Peoples Daily Newspaper, Saturday 06, July, 2013

Vol. 3 No. 46

SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

SHA’ABAN 28 - 29, 1434 AH

INTERVIEW

ISSUES

MAGAZINE

Legality of service chiefs appointment is not affected until final hearing – Prof.

Pg 12 Yadudu

I have never accepted bribe in my life – Ribadu

The North, PIB and fiscal federalism: What option?

N150

Colonel courtmartialled over Azazi loot Pg 8

Pg 24,25,26

Pg 46

COVER

Sack of service chiefs: What went wrong

A scene of a drama presentation entitled “Hijab is my Pride” by members of the Muslim Students Society of Zinarai International School, Mararaba, Nasarawa State during the Society’s Week held at the school premises recently.

Pg 9,10,11

VIEWS FROM ABROAD

When is a military coup not a military coup?

Pg 27

NEWS

Father beheads son over witchcraft

NEWS

Pg 2

Ramadan: National Mosque suspends 2013 iitikaf

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

News

N100m scam hits Zamfara Zakat board From Ibrahim Sidi Muhammad, Gusau

B L-R: Majority Leader House of Representatives, Alhaja Mulikat Akande, Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina and the Vice President, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, observing the National Anthem, during the Flag-off of the Culture and Tourism Night, at the Villa, on Thursday in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Ramadan: National Mosque suspends 2013 iitikaf

By Stanley Onyekwere

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he management Board of Abuja National Mosque has announced the suspension of the holding of 2013 iitikaf in the Mosque during the forthcoming holy month of Ramadan, on security grounds.

Iitikaf is one of the religious activities observed annually by thousands of Muslim fateful during the last ten days of the Ramadan fasting period.

According to a press statement issued yesterday by the Executive Secretary of the

Mosque, Alh. Ibrahim A. Jega, , the suspension became necessary considering that the Mosque has series of activities which include Tafsir (Translation of the Glorious Quran) for both male and female ; Taraweeh and Tahajuud prayers in addition to the five daily prayers.

He said that annually, over 5000 Muslims from all parts of the country camp and observe iitikaf in the Mosque, for which the management cannot adequately provide security for the participants. “ Fellow Muslim brothers and

sisters are therefore to observe their iitikaf in Juma’at Mosques nearest to them”, he explained.

According to him, “Experiences in the past have shown that some criminallyminded individuals in the guise of observing the iitikaf go about perpetrating their nefarious acts …, and as result we had reported cases of theft of things like phones, laptop and so on.

He however disclosed that the National Mosque is collaborating with other Islamic organisations to feed the needy during the holy month.

Coup: AU suspends Egypt indefinitely

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he AU suspended Egypt from all its activities yesterday after the Egyptian military overthrew the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, a senior AU official said. ``As mandated by the relevant AU instruments, the AU Peace and Security Council decided to suspend the participation of Egypt in AU activities until the restoration of constitutional order,” said Admore

Kambudzi, secretary of the council.

Suspension is the AU’s usual response to any interruption of constitutional rule by a member state. In March it suspended the Central African Republic after rebels overthrew the government.

In recent years, it has meted out similar treatment to Madagascar and Mali, although Mali’s suspension has since been lifted.

Tunisia and Turkey were among

Muslim countries to denounce Morsi’s overthrow as a coup.

The U.S. and EU refrained from using that description but called for a swift return to democratic rule.

Following the swearing-in of Adli Mansour on Thursday as interim head of state, the next step in the Egyptian army’s ``road map’’ back to democracy is the formation of an interim government in the next few days perhaps tomorrow. (Reuters/

urglars successfully entered the Zamfara state Zakat and Endowment board at midnight yesterday,carting away about N100 million meant for distribution to the destitute in the state annually.

Sources from the board who spoke with Peoples Daily under the condition of anonymity, said the money was withdrawn for distribution to beneficiaries yesterday, but the Chairman of the board and his Secretary insisted on withdrawing the money from the bank two days ahead of the exercise despite the board’s lack of a secured place for keeping.

“If you take a look at the hole the burglars dug to have their way into the office where the money was kept, and the scattered money wrappers at the scene, you would be made to understand that the stolen money was shared on the spot”, a source added.

“The burglars had to tied up the security guards on duty before they could have their way in for business. Police have already arrested the guards and some staffers of the board, but

I don’t have any idea who and who were arrested among the staff, and we were told that the Chairman and the Secretary of the board were also invited by the Police for explanation”, the source said.

While accosted by newsmen at the Tudun Wada Police division, the disturbed chairman and the executive secretary of the board, Alhaji Liman Dan Alhaji and Mallam Bashir Surajo respectively, declined comment, but the chairman could only say “we cannot say anything right now because we are in trouble” .

The Public Relations Officer of the state police command, DSP Lawal Abdullahi, confirmed the incident, saying it is not a hundred million naira as speculated but the stolen money was N9.5 million, upon which they have already arrested five suspects in connection with the case of criminal conspiracy and theft.

“We are aware of the incident, and five persons mostly the staff of the board who could not be mentioned as investigation is on, have been arrested in connection with the crime and as soon as investigation is concluded, they will be charged to court” he said.

Jonathan elevates Justice Kekere-Ekun to Supreme Court Justice

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

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resident Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Justice K.M.O. Kekere-Ekun as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

A statement by the Acting Director, Information of National Judicial Council (NJC), Mr. Soji Oye said Justice Keker-Ekun’s elevation to the Supreme Court followed the recommendation of

the NJC, under the Chairmanship of Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, who is also the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The statement added that the presidential approval is sequel to confirmation of the appointment by the Senate on 26th June, 2013.

Justice K.M.O. Kekere-Ekun will be sworn-in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria on Monday, 8th July 8, 2013 at 12:00 Noon, in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Father beheads son over witchcraft

By Mike Etim, Uyo

I

n what appeared to be a feat of rage, a 43 years old man (name withheld, has allegedly beheaded his 6years old stepson after branding him a witch.

The incident which occurred in Ikot Ndua Iman in Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, was said to have caught the community by surprise as the man was said to be a quiet one, not known with violence.

People Daily Weekend, gathered that the man who is a council staff with the Onna

Local Government, had often complained that the boy’s practice of witchcraft, was the reason why the family was experiencing poverty.

Reports have it that on the fateful day, Emmanuel was said to have come home with his two friends and where chatting when the father allegedly suspected that his stepson was chanting some incantations in company of his friends and pounced on him.

However, when the boy tried to escape, he caught and beheaded him with a matchete.

His two friends were said to

have ran for their lives.

However the village head at Ikot Ndua Iman who was informed of the ugly incident, reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer of the area who later evacuated the decapitated body while the father was arrested.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Etim Dickson confirmed the report.

In a related development, the state commissioner of police, Umar Gwadabe while briefing the press on Wednesday expressed

dissatisfaction over the rising cases of violence perpetrated on persons accused of witchcraft by so called prophets and prophetess.

The Police Chief warned individuals from branding their children and warned that those who engage in such acts would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Gwadabe, said police in the state were often called upon to rescue vulnerable persons like women, children and the elderly who were falsely accused of being witches and subjected to untold

acts of torture and brutality by criminal elements.

The commissioner cited an incident where two male children Mmeyene 9, and Samuel 6, who were branded as witches in a village called Ikot Obio Asanga were rescued in a toilet having been locked up for 14 days without food and water, describing the act as man’s inhumanity to man.

He pointed out that the father of the children and the prophetess who carried out the acts have been arrested and charged to court.

News

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 3

BCG lauds Yuguda for returning to NSGF

Demand punishment for corrupt persons, Group charges Nigerians

By Melea Jude Moses & Nami Hassan Kadir

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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civil society group, CorruptionFree Government in Nigeria (CFGIN) has urged Nigerians to stand up against the endemic corruption ravaging the country by consistently demanding for appropriate punitive measures on indicted persons.

The group gave the charge yesterday, in Abuja, when it declared an anti-corruption revolution of the Nigerian people against treasury looting, squandermania and official recklessness in the Nigerian society.

CFGIN expressed concern over what it described as, “an unprecedented level that high government official and their private collaborators are looting half of the nation’s annual budget- fueling cars under the dubious shade of petroleum subsidy.”

Speaking at the event, Convener CFGIN, Okenwa Enyeribe, said it was evident that the monstrous corruption in the land, if allowed to continue, would lead to the collapse of the Nigerian state, “which will imperil future generations.”

“A country where 100 security men can be killed in one swoop, what kind of country is that? President Barrack Obama decided not to visit Nigeria, why? To hear and see rot and decadence and wretchedness, deceit and dubiousness, he cannot come.”

He also said that the group wants to mobilise a one million man-march against corruption, in Abuja and other towns in the country, until government was “re-channeled to the part of responsibility, discipline and ethics prescribed in the constitution, to usher in urgently-needed self reliance, prosperity and happiness for every Nigerian independent of religion, tribe and geographical location.”

Peoples Daily reports that some of the messages brandished by the group during the declaration of the movement include: “The solution to Boko Haram is dialogue, because Boko Haram erupted from deceit and corruption; and sycophants feed fat daily on insecurity. Rats of Nigerian states.”

“There will be no election in Nigeria in 2015. We’ll not be fooled again.

We are not yet mugs! Obliterate corruption before election… Join the patriotic revolution now.”

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L-R: Treasurer, Northern Local Government Chairman’s Forum (NLGCF), Mrs. Juliana Obetta, Chairman, Hon. Mohammed Ali and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Nicholas Nshe, during the Inauguration of the Executive of the Forum, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Emir cautions NURTW on underage drivers From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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he Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Zubairu Jibril Maigwari yesterday cautioned members of National Union of Road Transport Worker (NURTW) to checkmate the rise of underage drivers among its members.

According to him, it was not proper to give cars to such underage youth to avoid unnecessary accidents on the roads.

Speaking during the NURTW

Man sues ex-wife 15 years after divorce over custody of daughter

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45-year-old man, Aliyu Mohammed of Sabo Tasha, Kaduna State, has sued his former wife, Rabi Atong at the Upper Customary Court, Daura Road, over the custody of his daughter. The action came 15 years after the couple separated.

The petitioner, Mohammed, told the court that he wanted the custody of his daughter, Jemima, to give her ``good upbringing’’.

He said he was not satisfied with the kind of training the mother was giving to the daughter. ``She does not regard me as a father but rather relates with me as someone else without respect and when I punish her, the mother comes to fight me,’’ Mohammed said.

he Bauchi Conscience Group has commended Governor Isa Yuguda for taking a bold step by rescinding his decision to opt out from the Northern Governors Forum last month following the controversial election of Chairman Nigerian Governors Forum.

The commendation was made in a statement issued and signed by its coordinator, Barrister Jibrin Sa’id Jibrin and Comrade Ja’afar Ibrahim Dass and made available to newsmen in Bauchi.

“It is with deep sense of patriotism that the entire members of this group wishes to salute Governor Yuguda for taking bold step of heeding to our call as well as the advice of our elder statesmen to return to the Northern Governors Forum”, statement added.

But Atong, pleaded not guilty to the allegations and told the court that she was capable of taking care of her daughter.

“I am a nurse and earn over N104, 000 as monthly salary,” she said. Atong added that she had been taking care of the daughter since they divorced on May 25, 1999.

“I want him back to the house and not taking my daughter away, he built the house for us to stay and I promised him that our marriage was till death do us part,” she added.

The presiding Judge, Mrs. Dorothy Inuwulale, said that the court would look into the matter and ensure that justice was done.

Inuwulale adjourned the case till July 16 for judgment. (NAN)

Central Working Committee and National Executive Council Meeting CWC/NEC held in Kaduna, the emir called on drivers to avoid reckless overtaking while on highways.

“Each time I am driving from Birnin Gwari to Kaduna somebody always test the longevity of my life through reckless driving…I also call on NURTW to please caution against underage drivers among its members because most of them do not understand the rules of driving thereby playing with passengers’ lives.

“I attend this NURTW meeting because you are important, you drive the economy, you take raw materials to industries. You take goods and food to people all over the country. I believe you are contributing to the economic well being of this country,” he said.

Earlier in his remark, NURTW National President, Malam Najeem Usman Yasin attributed most of the accidents taken place in Nigeria to bad roads.

The National President further assured the members that a clinic that would take care of its members in terms of

emergency, have been set up just as he called on them to make use of the opportunity provided by the union to all its members to further their education at Nigerian Open University.

Malam Najeem Yasin also frowned at the activities of Local government Areas with regards to using thugs as tax collectors from motorists.

He described the youths as hoodlums who have the backing of local government authorities and called on the police to arrest such youth because their activities were against Nigeria’s constitution.

Yankari Resort rakes N13m revenue in 14 monthscouncilor in Benue From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he Yankari Resort and Safari in Bauchi state has generated the sum of N13million between last year and the first quarter of 2013, the state Commissioner for Tourism and culture, Alhaji Salihu Ibrahim disclosed this at a press briefing held at Umar Abubakar Secretariat Bauchi yesterday, saying that the sum of N8 million was generated in 2012 while N5 million was realised in the first quarter of 2013.

According to him, this would complement its revenue drive, adding that it was a miracle to the state in terms of internally generated revenue.

Ibrahim attributed the decline

in revenue generation to lack of publicity and other necessary facilities such as website to educate tourists about the potentialities of the Resort.

He said the state ministry of tourism was working assiduously to provide a website for the Resort and equally embark on aggressive public enlightenment on the potentialities of the premier resort.

It would be recalled that the state government has consistently said that the Yankari Resort and Safari would complement its revenue so as to reduce overdependence on statutory allocation from the federation account.

He revealed that over N400, 000 was used to purchase digital

and still cameras to enhance documentation of tourist attractions and other related activities in the Resort.

He stated that two 500KVA Generators were purchased and installed at Yankari Game Reserve adding that “approval has been given for the procurement of firefighting equipment for the Resort at the cost of N16, 340,500.00 and was duly purchased”.

He said “anti- poaching activities have been stepped up thus bringing it under control and 6 separate arrests involving 14 persons were made recently. About 20 local hunters were employed and rangers to check poaching activities in the game reserve”

Photo Splash PAGE 4

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

New looks of Oyo-Ibadan road Inaugurated by Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen in Ibadan on Thursday.

L-R: Chairman, House Of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, Hon. Isiaq Akinlade; Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Dr. Saidu Mohammed and his Wife, Aisha, during the reception in honour of the Director-General in Abuja.

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Danladi Kefasi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martins Ohoimobhi, and Acting Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Alhaji Kabir Mashi, during the sensitisation workshop for local staff of Embassies on Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Withholding Tax (WHT) and VAT on Contractors and Tax Payers Identification Number (TIN) held in Abuja

L-R: Director, Political and Civic Education, National Orientation Agency, Prince Afam Anene, Representative of the Chairman of Occasion, Lady Awyetu D. Ngbako and, Esu of Jikwoyi, AMAC, Abuja Dr. Bawa S. Jetta, at the One-day Roundtable on Promoting Women Political Empowerment, Peace and Security held in Karu, FCT, on Thursday in Abuja.

Commissioner of Police, Plateau, Mr. Chris Olakpe (middle), displaying weapons recovered from armed robbery suspects, at the Police Headquarters in Jos on Thursday.

Photos: Mahmud Isa, Justin Imo-Owo and NAN.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 22

News

— SUNDAY 23, JUNE, 2013

Crises: Nigerian leaders sick in the heart, says Cleric From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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Kano state Governor, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso (middle) by the left is the representative of the Emir of Kano, Wamban Kano, Alhaji Abbas Sunusi Bayero, and the state’s deputy governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (right) during the official inaugurating of house numbering, street naming exercise and provision of ID cards to all residents in Kano state recently.

ASUU, ASUP Strike: Students plan anti-government protests

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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s activities across universities and polytechnics nationwide continues to remain grounded following the commencement of indefinite strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Unions of Polytechnics (ASUP), students and youth movements are gearing up for mass anti government protests and rallies to support the striking union.

Peoples Daily Weekend gathered yesterday that the protest would be held simultaneously in Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja, Kaduna and Owerri.

A source in the planning committee said, “we have met with other student movements and we want to avert 2011 ASUU strike, you know ASUP has been ongoing for months and government has

... Say NANS should wake up

not resolved the issue, now we are mobilizing serious mass actions because that is the only language our government understands.”

The source said contacts are been established with other civil societies, university unions and the Nigeria Labour Congress to participate in the protests.

Meanwhile students under the auspice of Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has fully backed the decision of the Union to embark on an indefinite strike following Federal Government’s persistent refusal to fully implement the FGN/ASUU agreement signed since 2009. The students called on the government to meet ASUU’s demands immediately.

ERC National Coordinator, Hassan Taiwo Soweto, in a

statement, said the fact that ASUU strike is coming on the heels of several industrial actions already racking the education sector such as the National Union of Teachers (NUT) strike and particularly the nationwide strike of ASUP and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) which has lasted for more than 70 days, there is nowhere else to lay the blame than the doorsteps of the government.

“It is very unfortunate that nothing is being heard from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). This gives the wrong impression that perhaps students have no grievances or demands to put on the table.

Meanwhile students bear the brunt of government anti-poor policies of education underfunding and

commercialisation.

Nearly 10 students have been killed by the police this year alone during protests on campuses.

ERC said students need to organise themselves and put forward their grievances and demands on fee hike, underfunding, inadequate facilities, poor municipal services and victimisation etc.

“We call on NANS to immediately declare and begin to mobilise for a one-day nationwide lecture boycott and mass protest as a way to put forward students demands and also to give active solidarity support to the strike actions of ASUU, ASUP and SSANIP. ERC calls on the striking unions to link up their struggles together by mobilising for joint rallies, protest and mass demonstrations.

55 year old Farmer remanded for killing housewife From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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55 years old farmer, Onugbai Godwin, has been remanded in federal prison, Mandala by an Ilorin Magistrate’s Court for alleged killing of his neighbour and housewife, Ramat Kareem.

The accused was alleged to have engaged in physical fight with the deceased which led to his death on June 25 at Akerebiata area of Ilorin.

The Prosecuting Police officer,

Sgt. Fatimoh Ajape told the court that investigation revealed that the accused pushed the deceased to the ground. The victim was later confirmed dead at the Oluwakemi Hospital in Ilorin.

According to Police First Information Report(FIR), the accused was charged for culpable homicide contrary to section 222 of Penal Code Law. The Police Report indicated that “ on 26th June,2013 at about 1530hrs, the case was transfered from ‘C’ Division Police Headquar-

ters, Oja Oba, Ilorin to the State CID Ilorin for discreet investigation.

“On 25th June,2013 at about 0730hrs,one Alfa Abdulkareem Sani(m) of No. 2,Tinu Street, Akerebiata area,Ilorin reported at ‘C’ Division Police Headquarters OjaOba Ilorin that on the same day at about 0630hrs, at same address, you Onugbai Godwin(m) of the same address engaged in physical fight with his wife named Ramat Abdulkareem(f) of the same address who is your co-tenant where

you Onugbai Godwin(m) pushed her down which led to her untimely death at Oluwekemi Clinic and Maternity Ilorin”.

The prosecutor who alleged that the farmer had committed the offence, objected to the bail of the accused on ground that the alleged offence was not ordinarily bailable.

Magistrate, Mrs. Oluwatosin Adeniyi, ordered the remand of the accused in Mandala Prison Yard, Ilorin and adjourned the case till July 17, 2013 for further mention.

he founder of Darul kitab Wassuna College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Ilorin, Kwara state, Dr. AbdulQodir Sholagberu has attributed the crisis in Nigeria to sickness in the hearts of the nation’s leaders .

The Islamic scholar observed that without good hearts, leaders could not achieve and ensure peace within their domains.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the College in Ilorin, Solagberu said “ without mincing words, as it is rightly known, there are three categories of hearts namely; the living heart, the sick heart and the dead heart. Unfortunately for us in Nigeria, majority of our leaders are carriers of sick and dead hearts as the case may be while those with living heart are just but few.

“Leaders with the first two categories of hearts emerged by mere coincidence and to be sincere with you, they have nothing to offer the masses than to embezzle the wealth of the nation and at the same time gather properties for selfish interest without putting the interest of the masses into consideration.

“Furthermore, leaders with the third category of heart are people that really mean well for the people but because of their few numbers, they could not make any meaningful change in the society.

“It is also saddening to say that as a result of bad leadership, Nigeria has remained a perpetually watchful nation compared to other countries that are reactive and creative for the growth of their people and advancement of their respective economies.

“Therefore, for Nigeria to move to the ladder of reactive and creative nations of the world, more needed to be done by religious clerics, government agencies and individuals in the areas of change of mind and attitudes towards the teachings of Allah and His messenger in order to build a society with love, equity, justice and fairness.

“Let me categorically say here that the terrorism insurgents have witnessed on Nigeria in the recent time is alien to Islamic religion which is regarded globally as a religion of peace. Muslims are not terrorists neither does Islamic religion encourage one.

“But to overcome this dastard act, let everybody check his heart and determine which categories of heart carriers he belongs as I urge government to provide more jobs to absorb Nigerian graduates and many more whom we shall be turning out now and in the future time”, he said

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Crime Cycle

pmlcrimecycle@gmail.com 08138559513 (SMS only)

Fraud: Beware of impostors, AEPB warns residents

By Stanley Onyekwere

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he Acting Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has warned residents against giving money to impostors collecting money on behalf of the board as payment for any environmental bill served them.

She stressed that the boards do not send people around to engage in cash transaction with the public for any of its services, saying, ‘even after alleged payment to the impostors the victim when arrested for nonpayment of outstanding debt, would be made to do so through the appropriate channel.’

Adebayo who issued the warning while reacting to allegation of cash collection by AEPB officials told reporters that it is a criminal offence for

any of its staff to engage in such act as there is nothing like cash transaction for services rendered in the board.

According to her, the board has provided a list of designated banks on its bills, which anyone can go and make payment for any environmental service rendered by the board in the FCT. Explaining further, she said: “In the interest of the public, we don’t send people around collecting money on our behalf; even when we go out to enforce payment on defaulters, they are only asked to go and pay in any of the designated banks.”

She therefore appealed to residents to always refuse giving anybody cash on behalf of the board, but endeavour to locate any of the designated banks and make payment there.

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IGM Mohammed Abubakar

Two in court for aiding escape of an accused from custody

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wo men, Lateef Ojo, 29, and Afees Salami, 25, were arraigned by the police in Lagos, for allegedly allowing an accused to escape from the custody of a neighbourhood watch (vigilante group).

The accused are facing a two-count charge of allowing an accused to escape arrest and threatening violence, at an Apapa Senior Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.

The duo, who reside at

Oko Efo Area, Orile, Apapa, Lagos, however, pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Friday Inedu, said that the accused aided one Olumide Adekunle, who was arrested by vigilante groups over alleged stealing, to escape from their custody.

Inedu also told the court that the accused armed themselves with broken bottles, threatening to stab a member of the vigilante group,

Mr Rasheed Yusuf, for having the effrontery to arrest Adekunle.

He said that the offences were committed on June 4 at about 7:00 a.m. at Oko Efo in Orile, Apapa, Lagos.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 56 and 107 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 107 of the law stipulates

Court dissolves Pastor’s 20-year-old marriage

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n Orile-Agege Customary Court in Lagos has dissolved the 20-yearold marriage of a pastor, who had accused his wife of infidelity and threat to life.

Pastor Sunday Owonikoko,51, had filed a petition at the court on May 27, saying he could no longer continue with his wife, Bolajoko,47.

Ruling in the case, the Court President, Mr Joseph Adewusi, said that the marriage had broken down irretrievably.

He said: “Starting from today, you cease to be addressed as husband and wife; you shall go your separate ways and maintain the peace.

“The custody of the underaged among the children is referred to Ikeja Family Court for final decision, but in the interim, the children should remain with the petitioner.

“The petitioner, Pastor Sunday Owonikoko, should pay a compensation fee of N25,000 to the defendant and also secure accommodation for her.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pastor, who lives at 1 Alowole St., Papa Ashafa, Orile-Agege, had told the court that his wife was still seeing her ex-lovers.

“My wife once travelled to Ghana to meet one of her concubines; she did family planning without my consent and she goes out at will.

“She was suspended from the church for six months because she fought with all the ministers in the church.

“She established her own church, she fought all the members of the church, and they all left,” he said.

The father of four children,

Painter bags 4 months for theft

aged between 11 years and 19 years, had also told the court that his wife threatened to destroy him and the church.

“I want the court to dissolve the union and grant me custody of my children,” he had said. Bolajoko, an evangelist, had, however, denied the allegations in her response.

She said:”My husband is adulterous; he has slept with almost all the sisters in the church; and presently mother of seven is living with him as I speak and he has made the woman an evangelist.”

Bolajoko told the court that her husband had “lost his mind’’ since he ate vegetable soup in the house of one of the sisters in the church.

“I don’t love him anymore, I want a divorce,’’ she had said.

(NAN)

seven years imprisonment for aiding offender to escape from lawful custody.

Senior Magistrate Adeyemi Amos granted each of the accused N20,000 bail, with one surety each in like sum.

Adeyemi directed the sureties to show evidence of tax payment to Lagos State Government as part of their bail conditions and adjourned further hearing in the case till July 10.

(NAN)

Kuje Area Court in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) has sentenced a 20-year-old painter, Abdulahi Ibrahim, to four months in prison for criminal trespass and theft.

The judge, Mr Nuhu Ibrahim, explained that Ibrahim was sentenced to two months in prison on each count and gave him an option of paying N10,000 fine. ``You have the option to pay N5,000 fine for each count, totaling N10,000. In the alternative, you may face four months in prison,’’ he said.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Ocheche Samuel, had told the court that one Mathew Patrick of Kayarda in Kuje, Abuja lodged a complaint against the painter on June 29.

Samuel said the convict, who resides in Kayarda, was arrested after stealing three planks from Mac Miller Building Coy in Kuje.

“During interrogation, it was discovered that Ibrahim had sold the planks to a vehicle scraps trader in Kuje forest,’’ he said.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened the provisions of sections 342 and 287 of the Penal Code.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ibrahim pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against him. (NAN)

Police corporals battle over children custody

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wo police corporals have appeared before the Daura Road Upper Customary Court, Kaduna, contending over the custody of their two children.

Cpl Bello Zumuta had gone to the court asking it to grant him custody of the children to enable him take proper care of them.

He said his ex wife, Cpl Anna Odinna of Police Headquarters, Kaduna had been with the children since their divorce in 2011 and wants to take proper care of the children, now aged 3 and

7.

The defendant, however, urged the court to dismiss the request, saying she had been a good mother to the children since her divorce.

She also argued that the children were too young to be separated from her.

Odinna asked the court to compel Zumuta to be paying N60, 000 monthly for the up keep of the children.

The Judge, Mrs Dorothy Inuwulale, adjourned the case to July 9, for continuation of hearing. (NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Digest

Human breast milk: Special delicacy amongst China’s rich

H

uman breast milk is the latest delicacy amongst China’s wealthy, with a growing number of companies offering wet nurses for adults.

Xinxinyu, a domestic staff agency in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, allows adult clients to drink directly through breastfeeding or via a breast pump ‘if they feel embarrassed’.

Wet nurses for adults are paid four times the Chinese average at around 16,000 Yuan (£1,700) a month and those who are ‘healthy and good looking’ could earn even more, company

owner Lin Jun told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Beliefs are held in some parts of the country that human breast milk is the easiest and most digestible form of nutrition for those who are ill. However, this bizarre new trend has sparked outrage and disgust amongst web users with many condemning the practice as unethical.

An online poll found that 90 per cent of people voted against the service claiming it ‘violated ethical values, while ten per cent of those who took part said it was

‘normal business practice’.

Chinese media commentator Cao Baoyin said: ‘This adds to China’s problem of treating women as consumer goods and the moral degradation of China’s rich.’

There were also around 140,000 postings about the topic on Sina Weibo, which is the Chinese equivalent to twitter.

Weibo user Ricky Gao likened drinking human breast milk to ‘pornography’, saying, ‘people become perverts when they are too rich and tired of other forms of entertainment’.

Cornwall: Dive-bombing seagulls stop postmen from delivering letters

T

errified postmen are refusing to deliver letters to a seaside cul-de-sac after coming under attack from aggressive dive-bombing seagulls.

Postal workers dropping off mail at the street in Perranporth, Cornwall, have been targeted by the swooping birds pecking at their heads.

Royal Mail has declared the street off-limits after a postwoman was injured by a seagull as she attempted to deliver mail to residents in Liskey Hill Crescent.

The birds are apparently angered by the postal workers’ brightly-coloured uniforms and have also launched attack on children and dog walkers to protect their nests.

Elderly resident Jackie Bray, who has lived on the crescent for 35 years, said the lack of service was unacceptable.

‘I’m waiting for a hip operation and now I have to go to the post office every day to collect my mail,’ explained the 67-year-old.

‘It’s a service that we

pay for, a service we are not getting. We have to put up with the seagulls so why can’t they? They should man up, buy a hard helmet and deal with it.’

The seagulls have become more aggressive in recent years, say residents.

Another added: ‘In the past five years the seagulls have become more aggressive.

‘They are protecting their chicks and attack people in packs, swooping down, targeting people’s heads.’

Vampire bloodsucking keeps mum young

Woman marries 600-year-old French bridge It is true that love can take many forms, but in this case, it has taken the form of an Australian artist marrying a 600-year-old French bridge.

Interestingly, Jodi Rose took her love for the structures to another level as she wedded the Le Pont du Diable Bridge in Céret, southern France.

The new Mrs. Le Pont du Diable has spent the last decade travelling across the globe recording the vibrations in bridge cables to incorporate in her Singing Bridges music project.

Rose knew it was love at first sight when she set eyes on the ‘sensual’ 14th century bridge, as she apparently felt the earth move as she drew closer to this wonderful lover of hers, the bridge.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before they became ‘Bridge and wife’.

The happy couple got married on June 17 and while they might not have had the most conventional marriage, they enjoyed elements of a traditional wedding.

The ceremony was an intimate affair with 14 guests including close personal friends and members of the local community. Even the mayor of neighbouring town SaintJean-de-Fos gave his blessing.

Choosing the venue was simple enough and the pair made their vows at the groom’s entrance. Rose wore a custom bridal gown and veil, and commissioned rings for both her and the bridge.

The groom, otherwise known as The Devil’s Bridge, was quiet

on their big day, but it was clear there are no trust issues between the newlyweds as the bridge is very supportive of his wife’s music project.

“The Devil’s Bridge is everything I could desire in a husband – sturdy, trustworthy, sensual, kind and handsome,” she said.

Their union is not legally recognised in France, but Rose claims their marriage is as strong as any other.

‘This is not a decision I undertake lightly, just as our curves complement, we truly bring joy to each other, and the strength of his pylons will always carry me home.’

She has insisted, however, that their love is a symbolic and pagan affair as part of a world view that sees ‘spiritual vibration in everything’.

A

mother of two has revealed she drinks people’s blood ‘vampire style’ - sometimes sucking nearly two litres a month. Julia Caples, 45, has been sucking the blood of willing donors for more than 30 years.

She meets fellow vampire enthusiasts at a local occult and oddities store where she cuts them with a pagan-style knife before lapping up their blood.

She believes it keeps her young and vigorous, just like the ageless bloodsuckers from movies such as Twilight. The blood-thirsty care worker claims there is a huge subculture of blood drinkers across the world.

But she is trying to keep her strange hobby away from son Alexi, 11.

And daughter Ariel, 24, hates her mum’s obsession – urging her to stop.

Peoples Page PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

I have never accepted bribe in my life —Ribadu

Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

I

t was indeed another day for the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Presidential Candidate in the 2011 election, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to give his account and contribution to the anti corruption crusade in the country.

The main auditorium of the University of Lagos was parked full with Muslim brothers and sisters, eminent Nigerians who were eager to listen to the anti corruption crusader at the 15th preRamadan public lecture organized by the foremost UNILAG Muslim Alumni Association, UMMA, with theme “Corruption and Administration of Justice in Nigeria: Agenda for Reform.”

Ribadu shocked his audience when he informed them that he has never received or accepted any bribe in his life.

“When we started EFCC, I told myself that we would treat corrupt public office holders as equal to a criminal that stole a goat, if you put those who stole goats in handcuff, I vowed to put those who stole millions in handcuff too. When they brought bribe to me, I always reject it in the presence of other EFCC staff, because a leader must show the way, I have never taken bribe in my life and all my staff know where I stand”.

Ribadu told the gathering that anti corruption war could be won if the leader of the country shows the way.

“These corruption we are fighting can be won, if the leader shows the way, all the other people would follow but when the leader takes the other way, we are in a problem.If they are doing a meeting in the Villa you would see our leaders with big, big jeeps, no where to park, but you would be surprised that a jeep can build a clinic, two jeeps would build a school and a plane would build a university but they believe with good luck, they can do many things.

“From my experience with the defunct Failed Banks Tribunal and from other works in various panels, I witnessed the lethal effects of corruption on our country. At the EFCC, we tracked the chains of people and organisations from public and private sectors who formed the Nigerian networks.Despite the challenges; we risked our lives, survived the waves of dirty media campaigns and resisted temptations to have us compromised.

“At the coming of EFCC in 2003, there were very few highprofile cases of corruption that were successfully prosecuted; EFCC’s interventions led us into various networks that have previously

From left: Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chief missioner of the Nasrul Lahi Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Alhaji Abdullahi Akinbode, Alhaji Yusuf Ali (SAN) president of the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni, Alhaji Letr Alimi and vice chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Rahamon Bello at a pre-Ramadan lecture at the university.

enjoyed impunity and notoriety, from the internet scams that dent the image of the country to abuse of office at the private and public sectors.”

Ribadu said President Jonathan is not building on anti corruption foundations previous governments left behind, insisting that only a corrupt-free president who is also ready to subject his cronies to processes of the law, in case of infringement, can lead the crusade against corruption.

“So many corrupt people get away with their acts, largely because of their relationships with heads of institutions that ought to counter or expose their abuse of office. Some convicts are being granted state pardon, thereby rubbishing the whole effort at corruption. These practices have turned corruption into a sort of culturally or ethically accepted trend.”

Noting that the country is presently locked in a systemic breakdown with widespread bribery, high-profile looting, insecurity, rising debt profiles, perpetuation of lawlessness and impunity as well as collapse of moral values, Ribadu is however unhappy that his recent report on oil revenue which unearthed sharp practices in oil industry has not been given any attention.

“My recent work on oil revenue, for example, which unearthed

sharp practices in that industry has not been given any attention. No action has been taken on the report, despite its sheer magnitude and the bad name it brought to Nigeria. Nothing has appeared to be done by the government on the $1.1 billion Malabu oil scandal.”

He added: “these cases of mass looting were done with the collaboration of those powerful players in the evil networks of corruption globally”.

Proffering way out of the menace , Ribadu said sensitivity and consciousness of the nation’s leader to cases of corruption and abuse of office are the key factors in the fight against corruption,adding that “ his (President) decisions and sincerity and refusal to adopt any form of impunity, will determine

“

the success of the anti-corruption campaign.”

Ribadu, however, dispelled the clamour for special courts for corruption, arguing that what is needed is review of the procedural laws and sincere application of same by any court of competent jurisdiction, while charging the legislative arm of government to be alert to its oversight responsibilities which, he said, is a primary mechanism for tackling corruption.

“There should be serious work on the procedural laws. Nigeria has adequate provision in terms of extant laws on corruption including international conventions like the UN Convention against Corruption, FATF Anti-money Laundering protocols, EITI , Public Procurement Act, Fiscal Responsibility

These corruption we are fighting can be won, if the leader shows the way, all the other people would follow but when the leader takes the other way, we are in a problem.If they are doing a meeting in the Villa you would see our leaders with big, big jeeps, no where to park, but you would be surprised that a jeep can build a clinic, two jeeps would build a school and a plane would build a university but they believe with good luck, they can do many things.

Law, Freedom of Information Law, while the professional competence of the law enforcement agencies; the Police, EFCC, ICPC, Prisons etc has to be fully enhanced.”

Also speaking, Chief Missioner of the Nasrul Lahi Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Alhaji Abdullahi Akinbode who delivered his sermon in Yoruba noted that Islam does not tolerate corruption in its practice.

While condemning plea bargaining , Akinbode berated situations where petty criminals are caught up by the heavy arms of the law while public officers who stole billions of public money are allowed to negotiate their way out of the law.

He however charged Muslim faithful to kick start a corruptionfree political system in Nigeria.

Speaking earlier, UNILAGUMA President Alhaji Sikiru Lere Alimi agreed that corruption is the major problem the country must address.

“It’s the main reason why our educational system has decayed so badly, our health facilities are in deplorable condition, our security system in a parlous state and our infrastructure seriously dilapidated.”

He lamented that corruption is been treated with levity in the country despite the existence of two anti corruption agencies and a robust judicial system in the country.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Reactions have trailed the judgement of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which nullified the appointment of Services chiefs for the country without the approval of the Senate and also restrained President Goodluck Jonathan from appointing service chiefs without following the due process of the law. The litigant, Festus Keyamo who is a lawyer, says: It shows the executive is not above the law.

Sack of service chiefs: What went wrong 10 & 11

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By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

T

he suit, on which the court sitting before Justice Adamu Bello delivered judgement, was instituted in 2008 by a Lagos based human rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo, when late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua appointed former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin; the former Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen. Bello Dambazzau and the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear-Admiral Isaiah Ibrahim, without recourse to the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.

The fearless Lagos based legal practitioner, after the said appointment, which he considered contrary to the provisions of Section 18 of the Armed Forces Act, which requires the consent of the National Assembly before the President could appoint the service chiefs, approached the Court with a suit seeking to void the appointment made by late Yar’Adua without the consent of the National Assembly.

Late Yar’Adua claimed that the provision of Section 18 of the Armed Forces Act requiring the consent of the National Assembly before the President could appoint service chiefs was inconsistent with the provision of the 1999 Constitution and therefore unconstitutional and he modified the alleged inconsistent provision of the Armed Forces Act by a proclamation order as provided for in Section 315 of the 1999 Constitution, to make it consistent with the provision of the1999 Constitution which allegedly give absolute powers to the President to appoint service chiefs for the country.

The executive order, issued then by President Yar’Adua was on the strength of a legal advice from the then AttorneyGeneral of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Andoakaa (SAN), in line with the rule of law policy of the government.

Keyamo is however, of the view that the legal advice offered by Andoakaa to Yar’Adua was not only wrong, but that the proclamation order was unnecessary and he hurried to the court with the suit, which had the President, the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and all the service chiefs’ as defendants.

In the suit No: FHC/ABJ/ CS/611/2008, Keyamo had prayed the court to determine: “Whether by the combined interpretation of the provisions of Section 218 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999 and Section 18 of the Armed Forces Act, Cap. A.20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the 1st defendant can appoint the service chiefs of the federation, namely, the Chief of Air Staff, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Naval Staff, (that is, the 3rd, 4th & 5thdefendants who were appointed as such) without the confirmation of the National Assembly first sought and obtained.

“Whether Section 18 (1) & (2) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap. A.20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 is not in conformity with the provision of the 1999 Constitution so as to fall within the category of existing laws under Section 315 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, that the President, may, by Order, modify its text, to bring it into conformity with the provisions of the Constitution”.

Justice Bello had, in his judgement,

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Sack of service chiefs: What went wrong

President Goodluck Jonathan

not only declared such appointments illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, but forbids President Jonathan from appointing service chiefs without, first, obtaining the go-ahead of the senate.

The Court also declared that, “Section 18 (1) & (2) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap. A.20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, is inconformity with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, so as not to fall within the category of existing laws under Section 315 (2) of the Constitution, that the President, may, by order, modify its text, to bring it into conformity with the provision of the Constitution”.

Since the Court’s judgement on July

1, 2013, there have been several reactions from legal practitioners, who are major stakeholders in the judiciary of the country.

An Abuja based constitutional lawyer, Barrister Max Ogar, in his opinion held that, the appointment of the present service chiefs remain invalid after the judgement of the court and that if President Jonathan wants to be law abiding, he ought to have considered the appointments of his service chiefs invalid as held by the court.

Ogar said what is supposed to be done now that the court has pronounced the appointment of the serving service chiefs

illegal, is for them to leave their various offices and if President Jonathan still wants them to serve in his government, he should re-nominate them and send their names to the senate for confirmation, in accordance with the law.

The lawyer said Keyamo or any other person can file a suit in Court if the service chiefs are allowed to stay longer than necessary or rather, paid salary with tax payers’ money, as they, according to him are occupying illegal offices, by the pronouncement of the Court.

A Lagos lawyer, Chief Fred Agbaje, in his reaction, described the Court;s judgement as the beauty of the rule of law and one of the fundamental advantages of democracy over military rule but however, took a swipe at the National Assembly for not rising to their constitutional oversight duty by taming the excesses of the executive arm of government.

He accused members of the National Assembly of showing interest only, in things that would, “add value to their personal aggrandizement”.

“The judgment is the beauty of the rule of law and one of the fundamental advantages of democracy over military government. It is clearly showing that under democratic dispensation, the President cannot embark on a one-man show by acting alone, particularly when the constitution asked that the National Assembly should play a consultative role or that certain appointments should go to the National Assembly before being confirmed by the president and this was not carried out. Whatever the resultant action of the President is, it is unconstitutional. And that is what the court has done.

“When the military were there, they could appoint anybody as service chief without anybody querying them.

But under the present democratic government, the National Assembly has a contributory role. “It is regrettable that the type of the National Assembly we have is not the type that is actually interested in deepening democracy and ensuring that the Nigerian electorates are protected.

“Anything that does not add value to the personal aggrandizement of members of the National Assembly is never their business; they turn blind eye to it. This is why we see a lot of constitutional iniquities being committed by the executive arm of government and that is why there is unabated and uncontrollable corruption in the country. The National Assembly had since abandoned its constitutional oversight duty.

“What they are interested in is anything that will further enhance their salary. Anything short of that is none of their business. That judgement should wake them up now. Otherwise, if a citizen had not gone to court to assert what the constitution says, that is how the impunity would have been committed.

“The National Assembly has surreptitiously and perfectly encouraged the culture of impunity in this country and this is not good for our democracy,” Agbaje said.

Meanwhile, Professor Itse Sagay (SAN), in his reaction said the 1999 Constitution does not qualify the rights of President Jonathan to appoint service chiefs.

“What I expect is that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) should appeal the judgement of the trial court and ask for stay of execution so that the service chiefs can complete their term.”

He expressed surprise at the judgment, “because I checked the relevant sections and discovered that the President has power to appoint service chiefs”.

The Professor of Law said that whatever is in the Constitution remains

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

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Sack of service chiefs: What went wrong

superior to any other law to the extent of its inconsistency.

On his part, Yahaya Mahmud (SAN) said the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja that in appointing service chiefs, the President must comply with the Constitution and the Armed Forces Act shows that our Democracy is working.

“It shows that our Judiciary is independent. It’s for the Attorney General of the Federation to now advise the President to comply, or appeal if he is not satisfied with the judgment, or propose amendment if he is not satisfied with the law. That’s the beauty of democracy,” he said.

In an interview with Peoples Daily Weekend, Mahmood said he accepts the judgement until the Court of Appeal says otherwise, especially as the Judge has given his reasons and they appear convincing. On what difference it would have made if the president sought consent before appointing the chiefs, he said “Anytime a provision of the Constitution required the President to get approval of the Senate or National Assembly, for any appointment, there are good reasons. To make sure competent people are appointed and to make sure Federal Character is respected”.

“The implication of the judgment is to confirm that the Judiciary and our Judges are free and independent. It shows democracy is working. The Attorney General will now advise the President to appeal or to comply, and if need be, propose amendments” He further stated.

He is however of the opinion that nothing can be done to the issue of those who had served and left before the judgment, like the former Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen. Bello Dambazzau.

On the current holders of the Offices, he said the President has a choice. “If he is advised that the judgment is right, to remove them and re submit their names for approval. Or remove them and submit fresh nominations. Or if he disagrees with the judgment, he may appeal, his final word for future Presidents of Nigeria?

“Comply with the Constitution and have respect for Rule of Law. Seek appropriate advice” Also speaking on the issue, Prof.

Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu, the Legal Adviser to late Gen. Sani Abacha said his opinion is that for most judicial

“Anytime a provision of the Constitution required the President to get approval of the Senate or National Assembly, for any appointment, there are good reasons. To make sure competent people are appointed and to make sure Federal Character is respected.

The implication of the judgment is to confirm that the Judiciary and our Judges are free and independent. It shows democracy is working.”

Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika

Former Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen. Bello Dambazzau

CDS Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin

Chief of Air Staff Alex Sabundu Badeh

Chief of Naval Staff, Joseph Ezeoba

Mr. Festus Keyamo

orders, a judge must abide by existing rules to which his attention must have been drawn, in this case, which required the appointment of Service Chiefs and needed the confirmation of the National Assembly in particular.

“As of now what it means really, if indeed the law requires the confirmation then Mr. President would need to summit such names for confirmation. But in all likelihood this is the decision of a lower Court and I think it is most likely, that if the government feels they are right, they will appeal against that ruling.

So at the moment nothing affects the legality of the appointment until final hearing of the matter, usually also there exist certain rules which will save the legitimacy and the legality of the actions of the entire actions the President has taken and also that of the Service Chiefs:, he noted.

Yadudu said if there wasn’t such protection then it meant that everything the Service chiefs have done from the day they were appointed must have been null and void”.

“I think the National Assembly has passed some new legislation which requires confirmation by them, of any appointment by the executive, including military appointments, which must require confirmation which previously, there was no need for that”.

It would be recalled that Azubuike Ihejirika, the Chief of Army Staff, was

appointed in 2010; Alex Badeh, Chief of Air Staff, was appointed in 2012; and Joseph Ezeoba, Chief of Naval Staff, was also appointed in 2012.

In October 2012, President Jonathan reshuffled and retired the service chiefs with Mr. Ihejirika being the only officer to retain his post.

Mr. Keyamo told PREMIUM TIMES

that the ruling effectively nullifies the appointments of all the military chiefs.

“They have been removed from office, that’s what it means. Even if they want to appeal, the judgment still stands,” Mr. Keyamo said in a telephone interview.

“They would know that the law is superior to them,” he added.

PHOTO NEWS

Gov Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State (right) listening to remarks by Commissioner Special Duties Gombe State, Alhaji Jalo Abubakar Bajoga after he presented a letter from Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo conveying relief material support to victims of Boko Haram violence in Damaturu yesterday

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Special Report

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Legality of appointment is not affected until final hearing –ProF. Yadudu Prof. Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu, the Legal Adviser to late Gen. Sani Abacha, and Yahaya Mahmood, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in Kano and Kaduna, respectively, reacted to the recent pronouncement of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which sacked Service chiefs of President Goodluck Jonathan, each giving their own understanding of the matter.

W

hat is your opinion on the High Court ruling on appointment of Service Chiefs?

“First of all, my opinion is that for most judicial orders, a judge must abide by existing rules to which his attention must have been drawn, which required the appointment of Service Chiefs and needs the confirmation of the National Assembly in particular. He may be right and he may be wrong.

What does this mean?

As of now what it means really if indeed the law requires the confirmation then Mr. President would need to summit such names for confirmation. But in all likelihood this is the decision

of a lower Court and I think it is most likely, that if the government feels they are right, they will appeal against that ruling. So at the moment nothing affects the legality of the appointment until final hearing of the matter, usually also there exist certain rules which will save the legitimacy and the legality of the actions of the entire actions the President has taken and also that of the Service Chiefs.

Why is this so?

You can imagine that if they don’t have such protection everything they have done from the day they were appointed must have been null and void. I think they have existing protection until the case is determined one way or the order.

I think the National Assembly has passed some new legislation which requires confirmation by them, of any appointment by the executive, including military appointments, which must require confirmation which previously there was no need for that.

What do you think government will do now?

I think for the government would appeal against that.

Another thing is that as a lawyer one may not comment on the judgment until you read the real judgment the judge has given, whether you agree with him or not, it will have to be on the basis of your reading of his judgment and the basis for such judgment. I have not seen the judgment so I cannot disagree or agree with him.

Prof. Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu

sure competent people are appointed and to make sure Federal Character is respected.

Many are of the view that such pronouncement by the court has

implications for the judiciary, is that true?

The implication of the judgment is to confirm that the Judiciary and our Judges are free and independent. It shows democracy is working.

The Attorney General will now advise the President to appeal or to comply, and if need be, propose amendments.

What is the fate of Dambazau and those that have served already?

Nothing can be done to those who served and left before the judgment.

With the judgment by the court does it mean the current service chiefs will vacate their positions?

On the current holders of the Offices, the President has a choice. If he is advised that the judgment is right, to remove them and re submit their names for approval. Or remove them and submit fresh nominations. Or if he disagrees with the judgment, appeal.

...The law has been explained —Yahaya Mahmood (SAN)

A

Federal High Court in Abuja, has faulted the appointments of Service chiefs by President Goodluck Jonathan, without seeking the consent of the National Assembly, how would you react to the judgment?

I am a Lawyer. I react to every judgment in the same manner. The Court was approached to apply or interpret the law. The Court did so based on what has been presented and argued, and its understanding. The Judges are human. To me, the law has been explained.

Do you agree with the Court on the matter?

The Judge gave his reasons.

They appear convincing. I have to agree and accept until Court of Appeal say otherwise.

What different would it have made if the president sought consent before appointing the chiefs?

Yahaya Mahmood (SAN) Anytime a provision of the Constitution requires the President to get approval of the Senate or National Assembly, for any appointment, there are good reasons. To make

Any advice to future presidents with regards to such appointments?

Advise to Presidents?

Comply with the Constitution and have respect for Rule of Law. Seek appropriate advice.

“

I am a Lawyer.

I react to every judgment in the same manner.

The Court was approached to apply or interpret the law. The Court did so based on what has been presented and argued, and its understanding.

The Judges are human. To me, the law has been explained.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

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Feature

How we joined a deaf couple in marriage —Kano Hisbah From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

I

n what appeared to be its greatest achievement, the Kano State Hisbah Board, under the leadership of the present Commander-General, Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, introduced a mass wedding scheme titled “ 1000 mass wedding for widows and divorcees”.

The programme had later become more comprehensive as it incorporated fresh ladies that have never married as well as physically challenged people into the scheme.

Since its inauguration, the programme has been successfully conducted and has attracted the attention of neighbouring states to follow suit.

So far, about 2,000 couples have been married off and another set of 1000 couples is underway. Since then, the state government resolved that the command has become center for marriage as it is an organisation saddled with responsibility of combating social vices in the state.

Anyone wishing to get married and finds it hard to afford it, can go to the command and apply and soon a suitor will be offered to him or her after an intensive screening.

It is through this scheme that the command successfully conducted an awesome wedding of a deaf couple recently.

When contacted by Peoples Daily Weekend, Assistant Commander, Special Services, Kano State Hisbah Command, Barrister Nabahani Usman said the marriage contract started when a deaf and dumb girl called Fatima Bilya, gestured to her mother that she wants to be married since she graduated from secondary school.

“After Fatima, a deaf and dumb girl, graduated from secondary school, she insisted to her mother that she wants to get married. Thinking of how to get her a suitor, the mother decided to take her to Hisbah Board.

She complained to us that her daughter is deaf and dumb and wants to get married.

We then told her that we would contact her if we find a suitor.”

Usman also said, “ Fortunately, another woman came to look for a suitor for her deaf son, Jibrin Dalhat. We told her that there is a deaf girl that is looking for a suitor and asked her to bring his picture to show her.

She said the boy travelled to Niger Republic for business but she would bring the picture the next day.”

“When the woman brought the picture and showed it to the girl, she just embraced it , signalling that she had fallen in love with the boy. She kept the picture with her and embraced it always”, he said.

According to Usman, when the boy returned from his trip, he was told about the girl and asked to meet her at the board. They all accepted each other at sight and agreed to marry.

The Commander General therefore decided to prepare the wedding and contacted the government particularly “the states

Third from left, the groom with officials of Hisba commissioner of finance on the matter”.

“The commissioner instantly accepted to sponsor the marriage. He bought all the marriage items for the girl, including furniture, and gave them N30,000 each, as an empowerment.”

Asked if the marriage is part of the 1000 widows and divorcee mass wedding scheme, the deputy commander said: “ it is not part of the scheme, it is just part of the responsibilities of Hisbah to assist and encourage people to get married with the aim of get-

Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

ting rid of social vices in the state and the nation as a whole.

He also noted that the door is open for everyone that wants to marry but cannot afford it and the command is ready to assist.

Asked if this deaf couple underwent screening like in the 1000 couples wedding scheme, he said: “ yes, they underwent all forms of screening that we normally do to couples. They underwent HIV test, they were all HIV negative. The bride also underwent a pregnancy test which cleared her of

pregnancy.”

The wedding took place at the Hisbah mosque under leadership of the commander general of the Hisbah Board on June 30, 2011.

Hundreds of the deaf who are friends to the groom gathered at the place to celebrate with him.

Meanwhile, the N20,000 bride price was paid by the commander general of Hisbah Peoples Daily Weekend wishes the couple a happy marriage life.

Barr. Nabahani Usman

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

News Extra

‘If our politicians swear by Sango, god of thunder it will stem corruption in Nigeria’ Comrade Maruf Abdulsalam, is the Kwara State Coordinator of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC). In this interview with our Correspondent, Olanrewaju Lawal in Ilorin, the OPC leader said corruption is so endemic in the country, and proposes that politicians and other public officers should swear by other gods, to check their excesses. He also spoke on the new law on burning of corpses in Lagos, saying it is an abomination in Yoruba land.

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ecently, the Lagos State Government passed a Bill into Law which empowers people to burn their dead like is done in India.

What is your view on this?

It is very unfortunate that Lagos State government would propose and pass such law. It is bad omen and abomination in Yoruba land. Any town, where a dead body is burnt, there would be escalation of diseases and ailments in the area.

Yoruba people believe that it is an abomination to burn someone’s corpse. I don’t understand the reason why somebody like Raji Fashola (SAN) would allow such Law in Lagos state. This idea is peculiar to people in India but here, it’s an abomination and taboo.

What about those who burn suspected thieves and armed robbers in Lagos State?

We keep on telling them that what they are doing is not good. It is a bad thing and I’m really happy that those doing this are being arrested by the police. Burning of dead bodies is totally against Yoruba culture and I also believe that Islam is not in support of it.

Can you disclose the number of suspects Kwara OPC apprehended and handed over to the police since the beginning of this year?

Just last week, our men caught a car snatcher in Ilorin. He was here to sell stolen vehicle and we got wind of it. My men swung into action, we caught him and handed him over to the police. Also, it was my men that recovered guns used by a gang of armed robbers who attacked Commercial Banks in OmuAran, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government of Kwara State.

We are now working with the community leaders on how to put an end to these incessant armed robbery attacks. We want to ensure that such things did not happen in the area again. Anytime we apprehend a suspect, I have told my men that he or she should be handed over to the police. This action has improved our relationship with the Nigeria police.

Like you said, Omu-Aran community has been under siege by armed robbers. What are you doing to stop recurrence?

We are meeting with leaders

of the community. I don’t want to expose our strategies. The leaders had invited us and we are doing the right thing.

The Musical Association of Nigeria (MAN) and few Institutions are observed to be giving awards to OPC in the state recently. Why is this so?

We are very surprised that associations and individuals in the state are observing our activities and role in peaceful co-existence in our state. That shows that what pays in life is good deeds. We are happy that many people are watching us. Apart from that, we are working with the Nigeria Police and the collaboration is enlightening us more on the need to sustain peace and harmony in the state.

Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) is engulfed in crisis which split it into factions.

How do you view the crisis?

It is a big shame that 36 governors in Nigeria could not conduct a credible and acceptable election among themselves. It is very shameful. This is also shows that Nigeria problems are the fault of our leaders. If our leaders could check themselves and lead by example, we would have less problems.

What would you say about the Presidency’s involvement in the crisis?

I believe it is only a true son, real son of the soil that would not allow his father’s house to scatter.

It is only a bastard that would want his father’s house to be deserted.

Presidency’s intervention in the issue is belated. During the recent dinner organised by the Presidency, they did not recognise any factional leader. They didn’t introduce Rotimi Ameachi or Jonah Jang as NGF Chairman. This shows that there is no smoke without fire. Something went wrong somewhere. A faction Chairman had 19 votes, another with 16 votes; Haba! We should know who is elected Chairman of NGF. On Corruption which has been a cankerworm in the nation’s economy especially among public office holders.

Would you subscribe to the use of traditional items and gods in swearing political and public office holders into office?

In Nigeria, corruption will continue except we go back to our roots.

And what is our root? Our culture.

In Yoruba land, when a child is born, tradition demands that the destiny of such child be confirmed through the Oracle (IFA). This will guide his or her parent on the life pattern of that child. Again, if a child commits heinous acts, community leaders would take him to his family where certain fines and penalty would be imposed on the family. This will forestall the recurrence of the incident and serve as an example to others.

But today, if a criminal is caught and handed over to the police, he would be walking on the street again as a free man within a week.

Let me say it here that the level of corruption among our leaders is too much. How can a Senator be receiving N30million per month as salary while there is poverty in Nigeria.

That is why they are desperate to get political positions. Corruption can’t be eradicated if these bogus salaries are allocated to politicians.

So, would you support the use of traditional items, gods for the swearing- in of political and public office holders?

Yes, I really support that because those that used Holy Quran and Bible are found wanting, hence the corruption scandals in Nigeria.

They know that Almighty Allah, God may not punish them immediately so they embezzle public funds. But if they swear with Sango, god of thunder, Ogun, god of Iron, they know they can’t escape the wrath of the gods. If they want to be sworn into office, let them swear by these gods and say it, that if they misbehave against the oath of office and Nigeria’s constitution, the gods should deal with them within seven days.

Nigerians will see how the number of politicians and public office holders who corner public funds would reduce. They will run away.

I remember during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, a Minister, Prof. Babatunde Aborisade used an animal horn when he was to be sworn into office. They gave him Quran and Bible; he rejected them and used animal horn. And since he left office, I have not heard of any allegation of corruption against him.

Why can’t others emulate him?

Execution of convicts in

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Comrade Maruf Abdulsalam Edo State has generated a lot of comments especially by Human rights activists. What is your position on this?

Even in the Holy Quran which I read very well. It is stated that if any one cuts somebody’s hand, one must cut his hand back. Anybody who commits a crime worth life imprisonment or death by hang-

If they want to be sworn into office, let them swear by these gods and say it, that if they misbehave against the oath of office and Nigeria’s constitution, the gods should deal with them within seven days.

Nigerians will see how the number of politicians and public office holders who corner public funds would reduce. They will run away.

ing should be executed. I read it in the paper that it was against human rights. If somebody committed crime, killed somebody, he or she should be killed. If not, such crime would continue.

How would you rate the performance of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State?

Governor Ahmed should try to build a name for himself. It was late Governor Muhammed Lawal that told us that there is money in Kwara state. What they used to tell us was that there was no problem in Kwara government. What Late Governor Lawal did for the people of the state, will never be forgotten.

Till now, Afonja people of Ilorin are appreciating his administration.

So, Governor Ahmed should build a good name for himself so that people of the state will remember him for a long time, and even after he leaves office.

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Fashion

Kiddies World Model of the week Jessy Gadzama

Pots

&P

Dress Guide: 5 Tips for Young Men

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ans

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Kilishi Beauty Tips

How to do Fruit Pedicure at Home

Hollywood/ Bollywood

BBA: Ethiopian lawyers to sue Housemate, Betty Page 33

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Homes

How outdoor furniture can add grace to your living quarters O

ne of the biggest challenges in maintaining a functional, great looking “outdoor room” is picking the right furnishings.

As with indoors, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to style and functionality so it is important to know what it is you should be looking for to meet your outdoor entertaining and relaxation needs. This is because out-door furnishing adds grace to your living space.

In tackling the revival of your outdoor entertaining area, it is paramount that you isolate exactly how it is that you intend to use the space - what are you most likely to get up to out there?

Your class and taste should dictate how you furnish - never the reverse.

To start the ball rolling, here are a few issues that call for consideration when deciding what materials your outdoor furnishings should be comprised of: Wood: Despite the recent increase in “eco-woods” and reconstituted timbers promising better weather resistance and low upkeep - timber still rates as one of the most high maintenance materials used in outdoor furniture.

You have only to look at decking, tables, chairs, benches and cabanas to see the stay of decay that many fall into through neglect. The appeal of timber is undeniable. When new, it exudes warmth and a traditional aesthetic which is often competitively priced.

Splintering, Greying and water damage are common afflictions faced by timber settings so be sure to explore with the supplier exactly what is required of you throughout the furniture’s lifetime to keep it looking sparkly and something you can be proud to entertain with. Resanding, oiling and waterproofing can be an arduous task!

Metals: All too often the lure of “lowmaintenance” stainless steel is used

to seduce buyers seeking a more contemporary look. But buyer beware: stainless does not always translate to stain proof!

Be sure to ask the right questions when researching your purchases: if it definitely is steel then what grade is it? What is the finish on the metal? As a general rule marine grade stainless steel is the preferred option though by no means is it guaranteed to be hassle free: Corrosion will usually be avoided but “tea staining” or discolouration is still very much likely, so be aware that from time-to-time washing will be necessary.

Aluminium also is a wonderful alternative, usually higher in price; the resistance of anodised aluminium furniture to salt and humidity see it being used in making airplanes, boats and even the deck chairs and lounges on many cruise ships!

Plastics: One of the biggest boom areas in outdoor furniture in recent years has been seating, lounging and dining options that make use of the amazing world of plastics. Everything from PVC to soft rubbery options has afforded designers great scope in creating shapes, colours and sizes in furniture as never seen before for the home.

As with timber and metal - not all plastics are as they seem. As with metals, the grades and treatments applied to furniture in manufacturing will dictate whether it can withstand the Ultra-Violet exposure to the sun and the effects of long-term humidity and water.

For a few weeks your slick new setting may be the envy of your friends but once the materials start to feel the effects of their environment the cracks, quick literally, will start to appear and before long it will look tired and potentially become unsafe. Beyond these three core categories, there are many options across glass, natural woven materials and stone.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

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Relationship

With Theodora Ekah

How to know your relationship I doubt her love for me her not to think of me. is turning sour and ways to set it Through our daily talks, there is no member of her immediate family that I haven’t spoken back on track with. In addition, I don’t there

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elationships make life worth living. They greatly influence the overall wellbeing of a person. One often hears people talking of relationships gone sour. Of relationship that have lost the zing. Some even talk of ending the relationship. What one needs to remember that no relationship goes sour overnight?

It is a process that can be controlled if the symptoms are identified, acknowledged and sorted out. However, if things are left unattended to and one lets the emotions get out of control, it becomes difficult if not impossible for the individual to identify and realistically assess all the options that he or she has of dealing with his or her troubles.

Some tall tale signs to look out for: You may find yourself revisiting the past often.

Memories of arguments that you have had a long time ago will begin to haunt you. You will find yourself resurrecting old hurts, crying a lot, or becoming consumed with anger. Those responses are capable of turning small problems into big ones and can be instrumental in making you lose all perspective.

You begin to constantly find faults with your partner. You don’t seem to see any of the qualities that brought the two of you together fading away. He or she just doesn’t seem to be the same person you got into a relationship with.

Regularity and frequency of fights and arguments seems to be the only conclusion that any conversation between the partners can lead to.

Patience and love have been replaced by contempt and resentment.

You just don’t feel the need to resolve their problems and misunderstandings or even communicate with each other.

You do not feel the need for intimacy. In fact it won’t be an overstatement to say that from lovers they have transformed into roommates.

You try to avoid each other consciously. And if by chance they happen to be together they do not find anything to talk about.

One of you or both of you find yourself/ yourselves getting attracted to others.

In some cases people become over indulging in drugs/ alcohol or other such things.

Is the mutual respect you have for each other intact? Do you give each other space and respect each other’s boundaries.

Or are you constantly pushing and challenging each other.

Does your partner want to control you? If the answer is yes, then it is a dangerous sign.

Because, mutual respect and growth are the cornerstones of a healthy relationship.

If you spot any one or more of these problems in your relationship the first thing to do is to understand and acknowledge the problem. The best way to do this is to open

the doors of communication.

And the thing to remember is that you are communicating to discuss and not to confront.

Do not engage in playing the blame game. Look at the situation with honesty and objectivity, instead of pointing fingers at each other.

Do not be rigid. Be open and flexible to change and be ready to make some compromises.

Get involved with your interests and hobbies and encourage your partner to be a part of the process.

Spend quality time together.

These things are so important for developing closeness. It forms a firm foundation for your relationship.

Does your partner want to control you? If the answer is yes, then it is a dangerous sign. Because, mutual respect and growth are the cornerstones of a healthy relationship.

If you have any relationship story you want to share with our readers, please send to the above address.

met this lady in December, last Iwhile year. I live in Port Harcourt she stays in Enugu. But the distance has not stopped our constant communication, except for some few days when I was really pressed for time or had difficulties connecting with her. Since we met, I have done my best to call her everyday. She knows how much I care for her and has confessed to me that my calls have made it impossible for

is nothing we don’t know about each other. But I am currently confused. Unlike when we just started, she no longer calls as frequently as she used to. In the early days, there was no day she didn’t give me a beep, especially when she thought I was late in calling her for the day.

The story is now reversed. If I don’t call her, she won’t bother.

Recently, I put her to test by refusing to call her for three days. To my surprise, she also didn’t. She simply didn’t care to find out the reason I didn’t call her. I’ve proposed to her and she has accepted, yet for more than three months now, I’ve not received a beep not to talk of a call from her. I want to marry her. But does she love me? Help

She wants me to fight her ex’s woman

am writing this on behalf of my Ichildren friend who left her husband and to pursue a relationship

she was having at that time.

We all knew they had been having issues in their marriage until she left. In fairness to the husband, he didn’t send her away; she left of her own free will and even went to court to get a divorce from him.

As one of her close friends, I knew the men she was involved with. But when it became a messy court case, I had to stay away to avoid being implicated by her very angry husband in the whole court process.

Besides, my husband warned me against taking sides with her since he never really liked her attitude and person.

Since then, she has kept her distance from me; having accused me of not being a good friend to her when she needed me.

But about last year, she came back suddenly and expressed a desire for us to become friends again. I really didn’t know why but I got to know when I heard that her husband after several years of being alone has finally found happiness in the arms of another woman. She wants me to accompany her, not to beg her ex husband but to beat up the new woman in the life of the man.

I have told her to move on with her life since she was the one who ended the marriage but she is as usual adamant and wants us like we used to do when we were in secondary school to go and fight this woman.

Another thing is that her mother is the one encouraging her in her behavior. There is no well meaning advice that her mother doesn’t puncture. If she didn’t have the backing of her mother, she would never have packed out of her matrimonial home or sued for divorce.

Like I told you earlier, my husband doesn’t want her near me but she is determined to stick to me like glue. Her mother even

called to accuse me of abandoning my friend in her time of need. I don’t know what she wants me to do. The husband doesn’t even talk to me because he knows I knew about her infidelity and supported it.

I feel guilty about my role in the whole matter. I have asked God for forgiveness and really looking for a way to go and apologise to him. To agree to go and fight the woman in his life would be ending whatever hope I have of making amends with the man whose only offence was loving and marrying my friend.

Please help me make a quick decision so as not to lose my own home too.

–Source: BN

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she came back suddenly and expressed a desire for us to become friends again. I really didn’t know why but I got to know when I heard that her husband after several years of being alone has finally found happiness in the arms of another woman.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

s p i T y t u a Be

Compiled by Nami Hassan Kadir

How to do Fruit Pedicure at Home Things you need: • One lemon cut into two halves • Two slices of orange • 2 tsp olive oil • Half a bucket of warm water (maximum warmth you can withstand) • Bubble bath soap or shampoo •1-2 tsp Salt • 1 tsp Sugar •A pumice stone or a descent foot filer •A nail filer •A nail cutter •An old toothbrush •Nourishing cream • A towel Socks So when you are ready with all the things mentioned above put some music of your choice and you are ready to go.

•Take the bucket of water and add 4-5 drops of shampoo or your bubble bath or shampoo along with salt.

Slightly agitate the water and then soak your feet in the bucket for 10 minutes. Please do not forget to remove the nail color if there is any.

•After 10 minutes take one foot out of the bucket and without wiping, brush the toe nails briskly yet carefully with the help of tooth brush. This will help remove the dead skin from the nails. Then remove the dirt and grime hidden

underneath the nails and give them the desired shape with the help of a filer.

• Again soak this foot and do the same with the other one.

Once you are done with this now take the first foot out and remove the dead skin from the heels and other parts of the foot by using the pumice stone. Repeat this with the other foot.

• When this process is over take the feet out and wipe them with towel.

•Now take the lemon slice and rub that it on the feet along with some sugar. Do this for at least 5 minutes and leave it for 5 more minutes. This will remove the tan and dirt from the skin making it lighter in color.

• Now change the water of the bucket and dip you feet and wash them with clean water.

• Again wipe them and now take the orange slices. again amd rub them onto your feet until the juice starts drying up.

• Leave the feet like that for 5 minutes after drying. Then dip the feet in water, wash them and wipe them dry. This will again help in cleaning the skin as well as removing dead skin from the feet.

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

LEARNING With Emmanuel Eko junioremma419@gmail.com 08165618872

Permanent Present Tense: The man with no memory, and what he taught the world

By Suzanne Corkin

H

enry Molaison was born in 1926, the only child of a respectable white family in Hartford, Connecticut.

He was a sweet and sensitive lad, but at around the age of 10 he started having blackouts, losing contact with the world for a few seconds and then tuning in again as if nothing had happened. Despite occasional

seizures, he proved to be a good worker – a little slow, but intelligent and extremely conscientious.

The most important result turns out to be that memory is not a single faculty but a collection of different processes.

Remembering something for 20 minutes, for instance, involves capacities that are not required in retaining it for 20 seconds.

Molaison could not create long-

Did you know that?

term memory at all, but the short-term variety gave him no difficulty, and with a bit of effort, he could repeatedly refresh a memory and hang on to it for as much as half an hour.

But sometimes he remembered things that, as Corkin puts it, “he had no business remembering”. After being looked after for many years by his mother, he was taken in by a family friend,before moving into a care home; following some initial consternation, he adapted to his new living spaces, and, when Corkin asked him, he could draw accurate floor plans.

The explanation, it seems, is that he still had a capacity for unconscious habitual memory – the kind that feels as if it resides in the muscles rather than the brain – and when put to the test he could process it into explicit knowledge. In the same way, if something upset him, his troubled mood might

linger: when he was taken to visit his ailing mother in hospital, for instance, a certain sadness remained with him, and the following day he said he had a feeling that his mother was ill. Likewise when his father died: he could not take in the information directly, but after a few months he started to realize that he was no longer around – the knowledge had somehow lodged in his mind.

Above all, he understood the existential facts of life – that all of us live between a past that is constantly slipping away and a future in which we shall die.

This kind of understanding may not lend itself to experimental investigation, but it gave him a fundamental framework of meaning, just as it does for the rest of us. Unwittingly this fine and moving book reveals as much about the limitations of neuropsychology as about the scope of human memory.

Forged: Why fakes are the great art of our age • Dogs are only homosexuality gene has animal proven animal to been found in humans, have a six sense... most mammals, crabs and even live coral reef.

• A portion of the Mona Lisa was actually • When you feel painted with the subject’s the urge to poop, holding menstrual blood. it in for a few extra hours will force your body to • Cats and dogs absorb extra vitamins have evolved the ability and nutrients that it to interbreed , but missed the first time. inherently known to avoid this practice due • The names of all to the high levels of continents both start disease, birth defects and and end with the same disfigurement in cat-dog letter. letter.

• If you try to say the • Because of the alphabet without moving high level of smog in your lips or tongue every California, children born letter will sound the there tend to have a 5% same. higher risk of becoming schizophrenic in their • That you burn early 20s. more calories eating celery than it contains • Brushing your cat (the more you eat the to prevent shedding often thinner you become) causes the animal to go bald.

• Your tongue is the fastest healing part of • T h e your body

By Jonathon Keats The best part of Forged: Why Fakes Are the Great Art of Our Age is not what comes after the colon It seems to me that a distinction ought to have been drawn between forgeries and fakes.

Forgery implies a copy of a pre-existing work, such as Andrea del Sarto’s version of Raphael’s portrait of Pope Leo X, or indeed Scaroth the Jagaroth’s multiple Mona Lisas in the Doctor Who story “City of Death”. Fakes are original works in the style of another artist, and allow much more of the “getting one over

on the experts” attitude that seems to motivate so many fakers. Partly, this involves knowing the preferences and predilections of the target.

The contention that fakes are the supreme modern art form rests on a false syllogism: modern art, Keats argues, intends to unsettle; fakes unsettle us; therefore fakes are great art. The difference between the psychologically disturbing impact of the Rothko chapel or Ken Currie’s Three Oncologists and the anxiety of uncertainty over a forgery. In some ways, the forgery is more akin to a social faux pas, an intellectual gaffe.

Milan Kundera has a thought experiment in The Curtain where he imagines a

All the Birds singing

By Evie Wyld She had fled Australia to escape the degradations and recriminations of her young life, and as the English story moves forward in time, the Australian story moves back.

The deft thing about this novel is that Jake’s paranoia is justified and catching: again and again our suspicions are raised. What has she fled? What caused the scars on her back? Perhaps something happened at the sheep-shearing station where Jake worked, the only woman among a shedful of foulmouthed, rough and ready men. “Not a bad bloke,”

they said of her, until she was rumbled and had to flee again.

In a sense, this is a tale of possible love and redemption, at once energetic and dark. In another sense, it is a book about summary justice and suspicion, which we readers have been indulging in too.

There is a Young Adult feel to it, in style if not content: the pace and snappy dialogue, the punchy first-person narration, the touch of outback gothic, the outsiderness and, of course, the symbolic “beast” prowling the island – all these are youthful.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Health Diabetes education as a tool in managing disease during Ramadan Fasting

Pharm. Isaac Yakubu Akogu www.diabetesguidenigeria.blogspot.com, 08176179496, diabetesconcepts@gmail.com

A Diabetes expert, Mr. Isaac Yakubu Akogu, is also Pharmacist with over 16 years experience with specialisation in Diabetes Education. Trained by The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Johannesburg, South Africa, he also acquired training in Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon in 2011 to qualify as a Diabetes Conversation Map Expert Trainer saddled with responsibility of training doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other health care professionals on current dynamics in diabetes education. He holds a Postgraduate certificate in Diabetes Management from Dares Salaam, Tanzania and is currently the 2nd Vice President of Diabetes Association of Nigeria, North Central Zone. In his weekly column, Wellness, in Peoples Daily Weekend, he brings to you, the appropriate and current information on diabetes and other health matters.

Regular Blood glucose Check is necessary during the period of Fasting and the results should be discussed with your health care team

D

iabetes Education as a form of therapy for the management of Diabetes can no longer be over emphasized. I like to thank regular readers of this column for keeping a date with me. The questions and comments that emanates from previous edition on foot care are well appreciated and should you need further clarification, feel free to get in touch via my contact published above.

This week, due to popular demand and season, we shall discuss Diabetes and Fasting. There may be periods when one wish to fast either for religious purposes like Ramadan or lent or to achieve a weight reduction, for someone living with Diabetes, it is important to consult with your healthcare team as well as your spiritual leaders to avoid danger. This is because, it is possible that during fasting, a person with Diabetes could develop high blood glucose if medications are not used or if one is physically less active than normal which is mostly the case during fasting.

Many Muslims with Diabetes may choose to fast during Ramadan- the ninth month of the Islamic calendar year, which is observed World wide as a holy month of fasting. People who fast during Ramadan is a period of worship, self discipline, austerity and charity in which people abstain from eating, drinking

and using oral medications from dawn to sunset. For persons with type 2 Diabetes, this reduction in food intake and medication regime could put them at risk of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) which can lead to serious consequences like loss of consciousness, amongst other challenges. During this month, foods and fluids are allowed at night, so fasting extends from dawn to sunset. There is a longer gap between meals and greater amount of foods especially carbohydrates are consumed, this implies people with Diabetes will experience large swings in blood glucose levels during Ramadan.

There have been quite a lot of scholarly articles supporting fasting for people with Diabetes during Ramadan, however there are recommendations which are mostly individualized and should not be ignored.

Some Dangers of Fasting With Diabetes -People with Diabetes taking oral medications or insulin for management may experience the danger of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). To reduce the possibility of developing hypoglycaemia, you should rest as much as possible during the fast.

However, should there be symptom of hypoglycaemia, you must take some surgery fluids followed by carbohydrate. This breaking of fast is permitted since religious

laws state that a person should not put their health at risk and hypoglycaemia could lead to compromised health status.

-People with Diabetes fasting can experience hyperglycaemia (high blood glucose) if the omit their medications.

High blood glucose level when normal medications are not taken can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a condition requiring hospital admission.

The symptoms of DKA includes, Excessive thirst, Excessive urination amongst others.

Due to fasting, less fluid is consumed which can lead to dehydration and may require hospitalization.

For a person intending to fast with Diabetes, there is a need to visit the Diabetes clinic for an assessment of one’s current level of diabetes control, the health care team will discuss any difficulties experienced in previous fast and how one coped and advice on any adjustment of medication that may be required to enable you to fast safely.

It is important to note that health care Professionals need to draw on evidence based practice and work closely with their patients who are Muslims living with Diabetes who wish to fast to do so as safely as possible. The following general dietary guidelines can help control blood glucose levels during fasting in Ramadan:

-Limit the amount of sweet foods taken at iftar (after sunset) -Include fruits, vegetables, lentils and yoghurt in your meals at iftar and sahur (early morning).

-Try to have the meal at sahur at proper time just before fijr, not at midnight. This will ensure even spread of your energy intake and result in more balanced blood glucose when fasting.

-Choose sugar free drinks or water to quench your thirst. Avoid adding sugar to drinks, use an artificial sweetener of your choice since they are calorie free rather.

-Limit fried foods, use grilled or baked foods.

Dietary advice to families at this time of Ramadan is an opportunity to educate the family with regards to long term, healthier meal choices. It is important to note that if healthy meal plan are adopted, it should continue after Ramadan as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Regular Blood glucose Check is necessary during the period of Fasting and the results should be discussed with your health care team.

We shall look into changes in treatment, diet and Physical activity in subsequent edition of this column, keep a date and be informed.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Kiddies World

With Nami Hassan Kadir namy.kadir@yahoo.com 08130693795.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS The Victoria Falls

V

ictoria is one of the most spectacular attractions of Africa and one of the most unusual waterfalls in the world. It is created by the Zambezi River that suddenly plummets into a narrow, 100-meters deep chasm. At the same time, Victoria - is the only waterfall in the world that is over one kilometer wide and over one hundred meters deep.

Its roar can be heard from 40 kilometers away, while the spray and mist from the falling water rises up to 400 meters and is visible from the distance of 50 kilometers. Even the rainbows are incredible here - they are of the “moon” kind: produced by the light reflected off the surface of the Moon.

The falls were discovered in 1855 by David Livingstone, the British doctor and a missionary, who named them

continent, if not the world. The massive sheet of falling water and the spray it produces is mesmerizing to say the least.

The nearby Victoria Falls National Park and the towns of Victoria Falls and Livingstone offer additional pleasures to the discerning visitor. The Victoria Falls is one of the most popular attractions in Southern Africa, where you can explore the African wilderness.

Curiously, during the dry season that lasts approximately from September to December, water level in Zambezi river falls, and one can walk through the most part of the waterfall, jumping between the streams that are running down.

However, at all other times, Victoria is a roaring machine, the power of which leaves an unforgettable impression.

One of the peculiar

in honor of Queen Victoria.

Locals called this Nature’s wonder “Mosi-oa-Tunya” (“The Smoke Which Thunders”) and were afraid to even get close to it. Brave Livingstone was the first European who could cross the entire Dark Continent from the South to the North. His expedition, aimed at bringing Christianity to Africa, was accompanied by 300 warriors from one of the tribes, but only two of them dared to get close to the Victoria Falls on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia has some of the most breath taking views you’ll ever encounter on the African

ways of entertainment at Victoria, hardly known to the mainstream tourists - is a natural pool, about ten meters wide, located right next to the cliff, next to the Livingstone’s island. Just a narrow strip separates it from the deep precipice. No wonder that his place was called “Devil’s Pool”.

After getting into this pool the swimmer can feel how tons and tons of swirling water plummet nearby. This pool is closed during the high- water season, as the swimmers can be dragged by the current into the precipice, so the tours to this pool only start in autumn.

B E AD C

HIS AND HERS’ CORNER

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Sponge box

Ben 10

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

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Kiddies World E AD

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With Nami Hassan Kadir namy.kadir@yahoo.com 08130693795.

CREATIVITY

How to make Plantain chips

P

lantain chips are crunchy snacks made with either ripe or unripe plantains. When making it with ripe plantains, ensure that the plantains are just beginning to ripe and are still hard. This is so that they will be crunchy when done.

Plantain Chips made with unripe plantains are bright yellow while those made with ripe plantains are deep yellow in colour. Please note that we do not make these with bananas. We do not cook, fry or roast bananas in Nigeria.

- Ripe/Unripe -Plantain Vegetable Oil: enough for deep frying.

-Salt to taste Note: When making plantain chips with ripe plantains, ensure that the plantains are just beginning to ripe and still very hard. Soft plantains never get crunchy if used for this snack.

Before you fry the plantain: 1. Wash and peel the plantains.

2. Thinly slice the plantains into a bowl of water. It is advisable to use a vegetable slicer to slice

Page 23

ACTIVITIES

Using the right colours, shade the image below. Describe the action and show your work to your teacher for correction. Cheers!

Plantain chips the plantains. The water helps prevent the plantain slices from changing colour.

3. When done, add salt to taste and stir.

4. Transfer the plantain slices to a sieve to drain the water.

Frying Directions: 1. Heat some vegetable oil till hot.

2. Put the slices of plantain into the oil in such a way that they are not stuck together.

3. Stir till the plantains are

AFRICAN TALES

bright yellow and crunchy. If using ripe plantains, they will be deep yellow.

4. Transfer the plantain slices to a sieve lined with paper towels.

5. Store in air-tight containers when they have cooled down completely and munch away whenever you want.

Plantain chips made with unripe plantains hardly absorb any oil while those made with ripe plantains absorb some of the vegetable oil during the frying process.

Who stole my eggs?

M

y eggs!” cried Chicken.

“One of my eggs is missing! Yesterday I had twelve eggs and today there are only eleven.”

As Chicken fled her nest to find Rooster, she had no idea that she was about to lose more eggs. Just out of view of the nest, the thief patiently waited for Chicken to leave her eggs again. Black Snake crept slowly and quietly up to the nest. He eyed the eggs and quickly swallowed one. Black Snake smiled to himself. His plan had

been so simple and had worked so well. He swallowed another egg.

It slid far down his long throat before his muscles crushed the fragile shell.

“I’ll be back later for another delicious egg, Chicken,” hissed Black Snake as he slithered away.

“Thank you for another fine meal.”

Meanwhile, the frantic chicken lead Rooster back to her nest.

“Why would someone take one of my eggs?” she clucked.

“Are you sure you counted correctly? Maybe you just thought

you saw eleven eggs?”suggested Rooster.

From the expression on Chicken’s face, Rooster knew he shouldn’t have asked that question. She glared at him and said, “You know I can count. See for yourself. How many eggs are in my nest?”

“One, two, three,” began Rooster. He frowned and stopped counting out loud.

“What’s the matter now?” questioned Chicken.”Are you afraid to admit you’re wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing like that at all,” responded Rooster.

“Something is very wrong here.

There are only nine eggs.”

“What? Nine Eggs!” cried Chicken. “What is happening?

Who would do this to me?”

The next few days were just terrible for Chicken. She worried constantly about her remaining eggs. She tried to stay with her eggs at all times but it wasn’t possible to always be with them.

Sometimes she had to leave to get food or take care of her other chicks. No matter why she left, the same thing always happened.

One or two eggs disappeared each time.

“Someone is watching me very closely,” cried the chicken.

“He knows exactly where I am at each moment of the day. I only have three remaining eggs.”

“Although I cannot prove anything,” comforted Rooster, “I think it must be Black Snake who is stealing your eggs.

He’s patient enough to watch you a long time, and we all know how he loves to eat eggs.”

Just the thought of Black Snake eating her eggs made Chicken shudder. She had heard stories of how he swallowed eggs and then crushed them further down his long slender neck.

She knew Rooster was probably correct.

“I must hurry back to my nest,” declared Chicken, realizing how long she had talked to Rooster.

She rushed to her eggs, but it was too late. Two more eggs had vanished. “Rooster!” she cried.

“Come help me. I only have one egg left.”

MODEL OF THE WEEK Jessy Gadzama

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 25

Magazine

The North, PIB and fiscal federalism: What option?

There has been heated debate over the Petroleum Industry Bill as it concerns the place of the North amidst request for another 10 percent Host Community Fund for Niger Delta States. In this piece, News Editor, Abubakar Ibrahim attempts to analyse what may transpire next if all options fails.

N

otorious B.I.G was an American rap singer very popular with controversial lyrics who eventually died from street-gang violence. In Nigeria, what has got so much fame in recent times good enough to be conveniently called the Notorious P.I.B, is the contentious Petroleum Industry Bill currently going through its own version of intellectual tension and violence to the level of a stalemate between the North and oil-producing states of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.

The PIB seeks principally to return order, due process and private-sector driven growth to the oil and gas sector of the economy, coming from the general believe in the inefficiency of government to run affairs coupled with large-scale corruption. As it were, the industry is full of unpleasant tales of manipulations by foreign oil companies and their local collaborators in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) and its subsidiaries with glaring intransparency in the value chain of production, refining, marketing, distribution and export as well as revenues accruable to government.

The bill initiated by the Bureau for Public Enterprises under its erstwhile Director-General, Nasir el-Rufai was fine-tuned by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua administration to ensure more retention and benefit of the common wealth by Nigeria and Nigerians.

The bill will become an Act after necessary processes of public hearings and parliamentary debates “to establish the legal and regulatory framework, institutions and regulatory authorities for the Nigerian petroleum industry, to establish guidelines for the operation of the upstream and downstream sectors,

and for purposes connected with the same”.

With this, according to its preamble quoted above, the “Property and sovereign ownership of petroleum within Nigeria, its territorial waters, the continental shelf, the Exclusive Economic Zone and the extended continental shelf shall vest in the sovereign state of Nigeria for and on behalf of the people of Nigeria”.

However, the bill which has scaled through the second reading in the senate is facing hiccups on its road to passage. Most legislators in the House of Repesentatives and the Senate have no quarrel with the content of the bill which also seeks to unbundle the behemoth NNPC and clean up the cogs against the interest of Nigeria but a camp especially the northern senators are opposed to provisions seeking additional financial benefit to host oilproducing communities of the Niger Delta.

It would be recalled that at the heat of both military and political campaigns for additional attention to ecologicallydevastated communities of the Southsouth during the Obasanjo era, an Act of the National Assembly harmonized the onshore/offshore dichotomy in the derivation formula thereby reviewing the 13 percent benefit upwards. Northern legislators at the time caved in to the emotions of the moment moreso with the promise by their southern counterparts to support the Hydro-electric Power Producing Area Development Commission(HYPPADEC) Act which would apportion similar benefit to host northern communities but to no avail.

Northern leaders deeply lamented the harmonized derivation deal which gave up the upstream sector considered the common right of all regions being the

country’s territorial waters. In March this year, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State alluded to this, saying that the prevailing revenue allocation formula had reduced the financial strength of non-oil producing states.

Kwankwaso said the formula had reduced the number of programmes and projects aimed at alleviating the poverty and uplifting the socio-economic development of the North.

“That is why when it comes to revenue allocation, we are talking of onshore-offshore, talking about PIB and other issues that have really reduced the income of Kano and other states around Kano…that’s why we always talk to our National Assembly members to be more careful this time.

As if hearkening to this call, Senators on Tuesday, March 6, 2013 were sharply divided along the North and South geopolitical lines when they began the consideration of the Petroleum Industry Bill for second reading.

While some senators from North totally rejected the bill, others said that it should be considered after the removal of certain sections. All the southern senators however supported the bill and argued in support of the contentious areas particularly the most controversial

Senate President, David Mark

President Goodluck Jonathan provision for Host Community Fund, which will compel companies operating in the Niger Delta to pay 10 per cent

of their net profits to the fund for the development of the communities.

Leading the opposition to the bill,

Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal

Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State said the 10 per cent host community fund had no place in PIB because it is

unfair for the states, which had received about N7.3tn as derivation fund in 13 years, to also receive additional funds.

Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

Lawan said with the addition of funds for the Amnesty Programme and the Niger Delta Development Commission, the states had so far netted N11trn in the same period without any development to show for it.

Arguing that the petroleum industry needs to be transparent and independent, Lawan said, “The National Oil Exploration Frontier and other proposed agencies should be independent and not be controlled by the minister.”

In the same vein, Senator Ali Ndume said the bill contained a lot of inconsistencies, noting that while it intended to achieve transparency, the agencies were structured to give too much power to the minister especially in oil bloc allocation and appointments.

On the host community fund, Ndume said, “Instead of a host community fund, there should be host community equity participation.”

Senator Ibrahim Gobir said the host community fund would give oil producing states between 20 and 30 per cent derivation to “short-change other equal federating states”.

“It means we will have four tiers of government: federal, states, local government and host communities,” he said, adding that a lot of work would have to be done on the bill if it would get the nod of his colleagues.

Senator Isa Galaudu also pummelled the bill, recommending that it should not go for second reading.

“Earlier speakers argued that what will be paid to the host communities will not affect what goes to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. I disagree. Because it is tax deductible, it will definitely affect what goes into the CRF,” he said, Contd on Page 26

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Magazine The North, PIB and fiscal federalism: What option?

Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke Contd from Page 25 adding that the PIB would discourage investment in the oil and gas sector, and reduce employment opportunities.

Senator Abubakar Saraki wants the bill to be passed to ensure a total reform of the oil sector but recommended the removal of all the controversial areas, such as the 10 per cent host community finance .“We should move away from issues that divide us and focus on those issues on which we agree. This bill, as it is, cannot stand the test of time,” he said.

Arguing in support of the bill, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa noted that the host communities’ fund would not affect benefits to other states from oil revenues since the companies would be paying from their net profits.

Senator Nkechi Nwogu said her colleagues should not lose sight of the sufferings and deprivations in the Niger Delta, saying the host communities deserved the 10 per cent fund.

“To oppose the 10 per cent host communities’ fund may escalate the violence in the region,” she said.

To Senator Benedict Ayade, opposition to the bill has economic and political underbellies, noting that some of the observations made by the opponents of the bill were genuine, while others were unfounded Ayade said, “I agree with the 10 per cent host communities’ fund, because this is what will guarantee oil production.It is a way of calibrating the host communities in the nation’s oil production because we know that when the oil stops flowing, Nigeria will cease to exist.”

Senator Helen Esuene, while supporting the bill, said the host communities would definitely need to be compensated, whether the 10 per cent was accepted or not.

Amidst these threats, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, went a notch higher to ask President Goodluck Jonathan to revoke and re-allocate oil blocs, which he said are 83 percent controlled by northerners.

Senator Enang said this when discussions on the new PIB, entered its second day on the floor of the Senate in reaction to the position of Northern

“

NSGF Chairman, Gov. Babangida Aliyu

ACF Chairman, Alh. Aliko Mohammed

So far, it is not clear what carrot the federal government lobbyists are dangling to woo the northern legislators off their current stand but looking at the unanimity of northern leaders this time, they may have learnt from the HYPPADEC lesson. This may not be unconnected with the prevailing socioeconomic conditions piling pressures on authorities to act fast in reducing insecurity, poverty, disease, ignorance and want in the North.

Senators, even though he admitted that allocation from the oil revenue has been mismanaged by the Niger Delta region.

However, revelations from oil industry watchers and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana discountenanced the claims by identifying foreign multinational companies as owners of the chunk of blocs.

Undaunted, Senators from the North are still pushing with a fresh condition for the passage of the PIB into law just as the senate prepares for the zonal public hearings on the contentions bill in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Makurdi. .This time, they want the 10 per cent provision for Host Community Fund to rather be extended to all communities hosting oil wells, farm tanks, pipelines and depots just as the Federal Government has started lobbying senators on the merits of the bill.

According to a source who craved anonymity, “there is a clearer picture to some extent. Senators from the North are saying that the 10 per cent Host Community Fund should not be limited to any region.They want befitting communities to be those hosting oil wells, farm tanks, pipelines and depot installations.The misconception before is that only communities with oil wells will benefit from the Host Community Fund.We have resolved that if this new condition is acceptable to the Federal Government and oil producing states in the Niger Delta, we will pass the PIB.The argument of the

senators is that all parts of Nigeria are exposed to oil exploration, refinery and distribution hazards.”

Another source added: “The PIB is structured in such a way that oil producing states will be earning between 35 and 40 per cent derivation to the disadvantage of other parts of the country.

“This is why we are insisting that the clause on Host Community Fund be an all-inclusive thing.

Every state with oil installations or facilities must benefit from the 10 per cent fund. This is the only condition for the passage of the bill.”

A senator said: “They are saying that the Host Community Fund is harmless but North’s senators see it as a booby trap to get additional 10 per cent derivation for oil producing states, especially those from the South-south.It is left to the government to allay the fears of the North in the bill in order to move forward.”

The Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) last week also rejected 10 per cent vote of the nation’s petroleum income to host communities through a memo to the House of Representatives adhoc committee on PIB, signed by the Chairman of the Forum, Governor Babangida Aliyu.

It read: “The most controversial provision of PIB 2012 is the introduction of the Host Community Fund which is creating a fourth tier of Government in the sharing of the revenue of the Federation.Whereas the constitution of Nigeria recognises only three tiers of government in di-

rectly accessing the Federal Reserve and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is meant to take care of the special needs of the host oil-producing communities.

“The PIB does not state exactly what constitutes a Host community or how funds will be conveyed to the community. The provisions of the PIB 2012 relating to the Host Community Fund touches on the question of the revenue allocation and utilisation in a federation such as Nigeria.

“The constitution already allocated 13 per cent of the Petroleum income as derivation precisely to cater for the special needs of petroleum producing communities; the 10 per cent Host Community Funds in PIB 2012 is merely an attempt to extend this through an act of the National Assembly without the required constitutional amendment.

“In other words, the issue of derivation has already been exhausted in the constitution. What is rather needed to be done is improvement on the present derivation factors and formulas to correct disparity and open other opportunities for other parts of the country.”

So far, it is not clear what carrot the federal government lobbyists are dangling to woo the northern legislators off their current stand but looking at the unanimity of northern leaders this time, they may have learnt from the HYPPADEC lesson. This may not be unconnected with the prevailing socio-economic conditions piling pressures on authorities to act fast in reducing insecurity, poverty, disease, ignorance and want in the North.

However, if the South-south stakeholders refuse to blink, then the fate of the Bill may hang in the balance. Remember, there were cases where clauses were inserted in the nights into a draft constitution to legitimise the third term ambition of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Electoral Act to stop the judicial nullification of rogue elections.

Will this be next strategy? Or will there be a reasonable compromise in sympathy with the North’s plight or will there further agitation for fiscal federalism otherwise known as resource control? Hopefully, Nigerian leaders have always found a way out of quagmires just as the “Doctrine of Necessity” saved the nation from a leadership struggle.

Feature

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 27

Kwara: Sly contractors, beautiful classrooms and nonchalant teachers

By Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

R

ehabilitation of schools by any government or stakeholder are always targeted at creating conducive and peaceful learning environment for pupils and sustenance of solid structural foundation.

Rehabilitation could be defined as the restoration of good health, ability to work, or the like or the restoration of someone to a useful place in society.

Whatever definition educationists gave rehabilitation, the fact is that the school, an environment for acquisition of knowledge and learning, has to focus on improvement of pupils performances and standard.

The Kwara State Government ,in it efforts to justify this trend in education sector, had declared the rehabilitation of about 400 schools in the state.

Its started with classrooms at the basic and Senior Secondary School levels in 2012. Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in an interactive session with Journalists, disclosed that the classrooms were rehabilitated, promising that he would rehabilitate another 200 classrooms soon during the inauguration of a new private sector group of schools, the Adrin Schools.

However, in Kwara State, rehabilitation of public schools by government are merely seen as opportunity for contractors to get their own government largesse while pupils derive little teaching.

While rural schools were left alone in the hands of communities and Education Support for School Programme in Nigeria(ESSPIN), teachers posted to such schools report to duty at will since the regulatory body is too far from them.

Investigation show that majority of schools rehabilitated were done after discovery by ESSPIN, a UK NGO sponsored by British government which had spent over N15 million to rehabilitate selected schools within it shortest time in Kwara State. Few school structures done by SUBEB or State Government did not last long as contractors handling the projects had reduced the working capital in the course of construction.

At Ilorin Government Secondary School, along Sango area, Mount Camel, Comprehensive High School, building rehabilitation opened up with many classrooms pillars, ceiling, and fence not too strong to last expected duration. At Government Day Secondary Agbamu,in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, government has almost completed rehabilitation of the school into full boarding house.

Though the State government is trying to reintroduce full boarding house and technical education, It has laid foundation for a Vocational Centre at Ajase-Ipo and making efforts to use part of Ajase-Ipo Comprehensive High School as its affiliate.

Governor Ahmed believe that his achievements came from the realisa-

tion that a vibrant educational system required appropriate infrastructure for pupils and students. He also said that the state government would step up its Quality Assurance Unit for an improved education standard.

Ahmed said that the state had a virile basic education culture, and warned that his administration would not hesitate to close down any school found to be violating the statutory standards for the education sector in the state.

“A child’s basic educational development is directly correlated to the foundation laid at the basic level.

We intend to strengthen the capacity of our Quality Assurance Unit to ensure that all public and private schools adhere to the teaching standards and benchmarks in our educational policy, in pursuit of the highest standards of teaching and learning in the state’s school system”.

Commenting further on government efforts, Kwara state SUBEB in it official website stated that it had constructed 20 blocks of three (3) classrooms(Annexure II),construction of 32 blocks of two(2) classrooms (Annexure III),renovation/Rehabilitation of AIS LGEA School, Okekere, Ilorin, Supply and Distribution of 16,722 number of plastic furniture (Annexure V),Completion of 45 classroom of UBE abandon Projects.

Similarly, KWSUBEB with Education Trust Fund intervention fund also constructed a block of three classrooms, a block of two (2) classrooms with office,procurement of 2-seater primary school pupils furniture (320nos) and16 sets of teachers tables and chairs.

Others were the construction of a block of three classrooms (16nos), procurement of 960 JSS students furniture and 48 sets of teachers tables and chairs, construction of a block of two (2) classrooms (16nos) and procurement of 2-seater primary school pupils furniture .

Nevertheless, all these according to education analysts, have not yielded good outcome on the performances of pupils both in primary and secondary schools.

For this, a former Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara state, Mr. Olawepo is challenging the state government to publish lists of the schools where the classrooms were rehabilitated.

“In this case, we challenge them to publish the names of the schools and the number of classrooms renovated for Kwarans to verify. The easiest and empirical way to assess the government’s claim to have improved the standard of education is by looking at the most recent results of pupils from Kwara in the WAEC/NECO/JAMB examinations. Of course, the results did not show any improvement in the performance of students in Kwara public schools. As it stands today, Kwara is one of Nigeria’s most backward states educationally. We challenge the state government to say otherwise with a verifiable claim.”

Old Classroom of Comprehensive High School, Ajase-Ipo, Kwara state

New rehabilitated classroom Olawepo further said : “But equally worrisome is the spate of street urchins/gangs across the state capital. This portends a grave danger to public peace, but the truth is that it is a manifestation of the low level of economic activities in the state,” he said.

In his reaction, the state chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mr. Suleiman Buhari, said Kwara residents deserve a public apology from Ahmed for allegedly peddling falsehood on a sector as germane as education.

He said statewide assessment of the Kwara public schools by private assessors commissioned by the CPC came in with damning reports of the sorry state of public schools’ infrastructure in the state.

“Verifiable facts across the state indicated that since the inception of the Ahmed-led government in the state, the few successfully rehabilitated classrooms by his government are those abandoned by his predecessor, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

“And to add salt to injury, even the few ones verified to have been successfully completed were awarded to political jobbers, who did very shoddy rehabilitation works on the classrooms at the expense of innocent pupils who helplessly bear the brunt of their selfishness and ineptitude.”

Observing the nonchalant attitude of teachers in rural areas, the Kwara state Teaching Service Commission has announced that about 25 primary school teachers in the Kwara

State Teaching Service are to be variously punished for absenteeism.

The Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB), Barrister Lanre Daibu who disclosed this in Ilorin discovered the truancy during an unscheduled visit to primary and junior secondary schools in Ifelodun and Ilorin East Local Government Areas and directed the affected teachers to report at the Board headquarters, Ilorin for interrogation.

The Chairman who sighted pupils of some schools roaming about during lessons period, expressed disappointment with the nonchalant attitude of teachers to work, and warned that the State Government would not condone laziness among teachers .

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

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Abroad

When is a military coup not a military coup? . . .When it happens in Egypt, apparently

Those Western leaders who are telling us Egypt is s t ill o n th e p ath to “democracy” have to remember that Morsi was indeed elected in a real, Western-approved election

By Robert Fisk

F

or the first time in the history of the world, a coup is not a coup. The army take over, depose and imprison the democratically elected president, suspend the constitution, arrest the usual suspects, close down television stations and mass their armour in the streets of the capital. But the word ‘coup’ does not – and cannot – cross the lips of the Blessed Barack Obama. Nor does the hopeless UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon dare to utter such an offensive word. It’s not as if Obama doesn’t know what’s going on. Snipers in Cairo killed 15 Egyptians this week from a rooftop of the very university in which Obama made his ‘reachout’ speech to the Muslim world in 2009.

Is this reticence because millions of Egyptians demanded just such a coup – they didn’t call it that, of course – and thus became the first massed people in the world to demand a coup prior to the actual coup taking place? Is it because Obama fears that to acknowledge it’s a coup would force the US to impose sanctions on the most important Arab nation at peace with Israel?

Or because the men who staged the coup might forever lose their 1.5 billion. subvention from the US – rather than suffer a mere delay -- if they were told they’d actually carried out a coup.

Now for the kind of historical memory that Obama would enjoy.

In that dodgy 2009 speech in Cairo – in which he managed to refer to Palestinian “dislocation” rather than “dispossession” – Obama made the following remarkable comment, which puts the events in Egypt today into a rather interesting perspective.

There were some leaders, he said, “who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others… you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the

General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sissi

legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.”

Obama did not say this in the aftermath of the coup-thatwasn’t. He uttered these very words in Egypt itself just over four years ago. And it pretty much sums up what Mohamed Morsi did wrong. He treated his

Muslim Brotherhood mates as masters rather than servants of the people, showed no interest in protecting Egypt’s Christian minority, and then enraged the Egyptian army by attending a Brotherhood meeting at which Egyptians were asked to join the holy war in Syria to kill Shiites and overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

And there is one salient fact about the events of the last 48 hours in Egypt. No one is happier – no one more satisfied nor more conscious of the correctness of his own national struggle against ‘Islamists’ and ‘terrorists’ -- than Assad. The West has been wetting itself to destroy Assad – but does absolutely nothing when the Egyptian army destroys its democratically-elected president for lining up with Assad’s armed Islamist opponents. The army called Morsi’s supporters “terrorists and fools”. Isn’t that just what Bashar calls his enemies? No wonder Assad told us yesterday that no one should use religion to gain power. Hollow laughter here -- offstage, of course.

But this doesn’t let Obama off the hook. Those Western leaders who are gently telling us that Egypt is still on the path to “democracy”, that this is an “interim” period – like the ‘interim’ Egyptian government concocted by the military – and that millions of Egyptians support the coup that isn’t a coup, have to remember that Morsi was indeed elected in a real, Western-approved election.

Sure, he won only 51 per cent -- or 52 per cent -- of the vote.

But did George W. Bush really win his first presidential election?

Morsi certainly won a greater share of the popular vote than David Cameron. We can say that

Morsi lost his mandate when he no longer honoured his majority vote by serving the majority of Egyptians. But does that mean that European armies must take over their countries whenever European prime ministers fall below 50 per cent in their public opinion polls? And by the way, are the Muslim Brotherhood to be allowed to participate in the next Egyptian presidential elections?

Or will they be banned? And if they participate, what will happen if their candidate wins again?

Israel, however, must be pleased. It knows a coup when it sees one – and it’s now back playing its familiar role as the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East, and with the kind of neighbours it understands: military rulers.

And if Egypt’s wealthy military king-makers are getting a nifty $1.5 billion dollars a year from Washington – albeit postponed -- they are certainly not going to tamper with their country’s peace treaty with Israel, however unpopular it remains with the people for whom it supposedly staged the coup-that-wasn’t.

Stand by then for the first US delegation to visit the country which has suffered the coup-thatwasn’t. And you’ll know whether they believe there was a coup or not by the chaps they visit on their arrival in Cairo: the army, of course.

Robert Fisk is a multiple award-winning journalist on the Middle East, based in Beirut.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 300 members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party as round-up begins

Source: Independent.co.uk

Pots & Pans Page 28

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Kilishi, a A delight around the world

few things in this worldcertainly makeour hearts race. Kilishi is amazingly one of them. Kilishi is dried beef slices made the Hausa style.

Everyone around the world sure loves it.

Ingredients 500g (15oz) Beef, 100g (3oz) Kuli Kuli powder, 5 0 m l

(1.5floz) Kuli kuli oil,

With Hajiya Ramatu Usman Dorayi 50g (1.5oz) dry ginger, 3tbsp (45ml) masoro, Seasoning, 1tbsp (15ml) uziza powder, salt to taste.

Method Rinse beef and slice into thin, wide strips. Mix all the powdery ingredients together. Sprinkle all over meat to coat wall. Sprinkle a bit of oil on the meat and allow to marinate for an hour. Place meat on a clean surface under the scorching sun.

Take a cooking brush and dib in warm oil.

Brush meat with it whilst turning it over day after day. When ready, meat should be crisp and very dry. Alternatively, pieces of meat could be dried in the oven. Serve on its own as a snack.

Kilishi It may take a little as five days to dry depending on the heat of the sun or as long as three weeks. (The good news is that experts prepare kilishi in commercial quantities in spite of the difficulty of preparing the meat.

Kilishi can last in the freezer for more than two months, if well prepared.

Yam and garden egg sauce menu to start off your day Ingredients for garden egg sauce Garden egg (10-12 pieces) Tomatoes Onions Pepper Maggi to taste Salt to taste Palm oil / Groundnut oil | Preferably Palm oil Curry and thyme to taste Cray Fish How to cook: Boil water Slice the garden eggs into small pieces, pour into nylon, and add little water and salt.

Tie and put inside the boiling water to steam.

After 7-10mins remove the nylon from the boiling water, pour the garden egg into a boil. Mash the steamed garden egg with a rolling pin.

Slice your onions, peppers and tomatoes, fry the sliced

onions, peppers and Tomatoes for 10-12mins (with either Palm oil or Groundnut oil but preferably palm oil) depending on how soft you like your pepper sauce.

Add Maggi, salt, curry, Cray fish and thyme to taste Pour the mashed garden egg and mix/stir together with the fried pepper.

Let it fry/cook for 5 minutes.

Ingredients for the yam One medium sized tuber of yam Preparation: Peel the yam, slice into pieces and wash twice. Boil till cooked.

Serve the yam the garden egg sauce on it and you are good to go.

Garden Egg

Page 29

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Womanhood

Compiled by Nami Hassan Kadir

The plight of women in Pakistan

Ayesha, age 18

E

very poor girl wishes for more education, for the opportunity to learn and go to school; for a childhood.

But many of us are not that fortunate. The day my brother was born was bittersweet; I was no longer allowed to go to school. Due to the increased household responsibilities, my father told me that I must stay home and eventually begin to work.

On the night of his birth, while my whole family was celebrating, I went to my uncle’s house to get more bread. I didn’t know a young man was there. In the empty home, he took advantage of

“

me; he did things that I didn’t understand; he touched my chest. Before I could realize, there was a cloth over my mouth and I was being raped. I was having trouble walking back home; I felt faint and I had a headache.

This happens a lot in villages.

Young girls are,raped, murdered, and buried. No one is able to trace them after their disappearance. If a woman is not chaste, she is unworthy of marriage. All he did was ask for forgiveness and they let him go as it was best to avoid having others find out what had happened. He didn’t receive any punishment even though

All the men in our village beat their wives, it is a norm and women continue to let it happen.

Maybe it is fear or desperation, I can never understand.

he ruined my life by that act.

People may have forgotten what he did, but I never forgot.

Now, he is married and living his life happily. I blame my own fate; I am just unlucky that this happened to me.

When I began working, I was afraid. I guess it was natural, I was only ten. I considered myself lucky though. In the homes where I worked, I was responsible for taking care of the children;Getting them ready, feeding them and playing with them. I used to have so much fun. I felt like I was a child among them.

I was able to relive my own childhood. Soon, I became so used to working that I began feeling safer and happier at work than in my own home and village.Our village is full of intoxication and indecent and disrespectful men; men like my own father.

At the moment, we live in Karachi in a small home with one room and the floor is broken. Anytime I visit my parents, it is either that I would witness abusive arguments between them or something far more disturbing. Since I was young, my father had always beaten my mother shamelessly. My entire family is aware of my father’s abusive ways; it is no secret. My mother is very obedient; she never says no to my father. She leaves home for work at 8 am and only returns at midnight.

Even if she is tired, she does everything to make him happy; she runs our home and cooks whatever he wishes. All the men in our village beat their wives, it is a norm and women continue to let it happen. Maybe it is fear or desperation, I can never understand.

“He had no mercy, not even when I was pregnant.

I had miscarriages for three children.”

My mum would say. As sad as it may sound, “part of me does not fear the physical abuse anymore. I fear much bigger things.”

As I grew older, my father changed. He began smoking, drinking, and maybe even using drugs with my income.

He began sleeping next to me. In the middle of the night, he would touch me inappropriately and remove my clothes. Because I was afraid, I would act like I was sleeping and would turn the other way. After his first time sexually abusing me, every night I slept in my home in fear. I kept dreaming that my father was raping me. I get so scared. I have heard that if you don’t share your dream with someone else, then it never happens. So I never shared what happened to me.

After these incidents, the only person I could turn to was my employer. She is aware of what happens in my home and I know I can trust her. In January, I feared I may have been pregnant, and she took care of all my medical expenses without letting anyone find out.

Thankfully, I was not, but she was ready to take care of me if I was, she said.

A woman’s reputation is so fragile in Pakistani society. I have requested for her not to let me go home for vacation holiday, and to keep me in her home where I feel safe.

Without judging me, she accepted me, and has given me a place in her home like a daughter; a place even my own parents could not give me.

Page 30

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Do you have old pictures for memories?

Send them to junioremma419@gmail.com

ARCHIVES

Major-General J.T.U.Aguiyi-Ironsi, centre, leader of Nigeria’s new federal military government and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, poses with four of his military governors, in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 24, 1966. From left to right; Major Hassan Usman Katsina, Lieutenant Colonel F.A. Fajudi, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi,Lietenant Colonel C. OdumegwuOjukwu and Lieutenant Colonel D.A. Ejoor.

(AP Photo)

This is the Kanem of Borno empire, the mais was pushed aside.

The Sefuwa dynasty came to an end in 1841

Nigerian people at a market. Food plays a central role in the rituals of all ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Tafewa Balewa returns home after a visit to the United Kingdom in 1965

Page 31

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

CARTOON

Leisure STRANGE FACTS – The human brain is capable of higher order activities.

We experience a range of emotions and possess selfawareness in addition to consciousness. Take a look at the following list of human qualities and see bwhich ones describe - Those who complain more actually live longer, because by doing so, it releases tension and increases immunity.

-Humans might not be the cleverest beings in the universe.

Did you know that a leech has 32 brains?

Supercomputer or

what?

-If you are a cleanliness freak you might want to know, kissing is more hygienic as compared to shaking hands.

-If you force your eyes open when you sneeze, they could pop out by force.

-On an average, about 437 questions are asked by a four-Talk of spending our year old. lives productively! In an average lifespan, we -The human body spend around 25 years can go for a long time of our life sleeping. without food, but, not -As time goes by, without sleep the number of broken relationships -The largest name in and divorces are the world is Adolph increasing at an Blaine Charles David alarming rate. But Earl Frederick Gerald dig this! The longest Hubert Irvin John marriage on record Kenneth Lloyd Martin lasted for 86 years, 9½ Nero Oliver Paul months - Herbert and Quincy Randolph Zelmyra Fisher from Shermasn Thomas QUOTES USA. (1924 - 2011) Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus. Be Impeccable to be idle. No person

WORD SEARCH

Find the words which are listed at the right side of this page in the Word Search grid. The words can be forwards, backwards, up, down, or diagonal. Circle each letter separately and keep in mind that the letters in each words may be used in more than one words name.

Malaria Fever Hypertension Pregnancy Ovulation Stroke Diabetis Asthma Typhoid Bacteria Immunization Fertility

Photo of the day

With Your Word.

Speak with integrity.

Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love...

– Miguel Angel Ruiz -We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault.

But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

–Katharine Hepburn -Determine

will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

– Thomas Jefferson -The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

– Helen Keller Happiness never decreases by being shared.

– Buddha

-If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome. never – Michael Jordan

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Melea Jude Moses

Fashion

Page 32

Dress Guide: 5 Tips for Young Men According to Antonio, an Austrailian, many young men are starting their professional lives without a clue as to how to dress.

T

his needs to change; young men are the future leaders of society and dressing professionally is the first step towards becoming professional.

And although clothing does not make the man – the right clothing can give him precious seconds to make his case and influence others.

It’s important to note that it is worth paying some attention to your clothing as a young man even if you’re working in a field without strict dress codes.

Crisp, clean, and well fitted clothing – wherever you are at in the world – encourages others to take you more seriously.

Tip 1: You can judge a man by his shoes Starting from the ground up, appropriate-fitting footwear is the first step to dressing sharp. A traditional school of thought that’s still alive and well claims you can judge a man by his shoes. If you’ve never owned really good shoes before, brace yourself and get ready to pay a significant amount of money for wellmade, classic footwear. You may be shocked at the sticker price for well-crafted shoes, but the quality and comfort pay dividends down the road.

A good pair of dress shoes will last you years and stay goodlooking with nothing more than some light cleaning and the occasional shine. Quality leather footwear isn’t a luxury for the excessively rich — it’s a necessity for any man.

Tip 2: Don’t wear clothes that scream ‘student days’ The way you dress is the way you are perceived.

If you’re still w e a r i n g clothes that s c r e a m “student days” you’re going to be treated like a boy with no

experience in the real world. Buck the trend, age your look a little, and get the respect you deserve from older men. That means raiding your wardrobe and getting rid of the majority of your ultra-casual clothes: T-shirts, cargo pants, jean shorts, sweatshirts and sweatpants, baseball hats, and athletics. Save a few for yardwork and exercise — but donate the rest of it to charity and start replacing it with dressier clothes that speak to your maturity.

Tip 3: Stay away from f a s h i o n fashion trends Main-stream fashion trends change too fast to make useful wardrobe staples.

Most young men

T h a t making

means y o u r

don’t have the budget to buy new pants every month or two — so stay away from pants that are only presentable during an “in” season. Distressed or bleached jeans are a great example; several different designer labels briefly

managed to sell the image on the public, and then the fad changed and left a lot of people with very expensive jeans too beat-up to wear in public. Stick to classic clothing staples for the core of your wardobe and avoid anything that’s too far out on the cutting edge — even if you see something that makes it look good.

Tip 4: Take Care of Your Clothing.

Generally speaking, being young means having less money to throw around.

Tip 5: For at Least G o o d Suit in Closet No matter your job i s ,

you’re going need decent suit at point.

If in a field y o u ’ r e

investments last. If you’ve shelled out for a few pieces of good, quality clothing — a custom suit, a pair of expensive dress shoes, what have you — it’s worth a few bucks more to keep the clothes in good shape. That means using good hangers for your suits, shoe trees for your shoes, and a little tender loving care with the washing machine.

Some of your clothes can come from thrift shops, if you’re lucky enough to have a reasonably common body type and some well-to-do neighborhoods nearby. A few adjustments from a tailor can turn a five naira thrift-store suit into your dress wardrobe staple.

Just take care of it and protect your bigger investments with some proper maintenance!

Have One the what

t a

o

some you’re where going to w e a r o n e regularly y o u should look for a variety of colors and styles; if you just need a single suit for

infrequent dress occasions stick with a classic single-breasted, two-button suit in charcoal gray or navy blue.

If you’re buying off the rack take the time to have the suit adjusted. A few shops, still offer the service, but you’ll more than likely need to find a tailor independently. It’s worth the effort — sized suits are made to general measurements, and not all of them are going to be a perfect fit for you. A good tailor can make the small changes that take your suit from looking mediocre, to perfect for you.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Hollywood & Bollywood

Page 33

‘’Fukrey” 2 in the pipeline F

ukrey” actor Ali Fazal hints about a sequel to Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s small-budget production venture.

At the success party of “Fukrey”, when asked where does he see the celebrations going, Fazal said: “I think till ‘Fukrey 2’.”

“Well, not right now but the demand is such that we will have to make a second part.

People are asking us for more,” he added.

Directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, “Fukrey” also stars Manjot Singh, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Priya Anand, Richa Chadda and Vishakha Singh.

“We are also excited, we have become like a family. This can only go forward. Inshallah, let’s see,” said Fazal

Fukrey

Sonam Kapoor wants to play Meena Kumari Betty Aberra

BBA: Ethiopian lawyers to sue Housemate, Betty S

ome lawyers in Ethiopia are gearing up to sue Big Brother Africa (BBA) Housemate, Betty Aberra, for having sex in public, information on Linda Ikeji’s blog has said.

It added that Betty had sex with fellow Housemate, Bolt from Sierre Leon, just three days after entering the BBA House.

According to a local radio show

in Ethiopia called Ethiopikalink, if Betty is convicted, she could face up to six years in prison as it is an offense to have sex in public in the country.

The lawsuit is not the only thing Betty is facing since leaving the BBA House, she’s also facing nationwide condemnation from groups who have asked the media and companies to boycott her.

B

ollywood actress, Sonam Kapoor, said she would love to play legendary actress, Meena Kumari if her biopic is

Sonam Kapoor made, India Today has said. it added that the actress is fascinated by real characters with some flaws.

“I would like to play Meena Kumari...she had such a

50 Cent charged with attacking ex-girlfriend

R

apper and actor 50 Cent was charged this week with attacking his exgirlfriend and trashing her Los Angeles condo, city attorney Mike Feuer, told Hollywood Reporter.

The 37-year-old “In da Club” singer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, was charged with domestic violence and four counts of vandalism in papers filed Monday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in jail and $46,000 in fines.

A representative for Jackson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson had already left when officers arrived June 23 at a Toluca Lake condo belonging to a woman who had a baby with him, police said.

During an argument, the woman told police, Jackson began destroying her property before she locked herself into her bedroom. The woman said Jackson kicked open the bedroom door and kicked her, causing injury.

Police said they estimated about $7,100 in damage to the woman’s home. They observed many broken items in the ransacked and clothes-strewn condo, including chandeliers, furniture and a television.

The woman told police she had been in a three-year relationship with Jackson.

“Regardless of perceived celebrity or notoriety, domestic violence is a serious crime and alleged perpetrators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by this office,” Feuer said.

50 Cent

tragic life,” said Sonam known for playing different roles in films like “Delhi 6”, “Mausam”, “Aisha” and “I hate love story” among others.

Kumari, one of the most talented and successful actresses of her time, was tagged as “Tragedy Queen” for playing such roles in films like “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”. Her personal life was not a bed of roses- she had to deal with a troubled marriage and alcohol addiction and died of liver cirrohsis at the age of 39.

“I want to play any one who has a nice character arch and is flawed, I would love to play such roles. It is because they are human. I am very flawed myself...I want to play a real person,” said Sonam.

In last six years, Sonam worked in about a dozen of films, but it is her recent release “Raanjhanaa”, in which she acted a simple girl from Benaras, that helped her get her due at the box office.

India Today also said that the actress is enjoying the unexpected positive response.

“The response has been good. I am very happy.

When I was working, I didn’t think I will get as much appreciation. I was working hard and was putting in a lot of effort. I really enjoyed working with (director) Aanand L. Rai. He is my favourite director,” said the 28-year-old.

Also, viewers enjoyed her chemistry with southern actor Dhanush in the “Raanjhanaa”.

“He is a good actor and a good person as well. When that combination comes, it suits people a lot. A nice performer is liked by people,” she said.

BU$I#€SS PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

‘Master key’ to Android phones uncovered

By Chris Alu with agency report “master key” that could give cyber-thieves unfettered access to almost any Android phone has been discovered by security research firm, BlueBox. The bug could be exploited to let an attacker do what they want to a phone including stealing data, eavesdropping or using it to send junk messages. The loophole has been present in every version of the Android operating system released since 2009.

A

Google said it currently had no comment to make on BlueBox’s discovery. Writing on the BlueBox blog, Jeff Forristal, said the implications of the discovery were “huge”.

The bug emerges because of the way Android handles cryptographic verification of the programs installed on the phone.

Android uses the cryptographic signature as a way to check that an app or program is legitimate and to ensure it has not been tampered with. Mr. Forristal and

his colleagues have found a method of tricking the way Android checks these signatures so malicious changes to apps go unnoticed.

Any app or program written to exploit the bug would enjoy the same access to a phone that the legitimate version of that application enjoyed.

“It can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function thereof,” wrote Mr. Forristal.

BlueBox reported finding the bug to Google in February. Mr.

Forristal is planning to reveal more information about the problem at the Black Hat hacker conference being held in August this year.

The danger from the loophole remains theoretical because, as yet, there is no evidence that it is being exploited by cyber-thieves.

One other hurdle is that in order to catch out Android users, malicious hackers would have to get their booby-trapped version of a legitimate application on to the Google Play store, said security expert Dan Wallach in an interview.

New EU support for renewable energy policy in Nigeria

By Etuka Sunday

By Abdulwahab Isa

A

s the country’s fortunes dwindles from the sale of crude oil, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has instructed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to employ “any efforts” to grow the nation’s revenue base.

She urged the FIRS to consider birth certificate as registration for taxation purposes as obtained in South Africa and Namibia, where tax registration and TCC are being linked to birth certificate.

Represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Danladi Kefas, she said FIRS’ efforts to grow the nation’s revenue base remain a step in the right direction, most especially, in the face of the dwindling oil income.

Forum scores financial inclusion penetration low

T

he European Commission yesterday announced €27 million of financial support to help improve the renewable energy policy in Nigeria.

Currently, a large part of the Nigerian population lacks access to energy or relies on polluting fuels such as fuel, wood and charcoal with severe consequences for health and the environment.

The newly launched Energising Access to Sustainable Energy (EASE) programme aims to improve the enabling framework conditions for renewable energy and energy efficiency in Nigeria and, in particular, with a focus on the use of renewable energies by Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and households.

“At the moment, 80 per cent of the population in rural Nigeria have no access to electricity at all. Our overall objective is to help decrease this number significantly, but it is also important to improve the well-being of those who do have access, since they often suffer from inadequate lightning to carry out their housework and from inhaling toxic smokes due to unmaintained cooking stoves”, said European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs.

The EASE programme will also address the massive deforestation and cutting of trees for fuel wood, which is the main energy source for the majority of the population, by planting more trees.

Furthermore, Nigeria is the second largest gas flaring country, emitting some 40 million tons of CO2 each day.

Okonjo-Iweala tells FIRS to consider birth certificate as tax registration

Android

India now leads America in purchase of Nigeria crude oil From Iliya Garba, Minna

I

ndia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Mahesh Sachdev, has said that its Government now leads the United States of America in the purchase of crude oil from Nigeria.

He made this known when he paid a courtesy call on the Niger state governor, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu at government house in Minna, recently, adding, that recent statistics showed that India has been buying more of Nigeria’s crude than the United States government over the last three months.

Mr. Sachdev also said that bi-lateral trade between Nigeria and India had hit $10bn mark while India’s investment in the country was valued at $16.6bn.

The Envoy said that India will continue to cooperate with Nigeria to improve her economy as his country will be assisting Nigeria in capacity building of workers in both the public and private sector as a way of revamping Nigeria’s economy.

In his words, “To reduce unemployment in Nigeria, the Indian government is now partnering with the Kano state government for the establishment of a film city, adding that his home government will also collaborate

with the Niger state government to create health-care facilities and improve agriculture as well as embark on vocational training of youths towards self employment”.

Responding, Governor Aliyu commended India for being one of the few countries in the world that has kept faith in the policy of strengthening the civil service saying that the retention of the policy has helped the country to develop in all ramifications.

He therefore urged Nigeria to take a cue from India for the rapid economic development of the country adding that if peace prevailed in all parts of the country the economy will be revived.

The nation’s move to ensure cheap, safe and all-inclusive financial services to all through the Financial Inclusion (FI) strategy, may have been assessed as marginal by stakeholders since its launch.

The assessment, was revealed at the Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors, with the theme: “Financial Inclusion in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Prospects,” in Umuahia, Abia state, even as participants noted that the challenges are surmountable.

Delivering a paper on the topic “Financial Inclusion Initiatives and National Economic Development,” Paul Eluhaiwe, explained that there has been a network of policy makers from developing and emerging economies, who are leading the struggle to promote inclusive finance” Noting that some African countries like Kenya and South Africa are well ahead of Nigeria in various aspects of financial literacy initiative, adding that 2012 survey of enhancing financial inclusion and access, showed that the exclusion rate had though, declined across the geo-political zones of the country, even though it was still very high.

According to him, the exclusion level in the North-East was still high at 59.5 percent; North-West, 63.8 percent; NorthCentral, 32.4 percent; South-East, 25.6 percent; South-West, 24.8 per cent and South-South, 30.1 percent, while the national rate declined from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 39.7 percent in 2012.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 35

BU$I#€SS

Bond issue: Lagos wins ‘Best Local Currency Bond’ award for 2012 From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

L L-R: Chairman, Committee on the Development of Coal to Power, Engr. Sanusi Garba, Minister of Power. Professor Chinedu Nebo, Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ambassador Godknows Igali, during the inauguration of the committee on the development of framework for coal to Power, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

FIIRO sets to export local beverages From Iliya Garba, Minna

T

he Director-General of Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Oshodi, Dr. Gloria Elemo disclosed that plans for the exportation of locally brewed beverages to Europe and Middle East is to commence soon.

She made this known yesterday in Minna, Niger State capital while declaring open a 2-day training for the empowerment of Muslim Women on standard ‘Kunun Zaki’ Production techniques for local consumption and exports.

According to her, “We are training these women on how to produce Kunun Zaki and other local beverages for safe consumption and export purposes to empower them even while they work from their homes”.

The Director General, who was represented by Dr. Yemisi Asagbra, a director in the institute, said that the institute has perfected the technology of producing and preserving techniques of various local beverages to meet international standard.

She said that her institute went into perfecting the production of these local beverages to meet global market standard due to the high demand of our local beverages in Europe and Middle East.

Mobile banking service: Why Nigerian telecom coys are excluded – CBN

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Banking and Payment System Director, Dipo Fatokun says telecommunication companies operating in Nigeria are restricted from offering mobile banking service because the apex bank does not have direct control over them.

The Director explained that the Nigerian scenario is quite different, adding that telecom companies are excluded from mobile payment because the apex bank does not have “direct control” over them.

Speaking at the on-going 18th Central Bank Seminar for Finance correspondents and business Editors tagged “Financial Inclusion In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Prospects” in Umuahia,

Abia State; Fatokun who was represented by CBN’s Payment Policy Manager, Chai Gang said there is lack of synergy between telecommunication companies and mobile payment operators in Nigeria.

According to him, the CBN believes that the core business of the telecom companies is not banking and payment and therefore it does not have supervisory power over telecom operators.

Speaking on the main thrust of the workshop, which is financial inclusion, Fatokun said “One of the main obstacles of financial inclusion is cost: both the cost to bank in servicing low-value accounts and extending physical infrastructure to remote rural areas and the cost (in time and money) incurred

by customers in remote rural areas to reach bank branches.”

The financial inclusion policy of the government aim to reduce the percentage of financially excluded adults in the country from 46.3 percent reported in 2010 to 20 percent by the year 2020.

CBN’s Development Finance Department Director, Paul Eluhaiwe said the percentage has reduced to 39.7 percent at the end of 2012.

To boost financial inclusion in the country, Eluhaiwe disclosed that a N200 billion ($1.2 billion) Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprise Development Fund proposed by the CBN will be launched this year August.

Women are expected to get 60 percent of the development fund.

2012, from N1.8bn in 2011, an increase of 526 per cent, while turnover stood at N675.5bn, up by 18 per cent from N573.2 bn in 2011.

According to the result, profit before tax rose by 35 per cent, from N13bn in 2011 to N17.5bn.

Explaining the performance of the divisions

of the group, he said the upstream division was listed Oando Energy Resources on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and the company increased production capacity through successful drilling campaigns on OML 125, the Ebendo Field (OML 56) and the Qua Iboe Field (OML13).

agos state government has been awarded the Best Local Currency Bond Award for 2012, for successfully floating an N80 billion bond in November last year.

The award, which is the first of its kind to be conferred on any organisation in Nigeria, was presented to the state in London by a leading magazine in the United Kingdom, EMEA Finance, known for its in-depth global financial research and analysis.

Presenting the award to the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, during the EMEA Finance Presentation of Achievements 2013 Awards Dinner, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA Finance, Mr. Christopher Moore, noted that Lagos has won the award across three continents namely Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

According to Moore, “The magazine has a vision to be an independent voice, that speaks at the highest level of integrity and journalistic ethics for the financial community and others across the EMEA region namely, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Lagos State Government is, therefore, not only a national or continental winner but an inter-continental winner.”

The magazine took special recognition of the N80 billion bond which the state floated in 2012 and commended the government for taking the bold step to address its infrastructure regeneration projects.

The N80 billion bond is the first tranche of the total N167.5 billion Second bond programme of the Lagos state government which is the largest sub-national bond ever issued on the Nigerian bond market.

Oando shareholders to receive N5.1bn dividend From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

T

he Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Mr. Wale Tinubu has said that the company’s shareholders will receive a dividend of N5.1bn for the year ended December 31,

2012.

A statement from the company yesterday said the dividends, which translate into 75 kobo per share, reflects a yield of 5.7 per cent and would be paid out of the N10.9bn profit after tax of the company.

The company reported N10.9bn profit after tax in

“We also paid a 25 per cent deposit of $435m for the acquisition of ConocoPhilips Nigerian business, which will add 43 kobo to our daily production and substantially increase our 2P reserves and best estimate contingent resources to 235mmboe and 237mm boe respectively.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

Page 36

OUR PEOPLE

OUR VISION

Chairman Malam Wada Maida, Oon, Fnge Director/Editor-in-Chief Rufa’i Ibrahim Managing Editor Abdul-Azeez Abdullahi

Chief Operating Officer Ali M. Ali

Head, Advert/Marketing Hussaini Abdulrahman, Cna

Acting Editor, Daily Hameed M. Bello

Manager, administration Hassan Hammanyaji

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Head, Lagos Bureau Adesoji Oyinlola

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LETTERS & ONLINE COMMENTS

The fools and their foreign loot

P

rofessor Peter Ekeh had written of African chiefs that were taken during slavery and shipped overseas when the market was drying up. As their subjects saw them arrive, they could not believe their eyes. These were the same chiefs that sold so many of them into slavery. African men of “timber and caliber” hardly send their children to schools in Africa, most of them are proud graduates of foreign high schools and universities.

Do not mess with Nigerians. If you back us into a wall, we are known to melt into it rather than fight back. When armed robbers started attacking rich people, we built iron around our houses.

Then these robbers started attacking our cars, we imported fortified armored designer luxury cars. Some of these deprived Nigerians do not give up, so they started attacking our drivers and families to and from airport. We had to start helicopter services. Looters have options after destroying Nigeria, they can seek refugee status.

The former Presidential candidate, Falae diagnosed it well: majority of his grand children were born abroad. They are foreign citizens. If all my children are citizens of America and Britain, what happens to my legacy? It will get to a stage when many of our ruling classes die. Only a few of their children and even fewer grand kids would be present at their burials in Africa. It is too harsh and uncomfortable for them without infrastructure.

Please wait, it gets worse. Their fathers or grandfathers go for medical checkup and well deserved rest overseas on the advice of relatives and doctors. They do not die in Nigeria anymore. Their resting place when giving up the ghost is overseas hospitals where they think they can get some miracle cure to life. Somehow, they think their life bodies are too good for Africa where they were born but good for their dead bodies to be buried.

This writer, jealousy no go kill you sha! Anyone that has his money has

WRITE TO US

Peoples Daily Weekend welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Editor, Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja.

Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com adverts@peoplesdailyng.com pictures@peoplesdailyng.com contact@peoplesdailyng.com the right to be treated anywhere in the world. Ok? These are the same people that made African countries poorer and more inhospitable than they ever met it. Take a richer country like Nigeria, there is no excuse whatsoever for not providing good schools and hospitals for its citizens. Poorer African countries have better schools and hospitals than Nigeria.

Before crooks decided on living overseas as refugees they must have purchased multiple mansion, cars and live- in-susies.

Most of their money is hidden in the name of relatives and girlfriends overwhelmed with cash. There are young toy boys administrating justice at the pleasure of their girlfriends and their relatives spend like drunken sailors.

Africans working overseas have never seen or made such money in millions of hard currencies. The cost of maintaining each of these mansions and local taxes paid in these oyinbo countries can equip and build most of our village schools and hospitals.

Our ruling classes, especially Nigerians now have a new excuse to seek refuge status in Europe and America. Boko Haram. When the Chief of (Kill And Go) Police and his cohorts that are supposed to curb terrorists are begging oyibo countries for asylum, you know the poor are more than helpless. These

people are looking for ways to spend the same laundered money meant for salaries and gears to curb terrorists, outside.

Our former Attorney General, Mike Aondoakaa is dead serious about his right to live anywhere he and his children please. So he took American Government to court to enforce his fundamental right to loot in Nigeria and spend as he wants in America. After all, both former AG and Chief of Police have information that qualifies them as valuable spies against Nigeria notwithstanding Boko Haram link to international terrorists.

Moreover, Britain and American have investors visa that politicians and other Nigerian looters can easily afford to buy granting them and their family “rights” into these countries; unless they want to discriminate against our looters, because they are Africans. Please stay tuned for any wrong move to deny our plunderers of their privilege to enter Britain and United States where money is free speech.

If the Emir of Kano that escaped assassination can travel to Britain just to make sure there were no infectious scratches on his person and recover from the trauma of Boko Haram, you can imagine the type of nonsense these countries would want to pull

in case he decided to stay put. It is in the interest of all our looters that our former AG is testing the anomaly in United States court, to put them on notice that Africans know their laws.

During the world economic recession when most of the financial houses went belly up, the brokers made money anyway, buying or selling stocks. Looters lost a great deal of money, not only to stock markets but to swindlers around the world. None of them dare complained or file court actions like citizens of those countries that recovered some of the money lost to people like Bernie Madoff or political swindler like Jack Abramoff.

When Dubai told its overseas creditors that it could not pay, none of them could uproot the infrastructures developed there so they had to renegotiate and settle for whatever Dubai could pay. Many Nigerians wished all those infrastructures were in their Country as they hear and see pictures of Dubai. In a way, Greece, Spain and now Cyprus had to renegotiate with all except Nigerians like banker Akingbola hiding money in their banks.

Many of these African looters lost money to foreign government when seized at the airports, as money laundering, in Swiss banks, Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Some of them even forgot their account numbers and died without touching the money while people at home suffered. Those of them planning to enjoy their loot at the end of their lives in foreign countries forget that their deaths have no day, month or year.

It takes human cruelty to man to think they can stave people of infrastructure, destroy the future of African children while they and they children live as second class refugees abroad. These looters are digging holes for the future generations after they went to free schools, paid training in Armed Forces and jobs for life. As politicians they set their own salaries and get paid more than overseas politicians they run to for refugee status.

Farouk Martins Aresa faroukomartins@aim.com

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 37

Opinion Simple questions for this new APC

By Anthony A. Kila

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ast week, our conclusion as citizens and students of politics was that the most fascinating political formation in the country at the moment is the newly formed All Peoples Congress (APC). We noted also that the APC is of interest to us because it is an entity still in embryo. We shall have to call it “association” and “thing” because technically APC is still not a registered political party, and that some of us are shaking our heads for reasons we are reading around.

Since then some of those reasons have been addressed and the newly formed group now has interim officers.

We wish them all the best in their new roles and warn them right away that many of us will be keeping a very close eye on their activities and utterances.

As said, it is important to note here that one of the reasons many of us greeted the amalgamation of opposition parties into one big national force is because we feel it is good for Nigeria as a whole to have an alternative party capable of truly competing with the ruling party, and by so doing forcing both sides to give their best. This desire for a truly national opposition party is not new; many of us consider it an asset for our democracy hence the support for the project from many quarters even before they have achieved or promised anything.

To whom much is given, much is expected. Some of the many things one expects from a political party formed in 2013 and those charged with

leading such party is their ability to listen to observers and to truly consider themselves accountable to voters and supporters; also important is their ability to continuously make eye contact with reality. At that, here are some reality checks for this new group.

Whilst the idea of merging many opposition parties into one is noble, smart and healthy for the country, it is also true that the need to merge many opposition parties into one party in order to be able to truly compete with the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is a clear proof that the PDP is evidently stronger than any of those parties.

It is also worth noting that whilst each of the party in the new ‘union’ might have its past, a clear programme and clear positions on every matter of national interest, all that is gone now; everything needs to be rethought and rewritten in the name of the new thing called APC. Given such reality, the questions now are what is the plan of this new thing to be called APC? Does it want to be a new and maybe a stronger PDP or a different party with a clear alternative for Nigerians? There are some issues on which the PDP and those that represent it have had more than a chance in the last 14 years to let us know where they stand. As those that will lead the APC settle into their offices, we as citizens would like to know where the new party stands on some of those same issues.

Let us start from the simple but important issue of the symbolic day of celebrating democracy in Nigeria. Will

the new APC stick to May 29 or will it change course and opt for June 12 across the country?

In the last 14 years, many have been calling for the convocation of a national conference that will give the people of this country the opportunity to sit down to truly examine and discuss issues related to their sovereignty and their mode of government in order to perfect our union. As some observers have had occasions of pointing out, what we call our constitution today is in fact a military decree handed down to the people the ways military decrees are

“

To whom much is given, much is expected. Some of the many things one expects from a political party formed in 2013 and those charged with leading such party is their ability to listen to observers and to truly consider themselves accountable to voters and supporters; also important is their ability to continuously make eye contact with reality.

At that, here are some reality checks for this new group.

forced on people. Will the APC commit to ending such stain on the history of Nigeria and psyche of Nigerians?

Last year Nigerians started the New Year with protests against the bad news the government broke to them about the removal of oil subsidies.

The government claimed to have concluded to partially remove and partially maintain the subsidy. Some like Professor Tam David-West insisted there was no subsidy at all. Can the APC tell us very quickly where they stand on this matter? Will they revoke it, will they maintain the status quo or will they remove what is left of it?

One of the consequences of the FGN’s removal of oil subsidy last year is to get citizens interested in the cost of governance in Nigeria. The result is that many now believe that the cost of running the state is absolutely expensive and relatively unsustainable. Can the APC commit to reviewing and reducing the cost of governance?

Although proper electioneering has not commenced, but in view of that will the APC commit to four or five cardinal points as the keystone of its manifesto for 2015? From electricity to water, from health to education, topics abound from which they can choose their points.

These are very simply and widely discussed issues, so surely each one of those going to formulate positions for their party has had a chance to think about it. If they haven’t then we are in trouble.

Anthony A. Kila, can be reached at anthonykila@mail.com

PHCN: Before we My Thoughts join Pa Dawodu on With Ayodele Samuel hunger strike 08074420617 (SMS only)

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he Economic Confidential, in a recent article warned politicians the world over to beware of the wave of anger sweeping through the different climes.

The protests have different sides. In Brazil people rose up against bus fares, in Turkey, against a building project.

Indonesians have also rejected higher fuel hike, in Bulgaria, a sorry state of affairs, the Euro zone the march against austerity, even as the Arab region protests against pretty much everything.

The demonstrations have roots in the anger against the various governments resulting in dire consequencies. For instance, in Sri Lanka, a 61-year-old man suffered fatal heart attack and died after being presented with a shocking electricity bill. The aged man had

protested 50 percent tariff increase at the Ceylon Electricity Board in Colombo last Friday.

Sri Lanka is one of the most expensive countries in Asia with electricity of a kilowatt hour costing up to 47 rupees ($0.37), here in Nigeria In 2011, our erratic power supplier, the PHCN, jacked up its tariff from N8 to N40 for each kilowatt consumed.

The wave of anger has been sweeping across our country Nigeria, silently caused by inconsiderate policies despite the fact that Nigerians are not carrying placards screaming the words. Today we have the ongoing ASUP strike, joined

by NUPENG (before they called off their own strike), followed by ASUU and another interesting one; the 60 year old man, who embarked on hunger strike to protest high electricity billing, which we

can aptly call ‘crazy billing’ by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Pa Abayomi Gbode-Ogun Dawodu’s lone protest showcases the anger of most Nigerians on the corrupt practices in the various sectors.

But sadly in Nigeria, hunger strike is not a language our government understands because it cares less about the likes of Dawodu even though he is a senior citizen. The fact remains that our government for instance does not mind that 4 million Polytechnic students have not received lectures for more than 70 days: our government can still not enhance economic status the people to enable them put food on their table.

So such government would certainly not be concerned that citizen Dawodu is on hunger strike and for all it cares, the old man may kiss the dust after all he is already old so what does he need electricity for? Papa can ‘deliberately’ starve himself to death.

Obviously our government has lost respect for human dignity, if not the

story of citizen Dawodu should have given the Minister for Power and the National Electricity Regulation NERC sleepless night for them to address the damning issue of crazy PHCN billing system in this country.

Since Pa Dawodu went on his hunger strike on Monday, what has happened?

And what will happen to other Nigerians groaning under such situation?

The crazy bills issued by PHCN stems from corrupt practices of officials in the system and many Nigerians can attest to this. The situation has worsened lately as the distribution companies have left much to be desired in their manner of reading meters, instead they would dispatch such crazy bills monthly, the type Pa Dawodu complained about.

It is worthy of note that Even the NERC boss ‘Comrade’ Sam Amadi has accused the management of PHCN of willfully thwarting its own meter deployment scheme in a bid to exploit electricity consumers through the practice of such crazy bills to Nigerians.

Page 38

Online comments Jonathan rubbishing anti-corruption fight —Ribadu

Ribadu, I assure you that Tinubu will give you the 2011 treatment again if you are lured into contesting under APC in 2015 Okon

Shema shuts down Katsina …For son’s wedding

Green caps my foot, Shema you will go to jail. Thief Nasir Katsina

Too much money, Katsina shutdown, for just one man… na waoo.

Ayodele Adenaiye Wishing them happy married life. But leaders should stop organizing such ceremony when they’re in power because that exposes them to inevitable suspicion. Get your children married when you leave power.

Sanusi A. Yar’adua Haba Shema. Kuje prison will be your next destination.

Yusuf

Tackling the challenges of unemployable graduate

Minister for education, indeed .unity school. score 1/136.

Virgy Oji

GMO: Scientists train journalists, urge

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

transfer of ‘right’ knowledge

I read dozens of the super positive GMO-plant comments, and I have some overview about the technologies and what is on the market. But can anybody give a single example about which current state GMO plant would solve any of the problems in Africa, and even elsewhere, in the world?, regarding the always mentioned food production?

For Africa, a tiny amount of the fertilizer mis-used in the developed world (e.g. for Ethanol-production using corn in the US, with its very questionable outcome) would make much more difference than any GMO plant?

Where is empirical data about any useful system? (I would really be happy to see it, but I only read about very general issues, again and again saying that GMO plants saved food-problem – where are these plants? I would really appreciate any real data, also for teaching purpose. We can’t find any good examples.

Arthur Schuessler

of a national security. It is ironical that they are victims of the evil machinations they could not nip in the bud.

Mike Oghene

Detainees Boko Haram Confess: We were brainwashed

Recruiting of soldiers is not all that matters but taking good care of soldiers and their families.

FGN should insure the life of every Governor Amachi over the NGF soldier. saga. I am really proud of him!

Quadri Akorede Samuel

Death warrants: State governors’ dilemma

I think our President is not fair in his call on State Governors to facilitate killing of 900 prisoners on death row, especially as some of them are awaiting their appeals. The person who is most unreasonable is Governor Oshiomole of Edo state. Most of these Governors have been involved in criminal activities as well as the President, known for political maneuvers. So Jonathan should have called for execution Strike: Minister holds of corrupt politicians in Nigeria, even though convicts must be peace parley with punished, the Appeal Courts ASUP should be allowed to do their work.

The minister of education Dbosun should respond positively to ASUP’s plea before Polytechnic students become a threat to the Gunmen kill Inspector in Gombe police station country.

O.O. Philip attack The national orientation agency is not doing enough to sensitize 2015: Rein First Lady these misguided insurgents back She is following the foot step prior to their recruitments. The of her predecessors, please carry Nigerian police are also not go. They said that Joe is slow and responsive to their responsibilities weak so do you want Pat to be the by not taking proactive steps to same? Leave Dame alone please. arrest mentors of the misguided youths proactively. What are the Charlie so-called CIDs doing? What is the job of the SSS? These members Amaechi adjourns NGF of the force should be privy to meeting to honour information on on-towards threat Jonathan to the society. Yet corruption and Am pleased with the manner religious empathy have become of maturity being displayed by the order of the day in the issues

Govs crisis and 2015 roadmap

Certain documents signed into law at the amalgamation of Nigeria in1914indicatethatthecountrywas created as an experiment meant to last for 100 years, and break up if the peoples are not compatible.

The documents, known as ’Tinubu Square Edict’ or Accord of 1914

stated, “The amalgamation of southern and northern Nigeria by the British was to be experimented for 100 YEARS to know if it’s going to work or not, according to the secret government document, the British left after independence.

Although the document is kept secret, this fact is generally known to the ruling class, most dons of Political science and Law as well as the government of UK. However, there have been consistent efforts by the Nigerian government to keep this knowledge from the public as it may lead to agitation for breaking up the country.

Joe

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 39

International

Pro-Morsi supporters stage protest

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housands of supporters of Mohamed Morsi have gathered in Nasr City in the Egyptian capital to protest against his ouster as the country’s president in a military coup.

The crowds are expected to swell further after Friday afternoon prayers in response to the call by a coalition of Islamist groups led by the Muslim Brotherhood for demonstrations against the coup.

The coalition on Thursday urged people to take part in a “Friday of Rejection” protest following weekly prayers. The call is being seen as a test of whether Morsi still has a support base in the country, and how the army will deal with it.

Morsi, who was Egypt’s first democratically elected president, belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

While the military coup came in the wake of mass protests seeking Morsi’s dismissal, the ex-president’s supporters are angry and have denounced the army’s intervention.

They have vowed to continue with their sit-in protest and march towards the defence ministry.

Dozens of people were wounded in clashes in Morsi’s home city Zagazig on Thursday, raising fears of more violence.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s military has appealed for conciliation and

warned against unrest, as police rounded up senior Islamists ahead of the planned Brotherhood protests on Friday.

The authorities have also closed the Rafah border crossing with Gaza until further notice.

Army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, released a statement later on Thursday on its Facebook page, saying that everyone had a right to peaceful protest, but that right should not be abused.

Excessive protests, the army warned, could lead to civil unrest, while reiterating that it was not targeting any political group.

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay is concerned by reports of the detention of leading members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Among the top Brotherhood leaders arrested were the group’s supreme leader, Mohamed Badie.

He, and his powerful deputy, Khairat el-Shater, were wanted for questioning on their role in the killing this week of eight demonstrators in clashes outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters.

Morsi is reportedly being held at a military detention centre.

Morsi and other senior leaders have also been banned from travel pending investigation into their involvement in a prison break in 2011.

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Pro Morsi supporters in a show of support for the ousted leader

Desmond Tutu urges Mandela’s family to end feud

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wo leading South Africans have called for an end to a bitter row among members of Nelson Mandela’s family over the reburial of three of his children.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu pleaded with the family not to “besmirch” Mr Mandela’s name with their squabble.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said he hoped the public dispute could be resolved in a “dignified manner”.

President Jacob Zuma has meanwhile denied reports that Mr Mandela, 94, was in a vegetative state.

South Africa’s first black president has spent the past four weeks

in a Pretoria hospital with a recurrent lung condition.

“Madiba remains in a critical, but stable condition. The doctors deny that the former president is in a vegetative state,” said a statement from Mr Zuma, who visited Mr Mandela on Thursday.

The statement came after court papers filed on behalf of Mr Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, on 26 June said his health was “perilous” and that he was “assisted in breathing by a life-support machine”, the AFP news agency reports.

However, subsequent court papers on behalf of Makaziwe Mandela, do not mention that he was in

China and Russia conduct joint naval drill

a “vegetative state”.

One of Mr Mandela’s friends and fellow former prisoners, Denis Goldberg, who visited the antiapartheid icon on Monday, also said he was responsive but was prevented from speaking because he had tubes in his mouth.

“I’m quite satisfied he was responsive to what I was saying,” he said.

His wife, Graca Machel, on Thursday said he is sometimes “uncomfortable, but he has never been in pain”.

Correspondents say there has been a long-running battle over Mr Mandela’s legacy, but that it has intensified as his health has deterio-

rated.

The feud over the reburial of Mr Mandela’s children is linked to the decision about where he will eventually be buried, as it is thought he would like to interred alongside them.

The legal documents were filed

by Makaziwe and several other relatives last week in order to persuade a judge to make a speedy decision over whether to exhume the children.

On Thursday, the three bodies were reburied, following a court order, back in the village of Qunu, where Mr Mandela was brought up and where he is said to want to be laid to rest.

hina and Russia are beginning joint naval drills which Beijing has described as the country’s largest with a foreign partner.

The drills, which are taking place in the Sea of Japan, last from 5-12 July.

People’s Liberation Army chief Gen Fang Fenghui said the drills did not “target any third parties”, but aimed to deepen ties with Russia.

However they come amid tensions with regional neighbours including Japan and the Philippines over maritime disputes.

China has overlapping claims with Tokyo and Manila in the East China and South China Sea respectively - something which has led to a marked deterioration in ties in recent years as China has pressed its claim more assertively.

Last month the US and Japanese navies held joint exercises off San Diego.

Earlier this week, China’s Defence Ministry said the drills marked the navy’s “single biggest deployment of military force in a China-foreign joint exercise”.

“Assertions have been made that this drill has a symbolic significance in terms of safeguarding the sovereignty of islands in the area, and represents a response to the US-Japan alliance,” Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily wrote on Friday.

But, the paper said, it was part of series of routine exercises, with the drill focusing on joint escort and the recovery of kidnapped vessels.

“There will be no aggressive element to the joint drill,” it said.

The Chinese fleet comprises four destroyers, two guided missile frigates and a support ship, Chinese state media say.

The fleet left its base in China’s Qingdao port for the Peter the Great Bay in Russia.

Meanwhile, Russia is expected to deploy 11 warships, a submarine and three planes during the drills, reports say.

China and Russia conducted naval drills for the first time last year.

Both countries have participated in military exercises since 2005.

Bolivia threatens to close US embassy

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resident Evo Morales has threatened to close the US embassy in Bolivia after his official plane was banned from European airspace.

The warning came as four other South American leaders offered him support at a special summit following his return home.

His plane was forced to land in Austria on Tuesday after France, Portugal, Italy and Spain apparently barred it from flying through their airspace.

There were unfounded suspicions that US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

The Bolivian president blamed Washington for pressurising European countries into refusing him

passage.

“My hand would not shake to close the US embassy,” Mr Morales said.

“We have dignity, sovereignty.

Without the United States, we are better politically and democratically.”

His presidential jet was rerouted as he travelled from a meeting in Russia where he had suggested he would be willing to consider an asylum application from Mr Snowden.

Mr Morales was joined by the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Suriname at a meeting to discuss the plane dispute in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

The leaders issued a statement after the meeting demanding an explanation from France, Portugal, Italy and Spain over their actions.

The US was not mentioned in the statement, but several of the leaders criticised the Americans in comments after the meeting.

“If this had happened to the president of the United States, it probably would have been grounds for war,” said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

“They think they can attack, crush, destroy international law.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in a TV interview on Friday that Madrid had “no reason to

apologise”.

He said airspace was never closed to Mr Morales’ plane, but that the delay in Austria meant the flight permit had expired and had to be renewed.

He also said in reference to Mr Snowden: “They told us he was inside [the plane].”

The US state department has not commented directly on the latest claims, saying only that Washington had “been in touch with a broad range of countries” over the Snowden case.

Demonstrators marched on the French embassy in La Paz on Wednesday, burning the French flag and demanding the expulsion of the ambassador to Bolivia.

Morales

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Hollywood & Bollywood

Page 40

‘’Fukrey” 2 in the pipeline F

ukrey” actor Ali Fazal hints about a sequel to Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s small-budget production venture.

At the success party of “Fukrey”, when asked where does he see the celebrations going, Fazal said: “I think till ‘Fukrey 2’.”

“Well, not right now but the demand is such that we will have to make a second part.

People are asking us for more,” he added.

Directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, “Fukrey” also stars Manjot Singh, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Priya Anand, Richa Chadda and Vishakha Singh.

“We are also excited, we have become like a family. This can only go forward. Inshallah, let’s see,” said Fazal

Fukrey

Sonam Kapoor wants to play Meena Kumari Betty Aberra

BBA: Ethiopian lawyers to sue Housemate, Betty S

ome lawyers in Ethiopia are gearing up to sue Big Brother Africa (BBA) Housemate, Betty Aberra, for having sex in public, information on Linda Ikeji’s blog has said.

It added that Betty had sex with fellow Housemate, Bolt from Sierre Leon, just three days after entering the BBA House.

According to a local radio show

in Ethiopia called Ethiopikalink, if Betty is convicted, she could face up to six years in prison as it is an offense to have sex in public in the country.

The lawsuit is not the only thing Betty is facing since leaving the BBA House, she’s also facing nationwide condemnation from groups who have asked the media and companies to boycott her.

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ollywood actress, Sonam Kapoor, said she would love to play legendary actress, Meena Kumari if her biopic is

Sonam Kapoor made, India Today has said. it added that the actress is fascinated by real characters with some flaws.

“I would like to play Meena Kumari...she had such a

50 Cent charged with attacking ex-girlfriend

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apper and actor 50 Cent was charged this week with attacking his exgirlfriend and trashing her Los Angeles condo, city attorney Mike Feuer, told Hollywood Reporter.

The 37-year-old “In da Club” singer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, was charged with domestic violence and four counts of vandalism in papers filed Monday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in jail and $46,000 in fines.

A representative for Jackson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson had already left when officers arrived June 23 at a Toluca Lake condo belonging to a woman who had a baby with him, police said.

During an argument, the woman told police, Jackson began destroying her property before she locked herself into her bedroom. The woman said Jackson kicked open the bedroom door and kicked her, causing injury.

Police said they estimated about $7,100 in damage to the woman’s home. They observed many broken items in the ransacked and clothes-strewn condo, including chandeliers, furniture and a television.

The woman told police she had been in a three-year relationship with Jackson.

“Regardless of perceived celebrity or notoriety, domestic violence is a serious crime and alleged perpetrators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by this office,” Feuer said.

50 Cent

tragic life,” said Sonam known for playing different roles in films like “Delhi 6”, “Mausam”, “Aisha” and “I hate love story” among others.

Kumari, one of the most talented and successful actresses of her time, was tagged as “Tragedy Queen” for playing such roles in films like “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”. Her personal life was not a bed of roses- she had to deal with a troubled marriage and alcohol addiction and died of liver cirrohsis at the age of 39.

“I want to play any one who has a nice character arch and is flawed, I would love to play such roles. It is because they are human. I am very flawed myself...I want to play a real person,” said Sonam.

In last six years, Sonam worked in about a dozen of films, but it is her recent release “Raanjhanaa”, in which she acted a simple girl from Benaras, that helped her get her due at the box office.

India Today also said that the actress is enjoying the unexpected positive response.

“The response has been good. I am very happy.

When I was working, I didn’t think I will get as much appreciation. I was working hard and was putting in a lot of effort. I really enjoyed working with (director) Aanand L. Rai. He is my favourite director,” said the 28-year-old.

Also, viewers enjoyed her chemistry with southern actor Dhanush in the “Raanjhanaa”.

“He is a good actor and a good person as well. When that combination comes, it suits people a lot. A nice performer is liked by people,” she said.

Page 41

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

WeekendSports NFF confirms Obuh’s resignation

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arely 24 hours after they publicly denied receiving any document on the resignation of Flying Eagles gaffer, John Obuh, the NFF confirmed yesterday that Obuh has indeed tendered his resignation letter.

The coach had on return from Turkey where the junior Eagles failed to make the qurter finals of the FIFA U-20 World Championship declared that he was opting out of the saddle to allow someone else to assume the role.

But then, the NFF debunked the claim on the ground that there was nothing to that effect even as officials neither confirm nor reject the probability of the coach being fired as early as next this week.

Yesterday though, NFF General Secretary, Musa Amadu, confirmed that the said letter of had been received through the coach’s agents.

NPFL shifts week 21 matches by 24 hours

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he League Management Company (LMC) in Abuja announced it had shifted for 24 hours all week 21 matches in the 2012/2013 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

Kasali Obanoyen, Head of Media Unit of LMC, said the decision was due to an international match involving

the Super Eagles on Saturday in Kaduna.

The NPFL week 21 matches were earlier scheduled for Saturday, July 6 at 10 venues across the country.

However, the Super Eagles are also billed to host the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.

The match is the first leg tie in the final round of the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifying competition. “All the matches in the NPFL have now been moved to Sunday, July 7,’’ Obanoyen said in a statement.

Sunday matches

CHAN 2014: Keshi out to correct matters

Kano Pillars v Wikki Lobi Stars v Bayelsa Utd Dolphins’ v Akwa Utd Gombe Utd v 3SC Kwara United v ABS Kaduna Utd v Sunshine Stars Warri Wolves v Sharks Nembe City v Heartland Enyimba v Rangers El-Kanemi v Nasarawa Utd

Sunday Mba being mobbed by colleagues after he buried the Elephants in the AFCON quarter final match .

By Patrick Andrew

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wo consecutive efforts failed to yield the desired expectation: qualification for the African Nations Championship (CHAN), a tournament exclusive to domestic league players within the continent. That’s the sum total of Nigeria’s record for the tournament.

All that though may change now with Stephen Keshi in charge.

Except for the consecutive loses to Uruguay and Spain at the FIFA Confederations Cup finals, the former Eagles skipper had gone 29 competitive games unbeaten.

Nonetheless, the flashes of brilliance in the Eagles spoke volumes of the depth of technical input in the team and Keshi wants that radiated on all facets of the teams he handles.

Being in charge of the domestic league Eagles then offers Keshi another platform to exhibit his technical savvy and beating the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire today at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna would do no little padding of his image.

And his charges are no gullible of some sort. Eight of those he would parade were at the Confederations Cup finals, some others had been with the team from Keshi’s inception as head coach.

FIFA Confeds Cup final match breaks TV records The final match of the just-concluded FIFA Confederations Cup attracted the largest sports television audience of the year in Brazil and topped 2013 television viewing figures in Spain.

According to FIFA, 42 million Brazilians have watched the final match between Brazil and Spain live.

The world football body said on Thursday in a statement on its web site that the figures helped to make

the competition the most popular Confederations Cup on record in broadcast terms. ``The tournament has set new viewing records in key markets from the group stages to the final, cementing its position as a major event in the global sporting calendar. ``It also gave a clear indication of the demand broadcasters can expect for coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil,’’ it added.

The average television

audience for matches at the Confederations Cup competition across key markets was more than 50 per cent higher than in 2009.

More than 69.3 million tuned in to the 2013 final across 10 key markets, including Germany, France, the U.S and China.

This was more than 11 million higher than the audience for the final match of the 2009 tournament in South Africa in those markets.

About 36.7 million had followed the competition’s coverage on TV Globo, with Bandeirantes drawing in a further 5.3 million viewers.

In Spain, 10.7 million enjoyed the game on Telecinco, which was the biggest audience for any programme on Spanish television this year.

The figure was an eyecatching result, given the late-night timing of the broadcast in Spain.

Page 42

FIFA wants joint Argentina/ Uruguay 2030 World Cup

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IFA wants the centenary World Cup in 2030 to be jointly staged by Uruguay and Argentina, who met in the final of the inaugural tournament, Argentine FA (AFA) President Julio Grondona stated.

In 1930, Uruguay, the then double Olympic champions, beat Argentina 4-2 in the showpiece match at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo in front of a crowd of more than 80,000. ``FIFA wishes to celebrate the World Cup’s 100 years in Argentina and Uruguay, I can confirm that,” said Grondona, the Senior Vice-President of world soccer’s governing body. ``An agreement has been signed by the two associations (AFA and Uruguay’s AUF). What will we do? We’ll see but surely something of quality,” Grondona told Argentina’s Radio 10.

The only co-hosted World Cup finals so far were organised by Japan and South Korea in 2002.

Any future joint bid must have one organising committee, unlike the 2002 Asian World Cup which had separate Japanese and Korean committees. The 2014 finals are being held in Brazil.

Russia won the vote for the 2018 tournament and Qatar, a tiny nation with no soccer pedigree and extremely high temperatures in midyear, was controversially chosen to stage the 2022 tournament.

A joint ArgentineUruguayan bid for 2030 is backed by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

When Uruguay held the inaugural tournament in 1930, only 13 teams took part but the small South American country does not have the stadiums or infrastructure to stage a modern, 32-team finals.

With the involvement of big neighbours Argentina, who staged and won the 1978 finals, such an enterprise is more feasible.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Sports

FIFA U-20: Spain, Uruguay U-20 tug-of-war today

By Patrick Andrew

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pain and Uruguay, the two top favourites will do battle for a place in the semi final ticket in Bursa today.

Spain, a replica of the senior team, who are the reigning World and European champions, parade crop of stars some of whom are already household names including Gerard Deulofeu, leading scorer Jese, Paco Alcacer, Oliver, Dennis Suarez among others.

But then, Uruguay are not short of stars either. With the likes of Giorgian De Arrasscaeta, Diego Laxalt breaking down opponents’ midfield and defences, they can boast of

enough in their arsenal to unleash on Spain.

And with Nicolas Lopez, who buried the Flying Eagles with a brace, rekindling the form that saw him top the scoring charts at the South American Youth Championships, then Spain would have no easy ride.

Spain though remain favourites but should get serious challenge from the South Americans who would draw inspiration from the fact their seniors failed at the FIFA Confederation but Spain were beaten to the trophy by Brazil.

Elsewhere, France and one of two surprise of the tournament Uzbeskistan (the other being Iraq) will attempt to re-enact the

Gerard Deulofeu, Spain’s arrowhead, on whose shoulder depends the hope of his nation

ease with which they coasted into the quarterfinals after registering convincing triumphs over hosts Turkey and Greece respectively.

However, the Asian side will be expecting stiff competition in the form of Les Bleuets in Rize. Les Bleuets have advanced impressive through the tournament, finishing second in Group A behind Spain before crushing host nation Turkey 4-1 in the round of 16.

Geoffrey Kondogbia and Arsenal-bound Yaya Sanogo have been the stars for the Europeans so far, racking up five goals between them en route to this stage of the competition.

As for Uzbekistan, they are one of the dark horses in the

U-20 World Cup. They may have sneaked though to the round of 16 as one of the best four third-placed teams from the group phase, but their 3-1 defeat of Greece in the round of 16 suggests they should not be underestimated.

The attacking trio of Abbosbek Makhstaliev, Sardor Rakhmonov and Igor Sergeev have scored two goals apiece and will pose a potent threat to France’s defence.

Les Bleulets will start as favourites, but the Asian side’s appetite for a fight should make this an open and entertaining encounter. The winner will face either Ghana or Chile in the semifinals.

Nicolas Lopez, Uruguay and South American U-20 leading scorer

… As Ghana, Chile slug it out for semis spot

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frica’s remaining hopefuls, Ghana, will take on debutants Chile this Sunday in Istanbul dreaming nothing but a repeat of 2009 when they became the first African nation to lift the trophy.

The Black Satellites stunned Portugal to qualify and will hope to add Chile to their list of casualty. Chile though may want to sustain the dominance of South American heavyweights Argentina and Brazil in previous editions.

The Chileans made it to the quarterfinal stage of this tournament in Turkey when they

defeated Croatia 2-0 after late goals in the last ten minutes of their encounter this past Wednesday evening. Nicolas Castillo scored for the Latin Americans before a Jozo Simunovic own goal sealed Croatia’s fate.

Both teams play opposing styles of football, with Ghana’s stern and strong defence expected to be worked by the attacking mentality of Chile that has served them well thus far in the tournament.

However, the Ghanaians showed for an hour in their match with Portugal that when put under pressure at the back they

rise to the occasion.

The winner of this match will face either France or Uzbekistan in the semifinals in Bursa on Wednesday night.

Elsewhere, Iraq and Korea will do battle in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup on Sunday evening at the Kadir Has Stadium.

The two teams qualified for this round by virtue of extra-time on Wednesday evening, with Korea’s match ending in the first penalty shoot-out of this year’s tournament.

It was a particularly memorable day for the continent of Asia, which

will have three representatives in the quarterfinals of this event for the very first time.

The shock of the evening though was Korea’s elimination of Colombia via a dramatic penalty shoot-out that finished 7-8 in favour of the Asians, who eliminated one of the supposed tournament contenders.

Also stunning the continental tournament was Iraq’s entertaining display against Paraguay. The performance was characterized by impeccable displays from each goalkeeper but it boiled down to a late goal by Farhan Shakor.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Dortmund sign Aubameyang from Saint-Etienne

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EFA Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund began pre-season training with Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set to join from Coupe de la Ligue winners Saint-Etienne.

Dortmund’s director Michael Zorc has been in France since Monday and confirmed they are in talks with the 24-year-old, who scored 19 goals and created 14 assists as Saint-Etienne finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season.

Aubameyang will sign a fiveyear deal worth €13m ($16.8m USD, £11m) and would be Dortmund’s second new signing

after Greek defender Sokratis, who cost €9.5m from Werder Bremen.

Both Bayer Leverkusen and Premier League side Newcastle United were said to also be chasing Aubameyang, who last season helped Saint-Etienne win their first trophy for 31 years.

Dortmund are in training at Kirchberg, Austria, until Saturday and have a pre-season tournament on 20 and 21 July hosted by Borussia Mönchengladbach and including Hamburger SV and European champions Bayern München.

Rooney ‘not for sale’ at Man Utd

Sports

Tottenham’ Paulinho to be unveiled Monday Brazil midfielder Paulinho completed his medical at Tottenham on Friday ahead of his proposed move from Corinthians for a fee of about £17m. He is likely to be unveiled tomorrow.

Paulinho met Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas and chairman Daniel Levy before finalising the terms of a four or five-year contract.

The 24-year-old arrived in London yesterday and his medical was scheduled for Friday morning.

Tottenham could be in a position to announce the signing today.

Real Madrid has also shown interest in Paulinho, but he is now expected to move to White Hart Lane.

Sao Paulo-born Paulinho

PSG, Real Madrid rival Chelsea in race for De Rossi

Madrid chase €30 million Illarramendi

R Rooney

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avid Moyes used his first news conference as Manchester United manager yesterday to declare that striker Wayne Rooney was “not for sale”.

Rooney’s future has been clouded by uncertainty ever since Moyes’ predecessor, Alex Ferguson, said in May that the England striker had asked to leave

the club.

But Moyes, who launched Rooney’s professional career at Everton, said the 27-year-old still has an important role to play at Old Trafford.

“Wayne Rooney is not for sale,” Moyes said. “He’s a Manchester United player and will remain a Manchester United player. I’m looking forward to working with

Jesus wants Coentrao at Benfica

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orge Jesus has made it clear he would welcome Fabio Coentrao with open arms at Benfica if he were to leave Real Madrid this summer.

The 25-year-old’s future at Madrid is in doubt after a disappointing 2012-13 campaign and a number of recent reports have suggested the Santiago Bernabeu side is ready to cash in on Coentrao

eal Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are ready to rival Chelsea in the race to sign Daniele De Rossi.

The Roma midfielder met with the club’s sporting director Walter Sabatini earlier this week to discuss his future after returning from international duty at the Confederations Cup with Italy.

Chelsea opened preliminary talks with the Serie A club about signing De Rossi in June, while Madrid and PSG are understood to be also closely monitoring his situation.

Jose Mourinho is a longstanding admirer of De Rossi and tried to sign him in 2006 during his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

Competition from Madrid and PSG could drive up the price for a transfer which is also complicated by the major hurdle of the midfield anchorman’s wage demands.

Jorge Jesus if a good offer comes in.

“Fabio Coentrao is the one Portugal international I would like to see most at Benfica - not taking Cristiano Ronaldo into account,” Jesus told A Bola.

“He has already played here before and everybody at the club loves him. He is the best Portuguese full-back out there and would make us even stronger.”

Page 43

Daniele De Rossi

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eal Sociedad skipper Xabi Prieto has insisted Real Madrid will have to meet Asier Illarramendi’s minimum fee release clause if they want to sign the 23-year-old.

The Basque outfit will not let go of their prized asset unless the €30 million release clause in

scored 34 goals in 167 games for Corinthians and played in his country’s 3-0 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup final.

He has made a total of 17 appearances for Brazil and scored five times, including goals in their 3-0 Confederations Cup win against Japan and the 2-1 semi-final victory over Uruguay.

his contract is triggered.

Illarramendi was one of the stars of this summer’s European Under-21 championship as Spain were crowned champions and new Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is supposedly a keen admirer of the holding midfielder.

Anelka to retire in England, joins West Brom

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icolas Anelka returned to English football yesterday and hopes to retire there.

The 34-year-old France striker signed for West Bromwich Albion on an initial one-year deal.

West Brom manager Steve Clarke, who briefly worked with Anelka at Chelsea, said in a club statement: “We are missing a bit of firepower from last year - we’re trying to put that right - and to kick off with the signing of Nicolas at the start of the summer is a great boost for everyone at the club.

“The more quality players you can bring to the club the better and no-one can question Nicolas’ quality. He’s a player I have worked with before as I was at Chelsea when they signed him.

“He’s got a great work ethic, looks after himself and is a consummate professional. If you add that to the obvious talent he’s got I think he can prove to be a really top signing for the club.

“His experience with some of the top clubs in England and Europe will stand the group in good stead.

The Baggies are Anelka’s sixth Premier League team after he turned out for Arsenal, Manchester

Anelka City, Bolton and Chelsea and had a loan spell at Liverpool.

Anelka signed for Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua at the start of last season but finished the campaign back in Europe with Italian giants Juventus.

He has also played for Paris St Germain, Real Madrid and Fenerbahce and won 69 caps for France scoring 14 goals. However, he has not played for Les Bleus since the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Page 44

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Sports

Do or die last-chance saloon. Winner takes all. Last throw of the dice, the biggest game of our lives.

Great Britain’s Nicola Adams, Natasha Jonas, Lisa Whiteside and Savannah Marshall reach the European Union Championship semis.

Brazil midfielder Paulinho will undergo a medical at Tottenham ahead of a £17m move from Corinthians.

As Andy Murray goes into yesterday’s Wimbledon semi-final against 6ft 8in Jerzy Janowicz, the Olympics gold medal said he was boosted by advice from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Tyson Gay’s preparations for the World Championships continued with an impressive win in the men’s 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne.

Interview

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

PAGE 45

‘We can’t implement new curriculum with hungry and unqualified teachers’ Mallam Suleiman Mahmud, is the project officer of the Development Research and Project Centre (DRPC), a Kano based NGO which recently, undertook training workshop for 22 senior administrators in girls’ e education from Jigawa and Kano States, in conjunction with NERDC and NIPSS to strengthen public sector capacity to implement the new National Secondary School curriculum. In this interview with Jamila Nuhu Musa and Theodora Ekah, he spoke on the framework of the train-the-trainer scheme and its benefit to the standard of primary and secondary education particularly in those states

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ell us briefly about the workshop?

The workshop was organized to meet up with the implementation of the new curriculum. We have observed that the North is lacking in the implementation of the programme particularly in Kano and Jigawa states and so they need to see that these managers can call the management staff from the ministries of Jigawa and Kano states to be brought here for the workshop in order to sensitise them more and also to give them capacity building so that as they go back to their states, they would now utilise what they have learned to educate people under them so that there would be step down in the implementation.

Why didn’t you start from the student upwards for them to understand the scheme first?

It’s not possible to start from the students because they are learners, and you can’t start anything with the learner. You have to start with the implementers, then move to the teachers because only when the teachers are built capacity-wise that they will now implement and teach these students and build them up. So, there is a need to start from the teachers, who will now implement this programme. Later, we will interview the student or find out if there is any impact made or not’? We call it evaluation.

What is the calibre of the people attending the workshop?

Those attending the workshop are all directors from the different sectors of Ministry of Education from Jigawa and Kano states. We have directors and deputy directors from the different sectors.

That is, its based across the secondary and technical schools. We also have the mass literacy, and even the remedial schools. All the directors are here to learn. Initially there was even the permanent secretary from Jigawa state that was supposed to come with a delegation but unfortunately, he could not make it.

You said at the workshop that Nigeria should go back to the former policy of Teachers Training colleges. Can you expatiate on that?

The reason I emphasized on the teachers training is this, going back to the former teachers training college which I was opportuned to pass through. If you ask most of these directors, they

passed through that and I see a difference. I was opportuned to pass through teachers college, through NCE, through PS. I am a professional teacher and I have seen a difference between the teachers training college and the NCE and the BS. In the teachers training college, most of the things we learnt were infant methods not methods to do with teaching elders.

In secondary schools now, we have children from the ages of twelve and above. So, without good foundation what do you expect? These students are now occupying the secondary schools but with a very poor foundation. That’s why it’s good to address the former teacher training colleges issue and go back to it.

What’s the implication of the new Curriculum for girl child education?

The implication to me is, a very positive outcome because one, in most of the states particularly Kano and Jigawa states, if you find out from the workshop, majority of participants are men. There is the need for women to be given the opportunity to also compete hand in hand with the men. They have a lot to offer but they are denied the opportunity. We have very good girls who are very educated but denied opportunities to go to school and as such they end up may be hawking without achieving anything in life. If we utilise them, definitely we are going to achieve something.

If you educate a lady, you educate the society, if you educate a man, you educate an individual.

What do you think should be done over lack of qualified teachers to implement this policy?

We have a problem in this country. We always like to implement without looking at what we are implementing. Definitely you can’t implement something without providing an avenue to achieving what we are implementing. We are fast in implementing this programme without addressing the issue of the teachers who will implement this programme particularly, the technical and entrepreneurship subjects. We don’t have teachers to implement this programme. We are talking of ICT; one of its problems is the power failure in this country. Even when we were having this workshop, we had power failure many times?

So, you can’t achieve anything without power supply. These are some of the issues the country

has to address first, before implementing anything particularly education. You find out the need to sensitise and then to sensitise the people at the top to make sure that teachers training is given to meet up with all these subjects. It is not enough to talk of buildings, structures, providing facilities and so on without considering issue of qualified teachers, who are supposed to be the key to any education policy.

In addition, I’m sorry to add that teachers’ welfare isn’t taken care of. If you go to most of these states like in Kano and other places, they build good schools, they have good facilities and so on but then, how about the incentives for teachers.

How do you expect a hungry teacher to come to the class and make an impact on lives of these children education wise? It’s not possible.

A presenter recommended that teachers could improvise in their environments….

How can a teacher who isn’t well paid improvise anything? Let me tell you, when we talk of improvising in teaching, it means you provide something which is not completely very expensive in order to aid the topic you are teaching. An example is, if you want to teach a balance scale, you need not to go to the market to buy a scale because it’s expensive. So, you can get a stick, then get a pivot and another stick on top and then get a rope to tie both ends and then get a tin of milk on both sides and then begin to take weights. If you take a pound, then you begin to take

“

How can a teacher who isn’t well paid improvise anything? Let me tell you, when we talk of improvising in teaching, it means you provide something which is not completely very expensive in order to aid the topic you are teaching.

Mallam Suleiman Mahmud sand and allow it to balance. That is what we call improvising. It’s practical because the student sees things practically.

What is the role of the government agencies in strengthening implementation of this policy?

The role of government agencies definitely is to provide the building, the facilities, and to pay the teachers. So their role is more of supervision, evaluation, and at the same time seeing to changes if there are aspects which are less important. I feel they should play the role of the management staff. If it starts from the top, definitely the bottom would be good.

How long can the dRPC sustain the project to ensure implementation of the policy?

As one of the directors pointed out during the workshop, most of our workshops end up in writing and reports. But this is not going to be like that.

After this particular workshop, we are going to embark on study tour to Ekiti state because EKiti has gone far in the implementation of girls’ education. What we learn, we then share it with the principals and teachers and then the teachers begin passing on their ideas to the students which we are going to monitor. There is proper monitoring and evaluation of this programme which would take us two years. That is why we are taking the present SS1 who are now

in SS2 and the present SS2 who would be in SS3 so that we can monitor how the present SS2 are going to graduate and see if we have achieved results.

Is there going to be any change in their performances in WAEC and NECO? The overall objective is the need to improve the examination scores. Of course we know that in the North, it has been a sad story but we will get there.

Formerly, I taught in one of the private schools in Kano, and was vice principal of special duties.

I was also the acting principal of Samadi International school and worked with Chief Graham Brown, a Scottish man who happened to be my director and the owner of the school. We had a technique called ‘cheating before the exam’. We would check out topics that repeated themselves yearly and emphasise on teaching and concentrating on these topics, then made sure students could answer them very well.

This applied to all subjects. And so we would go to these schools to teach them these techniques.

And we get precautions from the examiner’s report we have every year that gives us a full insight on performances and reasons for successes or failures. And if we are able to achieve 30%, we were good with it. But unfortunately most of the principals don’t do this anymore.

Feature

PAGE 46

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 6 - SUNDAY 7, JULY, 2013

Army Colonel courtmartialled for receiving N150m from Former Governor Sylva ... Says it belonged to late NSA Azazi

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t. Col. David Ahangba, a former special assistant to late National Security Adviser General Owoye Azazi, has been court marshaled for illegally receiving the sum of N150million from the Bayelsa State government. He is telling the court it belonged to his former boss, who was killed in an air crash last year.

According to Saharareporters, Ahangba faces four counts of receiving the money after he suggested a project to officials of Bayelsa State Government, the money for which would be used to induce General Azazi to assist Timipriye Sylva’s second term bid as governor.

The court martial is being presided over by Brig. Gen. EO Nze (N/7920). Members are: Col PS Obaje (N/9383); Col. AOI Kalejaiye (N/9422); Col. GA Nosike (N/9629); and Col. MB Akilu (N/9647). The Judge Advocate is Capt. CW Okonkwo (N/12289) while the Waiting Member is Col. CA Thomas (N/9616).

Ahangba joined General Azazi’s staff when the latter became Army Chief of Staff in 2006, at the General’s request, and was assigned to engineering services, principally construction and maintenance of Azazi’s properties in Bayelsa, Abuja, Lagos, supervision of other projects, and liaison with dignitaries. He also liaised with the Joint Task Force headquarters to secure helicopters to fly the late General and to arrange hotel accommodation.

According to Ahangba, it was in that connection that during preparations for the wedding of General

Azazi’s son in September 2011, he was instructed by his boss to act as a liaison to Governor Sylva.

In a subsequent meeting in Bayelsa, the governor spoke of his political travails and discussed his desire to meet with the General to discuss a way out.

Following that meeting, General Azazi told Ahangba to stand by as someone would bring the sum of N150m, about which he would receive further directives. When the funds were brought by an unknown person the following day, there were deposited in a First Bank Account of Roberta Nig. Ltd, which had been opened at the instructions of General Azazi.

Its source said, “Prior to the opening of the account, monies given to Lt. Col. Ahangba by the late General for projects or deposits were deposited in the Colonel’s salary account but due to the fact that the amounts were huge sum of money and for security purposes (to protect the Colonel from questions by operatives which could link the late General), the General directed that the company account be opened.

He further directed that the Colonel open a domiciliary account. These accounts were basically operated for the purpose stated above. It is to be noted that the company account was opened without the coordination/ direction of the Colonel as staff of First Bank merely collected his details and specimen of his signature and the opening was in his absence.

During cross-examination, it was revealed that the Colonel had no option to the opening of the account

as he acted on the instruction of the General.”

The source further disclosed that while in Lagos, the sum of N68million was received on the Lt. Colonel’s behalf. Following General Azazi’s instructions, three further Union Bank account numbers were forwarded for the money to be lodged in. The late General further informed him that the total sum of N83million was forwarded to him as against the N150 million because N67million was forwarded to one of his engineers for investment in his estates in Abuja.

The total sum of money received by the Colonel was released from the accounts as directed by the late General.

Just three months after the money was first received, that is, in December 2011), Ahangba was discreetly informed by the General that “very serious” trouble relating to the late General’s career and personality was brewing and needed to be tactically checked, and that Ahangba was the only person who could bail him out.

The general then revealed to the Colonel that the deal with the Bayelsa governor had leaked to the presidency and the General was accused of working with the opposition and had collected money from them. It would be recalled that Governor Sylva was locked in a battle for the governorship with President Jonathan who reportedly wanted him out.

“The late General informed the Colonel of the blue print on how to resolve the trouble, which involved the Colonel making a written statement in the house of the late General

The Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika and under his directions.

The statement was collected by the General and taken to Abuja to be submitted as an official report of the conduct of Lt. Col. Ahangba. He was assured that the was required to give the statement a face lift and to further buttress this point, he called officials of Bayelsa State and directed them to prepare contract papers to cover the deal,” our source revealed.

These manoeuvres were still on, with Ahangba summoned to Abuja for a provost martial interview.

In the meantime, Sylva lost his bid for a second term as governor.

General Azazi then lost his position as the National Security Adviser, and was killed in a helicopter crash

last year.

According to our source, during cross-examination at the commencement of trial, Colonel Ahangba had reneged from the blue print by declaring that the statements he made were not voluntary and of his own accord. General Azazi however assured him again and instructed him to withdraw from the position taken to which the trial-within-trial was discontinued.

It is to be noted that he was initially requested by the Nigerian Army to return the sum of N83million to the Government of Bayelsa State through the Nigerian Army, while no allegation was made against him.

wary of the worldly temptation awaiting them at various higher institutions.

He urged them to focus mainly on their studies and religious obligation and distance themselves from the so called freedom associated with learning in the tertiary institutions.

Recitation of verses of the holy Qur’an and rendition of Is-

lamic songs as well as a drama presentation entitled “Hijab is my pride”, featured prominently at the occasion.

Other activities include a send-forth Walima and the inauguration of both the outgoing and incoming leadership of the school MSSN and presentation of gift to the former students exco.

Zinaria International School holds first MSS week Jude Moses & Nami Kadir

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uch as education is important to every Muslim student, it is important to conform to Islamic teachings.

That was the objective of the the Muslim Community of Zinaria International School Mararaba comprising the academic staff, students and the leadership of Parent – teachers’ Association (PTA),who had penultimate weekend held its first edition of the “Muslim Student’ Society Week” in the school premises.

The occasion was organized by the MSSN branch of the school following strategic repositioning of its academic, moral and religious capacities with a view to inculcating the virtues of Islamic teachings in upcoming generation who constitute a large percentage of the nation population.

Zinaria International School started over nine years ago, but had witnessed a tremendous and appreciable improvement and transformation which cut across academic, infrastructure provision and general administration aimed at grooming a crop of students capable of meeting the global challenges in

various fields of human endeavour.

Alhaji Baba Addussalam the School PTA chairman chaired the 1-day occasion with a number of parents and other invited schools within the vicinity of Mararaba.

Notable among others were the Epitome Model Islamic School and Al-Hikma International. In his welcome speech, the PTA chairman called on the parents to re-inculcate the good moral values in addition to secular studies in the minds of their wards.

Delivering his speech, the School Director, Alhaji Abdulmalik Abdullah appreciated the large turnout of parents in spite of short notice, and informed them that preparations have reached advanced stage to fully integrate religious teachings in the school curriculum.

He also urged all the Muslim parents to accord the school a benefit of doubt by withdrawing their wards from their present informal Islamic schools and entrust same to the school authorities.

This followed a machinery set up to commence full teaching of moral and religious lessons in the school. Parents were assured that their decision to do

so, would not be regretted.

The Ameer of MSSN, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Ustaz Suraj Alhassan gave a lecture titled “Post-graduation challenges facing Muslim Students at tertiary institutions.”

In this paper, the MSSN Ameer called on the out-going exco and all other students to be

BIG PUNCH “While it is the function of the military to assist civilian authority to handle civil disobedience, it is assumed that such rules would be carried out only when the capacity of the police is overwhelmed. Policing the domestic arena is directed against external enemies of the state.”

– Sambo Dasuki in a speech at the National Civil-Military Dialogue in Abuja

The two Nigerias SATURDAY 6 — SUNDAY 7 , JULY, 2013

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here are obviously two sets of Nigerians: the one percent who own the country, and the rest comprising those in the middle who must work very hard to earn a decent living of sorts, the one hundred million or so citizens who work even harder but wallow in poverty, including those who are not sure of the next meal, the next hour, the next day. The latter live in the real world of toil and turmoil, putting up a brave but futile fight for survival on a daily basis. Not for them is the enjoyment of the benefits which makes life decent, joyful or worthwhile. Not for them is the very modest expectation that even though they have lost all hope but their children should not inherit their poverty, their lowly status. The one percent lives in the virtual world, in a stratosphere from where they don’t have to know what goes on in the real world, or suffer the indignity of worrying about the perpetual travails and drudgery below.. The great citizens of the Virtual Nigeria can afford to amuse themselves eternally for the chances are so slim that they could ever fall to the real world. The Baga Massacre is now a familiar story in the whole world: that at least two hundred citizens were killed, some in a most gruesome, inhumane manner, and according to verified satellite images 2,275 houses were destroyed by the Nigerian Army.

But the Nigerian Senate, enjoying its tranquility in its exclusive, far away stratosphere could see ‘only nine graves’ and 115 damaged buildings in Baga. Its committee of investigation on the massacre admitted a grave dereliction of duty and absenteeism on the part of its members. Out of thirteen members from the South, only one, the chair, understandably reported for duty, the rest perhaps thought the assignment below their dignity. One member blamed the mosquito for her truancy.

Two reports from Daily Trust of July 3, 2013 illustrate further the psychology of the mighty men and women of power. The first is about the alarm raised by the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to the effect that glut in the global oil market constitutes potential danger to the economy of Nigeria, that the rapidly changing international oil market landscape is eroding the competitive value of Nigeria’s oil and gas and that improvement in refining technology ADVERT: BUSINESS:

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is helping to eradicate the difference between the Nigeria light crude and the other types of crude oil which has reduced the price premium on Nigerian’s bonny light for many years. ‘Countries in East Africa and West Africa including Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have discovered large oil reserves and have started oil production,’ the Chamber President said. ‘Vast natural gas resources have also been discovered in South Africa, Mozambique offshore, Namibia and Botswana. Additional discovery in an offshore oilfield in Angola will potentially make the country the largest oil producer in Africa, ahead of Nigeria.’ Our citizens in the stratosphere, however, have a more pressing concern. According to Daily Trust, they almost came to blows with one another on the hallowed chamber of the senate over a bill on the state of the union address. The Senate must not be bothered by the economic predicaments of Nigeria.

The emerging worry all over the world is The Gap: the ever growing, unbridgeable gap between the legitimate expectations of the people and what their governments are delivering, between what portion of the nations’s wealth is accumulated by the one percent of the population and what portion goes to the ninety nine percent. Brazil is one of the most success stories in economic development in recent years. Its policy of social and economic inclusion has reduced poverty to just 15% of the population and ensured that the children of the poor will not grow into poverty, but will rise to the middle class. Yet in the last few days Brazil was hit by a massive upheaval, when millions of people of all ages poured onto the streets in an outpouring of anger and resentment.

They want better social services, but government gives them huge, overpriced stadiums, as though Brazil means soccer, not people.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos, [guardian.co.uk, 28/6/13 10.00 BST], tells of Two Brazils, existing perilously parallel to each other.

There is the Brazil, which after scoring those social and economic successes at home, is emerging confidently as a global power, eager to show its mettle: see the United Nations conference on environment and development and Rio+20, both in 2012; the just concluded Confederation Cup,

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the Fifa World Cup in 2014; the 2016 Olympic Games; the ongoing quest for a permanent seat on the UN security council; the active role in the growing prominence of the “emerging economies” (Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa); José Graziano da Silva’s 2012 appointment as director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, and, as of 2013, Roberto Azevêdo’s appointment as director general of the World Trade Organisation; an aggressive policy for the exploration of natural resources both in Brazil and in Africa, particularly in Mozambique; and the favoring of large-scale industrial agriculture, namely with respect to livestock and soy production as well as agro-fuels.

There also is the other Brazil.

Here the policies aimed at social inclusion has dried up, no longer meeting the expectations of those who felt they deserved more and better than that. The result is the continuos worsening of the quality of urban life as the priority has shifted from improving the quality of life for all Brazilians to internationally prestigious events – soccer, olympics, festivals – that absorb the

investments that are supposed to improve transportation, education and public services in general. In addition, racism has continued to intensify both in the social fabric and in the police forces, while the killings go on of indigenous and peasant leaders, who are demonized as “obstacles to development” by those in political power, for the simple fact that they fight for their land and their livelihoods, against agribusiness and against mining and hydroelectric mega-projects. The current President is said to nurse a pathological hatred for the majority black and indigenous population. The stage is therefore being set for an eventual confrontation of perhaps seismic proportion between the opposing social forces. The only option is for Brazil to pull back from the brink. If it does, says de Sousa Santos, it will show the world that the only way to make sure that the price of progress is worth paying is by consolidating democracy, redistributing generated wealth and acknowledging the cultural and political differences of those for whom political progress without dignity equals retrogression.

In an article in Reuters, [29/6/13] Francis Fukuyama, who came

to limelight by proposing rather prematurely the ‘end of history’ which will see Western civilization triumph over humanity now acknowledges that the most pressing issue today is the rising danger from The Gap — that is, thefailureofsocietytomeettheirrapidly rising expectations for economic and social advancement — and the danger will be all encompassing, affecting all nations alike, unless the needs and concerns of the people are met.

What may emerge from the current crisis of social upheavals arising from exploitation, inequality and social and economic exclusion is what he calls the end of power. The danger to all governments, all nations, is real, palpable.

‘No established democracy should believe it can rest on its laurels, simply because it holds elections and has leaders who do well in opinion polls. The technologically empowered middle class will be highly demanding of their politicians across the board,’ Francis Fukuyama warns. ‘The U.S. and Europe are experiencing sluggish growth and persistently high unemployment, which for young people in countries like Spain reaches 50%. In the rich world, the older generation also has failed the young by bequeathing them crushing debts. No politician in the U.S. or Europe should look down complacently on the events unfolding in the streets of Istanbul and São Paulo. It would be a grave mistake to think, “It can’t happen here.”

The Europeans are similarly sounding the same alarm. The Observer warns in an editorial [23/6/13] warns about the crisis of legitimacy brewing across the entire fabric of British society and the entire spectrum of British institutions, whether political, economic or even religious. ‘People are acutely aware that while they are struggling to make ends meet, the elite are pulling away: MPs feathering duck houses; corporations avoiding tax; bankers taking home million-pound bonuses, seemingly unaffected by the crisis they caused,’ it says. ‘But if we are stuck in an extended period of no or low growth, our political leaders may be forced towards a different type of solution.’ Nigeria, whose power elite shelter themselves in the stratosphere, doesn’t seem to notice the the looming danger on the horizon all across the globe – the end of power, as Fukuyama hazards.

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