Peoples Daily Newspapers, Tuesday 7th, February 2012

Multiple blasts raze Maiduguri market as gunmen attack police station in Kano

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Vol. 7 No. 68

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Rabiul Awwal 15, 1433 AH

N150

CJN to Jang:

You’re a threat to democracy Oil windfall for Nigeria as sanction hits Iran

From Nankpah Bwakan, Jos

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he Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher has described Plateau state Governor, Jonah David Jang as a threat to democracy for ignoring the order of a court of competent jurisdiction and trampling on the rule of law.

“Without strict adherence to the of law, our nascent democracy and indeed our constitution will only be worth the paper on which it is written,” said the Chief Justice of the Federation.

In a letter he sent to the Plateau state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr. Edward Pwajok over a petition to his office by three aggrieved Local Government Council Chairmen whose tenure was truncated by the Jang administration, Justice Musdapher, warned the state government on the consequence of disobeying and ignoring court orders, which he said “poses a serious threat to the nation’s hard earned democracy.”

A copy of the letter, dated January 24, 2012, which was obtained by our correspondent in Jos chided the state’s AttorneyContd on Page 2

By Aminu Imam with agency report

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Fire and smoke rising from Sharada Phase II after Boko Haram daylight attack on a police station, in the ancient city of Kano, yesterday.

sia’s imports of crude oil from Nigeria and other West African countries are at record highs as sanctions on Iran cut supplies from the Islamic Republic to China, a Reuters survey of West African oil flows suggest.

Asian imports of West African crude oil will hit an all-time high in the first quarter as purchases of Iranian oil decline and as Chinese and Indian refiners build stocks from alternative sources, trade and shipping sources said.

North American, Asia and European refiners compete to buy West Africa’s high quality, low sulphur crude oil. Increasingly it is a favourite source of fuel for Contd on Page 2

I N S I D E ‘3000 Zamfara children’s lives in danger’

Dasuki clocks 91, offers Jonathan ‘gift’

Bauchi pilgrims bitter over ‘missing’ luggage

At least 3,000 of over 4,500 children who tested positive to lead poison contamination require urgent medical attention to save them from neurological, biological and cognitive malfunction – Page 3

Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, marked his 91st birthday anniversary in Kaduna yesterday with a gift to the FG on how to resolve the security challenges facing the country – Page 3

Last year’s Muslim pilgrims to Saudi from Bauchi state have threatened to sue the Bauchi state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board over non receipt of their luggage from Jeddah – Page 7

WWW.PEOPLESDAILY-ONLINE.COM

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

CONTENTS

Ex-Foreign Minister, Matthew Mbu dies at 82

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

News

2-11

Editorial

12

Op.Ed

13

Letters

14

Opinion

15

Metro

16-17

Business

19-22

S/Exchange

23

S/Report

24

Agriculture

27

Newsxtra

29

Suswam vs Ugbah: Delay tactics or simply running out of ideas?, Page 37

International 31-34 Strange World 35 Digest

36

Politics

37-40

Sports

41-47

Columnist

48

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

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

Phones for News: 070-37756364 09-8734478

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lder statesman, Ambassador Matthew Mbu is dead. He died yesterday in a London hospital at the age of 82, said his family.

The family, while announcing

Mbu’s death in a statement yesterday said :“It is with the deepest regret, but also with total submission to God’s will, that the family of Ambassador (Dr.) M. T. Mbu regret to announce the passing of their patriarch in London at the age of 82.”

Mbu was former minister of

foreign affairs a diplomat and business man.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday expressed sadness at the passing of Chief Matthew Tawo Mbu, whom he describes him as a nationalist, elder statesman, a globalist, and a true diplomat.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement, quoted Jonathan as observing that the late Dr. Mbu’s contributions to Nigeria are enormous and that he was indeed one of Africa’s major voices in the global arena in the last five decades.

‘You’re a threat to democracy’ Contd from Page 1 General that despite a court order restraining Governor Jang from removing the chairmen of Langtang North and Bokkos local government areas from office, pending the determination of the notice instituted by the affected chairmen against the governor, he still went ahead and removed them, and constituted management committees for the 17 local government areas in the state.

The Chief Justice told Governor Jang and his government that “once a party knows of the subsistence of an order of court, whether valid or not and whether regular or irregular or even perverse, he is obliged to obey it”.

He urged the AttorneyGeneral to advice his boss into retracing his steps and to respect the rule of law, saying, “as the Chief Law Officer of the state, you may wish to advise that it would be prudent to comply with orders of the court, pending the determination of the substantive suit.”

The court order, according to the Chief Justice, specifically ordered the state government and its agents to stay action on the planned termination of the tenure of the council chairmen before the expiration of their three years tenure “pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice” before the court.

The CJ’s letter was prompted by petitions earlier sent to his office by three aggrieved local government chairmen whose tenures were truncated late last month by the governor.

The three chairmen Iliya Amagon of Bokkos, Hitler Fankun Dadi of Langtang South and Bintin Brian Dadi of Langtang North described Jang as “threat to peace and security” in a petition they sent to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and copied to the Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector General of Police and Commander of the Special Task Force, Earlier, two of the three chairmen went to a state High Court in Jos and obtained an injunction retraining the state

government from terminating or truncating their tenure before its expiration. But Governor Jang still dissolved them and appointed caretaker management committee chairmen in the 17 LGAs of the state, including the 2 LGAs. The petitioners argued that “The Plateau state Local Government law provides for three-year tenure, commencing from the date of swearing in”.

They accused Jang of using the state’s might to ensure that PDP, ‘won’ in all the 17 local government areas of the state in the November 2008 local councils polls, and went ahead to swear them in as elected chairmen in January 2009.

Later, the verdicts of the elections tribunal declared them winners of the election and gave back their mandates, with their tenures commencing on different dates.

According to them, the duration of their tenure was further emphasized by a High Court judgment in Suit No. PLD/

J31/2010, given on July 5, 2010 where it was stated, among others, that the tenure is for 3 years, beginning from the date of taking oaths of allegiance and office.

But in what they described as utter defiance of the law and court orders, “barely two years in the office, David Jonah Jang, Governor of Plateau State, sent out a circular to the effect that the tenure of all the 17 local government chairmen, ourselves inclusive, would come to an end on 20th January, 2012.”

Counsel to the affected chairmen Garba Joul (SAN) approached the court asking it to order Jang to reverse his decision on the dissolved chairmen, as it defied a court injunction restraining him from doing so.

The Lantang North chairman, Hon. Brain Dadi’s tenure was expected to elapse on December 21, 2012 while the tenure of his Bokkos counterpart, Iliya Amagon, terminates on September 6, 2012 because the election tribunal had earlier confirmed them duly elect.

Oil windfall for Nigeria as sanction hits Iran Contd from Page 1 Chinese, Indian and other Asian refiners.

The region is a natural alternative source of oil for Asian buyers who wish to avoid sanctions imposed by the West over Iran’s nuclear programme that the United States and its allies say aims to produce Iranian nuclear weapons. Tehran denies it is planning an atomic bomb and says the programme is designed to meet domestic energy needs.

The Reuters survey shows West African oil imports by Asian countries will average 1.81 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, 1.8 million in February and 1.84 million in January.

This brings the average for the first quarter of 2012 to around 1.82 million bpd, up from a previous record of 1.79 million in the first quarter of 2011 and 2011’s average 1.57 million.

Although, not all the crude oil cargoes due to load in March from Nigeria, Angola and other West African exporters are placed yet, the totals could rise over the next few weeks, traders say.

Sources close to Chinese stateowned oil trading companies say imports of Angolan crude oil are up by as much as 20% in March from December and the increase largely reflects a decline in purchases of Iranian crude.

“Chinese companies have taken half a dozen more cargoes in March and these are almost replacements for Iranian barrels,” said one senior West African crude oil trader.

But trade and shipping sources are unsure whether the trend away from Iranian crude will continue into the second quarter.

Chinese companies are now negotiating hard on long-term purchase contracts with the state National Iranian Oil Company, and traders suggest the recent dip in imports by Chinese may be part of a strategy to force Iranian crude selling prices lower.

Industry sources close to the negotiations in Asia say China will halve its crude imports from Iran in March compared to average monthly purchases a year ago, as the dispute over payments and prices stretches into a third month.

Sinopec, through its trading arm, Unipec, has already snapped up extra cargoes from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Russia and Australia in addition to its higher imports from West Africa.

The refiner is likely to buy more crude from the spot market to cover March requirements, traders say.

Chinese buyers took 31 cargoes of West African crude, mostly from Angola, in March, compared with

30 cargoes in February.

Taiwanese buyers are also buying West African crude as an alternative to Iranian, traders say, and have so far bought around 14 million barrels this year, up slightly from recent averages.

Nigeria and Angola are Africa’s two largest exporters, shipping as much as 3.5 million bpd to international markets.

Meanwhile, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has said that the theft of crude oil at its Nembe trunk line in Bayelsa could threaten the daily export of 140,000 barrels from the country.

SPDC disclosed this in a press statement in Port Harcourt yesterday, signed by the company’s Corporate Media Relations Manager, Mr. Tony Okonedo.

In the statement, it said the theft was coming barely 16 months after the old line was replaced due to repeated attacks.

“On Dec. 24, 2011, the line was shut down because of leaks caused by two failed bunkering points, and since the repairs were completed, more than 50 theft valves have been discovered.

“In one case, some 17 illegal bunkering points were found within a distance of 3.8 kilometres,’’ the company said.

Speaking on the development, Shell’s Managing Director, Mr Mutiu Sunmonu, said the level of

crude theft at the new Nembe creek trunk line could no longer be tolerated.

“There have been multiple facility trips caused by pressure drops resulting from illegal off take.

“This is more than Nigeria losing money from lost production, costly repairs and clean-up and facility downtime. ‘’It is a sad story of consistent pollution of farmlands and rivers by people who are not bothered by the effects of their actions on the environment,” he said.

Sunmonu said the Nembe trunk line was replaced with a new line between 2007 and 2010 due to integrity issues from militancy attacks.

“Some 70,000 barrels of oil per day were deferred in the December leak which took a month to repair because of the swampy terrain,’’ he said.

The Shell official also said helicopter over flights on Feb. 6, 2012, confirmed thriving crude theft activities at various points.

He named the points as Tora Manifold, Santa Barbara River, SEGO Manifold, Awoba, Krakrama, Bille, Cawthorne Channel and Alakiri all in Rivers and Bayelsa.

He pointed out that it was difficult to sustain production in the circumstance as Shell must shut down when a facility trips and then fix the cause before restarting.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

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Gunmen bomb police station in Kano From Edwin Olofu, Kano

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unmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram, yesterday set ablaze a police station in Kano metropolis while engaging security men in gun a duel that lasted for over two hours detonating explosives simultaneously.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the gunmen

numbering four arrived at Kwanar Ganduje junction at about 5.30pm; 30 minutes close to the commencement of the dusk to dawn curfew imposed by the Kano state government and started shooting into the air sporadically.

He added that two among the gunmen who looked in their twenties were sported in kaftans on arrival in the area close to the

Sharada police divisional headquarters and commanded residents to go into their homes, saying they were out on duty.

They reportedly shot into the air to scare off people. They were also said to have mounted a roadblock, quizzing motorist plying the road in search of security agents, and at the same time detonating some explosives and shooting confidently to the

admiration of some young men in the area who hailed them.

Some residents said the attackers succeeded in bombing the Sharada police station as they engaged security agents in a shootout as well, but as at the time of filing this report, nobody could ascertain the number of casualties.

In a similar development, reports indicated that gun shots

were heard in Mariri ward as gunmen fired shots that made people scurry into their homes.

A spokesman of the army min Kano, Lt. Umeha Ikedichi said he was unaware of such but that he will try to get accurate information before he speaks on the matter.

But up to press time last night, a BBC correspondent in Kano said the army spokesman feigned ignorance of the situation.

Multiple blasts raze market in Borno From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri

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he second largest commercial centre of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, the Ngamborou market, behind the headquarters of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), went up in flames yesterday evening following multiple bomb explosions suspected to have been detonated by members of the Boko Haram sect.

Although both the state police commissioner Mr. Simeon Midenda, and spokesman of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Lt. Col. Hassan Mohammed could not be reached for comments as at press time, our correspondent gathered that the incident occurred at about 5.40pm.

Witnesses told newsmen that the blasts emanated from improvised explosive devices which were buried in seven different locations of the market, causing pandemonium as traders and passers-by scampered for safety.

Although it was not clear if there were casualties in the incident, it was gathered that three unidentified gunmen had earlier raided the market and killed a patent medicine shop owner few minutes before the explosions.

A trader living in the area, who declined identification told our correspondent on phone that he had just left the market and was about reaching his house when he heard seven simultaneous explosions and that on reaching the scene, he found that the market was on fire.

3,000 children need treatment for lead poisoning in Zamfara, medical team says L-R: Oliola of Uzanu, Alhaji A Karimu, and Edo state Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole during the commissioning of a water project donated to Uzanu community by Prince Clem Agba and his wife, at the weekend.

Elder statesmen at dialogue call for national conference From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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minent Nigerians, including Chief Edwin Clark, former civilian Governor of old Kaduna state, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, yesterday in Lagos, re-echoed the call for the convening of a sovereign national conference to discuss fundamental issues affecting the unity of the country.

The leaders spoke during the opening of a two-day national dialogue organised by the National Summit Group (NSG), at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Lagos, calling for the immediate convening of a national conference to address basic things missing from Nigeria’s federalism.

Expected guests and elder statesmen including Alhaji Maitama Sule, Malam Adamu Ciroma and Prof. Wole Soyinka were absent. Also absent were representatives of the Federal Government, including Minister

for Finance Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, CBN Governor, Malam Lamido Sanusi and National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi.

Alhaji Balarabe Musa who set the ball rolling, said; “Nigeria is on the edge of becoming a failed state in every aspect… We have become one of the poorest countries; and unending quarrels among the leaders of the country, our responsibility is to continue on reversing the situation from a negative state of the nation to situation where there is hope like we started in the 60’s.”

Chairman of the NSG, Prof. Pat Utomi, lamented that the country has failed to become the fastest growing economy in the last 30 years.

Former finance minister, Kalu Idika Kalu, called on the participants to agree on the fundamental point of holding a national conference. “We are here to hearken to the wishes of all Nigerians; we should sit down and

honestly discuss how we want to be governed by our leaders. We should understand the cost the governance. As we leave this place there should be no more opposition as to whether or not we need a national conference”. He said the conference would not in any sense threaten the existence of the Federal Government.

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t least 3,000 of over 4,500 children who tested positive to lead poison contamination require urgent medical attention to save them from neurological, biological and cognitive malfunction.

Malam Nasir Umar, the Deputy Co-ordinator of the Zamfara State Rapid Response Team on Lead Poisoning, made the disclosure in Bagega yesterday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Umar was in Bagega at the head of a human rights team on remediation monitoring mission.

Bagega was one of the mostly affected villages following the lead poison contamination which ravaged parts of Zamfara,

Umar told NAN shortly after the monitoring exercise that the Zamfara government in collaboration with Medicins Sans Frontiers has treated more than 1,500 affected children.

He however said in spite of the efforts, the lives of thousands of other children were still at risk.

Umar said the recent soil test conducted by the United States of America Center for Disease Control (CDC) has also revealed that eight more villages have high level of lead contamination.

He said the discovery of the fresh lead-contaminated villages has put to 15 the number of villages affected by the disaster in Anka, Bukkuyum and Maru local government areas.

Dasuki clocks 91, sends Jonathan ‘gift’ From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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eposed 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, marked his 91st birthday anniversary in Kaduna yesterday with a gift to the Federal Government on how to resolve the security challenges facing the country.

The gift is Dasuki’s pamphlet titled, “Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki 1993 Peaceful Co-existence Plan”, which he said he had earlier presented to former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

According to him, the contents

of the pamphlet are as relevant today as they were about 19 years ago.

Dasuki who spoke with reporters in his residence, argued that insecurity and related challenges would be eradicated if government involves all citizens from the grassroots, in the peace and development processes of the nation.

For him, all-inclusive governance through the constitution of permanent peace committees at various strata of society remains the panacea that will ensure adequate security for

all citizens.

Dasuki said, “by the special grace of Almighty Allah, I am 91 years, by Islamic calendar. For the rest of you Nigerians who own the future of this country, I am not expecting any birthday gift from you; rather, I am offering this plan to the nation to be used in addressing the present security challenges”.

Alhaji Dasuki had ascended the throne of the Sokoto Sultanate in 1988 but was deposed under controversial circumstances by the government of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, in 1996.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

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Robbers kill Islamic scholar in Zamfara From Salisu Zakari Maradun, Gusau

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n Islamic scholar based in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state, Sheikh Abubakar Assamrawi, has been shot dead by a group of persons suspected to be armed robbers.

The incident occured at Tashar Abu village, near Maru town of Maru local government area of the state, when the late Sheikh was traveling to attend a Maulud event, where he was invited as guest speaker.

Peoples Daily gathered that the unknown persons stopped the scholar and demanded for money, but did not get, which made them to instantly fire two shots on his head, resulting in his death.

The incident which occurred in the night also trapped a number of motorists and passengers who were in transit to different towns and villages to attend the Maulud celebrations.

It was reliably gathered that the suspected robbers, after their operations, remained at the scene, challenging the policemen to confront them. “We were in our houses at that hour when we suddenly heard the gunshot loudly enough to wake everybody in the village”, explained one of the residents of Tashar Abu. According to him, “we were hearing shouting of people outside, but we were scared to come out, thinking that they were Boko Haram people, otherwise we would have come to the aid of whoever was being attacked.”

When contacted on the issue, the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Tambari Muh’d Yabo, confirmed the killing of the scholar, promising that police will fish out the perpetrators very soon.

Gunmen kill security operative in Damaturu From Husseini Jirgi, with agencies report.

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n operative of the State Security Service (SSS), was on Sunday night shot by unidentified gunmen in Jeri area of Damaturu, the Yobe state capital.

Alhaji Lawal Tanko, the Commissioner of Police in Yobe, confirmed the incident yesterday, in a telephone interview with a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent.

He said that the victim later identified as Mohammed Umar Shettima, was immediately rushed to the hospital where died before being buried early yesterday.

Reports have it that Shettima was shot in his house in the company of some friends. The gunmen were also reported to have detonated some explosives before abandoning the scene. His friends however, were said to have scurried off to safety.

Police Commissioner Lawal said there was no damage to give a clue to the site of the explosion.

“We were told of an explosion but there are no traces of damage or the site of explosion. However, we are still working on it”, the police commissioner is quoted to have said.

To check the spate of insecurity in the state, the use of commercial motorcycles was banned in some selected local government areas in the state.

Although some local governments in the state have been placed under emergency, intermittent violence blamed on Boko Haram still rocks

1 injured as AEPB officials clash with traders

By Maryam Garba Hassan

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arely a month after a mass raid on the Federal Capital Territory’s (FCT) street hawkers by officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), on the orders of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), some officials Friday night, clashed with Wuse Zone 4 traders living a person injured.

According to an eyewitness account trouble started Friday night, when the officials visited the area to carry out the usual seizure of goods displayed by the roadside. One of the officials was said to have used stones on a Suya seller, who resisted arrest and struggled with one of the officials who attempted to seize his goods.

As a result, the Suya seller to lose consciousness after being hit by the stone.

The incident however attracted the attention of other traders, who descended on the

official, a development that resulted in a fight between the traders and the officials.

However, the situation, which was controlled by the police, did not go down well with the AEPB officials, as they stormed the area the following morning with a government HILUX truck, loaded with armed security men.

They launched reprisal attack on the traders, who were not so lucky to hide their good before they were seized and burnt, while the helpless traders watched.

A policeman, who was said to have supervised the burning of the seized goods told Peoples Daily on the condition of anonymity that it was not a reprisal attack as alleged by some of the traders, saying that the exercise was carried out to serve as deterrence to the traders.

Mean while the security men have arrested more than 40 of the traders.

Damaturu.

Our correspondent reports that the late Shettima had served

in Maiduguri, from where he had sought redeployment due to the spate of violence rocking the city.

As fate would have it he met his death through the violence had tried to avoid.

R-L: Executive Secretary, Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCNC), Mr John Kennedy Opara, with Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta, during oversight function visit by the Committee to the commission's headquarters, in Abuja, recently.

Photo: Mahmus Isa

Oyo students on rampage over death of colleague From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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he students of Ajayi Crowther University (ACU) in Oyo state yesterday went on rampage as a result of the death of their members, Elvis Abu Paul, 22, who was said to have died in the institution’s health centre, where he was rushed to after taken ill.

The seven year old institution recorded its first taste of students’ violent protest, as some of the research materials and books owned by the institution’s lecturers were burnt by the irate students.

It was gathered by our correspondent that the students had in the past complained of the bad condition of the health centre, adding that the management had refused to improve the situation of the center.

Another sources told our correspondent that the deceased was not naturally ill, claiming that his systems were ruptured by excessive intake of alcohol which made all medications applied at the health center ineffective.

The rampaging students who threw caution to the wind immediately they learnt of the death of the 300 Level Computer

Science student, destroyed the health centre, part of the perimeter wall of the main-gate into the institution and burnt down the Accounting and Economics Department.

One of the victims, Olajide Ogunsola of Management Information System ((MIS), who wept like a baby while narrating his ordeals to our reporter, said he lost irretrievable books and research materials to the crisis.

However, the institution had been closed down indefinitely, with the main gate barricaded by a detachment of policemen from the Oyo division of the police command.

Separate us now to avoid bloodshed, couple tells court From Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, Abeokuta

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n Abeokuta Magistrate’s Court recorded a mild drama recently when a couple passionately and unanimously prayed the judge to dissolve their marriage, as they were fed up with each other.

The husband, Muraina Ismail, a 29-year old petrol attendant with Fatgbem Fuel Station had accused his wife of death threat, lack of discipline, destructiveness, stubbornness, failure to respect his parents and lack of morals among others, while the estranged wife, Basirat Muraina,

similarly accused her husband of lack of care and aggression.

Both the 22 year old Hair Dresser, and her husband, resident of 20 Ilugun Road, Abeokuta, clearly told the court that, to avoid calamity in the marriage, there was urgent need to put an end to the relationship.

The plaintiff, Muraina, had earlier dragged his wife to court but all efforts by the court to find possible solution to the crisis fell on the deaf ears, with the husband praying the court to further prevent the wife from harassing him in his place of work.

According to him, a

previous misbehaviour of his wife had caused him his job, but had to be re-admitted through the efforts and plea of his parents.

However, when the husband was asked by the court, how much he could afford monthly for the upkeep of the 9 month old baby which the relationship produced, he said he earns N7, 500 salary, and would be able to pay N2, 000.

In his ruling, Justice Israel Fajebe said to avoid conflict, the court has dissolved the marriage with immediate effect, ordering the plaintiff to monthly basis pay N2, 000 for the upkeep of the child.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Lagos braces up against flooding From Bimbo Ogunnaike, Lagos

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s the excavation and expansion of various water channels aimed at preventing heavy flooding continues, the Lagos state government has assured residents of completing most of the projects before the next rainy season, specifically in April, 2012.

The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, who gave the assurance, said that the worse hit Arigbanala Canal in Orile Agege local council development area, where the corpse of a new born baby and several vehicles were recovered

after being washed away by the heavy flood of July 10, 2011 rainfall, would be ready by April, 2012 among others.

The heavy rainfall in Lagos last year, left several people dead and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed in the process.

The commissioner who made the disclosure during an inspection tour, to access the level of work at various canal projects in the state, also warned on abuse of the environment by residents, saying, anyone caught henceforth would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Speaking with newsmen at the embankment of Arigbanala Canal,

Bello said the state government had given deadline to various contractors handling the upgrading and rehabilitation of water channels to get them completed before the next rainy season, which had been predicted to be very heavy according to forecast by meteorologists.

Work at the Arigbanla Canal project which serves as a major drainage route to Agege, Iju, Ipaja areas measuring 1450 metres long, bottom width 11 metres and depth 18, the commissioner said had reached 60 percent completion and would be ready within the next few weeks.

He explained that the Oko-

Oba- Arigbanla Canal was strategic, because of the major role it plays in the evacuation of heavy storm water during the rainy season, “I can assure you that when this project is completed, the perennial flooding problem in these areas will be a thing of the past. This is tax payers’ money at work.”

Bello, who frowned at the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in canals and other water channels, said the state government was poised to commence the restoration of environmental sanity to prevent offenders from eroding the gains of the last four years in the state.

Jigawa prisons to be reformed soon - Controller

Daughter of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and wife of Kebbi state governor, Mrs. Zainab Dakingari (middle), receiving an award for Exceptional Leadership to the Nation on behalf of her late father from Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mulikat Akande (left), during the Ahmadu Bello University Alumni Association, Abuja branch, Annual Lecture/Dinner and Awards Night in Abuja, on Sunday.

With them is her sister and wife of Bauchi state governor, Mrs. Nafisa Isa Yuguda (right). Photo: NAN

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

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40 amputees get free artificial limbs in Ogun From Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, Abeokuta

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orty-one amputees at the weekend became beneficiaries of artificial limbs, a project sponsored by Rotary Club 9110 Nigeria in partnership with the Ogun state government, estimated to cost US $70,000.

The ceremony which took place at State Hospital, Abeokuta, also involved the commissioning of the Artificial Limb Fitting, as well as presentation of certificates to health graduates of the Limb

Fitting course.

Peoples Daily further reports that the graduate trainees are expected to take over the manufacturing of the artificial limbs from their Ugandan Trainee, a Senior Orthopist Prothetist, Mr. Max Acamun for sustainability of the scheme.

Similarly, the commissioned factory which was established by Rotary Club was in collaboration with the Governor Ibikunle Amosun led-government.

Speaking at the inauguration of the artificial limb service, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr.

Olaokun Soyinka promised the Rotary club that the project would be sustained to keep the memory of the club’s humanitarian service alive.

Dr. Soyinka assured the donor that the State government would ensure a grand plan to expand the project towards meeting the aspirations of amputees who hitherto were travelling outside the country to procure them.

In her welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Hospitals Management Board, Dr. Oyin Sodipe, expressed delight in Rotary club International

partnership with the state government over the project disclosing that the state government had identified 50 people in need of the artificial limb, at the State Hospital in Abeokuta.

In his goodwill message, the District Governor 9110, Rotarian Kennedy Ejakpome urged the state government to make the artificial limb free of charge to the amputees, stressing that doing so would encourage many who are in need to show up thereby adding to the popularity and acceptability of the present administration in the state.

Gombe RTEAN expels 6, suspends 11 over traffic offences

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he Gombe state branch of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) between January and December expelled six drivers and suspended 11 others for various traffic offences.

The Secretary-General of the association, Malam Musa Gidado, said in Gombe that the disciplinary measures would ensure sanity among the more

He urged the residents to desist from patronizing cart pushers in disposing their refuse, stressing that government was committed to the provision of more functional drainage channels in the state, particularly in some flood prone areas in the state.

Bello said major environmental disasters are caused by indiscriminate disposal of refuse.

“You all pay cart pushers to dispose your refuse. We want you to dispose your wastes through private sector participants, that is the only way that will help you dispose your refuse properly", he said.

than 2,000 drivers in the association's employ.

Gidado told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that most of the drivers were sanctioned because of reports linking them with excessive speeding.

He said that they were also linked to other misdemeanours, which attracted between one week and three months suspension, depending on the nature of the

offence.

Gidado explained that some drivers and passengers had reported the offences of the erring drivers to the leadership of the association and that during investigation, they failed to defend themselves.

He said that to reduce accidents on the road, RTEAN printed and distributed stickers with phone numbers advising passengers to

report drivers that exceeded 100 kilometres per hour or behaved rudely to passengers.

The RTEAN boss said that the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) conducted enlightenment lecture for their members every week on the need to obey traffic rules.

The scribe said that the measures taken had reduced the rate of accidents involving their members.

ll the 10 prisons in Jigawa state will soon be renovated to comply with International standards, in the general overhaul of the Nigerian Prisons Services (NPS), recently started by the Federal Ministry of Interior.

The Prisons Services Controller for Jigawa state, Alhaji Muhammed Danladi Nata’ala who disclosed this to journalists in Dutse over the weekend, said that officials from the ministry will soon arrive the state to inspect the 10 prisons in the state and assess the situation of the prisons.

Alhaji Muhammed Nata’ala explained that the inspection team from the national headquarters of the prison services and ministry earlier scheduled to visit the state were stopped by the last nationwide strike.

The controller noted that the ten prisons in the state with different capacities has a total of 785 inmates including “those awaiting trials”.

According to him, Gumel and Hadejia are the biggest prisons with the capacity of 750 and 640 in the state while the (Garu) prison in the state capital has the capacity of only 50 inmates”.

He maintained that the Garu satellite prison is now congested with about 70 inmates, “though you know the number may easily vary with the days since some are being taken to court and may not come back”, adding that “either they may have a change of their prison by the court or be set free after payment of fines”.

Nata’ala further stated thus: “we have been given a plot of land by the state government for the construction of the Dutse central prison, so if that is constructed, will give the state capital a deserving prison”.

He added that the number of inmates in the state was impressive compared to other states and “that may not be unconnected with the low crime rates in the state".

“I was in Bauchi and Adamawa states where the inmates in the state capital are over 1500 and 2000 respectively”.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Constant military coups retard progress, says ex-minister From Nankpah Bwakan, Jos

F

ormer Minister of Avation, Chief Samuel Mafuyai has disclosed that constant military coups in Nigeria is responsible for the backwardness of the country, saying if the military had not disrupted the first and second republic governments, the country would have been developed beyond the present status.

Speaking at the first Plateau Day Celebration orgainsed by Plateau United in collaboration with NYNETHA held at Azi Nyako Youth Centre, Dadin Kowa, Chief Mafuyai regretted that after the military dethroned the Second Republic under which he served as minister, some of them were locked up in prison without committing any offence.

Chief Mafuyai said the Second Republic had beautiful ideas which would have perfectly tranformed Nigeria, if they were allowed to execute them.

The elder statesman advocated for stable democratic governments in the country in order to fast-track the process of development of the country arguing that democracy was the best system of government world over and was the reason why America is the most developped country in the world.

He commended former President Olusegun Obasanjo for peacefully handing over the mantle of leadership of the country to democratically elected President Shagari after after which there was an attempt to launch the third republic adding that the attempt failed because the military struck again.

According to him, President Goodluck Jonathan has commenced new progamme and projects aimed at tranforming the country and advised Nigerians, particularly youths to key into the programme to develop themselves.

PAGE 11

Escape of convicted actress: Prisons officer in trouble From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

A

prisons assistant of Hadejia prisons in Jigawa state, Malam Sunusi Garga is presently awaiting his fate over the role he allegedly played in setting free a popular Kannywood film actress, Rabi Ismail, from prison custody.

The accused, Garga, who was also on duty on the day of the escape, has already been dismissed from the Prisons Service after he was said to have played a major role in the escape

of Rabi who was awaiting death by hanging at the Hadejia central prison.

Garga may face years of jail sentence if found guilty.

In an interview with the Peoples Daily in Dutse, the state Controller of Prisons, Alhaji Mohammed Danladi Nata’ala confirmed the incident, stating that the Prisons command conducted a summary trial of Sunusi Garga and has already handed him over to the police after dismissing him from service.

Nata’ala said that other

accomplices including some of the escaped convict’s relatives are presently in police custody helping with investigations on the issue.

It would be recalled that Rabi Ismail was to die by hanging after she was convicted by a Kano High Court for the murder of her boyfriend in December 2002 and had appealed before the Supreme Court, which upheld the earlier rulings by two lower courts. The court found her guilty of using a sweet to drug and murder her boyfriend, Auwalu Ibrahim in

Edo Transport coy: Experts to probe N545m Union Bank debt From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

E

Staff of the National Blood Transfusion Centre, Kaduna, attending to blood donors as part of activities to mark this year's Maulud, at Hussainiya Bakiyatullah in Sabon Gari, Zaria, at the weekend.

HIV vaccine expected in five years, says institute

T

he Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN), has said that vaccine for treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS, may be available in the next five years.

The Executive Secretary of IHVN, Dr. Patrick Dakum, made the disclosure in Abuja when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum.

He said that the challenge in developing the vaccine was in the nature of the HIV virus.

According to him, the virus gets into the cell and changes the DNA and this means that new cells carry the virus, adding that attempts to destroy the virus cause the cell to selfdestruct.

“Vaccines are things we will continue to talk about; the scientific world is working very

December 2002.

Prosecution witness had confirmed that actress Rabi indeed drugged and drowned Auwalu at the Bagauda Lake Resort which led to his death for which she was sentenced to death by hanging in July 2011.

As the Kannywood former actress was awaiting the ultimate price, she was on January 1, 2012 found to have escaped from prison custody. According to a source, she is already in Dubai soliciting for political asylum in the country.

hard on that; I think it was only about two years ago that we had a vaccine that showed some promise and that is the vaccine that was anchored by the US military.

“And the trial was carried out in Thailand. That shows some percentage protection and that gave hope to the vaccine community that, yes indeed, a vaccine is possible.

“There are several groups that are working; the university that we have an affiliation with is working on some concept of a vaccine that probably may also show promise.

“If am to put a time into it, I think we probably may be able to say in another five years, we probably may be able to have a vaccine candidate that can go in.

According to him, if a vaccine candidate becomes available the

regulatory bodies must also be prepared to do their work.

He said that agencies like NAFDAC and the National Health Research and Ethics Committee of the Federal Ministry of Health as well NACA, must be ready to cooperate in ensuring a quick and efficient trial.

Dakum pointed out that prevention remained the antidote to solving Nigeria’s HIV problem.

He stated the institute had provided drugs for treatment, laboratory equipment and reagents so that the infected could get the drugs free.

“If these health measures are properly harnessed, Nigeria can mitigate the scourge of this disease”, he said, adding that “when people compare the amount of money, time and effort that is required for prevention, it is much less than what is required for

treatment”.

“We are major focused on ensuring that we scale up on treatment for HIV. We can’t treat our way out of the epidemic.

“It means then that without an active prevention; and prevention is each individual taking responsibility for their sexual behaviour.

“Unless each individual takes responsibility, we will continue to have cases and we will not be able to cope with the number”.

Dakum said the institute was working hard to have community structures that would address the issue of stigmatisation of those living with HIV and AIDS. The HIV prevalence rate in the country is 4.1 percent, while 8.8 million people are infected in a population of 167 million people, according to National Agency for the Control of AIDS. (NAN)

do state government has begun moves to employ financial experts to review over N545 million loan granted by Union Bank to assist the government to refurbish stateowned Edo Line Transport Company Limited few years ago.

The debt profile which has allegedly jumped to over N600 million inclusive of integrate, was reportedly appropriated to procure vehicles and spare parts across the country before the company was shut down in November 2010.

State Commissioner for Transport, Victor Enoghama who disclosed this in Benin City, while fielding questions from newsmen last week, said, “We are looking at Asset and liabilities, some of those liabilities have not been checked.

The so-called Union Bank loan, I have read all over again and what I have seen is not real.

“I’m looking at those creditors and suppliers to actually see if those things were supplied; So if those things were not supplied, you don’t expect the company or government to pay for it,” she said.

Following inability between workers and management to reach a common ground over intractable financial trouble which led to a bloodbath in the Company, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole shut down the company over 15 months ago.

Meanwhile, the ministry has begun fire safety awareness campaign at the various motor parks, markets and public places.

The theme of the enlightenment campaign was: “One I Better Pass My Neighbour, One Fire Extinguisher.”

Enoghama told our correspondent that the campaign is stemming from an average of 15 fire calls the state fire service receives in a month across the 18 local government areas in Edo. He also said, the state government will soon take delivery of additional fire service to complement the only one fire service located at the King Square.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 12

EDITORIAL

House subsidy probe must succeed this time round

O

ne of the gains of the week long protests, at the beginning of the year, over the removal of fuel subsidy, in addition to the fuel price reversal, was that it forced the federal government to commit to a holistic probe of operations in the downstream sector of the oil industry, including the subsidy regime. It bodes well for the country that the House of Representatives has taken the lead in this regard with its ongoing public hearings into the murky and, as is becoming known, dubious payments made to oil marketers who, in cohort with government officials, have been ripping off Nigerians.

As Nigerians expected, the hearings have turned out to be a melodrama, with senior government officials including ministers, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor and chief executives of the major and independent oil marketers reeling off figures that at once betray the confusion, corruption and utter lack of sincerity that has characterized the petroleum industry over the years. As the Chairman of the probe committee, Honourable Farouk Lawan, said, with the current confused state of affairs, Nigerians may not know exactly how much has so far been spent on subsidy by the federal government since 2011, adding that it may well be over N2 trillion, far above what was budgeted.

Shockingly, even government officials who should know better could not put an accurate figure on the money spent. While making their

submissions before the committee, three senior government officials - the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke and the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi - declared that N1.3 trillion, N1.4 trillion and N1.7 trillion respectively was paid in subsidy by the federal government last year.

Another shock was that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Petroleum Products Pricing

“

this probe must be seen to its logical conclusion and all those who have colluded to defraud the nation through dubious and outrageous claims in the name of subsidy should be made to face the full wrath of the law Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the petroleum ministry do not know the nation's exact refining capacity as evidenced in the 60%, 20%, 15% and 30% figures respectively declared by their officials. It does not seem also as if these government agencies know the nation's exact daily fuel consumption figure as shown by the

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35 million, 43 million, 24 million and 40 million litres declared by the NNPC, DPR, PPPRA and the finance minister respectively.

Clearly, all is not well in the nation's petroleum sector, which is the more reason why all Nigerians must rise in support of the work of the House committee. It has often been stated that corruption is the bane of the growth and development of the country. Therefore, this probe must be seen to its logical conclusion and all those who have colluded to defraud the nation through dubious and outrageous claims in the name of subsidy should be made to face the full wrath of the law.

We are aware that certain forces bent on thwarting the probe have begun putting pressure on members of the committee to abandon it. Our expectation is, however, buoyed by the resolve of the leadership of the House to continue with the public hearings.

There is no greater service to the nation than this probe of the oil industry which, hopefully, will expose the cartel that has been taking the rest of us for a long rough ride. This probe should not follow in the footsteps of others such as the ill-fated power probe that promised so much but delivered little a few years ago. We also call on labour, civil society groups, the media and all well meaning Nigerians to keep a close eye on the ongoing probe to ensure that it succeeds. The future of the next generation of Nigerians may well depend on the outcome.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 13

Taking Nigeria beyond 2030

By Danlami Wushishi

W

hen late Chief Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in 1960, he did that in the best interest of Nigerians without a feeling that come 2030 the country should part ways.

Similarly, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo boarded train from Lagos to Kano to campaign for Action Group in NPC & NEPU dominated city, he had the spirit of unity at heart irrespective of Ethnoreligious difference. When Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna of Sokoto chose to work with late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, it was for Religious tolerance. When Nnamdi Azikiwe agreed to serve as ceremonial Head of government, it was for peace and unity not to forget those that laid their lives during the Civil war so that the North and South will remain one.

None of these Nationalist had premonition that their sacrifice will be threatened in 2012 that the dominant regions will be shaken by exodus of some Nigerians following threats and call that they should either relocate or face the consequences. Infact, it was their conviction that later generations will consolidate on these sacrifice for a durable National unity.

Today, the corporate existence of the Country is being threatened even Scholars from United Stated of America are out with another shocker that Nigeria will become a failed state come 2030.

Initially, the country was said to be likely to disintegrate

by 2015, while the current prediction by a group of Scholars under the Auspices of Centre for Strategy and technology (CSAT) in United States is that Nigeria will become a failed state in 2030.

Positions I find stoutly disagree with, in view of the fact that my position has been a movement for a strong, united and Egalitarian Nigeria where milk and honey flow. I am a strong advocate of the view that the amalgamation of 1914 was not an accident; it was a divine arrangement that we should appreciate and live with. I also maintain that the first military coup and counter-coup that led to the civil war should be considered as incidences that should unite us as a nation. Because, after several loss of lives and properties, a truce was reached and since 1966 the country has remain a union of Ethnic groups and kingdoms, before the June 12 bitter pills and some ethnic feud across the country.

Nigeria, just like India has numerous ethnic groups with adherents of different Religions, yet they are living peacefully and carrying out numerous developmental strides. In Nigeria where issues are supposed to be treated amicably, it often takes a wrong direction thereby causing unnecessary apprehension. In the last couple of years, insurgence began to breed up as minor protests in some towns. For instance, a group of jobless Nigerians went to suburb in Damaturu in the Name of Nigerian Taliban, they were ignored. They are now said to have

metamorphosed into Boko Haram. What also started as roadside misunderstanding by a passerby in Jos has become a serious crises spanning over years, this has also escalated to other states thereby creating a crack in the polity and insecurity in the nation with spontaneous reprisal killings.

Nigeria is said to be a land of Religious people, with the likes of Late Sheikh Ja’afar Adam and Father Mathew Kukah. Both Islam and Christianity flourish with good understanding of the Religious ethics and the need to coexist.

Unfortunately, our country suffers sectarian crises from Kafanchan in 1987 to Jos, Kaduna, Zangon-Kataf and Kano.

In the process, lives and properties were lost; women become Widow and children become orphans.

From the South-South, Drum-beats are in high frenzy calling for Resource control or True Federalism.

Several groups have emerged in the bid to actualize this project.

Unfortunately, the off-shoot of this project is the emergence of militancy in the Niger Delta with scores of kidnaps and pipeline vandalisation. Just like some people are calling for Implementation of Shariah.

I appreciate the enormity of unemployment in Nigeria particularly in the Niger Delta where 13% of Revenue is being allocated to the region.

Yet basic amenities are grossly inadequate from Akure to Eket through Ughelli to Eket. This should not be a basis to call for separation. My fear for the intense call for Resource

control is that it’s likely to be later reduced to local Government and to specific oil producing communities despite being in the same state.

More so, the various “sons of the soil” who serves as Governors in the oil producing states owe their citizens convincing explanations on how the Derivation fund are expended, in addition to the allocation to OMPADEC and now NDDC. So, we must be careful in handling leadership problem in Nigeria. Today, Libyans live with post Ghaddafi era unrest.

On the demise of President Umar Musa Yar’adua on 5th May, 2010, a big question arose on the issue of Rotational presidency arrangement.

Some points were canvassed between the opponents and advocates of the arrangement.

At the end “party supremacy” prevailed and President Goodluck Jonathan emerged.

He contested for Presidency in 2011 unfortunately, some people were not happy with the outcome of the result declared

by INEC, a reason for the 2011 post election violence that crippled activities in the Northern Nigeria. Political instability is a serious problem that must be addressed. The Electoral Act 2010(as amended) needs to be reviewed so that the public will appreciate the difficulties faced by our courts and why certain matters have to be decided the way the public least expects.

Over the years, corruption has remained a serious cancer in Nigeria. It has exposed the Anti corruption Agencies to ridicule. Some political office holders face different charges

on misappropriation of public funds while in office, at the same time their successors are neck-deep into another round of fraud. All these jeopardize the future of Nigeria. Our Children becomes more impoverished despite being a rich country with a bleak future. The institutions to make life meaningful are in comatose. Today, fuel queues have returned at N120 per liter. Nigerians now go to Ghana for studies, what a twist of events? We shouted Ghana must go in 1983! In 2012, our siblings troop to Accra and Kumasi or Malaysia to obtain Certificates.

Let the truth be told, Nigeria is at a cross-road, our corporate existence has never been so threatened based on what we are passing through in the recent times. All these must have informed the pessimists to predict our failure as a State. Though we can still make amends, the situation in the country is not that bad.

It is illogical for a Nigerian to advocate for separation at a time a country like Sudan with similar trouble parted ways, yet crisis remain unabated. In Nigeria, we have a mixture of Muslims/Christians in all the six geo-political zones with a union of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and minorities all over the North and vice versa.

Despite this indebt integration, Nigeria is being predicted to become a failed state in 2030? The reason adduced for the likely collapse includes institutional corruption, criminality, sharp economic decline, group Continued on page 14

Subsidy: The President’s little black book

By Aonduna Toungu

I

t is tempting to say “We told you so” in reaction to the deafening chorus of protestations against Jonathan and the continuing melt-down of his PDP-led regime. But the situation is so tragic and the stakes so high that being smugly castigatory should be the least of our worries at this juncture.

Today, most Nigerians, irrespective of where they live, are complaining bitterly about how they are saddled with yet another visionless man and his under-achieving government.

There is wailing in the land.

There is weeping. And there is also gnashing of teeth, to borrow from Mr. President’s vast repertoire of biblical images. Yet, before this epiphany, wellintentioned citizens had gazed into their crystal balls, figuratively speaking, of course, and rendered the damning and incontrovertible verdict that Jonathan and his party were one and the same, meaning that

they are bad news any time of the day. Ahead of last year’s general elections, Jonathan and his henchmen produced the political equivalent of a rapist’s digest detailing how to brazenly rig the polls through an elaborate scam that targeted the judiciary, the INEC, the police and other strategic sectors of the economy by enlisting them as collaborators in a diabolical scheme to wreak havoc on the society. Aptly tagged “President Jonathan’s Rigging Manual”, the chillingly subversive “petit livre noir” has as ghost writer an acolyte who is said to have held a leading position in the Planning, Research and Strategy arm of the Goodluck Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization (2011).

Nigeria would probably have been a much safer and better nation now, one that is unencumbered by the mindless shenanigans of a clueless, profligate and increasingly repressive band of “uncle tomist” tin gods, had we avoided the insouciance that greeted the

revelation sometime last year regarding the existence of the sinister document.

It is unnerving that Nigerians keep making the same terrible mistakes while at the same time expecting wonderful outcomes.

Like sadomasochists, they keep tolerating the pain and suffering inflicted on them by their tormentors in positions of authority. For instance, the PDP mafia whose twelve-year reign of terror and misgovernance has all but ensured the ruin of the country keeps imposing one rogue regime after another.

Even when confronted with the stark evidence of the malevolent nature, not to mention the incorrigible mediocrity, of their oppressors, some prefer to stick their heads in the sand or go as far as trying to justify such failings.

For those who paid only fleeting attention to or even completely ignored the 2011 masterpiece by the current occupier of Aso Rock which bears the fit appellation of “President

Jonathan’s Rigging Manual”, the post-Fuel Subsidy Revolt period of what should normally be regarded as intense national soul-searching does provide a golden opportunity for the citizenry to more closely scrutinize its message.

One would be amazed as to how the grim wish list, a snapshot of the PDP’s politics of criminal impunity, is at once “prophetic” and perversely prescriptive in its morbid assumptions.

It is a settled fact that while the immediate focus of the antifuel subsidy removal agitation was the economy, its deeper meaning did find expression in decades of accumulated frustrations which have acquired greater fury and stridency on account of more than a decade of backward, depraved, election-rigging and reprobate PDP tyrannies. Not surprisingly, much of the clamor for greater transparency and accountability has targeted the key oil sector and government services in general.

And while there is popular indignation regarding corruption, both in the public and private sectors, relatively little is being said about arguably the worst form of that social ill, namely, election rigging and its far-reaching ramifications on the society.

Just consider this: Rigging deprives the people of the opportunity to freely elect those they deem fit and capable of efficiently running the affairs of their various communities and those of the nation as a whole.

We are today living witnesses to that fact.

That sobering reality notwithstanding, , can we now say that we are much wiser as some would have us believe in this post-fuel subsidy era and that we are henceforth determined to eschew the PDP’s trade mark whipping up of primordial emotions and other divisive antics?. Let me answer that by saying that any optimistic projections of a new Continued on page 14

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

The new IGP and National security

By Yakubu Dati

O

n January 25, Nigerians got what has been rightly described as a New Year gift with the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Dikko Abubakar as the new Inspector General of Police. He replaced Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, whose retirement had been touted since last year’s triple attacks on the Force Headquarters, UN building and a church in Madalla, near Abuja that killed a lot of people.

Since his appointment, there have been different views expressed about it, especially as there were Deputy InspectorsGeneral of Police, who were his senior and among whom one should have been picked as the IGP. They queried why an AIG was chosen far above his seniors; but Abubakar is the most senior of all the AIGs. Be that as it might be , it is now realized that the reason d’être of his appointment lies in the fact that a strong and effective police force leads to improved internal security of the country which would ultimately translate to protection of lives and property of the citizens. This is particularly central to the function of government, especially in the face of daunting security challenges as those posed by the dreaded Islamic Sect, Boko Haram. This informed the

appointment of Abubakar, given posted to Zone 6 comprising Cross gazette of the so called indictment. his precedents. A tough cop, his River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Moreover, government did not pedigree speaks volume.

Ebonyi states. take a definitive stand on the Abubakar joined the Nigeria His last station was AIG in indictment, making it appear Police Force as neither here Cadet Inspector on nor there.

August 1, 1979 Again it is and has risen argued that Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text justifiable after no police serving Nigeria commissioner messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written meritoriously in that had contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 many capacities. s e r v e d words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and An articulate Plateau after a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed policeman, Abubakar to: Abubakar has had left the served variously s t a t e The Editor, as Assistant u n sc a t he d , Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, Commissioner of making the 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja.

Police, State command a Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com C r i m i n a l case for I n ve st ig a t io n s special study.

SMS: 07037756364 Departement, F r o m Sokoto Police Innocent Command; Assistant charge of Zone 12 Bauchi State Ilozuoke, Joseph Apapa, Kevin Commissioner of Police, Federal before he was appointed the Okpoke, Richard Chime, Kayode Operations, Force Head Quarters, Inspector General of Police.

Ibironke, Samson Wuda, to Greg and Lagos; and, Assistant Perhaps Abubakar’s most Ayanting, none of them got much Commissioner of Police, Airport controversial posting was in accolade friom teir services in Police Command, Murtala Plateau in the hey days of the Plateau, not minding most of Mohammed International 2001 Plateau crisis. It has been them were sound minds in the Airport (MMIA), Lagos. the argument that Abubakar force.

He has also served as Police was indicted by the Justice Niki Perchance Abubakar was Commissioner in Plateau, Kwara, Tobe Commission of Inquiry, chosen for his pedigree in crime Abia, Kano, Airport and Lagos which was set up by the State fighting. It was said that his State Police Commands. He was Government. The panel was said tenure in Kwara state was later promoted as an Assistant to have found Abubakar culpable remarkable because one could Inspector General of Police and in the crisis. leave his car open and come back served in Zone 2 comprising But when the argument is to meet the inside as he left it. It is Lagos and Ogun States. He was carried further many analyst are also a fact that no ordinary CP also the AIG Zone 5, Benin wont to fault the supposed was posted to Lagos because of its comprising of Edo, Delta, and indictment, especially as there volatility, Abubakar served in Bayelsa states. He was later was no official government Lagos where he had a

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distinguished career as the commissioner of police.

Apart from his postings in his career, Abubakar has also undergone many courses. He at various times attended the Intermediate Command Course and Senior Command Course at the Police Staff College. He also attended over seas courses such as the General Detective Course – Metropolitan Police, West Hendon, England; General Security Course – Israel; General Security Course – FBI, USA; International Security – England; and the General Detective Course – Scotland Yard With this pedigree, the question is; can he make the difference? Or will he be more of the same? Can he prove to be that tough cop and how can he bring that to bear on his present assignment. It is no doubt what is needed to get Nigeria out of the present security mess is a no nonsense cop, who really knows his onions.

As a cop with a keen eye for details, Abubakar appear wellsuited for the job more so as he has been in operational duties up the ladder to his present position.

There is no doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan’s choice of IGP can deliver the goods and keep Nigeria safe from both internal and external attacks.

Yakubu Dati can be reached on yaksdati2004@yahoo.co.uk

Subsidy: The President’s little black book Continued from page 13

dawn must be tempered by the understanding that the auguries are not particularly good at this point in time.

It is significant to note that the peculiar nature or specificity of the anti-fuel subsidy withdrawal struggle was mainly responsible for its limited success. Over the years, Labour’s advocacy, at least judging from its street manifestations, has largely been reduced to haggling over fuel prices and the salaries of civil servants.

Throughout the PDP’s reign of undemocratic impositions

and gross human rights abuses, the leadership of the NLC, for instance, has mainly been treacherous and pro-regime right from the days Oshiomhole led the outfit. Pro-democracy and human rights organizations have generally fared better in dealing with broader problems of leadership failure and maladministration even though many of the representatives of these groups have also tended to be hypocritical and deferent toward their friends within the PDP in particular.

More than a week after the abandonment of the fuel subsidy protests by the putative

leadership of the labour movement, Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, was asked by an Abuja newspaper if he agreed with the contention that the labour bosses had demonstrated a lack of integrity by being truant, he replied that they displayed a sense of integrity in their negotiation with the federal government.

Curiously though, Mr. Falana admitted implicitly that the labour leaders had succumbed to blackmail and other divisive tactics by the Jonathan regime, two of which were the big lie that some politicians sponsored the protests and that such protests were an invitation for

Taking Nigeria beyond 2030 Continued from page 13

grievances, institutional discrimination, and the emigration of the intelligentsia amongst others. All these are result of long term research conducted in Nigeria. But to my mind, events have taken another dimension despite Boko Haram fierce onslaught and the exaggeration by a section of the press that the North is against the South or Hausa are against Igbo. Calls have been made to make a truce with the sect. An option I equally endorsed.

During the Subsidy

Removal protest last month, it was reported that adherents of Islam and Christianity shielded each other at prayer times at various Occupy Nigeria centers, visits were carried out to Mosques and Churches to reassure one another of social integration, pleas were being made for calm over speculated reprisal attacks, Nigerians spoke with one voice to overwhelming condemn the fuel pump price like, we all groan on how the nation is being milked, youths being the leaders of tomorrow are extending their lands of

fellowship across states with the aid of social Networks. All these are positive indicators that the youths are poised to moving Nigeria beyond 2030 as one indivisible nation. As such we must ignore calls by self serving group of Individuals, and imbibe the spirit of unity as enshrined by our Ancestors.

We must collectively condemn the injustice, corrupt practices, and discrimination.

So that come 2030 Nigerian shall be the pride of all!

Danlami Wushishi can be reached on danwushishi@yahoo.com

the military to take power.

Now, why would individuals or groups who have not been compromised and have no favorable disposition toward such inane and divisive ploys succumb to them in the first place? Of course, the labour leadership has been both spineless and dishonourable.

But what should be more worrisome is the sad reality that over the years and especially during the reckless Obasanjo despotism (19992007), the easy resort to the whipping up of religious, tribal and sectional emotions for cheap political gain by successive PDP dictatorships has become standard practice, so to speak. Under the bumbling Jonathan tyranny, sowing the seeds of division and ethnoreligious schisms has become an article of faith.

Very scary indeed! Also very unpresidential.

Although Jonathan and his errand boys have apparently failed this time in their malicious bid to either “tribalize”/”sectionalize” or make the anti-fuel subsidy removal protests a religious matter, Labour’s history of betrayal as well as the legendary duplicity of some key representatives of the organized civil society – soi-disant prodemocracy-cum human rights advocates – should serve as a cautionary note. The January protests would be considered as

having truly made a longlasting impact only if at the end of the day the masses are sufficiently sensitized as to their civic responsibility of always insisting on free, fair and transparent polls, even if that would mean heading for the barricades to ensure that justice is done. In the meantime, the challenge is for us to build on the momentum of the spontaneous rainbow coalition that formed in the various cities of the nation as well as in the Diaspora early this year and which bears the potent slogan “enough is enough”.

As a people, Nigerians tend to be inflicted with a very short memory, a short attention span, if you prefer to call it so.

Moreover, they have the unfortunate habit of trying to justify evil through the use of all sorts of irrational arguments or alibis. There is the joke that when an average Nigerian citizen is pushed to the wall, instead of fighting back, he tries to seek the assistance of others so as to dig a hole in that wall in order to escape. When we see evil, we often pretend that it is not there. And when we recognise that the evil is there, when it suits us, we say it’s no big deal. We may even go as far as trying to highlight its “attributes”!

Aonduna Toungu resides in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 15

Getting to know the President better He has honour if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so. – Walter Lippman If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

– Barack Obama radually, the president’s real character is emerging and it is not a flattering one. It is one that betrays him as a sly fellow who would do or say anything just to have his way.

Nigerians must, as a matter of urgency, brace themselves for more shocks and the attendant disappointments until the end of his tenure, hopefully in 2015. Perhaps it is in realization of this that some Nigerians who can not wait to see the back of this president famous for his shoeless campaign mantra have begun the countdown to his possible exit.

Leaders that have made a success of their tenures the world over are those who have endeavored to gain the trust of their people and dedicated themselves to keeping that invaluable commodity. Some notable leaders who did not fare well in that regard in the not too distant past include George W. Bush and Tony Blair of the United States and United Kingdom respectively who led a coalition of war mongers into a phantom chase for so called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As a consequence, the two left office with

G

By Aminu Mohammed

T

he elections are back, so are the campaigns. As usual, Nigerian politicians election time as a period for testing their popularity or acceptability and in doing so, it does not matter whether the canvassing for votes is done according to the rules of the game.

The recent Supreme Court judgement that sacked the former governors of Sokoto, Kogi, Adamawa, Bayelsa and Cross River states has opened a can of worms in Sokoto state, particularly in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Although the internal acrimony against the Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko administration began on the day it took office, recent utterances by some spent PDP forces in the state have further exposed the deep seated hatred against the Wamakko administration whose lifespan was terminated on January 27, 2012, exactly four years and eight months after it came on board. The extra eight months was as a result of court orders which elongated the tenure of the affected five governors.

Contrary to the general belief that the PDP would stand by Wamakko to ensure another landslide victory for the party, the so called old PDP members thought the time had come to finally nail Wamakko, having tried since 2007 to unseat him and failed in all their attempts. In fact, the leader of the “old PDP camp” in Sokoto, Ladan Shuni headed the Wamakko campaign team in 2008 for the April re-run election after the Court of Appeal in Kaduna nullified the

their reputations in shreds. arrangement of his party, the President Jonathan seems well Peoples Democratic Party {PDP}, on his way to joining that inglorious whose constitution he trampled league as demonstrated by his upon on his way to becoming ingenious moves which leave even president in spite of the fact that he the barely literate in no doubt that was a signatory to its agreement on this man has taken too much for zoning. If he was a respecter of granted and sees Nigerians as agreements, he probably would gullible people who have have been nestling in his county permanently been stricken by a home in Otuoke instead of Aso Rock bout of amnesia. It must be said that Villa. the president is blessed with a miem This is all in the past as I am that presents him as an innocent certain his supporters would argue. who is not wise in the ways of the Let us grant them that, after all, world. It was this demeanor that he sold to many sympathizers who fought hard to with make him acting president during those trying times when the late azizab40@yahoo.com President Umaru 0805 100 0558 Musa Yar’adua was sick in Saudi Arabia. But having known what what has happened has happened. many of us didn’t, the so called cabal But as sure as we all are that a dared to stop him. It has now leopard cannot change its spots no become apparent that despite his matter how hard it tries, the real pretentions, he was keen and a Jonathan was on show again, even touch desperate to seize power from if by sleight of hand. Just last week, his bed ridden boss. he attempted and woefully failed to Having comfortably settled in grab the chairmanship of the office, Nigerians were soon to realize African Union {AU}. Jonathan that this man is not one to whom attempted a coup de grace of sorts agreements mean much. As far as against his Beninois counterpart, he is concerned, they are just a Yayi Boni, by lobbying ECOWAS necessary inconvenience with leaders to transfer their support to which to get what one wants. Once him. He was forced to back down the pendulum swings in one’s when it became clear that they were favour, then to hell with resolute in their support for Boni. agreements. That was his exact What is poignant about the disposition to the zoning president’s action was that, as he

TUESDAY

Abdulazeez Abdullahi

did during the zoning controversy, he attempted to violate an agreement by the ECOWAS leaders who had, at a mini summit here in Abuja, unanimously agreed to back Boni’s bid. The president and his handlers may not know it but this singular action has completely demeaned not only his person and his office but ridiculed Nigeria as a whole.

It may well be that his attempt for the AU chair was to try to checkmate South Africa’s growing influence in the continent. What he however failed to realize is that his fellow African leaders are not as gullible as Nigerians back home who he has taken for granted. South Africa is generally perceived - and rightly too – as a country that has got its priorities right and is seen to be more serious at actualizing them.

It has positioned itself well to provide leadership for the continent in deepening democratic values and good governance. African leaders will also not forget in a hurry Jonathan’s ill-advised hasty endorsement of the Libyan rebels in the run up to Gaddhafi’s fall even before the AU took a stand.

The president has also got himself in a mess back in his home state, Bayelsa, over the choice of the PDP candidate in the coming gubernatorial elections. When he was desperately seeking support for his presidential bid last year, he

was full of accolades for then Governor Timipre Sylva who went on to deliver Bayelsa for the president. But since that goal has now been achieved, the president said Sylva did not perform hence his decision to dump him. If we may ask; did all the PDP governors he backed performed well enough to deserve re-election? Or what other criteria did he use to determine his support for them? Did he not promise to back them all in return for their supporting his bid?

Nigerian workers who always get the short end of the stick in any agreement with government are now left to rue their misfortune as many of them have still not received their January salaries which the president promised will be paid by the 20th of that month. He made this promise in desperation to gain support for the removal of fuel subsidy. Now that that dust has settled – albeit temporarily - that pledge seems to have been forgotten, with that also are the many other palliatives he promised.

The president needs to realize that trust is the glue that binds him to Nigerians and one sure way to strengthen that bond is if he is acknowledged by all as one who is trustworthy. He can not go on violating agreement after agreement and expect that he will gain the trust and confidence of Nigerians. In the opinion of many, any one who violates agreements at will especially for personal gain is devoid of honour and the greatest tragedy to befall a leader is when he loses it.

Wamakko: Why always him?

2007 governorship election results in Sokoto. The “rebel leader” was appointed Wamakko’s DirectorGeneral for the re-run campaign and as soon as Wamakko was reelected, Ladan Shuni benefitted greatly from mouth watering contracts. In fact, he still has some unfinished contracts that need the attention of the EFCC. At least there is a law against “failed contracts” and Ladan Shuni should be called to explain why he collected millions of naira belonging to the state and abandoned the contracts others were denied to please him.

The problem with the imaginary “old PDP members” is that they consider Wamakko an outsider who came into the party from the ANPP in early 2007. Well, as far as politics especially Nigerian politics is concerned, the bottom line is winning election at all cost and that was what pushed the Obasanjo led PDP in 2006 to court Wamakko who was the political beautiful bride in Sokoto and who is still the dominant factor in Sokoto politics.

The political feud between former governor of the state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa who claims to have groomed Wamakko to become a polished politician and he, Wamakko has been over flogged on the pages of newspapers but it is imperative for one to make it a reference point for the proper understanding of contemporary Sokoto politics.

In 1999, Bafarawa had no choice but to woo Wamakko away from the

civil service into active politics because the civil service plays a vital role in determining who wins elections in the state. The Bafarawa/ Wamakko All Peoples Party (APP) now All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) ticket was very intimidating and the Wamakko factor swept the state for the APP but shortly after they were sworn in, fifth columnists made that political marriage unworkable.

However, Wamakko remained loyal to Bafarawa for seven years before they finally parted ways.

That feud with Bafarawa made Wamakko stronger and he kept on with the struggle and took away the party from Bafarawa. As the ANPP governorship flag bearer and the man of the moment in Sokoto, he was poised to lead the ANPP to another victory when the PDP came calling with federal might and gave him the ticket to contest with its flag.

He contested and won but the opposition Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) under Bafarawa went to court challenging Wamakko’s entry into the PDP which the party claimed fell short of the expected requirement.

That election was annulled and Wamakko again won in the re-run.

For four years, the plot by the socalled old PDP and the opposition DPP raged until the Supreme Court finally put a stop to the drama which sent the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami out of office. Having scaled all these political hurdles, internally and externally, Wamakko thought his

distracters would take a breather but they kept on plotting and when the PDP announced that it has cancelled the governorship primaries conducted in Sokoto, Kogi, Adamawa, Bayelsa and Cross River and that fresh primaries were to be conducted, the “old PDP spent forces in Sokoto thought another chance has come their way to deny Wamakko what god has planned for him, political fame. They were wrong for they did everything within their powers to scuttle his ambition but failed.

Once again, with the pains and frustrations of the December 17, 2011 primaries over, the opposition still kept plotting and the final battle began on January 27, 2012 when the Supreme Court asked the “famous five governors” to step aside. The Ladan Shuni-led team of frustrated old PDP members came out in full force flashing propaganda stories that Wamakko has been arrested by the EFCC and he would not contest the forth coming elections. The planted story was in every newspaper that EFCC would probe Wamakko, EFCC has arrested Wamakko, Wamakko has run away, Wamakko this and Wamakko that but 24 hours after they were silenced for good because INEC stated that Wamakko is the Sokoto PDP candidate and the PDP also said there would be no change of candidates and the final nine inch nail that finished them was the February 18, 2012 date INEC fixed for the election in Sokoto.

Furthermore, while they were busy spreading false information that Wamakko was in the custody of the EFCC, he appeared in Sokoto on the very day all the newspapers reported that he has been arrested.

The crowd that received him at the airport and escorted him home could only be compared with the crowd at the funeral of late Iranian Spiritual leader Khomeni. With Wamakko’s re-election back to office only few days away, the opposition has no option than to accept the will of God that He gives power to whom He wishes and when He wishes. It is Wamakko’s time to dominate the political scene in Sokoto and any attempt to stop him will fail just as several attempts have failed. Opposing Wamakko in this political dispensation is opposing God’s will because his rise to stardom is an act of will.

Therefore, if you are one of those asking why always him, you may not get an answer for some time. The man, Wamakko, is destined to rule and there is no human amour that can stop him. The armoury of Bafarawa, Gada, Yusuf Suleiman and their co-travellers are mere armouries that cannot stop the arrow of God from striking.

Wamakko is an arrow of God and will keep on striking until such a time God stipulated by the Almighty. As late Yar’adua once said, “Alu Ikon Allah ne” and so shall it be.

Aminu Mohammed is a Sokoto-based journalist.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Area councils to get N2bn annually after deregulation

By Josephine Ella

T

he six area councils which comprises of Bwari, Kuje, Gwagwalada, Abaji, Kwali and AMAC Area council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will earn over N2billion annually from funds accruable from deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Ali Gulak said this at the North central town hall meeting in Abuja on the advocacy for deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil Industry.

He said because the Federal Government was determined to ensure the success of the programme it has requested the states and local government to develop their own component of the programme.

He said that this was important because in spite of the autonomy of the three tiers of government each must be responsible to the people emphasizing that specific designed programmes would be needed to access their respective funds of the excess cash.

Gulak who was represented by the former Deputy Governor of Niger State, Dr. Shem Zagbayi maintained that the document provides specific projects which the government has promised to execute.

He tasked Nigerians to hold the government on these projects which are going to make life easier for the population.

He said the concern of the public over the management of free resources expected from the

partial removal subsidy which would be managed by the special committee to be headed by Christopher Kolade and supported by the likes so General Mamman Tsohon-Kotongora would not disappoint Nigerians.

According to him when these projects like the new refineries come in; and the agricultural sector are expanded under the SURE document massive employment opportunity will be made available to the people to explore.

The guest speaker, Ahmed Adamu, a lecturer in the department of economics at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina said both the government and the people needed to reach a point of compromise on confidence building.

According to him the Nigerian government must display honesty in all its dealing with the people especially at this critical stage of seeking to implement the Subsidy Re-investment and

Empowerment Programme so as to win confidence of the people and enjoy her support.

He maintained that the critical position of the public should serve as an impetus to make the government deliver on their promises but called on the show some level of patience and supports the programme for success, adding that with time assessment of the progress would enable the public make informed opinion on the direction of the government.

A

An accident scene which involved an okada rider and his passenger, at Karu Bridge in Abuja, recently.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

trespass and two weeks for mischief, adding that the sentences would run concurrently.

He, however, gave the convict an option of N3, 100 fine.

The Police Prosecutor, Cpl. Paul Anigbo, told the court that on Nov. 20, 2011, Tina Akelere

of BB3A Redwood Close, Sunnyvale Estate, Abuja, reported the matter to the police.

Anigbo said that the accused went into Akelere’s boys’ quarters and stole her LG television set valued at N14, 000, but was caught on the spot with the TV. The prosecutor said that the

offence was contrary to Sections 348 and 327 of the Penal Code.

The accused, who pleaded guilty, begged the court to have mercy on him.

In his judgment, Abdullahi said that Manna’s sentence would serve as a lesson to him and a warning to others alike. (NAN)

FCTA to get alternative fund for its project, says Minister

By Rukaiya Mohammed

T

he Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has stated that henceforth, the FCT Administration will find ways of alternative finance for the infrastructural development of Abuja to complement the efforts of the Federal Government.

In a press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Muhammad Hazat Sule, maintained that the FCT Minister dropped this hint, while receiving the Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that

Kuyizhi community tasks Kuje chair on amenities

R

Security man jailed for trespass, mischief security man, Stephen Manan, 25 was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment by an Abuja Senior Magistrate’s Court for trespass and mischief Senior Magistrate Aminu Abdullahi said that the convict of CBN quarters, Apo, Abuja would serve one month for

Dear reader, Metro welcomes human interest stories in your neighbourhood. Please call or send SMS to 08065327178 or e-mail jomarch4@yahoo.com to inform us about happenings in your area. Share your experiences or those of your friends and neighbours with fellow readers.

paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Area 11, Garki I District, Abuja.

The Minister reiterated that alternative means of financing its projects will go a long way in fast tracking the development of the Federal Capital Territory, thereby leaving a lasting legacy for the generation yet unborn.

His words: “ The FCT Administration will go into getting alternative finance for its projects and certainly not relying solely on the ever decreasing budgetary allocation of the government”.

Senator Mohammed asked the Central Bank Governor to assist the Administration with financial due

diligence of some of its Public-PrivatePartnership projects to strengthen the initiative.

According to him, financial due diligence by the Central Bank will be better done professional, considering the experience, expertise and antecedent of the Central Bank as well as the Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the financial industry.

While appreciating the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the FCT Administration’s giant strides in the recent past, he lauded the personal efforts of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the establishment of the six Micro-Finance Bank in the

six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory.

Speaking earlier, the Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi called for development of capital market in the country and urged government agencies to expand their frontiers by taking advantage and utilizing the over N2.6 Trillion Pension Fund left unused.

Mallam Sanusi emphasized that such unused huge fund can be loaned out at commercial rate; thereby, deepening the capital market to serve as alternative finance, while the Federal Government guarantees such loan.

esidents of Kuyizhi Community in the Kuje Area Council of the FCT have pleaded with the Chairman of the council, Hon Danladi Estu Zhin to provide necessary amenities in the area.

The residents, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Kuje, said that they needed good roads, health centres, potable water among others.

Mr. Tanko Ayuba, a community leader, decried the poor state of roads, lack of electricity and good source of drinking water in the com Mr Musa Iya, munity.

A health worker, Mr. Musa Iya expressed concern over the state of maternal healthcare in the community.

“This community needs a primary healthcare centre or general hospital to cater for nursing mothers and provide ante-natal care and immunisation services.’’

Iya said the community needed not just for a health centre but a health centre with resident medical personnel and staff quarters.

Similarly, Dr Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director, Africa Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, expressed concern over the poor health facilities in the area..

He said that his organisation had contributed its quota in the health care sector, as it had sensitised and trained the community members on personal hygiene, sanitation and the need to stop defecating in the open.

Igbuzor stressed that people of the area needed water, road, hospital, junior secondary school and electricity.

On his part, Mr. Ayuba Shaba, the Supervisory Councilor for Health and Environment in the council, told NAN that the council was doing its best to meet the needs of the communities.

“Settling villages in Kuje are up to 300, the council has done a lot to provide amenities with the meagre federal allocation.”

He solicited assistance from private partners, nongovernmental organisations and donor agencies in the development of the communities.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 17

Abuja house rent terrifying for its residents FEATURE ByAdeola Tukuru

A

befitting accommodation for low income earners, civil servants and artisans which constitute the focus of the working population in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has become a daily nightmare, as resident says it is difficult getting an affordable house for rent.

Peoples Daily finding shows that a standard two-bedroom apartment within the exclusive areas such as Maitama, and Asokoro cost between N1.5m and N2m per year, depending on the level of facilities available.

For places such as Wuse, Jabi, and Garki, a threebedroom apartment also costs between N2.5m and N3m per annum, with landlords sometimes insisting on payment of two years’ rent.

The situation is not different in Gwarimpa Estate, as one bedroom self-contained which can only comfortably housed one or two people, also hovers between N400, 000 and 500,000 depending on its proximity to the city centre.

Even in the recent time, the satellite towns where low income earners used to find refuge have also cut the high rent bug. Thus, whether in Kubwa, Lugbe, Nyanyan, Mpampe and Mararaba, it is the usual tales of lamentation occasioned by high cost of rent.

In Kubwa, a suburb along the Suleja express road, reveal that rental value for a twobedroom apartment goes for N450, 000/ N500, 000 per annum, as a one bedroom flat goes for the rate.

Lamenting the rent situation in the capital city, Mr. Segun Oladehinde a civil servant who was transferred to Abuja in 2008 said that he was living in a 3-bedroom apartment before the transfer and that he would have loved to maintain such in Abuja be caus e o f th e si ze of h is fa mily.

Ho weve r, he expl ain ed th at he was jol ted up on fi ndin g o ut t hat he would need between N2m to N3m to secure the accommodation of hi s c hoi ce with in Abuja metropolis. He said that since he could not afford the cost, he ha d to s ecure an ac com moda tio n i n Sulej a, Ni ger sta te f rom wh ere he goes to work in Abuja city on a daily basis.

An Ab uja bas ed bus ine ss man Mr.Henry Udora, linked th e ever incr eas ing house rent in the FCT to the natural forces of demand and supply.

A three story building located at Utako, Abuja.

He exp lai ned whe n t he number of people looking for ac com mod atio n o utweig hs the available house, the rent automatically shot up.

He said, “A lot of factors are responsible for the increase in house rent in the FCT. You look at the natural law of demand an d s uppl y. In thi s re gar d, take the particular note of the influx of people into the city in the recent time. Apart from th is, governm ent do es n ot se em to att ach much im por tanc e to t he implementation of the various ho usi ng poli cie s i n t he co untr y.”

Be side s, he ex plai ned tha t th e c ost of buying la nd a s well as processing it in Abuja also has far-reaching impact on house rent, stressing that property owners usually spread the cost on tenants.

“There is a nexus between the exorbitant cost of land in Ab uja and the cr azy house rent. For instance, if you buy a plot la nd o f ab out 1,0 00 sq uare me tre s be twe en N2 50m and N300m in highbrow places like Asokoro an d Ma ita ma and oth er choice areas, and you add the co st o f p utti ng up t he structure which entails cost of ge tti ng a ppr ova l, p ayi ng gr ound re nt and oth er incremental charges, the cost will be transferred ultimately to the people that will use the property,” he said.

Mr Udora also faulted the mo neti sat ion poli cy of t he Fe dera l g over nme nt whic h, he said enabled civil servants to buy off government owned pr ope rty in whi ch the live.

The policy was introduced by the regime of Chief Olusegun

Photo: Mahmud Isa

FCT Minister, Sen. Bala mohammed Obasanjo. According to him, wh ile exi stin g f eder al go ver nmen t p rop erty we re sold to their occupiers, there was no succession plans for the ne w c ivil se rva nts tha t a re be ing emp loye d. He said ,” There is a salary structure for di ffer ent cad res of civil se rva nts, but t he monetisation policy does not consider the multiplier effects on the new generation of civil servants being engaged by the federal government. This also co ntr ibutes in no sma ll measure to the existi ng gulf between the housing need of

the people and the available houses.”

On the issue of exorbitant rent being charge by landlords in Abuja, the minister of the Fe dera l C apit al Ter rito ry (F CT) , S ena tor Ba la Mo ham med sai d h is ad min istr ati on will so on present a bill on the issue to the National Assembly for its deliberations.

The FCTA administration will bequeath a legacy which will make Abuja a functional ci ty wit h mo st req uir ed facilities required available.

He explained that the legacy

which is for Mr. President and himself will involve making Abuja a city where things work and a place where all Nigerians will be proud to call it their capital city.

Also responding to another sensitive issue the FCTA administration is determined to pr ovi de t he req uir ed cri tica l in fras truc ture whi ch is needed for the accelerated socio-economic and political de velo pme nt o f A buj a. T he mi nist er ass ured th at in h is ad mini str ati on, he is commi tted to p rovide a very go od and rel iab le tran sportation system for Abuja resident and that this would soon take off as planned by the government and his administration will soon try to collect more taxes.

He said the financial disposition of the Federal Capital T err ito ry Administration (FCTA) makes it nec ess ary to evol ve st rate gic re venue c oll ecti on me thod in or der to co ntin ual ly boos t i nte rnal ly ge nera ted revenue f or t he FCT. The minister said in order to meet with demands brought about by project execution and in order to supplement whatever is being received from the Federal Government, there was need for a sound revenue generating system to be put in place so as to boost the FCT Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) since Abuja is also regarded as a state. It is a well known fact that the FCTA needs a lot of funds to provide and maintain cr itic al in fras truc tur al f aci liti es f or th e be nef it o f t he F CT residents.

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 19

INSIDE amunuimam@yahoo.co.uk 08033644990

Management Tip of the Day

- Pg 20

One billion people have no access to electricity

Microfinance banks urge customers to comply with CBN’s cashless policy T he National Association of Microfinance Bank (NAMB)

yesterday advised customers of microfinance banks to comply with the directives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on cashless policy.

A member of the National Excutive Council (NEC) of NAMB, Mr. Olufemi Babajide made the call in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos.

Babajide said that microfinance banks’ customers were not exempted from charges on withdrawals in

excess of the stipulated amount in CBN cashless policy.

Babajide, who is also the chairman of NAMB, Lagos Chapter, said that the microfinance banks applauded the policy and that they would contribute to its success.

He explained that the only exemptions for microfinance banks is that they would not pay any processing charges when making withdrawals in excess of N1 million from their correspondence banks.

“This is as a result of the fact that we disburse and collect cash

from our customers.

However, the policy on cashless economy, as spelt out by the CBN, will be applied to microfinance banking customers.

“That is, they will pay cash

processing charges, if they deposit or make withdrawals in excess of N150,000 for individuals and N1 million for corporate bodies,” Babajide said.

He, however, noted that other

payment options such as mobile payments, use of cheque books, credit cards, and fund transfers, were being embraced by microfinance banking customers.

(NAN)

Nigeria attracts enterprising Indians despite terror

W

ith major Indian interests in Nigeria in the areas of trade and investment, the country’s huge economic potential continues to be a big draw for Indians despite recent terror attacks, one of which killed 160 people, including an Indian, last month.

Coordinated attacks carried out

Flight schedule AIR NIGERIA (MONDAY - SUNDAY) LOS-ABJ: 07.15, 11.40, 14.00, 16.30, 17.00, 17.20, 18.30.

ABJ-LOS : 07.00, 09.30, 10.30, 11.15, 16.15, 19.15, 19.35 ABJ-KANO: 18.40 KANO-ABJ: 08.35 ABJ-S OK (MON): 09.35 ABJ-S OK (FRI): 10.10 ABJ-S OK (WED /SUN): 11.20 SOK-ABJ (MON): 11.35 SOK-ABJ (FRI): 12.00 SOK-ABJ (WED /SUN): 13.20

AEROCONTRACTORS (MON - SUN) LOS-ABJ: 06.50, 13.30, 19.45 LOS -ABJ (SUN): 12.30 LOS -ABJ (SAT ): 16.45 ABU-L OS: 07.30, 13.00, 14.00, 19.00 ABU -L OS (SUN): 10.30, 14.30, 19.30 ABU -LOS (SAT ): 18.30

DANA AIRLINES (MON - SUN) LOS-ABJ: 07.02, 08.10, 12.06, 15.30, 17.10 ABJ-L OS: 07.20, 09.36, 13.05, 14.40 ABJ-LOS (SAT /SUN): 13.05, 18.00 LOS -KANO: 08.10 KANO-L OS: 11.25 KANO-ABUJA: 11.25 ABUJA-KANO: 10.08

IRS AIRLINES

by the Boko Haram sect, known to have ties with Al Qaeda, targeted the security forces Jan 20 in Kano city. Kevalkumar Kalidas Rajput, 23, who hailed from Gujarat and had been working for Kano-based company M/s Relchem since March 2011, was killed.

Many people across the northern part of the country are known to have been killed or maimed in their bomb attacks.

These incidents would not deter others because “with an annual bilateral trade in excess of $13 billion, India continued to be Nigeria’s second largest trading partner”, Indian High Commissioner in Abuja Mahesh Sachdev said in a recent speech.

“We were the largest investorcountry in Nigeria in 2010 and major new Indian investments were announced in 2011. India’s Airtel alone is amidst a $600 million network expansion plan in Nigeria,” Sachdev added.

It is not only Indians who are visiting Nigeria. Figures show that “nearly 33,000 Nigerians got Indian visas during 2011 - up 40 percent on 2010”, he said, adding: “...India has become a destination of choice for Nigerians seeking state-of-the-art healthcare combining quality with affordability”.

With a population of 158 million and considerable revenue from oil exports, Nigeria is the largest trading partner of India in Africa.

Bloomberg EXCHANGE RATES

CBN CFA € £ RIYAL $

LOS-ABJ: 9.45, 11.45, 2.45

LOS-KANO: 6.15 LOS-KANO (S AT /SUN): 16.30 KANO-L OS: 07.30 KANO-LOS (S UN /SUN): 10.30

€ £ RIYAL $

Airtel, CVL partnership on Leadership and Performance lecture holds today From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

L

eading telecoms operator, Airtel Nigeria has partnered with the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), an arm of the Pat Utomi Foundation, for this year’s Annual Leadership Lecture slated to hold today at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking on the company’s partnership with CVL, Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Deepak Srivastava said the telecoms operator is passionate about creating opportunities that will help groom, develop and empower talented Nigerians, while noting that Airtel is committed to contributing to all initiatives aimed at developing

3rd Feb, 2012

BUYING 210 255 40 164

SELLING 212 257 42 165

the Nigerian nation.

“We, at Airtel, believe in the project Nigeria. It is our country, our home, and we will continue to support programmes that will help improve leadership and values. We believe in quality leadership and effectiveness in governance, and these are what the CVL and Airtel have resolved to offer Nigerians,” he said.

Also speaking on the partnership, in a letter signed

by Prof. Pat Utomi, founder of the foundation, Uchenna Achunine, Chief Operating Officer of the foundation, the CVL commended Airtel Nigeria for its “high resourcefulness and exceptional dedication to the good of humanity and the development of our country, Nigeria.

“This year, we have selected Airtel Nigeria as the distinguished company to partner with us for the 9th CVL annual lecture.

Your organisation’s consistent effort and support to leadership development and the development of young people is what informed our decision to choose your organisation,” the letter read in part.

The CVL lecture, with the theme: “Leadership and Nigeria’s Performance” is the 9th in the series and will be welcoming notable speakers including Prof.

Peter Lewis, Director of African Studies at John Hopkins University, USA; Dr. Christopher Kolade, Pro-Chancellor, Pan African University and Pastor Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Leadership Academy.

Management Tip of the Day

BUYING SELLING 0.2918 0.3118 204.8856 206.2015 246.4887 248.0718 41.5156 41.7822 155.7 156.7

PARALLEL RATES

ABJ-L OS : 11.30, 3.45, 4.45

L-R: Segment Head, Premium Banking, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr Hakeem Mustapha, winner of a N1m in the FCMB Millionaire Savings Promo 2011, Mr Onyekwere Ojimadu, Regional Head, South-South and South-East, FCMB, Mr Oliver Opara and Chief Surveillance and Enforcement Officer, Consumer Protection Council, Boladale Adeyinka, during the bank's promo in Port-Harcourt, recently.

Photo: NAN

Start your mentoring relationship right

O

nce you’ve secured a mentor, kick off the relationship the right way. Here are three things you can do as a mentee to help create a successful partnership: Get to know your

mentor. Don’t immediately ask for advice. Take the time to acquaint yourself with your adviser. Ask questions about her experience and working style, and share in return.

Air concerns. You may be

nervous about admitting your mistakes and fears. Establish an expectation of confidentiality up front, and remember this discretion should be mutual.

Source: Harvard Business Review

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 20

COMPANY NEWS Flourmill records N144.1 bn turnover in Q3

F

lourmill of Nigeria Plc has posted a turnover of N144.1 billion in its third quarter ended December 31, 2011, against N122.7 billion in 201 0.

Fidelity Bank donates health equipment to hospital

A

s part of measures to reduce infant mortality ratio in the country and further enhance its corporate social responsibility, Fidelity Bank Plc has donated some medical equipment to a children hospital.

ICAN seeks support for CBN’s cashless policy

T

he Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has charged Nigerians to always accept new initiatives aimed at making the country compete with other developed economies.

Group prescribes measures against multiplicity of taxes

T

he Coalition of Business and Professional Associations in Kwara state, has called for amendment of the state’s Signage and Advertisement Agency Law, to stop duplication of taxes.

Stakeholder laments underutilisation of dams in Nigeria

T

he Managing Director of Ogun-Oshun Dam, Jimi Omole, has lamented the under-utilisation of dams in th e co untr y.

Ecobank joins Western Union, USAID on African Diaspora marketplace

G

lobal payment services company, the Western Union International and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have announced that pan-African ba nking group, Ecobank Group is supporting the second African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM) conference.

US energy mission to visit Nigeria, 3 others in Africa

T

he United States government is sending an energy trade mission to Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana to look at potential investment projects with the aim of enhancing the countries' ability to generate electric power.

The basic objective of the trade mission is to make significant progress on increasing U.S. private-sector investment in power infrastructure projects that have the potential to boost overall development in these countries by significantly reducing the cost of doing business," said Jim Wilson, senior coordinator for trade promotion and commercial policy in the department's Bureau of African Affairs.

"The trade mission specifically hopes to determine if U.S. power developers would be able to invest in generating facilities and fuel supply that help address the needs in Africa for reliable, affordable electricity," Wilson added.

The trade mission, which is from February 6 to 17, is being led by Assistant Secretary of

State Johnnie Carson. The Corporate Council on Africa is co-sponsoring the mission, which includes a brief stop in Kenya.

Wilson said that a trade mission of this type was important because of the huge constraints that the lack of reliable electricity placed on African development. "It's almost like a tax that is paid where companies in Nigeria or Mozambique either can't get reliable power or have to pay a very high price with backup generators and expensive diesel fuel to be able to have security of supply, he declared.

If African businesses could have access to power as companies in the United States and Britain do, they could produce products that would be more affordable for local markets and for export abroad, he said.

Each country selected for this trade mission presents significant opportunities for investment in electric power.

The four governments have all been taking measures to make the regulatory and legal environments in their nations

more attractive to private investors, Wilson said.

This trade mission aims to bring companies "to take a look again at the changing environment in Africa, see the improvements, see what's now possible to do that might not have been possible two years ago or five years ago," Wilson pointed out.

He added that there were several other African nations that the delegation would like to have included on this mission, but there was insufficient time.

Joining Carson in the U.S. delegation are representatives of Anadarko Petroleum, Caterpillar, Chevron, Energy International, General Electric, Pike Enterprises, Strategic Urban Development Alliance LLC, Symbion and Zanbato Group.

In addition, Wanda Felton, vice-chair of the U.S. ExportImport Bank, and representatives from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources will be on the mission.

One billion people have no access to electricity

M

ore than a billion people in the world still lack access to electricity, while another one billion have unreliable access, hampering efforts to improve health and livelihoods, and to conserve the environment.

Findings from new research by the Worldwatch Institute (WI) urge governments and development organisations to invest in electrification to achieve critical health, environmental, and livelihood outcomes, a statement released here by the Institute said.

Citing data from the UN and the International Energy Agency (IEA) the WI research says between 1990 and 2008, close to two billion people worldwide gained access to electricity. But more than 1.3 billion people still lacked access to electricity, while another one billion had unreliable access.

According to the IEA, some US$1.9 billion had been invested worldwide in 2009 in extending access to modern energy services, such as electricity and clean cooking facilities. The agency projects that between 2010 and 2030, an average of US$14 billion will be spent annually, mostly on urban grid connections.

“Modern energy sources provide people with lighting, heating, refrigeration, cooking, water pumping and other services that are essential for reducing poverty, improving

health and education, and increasing incomes,” write WI research report authors Michael Renner and Matthew Lucky.

At least 2.7 billion people, and possibly more than three billion, lack access to modern fuels for cooking and heating, according to the research.

They rely instead on traditional biomass sources, such as firewood, charcoal, manure, and crop residues, that can emit harmful indoor air pollutants when burned. These pollutants cause nearly two million premature deaths worldwide each year, an estimated 44% of them in children. In adult deaths, 60% are women.

Traditional energy usage also contributes to environmental impacts including forest and woodland degradation, soil erosion, and black carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change.

Electrification varies widely between rural and urban areas in developing countries. In subSaharan Africa, the rural electrification rate is just 14%, compared with 60% in urban areas.

“As new approaches to electrification evolve ones that don’t rely on expensive regional or national grids but rather a diversity of locally available energy resources we can begin to reach for the goal of access to electricity for all, rural as well as urban,” said Worldwatch president, Robert Engelman.

(Source: Esi -Africa.com)

Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji

Trafigura sells Forties crude, Indian Oil buys Nigerian grades

T

rafigura Beheer BV sold North Sea Forties crude at the highest level in a month.

Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest refiner, bought two very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, totaling 4 million barrels of Nigerian grades for loading in April via a tender from Glencore International Plc, four traders who participate in the market said.

Brent for March settlement traded at $111.74 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at the close of the window, down from $112.22 on Friday. The April contract was at $111.36, a discount of 38 cents to March.

Indian Oil purchased one VLCC with Bonny Light and Forcados grades, and the other with Qua Iboe and EA, according to the people, who declined to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak on the matter.

Vitol failed to sell 950,000 barrels of Bonny Light for loading Feb. 20 to Feb. 21 at $2.30 a barrel more than Dated Brent, the survey showed.

Qua Iboe crude was at $2.69 a barrel more than Dated Brent, compared with a premium of $2.72 on Friday, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

(Bloomberg)

China spends N7.8tr a year on renewable energy

G

rowing urbanisation and the resultant environmental threats it generates has led the government of China to invest nearly US$50 billion (about N7.8 trillion) annually on the development of its renewable energy sector since 2009.

China’s five-year investment in environmental protection is on track to reach US$454 billion. By 2015, its environmental protection industry is expected to top US$317 billion.

An industry analyst pointed out that China would face challenges in raising funds for the development of its green economy. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, US$750 billion per year from 2010 to 2030 is required to support the transition to a global green economy — and the figure jumps to US$1.6 trillion per year from 2030 to 2050.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 21

FG to secure funding from European Investment Bank

By Muhammad Nasir

T

he National Planning Commission (NPC), is working closely with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in order to secure funding for Nigeria through the AfricaEuropean Union Trust Fund towards funding of various projects that support Economic Growth for Nigeria.

This was disclosed recently by the Hon Minister/Deputy Chairman of NPC, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, during a joint meeting to put together draft proposals on two projects for possible funding from the AfricaEU Trust Fund which the Commission is coordinating.

The meeting, which was held at the National Planning Commission’s office Complex, had two projects proposed for possible funding by the Africa – EU Trust Fund are; the Calabar- Kano Gas pipeline and the Mambilla power projects under the Ministries of Petroleum Resources (NNPC) and Power respectively.

The Calabar- Kano Gas pipe line

project or the Trans- Nigeria Gas pipeline is the domestic segment of the proposed Trans- stream Gas pipeline for Gas supply from Nigeria to Europe was meant to

diversify export route for marketing Nigerian natural gas and to also strengthen Regional Cooperation.

Representatives of the

European Union led by Mr. Pere Philippe, those of the implementing agencies, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) officials led by Engineer

Farouk Sa’id and Mr. Gowalk Celestine, an engineer working with the Mambilla Power Project attended the meeting and made presentations on the proposals.

Niger Insurance to raise N1.34bn through rights issue • Offer opens February 13 From Samuel Ayodele, Lagos

U

nd erwrit in g g ian t, Niger Insurance Plc is se t to ra ise N1. 34 billi on through rights i ssue, of fer ing to exi sti ng sh areh old ers 2,67 7,0 79,2 82 or dina ry shar es o f 5 0 ko bo each, on the basis of seven (7) ne w o rdi nary sh are s f or every 15 ordinary shares held at th e cl ose of busine ss on Frid ay, No vember 04, 2 011.

The offer, which opens on Mo nday , F ebruary 13, 20 12 an d c lose s o n W edne sda y, March 21, 2012 has as its lead is sui ng hous e, Tid do Se cur itie s Limi ted, a nd In tegr ate d T rust &

In ves tmen t Limi ted as joi nt issuing house.

Th e is sue is bei ng undertaken to strengthen the share capital of the company, in li ne with re gul ato ry re quire me nt s.

Speaking at its Completion Board Meeting in Lagos, chairman of Niger Insurance Plc, Bala Zakariya’u said the proceeds of the rights issue would be used to invest in distribution channels for improved marketing of the company’s products and to complete the installation of its information technology platform.

“It will also be used to enhance the company’s working capital in order to improve liquidity and increase risk retention capability, as well as rebuild and refocus its investment portfolio to include fixed income securities.”

Zakariya’u said the company also plans to redesign and renovate its Ajao Road, Ikeja Business District real estate property.

As contained in the offer prospectus, the net issue proceeds will amount to N1,396, 105,000.

A breakdown of the proceeds allocation reveals that 28.93 percent, amounting to N375,000,000 would go into redesigning/renovation of the property on Ajao Road, Ikeja; 23.13 percent amounting to N300,000,000 would be channelled into rebuilding of

investment portfolio to include fixed income securities, such as Federal Government selected states and corporate bonds, while 20.53 percent equal to N266,105,000 would be used to enhance working capital to improve liquidity and increase risk retention capability.

Investment in distribution channels for improved marketing of the company’s products, including new branches and installation of information technology platform will take N175, 000,000 or 13.50 percent and N180, 000,000 or 13.89 percent respectively.

Managing Director, Niger Insurance Plc, Justus Uranata giving assurance on the utilisation of the offer proceeds, stated that the shareholders would enjoy great value in their investment, pledging the determination of the management to take the 50 year old company to greater heights.

Diamond Bank shares rise on 2012 income outlook

D

Truck overloaded with goods at Mile 2, Lagos on Sunday.

Photo: NAN

iamond Bank Plc jumped for a fifth straight day last Friday to its longest rising streak in more than five months after investors bet earnings will grow in 2012, Renaissance capital said.

The stock added 2.3 percent to 2.67 naira by the 2:30 p.m. close in Lagos, taking its gain this year to 39 percent, compared with a 0.6 percent increase in the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index.

“Investors are betting on a 2012 recovery in Diamond’s earnings,” Lagos-based banking analyst at Rencap, Adesoji Solanke said. The expectation is based on

“management’s guidance for a cleaner balance sheet and asset-quality matrix going into 2012,” he said.

Diamond expects a loss of about N454.4 million ($2.8 million) for the fourth quarter through December, it said on Sept. 8. Nigeria’s central bank implemented reforms following a debt crisis in 2008 and 2009 triggered by loans given to stock market speculators.

The banking regulator introduced December as a common yearend for the country’s lenders.

Full-year 2011 results are expected to be released from the end of February. (Bloomberg)

MasterCard opens East African regional headquarters in Kenya

T

he global payments and technology company, MasterCard Worldwide, on Friday launched its official East African regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

This development brings the number of MasterCard offices across the African continent to five, with other offices operational in Cairo, Casablanca, Lagos, Johannesburg and now Nairobi.

The Right Honorable Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Republic of Kenya welcomed MasterCard’s announcement, saying, “We are pleased to welcome MasterCard to East Africa and in particular to Kenya, as we see the region’s

growth path continue.

MasterCard’s products will see the benefits of inclusion into the financial system extend to many more East Africans, giving them the opportunity to transact electronically with people and companies and so keep their precious money safe and secure, helping to build prosperity for their future.”

“Nairobi’s reputation as an African commerce, trade and development hub made it a strategically sound location for MasterCard to establish its regional headquarters. We believe it is a natural recognition of Kenya’s role as the financial

heart of the East Africa region,” says Daniel Monehin, Area Head, East & West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide.

The Nairobi office will act as MasterCard’s liaison office for customer banks, business associates and consumers in its main markets of Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Uganda, as well as across the rest of the East African region, bringing the organisation’s knowledge of electronic payments best practice to these markets.

This will include a significant emphasis in the areas of card

knowledge and skills development, advising on development of card acceptance infrastructure, new products, and developing partnerships with ‘technology enablers,’ as well as retailer education and best acceptance practice. ”We are establishing the new Nairobi office as a gateway through which MasterCard will liaise with its existing customers across the East African region.

It will also be a launch pad for further expansion across the region, by providing advice to support MasterCard’s ongoing quest to shift consumers from traditional cash payments to

non-cash payment systems, so that they can avoid the costs, risks and inefficiencies associated with cash,” said Monehin.

MasterCard will also be offering the services of MasterCard Advisors into the East African region, helping to ensure that best-practice principles are implemented across the payments network.

MasterCard Advisors is the professional services arm of MasterCard that provides payments consulting, information, analytics, and customised services to financial institutions, governments and retailers worldwide.

PAGE 22

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Reforms committee moves 2,080 overtime containers away from ports From Mohammed Sada with agency report

T

Roll in Roll out terminal at Nigeria Ports Authority in Lagos.

INSET: A cargo ship loaded with containers

Some fuel stations accused of deceiving customers in Jalingo From Yusha’u Alhassan, Jalingo

T

he long queue that characterised petrol filling stations in Jalingo appears to be fast disappearing. Motorists now have the choice of buying in the filling stations of their choice as the Mega stations were seen selling fuel without queues.

Most of the marketers now sell at the controlled price of ninetyseven naira per litre while most of the independent marketers

sell at between one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty five naira per litre.

However, some customers have alleged that some filling stations are in the habit of deceiving customers by putting an inscription on the fuel pumps reading ninety-seven naira per litre while the actual price charged is above one hundred naira per litre.

Investigations however revealed that the cost of

transport has not reduced despite the availability of fuel since its scarcity some weeks ago.

In Jalingo main motor park, transport fare to Kano is still two thousand five hundred as against two thousand naira; Wukari one thousand five hundred as against one thousand naira in December while Jalingo to Bali now cost two thousand naira instead of one thousand two hundred naira.

Efforts to contact the State Chairman National Union of

Road Transport Workers, Adamu Umar failed but a competent source closed to the union’s office told Peoples Daily that the union was contemplating the reduction in the transport fares.

Some passengers who spoke to our reporter on the refusal by the taxi drivers to reduce fares have condemned the action of NURTW and appealed to governor Suntai to compel it to reduce the inter and intra fares.

he Federal Government committee on port reforms has so far moved 2,080 overtime containers out of the 5,000 of them littering the Lagos ports to the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal, also in Lagos.

Chairman of the committee, Prof. Sylvester Monye, made the disclosure when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday in Abuja.

He said efforts were being intensified to remove the remaining overtime containers from the ports.

“Of the 5,000 overtime containers that litter the ports, some of 2,080 have since been moved to the Ikorodu lighter terminal, thus creating space for effective ports administration and operations.

“The containers that we moved are what we call overtime containers or overtime cargo.

“These were cargoes that were imported some three, four years ago, some two years, some one year.

“Technically, after 90 days if you don't clear your goods, they become overtime.

“Some of them have been there for a long time; they have gone through the processes of inspection and they are being kept for non-compliance with clearing procedures or failure to pay the appropriate duties.''

Monye said most of the containers moved to the Ikorodu terminal were clearly screened and checked.

“So when you talk about security risk or whether we have checked; they are not moving from Customs premises to individual premises; they are moving from one Customs premises to another.

He noted that moving the cargoes was part of efforts of the committee to ensure decongestion which was one of the major challenges witnessed in Nigerian ports.

Monye noted that ship crews always preferred to leave ports of discharge with fresh cargoes and not to move away empty vessels.

“They don't like to go with empty content; they want to go with cargo, so they go with no more than 5 per cent of what they come in with, so these containers continue to stack.

“We are also working to ensure that we clear or at least create what is called a holding bay for the containers to allow the shipping lines to continue to move them.''

This, he explained, would help to reduce the traffic gridlocks caused by articulated vehicles moving empty containers from the ports to the lighter terminal.

Monye assured that the committee would continue to work to institutionalise efforts to reform Nigerian ports.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 24

PAGE 25

Youth rage boils amid Boko Haram attacks T

he angry youths piled on top of the burned-out truck near a bloodspattered police station one Wednesday in Kano, where, a week earlier (January 20), Boko Haram had launched coordinated attacks on police stations, killing over 180 people. The youths were alternating praises for the radical Islamist sect that bombed the precinct and promising to kill any officer who returned.

The crowd overran the station that morning following an attack there the previous night, apparently by same Boko Haram.

Their jubilation underscored a growing danger from Nigeria’s exploding population: a swarming unemployed and undereducated youth across the North whose anger at Nigeria’s corrupt and weak central government makes them ready recruits for the sect and other radicals.

“The poorer Muslim North sees systemic bias in the provision of basic services and repeated incidents of police brutality,” a recent report from Washingtonbased think tank, The Jamestown Foundation, said.

Suspected members of Boko Haram surrounded the police station Tuesday night in the Sheka neighborhood of the sprawling and dusty city of Kano, home to more than 9 million people. The gunmen ordered civilians to get off the street, then began chanting “God is great” as they threw homemade bombs into the station and sprayed it with assault rifle fire, witnesses said.

Associated Press journalists saw youths overrun the station Wednesday, as black soot and smoke charred its walls. Doors to jail cells stood open. Blood coated the floor of the local commander’s private bathroom. Investigative files apparently rifled through by attackers or the crowd covered the floors.

Older men around the neighbourhood attempted to calm down the youths gathered there, with one trying to lock up the station while security forces remained nowhere to be seen.

Most Muslims across Nigeria’s North say they disapprove of Boko Haram, which claimed the assault Friday in Kano that killed at least 185 people.

“We are not satisfied with what is happening now,” said 26-year-old Abubakar Muawuya. Our leaders “have to call this Boko Haram and sit down with them.”

But the group there remained jubilant, repeatedly beating on the burned-out truck. Cheering youths waved an officer’s uniform and others jumped

up and down on the truck, with one wearing a police ballistic helmet. Some also ominously asked journalists visiting the site what faith they belonged to.

Nigeria’s youth represent what a British Council report last year described as a looming “demographic disaster” for Africa’s most populous nation. Estimates in the report suggest Nigeria’s population of more than 160 million people will swell by another 53 million people by 2050. And while the country makes billions from producing oil, agriculture and other vocations have wilted away, meaning fewer jobs for the growing population where many earn less than $2 a day without access to electricity or clean drinking water.

Illiteracy remains high as an education gap grows wider — children have access to

better schooling in the south compared to those in the north, the report said.

Analysts worry that will give extremist groups like Boko Haram fertile grounds to grow as well.

Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law and avenge the deaths of Muslims in communal violence across the country, a multi-ethnic and multireligious nation of more than 160 million people. The group, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north, has now killed at least 262 people in 2012, more than half of the at least 510 people the sect killed in all of 2011, according to an Associated Press count.

On Wednesday, Niger’s foreign minister Mohamed Bazoum said the sect received training and weapons from

“

Nigeria’s youth represent what a British Council report last year described as a looming “demographic disaster” for Africa’s most populous nation. Estimates in the report suggest Nigeria’s population of more than 160 million people will swell by another 53 million people by 2050

Dead victims of the Kano bomb blasts being loaded into a truck

al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaida’s north Africa branch.

“There is no doubt the two organizations are connected and that they have the same objective of destabilizing our region,” he said.

So far, Nigeria’s weak and corruption-riddled central government has been unable to stop Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody attacks.

Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan placed the federal police’s top official on “terminal leave” following the Kano attacks. Inspector Gen. Hafiz Ringim remained in the top position in the police force and was given a national honor recently despite the unrelenting attacks.

A statement from the presidency also said Jonathan “approved the retirement” of all deputy inspectors-general of police and appointed a committee to look at ways of reforming a police force still organized much like the British colonial government left it.

However, it remains unclear what can be done to salvage a police force where more than a fourth of its officers serve as assistants and drivers to the country’s elite, while many of the rest extort motorists at checkpoints.

Ringim himself was due to retire anyway in several months.

(Associated Press)

Smokes billowing from scene of attacks IG Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar

A victim of Boko Haram attacks in Kano on January 20, 2012

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

On the marble The general rule for use of the military is that it is better to keep a nation intact than to destroy it. It is better to keep an army intact than to destroy it, better to keep a division intact than to destroy it, better to keep a battalion intact than to destroy it, better to keep a unit intact than to destroy it. -Master Sun (The Art of War)

Chief of Army Staff; Serving National or Sectional Agenda

T

he Nigerian military has enjoyed political power far more than the civilian populace since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

For the period they held forth as political leaders, the country experienced vast corrupt practices.

Ironically, it was for the same reason they gave for truncating democracy in the first republic in 1966. It is on record that in the speech delivered by the coup plotters on the eve of that act that altered the history of the country, then coup leader Major. Kaduna Nzeogwu of blessed memory accused the political class of corruption who give out contract after collecting 10% of the contractual sum from contractors.

In the years to follow, the top hierarchy of the military especially the army was populated by a section of people from the Northern part of the country. The role played by officers and men of the Nigerian army from the north in the civil war that engulfed the nation during the teething years of the country’s independence could be ascribed to the reason why officers of Northern extracts held sway as political leaders. On the other hand the role played by officers and men from the Eastern part of the country in their secessionists quest made them outcast in the political equation even after the war ended in 1970.

Their purported marginisation in the scheme of things especially in the

military continued even after the political class regained power in the second republic when the military under General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over the baton of leadership to President Shehu Shagari in 1979. No Ibo man ever got to be made the chief of army staff (COAS), for forty years (40yrs) after independence until the appointment of then Maj. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika by President Goodluck Jonathan in August 2008.

The move was hailed by many as a step in the right direction especially those who wanted the Nigerian state to demonstrate its mantra of No Victor, No Vanquish after the end of the Biafra secessionist misadventure.

However, Just like the election of President Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw from the Southern minority, not many were happy about the appointment of the new COAS. As they wanted the status quo to remain the way it was.

They frowned at the appointments made by the new COAS and saw them as an attempt to rehabilitate his South East area and people. It was no surprise therefore when rumours started making the rounds that Gen. Ihejirika has abandoned military projects in other parts of the country while concentrating on those in his native South East. The story was told of how the 44 Reference Hospital project in Kaduna, Kaduna state initiated by his predecessor, Lt. Gen.

Attack on barracks: Air Force denies reports

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he Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has denied newspaper reports that none of her barracks in Maiduguri or any part of Nigeria was attacked by Boko Haram or any other group.

According to a news release made available to Peoples Daily newspaper and signed by the Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Air Commodore Y Anas, it stated that

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar,

there was no iota of truth in a banner headline in a national newspaper recently that the Nigerian Air Force barracks in Maiduguri was attacked by the Boko Haram.

The statement of the attack was purportedly credited to Borno State Police Public Relations Officer to the effect that the Air Force Barracks was one of the targets attacked by the Boko Haram Sect.

“Indeed, there was neither any attempt in the NAF Barracks in Maiduguri nor was anybody injured or killed as reported in the Newspaper. The publication was an attempt to embarrass the Service”.

The Air Force Spokesman said in the statement.

The Air Force used the statement to reassure Nigerians that her personnel all over the nation were in high alert to deal decisively with anysecurity challenge,while also calling on journalists to continue to imbibe the professional norm of cross checking facts before publication in orderto avoid misrepresentation. The Nigerian Air Force as a responsible organisation does not wish to join issues with the newspaper but the records must be set straight.

Abdulrahman Dambazzau (Rtd) has been abandoned while construction works on a similar project in the South East is still on-going.

Checks have however revealed that there is no iota of truth in this claim. It is already in the public domain that the Kaduna Reference hospital was a huge colossal waste and though investigation is still on-going into the lofty project and the role played by Dambazzau and then Army Director of Finance and Accounts, Maj. Gen. Charles Airhiabvere (Rtd), who are been accused of diverting most of the funds meant for the hospital, people following events are already calling for their heads in the monumental fraud that the project is been viewed as.

Another area pointed out by the accusers of the incumbent Chief of Army Staff is that the renovations of barracks has been suspended around the country while a brand new army barracks situated in Ohafia, a town very close to the COAS village was opened after his assumption of office.

Investigations reveal that there is element of fact in the Ohafia barracks claim. However, it was discovered during investigation that the kidnap saga in the Eastern part of the country that almost made the area a no go for both indigenes resident outside the South East and travellers on that route made the rehabilitation of that barracks abandoned for over 19 years a necessity. It is gladdening to note that since the rehabilitation of the barracks and the movement of the army into it which ultimately resulted in the death of the kingpin of the kidnap saga going by the acronym of Osisikankwu, Nigerians in that part of the country and wayfarers have been able to heave a sigh of relief as calm has returned to that part of the country.

Defence Focus investigation aimed at informing Nigerians on the true state of affairs in order to build a more united country took us round the six geo-political zones in order to verify if really, rehabilitation of army projects have been jettisoned in some parts of the country, our findings were as astonishing as they are true.

First we discovered that construction and renovation works are on-going in army formations across the country. Secondly, we discovered that the military in its characteristic way of getting things done without singing its praises allowed for fifth columnists to have a field day in putting out in public domain the damaging rumour that the present COAS was set to reposition the army in such a way that would make it more of a South Eastern outfit than the Nigerian army of our dreams.

Thirdly, we discovered that people spreading the rumour of General Ihejirika’s non performance were those no longer in a position to

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika influence happenings in the Nigerian army, especially retired generals and beneficiaries of past administrations.

Abuja Rehabilitation works we discovered are presently on-going near the Nigerian Army Officers Wives Association (NAOWA) building where 32 flats for officers will be commissioned in 2012.

Also at the Mogadishu Cantonment, 42 flats we saw have been completed and ready for commissioning same this year. The Shehu Musa Yaradua Barracks also in Asokoro has rehabilitated 48 officers quarters, while the link road between the Scorpion’s mess and the new Command Guest House has been rehabilitated by the COAS. The last project we saw as a team while on fact finding mission is the forward operation base located along the Abuja Air port road where building construction was still ongoing.

Lagos Our visit to Lagos took us to the Ojo Cantonment where we discovered that the abandoned Indian quarter located inside the barracks has been rehabilitated. On investigation, it was confirmed to us that the project which is ready for occupation has houses for 12 senior officers and 24 for junior officers.

At the Ikeja Cantonment, on-going projects included a 9x36 family building, 3x7 for soldiers and their families, 4x10, 2x28 and 2x24 for senior S O while that for senior officers is a 2x13.

The Ipaja barracks has a 10x2 for senior S.Os and a 30 bedroom flat for junior officers.

Maiduguri In the Northern part of the country, supposedly the most marginalised under Gen. Ihejirika as claimed by some of his traducers, we discovered that in Maiduguri, Bornu state and hot bed of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, a 3x30 flat for soldiers was at completion level.

The story was not different in Jos the Plateau state capital where administrative blocks were been constructed at the 3 division of the army located there.

Kaduna is regarded as the

administrative headquarters of the entire Northern region and our findings showed that an abandoned auditorium which was left to the vagaries of the elements and has remained in disuse for the last 26 years is nearly completion since rehabilitation work on the edifice started about two years ago when the incumbent COAS took office.

Also at the military town of Jaji located a few kilometres from Kaduna, we discovered a well furnished 46block of flats for senior officers. These set of block of flats did not come as a surprise because it is a replication of what Gen. Ihejirika did at Dike Quarters located inside the Mogadishu cantonment for the defence headquarters when Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike was the Chief of Defence Staff and he, Ihejirika) the Commandant of Engineering at the DHQ. In these blocks of flats, any officer taking possession of a flat only needs his personal belongings packed in a suit case to live in luxury there.

Every house hold utensils that will make life comfortable is already provided in these flats.

At the Dallat Barracks situated in Kaduna town, a church and a mosque built by the present COAS, we discovered was nearly completion, just as 8 block of flats for officers and 15 for soldiers has been rehabilitated at the Nigerian Army Central Workshop located opposite the Nigerian Teachers Institute, Kaduna.

5 buildings for 12 families have been rehabilitated in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state.

Going round the nation to verify these projects leaves us with no other option than to warn those bent on fomenting disunity among officers and men of the Nigerian army to look back and reflect on where we are coming from as a nation. With calls from certain quarters that Southerners should leave the North and go back to the South and vice versa, it is pertinent to state here that the Nigerian military remains the most unifying fabric of the Nigerian nation and playing ethnic/ religious politics with it would on the long run do the country and its people no good.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Onion: Price drops as new produce appears

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he price of onion has dropped by about 40 per cent in Kaduna sequel to the arrival of new produce in the markets, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

A bag of onions now sells for between N5, 000 and N6, 500, down from the previous range of between N8, 000 and N12, 500, while a basket goes for between N250 and N600.

Abdu Hussaini, an onion seller at the Abubakar Gumi Market, also attributed the price drop to the lack of facilities for storing the produce to guard against rot.

He observed that farmers had no technique of storing onions, saying “that is why they bring it to the market in large quantities.”

Another onion seller, Sahabi Adamu, said the drop in price had increased the demand for the commodity.

The NAN check showed that the drop in onion price, however, triggered a rise in the price of garlic with a measure of it going for N1, 000 instead of N800, while a bag rose from N23, 000 to N27, 000.

Manyof the garlic sellers who spoke with NAN blamed the rise on the short supply of garlic experienced in the area.(NAN)

PAGE 27

World Bank to assist Africa’s agricultural sector T

he Vice President, Africa Region, World Bank on Wednesday, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said that the Bank would continue to provide support to Africa’s agricultural sector.

A statement in Addis Ababa by the Department of Information and Communication of the AU Commission said Ezekwesili made this known when she met Dr Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the AU Commission.

It stated that the meeting was a follow-up on the theme of the Summit, “Boosting Intra-African

trade” and also to review ways and means of enhancing and maximising the effectiveness of World Bank support to the Commission in particular and the continent in general.

Ezekwesili urged African leaders and the continental organisation to continue to drive their development agenda giving more emphasis on economics instead of politics.

She said key macro-economic indicators suggested that Africa have the best economic potentials and that the continent would soon witness better economic growth.

Responding, Ping thanked the World Bank for its support to Africa and emphasised the need for Africa’s donors and partners to follow through on their commitments and pledges to the continent.

He thanked Ezekwesili, whose tenure would end May, for her efforts to improve relations between the two organisations.

“I commend you for the excellent job you have done to improve relations between the World Bank and Africa. We understand the challenges you may

Displaced livestock traders want permanent stay at temporary site

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Associations laud W/Bank, FG, others for FADAMA review project

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adama III Community Associations (FCAs) in the FCT recently commended the World Bank, the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector for the mid-term review of the FADAMA Project.

FCAs Chairman in the FCT, Mr William Ngwakwe, gave the commendation in Gwagwalada during an assessment tour of sub-projects by World Bank and Federal Government delegations.

Ngwakwe told the journalists that the review which was aimed at evaluating performance and making corrections where necessary was a step in the right direction.

“Even though the FCT Office of the project is relatively doing well, previous experiences have shown that reviews of this kind make them stand better,” he said.

“Apart from making the officials more serious with the project, this kind of review also enhances maintenance of sub- projects in anticipation of visit by the delegations,” he added.

Ngwakwe also called on stakeholders,especiallythe World Bank and the Federal Government to make the review more frequent to enhance the realisation of the goals of the project.

He said thatthe FCT Fadama Office had recorded tremendous successes in the project implementation, especially in group formation and capacity building.

Ngwakwe also called for strengthened effort towards ensuring that inputs, such as fertilisers and insecticides, which were parts of the project’s components, were made available to beneficiaries. (NAN)

have encountered in the process and appreciate your productive focus and tenacity,” Ping said.

The statement said issues ranging from sub-regional and regional integration and trade, capacity building, agriculture and food security, funding, and mechanisms for the Bank’s support to the Commission were discussed during the meeting. (NAN)

Farmers irrigating their farmland

Irrigation: Farmers want dam project completed

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rrigation farmers in Mubi, in Adamawa, have called on the state government to complete the Kwaja mini dam project to boost agricultural activities in the state.

It was learnt that the project was initiated by the Mubi South Local Government to encourage irrigation activities and enhance water supply in the area for agricultural production.

However, the project was abandoned five years ago due to the lack of funds.

A cross-section of the farmers, who made the call when they spoke to journalists recently in Mubi recently, said “completion of the project would boost crop, fisheries and livestock production in the area.”

According to a farmer, Musa Hashimu, “farmers in the area relied on rain water for cropping in spite of the favourable climatic condition for the production of temperate crops such as vegetables, potato, cocoa, apples and pea.”

Hashimu said that Kwaja was

located on a high altitude of about 1,500 feet above sea level with low temperature and high humidity.

“Due to the mountainous nature of the environment, we cannot dig wells or boreholes in the area,” Hashimu said, adding that the framers often travelled long distances in search of water for domestic needs.

Another farmer, Alhaji Ibrahim Rufa’i, also called for the construction of the Gella-Kwaja access road to ease transportation difficulties experienced by the community.

“Construction of the access road will ease movement of farm produce to the market,” Rufa’i said.

Meanwhile, Kwaja, a farming settlement on the Nigeria-Cameroon borderline, is a major source of potato supply to Borno, Gombe and Taraba states.

But, tomato farmers in the Mubi North Local Government Area have also called for the establishment of a tomato processing plant to reduce wastage and provide market for the perishable produce.

Basiru Jamiu, a dry season farmer, said the call was imperative in view of the lack of modern preservation technologies among farmers in the area.

Jamiu explained that the absence of such technologies had forced the farmers to sell their produce at lower prices to avoid losses.

“We are selling the produce at a lower price as it cannot be preserved beyond seven days. The trend is seriously discouraging and therefore making irrigation farming less attractive,” Jamiu said, urging the state government to ensure adequate distribution of fertiliser and training of farmers on modern preservation technologies.

A check at the Mubi market showed that the prices of perishable commodities had dropped significantly in the last few weeks due to fresh supplies from the farms.

A measure of tomato was sold at N100, pepper N150 and onion N200 as against N250, N300 and N450 respectively. (NAN)

ivestock traders temporarily relocated to the Ijora Oloye market, at Ijora, Lagos, have appealed to the Lagos State Government to allow them to stay permanently at the site.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the traders were displaced from under the flyover at the Breweries Bus Stop on Dec. 20, 2011 for the beautification project of the government.

Speaking to journalists recently in Lagos, Mallam Haruna Usman, spokesman of the group known as Ram and Chicken Sellers Association, explained that the site was conducive for their business.

Usman said the permanent site earmarked by the government for them at the abattoir in Agege, was too far from their present site and their customers.

“We don’t want to go to Agege because the place is too far and hidden and not accessible and it is a market for cow sellers while we sell rams, goats and chicken. We don’t want to go there.”

It was learnt that apart from sales of livestock in the temporary location, an “abattoir” has been erected at the site for the slaughter of goats, rams and poultry.

Customers interested in preparing the livestock in the market instead of taking live animals home, use the slaughter slabs in an environment some customers described as unhygienic.

Usman, however, promised to always keep the slaughter slabs clean and healthy in order to attract more patronage.

“We have to make it properly neat you know as people are buying the market and go there to kill, definitely we have to make it neatly so that people will appreciate it,” he explained.

According to the association’s spokesman, a temporal approval was given to the traders through the intervention of a traditional ruler of Ijora Oloye which resulted in the structure currently on ground.

“We only got approval to stay for a time, not long. Not for two days, three days, one week. We only just got approval to stay here for now,” he said.

“We are waiting for the final approval, which may allow us to stay permanently. And it can come anytime; it can be next month; it can be next year even,” Usman added.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 28

How grass cutter farming can make you a millionaire – Farmer As inconsequential as the grass cutter aspect of farming may appear to many Nigerian farmers, not only would venturing into the business rapidly bring millions of Naira at the beck and call of the ordinary farmer but would positively boost the agricultural sector as well as the country’s economy, a grass cutter farmer, Prince Arinze Onebunne, explains the procedure involved in the business chains in this interview with Mohammed Kandi.

Excerpts: What prompted you to start grass cutter farming? s it is with many other investors when they discover a new business, my first attempt in grass cutter farming was filled with challenges.

But, I received a lot of advice from many people around me then, some encouraging; some discouraging me, saying livestock farming was full of risks. Some advised me to go into importation business instead but I remained focused because I wanted to create a job for myself and for other people. Let me say this, if you want to succeed, go for a new business rather than travel the worn path of accepted success, explore uncharted courses.

A childhood experience fired up my interest in grass cutter farming. When we were growing up in the village, we used to go into the forest to set the bush on fire as a way of hunting for grass cutter. One day, after killing so many, we found a pregnant grass cutter that could not run and we took it home. We did not tell our parents and we decided to put it in the goats’ pen. The next morning when we woke up, we found out that it had delivered about eight litters. We later lost the mother due to injuries it sustained during the bush fire but the litters were very smart, eating corn, cassava, vegetable and rice.

That was how I picked the interest in grass cutter farming and I was about 14 years old then. So, when I decided to go into it, it was like confirming what was to be, and no one would tell me it cannot have up to eight litters because I witnessed it as a child.

When did you begin to see grass cutter farming as business?

I started by getting my breeding stock from Gabon

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Some trainees in a group photograph with Prince Arinze Onebunne during a seminar in Abuja recently through a friend, who lives in that country. Initially, I was doing it as a hobby and before long; the whole place was filled with grass cutters. We kept them in a wooden cage. That is why I tell people that you need very little capital to start the business. You can build a cage with about N7, 000 and any roadside carpenter can do it. The breeding stock of one male and four females is sold for N45, 000 even though you can get the local breed for N35, 000. The crossbreed is N45, 000 and the cost depends on the age, weight and species.

The early days were quite challenging and interesting because what I am giving my glass cutter today is not what I gave them when I started 15 years ago.

I have done a lot of research and gained experience over the years.

Then I was giving them only grass and their performance were not good enough. Later, I started adding supplements. Today, they are breeding very well.

In those early days, because of lack of knowledge, the animals were dying. For instance, we were going in the mornings to cut the grass for their feeding but we did not know that it was dangerous because some insects like caterpillar and moth that stick on the grass are harmful to the glass cutter. If you go in the morning to cut grass for them, you may end up giving them poison and that was what we were doing and the animals were dying. So, we later found out that the best time to cut grass for them was from 2p.m. because by then, the sun would have drove the insects away.

How much does a novice need to start and what are

the prospects in this system of farming?

The business is not capital intensive, with as little as N52, 000; one can conveniently start the business but let me warn here that you also need to go for training. It is very important.

Because I had no prior knowledge of the business I was doing trial and error, which made me to do a lot of research so as to get it right. Now, I know the nittygritty of the business and every information that can guide a new comer is readily available. What I mean is that I know grass cutter “inside-out” now.

As for the prospect in the business, it is very profitable business with high returns on the investment. It is the only livestock farming where you won’t need to spend much on feed. If you are talking about pig farming, you must buy food for pigs, if it is fish, rabbit, poultry it is the same thing, but for grass cutter farming, if you are not lazy and proud, the only thing you need to do is to buy cutlass and rain boots and now look for the elephant grass to cut for them.

Anywhere you go to get this, it is free.

Apart from grass, they also eat cassava and we know that cassava is the cheapest carbohydrate you can think of. There are supplements we give them too like Palm Kernel Cake (PKC), calcium from crushed animal bones. Toasted soya beans mixed with cassava is a good source of protein. These supplements would give them rapid growth and help them to produce large number of litters. Feeding them is not a problem as the animals are fed twice a day – morning and

evening. That is why I tell people that grass cutter farming is interesting and convenient. You can do it even while in full employment. It can be done on part-time basis even as you combine it with other businesses.

So, I am calling on civil servants and others to embrace this method of farming to boost their incomes.

Grasscutter farming is the cheapest livestock business one can go into because you can start it with as little as N52, 000, you do not need to buy land or build a new structure. You can put the cage in any available space in your house. It could be your corridor, kitchen, garage, under the staircase or in your backyard.

You can start with a breeding family, which is made up of one male and four females and in the next eight months, you will have about 32 litters from the four females. Grass cutter can reproduce twice in a year.

I am appealing to Nigerians to embrace this business because it can help create jobs and alleviate poverty. Our young graduates want to work in oil companies and banks, nobody wants to go into farming, and they all want white collar jobs. What they do not know is that they can discover gold in grass cutter farming because the profit margin is about 500 per cent. One breeding family will give you 256 litters in four years which is their breeding circle and one female grass cutter will give you 64 litters in four years. You can stock the litters to grow for the table or you sell them. You can make up to N340, 000 from one female grass cutter and when she has completed the breeding circle, you can sell it as

bush meat. After eight months, you can start making profit. You buy the breeding stock at four months and when they grow to eight months, they start producing litters. If you do not have a place to expand, you can sell the litters. They can carry their babies up to five months.

How and where does a farmer carry out the marketing of animals, considering the fact that there beef, chicken and fish are more visible and probably affordable than the grass cutter meat?

Grass cutter meat is a delicacy; it is like hot cake in many restaurants, and the easiest meat to market is grass cutter. Go to any big restaurant, if they do not have grass cutter meat in their menu, it means they do not know where to get it. Even if you produce 10 container-loads of grass cutter meat in Lagos, you will find market for them. The meat is delicious and filled with health benefits. Even doctors advise patients to eat it because it is white meat; it is not like cow meat, which is red meat and has low cholesterol. You cannot compare it with any other type of meat because it is very delicious. It is even more delicious than snail meat, so the market is there. Grass cutter meat is very easy to sell anywhere in the country.

The last time I was in Calabar for my nationwide sensitization seminar-project, I almost wept because elephant grass was everywhere and the people did not know what to do with it. When my participants came, I told them not to wait for government for employment, that they should start raising grass cutter to make good money. Anybody who has failed in any other livestock farming business cannot fail with grass cutter business because it is very convenient, cheap and easy to do. There is no financial stress; you do not borrow money to buy the feed.

How can grass cutter farming be used to alleviation poverty and create jobs for Nigerians?

Government is supposed to create the enabling environment and capacity for the business to thrive. I discovered that the government is only paying lip service concerning the youth empowerment programmes. In some states, what the governors do as a way of alleviating poverty is to buy motorcycle, wheelbarrow, truck and tri-cycle for people.

Meanwhile, the roads are filled with able-bodied young men, who should be engaged in farming. It is in a bid to empower our youths that I embarked on a nation- wide sensitization campaign in agriculture to create awareness on how grass cutter farming can curb unemployment and alleviate poverty. Today, we hold seminars in almost 30 states capitals in Nigeria.

PAGE 36

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

A daily can of diet fizzy drink ‘increases risk of heart attack or stroke’ D rinking just a single can of diet fizzy drink every day can increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke, research has revealed.

The new findings have suggested that just a couple of daily cans of the supposedly ‘healthier’ carbonated drinks, such as lemonade or cola, can raise the risk of liver damage, as well as potentially causing diabetes and heart damage.

Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center claim those who drink diet soft drinks are 43 per cent more likely to have heart attacks, vascular disease or strokes than those who have none.

Previous analysis of soft drinks has shown that the soft drinks, which have a substantial amount of artificial sweeteners, can cause liver disease similar to that caused by chronic alcoholism.

‘Diet’ fizzy drinks are marketed as a healthy option in comparison to ‘full fat’ alternatives as they have fewer calories.

But their genuine health benefits remain unclear, with some research suggesting they

Diet fizzy drinks are marketed as a healthy option, but in reality their health benefits over full-fat alternatives remain unclear trigger people’s appetites even more.

The U.S. research team studied the soft drink and diet soft

drink consumption of 2,564 study participants over a 10-year period - along with their risk of stroke, heart attack and vascular death.

They found those who drank diet soft drinks every day were 43 per cent more likely to have suffered a ‘vascular’ or blood vessel

event than those who drank none, after allowing for pre-existing vascular conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Ms Gardener said: ‘Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes.

‘The mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect vascular events are unclear.’

She added, however, that the mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect ‘vascular events’ are not clear, and that more research was needed into the subject before significant conclusions could be drawn about the health consequences of soft drink consumption.

Diet soft drinks often contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which has been linked to other health problems such as cancer. However to date, heath watchdogs, including the UK’s Food Standards Agency, have ruled out any link to ill-health.

The latest study appears in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Struggling for a year to get pregnant?

Study reveals why you should try again I f you have been struggling to get pregnant for a year, you still have almost as much chance of having a baby naturally as of conceiving by using fertility hormones or IVF, doctors have found.

Almost half of women who said they’d been struggling to get pregnant for at least a year ended up having a baby despite not getting fertility treatment, reveals a new study from Australia.

That success rate was only slightly lower than in women who also reported trouble conceiving and opted for treatment with fertility hormones or in vitro fertilization (IVF).

‘Many women aged up to 36 years with a history of infertility can achieve spontaneous conception and live birth without using fertility treatment indicating (they) are sub-fertile rather than infertile,’ study researcher Danielle Herbert of the University of Queensland School of Population Health in Brisbane said.

That means that if nothing is clearly wrong — men make enough sperm, and women are ovulating regularly — couples who have had trouble conceiving should still be optimistic they can get pregnant on their own, researchers said.

‘I’m not surprised that women who were not treated still get pregnant — we know that,’ said Dr. Courtney Lynch,

head of reproductive epidemiology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

‘We know we can get women pregnant quicker if we have them go into IVF, but if we give women time, (many of them) can still get pregnant.’

The research is part of a longterm study of more than 7,000 women living in Australia.

Starting in 1996, participants filled out health surveys every few years, which included questions on pregnancy and childbirth.

The current data is from about 1,400 women age 28 to 36 who reported on the most recent questionnaires that they’d tried unsuccessfully to get

pregnant for at least a year at a time.

Close to 600 of those women said they’d received infertility treatment using IVF or fertility hormones, including Clomid.

Through the latest survey in 2009, 53 percent of those women said they had a baby following fertility treatment, compared to 44 percent of women who’d had trouble conceiving but didn’t seek treatment, the researchers reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

For women who did have a baby, there was no difference in pregnancy complications — including stillbirths or premature births — between those who did and didn’t get fertility treatment.

In the study, 53 per cent of those who had struggled to conceive for a year, conceived after fertility treatment or IVF (pictured)

Herbert and her colleagues pointed out some limitations of the report, including that they didn’t know if women changed male partners at any point during the study period, which could have affected their chances of becoming pregnant.

And one fertility researcher not involved in the new study said it’s impossible to know whether women who didn’t get treatment lost or gained weight, or changed their diet and lifestyle to improve their chances of becoming pregnant.

Alice Domar, of Boston IVF, said that the number of women who got pregnant without treatment after a year of infertility is higher than previous studies have suggested.

‘What a lot of physicians feel is if you’re not pregnant within a year, it usually means there’s something going on.’

Domar said she would still recommend a woman who’s been trying to get pregnant for that long get checked out to see if there’s anything preventing her from conceiving. If not, she can keep trying. But if, for example, her tubes are blocked, any extra waiting is ‘time out the window,’ she said.

Lynch said that about 15 percent of women won’t get pregnant after a year of trying, but only three to five percent of them are truly infertile. The rest will likely conceive on their own after another year or two.

‘There are a lot of patients that don’t want to wait another year, especially if you’re an older patient,’ Lynch said — and they might want fertility treatment, even if pregnancy without it may be possible.

‘But if you’re 28, I think waiting another year makes sense potentially before going on a treatment.’

According to Domar, most women who can’t get pregnant will only need treatment with fertility hormones, which cost about 70 pence a day, to get ovulation back to normal. IVF, on the other hand, runs for about £10,000 a cycle.

The findings can be seen as encouraging for some women, Domar said.

‘It means if you’ve been trying for a year and you’re young and you have unexplained infertility, according to this data you have a decent chance of spontaneously conceiving,’ Domar said.

Dr. Sacha Krieg, an ob-gyn who studies recurrent pregnancy loss at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, agreed.

‘Women should still be hopeful that they’re going to get pregnant, even if they’ve been trying for an entire year,’ she said.

However, Kreid agged, ‘I wouldn’t want this to (dissuade) women from seeing a fertility specialist and being evaluated.’

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 41

Flamingoes resume training on Friday

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he U-17 Women National team, nicknamed Flamingoes, will on Fridayreturn to camp from a five-day break, to start preparation in earnestfor the final round of African qualifiers for the 2012 FIFA U17Women’s World Cup finals, holding in Azerbaijan.

Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, Barrister Chris Green, saidafter

No security threats, CSO assures

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he Chief Security Officer of the National teams,(CSO) assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Gideon Akinsola has said that the team has nothing to fear about security threat in any quarters.

He revealed that football as a unifying factor in the country does not have room for sectional, religious or political bias; hence he does not foresee any security threat.

Despite that, he declared that security around the team is water-tight as nothing is been taken for granted.

He praised the matured disposition of the officials led

by Head Coach Stephen Keshi, noting that it has made the job of the security team detailed to the squad easier.

“Every Nigerian is interested in this team and its fortunes and we don’t envisage and threat to the players and officials, but we still take necessary steps to ensure that all is well with the team security wise”, he said.

the team’s victory against Kenya on Saturday that the team wouldobserve a 5-day break ahead of the potentially explosive final roundfixture against Zambia, coming up next month.”

We decided to allow the girls and the technical crew a 5-day break torefresh, after which they will regroup in Abuja on Friday.

Despite thecomfortable

aggregate win over Kenya, we have observed a number ofthings that the team has to perfect before the next fixture.”The Zambians would not be easy.

I learnt they dismissed Botswana 5-1in Botswana in their first leg match. So, we have to be at our bestfor the two-leg encounter”, said Green, who watched the match inAbeokuta.

The Flamingoes host the first

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Players smile as camp re-union

miles and shouts of pet names among players as Home based Eagles camp bubbled yesterday in Abuja. One noticeable trend was the manner the players arrived from the same club side to the camp, the likes of Warri Wolves Chigozie Agbim and Azubuike Egwueke, who incidentally shares the

in the national camp. “We are benefiting a lot from the national team handlers, though our coaches at club level are also very good, but we keep learning” Kola Anubi spoke in the same vein, as he beamed with smiles

Chris Green

while reviewing his absence from camp in the last two weeks.

“Bros, I must say it’s good to be back, we are like a family here, one father, one mother, and victory is the goal all the time” he said.

21 players hit camp as Eagles training starts today – Keshi Stories by Albert Akaota

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uper Eagles camp at Bolton White Apartment in Zone 7, Abuja came alive yesterday afternoon with twenty one players in camp, other nine players were expected before the close of today, team coordinator, Emmanuel Atta revealed.

Those already in camp as a press time include, Chigozie Agbim, who currently skippers the team and his other two colleagues between the post, Okemute Odah and Dan Akpeyi.

Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, who spoke through one of his assistants Ike Shorunmu, revealed that training was not held yesterday evening because most of the players who came late were fagged out through jet-leg

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John Obuh

same room, came in together with their other team mates.

Speaking on the arrival in camp, Bathlomew Ibenegbu alias Mosquito, who was one of the earliest arrivals in camp, said it was simply exciting to be back

leg of the fixture against the Zambians,on March 10, before the return leg in Lusaka two weeks later.On Saturday, goals

by Tessy Biahwoh, Yetunde Adeboyejo and HalimaAyinde saw the Flamingoes to a 3-0 win, to make for 5-0 triumph onaggregate.

All the goals were scored in the second half, during whichBiahwoh also missed a penalty kick.

he pressure is mounting on the Sharks coach John Obuh following the club’s poor start in the Nigeria Premier League (NPL). Saturday’s 0-0 draw against newly promoted Akwa United at the Sharks FC Stadium means the club has won just once this season.

The Blue Angels had suffered a morale shattering 0-5 reverse at the Pantami Memorial Stadium against Gombe United a few days earlier leading to some voices of dissent rising within the fold of the team.

Sharks were impressive in the 2010/2011 season, missing out

and transport hassles and needed to rest for proper training to commence today morning at the National Stadium in Abuja. Keshi is expected to lead the usually rigorous training, as the team steadies for the friendly against Liberia in eight days time and the all important Nations Cup qualifier against Rwanda in Kigali on February 29.

As at yesterday players in the camp were:

Chigozie Agbim, Azubuike Egwueke, Sunday Mba, Anubi Kolawole, Ejike Ozoenyi, Bathlomew Ibenegbu, Okemute Odah, Juwon Oshaniwa, Ossai Uche, Gbenga arokoyo, Oboabona Godfrey, Uche Oguchi, Kabir Umar, Kalu Uche, Henry Uche, Barnabas Imenger, Daniel Akpeyi, Kingsley Salami, Chidi Osuchukwu, Daniel Essien, Jude Aneke.

Obuh faces sack on the continental places by whiskers and playing an attractive brand of football unmatched by many of the top clubs in the division.

The ‘core of the Sharks team,’ Odinga Odinga, Victor Ezeji, Alhassane Dosso, Juwon Oshaniwa, Fortune Chukwudi, Gomo Onduku and Thankgod Amaefule are still within the fold leading to questions about an absence of motivation amongst the players.

A senior player of the Sharks team who spoke to SuperSport.com on condition of anonymity explained that motivation at the club is at its nadir as players are currently owed financial entitlements from last season.

“The players are not motivated. Players are owed match bonuses. For the past 14 matches, we have not been paid a dime as regards match bonuses. “It’s a ridiculous

Keshi

situation because nobody even talks about it. Signing-on fees for the present season have not been paid and we have also not been paid salaries in 2012,” the player said.

Players click into form in no time as the team have been displaying relegation form this season with just a point recorded from a possible nine from their last three games.

The pressure is on for Obuh and anything less than at least three points from the club’s next two games could signal trouble for the former Flying Eagles’ man.

PAGE 42

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he Acting Secretary of the Nigeria Premier League, (NPL) Tunji Babalola has ruled out the possibility of granting match postponement or waiver to clubs with players in the national teams.

Premier League rules allow clubs with more than five players in the national teams to apply for the postponement of their matches.

The scribe noted that some clubs have as many as six players in the recent 30-man Super Eagles’ list for the February 15 international friendly against the Lone Stars of Liberia in Monrovia and are in the

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

No clubs waiver, says NPL secretary forefront pushing to leverage on the provision.

The NPL acting executive secretary

Baribote

Ogbeide frowns at NPL’s schedule

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kwa United manager, Solomon Ogbeide has voiced his frustrations at the manner in which matches have been scheduled in this season’s Nigeria Premier League (NPL).

Akwa United were impressive in Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Sharks in Port Harcourt but the gaffer believes his side would have racked up maximum points if the calendar had been kinder to his team.

All Clubs in the NPL play two (mid-week and weekend) games every week and Ogbeide says that will only affect the performance from the playing personnel.

“The scheduling list is very difficult for the players. They are usually very tired after games and since almost all the clubs travel by road, the players usually do not have time to recover,” Ogbeide explained.

The former Sharks’ trainer also expressed fears that players may ‘break down’ as a result of the ‘choked up schedule’ of matches in the NPL. “Players may break down because of the choked up schedule. (Akwa United) has played eight matches in a space of eight days and we still have another match coming up in the next few days.

“This is not too good and the NPL must look into this,” he stressed.

Ogbeide also took the time to reflect on his side’s 1-1 draw against Sharks stressing that his players will not get carried away by their achievement.

“The draw against Sharks was a good result but we are not getting carried away.

We are the new kids on the block.

“We are not too ambitious. We don’t expect too much this season because we just gained promotion to the NPL and right now, we are only concerned about consolidating our position on the table,” he said.

further disclosed that any club who intend to embark on the journey should erase the idea from their minds.

“We can’t allow it; we made that view known to the clubs before the start of the season.That is the reason we allowed them to register 35 players each.The league is already behind schedule, if we allow it that means we won’t finish the season.

There is provision in the rules that allows it, but it won’t apply this season. It will surely disrupt the timetable. It’s subject to abuse. In fact, last season, clubs abused it and it contributed in part to the clumsy ending of the season,” he said.

Babalola informed that matches will resume at the weekend with Week 8 matches.

“No, there are no mid-week matches. We want teams to rest and resume at the weekend with Week 8 games,” he said.

Ghana players dedicate win to Annan

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he Ghana players have dedicated their hard-fought 2-1 Africa Nations Cup quarterfinal win over Tunisia to bereaved teammate Anthony Ann an.

The Black Stars wore black armbands as a sign of respect to Madam Sophia Sampson, the mother of Annan, who died on Thursday evening.

Annan played in full throttle in his usual central midfield role despite the emotional situation he was facing.

Captain John Mensah says the win is a befitting parting present to the Annan f a mi l y .

“We dedicated this victory to Anthony Annan especially his mother because we all know he lost his mother when we were preparation for a tough game like this,” Mensah said.

The Black Stars traveled Franceville yesterday to Bata, Equatorial Guinea, where they play Zambia in tomorrow’s semifinal.

Ghana football team

Seydou Keita

Keita emerges unquestionable leader

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eydou Keita has emerged as undisputed leader of an exciting young Mali side six months after returning from a 20month hiatus from the international game.

The 32-year-old Barcelona midfielder was carried high on the shoulders of his teammates after scoring the decisive penalty in the shootout against Gabon in their African Nations Cup quarterfinal on Sunday.

It was an unlikely scenario a year ago when he was still refusing to play for the team in protest at what he saw as bad organisation by the country’s soccer federation.

“It wasn’t easy to score that penalty but this win is as good as any I’ve had at Barcelona,” said Keita, who took centre stage at a news conference while coach Alain Giresse and captain Cedric Kante listened attentively.

“I’m one of the older players in the team but I feel younger than any of the other squad members right now.”

Keita ignored his country’s call-ups after the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola, where much was expected from Mali before they went out in the first round.

Persuaded back in September last year, he competed in the last two qualifiers to ensure Mali’s participation at the tournament in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon and is now at the heart of a side that has undergone much change under Giresse.

Sani set 25 goals target

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urrent top scorer in the 2011/2012 Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Sanusi Sani has outlined his target for the ongoing season.

The highly-rated attacker is the form player in the NPL having netted four times in his last two games for the Desert Scorpions.

Speaking after he scored a super goal against champions, Dolphins at the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium, the striker outlined his objectives for the season explaining that he would love to score 25 times this season.

The current goals record for a single season is held by Warri Wolves’ striker, Jude Aneke who scored 20 goals for Kaduna United last season.

“I want to score 25 goals this season. It won’t be easy but with hard work and the support of my teammates, I believe I can achieve it,” he said.

The attacker who has forged a fearsome strike partnership with teenage striker, Mustapha Babadi also discussed the collaboration that has fetched 12 goals for the league leaders this season.

“We both understand ourselves as we have been playing together for some time now. The coach (Bernard Ogbe) has also been a big help to us with his words of advice,” he said.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 43

Drogba targets highest goals scorer I Didier Drogba

vorian striker Didier Drogba will be one of the favorites for the top-scorers award at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations after his brace against Sudan.

Drogba scored twice against co-hosts Equatorial Guinea in the 3-0 quarterfinal win that sets up a semifinal meeting with

Capello opposes Terry losing captaincy

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ngland coach Fabio Capello has expressed disapproval with the English Football Association’s decision to strip John Terry of the national team’s captaincy.

Terry was removed as captain on Friday because his racial abuse trial won’t be held until after the European Championship.

Capello told Italy’s state broadcaster RAI that he “absolutely” doesn’t agree with FA chairman David Bernstein’s decision.

Capello says “I spoke with the chairman and I told him that I don’t think someone can be punished until it becomes official,” adding that it’s “going to be civil justice, not sports justice, to decide if John Terry committed that crime.”

He says “I thought it fair that John Terry keeps the captain’s arm band .”

Ghana far from trophy, says Ayew G

hana match winner, Andre Ayew says the black stars are still far from winning the Africa Nations Cup title despite progressing to the semifinals.

The Olympique Marseille ace struck the match winner in the first half of extra-time which secured a 2-1 win over tenman Tunisia.

Ghana will now play Zambia tomorrow in Bata, aiming for a second successive appearance in the final.

Ayew wants his team to keep their focus on beating the Chipolopolo before dreaming of winning a fifth continental trophy.

“The title now is far and what is now important is Zambia.

We are going to concentrate. Think about Zambia,” he said.

Zambia.

It took Drogba’s tally to three for the tournament and he now goes into a head-to-head battle with Chipolopolo forward Chris Katongo, also on three goals.

The other players on that mark are Manucho (Angola), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

(Gabon) and Houssine Kharja (Morocco), but they have all exited the competition.

Ghana’s André Ayew and John Mensah each have two goals, as does Zambian forward Emmanuel Mayuka.

Drogba could even afford to miss a penalty against the

Equatorial Guineans, but showed the experience and composure to bounce back and net twice.

“My team-mates gave me a lot of encouragement after missing the penalty and I had to score for them,” Drogba said. “I owed it to them. I was proud of the team.”

Gabon coach proud of player’s reliance

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n spite Gabon’s elimination at the quarterfinal stage of the Africa Nations Cup to Mali, coach Gernot Rohr does not blame his players.

The irony of the story is that the hero of Gabon’s unbeaten run in their Group phase, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was the one who handed Mali the victory when his penalty was saved in the shootout.

Aubameyang came so close to scoring his fourth goal of the tournament in regulation time the Saint-Etienne striker saw his ball bounce off the Mali post and then his dream turned into a nightmare.

But the Panthers’ coach refused to blame the young star.

“I prefer to say that the ‘keeper of the opposing team managed an outstanding feat, because Pierre-Emerick’s strike wasn’t bad at all. We’re behind him all the way,” stated Gernot Rohr after the match.

And the latter is proud of his entire team’s performance.

“They can come out of this competition with their heads held high after three victories

and a draw. They created a good impression,” added the Franco-German technician.

Gabor coach Gernot Rohr

Empty stands as Gabon exit

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o-hosts Gabon shrugged off their African Nations Cup exit with an indifference that threatens to be mirrored by empty seats as public interest in the latter stages of the tournament wanes.

A team more used to being on the losing end in major matches had surpassed expectations by reaching the quarterfinals and after defeat

by Mali on penalties on Sunday they chose to look on the bright side rather than dwell on

disappointment.

“The team gave a lot physically in the pool matches and many of the players were not used to that kind of intensity in games against such quality opposition,” Coach Gernot Rohr told reporters. “My team gave everything they had.”

Locals, who took until halftime to fill the stadium for their team’s big game, have shown even less interest in matches not involving Gabon to raise questions over the attendance for tomorrow

semifinal and Sunday’s final in Libreville.

Once they were in the stands at their Chinese-built 45 000capacity stadium, Gabonese provided a rollicking atmosphere for the later stages of a game that Mali won 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

But fans hardly seemed disconsolate afterwards despite the visible grief of striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the only player to miss in the shootout, and the mood was echoed by much of the team.

Eto’o tips Drogba for AFCON crown

C Andre Ayew

ameroon and Anzhi Makhachkala striker Samuel Eto’o has tipped Ivory Coast captain Didier Drogba to lift the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, (AFCON).

Eto’o, who is currently in Libreville as an ambassador of a campaign founded by Gabonese first lady Sylivia Bongo Ondimba, the SANS SIDA - a non-government organization fighting Aids.

The 30-year-old striker was not so keen in talking about football, rather than his mission, hence all he could say was that he wishes Drogba wel l.

“I am wishing Drogba all the best. At his age, he needs the victory more.”

Cameroon was amongst other disappointing African powerhouses who failed to qualify for this event. The other regular campaigners

include Nigeria, Egypt and the ever disappointing South Af ric a.

Eto’o also did not forget to ask for backing in his strives to fight this common disease.

“Roger Milla influenced my career and I want every young kid to have a role model,” he said.

“Let us try to be open with the young society about the danger of Aids. It should not be a taboo.”

PAGE 44

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Munroe overcomes Saez in 170 seconds

Dickson fit for England in Italy

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ngland reserve scrum-half Lee Dickson will be fit for Six Nations match with Italy in Rome despite fracturing his hand against Scotland. The 26year-old replaced Ben Youngs at Murrayfield and broke a bone, but the injury has been described as stable.

Toby Flood has been recalled to the squad after recovering from a knee injury and replaces Alex Goode.

Coach Stuart Lancaster must decide between Flood and Charlie Hodgson, who scored in the 13-6 win over Scotland.

England is monitoring the shoulder injury that forced Hodgson to leave the field against Scotland in the second half.

Karl Dickson was drafted in as a replacement for his younger brother, who was initially told he would be sidelined for four weeks after suffering a fractured metacarpal in his left hand.

The elder Dickson will still train with the squad before leaving the camp with those not selected.

Courtney Lawes (knee), Manu Tuilagi (calf) and Tom Wood (foot) will remain with their clubs to continue their rehabilitation from injury.

Jones warns triumphant Wales

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yan Jones has warned Wales “not to rest on their laurels” after their opening Six Nations win over Ireland.

The double Grand Slam winner has also told his Welsh team-mates to forget about winning Championships as they prepare for Sunday’s visit of Scotland.

“We’re a bit early to talk about Grand Slams, we’re only one game in,” said the experienced Ospreys forward.

“It is not about resting on your laurels, it is about building on the confidence we’ve gained from this.”

Jones is one of the most experienced players in the Wales squad and the former skipper, who captained his country 27 times, was back to his impressive best at blind-side flanker in Wales’ thrilling 23-21 victory in Dublin.

But Jones, inspirational in Wales’ 2005 and 2008 Grand Slam winning campaigns, insists Wales should not be celebrating too much after their first win since ending Ireland’s World Cup dream in October.

The 30-year-old, who won his 59th international cap in Dublin on Sunday, excelled as he replaced World Cup blind-sides Dan Lydiate, missing with ankle trouble, but reminded his young team-mates to keep focused.

“It was by no means a complete

Ryan Jones

performance,” insisted Jones.

“There will be lots of finger pointing and we’ll tear apart the game, looking at areas of concerns and weakness we perceive that we have and build on them.

“We have to take the positives but there are some lineout issues we have to iron out, we’d like a bit more from our scrum, we have to work on our breakdown and we have to look at our ball retention.

Rendall Munroe

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eicester’s Rendall Munroe took just one round to beat Argentina’s Jose Saez in a non-title superbantamweight fight.

The 32-year-old former European champion claimed victory in 170 seconds at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium.

Munroe said Leicester: “The opponent

was a good opponent and I’ve proved my calibre again.

“I wanted to go out and make a statement and show people that I am still h un g r y. ” He continued: “My last couple of fights I’ve shown I can box as well as fight and now I’ve switched it around showing I can fight and I’m a hard puncher.”

Last year, Munroe decided to drop down a division to bantamweight but remained at super-bantamweight for his fight with Saez after failing to secure an opponent at his level.

He added: “I’m hoping to get a world title eliminator to give me the chance to fight for a world title again. The talks are in the pipeline and hopefully that will happen soon.

“I will have a week off and get into a bit of roadwork and keep ticking over until I get another date.”

Pakistan whitewash England in Dubia E

ngland slumped to a 71-run defeat in the third Test in Dubai to suffer a series whitewash by Pakistan for the first time.

Set 324 to win, the England top order was undone by spin before Umar Gul (4-61) ripped through the middle order.

Alastair Cook (49) offered some resistance, only to succumb to offspinner Saeed Ajmal (4-67).

Matt Prior showed late aggression and was unbeaten on 49 as England was bowled out for 252.

The wicketkeeper’s efforts at least took England past 200 for only the second time in the series, but another poor performance was typical of the way their batsmen have failed throughout the tour.

They managed only five halfcenturies in three Tests, while Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Ian Bell mustered fewer than 200 runs between them.

Indeed, on the entire tour, those three players failed to pass 40 in 29 innings, and Morgan’s place especially looks under threat for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka in March and April.

England could be on the verge of being usurped as the world’s number one Test side, as South Africa will move to the top of the rankings if they whitewash New Zealand 3-0.

For Pakistan, victory after being bowled out for 99 on the first day ensured they became the first side since 1907 to win a Test after making fewer than 100 in the first innings.

It completed a remarkable turnaround since the sides last met in England in 2010, a series

overshadowed by the spot-fixing scandal.

Pakistan is unbeaten in seven series under captain Misbah-ul-Haq, but this result is by far their most impressive.

Their success came mainly thanks to the artistry of Ajmal and slow left-

Armer Abdur Rehman

Armer Abdur Rehman, who combined to take 43 wickets in three matches.

England, who resumed on 36-0, needing to achieve their secondhighest Test run chase for victory, the duo made short work of the top order before Gul’s burst.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 45

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Pix 1: Ryan Jones warns Wales "not to rest on their laurels" after their opening 2321 Six Nations win over Ireland.

P i c t o r i a l

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Pix 2: Captain Judy Murray hopes to capitalise on Britain's successful Fed Cup week by bringing the side back for a home tie for the first time in 19 years.

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Pix 3: England coach Fabio Capello may have breached his contract by publicly criticising the Football Association's move to remove John Terry as captain, says former FA executive director David Davies.

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Pix 4: England slump to 71run defeat in the third Test in Dubai to suffer a series whitewash by Pakistan for the first time.

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Pix 5: World Champions Argentina beat Great Britain 10 to win the Champions Trophy.

Pix 6: Scotland's Paul Lawrie shoots a final-day 65 to win the Qatar Masters and continue his fine start to 2012.

2

Pix 7: USA beat Belarus in Massachusetts to reach the play-offs for the Fed Cup World Group.

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PAGE 46

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is regarded by his Schalke team-mates as a witty character and something of a prankster. Interviewed exclusively by FIFA.com, the Netherlands striker certainly lived up to his reputation, although he is perfectly capable of seriousness when the subject demands.

The 28-year-old, who is nicknamed ‘Hunter’, was in relaxed and cheerful mood as he spoke extensively about his career, his close relationship w ith his father, the secret behind his goalscoring success, and his professional targets w ith Die Königsblauen and the Oranje.

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laas-Jan, you started scoring goals as a kid with VV Hummelo & Keppel. Did you always want to become a professional footballer?

I never really doubted I’d make it as a pro at some point, because it was the only thing I wanted ever since I was little. Right from the start, everything I did was aimed at fulfilling my goal, and I never deviated from my chosen course. Thanks to the support of my family and friends, I ultimately succeeded in being able to live well from football.

You first signed pro forms in Eindhoven. What were your personal goals at the time?

As a kid, I was desperate to play for Ajax in Amsterdam. That was my greatest dream, but as it turned out, I became a professional with PSV of all clubs, Ajax’s biggest rivals (laughs). However, I’ve always stayed true to myself. I ended up at Ajax by a roundabout route, and I seized my chance once I was there.

The ‘roundabout route’ was Heerenveen, where you first came to European attention, and where you were christened ‘Hunter’. What do you think of your nickname?

There are much worse nicknames (laughs). I like Hunter, but it means nothing more to me than a name. It’s what happens in football. All I want is to score goals, enjoy playing and be successful. The only thing that matters is what happens on the pitch. Everything else is a pleasant distraction but unimportant.

Your spells with Real Madrid and AC Milan were, relatively speaking, a bit of a letdown. Would you do it all over again?

You always know better with the benefit of hindsight, but you still don’t know what the alternatives would have been. Real Madrid is a fantastic club. I really liked their attacking play, and I felt the club played very good football. I appreciated that. Italian football is a bit different, but it has its good points too.

As people sometimes say, every rose has thorns.

My dad drives me to Schalke two or three times a week. It’s a bit like when I was a youth. We talk about my form and football in general.

Schalke being so near to our home is ideal.

A number of pundits thought that you’d prick your finger on your newest ‘rose’ when you switched to Schalke in 2010. At first glance, it appeared to be a step backwards, but it’s started to look like a very good decision...

There’s no way joining Schalke was a step backwards. The club is always there or thereabouts at the top in Germany and after my spell with AC Milan, the transfer was a step in the right direction, especially because I was picked to play in my favoured position of centre-forward at long last.

Immediately after your arrival, you started scoring at will. Leaving aside returning to your favourite position, what contribution to your excellent form is the proximity to your place of birth in Drempt, a long, long way from all the distractions in Madrid and Milan?

I had no problem with the glamorous lifestyle in Madrid and Milan. My wife and I had a great time in Spain, where our first child was born. Now we’re living in our house in the Netherlands, and I’m able to concentrate on football even more.

Family is clearly very important to you. You already have two children, but you’re also known for an extremely close relationship with your father. Is it true that he still drives you to training?

That’s right, my dad drives me to Schalke two or three times a week. It’s a bit like when I was a youth. We talk about my form and football in general. He’s helped me enormously to become the person I am today. My family is very important to me and strongly affects my performance. The situation with Schalke being so near to our home is ideal.

The situation with your club is also close to ideal, as Schalke are right in the thick of things at the top of the Bundesliga along with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach. What can Schalke achieve this season?

We want to stay right up at the top for a very long time. The title won’t be decided until the last four matches, and our aim is to keep pace with Dortmund and Bayern up until that point.

It’s all in your own hands, or to be more precise, your feet. You’re having a very good campaign, with an impressive 27 goals in 29 matches.

How would you review the season so far?

I’ll keep trying to score goals. I always give everything out on the field and I focus on taking my chances. However, what matters is a victory for the team, and I really don’t care whether I contribute a goal or an assist to that. The decisive thing is that we work together, and then individual success follows automatically.

Your team-mate Lewis Holtby once said you’d keep scoring even if they removed your head. What’s the secret of your success?

Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day! Seriously, I try to concentrate totally and exclusively on every situation which occurs in a match, and extract the maximum from it. If I see a gap in the defence, I try to take the ball towards goal. Depending on how the chance opens up, I take different decisions aimed at achieving the greatest success.

Your team-mates at Schalke describe you as a witty guy who likes a joke and a prank. Is that a fair assessment?

I’m a jolly character, that’s true. For all the focus and pressure, it’s really

important to me to enjoy my football, and my life away from the game. That’s how I deliver my best performances.

Some of your best recent performances have come for the Netherlands, who you also helped to the runners-up spot at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Was that simultaneously a great success and a desperate disappointment?

We went a very long way, and our victory over Brazil was very special indeed. You’re always gutted when you lose a final, although for me personally, I’d have liked to make a bigger contribution to the team’s success. It didn’t work out unfortunately, so looking back on it now, I’m a touch disappointed.

However, after the FIFA World Cup, you emerged as the goalscoring star of qualifying for EURO 2012. What’s your role in the national team nowadays?

I’ve played a lot recently and we had a great qualifying campaign as a team.

I managed to set a new scoring record, and that was fantastic. We’ll try and carry on from there. Our last friendly against Germany was disappointing (a 3-0 loss in November), but the build-up to the EURO only starts for real now.

You face Germany again in the group stage. Meetings with the Germans are always special for Dutch players, but are it even a little bit more special due to the fact you play in the Bundesliga?

Obviously, it will be a very special game for me, because I know all the German players from the Bundesliga. Playing Germany at the tournament will be great, and I’m looking forward to it. At Schalke, we’re winding each other up about it a little bit already (laughs).

You also play Denmark, opponents who you know from South Africa, where you beat them.

It wasn’t easy against Denmark at the World Cup. We only took the lead due to an own-goal. They have a good team with great individuals like Christian Eriksen, Simon Kjaer and Nicklas Bendtner. They’re all playing at a very high level and their qualifying campaign showed they shouldn’t be underestimated, as they beat Portugal to a qualifying place.

Your final group-stage opponents are the aforementioned Portugal, who boast your former team-mates Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe. How do you rate the Portuguese?

Pepe and Ronaldo are great players. They have the mentality you need to take a game by the scruff of the neck, as you see all the time when they play for Madrid. We don’t have much of a record against the Portuguese, as we lost to them at EURO 2004 and the World Cup in 2006. We want that to change this year.

Spain, the Netherlands and Germany are the big favourites to win EURO 2012. Being very honest, who do you think will win the trophy?

In my opinion, Spain is the favorites.

They’ve won the last two major tournaments, and they have the best midfield in the world. That makes them first in line for the European title, and they’re the team to beat.

Which other nations could upset the big three this summer?

I think Poland could surprise a few people, although I don’t think they can win the trophy.

The hosts always have a certain advantage over the other contenders. And maybe the Italians there’s a lot of fresh blood in their squad and they’re coming along very Klaas-Jan Huntelaar well.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

PAGE 47

Boonen wins tour of Qatar open

Argentina beat Britain to emerge champion

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elgium’s Tom Boonen won the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar as Britain’s Mark Cavendish made his Team Sky debut.

Cavendish had been struggling with illness in the lead up to the race and chose not to contest the sprint finish, coming home in 51st place.

Veteran Boonen finished ahead of Britain’s Adam Blythe and Peter Sagan of Slovakia to take an early lead.

Monday’s second stage is an 11.3km team time-trial on the motorcycle Grand Prix circuit of Lusail.

The win was a sign that Boonen is starting to get some of his old form back after an injury-wrecked 2011 when he recorded only two wins - one coming at the Tour of Qatar 12 months ago.

Boonen also won a stage last week at the Tour de San Luis in Argen tina.

“I am confident that I can still compete with all top sprinters out there, even though these days that is not my priority,” Boonen said.

“Last year at this time I was struggling with pains in my left leg which stemmed from the knee operation I had.

“That dragged on for months and then I broke bones in my hand in the Tour of Spain.

Today all that is behind me and at last I am free from injuries.”

The former world champion said he had been surprised at winning on Sunday having spent three days travelling to the Gulf from South America.

(L-R) Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell

Powell predicts Olympics 100m sweep

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safa Powell won the 50m at the US Open then predicted a Jamaican clean sweep of the 100m medals at London 2012 .

Powell has run the most sub 10-second 100m races in history, while Usain Bolt is the world record holder and Yohan Blake ranked world number one.

“Yes, it is very possible. Surely it can be done,” said Powell after clocking 5.64 sec onds on S aturday. “ We h ave s ome amazing runners.”

He beat compatriot Nesta Carter (5.67) and American Trell Kimmons (5.68).

Justin Gatlin, America, finished fourth (5.71) in the rarely contested event.

The world record - 5.56 seconds is held

jointly by Canada’s Donovan Bailey and American Maurice Greene.

“Nothing’s ever certain, not even for Usa in Bo lt,” adde d Pow ell, who was making his first indoor appearance since 2004.

“To run this well this early in the season is very promising. I’m very fit right now.

But I’m still not fast.”

Powell, the former world 100 m record holders is due to make his British indoor debut at the Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February.

The 29-year-old, who will be based in Birmingham with the rest of the Jamaica squad ahead of the Olympics , has a 100m personal best of 9.72 seconds.

Paul wins Qatar master title

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cotland’s Paul Lawrie shot a terrific final-day 65 to win the Qatar Masters and continue his fine start to 2012. The 1999 Open winner finished four strokes clear of Australia’s Jason Day and Sweden’s Peter Hanson.

The Doha tournament was reduced to 54 holes after strong winds allowed only three hours of play on Friday.

Lawrie, who carded 69 and 67 in the first two rounds, also earned top 10 finishes in last month’s Volvo Golf Champions and Abu Dhabi Championship.

The 43-year-old had never previously secured three successive European Tour top 10 finishes in a season and his blistering run

of form will lift him into the world top 50 for the first time in eight years when the rankings are next updated.

If he maintains his top 50 place until the end of the month he will earn his first start in April’s US Masters at Augusta since 2003.

Lawrie, who held a one-shot overnight lead heading into

Sunday’s final round, said: “I played nicely. I don’t think I can play much better than th at .

He began his third round with a 10-foot birdie putt but parred the next four as Sergio Garcia’s four birdies in eight holes lifted him into sole possession of second spot on eight under.

ritain’s first appearance in a Champions Trophy final ended in a valiant 1-0 defeat against world champions and hosts Argentina.

The only goal came in the first half when Silvina D’Elia’s penalty corner strike squeezed in, the only such set-piece GB conceded in the tournament.

Britain matched the favourites for much of the contest but despite a gritty display they had to settle for silver.

In the bronze medal match the Netherlands beat Germany 5-4.

Britain’s impressive run into their first major final must give them encouragement ahead of this summer’s Olympics on home soil. There was a jubilant atmosphere at a packed Rosario stadium but the match began quietly, with Britain reducing the hosts to just a handful of penalty corners in the first 20 minutes.

Argentina captain Luciana Aymar was perhaps fortunate to escape with only a green card for a cynical challenge but the home side, currently ranked second in the world, began to show glimpses of attacking flair, Rocio Sanchez Moccia displaying some intricate stick work.

The British team valiantly soaked up the pressure and broke effectively when the industrious Laura Bartlett freed Nicola White, who cut inside but saw her goal bound shot blocked.

However the British defence was finally breached when D’Elia’s shot bounced just in front of Beth Storry and went between the goalkeeper’s feet into the net.

Argentina now has five Champions Trophy wins, and only Australia and the Netherlands with six apiece have more Moments later Storry needed to be alert to advance off her line and block what looked to be a certain second.

Three minutes before halftime Britain forced their first penalty corner.

Crista Cullen’s low flick was heading for the corner but the Argentina defender on the post kept the ball out.

Cann wins English national badminton title

E Paul Lawrie

lizabeth Cann regained her English national women’s singles title after beating Yorkshire’s Kate Robertshaw at the Bolton Arena in Manchester.

The 32-year-old top seed, who is aiming to compete at the London Olympics, won 21-19, 21-17 to take the title for the fifth time in her career.

Jersey’s Mariana Agathangelou was beaten in the women’s doubles final.

Agathangelou and partner Heather Olver lost to Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White.

They came back from losing the first game 21-16 to win the second 18-21 before going down 21-16 in the third.

Elizabeth Cann

QUOTABLE QUOTE Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion — Robertson Davies

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

SPORTS LATEST

Bayern helps Dortmund to escape bankruptcy

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orussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich battling it out for top spot in the German league title race, Bayern's Uli Hoeness has revealed they loaned Dortmund €2 million to help save their rivals from bankruptcy.

The payment by Bayern was made and repaid in 2003 after heavy investment by the Dortmund board had put the club into dire financial straits and the loan was accepted by then president Gerd Niebaum and manager Michael Meier.

In March 2005, the club was again in financial trouble and on the verge of bankruptcy as they only just managed to avoid insolvency, but corrected their cash situation enough to become German champions last season.

"When they couldn't pay up anymore, sometimes even for salaries, we gave them an unsecured loan for a few months," revealed Bayern president Hoeness.

"I'm a big fan of tradition in sport and I don't think that was a bad thing to do."

Dortmund's chief executive officer Hans-Joachim Watzke has confirmed the Bayern loan to local newspaper the Ruhr Nachrichten.

Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes has said he does not believe Hoeness' comments are planned to unsettle their Dortmund rivals who are top of the league on 43 points with Bayern in second place on 41 points and level with Schalke 04.

"I do not see this as calculated," said Heynckes on Monday at a press conference.

"It was a good few years ago and I think it is a positive thing there is some solidarity in the league."

Uli Hoeness

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This probe can’t be killed N

igerians generally do not have many good things to say about the National Assembly as an institution. The public perception of the institution is one of a body of less than 500 people who take much, much more than they deserve from the common wealth, do very little for the common good, and pre-occupy themselves finding ways to corner even more for themselves.

However, of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, the latter is generally seen as, and, in fact, has always been, the more progressive, more responsive and more attuned to the wishes of the public. The Senate is peopled by largely the wealthy and the powerful, men and women who are settled in their ways, guided always by a get-along, go-along philosophy that makes them mortally afraid of doing anything that is likely to rock the boat and put them and their accumulations in some danger.

With their snouts submerged in the trough of power and perks, the Senators tend largely to be aloof, hardly sensitive to the sufferings and realities of life at the bottom.

The House, on the other hand, is filled largely with younger, notso-rich people, who have not yet acquired and accumulated property and are, therefore, freer and not owned by property in the way most of the Senators are.

Many of them may be politically ambitious, and their ideological fervour may long have been dimmed, but they still retain a considerable degree of idealism, and commitment to, and enthusiasm for, some progressive changes in the way we conduct ourselves and our country's affairs.

This is why the House has a freer hand, and has always been quicker than the Senate, to address issues of deep public concern and interest, by way of conducting a public hearing or instituting a probe. And this, in fact, is why, today, it is the House, not the Senate, that is probing into the fuel subsidy issue-an issue that has how drowned and crowded out all others on the agenda of public debate and discourse in the country.

An ad hoc committee set up by the House, and being chaired by Honourable Faruq Lawan, has, for about three weeks now, been probing into and conducting a public hearing on issue of the management of the petroleum subsidy cash.

And, not unexpectedly, Nigerians are being daily treated to a sorry spectacle of revelations -revelations about how murky and opaque

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FOR THE MASSES

By Rufa’i Ibrahim ruf585@hotmail.com operations in the oil industry have always been; about the shady deals, conspiracies and collusions that have been going on for decades between Nigerian officials, foreigners and corporate bodies through which Nigeria is being defrauded; about how our resources are being stolen, and/or wasted, or frittered by those put in charge of the sector; about how real control of both the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry is not in our hands but in the hands of foreign, and often venal private interests that have been dictating the tunes and feeding fat at the public trough; and about how our own leaders and top officials in the oil sector have been lying to us all along.

But of greater interest in this whole affair, and what really forms our main concern in this column today, is the matter of the attempts now being made by forces, from both outside and within the House itself, to kill the probe. The weekend before last, some of our newspapers carried reports of moves by the powers that be, in both the government and the ruling party, PDP, to either scuttle the probe or turn it into a circus, and of efforts by a group from within the House itself to discredit the Lawan-led committee and its findings. A group within the House that goes by the name of G 57 Transparency Group had indeed bought newspaper space in which it issued a statement describing the probe committee's work as a "legislative circus" and urging members to forget the subsidy issue and focus attention instead on the security challenges facing the country. In its report on the matter, The Nation newspaper of Monday, January 30, 2011, quoted the chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, as denying the existence within the House of a group called G57 and assuring Nigerians that the House and the probe committee would not bow to pressure or blackmail in their efforts to unearth the truths about subsidy.

There are also stories now making the rounds about how Faruq Lawan and the other PDP members of his committee have

been called onto the carpet and talked to severely by the party officials, and how, in the case of non-PDP members of the committee, the presidency has prevailed on the governors of their states to mount pressure on them to get them to back off or tread softly on the probe.

All this is to be expected, of course. It is quite understandable why both the ruling party and the presidency will find the probe unsettling and move to scuttle it.

The subsidy issue is clearly the biggest scandal so far in the history. And, as they say, behind every scam there is another, or others, waiting to happen. It would be a foolish government that would sit back and let things take their course in such a situation.

The question, though, is whether, even if it tried, the government would succeed in killing this probe. A related question is whether the committee itself, or the House as a body, or both, will kill their own probe.

There are real, climbing concerns being expressed in many circles across Nigeria about the likelihood of one of these possibilities, or the two, happening.

And such concerns are no hyperbole.

The Nigerian public may be short-memoried, but people can easily recall cases of probes and enquiries that, after all the initial hype and noise, have come to nothing. The probe conducted just some years ago by the House itself into the problem of power in the country is one good example.

The fact is that, here, as in many other countries, probes, enquiries and public hearings, whatever may be the reasons for setting them up, have an unhappy history. Their findings and reports often end up on shelves, gathering dust. All over the world, leaders use probes and enquiries to excuse themselves from having to answer questions, or to move contentious issues to the legal realm, or even to neuter political controversies by handing them over to someone or a committee of people who seem competent and dispassionate enough to uncover the truth.

But this subsidy probe is a politically explosive one. And, like

the beetle, killing it won't be easy.

Given the interest the probe has excited among Nigerians, the momentum it has gathered and the centrality of the issues it is dealing with to the lives of the people, the House would be risking a complete loss of credibility and incurring the wrath of Nigerians if it tried to give the probe the Elumelu committee treatment.

It can be worse for the government. First, because the public mood has now become so vengeful against particularly the cabal that the government itself has been blaming for all the problems and the sufferings people have been going through. And, second, because government's case for subsidy, which neither evidence nor logic supports, has no purchase outside the small circle of officials who will now have more money to steal.

The government itself, by its own decisions, provided the reason for the probe. Now it has put itself in a big dilemma. And no dilemma is peaceful. It would be destroying its case for subsidy if it tried to scuttle the probe. But allowing the probe to run its course would be to expose government and its officials as not just incompetent but also untrustworthy.

The revelations coming from the probe so far have, in some ways, stoked the long-banked fires of Nigerian radicalism, and made people's fury to become so focussed as to make it impossible for the government to, as has been the practice hitherto, simply vacuum it up and re-direct it into blind alleys.

The genie has been let out of the bottle, and is now free and out of control. The government has opened a can of worms - and the worms are now swarming all over place, twitching their whiskers and beckoning Nigerians to ask more questions and demand answers. And the questions are coming thick and fast, and in such torrents that scuttling the ongoing probe will amount to nothing.

Exactly how much was paid as subsidy in 2011- N1.3 trillion, or N1.4 trillion or N1.7 trillion?

How come the amount jumped from about N600 billion in 2010 to over a trillion in 2011, an election year? Just how much is our daily consumption of petrol30million, or 33 million or 35 million litres? Is the real problem the size of the subsidy itself or the massive fraud in the system?

These, and the many other questions that we can ask, open the door upon a more basic one: was our money stolen and used for the 2011 election? And is this what someone doesn't want the probe to unearth?

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos, Tel: +234-09-8734478. Cell: +234 803 606 3308. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com ISSN: 2141– 6141