Peoples Daily Online

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

Vol. 9 No. 81

Monday, December 3, 2012

. . . putting the people first

Al-Muharram 18, 1434 AH

N150

12 killed as gunmen burn security outposts in Borno From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri

T Nasarawa state Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura condoles General Muhammadu Buhari over death of his daugther in Kaduna, weekend.

VP loses ward in Kaduna LG polls From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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he People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has lost the Kaduna North Local Government Area to the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) led Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at last weekend’s local council polls in the state.

CPC’s Suleiman Samaila won the Kaduna North local council poll.

Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo’s ward is in Kaduna North which is considered a political stronghold of the PDP in the state. With the development, the CPC has consolidated its hold on Sambo’s ward as the party also defeated him and the PDP in the area in the 2011 general elections.

The area has over the years remained controversial during elections as the PDP is said to consider is as vital and losing the

Reps accuse OkonjoIweala, Sanusi of frustrating budget audit >> PAGE 2

area would amount to a devastating blow to it.

However, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) said that the PDP won in 22 of the state’s 23 local government areas in the state in an election that the opposition political parties described as flawed.

Mrs. Hannatu Binniyat, the head of the electoral body announced the results at about 8 30 pm last night.

The SIECOM had scheduled 2pm yesterday for the official announcement of the results but shifted it till 5 pm. When reporters returned to the headquarters of SIECOM at 5 pm, officials there attributed the non-announcement to lack of electricity connection in the conference room. As at 8 pm, the Chairman was yet to brief the press on the outcome of the elections.

Contd on Page 2

Taraba crisis: 172 arraigned for possessing firearms >> PAGE 3

win tragedies befell Borno state at the weekend when unknown gunmen carried out separate attacks on the offices of various security outfits and civilian areas, killing 12 persons.

Both attacks were launched between Saturday night and yesterday morning.

Several persons who survived the onslaught escaped with injuries in the ensuing stampede, while others sustained gunshot wounds and burns.

The first attack occurred on Saturday at about 9.pm and lasted for an hour, when 20 men, armed with rifles and other dangerous weapons reportedly invaded Chibok town, the administrative headquarters of Chibok local government area.

Witnesses said the gunmen on arrival began firing sporadically when most of the residents had been forced indoors following the insecurity situation confronting the state.

It was also learnt that the invaders targeted several houses and fired sporadic gunshots inside Contd on Page 2

PD INDEX

CBN RATES $ £ EURO CFA RIYAL

BUYING 154.76 246.91 197.25 0.2831 41

SELLING 155.76 248.51 200.54 0.3031 41.5

PARALLEL RATES EURO £ RIYAL $

BUYING 207 255 42 157

CPC accuses PDP of plotting Al-Makura's impeachment >> PAGE 3

30th Nov., 2012

SELLING 209 256 44 158

PAGE 2

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

CONTENTS News

2-11

Editorial

12

Op.Ed

13

Letters

14

Opinion

15

Metro

16-18

Business

19-22

S/Exchange

23

Law

26

Education

27

Health

29

Reps accuse Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi of frustrating budget audit

By Lawrence Olaoye

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he House of Representatives at the weekend summoned the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s governor over allegation that they both withheld N4 billion allocation meant for the office of the Auditor General’s thereby frustrating the audit of the 2012 budget.

Both officials are billed to appear before the House Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Rep Adeola Solomon today. The proposed allocation to audit the 2012 Budget was N5.2billion, but the Ministry of Finance, allegedly released only N892.5million, a far cry from the proposed audit allocation.

The Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura who provoked the summons of the Public office holders with his testimony, also

told the Committee that there was a zero allocation to his office in the 2013 Budget to audit the Federation Account.

Besides explaining why the Ministry of Finance, Budget Office and CBN released less than 1 percent of the money meant for the audit of a N4.9trillion Budget, Dr. OkonjoIweala and others are to also to shed light on why there is a zero allocation in the 2013 Budget for the audit of the Federation Account.

Ukura who assumed office as Auditor General on October 16, 2010, told the Committee that it was routine for the Finance Ministry to frustrate audit allocations to his office, a trend he said was threatening to render the federal audit office redundant. According to him, the Auditor General’s office cannot audit certain ministries because of a paucity of funds.

“With the meager allocation to

our office, we cannot even audit some Ministries”, he said. The Auditor General also told the Committee that in 2012, his office “audited only 44 out 97 Foreign Missions, because of a paucity of funds”.

Members of the Public Accounts Committee who sought financial autonomy for the auditor’s office as they were piqued by revelations from Ukura, took turns to lash at a system that would frustrate the audit of its agencies’ accounts.

Rep Pally Iriase in his c9ontribution said “If you look at this budget(of Auditor General), it shows how unserious we are about tackling corruption in this country. This budget ought to signpost our seriousness in tackling the issue of corruption headlong, but the Ministry of Finance and the Budget in their own strange wisdom have decided that the best thing to do is to

frustrate the office of the Auditor General” According to Hon. Karimi Sunday “There is a continuous attempt to frustrate and render the office of the Accountant General redundant. They (Ministry of Finance, Budget office) don’t want the office to do their work, but there is a need for this committee to do their work”.

Before he ruled, the Committee Chairman, expressed worry that from the findings of the Committee, “The AGF is not even given the opportunity of fair hearing”.

He alleged that the Minister of Finance and the DG Budget sit together to draw budget for the Auditor General without giving him the opportunity to defend it”.

The Committee, however deferred consideration of a sum of N1.6billion as the Committee’s budget in 2013 as proposed by the Ministry of Finance.

VP loses ward in Kaduna LG polls

PDP condoles with Buhari over daughter's death, Page 37

Int’l

31-35

Politics

39-40

Sports

41-47

Columnist

48

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU The Peoples Daily wants to hear from you with any news and pictures you think we should publish.

You can send your news and pictures to: letters@peoplesdaily-online.com pictures@peoplesdaily-online.com contact@peoplesdaily-online.com

Phones for News: 070-37756364 09-8734478

Contd from Page 1 However, sources within the CPC say the delay may not be unconnected with efforts by the PDP to ensure that it retains Kaduna North.

Although Saturday’s elections were generally characterised by late arrival of electoral officials in virtually all the wards across the local governments in the state, from reports, voting did not start in Kaduna North until about 2 pm, when a number of registered voters had already left the polling units.

Senator Mohammed Saleh, (CPC Kaduna Central) who spoke to

reporters last Saturday lamented the hitches saying it may have been a ploy by the ruling party to rig the election.

“As you can see, there is late distribution of voting materials but since I am not a member of the SIECOM, I do not know what is responsible for it. “They had several months to prepare for this election, and I do not know whether it is inefficiency or simply an attempt to rig the election, it is either of the two, anyway. It cannot be otherwise. It is either designed to rig the election or crash inefficiency on the part of SIECOM.

“I have no reason to be sure that voting will take place since I am not in control of the arrangement, but we will wait and see, the people are waiting to vote but the electoral materials are not forthcoming. The entire thing shows that we are not learning anything and we are not willing to change and I believe that there is no way we expect this government to change unless the people themselves force the government change.

Kaduna state Chairman of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), Lawal Aliyu, described the situation as

regrettable and a source of embarrassment.

According to him, “it is worrisome that voting materials have not arrived almost mid into the voting hours, I am worried not only as the party chairman but as a citizen of this country and a citizen of Kaduna state.

“It is a big shame, it is a major embarrassment and I think this is the kind of thing we have been talking about all this while. We have known that all along they do not intend to conduct this local government election, we knew about, we told people, may be some people did not want to listen.”

12 killed as gunmen burn security outposts in Borno Contd from Page 1 before setting them ablaze.

An ex-top official of the local government, who declined identification, told newsmen on phone that some of the targeted persons escaped the attack, while the gunmen captured 10 others and slaughtered them.

“Let me confirm to you that unknown gunmen stormed our town and went on rampage killing 10 innocent civilians. Presently we have buried some of the dead persons, while other surviving victims are receiving treatment from the injuries they sustained”, the former official further added.

According to him, several houses were burnt down by the rampaging invaders and called on the state government to come to their aid.

Our correspondent report that although normalcy was restored to the area, security was beefed up as dozens of heavily armed soldiers and riot policemen were drafted there.

In yesterday’s incident which occurred at about 9.20am, over 50 men, carrying assault rifles and explosive reportedly launched multiple attacks on the outposts of security outfits in Ngala town, headquarters of

Gamborou Ngala local government council at the Nigeria -Cameroon border.

Witnesses told newsmen on phone that the incident occurred when young men armed with AK 47 rifles and explosives raided the town and fired several shots in the air.

The gunmen then attacked offices of the State Security Services, (SSS), Nigeria Immigrations Service, (NIS), Nigerian Customs Service, (NCS) and police outpost of the area.

The invaders were said to have arrived in the area in 10 Hilux vehicles and took the security operatives unawares in the operation which lasted for over five hours.

The attackers were said to have burnt the offices of customs, SSS and immigration, after detonating explosives.

The gunmen also burnt three churches, while two policemen were feared killed in the attack.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force, (JTF), Lt- Col. Sagir Musa, could not be reached for comment on the two incidents as at press time.

However, the Borno state Police Commissioner, Abdullahi Yuguda, confirmed the attack on

the police outpost, saying the attack was however repelled by the policemen on duty.

Yuguda, declined comments on the Chibok killings and that of the other security outposts.

“The hoodlums succeeded in burning down the outpost of some security operatives, but their attempt to attack a police station was repelled by the officers on duty who engaged them in a gun duel,” Yuguda said.

According to him, the policemen had killed three of the attackers, after a sporadic exchange of gun fire, while others escaped with gunshot wounds.

“My men killed three of the hoodlums while repelling the attack, they also recovered two AK 47 rifles, 12 live ammunition and one of the operational vehicles of the hoodlums”, the CP further claimed.

He added that two improvised explosive device (IEDs) were also recovered from the hoodlums, while mass search for the fleeing suspects was launched.

Meanwhile he Joint Task Force in Borno state, (JTF) said yesterday that its operatives have conducted a special raid operation, killing three suspected top commanders of the Boko

Haram sect.

Spokesman of the JTF, Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, in a statement issued to newsmen last night, said the top suspect, one Abdulkarim Ibrahim and two others were gunned down in a joint operation conducted with operatives of the Department of State Security, (DSS), Police Force and Dog Section.

According to the statement, the trio were killed in a gun duel in the raid, which was carried out in the morning along Damboa – Biu road.

The JTF added that the operation was a follow-up to the earlier one done on 24th of last month at Bulabulin ward, leading to the arrest of other high profile commanders of the terrorist group.

The motive of the raid, the statement said, was to capture one of the key commanders of the group, named Abdulkareem Ibrahim, who has been on the top lits of wanted terrorists.

“During the operations and in the ensuing gun battle, Ibrahim and two of his sub- commanders were killed and AK47 rifle with other arms and ammunition were recovered", the task force further claimed.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Death: IPAC condoles Buhari, Jonathan

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

T

he Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), has commiserated with President Goodluck Jonathan and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate in 2011 election, Muhammadu Buhari, over the death of their brother and daughter respectively.

In a statement issued over the weekend by the factional chairman of the council, Shitu Mohammed, IPAC expressed pain and sadness over the death of General Muhammadu Buhari’s eldest daughter, Hajia Zulaihatu.

While pointing out that death is inevitable, IPAC expressed joy that Zulai lived a life worthy of emulation and fulfilled her destiny on earth at a relatively young age.

IPAC also commiserated with President Goodluck Jonathan over the death of his younger brother, Meni Jonathan, saying it is deeply touched by his death, describing him as a promising young man.

PAGE 3

CPC accuses PDP of plotting Al-makura’s impeachment

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

T

he Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has accused the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of inciting the Nasarawa state House of Assembly to institute impeachment proceedings on the state governor, Umaru Tanko Al-makura, for the violence that recently rocked Agyaragu area of the state.

In a statement issued yesterday by the party’s national publicity secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, CPC described the impeachment threat which the state lawmakers issued on the governor as a well-rehearsed plot, arranged by the PDP leadership, to further their political ambition through destabilising opposition parties.

The party which threatened

that the impeachment plot is a dangerous path, also expressed curiosity over why impeachment threat was never made on the immediate past PDP governor in the state, Akwe Idoma, who preside when the crisis started.

“Truly, on 14th April, 2000 (under a PDP-led administration), Nasarawa state was thrown into a communal crisis in the Agyragu area because of the location of the local government headquarters.

Furthermore, under the same PDP-led administration, on 18th January, 2002, the clash between two communities in the Awe local government saw a few fatalities,” CPC said.

It further noted that since Nigeria became unprecedentedly enveloped by

cloud of insecurity under PDPled Federal Government, President Goodluck Jonathan has never been threatened with impeachment by the National Assembly.

It therefore said that the plot to impeach Al-makura was due to the massive majority of the PDP in the Nasarawa House of Assembly, warning the lawmakers against threading the path of reckless partisanship and legislative indiscretion in trying to resolve the problem.

According to the statement, “Indeed, this smacks of abuse of legislative privilege and authority. As a party, we strongly believe that a noxious impeachment plot on the state chief executive in a time of crisis is fore-boding and disingenuous.”

...as Saraki consoles Buhari From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

F

ormer Governor of Kwara state and Senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has consoled Gen. Muhammadu Buhari over the death of his daughter, Zulaihatu, which occurred last Thursday.

Saraki, in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Akintoba Fatigun in Ilorin, described her death as sudden.

The statement quoted Saraki as saying “I received with great sadness the news of the sudden demise of Zulai, the first child of former Head of State and a former presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, General Muhammad Buhari…

“I extend my condolence to General Buhari and family, my thoughts and prayers are with you on this sad development. I pray that Allah will be with the entire family and the siblings she left behind, may Allah grant them the fortitude to bear this painful loss…” the statement read.

L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur during the party’s NEC meeting at the weekend in Abuja. Photo: Joe Oroye

NURTW, FRSC laud FG’s plan to reconstruct OkeneAuchi-Benin highway

T

he Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) have commended the Federal Government over plans to turn the Okene-AuchiBenin highway into a dual carriageway.

Some officials of the FRSC and NURTW, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Auchi, said that the road’s reconstruction would go a long way to reduce accidents.

Mrs. Affiong Nseobot, the Auchi Unit Commander of the FRSC, said that the road’s reconstruction would impact positively on the assignment of her agency.

She said that the road’s dangerous bends, the poor state of its bridges and other limitations would be effectively addressed when the highway is reconstructed into a dual carriage way.

Nseobot, however, urged the Federal Government to take into cognisance the heavy traffic on the road, particularly issues relating to articulated vehicles, when reconstructing the road.

On his part, Mr. Usman Kassim, the chairman of the Auchi unit of the NURTW, noted that the highway’s reconstruction was long overdue.

NAN recalls that the Federal Government on Wednesday approved the reconstruction of the highway into a dual carriageway at the cost of N45.8 billion. (NAN)

Fadama Team expresses support for bio-gas From Yusha’u Alhassan, Jalingo

S

ustainable land management has been described as the panacea for recovery of land degradation.

A team from the National Fadama Coordination Office, Abuja, led by Peter Aribo who were in Taraba state, pointed out that sustainable land

management encourages forestation.

The team visited the bio-gas technology of the Sintali B Youth Fadama Community Association which is into groundnut oil processing and expressed delight over the work in progress.

The team said bio-gas was environmentally friendly and would reduce the rate of

deforestation in the country and the world at large.

The team which emphasised on the need for aforestation noted that bio-gas technology was a welcome development that needed to be adopted by all.

The acting project coordinator of the Fadama III in the state, Regina Festus who led the team round the sub project, explained

that the importance of using biogas technology was added to the sub project to save the group from purchasing fire wood which contributes to the problem of climate change.

The chairman of the Sintali “B” Youth Fadama Association Jibrin Suleiman, thanked the visiting team and assured them of sustaining the project.

Taraba crises: 172 arraigned for possession of firearms From Yusha’u Alhassan, Jalingo

1

72 people have been arraigned before a Jalingo Magistrate Court for disturbance of public peace, rioting and setting ablaze residential houses and markets in Ibi local government area of Taraba state.

They were equally charged for criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide and illegal possession of firearms.

According to the first information report (FIR), on the

18th of this month, suspects armed with dangerous weapons went on rampage.

Weapons seized according to the FIR included locally made pistols, Dane guns, live ammunitions, machetes, axes and cartridges, bows and arrows, spears, knives, lighters and gallons of petrol.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The presiding magistrate, Clara Kataps, however refused the plea of the accused persons.

Kataps ordered that they

should be remanded in police custody and adjourned the case to the 6th of next month for continuation.

Meanwhile, five suspects have been convicted to nine years imprisonment each with an option of N30, 000 fine for snatching N2.8 million from one Ubeh Felix Apex.

When the case was mentioned from the first information report, the convicts pleaded guilty to the charges.

The convicts are Chuks Igwe,

Ogochukwu Okafor, Chukwudi Chukwu, Ezine Okafor and Nwonsu Kingsley.

Delivering the judgment, the presiding magistrate, Clara Kataps ordered that they should be remanded in prison custody to serve the judgment pending when each of them was able to pay their fine.

The prosecutor Luka Omaru in his application told the court that the snatched money has been found due to the quick intervention of the police who

chased and arrested the suspects at a military check point.

Omaru said the recovered money has been handed over to the owner Ubeh Felix Apex.

The five convicts had trailed the victim to Mutum-Biyu where they offered to assist him to Dan-Anacha in their vehicle before they pushed him out of the car when they observed that he was carrying money he had withdrawn from First Bank in Jalingo.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 4

SAN slams Sanusi over call for workers’ sack From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Otunba Kunle Kalejaye, has criticized the Central Bank (CBN) Governor , Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, over his recent statement calling for mass retrenchment of civil servants in the country as a solution to the nation’s economic downturn, describing it as the most irresponsible recommendation.

Kalejaye who spoke with newsmen at the commissioning of his ‘Clementina Event Centre’ in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said “Sanusi is a nuisance which the nation does not need”.

He said, “If you wake up in the morning in a government’s house, you sleep in an airconditioned room, you turn on the tap and water comes out, either hot or cold, depending on your choice; you bathe in your Jacuzzi, eat government food, you tend to lose connection with the people.

“There are millions of Nigerians, whose only source of livelihood is that they have a relation working in a federal civil service. Imagine, if you sack 50 per cent of federal civil servants, you are not only sacking those 50 per cent, you are probably sacking times ten of that 50 per cent.

Nasarawa crises: Police nabs 19 suspects From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

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he police in Nasarawa State, at the weekend, paraded 19 suspects arrested in connection with the mayhem which hit Agyaragu, at the outskirt of Lafia penultimate week, leaving10 persons dead.

State commissioner of police, Abayomi Akeremale said, while parading the suspects before newsmen at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Lafia, that “the arm of the law may be slow, but it is steady, and leaves no doubt that we are recording success as we go after the perpetrators of the arson”,.

He did not disclose the identity of the suspects, but however said they were trailed and picked during and after the arson which death toll he had confirmed to be 10. “Some of the suspects were arrested at the scene of the crisis following an information received that some criminals were operating along the railway line in Agyaragu town, but when police got to the scene, it discovered that the incident was beyond robbery as houses and shops were been razed down.”

He said, one AK 47 rifle, 28 rounds of live ammunitions, and assorted charms among others, were recovered from the suspects, who, according to him, would be charged to court for the killing, arson and stealing.

“You see, sacking people because of the economy is bad is not the solution. What is he doing as the governor of the Central Bank to help the economy? Is his being at the federal level just to

criticize the Federal Government? Is he not to proffer solutions?”

On the criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan by his predecessor, Chief Olusegun

Obasanjo regarding the handling of Boko Haram issue, he said the matter needed military solution, which the government was not really allowing.

“I think the Federal

Government is just playing politics with the issue of Boko Haram. When Chief Obasanjo was there and Ijaw youths were giving us problem in Odi, he used military intervention.

L-R: Vice chancellor Prof. R.A. Shehu decorating the speaker, House of Representatives, Dr. Aminu waziri Tambuwal while the Registar, University of Sokoto, Mallam M.K. Jabo looks on, at the convocation ceremony, weekend in Sokoto.

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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unmen suspected to be armed robbers went berserk on people of Azare, headquarters of Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State, killing six people and injuring several others.

Caretaker chairman of the local government, Alhaji Abdu Dahuwa confirmed the incident to newsmen yesterday saying that three people on motorcycles were seen shooting sporadically on people and collecting money in front of the local government headquarters.

Two top and reliable security sources in Bauchi confirmed the incident and pledged to give the detail after investigations.

An eye witness also told Peoples Daily that casualty six people were killed and several injured.

The casualties were taken to the Federal Medical Center, Azare.

Rampaging robbers kill 8, injure several others …2 soldiers among dead He told newsmen that “the gunmen went to rob people of their belongings in a sesame company, when people saw the armed men with gun, they resisted the robbery attempt, summoned courage and pursued them”.

He said that a motorcycle rider caught one of them and as they were struggling, the other two gunmen shot the motorcycle rider to death. He added that a man driving a Mercedes Benz car pursued and hit one of the armed

men with it.The armed men shot and injured the driver.

Soldiers and other security operatives, he said, arrived the scene later and shot two armed men to death while the other gunman entered a house and climbed a tree, shooting from on its top for several minutes before he was also killed by security operatives.

Residents said two security personnel were killed during the exchange of fire with the gunmen.

Jonathan lacks will to fight corruption, insecurity – Tsav From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

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rstwhile Lagos State Commissioner of Police and Human Rights Activist, Abubakar Tsav has said that President Goodluck Jonathan has no political will to fight corruption.

In a telephone chat with our correspondent Abubakar said Nigeria can only overcome corruption if there was collective action against it, noting with sadness, the increase in the culture of impunity that has characterized politics in the country.

Tsav said “ reports are rife of how public funds are being diverted into private vaults while the government look the other way failing to bring visible culprits to book”.

He stressed that the rise in insecurity was a by product of

corruption arguing that the youths who are largely used for the wanton destruction were disenchanted with those involved in high profile corruption “being given a slap on the wrist in spite of the monumental damage they did to our treasury with their mindless rape of our commonwealth”.

“How do you think these young ones who are out of school and for several years walk the streets without any hope of job in sight and their ears and sight is continually assaulted with stories of how some person who have become untouchables loot what rightly belongs to them. The resultant effect of the high wave of corruption perpetrated by some public office holders is what we are presently embroiled in”, Abubakar noted On the murder of Major -

General Mohammed Shuwa by yet to be identified killers and the recent bomb attack at Jaji on worshipers, Abubakar appealed to the perpetrators to rethink and sheath their sword for humanity’s sake.

Taking a swipe at the government which till date, has not paid condolence visit to the bereaved family of the slain general citing security reasons, Abubakar wondered if the President and his campaign train would have avoided Maiduguri because of security reasons had the incident happened during the campaign era.

“For a man who fought for the corporate existence of this nation to have fallen under some inexplicable circumstances and to be so treated with such disdain because of some glibly reasons, leaves much to be desired” he said.

The Bauchi State Police Commissioner Mohammed Ladan could not be reached as he did not pick his call, neither did he reply the text message sent to him up to the time of filing this report.

Emirate titleholder killed by gunmen From Ahmed Kaigama,Katagum

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auchi state police command has confirmed the killing of a member of Katagum Emirate Council, Alhaji Ibrahim Abbas Majidadin Katagum by gunmen in Azare, headquarters of Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi state The Bauchi State Police Commissioner Mohammed Ladan confirmed the incident to newsmen at the weekend said “it is true they have killed the traditional title holder and we have commenced investigation into the incident” An eye witness Ibrahim Musa Azare said the title holder was shot on the head by the gunmen in front of his house around 7.30 pm Friday He said the late Ibrahim Majidadi was resting in front of his house after Isha prayers along GSS Azare when some unidentified men came on foot and shot him in the head. He died on the spot.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 5

NNDC says North still committed to oil exploration From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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he New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC), owned by the governments of the 19 states in the North, says it is still committed to the search for crude oil in the area.

The NNDC chairman, Prof.

Halidu Abubakar, who spoke at

the weekend during the company’s 44thannual general meeting in Kaduna, noted that it will continue to collaborate with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the search for hydro-carbon potentials in the northern sedimentary basins of Nigeria.

According to him, discussions were also on-going between the

NNDC and the NNPC on the oil and gas project, adding that solid minerals development was one of the new projects receiving the attention of the company especially in collaboration with the states to acquire more mining sites.

Abubakar said arrangements had gone far to merge the NNDC’s Gamjitel Communications

Company with its affiliate company, Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN) Nigeria, in order to compete favorably in the telecommunications sub-sector of the Nigerian economy.

As he put it, “the merger is aimed at producing a bigger and more vibrant telecommunications company which will enable them to get

value as a result of synergy and the NNDC is also making efforts at sourcing intervention funds in collaboration with sister development finance institutions.

“It is hoped that when this materialises, regional development finance institutions like NNDC and state investment finance institutions will play greater roles in developing the north as well as be able to sustain themselves financially.

“The areas include boosting agricultural production, development of solid minerals, massive investment in property development, resuscitation of ailing industries, consultancy services as well as being more socially responsive”.

NEMA begins campaigns against harmattan disasters

By Ibrahim Kabiru Sule

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Kano State chapter of Newspaper Distributors and Vendors Association in group photograph with the Management of Peoples Media Limited (PML), during the commissioning of PML's office at the weekend in Kano. The office is located along Zaria Road, opposite Kano state House of Assembly Complex.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Policewoman loses job for testing HIV positive

By A’isha Biola Raji

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uta Bako, A policewoman, widow and mother of three children has lost her job having tested positive to HIV. According to Auta whose case was presented by Mr. Isah Dansallah, deputy national coordinator, Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), at the special session held in Abuja on

Saturday to commemorate World AIDS Day, she was asked to quit her job, after undergoing series of tests due to her failing health at the police clinic.

She said: “I joined the Nigerian Police Force in year 2002, I served in Garki police station. In 2007, I was told to go to area one police clinic for tests from then I was told that they are no more interested in me”.

Auta, who was a constable at the time, said she was told she was ‘medically unfit’ for the job and was therefore dismissed. “My mates then are now corporals”, she recalled.

Responding on the issue, the Director General National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Prof. John Idoko, said the matter has not been tabled to the agency before but will be looked into.

••• as 21 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in 2012

By Maryam Garba Hassan

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ecent report from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has indicated that this year alone, 21,193,745 Nigerian children were reported to have been orphaned as a result of the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. This was disclosed in Abuja by the minister of women Affairs and Social Development, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary at the ministry, Mr. George Ossi, at a press briefing to commemorate the 2012 World Aids Day with the theme: Getting to Zero: HIV/ AIDS Related Deaths”.

She said HIV appears to be the major contributing factors to the high population of orphans in Nigeria as many children especially in the rural areas lose one or both parents on a regular basis to the disease; adding that the scourge of the virus and its impact on the population is posing a threat to the future socio-economic development as most of the infected are the youth who constitute the greater percentage of the productive segment of the population.

However, the representative of the DG of NACA, Hajiya Maimuna Mohammed, said children’s national prevalent rate stood at 4.1 percent more in

the rural areas than in urban areas.

She said the number children orphaned by the menace is increasing by the day because the care is not easily reached and emphasised on the need for data to enable government plan for the children and charged the ministry with the responsibility of providing the data.

In her closing remarks, the Director, Child Development at the ministry, Hajiya Rabi Galadima, said plans are under way to reactivate the children fund to enable the vulnerable and HIV/AIDS patients get care and attention.

NSCDC gets new commandant in Nasarawa From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

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new commandant for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for Nasarawa state has been announced. He is Mr. Andekin Amos Musa, who took over from, Mr. Nweze Emmanuel Okemini, who was redeployed to Niger state.

This was contained in a release signed by Soji Alabi, command public relations officer, saying that the redeployment became necessary following the recent restructuring and transformation in the corps in line with meeting up with the security challenges in the country, by the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro.

The new commandant has served as state commandant in Taraba, Rivers, Oyo and Delta states.

Briefing officers and men at the command headquarters in Lafia upon assumption of office, the Musa commended the efforts of his predecessor and promised to build on his achievements while urging the officers and men to be disciplined, diligent, proactive and be dedicated to duty so as not to betray the confidence that people and government reposed on them.

he National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has reiterated its commitment to preventing seasonal hazards by embarking on campaigns against misuse of sensitive items capable of igniting fire especially in the harmattan period.

In a statement signed by the Head, Public Relations, Yusha’u Shu’aib, the Director General of NEMA, Sani Sidi made this known while receiving a delegation from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) who donated technical assistance and support to the victims of recent flood disaster in the country.

Sidi said: “In our effort to reduce another disaster after the rainfalls, NEMA has activated its early warning against misuse of flammable items like matches, lights, stoves, electrical appliances and bush burning that could easily trigger fire in homes, markets, offices and farms during harmattan and dry season. We strongly believe that prevention is better than cure”.

The Director General then expressed gratitude to IRC, adding that “we are impressed with support from local and international organisation to the victims of flood disaster”, who showed concern and commitment to the plight of the displaced people in the country.

The leader of the team, Suzanna Tkalec, had told the DG that her team conducted an impact assessment and decided to launch an appeal for about $4 million with the aim of providing “water, sanitation and livelihood through the provision of agricultural inputs and seedlings to the most vulnerable communities”.

According to Tkalec, the support is meant to benefit over 40,000 households who have been found to be in dire need of humanitarian assistance to recover and rebuild their lives, saying IRC is a non-sectarian, non-governmental international relief and development organisation based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries.

PAGE 6

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Sambo, Sultan, Tambuwal to attend opening of N1.95bn Ilorin mosque From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

E

minent Nigerians like Vice President Namadi Sambo; Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar III; and Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal are among other dignitaries that would attend the commissioning of the

N1.95 billion Ilorin Central Mosque with about 20,000 capacity slated for December 14, 2012.

The remodeling and rehabilitation of the mosque which started with fund raisin on 19th June, 2009 was completed this year.

Other eminent Nigerians expected include former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who will be co-chairman of the occasion.

While addressing journalists at the emir's palace yesterday, the chairman of Central W o r k i n g

Committee(CWC),Ilorin Central Mosque, Alhaji Shehu Abdulgafar disclosed that the committee received N120,550,500 from dignitaries that attended the fund raising while N804,760,000.00 was the amount of pledges made by invited guests.

L-R Minister of State for Agriculture, Alhaji Bukar Tijjani, Minister of State for Works Alhaji Bashir Yuguda and Minister of Transport Alhaji Umar Idris during their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House Abuja .

Photo: Joe Oroye.

Govt closes camps for flood victims in Delta The Delta state government has closed all camps opened to cater for the recent flood-ravaged victims in the state, Dr. Tony Nwaka, the Commissioner for Special Duties, has said.

Nwaka told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba that the closure which started on Oct. 30, was concluded on Friday, with the ones at Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-west.

NAN recalls that 22 camps were set up by the state government for the internally displaced persons in the 14 local government areas affected by flooding.

The government had announced the provision of N174 million as allowance, comprising N5,000 to every adult and N3,000 to every child, willing to leave the camp.

The measure was informed by the fact the many of the victims had started leaving to participate in the farming season.

"The remaining camp, out of the two in Ogbe-Ijoh, was closed on Friday, and that was the last camp to be closed in the state. With that, we have officially closed all camps of all persons displaced by flood in the state", Nwaka said.

He, however, said that relief materials donated for the victims would soon be distributed to them.

(NAN)

Laboratory scientists tasked on ethics From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

T

he national president of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr. Godswill Okora, has charged members of the union to operate within the codes and ethics of the profession.

Okora gave the charge during the 183rd annual general meeting of the association in Dutse, the Jigawa state capital.

He urged the laboratory medical practitioners in the country to be just and fair in discharging their statutory duties to the public.

The president explained that the association had zonal offices across the federation that would check quacks and unethical conduct in the profession, saying the North-west zonal office was located in Kano.

Okora warned that medical laboratory scientists were not allowed to diagnose or prescribe drugs for patients because it was not part of their mandate.

He explained that laboratory scientists were only concerned with laboratory services such as production of vaccines, diagnostics reagents, and production of HIV kits.

Labour pledges support for transformation 2.5bn people From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

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embers of a labour union under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (FAAN, Lagos branch) have pledged their support for the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigerian, stressing that the policies of the management have given the entire staff a true sense of belonging to the authority.

Branch president of the union, Comrade Uka Williams made the

remark in Lagos over the weekend when he led executives of the union on a courtesy call on the General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, Hon. Yakubu Dati.

He also commended the efforts of the Minister of Aviation, Princes Stella Oduah in bringing visible, positive changes to the country's aviation industry, especially in her determination to fully implement President Goodluck Jonathan's transformation agenda in the aviation industry.

The union leader also noted that the newly commissioned MMA Terminal 1 is an evidence of the commitment of this administration towards transforming Nigeria into a major hub in the West African sub-region.

Dati, in his reply, appreciated the gesture of the union in aligning with the transformation agenda and assured the members that he would always partner with them in their effort to protect the welfare of all staff who are determined to make the transformation agenda succeed in FAAN.

Sen. Adamu’s empowerment programme graduates 400 trainees From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

3

98 trainees at the weekend, successfully graduated from the Senator Abdullahi Adamu Youth Empowerment Programme (SAAYEP), having been trained in various skills aimed at making the beneficiaries, mostly youths, self-employed.

At a graduation ceremony held on Saturday at the Kofar Hausa Primary School in Keffi, sponsor of the programme, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu (PDP, Nasarawa West), while presenting representatives of the grandaunts with their certificates, stated that the gesture was in fulfillment of the campaign promises he

made to the people of his constituency.

He said he decided to empower the beneficiaries following his pledge to create employment opportunities for the youths of the area while being honoured by members of his community shortly after he was elected as a senator, stressing that the culture of begging, idleness and thugery, is not befitting of the youths.

Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa state, decried unemployment among the youths who are left with no choice than to resort to begging, thugery as well as trouble rousing, which he said is most unacceptable at a period when all are seeking for a means of livelihood.

He expressed joy that among the trainees, who were imparted with various skills including among others, computer knowledge, confectionaries, perfume and soap making and beads making, some have begun to rip the benefit of the training by selling their products even at the recently held national agricultural show.

He announced a plan to further assist the beneficiaries by joining them into a cooperative comprising 10 members, adding that soft loans will be facilitated for them to set up small scale ventures, while also disclosing that another batch of youths will begin training in other skills soon after the New Year recess.

live without toilets facilities worldwide, says WEIN From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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bout 2.5 billion people live without adequate and safe toilet facilities worldwide, Women Empowerment Initiative (WEIN), Bauchi state, has declared.

The Cordinator of WEIN in Bauchi, Mrs. Lydia Tsammani, disclosed this at a luncheon meeting on World Toilet Day with stakeholders of water sanitation organised by WEIN and funded by WaterAid and UKaid in Awalah Hotel, Bauchi, saying that stakeholders do not gives much attention to water sanitation which is very essential to healthy living.

According to her, a survey carried out in WEIN in six local government areas of Bauchi state shows that 75percent of households in those communities lack latrines and where there are, they are not adequate.

Mrs. Tsammani said "sanitation seems to be the greatest challenge in Bauchi state especially the urban areas where we find a house containing 30 people with only one toilet", pointing out that this is inadequate.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 7

NACA solicits govt aid on anti-retroviral drugs

By A’isha Biola Raji

T

o mark the year’s World AIDS Day, government has been urged to create an enabling environment for local production of antiretroviral drugs.

This call was made weekend by the Director General, National Agency for the Control of Aids, Prof. John Idoko, during a Special Session for 2012 World AIDS Day Commemoration with the theme ‘Resourcing the HIV Response to Achieve Zero AIDSRelated Deaths’, in Abuja.

Prof. Idoko said over one

million Nigerians out of 1.5million confirmed to be living with HIV/AIDS do not have access to anti-retroviral drugs.

According to him, over 60,000 of these babies would die before attaining five years old if there is no intervention, hence the need to look inward

in the production of antiretroviral drugs and curbing mother to child transmission.

In his speech, President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim said, despite the drop in prevalence rate from 25% in

the last 10 years to 4.1%, there was need to decentralize HIV services.

He said, “It is our expectation that integration of HIV with other related diseases at the community level will provide 80% of all people living with the virus, with access to lifesaving treatment and

prevention of mother child transmission by 2015.”

The minister of health, Prof.

Onyebuchi Chukwu however urged the need to mobilize resources within the country through the private sector as there are competing needs for government to tackle. .

Yakowa endorses LG autonomy From Mohammed Adamu, Kaduna

G

overnor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna State has expressed support for autonomy of local governments if it will take effective service delivery to the grassroots.

The Governor made this known yesterday in Kaduna at the flag off of the second phase of the laptop computer loan scheme for staff of local governments, initiated by his predecessor , Vice President Muhammadu Namadi Sambo.

Yakowa said since the inception of his administration, it has worked closely with local government councils to ensure judicious use of resources for maximum result.

He described the loan scheme as important and desirable, charging the 20,000 beneficiaries to keep abreast with information and communication technology to enhance their skills.

In his speech, the state President of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees(NULGE), Comrade Shehu Abubakar said local government councils in Kaduna state are already enjoying some level of autonomy because the state government under Yakowa has not been tampering with local government funds.

The NULGE President also appreciated the prompt intervention in payment of five months salary arrears by five local governmentsKaduna North, Kaduna South, Jama’a , Sabon Gari and Kaura.

He noted with satisfaction, the conduct of local government polls last Saturday to usher in democratically elected officials at the helm of affairs of the local government .

Representative of NACA Director-General, Hajiya Maimuna Mohammed; Permanent Secretary, Ministry Of Women Development, Mr. George Ossi, And Director, Child Development, Hajiya Rabi Galadima, at a news conference on World AIDS Day in Abuja on Friday

Commanders redeployed over Jaji blast

By Joy Baba

F

ollowing the bomb blast at St Andrews Protestant Church, Jaji Military Cantonment that claimed over 15 lives, the Chief of Defence Staff, (CDS) Admiral Ola Ibrahim has ordered immediate redeployment of Commanders of the Colleges.

A statement signed by the

Director of Defence Information, Col Mohammed Yerima over the weekend, stated that Air Vice Marshal EE Osim is to replace Air Vice Marshal IA Kure as the Commandant, Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) while Maj. Gen KC Osuji will act as Corp Commander, Infantry, Jaji.

According to the

NIA wants govt to set up National Flood Insurance Fund

T

he President, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr Remi Olowude, yesterday urged all tiers of government to collaborate with the association in setting up a scheme known as National Flood Insurance Fund.

Olowude made the call after his investiture as the 20th President of NIA in Lagos.

He said: “the sad reality of the world today is that we are all exposed to all kinds of disasters, natural and man-made”.

The NIA president said that the spread of disasters placed on the insurance companies requires the creation of special pools that would cover risks on oil spillage, transportation and tanker explosion.

He said the pool would also address climate change and the

associated tragedies caused by flood, earthquake and vagaries of weather.

“It is in the light of this that l call for immediate introduction of flood insurance and catastrophe fund.

“The industry needs to collaborate with the federal, state and local governments to set up a National Flood Insurance Fund Programme”, he said.

The Deputy Commissioner, Finance and Administration, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr George Onekhena, said NIA should ensure self regulation of its members to drive the industry.

He said “No Premium, No Cover’’ which the NIA would start enforcing from Jan. 2013 was to put the insurance industry on its toes. (NAN)

statement, “Following the Board of Inquiry raised by the Defence Headquarters to unravel the circumstances that led to the bomb explosion which rocked St Andrew’s Protestant Church at the Jaji Military Cantonment in Kaduna State last week, the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral OS Ibrahim has directed the Services Headquarters to

replace with immediate effect the Commandant, Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) Jaji, Air Vice Marshal IA Kure and the Corps Commander, Infantry also located in Jaji, Major General MD Isa”.

The statement further said that AVM IA Kure and Maj Gen MD Isa will soon be redeployed by their respective services.

Shettima creates office on vocational jobs From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri

T

o tackle poverty and unemployment in Borno state, Governor Kashim Shettima, has created a new office on vocational jobs creation.

The special adviser to Governor Shettima on communications, Isa Umar Gusau, disclosed this in a statement issued to newsmen at the weekend.

It explained that the office is to be headed by the special adviser to the governor on labour matters, Comrade Garba Ngamdu who would coordinate vocational training activities across ministries in the state.

Other responsibilities

included documentation of trainees, monitoring of stages of training programmes across ministries, ensuring regular payment of stipends to the trainees and analyzing skills acquired by the trainees.

These, the government said, were necessary to determine readiness for provision of necessary tools for take off of entrepreneurship and working in collaboration with the State Civil Service Commission to take records of all new jobs created fromMay 29, 2011 to date.

Comrade Ngamdu, the statement said, is also mandated to identify areas where new vocational jobs can be created with a view to creating massive employment opportunities.

PAGE 10

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Nigeria needs $250m annually to combat AIDS I

Young trumpeters entertaining during the special reception organised for the arrival of John Cardinal Onaiyekan at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Thursday.

Photo: Joe Oroye.

(MTCT) are in Nigeria because in every 10 births, there are five new infections despite the huge amount of money spent on the menace. .According to him, audit reports showed that US funds are

being used judiciously while money availed by the government for addressing HIV is disused.

Fielding questions from newsmen, Chief Executive Officer at the Institute, Dr. Patrick

Dakum, said almost 90% of HIV drugs are paid for by donors which he said was abnormal, adding that donors’funds are supposed to take care of the technical aspect while the Nigerian government pay for the drugs.

NCPP advocates cancer vaccines for Nigerians

T

he National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), has urged government at all levels to make budgetary provisions for vaccines to protect people against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which causes cancers.

The National Coordinator of NCPP, Dr. Kin Egwuonwu made the plea in an interview in Lagos on yesterday.

Egwuonwu said that the vaccines protect against many cancers caused by the virus, including cancers of the anus, penis, scrotums, conjunctiva of the eye, skin, and nose.

“Organisations that are not so financially buoyant can provide for the vaccine and then, allow their people to spread repayment over a period of time—that is, by instalment,” he said.

According to him, the Local, State and Federal Governments can provide the vaccination for people at no cost, by putting it as part of their budgets on health.

The coordinator said, “Because, not many Nigerians can afford it, that is why the government should come in.

He said, “ from the humanitarian angle, and from

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

D

espite statistics indicating that the HIV/ AIDS infections has drastically reduced to as low as1.05% in Jigawa state, women are still more exposed to risks, the Executive director Jigawa State Action Committee on AIDs (JISACA) Dr. Bashir Ahmad has said.

He stated this while speaking to journalists at the occasion of world AIDS day held over the weekend in Dutse, the state capital.

According to the data available to them, he said, over 7,000 people living with HIV have registered at nine of the health care centres chosen for the case, out of which 4,000 are on free anti-retroviral drugs .

Dr Bahir added that, over 60% of the HIV positive persons are women which pose more danger of transmission to unborn babies during pregnancies, deliveries and breastfeeding period if proper medical actions were not taken

By Maryam Garba Hassan n order to combat HIV/AIDS which is on the increase in the country, Nigerian government is expected to provide $250 million annually to compliment international donor agencies’ effort in the fight against the menace.

This was disclosed weekend in Abuja by the Country Director, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Okey Nwanyanwu , at an interactive session with NEPWHAN and mentor mothers, organised by the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, to commemorate the 2012 World AIDS Day, with the theme: “Zero Tolerance to Mother to Child TransmissionWay Forward”.

Nwanyanwu said if the United States government donates $500 billion annually to the Nigerian government towards achieving HIV free generation, the Nigerian government is expected to do more towards achieving an HIV free country.

He said Nigeria lagged behind in addressing the menace that is ravaging most African countries, as funding was not the problem but lack of priority.

He said 30% of babies born in the world with HIV through Mother To Child Transmission

Women are more exposed to HIV in Jigawa

the angle of providing benefit for the general public, we still say that government should consider providing vaccines at a regular interval for people, at either no cost or at a reduced cost.”

Egwuonwu said that there were four main types of the virus that cause cancers, adding that those four main types were types 16, 6, 11 and 18.

“So, 16, 18, 6 and 11, those are the four main types. And these four main types are protected against by the vaccine.

“There is a vaccine, that is quadrivalent against that virus, and there is another type of vaccine that protects against two and those two are 16 and 18.

“So, the vaccine is supposed to be from the age of nine years and above, both male and female.

“It is more important for use in young people because the benefit reduces once people start becoming sexually active.

“Then, it is better for people to take it when they are young.

The usefulness of the vaccine is

not known above the age of 45,” he said.

According to him, if people have the virus already, the vaccine protects against the action of the virus.

“If you don’t have the virus, it will prevent you from having the virus in the first place.

“It is even more useful in women because women have cancer of the cervix.

To avoid cancer, Egwuonwu advised against smoking, excessive alcohol, excessive weight, eating junk foods, but to eat healthy food and have good exercise routine. (NAN)

NHIS lauds Northeast states From Umar Dankano, Yola

T

he North East Zonal Coordinator of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Alhaji Ma’aji Abdu, has applauded the efforts of some state governments in the zone for their commitment and support to the health insurance programme.

Alhaji Abdu made the commendation in an interview with Journalists in Yola, the Adamawa State Capital where

he said Bauchi state government has since commenced the health insurance Scheme while Adamawa had passed a law which was gazetted and about to commence registration of enrollees.

He also maintained that, they are in talks with other states in the zone, including Gombe, Borno and Yobe states while Taraba state also indicated its interest by inviting them to the state for same mission.

However, he explained that

the federal government had rolled out new programmes under the scheme like the Community Based Health Insurance, Voluntary Contributor Health Insurance and Tertiary Institution Health Insurance to make good it plan to cover all Nigerians.

He stressed that NHIS has started going round to collect list of students in tertiary institutions for the tertiary institution’s health insurance cover.

Taraba urges fight against AIDS

From Yusha’u Alhassan Jalingo.

T

he permanent secretary, Taraba state AIDS Control Agency (TACA), Simon Ambita has called on stakeholders to intensify effort in funding the fight against HIV/AIDS in the state.

He made the call at the celebration to mark this year’s World Aids Day in the state at the Afolahan square Jalingo.

He said Nigeria was depending so much on international donors to fund the fight on HIV/AIDS in the country, at a time when donor nations could decide to stop funding considering the economic meltdown sweeping across the world.

He emphasized that stakeholders must seek alternative funds to control the spread of the disease and its management in the state and the country in general.

The permanent secretary said that they were not celebrating the day but were marking it in memory of those that had died of the disease and called on pregnant women to take their antenatal calls seriously to enable them prevent mother to child transmission.

In another development, a Taraba state based Non Governmental Organization NGO, the youth initiative on Global HIV has decried the increased rate of HIV/AIDS victims in the state.

Speaking with our reporter in an interview to mark the World AIDS day, chairman of the NGO Yusha’u Sallau said the rising case of the disease in the state called for sober reflection.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 11

Simple guide to producing and selling cassava (II) S

Start with less than N50, 000 and make good profit in small business (1)

Post-planting weed control here a total herbicide was not used before land preparation for cassava plantation, it is recommended that a selective pre-emergence herbicide be applied within three days after planting. Five liters of Primextra is recommended /ha.

Fertilizer use, type and rate the following fertilizers and their rate/ha are recommended * NPK 15:15:15-12 (50 kg) bags * NPK 20:10:10-9 (50 kg) bags * NPK 12:12:17-15 (50 kg) bags Apply fertilizer at 8 weeks after planting your cassava.

Apply fertilizer in a ring, 6 cm wide and 10 cm from the plant or broadcast with care around the cassava plant, making sure the fertilizer does not touch the cassava stem or leaves.

Yield Cassava yield of 25 t/ha and above can be obtained with good agronomic practices and management.

Therefore, every step must be taken seriously in the process of planting your cassava.

Note To reduce cost of production and attain high yields, it is recommended that land preparation be fully mechanized. A power tiller can be used if the total land area under cultivation is not more than 250ha.

w

Cassava plant Production cost for one hectare of cassava to ensure yield of 25 t/ha and above Land preparation............................................ N10,000.00 Cassava cuttings (60 bundles @ N300/bundle) ...................N18,000.00 Planting (4 person at N1000/pd) .........................................N4,000.00 Pre-emergence herbicides (5 liters at N1000/l) ....................N5,000.00 Fertilizer (20:10:10, 9 bags at N2500/bag) ..........................N22,000.00 Insecticides (2 liters at N1000/l) ..........................................N3,000.00 Application of herbicide .......................................................N3,000.00 Application of insecticide ......................................................N 3,000.00 Application of fertilizer (4 persons at N1,000/pd) .................N4,000.00 One weeding (10 person at N1,000/pd) .... ..........................N10, 000.00 Harvesting (15 person at N1, 500/pd). ..................................N17, 500.00 Total................................................................................... N100, 000.00 Farm labour wage rates vary by location.

tarting a small business has never been easy con sidering what you have to go through to raise business capital towards setting up and running a profitable business.

Basically, it's all about money.

No Bank is willing to help small scale businesses, and government seems to have no plan whatsoever for the citizens who needs business startup capital.

If you are contemplating any business, you are on your own if you don't have enough money to finance it. The worst part of it all is that most potential profitable small businesses in Nigeria needs much amount of money to get it started. Most times, far much beyond what average small business aspirants can afford.

Have you ever had a business idea? So bright that it was just a matter to get it started and the money starts rolling in, only to see the idea die because no money to kick start the business? That's what 70 percent of entrepreneurs experience on regular basis.

Sometimes, the little money you have will not be enough to start anything reasonable no matter how hard you tried. Because of these, many people are finding it difficult to figure out any small business they can start with small amount of money and still make reasonable profit.

Below are some of the best small businesses that any aspiring entrepreneur can start with N50, 000 or less and make substantial profit in it.

To be continued.

The business of liquid soap making (II) If you have lots of coconut in your soap it will completely melt overnight. If it is high in soft oils (again which this recipe is) you will have to reheat it in the morning to get rid of the last of the chunks. In the morning, heat up your mixture to just warm and melt any leftover chunks, again making sure you keep the lid on until it warms up.

The soap doesn't have to be very hot this time. Add your neutralizer, use borax Neutralizer: 5g borax and 112g water.

Heat up the water and borax mixture in the microwave until the borax completely melts. This is harder than it sounds. Borax will not melt until it is very hot and it will become solid again as soon as it cools so you have to heat it up just before you add it to your soap. When the borax is melted, it will be as clear as water. See how the borax will look like when melted, in the picture below When you add your fragrance

to the soap it may cloud the soap again, but the soap will clear again as it cools. The picture below shows as it's getting clear again after it cools.

Sulfated castor: This recipe should give you a very clear gel like liquid soap, but to get it totally clear; you have to make a soap that is at 0% superfat.

You are a soap maker, so you know that soap made with no superfatting will leave your skin quite dry. The

Quote

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

Walter Lippmann

Sulfated castor

only thing that will superfat this soap and not makes it opaque is Sulfated castor oil. It is kind of hard to get, and really if you don't care, if your soap is transparent, you can use any oil that you like. If you like the clear soap, you will have to hunt for the Sulfated castor to get it right.

Add 70g of sulfated if you are using it, and fragrance. If you get the mixture too hot, you may want to wait for the solution to cool down a

bit to add the fragrance, otherwise it will vaporize. Let it cool and voila, liquid soap.

It seems complicated at first, but once you do it a few times, it becomes much clearer. Remember what CP seemed like when you started. What you have below is what about the final product would look like.

Liquid soap is water soluble, when you mix water and oil, the oil will turn the water white and eventually migrate out and float on top of the water. This means that if you want to superfat any oils left over, it will first make your soap cloudy, and then eventually end up as a layer of white on top of your soap.

Some people may not mind a cloudy soap and may even want the look of a superfatted liquid soap, which brings us to the next point. If you want to superfat your liquid soap, you have to use either Turkey red oil (sulfated castor) which is water soluble, or add polysorbate 20 to your oils to make them water soluble.

You now make liquid soap at a 0% superfat. When you add fragrance or essential oils that close to the line, your soap may turn cloudy due to the oil in the fragrance.

This will not happen if you make

your soap with water soluble fragrances, but water based fragrances are just regular fragrances with polysorbate 20 in them, so you might as well add it yourself.

Here is the final product, you can add 1 drop of green food colouring to the whole batch and your fragrance.

By the next day it was crystal clear, and smelled great.

Thick soap Maybe you have tried everything to thicken your soap, bottom line‌ There seems to be nothing that will thicken your soap except the mixture of oils.

You may have tried crothix (various ways including neutralizing with citric acid), xanthum gum, various carbopol's, guar gum, and innumerable chemicals. The only thing that will make a thicker soap is by using no more than 20% coconut oil. If you also make a 100% batch of castor oil batch you will find that it will be water thin. You may have read that some people are making a thicker soap by boiling down their soap to evaporate the water out of your solution. Experts did not find that works.

S o u r c e : wealthresult.com,http:// www.islandertisansupply.ca

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 12

EDIT ORIAL EDITORIAL

Mr. President, you can’t be more insensitive

L

ast month, first, Borno State governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettim, himself, and, later, the state’s commissioner for information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, went public with complaints against President Goodluck Jonathan and the government he heads. They raised, in the main, three issues. One, that since the start, in 1999, of the insurgency situation in the North-East region that has put especially their own state under siege, neither the president himself nor any senior member of the administration has visited the state, even if only to show concern and sympathise with the state government and the people. Two, that in spite of the almost daily loss of lives and destruction resulting from the insurgency situation and the state’s response to it and the debilitating effect of these on the economy and social life of the state, nothing has come by way of assistance from the federal government.

And, three, that the state has been literally abandoned to its fate, with no federal presence in terms of new infrastructure or intervention programmes or projects that could lighten the state’s burden, create jobs and thus help reduce poverty which is largely at the root of the problem.

Even though a member of an opposition party, the All Nigeria People’s Party(ANPP), Governor Shettima is not normally given to exaggerations or unnecessarily tackling the president and his party, the PDP, in order to score cheap political points. It is clear to us that he cried out and loud last month largely because he had run out of patience.

Which is why the president and all his men and handlers should listen, and begin immediately to address the concerns which the governor and his commissioner have articulated.

The issue of the failure or refusal of the president to visit Borno and Yobe states, by far the most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, has been in the public domain for long now. When asked about it some time ago during one of his media chats, the president’s lame excuse was that the runway in Maiduguri airport was too inadequate for his big jet. The excuse didn’t

wash with the public, and understandably so.

It flew in the face of the facts on the ground in Maiduguri, and it was freighted with negative implications for the president himself as a leader and Commander-in-Chief. The president, in his characteristic cavalier manner, gave the excuse without any regard to either the facts or the implications.

It is not clear to us what the new excuse is now. But the first one about his jet and the runway has already etched in the public’s mind the image of a president that is unconcerned, uncaring and lacking in courage. There is clearly something approaching callousness in the president’s refusal to visit a part of the country he governs where for three continuous years now a war has been raging in which

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There is clearly something approaching callousness in the president’s refusal to visit a part of the country he governs where for three continuous years now a war has been raging thousands are being killed, many more thousands are being displaced, entire neighbourhoods are sacked and destroyed and the economy is ravaged.

Yes, it is an all-out war that is playing out in Borno and Yobe. The Boko Haram insurgents are a murderous lot. The armed forces command recently put the number of people it said were killed by the sect in its three-year violent campaigns at 3000.

Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, two-term governor of Yobe State, who should know, told the nation recently that when in 2009 the late President Yar’adua ordered the armed forces the route out the sect by whatever means necessary, up to 5000 innocent people got killed during that single

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operation.

The sect is continuing with its campaign of bombings, killings, targeted assassinations and attacks and destruction of places of worship and even schools. The armed forces, operating under the Joint Task Force (JTF), no less bestial and brutal than the insurgents, and operating without any civilized rules of engagement, are busy trying to set a new world record in extrajudicial murders, summary executions, torture in detention camps, attacks on and destruction of entire neighbourhoods and total disregard and contempt for the local populations’ cultures and ways of life.

The people are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, in a no-win situation.

The president cannot pretend not to know this. If the scanty media attention and coverage of that region and the lack of organised protests by people there have given a false impression of goings-on in Borno, human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have conducted investigations and made public their reports, and the international media have been doing their bits in capturing and broadcasting across the globe images of the atrocities and carnage in that part of Nigeria. The president should visit to see things for himself there.

It seems to us that, in large part, what has kept the president from paying a visit to that region is that, instead of taking a holistic view of the problem, he has personalised it and sees and treats the insurgency as a conspiracy by Northerners against his person and his presidency. This must be largely why he sees a visit to that region as consciously walking into his own grave.

But as the president and Commander-inChief of the armed forces, what kind of security arrangements necessary to protect him can he not get? Is the problem that he has no or lost confidence in the ability and capacity of the armed forces to protect him? Or is it simply a question of fear?

Whatever it is, his refusal to visit that region shows him in very bad light and the nation he leads in even worse light.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 13

We can be the agents of change

By George Uwaifo

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hen we look around us on a daily basis, it is quite obvious that there is a huge divide in our society.

There is the group of the outrageously rich, a very thin middle class and then the very poor folks. The smallest group in this classification happens to also be the most important because the people here turn the engine of any economy.

Nigeria has not been able to boost this class of individuals called the middle class and as a result, the local economy suffers greatly and vices have grown exponentially. Now, we have a society divided between the “Haves” and “Have nots”; “The rich” and “The poor”; “Us” and “Them”; “Four legs good” and “Two legs bad” (George Orwell’s, Animal’s farm).

This is a potentially explosive situation for a country to be in.

At this age, it is not enough to just complain and let these issues lie low, sweep them under

the rug or to be resigned to the “God dey” mentality, we have to really start doing something to make a difference in our immediate community.

Currently, we are so individualistic in our thinking and I will give you examples of this. Starting with building huge fences around our houses.

Apart from being a security apparatus, it also shows our innate desire to separate ourselves from “them”; We have private boreholes due to the failure of the government to provide clean pipe-borne water; The politicians have entourages of body guards; And our footballers, quite often, play individualistic football.

This arrangement cannot be sustainable and deep down many know this, but have not made any conscious efforts to start resolving it. It is obvious that working as a team works more efficiently than being individualistic and that is the main reason the FCB (Barcelona football club) keeps winning. Not

because of the individualistic tendencies of Leo Messi. When the societal divides remain, the rich, the poor and the thin middle class would continue to play mutually exclusive footballs and never score goals or win matches.

The society cannot continuously and perpetually wait on the government to provide her needs before it can wake up to her own responsibilities to impact local communities. If we do this, nothing meaningful will ever be achieved in the immediate future. I am calling on the thousands and thousands of young people getting out of the Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions of learning to “start thinking differently”.

Start by identifying the resources available to you (however small) and think of how these resources can be leveraged to create a new product, a new service, a new job and therefore strengthen the thin middle class.

The resources are there, however small. Today, we have cellular phones, social media and a lot of young graduates.

These are great starting points.

How do we, as academics, convert and translate our acquired knowledge into real job gains in the society? So many of us just get confined to the academic world that we become separate from the real one and so never making real impacts on the everyday man. When you do this, I say you have failed in you ultimate role to make the society better than you found it.

How can you, as a developer or an inventor, get people to invest in your project? It needs a lot of convincing, laced with perseverance on your part.

Evolve your salesmanship and sell your ideas and sooner rather than later, someone would buy into your idea and take a calculated risk and invest. This is how new products gets made and companies sprout and jobs get created.

How do the skeptical rich

individuals get involved? They do so by seeking out projects they can invest in by creating a financial backbone to support the researchers and inventors in our society. They cannot be lukewarm here by discounting the efforts of these often poor and exceptional individuals due to their lack of vision. I keep returning to my football anecdotes . Again, if Kanu Nwankwo had remained in our local league, he would never have attained the status he reached with the clubs that took a gamble on his talents in Europe.

Imagine if jobs can be created and many of the poor can now put food on their tables. Imagine a society where the youths see the benefits of actual work.

Imagine a society where kidnapping, robbery, ‘419ing’ and terrorism are less attractive.

Imagine a society where there are real heroes of change. It would definitely be a safer one.

George Uwaifo is on Facebook

Corruption, the 37th state of the federation

By Theophilus Ilevbare

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ately, the Nigerian media has been awash with opinion, analysis and editorials on the spiraling rate of corruption especially under the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. The war against graft is now an issue of national interest in public discourse in the light of Nigeria’s consistent top rating in global corruption index and its eroded image in the comity of nations. More damning is the lethargic approach President Jonathan’s administration has adopted in fighting corruption.

Most Nigerians would readily agree that if the menace of corruption is reduced by 50% then more than half of Nigeria’s problems becomes effectively solved.

The long term iron-clad impunity of the Nigerian political elite has escalated in recent time under the nose of President Jonathan’s Administration resulting in the disappearance of a whopping N5 trillion in just two years as revealed by a Punch investigation. The gargantuan sleaze over the years has left an estimated 11, 886 federal government projects abandoned across the country according to Professor Kole Omotoso. No surprise, the Gallup Poll and KPMG Report ranked Nigeria the second most corrupt country in the world and most corrupt in Africa, respectively.

Another study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, says Nigeria is the worst place for a baby to be born in 2013 but just days earlier Mr. Jonathan braved up in a media chart on National TV... “I can assure Nigerians and the global community that this government is fighting

corruption frontally, we have dealt with political corruption, the corruption in fertiliser procurement and corruption in the oil industry. There has never been a time corruption in the oil industry has been attacked in all fronts.

The effort this government has put in fighting corruption, I don’t think any other person has done that”.

Going forward, he gave an insight to how he intends to fight corruption using the staggered elections in Edo and Ondo as a template.

These and many more scams unraveled on a daily basis across all sectors of the economy, indicate that special attention at the ongoing constitution review process need be given not only to the removal of the immunity clause and severe (if not capital) punishment for corrupt leaders, but appropriate laws to strengthen the relevant anticorruption agencies so as to fasttrack the prosecution of cases.

The fuss by the anti-graft agencies about their efforts in the anti-corruption war have so far failed to translate into prosecution of indicted individuals and conviction for any of the ex-Governors accused of enriching themselves through corrupt means save for James Ibori, former Delta State Governor, who was only sentenced with the help of a British court and Olabode George.

A situation where Dr. Peter Odili secured a court injunction to shield himself from prosecution makes one wonder if such corrupt persons still enjoy some form of immunity even after leaving office. They employ the services of lawyers skilled in delaying court processes with unnecessary adjournments. Such injunctions have turned the Nigerian judiciary into a laughing stock.

A slap on the wrist treatment of high profile offenders have inspired would-be-looters and emboldened those neck deep in the act.

Nigerians clamour for the scrapping or merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with the Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as a way of strengthening the commission in the anti-graft war, should have a rethink as such a move will not only hamper the fight but exacerbate the present endemic corruption. I am not an advocate of multi-agency approach in tackling the gargantuan graft in various sectors but if this argument is to be won on such numbers, then Nigeria is behind when compared with other countries around the world. For instance, China has 3, 563 agencies fighting its corruption and related offences, the Philippines with 94 million people has 18 anti-graft agencies, Argentina with 40 million population has three anti-graft bodies and Australia has four antigraft agencies.

In Africa, Ghana with just 24 million people has three, South Africa with 49 million has four and several countries around the world have more than two

agencies waging war against corruption.

To the government of the day, of paramount importance should be the harmonization of the workings of the anti-graft agencies so as to avoid duplicity of functions and to eliminate waste of public funds considering it now cost as much as N9.32 billion, from its 2013 budget, to run the EFCC in a year without any guaranty of convicting a single accused person.

The Western countries today are more advanced and developed not because of the absence of corrupt persons but by means of effective anti-graft agencies which are empowered with the right constitutional framework, making them strong enough to ensure whoever, be it a common criminal or looter of public funds, is prosecuted and convicted, thereby serving as a deterrent to others.

The bogey of Boko Haram, unemployment, rising crime rate, poverty are all concomitant effects of sleaze. The attack on the Police SARS headquarters in Abuja by a new Islamic sect is a testament that no part of the country is safe and no one, leaders, looters or political office holders will be spared if the country is left to continue in its steep downward trajectory.

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To fight corruption, President Jonathan must first give priority to political corruption by powerful politicians and their immediate cronies. He must throw his weight behind the leadership of the anti-corruption agencies in their quest to go after corrupt persons and prove to Nigerians beyond doubt by his actions that he is not in tacit support of corrupt practices oozing from close quarters around him

To give a boost to the antigraft crusade, grey areas in the law establishing them need to be revisited. A look at the Plea bargain for instance, former Governors of Edo and Bayelsa states Lucky Igbinedion and Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha were accused of gargantuan corruption, after plea-bargains with the EFCC, the former saw 191 charges against him reduced to just one upon conviction and thereafter asked to pay a paltry N3.5m while the latter was sentenced to only two years imprisonment. Offences that would have, at least, guaranteed life behind bars after forfeiture of all assets and ill-gotten wealth to the state. Such is tantamount to a slap on the wrist which will only inspire other looters.

Unnecessary adjournment of cases and congestion of the regular courts have lead to calls for special courts to try corruption offenders.

To fight corruption, President Jonathan must first give priority to political corruption by powerful politicians and their immediate cronies. He must throw his weight behind the leadership of the anti-corruption agencies in their quest to go after corrupt persons and prove to Nigerians beyond doubt by his actions that he is not in tacit support of corrupt practices oozing from close quarters around him. He must ensure that laws that would engender speedy prosecution and conviction of corrupt persons are reviewed by the National Assembly. President Jonathan has got enough time in his administration to combat Nigeria’s monumental corruption and to see that it cease to exist in aphorism as the 37th state of the federation.

Theophilus@ilevbare.com is on twitter@tilevbare

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Convergence of spokespersons in government

By Yushau A. Shuaib

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he occasion was auspicious.

The personalities were news-creators from diverse critical government ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) and the host is the Embassy of the United States of America in Nigeria.

The 24 selected spokespersons of critical MDAs in Nigeria represented security agencies, financial institutions and regulatory bodies who were invited to a Four-Day Spokespersons Training Workshop organised by the Public Affairs Section of the embassy in collaboration with Washington-based Edel Communication.

In his address to the plenary session, US Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence P. McCulley told the participants that as spokespersons of their organisations, they play an important role in the success of democracy. According to him “Spokespersons help shape public debates and perceptions, and are central to the system of communicating with the people.”

The Ambassador therefore encouraged the spokespersons to participate actively in the training because it would help them learn how to enhance their relationship with the media, how to inform citizens in a clear and timely manner, and demonstrate how the government is addressing people’s needs.

The guest speaker and resource person is Christian Edel, a renowned U.S. media consultant

By Leonard K. Shilgba

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here is presently an oppressive League of Four in Nigeria. The political, religious, business and traditional rulers in Nigeria have all come together in the general oppression of the Nigerian people. I have used the word “rulers” advisedly because these are no leaders in Nigeria. They protect each other, encourage each other, and defend each other. What about us? It is impossible to rely on the same oppressors to deliver Nigeria from the sludge. Where then does relief come from? For those of us who believe in the teachings of the Bible or the Koran, we think God should intervene. For others who believe in “pragmatic” solutions, the people must rise up against the current system of poaching and corruption.

What do I mean by poaching?

In order to protect their positions of privilege and influence, the political class in Nigeria has learned and perfected the skills to scan through the land to pick and corrupt former “activists”, “social critics”, and “progressives” whom they believe are becoming increasingly a threat to their interest. Once they get into government, only few of them can resist the cultic broth. And once they taste it, they undergo a transformation both of the mind and spirit. And so, the Nigerian people have gradually lost warriors. Protest resignation is an alien phrase should there be a conflict of principle in the conduct of official duty. Thus have those “wretched of the earth” (courtesy of Frantz Fanon) always been betrayed. The people then find difficult to trust any of us “social critics” or “progressives” anymore.

and president of Washington-based practical techniques of public agencies. It was also noted that Edel Communications. He is one of communication in a competitive and PRNigeria online, which has been the best instructors in Public even hostile environment. Writing in existence for a while is only an Communication Strategies, and has skills and the use of different form of informative portal and resources trained ministers and government media- print, electronic and online centre for result development in spokespersons from more than 60 were also part of the workshop. The communication and public countries including government sessions and outcomes of the relations practice. representatives in Mexico, Tanzania, programme were very instructive, It was generally agreed that South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and timely and beneficial for none of the existing platforms Lebanon. In the United States, he is improvement in professional provide an avenue for interaction credited with the in a convivial training of environment thousands of U.S. w h e r e State Department spokespersons of employees, p u b l i c Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text i n c l u d i n g institutions messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written a s s i s t a n t could synergize contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 secretaries of state, and cooperate words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and ambassadors, and towards unified a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed other diplomats. communication T h e agenda in to: participants went enhancing through hands-on p u b l i c The Editor, practical training communication Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, consisting of onfor the success of 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. t h e camera practice Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com administration. along with SMS: 07037756364 It was in critiques in which view of this that a group of eight the participants suggested the participants each day worked competence of officers. together in pairs of two, all receiving A major revelation of the summit formation of a Forum for individual attention from the trainer was the realization that spokespersons Spokespersons in Government as a and peers. Participants were in government hardly meet to chart common public communications overwhelmed and excited by the a course through cooperation and platform. In a deliberate effort to practical training executed with collaboration for unified concretise the vision of the forum sophisticated equipment, especially communication strategies to towards identifying new and the simulating scenario in a live- propagate policies and programmes. creative ways to promote a coherent broadcast environment. Despite Though it was discovered that image of the institutions of their long years of experience, most the Federal Ministry of Information government, the Director of participants admitted that they had has an online forum for Resident Communication at Central Bank, learned new skills in using latest Information Officers for circulation Mr. Ogochukwu Okorafor hosted technologies to reach mass audience. of press releases and features, the the participants to a special lunch The participants were taken platform is restricted to staffs of the where Col. Muhammad Yerima, through various theoretical and ministry on secondment to other Director, Defence Information was

elected Chairman with Okorafor as deputy while Kachi Daju of Federal Ministry of Information would serve as Secretary to steer the activities of the forum.

At the CBN- hosted special lunch, members agreed that the forum should comprise Chief Press Secretaries, Head of Press and Public Relations and Directors of Corporate Communications representing public institutions from ministries, departments, commissions, agencies among others. The forum they added should serve as a mechanism for inter-agency cooperation and coordination in the field of public information and communications. The forum will also strive to strengthen interagency cooperation for enhanced objective and fair media profile of government institutions.

It is expected that the spokespersons’ knowledge of the media and key mandates of their respective institutions can enhance and promote better understanding of government policies in a wellcoordinated and unified communication processes.

While more spokespersons from critical MDAs have signified their intention to join the forum, the output of the group will determine their substance and influence in reshaping public opinions about institutions of government from seeming negative perception to positive image.

Yushau A. Shuaib is the Head, Public Relations National Emergency Management Agency, Abuja

Recently, they suffered a serious let down in the January uprising. They shed blood in Ilorin for nothing. From Lagos to Kano, they protested for nothing. The Abuja and Kaduna displays brought them no profit as eventually their trusted “progressives” betrayed them at the night meetings in Abuja.

For any positive change to come out of governance, something new must happen to make the political class (being urged on by their religious, business, and traditional cheer leaders) undergo a complete makeover of the mind and spirit. The inquiry now should be about what can bring about this change. Some believe that our collective repentance and prayers can bring this about, and so the people must do nothing but “pray”. But there are some that believe that faith without action is vanity. The solution to almost every social malady in Nigeria is publicly affirmed, both by those responsible for the social decadence and by those who are ignorant about the facts, to be “prayer”. But I ask, “What should be the content of those prayers?” Should it be that God should kill the incompetent and corrupt president, thieving and incompetent governors, all corrupt politicians, compromised judges, unscrupulous businessmen and -women, immoral religious rulers, and unprincipled traditional rulers who are responsible for impoverishing Nigeria? Should we pray that unconscionable contractors and their accomplices in the civil service should perish in road accidents

accusing finger at failed political leadership. Let them wag the finger at President Jonathan and your state governors and say, “You are the troublers of Nigeria!” With immense political powers, Mr Jonathan and many of the governors have simply washed their hands and looked away like Pontius Pilate. With awesome executive powers to punish and bring down the gavel on corrupt public officials and contractors of failed public projects and their collaborators, Jonathan has instead chosen to hide under useless and preposterous committees which he has regularly used as either lullabies or red herrings.

What about us? Who in the political leadership of Nigeria will seek to please us? Nigeria needs just one man with the powers of President Jonathan, who will effectively use such powers to rescue us and not to harass us. But alas, Jonathan cannot because he has already corrupted himself. He has compromised his office by running greedily after gain.

A thief cannot punish other thieves.

Tens of billions of dollars of public wealth have been stolen and wasted under Jonathan’s watch and he looks away; why?

Prayers cannot save us, but prayers with steady action will.

Prayers cannot make a better nation for us, but prayers with bold actions shall hasten the day of reckoning when the shepherd shall beg the sheep for mercy, and when the sheep shall come under a new shepherd. Any opportunity of provocation that Nigerians shall get in the days to come must be used as the last stroke.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba is reachable on shilgba@middlebeltalliance.org.

WRITE TO US

What about us? and plane crashes? Or should we ask God to “forgive them for they know not what they do”? Should we ask that all election cheats go blind? Yearly, we budget tens of millions of naira for each kilometre length of roads to be constructed, which sum though outrageous, the roads are not even built, yet no one is punished; but we must “pray”.

Have Nigerians become prayer machines, or are they simply taken for fools and people with slow memories and low intelligence quotient? If government is incompetent and corrupt, blame it on the people; they are not prayerful enough. So, not only are the people at the receiving end of corrupt public governance, they also bear the huge chunk of the blame for not praying well and praying in faith.

If only Nigerians prayed without ceasing, Nigeria should suddenly become a great and efficient nation.

But are the political rulers not Nigerians; couldn’t they pray for the efficient governance for which they are in public office? The religious leaders then make matters worse. They promise the people “Break-through” for the “new year” in exchange for “seed sowing” and “faithful tithing”; and by the end of the year the people are poorer than they were a year ago, and the moral life of the nation is more wretched.

But the people love the lies and false hopes.

Our rulers at all levels have broken the Sabbath of the Nigerian people, their Sabbath of rest from their afflictions. The people must take up stones. First, those who read must

instruct the people they have influence over to uproot from their mind any respect for the Ill-gotten wealth of those polluted trees. The wealth they have acquired without production or job-creating activities is cursed. Nigerians must hate such wealth. It is time to carefully cultivate hatred for corrupt wealth if Nigerians want deliverance.

Second, Nigerians must boldly start causing embarrassment for those corrupt trees at public functions, in the mass media, and at every opportunity they have got. They love honour, but we must give them dishonour. They love high places, but we must offer them low seats.

Intellectuals who are so afraid of the hard life, that they must be obsequious to those corrupt trees have put their education in dispute. Shame on all of you who have delayed our redemption by your sell-out! Woe to your betrayals! If our redeeming grace as a nation has been delayed, it is because of quasi intellectuals such as journalists, lawyers, and other professionals who have cheaply sold themselves to visionless rulers in the corridors of power in exchange for wealth and positions that they will never enjoy in peace.

Third, print out and distribute fliers that question the roles of your pastors, bishops, overseers, general superintendent, imams, and papas in pricking the conscience of public leaders. Those must not be allowed to continue straining at gnats while swallowing camels. Let them recover their lost moral voice and point the

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 15

The Nigerian Army and Detimbir Chia I

t was a tragic and sad day for the Nigerian army. An aircraft carrying eighteen of its generals to Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State crashed at Ngokugh hills of Benue State. Ten of the generals were killed instantly; the survivors would have also perished but for the gallant efforts of a 12 year old boy.

Last week on Friday November 23, the Daily Trust reminded us of how Detimbir Chia, then a mere 12 year old lad, on September 17th 2006 helped save the lives of some of Nigeria’s top military officers.

With a single phone call using a GSM set he found at the crash site, the boy, alerted the world to organise a rescue mission to site, which saved eight out of 18 people on board. According to the paper, his bravery had become a popular tale. Detimbir was working at his family farm located several miles from his village when the military aircraft heading for Obudu Cattle Ranch crashed.

The crash scene was within his sight, but instead of taking to his heels from the devastating scene, the boy summoned courage, approached the helpless

victims, picked one cell phone among the many scattered items at the scene and called his father, Chia James Anakula, who at that time was the only person in his village that owned a GSM handset.

Chia then alerted relevant authorities who organised a rescue operation that saved some eight persons out of the 18 passengers on board. It was an ironic twist of history. In 2001, Generals of the Nigerian army led their troops to mount a cordon of the whole Senatorial Zone in which the plane crashed. They then proceeded to unleash terror on the unarmed civilian population.

The declared mission of the army as advertised by their Commander in Chief, President Olusegun Obasanjo was to fish out the militants who killed 19 soldiers at Zaki Biam, a town also in the same Senatorial District.

Their conduct however betrayed the fact that they were on a mission of rape, murder and plunder. The identity of those who murdered the soldiers was no secret having properly identified themselves through pictures that were in newspapers, magazines and television screens.

Instead of following that lead,

By Akintokunbo Adejumo

Ibadan: A study in resistance to change

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he Government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state has come under very fierce criticism and scathing remarks regarding the demolition of illegal shops and other wrongly erected structures that his government has embarked upon. Our people are not only resistant to change, they are also suffused with sentiments, and when it comes to issues like this, they go overboard with self-approbations. This trait is particularly unique to Ibadan people, sorry, I mean not only Ibadan indigenes, but also to other people who have come to settle there over the centuries.

Ibadan has for many years been arguably one of the dirtiest cities in the world. No previous government, civilian or military had ever been successful in tackling or taming the scourge of dirtiness, negligence, lawlessness and disorderliness in Ibadan. Our problem in Ibadan is that despite the cosmopolitan and welcoming nature of its people, every settler or non-indigene not only takes advantage of Ibadan people, but also does not care what happens to the city.

The aesthetic face of Ibadan is important to me as a “son of the soil” who yearns for and wants progress and development to my beloved city and hometown. I have even discovered, unfortunately, that many people angry over what the government of Oyo state is doing are not Ibadan natives, or they are from opposing political parties.

At first glance it seems that aesthetics is simply an advanced term for beauty and attractiveness, but this would ignore some important aspects of moulding a city. It also includes the feel, design, layout, and

description of a city. It is a desire to create a place that is functional and productive along with being attractive, relaxing, and reflective of the city’s history and culture. It involves the planning of parks, open spaces, and other public areas along with positioning the city’s buildings and streets in such a way that are visually pleasing, easy to use, and promoting of healthy living. In essence, aesthetics represents the soul of a city and how it influences a city’s organs and limbs.

We all like the faces of London, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Moscow, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, even in Africa here, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Cairo, etc that we see in movies and for those of us fortunate enough to travel the world, what we physically see and enjoy in these great cities of the world. Even then, we see these cities doing even more, finding even more innovative ways to make their cities more attractive, more liveable and healthier to the residents. We like all other people’s cities except our own. Our leaders and the more privilege in our society take great glee and joy in and are fond of taking every opportunity to travel to all these exotic and developed cities, enjoy the air, the water, the technology, the sights, the aesthetics beauty and other characteristics, the goods and services, the creativeness of the residents and their governments, and the sheer relaxation and comfort they present, yet find it difficult to replicate it back in their own native cities.

It never ceases to amaze me that when Nigerians travel all

the soldiers unleashed horror on a Detimbir, the then Chief of defenceless population of old and Defence Staff, promised to make young men, women and children. his dream of becoming a soldier a On the day of the generals’ reality. Azazi who visited the crash in 2006, their Commander scene of incident on behalf of the in Chief was far away overseas. military promised the boy an He cut short his trip and returned unhindered admission into the home and ordered three days of Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) n a t i o n a l as a way of mourning for rewarding him. the officers Azazi’s promise some of whom to the young man were in the top opened a floodgate echelon of the of good luck and Nigerian motivation. army.

That Former Benue was the much State governor he could do.

George Akume The man who offered Detimbir a Emmanuel Yawe detested scholarship which 08024565402 visiting Benue led to his relocation royawe@yahoo.com from the obscure during his years as village on transfer President did not even see this as from his former Government an opportunity to disabuse the Secondary School, Koti, Shangev minds of Benue people – who –Ya, to Command Secondary suspected at this time - that he School, Makurdi, where he harboured deep personal hatred completed studies in 2011. for the people of the state.

He passed his WEAC If the Commander in Chief felt examination with seven credits the compulsory it was below his status to go to the including requirement of sight of the tragedy, at least it was university consoling that his Chief of Defense Mathematics and English. He also Staff, General Owoye Andrew took his entrance examination to Azazi went. Apparently overjoyed the NDA and out of the 100 by the courage of the young candidates from his state, he was

over the world – and believe me, we do travel – and come back from all the good and beautiful places we have seen and experienced abroad, we just settle back quietly into our dour, degrading, degenerating, unhealthy environment.

Yet, this is far from being the case. I have travelled the length and breadth of Nigeria, and it always breaks my heart when I see the beauty of our land, our country, from Calabar to Minna to Kano to Ibadan to Ondo to Warri to Otukpo to Abuja to Lagos to Ilorin to Lokoja to Enugu to Port Harcourt to Umuahia to Benin to Ado Ekiti to Jebba to Jos to Sokoto to Yola to Aba to Asaba to Ogbomoso to Abeokuta to Akure to Yenagoa, and even Otuoke, the little village of our President, etc, and I look at my people who never appreciate their own environment nor do they care for it. Even the creeks of the Niger Delta are so beautiful, but the only way Nigerians look at it is if they see only Oil. We do not see the environment, nor do we really care if that environment is splattered with oil spills.

Towns and cities are always changing, in what they are and

how they look. In recent years, though, the visual appearance of towns and cities has become increasingly important to a range of powerful urban institutions and organisations.

Many urban centres, from world cities to edge cities, from historical centres to new towns, have been given design makeovers. Streetscapes have been remodelled to look more visually coherent; new green spaces and public art have been installed; benches and rubbish bins have become designer items; landmark buildings have been renovated or built from new. The aesthetics of urban spaces have become increasingly important.

The fact is, Ibadan, or for that matter, any city or town in Nigeria, cannot continue to exist the way we were a century, a decade or a year ago. There has to be change for the better. In a way, the resistance to change in Ibadan is a reflection of resistance to change in the whole country, and the reason this country is still finding it very difficult to pull itself out from the Dark Ages.

In Ibadan, lawlessness,

“

Beginning of change is difficult but when change finally happens and stays, and is sustainable and sustained, the benefit is great to the people. Lagos state is a shining example, and always one to follow anywhere in Nigeria

number 4. Suddenly, the NDA concluded that the young man has high blood pressure and is not eligible for enlistment. This claim is however belied for according to his guardian, Chief Emmanuel Viashima, several other medical reports show that the boy is healthy.

The Nigerian army used to be run by great minds.

Unfortunately, of late it appears to have been overrun by little minds. How can the Israeli army, for instance, reject a young chap who has shown so much promise and love for the army? Is the army aware that a case like this is capable of damaging civil military relations? Do they expect the civil population to rise up to their help when they are in a similar distress as the one Detimbir rescued them from?

Look at the free talking Director of Defence Information, Colonel Mohammed Yerima, saying “I was not around when the matter was discussed,” In other words he is telling us that the Nigerian Army keeps no records, not even of the Chief of Defence Staff’s pronouncement on the tragic fate of ten generals who died all in one day.

Haba!

disregard for the environment, recklessness, dirtiness, negligence, lawlessness and disorderliness are things we have been living with for years, if not centuries. This because past Oyo state governments were too scared and morally compromised to act and clean out the Aegean stable of Ibadan. There are so many illegalities that have long been perpetrated in Ibadan: the scourge of the NURTW, the notorious, murderous and criminal motor union, extorting from commercial drivers and not remitting membership dues to their mother union or paying dues to the government; the administrators of the various markets in Ibadan – Dugbe, New Gbagi, Aleshinloye- pocketing the proceeds meant for the government or the local government who are the owners of these markets; taxis and buses parking anywhere they like and obstructing the free flow of traffic; uncontrolled street traders who take over half of the roads in various areas of the city; illegal structures such as building under high-tension power lines.

People should embrace this change and transformation and allow this Government to act without hindrance. All is for our own good and to make the city a point of good reference among its peers and to return Ibadan to its past glories. Beginning of change is difficult but when change finally happens and stays, and is sustainable and sustained, the benefit is great to the people. Lagos state is a shining example, and always one to follow anywhere in Nigeria.

Akintokunbo Adejumo is a public affairs commentator

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Man held for impregnating 23-year-old lady

By Josephine Ella Ejeh with agency report

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27-year-old man, Monday Apokwo, has been arraigned for allegedly, kidnapping a 23-year-old lady.

Apokwo, who is facing charges of abduction before an Upper Area Court in Karu, Abuja, contrary to Section 272 of the Penal Code was also alleged to have impregnated the lady in question, Grace Akpan.

Prosecutor Silas Nanpam told the court that the complainant, Akpan Udoh, of Aso Gbagalape village, Nyanya, Abuja,

reported the case at the Nyanya Police Station on July 30, 2012.

Apokwo was said to have taken the complainant’s daughter, to his house without the consent of the father, leaving her presently, with a three months old pregnancy.

However, he pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Udo, in his testimony, told the court that the accused started a love relationship with his daughter through frequent visits to the area where he lives with his family.

He said that the accused had a friend he usually visits in the area, adding: “I warned Apokwo to leave my daughter several times. I told him to leave her alone as she is only a student but he refused.

“When I noticed my daughter’s disappearance from home and found out she was with him. I reported to the police,’’ he testified.

When questioned by the police, the prosecutor said Apkowo said he would marry the girl.

He further told the court that he loved the girl and that he had gone to pay her dowry twice but the father refused to accept it.

Udoh, on the other hand, vowed never to accept the Akokwo’s proposal to marry his daughter, saying: “Apokwo is rude, irresponsible and disrespectful’’.

Grace told the court that she stays at the accused’s house because her father drove her away when he noticed she was pregnant.

She said that her father told

her never to come back home until she was delivered of the baby and had given the baby to the accused.

The Judge, Alhaji Umar Kagarko, advised Apokwo to leave the girl alone since the father disapproves of it.

Kagarko also advised Udoh to forgive his daughter as the damage had already been done and her actions were based on ignorance.

He adjourned the case to December 20, 2012 for cross examination.

Sales girl accused of stealing employer’s goods

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he police on Friday arraigned a woman, Josephine Michael, of Ajegunle, Mpape village, Abuja, before an Abuja Senior Magistrates Court for alleged breach of trust.

The prosecutor, Emmanuel Adikwu, told the court that the case was reported to the Maitama Police station on Nov. 26 by one Josephine Musa of SETRACO New Layout, Gwarimpa, Abuja.

Adikwu said that the accused, a sales girl at Musa’s shop, located at Banex Plaza, Abuja, failed in her duties of selling the items and taking care of the shop.

“The accused was instructed to oversee the property in the shop and also sell the items in it but she violated the instruction,’’ Adikwu said.

The prosecutor said that the accused stole six bundles of female wrappers, seven pieces of designer wrist watches and five men’s belt.

He said the accused also stole one men’s suit, three pieces of Swiss laces, perfumes and six pieces of men’s shirts and slippers.

“She also took away four female slippers, shoes and jean trousers, female under wears, some wallets and some pairs of children’s sneakers,’’ the prosecutor said.

Adikwu said that the total value of the items amounted to N780,000.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravenes the provisions of Section 314 of the Penal Code.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Senior Magistrate, Mrs Rosemary Kanyip, granted the accused bail in the sum of N80,000 with one surety in like sum who must reside within the court’s jurisdiction.

Kanyip said the surety must have a definite address which must be verified by the prosecutor and officials of the court and also submit a copy of his office identification card.

She adjourned the case to December 6, 2012 for further hearing. (NAN)

Bags of rice and other food items on display in Nyanya market recently.

Photo: Josephine Ella Ejeh

Survey indicates slight increase in food prices as yuletide approaches

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survey conducted in major markets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), at the weekend, indicates a slight increase in the prices of food commodities.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), findings showed that most major food items experienced slight increase in prices as the Christmas season sets in.

In Nyanya market, a bag of 50kg rice now sells for between N10, 500 and N11, 000 as against N10, 000 sold in October and early November.

A bag of white Garri now sells for N8, 000, while a bag of red garri is now sells for between N9, 000 and N10, 000; as against N7, 000 and N8,000, respectively .

A bag of millet is now sells for N10, 000 as against last month’s

price of N9, 000.

A small dust bin baskets of Irish potatoes and tomatoes now sells for N700 and N800 as against N600 and 700, respectively.

Also a dust bin basket of pepper is now selling for between N500 and N600 as against its former price of N400 and N500, while a three-litre tin of Turkey vegetable oil which previously sold at N1,100 and sells for N1,120, is now selling for N1,200.

A beans seller in Utako market, Mr Kinsley Agbo, said that a bag of brown beans was selling for N29, 000, while white beans sold for N20, 000.

Agbo added that he could not predict how the price would be in the future as the Christmas season was fast approaching.

He explained that the

increase in prices of commodities was attributed to the unstable due to scarcity of fuel and unstable price, including poor conditions of roads and other charges.

He said that these factors also affected the prices of other items in the market.

“You will agree with me that it is never intentional for us to hike prices of things; it is because of what we are passing through.

This is the reason why the prices keep increasing,’’ said Agbo.

He said that a “Mudu’’ of beans at present was selling for between N450 and N500, lower than the price in the harvest period.

An onion seller Mr Sani Ali, said that a bag of onion was sold for between N19, 000 and N29,000, depending on the size of the bag.

On her part, a yam seller Miss

Joy Gabriel, told NAN that prices of yam were sold depending on the sizes.

She said that five tubers of the smaller size, which was sold at N800 last month, had now increased by 20 per cent, while the bigger sizes had also increased by the same percentage.

NAN reports that traders attributed the slight change in the prices of food items to the harvest season.

They however, said that as the new farm produce arrive the markets, the prices of the old ones would fall.

A trader in grains, Mr Mustapha Ismail, said that even though the prices increased slightly, prices would still rise because of the Christmas season and the rush to buy things by consumers. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 17

Generator repairers at work

Residents decry sale of sub-standard generating sets

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ome residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried the sale of power generating sets of various brands without issuing guarantee to buyers.

The residents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja in separate interviews, complained that the sellers of the generating sets did not give any guarantee on the effectiveness and durability of the sets.

NAN also reports that even where they do if the sets developed any problem they normally refused to take responsibility for it, saying that it was not their fault.

One of the respondents, Mr Chibuike Chukwu, said he bought a set at the market and barely used it for a week when the generator packed up.

“I was so surprised when I put on the set and it refused to work, the next day I took it back to the man I bought it from, but was shocked when the man said he could do nothing about it as he too bought the set himself.

“In fact, he insisted that if he collected it on whose account would the loss be and said I should take it to a mechanic who will find the fault with it.

“The annoying thing was that he was not even apologetic, if we had steady power supply this would not be happening,” Chukwu said.

Another resident, Mr Suleiman Danladi, who also made the same observation, said the dealers of these products just go to the manufacturing companies abroad to manufacture substandard products.

According to him, they would not bother about what the people, who purchase these items go through as long as they smile to the banks.

“You cannot blame these importers because if our power supply was constant who will bother about generators.

“They continue to capitalise on the situation in the country to enrich themselves and the citizens are absolutely helpless because the regulatory bodies are nearly non-existent,” Danladi said.

Also a respondent, Mrs Justina Bolatito, urged the government to provide electricity for the citizenry.

“We have entered the dry season when the weather is very hot and without electricity people have no other option, but to patronise dealers in generators.

Three in prison over robbery allegations J

ustice Balami Mwada of the Federal Capital Territory( FCT) High Court sitting in Gwagwalada at the weekend, ordered that three persons, Victor Adindu, (29), Henry Oluchi, (25) and one Ekene, (23) be remanded in prison custody.

Adindu, Oluchi and Ekene are facing a five count charge of conspiracy, robbery, impersonation, being in possession of dangerous weapon

and threatening one Patrick Mwokara.

The Prosecution Counsel, Mrs Nnorma Okafor, told the court that the accused committed the alleged crime on May 4, 2010 at Gwarimpa in FCT. She said the men conspired and robbed Mwokara of valuable items.

Okafor said the accused persons used guns, cutlasses and knives to threaten Mwokara, as they made an attempt to kill him.

The prosecution said that the three men, who pretended to be PHCN staff, broke into Mwokara’s house and beat him up.

The trio, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecutor, then, prayed for an adjournment to enable her bring her witnesses to court.

Justice Mwada, then ordered that the trio be remanded in Kuje Medium Prison and adjourned the case to February 6, 2013 for hearing. (NAN)

“Even when we know the negative impact of these generating sets to the environment,” she said.

Bolatito also appealed to the regulatory authorities to check the importation of fake and substandard products like power generating sets to minimise people’s discomfort.

Responding to the complaints, Mr Kanayo Amadi, a generating set dealer, told NAN that the dealers were not at fault as they only buy the products they could lay their hands on with the hope to make profit.

“As a dealer how many generating sets can I test to check for the effectiveness, we only take the word of the importers and hope for the best.

“We too plead with regulatory bodies to do their work by making sure that only standard products are allowed into our borders,’’ he said Public Relations Officer of the Consumer Protection Board (CPC), Mr Abiodun Obimuyiwa, speaking on behalf of the Director General CPC, Mrs Ify Umenyi, said that the council would not accept such a thing, as “it is very wrong,’’ he said.

According to him, the consumer has the right to complain over any product or services rendered if the product is not commensurate with the value of the money spent on it.

“In the first place, the buyer is supposed to get warranty of a year or thereabout over any product bought from the seller.

“We advice that any consumer who is unjustly treated should write a petition to the council giving vivid explanation

of the matter and the council will wade into it and ensure the right of the consumer is protected,’’ he said.

Obimuyiwa said the council was ever ready to champion the cause of the consumer and fight for their rights. (NAN)

Amafor Progressive Union calls for unity

By Usman Shuaibu

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he Chairman of Amafor Progressive Union (APU) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Charles Uwonwa, has called on the executive of the association as well as members to come together for the overall development of the Union.

Uwonwa, who made the call during the end of the union’s year’s party in Abuja, said his leadership would continue to work towards the progress of his people.

According to him, Amafor Progressive Union is an umbrella body of Amafor sons and daughters in diaspora and at the same time serves as a link between the home town of Amafor in Ohaji/ Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state.

He urged members to deem it necessary to maintain cordial relationship with those at home and other branches of the union in Abuja for the benefit of peace and co-operation.

The Chairman appealed to the sons and daughters of Amafor/Ohaji, who did not register with the union to do so for their own good.

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Galadimawa community decries lack of health centre T

he Chief of Galadimawa Community, FCT, Alhaji Musa Barde, on Saturday decried the lack of health centre in the area, which has made it difficult for residents to access health care.

Barde told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the community was feeling neglected as it lacked basic health care needs like a health centre.

“Presently, we don’t have health centre here as you can see the village is an ancient village, it has history, very long history like every other village in Abuja.

“But the only problem we are facing is that of health care, we have been trying to persuade the authority of FCT on how the

community can be integrated to the health care system of the territory for people to benefit,’’ he said.

He said that people from the area had tried unsuccessfully to convince Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to assist the community with a health centre.

“If you take a look, the population in the village will require that we have a health centre, because if we do not have any health centre here, it will affect the community.

“Anytime someone was sick, particularly women that normally go for antenatal or time to deliver babies, residents find it difficult to access health care because the hospitals are far from

here,” he said.

The chief lamented that the residents had to take their family members all the way from the village to Wuse or Maitama hospitals.

“And if it is possible to have one close to us here, I think it will help us a lot,” he said.

Barde said that the issue of poverty had also been a factor, adding that someone with small income or small business, with no health support would not be comfortable.

“They may find it difficult to get to the general hospital on time because funds may not be available. Some residents have such challenges and the problems are real,’’ he said.

According to him, sometimes people have to assist in gathering some small amount of money to carry the sick person to the hospital.

“We have some few private clinics around here that we use when we are sick, but you know how private clinic is, if you don’t have money they will not attend to you and that is the most difficult thing.

“They will not attend but if you don’t have money, so that is the problem we face here generally,’’ he said.

Barde said that some pregnant women deliver at home because of lack of money because they had no alternative.

“Our pregnant women deliver

at home when there is no fund for proper care and also the means of getting to hospital on time due to the distance.

“We have Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), they give assistance to our pregnant women, and some of our nurses that work in the general hospitals who live around here.

“But sometimes before you reach out to the nurses, they will say they are on duty, so there is nothing we can do but to seek for alternative means.

“We are appealing to the authority to come to our aid because our population is increasing by the day, our women are given birth everyday and children are increasing.

“We are no more in the rural area, we should enjoy the benefits of belonging to an urban settlement,’’ he said. (NAN)

Tenant drags landlord to court

O

A wheel barrow pusher off with firewood to an unknown destination in Life Camp recently.

Court jails driver for trespassing into airport

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n Upper area Court in Gudu, Abuja, on Friday sentenced one Samuel Ariyo of Jikwoyi, Abuja, to 12 months imprisonment for criminal trespass, touting and resisting arrest.

The Judge, Adamu Wakili, however, gave him an option of N9,000 fine.

Ariyo was arraigned alongside Isaac Dapian of Jahi

and Emmanuel Thompson, of Hiltop Hotel, all residents of Abuja.

The Police Prosecutor, Inspector Blessed Akpan, told the court that the offence was contrary to sections 342, 172 of the Penal Code and Section 6 (6) of the FAAN bye law.

He said that on November 28, 2012 Ariyo, Dapian and Thompson trespassed into the

Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, to pick passengers without permission.

According to the prosecutor, Ariyo, Dapian and Thompson in their vehicle with registration number DZ 998 ABJ unlawfully gained entrance into the airport and picked passengers.

The prosecutor said that when they were found out, they

resisted arrest by the police.

Ariyo pleaded guilty to the charge and begged the court for leniency but Dapian and Thompson pleaded not guilty.

The judge then admitted Dapian and Thompson to bail in the sum of N100,000 each with one surety each who must be resident in the FCT. He adjourned the matter to February 4, 2013. (NAN)

ne Udoh John of Nyanya, Abuja, has been arraigned before a Karu Senior Magistrates Court on a four-count charge of conspiracy, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint and theft.

The prosecutor, Sergeant Stephen Eimoga, told the court that the complainant, Victor Inwang, of Area A Extension, Nyanya, Abuja, reported the case to the Karu police station.

He said that the accused and 11 others, now at large, forced the door to his room open and removed his property on November 26, 2012.

Eimoga added that the accused, who was Inwang’s landlord, conspired with the 11 others and removed the complainant’s property because he failed to pay his house rent of N450, 000.

“In the process of removing the property, Inwang discovered that two of his belts valued at N30, 000, a leather wrist watch valued at N20, 000, a laptop valued at N140,000 and N250,000 cash were missing.

“Other missing items include a wall clock valued at N2,500, a long sofa valued at N55,000, 50 pieces of DVD cassettes valued at N15,000, a show glass valued at N65,000, two drinking glasses valued at N2,000 and a standing mirror valued at N1,8000 was damaged, bringing the total cost to N581,300’’.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravenes Sections 79, 342, 254, 327 and 288 of the Penal Code.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Senior Magistrate, Celestine Odo, granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 and a surety in like sum, who must have a fixed address and reside within the jurisdiction of the court.

He adjourned the case to February 6, 2013, for hearing.

(NAN)

BUSINESS

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Email: aminuimam@yahoo.co.uk

PAGE 19

INSIDE - Pg 20 CBN, banks in talks to cut charges

Mob: 08033644990

Dangote Sugar profits soar

By Abdulwahab Isa

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The President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Mr. Segun Aina, OFR, FCIB (left) looks on as CIBN's 1st Vice President, Otunba (Mrs.) Debola Osibogun (right), decorating the MD NDIC with the CIBN insignia.

SON begins validation testing on imported electronic products

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

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he Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says it is ready to start scientific validation and testing of electronic products entering the country.

Dr. Joseph Odumodu, the Director-General of the organisation announced this on Friday in Lagos when he visited Fouani Nigeria Ltd., a leading manufacturer and importer of LG products.

Odumodu said that the testing was to ensure that the products met minimum standards for safety and performance in the country. He

expressed the displeasure of SON on the poor quality of electronic products being imported into the country.

Odumodu said that there was the need to establish a stronger collaboration between SON and electronic manufacturers. “The ultimate goal is to ensure consumers’ safety and value for money.

“Today, I have learnt that every LG television set and some of the refrigerators and air conditioners are assembled here in Apapa, Lagos.

“This also helps us in achieving our objectives because we now know the kind of questions and features to look

out for in these products,’’ he said.

LG recently launched a new product called ‘LG antimosquito air conditioner’, with claims that it can kill mosquitoes with no side effects on human health.

Odumodu said that SON would set up a parallel laboratory to test and validate this claim.

Earlier, Mr Mohammed Fouani, the Managing Director of the company, said that the factory had equipped many Nigerians with technical skills.

“Occasionally, engineers from China come and train our employees who are mostly Nigerian”.

Telecoms: NNDC partners Backbone Connectivity Network

By Muhammad Nasir

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rrangements are in top gear to the merging of the Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC)’s Gamjitel telecommunications company with their affiliate company, Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN) Nigeria, so as to compete favorably in the telecommunications business.

Speaking at the 44th general meeting of the company in Kaduna at the weekend, the company’s chairman, Professor Halidu Abubakar said the merger was aimed at producing a bigger and more vibrant telecommunications company, which would enable them to get value as a result of synergy.

Commenting on the

company’s joint effort at sourcing intervention funds, he said NNDC was intensifying efforts to source for more investible funds in collaboration with sister development finance institutions.

“It is hoped that when this materialises, regional development finance institutions

like NNDC and state investment finance institutions will play greater roles in developing the country as well as sustaining themselves financially,” he added.

He also said discussions were ongoing between the NNDC and officials of the NNPC on the oil and gas project.

trategies by the new Management of Dangote Sugar (DSR) have started to pay off positively as the company’s profits have been on the upswing.

The company’s performance parameters were on the upswing, for the third quarter, with profit before tax rising by N5.53bn – from N6.49bn to N12.01bn.

The company’s profit after tax also soared from N4.41bn to N8.17bn, representing a growth of N3.76bn.

During the period under review, the refinery recorded improvements in efficiencies as cost of sales dipped from N69.44bn to N65.96bn, indicating a gain of N3.48bn gain.

The company ended the period with a turnover of N53.698bn, up by 10 per cent from the N48.597bn posted in 2011. Profit before tax rose from N4.41bn to N8.493bn, while profit after tax went up by 91 per cent to hit N5.728bn in 2012.

To celebrate the success recorded by the company with its customers, the management recently approved incentives, worth N341 million in the first

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rude output from Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, fell 2.3 percent in the first half to 382 million barrels while gas production rose almost 25 percent to 34 billion cubic meters, a central bank report showed.

Daily crude and condensate output averaged 2.09 million barrels a day compared with 2.14 million a year earlier, the Abuja-based Central Bank of Nigeria said in its review of the economy for the first six months of the year published on its website. An estimated 6.02 billion cubic metres of gas was flared during the period, a 7.38 percent decrease year-on-year.

The drop in crude production was due to “increased vandalism of oil pipelines and crude theft in the Niger delta region,” the bank said yesterday in the report.

Nigeria is a major source of U.S. crude imports. Attacks by

Keep your To-Do list fresh with the 3-Day rule

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time than you think.· Schedule it. Find a time slot on your calendar when you can get the task done. If it’s important enough to have on your list, then commit to doing it at a specific time and day.· Let it die. If

three quarters of 2012.

Staffs were not left out of the bounty as DSR promoted 173 staff as well as paid performance bonus totaling N190 million, also for the quarters under review.

A statement from the Company revealed that, in the first quarter, the customers were given incentives worth N109 million, second quarter N115 million and third quarter N117 million.

The staff were paid a total of N62.6 million as performance bonus in the first quarter, N63.7 million in the second quarter and N64 million in the third quarter. Apart from the bonus, shares of the sugar company were allotted to staff that joined the company after the staff share allotment scheme took off in 2007.

Speaking on behalf of the staff, Chairman, Dangote Sugar Refinery Staff Consultative Forum, Mr. Emmanuel Sheidu expressed profound appreciation to the board and management of the company for approving the bonus.

Nigeria’s oil output dropped in first half, gas rose, says CBN

Management Tip of the Day to-do list is only useful if you cross things off as often as you add tasks on. If something’s been on your list for more than three days, do one of the following:· Do it immediately. It may take you less

•••fetes customers with N341m incentives

you’re not willing to do something immediately or schedule it for later, you won’t ever do it. Accept that it’s not really a priority and take it off your list.

Source: Harvard Business Review

armed groups targeting the oil industry cut more than 28 percent of output from 2006 to 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The nation lost $7 billion to these thefts in 2011, the central bank of Nigeria said. At least 150,000 barrels a day are siphoned by criminal gangs, Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Nigerian unit said in February.

Income from oil, representing 78 percent of total revenue, climbed 13.8 percent year-on-year to 4.36 trillion naira ($27.7 billion) and exceeded the budget estimate by 31.3 percent, the report showed.

“The increase in federallycollected revenue relative to budget estimate was largely attributed to the rise in oil revenue arising from high crude prices which averaged $115.05 a barrel in the international market,” the central bank said.

Africa’s most populous nation of more than 160 million people rely on oil for more than 95 percent of export earnings and 80 percent of government revenue, the Finance Ministry said.

Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp.

(XOM), Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA (ENI) run joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump about 90 percent of the country’s crude.

(Bloomberg)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 20

COMPANY NEWS Halogen Security

H

alogen Security Company Limited, Nigeria’s leading indigenous security company, at a grand gala night at the prestigious Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, marked twenty outstanding years of providing state-of-the-art security solutions in Nigeria.

Speaking at the occasion, Representative of the Lagos State Governor, Special Assistant to the Governor on Security, Tunde Panox (Rtd), congratulated the company for her enviable achievements over the past 20 years. He said that it was an honour to identify with those who are making a mark in their respective industries and adding value to the state, and the country at large.

In his welcome address, chairman, TROYKA Holdings, the Holding company of Halogen Security, Biodun Shobanjo, congratulated the entire management and staff of the company on the occasion, and said that he is proud of the great feat attained by the company in the past 20 years.

First Bank of Nigeria Plc

F

irst Bank has made good its commitment, in ensuring a secure future for children through the Hi-Fi Young Savers Account, following which the bank lived up to its promise by giving 12 lucky children N1m at the 3rd raffle draw organised for the HiFi young Savers account holders at the NTA festival programme held in Lagos recently.

The First Bank HiFi Young Savers Account which was introduced in 2008, is a special account designed for children from age 0 – 17 years to sensitize and cultivate savings culture within this age bracket and to help parents plan towards the future of their children and wards.

Research In Motion (RIM)

C

anada’s Research In Motion (RIM) has lost a contract dispute over the use of Nokia patents in a case which could halt sales of its BlackBerry phones if it does not reach a deal to pay royalties to the Finnish company.

Nokia said on Wednesday a Swedish arbitrator had ruled that “RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia.”

Wireless local access network (WLAN) technologies, usually marketed under the WiFi brand, are used across BlackBerry devices and by most other smartphones.

CBN, banks in talks to cut charges

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is considering a reduction of the 5 percent cost on transaction (COT) or its entire removal from transactions between customers and banks.

The apex bank is also in talks with local banks to see the possibility of reducing the present high bank rates and charges which are frustrating businesses and almost crippling the economy.

Analysts said last night that the decision, if carried out, would boost businesses and enhance financial inclusion, as canvassed by the apex bank.

Tunde Lemo, CBN deputy

governor for operations, said the apex bank was uncomfortable with the high rates charged by banks, because they undermine the apex bank’s key mandate of maintaining price stability.

Lemo said the outcome of the talks with the banks would be announced soon.

He was speaking yesterday in Abuja, when members of the House Committee on Banking and Currency paid the CBN an oversight visit, led by their chairman, Jones Chukwudi Onyerere.

“There is a review going on, on bank charges and part of that review is to look at various charges and see how bankers can work together and agree, so that overall, the charges to customers

are reduced and one of the areas they are looking into, is actually to reduce the COT from a maximum of 5 percent per million that it is now, to something lower.

They have not yet concluded but the discussion is ongoing,” he told BusinessDay after the meeting.

Responding to the concerns of law makers on high lending rates and charges by banks, Lemo explained that interest rates in the country were high on account of inflation and a hostile business environment. He added that the CBN was working with the banks to ensure they reduced their margins.

Lemo explained that banks bore high operational costs which tended to over-burden their balance sheets, since many of

CBN Gov. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi them constantly generated electricity on their own, and provided security to guard against armed robbery, among other challenges.

GTBank divests GTB Asset Management Ltd From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

G

TBank has divested its GTB Asset Management Ltd in line with a directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2010.

Mr Nicholas Nyamali, the Managing Director of GTB Asset Management Ltd, disclosed this at



Economic Indicat ors

M2* CPS* INF IBR MPR 91‐day NTB DPR PLR Bonny Light Ext Res

a news conference in Lagos on Friday.

He said that the divestment was to enable GTBank concentrate on core commercial banking.

According to Nyamali, following the buy-out, GTB Asset Management Ltd is now known as Investment One Financial Services Ltd.

As at:

N14,398,225.5m Oct, 2012 N15,126,973.6m Oct, 2012 11.7 Oct, 2012 11.7400 11/28/2012 12 11/28/2012 12.4 11/21/2012 8.69 Oct, 2012 16.48 Oct, 2012 US$110.5 11/28/2012 US$44,386,394,457.9 11/28/2012

Inflation rates from Nov, 2011 to Oct, 2012 Max = 12.9%, Min = 10.3% for period in display.

Current Inflation rate = 11.7% Source:CBN

“Investment One Financial Services Ltd is now owned by the staff and management of the company as well as some select investors.

“The name reflects the firm’s strategic positioning as a service oriented firm that is responsive to the investment needs of its customers,” he said.

The managing director said that the company’s desire was to be a one-stop shop for comprehensive investment services and innovative financial solutions.

Nyamali said that the

company would introduce investment innovations to increase the participation of Nigerians in the investment space.

He said that the company would strengthen its investment education strategies to ensure rightful investment decisions.

“It is when people are informed that they will be able to make the right investment decision,” Nyamali said.

It will be recalled that the apex bank has directed commercial banks should divest their nonbanking subsidiaries. (NAN)

Naira heads for first monthly drop since June

T

he Naira headed for the first monthly decline since June against the U.S. currency as companies sought dollars to import consumer goods for holidays next month.

The currency depreciated 0.1 percent to 157.41 a dollar and headed for a monthly drop of 0.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Earnings Report for Banks Source:Pro-share Nigeria

“Dollar demand increased this month, driven by companies bringing in consumer and household goods for Christmas and year- end celebrations in December,” Tunde Ladipo, chief executive officer of Lagos-based Valuechain Investment Ltd., said. “Demand is also boosted by companies bringing in gasoline.”

The drive for consumer goods rises during religious festivities in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people with a population almost evenly split between Muslims and Christians.

The country also relies on imports to meet 70 percent of its fuel needs because of inadequate refining capacity, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

The Central Bank of Nigeria held its benchmark interest rate at a record high 12 percent this year to ease inflation pressures and stabilize the naira. Inflation, which accelerated for the first time in four months to 11.7 percent in October, remains above the bank’s target of less than 10 percent.

Yields on 10-year naira debt fell six basis points to 12.3 percent, according to yesterday’s prices compiled on the Financial Markets Dealers Association website. Borrowing costs on the nation’s $500 million of Eurobonds due January 2021 fell two basis points to 4.256 percent. (Source: Bloomberg)

PAGE 21

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Market returns 0.65% in week to end the month on positive note Stories from Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

E

quity market witnessed improved bargain tendency and renewed positive sentiments in the week to halt two weekly losses as investors increased stakes towards value stocks mainly while sustained cautious bargain trend was observed amid increased market price volatility in the week.

The outlook revealed improved risk appetite in the week when compared with previous weeks posture as market breadth moved out of negative zone to close flat- we expect more of cautious bargain

and value investing in coming periods as we move closer to yuletide periods.

Stocks extend gains by +0.16% to open the week on positive note despite weak breadth. However, the breadth closed battered on Tuesday due to increased sell pressure, erasing previous gains with 0.52% loss. Subsequently, stocks regained patronage as ASI recorded +0.44% and +0.22% gains on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Consequently, market activities on Friday closed in the green zone as the key benchmark index climbed by +0.34% while market closed the week with

aggregate gain of +0.65%.

Further analysis on acquiring banks since transaction date showed that the share price of Access Bank Plc has recorded +81.01% gains with FCMB recording -13.59% losses while Union Bank Plc leads the chart with +249.28% gains.

However, Sterling Bank Plc recorded +16.54% gains while ETI closed negative with -5.74% loss recorded.

However, the All-Share Index in the week under review appreciated by +0.65% to close at 26,494.44 as against a decline by -0.30% recorded last week to close at 26,322.17.

In the same vein, the market

capitalization in the week depreciated by N85.02 billion (US$531.40 million) to close at N8.46 trillion (US$52.90 billion) as against depreciation

by N32.62 billion (US$217.46 million) recorded last week to close at N8.38 trillion (US$ 55.85 billion).

The total volume traded in the week closed at 1.21 billion units valued at N8.88 billion (US$55.51 million) compared with 1.20 billion units valued at N9.62 billion (US$64.12 million) exchanged in 18,990 deals last week.

The volume transaction in the week when compared with the previous week data moved up by +1.06% as against decline by +7.02% recorded last week.

Weekly value also went down by -7.68% as against positive position of +2.21% recorded last week.

Stock brokers fault one-size-fits all capital requirements

S

tock brokers have faulted any move toward encouraging one-size-fits all approach to minimum capital requirement for dealing member firms at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Rather, they are suggesting that the stock broking firms’ minimum capital should be determined by the level of business they want to do.

These suggestions came from the Capital Market SubCommittee on Financial Health of Capital Market Operators at the just concluded second

annual capital market committee retreat in Warri, Delta state.

Co-heads of the subcommittee on Financial Health of Capital Market operators are Bolaji Balogun, CEO, Chapel Hill Denham Limited, and Chike Nwanze, CEO, ICON Stockbrokers Limited.

Currently, the minimum capital requirement for brokerdealers is N70 million.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had in 2008 suspended earlier plans to recapitalise stock broking firms

to enable it consult with stakeholders before reaching a final decision.

Nwanze said, “We are not going to have one-size-fits all approach to minimum capital requirement. Stock brokers’ capital will be determined by the level of business they want to do”.

The sub-committee, however, suggested the things that stock brokers could do to create stronger firm.

“From a capacity perspective it includes Merger and Acquisition (M&A); capital

raising; debt and balance sheet restructuring, and extracting value from NSE seat. By M&A, I mean industry-wide consolidation and for capital raising, I mean existing shareholders’ strategy”, Balogun added.

Arunma Oteh, director general, Securities and Exchange Commission, noted that if stockbrokers at the Nigerian capital market are not strong enough, the influx of firms from outside Nigeria is capable of taking business from the existing ones.

Nigerian bourse records another first in Africa

ASHON investor education kicks next year

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) once again made history as it became the first Capital Market Operator in Africa to launch the NSE Market Quality Report (X-Qual).

The NSE Market Quality Report was introduced to key stakeholders at the Nigerian Capital Market Committee Retreat and Conference in Warri, Delta state last week.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema, disclosed to all present at the Annual Conference that the NSE Market Quality Report is designed to disclose the extent to which equities traded at the Exchange provide executions at prices better than the prevailing

n a bid to get investors equipped with necessary knowledge on how to secure their investments, the Association of stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) has announced its resolve to kick of investors’ education awareness campaign come March next year.

The campaign, which takes place in the major cities across the country, including Abuja, Ibadan, Enugu and Lagos was born out of the fact the crash of the nation’s capital market four years ago was richly attributed to lack investors’ education.

Presenting a paper, titled: ‘Role of stockbrokers in a

T

price quotes before an investor places an order.

“The information will no doubt enable analytical investors or broker-dealers gain a better understanding of how best to execute orders in the market and the quality of execution they can expect for the different stocks being traded”, he said.

He added that the report include information about the Exchange’s quality of executions on a stock-bystock basis, including how orders of various sizes are executed relative to the available price quotes. The report also discloses information about effective spreads, realised spreads, fill rates and execution speed.

I

Recovering Capital, at a 2day workshop of the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) in Lagos, the Chairman of the ASHON, Mr Emeka Madubuike noted that investor education remained one major role of the stockbrokers, adding that educating them means giving them and their investment sure protection.

He also stated that it is ideal for the stockbrokers to teach the investors the need to watch over their investments as well as changing their mind set into knowing that investment in the capital market in a long term one and also associated with risks.

Source:Pro-share Nigeria

INVESTORS NEWS BITS

Nigerian Stock Exchange

T

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has concluded arrangements to introduce a number of Value Added Services as a key element of its Business Development efforts. T he new concept was unveiled to financial journalists covering the market and investment analysts on Friday, November 30, 2012.

Speaking on the new initiative, Head of Listings Sales and Retention of The Exchange, Mrs Taba Peterside explained that the services aim to attract new listings, create a competitive edge for listed companies, retain current listings, improve investor interest in the market through enhanced information and assist listed companies in complying with post listing obligations and retaining their listing status.

IOSCO

T

he emerging market members of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) met in Santiago de Chile this week to continue work aimed at preparing emerging securities markets to play a bigger role in driving growth in the global economy.

During its Annual Conference on 19 – 21 November, members of IOSCO’s Emerging Market Committee (EMC) debated its future within IOSCO, while stressing the importance of building regulatory capacity and developing safe and robust securities markets in emerging economies.

The EMC comprises eighty-six members that account for more than 80% of IOSCO’s ordinary membership. The EMC members also represent the world’s fastest growing economies and include 10 of the G-20 members.

PEARL award Project Nigeria

P

EARL award Project Nigeria has renewed its promise to continue to promote the growth of the Nigerian Capital Market through the introduction of pragmatic initiatives that would impact positively on the stock market.

The President of the group, Mr Tayo Orekoya, renewed the group’ promise over the weekend, while announcing Dangote Cement Plc as the winner of the 2012 PEARL award.

He explained that the groups’ resolve to make the nations’ capital market a world-class market, with sustainable corporate excellence by quoted companies remains the driving force behind the resilience of PEARL award.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 22

Lagos: How to make a chaotic city work better

By Tolu Ogunlesi

O

nly seven years ago, Ahmadu Bello Way, the coastal highway that runs along Lagos’ Bar Beach, lay at the mercy of the vicious tides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Consistently hounded by the surging waters, many residents fled. Today, a wall of giant interlocking stones stands sentry against the ocean, and the oncedesolate beachfront is bustling again. Behind that wall, far out in the ocean, another, even more imposing wall is rising.

Known as the Great Wall of Lagos, it will form the outer boundary of a new city, touted in publicity material as “the Manhattan of west Africa”. When completed at the end of the decade, it will offer luxury residential and office accommodation to about 400,000 people.

The cars hurtling along Ahmadu Bello Way will notice something else apart from the stones keeping the ocean out. A few months ago, the state government rolled out a new set of traffic rules banning okadas – the city’s ubiquitous motorcycle-taxis famous for their menacing horns and their frequent accidents – from main highways.

The business district on the marina will be unrecognisable to anyone who knew it 10 years ago.

The urchins who once laid claim to the area have since been reformed into uniformed traffic agents and tax collectors.

A new emergency number helped a taxi union speedily recover one of its vehicles, stolen at gunpoint, says Subomi, a taxi driver in Ikoyi.

In the old Lagos, that would have been unthinkable, as would the traffic lights and street markings that have become normal features on the streets.

The state has an office for public-private partnerships overseeing concessions for everything from public mortuaries to six-lane tolled highways. Two-thirds of its revenues come from taxes, bucking a national trend that sees states desperate for “allocations” from monthly federal oil receipts.

Across the city, work is in progress on a light rail project that promises to make a dent on Lagos’ trademark traffic jams. On the Lekki Peninsula, the city’s fastest developing corridor, an international airport is being built that will rival the federal government’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

The man pushing the reset button in this teeming metropolis of 15m people is Babatunde Fashola, the state governor, handpicked from relative obscurity by Bola Tinubu, the

Luxury: The $6m (N960 m) residential and office project under construction off Lagos is touted as the ‘Manhattan of west Africa’ former pro-democracy activist who returned from exile to rule the state from 1999 to 2007, and who today leads the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party, the country’s biggest opposition party.

Lagos is the model for the rest of southwest Nigeria, where six of seven states are controlled by the ACN. The ambitious road construction projects that have

been a familiar sight in Lagos are now springing up in state capitals across the region.

Even the authorities in Abuja appear to be borrowing a leaf from the Lagos handbook, with their often ill-fated attempts at publicprivate partnerships.

But several difficulties remain. One criticism thrown Mr Fashola’s way is that he runs a shamelessly elitist government.

As evidence, critics point to: the

“

Known as the Great Wall of Lagos, it will form the outer boundary of a new city, touted in publicity material as “the Manhattan of west Africa”.

When completed at the end of the decade, it will offer luxury residential and office accommodation to about 400,000 people.

Gov. Babatunde Fashola tolled, six-lane Lekki-Epe Expressway; $6m Eko Atlantic City project, where the cheapest land prices will be $850 per sq m; the restriction on okadas, a provider of employment for tens of thousands of jobless men; the sustained demolition of shanties without making alternative arrangements.

Before Mr Fashola’s reforms, taxi driver Subomi would have been able to get a commercial licence for his car, which he would then have painted in the city’s trademark yellow-and-black colours.

“Now you can only register a brand new vehicle as taxi. How many of us can afford that?” he laments.

The cabs that once defined the city are being phased out and replaced by brand new cabs that cost more to own and, as a result, charge significantly higher fares.

To circumvent the new system,

Subomi, who prefers not to provide his surname, keeps his cab unmarked.

To evade uniformed officials out to nab cabs without commercial licences, he cannot attempt to pick customers off the streets. Instead, he depends on a network of clients who summon him via mobile phone.

Across the city, the poorer classes generally feel shortchanged – their markets and shanties and okadas bear the bulk of the brunt of Mr Fashola’s policies. The government insists these reforms are necessary.

Moji Rhodes, deputy chief of staff to Mr Fashola, queries the “correlation” between efforts to make the city work, and the “elitism” critics like to talk about.

“Are we using the elitist argument to argue against compliance with laws that are established for public interest and safety?”

(Source: Financial Times)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 24

PAGE 25

Africa’s growth sparks controversial rise of private secondary schools Gems education company expanding in Africa to meet demand, but concern grows that high fees may exacerbate inequality

G

ems Education, a private school group operating in 10 countries, is embarking on a major expansion in Africa, attracted by the continent’s strong economic growth. In September, the company opened its first secondary school in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. Further schools are planned in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa.

“We are excited by Africa; it offers tremendous potential with a growing consumer class,” said Dino Varkey, group executive director, who was in London for a brief stop on his way to New York from Dubai, where the company is based.

Gems was founded more than 40 years ago by husband and wife team KS and Mariamma Varkey after they emigrated from Kerala, India to Dubai. Both teachers, they taught the local Emirati and expatriate community before buying their first school in 1968. It had 27 students, three teachers and no air conditioning. Their son, Sunny, is chairman.

Gems now has schools in the US, UK, India and China, and has partners that include the Clinton Global Initiative, Unesco and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Gems is expanding at a time when demand for private education is growing in the developing world because of g o v e r n m e n t underinvestment.

According to an education for all global monitoring report published by Unesco in October, 71 million adolescents of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2010, with three out of four living in south and west Asia and subSaharan Africa. The last of these regions has doubled the number of students enrolling over the period, yet has the

world’s lowest total secondary enrolment, at 40% in 2010.

Private schools have stepped in to plug the gap. In Pakistan, private-sector education has increased from approximately 3% in the early 1980s to 34% today, according to the World Bank.

Enrolment in private schools is around 13% in Kenya (2010), 22% in Nigeria (2010) and 15% in Ghana (2011).

“Governments on their own cannot meet and fund this demand,” said Varkey.

“More and more private schools are stepping in outright, or in partnership with governments, to deliver education. Too often it’s seen as private v public. It’s actually good quality education which is important, and it’s whatever works – private alone, private and public or NGOs.” The expansion of private schools in the developing world is contentious, however, particularly as inequality has climbed the development agenda. The Unesco report said fees, whether official or unofficial, disproportionately affect young people from poor families, preventing them enrolling and continuing with secondary education.

With fees starting at $1,700 a term, tuition at the Gems school in Nairobi will certainly be out of reach for the poorest people, but Varkey said Gems will seek to have schools that charge less to broaden access.

Unesco points out that Rwanda has gone in a different direction to increase secondary school enrolment.

In 2009, Rwanda introduced a nine-year basic education cycle and eliminated fees for lower secondary school, which boosted the number of lower secondary students by 25% within a year. In addition, the curriculum was

Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i Leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau

Children in Nairobi on the first day of the school year. Lack of state funding has created a market for private schooling across Africa. redesigned to focus on fewer core subjects, and a new assessment system was introduced. Kenya has also abolished fees for secondary schools, increasing enrolment from 1.2 million in 2007 to 1.4 million in 2008.

Kevin Watkins, a senior

fellow at the Centre for Universal Education, is deeply sceptical about private schools in Africa. “The idea that African governments can’t afford to deliver decent quality basic education is frankly fatuous,” he said. “So is the claim that private-sector

providers are more efficient.

When you adjust for parental wealth and poverty the learning achievement gains evaporate. As it happens, the top performing secondary schools in Kenya are the ‘national schools’, which happen to be public. Gems

schools are geared to provision of high-cost education for Kenya’s elite. Doubtless they will provide Mr Varkey and his shareholders with a healthy profit.”

But for Gems, it is full steam ahead. The company plans to have schools in 16 countries by

Photograph: Sayyid Azim/AP the end of next year and in 41 countries in the next three to five years, an expansion that will mean investment of $550m-650m.

Rapid expansion always poses dangers for companies, but Varkey is confident Gems can cope. “We are structured and

geared up for expansion,” he said. “In the last seven years we have made sure we have the underlying infrastructure for expansion. We can handle 25-40 new schools a year if we needed to, but the big constraint is capital.”

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

UNESCO DG, Irina Bokova

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 08028402920 sbejike@gmail.com

Corruption fight remains a huge joke in Nigeria, says Barr. Inegedu H

ow was your early start in legal practice?

Well, my early start in legal practice had not been rosy, but with hard work and focus, I have been able to come this far, having worked many years with some top law firms in the country. The judiciary in the country is trying, but I think that there is still much room for improvement in the judiciary, particularly in researches, building up capacity of Judges as well. There are new topical issues of law that Judges equally need to be trained in them.

Our Judges are versed and are trying within the context of what they have before them and the issues that have arisen before them. Decisions made by the Judges are based on the issues presented to them by litigants in court.

One issue which has being a bane to national development, how do you see the fight against corruption in the country?

The fight against corruption to my mind has remained a huge joke in the country. I don't think there is a concerted fight against corruption. Corruption is the reason why the system remains the way it is. A lot of people will say, well, when I loot the treasury, I will use the same money to take care of myself and use the same money to bribe others, I will still remain relevant. The government lacks the will to fight corruption, the body language of the government is not encouraging, because some persons within the government believe they are untouchable and they do whatever they feel like doing.

On the aspect of the EFCC, I still believe that EFCC has not achieved much after the exit of Ribadu, despite the fact that a lot of people believed that Ribadu's fight is against perceived enemies.

I still believe that the fight should start from the perceived enemies.

Whenever any person comes to power, he should start fighting perceived enemies and by the time perceived enemies keep eating up perceived enemies, we will have a semblance of sanity somehow.

Even though I respect the efforts of the EFCC, I still think they are not on top of the game.

Most times EFCC always goes after people who are perceived to be on the other side of the government. There has been no high profile conviction by EFCC. EFCC comes out with excuses at every point to justify why they have not had high profile convictions. These excuses are inexcusable. When you take the statistics of EFCC cases in court, you will find out that what EFCC does in most times, is that it goes to court, file a charge; the arraignment or pleadings are taken on the charges, and after a while, EFCC goes back to amend

Barrister Edwin Adakole Inegedu, is an Abuja-based legal practitioner of many years. In this interview with Sunday Ejike Benjamin, he bares his mind on the state of anti-corruption fight of the Federal Government and the state of the nation's judiciary. Excerpts

“

Even though I respect the efforts of the EFCC, I still think they are not on top of the game. Most times EFCC always goes after people who are perceived to be on the other side of the government.

Barrister Edwin Adakole Inegedu those charges again, and the moment you amend a charge, you go back and start the process all over again. For instance, just last week or there are about, I had they were re-arraigning Fayose, after been in court for so many years.

Now they are re-arraigning him, it means the case will start all over again.

The charges against Gbenga Daniel were amended, the charges against Orji Uzor Kalu were amended and several others. Most times, EFCC on its own goes ahead to amend these charges and once you amend these charges, you will have to start with the pleadings again. That is one angle. Secondly, to me, I think it is deliberate to delay trial. Where you file over 50 count charges, yes, we have seen it in this country where EFCC filed over a 100 charges. By the time you filed this kind of charges, some of them are going to fall under the rule of duplicity, ambiguity and lots of them. When you come out with such charges and you have such defect in law, you don't expect the defence

lawyers to clap for you. Definitely, you have already laid down the foundation for technical issues.

EFCC on its own will lay foundation for those technical issues, then the lawyers comes in, even a law student from the law school can even walk in there and find out that the charges are defective and what does do, he files his objection to those grounds of charges. Where you have a hundred and about 60 or 80 are defective, and the man comes in, files his charges, it takes you not less than three months to get this thing disposed off. After taking the objection, EFCC will then go to court to ask for another date to react to his objection, the other man takes his time to file further document in respect of it. You cannot bend the procedural aspect of the law, simply because you want to fight corruption.

What the EFCC need to do from the onset is to take away these technical issues or stop playing down miles that will eventually blow the conduct of their cases up. When people are

talking of special courts, I laugh, is it the congestion of the court that is responsible for EFCC not having high profile convictions, no. They have recorded conviction in other smaller issues. Why is it that it is only in the high profile cases that EFFC will always tell us that the courts are congested, they want special court. For me, EFCC needs to put its house in order. If they don't put their house in order, the only conclusion that we will have is that they are part of the whole system as well and that is why I believe that the fight against corruption is a huge joke.

If they are serious, how long did it take the court in the UK to convict Ibori? It didn't take up to two years, because people there, don't go to court to seek for adjournment or not to file document. The lawyers involved knew what was expected of them. But in Nigeria, people keep talking about senior lawyers and I ask myself whether the senior lawyers come from another planet. No, they don't come from another planet; they are part of the Nigeria system. EFCC needs to put their house in order, they need to take a look at their legal department, they need to look inwards, take stock on what they have done, look at their files, know where the errors are coming from and to look at the status of the conduct of their trials.

Talking about high profile convictions, there have been one or two decisions of the high court in respect of some high profile persons in this country that EFCC has not appealed in the last three, four, five years. So, if EFCC refuses to appeal some of these cases, without telling Nigerians why they did not appeal some of these

contentious decisions, to me, it is a huge joke. EFCC should stop looking for reasons but should come out and tell us specifically who and who, or where the problems are. EFCC cannot embark on a fishing expedition, every now and then, they blame the judges, blame congestion of courts, blame senior lawyers and defence lawyers. You don't expect defence lawyers to fold their hands and then allow them a field day, so long as they have lawyers conducting their case for them, EFCC plays according to the rules, the defence lawyers also play according to the rules and the Judges must maintain the cause of justice at all cost.

Justice is not a one way traffic; it is justice to the court, justice to the society, justice to the accused and justice to the prosecutor as well. EFCC is an institution of government, so if government is not funding them well, they should tell Nigerians so.

What is your take on calls from certain quarters of the society for the merger of EFCC with the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (EFCC)?

To a large extent, I am not in support of the merger of EFCC with other parastatal or agency because the idea of the EFCC is to have a dedicated unit to specifically fight corruption in the society. By so doing, you don't merge the case of high profile corruption with some boys who stole or defraud some body of N50, 000.00. What I think the government should do is to fund EFCC properly and not to think of any merger.

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

12 year old Rebecca Peter emerges winner of KBF spelling bee competition

1

2-year-old orphan Rebecca Peter of Talitha Cumi Orphanage Home, Nyanya, in Abuja, Saturday, emerged winner of this year’s Kings Benefit Foundation’s annual Spelling Bee Competition organised by the foundation for orphans, vulnerable and less privileged children from different orphanages and public schools within the FCT. The competition which saw 45 contestants and competent participants each drawn from 8 orphanages and 5 public schools within the FCT, took the pupils through 8 rounds of intensive sessions to get the 3 winners.

In her welcome address, the founder of the foundation, Mrs. Joy Ogiemwonyi, said the foundation which was established 12 years ago in Lagos has been extended to Benin, the FCT and recently, Nasarawa state.

Ogiemwonyi said the competition was designed to give the groups of children the chance to display their inherent talent as many of the children are talented but need the opportunity to build it.

In her key note address, former minister of Information, Professor Dora Akunyili, who commended the founder’s initiative, enjoined wellmeaning Nigerians to emulate the initiator of the programme and also pleaded with her to extend the gesture to other states.

Akunyili further explained that the spelling bee competition which is the latest social activity in the foundation’s various social activities, is not only extra ordinary but special as it gives the less privileged children, often forgotten in the society hope adding that it is not just a competition to win prizes but ways of encouraging children to work hard and fight corruption.

She said the competition also has an effect on the minds of the winners to strive hard and remain on top and inspires others as well as play a role in molding the character of the children.

The winner, Rebecca Peter, who went home with a cash prize of N150, 000, gold medal, desk top and a trophy, told Peoples Daily, that she was not fully prepared for the competition as she was writing her first term examination but knew that she was going to make it.

Peter said she would use part of the money to pay her school fees and share the remaining money with her fellow orphans.

Second runner up, Esther of FCT Unity Orphanage also went home with cash prize of N75, 000 and a desk top while the 3rd position goes to Pelumi of Express Children’s’ Home who went away with cash prize of N50,000 and a desk top.

The event was attended by wife of Deputy Senate President Mrs. Nnneka Ekweremadu, who is also the Chairperson Board of Trustees of the foundation, Nollywood actors Stella Damascus, Francis Duru, Desmond Elliot and producer Lancelot Iduwa among other dignitaries.

American University of Nigeria Yola gains partnership, cash from Google Stories by Maryam Garba Hassan

T

he America University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, has announced a major collaboration effort with the Internet multilingual and social networking and identity service (Google) to boost its ICT infrastructure and gained a grant of USD 112,400 (about N17,000,000) from the internet giant.

AUN, which is described as one of the world’s leading centers of excellence, has been working on this collaboration for almost a year and under this agreement, the University will use funds

from Google to purchase goods and services that will help support and expand its network.

A statement by the Chief Information Officer of the University, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe, stated that the University announced that the collaboration will also boost its internet availability on campus.

According to the statement, six other universities in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Senegal are also among the institutions of higher learning expected to benefit from the programme offered to subSaharan African universities by Google.

The social networking service, by this agreement, intends to ensure Google applications are widely used by partnering universities, the statement added.

Tabe, said the development was a phenomenal achievement for the institution to offer broader Internet connectivity across all its campuses and locations for data, voice and video.

Combined with the growing knowledge of the Google communication tools, he said, this collaboration would open new doors for the students of the university who will graduate from the University well

equipped to start their future careers successfully and contribute to the technological advancement of Nigeria, Africa and the world.

The statement further explained that in her remarks, the President of the university, Dr. Margee Ensign, said in the 21st century, access to the Internet was necessary for students and educators around the world and promised that the University would extend its technology, teachers and tools such as the Google Applications to their host community, Nigeria and the continent of Africa.

...Waives admission application fee

T

L-R: Former Minister of State for Works, Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi, winner of the Kings Benefit Foundation (BKF) Spelling Bee Competition, Rebecca Peter from Talitha Cumi Orphanage home, Nyanya, and the Founder of BKF, Mrs. Joy Ogiemwonyi, during the Foundation’s Annual Spelling Bee Competition for Orphans and other schools children, at the weekend in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

he American University of Nigeria, announced that it will no longer require application fees beginning from the spring semester of 2013.

The Assistant Vice President of Marketing & Recruitment, Mr. Linus Ikyurav, said the decision was meant to facilitate access to the University adding that AUN accepts applications via the Web and through paper-based applications.

President, Dr. Margee Ensign, said “We wanted to make sure that every student can easily present one’s credentials and have equal access to the application process.

We are seeking to educate the brightest potential leaders of our country.”

According to her, to apply for admission, prospective students should log on to the AUN website www.aun.edu.ng, or visit AUN’s Liaison Office at the Yar’Adua Center in Abuja, to complete an application form and provide supporting documents.

xecutive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, (NUC) Professor Julius Okojie, has said that, the present challenges facing the University of Abuja, which has drawn the attention of the federal government and all relevant stakeholders, will turn out to be a blessing for the University in the end as the situation is the best thing that can happen to the University.

Okojie made the remark Thursday in Abuja during an interview with some media organisations at the Commission.

According to him, the problem with the University is not about funds as TETFUND is giving the University and the nine new ones money to solve their problems.

He said the Universities are getting N2billon in addition to

requested by the University.

‘Once the visitation panel started, the task force couldn’t work, so for 10 weeks we could not work on the programmes because the VC and the staff concerned were appearing before the visitation panel every day and the Vice Chancellor could not control the development on the system”, he said.

He said as soon as the visitation panel report was submitted to the federal government about 4 weeks ago, the Commission got the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council to review the American programme adding that it has also plan to go there.

He however, expressed optimism that the Commission can fix the institution adding that Uni Abuja is not the only institution with a new medical school that has suffered such fate.

Uni Abuja’s challenges will be a blessing at the end, says Okojie E the normal funding adding that this year they were given about N400millon each and that all the institution needs is some level of stability which if achieved, there will be vacancies for recruitment and a lot of people will get jobs.

‘At the end of the day, Abuja University will be blessed because all attention is on it now, fund is not their problem”.

On the problem with some programmes ran by the University, Okojie said the programmes are Medicine, Vetnary Medicine, Engineering and Agriculture which he described as illegal programme ran by the institution without waiting for the approval of the Commission.

Okojie, said because the university only passed the verification exercise for Medicine, Agriculture and

veterinary medicine but failed engineering, which made it not to have a status, it will start verification for engineering from the scratch while the accreditation will be done after some time as the Commission cannot start negotiating with the professional body CURREN at the moment.

He said if the University passes the next accreditation, fresh students coming in will have the opportunity to study engineering.

Okojie further explained that the task force made up of professional bodies set up for the verification exercise in the University would have made progress by now in ensuring that the institution build the structures and buy the equipment needed to start the programmes, if not for the visitation panel set up by the federal government as

PAGE 28

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

NUC partners SMEDAN on entrepreneurship

By Maryam Garba Hassan

T

he National Universities Commission (NUC) has initiated moves to partner with Small and Medium Enterprise Agency in training Universities lecturers on entrepreneurship at a one week training of trainers’ workshop for instructors of entrepreneurship development centers in Abuja.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Professor Julius Okojie, said the training was necessary as lack of employment has eaten deep into the economy of the nation.

He said in the Commission’s quest to address this problem and link the Universities and the organised private sector, the Commission deemed it fit to organise the workshop in collaboration with the university of Ibadan to train the lecturers in entrepreneurship development.

According to him, entrepreneurshipeducation will enable the youth to take advantage of the emerging economic transformation in the country and strengthen their individual financial capacity and collective national growth.

The workshop was attended by lecturers from various universities in the country.

Borno sponsors 50 youths for oversea agric training From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri

B

orno state Commissioner for Agriculture, UsmanZanna, has said 50 youths have been selected for a three-month agricultural development training in Thailand.

Briefing newsmen on the achievements of his ministry at the weekend, Zanna added that the move was part of Governor KashimShettima’s agricultural transformation agenda.

Zanna pointed out that the beneficiaries have been chosen from the 27 local government councils and the training will gulp N60 million, with N1.2 million to be spent on each trainee.

The commissioner revealed that the youths are expected to acquire knowledge on various fields of modern agricultural techniques and skills for massive food production.

According to him, the training was also in line with government strategies for the fight against poverty and unemployment among youths.

He explained that the project would lead to massive wealth and jobs creation among youths.

The commissioner also disclosed that more youths will be selected for related trainings in Pakistan, Turkey, and Songhai Farms in Benin Republic and Nyako Farms in Adamawa state.

Members of University of Ife Alumni Association, Abuja branch, during a road walk/awareness campaign on HIV/AIDs, in commemoration of the institute’s 50th Anniversary celebration, at the weekend in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Don’t demilitarise military school, Gen. Haruna, others warn R

By Maryam Garba Hassan

etired Generals IBM Haruna, Salihu Ibrahim and TankoAyuba have called on the Nigerian Army not to demilitarise the Nigeria Military School, Zaria.

The trio made the call at the weekend when they met with other alumni of the institution, at the formal launch of the ExBoys Foundation at the Nigeria Defense College, Abuja.

The Nigeria Army had set in motion a process to divest the school of its military training

component in 2011, citing a UN Convention on Child Soldiering as its reason.

According to Chairman of the occasion and a member of the first set of the institution, IBM Haruna, “The Nigeria Military School was the very first military institution budgeted for and established by this country. With a sense of history, we owe it a duty to preserve it and we have to draw this to the attention of our leaders. That school has discharged the expectations of our founding fathers. We often say we are incapable of building

institutions; those we have, we destroy. For this one, we must not sit on our arms and see it destroyed.

“I therefore call on the Foundation and the pre-existing Association toform a committee to put up a strong affirmative letter to the executive and to the legislature to forestall any attempt to dismantle the Nigerian Military School,” he said.

In his remarks, former Chief of Army Staff, Salihu Ibrahim faultedthe decision of the army to send ex-boys back to their

parents after they pass out, to apply for recruitment through the Nigeria Army Depot for those interested, describing it as “too harsh” adding that they are going to take up the matter.

Rtd General TankoAyuba, said the military school was set up for a purpose and that purpose can never be under emphasised adding that Nigeria needs military school and military school needs Nigeria.

He said military school and Nigeria can grow together for the good of the country and the whole of Africa.

FG can’t fund universities alone, says Jonathan

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resident Good luck Jonathan has challenged stakeholders and managers of the nation’s universities to complement government’s efforts in providing facilities that enable institutions to function, saying that the Federal Government alone cannot fund tertiary institutions in the country.

The President who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the national Univeristies Commission,( NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, stressed the need for universities to explore opportunities for productive and beneficial partnership with the organised private sector to supplement the revenue they get from the Federal Government, gave the challenge at the 31st convocation ceremony of the UsmanuDanfodio University, Sokoto at the weekend.

“The universities should form productive and beneficial partnerships with the private sector, so that they can generate needed funds to supplement allocation from the Federal Government.”

President Jonathan

He however, noted that while it is necessary for the Federal Government to maintain its commitment from budgetary sources, time has come for the management of universities to cast their nets wide and generate

resources for their various institutions.

According to the President, there should be a change of attitude from believing that the responsibility of government is to provide all the resources while the management simply incurs the expenditure and urged the management of universities to be more aggressive in diversifying the revenue base without compromising the essence of a university.

He said the importance of education to the development of people and society cannot be overemphasised and as such government will continue to support all tertiary institutions.

He urged the universities to lay emphasis on programmes designed to improve entrepreneurial skills that will benefit students after graduation.

PAGE 30

Facts:

H

igh blood pressure (hypertension) is designated as either primary hypertension or secondary hypertension and is defined as a consistently elevated blood pressure exceeding 140/90 mm Hg. High blood pressure is called “the silent killer” because it often causes no symptoms for many years, even decades, until it finally damages certain critical organs.

Poorly controlled high blood pressure ultimately can cause damage to blood vessels in the eye, thickening of the heart muscle and heart attacks, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), kidney failure, and strokes.

Most anti hypertensive medications can be used alone or in combination. Some are used only in combination. Some are preferred over others in certain specific medical situations. And some are not to be used (contraindicated) in other situations.

Several classes of anti hypertensive medications are available, including, betablockers, diuretics, calcium channel blockers, alpha-blockers, and peripheral vasodilators.

The goal of therapy for hypertension is to bring the blood pressure down below 140/85 in the general population and to even lower levels in diabetics and certain chronic kidney diseases.

High blood pressure (hypertension) in pregnancy can lead to preeclampsia or eclampsia (toxemia of pregnancy). Pregnant women should be monitored closely by their obstetrician for complications of high blood pressure.

Lifestyle adjustments in diet and exercise and compliance with medication regimes are important factors in determining the outcome for people with hypertension.

High salt intake, obesity, lack of regular exercise, excessive alcohol or coffee intake, and smoking may all adversely affect the outlook for the health of an individual with high blood pressure.

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure (HBP) or hypertension means high pressure (tension) in the arteries. Arteries are vessels that carry blood from the pumping heart to all the tissues and organs of the body. High blood pressure does not mean excessive emotional tension, although emotional tension and stress can temporarily increase blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is below 120/80; blood pressure between 120/80 and 139/89 is called “pre-hypertension”, and a blood pressure of 140/90 or above is considered high.

The top number, the systolic blood pressure, corresponds to the pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts and pumps blood forward into the arteries. The bottom number, the diastolic pressure, represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart relaxes after the contraction. The diastolic pressure reflects the lowest pressure to which the arteries are exposed.

An elevation of the systolic and/ or diastolic blood pressure increases the risk of developing heart

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

How much do you know about hypertension?

(cardiac) disease, kidney (renal) disease, hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis), eye damage, and stroke (brain damage). These complications of hypertension are often referred to as end-organ damage because damage to these organs is the end result of chronic (long duration) high blood pressure. For that reason, the diagnosis of high blood pressure is important so efforts can be made to normalize blood pressure and prevent complications.

It was previously thought that rises in diastolic blood pressure were a more important risk factor than systolic elevations, but it is now known that in people 50 years or older systolic hypertension represents a greater risk.

Signs and symptoms of high blood pressure Uncomplicated high blood pressure usually occurs without any symptoms (silently) and so hypertension has been labeled “the silent killer.” It is called this because the disease can progress to finally develop any one or more of the several potentially fatal complications such as heart attacks or strokes. Uncomplicated hypertension may be present and remain unnoticed for many years, or even decades. This happens because there are no symptoms, and those affected fail to undergo periodic blood pressure screening.

Some people with uncomplicated hypertension, however, may experience symptoms such as headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, and

blurred vision usually with blood pressure that is very high. The presence of symptoms can be a good thing in that they can prompt people to consult a doctor for treatment and make them more compliant in taking their medications.

Often, however, a person’s first contact with a physician may be after significant damage to the body has occurred. In many cases, a person visits or is brought to the doctor or an emergency department with a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, or impaired vision (due to damage to the back part of the retina). Greater public awareness and frequent blood pressure screening may help to identify patients with undiagnosed high blood pressure before significant complications have developed.

About one out of every 100 (1%) people with hypertension is diagnosed with severe high blood pressure (accelerated or malignant hypertension) at their first visit to the doctor. In these patients, the diastolic blood pressure (see the following section) exceeds 140 mm Hg! Affected persons often experience severe headache, nausea, visual symptoms, dizziness, and sometimes kidney failure. Malignant hypertension is a medical emergency and requires urgent treatment to prevent a stroke (brain damage).

Causes of high blood pressure Two forms of high blood pressure have been described primary hypertension and

secondary hypertension. Primary hypertension is a far more common condition and accounts for 95% of hypertension. The cause of this type of hypertension is multi factorial, that is, there are several factors whose combined effects produce hypertension.

In secondary hypertension, which accounts for 5% of hypertension, the high blood pressure is secondary; caused by a specific abnormality in one of the organs or systems of the body.

Genetic factors are thought to play a prominent role in the development of primary hypertension. However, the genes for hypertension have not yet been identified. Approximately 30% of cases of essential hypertension are attributable to genetic factors.

The vast majority of patients with primary hypertension have in common a particular abnormality of the arteries; an increased resistance (stiffness or lack of elasticity) in the tiny arteries that are most distant from the heart.

Other types of high blood pressure In addition to the most common type of hypertension in which both systolic and diastolic pressures are elevated, there are three additional types of high blood pressure (hypertension); isolated systolic high blood pressure, white coat high blood pressure, and borderline high blood pressure.

Isolated systolic high blood pressure Systolic blood pressure is the top

number in the blood pressure reading and represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts and pumps blood into the arteries. A systolic blood pressure that is persistently higher than 140 mm Hg is usually considered elevated.

Isolated systolic hypertension is defined as a systolic pressure that is above 140 mm Hg with a diastolic pressure that is below 90.

This disorder primarily affects older people and is characterized by an increased (wide) pulse pressure. The pulse pressure is the difference between the systolic and diastolic blood pressures. An elevation of the systolic pressure without an elevation of the diastolic pressure, as in isolated systolic hypertension, therefore increases the pulse pressure. Stiffening of the arteries contributes to this widening of the pulse pressure.

Once considered to be harmless, a high pulse pressure is now considered an important precursor or indicator of health problems and potential end-organ damage.

Isolated systolic hypertension is associated with a two to four times increased future risk of an enlarged heart, a heart attack (myocardial infarction), a stroke (brain damage), and death from heart disease or a stroke.

Clinical studies in patients with isolated systolic hypertension have indicated that a reduction in systolic blood pressure by at least 20 mm to a level below 160 mm Hg reduces these increased risks. www.MedicineNet.com

PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012

PAGE 27

ANALYSIS

By Richard Falk

I

believe firmly that it is our responsibility as citizens of the world, and especially those of us associated with the UN, to do whatever necessary to avoid having flagrant violations of international humanitarian law being swept under the diplomatic rug.

Further, it is my hope that this time, unlike the unfortunate experience with the Goldstone Report four years ago, that whatever recommendations are made to the UN do not get buried beneath the weight of geopolitical influence, but are carried out in a timely and diligent manner. The UN to be credible and relevant to the aspirations of the Palestinian people must at this time move beyond its authoritative and oft repeated affirmation of inalienable Palestinian rights under international law to the undertaking of concrete steps designed to implement those rights.

Ambassador Oren's comments are revealing in another way. They are an extreme example of Israel's frequent reliance on "a politics of deflection" to divert attention from their highest priority concerns.

Such deflection takes various forms. On a simple level, it means attacking the messenger to avoid the message, or claiming that the UN is biased so as to avoid discussing the abuses alleged.

Such a pattern was epitomised by the recent unlawful and criminal attack on journalists in Gaza, in effect eliminating the messenger to prevent delivery of the message.

On a more complex level, it means shifting attention away from the real drama of the occupation. Periodic attacks on Gaza totally redirects the attention of the world away from Israel's expansionist projects. It should be clear to all by now that Israel's highest priorities in Occupied Palestine are associated with their controversial and unlawful settlement activity in the West Bank and ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.

Israel builds an unlawful security wall on occupied Palestinian territory, in the course of which it seizes additional Palestinian land, and when the World Court declares this unlawful wall should be torn down and Palestinians compensated for the harm done, Israel callously attacks the highest judicial body of the UN and carries on with i ts construction efforts without suffering any adverse effects.

Similarly, Israel continuously expands its settlements and has made a recent major move to legalise its approximately 100 "outposts", smaller

"The Palestinians are the most glaring example in this post-colonial era of a people who have not managed to gain their independence and national sovereignty despite almost 65 years of struggle, strife and humiliation," says author [EPA]

Palestine: Political violence is not the answer (II) settlements that had been previously illegal even under Israeli law. The attention of the world is guided toward Gaza, while settlement building gets a free pass. The passage of time is not neutral.

For Israel allows expansionist policies to move forward uninterrupted, for the Palestinians it diminishes ever further their prospects for realising their primary goal of sovereign territorial statehood.

It is part of the Palestinian tragedy that the international community and the media are so easily manipulated.

Responsible action requires vigilance, and it is a positive step in this regard that the HRC authorised a fact-finding mission to assess the settlement phenomenon from the perspective of international law and human rights standards. This is a concrete step that represents an effort to refocus world

attention where it belongs.

Make no mistake. Every additional settler, every new settlement outpost, is one more nail in the coffin of the two-state consensus.

In considering the Palestinian situation, it is a mistake to become preoccupied, as is the case with the Western media, with pinning the blame on one side or the other for a particular breakdown of the precarious kind of armed truce that exists. More relevant is an appreciation of the broader context. As Sara Roy, a Harvard specialist on Gaza, reminds us, "The current crisis is framed in terms devoid of any real context.

The issue goes far beyond which side precipitated the terrible violence that has killed innocents on both sides.

The issue - largely forgotten is one of continued occupation and blockade, a grossly asymmetrical conflict that has deliberately disabled

“

Gaza's economy and people."

(The Boston Globe, November 23, 2012).

This defining reality of the occupation applies, of course, to all of occupied Palestine, but the asymmetry of human loss is particularly evident in relation to Gaza, and is partly conveyed by a comparison of the grisly statistics of death: more than 160 Palestinians, and five Israelis. According to figures compiled by the Israeli human rights NGO, B'Tselem, between the ceasefire established in January 2009 and the outbreak of this recent cycle of violence, not a single Israeli has been killed, while Israeli violence was responsible for 271 Gazan deaths.

Looking at the overall casualty ratios, the Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz It should help us realise that Israel had an alternative to this turn once more toward mass mechanised violence

We also voiced support for the ongoing international civil society campaigns of boycott originated by a coalition of Palestinian NGOs in a call that dates back to 2004.

directed against an occupied people enduring a siege that is crippling its society materially and bringing the mental and physical health of the Gazan population to a point of near collapse.

In my role as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, I have tried to move in this proposed direction, that is, from rhetoric to action, in my most recent report to the General Assembly.

I have recommended a boycott of those corporations that do business with unlawful Israeli settlements, naming several of the prominent corporations making profits in this unacceptable manner.

We also voiced support for the ongoing international civil society campaigns of boycott originated by a coalition of Palestinian NGOs in a call that dates back to 2004. These are practical steps taken only after efforts by way of confidential communications with these corporations having failed to persuade them to live up to their legal and moral responsibilities to respect for human rights.

This encouragement of civil society also recognises that other political actors have failed to live up to their responsibility as members of the organised international community.

Source: Aljazeera.com

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 32

Rebels in DR Congo withdraw from Goma

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Tunisia reaches deal with Siliana protesters

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unisia's government has reached an agreement with the labour union of the flashpoint town Siliana, where police are battling to maintain order for the fifth straight day.

Under the deal, the assistant governor will run the town after ongoing protests calling for Governor Ahmed Ezzine Majjoubi to resign, Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported from Siliana on Saturday.

Violent confrontations between police and protesters have left more than 300 people wounded since Tuesday, as residents demanded the governor's resignation, financial aid for economic development of the region and the withdrawal of police.

Ahelbarra said: "We have learned that a deal has been reached between a delegation of representatives from Siliana and the government whereby the governor is going to be replaced by his deputy.

"This is a face saving solution for the government, which in the beginning had refused to bow to the demands of the protesters.

"Then they have to tackle the biggest issue which is developing this region where people have been complaining for decades about marginalisation, discrimination and also lack of genuine will from the previous government, including this one, to implement dramatic change in the living standards of the local population."

Separate clashes erupted on Saturday between police and demonstrators in Bargou, about 20km east of Siliana.

In Siliana itself, about 100 stonethrowing youths attacked the police, injuring one of them in the head, an AFP news agency journalist reported.

Security forces fired tear gas in response.

The protesters erected barricades from branches and tyres, setting some of them on fire.

Precarious living conditions, widespread unemployment and police brutality were driving factors behind the revolution that toppled former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January last year and touched off the Arab Spring.

Residents in Bargou blocked a road and hurled rocks at police vehicles heading for Tunis, with the police firing tear gas in response.

There were similar clashes overnight in at least two other towns, local media and witnesses reported, as the crisis appeared to be spreading.

President Moncef Marzouki had warned of such a scenario on Friday evening, saying the government of Islamist and rival Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali was not meeting the expectations of the people.

ebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have withdrawn from the key city of Goma under a regionally brokered agreement.

The M23 rebels boarded trucks and headed out of the city, 11 days after seizing it from government troops backed by UN peacekeepers.

The deal calls for the rebels to withdraw towards the town of Kibumba.

The M23 rebels deserted from the army in April, with some 500,000 people fleeing their homes in ensuing unrest.

The last remaining 300 rebels sang as they left Goma on flat-bed trucks, AFP news agency reported.

"Now Congolese government policemen are controlling the central bank, the governor's office and the border post," Ugandan Brig Jeffrey Muheesi, who serves on a mission sent by regional leaders to observe the withdrawal, told the Associated Press news agency.

More than 270 Congolese policemen have arrived in the city port as part of the transition.

According to the withdrawal accord, mediated by Uganda, the rebels are to pull back to a 20km (13 mile) buffer zone around Goma.

The accord had stipulated that the M23 would leave behind 100

E

gypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has shelved its work indefinitely after protests by President Mohamed Morsi's supporters outside its headquarters prevented judges from meeting. "[The judges] announce the

soldiers to guard the airport in conjunction with a UN contingent and a government unit.

However, Sy Koumbo, a spokesman for the UN in Congo, told Associated Press that the rebels had tried but failed to force their way into the airport to seize weapons on Friday.

The rebels said recovering the materiel was part of the withdrawal process.

Mr Koumbo said an agreement was reached and the rebels were

not given the arms.

However, one Goma resident told AFP that the rebels had "stolen so much - vehicles, ammunition, everything" and was happy to see them leave.

The UN has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the region because of the recent fighting.

Goma is the key city in an eastern border area that has seen years of conflict sparked by ethnic and political differences, and

grievances over mineral resources.

Some five million people died during the 1997-2003 DR Congo conflict, which drew in several regional countries, including both Rwanda and Uganda.

The UK has suspended aid to Rwanda, amid concerns about the country's role in the conflict.

Both Rwanda and neighbouring Uganda strongly deny UN accusations that they are backing the M23.

The M23 rebels on a truck with their belongings leaving Goma

Egypt's top court on indefinite strike suspension of the court sessions until the time when they can continue their message and rulings in cases without any psychological and

Several hundred pro-Morsi supporters protested outside court to oppose any dissolution of constituent assembly.

material pressures," the court said in a statement on Sunday.

"The court registers its deep regret and pain at the methods of psychological assassination of its judges," it said.

The top court had earlier announced it had postponed its ruling on the legitimacy of the constituent assembly, citing "administrative'' reasons.

It is not known whether a new date has been set for the ruling.

Any ruling from the court would be a direct challenge to Morsi - who last month gave himself near absolute powers, placing himself and the assembly above any oversight, including by the judiciary - and could further undermine the charter's legitimacy.

Meanwhile, anti-Morsi protesters continued to occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday morning, a day after the president called for a

December 15 public referendum on a draft constitution after receiving a copy of the document.

He called for the vote in a speech on Saturday night before members of the constituent assembly, the 100-member panel that drafted the controversial document.

Morsi is accused by his detrators of usurping sweeping powers and pushing his Muslim Brotherhood agenda in drawing up the draft constitution.

Judges have threatened to boycott observing the referendum, and the secular opposition promised a civil disobedience campaign.

The presidency has been locked in a power struggle with the judiciary and secular and Christian activists since November 22, when Morsi granted himself wideranging power to issue decrees which would not be subject to judicial review.

War crimes suspects to unveil Kenya 'poll alliance'

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wo Kenyan leaders suspected of war crimes are reported to have entered into an alliance for the upcoming presidential elections in March.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and ex-minister William Roto are expected to unveil their alliance at a rally on Sunday at Nakuru, some 150km northwest of the capital Nairobi.

Reports said Uhuru would run for president while Ruto would contest as his deputy.

The move is seen by some as a sign of moving beyond Kenya's bitter ethnic hatred that erupted into bloody post-election violence.

Both Uhuru and Ruto face charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal

Court (ICC) for their alleged role in having orchestrated post-election

violence in 2007-2009 that killed at least 1,100 and displaced more

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta(R) and ex-minister William Roto(L)

than 600,000.

Kenyatta faces five charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts, while Ruto faces three charges of crimes against humanity.

Both have claimed their innocence, remain free and have promised to cooperate with the court.

Kenya, as a signatory of the Rome Statute of the ICC, would be forced to act on any arrest warrant issued by the court should the pair refuse to attend trial.

The ICC trials, set to begin on April 10, could coincide with the elections, set for March 4, but which potentially could enter a second round vote within a month.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Asia and Middle East A highway tunnel collapse in central Japan has sent debris crashing down on cars, sparking a fire and leaving several people missing, police and media reports said.

The 4.7km Sasago tunnel in Yamanashi prefecture, about 80km west of Tokyo, caved in on Sunday.

PAGE 33

Several missing in Japan tunnel collapse The tunnel, one of Japan's longest, is on the main road connecting the capital to the country's west.

A fire service spokesman said the search-and-rescue operation remained suspended because of the risk of another collapse.

A local professor and highway engineers surveyed the extent of the collapse inside the tunnel, the spokesman added.

Network television footage showed black smoke billowing from the tunnel, and news agencies reported two vehicles were trapped in the collapse and one other was set ablaze when large concrete ceiling panels gave way.

A comprehensive rescue effort was launched but more than five hours after the incident, workers pulled out of the tunnel because of concerns that

more of the roof might collapse, a fire official told the AFP news agency.

The cave-in happened on Tokyobound lanes of the tunnel on the Chuo Expressway at around 8am (2300 GMT Saturday), an official at the expressway traffic police said.

"Concrete ceiling panels, 20 centimetres (8 inches) thick, collapsed over 50-60 metres (yards)," an official from the East

Myanmar police apologise for mine crackdown

Palestine cheers Mahmoud Abbas after UN vote

P

alestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has returned to a hero's welcome in the West Bank after his successful move to upgrade the Palestinians' UN status.

"Now we have a state," he told cheering supporters in Ramallah.

"Palestine has accomplished a historic achievement."

On Thursday the United Nations General Assembly voted to recognise the Palestinians as an observer state.

In response Israel halted the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The decision, announced on Sunday by the Israeli finance ministry, means 460m shekels ($120m; ÂŁ75m) will be withheld in December.

The PA, which rules the West Bank, is heavily dependant on tax revenues Israel collects on its behalf.

A ministry spokesman said the money would instead be used to offset the PA's debts, which include millions owed to Israel's electricity company.

The Israeli decision was announced as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas returned to the West Bank from the UN in New York.

P

Emergency rescue officials on ground to helped the trapped

Syrian forces pound Damascus outskirts

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yrian forces have pounded rebel positions around Damascus with artillery and air strikes in the latest attempt by the government to secure the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The London-based group, which relies on a network of local activists for its information, said on Sunday the fighting broke out in Irbin, a town east of Damascus.

It gave no figures on casaulties in Sunday's fighting but put Saturday's death toll from violence across the country at 116.

The SOHR said troops also shelled Zabadani to the northwest of the capital and the village of Mliha, leaving many people wounded.

Mliha, southeast of Damascus, is located in the region of Eastern Ghouta, where troops have launched a drive to secure the airport highway.

Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, have been trying to establish a secure perimeter around Damascus, turning the region into one of the main battlegrounds in the country's 20-month conflict, which has killed at least 40,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee the country.

Yamanashi Fire Department told AFP by telephone.

"At least two vehicles were trapped under the debris. Another, a light vehicle, caught fire but the fire was under control, meaning almost extinguished, as of 11:00 am (0200 GMT)," he said.

NHK footage from inside the tunnel showed a white ambulance and several firefighters wearing

President Mahmoud Abbas on the podium in Ramallah

Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad have been trying to establish a secure perimeter around Damascus

olice in Myanmar have apologised to monks for cracking down on a protest at a Chinese-backed copper mine in country's north, AFP news agency has reported.

About 100 police apologised to 10 monks on Saturday for the harsh police action against demonstrators in Monywa, a town near the controversial mine where the raid occurred on Thursday.

A senior police official said "we are sorry for what happened and apologise", according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Also on Saturday, Myanmar's president's office said opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will lead a probe into the crackdown, and will also assess the future of the contested project.

The 30-member commission will investigate the "social and environmental issues" behind the protests - which include allegations of mass evictions to make way for the mine.

The Nobel laureate has sought to mediate an end to the stand-off at the mine, which saw scores of villagers and monks injured in the toughest clampdown on demonstrators since President Thein Sein's reform-minded government came to power last year.

Photographs of the protesters' injuries, which included severe burns, have stirred outcry across Myanmar, reminding the public of the brutal junta-era security tactics. The probe appears to recognise the depth of those concerns.

The commission will "investigate the truth" of the pre-dawn raid by riot police and assess whether the "copper mining project is being implemented in accord with international norms", a statement on the presidential office website, signed by Thein Sein, said late on Saturday.

It will also advise whether "to continue the copper mining project and whether to stop foreign investment", the statement said, without providing further details.

Activists are calling for work at the mine - a joint venture between Chinese firm Wanbao and militaryowned Myanmar Economic Holdings - to be suspended to allow impact studies amid allegations of mass evictions and pollution.

China insists that the contentious points had already been resolved, but the dispute echoes fierce opposition to a Chinese-backed mega-dam which saw Thein Sein order the scheme's suspension last year in response to public anger.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Europe and Americas NATO aims to repair Russia ties despite patriot row

PAGE 34

Slovenians vote in run-off presidential poll after protests

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ATO foreign ministers, meeting for the first time this week since Russia appointed a new ambassador to the military alliance, are hoping to improve ties with Moscow despite a fresh row over plans to send anti-aircraft missiles to Turkey.

A NATO spokeswoman said the meeting aimed to "re-energize" relations with Russia - whose cooperation is needed both on ending the conflict inSyria and smoothing the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops fromAfghanistan by the end of 2014.

The twice-yearly meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday will also discuss funding for Afghanistan forces after 2014, and will be preceded by a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels

by Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

Russia appointed a new ambassador to NATO in October after a 10-month gap, raising hopes for an improvement in ties, strained by U.S. and NATO plans to construct a missile shield around Europe as well as last year's NATO bombing campaign in Libya.

NATO and Russia have, however, have been at odds over how to end the 20-month revolt in Syria. Russia has vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who meets NATO ministers including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, is expected to raise concerns over plans to deploy Patriot surface-to-air missiles on NATO member Turkey's border with Syria.

"We will tell them (the Russians) ... that this is defensive and not there to establish a no-fly zone," a senior NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

The NATO meeting coincides with a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey, where he is expected to face fresh calls to help bring an end to the war in Syria.

The NATO meeting will also discuss how some $4.1 billion of annual foreign funding for Afghanistan's security forces will be managed after 2014.

The Afghan government wants to handle its own finances but with Western concerns over corruption running high, it is likely NATO will have a strong role in managing international funding, NATO diplomats said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul will join the Afghan part of the talks.

Western domestic pressure is rising to end the Afghan war where fighting shows little sign of easing - on Sunday militants attacked on a U.S.Afghan airbase in eastern Afghanistan [ID:nL4N09C010].

Pakistan, whose help is seen as needed to reach a political settlement to the war, has begun to release some Taliban prisoners in response to calls from Afghanistan to smooth the way to peace talks.

Borut Pahor (left) and Danilo Turk held a TV debate ahead of the run-off

S

lovenians are voting in a presidential run-off, following days of protests over budget cuts and alleged government corruption.

The vote pits incumbent

Danilo Turk against former PM Borut Pahor, who is favoured to win by opinion polls.

On Friday a number of people were injured as protesters clashed with police in the capital

Ljubljana.

Slovenia is facing one of the deepest recessions among the 17 countries in the eurozone.

The country's economy has shrunk more than 8% since

2009.

Thirty-three people were charged with public order offences after the trouble in Ljubljana, police said.

A protest that attracted thousands of people earlier in the week in the second city, Maribor, also turned violent.

Polls across Slovenia opened at 06:00 GMT and are due to close at 18:00 GMT, with first results expected within hours.

Mr Pahor won the first round of the election, and recent opinion polls suggest the ex-PM will be triumphant again on Sunday.

Commenting on the recent protests in the country, Mr Pahor told the Associated Press that the demonstrations "signal a lack of confidence" in government institutions.

Many protesters are angry at what they describe as harsh austerity measures being implemented by the current centre-right government.

They also accuse the government of corruption - a claim denied by the authorities.

Mexican president sworn in amid protests

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nrique Pena Nieto has been sworn in as Mexico's new president amid violent protests outside the congress.

Dozens of people were injured on Saturday as police clashed with protesters who claimed that Pena Nieto's election was fraudulent.

The demonstrators were also opposed to the "war on drugs" and subsequent militarisation of the country as well as labour reforms that they feel favour foreign firms and take away jobs from ordinary Mexicans.

Police fired tear gas as hundreds of protesters threw stones and bottles and shouted "Mexico without PRI" - Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Activists alleged that dozens

had been arrested by the police during the protests.

Nieto formally took office shortly after midnight, when outgoing president Felipe Calderon transferred power to his successor.

Nieto said he would emphasise security for Mexicans and their families, and would work to ensure that roads and cities were again "peaceful areas where Mexicans can travel safely without fear of loss of their liberty or life".

Outside of the palace, many did not buy Pena Nieto's pledges.

Carmen Lopez, a teacher, was angry about the PRI returning to power. "He represents the PRI that for more than seven decades governed Mexico, and the only

thing they left behind was poverty, underdevelopment, and above all a lot of corruption," she said.

The party's reputation was

marred by corruption, authoritarianism and frequent allegations of vote-rigging during its 71 years of unbroken rule that ended in 2000.

President Enrique Pena Nieto

Obama warns of 'Scrooge Christmas'

U

S President Barack Obama has warned of a "Scrooge Christmas" if tax breaks are not renewed for working families in a deal to avert a so-called fiscal cliff.

Mr Obama made the remarks as he tried to win public support for his plan on a visit to a toy-maker in Pennsylvania.

But Republican House Speaker John Boehner said talks with the White House had gone "almost nowhere".

He said President Obama's plan to raise $1.6tn (ÂŁ1tn) of revenue over 10 years was not a "serious proposal".

Planned tax rises and spending cuts due to take effect on 1 January could send the US back into recession, economists warn.

'Lump of coal' On Friday, Mr Obama toured the Rodon Group manufacturing facility, where parts for the children's toy K'nex are made.

The Democratic president said it was the type of company that depended on middle-class customers to buy its goods, adding it would be hurt if ordinary Americans faced a

Obama

tax rise.

In a speech at the factory, Mr Obama said both parties would have to "get out of our comfort zones" in order to negotiate a deal on the fiscal cliff,

and pledged he would be willing to do the same.

He said that if Congress did not extend soon-to-expire tax breaks for the middle-class, it would be like receiving a "lump of coal" at Christmas.

"That's a Scrooge Christmas," Mr Obama added.

Tax cuts passed during the presidency of George W Bush are due to expire under the fiscal cliff.

Mr Obama favours extending the break for households earning below $250,000. But he wants taxes to rise for those on income above that sum.

Mr Boehner said that asking the top 2% of US taxpayers to pay more would deal a "crippling blow" to a fragile economy.

He also criticised as inadequate spending cuts that were proposed on Thursday by the Obama administration.

Treasury Secretary Timothy

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 35

Recipe for disaster: A deep-fried gun L

ooks like deep-frying can be a health hazard in more ways than one.

A gunshot at a Las Vegas restaurant Sunday night was caused by "a firearm being tossed into a deep fryer and exploding," according to a Las Vegas police report obtained by the Las Vegas ReviewJournal.

Obdulio Gudiel, 44, was arrested and charged with attempted robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with the incident.

Roberto Casprowitz told

police that Gudiel had approached him and another man in the parking lot and told them to give him money. The two drove away and called the cops, and the gun went off while the business was being evacuated.

According to the report, one of the restaurant workers told police that a man had asked her to hold his gun for him when police showed up, but she refused.

I t ' s u n c l e a r w h e t h e r o r not she identified that man as Gudiel.

Gudiel says the entire incident is a misunderstanding, 8 News Now reports. Officers say he told them one of the men in the parking lot was his nephew, and that they owed him money.

He also reportedly said that he did not have a gun that night.

The deep-fried gun ended up not hurting anyone, but even so, we'd rather take our chances with Twinkies and Oreos.

Mayor arrested for allegedly selling marijuana in elementary school

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ho would have thought that Mayor Sparks liked to spark it?

Danny Sparks resigned his position as mayor of Olive Hill Ky. after he was arrested for allegedly selling marijuana in the parking lot of an elementary school on Wednesday night, according to the Journal Times.

Police said they investigated him for weeks before making the arrest. The probe culminated with Sparks

allegedly selling an unspecified quantity of weed to anundercover informant.

He was charged with trafficking in marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, a felony.

There was also an open container of alcohol in Sparks' car, cops claimed.

In a statement sent to the Times, Sparks said he was accused of something he had "never done before."

The scandal led Sparks to

step down.

"Due to a very bad mistake that I have made tonight, and have failed the trust of the good people of Olive Hill, my friends and most of all my family, I have decided with deep regret to resign tonight as Mayor of Olive Hill," Sparks said in the statement.

Sparks won re-election two years ago in a tight race, according to WDRB. Olive Hill has nearly 1,600 residents.

A deep-fried gadget like this is a trend in restaurants

Bank robber claims prayer as motivation, Police Say

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bank robbery suspect allegedly told Alabama police that he performed the heists after praying for an answer to his problems.

Christopher Bruce has been charged with robbing the West Alabama Bank in Woodstock, Ala., on Monday and First Financial Bank in Vance, Ala., a week ago, Fox 19 reported.

Investigators told Fox 19 that Bruce had been having difficulties finding work as a convicted felon. After he was arrested, Bruce allegedly confessed to robbing the banks after praying for some way to help his situation, police said.

"He said he couldn't get a break and he didn't know how

he was going to survive. He said he even pulled over on the side of the road and prayed about it. He just couldn't find it in himself to do anything different," Vance Police Chief Ralph Burnell told Fox 19.

Woodstock Police Chief Len Price said the Mustang Bruce used to flee the scene was found wrecked and abandoned miles from the West Alabama Bank, Fox 19 reported. Price said Bruce left a tag behind that led investigators to match his driver's license photo to the video caught by the bank surveillance cameras.

Bruce is in custody facing charges for the bank robberies along with outstanding warrants.

Christopher Bruce being whisked away

Danny Sparks

Man gets a ticket after being hit by his own truck

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Massachusetts man just couldn't catch a break Monday when he got a ticket after being hit by a truck. What's worse, the truck was his own.

Salem police responding to

reports of a motor vehicle accident instead found Brian Reynolds, 40, lying facedown in the road, Boston.com reported. Reynolds told police that the brakes on his 1987 Chevy locked up, so he

Truck similar to that of Brian Reynolds

opened the driver's door and tried to stop the truck with his left foot.

Reynolds next tried turning the vehicle up a hill, but fell out the open door. The truck then ran over his left leg before crashing into a fire hydrant, police said.

Reynolds was taken to S a l e m Hospital for what police said was road rash and a minor leg i n j u r y , Boston.com reported. He was issued a $35 citation for driving with defective equipment.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMMBER 3, 2012

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condoled former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari over the death of his daughter, Hajiya Zulaihatu Junaidu Abdullahi who died at a Kaduna hospital on the 29th of November 2012.

A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, read "the PDP has received the news of the death

PAGE 37

PDP condoles with Buhari over daughter's death of Zulaihatu Junaidu Abdullahi, daughter of General Muhammadu Buhari with deep sadness. The grief over this sad event is felt by all

Nigerians including the leadership and members of the PDP nationwide.

"On behalf of the PDP, the National Chairman, Alhaji

Bamanga Tukur commiserates with the Buhari and Junaidu Abdullahi families as well as the people of Katsina state over this unfortunate incidence. We pray

Govs who refuse LG elections are more corrupt, says UPP

L-R Senate President David Mark; Gov. Rochas Okorocha Of Imo; Former Minister Of Petroleum,Chief Graham Douglas, And Sen. Andy Ubah, During The Funeral Service Of Late Hannah Chukwudozie In Okija, at the weekend in Anambra State

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

T

he Chairman of the newly registered United Progressive Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, has condemned the refusal of some state governors to conduct local government elections in their states, arguing that though governors are corrupt, those that refuse to conduct the elections are more corrupt.

Briefing journalists after the parties inaugural National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in the party's national headquarters in Abuja, Okorie regretted that though there have been several public outcry against the use of caretaker committee by the governors, in addition to calls for financial autonomy for local governments, governors have openly refused to conduct local government elections.

He therefore called for the scrap of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), arguing that INEC is better placed to ensure free, fair and transparent election at the local government levels, rather than the SIECs which depends on the whims of the governors.

Okorie also said that the federal character principle should be legally enshrined in the constitution to enable fair play in the distribution of public offices, adding that key elective offices should be rotated on zonal arrangement to give every zone a sense of belonging.

Meanwhile, earlier in the communiquĂŠ he read after the inaugural NEC meeting, the UPP chairman noted that the party passed through rigorous and daunting process before it was registered, adding that the party has resolved to field candidates at all the elective posts in the 2015 presidential election.

He also expressed the party's readiness to negotiate alliance talks with other progressive minded parties for the 2015, dispelling the rumours making round that the new party is already romancing with All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Progressives Peoples Party (PPA).

"The laws guiding merger has made it difficult for parties to truly merge in Nigeria since independence, no two parties can merge, they can only ally, so the NEC resolved not to countenance any form of merger with any party but we can ally," he stated.

that the Almighty God grants her soul eternal rest and may He grant the family and all her loved ones the fortitude to bear this loss."

Abolish states to curb injustice, inequality, says Don From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

T

o remove inequality, injustice among Nigerians, Professor.

Adebisi Adedayo of Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Ilorin, has

advocated the removal of state of origin from the nation's official documentation.

Adedayo who stated this during his inaugural lecture to mark 119th of the lecture of Unilorin entitled " Development with Equity and Justice: How the other half live", noted that

as long as injustice and inequality continue in Nigeria, it would be difficult to curb crimes.

The University don also suggested the abolition of local government system so as to have a system that would recognize any locality with at least 2000

CPC alleges plot to sack Sanusi

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

C

ongress for Progressives Change (CPC) has raised fear that there may be plots by the Presidency to remove the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, over his recent statement where he advocated the downsizing of civil servants by over 50%, as a way of checking the country's rising recurrent expenditure.

In a statement issued yesterday by the party through its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, it argued that there is no nexus between Sanusi's personal opinion and the numerous calls for his sack, insisting that there are other sinister underpinnings in the unfolding episode.

CPC also described the CBN governor as a forthright public servant who has always volunteered to offer his candid

...Blames Jonathan for high recurrent expenditure

personal opinion when it matters, adding that the call for his sack is preposterous.

It therefore blamed President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for entrenching fiscal indiscipline in Nigeria which has exacerbated the nation's difficulties.

However, CPC disagreed with Sanusi, noting that the cause of the exorbitant recurrent expenditure is not wholly due to the size of the public service workforce, pointing out that the sacking of half its size is the solution to the problem.

"We believe that rather than vilifying the CBN governor for the commentary, this should throw up meaningful discourse on

extricating the nation from the financial recklessness of this PDP-led Federal Government. In the first place, the CBN governor is not in a position to implement policy for sacking the Nation's public servants," the statement read.

While describing the demand by the leaders of the organized labour that Sanusi be sacked as hypocrisy, CPC condemned the manner with which they truncated in January 2012, the people's popular refusal to yield to the removal of subsidy

by President Jonathan.

It therefore alleged that it was in the course of scuttling the people's revolt of January 2012 that some of these Labour leaders got appointed into some dodgy committees that were not primed to achieve result.

people as a unit for national planning and development. " As long as socio-spatial inequality and injustice remains, migration of people from rural or marginalised areas to urbanised or privileged areas with its associated congestion physical deterioration, criminality and social dis organisation will remain.

"The implication of the trend of increasing inequality at the local level is the ineffectiveness of creation of states and local government areas as instrument of development with spatial equity.

"The Federal Government should urgently eliminate place of origin and religion in official documents and transactions through legislation and strict enforcement.

"The National Assembly should through constitution amendments adopt a two-tier system of government with the abolition of the states and strengthening of local government areas through creation of more local government areas, districts and wards for the purpose of achieving even development".

He added that the abolition would not only end agitation for the creation of more states but bridge the gap between people and the government.

PAGE 38

PDP wins Soba LG chairmanship election in Kaduna State

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he Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) on Sunday declared Alhaji Kawu Ibrahim-Yakasai of the PDP as the winner of Saturday's election for the chairmanship of Soba Local Government Council.

Malam Aliyu Haruna, the Returning Officer, said that Ibrahim-Yakasai of the PDP polled 62, 170 votes to defeat Alhaji Hassan Abdullahi of the CPC, who got 20, 143 votes Haruna, who announced the result at Maigana, the headquarters of Soba Local Government Area, said that the PDP also won eight councillorship seats, while the CPC won one seat.

He, however, said that the councillorship result for Gimba Ward had been cancelled.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Tambuwal bags Doctorate degree amidst encomiums

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he Senate President, Senator David Mark, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Usman Nafada and other prominent citizens in the country were among dignitaries that poured out encomiums on Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal at the weekend as he bags honouraray Doctorate Degree at Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

He was described as a politician with a knack for peacemaking and bridge building at all times.

The event which was graced by former President Alhaji Shehu Shagari was massively attended by

members of the National Assembly even as the Rivers state Governor and |Chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, Rotimi Amaechi and his Sokoto counterpart,Aliyu Wamakko were equally honoutred with similar degree in Law. The Senate President who was represented by Senator Abdul Ningi, Deputy Senate Leader, said that Hon Tambuwal has paid his due in the House and this becomes evident in the way he pilots the affairs of his colleagues without any problem.

According to Mark "Within this short political life span of Tambuwal, he has been able to prove that he can represent the old though he is not and he can

represent the young though he is not very young. " "From what we saw today, Tambuwal pulled virtually everybody from the National Assembly. This is a clear case of wide acceptance. ", he added Deputy Speaker, Hon Emeka Ihedioha who led over 200 other members of the House to the venue of the event including the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, described the award as well deserved by Tambuwal who has "displayed sterling leadership qualities since he emerged as the speaker".

He said, "We are not regretting that we elected him as our leader; as you can see, the massive turnout of

people today to felicitate with him is a clear testimony of his popularity".

Speaker speaking after award was bestowed upon him said "I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the massive crowd that graced this occasion. " "I fervently wish that this relationship continues as we, the 360 members, see ourselves as one big family watching over each other. You won't believe it I only signed 3 invitation cards personally.

Other members who spoke on the award described the Speaker as a man who deserved the honorary degree in Law because of his legislative prowess and experience in the law profession.

Monarch tasks Nigerians on nation building

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he Emir of Kaiama in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara, Alhaji Shehu Bagidi, has urged Nigerians in positions of authority to always contribute their quotas to the development of their Communities.

The monarch made the call on Saturday while speaking at the turbanning of some indigenes of the area in Kaiama.

The royal father noted that no government no matter how benevolent could single-handedly cater for all the needs of its citizens.

He called on wealthy Nigerians and those occupying political offices to always complement government efforts towards improving the wellbeing of the people.

Bagidi urged the four recipients of the traditional titles not to relent in contributing their quotas to the Kaima community.

The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs, Alhaji Issa Bawa, who responded on behalf of other recipients, thanked the emir for honouring them.

The awardees are former commissioners, former council bosses and business mogul.

The event attracted eminent sons and daughters of the area from within and outside the state and people from all walks of life. (NAN)

R-L Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State being conducted round the Sokoto State University Complex by his host, Governor Aliyu Wamakko during his two-day visit to Sokoto State the on Saturday.

Enugu Indigenes agitate for additional state as fiesta ends with fanfare From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

O

ver one million Enugu state indigenes domiciled in Lagos state and its environs from more than one hundred and sixty town unions and autonomous communities attended this year's edition of Enugu State Cultural Day Celebration at the weekend.

The event which is the 19th in the series was conducted under the auspices of the Association of Enugu State Development Union Lagos and held at the premises of Abalti Barracks in Lagos.

In his welcome address, the outgoing President of the Association, Chief Chris Nweke, noted that the association is

delighted in the way Governor Sullivan Chime has given a new impetus to governance through his development oriented programmes in Enugu State nothing that the governor has unequivocally excelled in the delivery of his four points agenda viz Physical Infrastructure, Economic Expansion and employment, rural development, service delivery and good governance which he proposed at his inauguration for a second term.

Nweke however advised the governor to in his second term reach out to the large pool of Enugu State professionals, technocrats and industrialist domiciled in Lagos and offer them both executive and Board

positions at the state and federal levels remarking that a second term of any administration is an opportunity to leave enduring legacies devoid of political sentiments.

On the current debate on constitution review, Chief Nweke remarked that the time was ripe for a peoples constitution and the practice of true federalism.

Making reference to J.C Wheare definition of federalism which says "a division of power between the central government and the component units whereby each is within a sphere coordinate and independent, Nweke bemoaned the political arrangement in Nigeria which

gives rise to the situation where there exists a superior center and other subordinate units.

He stressed that it negates the principles of true federalism.

On the agitation for the creation of additional states in the South-East Geo-political zone, the high Chief said that the issue has become a core expectation to resolving the issue of structural imbalance in the country.

Decrying the deplorable federal roads in the South East, he regretted that the state of these roads has continue to impact negatively on the lives of the people noting that the said palliative measures being put in place by way of patching and filling pot holes have not yielded any positive results

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Council urges private sector to support FG's anticorruption drive

B

aroness Linda Chalker, the Coordinator of the Honorary International Investors Council (HIIC), has called on Nigeria's private sector to support the Federal Government's anticorruption drive.

Chalker made the call in London on Friday at the end of the 13th meeting of the council.

She noted that Nigeria had achieved a lot in its anti-corruption campaign, adding, however, that the private sector should tangibly contribute to the campaign as the main driver of the economy.

She stressed the need for the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), among others, to back the government's anti-corruption programme.

Besides, Chalker urged the Nigerian media to be positive in their reportage of the nation.

She said that the Western media often picked up stories about Nigeria from the domestic press, adding that some of the reports portrayed the nation in a bad light. ``Nigeria has real opportunities and I hope members of the press will talk about the opportunities rather than looking for negative comments. ``You actually let your country down when you only focus on the negative aspects. We have to see what we can do to make sure you focus on the positive aspects because they are really there,'' Chalker said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the HIIC, an organisation of prominent investors from around the world, advises governments on topical economic and development issues.

The council supports efforts to reduce corruption in Nigeria, while attracting foreign direct investment for the country and promoting a private-sector driven economy.

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, said that Nigeria's growth rate had been stable and high in the past 14 years.

He said that the nation had a strong and stable macro-economic environment, with a stable exchange rate. ``The story is positive and investors have been reacting to this positively. People are excited about Nigeria and we are seeing a lot of investors in the country,'' he said.

Aganga noted that Nigeria had a comparative advantage over several countries because of its young population, huge market and viable natural resources, which made it a choice investment destination.

(NAN)

PAGE 39

We won't let any individual or group control our party - S/West PDP From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the SouthWest has reiterated its determination to make sure that the party, at all levels, is not controlled by any individual or group, saying "The only way we can win the next elections and regain what we lost in the SouthWest is for all our members, including those who left the party to come together as one."

The party, which said the position presented at the last National Working Committee (NWC) meeting by the National Vice-Chairman (South-West), Chief Segun Oni was in the best interest of the PDP in the SouthWest zone, added that "those sponsoring media attacks on the Zonal Chairman because of his call for the inclusion of all interests in the running of the party in States like Oyo and Ekiti are only looking at the party they can control and not what the

party can control."

Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade, who made this known in a statement issued yesterday noted that even though the electorates in the South-West are favourably disposed to the PDP, we must on our part manage our differences maturely to create a party of focus that can take over from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the various states."

Babade however urged the NWC

L-R Former Vice President, Chief Alex Ekwueme, Former Governor Of Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo And Former National Chairman Of The Party, Alhaji Haliru Bello Mohhamed During their Meeting in Abuja Thursday.

Photo: Joe Oroye

to be mindful of situations where reports submitted during its meetings are already subjects of public discuss even before the end of the meeting, saying "it is dangerous for our party for people to be sending text messages to disclose what was being discussed at sensitive party meetings as that of the NWC even while the meeting was still going on."

"We wish to state once again that the South-West Exco will not succumb to blackmail from any individual or group, whose sole aim is to have the party in their pockets.

"As maintained by the Zonal Chairman, Chief Segun Oni, there are two sets of contenders for the party here in the South-West. There are those who are after the party they can control by making the party small enough to fit into their pockets and those who are after what their party can control by making their party big enough to win elections and control power at state and Local Government levels.

"If PDP must bounce back and regain what we have lost, we should never allow those who are after the party they can control by making the party small enough to fit into their pockets to have their way. PDP should be a party for all and that is the agenda we are pursuing.

"Therefore, members of the State Working Committee in all the states in the zone should have it at the back of their minds that the Oni-led Zonal Exco does not have any personal score to settle with anyone.

"Rather, what we are after is a strong and united party and whatever that it will require to achieve this should be supported by all members of the party. As for us in the Zonal Exco, if it means sacrificing our positions for the party to be united and be able to win elections, we are ready. For us, no sacrifice should be too much to make our party big enough to win elections and control power at state and Local Government levels," Babade said.

NASS to provide special funds to secure military barracks -- Rep. Adamu

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he National Assembly would appropriate special funds in the 2013 budget to enable the Federal Government address the nation's current security challenges.

The Chairman, House of Representatives' Committee on Defence, Alhaji Bashir Adamu said funds would also be provided in the interim to tackle the immediate challenges facing military barracks across the country.

Adamu made the disclosure, shortly after he led members of the committee on sympathy visit to Jaji Military Cantonment in Kaduna state. ``We are here to register our condolences to families of victims and commiserate with them over their losses and wish the injured persons quick recovery. ``The committee will consider a special package in the interim to address the current situation in the Jaji

cantonment and other military accommodations with similar situations. ``This will be done in the interim while we consider making adequate vote for funds to address the general situation and secure military barracks across the country,`` he said.

Adamu added that the committee had identified some of the challenges of the cantonment and pledged that adequate funds would be provided in the 2013 budget to address them on short

and long term basis.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that 15 persons were killed and 30 others injured, when bombs recently exploded at the cantonment.

NAN recalls that the Senate Committee on Defence and Army during a similar visit advised the state government to relocate the more than 3,000 civilians living in six settlements within the barrack, in order to secure it.

(NAN)

Assembly pleads with Labour, govt to end LG workers strike in Plateau

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he Plateau House of Assembly has called on labour and government to accept a political solution to end the eight-month old strike Local Government workers strike in the state.

The resolution was passed on Friday following a motion by Mr Joe Dawan, representing Qua'an pan constituency.

The house called on the State Government to recall the

striking workers by paying them two months' salary arrears.

The Speaker, Mr John Dabwan, who read the resolution, said the arrears covered September and October.

According to the resolution, this is to allow the workers settle down before government will conduct its biometric exercise.

The house also pleaded with labour to support the resolution

by accepting the palliative for workers to resume work before the commencement of the biometric.

Dabwan, however, explained that the two months arrears of salary that would be paid to the workers would be based on the 55 per cent earlier negotiated with the government.

He said that payment of the N18,000 new minimum wage would commence after the

biometric exercise.

Earlier in his contribution, the member representing Kanke Constituency, Mr Timothy Golu, said the government had negotiated and agreed with labour to pay 55 per cent.

He added that what the workers were demanding was the payment of the arrears of the 55 per cent.

Golu urged the government

to mobilise funds and pay the workers the two months' arrears as incentive to enable them to return to work while negotiation continues.

In his contribution, Mr Dalyop Mwamsat, Jos South Constituency, pleaded with the workers to return to work since the government had agreed to pay them the N18, 000 minimum wage after the biometric exercise. (NAN)

PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Nigerian youth group meets in Benue

L-R: Senator Uche Chukwumerije, Former NDDC Chairman, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji and Former PDP Chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, at the Abia State Town Hall Meeting In Abuja on Saturday.

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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Photo: Joe Oroye

No going back on Adamawa LG election, says Nyako A

By Lawrence Olaoye

damawa state governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako has said there is no going back on the outcome of the local government election held last week in the state.

The governor who addressed newsmen after meeting with the party National Working Committee over alleged party infractions insisted that the election stands.

This standpoint however signaled further enstrangement with the leadership of the party.

Nyako has been having running battle with the PDP national leadership over the conduct the party's primaries

in the state which led to the sack of the state PDP executive committee and the suspension of the National Vice Chairman, North East, Alhaji Girigiri Lawal by the National Working Committee, NWC. Despite the directives of the party that Nyako harmonizes the list of PDP candidates for the Adamawa local government election, the government last week gave its nod to the State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC, to conduct the election with the list of candidates earlier cancelled by the NWC. Incensed by the governor's recalcitrance, the NWC on Wednesday summoned Nyako

to appear before it last Friday to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for the open affront on the authority of the national leadership of the party.

The governor, who was drilled by NWC members for more than two hours maintained that the issue of the local government election will not be revisited as the result of the election could not be determined by the party.

Answering questions from journalists on the outcome of the election Nyako said "Of course the election stands. The result of the election is not determined by the party. It is determined by the State

Independent Electoral Commission."

Responding to question on the harmonization of list that is at the centre of the controversy between him and the party, Nyako said, "Whatever we had to do was done in the best interest of the party. I can assure you that it will not become problem when we want to do it, because whatever we had to do have to be in the best interest of the party and our state."

Asked why he was at the party national secretariat, the governor questioned "is any thing wrong in attending a family meeting. The big family of PDP will like to put their heads together."

Wada approves construction of 40kilometre community road

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ov. Idris Wada of Kogi has approved the construction of 40kilometre Ejule-Achokpa-Idah road to link rural communities in Ofu and Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Areas of the state.

He gave the approval at Apata in Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Area on Saturday while inaugurating two blocks of three classrooms constructed by the state government for IhiameApata-Ajodawn Community Secondary School.

He also approved the sinking of a borehole at AllaEjima to address the perennial water scarcity in

the area and promised to build staff quarters and deploy more academic staff to the school.

Wada reiterated the state government's commitment ``to the emancipation of our poor and down trodden people from the doldrums of poverty, ignorance and disease, to the heights of empowerment and well-being.''

He described the school building project as a practical step toward actualising the Transformation Agenda of his administration, saying it was in fulfillment of an earlier promise he made to the community.

Wada commended the

state's Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA) for the efficient handling of the project and called for collective and participatory approach to development issues.

He said that the state government had paid the oustanding N200 million state counterpart contributions to World Bank Community Development Donor Fund to encourage the CSDA. The General Manager of the agency, Mr James Odiba, also commended the governor for what he described as ``positive changes to the lives of the poor and neglected in our communities.''

Earlier, the Liaison Officer 1 for the Local Government, Malam Zakari Umar, had said that the governor had addressed the education needs of the people and commended his determination to turn around the education sector.

The spokesperson of the Ajodawn/Apata/Ihiame Community, Mr Peter Atabor, who described Gov. Wada as "Noah of our time" said ``before the intervention, poverty had eaten us up to our roots.''

The project, comprising two blocks of three classrroms with principal and secretary's offices and a staff room, as well as two blocks of four-hole Ventilated Improved Pit latrines gulped N11. 5 million. (NAN)

he crusade for the empowerment of the Nigerian Youths will be re-echoed again as a group under the aegis of Conference of Nigerian Youths will unfolds its agenda for youth empowerment at a workshop slated for December in Okpokwu, Benue State.

According to the National President of the Group, Hon. Dominic Alancha, the first national workshop to be held by Conference of Nigerian Youths is to reenergise the clamour of the group for proactive measures by various governments to put youth agenda on the front burner of development.

Alancha stressed that the theme of the conference tagged; "The role of Nigerian Youths in National Development" with Okpokwu youths as the arrow head will help to re-orientate the youths of the area with the hope that the workshop will create a massive opportunity for the youths to rob minds.

"We have put together an excellent package that will blow the minds of participants at the workshop bearing in mind the necessity to create an enabling environment for conviviality, more so as it is going to take place two days before Christmas.

"Someofthetopicsslatedfordiscussion revolve around the role of youths in the socio-economic and political dictates of Okpokwu community. It is tailored to youths from Edumoga, Okpoga and Ichama, all in Benue state within the 18 years age bracket. A special evening of fun and dance has also been put together by the group to foster friendship among youths in the community and Benue State at large.

Anniversary: Gov. Aregbesola gives self pass mark

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ov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun on Saturday made a comprehensive review of his progrommes since he assumed office in November, 2010 and scored himself pass mark.

Aregbesola, who made the review at a programme tagged: 'Ogbeni till Daybreak' in Osogbo, said no other government would have performed better considering the limit of the available resources.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion was part of the activities lined up to mark the assumption of office by the governor on Nov. 27, 2010.

The governor said that the 'Omoluabi' concept was aimed at reviving the Yoruba culture of truth, honesty, hard work and cleanliness as uppermost in his achievements.

According to him, the inculcation of the core traditional values embedded in the Omoluabi, the virtuous, is a strong foundation with zero tolerance for corruption.

He expressed satisfaction with his administration's efforts at making the people to imbibe the habits of ``Omoluabi''.

The governor cited the regular and consistent environmental sanitation in all the thirty local governments of the state as evidence of virtuous living in the society. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 45

NTTF suspends female player for 3 years

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egun Oguntade, Secretary, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), on Sunday announced the suspension of a Team Lagos female player, Fatima Bello, for three years for dual registration.

Oguntade confirmed yesterday at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos that Bello was registered for Delta and Lagos States.

According to the secretary, Bello was licensed with Lagos State but took an appointment with Delta since April 2010 till September 2012.

“Fatima is formally registered with Lagos State in the books of the NTTF, only for Delta State to lay claim to her as their athlete and they were unable to prove it.

“And we had an emergency

Ondo wins 1st gold medal from squash

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eam Ondo yesterday won a gold medal from the Squash racquets event of the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos. The medal was from the women’s team event of the squash racquets Aina Ojo, Head Coach (Squash

Racquets), Team Ondo, confirmed that he was happy at having contributed the first gold for the state and added that the state will still win more gold medals from squash racquets.

“I am happy to win the first gold medal for the state. We

prepared very hard before the festival and I am not surprised at the results.

“I could recall that I promised the general manager of the sports council, Mrs Idowu Akinbulumo, to win many medals at the ongoing Games,” Aina said.

Rivers weightlifter wins 3 gold medals C arol Okonkwa, a Rivers weightlifter, has dedicated the three gold

medals she won to the people of the state and promised to win more, if given the opportunity.

Chioma Amaechi, a Nigerian US-based female weightlifter

Carol won the medals in the 63kg female event on Sunday, at the ongoing 18 th National Sports Festival in Lagos.

Her two opponents from Akwa Ibom and Lagos had to settle for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Okonkwa said she prepared well for the games and that all her efforts did not go in vain.

Head coach of weightlifting of Team Rivers, Ojade Aduche, commended Okonkwa for her feat.

“We had planned for her (Okonkwa) to set a new national and African record in her category. But, she had a knee injury and so we had to modify our plan.

“We are happy she won the medals and we look forward to winning more medals.

Weightlifting has 45 gold, 45 silver and 45 bronze medals for the various weight categories.

“We cannot specifically say we want to win all the medals because in weightlifting, injury can come at any time.

“We will try our best to win as many medals as possible,’’ Aduche, a former Commonwealth weightlifting medalist, added.

Kogi judo chairman makes case for game

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lhaji Damisa Sulaiman, Chairman of the Kogi Judo Association, has said that there was need to take the sport more seriously because of its medal prospects.

Sulaiman made the call during an interview yesterday at the University of Lagos Sports complex, adding that efforts being made to promote the sport had began to yield results as evident at the ongoing sports festival where Team Kogi had already won a gold and a silver medal.

The chairman expressed worry that the sport was yet to be appreciated in the country, in spite of its visibility through the activities of the Nigeria Judo Federation.

Sulaiman, therefore, urged the National Sports Commission (NSC)

and the media to do more for the sport.

“The state government has been doing a lot to promote the game and we want to make the state a haven for Judo. We have won one gold and one bronze in the sport through this remarkable feat. We are now entrenched on the medals table.

“It is surprising that Judo is not a popular sport in the country, which is why some of us are making efforts to give judo its pride of place in the scheme of things,” Sulaiman said.

The state Judo chairman who also operates a judo Academy in Kogi, said that there were few Judo equipment and kits in the country and urged state governments to acquire them for their athletes.

“The problem is that most people

don’t know what judo is all about, because it is not well reported in the media and we are pleading with you media people to give the sport more coverage.

“For us to develop the sport, we must have enough mats and kits, among others and we are encouraging the state governments to acquire them,” he pleaded.

Meanwhile, the secretary of the association in Kogi, Simon Ekele, has called on the Kogi government to encourage participation in the sport through sponsoring, as well as increased funding for judo competitions.

Ekele hailed Kogi athletes and urged them to continue to do the state proud in the sport.

meeting where it was decided to suspend her from all table tennis events for three years, with immediate effect,” he said.

Oguntade added that all the matches she played and won would be awarded to the losers.

Meanwhile, Lagos State on Saturday won a gold medal in the men’s table tennis team event after a thrilling match with Rivers, winning 3-0.

Jide Omotayo, 17, finished the game for Team Lagos by defeating Paralympian medalist, Femi Alabi, in the last set of the match.

Omotayo said the gold won was to fulfill their promise to the Lagos State Government.

“We promised the state seven gold medals and this is just a show of our determination and appreciation for all it did to prepare us for the festival,” he said.

Omotayo said that he was able to out serve the Paralympian because he played to his coaches’ instructions.

“After the first round, the coach introduced new tactics for me to use and it led to my victory over an older hand in the game. “And the impact of camping in China for a month really exposed us to better ways of playing the game and gave us an edge,” Omotayo said.

Also reacting to the match,

Oladele Kehinde of Team Rivers blamed their loss on the petitions against them that led to the postponement of the match.

The match was postponed from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 because of petitions against the team.

“We were demoralised with the fact that after preparing for the game on Friday, we were told that it had been postponed. So, today (Saturday), we were just lukewarm toward the match, hence we lost,” he said.

Engr. Sani Ndanusa, President NTF

Official medal table as at Sunday afternoon

PAGE 44

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Coach says Inneh Queens will win 2013 Confederation Cup Commissioner dismisses enneth Aigbe, the Coach of Inneh Queens of Edo, on allegation of poor Saturday said the team had shown commitment and would be back in the 2013 season to win the handling Team Nasarawa Confederation Cup .

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From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

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he Nasarawa state Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Daniel Ogah Ogazi, has refuted allegation Team Nasarawa contingent to the 18th National Sports Festival was living in despicable conditions.

The commissioner, who spoke to newsmen in Lafia, dismissed the allegation stressing that none in the contingent has been denied his or her due allowance.

It would be recalled that a national daily reported that the state contingents at the festival were denied some of their basic travelling entitlement including their duty travelling allowance ( DTA), a development the paper said has affected their performance and living condition at the festival.

However, the commissioner admitted that they were confronted with some challenges due to limited resources noting though that these challenges were addressed after meetings were held on the matter.

He said all athletes and officials were paid their DTA for 7 days as budgeted adding that the balance is in the custody of the ministry and would be release to the athletes before the Games ends.

“We paid them their 7days DTA upfront and we agreed that we keep the remaining balance to enable the athletes reserve something to take home,” he said adding that a contingent of 126 athletes is representing the state.

Further, he said Governor Umaru Tanko Al Makura has promised automatic employment and cash reward to any athlete that wins gold medal.

Johnson rates festival football high

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he Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has thumbed up for the standard of the football event, especially that of the women’s, at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Lagos.

Executive committee member of the football federation, Effiong Johnson, who watched most of the women’s games at the Agege Stadium in Lagos, said he was impressed by the quality of players on ground.

He also believes the women’s national teams and clubs can get a large pool of players from the teams participating in women’s football at the games.

“From the games I’ve seen we have a very bright future in the women’s game. For instance, the

Enugu women’s team have been very impressive and this is where the coaches of the national teams and even clubs should be to look at and select players for grooming.

“Personally I’ve seen impressive players here and these players over time will become future stars of our national teams,” Johnson, who also doubles as the Akwa Ibom State FA chairman, said.

The NFF chief also applauded host of the 18th edition of the National Sports Festival, Lagos for providing good security at the venues of the games.

“The security is top notch. I will score the governor (Babatunde Fashola) and the LOC of the games high for this,” said Johnson.

Stella Mbachu one of Nigeria’s female longest playing footballer

Though Inneh Queen lost in the final, the coach praised the efforts of his players and confidence they would return home with the trophy in 2013.

He said that the Inneh Queens got to the quarter finals in the last season but were able to reach the final this season.

“This shows that they are improving in each season and might lift the trophy in the next season.

“We will go back to the drawing board and work harder for the next season because I know we are coming back to take the trophy.’’

Aigbe said female football should be encouraged by giving the players incentives which would lift the game to greater height.

The coach added that though the girls were committed, “there should be more incentives to push them ahead.’’

The team came second in this year’s confederation cup after a draw with Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt which led to a penalty that ended 5-4.

NNWL frowns at sell of slots by clubs owners, sets for Super-8

By Patrick Andrew

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he Nigeria Nationwide League (NNWL) has expressed concern over the recurrent practice of some clubs who are in the habit of selling their slots to professional clubs.

Chairman of the NNWL board, Alhaji Ahmed Kawo, said such clubs have been warned to desist from such acts adding that the board was contemplating sterner measures to adopt against those found wanting.

Peoples Daily Sports recalls that some clubs have consistently sold their slots ecah time the gain promotion to the Nigeria National League (NNL), the lower division league, also known as professional league.

Speaking on the same matter, Secretary of the NNWL, Emmanuel Adesanya, said the sell of slots by the clubs owners does not bring credibility to the league and added that it makes the league look like a child’s play.

“We have observed that some people every year when

they get promoted, they sell their slot, and then you are not bringing any credibility to the league, it makes everything look like a child’s play.

“You can sell off your slot but you must liaise with the federation and the NWL, we cannot stop the practice, they invested their money on getting the players together paying their salaries and they play to the point of being promoted,’’he added.

Also, the chairman confirmed that the ‘Super eight competition’, will kickoff December 15 in Sokoto

State, to round up 2012 activities, the chairman of the league has said.

According to him, the four day programme will end on December 18, and that the new logo of the nationwide would be unveiled at a meeting with the club owners.

He explained that the league which would bring the activities of the 2012 events to a close would comprise of three events, the competition, unveiling of the logo and the meeting with club owners.

“The usual best eight clubs will be promoted from division two to division one at the end of the tournament,’’he said.

15 clubs threaten to boycott NPL congress

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majority of clubs are set to stay away from Thursday's NPL congress in Kano, according to a wire service report last night.

A check showed that as many as 15 clubs led by last season's runners-up Enugu Rangers have opted out of the congress.

Other clubs who have vowed not to be in Kano are Sharks, Dolphin Lobi Stars, Heartland and Enyimba.

Rather than going to Kano, the chairmen of these clubs will instead meet in Abuja on Wednesday. The clubs said among other things that Kano is not safe and is not a neutral ground as they were favoured to win the league this past term.

They are also not comfortable with a December 21 kick-off date for the league because it is too close to the Christmas holidays.

Clubs equally maintain they wish for a resolution of vexed issues concerning the sponsorships of the league.

The disapproval of the clubs may also not be unconnected with the controversies surrounding the determination of last season's champions Kano Pillars after a delayed expulsion of Ocean Boys for failing to honour a minimum number of

matches.

"We are not going to Kano. Instead we are going to Abuja," a furious Rangers general manager Ozor Paul a wire service.

"We demand a neutral venue for the congress because Pillars are playing in the league and favouritism could come to play. We are also concerned about our safety in Kano. And since we elected the board, we have the right to call the shots."

However, Pillars spokesman Idris Malikawa countered, saying those who are planning to stay away from Kano are anti-football and do not wish for the unity of Nigeria.

"We are ready to host the congress on Thursday but we are also aware that some clubs have threatened to stay away from it," Malikawa was quoted to have said.

"We view their decision as anti-football and anti-Nigeria because we have held congresses in places like Ilorin and Bayelsa, where NPL clubs were based. So why are they objecting against Kano hosting the congress?

"We expect them to have a quick rethink and come down so that we could all sit and discuss how best to move our league forward."

EKO 2012: Female boxers in thrilling bouts

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ivers Anita Amakiri over the weekend dazzled Delight Oguazu of the Federal Capital Territory with 14 points to 2 points in the 48kg bout that thrilled fans as female boxing entered day three.

In the event at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival at the National Institute for Sports (NISports) Indoor Sports Hall, Sulaiman Amida of Borno beat Ahuma Ihuoma of Abia by 11-4 points also in the 48kg.

Nancy Owohor of Benue lost to Jackson Rose of Akwa Ibom 6-2 points in the same category.

Egunjobi Yetunde of Ogun beat Adeniyi Modinat of Lagos 12-4 and Kolawole Anun of Ondo beat Lily Inema of Bayelsa 8-3.

Ohaeri Chiaima of Imo lost to Ekpelimode Sophia of Delta 8-1, while in the day’s final 48KG bout, Okon Elizabeth of Cross River defeated Liadi Rukaiyat of Kwara 6-4.

The intensity of the bouts grew stronger in the 51kg category with Effiong Ndumo of Akwa Ibom losing to Yakubu Fatimo of Ondo 4-1.

In the second bout of the category, Adeniyi Fajoke of Rivers beat Omoyayo Saadu of Ogun 4-7 to advance to the next stage of the competition.

The 54kg category produced three bouts with Okoye Chioma of Delta losing to Ukaegbu Cynthia of Imo 5-1, while Frank Judith of Rivers beat Okogiwa Sandra of Edo 2-0.

In the day’s final 54kg bout, Chukwu Roseline of Ondo lacked finesse and mobility as she lost 2-15 to Oriyomi Ayisat of Lagos.

In the 57kg category, Vivian Vincent of Team Lagos advanced with a 16-11 points win over Obuseh Marvelous of Delta, while Odion Onome of Ogun beat Caro Maxwell of Edo 9-0.

In the 64kg category, Oluwasegun Toyin of Ondo lost narrowly to Adeniji Bukola of Benue 2-4; Okeke Favour beat Busayo Alale of Gombe with referee stopping the contest in the first round.

Tijani falilat of Ogun beat Amihe Chukwu of Imo 5-0; Oluwo Unke proved too strong for Abiodun Adeju as she advanced comfortably with 8-0 flawless win.

Promise John of Akwa Ibom overcame Mary Emmanuel of Kano with referee stopping the contest in the second round.

Action was intensified as the 75kg bouts between Edem Emen of Edo and Ogbo Scholota of Enugu ended early in the first round as referee stopped the contest in favour of Emen.

Popoola Wuraola of Osun lost 6-12 to Adejumola Toyin of Ogun as the day’s 75kg bout was wrapped up with victory for Ekong Mary of Akwa Ibom over Mohammed Birikisi of Rivers 8-1.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 43

Powerlifting official, athletes laud Amaechi

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dolphus Ondu, Head Coach, Team Rivers (Special Sports), yesterday attributed the state’s first three medals ever in Para-Power lifting, to the assistance received from the state government.

Ondu and some of the state’s athletes said at the Multi-Purpose Hall ‘C’, of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) that the boost they received from the Rivers state government was the magic wane of their success.

Ondu said they had justified the numerous welfare packages by winning medals in the female 44kg (gold) and two bronze medals in the 48kg of both the male and female categories.

“I am very happy with this victory, though it is the beginning. Others are coming because I am eyeing seven gold medals in the tournament. We have been powerfully assisted by the state government. We were fully prepared before we left Rivers,“ he said.

Mercy Elodimuo, the Rivers State first gold medalist in the game, said that her morale had been well boosted for the tournament before leaving the state.

“Our state government has promised us better reward if we do well in the tournament and this had boosted my morale very well.

“I want to make my government to be proud of me,’’she said.

Ahmed Yahaya, one of the two bronze medalists said this festival was his first, adding that he would clinch gold at the next festival slated for Calabar.

Elodimuo (40.95kg) lifted 87.5kg to win the gold in the female 44kg category, while Yahaya (48.00) lifted 142kg to win bronze in the 48kg (male).

Other results from the female 44kg category are as follows: Loveth Abokim (41.15kg) from Delta won a silver medal with a lift of 87.5kg, while Peace Musa (43.60) from Plateau clinched the bronze with a lift of 85kg.

In the male 48kg, Dauda Ibraheem (46.30) from Oyo clinched the gold medal with a lift of 145kg, while

Emmanuel Godwin (46.65) from FCT won the silver medal with a lift of 140kg.

In the female 40kg category, Ruth Dodo (38.50kg) from Plateau clinched the gold with a lift of 85 kg; Nsiniben Jonah (36.75) from Akwa Ibom won the silver medal by lifting 82.5kg.

Lauritta Onye from Delta (37.4kg) lifted 82kg to clinch the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, in the female 48kg category, Hanna Babalola (44.40kg) from Delta clinched the gold medal with a lift of 97.5kg, while Chika Enwerem (46.75kg) from Imo lifted 92kg to win the silver winner. Okechi Eunice from Rivers (46.25kg) lifted 87kg to win the bronze medal.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Team Rivers hope to 3 gold medals in Abula Boxing coaches wants talents for Rio 2016

R

Cricket official applauds players’ enthusiasm

G

eorge Wiltshire, General Manager, Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), on Sunday applauded the level of enthusiasm being exhibited by cricketers at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos.

Wiltshire at the ongoing festival in Lagos that he had seen things that participating teams have brought into play, to make him to acknowledge their drive.

“The young cricketers are playing with a lot of zeal and want to impress the officials from the NCF, in order to be able to make the national teams,” he said.

The general manager added that the sport had experienced an appreciable growth over the years ; especially over the fact that two medals are up for grabs in the current NSF. “The fact that this festival introduced two events for cricket is new in itself which will encourage states to begin to feature in the sport.

“Also allowing coloured clothing for the outfits of cricketers as against the all white format has made the competition colourful,” Wiltshire said.

He hoped that the federation would be able to discover budding talents from the sports festival that could be groomed to play for the national team.

ivers, the Abula game defending champions at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos over thw weekend boasted that they would retain the three gold medals at stake at the festival.

Paul Asaah, Head Coach of the team, disclosed this after his team defeated Team Oyo 2-0 in the game’s mixed doubles event.

Abula is one of the five traditional sports featuring at the festival.

Others were Dambe, Langa, Ayo and Kokawa (traditional wrestling).

The coach said that Rivers, hosts of the 17th edition of the 2011 festival in Port Harcourt were determined to retain its titles to prove its superiority in the game, whether home or away.

“Since the commencement of the event, I have beaten all my opponents 2-0 each in the male, female and mixed double categories of the game. The victories are due to the proper training of our athletes.

“I am expecting to win the three gold medals at the

High concentration of chlorine in pool forces swimming postponement

H

igh concentration of chlorine in the swimming pool at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, has compelled the organisers to postpone the event today at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos.

This was to have started

on Nov. 29, but was shifted to yesterday and finally moved to today.

Babatunde Williams, President, Nigeria Swimming Federation (NSF), said that the delay would provide enough time for the chemical to subside, to make the pool safe for

O

swimming.

“It is necessary that the concentration of the chlorine in the water is neither too high nor too low because this may affect the swimmers’ skins adversely. It may lead to burning eyes and nostrils, dry itchy skin and scalp, as

Nigerian swimmers getting set to dive into a pool

well as a cloudy pool, impairing under water visibility.

“We postponed the swimming event due to the safety of our swimmers. We discovered that the chlorine was too high and it can be dangerous to the skin.

“The technical people have added some chemicals to subdue the chlorine and we hope that by Monday the concentration would have reduced for swimmers to be able to swim.

“Our schedule will be very tight now, instead of starting today and finishing on Friday, we will now start on Monday (today) and finish on Saturday, because we have no choice,’’ FatayiWilliams said.

Also contributing, Olugbenga Lawal, the Technical Director of the competition reassured the contestants and their coaches that the pool would be ready for use on Monday.

“By then, the alkalinity of the pool would have worn-off, thereby reducing the harmful effect it may have on the swimmers,” he added.

Tennis coach suports NSC on open festival

D

otun Omoniyi, Head Coach, Ondo State Table Tennis Association, on Sunday urged the National Sports

Commission (NSC) to throw the National Sports Festival (NSF) open to all athletes.

Omoniyi made the call

Ondo boxer moves into quarter-finals via knock-out labode Olayide of Ondo State yesterday qualified for the quarter-finals of the men’s boxing event of the 18th National Sports Festival (NSF), holding in Lagos.

Olayide, a light welterweight, made mince meat of Owolabi Ajanaoro of Zamfara in the third round of their scheduled three rounder.

Ajanaoro was clearly ahead, having piled up points through good jabs in the first two rounds but soon lost

end of this game, like we clinched all in Rivers,“ he said.

Fred Lawrence, Rivers’ team Captain, said that constant training was the major factor that helped the team to record the feats. Rivers had defeated Benue, Bayelsa, Imo and Lagos, 2-0 each in the male events.

In the female category, Rivers had also defeated Imo and Lagos 2-0 each and Ondo State 2-1. Rivers is currently leading the table, followed by Ondo State and Bayelsa, in the male category.

Meanwhile, Sunday Donald, Team Borno’s Head Coach, said that his team did not prepare well for the game due to its last minutes registration, adding that it was also their first participation in the sport.

“This is the first time we are featuring in Abula game at the festival. Our preparation was two weeks before the tournament, we are only here to gain experience,“ he said.

Donald, however, added that his team had learnt a lot about the rules of the game and would go back to prepare well for the next edition of the festival in Calabar in 2014.

steam in the concluding third round.

Olayide, who had risked the first two rounds to size up his opponent, seized the moment when he noticed that Ajanaoro was gasping for breath to land telling punches that forced the referee to stop the contest.

Ajanaoro had made two forced trips to the canvass before the referee decided to call off the fight.

“My opponent was ahead of me on points, but I noticed that he lacked energy to

continue and so I took advantage of this and started landing heavy punches,’’ Olayide said, stressing that “most of his punches landed on my opponent’s head.’’

Ajanaoro said he could have kept him (Olayide) away with his jabs but made the mistake of going all out for a knock out.

“I was ahead on points and could have kept him away but I underestimated him and ran into a hook that brought me down in the third round,” he added.

at the National Stadium venue of the table tennis event of the ongoing Sports 18 th National Festival in Lagos, stressing that making it open would encourage athletes to be more committed.

He added that it would afford the amateurs the opportunity to compete with professional athletes and develop.

“Restricting athletes after three appearances or two at the Games and one international outing, should be reversed because continuous participation will help to bring out the best in them,’’ he said.

Omoniyi said that disallowing some athletes from featuring at subsequent festivals would result to some of them

losing interest in sports.

“Some talents come to limelight after four or five appearances at the Games as they get more zealous at every appearance because they want to improve and succeed.

“If we must make a headway, athletes should not be denied the opportunity of developing their skills since it’s a major Games that helps us to identify potential athletes,’’ he said.

The coach also decried the idea of states using mercenaries to win the festival at all costs, which, he noted, had distorted the goals of the festival and advised state governments to support school sports where talents could be identified and developed, rather than poaching.

B

oxing coaches in the o n g o i n g 18 th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos have appealed to the National Sports Commission (NSC) to commence the grooming of potential talents for the next Olympic Games.

They complained that talents that were discovered from previous sports festivals were not given the necessary exposure, to enable them to move to the next level of their careers.

They also said that the boxers taking part in the NSF are fighting according to the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) rules.

They also hailed the officiating of bouts by the Nigeria Boxing Judges and Referees Association and commended the use of electronic scoring devices.

John Aina, the Gombe State boxing coach, said that the NSC should make concerted efforts to train promising boxers for better performance at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.

The Ogun state boxing coach, Ajani Aremu, expressed delight with boxers’ compliance with the AIBA rules, adding that it would aid Nigeria’s quest to win medals at i n t e r n a t i o n a l competitions.

“If such trend continues, it would be easy to discover potentials who can win laurels for the country in international competitions,’’ he said.

Abayomi Oyeleye, the Borno State boxing coach, said that he was impressed with the officiating at the ongoing sports festival, saying that it was a good development for the sport in the country.

Wasiu Bisiriyu, Lagos state boxing coach noted that the officiating had been encouraging because of the electronic scoring devices they are using.

He said that most of the judges and referees were experienced and would not want to lose their credibility.

Vitalis Njiribiako, the Imo boxing coach, urged the Nigeria Boxing Referees and Judges Association to work assiduously to assist the country to discover the best boxers who would put Nigeria’s name on the world map.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 41

Keshi wants Sam for 2014 World Cup

S

uper Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi, is keen to add Sidney Sam to his side for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying games.

The Bayer Leverkusen winger, in spite of having declared his interest to play for Nigeria after representing Germany at Under19, 20 and 21 levels, will not be eligible to feature at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

But Keshi, who has indicated interest in the player, says that it will be good to add the 24-year-old to his team for the World Cup qualifying games next year.

“Sidney won’t be part of our plans for the Nations Cup in South Africa. We know why because that looks impossible now. But I’ll always consider him for the World Cup qualifiers as we need every top player at top levels, who show commitment, in the team to help our campaign.

“He has said he wants to play for Nigeria and that shows he is ready to commit himself. I pray the federation (NFF) gets him cleared in time too,” said Keshi.

An executive committee member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Effiong Johnson revealed to journalists in Lagos on Friday at the Agege Stadium that Sam’s issue was not discussed at the exco’s meeting in Abuja this week.

“That (Sam’s) issue wasn’t brought up at our most recent exco meeting. In the case of Victor Moses and Shola Ameobi it was brought up. So just may be the head coach (Keshi) hasn’t written officially to the federation.

“But the exco (of the NFF) will meet again next week (this week) and may be Sidney’s case will come up. Till then let’s wait,” said Effiong, who is also the chairman of Akwa Ibom FA.

CAF U-17: Nigeria S roast Mali in Bamako

Sydney Sam

Supersand Eagles called to camp

By Patrick Andrew

T

he Golden Eaglets proved too hard a nut a cracker for their Malian counterparts yesterday in the final phase return leg African U-17 Championship scheduled to be held next March, in Morocco.

The Eaglets outclassed their hosts with a stunning 2-0 win to seal their place in the tournament with an unassailable aggregate of 4-0 as they had earlier beaten them with the same margin at the UJ Esuene Stadium Calabar, a fortnight ago.

The Eaglets, who have been in a fine vein of form, took charge of the game right from the blast of the Guinean centre referee’s

Ahmed Sekou Toure’s whistle, and in spite of the raucous home crowd at the Stade Mamadou Konate.

Midfielder Alhassan Ibrahim,scorer of the second in the Eaglets’ 2-0 home win in Calabar on November 18, tormented the hosts all evening, and was inevitably involved in the first goal by big striker Success Isaac after 23 minutes.

Bernard Bulbwa wiped clean any hopes the home crowd might be nursing of a spectacular comeback by their team, when he scored the second goal 10 minutes after resumption. Nigeria qualified with a 4-0 aggregate.

Morocco will be Nigeria’s first outing at Africa’s kindergarten

party since lifting the trophy in Togo in 2007. The Golden Eaglets failed to qualify for the 2009 championship that took place in Algeria and the 2011 finals that were held in Rwanda.

Sunday’s win in sunny Bamako also capped a sunshine year for Nigeria football, in which all the National Teams qualified for all major tournaments for which they took part in qualifying campaigns.

Other countries that have qualified for Morocco 2013, which Draw Ceremony will be staged alongside that of the Algeria 2013 African Youth Championship in Cairo next Sunday, are: Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, CongoBrazzaville and host Morocco.

Member of the Victorious Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets

ixteen players have been invited to the camp of the Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles ahead of the second edition of the Copa Lagos Beach Soccer.

The players are Abdul Isah (Wikki Tourists) Oladapo Olalekan (Owisedi, Ojo, Lagos) Isiaka Olawale (Dolphins) Ikechukwu Ibenegbu (Heartland) Ogbonnaya Okemmiri (Kwara United) Victor Tale (Bassa United, Kogi) Abu Azeez (Bridge FC, Lagos) and Sheu Maijana (Wikki Tourists).

Others are Emmanuel Zabi (Makwada United, Yola) Babatunde Badmus (Owisedi, Ojo, Lagos) Emmanuel Owhoferia (Owisedi, Ojo, Lagos), Abutu Adofu (NYSC, Enugu), Ambrose Onyema (Enugu Rangers), Isah Akoh (Heartland), Danladi Isah (Lobi Stars) and Abdul Haruna (Heartland).

The three-day tournament is expected to take place at the Eko Atlantic Beach from December 14 to 16.

Hosts, Nigeria, Argentina, Portugal and Lebanon are the four countries that will participate in this year’s edition.

Head coach of the Nigerian side, Audu ‘Ejo’ Adamu told supersport.com that his wards are in good shape for the championship.

“All the players I have invited are very good and most of them took part in the last edition. We are ready to face our three foes and that is why the camp will open on Monday in which all invited players must resume or face the penalty,” Adamu said to supersport.com.

Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles are the defending champions after beating Brazil 9-4 in the final last year December.

NBB of C turns to festival for proffessional boxers

T

he Nigeria Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C) said yesterday that it was at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos to select talented boxers who wish to turn professional.

Remi Aboderin, Secretary of the NBB of C, said in Lagos that the “Eko 2012’’ sports fiesta was awash with talents.

According to him, “we have come here to watch bouts and select good boxers who are willing to turn professional, As far as I am concerned, we have good boxers here’’.

He added that the boxers to be selected must be above the amateur level and should be able to represent Nigeria and make a mark in international competitions.

“I have noticed that some of the boxers are good enough to turn professional, though we cannot force anybody, except for the good ones who wish to take that step.

“Of course, any boxer who must

be selected for professional boxing must have passed through the amateur level and must have made their mark for Nigeria in international competitions,’’ he said.

Aboderin also commended the officiating, stressing that referees and judges have being doing a wonderful job.

Meanwhile, the boxing competition which is still in the preliminary stages recorded a knockout in the 64kg male category on Sunday when Adeniyi Korede of Team Kogi knocked out Ashiru Abubakar of Team Katsina in the first round.

Olajide Soyelu of FCT and Kabiru Salawu of Rivers also defeated Emmanuel Egode of Team Delta and Umeh Osita of Team Edo, 16-14 and 7-1, in the 64kg, respectively, through split decisions.

In the same category, Olaide Fijabi of Team Lagos also outpunched his opponent Yusuf Mufutau of Team Ekiti in a 5-2 decision.

Super Eagles reject Niger’s Mena AFCON warm-up

N

igeria have turned down a request from Niger for an AFCON warm-up on January 4, officials have confirmed, even as the Stephen Keshi tutored side continue to seeking quality opposition to toughen them for the continental quest.

Both Nigeria and next-door

neighbours Niger Republic have qualified for the 2013 Nations Cup and are shopping for opponents to prepare them for the tournament, which kicks off on January 19 in Johannesburg.

Niger technical director Garba Lawali revealed that the Eagles rejection from his base in Niamey.

“We asked Nigeria for a friendly on January 4 before the Nations Cup, but they turned it down because they said by that time they would be in Faro, Portugal. We are now looking at playing Libya, Cameroon or Togo in Niamey on that date,” Lawali a wire service.

Both Nigeria and Niger played

out a goalless draw in another friendly played in Niamey.

Nigeria lined up only players from the domestic league, while Mena of Niger were fortified by some of their overseas-based stars including skipper Ouwo Moussa Maazou.

Also as part of their build-up for their second AFCON, a home-based

Niger team will take on Morocco in a test game on December 22.

This will be two days after the training camp for players from the local league has opened in Niamey. Niger are drawn in Group D in Port Elizabeth along with four-time winners Ghana, Mali and DR Congo.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

PAGE 47

Quick CrossWord (81)

Say what?

ACROSS 7 Rods for support (6) 8 Long oars (6) 9 Brand-name lager (4) 10 Australian bird (3) 11 Country in which you’d find Royal Tunbridge Wells (4) 12 Spent (4,2) 14 Milestone ages (6) 16 Eased off (6) 19 Putrid (6) 21 __ Stravinsky, Russian composer (4) 23 Document acknowledging a debt (inits) (3) 24 __ Streets, Robert De Niro film (4) 25 Shoe without laces (4-2) 26 Performs (6)

SUDOKU Getting Started Each sudoku puzzle is a 9 by 9 grid of horizontal and vertical rows, evenly separated into 9 squares with 9 spaces each.

Instead of word clues, each puzzle’s solution is determined by the pattern of the numbers already filled in you. You solve the puzzle by filling in the missing digits so that, when completed, each row and each square will have all the number from 1 to 9; each number will appear in exactly nine spaces within each puzzle.

Yesterday’s answer

DOWN 1 Fuels (a boiler) (6) 2 Eliminate, to reduce a population (4) 3 Dormant (6) 4 Tell positively (6) 5 Dip (food into a drink) (4) 6 Cringe (6) 13 On the __, punctually (3) 17 Ring-shaped hard-custed rolls (6) 18 Condescends (6) 19 Ways (6) 20 Glorifies (6) 22 Slashes (4) 24 Low murder of pain (4)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Yesterday’s solution

Crush: Tens of thousands of hopeful graduates flooded a jobs fair in Chongqing, China.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

SPORTS LA TEST LATEST

Benitez expects Chelsea sack

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afael Benitez has admitted he is not certain his position is secure after his nightmare start to life at Chelsea continued with a 3-1 defeat at West Ham. The reverse means Chelsea have now gone seven Premier League games without a win, Benitez still searching for his first triumph, having already become the first manager of the Roman Abramovich era not win one of his opening two matches.

Chelsea's fans again made their feelings known, chanting "You're not welcome here'' and joining in with a song from the home fans that went "You're getting sacked in the morning".

Benitez might only have been in charge for three games but his position is already being questioned in some quarters with Roman Abramovich not known as a patient owner.

Asked if he feared he would not last very long at Stamford Bridge, Benitez - whose contract is until the end of the season - said: "I would say that it depends on the things that we can do on the pitch. So, if we improve on the pitch, it will be easier for everyone.''

Pressed on the fact he did not sound 100 per cent sure of his position, he replied: "No, I am not 100 per cent. We didn't win today - that is the main thing.''

Benitez insisted he was not wracked by fear over the job he has only been in for less than 11 days but admitted it might be a tougher assignment than he had envisaged. He said: "It could be in terms of, it's a top side, it's in the middle of the season and obviously the results were not the best, so we will try improve things and it will take some times maybe. We will see.''

Benitez insisted his focus was less on his job and more on improving on a game in which his players badly let him down. The 52-year-old all but admitted his current squad - shorn of injured stars John Terry and Frank Lampard - lacked fighting spirit.

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QUO TABLE Q UO TE UOT QUO UOTE To (CBN Governor) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, I'll say 'physician, heal thyself'...With over 20 directors, I wonder why he should be advising other agencies to prune down.

–– Victo Ogene, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs

Trimming the state Shortcuts may carry more traffic than the main road - Ugandan proverb. n spite of the torrents of scathing criticisms and curses which trailed his report call for trimming the federal civil service by as much as 50% for consuming 70% of the country’s budget on salaries and allowances, it is almost certain that Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank, is sitting pretty, enjoying all the furore he had triggered. It is in the character of the man to stir the hornet’s nest, possibly because he knows that the hornet’s sting has no bite. In virtually every one of his famed altercations, he had taken on foes and positions which were already substantially weakened by their own internal contradictions. His extensive knowledge of the banking and financial sector helped him in taking on colleagues in banks that were virtual, elaborate corporate frauds operating under political protection and damaging complicity of state institutions. The cast iron CBN Act gives him huge protection to take on the legislature almost on a regular basis, and not blink. His high profile support for reforming the subsidy regime earned him legions of new enemies; but he was well-placed to know that the public was on the losing side in the battle to preserve the scandalously-corrupt contraption called fuel subsidy.

By the time Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi ceases to be Governor of the CBN, he would have created a new image of a public officer who ruffles feathers with personal courage, professionalism and an abiding need to remain visible in the public domain. To his legion of enemies, Malam Sanusi appears to have added civil servants, whose jobs he reportedly said should be sacrificed so that money for capital expenditure will be available for budgeting.

It is difficult to speak up for Malam Sanusi’s periodic forays into controversy, because he has a way of explaining away assumptions, misinterpretations, miscalculations or any one of many hostile reactions to his provocations. He had taken on the federal legislature over certain costs of its operations and its relationship with the national budget.

The fiasco that followed cost an arm and a leg, quite probably the legislators’; and it marked a new low in the relationship between the CBN Governor and the legislators. It is possible that he will explain this furore away by insisting that he meant total personnel cost in the budget, not salaries of civil servants.

Predictably, the demand for a radical reduction of the workforce to reduce personnel cost and boost the

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FIFTEEN MINUTES with Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed drbabaahmed@yahoo.com

CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi size of the capital budget, though not new, has been denounced by labour and a host of other traditional elements of the anti-Sanusi opposition. To be sure, Sanusi had been marked by labour as a mortal enemy since his subsidy-removal role, and although he had consistently drawn attention to areas of waste and corruption, these had little impact because they were muffled by the public odium he had acquired over the subsidy issue.

Ideally, it would make better sense to wait for Malam Sanusi to avail the nation with the facts and figures that will vindicate his reported claim over salaries of civil servant.

But these facts and figures may not be forthcoming, and if or when they do, they may simply open up another dimension in a debate started long before Malam Sanusi joined it, and which is unlikely to be concluded to anyone’s satisfaction. At this stage, it is safe to say that the CBN Governor is way off the mark if he thinks that civil servants will radically improve the quantum of funds available for real investment in infrastructure and human capital development.

Civil servants are the nonpolitical level of the public service which receives salaries and consolidated allowances. They form part of the public service, which includes public officers who are not civil servants, para-military organizations and security agencies, political appointees of all types, and sundry appointees who hold their offices at the pleasure of political office holders.

A damaging misconception has

persisted which lumps career civil servants with other public officers, and “personnel cost” in budgets is routinely passed-off as the cost of salaries and allowances of civil servants. If he has figures, the CBN Governor will do the nation a great service if he can make public, total remuneration of civil servants in relation to political appointees, elected officials, legislators, judicial officers, and the wider public service. He could state the proportion of personnel cost in overall recurrent expenditure.

He could also provide an analyses of that fraud called overheads, and trace where it ends. He may find that takehome pays of civil servants represents a very small percentage of overall recurrent expenditure.

The legislature is reluctant to pry too deeply into sub-head 1 because it has its own baggage of huge salaries and away of political appointees.

No excuses should be made for people at the level of Malam Sanusi for not knowing the difference between career civil servants, the core bureaucracy which runs Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and the wider public service, particularly the huge noncivil service layer which exists above and around it, and which increases by the day. But in the event that there is some confusion, the civil servant is that creature who struggled just two years ago for an N18,000 national minimum wage.

The federal civil servant keeps the machinery of state going, a state run by political office holders who receive huge amounts as salaries and allowances, legislated by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission under President Yar’Adua. These include the President and Vice President, all political appointees, Permanent Secretaries, legislators, judicial officers, C.E.Os of parastatals, members of Boards of agencies and statutory bodies, Governors, Commissioners, Local Government Chairmen and Councillors, and every other political appointee (Advisers, SSAs, SAs etc) and public office holders appointed by politicians at will. S/he is blamed for every ill in

the system by the political level,yet is absolutely indispensable. S/he is paid wretched wages but survives because the political level’s patronage system allows massive corruption from which s/he benefits.

The federal civil servant is that human specie that travels for two or three hours every day from the far outreaches of the FCT and neighbouring States to come to work and go back home. His/her salary and allowances are consolidated under a contraption called CONTISS, and it does not cover even half of basic needs. S/he processes and documents massive contracts and frauds, and partakes in the largess. S/he lives on the margins of existence, and would have walked away long ago but for the pervasiveness of corruption in the system for which s/he is both a victim and a beneficiary.

Last week, the federal civil servant would have heard that NNPC will spend N2.1 trillion in 2013; that only 249 staff of the PPPRA, an oil and gas related agency will receive salaries amounting to N6.2bn in 2013; that the Minister of Petroleum plans to spend N6.2 for awareness campaign around the Petroleum Industry Bill; and the presidency intends to build a new banquet hall at the cost of N2.2b.

Very little, if any, of these colossal sums will go to the civil servant, but s/he will know where the crumbs are.

Sadly, even if savings were to be made from salaries of civil servants, corruption by the political level will make them irrelevant in terms of improving available resources for real development.

Malam Sanusi has fired a shot at a real problem, and it is important that the nation does not shut its ears against the message because it dislikes the messenger. The real issue is that the cost of governance is too high because too many people are paid for doing absolutely nothing. These are not civil servants, but an entire army of political appointees, C.E.Os and Boards and staff of Agencies and parastatals which are no more than monstrous anachronisms, political cronies, and public office holders who receive huge pays and steal the nation blind. Virtually everyone on the list of public office holders covered by the current pay structure is grossly overpaid, and civil servants are grossly underpaid. The nation runs a wasteful federal system and a bicameral structure that adds no value to the quality of our governance or democratic system. It is not the civil service that deprives the nation of resources. It is politicians and their cronies who receive huge salaries and allowances, and run quite possibly the most corrupt system known to man. This is the parasitic layer that needs to be drastically trimmed.

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234-09-8734478. Cell: +234 803 606 3308. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141