje Communion was to draw people closer to God. Lasebikan said that if people were close to God, they would

get the strength to keep away from sins and crimes.

“Churches are multiplying as well as crimes, I see these as the signs of the end time; I can only urge Christians to be steadfast in God because His light will shine on His own people,’’ he said.

2015 Elections

Cleric Cautions Politicians Against Provocative Utterances ABUJA Sheikh Mohammed Khalid, the Chief Imam of the National Assembly Quarters’ Mosque, Abuja, has advised politicians against making provocative utterances capable of destabilising the country.

Khalid, who gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, said politicians should put national interest above personal gains, as preparations for the 2015 general elections gather momentum.

“I am appealing to politicians to avoid making utterances that are capable of creating tension in the country as the battle for 2015 general election is around the corner,’’ he said.

Khalid stressed the need for politicians to give special attention to issues that would promote peace, tolerance and understanding among members of different political parties and ethnic nationalities in the country.

Destroyed illegal oil refinery at Okirika in Rivers yesterday.

“The approach and utterances of some politicians on the 2015 elections may bring us another bitter experience, like the civil war, and that should never be our portion again.’’

“The Nigerian civil war brought agony to many homes and set the country back economically, politically and socially.’’

He noted that if there was crisis in Nigeria, no country in the West African sub-region would be able to accommodate Nigerians “considering our large population’’.

The cleric reminded politicians that democracy was about respect for human dignity, rule of law, transparency and accountability as well as ensuring security of lives and property and not to take action that could result in the destruction of lives and property.

News

Project Execution: EDSOGPADEC Gives Marching Order

BENIN CITY – Some of the contractors handling EDSOGPADEC (Edo State Oil & Gas Producing Area Development) projects have been given the marchning orders to either perform or face the full wrath of the law.

The member representing Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area who also doubles a the chairman of the Works Committee of the commission, Mr. Victor Ekhator, gave the directive while inspecting the customary court project at Ologbo and the Healthcare Centre being executed by the Commission in Obagie Nokenkporo.

Mr. Ekhator who was obviously dissatisfied with the slow pace of work at both project sites ordered that the contractors handling both projects be immediately summoned to the corporate headquarters of the commission to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against the firm for what he called nonchalant attitude in the handling of the commissions’ projects.

At Ologbo where EDSOGPADEC has just completed the construction of staff quarters. Comprising two blocks of five flats each, the commission was full of praises for the contractors who executed the projects and expressed hope that immediately after the landscaping, government officials working in the locality will find it very conductive to inhabit.

The commission’s next port of call was Ozolua Grammar School, Ologbo where it had

just completed the renovation and furnishing of a block of six classrooms for the junior secondary schools arm of the schools as well as the construction and furnishing of another block of six classrooms for the senior secondary school arm of the same school.

It was encomiums all the way for the EDSOGPADEC team by the people of Obayantor II, Okha, Uroho and Obagie Nokenkporo Communities all in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area where the commission has completed the building of a police post, eighty open market stalls, two blocks of six classrooms as well as the near completion of a multi purpose EDSOGPADEC liaison office in Obagie Nokenkporo.

In the team of the commission’s tour were the member representing Orhionmwon Local Government Area on the board of the commission, Hon. Fidelis Okunzuwa; the member representing Edo North Senatorial District on the board of the commission, Hon. Luqman Muhammad; the member representing Edo Central Senatorial District on the board of the commission, Mr. Wellington Okoh as well as top management staff of the commission.

The tour of the commission’s project continues next week.

Meanwhile, in his determination to ensure prompt delivery of standard projects, the Chairman of Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission, Barrister

Vincent Osas Uwadiae has continued the inspection of projects executed in the Commission in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

The Chairman said this has become necessary in order to have a first hand knowledge of what is actually going on at the project site, instead of acting on written reports from the field always.

At the ongoing construction of the 10 kilometres road linking Benin-Abraka junction-UrhehueU m o g h u n o k h u a communities. Barrister Uwadiae expressed satisfaction over the level of the project.

He, however called on the contracting firm handling the project to ensure that every aspect of the road meets with the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation (BEME) and the Bill of Quantity (BOQ).

The Technical Director, Engineer Chrsitos Siougas,

the Project Consultant, Engineer N.O. Egharevba and the Community Liaison Officer in charge of the project, Mr. Clement

L-R: Representative of Enugu State Governor, Mr. Anayo Amah, President, Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), Dr. Theo Okonkwo and ECCIMA 2nd Vice President, Rev. Ugo Chime, at the ECCIMA 40th Annual General Meeting in Enugu yesterday.

APC Chieftain Advises Members

when they are committed, they would be able to win election in the ward.

Prince Moses, said that as a BENIN CITY – A Benin based All Progressive party that believes in true Congress APC in Edo State, democracy, APC will bring Prince Moses Uwaifo, who the dirsed change by the time hailed from Omolua it takes over governance in (Igbanke) in Orhionmwon Nigerian 2015. He, however, Local Government Area, of enjoined supporters in the Edo State has advised state to continue to work members of A.P.C. political towards the victory of the party to remain committed to party at the polls.

Prince Moses said the the party, say that it is only (former) suspended Orhionmwon Local Government Council Chairman, Hon. Matthew Ehigie should not dream of going for any political position in All Progressive Congress (APC) in this coming dispensation, because of his past behaviour.

In addition he said, in the aspect of Elder Ben Okhumu, that Igbanke Community is more than interest in Hon. Ehis the former Chairman and the deputy governor Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Pius Odubu interest.

Prince Uwaifo said his own interest is to appeal to Igbanke Community for a Executive Secretary, Plateau Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Salisu Musa (right), change for APC in the past, with Controller of Prisons, Plateau Command, Mr. Oyigocho Ogbole, during the visit of those 80s to 90 years are still the Controller in Jos recently. as aspiring for political

By JOEL CHUKWUAGHONIM

Vigilante Commander Appeals For Assistance

By JOEL CHUKWUAGHONIM

OWA OYIBU, AGBOR – The Commander Vigilante Outfit, in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State.

Engr.

Ikechukwu Agbobu, has appealed to Delta State Government, Ika North East Local Government Chairman, public spirited

Individuals and Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs) for security logistics to enable them combat crimes in the area.

Engr. Agbobu who is the chairman vigilante outfit in Ika North East local government area of Delta State appealed for logistic such as patrol vehicle,

Obayuwana were unanimous in the effort to ensure the delivery of a quality job in record time.

On completion, the road is

uniforms, monthly stipend to enable them buy batteries for their touch-lights.

According to the chairman, he said criminal cases are reported to the police for further investigation. He also said that civil matters are

expected to open up the affected communities, stem the usual rural/urban drift and boost economic activities in the locality.

The tour of project by the Commission continues next week.

reported to the traditional rulers in council.

He said he always lectured his men.

The chairman also organises on one day seminar for his men once a year.

positions, he said rather they should allow the youths to grow politically.

He also said councillorship in Igbanke Community, Super-Vicing Councillors should come from Igbanke Political grassroots. Accord to him, he said, he is not aspiring for any political positions rather he wants his youths to grow higher in the politics.

He advised the community to come out immensely and register for APC political party since he is fighting for the development of Igbanke Community.

However, while The NIGERIAN OBSERVER having chat with Prince Moses, another political budozer Deacon Sylvester Edoh, said that they are not leaving any stone unturned just to make sure APC emerges victorious in the next general election.

He also thanked Prince Moses Uwaifo for all he has said, he also advise Igbanke Community to embrace APC political party that APC has started on a very fast, in terms of development in Igbanke Community.

Prince Moses Uwaifo, thanked Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, appealed to him to remember the 2.5km road construction he awarded to Igbanke Community, and the street lights, he also thanked Dr. Izeh Iyamu, the former SSG to Edo State Governor, for his good work done in Orhionmwon Local Government Area, the Enigies in the six (6) clans that make-up of Igbanke Community.

UBTH Introduces Occupational Therapy BENIN CITY – The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has introduced new course Occupational Therapy Technician programme in the Institute of Health Technology of the hospital.

In her address at the 6 th matriculation progamme of the institute in Benin City yesterday, Acting Principal of the Institute, Mrs. Grace Njoku said with the introduction, the institute now offers eleven progrmmes in different departments.

So far, she said the institute has grown in population and size and has produced students who have distinguished themselves in learning and character.

“Today, the institute which started with students’ population of 224 students has graduated 326 students from nine departments.

She disclosed that the institute has braced up to the challenge of producing middle level health care delivery personnel to fill the yearning gap.

Also speaking, medical Director of the hospital, Professor M. O. Ibadin congratulated the students and appreciated the staff of the institute for the success story so far.

He disclosed that the hospital authority is collaborating with the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on how students could be allowed to with their qualifying examination to gain examination to the institute.

A total of 338 students subscribed to the relevant matriculation oat at the ceremony.

South West Mimiko Commends Jonathan On more experience AKURE Governor TAC Scheme toaboutacquire life and challenges facing Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo

Lydia, widow of a former governor of Plateau State, Michael Bot-Mang, his sons, Martin and Francis, during the Requem Mass for the former governor in Jos yesterday.

State has commended the vision of President Goodluck Jonathan for sustaining the volunteer programme of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC).

Mimiko said this in Akure while declaring open the 14th orientation for the corps volunteers.

Reports say that TAC scheme is aimed at enhancing cooperation and understanding between Nigeria and the recipient countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions.

According to the governor, the scheme has helped in fostering partnerships with the ACP countries.

Alleged Theft Of Cows

“It has also helped in exposing participating youths to new ideas and varying experiences to face emerging challenges of national development at home,’’ the governor said.

Mimiko, who expressed his excitement over the number of ambassadors recruited for the 2014-2016 biennial volunteer scheme, charged the volunteers to be good ‘ambassadors’ in the respective countries they were posted to.

He also urged the volunteers to see the two-year programme outside the shore of Nigeria beyond monetary gain.

The governor said that they should rather see it as an avenue

humanity globally.

“I urge you all to market the nation and the continent well wherever you are posted to.

“You must understand the global financial and economic architecture and how it is not designed in favour of Nigeria and the developing economies.

“Therefore, it is imperative that you find creative and ingenious ways to self-actualise within it.

“The destiny of our nation lies in the hands of informed and educated people like you, who have this opportunity to stand out and be good ambassadors of yourself and the nation,’’ Mimiko said.

2 Men In Court

SANGO-OTA (OGUN) Two men, Ibrahim Abu, 18 and Fashola Abiodun, 25, appeared before an Ota Magistrates’ Court in Ogun, over the alleged theft of three cows.

The accused are facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and theft.

The Prosecutor, Insp Peter Molokwu, told the court that the accused, conspired with others still at large, to commit the offences on January 20, at Oju Sango Village, via Ifo, in Ota. Molokwu said that the accused, and others at large,

stole three live cows valued at N270, 000 belonging to one Adam Mohammed.

He explained that the offences contravened Sections 390 (9) and 516 of the Criminal Code, Law of Ogun State, 2006.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Titi Bello, granted them N100, 000 bail each, with one surety each in like sum. Bello ordered that the sureties must have a landed property each, as part of the bail conditions.

OSOGBO - The Osun Government has employed 4,330 teachers to fill existing vacancies in public schools in the state.

The Chairman of the State Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mr. Felix Awofisayo, said this in an interview with Newsmenn in Osogbo. He said 2,330 teachers were recruited by SUBEB for Elementary and Middle Schools while another 2,000 were employed for Secondary Schools by the Teacher Establishment and Pension Office of the Governor’s Office.

Awofisayo, who said letters of posting had been issued to the new teachers, warned against rejection of postings to rural areas.

He said Governor Rauf Aregbesola had increased the grants to elementary and middle schools, adding: “All salaries and allowances including the Teachers Special Allowance are regularly and promptly paid as directed by the governor.

“The state government is partnering effectively with agencies of the Federal Government to uplift the standard of education in the

state.

“The state has paid up its counterpart fund to UBEC up till 2012 and has received its matching grant from UBEC as well up till 2012,’’ Awofisayo said.

The chairman also said enrolment of pupils in schools had increased because of the provision of free feeding programme (O’ Meals) for elementary school pupils in the state.

He added that government spends N14 million daily to provide the meals and pay for the deworming exercise for pupils.

Osun Employs 4,330 Teachers

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, addressing the International Community on the 2015 Nigerian Elections at the Chatham House in London yesterday.

Reckless Driving: Truck Driver Remanded ABEOKUTA An Abeokuta Chief Magistrates’ Court has remanded a truck driver, Onwuanibe Stanley, in prison custody for allegedly knocking down a road construction company

worker.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr. Anthony Araba, who did not take the plea of the accused, said he should be kept behind bars till the next day of adjournment.

Stanley, 27, is facing a twocount charge of manslaughter and reckless driving.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Banjo Sangotokun, had told the court that the truck driver committed the

Identify With Honest Politicians, Senator Urges Nigerians OGBOMOSO (OYO STATE) - Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin (APC-Oyo) urged Nigerians to identify with only honest politicians in order to promote good governance.

He told newsmen on telephone that the task of promoting the tenets of democracy, rule of law and good governance was the collective

efforts of all Nigerians.

“I must thank Nigerians for their patience and also encourage them to keep faith with the democratic process by identifying with competent, honest and humble politicians whenever elections are held.

“My hope at this point is that an informed public will use the flood of information it has

received over the past years when it goes to the polls,’’ he said.

Lanlehin, who is representing Oyo South Senatorial District, said the rising poverty rate had compelled lawmakers to attract projects to their constituencies.

“We, as lawmakers, have no choice than to work to attract projects that will make life more meaningful for our people and

the result is what we are seeing today in Oyo,’’ he said.

He appealed to the media to intensify the war against corruption, nepotism, injustice, terrorism, economic sabotage and election rigging. “ The media should do more in the area of exposing impostors as well as incompetent and corrupt players in the nation’s political space in order to safeguard our democracy and make the nation the better for it,’’ he said.

offences on January 22, at 1.30 p.m. at Leme along Moshood Abiola Way in Abeokuta.

He said the accused drove a truck in a dangerous manner and knocked down a man, Stephen Simeon.

“Simeon, a pay loader driver attached to Hitech Construction Company, was working at the road side when the accused knocked him down.’’

Sangotokun said the offences contravened Section 325 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun and Section 18 of the Road Traffic Act, Laws of Ogun, 2006.

Further hearing has been adjourned to February 5.

Lagos Butchers Deny Extortion Claim LAGOS - Members of the Irepodun Abattoir Butchers and Meat Market Association, said they were unaware of the Amalgamated Cattle Dealers Association of Nigeria (ACDAN) extortion claim against security agencies.

The Chairman of the association, Mr. Rahman Ajadi-Niniola, told newsmen in Lagos that cattle dealers were required to pay just a toll in Lagos.

Ajadi-Niniola said that the ACDAN threat of not bringing cattle to Lagos, if carried out, would not affect business because cattle were also brought from other parts of the north and Niger Republic.

“I am wondering why they will stop bringing cattle to Lagos because I am aware of only one toll they are required to pay.

“Although I do not know the amount they pay but I can say they do not pay more than one toll so I do not know where the extortion story is coming from.

“I will tell you categorically that this threat will not affect meat business in Lagos because we have other northern states bringing cattle to Lagos too.’’

The chairman said that although the state could not meet the daily meat consumption of Lagos, other states and neighbouring countries still service Lagos markets.

Reports say that ACDAN had threatened to stop conveying cattle to southern parts of the country, following alleged extortion by security agents at various road blocks.

Its National President, Alhaji Abdullahi Potiskum, told newsmen on January 21 in Bauchi that security personnel have been extorting money from members.

He said “those of us who supply cattle to the western states purchase our cattle from Sokoto and Zamfara states and we are made to pay N180,000 per trailer to security operatives along the roads.

“The money we pay to security personnel on the road is even higher than the transport fare,’’ Potiskum added.

Alleged Theft Of Employer’s Property

House Keeper, Friend Arraigned

L-R: Chairman, Swift Transaction, Chief Felix Anirah; NUJ National President, Malam Garba Mohammed and Chairman, NUJ Board of Trustees, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe at the signing of MoU for NUJ Towers in Abuja yesterday.

Lagos Gardens Record More Than 20,000 Users

LAGOS - No fewer than 20,000 people used the various parks and gardens in Lagos for recreation and other purposes in 2013, an official said.

Mrs. Titi Anibaba, the General Manager, Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK), told newsmen that 15,000 users were recorded between January and November.

“But in December alone, 5,000 users were recorded, and this should have been because of the yuletide activities,’’ she said.

Anibaba said the impressive usage of the 232 parks and gardens in the state for recreation and events meant that the sites were meeting some of the residents’ social needs.

“The parks and gardens have been of great social benefits to residents as they go to these sites to relax, recreate and even hold parties.

“From our records for last year, approximately 20,000 people used these sites and that is about the figure we have on a yearly basis.

“This high number shows that the sites are well patronised and that many people who need some serene and natural settings to recreate are now doing so in

our gardens,” she said.

The general manager said the creation of gardens and parks in the state had improved the aesthetics of the environment and had enhanced tourism.

Anibaba also said the various gardens and parks, coupled with a robust tree-planting programme, were part of the state’s strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change.

She said the emergence of the

parks from criminal hide-outs and dungeons to attractive venues had helped to improve security in the state.

The agency general manager said the state’s greening programme, of which gardens and parks were a component, had provided jobs for no fewer than 18,000 residents.

L-R: Lagos Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope Adefulire; APC leaders in Lagos, Prince Tajudeen Odunsi; Governor Babatunde Fashola and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the APC stakeholders meeting yesterday.

LAGOS - A housekeeper, Kingsley Charles, and his friend, Benneth Nworgu, were arraigned in Lagos over the theft of his employer’s property worth N844, 000.

Charles, 26, is facing a charge of stealing, while Nworgu, 27, is charged with receiving stolen property.

Both men, whose addresses are unknown, are standing trial before an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

The Prosecutor, Cpl. Ejima Oteke, told the court that Charles committed the offence between Jan. 21 and Jan. 24 at Sebuff Plaza, Osapa-London, Lekki.

He said that Charles stole one HP Laptop, an MP 4 player, phones, curl tongs, Wifi-video game, lamp holder and Joystick, all valued at N844, 000.

Oteke said the property the accused stole belonged to his employer, Mr. William Olubiyi of Suite 29, Sebuff Plaza, OsapaLondon, Lekki.

He said that Nworgu received the stolen property from Charles at the Jakande Roundabout, Lekki, on January 24.

Oteke said that Nworgu collected the items in the knowledge that they were stolen.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 285 and 326 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

However, each of the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges Section 326(1), prescribes 14 years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of receiving stolen property, while Section 285 stipulates three years in jail for theft.

The Magistrate, Mrs. Linda Balogun, granted each of the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with one surety each, in like sum and adjourned the case till February 18, for mention.

Build Peoples’ Trust With Ekiti, Osun Guber Elections, INEC Urged

LAGOS - Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, Vice-Chancellor, Caleb University, Imota, Ikorodu, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redeem its image with the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States.

Olukoju told newsmen in Lagos that Nigerians were doubtful about INEC’s ability to conduct credible elections in the states.

He said the doubt in the

people’s mind stemmed from the complaints from the November 16 Anambra gubernatorial election.

“My advice to INEC and Prof.

Attahiru Jega is that the elections in Ekiti and Osun will give them the time to salvage their battered reputation.

“INEC has the opportunity of redeeming itself before 2015 elections also. It needs to make the masses regain trust in the

institution.

“Whether they are not too far gone is a different thing but I know that what happened in Anambra in November 2013 will not be tolerated again,’’ he said.

Olukoju said he foresees the masses that were ready to defend their vote to ensure the right candidate was elected into power because their will was the ultimate.

“I know that the people’s

power that is the decision of the masses, the kind of thing that swept Isa Yuguda of Bauchi into power under the ANPP in 2007 was in the offing.

“A situation where the people went to the INEC office and they stood there to protest can happen again.

“If people can bond together and say if you declare an election result that is different from the people’s vote, you are going to

see our reaction can happen.

“So, INEC had better brace up.

“All the armed forces in the world , all the police forces in the world will not be able to stop the will of the people,’’ he warned.

Reports state that the governorship election in Ekiti is expected to hold on June 21, while that in Osun is to hold on August 9.

North Kano Launches Dry Season Farming

KANO - The Kano State Government, has launched the 2014 dry season farming in Kano and promised 50 per cent subsidy on inputs for rice, maize and groundnut cultivation.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Baraka Sani, who launched the farming season, said registered groundnut farmers would receive 40 kilogrammes of groundnut seed and insecticides at N12,250.

The said registered rice farmers would get three bags of fertiliser, two litres of agrolisers and free rice seed at the cost of N9,700. Registered maize farmers, she added, would get three bags of fertiliser and 40 kilogrammes of seeds at N5,150.

The commissioner noted that plans were underway to register more farmers in the state and urged those who had registered to ensure that they collected seeds, insecticides and fertilisers at the approved amount.

Katsina Assembly Passes 2014 Appropriation Bill KATSINA - The Katsina State House of Assembly has passed the 2014 appropriation bill of N113.3 billion.

The passage followed the report on the budget presented by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Alhaji Abdu Danshehu.

The state government, had in December 2013, presented the budget of N113.6 billion with a surplus of N609 million before the House.

The House, however, made some minor adjustments by reducing the budget to N113.3 billion with a surplus of N259 million.

Danshehu commended the various ministries and parastatals agencies for the way and manner they defended their budgets before the committee.

He called on them to intensify efforts at enhancing the internally generated revenue of the state.

After the bill was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers, the Speaker, Alhaji Yau Gwajogwajo, directed the clerk to prepare and send a copy to the state governor for assent.

Gwajo-gwajo urged the state government to intensify efforts in implementing the budget to ensure rapid development of the state.

He assured that the House would continue to join hands with the executive to improve the living condition of people and move the state forward.

The state’s Director of Agricultural Transformation, Alhaji Adamu Muhammad, said

the state government decided to subsidise inputs for groundnut and maize cultivation this year because of their importance in the agricultural sector of Kano State.

Sokoto Conducts Mass Wedding For 120 Couples SOKOTO - The Sokoto State Government has conducted a mass wedding for 125 couples.

The wedding prayer (Fatiha) was conducted at the Government House, Sokoto.

The ceremony was presided over by Governor Aliyu Wamakko and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, who was represented by Alhaji Rilwanu Bello, the Magajin Rafin Sokoto.

Wamakko said that the gesture was aimed at further reducing the problems associated with the high number of unmarried youths.

The governor urged the new couples to uphold the trust reposed in them by the state government.

The governor also appealed to wealthy individuals to complement the efforts of the state government in this direction.

“I must also urge the beneficiaries to engage in meaningful activities rather than idling away, or engaging in executive begging,” Wamakko said.

Speaking at the occasion, the Sultan of Sokoto commended the state government for the gesture, adding that it would further reduce the problems associated with indifference of youths to marriage.

The Sultan also decried the

prevalence of obnoxious traditions preventing some youths from getting married.

The commissioner for social welfare, Alhaji Zubairu Yari, said that the mass wedding gulped N30 million.

Dahiru Mohammed and Amina Shehu, who spoke on behalf of the couples commended the state government for the gesture.

L-R: Former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Amb. Yahaya Kwande; former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and former governor of Plateau State, Mr. Fidelis Tapgun, during the requiem Mass for a former Governor of Platelau State, Mr. Michael Bot-Mang in Jos yesterday.

Kebbi To Guarantee N4bn Agric Loan For Farmers - Governor Dankoro

BIRNIN KEBBI – Governor Sa’idu Dakingari of Kebbi said on Friday that the N4 billion agricultural loan

earmarked for farmers in the state would be guaranteed by the state government.

Dakingari gave the

assurance when he received a delegation of the state chapter of the Youth In Agriculture in Birnin Kebbi.

Abubakar, District head of Gumbi, said “it is very necessary for the leaders to seek for knowledge for that will give them the right way of leading the society. “The main frame of any society is the quality of their leaders and it can only be achieved by leaders that have good knowledge of leadership,” he said.

The Sultan commended the

author for the sacrifice he made to remind the people of the importance of knowledge in leadership.

Speaking at the event, the Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, Prof.

Riskuwa Shehu, commended the author for the gesture saying “the book touches the lives of the people the society.”

Sultan Urges Leaders To Seek Knowledge On Leadership SOKOTO - The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, has urged leaders at all levels to seek for knowledge on leadership.

The reports state that Abubakar said this at the launching of a book entitled “Leadership in Islam” written

by Alhaji Modibbo Ibrahim.

Abubakar, who was represented by Alhaji Isma’il

Men displaying traditional warriors’ costume during a requiem Mass for a former Governor of Platelau State, Mr. Michael Bot-Mang in Jos yesterday.

He said the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) would provide N2 billion, while the balance would be given by the state government.

The governor said the state government would also provide 360 tractors, 2,000 work bulls and ploughs to farmers at subsidised rate.

He said that 2,000 power tillers would also be distributed to the farmers on loan, adding that additional support would be worked out with the state chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) to boost agricultural production.

Dakingari called on youths in the state to embrace farming as the state had potential for dry and wet season farming.

He said water pumping machines would be also distributed to the farmers to boost dry season farming The chairperson of the Youth in Agriculture, Hajiya Rabi Zuru, commended the state government for its effort at boosting farming activities in the state.

She said the association had registered 5,000 young farmers who had indicated interest in poultry and fish farming.

Abuja Refusal To Pay Rent

Society To Establish Environmental Clubs

Business Man Docked

ABUJA - The police have arraigned a 37-year old businessman, Chinasaokwu Okorie in an Abuja Zone 2 Magistrates’ Court for moving into a house without paying the rent.

He is charged with trespass.

The prosecutor, Insp Jeremiah Elijah, told the court that Mr. Fred Chukwurah, of Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja, lodged a report against the accused at the Lugbe Police Station on January 18.

Elijah said the accused occupied the complainant’s house in Oct. 2013 without paying the rent.

He said that when the complainant contacted the accused, he eventually paid N240,000 with a promise to pay the balance of N235,000 after one week, being the rent due for one year.

The prosecutor said that the accused intentionally refused to pay the money as agreed and also refused to pack out of the house.

He said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 348 of the Penal Code.

If convicted, he faces one year imprisonment with an option to pay a fine or both.

After the charges were read to the accused, he pleaded not guilty to them.

The Magistrate, Mrs. Chinyere Nwecheonwu, granted the accused bail in the sum of N50,000 with a surety in like sum.

Nwecheonwu said the surety must have a fixed address, submit his passport photograph and be resident within the court’s jurisdiction.

She adjourned the case to February 17 for further hearing.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State (left) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the visit of the former Vice President to Ibadan yesterday.

Bag Snatching:

Applicant To Spend 2 Months In Jail ABUJA - An Abuja Senior Magistrates’ Court has sentenced an applicant, Ahmed Adamu, of Lokogoma District, Abuja to two months in prison for snatching a woman’s handbag.

The Senior Magistrate, Mrs Kadijat Mustapha, sentenced the convict without an option to pay a fine after he pleaded guilty to the charge of theft.

Mustapha said: “the punishment is to make you change your lifestyle from that of crimes to being a good citizen.

The convict is accused of snatching a handbag belonging to Miss Angela Okole of Mpape Village, Abuja.

Earlier the Prosecutor, Mr. Simon Ibrahim, told the court that Okole had reported the matter to the Utako Police Station on December 5, 2013.

Ibrahim said the complainant’s bag contained N11,000 and other vital items.

Responding to the convict’s guilt plea, the prosecutor prayed the court to try the accused summarily under Section 157 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The section states that “if an accused admits that he has committed the offence of which he is accused, his admission shall be recorded.

It adds that this must “be nearly as possible, in the words used by the accused and if he shows no sufficient cause why he should not be convicted, the court may convict him accordingly’’.

He said the offence contravened the provision of Section 287 of the Penal Code.

Some of the 100 school buses distributed to schools Anambra State in Awka yesterday.

Censors Board Confiscates N2.5m Pornographic Films

ABUJA - The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) says it has confiscated pirated and uncensored pornographic films valued at N2.5 million.

A statement issued by the acting Head, Corporate Affairs of the board, Mr Caesar Kagho in Abuja on Monday said the seizure was made in a raid carried out within Abuja metropolis.

It said that the seizures were sequel to the board’s commitment of riding the Nigerian markets of unwholesome films.

It said that the seized films were illegal and was contributing negatively to the behavioural attitudes of the youths in the society.

It said the raid was also targeted at some individuals that were not complying with

the board’s New Distribution and Exhibition Framework (NDEF) with respect to registration and licensing from the board.

The statement said that several home video retail

outlets in Banex, Sheriff Plaza, Wuse II, and Dutse Alhaji market in the FCT were affected in the surprise raid.

The NCVCB is saddled with the responsibility of

ABUJA - Alhaji Bukar Aji, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), says the fight against terrorism and crimes is a collective responsibility that should not be left for the presidency alone.

This is contained in a statement signed in Abuja by Mr. Mohammed Manga, the Assistant Director, Media Relations, HOCSF. The statement said that Aji made this known at the opening of a two-day “Homeland

Security’’ training programme for officers on GL8 to GL14 in the civil service.

According to the statement, Dr Jamila Shu’ara, the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office, HOCSF represented Aji. “All Nigerians must continue to constantly search for imaginative solutions to help in addressing the ever changing dimensions of crime in our country.”

Aji said that the present administration had put in place

censoring and classifying films and video works.

It also has the mandate of registration, licensing of persons and premises for the distribution of films and video works in the country.

ABUJA - Mr. Akinrele Olusegun, the Chairman, Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Abuja branch, said the society would establish environmental clubs in secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory in 2014.

He told newsmen in Abuja that the move was part of the society’s activities to promote knowledge about safe environment during the year.

He said the clubs would serve as platform for students to engage in environmentallyfriendly activities.

Olusegun added that the secondary schools would focus on safe environment for pupils at young age.

Other activities lined up for the society in 2014 included tree planting and sensitisation campaigns on effective waste management for motor park operators and travellers, he noted.

“Pupils, motor park operators and commuters will be educated on deforestation, the effect of cutting trees indiscriminately, impact of bush burning to the environment, as well as effective waste management,’’ he said. the chairman noted that the tree planting campaigns embarked upon by the NSE in some schools in Abaji and Dutse would be extended to other area councils of the FCT in 2014.

He said the society was committed to interfacing with government for professional advice toward addressing the environmental challenges confronting the FCT. He added that “I believe the NSE sensitisation tour of Abuja Municipal Area Council on effective waste management will improve waste management in the area.’’

Fight Against Terrorism, Crimes Is Collective Responsibility - HOCSF many measures to combat crimes in the country such as signing of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Child Rights Acts.

Others measures put in place include granting of amnesty to repentant militants, establishment of a presidential dialogue, restoration of peace committee in the North-East and anti-human trafficking, among others.

He said that the Federal Government placed high premium on the training of

public officers to make them more vigilant on security issues.

The head of service it added that this was in line with the collective responsibility of the office of the HOCSF by partnering with the private sector and other NGOs to organise security training programmes.

He said that the programme was for middle level officers in the federal civil service to complement the efforts of other agencies of government to combat kidnapping, terrorism and IT fraud.

Business + Economy FCC Principles

NEXIM Bank, Best Performing African Devt Finance Institution - AADFI

Commissioner Lauds MDAS ABUJA - Dr Margaret Icheen, a Commissioner representing Benue in the Federal Character Commission (FCC), has commended Informational and Communications Committee of FCC for complying with the principles of the commission.

She gave the commendation in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

The commissioner, who is also a member of the committee said: “I want to say that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the committee have been very cooperative with the commission during its recruitment.

“They are always at the commission for interactive meetings. They invite and consult with the commission during recruitment.

“Each commissioner in FCC is in one committee or the other; we have 20 operational committees which represent all the parastatals that we have in the commission.

“We oversee all MDAs in this country that recruit, so we are like a supervisory body or regulatory body that regulates all recruitment in the federal parastatals,’’ Icheen said.

She said that the commission undertook the recruitment and training of staff of the MDAs under the committee where all the principles of the commission where complied with.

Icheen said that there were over 20 MDAs under the Informational and Communications Committee.

President Goodluck Jonathan (left), and the Executive Secretary, United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Dr. Carlos Lopes at the opening session of the 22nd Ordinary session of the Assembly of African Union Heads of Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Wednesday. Photo: STATE HOUSE

Power Supply

Varsity To Partner Chinese Firm

IIORIN - The Kwara State University (KWASU) in Malete said it would establish an alternative energy company in partnership with a China-based firm to improve electricity supply.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, disclosed this while answering questions from newsmen in Ilorin.

According to him, the energy company will develop, produce and distribute locally produced solar system materials as replacement for foreign ones.

He said this was aimed at complementing the deplorable supply of electricity in the country.

Na’Allah said that the

institution would not rest on its oars to be the pioneer of remarkable feats in the country.

He said the department of Aeronautics and Astronautic Engineering of the institution was the first in the country and would continue to collaborate with the International Aviation College, Ilorin, to make the nation’s airspace safer.

“At the Kwara State University, Malete, we are training our students in Aeronautics and Astronautic engineering for them to become future pilots and engineers of this nation,” the Vice Chancellor said.

“We expose them to training practically and theoretically. We are in partnership with the

International Aviation College in Kwara State where they acquire the practical skills”, he said.

The Vice Chancellor said that efforts were being made at achieving full accreditation for the institution’s engineering and agricultural faculties with the aim of contributing immensely to the nation’s technological and economic advancement.

On the entrepreneurial development, the Vice Chancellor said that the institution was taking bold step of mobilising top executives of tertiary institutions in the country to key into the initiative.

Lolo said another batch of 24, 123 farmers would receive the commodity this week.

“We would continue to distribute the commodity this week to all the registered farmers in the 27 designated centres in the state.”

He said the number of redemption centres were raised from 23 to 27 to reduce hardship

faced by farmers in accessing the commodity.

Lolo called on the beneficiaries to utilise the commodity to enhance their crops yield.

According to him, the agency will continue to support the farmers to become major rice producers in the country.

Reports say that a total of 65,000 farmers had benefited from similar gesture last irrigation season.

UNIDO To Empower Local Footwear Manufacturers

ABUJA - The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has said that it is partnering with the Delta Government to empower local footwear and leather products manufacturers.

The Country Representative of UNIDO in Nigeria, Mr Patrick Kormawa, said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja.

The statement said that the partnership was being done through the establishment of leather production companies and man-power development centres in the state.

According to the statement, the project is expected to empower 2,000 manufacturers as well as create 1,500 jobs for people of the state.

It however highlighted the need to remove technical barriers to local, regional and international trade in the country.

“UNIDO in partnership with the Delta State Government is set to empower local manufacturers of footwear and leather products with technical know-how and business skills to improve or promote made in Nigeria

footwear and leather products.

“The project is expected to empower 2,000 local footwear and leather products manufacturers and create jobs for over 1,500 people.

“Nigeria needs an internationally recognised quality infrastructure to remove technical barriers to local, regional and international trade.”

The statement added that this would guarantee safety, integrity and marketability of goods and services made in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Kebbi Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (KARDA), said it had distributed 241, 206 bags of fertilizer to irrigation farmers registered under the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES).

Alhaji Abubakar Lolo, the coordinator of the programme in the state told newsmen in Birnin Kebbi that 80, 402 farmers benefited from the gesture.

He said each of the beneficiaries had been allocated three bags of fertilizer.

This, he said, would position students for self reliance and reduce over dependence on white collar jobs.

He emphasised that concerted efforts were in place to ensure the sustainability of its entrepreneurship programmes.

The Vice Chancellor also stressed the need for rural community development as a means of enhancing economic growth and reducing rural poverty.

Flared Gas Can Provide Power In 20m Homes - Expert

ABUJA - Soprise Impact Organisation, a UK/US-based oil and gas consultancy firm, said over 1.1 million cubic metres of gas lost to flaring can provide electricity to 20 million homes in Africa.

The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peter Jensen, made the assertion in Abuja at a presentation before the Senate Committee on Gas on ways to boost electricity supply in Nigeria.

He said that if properly processed, the volume of gas wasted in the Niger Delta would solve the power problem of the entire African continent.

Nasarawa IGR Appreciates LAFIA – Governor Tanko AlMakura of Nasarawa State said that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) had improved by 500 per cent in the last one year.

Al-Makura said this when a team of Course 36 Officers on training at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mr. Damishi LukaBarau, stressed the need for the country to diversify from a mono

- Al-Makura

economy to other sources of generating revenue.

According to him, the state is endowed with abundant solid minerals which, if tapped, will contribute immensely to the development of the nation’s economy.

“When we assumed office, we met a backlog of debts and borrowed N620 million to settle staff salaries.

“But our improvement and

LAGOS - The Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) has rated Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) as “Best Performing African Finance Institution”.

The association said in a statement that the rating was an outcome of the 2013 annual AADFI CEOs Forum of African Development Bank and Finance Institutions.

The forum, held in Mombasa, Kenya, had the theme, “Strengthening African DFIs with Appropriate Standards and Guidelines’’.

The Managing Director of NEXIM Bank, Mr. Roberts Orya, said that the ‘A’ rating by AADFI was a well-deserved reward for the bank.

Orya attributed the rating to the commitment and dedication of the bank’s management and staff in the four years rebuilding of the financial institution.

He said that the bank’s A rating from a negative position in 2011

by AADFI was a testimony of ìts successful corporate transformation initiative since August 2009.

strategic drive for internally generated revenue effected changes on our IGR profile.

“We devised a new mechanism to net in more revenue that is better than what was generated in the past.”

He described the theme of this year’s study team tagged, “Internally Generated Revenue, a reliable means to the nation’s economy’’, as apt and timely and enjoined the course participants to carry out studies on the theme to add value to the national economy.

He said that his firm, which also had branches in Eastern Europe, was organising an international gas conference scheduled to hold in Nigeria on March 12, to help solve the problem.

According to him, the conference with the theme “Deepening Domestic Gas Implementation’’, is expected to be attended by critical stakeholders and experts from all over the world.

“We are here to seek the support of the Senate Committee on gas in partnering with the Federal Government on how to attract investors into the Nigerian gas sector.

“It is aimed to improve power supply, create more jobs and stop pollution in the Niger Delta region,’’ he said.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Nkechi Nwogu, commended the consultants for their interests.

She directed them to write formally requesting the committee’s partnership and support toward the success of the proposal.

IT is incontrovertible that the key that opens the door to the development of any society is research and this is basic to the success and growth of societies which have religiously formed the culture and tradition of unending research in all areas of development.

ESSENTIALLY, research governs all areas of human endeavour as well as all fields of life. Any innovation that ignores the need for research and lays claim to new discoveries could at best be a fraud and is therefore bound to fail.

THAT there is a tendency to confine research to institutions of learning is a measure of how well the output from such academic institutions, particularly the universities is reliable and dependable in the processes leading to new discoveries.

INTERESTINGLY, however, these days, most large firms now have their research and development departments in order to remain relevant in a scientifically competitive environment where efficiency and precision are now the hallmarks to survive new trends and modern devices that outpace existing ones surpassing them in all respects. The field of information technology is where the pace and speed of research have led to astounding breakthroughs putting such firms as Apple, Nokia and Microsoft on top of the industry.

IT is sad to note that in the last two or three decades, there has been a gradual erosion of research culture from our universities, basically due to lack of funding and government’s indifference or fears that research grants are improperly utilized. This has also largely contributed to the worsening conditions which face genuine academics interested in engaging in profitable research work.

AGAINST this backdrop therefore, it is an admittance of fact that poor funding, disinterest by government, lack, of commitment and sometimes fraud are

THE NIGERIAN

Research And Development Data Bank inevitable drawbacks to research which is a sine qua non and an essential ingredient of the success story of any nation.

LEADING nations in the world today, such as the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, China and new emerging Asian powers, including South-Korea, India, North-Korea and many more are changing the face of their societies through research where its end product, technology and scientific discoveries are the inevitable consequences.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER is worried that Nigeria appears not to have the interest to nurture the culture and tradition of research by granting assistance to universities in the country to embark on research in any area of interest, particularly in science and technology.

WE are of the firm belief that many intellectuals in our ivory towers are not bereft of ideas that can help develop extensive research work in their fields of study.

WE have for so long taken the Nigerian university system for granted and it is a system that holds much promise for the future if Nigerian political leaders will allow it to take its leading place in providing some level of guidance by way of research works that could propel the nation forward.

THERE are instances of many Nigerian intellectuals and egg heads who when they leave the shores of this country go to foreign institutions to make remarkable feats and

achievements in science and technology and thus contributing to the growth of their adopted society, while at home such opportunity was never given room to thrive so that they could prove the depth of their knowledge and learning.

WE implore the Federal Government to improve the capacity and ability of the Nigerian university system to deliver in the area of research and development by working through the National Universities Commission (NUC) to challenge institutes, departments and colleges of these universities to come forward with research projects that will better the Nigerian society. The government must not see any amount devoted to research and development as money poured down the drain.

At any rate, if just a quarter of the several billions of dollars embezzled and squandered by past leaders have been devoted to research, certainly, Nigeria would have been better for it.

THERE is no doubt that the neglect in this area of research contributed to the problem of brain drain and the exodus of many promising minds from our universities to that of foreign nations, hence the need to reinvigorate the research system and put it to better use for the nation’s gains and the benefit.

THEREFORE, apart from government funding and assistance, we recommend that to make funds freely available for all kinds of research, the CBN should consider the setting up of a Bank which aims and objectives should be strictly to fund research.

WITH proper guidelines and regulations, we believe that this is possible, where there should be an interface between the banking institutions and research institutions. If banks could finance businesses that are colossal failures, then there will be greater benefits to fund researches that could change the course of mankind, particularly in the Nigerian setting and the world at large.

Interview

I have performed cr PROFESSOR Cordelia Agbebaku is the Acting Vice Chancellor, Ambrose Alli University, AAU. She was appointed in 2003 by Governor Adams Oshiomhole.In this interview with Editor, Nigerian Observer , Barr Solomon Imohiosen, Professor Agbebaku reveals her capacity for work as an astute academician who knows her onions and the environment and terrain in which she is operating from. Despite destractions from some quarters that she is not capable of heading the institution, the cool headed and ebullient Vice Chancellor is showing the cadre of top hierarchy she belongs in University administration. She says that those trying to run her down have their eyes on the seat of the VC. Her performance she says will speak for her in the period she ran the affairs of the university.

Excerpts: Tell us about yourself?

I am Prof. Cordelia Agbebaku ,KSJ, MNI. I am a professor of law in the faculty of law, Ambrose Alli University.

What was your experience like from the classroom to your current position as vice Chancellor?

It has been both rewarding and challenging. I have been lecturing since 1987 in the University.

I started as an Assistant Lecturer . I rose to the rank of a Professor in the faculty of Law, in 2003.

During my years of lecturing many people have passed through my tutelage, persons like the Commissioner for Education, Barr. Washington Osifo and one time Commissioner for Education, Barr Ekpenisi Omortiomwan, the Commissioner for Commerce Barr Macdonald Obasuke, Barr Osikhena-Boih Donald, Commissioner for Lands and Survey, and a host of other prominent individuals. As for my administration, it has been so far so good, because of the experience, I have gathered as Head of Department,(HOD ).. I was HOD since 1999, and as member of senate, I also gained certain experience. As member of the

senate, I also participated in Panels and Committees which gave me much experience in running administrative positions.

I have also headed all the four departments in the faculty of law at various times. The departments are; Private and Property law,Ccommercial and Industrial law, Public law, and Jurisprudence and International Law. With all these experiences I have been able to learn from different departments and environment. I have also served as the Dean of the faculty of law before my appointment as Acting Vice Chancellor. The experiences made it possible for me to quickly adapt to my appointment as Acting V.C. It is observable that the University environment still holds same look without any much innovation in infrastructure, what is your reaction to this?

There are developments. There is a structure on the left side as one enters the campus. The structure which is an administrative building was put in place by the present administration. But don’t forget that this campus is a nursery campus of the university, but at the end of the road which houses the academic venues of the university there are permanent structures being put in place. There are projects being developed.

Are there foreign intervention in developing infrastructure in the university?

The Association of African University assisted the university with funds in developing human capacity.

What are your achievements since your assumption as VC? We have succeeded in providing a structure for the faculty of social sciences. This was achieved through a special intervention fund. There is also a new biochemistry laboratory.

There are procurement of three (3) thirty-eight seater coaster buses, which was made possible through TET fund, Education Trust fund.

We also procured an ambulance which is also fully equipped with medical facility. There is another ambulance donated by an individual. Before now, the university has no functioning ambulance. We also procured 100 KVA generating set, there are procurement of teaching and research equipment

Five hundred lecture theatre built by the Administration of Prof. (Mrs.) Cordelia Agbabaku at Ambrose Alli University. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

for the college of medicine, Department of Architecture and computer science. We also furnished a 1000 capacity lecture hall provided by former governor Lucky Igbinedion administration. Before now the lecture hall was in a sorry

state. There is also procurement and installation of language lab in the faculty of Arts. It was not in existence before now. There is another procurement of chairs and

Toyota (STD) Equipped Me (University He 35 qualities El Faculty of C Procurement (University ce

(Mrs.) Cordelia Agbabaku at Ambrose Alli University. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

tables in the faculty of law. There are two strand-by generating sets now for our dam.

My tenure as VC has been able to attract certain funding from the state government. These are in the areas of building two 500 – lecture theatres. The main library of the school was also re-roofed through the state government intervention. The Department of English which was burnt before now has been reconstructed with equipment provided for it. A toilet block which was also burnt has been rehabilitated. The provost lodge which was dilapidated has now been renovated. There is an installation of a seismic interpretation soft ware open technology in the department of Physics. The Bursary Department has also been remodeled. At the college of Medicine, the office of the Dean has also been rehabilitated. It was burnt before now. Students now get their certificate without delay. Students now get their results without much delay. This was not the case in the past.

I have been able to organizers a convocation for five sets of graduands. During my tenure, the university has been as the Best in Law and Architecture. The Ambrose Alli College of Medicine of the University has also been given recognition by the Medical Board of Califonian.

The College has also excelled in many competitions. We now have regular supply of hostel. We were able to get tractors from NDDC for our faculty of Agriculture and the farm centre of the faculty is now active.

The specifics of my achievements have been categorized for clearer perspective. In the area of infrastructure there is the Construction of 3-in-1 300 Capacity Lecture Theatre (permanent site), Construction of Faculty of Sciences Building Complex( permanent site), procurement and supply of 969 volumes of books in 26 subject areas to the University Central Library( University Central Library), Procurement of Brand New

of 69 and 92 q Furniture( U Procurement o Toyota Coast Pools), Proc Research Equ in the College Architecture Department o Science), Furn Lecture Theat including reh painting( Mai Installation Facilities in th of English L Procurement Equipment – Faculty of Procurement Facilities Equ standby Gene Faculty of Ar halls with F (Permanent Capacity Lect Construction (Main Camp capacity Lectu Re-construct (Faculty of Ar Toilet Bloc Rehabilitation Quarters).

Besides the KVA power g head tank a

reditably

) roof No. Bus Ambulance dical Facilities(TETFUND) ealth Centre), procurement of lectronic Library Equipment( Clinical Sciences Library), of 100 kva/1104c44TA922 entral Library), Procurement

quantities of Steel and Wooden niversity Central Library) , of 3 Nos Brand New 30 seater ter bus( University Vehicle curement of Teaching and uipment for the Departments e of medicine, Department of e and Computer Science ( of architecture and Computer nishing of the 1000 Capacity tre with Modern theatre seats abilitation of the ceiling and in Campus), Procurement and of Language Laboratory he Faculty of Arts( Department Language, Faculty of Arts), t and Installation of office Furniture and Fittings for the Law (Faculty of Law), of various laboratory/works uipments for water supply and rators (Dam), Construction of rts (Office Block) and lecture urnishing( Faculty of Arts Site), Construction of 500 ture Theatre (Main Campus), of Lecturers’ Office Block pus), Construction of 500 ure Theatre( Emaudo Annex), tion of Burnt Office Block rts), Rehabilitation of Provost ck, (Faculty of Arts), n of Provost Lodge (Ogbeha

ere is the provision of A 27 generator, a borehole Andover and provision of internet

connectivity (via VSAT), Installations of Seismic Interpretation software Opened Tect in the Department of physics worth N32m aimed at promoting the teaching of Geosciences education as well as enhancing the quality of Geosciences graduates of this University. The project was sponsored by DANVIC Concepts International Nig. Lit. and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Rehabilitation of the Treasury Office of the Bursary Department by Zenith Bank Plc, Ekpoma, Rehabilitation of burnt Dean’s Office, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine by Fidelity Bank Plc. Ekpoma.

Senator Obende’s donation of an ICT building to this University.

I also ensured the visit of the National Univeristy Commission (NUC) and other Professional Bodies on Accreditation to several Departments and programmes of the University. Successful Holding of Seven Inaugural lectures.

Celebration of the 18 th Convocation of the University in June, 2011 covering 5 academic sessions (2006/2007 to 2010/2011). The rating of the University by an I n t e r n a t i o n a l Organization as the best in Law and Architecture is a great achievement as well as Successful Swearingin /Oath Taking ceremony of the sixth and seventh sets of Qualified Medical Doctors of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 academic session. Recognition of Ambrose Alli University College of Medicine by the Medical Board of California. Earlier the College had won a Gold Medal and other prizes in a Competition organized by the Nigerian Medical Doctors in Diaspora under the umbrella of Kephalus Health Nigeria Ltd. Excelling of the University Primary School in the National Turkish International Mathematics Competition. 100% performance by the

Interview

- AAU VC

There is no institution that is free from challenges. The university has challenges in areas of funding for staff salary as a result of the FG/ASUU agreement for increment

Lecturers offices AAU Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. Photo: LUCKY AGIE.

University Primary School in the recently released Primary Six result for 2011/2012 session with the school recording 18 distinction out of 129 pupils that took the examination. Faculty of Agriculture on the planting of Oil Palm seedlings, 5,000 hectors of Land. Planting of 1,400 Oil seedlings intercropped with cassava until full maturity of the oil palm seedlings. Tractor Hiring Services to assist farmers to plough and harrow with a minimum cost. Takeoff of Poultry Farm which when fully developed will produce about 5,000 birds including Layers and Broilers.

During my period we had a donation of 375 KVA Generator from NDDC for use in the Administravtive office and 2 Nos tractors/implements from the NDDC for use in the Faculty of Agriculture.

There is also 500 KVA Generator from the Edo State Government for the Electrical Station. Hiace Toyota Ambulance by Spectrum Engineering, Abuja for the University Health Centre.

Hilux Toyota Patrol Van by Edo State Government for the Security Division. Purchase of official vehicle for General Studies office, and. Purchase of official vehicle for Directorate of Part-Time Degree and Diploma

Programmes, as well as.

Purchase of office vehicle for Industrial Training Office.. Toyota Hilux for Ambrose Alli University , Consultancy Office. Toyota Corolla, University Library. Bus for Library Utility and 4 Nos. Toyota Corolla, for University General Use. I have equally ensured.

Prompt payment of salaries with relative peace on Campus. Staff Development through sponsorship for higher degrees, conferences, workshops etc. promotion of seven (7) Readers to the post of Professors. Promotion of more than 12 Senior Lectures to Reader status. Elevation of 2 PARs and 1 Chief Accountant to Deputy Registrar and Deputy Bursar positions respectively. Books and other useful materials donation by National Institute of Architects, Edo State worth over N1.5m. We had book donations by Prof. Arch.

G.O. Ejodamen and Financial Report Council (FRC) of Nigeria. plus payment of inherited 3-month check-off dues to Unions.

What is your reaction

to speculation that you are not qualified for the position of VC? To begin with, what do you refer to as qualified or not qualified? There are rules and regulations guiding the appointment of V.C Chancellor. In AAU, the rules has it that the V.C shall be appointed by the visitor to the university after consultation with the council. The rules has it that the person must not be below the rank of Professor.

In my time, Ph.D was not a criteria for conferring professorship which the NUC said cannot be done retrospectively The Amrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Law 1999(As Amended) states that the Vice Chancellor shall be appointed by the Visitor after consultation with the Council and the Senate from amongst selected persons of academic eminence of not below the status of a University Professor.. I cannot be surprised because many persons are the seat of the VC, so they will stop at nothing to cast aspersion on my competence, and high intellectual of academic eminence. I have performed creditably well, the records are there to see.

What are the challenges you have been undergoing in recent times?

in academic staff salary.

The state government has also assisted the institution with funds for infrastructural development.

Only recently the state government gave a grant of N 5 million to the school.

The NUC is also assisting us with aid for infrastructural Development. We are doing our best in generating IGR. What has been your experience in eliminating cultism and improving security?

Students who are spiritually inclined have organized programmes for renunciation of cultism.

The security department of the university are doing their best to keep the school secure from violence and crimes.

Associations with violent motives are proscribed to curtail any violent activities.

What we lack in AAU is having philanthropists who are indigenes to assist the university in provision of infrastructures as it is done in other state. We only have few individuals who contributed in providing infrastructures to the university.

With Francis U. Odupute

Art Alive

The Role And Responsibility Of The Art Teacher

IN Nigeria, the place of art still leaves a lot to be desired and explored. So even though the art teacher who is a normal human being has private life outside the classroom, it is his/her duty to implement the art curriculum to the school and community.

It is his/her duty to set up art programmes where there is none, and see to it that materials, equipments and facilities are provided for the teaching of art. This is the essence of his/her training as a store house of knowledge in Art to contribute to society development.

The art teacher is to take it upon himself/ herself to find out the local arts of the community and find a way of intergrating it into the school system.

He or she is also responsible for educating the community on the value of art to the individual, in order to get adequate cooperation from them.

The involvement of local craft persons will go a long way in promoting art as well as stimulating the people to develop interest in the subject since they will be moving from known activities to the unknown activities, from simple activities to complex ones. This will also motivate parents to contribute in the acquisition of art material for their children. It will also ginger the children and

By MARY YOUNG

make them want to know and also respect the culture and traditions of various

and community at large on the use of Art as a tool subject, as the core of other subjects, as an

people within the society.

Well, in the school, the teacher should give the children a regular routine, to make them feel secure. By alternating positions of responsibility, children will enjoy a fair share of privileges as well as promote leadership training and loyalty amongst individuals. It is also the duty or role of the teacher to see that the atmosphere is comfortable for conducive learning that will promote creatively. It is his/her duty to raise the status of art in the society by sensitizing the school

aid to technological development as well as an avenue for teaching morals by promoting the cultural heritage and aspirations of the society. It is the sole duty of the art teacher to organize or actively participate in organizing cultural festivities, workshops, exhibitions, recreational programmes in the community. It should be noted that Art involves dancing, singing, painting, sculpture, costuming, writing etc., and all these make up the life of the people.

It is his/ her duty to

develop creativity by motivating the students to learn how to improvise to cater for the material needs of the program. It is his/

technological advantage of art to society at large.

The school art teacher should also work hard in making the school Art Week a success. This is because the school Art

her duty to take the students to the community and the community to the school through field trips which will make the students to be aware and more appreciative of their artistic culture. And communities are made aware of their children’s creative potentials and see the

week is an avenue for students especially, to know and learn more about their culture and be more educated for this will make it possible for them to appreciate their cultural heritage as well as in realizing the contributions of culture to science and technology.

The school art week

affords the teacher an opportunity to gain a deeper knowledge of the students and their backgrounds; it also benefits the students in the sense that it helps them to explore the variety of human skills which they may determine to excel in or marvel at. In some rural community, the school feels that it is superior to the outside community, thus developing a strained relationship between the school and the community. The school art week can go a very long way in bridging this gap of out-dated mentality. Thus the school art week can be introduced to improve relationships within and the ethnic groups in the school to learn something about their individual culture, by specialists from the locality performing their skill, thus bridging the gulf between the school and the society. The nature of the activities to be done in the week should be relative to the students’ capacity and interest. The students should be allowed to bring items from another culture of foreign type. Idian, Chinese, Indonesian, etc, cultural dances may be performed side by side those of the Africans.

To be continued.

“The school art week affords the teacher an opportunity to gain a deeper knowledge of the students and their backgrounds; it also benefits the students in the sense that it helps them to explore the variety of human skills which they may determine to excel in or marvel at.”

With Ambrose O. Ekhosuehi

Art & Culture

Idolatries In Culture

Idolatry is the worship of an image held to be the abode of a superhuman personality, excessive love of an idol.

Idol is an art, figure, an image of a god or an image of worship, object of love, admiration or honour in an extreme degree.

Idol is also an erroneous way of looking at things to which the mind is prone, such as the idols of the tribe, due to the nature of human understanding, idols of the den, due to personal causes, idols of the forum, due to the influence of words, idols of the theatre, due to misconceptions of demonstration etc.

Idols, images, statues and relics in their states do not hear words, prayers and supplications but are memorials and honour of what they represent.

Works of arts add beauty that helps to focus attention to the means of worship.

There is confidence to speak to the spirit and the life force that comes from the spirit.

At the entreaty, supplication and prayers, the life of the spirit would occupy the object and so the belief was passed from heritage to heritage, especially when mystery occurred.

It would be inherited on the belief that events are controlled by supernatural forces than scientific law of movements.

Supplications tend to influence those supernatural forces, in contact with the spirits that possess superior power.

People tried to understand the earth, stars, moon, sun and the life. But religion were closely related. Spiritualism, through sensitive medium was able to communicate with the spirits. This entails ceremony which involve going into a kind of trance and announce the spirit advice which may involve some rites that

may be flayed alive to please the gods.

The principles of belief observed by the ancestors are still the guides to the nowadays service of worship.

Person who resisted the power of the gods, resisted the ordinance and had caused damnation to themselves. Manipulation of the visible world represents one of the ways that people had sought to control events and surroundings.

There are numerous idols, images, statues and shrines use as objects of memorial worship, festivals and ceremonies all over the world. The practice and belief in idolatry, the magical attribution and power attributed to it and offering of sacrifices defy the beauty of the idol.

The worship of the handiwork of arts, images, statues in numerous shrines excessively is idolatry.

Protected by all instruments of belief, charms, idols and shrine, human beings cease to fear anything more than their own potential character, behaviour and manner.

In legend, the important mark of royalty was the king umbrella. It indicated that the king could provide shade from the sun and also associated with the king power to bring rain.

The sky spirits belonging to the king were associated with the canopy of sacred trees, while the clouds seen moving over the trees was the sky spirit, as elders became ancestors, they were represented in wood in such a way to look like the bough of a tree and the idol stayed in the people’s shrines.

To represent the fact that the ancestors had been enshrined, their spirits had to be summoned to assist at important crises in life.

They were put in place by

severe frontality.

Their images, figures were composed of strong horizontal and vertical flutes markings to give them permanence and

durability.

The idol or image of an ancestor was often represented sitting on a stool, because the stool was an important symbol of authority. The spirit of the deceased was given sacrifices at the enshrine place.

The family kept the shrine where the spirit of

the ancestor was propitiated.

Some ancestors were represented by carved images on percussion staffs — Ukhurhe, which

of the earth, hence the name “Adam meaning Red earth” and the life giving spirit force came from God. The body of the deceased goes to ‘Ulakpa’

representation in Bronze indicates its permanence as centre of will, power and wisdom; seeing and hearing.

Sacred furnishings, images, shrines and works of arts are ornaments in God’s creation. Sacred images, idols, statues are

were enshrined after the deceased had been properly buried.

Ancestor’s body was supposed to go back to the red earth — (Ulakpa), the substance from which natural human beings and plants were created.

The first human person was said to have been created from the red soil

red soil earth while the living spirit goes to the Creator.

Figures made of wood can deteriorate, so the early kings kept the heads of their Ancestors preserved in Bronze.

The head was thought of a person’s own individual spirit, seat of power and personality.

Its

venerated to imbue them with the spirit of sacred art and of the sacred Divine worship.

Statues, images and idols which govern external things in sacred worship are helpful to preserve monuments, heritages and history of times, cherish as Doll but not in themselves worship in the culture.

“Idols, images, statues and relics in their states do not hear words, prayers and supplications but are memorials and honour of what they represent.”

Fatal Reprissal

Ask For DNA... And Die! “SIR,” says the lad to the shrewd butcher, “I need a dog head!” “Sure,” says the butcher, “If you get a dog head, what would you do with the teeth and the eyes?” and the lad goes his way, worried about the gaping jaw and the vacant but steady gaze of the dead dog, but content he did not insist on acquiring the head!

- Ancient Igbo Proverb Both the print and electronic media were awash, penultimate week, with the news of the death of a Benin-based mother of three during the yuletide in circumstances which point to complicities in possible homicide.

Shortly before Christmas, the woman was said to have been kidnapped around her business premises and a huge ransom allegedly paid by her husband to ensure her release, but, alas, like a scene in a fast and furious mafia movie, it was the woman’s remains that were later found on a bridge in a village somewhere!

Her family members (not her immediate, but the origins) are crying foul, surely and steadily drawing public attention to the likelihood of conspiracies in the sudden death of their sibling, asking law enforcement agencies and women’s rights organizations to unravel ‘certain prevailing circumstances’ and ensure justice is done in the matter.

The information that is now widespread is that there was a running battle before the disappearance and the nitty-gritty being that the man announced to his wife that a secret lover had made him the proud father of a set of twins! The wife’s insistence, subsequently, that a DNA test be done to ascertain the true paternity of the twins having a fore-knowledge of her husband’s fertility, which she ascribed as ‘low sperm count’ probably drew

the ire of the immediate family members and the fury of the woman stowed away in the love-nest. That, apparently, was the wife’s undoing.

matrimonial space, among them her own in-laws and she never knew of it until an argument ensued and a sister-in-law threatened in the heat of that argument: “you won’t live to see 2014!” we are even shocked that she didn’t die of heart attack at that vituperation from a sister-in-law!

The woman in the love-

twins were truly his offshoots, considering his fertility status. She shouldn’t have mentioned DNA until she’s certain his psychological comportment, even his traditional orientation, fully comprehended and adapted, to the proposal. He should be the one asking for a DNA test.

Again, she shouldn’t have

nest didn’t just wake up and have twins in one fell swoop; foetus becomes baby in nine months not one day. So, she had built formidable alliances within the wife’s circles and had her militant force ready to fight her battles. The wife should, having been already taken unaware for nine months, first ascertained the size and extent of the enemies and their frontier and then lovingly coocooed her husband into learning biology and agreeing to find out if the

let his family hear about it.

This is not the kind of proposal you make in a family meeting, especially where the domineering male ego stands emitting its scent like the he-goat!

The African man’s ego…how often would we talk about how impregnable, how unassailable it is?

You don’t go trying to melt that ego, you only attempt to make it amenable to the change you desire at that moment, to soften it in order to get what you want,

FEMINIQUE With IJEOMA UMEH email: ladywithegoldenpen@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 08182382839 and like hot lava, the male ego doesn’t stay soft forever. It soon cakes into its solid base and shows its manliness again. First, soften it and try to get what you want before it solidifies!

Remember, how long you get it soft depends on how

• Dialogue, not confrontation

Now, FEMINIQUE would not beat about the burning bush trying to catch scampering rats, but it is our candid opinion that women should learn how not to dare the hornet’s nest if they don’t already have the stingy and predatory wasp between hard-gloved and clenched fists or under a sledge hammer!

You don’t fight an enemy you don’t know! You don’t even know their territory!

This wife had big foes, fiendish fellows who had intruded into her own

“You don’t fight an enemy you don’t know! You don’t even know their territory! This wife had big foes, fiendish fellows who had intruded into her own matrimonial space, among them her own inlaws and she never knew of it until an argument ensued and a sisterin-law threatened in the heat of that argument: “you won’t live to see 2014!” we are even shocked that she didn’t die of heart attack at that vituperation from a sister-in-law!”

you fly your kite! Every woman should know her kite and how to fly it! What happened to bedtime? What happened to that quiet moment, the time between midnight and cockcrow?

Women know how to pull strings during those moments and although it is in the public domain that women know how to work on men’s emotions during bedmatics, it still does not make women shy from using that moment to their advantage. In order to get

through the thick walls of a man’s heart and touch the soft lining inside and make him cry like a baby, don’t break the foundation of that wall, please! Just apply innate charm, a little cunning and keep him horny with your honey pot!

Fly your kite! Fly it high!

Let him stare at it in the sky until he’s dazed! Oops!

Again, wives should understand that as they worked hard to keep their marriages intact, concubines worked equally hard to shine the love nest!

And…they know how to make whatever you give him, double-double, even babies! For men with so much traditional orientation too, twins, since the time the missionary, Mary Slessor banned their killing, have become assets and a sign of maleness; how much more would they be assets to a man whose maleness is in doubt!

Well, without meaning to preempt what may become another judicial precedent, FEMINIQUE gave this platform to women’s Rights groups and Gender and Equal Rights Advocates and they did express their own opinion on this matter.

Husbands, wives…and spinsters (potential matriarchs of love-nests!) all spoke their minds. We also got a medical practitioner who is versed in family health to tell us if sperms could produce twins when the count is low! We already know that the Police are ‘on top of the situation’, don’t we?

Let’s learn some hard lessons, shall we?

Stay on this page, next week!

Words On Marble In the ancient Benin kingdom, ten children, even ten sons from one woman is regarded as a child or one son; the typical Benin or Edo man would expand his coast by ensuring that there are more women and more sons. This practice is still accepted, a part of our heritage which Christianity is helping us forgo.

- Pa Aimufua Edosomwan, Great Sculptor.

Opinion

Tackling Corruption Effectively In Nigeria BRIBERY, which is an important aspect of corruption, needs two parties for it to happen: the bribe giver and the bribe taker. In some countries the culture of corruption extends to every aspect of public life, making it more or less impossible to stay in business without giving bribes.

The most common bribegiving countries are not in general the same as the most common bribe—taking countries. The 12 least corrupt countries, according to Transparency International perception survey, are (in alphabetical order): Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland. On the other hand, the 13 most corrupt countries are (in alphabetical order): Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ukraine.

In Nigeria, corruption is akin to cancer. Indeed this has been the Nigerian experience with corruption developing to such staggering proportions that it is now not only a bane of the country, but has largely defied present and past efforts to stem it. The position now is that corruption is so entrenched that anyone hoping to do any kind of business with the Nigerian bureaucracy must take it into account.

Indeed the situation is now so bad that even some government officials are alleged to bribe one another to get government business done. But in the political arena, Nigeria has found it difficult to prove corruption, but also impossible to prove its absence.

There are indications that many Nigerians, some of them politicians, retired civil servants, judges, and a few generals, have engaged in corrupt practices. Politicians are often placed in apparently compromising positions because of their desperate need to solicit financial contributions ostensibly for their campaigns, but in reality for rigging elections.

They appear sometimes to be acting in the interests of those parties that sponsor them, but mostly they are driven by personal

aggrandizement.

For the most part, corruption has bedeviled Nigeria’s political sceneencompassing abuses by government officials such as embezzlement and nepotism, as well as abuses linking public and private actors such as bribery, extortion, influence peddling, and fraud.

Although Nigerian leaders in the last twenty to thirty years have made such a singsong of fighting corruption, it does not appear that any serious effort has been made to address the real causes of corruption. Thus without a proper diagnosis of the causes of corruption, trying to fight it is akin to treating symptoms rather than rooting out the disease itself This unfortunately appears to be the strategy adopted so far in fighting corruption in Nigeria. We must now attempt to answer the questions that Nigerians should be asking their crusaders of corruption.

What indeed are the domestic causes of corruption in one of the world’s most corrupt countries?

It is necessary to observe that aside from the quality, or lack of it, of people running the Nigerian economic and political shows, there are some systemic conditions in the Nigerian polity that promote corruption. To start with, it is unfortunate that power is concentrated in the hands of decision makers who in reality are not directly accountable to the people as is often seen in nondemocratic regimes.

This is a direct result of Nigeria’s inability since independence to always conduct credible, free, fair and uncontroversial elections to political offices in the country. With political office holders acquiring power through disputable if not illegitimate methods, the situation is not helped by perennial lack of government transparency in decision making.

accomplices in the public contracts gravy train.

With a weak rule of law in the land and the absence of adequate controls to prevent bribery, the express corruption train rolls on.

Instead, national preoccupation now is the sharing of the so-called “national cake” which in an imposed quasi-federal regime has been raised to the high level of state policy via a revenue sharing formula!

With the spending of Nigerian oil incomes in the Gowon days being declared to be a problem, Nigerian agriculture (the former mainstay of the

But the crux of the present Nigerian corruption problem is the overarching crude oil economy and politics. It is not a secret that “lifting crude oil” is a major form of political patronage in Nigeria since the 1 970s oil boom. Indeed, since the advent of the oil boom in the 1970s, Nigerians have developed an unhealthy love for easy wealth and luxury goods while at the same time loosing their traditional appetite for hard work, as well as the knack to generate resources and accumulate capital.

Nigerian economy) was abandoned and the many assembly plants that masqueraded as manufacturing industries soon followed suit.

The establishment of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau and its Tribunal is a laudable start on the war against corruption.

Unfortunately, though some successes have been registered by these bodies, the general impression is that these bodies have gone after

By JEFFERY NEGBEDION Again, costly political campaigns in recent times, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political funding mean that elected officials’ first priority on assuming office is to recoup

• Larmode, EFCC boss

their election expenses. This is facilitated by the design of marginally relevant prestige projects requiring expenditure of large amounts of public capital.

In the subsequent award of contracts for these projects, self-interested closed cliques, ethnic-cum-family members, and “old-boy networks are favoured. The bulk of the bureaucracy (often poorly paid) and bedeviled with below-living wages and supported by apathetic, uninterested, or gullible populace become actors and

the tail of the monster of corruption rather than its head.

It is not helpful that some politicians meanwhile allege that these bodies are being used by the Presidency as instruments of blackmail or vendetta against political opponents. There is therefore a need to expand the activities and range of instruments available to these bodies.

If corruption is to be given a short shrift in Nigeria, then the social, business and bureaucratic environments must be corruption-hostile rather than friendly. This means that there must be well funded comprehensive public education and enlightenment programs on the nature of corruption as well as the negative effects of corruption in the Nigerian polity. This is a job that the National Orientation Agency (NOA) as well as the Federal and State Ministries of Information must undertake.

It is often claimed that corruption like prostitution cannot be wiped out entirely in any society. This may well be so. But it seems evident from the examples of some virtually corruption free countries, like the Scandinavian countries, that any country, that can muster the will, can indeed reduce corruption to the barest minimum.

This is the gauntlet that Nigeria must embrace. For a start, the war on corruption will be bedeviled by quite a few people of questionable integrity that have already worked their way into positions of political (executive and legislative), judicial, corporate and bureaucratic authority and influence. Hence Nigeria must draw a line somewhere and grant amnesty to past offenders of corruption up to an arbitrarily set cut-off date to be determined. But the key to preventing and controlling further corruption crimes is to implement such measures geared towards prevention, detection, sanctions and restitutions.

“The establishment of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau and its Tribunal is a laudable start on the war against corruption. Unfortunately, though some successes have been registered by these bodies, the general impression is that these bodies have gone after the tail of the monster of corruption rather than its head.”

View Point

Marriage Cutlure In Ancient Benin

MARRIAGE is the act, ceremony by which a man and a woman become husband and wife, the union of the man and the woman gives them the rights and obligations of marriage procreation when the dowry have been paid.

A person, male, or female is a spirit encased in physical body that represent God creation, hence the procreation of a new person, man or woman collaborate with the power of the creator and must be the fruit and sign of the mutual selfgiving of the spouses, their love and their fidelity.

The bond of marriage, the inherent fidelity is reciprocally expressed by the spouses through mutual respect of their cultural rights to become a mother and a father, wife and husband.

It is this fidelity to become parents that generates the right to conceive a child, carried in the womb, delivered to be raised within the marriage.

The child of their womb is the living image of the couple’s love and the permanent sign of their conjugal union, the living and indissoluble concrete expression of their maternity and paternity.

The Benin people discovered that there was permanent union between a man and a woman in marriage, so the culture became the custom.

In the marriage custom, the woman becomes to the family the property of the husband and a member of the family hence woman is the home.

In most cases, man is more pugnacious and venturesome, and becomes polygamous. The dominant man always have his

plurality of women but only the chief ones enjoy the full status of house wife. The others have lower social status and call mistresses, likewise morganatic woman.

Marriage has always been much more to a woman than the man. The woman is expected to be faithful to her

husband. Unfaithfulness is treated very harshly by the family.

Little sexual adventures outside marriage bond have been usually tolerated in the man. It is customary to advise the wives not to take these little adventures or flirt of their husbands too seriously.

Marriage is much more a union between two families

By BARR. AKPONANA AVWERUKERUVWE

than between two individuals. Father and mothers set about finding suitable girls or boys for

measured or weighed. The smile accomplishments is the beauty of a good wife in a well kept house.

their children; as wives or husbands, and “blessed the husband who finds a really good wife, the number of his days will be double”. A perfect wife is the joy of her husband. The grace of a wife will charm her husband. Her understanding will make him stronger and no price can be put on well- trained character and cannot be

The parents of the suitor contact the parents of the spinster to abide by the choice and if there is an opposition, the parents are usually able to listen to each other till they come to compromise.

The essence of marriage is to continue the satisfactions of family life and at the same time make

“Marriage is much more a union between two families than between two individuals. Father and mothers set about finding suitable girls or boys for their children; as wives or husbands, and “blessed the husband who finds a really good wife, the number of his days will be double”.”

up for anything defect. The tide of happiness in any marriage ebbs and flows.

The secret is to accept partners as a combination of virtues and defects.

Barrenness of a wife has led to the addition of another wife. Impotence of a husband has also led to the substitution of a temporary

male consort.

Nature demands chastity before marriage and fidelity after marriage, hence a girl must be a virgin and the blood stain of the nuptial bed sheet must be presented to the girl’s parent and the girl’s mother keeps the cloth as a mark of good up bringing, and dignity as the pride of a woman. Nuptial bed is the bed where intercourse takes place in marriage ceremony.

In olden days, the bride remains in solitude for seven days before she sleeps with her groom on the seventh day.

In the ancient custom, after the payment of the Bride price or Dowry, a day would be scheduled for the taking of the Bride to the Groom.

On that day, the bride in her best attire would be brought before the parents and the elders who seated and pray the wedding prayers, even with percussion staff “ukhurhe”.

The eldest among the elders would then take a cup filled with wine, kola-nuts and certain libation is performed to the ancestors while praying for the successes of the marriage.

The Bride kneels down as the prayer is going on to honour the ancestors and the Elders.

The woman will obey the husband. They will be blessed with as many children as God will give them, with enough wealth that will enable them to raise their children who will also take care of them at the feeble and old age. All in attendance would say ‘amen’, so be it, to the old man’s prayer”.

After the prayer, the Bride is no more a common person. Afterwards the Bride would be escorted to the Groom’s residence in a bridal procession. The feast continues at the Groom’s home while the Bride and the Bride maid reside in the Nuptial room.

The room is kept secret and strictly private. The Bride maid assists the Bride in the make up.

In the marriage culture, Levirate marriage is practiced, that is a young widow is allowed to marry any of the husband’s relatives to bear children on behalf of the deceased husband, so also a husband marries a woman to mother children for the deceased wife.

In Benin culture, husband is the prestige in woman’s affairs (“odo re uyi ne ore okhuo egbe” according to my interpreter).

The conjugal act by which the couples mutually express their self gift at the same time, expresses openness to the gift of life in inseparably corporal and spiritual and are able to become father and mother for its openness to procreation the fruit and love of marriage, made by the bond of marriage culture.

Reflection

From Defeat To Victory

Divine Transformation: IF you have been following the matches of the Nigerian Super Eagle at South Africa you will agree with the popular adages that says “where there is life there is hope”.

He who laughs last laughs the best. When the Nigerian Super Eagle lost their first match with the Malians, most people thought that all hope was lost. No one ever believed that Nigeria will make into the second round but at last they made it! They won their two matches and qualified for quarter final.

Their match with Morocco was the peak of their surprise package. At the first half of the match when Morocco was defeating Nigeria 3:0, nobody ever believed that Nigeria will be able to find their feet back in the match. Some of those who were watching the match with me left the room disappointed.

One thing I strongly believe which every Nigerian must learn from this very match is that we should never give up hope even when the going gets tough. When the going gets tough the tough ones gets going. Where there is life there is still hope. During the second half of the match the Nigerian team that was down with 3:0 suddenly recorded their

first goal. That looks like a consolation goal; after all, half bread is better than none. Before you know it there was a second goal.

With that second goal the hope of equalizing became high. Everyone started praying for one more goal.

Even the Nigerian fans were singing: “All we are saying give us one goal.”

Nigerians needed this one goal desperately and as God would have it, close to the ninetieth minutes the much expected one goal came. It was indeed a miraculous goal!

If Nigerians had not gotten this one goal it would have been the end of their dream to semi-final. With this equalizer, a thirty minutes extra time was added.

During this extra time Nigerian scored the 4 th goal that gave them victory over the Moroccans.

What an interesting match! It is a match that is full of lessons; a thought provoking match. This match, I believe, has place Nigeria in an enviable position across the globe.

A day after this match I had the opportunity to listen to the comment of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He assured the Nigerians that

what happened in the football pitch in the match between Nigeria and Morocco will be the portion of Nigeria as a nation. At first, Nigeria will experience what St. John of the cross describes as dark night but later on Nigeria will shine in splendour. Yes, there is hope!

Although the Nigerian Super Eagle did not qualify for the final match, they were defeated by the black stars of Ghana with a penalty shooters, the boys did well. In the match with Ghana, Nigerians were not just playing against the eleven players on the pitch but as the African champions and those who defeated the hosting nation, South Africa, almost all the fans were against them. The tension created by the fans was enough to instigate fear on any player.

Well, you can now see how patriotic I am as a Nigerian. I am among the

few none politicians that are proud of their nation. I strongly believe with the President of Nigeria that one day this nation will arise from dust to glory.

With good people like you, Nigeria will be transformed into a great nation. It is a question of time but we must surely get there. We should not abandon this nation into the hands of few politicians. A tree cannot make a forest. All hands must be on deck.

Last Sunday, the gospel that was read in the Catholic Church all over the world is the gospel of Matthew chapter 4:12-23.

Commenting on the transformation that took place in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, with the coming of Christ St. Matthew noted, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, towards the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow

With REV. FR. JOHN DAMIAN ADIZIE PHONE: 08076635886

of death light has dawned.”

This message is for Nigeria. As long as Nigerians continue to uphold the fear of God, one day this nation be transformed into a great nation.

Child of God, this message is not just for Nigeria. It is also for you as a covenanta child of God. No matter how sinful you are, with your repentance, God said I should announce to you that there is still hope for you. God is inviting you for total reconciliation, he says, “Come now, let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). If you can give your life to Jesus today, I see you moving from a sinner to a saint.

Have you failed in the past? God said I should announce to you that there is still hope for you. Your failure will turn into success. There will be no traces of failure in your file. For God said, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18). Child of God you better perceive it.

Something new is happening in your life.

God is doing something new in your family, your academics and your business centre. Your office will never be the same. I see breakthrough and promotion written all over your face. You must surely succeed!

Are you in pains? Are you sorrowful, under hard labour and with a heavy burden, Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you

will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). That heavy burden upon your shoulder will not last forever. Jesus has come to take them away. He came that you may have life and have it abundantly.

If you are in pains, there is good news for you.

Those of you who are having sleepless night, there is hope for you. Even those who are mourning, there is good news for you wipe your tears as I announce to you the good news from above. Jesus said I should announce to you that your sorrow will turn into gladness: Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” (John 16:20).

Jesus used the image of a woman in labour to explain the transformation that is about to take place in your life. According to him, “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has not come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:21-22).

No matter, how painful your experience may be, even if it is as painful as labour pain your pain will turn into gladness. You will not be sorrowful forever. You will laugh again! You will not fail forever – you must surely succeed! You will not be under cure forever – you will be blessed. You will not beg forever – you will be a giver. In fact, as the song goes, “I can see everything turning around.

Everything – turning around Everything – turning around for your good.

“Have you failed in the past? God said I should announce to you that there is still hope for you. Your failure will turn into success. There will be no traces of failure in your file. For God said, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

(Isaiah 43:18). Child of God you better perceive it.”

International What Obama Still Hasn’t Figured Out About Being President

FOR a week leading up to the president’s Tuesday address, White House advisers were trying out yet another new catchphrase, telling any reporter they could find that President Barack Obama had discovered he had “a phone and a pen,” and he intended to use them in the year ahead. Up until now, apparently, the president has been relying on the quill and telegraph President Rutherford Hayes left behind, so this is kind of a breakthrough.

This pen-and-phone business represents a pretty stunning admission from a president five years into his term – that he and his senior aides are still groping about for ways to wield the power of the office, and that they have essentially given up on legislating. Their latest strategy holds that, since a small number of Republican lawmakers have effectively decided to thwart the public will, Obama must resort to doing the things he can do on his own, mainly by signing executive orders and making lots of calls.

Obama has, in fact, governed at a time of intense polarity and general wackiness in Congress, and at a time of fast-fracturing media, when the so-called bully pulpit doesn’t command a room like it used to. But none of this gets to the hard truth that underlies Obama’s lagging approval ratings, which is that while most Americans may agree with the president’s assessment of what’s wrong in government, they no longer trust him to fix it.

In an ABC News poll released last weekend, a few days before Obama’s address, only 37 percent of voters said they had confidence in Obama to make the right decisions, compared with 61 percent when he took office. Only 47 percent said he understands the problems of ordinary Americans. In other words, Obama isn’t tanking simply because nihilistic conservatives are bent on blocking his policies.

Rather, conservatives can get away with blocking his policies because the voters aren’t persuaded they’ll work.

If all of this perplexes Obama and his aides, it probably shouldn’t. Most Americans who voted for the president in 2008 thought they were getting a pragmatic reformer who would channel the most powerful impulse in modern American politics – to make government work. In this way, Obama seemed to echo his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, who remade the welfare system and tore down the decaying housing projects that were blighted symbols of bureaucratic failure.

From the start, though, Obama’s presidency went in a decidedly different direction. Facing an economic catastrophe and buoyed by polls that showed Americans open to activist government, Obama set about expanding the reach and ambition of the federal government for the first time in a generation. This was likely the right policy choice, and it might have been fine politically too, except that Obama’s White House has shown little sustained interest in making government more efficient at the same time.

There was debate inside the White House, in those early years, about maybe collapsing some of the sprawling bureaucracies housed in 20th century

Cabinet departments. Later, in his State of the Union address in 2011, Obama vowed to bring government into the information age. (“The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater,” he despaired.

“And I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.”)

But all of this came to very little; basically, the administration’s big idea was to fold the Office of the United States Trade Representative into the

Obama did announce in his State of the Union on Tuesday that Vice President Joe Biden would lead an Al Gore-style effort to re-evaluate federal job-training programs. That’s a good idea, if they’re serious about it. But if Obama’s really going to give up on pushing major legislation (otherwise known as being the president) and focus instead on executive orders, then he might as well focus his power on the one place where he really can make both a substantive and political difference, which is reforming the federal government.

On the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, Obama could take up the conservative challenge

President Barack Obama, US President

Commerce Department, which went nowhere.

Most often, Obama has generally talked and acted like a man held prisoner by the systems he inherited, rather than the guy in charge of them.

No doubt Obama and his allies fear, as Democrats have since the Reagan years, that publicly questioning the efficiency of government would only abet conservative efforts to dismantle it. I get it. But nothing did more to erode the credibility of government than the disastrous rollout of the federal health exchange. That Obama relied so heavily on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to design a massive, eBay-like website tells you a lot about his own abiding faith in government born of the industrial age.

And such perceptions matter when you’re proposing to increase the investments that government gets to make. White House aides should ask themselves why New Yorkers gave overwhelming support to their new mayor, Bill de Blasio, and his tax-raising agenda. Sure, residents of Park Slope and the Upper West Side are inherently more liberal than most Americans, but it’s also true that they’ve just enjoyed 12 years of ruthless efficiency under the Bloomberg administration. They take for granted the basic competence of government, and that makes all the difference when you ask them to expand it.

to review the litany of existing anti-poverty programs and figure out which ones actually work.

He could establish clear rules to reform the government’s collection of our personal data, rather than leaving it to Congress and multiple boards. He could learn the right lesson from the fiasco of the health care rollout, which is that a lot of archaic agencies throughout the government aren’t up to the technological challenges of the new age, and it’s time to reboot them.

With three years left in his presidency, Obama still has time to be something like the generational figure a lot of Americans hoped he would be, forcibly pulling government into the digital world. Or he can spend his time working the phones and signing small orders with his pen, sort of like the most powerful claims adjuster on earth.

“No doubt Obama and his allies fear, as Democrats have since the Reagan years, that publicly questioning the efficiency of government would only abet conservative efforts to dismantle it. I get it. But nothing did more to erode the credibility of government than the disastrous rollout of the federal health exchange. That Obama relied so heavily on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to design a massive, eBay-like website tells you a lot about his own abiding faith in government born of the industrial age.”

International Feature

Snow, Ice Send South’s Flagship City Reeling

ATLANTA - The snow and sleet have stopped falling and traffic was moving again around Atlanta following a crippling storm — but transportation and rescue officials said that did not mean it was safe yet to drive, especially after the sun goes down.

Officials from the Georgia Department of Transportation said Wednesday night that they were concerned with sub-freezing overnight lows potentially leading to layers of black ice coating roads that might appear to be safe.

Temperatures were expected to drop to about 15 degrees overnight in the Atlanta area, according to National Weather Service forecasters. Although it was supposed to be in the high 30s Thursday, it is forecast to dip below freezing again before rising into the 50s on Friday.

“Whatever little leeway that we’ve gained with melting and slushiness is gonna refreeze,” Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Karlene Barron said of local road conditions. She added that the department was especially concerned with semi-trucks jackknifing and leading to additional traffic jams.

Heeding the warnings, school districts and state and local governments stretching from northwest to coastal Georgia announced that offices and classrooms would remain closed Thursday.

A storm that dropped just inches of snow Tuesday wreaked havoc across much of the South, closing highways, grounding flights and contributing to at least a dozen deaths from traffic accidents and a mobile home fire. Yet it was Atlanta, home to major corporations and the world’s busiest airport, that was Exhibit A for how a Southern city could be sent reeling by

winter weather that, in the North, might be no more than an inconvenience.

The Georgia State Patrol responded to more than 1,460 crashes between Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening, including two fatal crashes, and reported more than 175 injuries. About 1,000 arrivals and departures were canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and thousands of schoolchildren either slept on the buses that tried and failed to get them home, or on cots in school gymnasiums. All were back home by Wednesday evening, officials said.

State transportation crews spent much of Wednesday rescuing stranded drivers and moving disabled and abandoned vehicles that littered the interstates, medians and shoulders.

Gov. Nathan Deal said emergency workers, police, and the National Guard would help drivers Thursday to recover their cars and would provide them with fuel if necessary.

Crews planned to use four-wheel-drive vehicles to take motorists to vehicles they abandoned to reclaim them Thursday. State officials also said they were creating a database to help motorists locate vehicles that were towed to impound lots.

Gov. Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed found themselves on the defensive Wednesday, acknowledging that storm preparations could have been better. But Deal also blamed federal forecasters, saying he was led to believe it wouldn’t be so bad.

However, the National Weather Service explicitly cautioned on Monday that snowcovered roads “will make travel difficult or impossible.” The agency issued a winter storm warning for metro Atlanta early Tuesday and cautioned against driving.

Deal, who is up for re-election in November, said warnings could have been posted along highways earlier, but he also fended off criticism.

“We don’t want to be accused of crying wolf.

Because if we had been wrong, y’all would have all been in here saying, ‘Do you know how many millions of dollars you cost the economies of the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia by shutting down businesses all over this city and this state?’” Deal told reporters.

The Atlanta area was crippled by an ice storm in 2011, and officials had vowed not to be caught unprepared again. But in this case, few closings or other measures were ordered ahead of time.

Among the commuters trapped in the gridlock was Jessica Troy, who described her drive home to the suburb of Smyrna as a slowmotion obstacle course on sheets of ice.

“We literally would go 5 feet and sit for two hours,” Troy said after she and a co-worker spent more than 16 hours covering 12 miles.

Nelson Kickly said he left work in Alpharetta, an Atlanta suburb, around 1 p.m.

Tuesday and did not get home to Smyrna until 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday. On a typical day, Kickly’s commute lasts about 45 minutes. He said the journey has motivated him to take a closer look at his emergency preparedness strategy.

“I had a full tank of gas but if I didn’t, I’d have been freezing cold,” he said. “I was just listening to the radio and you know, I don’t know how I didn’t go crazy.”

News

UN Warns Of Humanitarian ‘Catastrophe’ In DR Congo’s Katanga KINSHASA - A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in DR Congo’s Katanga province, where rebel violence has destroyed 600 homes over the past three months and displaced 400,000 people, the UN said Wednesday.

The head of the world body’s MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo admitted that the huge southeastern province had been neglected in recent months.

“It’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” Martin Kobler

Suicide Bombers Storm Iraq Ministry Building, 18 Killed BAGHDAD - Six victims died. suicide bombers burst into No group claimed an Iraqi ministry building, responsibility for the took hostages and killed at attack, but state buildings least 18 people including are a target for Sunni themselves on Thursday Islamist insurgents who before security forces have been regaining regained control, a senior momentum in a campaign official said. to destabilize the Shi’ite The brazen attack on the Muslim-led government. building belonging to the More than 1,000 people Ministry of Transportation have been killed in in northeast Baghdad violence across Iraq since coincides with a month- the start of the year, when long standoff between the militants seized control of Iraqi army and anti- two cities in the Sunnigovernment fighters in the dominated province of western province of Anbar, bordering Syria.

Anbar.

It is the first time Sunni A senior security source militants have exercised said the six militants took such open control in Iraqi a number of hostages and cities since the height of killed four of them inside the insurgency that the building, which was followed the 2003 U.S.used to receive visiting led invasion that delegations. It was not overthrew dictator immediately known Saddam Hussein. where the other eight US Afghanistan Can’t ‘Keep Deferring; Decision On Security Pact ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT - The United States and its allies cannot continue to put off decisions about a post-2014 mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, urging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay beyond this year.

“You can’t just keep deferring and deferring, because at some point the realities of planning and budgeting and all that is required collides,” Hagel told reporters late on Wednesday, aboard a military aircraft en route to Poland.

The Obama administration has been pressing Karzai to sign the agreement, which was concluded last year, for months, warning that U.S. and NATO nations could be forced to pull all soldiers out by the end of the year, leaving Afghanistan vulnerable to Taliban resurgence or even civil war.

Karzai, meanwhile, has demanded an end to U.S. military operations on Afghan homes and a step forward in hoped-for peace talks with the Taliban before he will sign the deal.

Hagel said President Barack Obama was personally examining what a possible post-2014 U.S. force in Afghanistan might look like, should the security pact be finalized this year.

The U.S. military has advocated keeping a modestsized force of around 10,000 soldiers in Afghanistan to anchor a post-2014 mission that would focus on training and supporting Afghan forces and conducting counter-terrorism activities.

Administration officials say no decisions have yet been made. It is unclear whether the Obama administration would be willing to wait until after Afghanistan elects a new leader in April to finalize the deal, or whether it will call off plans for a post-2014 presence before then.

Hagel said his counterparts from NATO nations were likewise concerned about the delay in finalizing their plans for Afghanistan beyond this year.

“They have parliaments, they have budgets, they have their citizens,” he said.

Hagel said that while officials continued to urge Karzai to finalize the deal, there were limits to what the United States could do.

told reporters in Kinshasa, referring to the situation in Katanga, where violence has spiked recently.

“I feel an element of guilt when I think of Katanga because we have concentrated our military activity on the Kivus but it is important not to neglect Katanga,” he said.

Late last year, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the restive country deployed an unprecedented intervention brigade to stamp out the M23 rebellion in the northeastern province of North Kivu.

The focus on the M23 and subsequently on other armed groups operating in the same region created a security vacuum in Katanga, the country’s wealthiest province.

Katanga, which at almost half a million square kilometres (190,000 square miles) is about the size of Spain, is believed to hold around a third of the world’s cobalt and 10 percent of its copper reserves.

Its capital Lubumbashi is the country’s second largest city and the province has been plagued by secessionist violence since DR Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960.

Over the past year, rebel groups fighting for Katanga’s independence — known as Mai Mai Bakata Katanga — have sown terror in the province’s northern regions.

“Most affected is the area between Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto where more than 600 houses in 11 villages have been destroyed since October last year,” the UN said in a statement.

The area is known as the “triangle of death” and the UN said other armed groups were also active there.

“All armed groups must stop their activities and allow humanitarian access to the main victims of this tragedy, the civilian populations,” Kobler said.

MONUSCO said there were an estimated 400,000 internally displaced people in Katanga, a figure that marks a “dramatic increase” over two years.

Mai Mai Bakata Katanga launched brazen attacks that left dozens of people dead in Lubumbashi in March and November 2013.

Following attacks earlier this month on strategic buildings in the national capital Kinshasa — 1,000 miles to the west — the Mai Mai rebels intensified their activity around Lubumbashi, forcing civilians to flee.

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Arsenal Look To Regain Top Spot

ARSENAL will be hoping to return to the top of the Barclays Premier League when they take on Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Kick-off set for 18h00 (CAT).

Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny says Arsenal are already focused on taking three points against Palace on Sunday rather than worrying about title rivals Chelsea and Manchester City.

The Gunners were held to a 2-

2 draw by Southampton on Tuesday night and that gave City the chance of going top of the table after they beat Tottenham Hotspur 24 hours later.

Szczesny is expecting a tight race right to the end, but the Pole insists the Gunners will take one game at a time.

“It is very tight, but it doesn’t matter who is top of the league

United Face Stoke Test MANCHESTER United will look to close in on the top four spots in the Premier League when they travel to Stoke City tomorrow.

The Red Devils got back to winning ways in the domestic championship with a 2-0 triumph over Cardiff City on Tuesday evening.

The match was significant not only in terms of the result, but also as far as playing personnel is concerned: club-record signing Juan Mata made an impressive debut, while Robin van Persie returned to the starting XI with a goal and Wayne Rooney also appeared off the bench.

Manager David Moyes is confident that all three have more to offer and is looking

• David Moyes

forward to the day when he can unleash an exciting trio of attacking talent on Premier League opponents.

He told Sky Sports: “It’s massive to get them back, it’s so important to us.

“They are still missing a bit of match practice, but we’ll keep building them up - Robin and Wayne, and Juan as well. I’m looking forward to getting them all on the pitch together.”

On £37million man Mata, Moyes added: “I thought he did very well. He helped make the goal, he did some really good moments for us and I think he should be pleased tonight how he played, we were.

“He looked as though he wasn’t too far away. He still needs some match practice, he’s not played as much as he might have liked recently. We tried to keep him on as long as we could, hopefully that will benefit him.”

United enter the match in seventh place on 40 points, three positions and six points off the Champions League spots, as well as nine places and 18 points above stoke, who went down 10 against Sunderland on Wednesday.

The Britannia is often a difficult venue for visiting sides, though manager Mark Hughes is under growing pressure for his side to find consistency and push for a place in the top half of the table

now,” he was quoted by Arsenal Player.

“We have been there for quite a while but what matters is who finishes top in mid-May. “We want to focus on our next game against Palace, get the three points there and then we have a very hard run.

“We will have to be at our very best so we have to leave [the Southampton game] behind us and move on as quickly as possible.

“We will go into this period with plenty of confidence and we hope to show people what we are made of.”

Palace’s revival under Tony Pulis has been so dramatic even captain Mile Jedinak can scarcely believe it.

The Eagles were written off as relegation certainties after losing seven of their first eight matches and lying five points adrift of safety when previous manager Ian Holloway quit the club at the end of October.

But fast forward three months and Palace sit 14th, five points clear of the drop zone and just a point behind Swansea in 10th.

“We have made it difficult for teams and if we can continue doing that until the end of the season it will be massive. We have done well at big places before this season and I am sure we will have a game plan at Arsenal on Sunday.”

– Sherwood

• Tim Sherwood

moved to the top of the English Premier League on Wednesday evening.

Goals from Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko,

Manager Sam Allardyce of West Ham shakes hands with Jose Mourinho of Chelsea

Mourinho Fumes At ’19thCentury’ West Ham

CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho angrily accused West Ham United of playing “football from the nineteenth century” after they secured a hard-fought 0-0 draw against his side.

Chelsea dominated a onesided game at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, but were unable to

City Are On A Different Planet’ Stevan Jovetic and Vincent

TOTTENHAM Hotspur boss Tim Sherwood heaped praise on Manchester City, describing the Citizens as ‘on a different planet’.

City trumped a 10-man Spurs outfit 5-1 as they

Manchester City’s Edin Dzeko celebrates after scoring his team third goal against Spurs.

Kompany couldn’t quite match the 6-0 in the reverse leg, but underlined the Sky Blues as favourites for the title.

“Without question. In my opinion, they are the champions of the league,” said Sherwood.

“Unfortunately for everyone they play, they don’t just score one and then shut up shop, do they?

“They keep coming at you and if anyone is going to win the league, you want someone like this team to go on and win it because they entertain the push on.”

The win moves City one point clear of Arsenal, who drew 2-2 at Southampton on Tuesday evening.

find a way through the obdurate defence of Sam Allarydce’s West Ham. That meant they missed out on the chance to move second in the Premier League table, leaving them three points behind new leaders Manchester City, who they face next at the Etihad Stadium on Monday.

“It’s very difficult to play a football match where only one team wants to play,” said Mourinho. “Very difficult. A match is about two teams playing. This match was only one team playing, and another team not.

“I told Big Sam (Allardyce), and I repeat my words, that they need points. Because they need points, to come here and not play and do it the way they did, is it acceptable? Maybe yes.

Maybe yes.

“I cannot be too critical because if I was in this position, I don’t know if I would do the same. Maybe I would. So I don’t want to criticise that.

“But at the same time, this is not Premier League. This is not

the best league in the world.

This is football from the nineteenth century. Too bad.”

Asked what he meant by ‘nineteenth-century football’, Mourinho said: “Pretending injuries, cheating. I don’t know if that’s the right word. The goalkeeper taking his time not after minute 70, but in the first minute.

“Ten defenders in the box, defenders not putting a foot outside the box. Very basic. But I’m nobody to criticise. They are happy. They get a point.”

Allardyce laughed off the criticism after a result that left his side two points from safety in the relegation zone.

“Jose can’t take it, can he?” the West Ham manager said.

“He can’t take it because we’ve ‘out-tacticked’ him, outwitted him. He just can’t cope. He can tell me all he wants. I don’t care, to be honest.

“I love to see Chelsea players moaning at the referee, trying to intimidate him, Jose jumping up and down in his technical area.

It’s great to see.”

Mourinho refused to criticise his team, insisting that they had done everything they could have done to secure a win.

“With my players, I’m happy,” he said. “The second half was phenomenal. We tried, we created, we missed goals, the goalkeeper saved, the defenders saved two. I cannot complain with my people, and I am nobody to criticise what they did.”

The Chelsea manager admitted that Manchester City’s 5-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur confirmed Manuel Pellegrini’s side as favourites for the title ?- and to beat his own side comfortably next week.

“For how many months have I said the same thing? One team (City) is an end product. The other is a team trying to build,” said Mourinho.

“For me, it’s not a surprise.

We go there next Monday and the result at this moment is 0-0.

Are they favourites? Yes. Are they favourites to score again four, five, six goals? Yes. But it’s 0-0 now and we go there to compete.”

Allardyce was pleased with his side’s point, but admitted that injuries to Mohamed Diame and Joey O’Brien had taken some of the gloss off the result.

Inter And Juve To Renew Rivalry

INTER Milan’s speculative form will be hoping to get the better of Serie A leaders Juventus on Sunday evening at the Juventus Stadium, who also come into the encounter without a win in two games.

It is a rather uncanny coincidence, and a rarity at it’s best, that both of the two Italian giants will face off against each other on the back of a questionable run.

Walter Mazzarri’s Inter have been on a steady decline since their 1-0 win over neighbors Milan in December and have as such failed to acquire a single win since the turn of the New Year.

Their last result came in the shape of a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to Catania last Sunday afternoon in which the Nerazzurri dominated possession, but continued to squander their chances in front of goal.

Likewise for Juventus, their form has been far from the glittering spectacle they have graced Italian football with in

the past few seasons.

Their 1-0 undoing to Roma saw them eliminated from the Coppa Italia, while a 1-1 draw to Lazio on Saturday evening meant that their eight-point gap over the Giallorossi was reduced by two.

Gianluigi Buffon was sent off in that encounter and, as a result, will be suspended and replaced by Marco Storari for the match against their rivals.

On top of its usual hype and rivalry, the game will be particularly interesting given that the two clubs have been at war for the past two weeks over the possible swop deal between Fredy Guarin and Mirko Vucinic.

The Montenegrin hitman looked destined for a switch to the San Siro, while Guarin would head the other way to Turin.

However, protestations by the Beneamata ultras saw Inter withdraw from the deal, sparking an angry reaction from Juventus as well as Guarin who refused to report for training.

The off field draw will undoubtedly be taken to the grass come kick-off on Sunday evening, making the encounter even more tantalizing to the fan.

THIAGO Alcantara said Bayern Munich were deserving winners after his stunning scissor-kick secured a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Stuttgart.

Bayern had trailed Stuttgart until the final 15 minutes but, as the prospect of a first Bundesliga defeat since

Bayern Deserved Our October 2012 loomed, a Victory Claudio Pizarro header and Thiago’s injury-time winner turned it around.

The result extended Bayern’s unbeaten league run to 43 games and left them 13 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the

Thiago Alcantara scores the winning goal for Bayern

Atletico, Barcelona Into Cup Semi-Finals

HOLDERS Atletico Madrid set up a mouthwatering Copa del Rey semi-final with city rivals Real Madrid after beating Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on Wednesday to win 3-1 on aggregate.

Barcelona also assured their place in the last four Emiliano Insua’s cross.

Diego Costa sealed their with a 5-1 victory over passage into the last four Levante at the Camp Nou in the final stages as he to seal a 9-2 rout on slotted home his first goal aggregate. of 2014 on the counterIn Bilbao, Aritz Aduriz attack to inflict Athletic had powered the hosts into Bilbao’s first ever defeat at a deserved lead four their San Mames ground, minutes before half-time which they have used since and Athletic were only the start of the season. denied a bigger advantage Atletico will travel to the at the break by two Santiago Bernabeu, where outstanding saves from they beat Real 2-1 in last Thibaut Courtois. year’s final, for the first leg However, Atletico of the semi-final next week regrouped at the break and with the return to come at levelled 10 minutes after the Vicente Calderon the the restart when Raul following week.

Garcia smashed home

“In the first 30 minutes we were in control of the tie, if not the match,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

“From then until half-time they had a great end to the half, but we came out strong in the second-half and got the goal which gave us confidence and strength.”

Simeone’s men will now face Real three times in little over three weeks in league and Cup. However, they are unbeaten in four meetings against Madrid and Barcelona this season and the Argentine feels his side now believe they can compete with Spain’s big two.

“This season we will play four more games against Barcelona and Real Madrid and that is good because it tests

they have no choice but to bounce back at home against the Bordelais if they want to dispel any shadow of doubt in their mind.

“After two difficult games, it is very important to start again on a clean basis in this championship, especially as we will play at the Parc des Princes. We will have to give it all and grab the three points.

We know this team of Bordeaux very well, and so far we have been lucky against them, but we have to be vigilant,” warned Rabiot.

“I do believe that if we

remain focused and do just what we usually do at the Parc, everything should be all right.”

The Girondins, who suffered two home defeats this season at the hands of the Parisians, 0-2 in the first leg of the championship and 1-3 in a League Cup encounter, will be eager to take their revenge.

Ranked seventh in the Ligue 1 standings, they are now three points away from a European ticket and will try to rise further after they put an end to four defeats in a row with a home win against Saint-Etienne last weekend.

PSG To Chase Doubts Away Against Bordeaux

PARIS Saint-Germain host Bordeaux on Friday at the Parc des Princes in the opening game of matchday 23 of the Ligue 1(Kick-off is set at 21h30 CAT).

The Parisians remain on two consecutive matches without a win, a first this season for the capital city’s outfit, and are now only leading Monaco by three points at the top of the standings.

And Paris SaintGermain’s young midfielder Adrien Rabiot agrees that

you more, but you also lose the fear of playing in those games.”

Barcelona’s passage into the semi-finals was far smoother as they thrashed Levante at a sodden and sparsely populated Camp Nou. Sergi Roberto’s early own goal had given the visitors some hope of an improbable comeback from last week’s 4-1 defeat.

However, that was quickly extinguished as Adriano’s long-range strike and Carles Puyol’s thumping header gave Barca the lead on the night before half-time.

Two goals in quick succession after the break from close range by Alexis Sanchez extended the hosts lead.

Cesc Fabregas rounded off the scoring as his low effort beat Javi Jimenez at his near post 21 minutes from time.

table, and Thiago felt the reigning champions were rewarded for their efforts.

“We gave it our all until the last minute, and therefore deserved the win,” he told reporters. “My goal was wonderful indeed, but the success of our team is more important.”

Thiago, a summer signing from Barcelona, was praised by his teammates after the game.

“You can see what Thiago is capable of doing with the ball,” goalkeeper Manuel Neuer told reporters. “We never stopped believing that we could turn the game around.”

Thomas Mueller, who provided the assist for Thiago’s goal, added: “You can’t compare a 2-1 last-gasp win like that to a 4-0 victory.

That’s a totally different emotional experience. That’s why we celebrated like kids.”

Toni Kroos also backed the 22-year-old Spain international, saying: “Thiago is a player who takes chances.

That was rewarded today.”

However, Kroos appeared less than happy during the match itself as he threw his gloves towards the bench after being substituted for Pizarro on the hour mark.

The Germany international, linked with Manchester United after David Moyes watched Bayern play last week, has yet to agree an extension to his contract and coach Pep Guardiola has not ruled out an exit.

German magazine kicker magazine reported on Thursday that Bayern maintain that they are unwilling to meet Kroos’ wage demands, adding: “Everything is possible. He could see out his contract until 2015, or leave in the summer, with interested clubs lining up, and Bayern able to cash in on him.”

Juve Confirm Interest In Dani JUVENTUS have Inter Milan, a side they play at confirmed they are lining up Osvaldo the Juventus Stadium on Sunday a bid for Southampton forward Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, just as soon as they have trimmed their wage bill.

With Tuttosport claiming that Mirko Vucinic is on the verge of a move to Arsenal

Dani Osvaldo

and Fabio Quagliarella reportedly being targeted by Sampdoria, a bid for the former Roma forward could be made before Friday’s transfer deadline.

The Bianconeri face competition for his services from

night. The chances of Osvaldo, 28, being present at that game, one way or another, have increased with Juve’s general manager, Beppe Marotta, confirming his club’s interest.

“Osvaldo is an Italy international and there are a lot of clubs who like him, not only me,” Marotta said in La Gazzetta dello Sport. “But before we can buy, we’ve got to sell.”

The Italy international is unlikely to feature again for the Saints after being suspended for two weeks following a training ground bust-up with Jose Fonte.

With his place in the Azzurri squad at the World Cup hanging in the balance, a return to Serie A, where he can show Italy coach Cesare Prandelli his worth on a weekly basis, now seems inevitable.

Inter were close to signing Osvaldo in the summer before the Giallorossi sold him to Southampton after he fell out with fans of the Serie A club.

CHAN 2014 Finals Libyan Coach Relishes Dream Meeting With Ghana

Ghana Black Stars in victory lap after their epic semi-final battle with Nigeria’s Super Eagles.

Appiah Backs Konadu To Win CHAN GHANA’S senior national team coach Kwesi Appiah has thrown his weight behind Maxwell Konadu to end the country’s trophy drought by winning the 2014 CHAN tournament.

Appiah has been in South Africa since the tournament started three-weeks ago to lend his support to head coach Maxwell Konadu, who is his assistant.

Ghana must beat Libya in the final on Saturday to win their final seniors title since 1982 when won the Africa Cup of Nations for a then record fourthtime. ‘’I believe strongly in the abilities of Maxwell Konadu and the fierce determination of these players,” Appiah said.

“Let us all pray that they make Ghana proud by winning our first major trophy at senior level in 32 years.

“The confidence of the boys has grown with each match and I believe they will peak just at the right time.

“We must focus on our game and play positive football.”

Ghana drew 1-1 with the Mediterranean Knights in their second Group C match played in Bloemfontein.

At the maiden tournament in 2009 hosted by Ivory Coast, the Local Black Stars met Group opponents DR Congo and lost 2-0.

Kwesi Appiah

BLOEMFONTEIN (South Africa), Jan. 30, 2014 (NAN) Coach Clement Javier of Libya relishes meeting Ghana on Saturday at the final of the third Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria had lost 1-3 on penalties to the Black Stars of Ghana at the second semi final match on Wednesday.

Javier had declared at a post match interview on Wednesday that his dream was to meet Ghana at the final of the competition.

Libya had subdued Zimbabwe 5-4 on penalties in the first semifinals of the competition played at Free Town Stadium, Bloemfontein, South Africa, after 0-0 in regulation time.

The coach said that although, Nigeria and Ghana’s style of play were

the same, Nigeria was more technical than Ghana.

“I prefer meeting Ghana than Nigeria. Although, the two countries’ style of play is the same, Nigeria is more technical in its approach of play than Ghana,” Javier said.

The coach commended the Zimbabweans “for a job well done,” saying that the team dictated the tune but were only unlucky not to score.

On penalty, the coach said he does not believe in training players on how to convert penalty, stressing that the game of penalty was “everybody’s game.”

He said they would go into the final with the same style they played against Zimbabwe, assuring that they were also capable of subduing any team at the final.

The final match would be played at Cape Township Stadium on Saturday.

GHANA coach Maxwell Konadu has congratulated his players for their tactical discipline after beating Nigeria on penalties in the CHAN semi-final match with ten men.

The Local Black Stars played more than 50 minutes after defender Kwabena Adusei was sent

off in the 64th minute.

But Ghana were still resolute and put up a brave fight to thwart efforts by the Super Eagles who could not score in regulation and extra-time.

Konadu praised his troops for punching above their weight and withstanding the pressure from the Super Eagles.

“The boys were over stretched, there were muscle cramps here and there and we had a red card which didn’t help us at all,” Konadu said in a post-match conference.

“It made us to change our game plan totally so I think that it was difficult but the boys proved once again that mentally, they were very strong and they were also very tactically disciplined when we changed our system.

“These boys have made a massive statement with their performance against Nigeria.”

Ghana will face Libya in the final on Saturday at the Cape Town Stadium.

Konadu Lauds Local Black Stars Strong Mentality

Joshua Tijani in action for Ghana

Brazil Prosecutors Probe Neymar Transfer Details

BRAZIL’S state prosecution service said Wednesday it has called on tax authorities to probe the controversial transfer of star striker Neymar to Barcelona.

The details surrounding the his father. deal have already led to the Neymar senior on Tuesday resignation of former Barca denied signing a pre-contract chairman Sandro Rosell and with Barcelona until his son sparked a judicial wrangle in had left Santos for the Liga Spain. giants— but did admit to The transfer cost an initial receiving 10 million euros in reported 57.1 million euros 2011 to guarantee a move by ($78million), plus a 2- 2014. million-euro bonus if the 21In the event, the player year-old star makes the finals moved a year early, joining of the FIFA World Player of the Catalan club in the Year award.

Spanish close-season.

But various add-ons take The Brazilian authorities the deal to a total 86 million are now putting the case euros — including a reported under the microscope.

40 million for N&N, “Following new Neymar’s family firm run by information on the true value

of the sale of the player, the prosecution service has asked for elements from the treasury,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

It added it was also studying the possibility of requesting information from the Spanish judicial system after the Spaniards began an investigation of their own.

Brazilian prosecutors want to ascertain if potential tax fraud may have taken place.

Barca last week unveiled details of the deal after a member of the club made a legal complaint and Spanish lawyers are now poring over the terms of the agreement.

According to the Spanish court submission released last

week, Barca paid 40 million euros to N&N for breaking an initial agreement to sign Neymar in 2014 and sign him a year earlier.

Barcelona said the entire deal cost 86.2 million euros: 57.1 million euros for the transfer — including 10 for N&N in 2011 and 30 million more last May — 10 million euros in a signing bonus, 2.7 million euros in commissions, 4.0 million in marketing, 2.5 million for Neymar’s foundation and 9.9 million euros in scouting and collaborative deals.

Brazil’s prosecution service said a first investigation into N&N’s tax affairs had proved inconclusive but had shown up undetermined fiscal debts.

We Were Too Anxious - Keshi

Yobo Pay Blocks Winter Transfer

NIGERIA skipper Joseph Yobo’s wage demand may well prove to be a major obstacle to the defender quitting Fenerbache this winter.

Yobo is one of the big earners at Fenerbache and none of the biding clubs have been able to match this, according to fanatik.com.

Several clubs within and outside Turkey have shown interest in signing the experienced Nigeria international, who does not make the cut of Fenerbahce due to foreign quota system introduced in Turkey at the beginning of the season.

He has been linked with move to Konyaspor, Gaziantepspor, Cardiff City in the EPL and most recently with French Ligue 1 strugglers Sochaux.

He played just a league game this season which was 3-2 loss to Konyaspor on August 17, 2013, where he scored a goal.

NIGERIA coach Stephen Keshi has said they were edged out of CHAN by Ghana as a result of anxiety on the part of the players.

Debutants Nigeria lost the CHAN semi-final to Ghana after a penalty shootout when there were no goals in normal and extra time.

“There was so much anxiety because the players wanted to do so much,” lamented Stephen Keshi.

“We wish to thank Nigerians for their prayers and support for this team.”

Substitute Joshua Obaje told MTNFootball.com

• Shehu Abdullahi

2013/2014 Glo League

Sunshine Stars Slashes Players’ Salary THE management of Sunshine Stars FC of Akure has slashed the salaries of its players as part of the ongoing restructuring in the club.

• Joseph Yobo

Mike Idoko, the Executive Director, Ondo State Football Agency, made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja in an interview with newsmen.

He said that the pay-cut from N650, 000 per month per

player to a minimum of N150, 000 per month per player was to make the players to be committed to their duty.

Idoko said the measure was taken by the management to help the club to achieve its

Ahead Of Commonwealth Games

Athlete Calls For More Competitions A LONG distance athlete, Kefas Williams, yesterday urged the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to organise competitions to prepare the country’s representatives to the f o r t h c o m i n g Commonwealth Games.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to hold from July 23 to August 3 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Williams told newsmen in Lagos that the federation also needed to encourage long distance athletes and organise events to develop the sport.

Williams won the gold in the 5,000m event at the 67th All Nigeria/Cross River Open Athletics Championships held in Calabar in June 2013.

“The AFN has been doing well for athletes but I believe that they can go a step further by organising more

long distance meets.

“We have what it takes to succeed at the Commonwealth Games because the potential is there. We have talents in all parts of the country.

“Organising more competitions will expose a good number of us and help our progress. I can assure you that many teenagers are interested in long distance events,” he said.

Williams urged the federation to implement a grassroots development programme that would seek to develop youngsters for national and international competitions.

“A grassroots development programme for long distance races will be a wonderful initiative. We need to go back to the grassroots and create a good plan to discover talents.

“So many youths are interested in long distance races. We need to start looking into other areas where we can make the country proud at the Commonwealth Games,” the athlete said.

target of securing a continental slot in the forthcoming season.

“Naturally people don’t like change but we just have to make them to understand.

“For example, last season when our players were collecting fantastic salaries, they didn’t put in their best and that made us to fight relegation battle; some of them were committed, while some were not.

“Somebody collects N650, 000 per month and do not care but now, we have slashed the salary of the players and enhanced their bonus.

“So, a player might collect N300, 000 as salary in a month with an additional N100, 000 as match bonus weekly for a win at home and N200, 000

weekly for an away win.

“This means that the players make more money in a month when they win matches rather than the initial N15, 000 match bonus for every win,’’ Idoko said.

Idoko, who is also a member of the League Management Company (LMC), said the development would make the players to work hard to earn their pay.

“So, it must make you (player) work hard to earn that money unlike when the players select the matches they play because of N15, 000 bonus,’’ he added.

Idoko said the first match of the season against Enyimba FC of Aba would test the response of the players to the decision to slash their salaries.

It will also show their commitment to the new season, the sports administrator said.

they were unlucky not to go through to the final against Libya this weekend.

“We were just unlucky not to beat Ghana. We didn’t deserve to lose the game, we put in our best, did all but we couldn’t score and lost through penalties,” Obaje said.

“All the same, we hope to improve for our next game.”

However, Nigeria may be missing several players for their next game after they suffered serious injuries against the very physical Black Stars.

Rabiu Ali, Solomon Kwambe and Kunle Odunlami are all on the treatment table.

Meanwhile, a $100,000 bonus promised them by the sports ministry if they defeated Ghana will still be paid to them.

Sports minister Bolaji Abdullahi confirmed the payment, saying Nigerians should continue to support the team.

Nigeria will now play the third-placed match against Zimbabwe on Saturday in Cape Town.

• Stephen Keshi

Keshi Is Still The Best Coach In Africa - Ghana Coach

COACH Maxwell Konadu of Ghana says Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, is still the best coach in Africa.

This he noted was in spite of the defeat of the Super Eagles, 4-1 on penalties, by his team in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) semi final match.

With the defeat, Ghana would now meet Libya which qualified at the expense of Zimbabwe while Nigeria would have to fight

for the third place with the Zimbabweans that had earlier lost to Libya.

Konadu told newsmen yesterday in Bloemfontein, South Africa, that Keshi had achieved a good record of nurturing local players and exposing them to international match situations.

“I do not think this game will change his status in

Africa. I know Nigerians are behind him. They all respect him and what he has done with the local team.

“We know how African football is and I had said that he (Keshi) is the kind of man we need in African football.

“We all follow his steps and we are all learning from him as well. This is just but one match, I do not think, the outcome has changed his status,’’ he said.

Keshi also told newsmen that his players did very well, in spite of losing to Ghana in the semifinals.

“This team has only been together for about six weeks.

I am beginning to fall in love with them. And I know if I stay six months with them, they will become what I want them to be.

“I salute them for what they did for Nigeria and for themselves. They have been able to express themselves.”

CMYK

When Tragedy F E E D Heals A Wound BACK

SHE was still at the court premises when a death sentence was pronounced on her son.

She wept uncontrollably, pleading with all to show mercy on the only child, a notorious armed robber, who was customarily in and out of prison.

At this instance of passing a death sentence, the law enforcement agents and judiciary officers had become compassion fatigued, and therefore gave up on his possibility of being reformed and allowed free access within a civilised society again.

In the final exploits, the young man admitted to have again participated in three armed robbery acts in which a married woman and her daughter were raped in front of the husband, while two other victims also got killed.

The young man’s mother understood all that was said during the judicial trial which she attended passionately and from experience, knew the child was capable of committing all the alleged crimes.

While she understands justice to mean repercussion for personal actions, she also knows that God’s justice abounds in mercy which is the type of justice she prefers at this time, as a result of her only child’s sentence.

Truly, she is not bothered about her diminished responsibility as a mother, who had failed to bring up her child in line with acceptable societal standards. She is currently in dire need for the kind of justice in which Jesus Christ prescribed forgiveness for even the most hardened criminals; the type of justice which harkens to a mother’s compassion or an adulterer’s plea; the type of justice which acknowledges a mother’s love in cancelling the gross impropriety of the child’s guilt.

This is the time to focus everybody’s attention towards a Christ-like doctrine of mercy. And a French philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) once said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction” In reckoning with the above aphorism, I keep wondering about the effects of the unending assurances of God’s mercy in the affairs of

humanity. Are the churches over stressing God’s compassion to the point of promising all evil-doers a safe-landing because of God’s abounding love? Does this attitude bring about a supervening of further wrongdoings because we are guaranteed of God’s mercies on every wrong-doing? How

With time, Osato started pushing the idea of having a firmer grip on Augustine and his future with all the show of affection she could dramatise.

Augustine, to Osato’s mother was an assurance of a better future for her daughter.

Above all, Augustine was

that all wishes are possible, only from daring. It may be presumptuous to assume Osato did any extraordinary thing to make her become pregnant for Augustine, but when the pregnancy came, it became certain that her scheme to implant herself on Augustine’s life was no longer fluid. Indeed it has

well does it aid the message of salvation or bring about a better society when the effects of God’s mercy is propagated to be spanning from one end of extreme evil to the peak of goodnaturedness?

To this end, I also have reasons to query Osato’s mother’s desire for a Christ‘s like mercy in the case of Augustine and Osato.

Augustine, a young married man living abroad met an unmarried Osato in one of his visits to Nigeria. Afterwards, what was intended as a casual relationship got blooming so rapidly that for those who did not know Augustine enough could mistake Osato for his legally wedded wife, living with him abroad.

Even so, Osato sooner became the supervisor of the building Augustine was putting up with the majority of the finance coming from Augustine’s wife abroad.

overwhelmingly kind to her, to the extent that most of the items sent by Augustine’s wife abroad, managed to always end up with Osato’s mother, while made up incidents of theft at the airport or on the journey from Lagos to Benin answered why the presents from Augustine’s wife never got to her mother or mother-in-law as intended.

At some point, Osato started imagining what it would seem to be the wife eventually living with Augustine in the house he was building in Nigeria. She hoped that Augustine’s decision to have her choose the colours and the furnishings for the entire house would give her a more realistic hold on the property.

A hope beyond merely helping Augustine and his abroad wife realise their dream of a beautiful home.

Quietly Osato muted her secret wish to her mother, and the mother assured her

found the right mold and was beginning to set firmly.

Osato’s father was by no means a rich man. If he is regarded as a contented person, it would be in reference to his decision of peacefully abide within his means, revel his debt-free financial state, and would do nothing untoward in spite of the endless unsparing scolding he received from Osato’s mother. Being such natured, Osato’s father openly rebuffed his daughter’s relationship with the married Augustine, and

By KINGSLEY OGBEIDE-IHAMA

tactfully avoided his pressure to bias him with kind overtures.

As for the pregnancy, whether Augustine would allow Osato to keep the pregnancy was not within Osato’s contemplation. What

was important to her now was how to start asserting herself as a young lady who was in love and pregnant for her husband to be, or if you like, her rightful husband. And as a dependable ally in the making of a dream life, Osato’s mother assured the daughter of her right to pursue happiness like all humans.

And because Augustine settled for Osato’s keeping of the pregnancy timely enough, she became more emboldened and gave

herself all the privileges of a wife who had the conjugal licence to beset her husband with all manners of request, which was transmitted to Augustine even while abroad. An initial suspicion of Augustine’s extra-marital affairs was given stiff denial until Osato started calling and threatening the abroad wife to refrain from keeping their husband only to herself.

And in line with their grand plan to abandon his abroad wife and relocate to Nigeria to finally settle with Osato in the newly completed house in Nigeria, Augustine eventually succeeded in withdrawing all the funds in the joint account he operated with his abroad wife, before eloping to Nigeria.

At the international airport in Lagos, Osato was on hand to welcome Augustine into the fulfilment of their dream future. To this extent, everything seemed successful until the accident that would claim Augustine’s life when the commercial vehicle they were travelling in had an accident on the journey from Lagos to Benin.

Now pensively seated by Osato’s bed as she lay in coma at the hospital, is Osato’s mother asking God to grant her daughter the type of justice which is packaged in God’s enduring mercy: Mercy as a result of a mother’s love; the mercy that would ensure her daughter remains alive.

She is in no mood to consider her role or that of the daughter in ruining a burgeoning matrimony and forcing Itohan, Augustine’s abroad wife to become hypertensive.

But interestingly, the world knows that this is the type of tragedy which heals wounds: The justice that tragedy brings about.

“While she understands justice to mean repercussion for personal actions, she also knows that God’s justice abounds in mercy which is the type of justice she prefers at this time, as a result of her only child’s sentence.”

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