Peoples Daily Newspaper, Tuesday 13, November, 2012

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

Vol. 9 No. 67

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

. . . putting the people first

Zhul-Hajj 28, 1433 AH

N150

2015: CPC, ANPP, ACN set to merge

By Richard Ihediwa & Umar Muhammad Puma

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head of the 2015 general elections, major opposition parties including, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party

(ANPP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) have finalised plans to join forces under a mega opposition party to face the ruling Peoples Democratic Party at the elections.

Already there are indications that other opposition parties

might rally under the mega opposition umbrella for the next elections as the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), has thrown its weight behind the merger.

The soon to be formed mega opposition party would be a

product of series of meetings between the leader of the CPC, Gen, Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and the leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as well as wide consultations among stakeholders across the country which started since after the 2011

elections.

Those behind the mega party seek to win the Presidency and majority of states as well as majority of seats in the National Assembly.

The leadership of the CPC had Contd on Page 2

Our political parties lack direction – Mark

By Richard Ihediwa & Lawrence Olaoye

S

enate President David Mark and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremmadu yesterday descended heavily on political parties in the country saying that many of them are bereft of ideologies and lack the ability to govern effectively even after gaining political power.

While Mark blamed the problem on lack of internal democracy and cohesion among party members, Ekweremmadu lamented that the management of political parties has become flawed and “degenerated to rowdy engagements.”

The two leaders spoke at the Contd on Page 2

PD INDEX

10th Nov., 2012

CBN RATES BUYING SELLING $ 154.74 155.74 £ 247.259 248.857 EURO 197.94 199.222 CFA 0.2885 0.3085 RIYAL 41.267 41.5 PARALLEL RATES BUYING SELLING EURO 206 208 £ 257 258 RIYAL 40 42 $ 157 158

L-R: Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former vice-president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Senate President, David Mark, during the roundtable conference on party politics in Nigeria and the lobbyist and legislature, organised by National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Ribadu report: FG acted in bad faith, says ACN >> PAGE 5

Housing delivery: FG to recapitalise FMBN >> PAGE 3

Confusion as soldier kills taxi driver in Jalingo >> PAGE 6

PAGE 2

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

CONTENTS News

2-11

Editorial

12

Op.Ed

13

Letters

14

Opinion

15

Metro

16-18

Business

19-22

S/Exchange

23

S/Report

24

Defence

26

Agriculture

30

Barack Obama’s re-election: Of what benefit to Africa?, Page 4

Int’l

31-32

Digest

36

Politics

37-39

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

Gunmen kill one, injure two in Kano nidentified gunmen yesterday morning, opened fire on three people in a barbing saloon and killed one while two sustained gunshot injuries in Kawo area of Kano metropolis.

Eyewitness account said the assailants came to the shop of a barber around Kawo Bus Stop on a motorcycle and fired at the shop killing the barber on the spot, while two other artisans who were in front of the shop were shot but didn’t

die and are currently receiving treatment in a hospital in the city.

It would be recalled that three persons including a woman were killed penultimate week in Kawo Maigari area in a similar circumstance by yet to be identified gunmen on a motorcycle.

The Kano state acting Police Public Relations Officer ASP Mustapha Abubakar confirmed the attack, saying one person was killed on the spot while two others sustained injury and are currently receiving treatment in a hospital.

Contd from Page 1 opening of the opening of a twoday workshop on Party Politics in Nigeria and Lobbying and the Legislature organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) in Abuja yesterday.

Taking an overview of the activities of political parties in the country, Mark said many of the parties exist only on paper while the big ones which had gained political power were plagued by internal squabbles arising from lack of ideology or uniting philosophy.

His words: “We know that in reality most of our political parties are fledgling and hardly able to stand on their feet. Many exist mainly on paper, and were floated to attract the financial subventions which the 1999 Constitution hitherto guaranteed them, before it was amended. Even the big ones, which control various executive and legislative arms of government, are often riven by internal convulsions, lack of cohesion, indiscipline and a glaring absence of internal democracy.

“Intra party squabbles arise mainly because political party affiliation in Nigeria is rarely anchored on ideology or any uniting and defined philosophy, but rather largely on crass opportunism. This undermines

the capacity of the political party to govern effectively, even after gaining political power.

The internal contradictions sired by the coming together of strange bedfellows breed convulsions, strife and upheavals which hamper the machinery of governance”, he said.

Mark said these problems have been the bane of party politics in the country and has been with the nation since the Clifford’s Constitution introduced the elective principle in 1922 and Sir Herbert Macaulay formed his Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), in 1923.

He said in the most extreme of cases, as experienced in the First and Second Republics, intra party squabbles combined with inter-party conflicts to scuttle the democratic experiment citing the events leading to both the January 15, 1966 coup, and that of December, 1983.

Urging stakeholders at the conference to proffer solutions for the problems, Mark said modern representative democracy requires viable, ideology based political parties capable of providing clear policy options as evidence of a demonstrable capacity to govern.

“Political parties ought not to be corrupt self-centered

From Edwin Olofu, Kano

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Jigawa sets up c’tee to address kerosene scarcity igawa state government has set up a Kero-Direct committee under the state Ministry of Commerce and Industry as part of efforts to address the shortage of kerosene in the state.

The permanent secretary in the ministry, Alhaji Muhammad Mu’azu who stated this to our reporter yesterday, said the seven-member committee is to be headed by the commissioner, Hajiya Hauwa Lawan.

He said the committee is to ensure that people in the state have access to the commodity at the government approved price of N50 per liter.

The permanent secretary explained that a maximum of 20 liters would be sold per interested household or person.

Alhaji Mu’azu added that the scheme which is an NNPC backed programme, would soon be launched in Dutse while the commodity would be sold at different markets across the state.

organizations dominated by power hungry elites who serve only their own interests, and those of their cronies. A political party must clearly stand for something. In our fragile democracy in which destabilizing demons have suddenly found their voices and have been let loose in the new air of freedom, each political party has a duty to preach restraint, caution and political moderation. The political class as a whole also has the solemn duty of ensuring that Nigerians develop sustainable confidence in our electoral and justice systems.

That is the only way that robust democratic institutions can be nurtured”, he said.

On his own part, Ekweremadu blamed the indiscipline and lack of internal democracy in parties on poor management by the leaders adding that unless the culture of internal democracy is entrenched in the political parties, democratic governance and national development would continue to suffer setback.

He said: “Unfortunately, the management of the nation’s political parties gives us cause for concern, for as it is put in Latin, Nemo dat quod non habet (No one can give what he does not have).

And when the processes of political recruitment become diseased and the management of political parties degenerate to rowdy

engagement, certainly, the falcon will no longer hear the falconer.

“Unless the spring sources, being the parties are themselves impartial, disciplined, buoyant with ideas, populated with visionary leadership, and in fact free of impurities and ardent observers of their own rules and the rule of law in general free of impurities, then the hope for good governance could not be realised”, he said.

Both leaders also argued that there was nothing wrong with legislative lobbying saying such was acceptable in a democracy.

They spoke against the back drop of allegations by some Nigerians that lawmakers are usually swayed on issues by financial inducements by lobbyists including the executive branch.

Speaking at the event, former President Olusegun Obasanjo harped on the need for a mechanism that will ensure that political parties are held responsible for full implementation of manifestos rolled out during campaigns.

On his own part, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega lamented the disposition of desperation exhibited by politicians to elections saying such results in involvement in electoral fraud and violence.

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

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Our political parties lack direction – Mark

2015: CPC, ANPP, ACN set to merge plan Contd from Page 1 at the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) attended by Buhari, party National Chairman, Tony Momoh and chieftain and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai last Thursday ratified the merger.

It was gathered that some key CPC member who were initially opposed to the merger were convinced about the merits of the plan after which they also gave their support.

The CPC National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, yesterday confirmed the decision of the party leadership saying it was based on the understanding

that none of the existing opposition parties alone could defeat the PDP in the next election.

On its own part, the ANPP leadership has confirmed that the party was set to work with the CPC and ACN for the 2015 elections.

ANPP National Publicity Secretary, Emma Eneukwu said in an interview with Peoples Daily in Abuja yesterday that the merger arrangement has reached advanced stage adding that it would soon be finalised.

“We are in touch with the CPC on the merger issue and we have reached certain level of cooperation. The merger issue is desirable. Very soon we would finalize all arrangement and our

party is in full support of the merger. We would work with the CPC for the betterment of this country”, Eneukwu said.

There are however strong indications that with support of the CNPP, the mega opposition party might pull the support and loyalty of other opposition parties in the country. Already, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has indicated interest to join the bigger platform.

Speaking to Peoples Daily yesterday, the CNPP Chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said the CNPP, which is an umbrella of opposition parties in the country was in support of the merger.

Musa also announced that his

party, the PRP would join the bigger platform.

“It is a welcome development.

We in the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties are in support of the merger. In fact, I want to use this opportunity to call on other opposition political parties to join the merger. I also want to assure you that my party the Peoples Redemption Party will also join the merger so that we would have a credible and strong political party in this country.

It would be recalled that the CPC and the ACN had sought to work together during the 2011 elections but could not following disagreements over issues of Presidential candidates.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

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PIB bill would have to follow normal process – Rep

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n opposition lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN, Lagos), said yesterday that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) like any other has to follow the normal legislative process as against the popular views that the lawmakers would give the bill the urgent and priority attention it deserves.

Gbajabiamila said the reason was to ensure that a thorough understanding of the letters of the executive bill was fully grasped by the lawmakers.

The opposition lawmaker said the stepping down of the consideration of the bill on two occasions was meant not to give

room for shoddy treatment of the document.

The bill was first stepped down when it was first presented on the eve of the two-month vacation and the inability if the executive to fully brief the presenter of the bill, the House Leader, Mulikat Akande-Adeola on the content of the bill.

“We have resolved not to adopt any fire brigade approach, which is the Nigerian system.

We don’t want any quick passage. We want a proper passage, a thorough meticulous passage only and until all the facts are on the stood. Don’t forget that the petroleum industry is a technical industry”.

Rage over beheaded man in Benin From Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

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he headless body of a middle-aged man found at Agip Junction, Sapele Road, Benin City has heightened tension in the city.

The incident which occurred last Saturday night, forced shop owners within the vicinity tolock up their shops and flee in fear of possible police arrest.

Police in Benin have begun investigation on the suspected ritual killing of the unidentified man who was found in a pool of

blood and his body deposited in an unnamed mortuary.

There are speculations arising from the manner the victim was dressed that he was an okada rider who may have been chartered by persons who turned out to be ritual killers.

Confirming the incident yesterday, Edo police command spokesman, Anthony Airhuoyo, said police are investigating matter with a view to establishing the identity of the victim and tracking down his killers.

Housing delivery: FG to recapitalise FMBN

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

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resident Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed government’s plan to recapitalise the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) as part of measures to fix the 17 million housing deficit in the country.

Speaking at the Presidential Retreat on Housing at the State House Banquet Hall yesterday, the President said: “This government is committed to recapitalising the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and strengthening the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

Other institutions of government in the building environment will receive equal attention”.

President Jonathan added that the National Housing Policy and the National Urban Development Policy approved by the Federal Executive Council in June will be translated into action through a roadmap for the Housing and Urban Development sector.

“The roadmap will address the challenges of achieving a

housing revolution in our nation, within the shortest possible time. It will also provide the pathway for transforming our cities into livable and functional human settlements…”

Also speaking, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said owning a home is a fundamental human need that has gone unfulfilled for millions of Nigerians. Solving this issue, she said, will have a gamechanging impact on our society and our communities.

L-R: Vice President Namadi Sambo, President Goodluck Jonathan, Minister of Lands & Urban Development, Ms. Ama Pepple,and Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during the Presidential Stakeholders Retreat on Housing and Urban Development, at the State House in Abuja Yesterday.

Photo: Joe Oroye

EFCC docks pastor over visa scam

By Lambert Tyem

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he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) yesterday arraigned Pastor Henry Uhunmwagho, 33, before Justice P.I. Ajoku of the Federal High Court 2 sitting in Benin City, Edo state on a nine-count charge bordering on obtaining

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said the accused was alleged to have collected the sum of N1, 436,000 under false pretence to process a United States visa for the petitioner but failed to do so.

Justice Ajoku in her ruling, adjourned the matter to 29th November, 2012 for hearing of the bail application and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody.

The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Fatima Bamidele, said this yesterday at a press briefing to mark the celebration of Oral Health Week in commemoration of the World Oral Health Day. The minister said oral health being an essential part of human health, needs optimum functioning as diseases like leukemia, diabetes, osteoporosis and even HIV infection start manifesting from the mouth.

“The mouth is the mirror of the body,” he said.

He however declared that, a national oral health standard has been developed by the ministry with vigorous implementation plan by National Council on Health (NCH), Federal Executive Council (FEC) and National Executive Council (NEC).

According to him, the aim of the policy is to facilitate health promotion, human resources, service delivery, oral health financing among others.

Oral health: FG provides dental equipment, free checks

By A’isha Biola Raji

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overnment has provided all the federal hospitals in the six geopolitical zones across the country with new dental equipment in addition to upgraded old ones in order to facilitate free oral checks to mark 2nd National Oral Week.

Constitution review: JNI wants immunity clause removed he Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI) in Kaduna state, yesterday urged the National Assembly to remove the immunity clause from the 1999 Constitution.

Alhaji Jaafar Makarfi, JNI chairman in the state, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna, that its retention would continue to promote indiscipline in governance.

money under false pretence.

Henry, a pastor with Church of God Mission, Suleja, Niger state, was arrested by the EFCC on the 11th May, 2012, following a petition by Godwin Ochai, a legal practitioner, on behalf of one Mr. Odion Princewill.

Spokesperson of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren

Makarfi noted that it was wrong of the National Assembly to determine the areas to be discussed in the constitution, saying they should have allowed Nigerians to decide.

Also speaking, the JNI chairman, Kajuru local government, Alhaji Dahiru Kajuru commended the lawmakers for allowing Nigerians to participate in the exercise. (NAN)

Our error In our yesterday’s front page comment, “JTF’s war without rules in Borno, Yobe”, we erroneously quoted former Yobe state governor, now a Senator, as having blamed the growth of the Boko Haram insurgency on the armed forces and police and accused them of killing “5,000 innocent people” since 1999. We have since discovered that the former governor actually said that was the number killed in a single day, not over a 13year period. We are sorry for this error. – Editor

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Barack Obama’s re-election: Of what benefit to Africa?

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ot unlike his first election in 2008, his re-election has been widely celebrated across the globe, particularly in Africa where President Barack Obama is seen as “our own”. The popular expectation, informed as it were by some primordial sentiments, had been that Obama’s presidency would bring succor and unprecedented development to the continent.

Although his first term has gone by, the much expected development in Africa in terms of infrastructure, social amenities and good governance has remained has been realized only in the reverse. Even the best of experts were caught up in the miscalculation, perhaps overlooking the fact that African style of leadership is much different from what obtains in developed nations, the most vibrant democracy in the world, in particular.

Leadership in “civilized” societies are rail tracks of sorts; they have a designed pattern and goal for each and everyone to follow, leaving the leaders at the helm of affairs to either decide to move in a gallop or claw at snail speed.

Although there are many questions as to what Africa stands to gain in Obama as president, the answers may remain farfetched unless there is an inward assessment by Africans.

The concept of Obama as Africa’s messiah must be viewed from the creative point not the receptive. This is because the second tenure of President Onyango Obama might not bring much difference if we don’t make much difference.

In fact, the acceptance speech of Obama in 2008, if it was any guide, should have reflected an intent for a stronger relations between the African continent and the United States. Ditto in his re-election acceptance speach, Africa received no more special mention that the other parts of the world did not.

In his inaugural address on 20th January 2009, President Obama said: “to those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”.

Obama was not only talking to competing powers in this paragraph, “clinging to power through corruption” is synonymous with Nigeria. Any good leader will see this as an invitation to help tackle corruption and bad governance structures.

He further said, “To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow, to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds”.

Senator Barack Obama’s election campaign pitch in 2008 so captured world imagination, especially the black part of it, that the charismatic US politician might as well have been exclusively contesting for the African, not the US, presidency.

Whether the “Dark Continent” has been the better for the Afro-American electoral victory in 2008 is neither here nor there, which is why Abdulkadir Isa, in this report, tries to unravel what Africa stands to gain by his re-election.

President Barack Obama This is development partnership he was referring to.

In the opinion of Mr. Joshua Bolarinwa, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), “what African countries will get from the US will depend on their bargaining power and what they want individually and collectively”.

According to him, “Obama’s victory would not attract much benefit to Africa, given Obama’s foreign policy in the last four years”.

In the case of Nigeria though, US exports shot up to 4.8 billion dollars (3.8 billion Euros) in 2011, an 18 per cent increase from the previous year with wheat, vehicles and refined petroleum products as the main exports. This, Mr. Bolarinwa observed, was unfavourable trade, which suggests that “ it’s high time we engaged in partnership that grows and sustains our own economy” .

African leaders must learn to milk this opportunity. They must take their desire buds to the U.S, well-off with concepts and ideas to entice technology transfer, foreign direct investment and favourable balance of trade.

If not for the genealogy, Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s (even with the exhibition of his geographical

African Union Chairman, President Boni Yayi dearth of Africa on the world map) foreign policies were promising enough to secure Africa’s support as well. Both Obama and Romney had similar foreign policies in regard to foreign assistance. Governor Mitt Romney postulated the concept of “prosperity pacts”, like Obama’s “partnership for growth”, both policies buttressed effective trade policy, economic growth and private sector partnership.

Africa is the poorest continent on lips and paper and richest in reality in the soil and its content.

How has it fared? The only reason for Africa to look up to the so called super powers is knowledge, technical knowledge to help tap and refine these resources and appropriately channel these resources to benefit its people.

Why has this become so big a challenge? At least Africa does not need to build from scratch, there are reference points. Basic development should not be a lifetime challenge.

Many Africans have point accusing fingers at Obama to have made Africa a tertiary issue on his scale of preference. He has been criticized of spending little time on African issues during his first term, having visited subSaharan Africa once. On record, Obama has even visited Asia more time than Africa.

“In the areas of combating HIV/AIDS, poverty and security and development assistance, Obama has not done up to 50% of what former president, George bush (Jnr) did in Africa”, Joshua Bolarinwa affirmed.

The way it stands, it’s a twosided affair because partnership is built to favour all parties.

Obama has his lapses of not “doing enough” for Africa, as African leaders have also not done enough to attract his attention. There must be intensified effort to drag him into the picture.

On the side of President Obama, he must shift he grounds on his foreign policy, such that will address most critical issues confronting the continent, with security topping the agenda swiftly followed by good governance.

Africa must have a reviewed package to help the US favourably compete with China’s growing ascendancy. Areas like education and technology should topple Oil and gas.

The United States under Obama has underperformed in the aspect of security, as it has kept mute on the rebel group in the Maghreb. This has not only halted activities in Mali, the whole of west Africa has been tainted with the insecurity presence. The same applies to the

secessionist groups in the continent like that of the socalled Mombasa Republic in Kenya and Puntland in Somalia.

On the part of African leaders, they must put a lot of pressure on Obama; they should be able to invite him to the African table as such opportunities might never present themselves again.

Calestous Juma, a Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology and Globalization project at Harvard University, believes that, “Africa has been growing when the rest of the world has been declining and I think this is an opportunity for Africa to engage with the United States through trade and not through the traditional foreign assistance”.

Areas such as power generation and security remain under addressed. This should top the priority of African leaders.

The readiness must be shown to welcome assistance before such assistance can come in. We must not allow an encore during Obama’s second tenure.

So far, the only shinning light for Africa now is that President Obama has promised to pay another visit to the ‘dark continent” in 2013. Ideas and perseverance can make that visit illuminate this dark partnership.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

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Bauchi youth implore FG to end insecurity From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he Bauchi state Youths Leaders’ Forum has called on the Federal Government to end the insecurity besetting many states in the country before the year 2013 in order to have a smooth and peaceful election in 2015.

A statement signed by the president of the forum, Sadiq Shehu Ilelah, and secretary, Mustapha Usman Mashema, respectively, reminded governors of their responsibilities as security officers of their states and that they will be held responsible for all the loss of lives and property affecting their states.

It lamented the way politicians misuse youths during elections and abandon them after the elections and advised the Federal Government to compel states and private companies to recruit youths in different sectors of the economy in order to give them a brighter future that will develop the country.

Maku enjoins judiciary to be proactive on trafficking cases

By Ibrahim Kabiru Sule

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he Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has called for the enforcement of the existing laws against human trafficking to serve as warning and discouragement to people who get involved in the illicit trade.

There is the need for the judiciary to be proactive when handling cases of human trafficking, in order to restore human dignity and punish offenders The minister stated this in Abuja while leading a march, which was organised by a nongovernmental organisation

known as “Next-to-None”, together with the Nollywood Legends.

“It is disturbing that after the humiliation Africans faced during the slave trade, some self-seeking individuals still dehumanise Africans in modern day slavery through human trafficking”, lamented Maku.

12 suspects arrested over Ilorin crisis From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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he Kwara state police command has confirmed the arrest of 12 suspected hoodlums behind a week of continuous fighting among youths within the Kwara state capital which resulted in the damage of cars and property.

It could be recalled that some youths from Gambari, Baboko, Agaka areas in Ilorin metropolis had engaged themselves with dangerous weapons while economic activities were also paralysed.

The state government at the weekend, ordered the security

NEMA donates N2m drugs to NYSC From Mohammed Adamu, Kaduna

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L-R: Niger state Governor, Dr Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu collecting a birthday gift from his Director General, Media and Publicity, Danladi Ndayebo during the former's birthday celebration yesterday in Minna.

agencies to arrest and prosecute whomever may be behind the public disturbances.

Speaking with our reporter in his office yesterday, the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, DSP Olufemi Fabode, disclosed that 12 suspected youth have been arrested in connection with the public disturbances.

Fabode who described the crisis as a form of faceoff between street groups of youth, said instead of one group to report a case to the police, they took laws into their hands.

“That is why the Commissioner of Police wants all the suspects to be charge to court for causing public disturbance”.

he National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has donated drugs and other medical related items worth over N2 million to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as part of the agency’s pledge for continued support and collaboration with the NYSC. The medical items which will be distributed among NYSC orientation camps in Kaduna, Katsina and Kano states, consists of analgesic/pain relievers, antibiotics, anti-malarials, antiasthmatics, anti-allergies, antiemetics, anti-diarrhoeal, antispasmodic, anti-acids, intravenous infusions of different makes, tincture iodine,

disposable gloves, bandages, syringes/needles and other medical consumables.

The first presentation of the drugs was conducted at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Black Gold, KM 13 Kaduna-Abuja express road while that of Katsina and Kano states are expected to in succession at the orientation camps in the states respectively.

In order to maintain its assigned responsibilities of managing disaster in Nigeria, the agency over a decade has been partnering with the NYSC through the NEMA/NYSC Emergency Management Vanguards (EMV) using NYSC corps members as vanguards for a uniform proactive disaster management.

Ministry, UN Women organise stakeholders’ dialogue on legal reforms

Ribadu’s report: FG acted in bad faith, says ACN T

By Maryam Garba Hassan

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has accused the Federal Government of acting in bad faith in the way and manner it has treated the report of the Petroleum Revenue Task Force.

In a statement issued in Benin yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also said the patently tactless action of a presidential aide, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in rubbishing the report and, by extension the members of the task force, will make credible Nigerians to be wary of serving in similar panels in future.

“The fact that the FG has not come out to refute Dr. Okupe’s crude comments on the report is a clear indication that the position he enunciated publicly on the report represents that of the government. Saying the task force did not complete its

assignment and accusing its chairman of disinformation and politicisation amount to preparing the grounds for the dumping of the report”, it said.

The ACN said the treatment meted out to the task force by a self-acclaimed “attack lion” of the Presidency is the worst blow that any government has dealt its own panel, and confirms the party’s earlier statement that the FG deliberately set a booby trap for the task force by the suspicious timing of the appointments it gave to two of its members, StevenOronsaye and Bernard Otti, in the NNPC. “Unfortunately, despite its angry reaction to our earlier statement, the government is yet to convince us otherwise. If anything at all, it has gone ahead to make our statement look prescient.

“We are not even talking here of the merits or demerits of the task force’s report, but of the way the chairman and members of the task force (minus the two

dissenting ones) have been savaged. This is a task force that has as members several senior advocates and a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, among others.

“Even if the government feels the report is inconclusive, could it not have set up a panel to review the findings? Is it not also the prerogative of the government to even leave the report to gather dust, if it does not agree with the findings, instead of coming out so publicly to ridicule its own task force?

“The unprecedented outpouring of public opprobrium on the task force by the same government that set it up makes a mockery of governance, and does no credit to the Jonathan administration, which is always quick to accuse the opposition of insulting its principal. A government earns respect by its actions. It is futile demanding it (respect)”, the party said.

he Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, in collaboration with the Democratic Governance for Development Project (DGD) II, and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), yesterday in Abuja organised a national multi stakeholder dialogue on legal reforms to increase women’s participation and representation in local and national elective offices.

At a media briefing as part of events to commence the 3-day deliberation, Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, said although Nigeria is witnessing a remarkable change in terms of democratic freedoms, the benefits of democracy are yet to be equally available to all citizens adding that of particular concern is the ongoing low representation of women amongst national, state and local elected leaders.

According to her, it has been observed that countries that apply quotas on average tend to

have more women public office than those that do not and that parties that have made efforts to increase their women members have been successful.

The minister explained that the multi stakeholder dialogue will involve knowledge building by researchers, civil society advocates on legislated quotas, electoral system reforms to promote women’s representation as well as skill building in the areas of effective advocacy strategies for legal reforms.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Women Affairs, George Ossi, said the essence of the dialogue is to stimulate discussion that would ultimately lead to the improvement in women’s representation, bridge knowledge gap between and among key stakeholders, political parties, media and the development community.

The stakeholder dialogue was attended by experts on legislated quotas and electoral system reforms from USA, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Constituents reject state police in Taraba From Yusha'u Alhassan, Jalingo

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he people of Jalingo, Yorro, and Zing federal constituency have voted against the creation of state police in Nigeria.

This was part of resolutions reached at the end of public hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution held in Jalingo local government.

In a unanimous decision, the people said state governors should not have undue control over commissioners of police.

They also voted against the existence of the state electoral commissions saying only the Independent Electoral Commissions (INEC) be allowed to conduct all elections in Nigeria.

The constituency also voted against the proposed single term tenure maintaining that the present two terms tenure be

upheld for president and governors.

The Jalingo, Yarro, and Zing federal constituency further rejected the existing of local government and state joint account noting that the system has relegated local governments as stooges of the state government resulting in the nonpayment of salaries to local government staff.

The people also voted against the affirmative action for women in the constitution noting that the participation of women in political appointments be left open with the hope it might be more than what they demand.

The member representing Jalingo, Yarro and Zing in the House of Representatives, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Malle, assured that the resolutions would be forwarded to the National Assembly for necessary action.

Confusion as soldier kills taxi driver in Jalingo From Yusha'u Alhassan, Jalingo

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military personnel, yesterday, shot dead a taxi driver at the frontage of the Jalingo Main Market.

An eyewitness, Abdullahi Manga, told our reporter that the taxi driver identified simply as Sanusi was reversing his cab when the soldier who was trekking along with his colleagues opened fire and shot the vehicle's tyre and the driver who instantly died.

According to Manga, one of the soldiers who was not happy with the action of his colleague shouted at him and later disarmed him.

Angry with the incident, youth at the market square pushed the taxi with the corpse to the emir's palace but were prevented entry by the palace guards.

Visibly sad with the incident, the chairman of the Jalingo Market Traders Association, Gamandi Adamu, directed that the main market

be closed to avert any negative action by hoodlums and appealed to the traders to remain calm.

When contacted the deputy aPolice Public Relations Officer, Ibiam Mbaseki, confirmed the report but said he was not adequately briefed on how it all happened.

Our reporter who visited the market saw the youth and the traders in groups discussing what they described as unfortunate behavior of the soldier.

Group describes removal of Benue Speaker as rape of democracy From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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group known as Concerned Benue Citizen Coalition, has described as direct rape as well as abuse of the rule of law and democracy, forceful resignation of Benue Speaker Mr. David Iorhemba.

The group regretted that the action is unjust, illegal and undemocratic, adding that it is a charade that should not be witnessed in the hallowed chamber of the Assembly but a replica of the worst, crudest and most uncivilized 'garrison command' politics.

President of the group Mr. Philip Agbese, who made the condemnation while addressing the media at the weekend in Makurdi, noted that due process was not followed in the removal of the Speaker, contending that a panel should have been set up by the House to investigate the allegations of financial impropriety leveled against Iorhemba.

"Our investigation showed that at no point was he served notice of impeachment either was any panel of inquiry set up to try him; rather he was put under duress and psychological threat and stress to resign. This is legislative rascality at work", Agbese lamented.

He also accused members of the House of pursuing selfish interests and called for a full investigation by law enforcement agencies into the matter and any one found culpable be appropriately sanctioned and punished in line with the law.

Mr. Agbese further urged members of the Assembly to immediaing used as enemies of democracy at this critical time.

"Failure to do this, the coalition would be left with no option but to occupy the whole of the Assembly complex if the members remain adamant on breaking the total instrument of legislature in Benue State just to satisfy their primordial and selfish interests", he warned.

Kwara students protest non-payment of bursary From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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embers of National Association of Kwara State Students (NAKSS), yesterday, staged a peaceful protest over inability of state government to pay their bursary and scholarship.

The association started their protest from General Post Office area to the Ministry of Education at about 9am, were armed with different placards with inscriptions: "Release Our Bursary", "Govt is not Above Law", All We Want is our Bursary not Scholarship".

Speaking for the students, the senate president of the association, Mohammed Salihu Yahyah from FUT Minna, alleged that the state government has refused to pay bursaries.

"All we are demonstrating here today is that they should pay us our bursary".

The students gave the government three days to pay up and threatened to mobilise more members to protest by Wednesday.

"We are just giving them till Wednesday to pay us, if not, today is just a demonstration. We are going to mobilise our members on the streets".

L-R: Project Director, Democratic Governance for Development Project, Dr. Mourtada Deme, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina and Country Representative, Nigeria and ECOWAS UN Women, Dr. Grace Ongile, during the press briefing on National Multi Stakeholders Dialogue on Legal Reform to Increase Women's Representation, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Soon there’ll be no generators, Katsina govt promises From Lawal Sa'idu Funtua, Katsina

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overnor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina state has assured that with the numerous electricity generating projects going on in various parts of the state, the public would soon bid goodbye to the use of generators for electricity.

The governor who stated this at the flag-off ceremony of the state's solar power plant project in Kankia, yesterday, noted "with this project, the 10MW wind power plant at Lambar Rimi and

other power projects in the pipeline the issue of power failure in Katsina state will be a thing of the past'.

He noted that the Kankia project was a 30MW Solar Farm Project which, he stressed, would benefit the people of Kankia and kick start the process of infrastructure development and the growth of small and medium industries.

Shema said the flag off of the project marks another milestone in the state government's efforts to better the lives of the rural populace, adding that the

Union advocates return of teacher-training schools From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

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he Kebbi state chairman of Academic Staff Union of Secondary School (ASUSS), Comrade Ibrahim Garba, has called on the Kebbi state government to bring back teacher-training schools in order

improve the performance of students.

He made this appeal yesterday in his office while addressing newsmen shortly after meeting with the executives of the union. He said if the state government can bring back teachers' colleges un-qualified

teachers will enroll for training.

Comrade Garba also lamented over the studentsteacher ratio calling on the state government to employ more teachers. He noted that the conventional 1:40 apply in Kebbi state where ratios of one teacher to 200 students obtain.

government had provided adequate infrastructure in the health, roads and education sector of the state.

In his remarks at the ceremony, the Commissioner for Esource Development, Engineer Musa Nashuni, disclosed that it was based on the governor's philosophy of providing full economic opportunities that he pursued the Federal Government to include the state in the NigeriaGerman energy partnership agreement.

Nashuni who noted that the partnership was purely on the development of solar power plant, added that the governor has invited the Chinese to come and set-up biogas facilities in rural areas of the state.

The commissioner similarly stated that the governor has commissioned a French company to study the possibility of generating electricity from the existing dams in the state.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

ICSP holds workshop for sales professionals in Lagos From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

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he Institute of Certified Sales Professionals recently held its compulsory annual skills exposures for sales professionals in Lagos at the weekend.

Drawing from the theme of the workshop “Personal Imperatives for being a World Class Sales Professionals” one the speakers, Mr. Ben Chime admonished the participants on the need for conversance with the rudiments that qualifies one to be a true sale professional.

He gave a rundown of some prerequisite to a bolstered resume of any true sales professional as constant sales training, hands on training and the penchant of such sales professional to continuously develop him or herself by reading sales books written by notable authors.

Chime told the participants that one of the key strategy in salesmanship is to always know their competitors strength, have sound knowledge of the product they sell to the consumers, stressing that as sales professional in a scientific age, they should have commensurate knowledge of Information Technology so as not to be left behind.

PAGE 7

Kebbi savings & loans increases share capital to N2.5bn I From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

n line with the on-going reforms in the Nigeria banking sector, the Kebbi State Home Savings and Loans Limited has promised to increase its minimum share capital to N2.5 billion.

Disclosing this yesterday at the end of the shareholders extraordinary meeting convened by the Board, the

Acting Chairman of the Bank, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Waziri said that the mortgage bank owned by the state, the 21 local government councils of the state and private individuals, has achieved significant milestones in various areas.

He said that since the inception of the Bank,one of the oldest in Nigeria, it has four branches across the state with approximately 15000 current

accounts and 4500 savings account customers.

The Bank, he said, will continue to focus on excellent customer service delivery on mortgage loans, NHF loans and short term loans and bring of bank services closer to the people through a wider network and multiple delivery channels.

He then commended the Central Bank of Nigeria for the directive that all primary

mortgage institutions in the country must raise their minimum capital requirements to N2.5billion before the deadline of April 30, 2013. He said that the banks are to submit their compliance plan on how to meet the deadline or have their licenses revoked.

Waziri urged the shareholders to pay up their prorata in order to avert the license revocation.

COREN hold retreat for members From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

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een on repositioning the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria(COREN) for effective regulation and control of the engineering profession, the management recently held a retreat for its members in Lagos.

The event which held at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja had in attendance the doyen of the engineering profession in Nigeria as well as other stakeholders and the captains of industry who were present to add candor to the occasion.

In his opening remark, the President of the body, Engineer Ibikunle Ogunbanjo noted that for the first time, past management personnel have been brought together with serving ones in an atmosphere of conviviality to brainstorm on a wide range of issues bordering on the mandate of the association.

Speaking further, he said that, aside from the technical details, experience and knowledge to be shared, the retreat would also afford those who had served various times at COREN in the past forty-two years of the body’s existence to meet again and socialize.

Paying glowing tribute to past leaders and registrars, he stressed that their various contributions to the body has enhanced the development of engineering in Nigeria.

L-R: Coordinating Director, Field Operation Group, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FRIS), Mr. Akin Ogungbesan, Coordinating Director, Standards Compliance Group FIRS, Mr. Andy Ejjemeyovwi and Acting Executive Chairman FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, during FIRS VAT Stakeholders meeting and Educational Forum,yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-owo

Jigawa police arrest six over Guri clash

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he Jigawa state Police Command has arrested six persons over the fierce clashes between the supporters of Guri Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Bulama and a lawmaker of the House of Representative, representing Guri/Kirikasama Federal Constituency, Alhaji Adamu Hassan on Sunday.

It would be recalled that followers of the lawmaker and that

of council chairman clashed during the public hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution on Saturday where vehicles belonging to the two political leaders were destroyed and many injured.

The Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO) of the state, Malam Abdu Jinjiri, said on Sunday that those arrested would help them in their investigations.

Jinjiri said that after their

investigation, whoever was found wanting, would be punished accordingly as the police would not allow any miscreant to disrupt the peace enjoyed in the state.

NAN investigation revealed that the constitution review congress on Saturday in Guri Local Government Area was hijacked by hoodlums resulting in the destruction of no fewer than four vehicles and injury to many.

According to an eye witness,

Malam Ahmed Abdul, the incident occurred when the lawmaker wanted to distribute some items to his supporters during the session but the council chairman ordered police to stop him which caused the crisis.

Efforts to reach both the council chairman and the house of representative member failed as none of them was found in the area and their phones were switched off.

(NAN)

NTA/Startimes records 100 percent increase in digitalisation From Mohammed Adamu, Kaduna

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he Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has described the over 100 per cent increase in subscription recorded by StarTimes in Nigeria as a clear indication of NTA and StarTimes commitment to take over the lead in digital television.

The Zonal Director, Kaduna NTA Network Centre, Mallam Bala Hassan said this at a StarTimes promo ceremony yesterday in Kaduna.

“When there is no NTA there

is no STARTIMES and likewise, subscription of the company has increased from 20, 000 to 40, 000 and we need to applaud it.

Very soon, we will do away with DSTV because virtually all the channels will be on StarTimes because the world is gradually being over taken by digitalization.

NTA maintained its commitment to lead in Nigeria television digitalization compliance process in collaboration with StarTimes digitals in Nigeria.

Represented by Austine Ayembe of the Kaduna Zonal office, the ZD commended StarTimes for slashing the price of the StarTimes Decorder from N7,500 to N2,500 despite huge production and free maintenance cost offered by StarTimes to all subscribers.

In his remarks StarTime General Manager, Mr. Oswold Idoko, also affirmed that NTA and StarTimes have come to stay and shall continue to support government policy to meet world target in digital television.

He said the company has already introduced three different monthly subscription packages to meet Nigerians choice of channels and a door-todoor service agent as well as a free technical maintenance services. “ The Basic Bouquet 31 plus channels attracts N1,000 monthly subscription while the Classic Bouquet with 44 plus channels cost N2,000 per month and the Unique Bouquet with 52 plus channels cost N4,000 per month,” the GM said.

PAGE 10

University of Agriculture graduates 2,616 From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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he University of Agriculture, Makurdi at the weekend graduated over 2616 students.

Outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Daniel Uza disclosed in his address during its 18thand 19th convocation ceremony held at the institution's convocation arena.

He said 2332 students graduated with Bachelors degrees, 234with postgraduate degrees in various fields while 60 finished with Doctors of Veterinary Medicine.

Prof. Uza said eight students bagged First Class Division, 470 got Second Class Upper Division, 1,309 Second class Lower Division, adding that 532 students came out with third class and 13 graduated with passes.

The Vice Chancellor further stated that out of the 234 postgraduate students, 13 received Doctorate degrees, 104 had Masters Degrees while 117 graduated with Postgraduate Diplomas.

He noted that the purpose of training and retraining students was to make them viable to the society and also be to self -employed.

He explained that the Doctor of Letters conferred on the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar was agreed by Council and Senate of the institution after they had carefully assessed his outstanding contribution to his fatherland.

Responding, Gen. Abubakar thanked the University for finding him worthy of the award and promised to always contribute his own quota to the development of the country at all times.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER, 13, 2012

Ilorin violence: Kwara govt orders prosecution of hoodlums From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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he Kwara State government at the weekend had ordered the security agencies to arrest and prosecute hoodlums responsible for the recent cases of lawlessness in parts of Ilorin, the state capital.

The government which indicated its interest a week after the emergence of the violence stated that it was disturbed " particularly by the harassment of construction workers and clashes

between hoodlums in the state capital on Wednesday, last week,".

The State government, in a statement signed by the Secretary to State Government(SSG)Alhaji Isiaka Gold and issued to journalists by the Chief Press Secretary to state Governor, Abdulwahab Oba, directed the state's security agencies to apprehend and prosecute anyone found disrupting the peace through violence in the state.

"It can no longer condone any acts of lawlessness and disorder

under any guise and therefore called on parents and guardians to warn their wards to abide by the law as Government will spare no efforts at apprehending and prosecuting anyone found disrupting public peace".

The statement further assured the citizenry that the full weight of the law would be brought to bear on anyone who harass innocent citizens or cause public disorder in any part of the state.

"The security agencies have been directed to prosecute those

FRC summons NIMASA DG for probe

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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L-R: Director Hospital Services, Ministry of Health, Dr. Wapada I. Balami, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mrs. Fatima Bamidele and Director Dentistry of the Ministry, Dr. Bimpe Adebiyi, during the press briefing on the commemoration of the 2012 world oral health day celebration, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Hope in Anarchy for launch Thursday From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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ope in Anarchy, a book written by a renowned northern academic, Dr. Adamu Kyuka Usman, is

expected to be launched on Thursday in Abuja.

A statement by the organizers in Kaduna yesterday said that the programme would attract Vice President Mohamed

Namadi Sambo, two former heads of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, as well as the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad

Abubakar, among others.

The statement said that Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) Chairman, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, would chair proceedings at the ceremony.

Restriction on Okada: Police laments attack on personnel From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

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ollowing increased attack on policemen by aggrieved Okada operators, protesting the restriction of their business, the Lagos state police command has cried out that it alone cannot enforce the order and solicited the support of sister agencies.

The police asked for aid in a meeting which lasted for hours at the Police Officers mess in Ikeja with representatives of Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA, Vehicle Inspection Officers, VIO, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,

already apprehended, while their accomplices should be pursued with a view to arresting and prosecuting them without further delay.

"Government, therefore, assures the law abiding citizens to go about their normal businesses without any fear of molestation or intimidation".

It added that government would continue to focus on development of the state and would not allow itself to be distracted by threat to peace and public order.

...Solicits support of LASTMA, VIO, NSCDC, FRSC NSCDC, FRSC, police Area Commanders, local government traffic officials among other agencies,to fashion out ways of enforcing the restriction order on Okada.

The meeting chaired by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge operations, DCP Tunde Sobulo, agreed that officers and men of the agencies would posted to area commands for deployment with policemen to police divisions and stations were the teams move to the highways, roads, bridges and areas were okada operations are outlawed.

Last Friday, a crucial security was held at conference room of his ikeja office at the instance of Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko with commanders of the army, navy, airforce and FRSC in attendance.

Others present at the meeting were officials of the state fire service, VIO, NSCDC and operatives of the Department of State Security.

Sources at the meeting said, "we discussed the security situation that might arise following the ban on the operations of Okada. We also discussed the

best option open to us at enforcing the law. The police cannot do it all alone. They have other duties and security challenges."

By implication, a team of security operatives would now join the police in renewed drive at flushing out Okada from highways.

Since the enforcement on the ban on Okada started a few weeks ago, no fewer than 30 policemen have been attacked, brutally wounded and in at least two cases, the policemen were almost lynched by angry Okada operators in a reprisals.

he Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has summoned the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA),Patrick Ziakede Akpobolekemi, to appear before it and explanation issues relating to poor accountability of the agency to the Federal Government.

This summon came as a result of persistent refusal of NIMASA to appear before the FRC to respond to questions on their accounts and record keeping, despite about fifteen letters of invitation written to the agency by FRC. Rejecting the NIMASA Executive Director for Finance and Administrations, Haruna Maba Jauro, who came to represent the DG, the Commissioner for Legal services, Investigations and Enforcement, FRC, Chris Okewulonu, threatened that if NIMASA DG fails to appear again to defend himself as the Chief Accounting Officer of the agency, drastic measures would be taken against him.

He regretted that the relationship between NIMASA and Fiscal Responsibility Commission over the years has been negative, saying that the Commission is disappointed with the attitude of NIMASA DG. He explained that the Commission, shortly after it was inaugurated by late President Musa Yar'Adua in 2009, invited the DG of NIMASA, alongside other agencies, but was baffled that it was only the NIMASA DG that failed to honour the invitation.

Based on this, he stated that if the Commission initiates investigation process without giving the agency room for defence, it would be unfair, warning that the investigation process of the commission, once initiated, must be completed.

However, in his response, the NIMASA Executive Director for Administration and Finance, Haruna Jauro, explained that the agency just had a new management, noting that their inability to come was sequel to efforts to get the accounts of the previous years well audited for presentation to FRC.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 11

How to make millions of naira as a motivational speaker in Nigeria (1) D

o people listen when you talk..? Many will answer yes to this question because no one wants to come off as unimportant, but the truth is that some people have the natural ability to command attention through their speech .Are you such a person? Do people breath fresh air of relieve when they hear your advices? If your answers to these questions are genuinely yes, then you might just be a naturally gifted motivational speaker!

Would you like to seat back with your God's given talent and wallow in poverty in this era when other people are making a kill with theirs..? That's not fair!

Musicians in Nigeria are smiling to the bank everyday because they discovered and applied their singing prowess to their own advantage. Comedians, Actors, Footballers, and other sports men and women are all living big because they have mastered how to make good use of their talents in various ways and are making money in the process.

All over the world, motivational speakers are equally earning big and some have built amazing wealth just by speaking to people the right words at the right time.

Nigerians are not left out in this as well, there are great motivational speakers in Nigeria who have created space for themselves and are making millions of Naira from it. Prominent among them is Fela Durotoye, this guy have been able to go places, created wealth, and inspired others to do the same; all through his ability to speak and motivate!

The power of motivational speech can never be overemphasized! A good motivational speaker can motivate a dying soul to live again, and a dummy to perform as an Athlete. There is nothing as refreshing and reinvigorating as carefully chosen words spoken at the right time by a crafty speaker.

Even in my own little ways have been able to motivate some people who seems hopeless in their life to become useful to themselves once again, help fix damaged relationships, and pulled some businesses from the dust! All of these were achieved through motivational speeches.

There is no better time to speak to people and make money in the process than now when businesses and careers are falling apart, families are being broken, and people roaming the streets wearing sad faces. A person needs to be inspired to reach their high and lack

Quote The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own. – Michael Korda

of inspiration could damage great potentials.

A word spoken at the right time could change someone's outlook towards life and help make their world a better place. This is the right time to create value in people's life by motivating and inspiring them, and get rewarded with wealth.

You will be surprised to see how many people out there who are willing to pay for your service if you're good at what you do.

A Professional motivational speaker usually charge companies and organizations about N1 million per session to motivate and train their staffs! While some charges per head and peg their fees at N20, 000 per participant. A USA based Speaker who came to Nigeria few years ago charged a whooping 1million naira per participant and a good number of people did attend!

So, the amount of money you make depends on you and your brand -- that's why the first thing you'd need to work on as an aspiring public speaker is your brand. Now, how do you proceed to make a successful career out of motivational speaking?

Tune up your public speaking skill You must have been a good speaker by nature, that's why you're giving this a thought but good speaker in a private setting may not be good enough when it comes to public speech. If possible, get yourself attached to accomplished speaker to learn how motivational speaking is done both in delivery and in business sense.

Tuning up your speaking skill doesn't mean clamming popular quotations and churning them out in public as if that impresses anyone!

I like motivational speakers who speak naturally and from the heart, that's who I am. It's good to put out useful quotations here and there during your speech but don't make your speech all about quotations.

Deviate from trying to be someone else if you want to achieve your full potential.

There is huge difference between being a 'Talkative' and a 'Motivational Speaker' just as there is huge difference between 'Noise' and 'Music', and between 'Noise Makers' and 'Organized Speakers'. Be sure you know who you are; A gifted speaker may not need much training in this regard.

Read Books: I mean plenty of books on any topic not just on public speaking. A good speaker is one who is learned and experienced because it takes many books to write one book and speaking is like writing a book, read many book to learn how to write yours in the sense of public speaking.

Listen to Audios! You need to listen to good public speakers and learn how they speak and manipulate words; Good Diction is an important tool in public speaking, listen to quality audios to learn proper pronunciation and the use of words.

Speak Simple: Learn how to speak in simple and understandable language and avoid confusing your listeners with Self "Educatedness" that's the word I coined for the thoughtless use of high sounding words. You need to learn to avoid too much use of flamboyant words if you don't want to be alienated from your Audience. I hate "Gigantic Speakers" and I know many people do -- Be a simple speaker and you will be Gigantic in the eyes of your listeners.

Once you've taken two or three months to horn your skill, the next step is to brand and market yourself effectively.

Brand Yourself Professionally In business, brand is everything! You need to sell yourself first before you can sell anything. Motivational speaking is a business; you need to brand yourself perfectly if you hope to sell your services to would be clients.

How do you go about this most important aspect of your business?

Use Social Media: Create attractive and compelling Facebook and Twitter pages. Take enough time to edit your pages and make them worth seeing, add pictures of your previous events-let your photo album tell story about you in a professional and positive way. Use the best of your photos as profile photo and page covers. Let people see who you are from your profile.

Take time to carefully describe who you are and where you are coming from in your 'About me' page. Whenever you write one the social media, write with correct spellings -- do not follow the ongoing trend among some social network users of using wrong and funny spellings, write like a professional.

Always Tweet and update your Facebook status with inspirational quotes and motivational excerpts. Social

media holds more prospects than you can ever imagine, the people you meet online may turn out to become your clients in future or be the ones to recommend you to clients.

Start Blogging: The most powerful brand building tools online is your blog, and blog has a way of giving you credibility and multiple source of income. You can sell your speaking services through your blog and still make money off the blogging itself.

Steve Pavlina is a renowned motivational speaker and a blogger; he makes more money from his blog than his speeches. Set up a blog today and write inspirational articles regularly, there is no better way to build your brand than this! People will read those articles and if they are inspired, they may want to go the next step with you!

Go on Air: If possible, negotiate regular slot on Radio and TV and talk to people -- Let them hear you talk, the quality of your speech will be the connecting factor between you and the prospective clients and the public in general.

If you're to appear on TV, do not dress shabbily and go on Air, dress tastefully and well groomed. There is no faster way to build and market your brand than the Radio and Television. When people hear and see you, they get connected with you.

Seminars: You can organize seminars and charge people to attend.

Once you've done all these, it will be time for you to seat back and watch the dollars rolling in. How much you charge depends on your demand, start small but don't portray yourself as being cheap.

Snail farming in Nigeria (2)

T

he Snail House (Snailery): Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you are breeding in small scale.

For larger population of snails, you can dug a trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire all around to prevent the snails from escaping. Remember that snails can reproduce fast and become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled. nails love dark and cold places, but make sure the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to the snails. You can use fresh leaves

and cloth that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature.

Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and snakes or other predators from eating the snails in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger predators, you should be wary about smaller ones like ants and termites. Your construction must have these predators in mind. • Snails Foods and Feeding: Snails especially Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits though they can utilize other ranges of foods. Feed your snail's leaves, fruits, or even formula from the feed store. Aside from food to grow tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells.

Leaves: Cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage and lettuce leaves.

Fruits: Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana, tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears and cucumber.

Once they start growing, separate the big ones from the small ones. It takes more than a year for the Achatina type to grow to harvest size. Others mature in two years.

One million snails after a year or two sold at the rate of N50 each (highly reduced price) will give about N50 million! Isn't that a good investment?

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 12

EDIT ORIAL EDITORIAL

Obama’s re-election and leadership change in Beijing

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ast week, the United States and indeed the world political scene were electrified by the victory of the US President, Mr. Barack Obama, who was re-elected in a poll predicted to be tightest ever. His Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, who campaigned aggressively and threw more punches, thankfully accepted defeat, urging his supporters and the rest of America to “pray for the success of the President”.

President Obama in his victory speech was profoundly magnanimous towards his opponent, praising his tenacity, focus and energy in the campaign and his patriotism. In an election campaign that spanned more than six months, with huge sums spent by both sides, the elaborate theatre of the US presidential election came to a happy close in less than 24 hours. This is no mean feat, as we in Africa know that elections are not really as simple and do not have as happy an ending affair as the American one would seem to suggest.

In Nigeria, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo puts it, election is a ‘do or die’ affair in which lives and properties are easily traded off. The reasons are not far-fetched. No American president could come into the unfathomable wealth of even a Nigerian governor, let alone a president who could own about the best university and a private library that he has used public office to acquire. Since the American election was lost and won, Nigerian political

parties have been at each other’s throat over what are the appropriate lessons to learn.

The ruling PDP has been much louder in counselling the opposition to learn how to play Mitt Romney and accept election loss in good faith. However, the point must be made that except the winner wins in a decent free and fair poll the loser should not be expected to accept defeat with grace.

“

While America’s biggest carnival was unfolding, a less theatrical political gathering was taking place just across the Pacific Ocean. The Chinese Communist Party was holding its five yearly national Congress in Beijing The Americans have made their choice and we applaud the manner in which it has been made. No doubt, President Obama has been steadily and effectively tackling the greatest issues facing America today, the economy especially the problem of job generation. He has not done enough as he readily acknowledged in his campaign, but it appears Americans trust him to finish the good work he has started. Like the recent re-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez advised, he should rather concentrate on the onerous job of getting the American economy to work than

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While America’s biggest carnival was unfolding, a less theatrical political gathering was taking place just across the Pacific Ocean. The Chinese Communist Party was holding its five yearly national Congress in Beijing. The 18th congress of the CPC would climax with the election of the 7-member political bureau, China’s highest political organ and the powerful position of Secretary General will go to the incumbent vice president, Mr. Xi Jinping who will succeed the outgoing President, Mr. Hu Jintao next March during the meeting of the country’s supreme organ, the National People’s Congress.

In spite of predictions of fractious and acrimonious party congress by mostly western media pundits, the congress has been a smooth sail. China has become Africa’s most important economic and commercial partner and in this auspicious moment of leadership transition, we wish our Chinese friends a great success.

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PAGE 13

Jonathan and the Ribadu report (II)

By Reuben Abati

T

he President made it clear that the government is committed to getting the refineries to work, so that we would no longer have to import refined petroleum products, which he considers shameful, and by so doing, government would have succeeded in creating jobs and put an end to the hardship that attends importation. The meeting discussed the possibility of ensuring the Turn Around Maintenance of the refineries by March 2013, and subsequently, the rehabilitation of the facilities. The meeting ended with a directive that the Minister and her team should return with further presentations on the technical details of the agreed plan of action. This is one clear example of prompt action and demonstration of commitment.

President Jonathan has no reason to embarrass anyone who served on any of the three committees. While receiving the reports, these were his words: “…we

have seen that the people that have been selected in these committees are people that are known by Nigerians, people that are credible, most especially people that are patriotic and I believe that they put all that into consideration for the interest of the country not for the interest of any individual. You have submitted your reports today. We have to thank you very sincerely and government will surely make use of these reports… because we feel that the oil industry as it is, need to be reformed.” I urge you to note the emphasis on all the reports without exception!

Thereafter, President Jonathan commented on the work of the individual committees. On Dotun Sulaiman committee, he said: “…we feel that our governance and control, (in the oil and gas sector) we need to look at it. And of course quite a number of issues raised by the presenters link up with even the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) issues and I believe it will even help the National Assembly robustly in terms of looking at some aspects of

the PIB. So we thank you very sincerely for that.”

On the Kalu Idika Kalu Committee he said: “In the case of the refineries, I really have to thank you because I was listening, trying to see the kind of recommendations you will bring up…Maybe some of you don’t know but those of us who are in politics, they used to “yab” us some years back that in Nigeria we import what we have and export what we don’t have. They say we import what we have because we have crude oil for God’s sake. Ordinarily if it is a country where we placed our focus right, we should be having filling stations all over Africa and all over the world …It is disgraceful that we are importing petroleum products. If in the next ten years this country still imports petroleum products then all of us who have the opportunity to be here, in fact when we die they should write something and put behind us that we did not rule this country well, because we must stop the importation of petroleum products.” Hence, the President

held the aforementioned follow-up meeting on refineries.

Now, on the Ribadu Report, President Jonathan said, inter alia: “…Probably not everybody agreed on some of the conclusions but I don’t think we need to bother…what we would say is that any member who has one or two observations should please write it either directly to me through the Chief of Staff or through the Minister of Petroleum Resources…But the issues of finance, if it borders on corrupt practice or outright stealing, definitely it will go to the EFCC for investigation…If there are errors of calculation or misinformation from the relevant agencies of government that are supposed to give the correct figures, that will be filtered out. It will not be used against anybody, because the interest of government to set up these committees is to help us do what is right. It is not to help us do what is wrong. And that is why we have to be careful and do what is right. So I plead with you. But let me assure you that government has no interest in hiding

anything…”

Let me cut this short, at this point, by saying that President Goodluck Jonathan has no reason whatsoever, personal or political (since at least one character has said that the furore over the Ribadu Report has something to do with 2015!) to protect wrong-doers in the land. He took on this assignment to make Nigeria better and that is what he is doing everyday: working hard at the Nigerian project and taking every step to transform it for good. The Nigerian people are enjoined to stand on the side of truth and to reject the mischief of all hunters of fortune whose interest is their own ambitions, for in this Ribadu Committee Report matter, personal ambitions are beginning to becloud the facts. President Jonathan will continue to provide leadership. Nobody should drag him into the cheap arena of opportunistic demagoguery.

Concluded Dr. Reuben Abati is Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Media and Publicity.

All those glorious years we spent in Nigeria S

By Kofi Amenyo

ome people say it was the “constro” boys who went first and came back home with the good news. Others say it was the trained teachers (Cert A holders) who went first, started teaching in secondary schools there and came back on holidays and took along their brothers and friends who are graduates. Still others maintain that Ghanaians had been travelling to Nigeria since goodness knows when. There were vehicles that made the long journey from Kumasi or Accra to Lagos.

Long before our independence, Anlo fishermen and traders piled themselves into trucks setting forth from Keta into the wilds of Nigeria. The journey took the whole day. Nigeria was far away, very far away indeed.

Those Ghanaians who went to Nigeria before 1980 saw the very best of the country, economically.

In some states, graduate teachers were given car loans in cash! You took your 3,000 naira, went to a car dealer and drove away with your brand new locally assembled VW “beetul”. It cost you less than 3,000 naira so you had something left over to buy petrol and drinks to celebrate your first new car with your friends – to “wash” the car, as it were. In the early 80s, a graduate teacher’s monthly pay of 360 naira was enough to buy you a return ticket to the UK. That was before the Thatcher government brought in visa requirements for Ghanaians and Nigerians. Those Ghanaians daring enough went on holidays in Britain. The naira was equivalent to the pound and fetched you more than a dollar!

This was also the time Ghanaians would tell jokes about the newcomer who went to the wayside chop bar and asked for 50 kobo rice and 50 kobo meat and the seller woman looked at him

with surprise. He insisted on his order and when he was served, there was no way he could eat it all. He thought the naira was like the cedi he had left behind in Ghana.

At the beginning of each academic year, the now defunct West Africa Magazine published long lists of Nigerian scholarship winners who would be going to universities in Europe and North America to study obscure subjects in the sciences and technology. It was as if the states were competing with each other to see which of them could send the greatest numbers of their citizens on scholarships abroad. We looked at these lists with a tinge of envy.

Our country could not afford to give us similar privileges.

The daily newspapers were bumpy affairs of 48-60 pages at a time when our flagship national daily, Daily Graphic, was still running 16 pages in tiny print.

There were even broadsheets, something we had never seen in Ghana before. A few of the numerous newspapers really had quality stuff.

The newly established Lagos Guardian attracted articles from some of the country’s greatest brains – Wolé Soyinka, Niyi Osundare, Kole Omotoso, Chinweinzu. Then came the newsmagazine, Newswatch, modelled on Time Magazine and better than anything we ever had in Ghana.

On its staff were some of the country’s best journalists including Dele Giwa who was murdered by a mail bomb. There were several television and radio stations at a time when Ghana still had only one television channel and one national broadcaster and we had never heard of FM broadcasting. Naija movies were not available then.

The Ghanaian immigrant felt completely at home. Ghana was not too far away and you could

visit home for the weekend. We settled. We started enjoying the food, the beer, the women and the music. Oh, the music, especially Yoruba music. Because of Juju music’s roots in highlife, it was easy for Ghanaians to take on and like that music. Moreover, some of us still remembered the time when the Yoruba lived among us in Ghana and played lots of the music of the accordion playing I. K. Dairo.

They may have played the music of Haruna Ishola too.

The 80s marked the heights of the careers of King Sunny Adé with his velvety voice (Gboromiro; Synchrooo ... synchro system) and “Shief” Commander Ebenezer Obey and his evergreen, forever and forever wedding song: Eto gbeyawo laye t’Oba Oluwa mi file le, pelu aseni... (What God has joined togedaa let no man put asondaaa...). Fuji, Apala and Sakara music are more difficult for Ghanaians to absorb. They are more traditionally based with Islamic roots. But if you live in a place where you hear a certain music type being played over and over again, and see the people cooing over it, you cannot help but get infected yourself. That is why many of us will never forget names like the late Alhaji Sikuru Ayindé Barrister, Kollington Ayinla, or Mama Salawa Abeni. Today, Fuji music has morphed into the

Yoruba variant of hip-hop. But for those of us who were there in the early 80s, it is the music of Sunny Adé (is there any musician who has sung his way into the hearts of the Yoruba more than this man who has so many wonderful tracks you won’t know which ones to choose as your favourites?) and Ebenezer Obey (who is now into gospel music having also fallen victim to the excessive religiosity that is now afflicting many parts of Africa) that we have continued to enjoy long after we left the country even if we do not understand all the mgbati mgbati.

Then things started getting bad. Many of us saw the signs very early because we had seen similar signs in Ghana. Contracts were not being renewed. It was becoming more difficult to get jobs. Prices were going up. Some construction works were being terminated midway.

Remittances through the banks were becoming more difficult to get as the black market rates of the naira started running away from the official rates.

They did not sack us from their country. We had survived “Ghana Must Go” 1 and 2. We left on our own when they relieved us of our teaching jobs.

Many were too old to brave the journey to another part of the world. They returned to Ghana

“

To be sure, though the Nigerian economy may not be riding the giddy Olympian heights of the late 70s, it has never descended into the gutters that the Ghanaian economy found itself in the same period. But the best is over and many Nigerians will give an arm to have the seventies and early eighties back

and went back to the teaching service or whatever else they were doing before the Agege craze.

Many of the young ones came back to Ghana only to re-saddle and set forth again. Some of the “constro” boys, ever the most daring, took the desert road to Gaddafi’s Libya. Some of them lost their lives on the way. Some of us came to Europe. Others went to North America. There were those who made it to other African countries like South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, or any country willing to accept them.

Anywhere else was better than the difficult days of Rawlings’ military Ghana.

Today, it is said that more than half of Nigeria’s 160 million people live on less than two dollars a day. The naira is now 150 to a dollar. The largest note is 1,000 naira (equivalent to 12 ghc). A proposal to print 5,000 naira bills was dropped. Another to redenominate the naira was also discarded. A bottle of Guinness is around 300 naira and Semovita is 250 (na kekere bi dat o). The molue conductors at Oshodi are no longer shouting: “Enter with your ten ten kobo – 50 kobo one naira no change”. That belongs to a time in the distant past. The trip now costs 100 naira.

Nigerians are finding it difficult to exist on their monthly salaries. Many have voted with their feet and for some, even Ghana is better to live in. To be sure, though the Nigerian economy may not be riding the giddy Olympian heights of the late 70s, it has never descended into the gutters that the Ghanaian economy found itself in the same period. But the best is over and many Nigerians will give an arm to have the seventies and early eighties back.

Kofi Amenyo is a Ghanaian who lived and worked in Nigeria for many years.

PAGE 14

By Olu W. Onemola

O

ur best years are ahead of us. Though those that are behind do not leave much to cherish and very little to hold on to.

I say this because every day I see a new reaffirmation of the resilience of the Nigerian spirit.

I see my own struggles, and the struggles of the people that I have the privilege to experience every day. The new graduate that tries his hand at every volunteer opportunity simply because he cannot find a job though not for a lack of trying.

The young carpenter – a father of two – with a third child on the way, who tries to stay abreast of current trends in his field of work, to remain relevant in today’s market, by recreating the high-end furniture that he sees in dated IKEA fliers. I have seen the young Nigerian woman, with a fiery entrepreneurial spirit, who works a meagre day job to put food on the table for herself and her aging father, but has dreams– that she will not compromise – of someday owning her own spa and fitness club.

These people embody the

By Debo Onifade

M

any Nigerians followed the US presidential elections and showed a lot of excitement about Obama’s victory. I believe government officials were also energized, as we can deduce from the altercations between ACN and PDP that ensued after ABT (Ahmed Bola Tinubu) famously attended the Democratic convention. It is great that a significant percentage of Nigerians have shown great interest in American politics, but it is time for us to begin to demand that our political parties begin to copy ‘the good things’ in American politics.

Throughout the campaign period, Obama and Romney had to consistently explain how exactly they intend to create about 12 million jobs in the next 4 years, which is a rough estimate of what is required to reduce unemployment rate to about 5%.

Obama touted continuously that his government facilitated over 5 million private sector created jobs in the last 3 ¾ years.

These figures are verifiable and not mere assumptions. Sometime ago, the Obama government had to review the numbers downwards after a verification exercise revealed there were some wrong assumptions. A lot of direct government jobs were also created in the last 3 ¾ years but Obama didn’t tout this much because Americans typically don’t want to hear much about government creating jobs by itself. People see this as ‘bigger government’.

In America ‘bigger government’ isn’t entirely negative and I have friends that got government professional jobs due to Obama’s ‘bigger government’ policy.

In Nigeria, we (especially

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

The Nigerian spirit Nigerian spirit, and I see it every self-instituted purposes in life. believers, currently wait their day. And, I believe in it more At the same time, for every days out, serving out their every time I see it. Because these Nigerian that still believes in time, hopeful, for the day that people – everyday Nigerians– their own future – whose they will see an end to their life even though they have been immovable dreams tell of a sentence. dealt wretched cards, in any promising future – I would be Only recently, I read about other world their mere drive remiss if I did not mention the job applicants, who staged an would be impromptu enough to demonstration guarantee by forming their success h u m a n in their barricades Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text v a r i o u s barring entry messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written endeavours. and departure contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 But because from the words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and they have Ministry of a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed been born into Internal Affairs, to: this nearto justly protest forgotten the mishandling generation – of their The Editor, m y applications.

Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, generation – These young 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. they have to men and women Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com work many had every right SMS: 07037756364 times as hard to protest; yet as their peers when security in other nations, to enjoy the hundreds – even thousands – of agents arrived on the scene, basic necessities of life. They also Nigerians who once believed in they fired shots in the air to have to remain many more silken promises of a better scare off their fellow citizens. times as steadfast to their Nigeria that have not yet Despicable. dreams, to not deviate from their materialized. These people, once Sometimes, I genuinely

WRITE TO US

wonder whatever happened to the ideology that is set forth in our great country song – that great anthem that spoke to me as a child, and still speaks to me as a young man, as I experience the failures that the older generation has bequeathed to mine. Because, like me, I know millions of young Nigerians wake up everyday as compatriots, heed the call of our motherland, spend out our days in humble service of our families and communities – contributing in any way we can – with love, and strength, and faith. Yet, our county does not play its part. Our leaders do not look our way.

And all around us, the optimism of youth decays in aged frustration.

Nevertheless, amidst all the justified discontent, there is still light.

Because many of us still look to the future, many of us still stand strong. And at the end of the day, whatever challenges we might be forced to face individually or collectively, many of us will always believe in the staunchness of the Nigerian spirit.

As always, thank you for your time.

Olu W. Onemola is on Twitter

How do we create jobs? journalists) must begin to ask PDP, ACN, CPC, LP, etc to explain to us exactly how they are creating jobs, how many jobs they have created, how they intend to create more jobs, and how they will create jobs when they win future elections. By the end of this year, GEJ should tell us how many direct government and private sector jobs his government has created in the last 18 months. The same goes for the governors. We need to know which governor is creating more jobs, what party they belong, how many jobs they are exactly creating, how they are creating those jobs, and how they intend to continually lower unemployment rates in their states. Undoubtedly, it is easier to create jobs in some states than others, but we must be able to quantify government efforts going forward. We should not be satisfied with vague promises and nebulous achievements.

Thomas Jefferson said in his 1801 inaugural address that ‘a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

This is the sum of good government, and all that is necessary to close the circle of our felicities’. This statement fully corroborates many of my points. First, our governments must be wise and frugal. You cannot have enough money to facilitate jobs creation if you are wasteful and unwise with spending. It will never ‘add up’ and is just not possible. So we must be asking our politicians during debates and campaigns

how exactly they intend to cut spending when they win elections.

For the ones in government, we must continually ask them how exactly they have been cutting spending.

Second, Thomas Jefferson talks about security.

Truly, no government can have the energy, funds, and right concentration to tackle unemployment if there is no security.

In fact, several companies are not growing in Nigeria today because of security challenges. You can’t keep shops or businesses open till very late because of security and that means you can’t hire extra staff for late night work.

People will not even patronize you because they are scared to go out at night. Big companies spend heavily on security for their staff and property, reducing the cash available for them to grow their business or invest in other areas that would otherwise have generated employment. Third, Thomas Jefferson talked about free enterprise (I guess he may have referred to very limited or no government regulation). The world has changed since Jefferson’s time and I am a strong advocate of reasonably strict government regulation. So I differ with the highly esteemed Thomas Jefferson in this regard, but the clear point to Nigeria here is that government must always think about private-sector job creation and not think only ‘bigger government’ all the time.

We all know that ‘bigger government’ in Nigeria is ‘bigger political appointees’ and this has always escalated corruption. So, we must shrink our governments and develop ways to facilitate private sector driven employment generation. Finally,

I believe Thomas Jefferson proposes that Nigerian workers (like those in other parts of the world) should be paid promptly and properly and they should not be taxed too much.

How do I think governments can create jobs in Nigeria?

Among several other things (some of which I have mentioned above), the following are the 3 areas where I believe our governments should focus on to create jobs: (1) build enormous housing and rail infrastructure, (2) create new strategies and infrastructure to mitigate flooding and prevent future devastations (3) harness the power of agriculture in our country.

Can you imagine how many Nigerians will be employed if federal and state governments across Nigeria begin to spend massively on housing? Aside from generating employment, if government fixes housing in Nigeria and develop a good mortgage scheme, people will be able to own or rent houses at lower rates and most importantly they will be able to avoid the standard 2-year advance payment prevalent in Nigeria.

Agriculture, our government agrees, is our most important path to success in future. America is the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude oil, but we would be foolish to think this demand will continue for the next 10 years. Already, America’s crude oil import from Nigeria and some parts of the Middle East has reduced. I have been telling friends for years that America will no longer need foreign oil very soon. When America no longer needs foreign oil, the new energy sources will

move to other countries within a decade, and global crude oil demands will reduce tremendously. Aside from this, many African countries are now ‘finding’ oil, so oil will no longer be a special mineral in about 10 years from now.

What does that mean to Nigeria? Bankruptcy looms! The oil we currently have is not helping us to develop because of corruption. By the time the oil loses its value in about 10 years or so, we will be down to agriculture and a few other minerals. On the other hand, food supply is going to be a major problem for the world in coming years. Several countries are already planning ahead and Nigeria must harness this opportunity. First, we must be able to feed our people sufficiently, without importing basic food. I If we achieve this alone, our GDP will grow significantly.

Even at the current level of largely subsistence farming, agriculture continues to contribute highest to Nigeria’s GDP every year. So if we can grow the industry to meet all local needs, we would have done quite well. If we can grow our agricultural exports again as we did in the 1960’s and 70’s, Nigeria’s GDP will grow tremendously. But the most important thing to me is that agriculture can generate millions of jobs in Nigeria.

Government should be energized by the fact that job creation will reduce insecurity, reduce mortality rates, make it easier for politicians to govern, and promote peace in our land.

This (not GDP growth) is the true sign of economic development!

Debo Onifade is reachable at debo@ieee.org

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 15

The right to call a place home

By Femke van Zeijl

T

he low sun was shining through the leaves, lighting up their golden, red and orange autumn colours. The fresh air tingled in my nose. It was not the first time I walked along the canals of Utrecht in the fall, nor was it the first time the beauty of this Dutch centrally located city in this season struck me. It was however the first time in 23 years I walked there without being able to call it my home.

Since I had moved to Lagos I had not been back, and a happy sort of melancholy came over me. I tweeted how I was strolling through ‘my former home town’. That triggered many questions from Nigerians. How can a home town ever cease to be your home town?

I used to ask people in Nigeria

By Ayobami Oyalowo

M

ost young Nigerians stayed awake, everybody wanted to be a part of the unraveling of history. This was a showpiece event. This is history coming alive before our very eyes. For the past few months, the entire world had, with a keen interest, followed the American Presidential elections. There had been series of campaigns and debates. The major contenders have done everything humanly possible and within acceptable limits to sell their candidature to the American public and by extension, the world at large.

One thing that was obvious to everyone, critics inclusive, is that the electioneering campaign was focused mainly on issues. Each candidate listed known problems and gave clear manifestoes as to how best he hoped to tackle the problems.

And the election proper was devoid of rancour, violence and hooliganism . This was another feather to the American cap.

They are truly the leaders of the free world.

Coming back to Nigeria, you are confronted with something that appears or looks like a democracy. Campaigns are a jamboree, with plethora of lies and empty promises, most of which had been forgotten ever before they were even pronounced. Major candidates shun debates, mainly because they have no substance or intellect to articulate their muddled up thoughts. Elections are marred by serious malpractices such as ballot stuffing, stealing of ballot boxes, street urchins threatening voters and generally making a nuisance of themselves, security men harassing the opposition, outright inflation of votes after counting and a myriad of other inglorious but serious infractions. Elections in Nigeria are usually so raucous that the integrity of the process

where they were from. It took me a while to realise I was not asking the same question they were hearing. They told me where their village was and where their forefathers first settled. Whereas I meant to ask: where were you born and raised? Quite often the answers to these two questions were totally different, and laid bare a considerable cultural gap I previously had not been aware of.

When you ask me where I am from, I will name the little village of Berkel-Enschot where I was born, even though my entire family comes from the deep Dutch South 120 kilometres away from there.

When I am asked where my home is, I will tell you where I have a place to call my own with a bed with fluffy pillows and a fridge with some bottles of lager waiting for me. These days, my

home is the Lagos Mainland. It is also – to confirm a cliché – where my heart is.

I call Lagos my home with some restraint, deeply aware that I am a guest in Nigeria. I can only call it my home by the grace of Nigerian hospitality. I am like a visitor in someone else’s house; a humbling experience, and in my case completely appropriate.

It took me a bit longer to find out I am not the only one in Nigeria feeling like a visitor in someone’s house.

Many Nigerians feel that way, even if they were born in the place.

According to the Nigerian definition, home is where your forefathers came from. So many are living in places they cannot claim as their home, and what is supposed to be home is a faraway place they usually do not know that well, where de

facto they are strangers as well.

Knowing now what it feels like to be a visiting stranger, this worries me.

I did not know the word ‘indigenes’ – spelled this way I mean – before I came to Nigeria. But since then I have come to grasp its meaning, and also what it means to be nonindigines. By now I see this distinction as one of the deeper causes of social unrest in the country. I simply fail to understand why a citizen should be denied certain rights on account of where his forefathers came from.

Categorising the population into people who belong, and people who don’t, creates a deep division in society.

How are non-indigines supposed to feel comfortable in a place that defines them as an outsider and will continue to do

so for generations to come? How can they be expected to invest (emotionally, socially, economically) in a place they cannot call their home?

It does not take a lot of imagination to understand how deeply worrying the current discourse on the disintegration of Nigeria is to these people branded second class citizens. If the country falls apart (and I am not saying it will, that is another discussion), where will they go?

Being accepted as a guest is an honour, but in the long run being dependent on the hospitality of others can be straining. And the fear to be kicked out the door when your host has had enough of you will always be in the back of your mind.

Talk to Femke on Twitter: @femkevanzeijl

Like America, unlike Nigeria is perpetually in doubt and that is partly responsible for candidates not conceding victory to, or congratulating, their opponents.

Another reason for the lack of sportsmanship is the fact that all contenders generally rig but the best rigger wins, therefore the losers are loathe to extend hands of fellowship to the winners. In fact the immediate past President, Musa Yar’adua confessed that the election that brought him to office was fraught with so much malpractice.

But how did we get here?

Nigerians are hardworking and ebullient people. But one very huge and noticeable problem is selfishness. A Nigerian will, rather than demand for his legitimate rights, look for an alternative.

For a typical or average Nigerian, the deal is, as long as I am okay and my family and loved ones are fine, screw the world. Although what most people in Nigeria fail to realize is that those screwed fellows, always mostly end up as the bane of the “very okay” fellows.

Let me illustrate. Few years back, an international polling agency ranked Nigerians as the happiest people in the world and you want to ask yourself, why?

With debilitating illiteracy and poverty at an all-time high, poor infrastructure, such as roads, communication, power, etc. why are Nigerians such a happy people? It is simple, ask a Nigerian how are you, even if he hasn’t eaten in two days, the reply you get is,”I am wonderful”.

We have been so conditioned to accept our fate without question. It is only in Nigeria that you see people carry multiple mobile phones. Since the telephone services are crappy, Nigerians have simply

“adjusted” by getting multiple sim cards and phones, so they can constantly be in touch. Most homes in the urban areas have about two power generating sets, and your building isn’t complete without the luxury of a mechanized borehole, to provide potable water.

Nigerians are indeed a happy people.

Last year, Zamfara had the lowest JAMB registration, making it one of the most poorly educated states. Yet the state has this year budgeted a paltry N5.7billion for education, while the religious affairs budget, which covers the Hisbah Commission, Hajj, and Religious Preaching Commission, are to receive about N1.7 billion for recurrent expenditure.

A monstrous N2 billion is dedicated for Sallah activities for 2012. These are not only misplaced spending priorities, but the implication is very clear. These children that are either not educated or poorly educated are going to form the bulk of tomorrow miscreants and available recruits for Boko Haram and other undesirable elements. You may ask how those concern me. I will tell you.

While you are comfortable, or pretending to be comfortable, you are never at ease. Those dregs of the society and neverdo-wells are going to make life uncomfortable for your children that have been educated abroad with stolen wealth.

Another major problem is that while most of us pretend to be fine, the reality on ground is very grim. Let us look at it this way. The civil service is the major engine upon which the government is run, but who makes up the bulk of that sector, rejects and frustrated beings.

The best and most qualified have all gone into the private sector, the banks, telecoms, oil and gas

sectors have taken all the first class candidates, leaving the “also runs” as those to be absorbed into the core of the civil service. Not only is the civil service made up of mainly failures, rejects and the frustrated, they are also poorly trained or not even trained at all. Their remuneration is abject at best, leaving them at the mercy of the elements. No wonder the Nigerian civil service is not only one of the most corrupt in the world, it is also the laziest, most cumbersome and inefficient service in the world. Don’t forget that the civil service also consists of parastatals such as INEC, NCC, NBC etc. While the police and other paramilitary agencies are not left out of the bulk of the civil service.

Nigerians must arise from their docility. The days of ‘me and my household’ are past. We must get our hands dirty and be ready to make necessary sacrifices. Our best cannot continually be governed by our worst. It must start from me and from you. We must begin to demand for change in all facets of live. The civil service must no longer be peopled by those who have nothing to offer. Our bright youths must be encouraged to work in the civil service as it was the practice in time past.

Also, our politics must no longer be left in the hands of criminals and petty thieves.

Expired and over recycled AGIP(any government in power) men should be sent to where they truly belong, old people’s retirement homes.

Younger, fresher and brighter elements should not only rant on twitter, but they must put their money where their mouth is, by throwing their various hats into the ring.

Politics should never again be

left in the hands of men without integrity, devoid of character.

Politics is serious business, Mitt Romney is a successful businessman, not a government contractor or an economic scavenger.

Transparency, probity and accountability must be the watchword in every facet of our various individual and public lives.

Budgets must be scrutinized for performance. A budget is a document that can either make or mar a person, an organization, a state or an entire country. Not only is our budgeting process less than transparent, it is actually a compilation of sad and pathetic jokes. You can immediately diagnose the health of any corporation from their budget.

Nigeria is a sick note, where over 60% of the budget is stolen and not one person has ever been docked let alone jailed.

We must also begin to seek the collectives and less of the personal gratification. It should no longer be “cool” to put on your generator while your neighbours battle with heat and darkness. We should begin to probe sudden and immediate wealth. Voting process must be cleaned up and the next generation of leaders groomed in a deliberate mentoring program. The past and outgoing generations have failed. The irresponsibility we currently see in today’s youth is a direct result of the training and mentoring received. Before we call for a physical revolution, there must be a mental and attitudinal revolution.

A rebirth is a necessity if we must get to the desirable. America is celebrated and respected worldwide today. Nigeria is the beacon and hope that the entire Africa looks up to for succor.

Follow Ayobami Oyalowo on twitter @Ayourb

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

FG to build cargo Airports in FCT, others

By Adeola Tukuru

T

he Federal Government will construct six bulk produce cargo airports in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and four other States, the Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, has disclosed.

Other states to benefit from this development are Lagos, Rivers, Benue and Plateau States.

The minister, who stated this during a meeting with members of the Local Organising Committee on Agricultural Show & Exhibition in the FCT, said the cargo airports would be used for transporting bulk agricultural produce.

She reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to make the country sufficient in rice production by 2014.

“The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working assiduously for Nigeria to be rice sufficient by 2014.

“The government in collaboration with State Governments has initiated a Rice Mills Programme and is procuring rice mills which would be distributed across the States and FCT. The FCT is expected to get two of the rice mills which will be located in Abaji and Kwali Area Councils,” she explained.

Endorsing the agricultural show and exhibition slated to hold between 5th and 8th December, 2012, Akinjide advised the youths to take up employment in agriculture which, she stated, was financially rewarding.

“The Federal Government has revolutionized the agriculture sector with the development of a

Police arraign man, 30, for theft

T

he police yesterday arraigned one Emeka Edward, 30, before an Abuja Magistrates Court sitting in Wuse Zone 6, for alleged theft.

Prosecutor Buba Irimiya told the court that Glory Peter, of Asokoro, Abuja, reported the matter at Asokoro Police Station.

Irimiya said that the accused snatched the complainant’s bag at Asokoro junction, Abuja.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Magistrate Musa Jobbo granted bail to the accused in the sum of N100, 000 with one surety in like sum.

He said that the surety must reside within the court’s jurisdiction and adjourned the case to Nov. 26, 2012 for further hearing.

new policy aimed at making agriculture commercial. The Government has introduced the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) aimed at revamping the agriculture sector, ensuring food security, diversifying the economy, and enhancing foreign exchange earnings.

“Under the ATA, key initiatives such as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) have been introduced to

support smallholder farmers in the agriculture value chain. The ultimate goal is to ensure that agriculture is practiced as lucrative commercial enterprise that is not only sustainable but also attractive to our youths and young people,” she noted.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee on Agricultural Show & Exhibition in the FCT, Alhaji Ari Isa Mohammed, explained that FCT Administration was partnering

with the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture to organise the exhibition.

“The Department of Economic Planning, Research and Statistics is working with the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat and other stakeholders and have since commenced preparation by setting up a Local Organising Committee for the Agricultural Show and Exhibition,” he said.

Abuja vendors get new chairman

By Adeola Tukuru

A

buja vendors, known as the News Papers Distributors Association over the weekend elected, Mr. Samuel Jimoh as their new chairman.

The Chairman of the election committee of the union, James Aniekan Emmanuel said that Jimoh pulled 216 votes against his opponent Oriri Nkelem Chukwu of the association progressive front.

The newly elected chairman, called on the members not to turn down the hope and aspiration of the people and they should also work harder so as to make the public happy.

Also Kevin Emmanuel emerged the vice chairman, Etim Iwara as Secretary General while Geoge Paul was elected as the Assistant Secretary of the association.

Man, 25, docked for stealing 4 bags of cement

A

Water vendors at Mpape market Abuja, recently.

Photo Mahmud Isa

Jisalo vows to implement report on constitutional amendment

By Adeola Tukuru

A

House of Representatives member representing AMAC/Bwari constituency in the FCT, Hon Zaphaniah Jisalo has pledged it readiness to ensuring that all the recommendations of the public session on Constitutional

Amendment are adopted and implemented.

Zaphaniah also stressed the important of implementing all the recommendations made by his people for proper socio-economic development in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He stated that residents should

be allowed to make their choice as to who to govern them , as it done in others states .

He further explained that these move is not to weaken the six area councils in the FCT, but to ensure that those in position of grass root development imbibe transparency and accountability in all they do.

n Abuja Senior Magistrates Court sitting in Wuse Zone 6, last week granted bail to one Shamsudeen Ali, 25, of back of Grange Hotel, Mpape, Abuja.

Ali was arraigned on a one count charge of stealing four bags of cement.

Prosecutor Mohammed Musa told the court that Aisha Labaran of the same address reported the matter at Mpape Police Station.

“Ali stole the four bags of cement put under his care as a security guard in Labaran’s building site.

“The accused ran away and was later caught at Lugbe, Abuja,’’ Musa said.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Senior Magistrate Grace Adebayo granted bail to the accused in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

She said the sureties must be civil servants residing within the jurisdiction of the court.

She adjourned the case to Dec. 3, 2012 for further hearing.

Police arraign man, 30, for criminal breach of trust, cheating

T

he police yesterday arraigned one Chika Nwafor, of No. 21, Enugu Street, Garki, Abuja before an Abuja Magistrates Court for alleged breach of trust, cheating and misappropriation.

Police prosecutor Christian Munonye, told the court that, Mr Amaechi Chukwunenye, of No.10, Mahogany Ave., Kano, lodged the case at the Garki Police Station on Nov.1, 2012.

Munonye said that sometime in August, Chukwunenye

entrusted his Nissan Sunny vehicle with registration number AA 486 BNN, valued at N600, 000 to Nwafor.

He said that the car was given for commercial purpose within the FCT with an agreement that Nwafor remitted a sum of N3, 000 on a daily basis to Chukwunenye.

“Instead of remitting the agreed amount, Nwafor only paid N19, 000 from August to October and converted the remaining balance for his own use.

“Chukwunenye decided to

collect his vehicle from Nwafor and on hearing this Nwafor switched off his phone so that he would not be reached.

“With intent to cheat, Nwafor later claimed the said car was snatched away from him by unknown gunmen while he was driving along Efab Estate, Garki, Abuja,’’ Munonye said.

The prosecutor said that Nwafor’s offence contravened Sections 312, 323 and 309 of the Penal Code.

Nwafor, however, pleaded not

guilty to the allegations.

In view of his plea, the prosecutor prayed for a date to further mention the case.

Senior Magistrate Tony Ubani granted the accused bail in the sum of N200, 000 with a surety in like sum who must reside within the court’s jurisdiction.

Ubani said that the surety must be a civil servant of not less than Grade Level 6.

He adjourned the case till Nov. 22, 2012 for further hearing.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 17

Some of the Federal Government Assisted Subsidy Mass Transit buses at their park in Central Area, Abuja.

Women selling yam waiting for customers yesterday in Bwari, Abuja.

A middle age man hawking local mart yesterday in kubwa, Abuja

Police men trying to fuel their tank with a black market jerry can over the weekend A teenage boy pushing wheelbarrow yesterday in Garki market, Abuja.

Photos: Justin Imo-owo along Kaduna road

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Constitutional amendment: Our moderate bids in Borno

S

ince the end of the Civil War, Nigeria has had two operational constitutions, in 1979 and 1999. The 1999 constitution has been reviewed/amended three times- 2001, 2005 and 2011, all with a view to addressing contentious issues and evolving a workable constitution that will meet the yearnings and aspirations of our people for sustainable development of our nation-state.

That as it may, the National Assembly has given us another opportunity to revisit certain provisions of the constitution so that we can have an accepted and time tested constitution considering our diversity, interests and development agenda geared towards achieving moderate development and welfare of the people. It is in an effort to get the opinions of majority of our people that the state Government put in place a high-powered committee to not only mobilize our people for the public hearing but also collect and collate all our views on the various issues for onward submission to the National Assembly. I must therefore seize this unique opportunity to commend our people for the large turnout despite the security challenges we are facing in the state.

In considering the review of the 1999 constitution, one has to consider matters that should ensure the continued existence of our dear country Nigeria. The peaceful coexistence of all federating units of Nigeria as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation has always been the wishes and prayers of the Government and people of Borno state.

It is in line with this assertion that I submit the following proposals to this august committee for its consideration as contribution to the evolution of a viable political system for the country where equity and justice should be guaranteed for all segments and federating units of this great country.

REVENUE ALLOCATION One principal reason for the current agitation for a review of the 1999 constitution is the system of revenue allocation as contained in sections 162-163, items (a) and (d), part II of the second schedule and section 313 of the constitution.

The factors considered for the allocation are derivation, fiscal autonomy, landmass, population, continuity of existing services, equality of states, balanced development among others. The derivation formula has been most contentious.

This principle is to the advantage of the oil producing states only since there is no basis for assessing other natural resources like agricultural produce, gum Arabic, potash, gypsum, livestock etc Thus, the constitutional provision under section 162 (2) should be amended so as to allow flexibility to take care of political, economic and social forces and changes in the country. Therefore, the revenue sharing formula should be reviewed in favour of states and local governments. After all the states and local governments have been directly or indirectly assisting federal institutions in their respective domains, while federal presence in terms of development of infrastructure is very limited.

CREATION OF STATES It is safe to assume that the demand for the creation of additional states by various communities and interest groups anchored on marginalization and other factors will continue into the foreseeable future. Indeed, in the context of the long standing and heroic struggles of the Nigerian people to entrench and deepen democracy, and also given the heterogeneity and diversity of our nation, as well as the general atmosphere of unfulfilled expectations, the quest by various communities across the length and breadth of this country to have their own states is not only natural but legitimate. It is the inane liable right of the people to demand for the creation of states. That said however, given the experience of the existing states structure, I have sincere and genuine concerns about the viability and sustainability of new states. Therefore, I urge Nigerians to exercise this right with utmost sense of responsibility and caution even as I strongly recommend that Section 8 of the Constitution be amended to remove the ambiguities and cumbersomeness in the process of creating more states for future consideration.

ABOLITION OF STATES ELECTORAL COMMISSIONS The state independent Electoral Commission has been carrying out its functions as provided for in the constitution with regards to Local Government elections and advises the Independent National Electoral Commission on the compilation and register of votes as it applies to local Government elections. I therefore feel the status quo should be maintained.

Borno State Governor,

KASHIM SHETTIMA ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE POLICE Section 215 (4) of the constitution provides for the powers of the state Governors to give lawful orders to the commissioner of police for the maintenance of public safety and public order within their states. However, another provision requires the commissioner of police to refer such instructions or matter to the president or Inspector General of police before it is carried out which may lead to breakdown of law and order in a state. There is therefore the need to amend the two provisions to give full powers to state Governors without referring to any other higher authority after all the Governors are the chief security officers of their states.

It is important to note that past experiences in our political development shows that there is much to be done in terms of putting in place an effective and efficient police system in the country. Therefore, the clamour for establishment of state police will weaken the whole system and create more bitter experiences. For now, we should harmonise the two subsections (215 [4] and 215 [5]) to give Governors full powers to be truly chief security officers while strengthening the police force with modern equipment, gadgets and training to meet up with current realities.

ESTABLISHMENT OF DESERT CONTROL COMMISSION Like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), there is the need to establish desert control commission to handle the fast advancing Sahara desert in the northern part of the country particularly Borno and Yobe states. It may be noted that land degradation due to mining and agriculture, desertification and wind and rain erosion have claimed several hectares of arable land and even forced some communities to migrate southwards. This calls for urgent attention and solution if the devastating effects of desertification on human and animal lives are to be curtailed.

The constitution should therefore be amended to provide for a commission to be charged with the responsibility of checking the rapid desertification of most viable agricultural areas of Borno, Yobe and other northern states.

OIL AND SOLID MINERALS EXPLORATION COMMISSION It is important to state here that Borno and some other states of the North are potentially rich in oil and other solid mineral deposits. However, the exploration efforts in Borno state is moving at snail speed which makes the people to doubt the honesty of the exploration activities in the northern states. It is in order to call for the amendment of the 1999 constitution to provide for a commission to be responsible for exploring and exploiting oil and other solid mineral deposits in the northern states for the benefit of the citizens of such states and indeed the country.

Without prejudice to the foregoing recommendation however, it is our considered view that there should be a

“

It is in an effort to get the opinions of majority of our people that the state Government put in place a high-powered committee to not only mobilize our people for the public hearing but also collect and collate all our views on the various issues for onward submission to the National Assembly. I must therefore seize this unique opportunity to commend our people for the large turnout despite the security challenges we are facing in the state constitutional provision that empowers states to, independent of the Federal Government and in the spirit of true federalism, explore their potentials in the area of oil and solid minerals INCLUSION OF ROLES FOR TRADITIONAL RULERS IN THE CONSTITUTION Distinguished Honorable members, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to call for the recognition of the role of traditional rulers in the development of our society. It would be recalled that traditional institutions had played prominent roles before and during the colonial administration in the administration of their communities. They were highly respected mobilizers of the people in support of government programmes and policies . Moreover, they were given roles in the 1979 constitution but were omitted in the 1999 constitution. Their previous contributions to the emergence of a united Nigeria and to the social, economic and political development of this great country must be recognized and appreciated. Presently, traditional rulers and Emirate councils are involved in security, tax collection, publicity and enlightenment campaigns in their areas of jurisdiction. With regards to funding, the recurrent and capital expenditures of traditional and Emirate councils should be taken directly from the federation account.

I would like to state that the above proposals are highlights of some of the important areas but a comprehensive position on all the relevant issues would be presented by Government. I once again commend the National Assembly for giving us yet another opportunity to give inputs into the amendment of the 1999 constitution.

Shettima, the Governor of Borno State and former lecturer at the University of Maiduguri, gave the highlight, last Saturday, at a public hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution, organized by the House of Representatives in Maiduguri, Borno State.

BUSINESS

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Email: aminuimam@yahoo.co.uk

PAGE 19

INSIDE

- Pg 21

Nigeria’s domestic airlines to have tracking device, says NCAA DG

Mob: 08033644990

L-R: A Atang (CBN), M D Suleyman (CBN), E A Esu (CAC), Kachi Okezie (CTP), M A Muhammadu (Pencom), S Yusuf (CBN), M McGinness (DFSA), E Elujekor (SEC), A G Abubakar (CAC), C Brownridg (NAICOM) & B Taribo (NDIC) at DFSA recent workshop in Dubai

VAT collection hits N659.1bn in 2011- FIRS boss

By Aminu Imam

T

he Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said Value Added Tax (VAT) collection by the Service grew from N163.3 billion in 2004 to N659.1 billion in 2011, representing an increase of over 400%.

The Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS, Dr. Kabiru Mashi stated this yesterday during the flagging-off the nationwide VAT enlightenment campaign from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the Hotel De Bentley, in Abuja.

Alh Mashi said, overall, it has been the third highest contributor to tax collection in the last eight years behind petroleum profits tax and companies income tax.

“In Nigeria today, everyone must have paid VAT at one time or the other. In addition, even though VAT was only introduced in Nigeria in 1993, it has become a major contributor to tax collection, providing an average of about 16% of total collection in the last eight years”, he stated.

“We have also seen VAT collection grow from N163.3 billion in 2004 to N659.1 billion in 2011, representing an increase of over 400%.Overall it has been the third highest contributor to tax collection in the last eight years behind petroleum profits tax and companies income tax”, he further said.

The FIRS boss said the purpose of the event was to evaluate the VAT performance as to the rights and obligations of the taxpayers and how this evaluation can impact on the VAT Tax law review amongst others.

Alh. Mashi said, ”VAT as we may know was introduced by the Value Added Tax Decree NO.103

…..commences nationwide enlightenment campaign

of 1993 as a consumption tax on specified goods and services. It is paid by ultimate consumer and therefore affects us all. Other taxes like Personal Income Tax, companies Income Tax and Education Tax are only paid by persons who earn income under those tax laws.VAT is however different as it is paid by anyone who consumes “VATable” goods or services that is goods and services on which VAT is imposed.

“However, in our day-to-day

operations as tax officers, we still observed a general lack of in-depth knowledge of taxation by majority of taxpayers. This led to the creation of specialised units for taxpayer education within the FIRS and other initiatives geared towards creating an enlightened and tax conscious public. This campaign is therefore a continuation of these efforts by the FIRS. The only difference is that this campaign is focused on VAT”, he stated.

Stakeholders commend Princess Oduah for clearing the air

By Muhammad Nasir

T

he Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah has been commended for clearing the air on the misinformation and deliberate falsehood alleging marginalisation against the Northern part of the country with regard to the citing of Cargo Terminals as well as landing rights by some foreign airlines into the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, (MAKIA), Kano.

She has also been commended for her visible efforts in making Kano an investor’s haven by the reconstruction projects at the Malam Aminu Kano

FBN Capital hosts 2nd Annual Investor Conference

By Aminu Imam

F

BN Capital, the investment banking and asset management business of the FirstBank Group will host its 2nd Annual Investor Conference from the 15th 16th of November, 2012 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos.

The theme for this year is: ”Catalysts for Growth: A Pragmatic Approach”, and the event aims to facilitate

discussion around the enabling factors and actionable initiatives that can be taken to boost Nigeria’s growth, focusing on identifying quick wins from various reform agendas.

The Managing Director/ CEO of FBN Capital, Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe, said the company started the annual conference in 2011 as a platform to inspire discussion on ways to foster economic development.

Over the two days, the

conference will host panel sessions with captains of industry from the real estate, infrastructure and oil services sectors, discussing the emerging opportunities and the extent to which government reforms and movements at the macro level are impacting their outlook. There will also be a dedicated session on the power sector, given its pivotal role as a potential enabler of growth, and ongoing efforts to transform the sector.

Management Tip of the Day Help your multitasking colleague break the habit

E

veryone these days is trying to get several things done at once. But it’s frustrating to work with someone who won’t stop glancing at his phone or even takes calls mid-meeting. If a co-worker’s inability to focus is bringing you down, try these three tactics:·

Call him out mid-task. Not everyone is self-aware. Pointing out the behavior may bring attention to it and how it’s affecting you.· Find a new time to meet. Suggest that you reschedule for a time when he can focus. Try a slot at the beginning of the workday, before

the day’s emails start rolling in.·Physically disengage. Get his attention by moving to another part of the room. Then it’s up to him to reconnect when he’s done with his task.

Source: Harvard Business Review

International Airport, Kano.

In a statement released in Abuja and signed by Capt. Shehu Dankano, Northern Coordinator, Aviation Stakeholders Squaretable, the group said her alleged refusal to grant landing rights to Emirates and Etihad Airlines were totally untrue.

According to Capt Dankano,”The Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Arad Emirates (UAE) clearly grants and entitles these airlines to operate flights into Lagos, Abuja and Kano International Airports.

“By the agreement, the airlines are equally entitled to operate cargo services to the said destinations. It is therefore inconceivable that anyone, including the Aviation Minister would unilaterally deny them rights and privileges already conferred by the BASA.” According to the statement, ”As aviation professionals, we wish to state that airlines are guided by pure economics and market forces to operate any given route. They don’t care about politics or other such mundane issues. They are a business entity and not a political party.”

They commended Princess Oduah for her the massive ongoing reconstruction and remodelling of eleven airports scattered across the country.

They particularly commended the quality of work in Kano, Kaduna, Yola, Jos and Abuja airport terminals where they visited.

The aviation stakeholders decried the antics of some politicians who are spreading malicious and wicked lies against Princess Stella whom they describe as laying a solid foundation for the economic renaissance of Northern Nigeria in general and Kano in particular.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 20

COMPANY NEWS Nigeria/South Korea

P

rof. Soji Adelaja, the Special Adviser on Economic Intelligence at the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), has called for increased cooperation between Nigeria and South Korea.

He made the call in Abuja on Friday in his presentation entitled: “Why Greater Collaboration between Nigeria and Korea”, at the 2012 gathering of the alumni association of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Nigeria.

Adelaja, who is also a facilitator of the gathering, said “both countries are built on the principles of democracy and fought for the socio-economic and political freedoms which their citizens enjoy today’’.

JTF winning war against oil theft, illegal bunkering in Niger Delta, says JTFCommander

By Muhammad Nasir, with agency report

T

he Joint Task Force (JTF) operating in the Niger Delta says it is recording successes in the war against crude oil theft and illegal bunkering in the region.

Brig.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, Commander of the 2 Brigade and Sector 2 of the JTF, said this in Port Harcourt yesterday at the inauguration of six-block of component commanders’ residential quarters for senior officers of the task force.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the quarters were allocated to officers of the task force from the Navy, State Security Service, Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Buratai said the JTF, through its aggressive intelligence and commitment, had uncovered, arrested and prosecuted many illegal oil bunkering suspects and thieves in the Niger Delta. ”Since our assumption of responsibility of the (JTF) Pulo Shield, we have made

tremendous progress in the anti-bunkering, illegal bunkering, anti-piracy operations and sundry crimes, especially pipeline vandalism and oil theft. ”The Brigade (Sector 2) has also moved into other directions in support of the civil police in anti-kidnappings, anti-armed robbery operations and we have made tremendous successes.

“We want to assure the good people of Rivers and Bayelsa that we are up to the task and facing such challenges squarely.”

IGI

I

ndustrial and General Insurance (IGI) has promised to continue to provide unique and customer friendly products and services to its customers.

Speaking at IGI Day at the 2012 Lagos International Trade Fair in Lagos, the Executive Director, Finance and Accounts, Yinka Obalade, said that over the years, the company had consistently contributed to the development of the Nigerian economy through the provision of valuable financial risk products and services that conformed to international standards and best practice.

DANA Air

D

ANA Air has paid out a 30 per cent interim compensation of N4.95 million ($30,000) each to 90 of the 153 victims of the ill-fated June 3, 2012 plane crash with a promise to redeem the 70 per cent balance of N11.55 million ($70,000) each as soon as possible.

Specifically, the airline has, through its insurance companies- Prestige Insurance Nigeria and Lloyd’s of Londonso far paid out N445.5 million for 90 victims to their families as part compensation and is still to offset N1.03 trillion to the 90 families.

A management team from DANA Air led by its Head of Commercial Operations, Mbanuzor Obialor, and Group Head, Corporate Communications, Tony Usidamen, last week, during at a visit to The Guardian, said the airline was and just waiting for the final go ahead from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to resume flight operations in the country.

Buratai said the newly-built accommodations would improve the functionality of the component commanders as well as reduce hotel bills and security challenge faced by the officers.

Maj.-Gen. Jao Ochoga, Commander of the Joint Task Force, Pulo Shield, operating in the Niger Delta, commended Buratai for his infrastructural development initiative within the barracks.

“When operation Pulo Shield came into being and the Brigade was made part of it; the challenges we had was that operation Pulo Shield, as a multi-agency outfit, had no place within the Brigade settings.

“So unavailable resources were expended to keeping these officers in a hotel and with this accommodation provided within the barracks, the officers will feel more secured to do their jobs without any fear or hindrance.”

FG to generate 411 MW of electricity from ethanol

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

T Assistant General Manager (Treasury), Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Olutayo Olurunda (left), Chairman/Chief Executive, Ultimate Management Consultancy Services Limited, Mr. Lawal Itopa Abdulhamid and Senior Manager (Finance and Accounts), Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Dennis Ama, at a workshop on International Financial Reporting Standards, recently in Abuja.

Mobil deploys workers, equipment to contain fresh oil spill

By Muhammad Nasir, with agency report

M

obil Producing Nigeria at the weekend deployed its men and equipment to tackle a spill at its Ibeno operations in Akwa Ibom state.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the Atlantic coastline in Ibeno, reports that the spill, which started on Friday, has hit the shoreline.

Oily sediments have deposited on the shoreline in Ibeno, Esit Eket, Eastern Obollo and other settlements along the coast.

Heavy equipment, chemicals, hoses and oil spill containment equipment were being moved from the jetty to the fields.

Youths from the host communities were seen agitating to be hired for the cleanup exercise.

The National Oil Spill

Detection and Response Agency confirmed that the firm reported on Nov. 9 that 100 barrels of crude had discharged into the ocean at the Qua Iboe fields.

NAN gathered that a joint inspection visit to the spill site by community representatives, regulatory authority and Mobil has been scheduled for Monday.

The Director of Oil Spill Response at NOSDRA, Mr. Idris Musa, told NAN that the agency had dispatched its men to the spill site.

According to him, the team is to take samples of the crude deposits for tests.

The firm had in a statement on Sunday confirmed the spill and pledged to mitigate the impact on the environment.

The statement signed by Mr. Paul Arinze, the Manager of Communications and Government Relations, regretted the spill and said it was collaborating with community

representatives and regulators of the industry.

“MPN, operator of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC/MPN) Joint Venture, confirms that on Nov. 9, an oil release occurred, offshore Akwa Ibom State.

“The source of the leak was identified and the pipeline was isolated and shutdown, emergency response personnel and equipment have been deployed.

“Regulatory and community representatives have been notified,’’ it said.

The statement also said the firm had arranged for representatives of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), NOSDRA, Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Environment and local community to overfly the area.

It will be recalled that two oil spills occurred at the Qua Iboe oil fields on Aug. 13 and Aug. 24.

he Federal Government yesterday said, upon the implementation of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) which was recently approved by Federal Executive Council (FEC), it will generate of 411 megawatts of electricity from ethanol to boost the stability of power in the country.

The NSMP when fully implemented will also save the nation about 65.8 million dollars from decrease in fuel importation as well as 350500 million from the reduction in sugar importation.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ interactive forum organised by the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) in Abuja, Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga lamented the fact that Nigeria produces only 3 percent of her sugar consumption, saying the NSMP is the key to restoring the production and processing capacity of the sector to compete favourably in the international market.

“Based on our competitive and comparative advantage in the sugar sector and the fact that we started in the 1960s, we should have started exporting sugar long ago.

Something has gone wrong over the years and this sugar master plan is what we need to raise our sugar self sufficiency to an acceptable level,” Aganga said.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 21

Digital Mobile Radio operator seek for license in Nigeria

By Chris Alu

V

ertex Standard and D a n i m e x Communication is seeking for operation license that will enable them give Nigerians a two way radio VXD series equipment which has become a choice in digital radios for easy analogue conversion.

The new VXD Series conventional digital land mobile radios, will provide a new digital choice for users seeking to maximize their radio investment.

Paul De Carte, Vertex Standard’s distribution director for EMEA, said that “the new VXD Series enable analogue radio

users to gradually upgrade to digital as needed to make the most of their radio investments. The portable and mobile radios operate in both analogue and digital modes making conversion to digital flexible and easy. Users can gradually evolve from analogue to digital as required to best address their functional needs.”

Vertex Standard director also said that as a founding member of the Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) Association, it is offering digital radio technology based on the DMR protocol, which is the most widely, adopted digital two-way radio system actively used in

over 100 countries. The VXD Series is designed to work with other DMR TDMA radios, for users to benefit by getting more choices of interchangeable digital equipment.

The VXD Series includes: VXD-720 portable radio, VXD-7200 mobile radio and VXD-R70 repeater.

Paul De Carte describe some of the features to include being a consistently clear digital audio quality with integrated voice and text communications. It is portable and submersible in water. It has IP57 water resistance rating and submersible up to three feet for 30 minutes.

Nigeria’s potential financial hub of Africa – Dubai Int’l relations expert

By Muhammad Nasir

N

igeria has what it takes to emerge the leading financial hub in Africa if she keeps faith with current economic reforms, Director of International Relations at Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Gulf States’ financial sector regulator Mr. Mark McGuiness has said.

According to him, Nigeria could emerge stronger economically if pace of current reforms are sustained.

He spoke yesterday in Dubai whilst welcoming a delegation from the Legal and Enforcement SubCommittee of the Nigerian Financial Sector

Regulation Coordination Committee, (FSRCC).

McGuiness, a lawyer, who joined the DFSA from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2005, noted that Nigeria has a “tremendous opportunity to emerge as the leading financial hub in Africa” and urged the visiting team to continue to work the passion, commitment and dedication that will ensure this vision is realised.

He pointed to the DFSA’s excellent record of collaboration with financial sector regulators around the world and assured the visitors of the Authority’s willingness to extend the same to the Nigerian regulators.

Responding, the head of the delegation and Chairman of the subcommittee, Mr E A Esu, applauded the DFSA for the “insightful and eye-opening presentations” from various departments of the DFSA, especially the Legal and Enforcement team.

He added that the visit has underscored the importance of a collaborative approach to financial sector regulation due to the increasing globalisation of financial services.

The visit was part of a five-day international workshop on legal enforcement of financial regulation organised by CTP International FZ LLE, a Dubai-based capacity building firm.

Nigeria’s domestic airlines to have tracking device, says NCAA DG

By Ibrahim Kabiru Sule

A

s part of the effort to further ensure safety of the Nigeria’s air transport, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed that aircrafts operated by domestic airlines in Nigeria are to be fitted with Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIS).

The Director-General of the NCAA, Harold Damuren stated this in Lagos at the weekend, saying the new device is compulsory for all domestic airlines in the country.

“The new device will record everything that happens to an aircraft

Director-General, NCAA, Harold Damuren during flight. If there is engine failure, it will record it; if there is excessive temperature, it will record it. If there is excessive

vibration, it will record it.

“All airlines will be required to fix this on board their aircraft. The control center will be at the NCAA, where we will be seeing everything. This is a good development in our airspace,” Demuren said.

The DG then explained that the regulatory agency will make the installation of the new device in aircraft a compulsory requirement for all domestic airlines, as this would be included in carriers’ minimum equipment list.

He further said the new device would serve as a backup in the event of loss of data contained in aircraft’s black boxes.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 22

Loss adjusters play critical roles in claim settlement – NIA From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

T

he Chairman, Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), Mr. Remi Olowude has described the activities of the loss adjusters in the sector as critical tool to the success of insurance industry, as they independently facilitate the settlement of insurance claims.

Speaking at the

investiture ceremony of the President, Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (ILAN) Mr. ‘Lebi Omoboyowa, OLuwude noted that to provide the essential services which require achieving the ultimate purpose of insurance business, a loss adjuster’s role is an embodiment of fairness, equity and balance.

Acting on instructions of an insurance company, he said the loss adjuster

undertakes the inspection of damage, investigates and reports the cause and makes recommendations regarding how best to reinstate or settle the claim in accordance with the terms and conditions of insurance policy.

The loss adjuster, he said, ensures that the insured receives indemnity, which is the central principle of insurance.

The NIA president

advised loss adjusters to continually improve their knowledge, acquire additional modern skills in the discharge of their duties and be conversant with contemporary trends and features of disasters and events which cause damages and losses.

While the insurance industry still need foreign experts to adjust claims in oil and gas, aviation, engineering, shipping and

maritime sectors, he called on local loss adjusters to gradually learn how to adjust claims in those critical sectors.

Appealing to them to be diligent in their duties, he said the loss adjusters must not allow themselves to be intimidated to shortchange the claimant or even be induced by the claimant to compromise and work against the interest of the insurer.

Meanwhile, Mr. ‘Lebi Omoboyowa, officially took over as the 9th president of the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (Ilan) last week.

He succeeded Mr. Darlington Mgbojkwe, as the new president. At an investiture ceremony in his honour, Mr. Lebi Omoboyowa, the new president promised to obtain a charter for the institute before the expiration of his tenure.

NAMA spends N360m on World Geodetic Survey of 22 airports

T

he Nigerian A i r s p a c e Management Agency (NAMA) said at the weekend that it had spent N360 million on World Geodetic Survey (WGS-84) of 22 airports and procedural design of four major airports in

Nigeria.

Mr George Amadi, NAMA’s Acting General Manager, Business Development, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the ongoing 2012 Lagos International Trade Fair.

…..designs 4 major ones “With this NAMA has migrated from Terrestrial air navigation to satellite air navigation, otherwise known as Performance Based

PenCom to begin project implementation drive, says DG

T

he National Pension Commission (NPC), on Friday, said it would soon begin to implement strategies for the successful implementation of some ongoing projects in the country.

The Director-General of the commission, Mr Mohammad Ahmad stated this in Calabar at a retreat with Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of Licensed Pension Operations.

He stressed the need for the commission and pension operators to map

out strategies of implementing projects like transfer window issues and the efforts to amend the PRA 2004.

Ahmad said that the meeting was to take stock of what the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) had achieved over its eight years implementation.

“The retreat therefore provides a perfect opportunity for key players in the industry to discuss and ensure that the final draft review of PRA, 2004 sufficiently captures the areas of the Act.

“That required review as well as chart the future for the pension industry”, Ahmad said.

The DG further said that the meeting would discuss the challenges troubling the industry and chart a way forward.

He said that the meeting would explore and discuss in sufficient detail, ways and means for moving the industry forward.

Ahmad therefore urged the participants to be open and candid in their contributions.

(NAN)

Navigation (PBN) at the four major airports.

“The four major airports are Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja International Airports,” he said.

Amadi said this was achieved after Emirate and KLM successfully conducted a test flight on the new approach procedure on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) at Lagos and Kano International

Airports.

He said that the operation of PBN would save cost for the Airlines as they would burn less fuel during take off and landing.

According to Amadi, it will also reduce carbon dioxide emission and Air traffic controller’s work load.

“With PBN, the agency has joined the countries that are already operating International Civil Aviation Organisation

(ICAO) endorsed air n a v i g a t i o n a l programme.

Amadi said that with this development, NAMA has the capacity to collaborate and provide WGS-84 survey, PBN procedure design and cartography services to any organisation according to International Standards.

He said the agency expected the Airlines to reduce their air fares since they would be using less fuel. (NAN)

Lagos accounts for 65% Nigeria’s non- oil GDP - Fashola

G

ov.

Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state at the weekend said the state accounted for over 65 per cent of nation’s non-oil Gross Domestic Product.

Fashola disclosed this at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Lagos International Trade Fair.

The theme of the fair was: “Promoting Trade for Sustainable Economic Transformation”.

Fashola, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulire, said that in spite of its small size, Lagos State also accounted for over 60 per cent of the country’s value added manufacturing.

“The state has been projected to be Africa’s largest mega city and the world’s third largest by 2015 according to UN Habitat report.

According to him, Lagos State will continue to be the industrial, f i n a n c i a l , telecommunications, transportation and commercial hub of the country.

He urged the Lagos state Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to help in planning entrepreneurship programmes for “Okada

riders” as the state’s traffic law banning them had come to stay.

Fashola said that the state government was willing to support the private sector in this regard.

He said that the state had a micro finance scheme where the “okada riders” could easily access funds to set up genuine businesses.

The governor said that the state had been organising the “okada riders” into cooperative societies to ensure that they could access funds to engage in other businesses of their choice.

President of LCCI, Mr. Goodie Ibru, in his closing address, urged all tiers of government to continue to address the impediments to private sector development.

He said that this was in the areas of infrastructure, security, quality of institutions, funding and economic governance.

The LCCI President apologised for the i n c o n v e n i e n c e s experienced by exhibitors and visitors and promised that there would be improvement in the 2013 trade fair.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 26

Army arrests fake lieutenant, 16 undergraduates in possession of uniform Stories by Joy Baba

T

he Nigeria Army in Asaba, Delta state capital has burst a phony Army recruitment syndicate and arrested the kingpin who has been posing as an Army Lieutenant to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians desirous to join the force.

Army, 4 Brigade Benin, 3 battalion troops arrested the fake lieutenant, Mr. Goodluck Furupagha, in an operation which had an undercover army officer disguising himself as a prospective applicant desiring to join the army.

Furupagha demanded the sum of N200,000 from the Army officer to hasten his recruitment process but the undercover officer

pleaded for N100,000.

The fake Lieutenant was subsequently arrested after which he admitted duping several persons on the pretext of helping them to join the Army.

He was later moved to his residence in Ogwashi-Ukwu where several items that have to do with the military were recovered.

The items include six copies of Nigerian Army e- recruitment forms, passports and documents, two copies of Nigerian Navy e – recruitment forms, passports and documents, six copies of Nigerian Army Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) on line application forms, passports and documents, a pair of camouflage uniform dress with

Lieutenant rank, and two Nokia handsets.

In a related development, two groups of 16 suspects were arrested by troops of 3 Battalion in Asaba with various Army uniforms and accoutrements.

They claimed to be students of Delta State University, Asaba campus and Delta State Polytechnic, Ugwuashi-Uku, Aniocha South Local Government Area of the state.

The two groups claimed they were members of Nigerian Army Cadet Force and Safety Corps of Nigerian Cadet Team respectively. Four of the suspects were arrested at the University Campus, while 12 were arrested at Agidiasi behind Omu Palace in the house of Mr Freedom Ekpeni.

Mr. Goodluck Furupagha They all admitted ownership of the Nigerian Army uniforms and accoutrements. Whereas, the suspects arrested at the house of Mr. Freedom Ekpeni in Agidiasi claimed they got the items through a Mobile Police personnel, the suspect arrested at Delta State University campus claimed they inherited the uniforms from their predecessors.

The Commander 4 Brigade, Sector 1 Operation Pulo Shield, Brigadier General Obi Abel Umahi told journalist that considering the armed robbery, kidnapping, oil bunkering and other vices various that are threat to national security, the illegal acquisition, use and abuse of the Nigerian Army uniforms and accoutrements is of serious

Some of the suspect arrested with Nigerian Army uniforms and accoutrements

Maritime crimes: Navy commences fleet evaluation

T

he Nigerian Navy has commenced a major fleet evaluation exercise to enable it intensify the ongoing operations to rid the Niger Delta waters of illegal maritime activities, especially crude oil theft, illegal oil bunkering and piracy.

The exercise is code named ‘farauta’, which means “hunting” in Hausa.

In a release from the naval headquarters in Abuja signed by Rear Admiral EO Ogbor on behalf of the Chief of Naval Staff, the Navy said the ongoing naval operations in the Niger Delta region has emphasis on BonnyAkassa-Escravos axis, an area notorious for crude oil theft, up to the extent of the offshore oil platform at Bonga and Bogi.

The statement further said the exercise will enable the Navy to assess its operational capability with a view to identifying gaps and taking necessary measures to fill such

Navy boat

gaps for enhanced operational readiness.

This synergy, according to the statement, will ensure full mission accomplishment across the threat spectrum with specific emphasis to immediately end all criminal activities in the Niger

Delta region.

A total of eight ships, six gun boats and three helicopters including elements of the Nigerian Army and maritime patrol aircraft of the Nigerian Air Force will be used for the exercise.

security concern.

Umahi further said experience have shown that these illegal bodies have impersonated Nigerian Army personnel in various scenarios and had involved in acts of criminality to the utter embarrassment of the Nigerian Army in Particular and the nation in general.

Stating that the Nigerian Army which is widely respected worldwide cannot fold its arms and watch its name being dragged in the mud by an organisation that is not registered or known but parade itself as an affiliate of the force, Umahi disassociated the Army from the activities of this organization saying “there is only one Nigerian Army and no affiliates”.

Security: CDS wants African forces to work together

C

hief of Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, has urged all African countries to work together to solve the security problems facing the continent and the world at large.

Ibrahim stated this at the closing of four days conference of commandants of Armed Forces Command and Staff Colleges of African countries in Abuja.

He said: “National security is too serious a business to be seen as a circus show. This is why Africans should come together to solve their problems by themselves through the teaching of security challenges in military colleges.” noting that the major problems facing Africa countries are poverty, disease, corruption and war.

Also speaking at the occasion, the chairman of the conference, Air Vice Marshal Ahmed Mu’azu, noted that the military role in the security situation of the country is a continuous process, saying the military have sorted out ways to manage the situation by adjusting their curricula.

Mu’azu said the military have mapped out working plan with the commandants, adding that past and in-coming chairman of Nigeria, Botswana and Libya would meet in January to fashion out ways to carry out the plans.

The conference tagged ‘The Role of Staff Colleges in Preparing Officers to Meet Emerging Security challenges,’ is an annual event, which started last Monday and ended last Wednesday.

The programme afforded the AFCSC the opportunity to interact with a view to enhancing the professional education of middle- level military officers of the various countries.

It had in attendance 34 participants from 12 staff colleges in Africa, observers from Brazilian Army Command and Staff College, Nanjing Army Command College, International Peace Support Training Centre Kenya, British Peace Support team and South Africa and ICRC, including resource person from different organisations.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 27

Flooding: Jonathan approves over N9bn for food production

By Mohammed Kandi

A

s part of measures to cushion the effect of flooding on farmers in the affected states, the Federal Government has approved the sum of N9.7 billion, as well as 40, 000 metric tones free food for women to strengthen its flood recovery food production plan.

The plan which involves the release of 40, 000 metric tons of food from the Strategic Grains Reserve to the affected families, will include provision of free seedlings and fertilizers to affected farmers, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has stated.

He made the disclosure during an emergency meeting with State Commissioners for Agriculture and Rural Development on the National Flood Recovery Food Production Programme in Abuja.

Adesina said: “The real issue is how we compensate for the losses incurred. We have already put in place a flood recovery food production plan to support famers in the flood affected areas. As the flood recede, we will embark on the intervention. Mr. President has approved N9.7 billion for us to implement this plan.

“The plan has four components: first, we will release 40, 000 mt of food from the strategic grain reserve to the families directly affected by the floods. Secondly, we will provide free improved seeds and fertilizers to farmers that are directly affected as soon as the water recedes.

“Thirdly, in states that are affected by floods, but vast areas unaffected, we will give them improved seeds and fertilizers while the last group which are states that are not affected will also benefit from the free seeds and fertilizers but through the Growth

Enhancement Support (GES) scheme.”

Describing the flood as a wakeup call for all stakeholders especially in the agriculture sector, the Minister identified Taraba and Kogi States as worst hit by the flood.

Adesina also explained that the flood claimed 106, 400 hectares (ha) of 751, 540ha total cultivated area in Taraba while Kogi had crop loss of 72, 200 ha of 250, 670ha cultivated farmland.

Adesina further puts the total flooded areas as at 12th and 13th October, 2012 to 1.4 million as

Agriculturist urges beekeeping business

A

n agriculturist, Mr Frank Orji, has urged Nigerians, especially the youth, to embrace commercial bee-keeping to reduce unemployment in the country.

Orji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abakaliki that the country was blessed with abundant forests which could support bee-keeping.

“Bee-keeping generates income for individuals and creates jobs as it involves less risks and finances to operate. In advanced countries, several industries are involved in this venture to produce honey used for medicinal purposes and other industrial uses.

“The government should take advantage of the abundance of forests and bushes in the country for the overall agricultural and economic growth,” he said.

Orji said that with adequate resources and the enabling environment, he could train youths in his area and the state in the art of bee-keeping.

“With the little resources available to me, I have ventured into local production of facilities and equipment used in commercial beekeeping,” he said.

According to him, scientific research has shown that bees pollinate 80 per cent of flowers worldwide, adding that, “We therefore need them in abundance to pollinate food and cash crops, as without this, the quantity and quality of food production will be low.”

The agriculturist noted that the first step to bee-keeping was to erase the fear of bee sting, which painted the venture as dangerous.

“Prospective bee-keepers should consult experts who would guide them to adequately use available facilities to extract honey from beehives without being stung.

“They will also be taught the best time of the year to start keeping bees, where to keep the bees, rudiments of swarming and why bees are peaceful during the period, among others.

“They will also be guided on the best direction to position the bees’ hive, the best trees, plants and flowers for bees to produce good honey,” he said. (NAN)

Nigerian cocoa farmers

estimate for crop loss was 467,000 ha.

However, the Minister dismissed rumours of imminent food shortage next year adding that the mentioned data were outcomes of a sophisticated remote sensing and satellite imagery research conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to determine extent of crop loss.

He added that with the various intervention programmes and support schemes provided for the farmers, the country would not suffer food shortage.

The Commissioner for agric, Kano State, Hajia Baraka Sani lamented that the flood had affected about 25, 485 ha of farmlands while the state government is yet to examine loss incurred on the irrigation farms.

She said a total of 31 out of 44 local councils were affected aside from houses and properties that were washed away.

However, she commended the Federal Government for the initiative stressing that it will complement the state government’s effort towards assisting the affected farmers.

Her Kogi State counterpart, Dr. Olufemi Bolarin appealed to the minister to include sugarcane as part of the crops government should support the state.

He lamented that about 20, 000 crops of small holders and confluence sugarcanes were swept off by the flood.

“In as well as we applaud federal government’s intervention, we still appeal to the Minister to critically look at the issue in terms of sugarcane,” Bolarin added.

He noted that Kogi state was able to convert the flood threat to an opportunity through an accelerated fish production scheme.

Without reliable cocoa statistics, expect failure, expert warns S

By Mohammed Kandi

tates regarded as cocoa producers have been urged to take accuracy of data seriously.

The Executive Director of Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Professor Malachy Akoroda, made the plea during the Cocoa Transformation Agenda Implementation Plan in which the 2012 progress report was presented for deliberation and the 2013 implementation plan was designed.

Akoroda wondered how any meaningful cocoa business can be done without statistics as a basis.

“Not every local government in every state will produce cocoa. We have information from Geographic Information System (GIS) telling us the local government areas that can produce cocoa in Nigeria. We are told that 22 states are potentially capable and can produce cocoa but 14 states have traditionally been producing,” he stressed.

It is not just any fertiliser that is suitable for cocoa soil enrichment, he said. Making clarification on cocoa fertiliser, the professor indicated that the NPK formula is 5-12-17, while

Calcium and Magnesium are added at ratio of 4 to 2. “If nutrient contents are used as basis of calculation, farmers will record gains after use.”

Therefore, “get this equation right,” he advised.

The professor praised Ondo State that took an initiative on cocoa statistics, adding that, “without any reliable cocoa statistics, you can’t do anything.” According to him, “states don’t have to wait for the federal government for everything. Your governments must help cocoa farmers in your states. What the federal government is doing should be a bonus, after doing your own.

“If a farmer does not keep record, the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) will not profit him.

If tree crop unit officers don’t understand the details of GES, it will be a failure. Farmers need to keep record if they want to take cocoa as a business. Once I see a farmer with no record, I don’t discuss further.

There is nothing to discuss,” he said.

According to Akoroda, the federal government is working on rehabilitation of cocoa farms and has sent four Nigerians to train in Indonesia on rehabilitation of old

cocoa farms. The trainees will in turn train Nigerians on best practices they have learnt. The training will be in CRIN on February 2013. He said there are early fruiting, early maturing varieties of cocoa that can be planted to replace the old, ageing cocoa trees.

“What is the use of eight varieties of cocoa sitting in CRIN without getting to the farmers?” he asked.

“After research, there must be development, using the result, otherwise it will be a waste of time.

States need to transfer the technology to farmers. States without reliable data should go back and get their figures right “so we can make preparation to serve the farmers.”

He said emphatically that “any state that does not know the number of people they want to serve is not serious.” He drew attention to the need to plan for provision of pods and seedlings, stating, however, that, rather than wait for too long, the government officials should “turn (their) pods to seedlings to avoid wastage.” He also alluded to the use of grafting, for old farms.

The executive director warned

farmers not to buy fake cocoa chemicals, stating that the process of selecting agrochemicals is scientific, rigorous and has standards. “Do not let anybody tell you that without a process of science we can go to any manufacturer and tell him that this chemical is good, we want to buy it.”

He stressed that CRIN is mandated to decide on the choice of chemicals.

The professor explained that there are three varieties of improved cocoa seedlings: F1 Amazon, TC 1 – 8, WACRI and all are good depending on agro-ecology. He said CRIN took a contract to distribute 1,200,000 pods (divided into yearly phases), starting this year with 95,000 pods to be delivered. “We have a table on how to deliver those pods. We should be working with numbers: when, where, what, who, why, the number of cocoa pods to be given to Mr. Blue Shirt on, so and so date, and so forth,” he explained.

He concluded by saying that “CRIN is a government institution.

You don’t need permit to come to CRIN. The federal government is ready to pay us when they see evidence of supply.”

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 31

Obama faces Latin America revolt over drugs, trade ANALYSIS

By Brian Winter

P

resident Barack Obama will face an unprecedented revolt

by Latin American countries against the U.S.-led drug war during his second term and he also may struggle to pass new trade deals as the region once known as "America's backyard" flexes its muscles like never before.

Washington's ability to influence events in Latin America has arguably never been lower. The new reality is as much a product of the United States' economic struggles as a wave of democracy and greater prosperity that has swept much of the region of 580 million people in the past decade or so.

It's not that the United States is reviled now - far from it. Although a few vocally anti-U.S. leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez tend to grab the media spotlight, Obama has warm or cordial relations with Brazil, Mexico and other big countries in the region.

Most Latin American leaders were rooting, either privately or publicly, for his re-election on Tuesday.

That said, even close allies are increasingly emboldened to act without worrying about what "Tio Sam" will say or do. Nowhere is that more evident than on anti-narcotics policy.

In 2012 as never before, many governments challenged the fourdecade-old policies under which Washington has encouraged, and often bankrolled, efforts to disrupt the cultivation and smuggling of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs in the region.

The reasons for the unrest: Frustration with what many perceive as the pointless bloodshed caused by the "war on drugs," plus a feeling the United States has not done enough to reduce its own demand for narcotics - if, that is, it's even possible to curb demand.

Those are hardly new complaints but they used to be aired in private. In April, several presidents voiced doubts about antidrug policies at a regional summit that Obama attended. At the U.N. General Assembly in September, the leaders of Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala - historically three of the most reliable U.S. partners on drug interdiction - called on world governments to explore new alternatives to the problem.

Obama and other U.S. officials have energetically lobbied against legalization of drugs or letting up in the fight against powerful smuggling gangs. Yet some leaders and wellconnected observers across Latin America expect substantial shifts in the next few years.

"The taboo is broken," said Moises Naim, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"2012 will go down as the year when Latin American governments

Barack Obama became assertive and began making changes of their own accord."

It remains unclear what exactly the changes will look like or how many countries will embrace them.

Some leaders, such as Guatemalan President Otto Perez, have openly proposed legalizing or "decriminalizing" certain drugs.

Others have pushed for less dramatic changes such as legalizing only marijuana or, like Mexico's Felipe Calderon, have spoken in vague terms of a "less prohibitionist" approach.

Uruguay has gone furthest, proposing a bill this year that would legalize marijuana and have the state distribute it. That move was regarded as too extreme by many in the region, although this week's decision by voters in Washington and Colorado states to legalize marijuana for recreational use showed that, even in the United States, the status quo is changing fast.

"Nobody knows where this is going yet," said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president and part of an influential group of statesmen who have met behind the scenes with current leaders to advance the debate.

"I'd describe this as a phase of timid, controlled experimentation," Cardoso told Reuters. "It's going forward, and it seems there will be changes ...

Nobody seems very concerned with how the United States will react."

Cardoso, 81, remembers an era of powerful U.S. ambassadors and so-called "banana republics" - when Washington often played a hand in installing leaders across Latin America and deposing those who incurred its wrath.

That period basically ended with the conclusion of the Cold War. Still, as recently as a decade ago, the United States still enjoyed more leverage than it does now thanks to trade, foreign aid, and loans from groups like the International Monetary Fund in which Washington plays a major role.

The United States' economic slump has contributed to the changing dynamic. But so has a wave of broad-based economic growth in Latin America that has lifted some 50 million people into the middle class since 2003, allowed countries such as Brazil to pay off debts to the IMF, and made the region broadly less subject to foreign pressure.

Although there are exceptions, Latin America as a whole has also become more democratic. That makes it more complicated for Washington to shape events than it was during the 20th century, when one U.S. secretary of state

“

famously described a Caribbean dictator as "a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

"Laugh if you want, but there's no one son of a bitch for us to go talk to anymore in these countries," said Shannon O'Neil, a Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "There are still some people in Washington who don't fully understand that these democracies are just as complicated as ours is ... and that ends up hurting us sometimes."

She said the more robust democracies help explain the recent pushback against drug policy. "What you're seeing is a popular outcry against the violence, and these governments are responding to it."

U.S. envoys are now respectful of countries' sovereignty but still circle the region and warn about the dangers a change may pose.

Obama said just before the April summit that legalizing drugs would not do away with violent cartels and "could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting than the status quo."

Some countries such as Peru have heeded such warnings and are intensifying their drug crackdown. Alvaro Uribe, who was a stalwart U.S. ally as president of Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and meets regularly with some of the

Obama and other U.S. officials have energetically lobbied against legalization of drugs or letting up in the fight against powerful smuggling gangs.

leaders feeding the debate, said it may result in fewer changes than some think.

"A lot of it is lip service," Uribe told Reuters. "In private, few speak of substantial changes."

Uribe, Cardoso and others agree that Mexico's incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto will be a key piece to the puzzle because of his country's size and proximity to the United States, as well as Mexico's status as the prime battleground for drug violence. Some 60,000 people have died in Mexican drug violence in the past six years.

Pena Nieto is likely to discuss drug policy when he meets Obama before taking office in December. Aides have said Pena Nieto opposes legalization, although Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte - an ally of the incoming leader - told Reuters that Mexico should legalize the export of marijuana and consider other changes following the votes by Washington and Colorado.

On the other big issue the United States cares most about in Latin America - trade - the road ahead also looks bumpy.

Naim said Obama administration officials have told him they want to make a major push for free trade throughout the hemisphere during a second term. "They'll try to start with the big countries," Naim said. "Whoever wants in can join."

The push may find receptive ears in countries such as Mexico and Peru on Latin America's Pacific coast, which tend to be more open to trade, in part because of their relative proximity to Asia. Several of those countries already enjoy trade deals with the United States, but stand to gain from a broader agreement.

However, new trade talks have faced huge barriers in recent years because of strains on the global economy and Latin American countries are likely to be even more insistent on negotiating thorny issues like U.S. agricultural subsidies than they were in the past.

That's in part because they have other options. China's trade with Latin America soared from near nothing in the past decade and now accounts for about 11 percent of trade in the region. The U.S. share has fallen from 53 percent to 39 percent.

O'Neil said the most likely outcome may be a "divide down the hemisphere" in which Brazil,Argentina, Venezuela and a few other countries stay out of any new trade deal. Together, they account for about 60 percent of Latin America's economic output.

The more fertile ground for cooperation may lie in less glamorous, but still important issues like energy policy, education and intellectual property rights. Even there, though, it's clear the relationship is ever more one of equals.

"Latin America, especially Brazil and Mexico, represent a huge opportunity for the United States - if they can take advantage of it," said Andres Rozental, a former Mexican deputy foreign minister. "But the era of unilateralism and the almost monolithic influence of the Americans in the world is just not what it was."

Source: Reuters

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 32

Kenya police attack leaves Samburu in fear Former Libyan prime minister to be tried

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ibya's former prime minister will be put on trial for crimes he allegedly committed during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was extradited from Tunisia, which he fled to in September 2011 after the fall of Tripoli to rebel forces.

"Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi will appear tomorrow [Monday] on the occasion of a first case" against him, Taha Baara, the public prosecutor's spokesman, said in Tripoli on Sunday, adding that Mahmoudi faces charges of "prejudicial acts against the security of the state".

Baara said on Sunday that alMahmoudi is facing charges regarding his role in a number of cases during the civil war, as well as undermining the country's security.

Rights groups objected to his extradition on June 24, saying that he could face the death penalty and in July, Mahmoudi protested his innocence from his prison cell in the Libyan.

"I am not guilty, not guilty, not guilty," he said during a visit to the prison organised by the authorities in an apparent bid to quash rumours he had been tortured.

"I am ready to be tried by the Libyan people. I am sure of myself and of my innocence," he said at the time.

Along with Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's most prominent son, Mahmoudi is one of the few remaining keepers of the many state secrets under Gaddafi, who was killed on October 20 last year.

A physician by training, Mahmoudi was loyal to Gaddafi until the end, serving as premier from 2006 up to the final days of his regime.

Elsewhere in Libya, the Libyan air force announced on Sunday that it would begin dismantling a stockpile of outdated surface-to-air missiles which had been positioned around the country by the former leader.

Military engineers have started removing potentially toxic fuel from the Russian-made weapons, which were brought to Libya from the Soviet Union in 1972.

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi

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illagers in northern Kenya fear further violence after at least 31 police officers were killed over the weekend, an elder has said.

"The situation is very, very tense with heavily armed security personnel patrolling villages," said the religious leader in Samburu County.

The officers were ambushed as they attempted to recover stolen cattle.

Internal Security Minister Katoo ole Metito vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

He told the Standard newspaper the "disaster" was the worst in Kenya's history.

But the religious leader, who did not want to be named, said he feared that the security forces could take revenge on the local community.

"We fear the anger of these security people could fall on innocent civilians, as those who may have killed the policemen are nowhere now," he said.

He also said that more bodies still have to be found by officials.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said 31 officers were killed in Baragoi, along with three of the attackers.

He said that nine injured officers

remained in hospital.

The local Samburu and Turkana communities often steal cattle from each other, and clash over grazing

rights and access to water points.

A similar attack, in which 12 people were killed, took place nearby two weeks ago, Kenyan media report.

An injured policeman receiving treatment in hospital

South Africa police hunt Pretoria Art Museum thieves

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outh Africa's police are hunting for a gang which stole art worth $2m (ÂŁ1.25m) from a museum in

the capital, Pretoria.

The robbers posed as visitors, before drawing pistols and stealing paintings by top

A 1931 painting by famous South African artist Irma Stern of brightly colored sailboats waiting against a pier is among the stolen.

South African artists, police spokesman Lt Col Katlego Mogale said.

The thieves abandoned one painting because they could not fit it in their getaway car, the AFP news agency reports.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

Lt Col Mogale said border officials are on alert in case the thieves try to smuggle the paintings out of the country.

Three gunmen paid the $2.25 entrance fee at the Pretoria Art Museum on Sunday and then "held up the person who they had just paid and demanded several paintings before they escaped", he added.

Authorities said the

robbers stole specific paintings, but were forced to leave behind a painting by well-known artist Irma Stern because it did not fit in their silver sedan car, AFP reports.

The gunmen escaped with another Stern painting, Fishing Boats, South Africa's Times Live newspaper reports.

Other paintings stolen include Maggie Laubser's Cat and Petunias, JH Pierneef's Eland and Bird, Hugo Naude's Hottentot Chief and Gerard Sekoto's Street scene, it reports.

Lt Col Mogale said identikits of the suspects were being compiled.

"No arrests have been made but we are following a few leads," he said.

Ecowas agrees to deploy troops to Mali

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est African regional leaders have agreed to deploy 3,300 soldiers to Mali to retake the north from Islamist extremists.

At a summit of Ecowas, the group's chairman said it was ready to use force to "dismantle terrorist and transnational criminal networks".

The soldiers would be provided mainly by Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels took control of the north after Mali's president was overthrown in March.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Outtara told reporters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, that the soldiers could be deployed as soon as the UN approved the military plan.

He said he hoped the Security Council would approve the plan by late November or early December.

According to a Malian army source quoted by Reuters, the plan covers a sixmonth period, with a preparatory phase for training and the establishment of bases in Mali's south, followed by combat operations in the north.

The UN had given African leaders 45 days from 12 October to draw up a plan for military intervention to retake the north.

In a statement, the grouping of West African states said that while dialogue remained the preferred option, force might be needed to break up the networks controlling Mali which "pose a threat to international peace and security".

Foreign powers are divided on the best approach to the crisis in Mali.

President Goodluck Jonathan

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Asia and Middle East

A

Syrian fighter jet has bombed a rebel-held area near the Turkish border, killing at least six people and wounding a dozen others, while a rocket propelled grenade also landed inside Turkey, officials and witnesses have said.

The jet bombed the town of Ras al-Ain, metres from the Turkish frontier, on Monday as

PAGE 33

Syria bombs rebel town on Turkish border forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad tried to wrest control of the area back from rebels.

The bombing sent up huge plumes of black smoke and scores of Syrians ran from the area, scrambling to cross the border fence into Turkey.

Helicopters also strafed targets near the town, which fell to rebels on Thursday during an advance into Syria's mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast. There was no word on casualties.

The jet struck within metres of the border fence that divides Ras al-Ain from the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar, sending up plumes of black smoke.

A Reuters reporter in Ceylanpinar said the plane flew right along the border and appeared at one point to have entered Turkish airspace.

It was not clear what the bomb struck, but scores of civilians fled the area,

scrambling over the fence into Turkey.

The escalating violence in northern Syria has caused a refugee crisis in Turkey; more than 120,000 refugees have already crossed over. To Ankara's alarm, some 9,000 Syrians arrived in one 24-hour period last week.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Monday for

Second quake hits northern Myanmar

West welcomes new opposition body

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A

5.6 magnitude earthquake has struck Myanmar, hours after a stronger tremor killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more, the US Geological Survey says.

The USGS said the quake, early on early Monday morning, occurred at a depth of 9km, 135km north of the central city of Mandalay.

Hours earlier a strong earthquake struck the same region of northern Myanmar.

Scattered damage and injuries also were reported on Sunday in areas close to the quake's epicentre.

According to news reports, the most significant damage appeared to be the collapsing of bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River in the town of Shwebo, the location of the quake's epicentre.

The website of Weekly Eleven magazine said five people were killed when the bridge, which was 80 per cent built, collapsed.

Locals leaving the targeted areas

China warns Dalai Lama on Tibet

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hina has criticised Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, over comments he reportedly made on a spate of selfimmolations by ethnic Tibetans.

Speaking in Japan, the Dalai Lama was quoted saying China was not "seriously" looking at the causes of the protests and focusing on blaming him instead.

China's foreign ministry accused him of "glorifying" the selfimmolations.

Nearly 70 Tibetans have set themselves alight since 2011 in what activists say are protests against Beijing's rule.

Most are reported to have died.

State media reported another selfimmolation on Saturday, bringing to seven the number in the past week.

Gonpo Tsering, 18, set himself alight near a monastery in Hezou city in Gansu province, Xinhua news agency reported.

Beijing says Tibetans have religious freedom and accuses exiled Tibetan leaders of stirring up unrest.

The latest incidents have taken place as China's Communist Party holds a congress in Beijing that will begin the process of transferring power to a new generation of leaders.

$34m to help the refugee population in Turkey.

The extra cash was expected to last for six months, Simon Eccleshall, the IFRC's head of disaster and crisis management, told reporters in Geneva.

He acknowledged though that it was "not unimaginable that [the emergency aid] figure will need to increase," adding: "We will be regularly revising contingency plans (and perhaps) the emergency appeal."

A bridge that was under construction across the Irrawaddy River in Shwebo collapsed, killing five people

Dalai Lama

estern nations, Qatar and Turkey have welcomed the creation of a new Syrian coalition that aims to unify opposition against President Bashar al-Assad.

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was unveiled in Doha on Sunday.

Its president will be Moaz alKhatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who fled Syria this year.

Meanwhile, Syrian government aircraft bombed the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ain, near the border with Turkey.

Both jets and helicopters targeted the town, sending civilians fleeing into the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar. Casualties were reported.

A mortar fired from Syria also landed near an army post in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Monday, for the second time in two days.

The Israeli military later said its soldiers had fired tank shells towards the source of the mortar fire, confirming "direct hits". A complaint had been filed with UN forces operating in the area, it added.

Observers and activists estimate that more than 36,000 people have been killed in the long-running uprising against President Assad.

Hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Western and regional powers have in recent weeks put pressure on a hitherto fractious Syrian opposition to create a unified, credible body that could become a conduit for all financial and possibly military aid.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), the previously dominant opposition umbrella group which is widely viewed as divided and ineffective, will control 22 of the 60 seats on the National Coalition's leadership council.

"We look forward to supporting the National Coalition as it charts a course toward the end of Assad's bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future that all the people of Syria deserve," US state department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the move was an "important milestone in forming a broad and representative opposition that reflects the full diversity of the Syrian people."

France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said it would "work with its partners to secure international recognition of this new entity as the representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people".

PAGE 34

Europe and Americas Jill Kelley named as FBI link in David Petraeus case

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

BBC news chief and deputy quit over scandal

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he woman who was the target of harassing emails from the lover of former CIA director David Petraeus has been named as Jill Kelley.

The FBI launched an inquiry after Mrs Kelley said she had received vicious emails from Gen Petraeus' biographer Paula Broadwell.

The investigation revealed first that the emails had come from Ms Broadwell.

Following an examination of her computer, it transpired she had had an affair with Gen Petraeus.

Politicians now want to know why they were not told about the affair sooner, with one even suggesting a cover-up.

David Petraeus, the 60-year-old four-star general, described his behaviour as "unacceptable" for the CIA's leader.

The BBC's Jane Little in Washington says that last week's dramatic fall from grace of the former spymaster continues to send shockwaves through the capital.

On Sunday, US officials named the second woman as Jill Kelley, who lives in Florida.

They describe the 37-year-old from Florida as a family friend of Mr Petraeus and his wife, Holly.

There is no suggestion that Mrs Kelley, who works as an unpaid social liaison at a military base in Tampa, has had an affair with the former CIA boss.

In a statement, Mrs Kelley and her husband acknowledged their friendship with Gen Petraeus and asked for privacy.

"We and our family have been friends with Gen Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children," she said.

Gen Petraeus was forced to resign last week, although US officials said the FBI had begun an inquiry into Mrs Broadwell, 40, several months ago.

This has now triggered angry reaction from both Democratic and Republican politicians, who are asking whether national security could have been compromised.

Paula Broadwell

Former BBC director general George Entwistle has denied attempts to cover child abuse crises [Reuters]

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he BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, have "stepped aside" amid the crisis over Jimmy Savile and a report wrongly accusing a politician of child abuse, reports said Monday.

The BBC press office told the AFP news agency on Monday it could not confirm the reports,

carried on both the BBC News channel and its rival Sky News television, but an official announcement is expected within hours.

Acting director-general Tim Davie, who took over the top job at the public broadcaster following the dramatic resignation of George Entwistle on Saturday night, is

expected to set out his plans to manage the crisis later in the day.

According to the BBC report, Boaden and Mitchell have been asked to give up their responsibilities pending an inquiry into why an investigation by the Newsnight programme into claims of sex abuse by Savile was dropped last year.

There have been suggestions, which the BBC has denied, that the Newsnight report was axed because it would have clashed with a planned tribute programme to Savile, one of the BBC's biggest stars who died in October 2011.

The inquiry is being led by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News.

Allegations that Savile may have abused up to 300 children over four decades, including while working at the BBC, have plunged the broadcaster into crisis.

The BBC's problems were compounded when Newsnight, one of its flagship current affairs programmes, was forced to admit on Friday that a report the previous week implicating a senior political figure in child sex abuse was wrong.

Entwistle resigned on Saturday after just 54 days as director-general, saying he took responsibility for the Newsnight report even though he had not seen it.

The state funded broadcaster confirmed on Sunday that Entwistle would get a payoff of $715,000.

It said the settlement took into consideration that Entwistle would continue working on BBC business, including two inquiries in the child abuse scandal.

Abu Qatada wins appeal against deportation

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uslim cleric Abu Qatada will not be deported to Jordan, after he won his appeal at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).

His appeal was upheld after lawyers claimed he would not get a fair trial in Jordan, where he is accused of plotting bomb attacks.

The government said it would seek to appeal against the ruling.

The home secretary had been assured by Jordan that no evidence gained through torture would be used against him.

Abu Qatada's lawyer Edward

Fitzgerald QC has applied for the cleric to be released on bail immediately. Mr Qatada - real name Omar Othman - is being held at Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire.

Mr Fitzgerald told the court: "There is no reasonable prospect of lawful removal [deportation] within any reasonable time.

"There is no justification for continuing to deprive Mr Othman of his liberty.

"Enough is enough, it has gone on for many many years now," the QC added.

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most vulnerable people.

An estimated 350,000 families have been evicted

Abu Qatada

Spain suspends house evictions for two years panish banks are to suspend evictions for the next two years for the

Some protersters in Grenada

from their homes since Spain's property market crashed in 2008, at the beginning of the economic crisis.

The announcement comes three days after a woman in northern Spain took her own life, just before she was due to be evicted from her home.

It is not clear how they will decide who the most vulnerable people are.

The announcement came from the Spanish banking association, AEB. A 53-year-old woman jumped out of her fourth-floor flat on Friday as local officials arrived to evict her from her home.

Another man in the city of

Granada, whose house was also due to be repossessed, apparently committed suicide last month.

There have been demonstrations in Spain, with an organisation called Platform for Mortgage Victims blocking access to houses to prevent evictions.

The Spanish government is meeting the opposition on Monday to discuss new regulations for evictions.

Juliane Kokott, the European Court of Justice's advocate general, has criticised the current rules on evictions, saying they violate European consumer protection rules.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 35

gun found by airport Boy, 8, crashes car after Bullets, security during screening of 4-year-old boy taking five-year-old sister on midnight joyride S ecurity officers found gun parts and ammunition hidden inside a child's three stuffed animals- including a Mickey Mouse doll- at a Rhode Island airport.

The weapon parts were found

the full magazine clip were 'artfully concealed' and the father did not know they were there The officer said that the parts of the weapon were 'artfully concealed' inside the toys.

Troubled mouse: Parts of a gun were found stuffed inside three different toys that a 4-year-old boy put through an airport's metal detector Crash site: A picture of the Utah family minivan after the eight-year-old took his younger sister for a joyride

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n eight-year-old Utah boy took his five-year-old sister on a middle-of-the-night joyride in their mother's minivan - and crashed the car.

The boy, who could not even see above the steering wheel, made sure he and his sister had buckled up and drove just a few hundred feet before smashing into a line of trees along the Ogden River, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.

No one was injured and the children were returned to a stunned mother who awoke to police officers in her apartment at about 2 a.m. on Thursday, authorities said.

'They had just come out of the driveway, went across both lanes, then hit those trees,' said

Ogden police Lt. Danielle Croyle.

'It could have been much worse if they didn't have their seatbelts on. They were just too smart for their own good.'

Authorities did not identify the mother and she was not available for comment. Croyle said police have no previous history with the woman or her children, and neglect was not an issue. She called it an accident and said no charges were pending.

Witnesses said it was a shock.

'It was crazy,' said Justine McDonald, 18, who heard the crash and ran outside with a friend to help.

'They looked a little freaked out. The kids just kept saying they were happy to be alive,'

McDonald said. 'I said, "Where's your mommy and daddy? Are they still in the car?" But she was at home asleep.'

The young boy told Ogden police that his sister wanted to go to the store, so he grabbed the keys and headed out with his mother asleep in another room.

Several witnesses called 911 to report the crash. 'This kid wasn't even tall enough to see above the steering wheel,' said neighbor Holly Maxwell, who also ran across the street to help.

'They were worried their mother was going to be mad at them.'

The 25-year-old said she held the little girl's hand and walked with police back to their apartment, along with McDonald.

Mother sent gay son to school with a stun gun - to stop him being bullied

me bringing the weapon to school, but I honestly don't think that that was fair,' Young said.

'I didn't use it on nobody. ... All I did was raise it up in the air and went back to my class.'

School police officers arrested him soon after. The school is investigating the incident. None of Young's alleged attackers have been identified.

The school district held an expulsion hearing for Young last week, but no decision had been announced.

Chelisa Grimes (L) and son Darnell 'Dynasty' Young

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he mother of an openly gay high school student in the U.S. armed her son with a stun gun so that he could defend himself from bullying, saying that she had no choice.

Chelisa Grimes told CNN administrators at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis did not do enough to protect her son, Darnell 'Dynasty' Young, 17, who she said endured months of harassment.

He is now facing expulsion for discharging the weapon at school.

Darnell 'Dynasty' Young is now facing expulsion for discharging the stun gun at school The bullied teenager said he pulled the stun gun from his backpack, raised it in the air and set it off, sending the bullies fleeing.

'I got kicked out of school for

Stun gun Darnell 'Dynasty' Young discharged at school

inside three toys that a 4-year-old boy brought to the T.F. Green Airport when he was flying to Detroit with his father.

Police have said that the reason for the hidden gun was a domestic dispute but they did not specify further about the nature of the argument or the identities of the parents.

'It was jointly investigated by the Rhode Island Airport Police, FBI and the RI State Police and it was determined that there was no threat at any time to air safety.'

The father told police that he didn't know the parts were inside the stuffed toys.

As a result, the boy and his father were allowed to carry on with their trip once the weapons were confiscated.

The stuffed animals, including a teddy bear and a rabbit, were inside the child's carry-on bag, which had been put through an X-ray machine as part of normal security screening.

The various parts of the gun and

Authorities said a .40-caliber gun was found inside one animal, while a magazine loaded with two .40-caliber rounds and a firing pin were found inside a second animal. Another part of a gun known as a slide was found inside the third animal.

The parts could have been assembled to make a full firearm, authorities said.

Unexpected: The police deemed it a domestic dispute and the gun was confiscated from the father and son, who were allowed to continue on their travels

UK finance minister tops list of brits' nightmares- survey

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orget the Boogeyman. It's the UK finance minister who has Brits waking up in a panic.

A Travelodge poll found that 70 percent of Brits have nightmares and that George Osborne is a regular in those bad dreams, Reuters reported.

Osborne, whose official title is Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been the focus of public criticism after enacting cuts to welfare budgets and a freeze in public sector pay. He was booed during a medal ceremony at the Paralympics this summer, Reuters said.

"Suffering from nightmares that involve the chancellor, money and losing a job are a true reflection of how the credit crunch and the double dip recession have affected our well being as well as our money," Travelodge spokeswoman Shakila Ahmed said in a statement.

Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown came in second, followed by fashion model Katie Price, also known as Jordan. Justin Bieber and Marilyn Manson also made the top 10, ranking seventh and eighth, respectively.

George Osborne tops the list of personalities who frequent Brits' nightmares, Reuters reported.

PAGE 36

W

ant to make a simple, ten-second check on the state of your health?

Sneak a peek at your feet.

“You can detect everything from diabetes to nutritional deficiencies just by examining the feet,” says Jane Andersen, DPM, president of the American Association of Women Podiatrists and a spokeswoman for the American Podiatric Medical Association.

The lowly left and right provide plenty of insightful data: Together they contain a quarter of the body’s bones, and each foot also has 33 joints; 100 tendons, muscles, and ligaments; and countless nerves and blood vessels that link all the way to the heart, spine, and brain.

Unresolved foot problems can have unexpected consequences.

Untreated pain often leads a person to move less and gain weight, for example, or to shift balance in unnatural ways, increasing the chance of falling and breaking a bone.

So when the feet send one of these 18 warning messages, they mean business.

What it means: Poor circulation, usually caused by vascular disease, can make hair disappear from the feet. When the heart loses the ability to pump enough blood to the extremities because of arteriosclerosis (commonly known as hardening of the arteries), the body has to prioritize its use. Hairy toes are, well, low on the totem pole.

More clues: The reduced blood supply also makes it hard to feel a pulse in the feet. (Check the top of the foot or the inside of the ankle.) When you stand, your feet may be bright red or dusky; when elevated, they immediately pale.

The skin is shiny. People with poor circulation tend to already know they have a cardiovascular condition (such as heart disease or a carotid artery) yet may not realize they have circulation trouble.

What to do: Treating the underlying vascular issues can improve circulation. Toe hair seldom returns, but nobody complains much.

What it means: Anemia (iron deficiency) often shows up as an unnatural, concave or spoonlike shape to the toes’ nail beds, especially in moderate-tosevere cases. It’s caused by not having enough hemoglobin, an iron-rich protein in the blood cells that transports oxygen. Internal bleeding (such as an ulcer) or heavy menstrual periods can trigger anemia.

More clues: On fingers as well as toes, the skin and nail beds both appear pale. The nails may also be brittle, and feet may feel cold.

Fatigue is the number-one sign of anemia, as are shortness of breath, dizziness when standing, and headache.

What to do: A complete blood count is usually used to diagnose anemia. A physical exam may pinpoint a cause. First-step treatments include iron supplements and dietary changes to add iron and vitamin C (which speeds iron absorption).

What it means: The sudden stab of a foot cramp — basically, the hard contraction of a muscle

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

18 things your feet say about your health (I)

— can be triggered by fleeting circumstances such as exercise or dehydration. But if it happens often, your diet may lack sufficient calcium, potassium, or magnesium. Pregnant women in the third trimester are especially vulnerable thanks to increased blood volume and reduced circulation to the feet.

More clues: Charley horses tend to rear up out of nowhere, often while you’re just lying there. They can be a single sharp muscle spasm or come in waves.

Either way, soreness can linger long afterward.

What to do: Try to flex the foot and massage the painful area. You may also be able to relax the muscle by applying a cold pack or rubbing alcohol. To prevent cramps, stretch your feet before you go to bed. Then drink a glass of warm milk (for the calcium).

What it means: This is a major clue to diabetes. Elevated blood glucose levels lead to nerve damage in the feet — which means that minor scrapes, cuts, or irritations caused by pressure or friction often go unnoticed, especially by someone who’s unaware he has the disease.

Untreated, these ulcers can lead to infection, even amputation.

More clues: Oozing, foulsmelling cuts are especially suspect because they’ve probably been there awhile. Other symptoms of diabetes include persistent thirst, frequent urination, increased fatigue, blurry vision, extreme hunger, and weight loss.

What to do: Get the ulcer treated immediately and see a doctor for a diabetes evaluation.

Diabetics need to inspect their feet daily (older people or the obese should have someone do this for them) and see a healthcare

professional every three months.

What it means: Women, especially, report cold feet (or more precisely, their bedmates complain about them). It may be nothing — or it may indicate a thyroid issue. Women over 40 who have cold feet often have an underfunctioning thyroid, the gland that regulates temperature and metabolism. Poor circulation (in either gender) is another possible cause.

More clues: Hypothyroidism’s symptoms are pretty subtle and appear in many disorders (fatigue, depression, weight gain, dry skin).

What to do: Insulating layers of natural materials work best for warmth. (Think wool socks and lined boots). If you also have other nagging health complaints, mention the cold feet to your doctor. Unfortunately, however, aside from treatment with medication in the event of a thyroid condition, this tends to be a symptom that’s neither easily nor sexily resolved.

What it means: A fungal infection may be running rampant below the surface of the nail. Onychomycosis can persist painlessly for years. By the time it’s visibly unattractive, the infection is advanced and can spread to all toenails and even fingernails.

More clues: The nails may also smell bad and turn dark.

People most vulnerable: those with diabetes, circulatory trouble, or immune-deficiency disorders (like rheumatoid arthritis). This condition is also relatively common in older people, and often causes problems walking, since as infected nails grow thicker, they’re harder to cut and simply go ignored to the point of pain.

What to do: See a foot

specialist or your regular physician for care and treatment. In serious cases, overthe-counter antifungals are usually not as effective as a combination of topical and oral medications and the professional removal of diseased bits. Newergeneration oral antifungal medications tend to have fewer side effects than older ones.

What it means: Probably gout. Yes, that old-fashionedsounding disease is still very much around — and you don’t have to be over 65 to get it. Gout is a form of arthritis (also called “gouty arthritis”) that’s usually caused by too much uric acid, a natural substance. The built-up uric acid forms needlelike crystals, especially at low body temperatures. And the coolest part of the body, farthest from the heart, happens to be the big toe.

“Three-fourths of the time, you wake up with a red-hot swollen toe joint as the first presentation of gout,” says podiatrist Andersen.

More clues: Swelling and shiny red or purplish skin — along with a sensation of heat and pain — can also occur in the instep, the Achilles tendon, the knees, and the elbows. Anyone can develop gout, though men in their 40s and 50s are especially prone. Women with gout tend to be postmenopausal.

What to do: See a doctor about controlling the causes of gout through diet or medication.

A foot specialist can help relieve pain and preserve function.

What it means: Being unable to “feel” your feet or having a heavy pins-and-needles sensation is a hallmark of peripheral neuropathy, or damage to the peripheral nervous system. That’s the body’s way of transmitting information

from the brain and spinal cord to the entire rest of the body.

Peripheral neuropathy has many causes, but the top two are diabetes and alcohol abuse (current or past). Chemotherapy is another common cause.

More clues: The tingling or burning can also appear in hands and may gradually spread up to arms and legs. The reduced sensation may make it feel like you’re constantly wearing heavy socks or gloves.

What to do: See a physician to try to pinpoint the cause (especially if alcohol addiction doesn’t apply). There’s no cure for peripheral neuropathy, but medications from pain relievers to antidepressants can treat symptoms.

What it means: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a degenerative joint disease, is often first felt in the smaller joints, such as the toes and the knuckles of the hands.

More clues: Swelling and stiffness usually accompany the aches. This pain tends to be symmetrical; for example, it happens simultaneously in both big toes or in both index fingers.

RA develops more suddenly than degenerative arthritis, and attacks may come and go.

Women are almost four times more affected than men.

What to do: A full workup is always needed to pinpoint the cause of any joint pain. For RA, there are many medications and therapies that can minimize pain and preserve function, though early diagnosis is important to avoid permanent deformity. (In the feet, the toes can drift to the side.)

What it means: In up to half of all people with psoriasis, the skin disease also shows up in the nail as many little holes, which can be deep or shallow. More than three-fourths of those with psoriatic arthritis, a related disorder that affects the joints as well as the skin, also have pocked, pitted nails.

More clues: The nails (fingers as well as toes) will also thicken. They may be yellowbrown or have salmon-colored patches. The knuckle nearest the nail is also likely to be dry, red, and inflamed.

What to do: A variety of medications can treat both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and can restore the nail bed surface in many cases, especially if treatment begins early.

What it means: “Foot drop” (also “drop foot”) signals nerve or muscle damage that can originate well north of your feet — as far as your back or even shoulder or neck. Certain chemotherapy drugs can also cause trouble lifting the front part of the foot while walking or standing.

Source: Yahoomail.com

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 37

Shettima is on track in Borno, says Ex Milad INTERVIEW

Y

ou were military administrator in Borno state, how does it feel being here considering the security problems bedeviling the state today?

First of all, let me pay condolence to the Governor of Borno State, His Royal Highness, the Shehu of Borno and people of the state over the unfortunate happenings which have claimed so many lives and properties. I have been following the trend of events in Borno even though I have not been here. I have always been interested in what happens here as a former administrator and I will say that first, the crisis is unfortunate. But from my analysis, Governor Kashim Shettima has been very wise to identify unemployment as top priority with special attention to agriculture. He was smart because I think he was the first to publicly establish this important link and he has been very consistent and this is important. From what I have been hearing before I came here the governor has taken up the issue of youth empowerments very seriously especially through agriculture and other v o c a t i o n a l training. Generally, employment of youths and training towards making them self-reliant is crucial.

Lack of job opportunities as well as high-level illiteracy is the underlying cause of youth restiveness because an idle mind is a devils workshop especially the mind of a youth.

The youth is, by his age, vulnerable to violent behavior because he feels self motivated to do wrong. I see many youths

Retired Colonel Abdul-Muminu Aminu, was once the Military Administrator of Borno state under General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration. He had held various positions under the military including working to improve Nigeria’s national security as Commander of the (then) National Guard before his retirement during the General Sanni Abacha era.

The ex military administrator was recently in Borno State for condolence visit over the killing of General Muhammad Shuwa, during which he spoke to journalists on the security situation in the once peaceful Borno State where he served as the number citizen. Our correspondent, Mustapha Isah Kwaru, was there. Excerpts: doing different good things here in Borno; laying interlocks on some streets, learning and making bricks and building class rooms, some undergoing integrated agricultural trainings, it’s really a good strategy. In addition to that, the governor is very humble, very persuasive, he reaches out to many people for consultations, he is making Borno the business of so many people outside the state and this is an intelligent leadership style, he is a man of peace. Believe me if not because of the way the governor is handling the crisis, it would have become worse than it is.

Despite all the problems, look at the many projects he is doing; it is incredible. I seriously respect Governor Shettima; he has respect for elder statesmen and even to the person at the lowest level and this again is important because it makes governance connected with elders who have something to offer. I urge the people of Borno to give this great man the desired support and cooperation to enable him achieve his aims.

What direct security measures would you want to suggest to those at the helm of affairs on the insurgency in the State and parts of the northeast in particular?

Security maintenance is a very expensive venture but

Retired Colonel Abdul-Muminu Aminu I urge the governor not to be tired. His quality leadership is helping greatly in bringing the situation to order. If you look at other countries like America, it took them so many years to restore peace and order in their societies. We do not pray for such a thing to happen because we do not know who will be affected and when it will end. Ours will

be different insha Allah.

T o d a y , M a i d u g u r i is suffering because of the Boko Haram insurgency. What is happening is known to everybody but the governor is handling the issue with great commitment and maturity. So let us support this great man who has done very well and is still doing well for the State. Borno is ordinarily

not an easy state to govern but he has done so well even in the face of intense security challenges.

What specific security measures will you suggest?

I have a military background and in the military, we do not discuss security measures in the public but like I said, the governor is really on track, he is highly committed to his duties and that is why I seriously want to identify with him for his zeal to restore peace and develop the state. I believe in the next two and half years, he will do more good things for the people of the state. By the time the people reelect him to run the state for another four years, hopefully many people will envy the state because of his excellent and quality leadership.

A lot of people admire Shettima even from outside the state. He is my junior brother; people of Borno are my fathers, brothers and sisters. I will continue to identify with Borno state till the end of my life and I will continue to do what I can to move the state forward. Like I said earlier, for me Abdulmuminu Aminu, I see the governor as a humble person. Why I like him most is the love he has for the youths and his desire to develop the state and I see things working again in Borno State.

NASS to pass bill on new sugar master plan soon - Usman

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enator Nenadi Usman, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Investment on Monday expressed optimism that the National Assembly would soon pass the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) bill.

Usman disclosed this in Abuja at a one-day stakeholders' interactive forum and the unveiling of the NSMP. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Federal Executive Council had in September approved the NSMP as well as a regime of fiscal and investment incentives to boost sugar production.

Usman said the bill, when passed into law, would ensure the smooth implementation of the new

NSMP. ``The bill is to strengthen the implementation of the policy, to give it a legal backing and some push so that people will not just think they can just do anything and get away with it. ``The bill has gone through the first reading, waiting for the second reading which will protect all the stakeholders, especially the consumers and the manufacturers. ``It is criminal for anyone to be given all the fiscal protection needed just for them to be able to import and keep refining raw sugar at the detriment of having out growers in the farm that should be growing sugarcane,''.

Usman, who was also a former

Minister of Finance, urged sabotours to stay away from the NSMP, adding that it would no longer be business as usual.

In his remarks, Dr Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, said with the implementation of the NSMP, 411.7 additional mega watts of electricity would be generated from sugar production by 2020.

According to him, the implementation of the NSMP will also make Nigeria to be among the top ten sugar exporters in the world.

The minister said apart from the country being self sufficient in sugar production which would bring an end to the importation of sugar, the successful

implementation of the policy would create about 117 million jobs. ``The implementation of the sugar master plan will lead to the production of 161.1 million litres of ethanol which will save the country about $65.8 million on fuel importation.''

Aganga noted with concern the over dependence on importation of sugar which, he said, had affected the economy negatively, adding that government had put in place measures to encourage local production. ``In order to both stimulate and protect local investment in the sugar sub-sector, a new regime of fiscal tariff has been approved to take effect from January 1, 2013. ``The measures include the

approval of high fiscal tariff structure which is deliberately skewed against importation and to prevent dumping of cheap sugar and perfect the infant industry.''

The minister said the tariff would take cognisance of the little value addition by refiners who import and refine sugar.

According to him, the Federal Government has also provided incentives for investors in the sector.

The incentives included zero per cent on machinery and spare parts for local sugar manufacturing industries, five years tax holiday for 'sugarcane to sugar' value-chains and investors in local sugar manufacturing industries. (NAN)

PAGE 38

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Oshiomhole sworn in, promises massive development for Edo

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L-R: Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, his daughter, Mrs Jane Adukwu and her son, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, and Deputy Governor, Edo State, Dr Pius Odubu, at a special thanksgiving mass to usher in the Governor's second tenure in Benin City, yesterday.

Election petition: Wait for the court to adjudicate on your case, LP advises ACN From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

T

he Labour Party (LP) has told the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to desist from making further comments on its decision to approach the Tribunal over the victory of the party’s candidate and the incumbent governor, Segun Mimiko.

The party counseled the opposition in the state to wait for the court to adjucate on the matter as further comments could be subjudice.

The ACN had on Sunday through its Media Assistant, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku attempted to rationalise the reasons the party

was in court mentioning allegations bothering on criminal practices against both the LP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which they insisted resorted in the election victory for Dr Olusegun Mimiko.

However, the Labour Party in a statement on yesterday berated the ACN saying that once matters are in court, it becomes subjudice and should not be a subject of media analysis adding that these antics would not avail them before the Tribunal.

According to the LP’s Publicity Secretary, Mr Femi Okunjemiruwa, “the position of the law is that once a matter is in court,

nobody should comment on it in the media as the ACN is now doing. If you go to court with weighty allegations as the ones being made by the party, it behoves on you to be ready to prove these allegations rather than resorting to media rigmarole as the ACN is trying to do, they ought to be aware of the legal maxim which says he who alleges must prove.”

The LP spokesperson while stating that even from the tirades of the ACN as enunciated by its media manager, it was obvious that they were a bunch of confused people merely out to play mischief rather than be serious at the tribunal.

His words: “while we are not

going to join issues with those who are, from all intent and purposes, not ready to subject themselves to the rule of the court considering their posturing in the last few months before, during and after the election, we would like to say that some of the issues raised were pre-election matters and not election matters.

“The rule is that since they have gone to court, they should allow the court to adjudicate of the matter rather than trying to play media stunts with all these phantom allegations which they should be prepared to substantiate rather than resorting to a fly in the ointment tactics which failed them during the election.”

Constitution amendment: Niger kicks against state police From Iliya Garba, Minna

T

he people of Niger state in the recently concluded Peoples Congress on the amendment of the 1999

constitution kicked against the introduction of state police in the country.

The peoples also unilaterally kicked against the operation of State/Local government joint

account and called for its abolition just as they support the autonomy of the state Assemblies.

The public session across the constituencies were in support of the separation of offices of

Accountant General of the Federation and Federal government and separation of Attorney General from the office of the Minister of Justice among others.

ov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, yesterday in Benin, took the oath of office for a second term with a promise to rededicate himself to the development of the state.

He made the promise in his inaugural speech, shortly after he was sworn in by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Cromwell Idahosa.

Justice Idahosa also administered the oath of office on the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Pius Odubu.

Oshiomhole said that he would improve on the tertiary education sector, adding that he would not renege on his electoral campaign promises to the people.

The governor, who thanked the people for their massive support for his July 14 electoral victory, also said that he would ensure massive development of industries.

According to him, such effort will attract direct foreign investment to the state and guarantee employment for the teeming youths in the state.

He paid tribute to his coconstants in the election.

“I salute all co-contestants during the election whose roles have helped to deepen and strengthen democracy in our State. “ We will continue to count on your support to take Edo to the next level. I use this opportunity to invite all of you to join me to transform and reposition our dear State.’’

The governor commended traditional rulers for their roles in the concerted efforts to develop the state.

Oshiomhole also paid tribute to his late wife, Clara, his assassinated Principal Private Secretary, Olaitan Oyerinde and four Journalists who died in his campaign trip.

The former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon, governors of Imo, Delta, Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Rivers, Lagos and Ogun states were among dignitaries who attended the occasion.

Others included Alhaji Aliko Dangote, National Chairman of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande, former minister of Defence, Maj-Gen Godwin Abbey and Sen Daisy Danjuma. (NAN)

Ekiti Kwara seeks reintegration with kindred in Ekiti state From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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he people of Ekiti and OkeEro local government areas of Kwara State have sought for reintegration with their kindred in the present Ekiti state insisting that their presence in Kwara was amalgam of strange bedfellows.

The people of the area in a paper titled "Request for boundary adjustment", presented at the

public session organised by House of Representatives held at OmuAran headquarters of Irepodun LGA on constitution review and signed by ten traditional rulers want the Federal Government to separate them from Kwara state.

The documents which was made available to Journalists in Ilorin yesterday stated that there had been different discrimination against the people of the area because it was unclear whether

they are Northerners or Southerners.

"Kwara state is therefore an amalgam of strange bedfellows and the irreconcilable. Every ethnic nationality that conjunctively make up Kwara state is suspicious of the other's might and influence, education developments, economic prowess and ability, political sagacity.

"The foregoing snowballs into intrigues, suppression and

outmuscling of one at the expense of another. Ekiti stock of Kwara state seems to be worst off in this dirty game in which its template is firmly built on injustice and denials".

The people of the area which traced their ordeal to 19th century when it was ceded to the North lamented that no remarkable progress were recorded in all spheres of human endevour. It noted the area lacked tertiary institution; their traditional rulers were downgraded;

no General Hospital while its indigenes have been denied many political appointment in the past.

"In the light of all the above, we ask for the restructuring of the present Kwara State by carving the present Ekiti and Oke-Ero LGA from Kwara State and merge same with the present Ekiti State to be given an atmosphere of equal belonging so that we can have a good history to bequeath to our children and indeed generations to come".

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Jigawa Senator assures constituents of fair play From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

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enator representing Jigawa Central Senatorial District , Abdulmuminu Hassan Zareku, has received the memorandum of the four federal constituencies on the review of 1999 constitution.

The senator made the disclosure yesterday while delivering his goodwill message after harmonising the decisions collected from people in the four federal constituencies under his senatorial district during the people's public hearing on the 1999 constitutional review.

Alhaji Abdulmumin Hassan said "At our own level we will organise a team of experts whom would study and analyse the various memorandum that emanated from the hearing sessions in all the four places before presenting same to the geopolitical zone in Sokoto". "I want to assure you that all the decisions we are going to take are going to be people oriented and those that will ensure peaceful coexistence and sustainable development for our people".

He pointed out that the initiative of engaging actively the 360 constituencies in the country was not only wise but timely, "the initiative will go a long way in providing an opportunity to every Nigerian to participate and make contribution in amending the constitution".

"I'm indeed happy to be here today and to state with all sense of responsibility that we are always ready and committed to making laws for the general welfare of all the citizens of Nigeria".

Speaking during the exercise, Zareku commended the efforts of professionals and other stakeholders for their maturity during the compiling of the reports.

He also promised that all the views and observations compiled will be submitted without any alteration and assured that Jigawa reports will be given due consideration.

Earlier in his speech the chairman of the occasion Barister Sabo Suleiman Kiyawa said that the committee comprises of professional from judicial sector, youth organization and representatives from NUJ.

PAGE 39

Niger warns critics against running government down From Iliya Garba, Minna

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iger State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Danladi Abdulhameed, has warned critics of Governor Aliyu Babangida against runnig the government down.

Abdulhameed described those criticizing Aliyu’s

administration as little minds that are tamed and subdued by misfortune.

His reaction is coming against the backdrop of allegations of financial recklessness on overseas trips without investors coming to justify such trips; dearth of infrastructural development; withholding of local

government council funds amongst others by the opposition parties.

Speaking in an interview in Minna yesterday, the Commissioner said it is unfortunate that instead of being appreciative of the new face of Niger state, some people have constituted themselves into human blocks for the

L-R: President, International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), Mr. Williams R. Sweeney receiving a gift from the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, during the IFES President visit to the INEC Headquarters, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

purpose of running down the government of Dr. Babangida Aliyu.

He said the government is not against individual person’s assessment of its performances but in doing so he should not resort to name damaging but to focus on constructive criticisms based on issues rather than dragging the name of the governor to mud.

According to the Commissioner, “Accusing government of one wrong doing or the other by the opposition is part of democracy. In fact it is welcomed in any democratic setting because it adds glamour and value to democracy”.

He however added that those who are against the government are not conversant with the realities on ground, “there is a committee composed of representatives from the state government and local government councils who sits and work out areas of intervention and how the monies are utilized”.

“People now take ownership of government by deciding on what projects they want and monitoring same after completion and that is one of the innovations we have brought in governance through the Ward Development Projects,” he said.

He however advised opposition forces in the state to desist from running down the name of the governor rather, they should pay attention to issues that bother on the state, just as he said the government would welcome positive criticisms geared towards overall growth and development of the state.

Adesina's death, a depletion of seasoned politicians, says PDP

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday commiserated with the family of the former Oyo state governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina describing the occurrence as a further depletion of seasoned

politicians in the country.

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, stated that although the late politician was not a member of the PDP, the party appreciated his role in the sustenance of democracy in the country and

will miss his experience and words of wisdom.

Chief Metuh maintained that the late Alhaji Adesina, whom he described as a renowned educationist and political leader while alive, devoted his energies to the service of fatherland.

The PDP spokesman said the

former governor will be remembered for his forthrightness and candor and urged his family, friends and associates to take solace in the fact that his existence was characterized by positive contribution to the advancement of Nigeria.

Defamation: Court fixes Nov. 29th for ruling between Ingama and Sen. Bello From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina

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n Upper Shari’a Court sitting in Katsina has set aside November 29th 2012 for ruling on preliminary objection raised by counsel to Bala Mamman Ingawa challenging its jurisdiction to entertain a case brought before it

by Senator Kanti Bello on alleged defamation of character.

Making his objection before the court yesterday, counsel to the

accused, Alhaji Bako Nasir, noted that based on the sections 8 and 9 of the Katsina Shari’a law, the court has no jurisdiction to entertain the case based on procedural issue.

The counsel noted that it was only the Grand Khadi and the Shari’a Commission that must produce the criminal procedure for Shari’a Courts in Katsina state which should be based under the Maliki school of thought, adding that so far, there was no such

procedure.

He stressed that without this criminal procedure in place the court has no jurisdiction to entertain the case, citing the case of one Abdu Magaji Vs Commissioner of police reported in the Nigeria Law Report 2007 where the case was struck out for lack of jurisdiction.

According to him, the judge who presided over the case at Katsina High court hold the view that ‘jurisdiction is the bedrock of trial in

any case.

In his counter objection, the counsel to the plaintiff, Barrister Sadau Garba stressed that the court has jurisdiction to try the case, since according to him the same section 8 of the Shari’a law of Katsina State gave the court the power to entertain the case.

He noted that under the Maliki law in a book called Mawahibul Khalil Chapter 6 and page 309 talking on defamation it hold you

must be punished if you defame a persons character by calling a liar, evil doer.

Garba stressed that since it was an issue concerning Shari’a law and all the parties to the dispute are Muslims then they have to right to hold any contrary views if Allah and his prophet decided over a matter.

After listening to the two parties, the presiding judge, Khadi Yusuf Bala fixed 29th 0t November 2012 for ruling on the issues of jurisdiction.

PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Bafarawa condoles with Adesina's family

By Lawrence Olaoye

F

L-R Kaduna State Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Kogi State Governor Captain Idris Wada and Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduagha during the Fund raising ceremony organized by the Presidential Committee on Flood relief and rehabilitation held at the State House Abuja yesterday.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Help chase ACN from office, Bode George begs Mimiko From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

E

rstwhile Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for South-West, Chief Olabode George has pleaded with the Executive Governor of Ondo State Olusegun Mimiko to help in chasing out the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN and its leaders from the seat of government.

He made the plea recently when he delivered a lecture titled "The Search for Collective Sacrifice" to a gathering of party faithful at the auditorium of Golden Gate Restaurant in Ikoyi Lagos.

Apparently referring to the recent victory of the Labor Party led government over other contesting party, Chief Bode noted that there is a refreshing beginning in the stunning historic victory of Governor Olusegun Rahman Mimiko over the ACN during the

October 29th gubernatorial election in Ondo State "Mimikos' clear and coherent triumph over the forces of plunder and retrogression is a significant indication of the rejection of the forces of evil by the Yoruba people; the inevitable unraveling of the despicable forces of darkness has started in Ondo and by extension the reckless swagger and vaunting of Bola Tinubu are now tamed," he said.

George said that the despairing story of the South -West is a cautionary moral to the rest of the nation about the abandonment of the political space to little men in mercenary garb without the faintest coherence of probable origins; without the least illustration of ancestral beginning; without the least identification of a family root.

The Yoruba elders were not spared the tongue lashing as the party chieftain allege they have not

shown enough concern as "this leadership defiles our ancestral temple, purloins our collective coffers, desecrates our heritage with cold brutal calculations" The Fashola led government was described by George as cruel and unfeeling because it continues to inflict reckless, vindictive tax burden on a cowed electorate. He also alleged that the states assets are brazenly frittered, expropriated, looted by vain little men who blindly scoff at the finitude of life.

He noted with a tinge of sadness that the streets of Lagos are now smoldering with fear, anger, and anguish with the sudden throwing out of thousand of 'Okada' riders out of jobs and thus taking away their livelihood from them wondering why those who are performing essential services that is very valuable and critical to a metropolitan environment like Lagos.

He therefore wants the traffic law which he says is draconian scrapped because the Lagos State government has no legislative control on such Federal Government freeways stressing that the government restriction on okada riders is a pure legislative anomaly, it is a piece of unconscionable fancy and as such will not stand.

State police is not solution to insecurity, says Ebonyi governor's aide

T

he creation of state police will not offer solution to insecurity in the country, Mr Collins Agbo, the Adviser to Ebonyi Governor on Internal Security, has said in Abakiliki yesterday.

Agbo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the establishment of well-organised vigilance groups at community level would help in tackling criminal activities.

Jigawa lawmaker donates N105million implements to farmers From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

A

member of the House of r e p r e s e n t a t i v e representing Kirikasanma/ Birniwa/Guri Federal Constituency, Alhaji Adamu Hassan Abunabo, has distributed 540 water pumps and constructed bore holes for farmers as part of his constituency project at the cost of N105 million.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hassan said the gesture was to enable people become self reliant , adding that the exercise will be a continuous one .

He said out of the amount, 270 water pumps and the same number of bore holes would be given to Kirikasamma while Guri has received the same number.

According to the lawmaker, developmental projects meant to

adequately cater for the wellbeing of the people is paramount and dear to him and that is why he is investing in the capacity building of farmers that are predominantly residing in the area.

He assured that the youth of the area would no longer have any cause to migrate to urban centres in search of greener pastures as he stressed that the distribution would continue in phases.

ormer governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafrawa, yesterday condoled with the family of the late former governor of Oyo state, Alhaji Lam Adesina, over his death.

The former governor in a release made available on his behalf by Alhaji Yusuf Dingyadi described Adesina as an epitome of peace and unity. Bafarawa described the death of former Governor of Oyo state as a tragic loss and minus to the political development of Nigeria.

He said Late Lam Adesina lived an excellent life of peace, humbleness and trust among all his people, colleagues and political associates in the South west and Nigeria in general; such that Nigerians will miss his greatness and positive advise toward sustaining our nascent democracy.

The former Governor said that as an epitome of trust, peace, unity and honesty, late Adesina will greatly be missed by Nigerians over his frankness, doggedness and quiet life of respect and religion. He was a good man of peace and practical believer of his faith.

"Despite all the administrative challenges and political intimidation from top over his administration, Gov Lam was actively involved in many positive development of his dear state by providing them with essential services to better their life" Said Bafarawa He urged Nigerian leaders to emulate his style of leadership and life after office as one of the virtues of respect and development of the nation. He condoled government and people of Oyo state over the great loss and urged the government to emulate his policy on a practical terms and named one of their highly recognized institution of learning after him for the future generation.

He said Diladige and Garin Ando villages in Kirikasamma will benefit from solar powered water system with additional five hand pumps to other villages in the area, while Kubulu and Lafiyari in Guri local government would also have solar water system with additional five hand pumps.

He also said two solar water systems and six hand pumps were allocated to Birniwa local government area.

According to him, criminal elements live and interact with the people and that unless their activities are exposed they will remain threats to the society. ``Criminals are not ghosts neither do they live in holes; they live and interact with us. ``If we are honest with ourselves and expose criminals in our midst crime will be reduced in the society,'' he said.

He said that state police would not solve the problem of internal security as many states would not have adequate resources to equip and maintain their own police outfit. ``If you recruit a policeman and fail to maintain him, you would have created another criminal.''

He said that available records revealed that policemen had not been effective in policing their communities as they always shielded their kith and kin involved in criminal acts.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 41

Sports minister says Africa blessed with talented swimmers

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ports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, has off-handedly dismissed assertions that dark skin persons are not endowed with the skill to engage in competitive swimming.

Instead, Abdullahi said Africans are blessed with talents that could do the continent proud if they were identified and nurtured, following the standard training practice.

He made the assertion at the closing ceremony of the maiden Africa Zone II Junior Swimming Championships in Akure, where he was by the Coordinator, National Sports Commission (NSC), Zone II, Peter Nelson.

Nigeria came first with 50 gold, 36 silver and 5 bronze medals, followed by Senegal with 16 silver and 38 bronze medals. Togo came third with just a bronze medal, while Mali, Republic of Benin and Ghana did not win any medal.

The Minister said he was excited that Ondo State had laudable sports development programmes at the grassroots and urged them to take swimming seriously in their quest to develop sports in the state.

“Africa is blessed with great talents that could take her name to greater heights, if identified and given the right training and

exposure, especially in swimming.

“It excites me that Ondo State is recognised for grassroots sports development in Nigeria and this has been extended to the West African sub-region for young talents to compete with international swimmers,’’ he said.

In his speech, Babatunde FatayiWilliams, the President, Nigeria Swimming Federation (NSF), said that the body was building young swimmers who would represent the country in future competitions.

Fatayi-Williams said the federation was looking forward to another junior competition in

another zone II country in two years. “We are trying to identify and expose athletes to international swimming competitions.

“I thank the countries that

AWC failure: Super Falcons coach Ikhana resigns

By Patrick Andrew

C

Onazi Ogenyi

Bright Ejike

International friendly: Super Eagles land in Miami

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he Super Eagles’ contingent to Miami, Florida, USA landed safely yesterday even as the team settled down for its first training session preparatory for the international friendly duel against Venezuela on tomorrow.

A total of 11 domestic league Eagles players arrived in Miami ahead of their foreign-based colleagues, who are expected to start hitting camp this morning.

Coach Stephen Keshi, has been upbeat about the game and declared that he expects all the players invited by latest this morning.

The team, which was led by NFF president Aminu Maigari and included technical committee chairman, Chris Green, departed the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos at about 10:40pm on Sunday night, Nigerian time.

The team arrived Atlanta City in the USA at

about 11am Nigerian time yesterday morning, which is about 5am American time.

After completing immigration formalities, the team headed to board a Delta Airline connecting flight, by this time they had been joined by Israelibased goalie, Austin Ejide, on the flight to Miami, Florida.

The team arrived Miami at 4:20pm, Nigerian time, which is 8:20am in Miami and were met by the match organisers, who immediately took them to their abode at Intercontinental At Doral in Miami.

The team had breakfast and lunch thereafter trained at 7:20pm, Miami time, close to the 8pm Miami time that the game tomorrow will be played.

“I’m happy at the weather and all the wind cheaters we brought here may not be useful,” declared striker Sunday Mba.

Kanu wants role in Eagles technical crew

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ormer Nigeria World Cup skipper, Nwankwo Kanu, wants a bigger role in the backroom staff of the country’s team bound for the Nations Cup. Kanu is the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Soccer Ambassador, but it was specially gathered that ‘Papilo’ has made known his interest to be very much a part of the Nations Cup-bound Eagles as a backroom staff.

“Kanu wants to be part of the Eagles backroom staff. He has said as much to some top officials,” a top source informed a wire service.

“He appreciates his role as Soccer

Ambassador but he believes he could do even more for the team being something like team coordinator.”

He has, therefore, come around the team in Calabar for their qualifying matches for both the 2014 World Cup as well as the 2013 Nations Cup. Two-time African Player of the Year Kanu, who has featured for the country’s U17, U20 and Olympic team, made his Eagles debut against Sweden in May 1994.

He is famously remembered for leading Nigeria to an historic

Atlanta Olympics Gold in 1996.

The 36-year-old star also featured at three World Cups, in 1998, 2002 and 2010. He equally played at six Nations Cups between 2000 and 2010. He has also been studying for his coaching badges in England.

The former Arsenal star, who is also a special adviser on sports to the Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, has insisted he has not quit active football even though his contract with ailing English club Portsmouth has been cancelled.

Kanu is demanding a hefty compensation from Pompey.

participated in this championship.

This is not football; it takes a good government to sponsor athletes to an international competition in swimming,” he said.

oach Kadiri Ikhana has tendered his resignation as Super Falcons’ Chief Coach after he failed to retain the African Women’s Championship trophy at the women’s fiesta in Equatorial Guinea.

Ikhana’s Falcons put up the worst performance in the history of Nigeria’s participation in the championship it has won six of the eight editions by placing fourth after bowing before the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon in the Losers’ Final.

The former CAF Champions League winner with Enyimba of Aba had signed a contract with the NFF similar to Samson Siasia’s with a clause that offers nothing but resignation for failure to meet set target.

Peoples Daily Sports recalls that Ikhana had the mandate to guide the Falcons to retain the AWC trophy as well as get to the semi-finals of FIFA senior Women World Cup. Though he got to the semi-finals of the AWC, but still fell short of retention of the trophy.

Ikhana said he resigned on personal grounds, even though the target set for him in his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was achieved at the tourney.

“I resigned over my failure to meet my personal target of lifting the trophy,” he said.

Perhaps, speaking on the vintage position, a member of the NFF technical subcommittee, Etubom Paul Bassey said yesterday that Ikhana had resigned. Bassey said that the terms of the contract with Ikhana was clear stressing that it would not call for any interpretation for the right thing to be done.

“Ikhana knows the demands of his contract. So, he should know what to do because the federation will work with the document,” Bassey said adding that Ikhana would not be compelled to act in consonance with the terms of contract.

Similarly, the former Enyimba, Kano Pillars and Kwara United coach had said that he would not need to be forced out of the saddle should he failed to meet the set target.

“There is a contract and the

contract is clear. I am a principled person. If I fail to win the AWC I will not wait for the NFF, I know what to do,” he said.

However, attempts to confirm whether he has indeed acted as “a principled person” yielded little dividends as the NFF Chief Media Officer, Demola Olajire simply said in a response to a text message: “There is nothing official. I have not even seen him” but he neither denied nor confirmed Ikhana’s statement.

Also, Bassey said the Falcons coach “technically has no job” with Nigeria even as he hinted that the majority of the technical committee members want nothing short of ‘Siasia’s treatment’.

“Officials of the NFF did convey a message to Ikhana after the loss to South Africa to resign, but he didn’t heed that. And the loss to Cameroon in the third-place match just finished off any chances of Ikhana remaining as head coach of the Super Falcons,” another official disclosed to a wire service. “ As I speak with you, majority members of the technical committee have put up their hands for Ikhana to be sacked.

That’s their recommendation.

So, the decision will be made official this week or latest next week.”

Ikhana had replaced Uche Eucharia who won the AWC but failed to secure tickets for the 8th All Africa Games and the London Olympics Games. Eucharia was on N300,000 monthly while Ikhana earned N3m for the same job.

Kadiri Ikhana

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Sokoto to host NNWL annual general assembly Dec. 2

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okoto State Government has agreed to host the Nigeria Nationwide League (NNWL), Annual General Assembly and other end-of-year programmes.

The annual general assembly, which will hold on Dec. 2, is expected to have 128 officials of the league clubs and six members of the National League in attendance.

Ahmad Kawu Chairman of the NNWL, who disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja

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he Lagos State 2012 “Squash Classic’’ tournament has come and gone, but has left in its wake thrills and excitements that kept squash players and enthusiasts enthralled from Nov. 6 to Nov. 10.

The championships were organised by the Lagos State Squash Association (LSSA), as a rehearsal for Team Lagos’s squash

over the weekend, said that Governor Aliyu Wamakko, has accepted to host the league’s annual assembly in the state after a meeting last week with the leadership of the lower league.

Kawu pointed out that Wamakko’s acceptance was in line with his vision and mission to support and empower grassroots football, while using it as a tool for addressing the current security challenges in the country.

He said that the Nationwide League

logo would be unveiled on Nov. 30 to usher in the assembly.

“Sokoto state government has accepted to host our end of year activities which include our annual general assembly, best of eight competitions, which will see the emergence of teams that will be promoted to Division one.

“The event is the beginning of our initiative to open up that zone to a new experience in football affairs,’’ Kawu said.

According to Kawu, three state

governors and Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Keshi had indicated their interest to attend the event.

He said that the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, Speaker, House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, exinternationals Kanu Nwankwo and Daniel Amokachi were among other notable persons expected at the occasion.

Other ex-internationals expected to grace the occasion include Garba Lawal, Jay-Jay Okocha, Baba Otu Mohammed.

Squash Classic: Players call for more of such tournaments players for the forthcoming 18th National Sports (NSF).

According to the LSSA Chairman, Sanya Akindele, the

Gumel lauds Jonathan, begs for more presidential intervention

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igeria's International Olympics Committee (IOC) member, Engineer Habu Gumel, has lauded President Goodluck Jonathan for breathing life into the sports sector through the Presidential Sports Sector Retreat, held recently at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The former President of the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) said the presidential retreat represented President Jonathan's resolve to refocus and reposition sports in the country and stressed that the sector actually needs such intervention to return it to life.

"It is noteworthy that you did not just stir the gathering of stakeholders to another talk show, but personally supervised all the deliberations, and personally took note even when you could have delegated that responsibility," he said adding that the retreat was indeed epochal.

Engr. Gumel also said that the quality of the attendance, the openness in deliberation and the sundry sub-themes that were considered, were unprecedented and demonstrated the president's resolve to make meaningful impact in the sector, something he said was the first in the annals of sports development in the country.

"The quality of attendance clearly underscores the importance you attach to sports and wants to demonstrate your desire to change the face of sports in the country. "I make bold to say that such presidential intervention is what we need in the sports sector for the transformation of lives and meaningful engagements of youth," he added noting that the action of the president would surely ginger administrators within the public and private sector to redouble efforts to turn around the fortunes of sports in Nigeria.

championships were specifically organised to ensure that players were in top form for the impending national fiesta, a concept which he described as the first of its kind.

The players applauded the Lagos State government for organising the championships, but they, however, called for more of such competitions, to keep them engaged and also sharpen their competitive edge.

They, however, pleaded that invitations should be sent to players on time, for subsequent editions, to enable them to be able to prepare physically and psychologically for the competition.

“The organisers have really done well. It’s a commendable effort and we hope that they don’t relent; this shouldn’t be a one off thing, I am looking forward to more of such arrangements in future.

“In subsequent editions, prior notice should be given, I got the invitation about a week ago, which was not enough for me to be able to train effectively,’’ Dashback said.

Temiloluwa Adegoke, winner of the U-19 category, shared the same view with Dashback; he said that more of such competitions would

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Chigozie Agbim, skipper of domestic league Eagles

Bolaji Abdullahi, Minister of Sports

Bolton White urges Eagles to win Nations Cup

By Patrick Andrew

Dan Amokachi, Assistant Coach, Eagles

help the country’s squash players to hone their skills.

“I want to implore squash authorities to help us and the only way they can do that is by organising squash competitions regularly.That will help us to perform well in international competitions,’’ Adegoke said, There was no female category for the U-15 and U-19, which Akindele explained, was due to the absence of credible grassroots talents.

He said that the state’s female players in those categories could be described as works in progress, that were not yet ripe enough for exposure.

“We didn’t include the females in the tournament because they are not ready to play in a tournament of such magnitude.

The players lived up to their billings; they gave a good show, which is highly commendable,’’ Akindele said.

When asked if the tournament would be a yearly event, Akindele said that sponsorship would determine if there will be future editions of the championship.

“We know how important it is for players to play regularly, but as an

organisation, we can only source for sponsors to partner with us so that our players won’t be idle,’’ he said.

The championship had the Junior and the Senior categories U15, U-19, Men’s singles and the Ladies singles.

The winner of the men’s singles, Sodiq Taiwo, went home with N140, 000 while Gbenga Adeyi, the first runner-up got a cash award of N100, 000. In the ladies category, Longdie Dashback got N100, 000 while Taiwo Ebifemi, first runner-up got N75, 000.

Altogether, 16 males competed in the men’s singles, as against eight females in the ladies singles of the championships, but the 12 players who featured in the U-15 and U-19 categories all played round-robin games in the five-day tournament.

he management of Bolton White Hotels and Apartment has charged the Super Eagles to conquer the rest of Africa at the 29th edition of the African Cup of Nations to be held in South Africa in January, and thus restore Nigeria’s pride before the comity of the continent’s soccer powers.

Giving the charge while hosting a welfare reception for the Eagles, the Managing Director of the hotel, Chief Chiedu Anakwe, said after putting up impressive performances during the qualifiers, it would only be logical to expect the Eagles to lift the trophy, come January.

Anakwe, said as the hosts of the Eagles for several months now (the Eagles were accommodated at the hotel throughout their training and camping periods in Abuja), the Eagles had shown superlative performances and would be expected to sustain and even surpassed the performance.

In appreciation of the team’s stay

in their facility and performance, the management of the Apartment awarded the the officials and players plaques and gift items.

Anakwe said that the players performed well in their qualifying matches for the Cup of Nations and urged them to do better during the competition and remaining World Cup qualifiers.

“Any time the Super Eagles were accommodated in Bolton White Hotel and Apartments, they always played with high spirit and excel in their matches. This trend is being extended to other clubs who lodge with Bolton White Apartments.

“An example is the recent victory of Nembe City FC of Bayelsa that won the Nigeria National League Champions Cup,” the manager recalled.

He promised that the hotel’s management would make the team comfortable to continue to win their matches during the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup qualification matches.

“We all join you in the euphoria and celebrations to say we are

proud of you all. This award is in recognition of those that have shown skills, creativity and success in rebuilding a new national team for Nigeria.

“We also want to encourage the exceptional effort made by the team to stimulate a fairly competitive spirit so as to galvanise your members to reach higher levels of brilliance globally.

“To motivate and further develop team work and greater cooperation among the players,’’ the manager said.

He noted that the Super Eagles had proven that a combination of knowledge, hard work, skills and right attitude would lead to good result of winning the African Cup of Nations.

Anakwe, assisted by Ambassador Przemyslaw Niesiolowski of Poland, presented plaques to the head coach of the team Stephen Keshi, his four assistants and some players.

Responding on behalf of the team, Assistant Coach, Sylvanus Okpala, expressed surprise over the awards and thanked the hotel’s management for the gesture.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 43

Kaka’s experience will rob off on Neymar, says Gilberto Silva

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he former Arsenal midfielder, Gilberto Silva, believes that the young attacker would be helped out having experienced Selecao stars such as the Real Madrid player alongside him Silva feels that the inclusion of experienced players such as Kaka, Elano and Maicon in Brazil’s national team will benefit Neymar, and

take some pressure off the Santos star.

Kaka returned to the Selecao earlier this year after a two-year absence, and Gilberto Silva believes that the Real Madrid midfielder’s presence will help Neymar.

“The quality Neymar has can be decisive and that’s how it should be. He’s only 20 and even so he’s

able to drive the team to victory, which is great,” the former Arsenal man told FIFA’s official website.

“I reckon he handles that role very well, because of how much confidence he has. But the pressure on him is huge, and it would help to have some more experienced players around to take the focus off him.

“Of course I don’t know

what goes on in the Selecao on a day-today basis but, from the outside looking in, I’d suggest bringing in Kaka.

“Elano too has rediscovered his best form and could play a part, and I’d say the same about Maicon.”

Brazil are currently preparing for the international friendly against Colombia this week.

Platt says Dzeko more than a ‘super sub’

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Neymar

Messi accomplishes dozen years feats in one year, says Vilanova

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ito Vilanova, the Blaugrana boss, has voiced his admiration for prolific Camp Nou attacker Lionel Messi, and also had positive things to say about promising youngster Cristian Tello The Argentine netted twice in Sunday’s encounter to take his tally for 2012 to 76 goals in just 59 appearances, and Vilanova has hailed Messi’s impressive goalscoring record.

“Leo continually breaks records. His goal tally is spectacular,” Vilanova was quoted as saying on the club’s official website.

“It takes other great players seven or eight seasons to score the amount of goals he scores in one season. Also, some of his goals are absolute beauties.”

The Barcelona coach also had his say on Cristian Tello’s performance, and had nothing but positive words for the young Camp Nou forward.

“We know what he’s capable of,” the 44-year-old added. “He played a great game. He hasn’t has a lot of minutes on the pitch lately.

“I believe that he’s improved a lot on defence, he’s becoming a more complete player on a daily basis.”

Tello has netted three times in 12 official appearances for Barcelona this term.

Lionel Messi

ssistant to Roberto Mancini, David Platt, has heaped praise on Edin Dzeko’s performance against Tottenham Hotspurs and believes he is more than a‘super sub’.

The Bosnian striker once again proved his skills when he came off the bench on Sunday to score a late winner in their 2-1 triumph over Spurs.

“We haven’t called him ‘super sub’,” Platt was quoted as saying on BBC Sports. “That’s just what people want to call him.

“I wouldn’t say it is his best role. It’s not whether he scores after coming off the bench, it’s whether he scores when he is on the field.

“We can only pick 11 players and pick players on the bench to come on. That’s the way it has been in the time I have been here and it is the same at every club.

“Against Tottenham, we felt we needed an injection of something different up front, a little more height to get the ball and hold it up,” he said.

“But we also know Edin is a goal threat. He has scored a lot of goals this season and a lot of goals since he signed in January last year.

“He has got what I would call ‘heavy’ - or important - goals for us and he is a valued member of our squad.”

City’s win moved them up to second place and now sit just two points adrift of Manchester United in first.

CAF limits crowd for Sunday’s Champions League final

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unday’s African Champions League final in Tunis will have a restricted crowd of 35 000 due to fears of stadium violence and civil unrest.

Home side Esperance are poised to take the title for a second successive year in the second leg against Al Ahli of Egypt in the 65 000 seater Rades Stadium. The first leg in Cairo ended 1-1.

Tunisia’s Interior Ministry, which has confined most professional football to behind closed doors over the last year, has granted permission for the selling of tickets for just over half the capacity of the ground.

Egyptian authorities also allowed a restricted crowd to attend the first leg.

Tunisian spectators have been allowed to watch internationals and some Champions League group games but all league matches last season were played inside locked stadiums after a spate of stadium violence.

The ‘Arab Spring’ took hold in Tunisia almost two years ago and restrictions continue in place at matches for fear crowds represent a possible springboard for civil unrest.

Officials said the interior ministry had planned to allow 27 000 tickets to be sold but that number has been increased after complaints from the Confederation of African Football, keen to ensure their showpiece final is played against a backdrop of a noisy and excited crowd.

Crowd violence has been a regular occurrence at Champions League finals over the last decade, including at Rades over the last two years.

In 2010, Esperance fans threw missiles onto the pitch during the game and afterwards during the post-match presentation ceremony as their team were beaten in the final.

Last year, teargas was fired by police to stop fighting between Esperance supporters and fans of beaten finalists Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.

In August, Tunisia’s other representatives in the Champions League, Etoile Sahel, were kicked out of the competition after rioting fans caused the abandonment of a group match.

Issah Hayatou, CAF President

Liverpool hope better season than the last

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iverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says finishing above last year’s eighth spot in the league would be “fantastic”. The Reds are unbeaten in six league games but lie in 13th spot after a 1-1 draw at Chelsea.

“The reality is we’re a long way off in the league,” said Rodgers. “We finished eighth last year. If we can improve on that, it’ll be

fantastic for us. That’s the reality of where Liverpool are I’m afraid. But our young players will get better and better.”

Rodgers knows that with funds limited at the club it will take time to try to improve the Merseysider’s fortunes, although he has urged his rebuilding process is not hindered by harking back to the club’s illustrious past.

“They’re very educated, Liverpool supporters. It can’t be easy for them,” said Rodgers.

“Most of us in this room know Liverpool and its great history, but we can’t keep looking in the rear view mirror and looking back.

“If you’re not going to have a massive investment to make it happen quickly, you have to develop it.

That’s where we’re at.

“The supporters are being very lenient with myself and the team, and I’m sure they’ll be frustrated sometimes, but their support has been incredible.”

While funds may be restricted at Liverpool, Rodgers will be hoping to strengthen his attack in the January transfer window.

Luis Suarez, who scored the equaliser against Chelsea, is the club’s only established striker and he has scored eight of Liverpool’s 14 league goals this season and provided two assists.

“We need one or two more players,” added Rodgers.

“That (the Chelsea result) is our sixth draw, and a lot of those games we’ve come back into after going

behind. But we need materials. If we can get one or two in January, we’ll turn draws into wins.

“Those players don’t come cheap, and they’re not too many available in January either. But the owners have given me great support since I’ve been here. I knew it would be a difficult year given the expectancy in Liverpool.”

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

2013 Nations Cup finals

Ronaldo to miss Gabon friendly

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ortugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Wednesday’s friendly against Gabon in Libreville after he sustained a cut above his left eye in Sunday’s 2-1 La Liga win at Levante, the Portuguese Federation (FPF) said yesterday.

The FPF confirmed the

Steven N’Zonzi snubbs DRC

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toke City defensive midfielder Steven N’Zonzi has snubbed an invitation from the Democratic Republic of Congo coach Claude Le Roy to join the outfit for Wednesday’s friendly match against Burkina Faso in Morocco.

The 23-year-old French-born former Blackburn player said he had not made up his mind to play for the Leopards.

N’Zonzi figures on the 23-man roster published by the coach

during the weekend.

Granddi Ngoyi, who plays for French club Troyes, has also refused to honour his first call up to the DR Congo national team. Like N’Zonzi, he holds French nationality, and both players have represented France in the junior level but have not played for the senior team.

DR Congo and Burkina Faso will be meeting in El Jadida as part of preparations for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations set for next January.

Arsenal’s fringe player, Gervihno, out of Ivory Coast squad

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rsenal winger Gervinho will be missing AustriaIvory Coast friendly scheduled for November 14 in Linz, Austria due to injury.

The Elephants coach Sabri Lamouchi has named a 24man list for the encounter including captain Didier Drogba and the Toure brothers of Manchester City, with former Chelsea forward Saloman Kalou making his return after a brief layoff.

Other absentees are former Lyon striker Kader Keita and Jean Jacques Gosso Gosso, who recently turned free agent after leaving Turkish side Orduspor. Both players were member of the Ivorian team at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

The roster also revealed two new entrants Lamine Kone and Traore Ismael respectively of French sides FC Lorient and Stade Brestois 29. Both players are defenders, underscoring Lamouchi’s desire to overhaul his back half, which has come under severe criticisms off late.

SQUAD Goalkeeper: Barry Boubacar (Lokeren, Belgium),

Yeboah Daniel (Dijon, France), Sayouba Mande (Stabaek, Norway) Defenders: Bamba Souleman (Trazbonspor, Turkey), Boka Arthur (Stuttgart, Germany), Guy Demel (West Ham, England), Eboue Emmanuel (Galatasaray, Turkey), Lolo Igor (FC Kuban Krasnodar, Russia), Tiene Siaka (PSG, France), Toure Kolo (Manchester City, England), Traore Ismael (Stade Brestois, France), Kone Lamine (Lorient, France) Midfielders : Gradel Max (St-Etienne, France), Tiote Cheik (Newcastle, England), N’Dri Koffi Romaric (Zaragoza, Spain), Razak Abdul (Charlton AC, England), Toure Yaya (Manchester City, England), YA Konan Didier (Hanovre 96, Germany), Zokora Didier (Trazbonspor, Turkey) Attackers: Bony Wilfried (Vitesse Arnhem, Netherlands), Drogba Didier (Shanghai Shenhua FC, China), Kalou Salomon (Lille, France), Kone Arouna (Wigan, England), Traore Lacina (Anzhi Makhatchkala, Russia).

injury would keep him out adding Valencia defender Joao Pereira and Dynamo Kiev midfielder Miguel Veloso had also pulled out of the squad because of injuries.

Ronaldo was caught by David Navarro’s elbow in the opening minutes of the match in Valencia and after being

patched up on the side of the pitch returned to score Real’s 21st-minute opener.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said after the match Ronaldo’s vision in both eyes was affected by the blow, which left one side of the Portuguese international’s face covered in blood.

Cristiano Ronaldo

x-internationals have differed on the suitability of Stephen Keshi’s call up Shola Ameobi for the Super Eagles.

The Newcastle United striker may most likely make his Nigeria debut tomorrow against Venezuela but there are questions on whether his invitation is not belated: five years too late.

There are a lot of other questions to ask on Ameobi’s impeding debut - at 31, is he not well past it? Is he turning to Nigeria because he does not figure in the plans of The Three Lions? Is his call-up not against the rebuilding process of coach Stephen Keshi? Would he not have made a more meaningful contribution when he was much younger?

The big striker indicated his interest to play for Nigeria in 2009 and he got his first call-up to play for Nigeria in 2010, when Samson Siasia listed him for a friendly against Guatemala in the USA. The game was not played after Guatemala withdrew and for the replacement game against Sierra Leone, the Newcastle striker could not honour it due to cheek bone fracture he suffered in the EPL. Shola Ameobi has played all his life up at Newcastle since 1995 when he was in the youth rank except when he was loaned to Stoke City in 2006/2007 season where he played just six games without a goal.

The former U-21 England international was cleared by FIFA to play for Nigeria on November 1, 2011.

He is not a prolific striker since he broke into the Newcastle main squad in 2000 as he has played 269 games with 50 goals, an

average of a goal every five matches.

His hold-up play as a second striker has been the biggest plus going for him. So, is Shola really relevant for the current Super Eagles heading to the 2013 AFCON? Former international Jonathan Akpoborie told MTNFootball.com that the Newcastle front man is not needed in the Eagles and his invitation runs against Keshi’s rebuilding process.

“For God’s sake at 31 Shola Ameobi is too old to come and debut for the Eagles. He has been at Newcastle for long and he was not called. I don’t know the reason for calling a bench warmer now when we have younger players doing well in Europe in their leagues, Champions League and Europa League, the likes of Emmanuel Emenike, Brown Ideye, Chima Chukwu, Ike Uche, Kalu Uche,” said Akpoborie.

“How long could we have him in the Eagles, also? Keshi is contradicting himself because he said he is rebuilding the team which he should do with young player. So is he now rebuilding with a 31-year-old striker?”

However, former Eagles coach Samson Siasia argued that Ameobi will bring quality to Eagles attack and said he is not old to debut.

“I first noticed Shola Ameobi and showed interest in bringing him to Eagles, because of his

qualities, but didn’t materialise then for one or two reasons,” said Siasia.

“Shola will be a big addition to the Eagles because we need a big no. 9. He is a good player and a young man at 31. He is not too old for the Eagles.”

Ex-Eagles skipper Mutiu Adepoju has also insisted age should not be barrier for Ameobi to win his first cap as long as he has the qualities to add value to the team.

“As for me, no time is too late for a player to play for his country so far the player is outstanding for his club and the coaches believe he has something to offer to the team, so be it,” Adepoju argued.

Another former international, Benedict Akwuegbu, said that the Newcastle ace would still be relevant to the national for another five years.

“Shola is a good striker with a lot of experience having played in the EPL since 2000, that’s not a joke. Since the coach has found him worthy, so be it. I think at 31, he is not too old to play for Eagles as could still play for next four, five years,” Akwuegbu declared What is not open to debate though is that Ameobi is now one of a long list of top strikers who are jostling for a place on the AFCONbound Eagles.

His performance against Venezuela on Wednesday would most likely define whether he is another one-off or the man for the long haul.

Ex-Eagles differ on Ameobi’s invitation E

Acquah, Addy handed late call-ups for Black Stars friendly

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Lee Addy

hana coach Kwesi Appiah has handed late call-ups to the Black Stars squad for tomorrow’s friendly against Cape Verde.

Midfielder Afriyie Acquah and China-based defender Lee Addy have been called up to replace two players who have pulled out of the game.

Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan has been withdrawn to allow him to join in the one week celebration of his late mother Cecilia Amoako.

France-based defender Jonathan Mensah has also pulled out of the squad after he suffered a thigh injury while playing for his club Evian.

Afriyie and Addy will join the Black Stars camp in Lisbon on Monday after they were handed the late call-ups.

Ghana will play Cape Verde in Lisbon as both sides prepare for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa in January.

Shola Ameobi, Samson Siasia, first call up the United forward

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 45

PICTURE

1/Spartak Moscow striker Emmanuel Emenike has said he hopes to be fit again by next week’s Champions League tie against Barcelona.

2/The ex-AC Milan striker has been approached by the country’s Football Association to replace Oleh Blokhin, who relinquished his position to take charge of Dynamo Kiev 3/Chelsea captain John Terry has suffered “no significant damage” to his right knee after being injured in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Sunday . The 31-year-old is expected to be out for “weeks rather than months,” the club added.

4/WBO light-heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly hopes Saturday’s victory over Shawn Hawk will earn him a big-money showdown with Bernard Hopkins.

5/Former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag was arrested after he was allegedly found in possession of the drug Cat (methcathinone), the Beeld reported on Saturday.

6/Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic played the ATP Final, which drops the curtain lawn tennis season.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

EKO 2012: Lagos state athletics coach warns Delta, Edo others, dreams medals

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Sprinter Egwero of Delta state

Ondo badminton players ready, says coach

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he Ondo State badminton coach, Tunde Ajibogun, said on Monday that his players were preparing to surpass their record at the 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Ondo State badminton contingent to the 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt, tagged “Garden City Games’’ won a bronze medal.

Balogun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure that his players were in good form and had been training before the commencement of the state’s closed camping.

“Our preparation started since we attended tournaments like the first Esther Ayodele Open Badminton Championships in July at Ilorin and the Abuja National Open Badminton Championships.

“And I know the ability of the players I have, that is why I decided to pick three males and a female for the festival.

“We want to win as many medals as possible at the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos and by the level of my players’ preparation, I believe we can achieve it,’’ he said.

Balogun added that he had a player of national repute in Dipo Afolabi, who is ranked 16th in the country and would feature at the festival.

Niger contingent to arrive Lagos Nov. 26, says Director

T

he Niger Director of Sports, Baba Sheshi, yesterday revealed that the state’s contingent to the 18th National Sports Festival would arrive in Lagos on Nov. 26.

Sheshi, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone, said that the athletes were currently finalising their strategies to win medals in a closed camp.

He said the state would feature in Taekwondo, Squash, Volleyball, Wrestling, Special Sports, Tennis, Basketball, Table Tennis, Scrabble, Weightlifting, Judo,

Gov. Babangida Aliu of Niger state

Boxing, Kickboxing, Handball, Athletics, Football and Table tennis for the disabled.

The Director of Sports also said that Gov. Babangida Aliyu of Niger had been supportive of the preparations, to ensure a successful outing.

“Team Niger is in closed camping; the coaches are putting strategies in place to ensure the readiness and the fitness of the athletes.

“Already, the athletes and their coaches are well motivated financially and every necessary moral support is being provided to them.

“The sports festival is like the Nigerian version of the Olympics, hence, we in Niger State are attaching a lot of seriousness to it,” Sheshi said.

He said that they were working tirelessly to improve on their last outing in Port-Harcourt, where the state went home with nine gold, two silver and seven bronze medals.

Sheshi said that an advance team would be sent to Lagos on Nov. 22, to facilitate Team Niger’s arrival to the Games.

thletes from Delta, Edo and Rivers state respectively have been advised against harbouring any hope of winning medals at the forthcoming 18th National Sports Festival.

Lagos State Athletics Head Coach, Uruemu Adu, who issued the warning said the medals in athletics will be swept by Team Lagos contingent. Accordingly, he said over the weekend that he was hopeful the

state’s sprinters and middle distance runners will outpaced others to clinch the available medals at the Games.

Adu, who is with the Lagos State Grassroots Sports Development in the Governor’s Office, said in Lagos that the athletes had exhibited good skills and dedication to the sport.

“The athletes have shown that they are ready to represent the state.

They are good to go

because most of them at the closed camp have shown their prowess.

“The only thing for us to do now is to pray to God to crown all our efforts with victory. I expect them to be focused to do exceptionally well and make the state proud at the festival,’’ he said.

Adu said that the athletes had been in open camp at the Teslim Balogun Stadium since July 17, but moved into closed camping in

October.

He also appealed to the athletes to adhere to the rules of the game and shun any banned substance that could tarnish the image of the state.

“I have been telling my athletes right from day one in camp to stay away from any drug or food that will disqualify them. The governor wants them to win fairly because that is the true spirit of sportsmanship, winning the right way.’’

Anambra dangles N.2m for gold at festival

E

ach athlete that wins gold medal in any event will be awarded N200,000 on the sports by the Anambra state government.

Also, silver and bronze medalists will each win for themselves N150,000 and N75,000 respectively at the festival. The gesture is meant to ginger Team Anambra athletes to thrive on the path of success at the forthcoming 18th National Sports Festival (NSF).

The Anambra government announced cash rewards for athletes yesterday while urging the team and officials to endeavour to give good representation to the state at the Games scheduled to be hosted

by Lagos, will hold from

Nov. 27 to Dec. 9.

Disclosing the prizes in Awka yesterday, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Dr Edozie Aroh, said that the state government would be ready to provide the athletes the needed morale and financial support during the Games.

Aroh said there were other incentives being packaged to further motivate the athletes, such as ensuring adequate logistics support.

He said this was the first of its kind in the state, stressing that Anambra was determined to reverse the dismal performance of the state in past festivals by boosting the morale of its athletes.

“It is part of our commitment to the

athletes, as well as to ensure a superlative outing; motivation is paramount in sports and we want to provide that as much as possible.

“They now know what is at stake. It is not just about the state but for them as individuals; they must give in their best because they have never had it so good,” Aroh said.

On the medal prospects of Anambra in Lagos, the Acting Permanent Secretary, Dr Cyprian Amuzie, said it was targeting about 30 gold medals and many silver and bronze medals.

Amuzie said taekwondo, gymnastics, and the swimming team handled by a newlyengaged coach, Joseph Okechi, had high medal prospects.

He also said that the athletics team being

jointly handled by Johnny Igboka and Uchenna Emedolu, would be expected to win many medals.

The permanent secretary said that monetary prizes attached to the medals by the state government would spur the athletes to fly the flag of the state to higher heights.

“The commissioner has noted with regrets the poor outing of the state in the NSF and has resolved to reverse the ugly trend.

“He pledged to provide all necessary logistics both for camping and the games proper, including the announcement of mouth watering prizes for every medal won at the games,” Amuzie said.

MOC yet to release athletes’ accreditation list

T

he Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos has assured stakeholders that the names of accredited athletes and officials would soon be made public.

State contingents are worried that barely 15 days to the beginning of the Games, the Main Organising Committee (MOC) was yet to publish the list of participants.

However, the MOC only concluded the Delegation Registration Meeting (DRM) on Sunday in Abuja, an innovation in the biennial competition.

The meeting is where athletes and officials are entered for the Games and the ineligible ones have their names removed, to check mercenaries and two states entering one athlete.

The Secretary of the Games Services and Secretariat, Deji Aladegbemi, informed yesterday in Lagos that the MOC was yet to release the list.

“We are relying on the MOC for that all-important document. We have been working on assumptions in the provision of logistics and accommodation but believe that the document’s timely release will help us a lot in our planning,’’ he said.

The Secretary said the LOC had made provision for athletes and officials based on their past experiences of the festival.

He explained that the LOC would be responsible for the welfare of athletes, while state governments would cater for their officials.

Meanwhile the Assistant Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee, Fred Edore, also confirmed that more than 400 journalists had been accredited and that more were still being expected.

Edore, Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), said that their accreditation cards would be released three days before the Games.

Malam Abba Yola, Scretary, MOC

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

PAGE 47

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Falcao test for Brazil

N

eymar and Radamel Falcao, two of the world's most prolific and soughtafter strikers, come face-to-face when Brazil meet Colombia in the most enticing of around 50 friendly internationals being played tomorrow.

Spain and Portugal both face marathon trips with the world and European champions travelling to Panama and their Iberian neighbours lured to oilrich Gabon where Cristiano Ronaldo's presence is awaited with feverish excitement.

There are high-profile games between familiar European rivals, such as NetherlandsGermany, Italy-France and Sweden-England, and more exotic encounters such as the clash between Albania and Cameroon in Geneva.

Steven Gerrard is in line to make his 100th appearance for England while Rene Adler, set to be Germany first-choice goalkeeper at the last World Cup until he was injured shortly before, is back in squad, two years after his last appearance.

Only a few years ago, Cameroon would have been favoured opponents for many of the world's top sides.

But, beset by internal bickering, their fortunes have taken a dramatic turn for the worse which culminated with elimination from the African Nations Cup at the hands of tiny Cape Verde, who themselves face Ghana in Lisbon on Wednesday.

In other games, Franco Di Santo could make his international debut as Argentina, including Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero but missing out-of-favour Carlos Tevez, visit Saudi Arabia while Russia meet the United States for the first time in 12 years.

Brazil's meeting with Colombia at the Metlife stadium in New Jersey brings two together two sides who have reaping the rewards of a more positive, attacking approach in the last few months.

Brazil's search for their ideal team and a playing style which better suits their tradition appears to be bearing fruit for coach Mano Menezes, who has been greatly helped by the return of Kaka following a twoyear absence from international football.

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QUO TABLE Q UO TE UOT QUO UOTE What impressed me most was how the US electoral body arranged presidential debates between the two contending parties' candidates and ithey were conducted with political maturity.

– Prof Attahiru Jega, Chairman, INEC, on the Nov 6 US presidential election

CJN Mukhtar must clean up judicial appointments O

n Monday, 5 November 2012, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Aloma Mukhtar was scheduled to administer oaths of office to 12 newly appointed Justices of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal at the premises of the Supreme Court in Abuja. All 12 had scaled the rigorous processes preceding appointment and had received their letters of appointment.

To enable them fulfil the administrative processes preceding swearing-in, the new appointees were required to arrive in Abuja the previous week. On the afternoon of Friday, 2 November, the CJN’s Secretary telephoned one of them, Honorable Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofor, to request her to see the Chief Justice urgently.

At the Supreme Court, Justice Jombo-Ofor proceeded to the CJN’s chambers. Sources at the Supreme Court authoritatively report that at the meeting, CJN Mukhtar briefly interrogated Justice Jombo-Ofor as to her state of origin and accused her of not being an indigene of the State she claimed before abruptly ending the meeting.

Following her brief encounter with the CJN, Justice Jombo-Ofor was seen leaving the premises of the Supreme Court in severe distress.

On Saturday, 3 November, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court instructed her through a telephone call not to attend or present herself for the swearing in on 5 November. All these developments took place orally.

On Monday, 5 November, the CJN administered the oath on 11 Justices instead of 12. Chief Justice Mukhtar had administratively stepped down Justice Jombo-Ofor from among the Justices to be sworn in. It emerged that Justice Jombo-Ofor was not sworn in because, in the opinion of the CJN, she was not an “indigene” of the State whose origins she claimed, Abia State.

In one sentence, the decision of CJN Mukhtar in this matter pertaining to Justice Jombo-Ofor’s swearing in is flawed in process, wrong in law and subversive of our constitutional values of equality among citizens.

Let us begin with the process.

The administration of oath of office follows judicial appointment and does not precede it. With respect to appointments to the Court of Appeal, this process

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GUEST COLUMNIST Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

CJN Aloma Mukhtar begins with the nomination of candidates by the respective heads of court around the country. In Justice Jombo-Ofor’s case, the Chief Judge of Abia State would have consented to her appointment. Thereafter, the security services would usually prepare dossiers on the candidates. The nominations and dossiers would be considered by the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) chaired by the CJN. The FJSC then reports to the National Judicial Council (NJC), also chaired by the CJN, which decides which candidates to recommend to the appointing authority, the President.

Based on the nominations received from the NJC, the President then exercises the power under Section 238(2) of the Constitution to formally execute the instruments of appointment and to issue and transmit letters of appointment to the successful candidates. This process is long and arduous and involves all the branches and levels of our government in the most intricate advertisement of constitutional checks and balances possible. No one can scale through to appointment if the CJN objects at either the FJSC or the NJC. But because of this process also, she

cannot be heard to object at the stage of swearing in because to do so at that stage would impugn the integrity of the judicial appointment process, call her own decision making into question, and possibly render her position untenable.

This is why the decision to refuse to administer the oath to Justice Jombo-Ofor is also wrong in law. Having been involved institutionally in the process of appointment, the CJN should either refuse to entertain any postappointment objections or be stopped from doing so. In any case, at this point in the process, the CJN does not have the legal power to countermand the appointing authority.

Once the instrument of appointment is executed, Justice Jombo-Ofor can only cease to be a Justice of the Court of Appeal if she is removed through an established judicial disciplinary process, impeached as provided in the Constitution or her elevation is nullified by a court of competent jurisdiction. None of these happened here. Surely, a matter as serious as this cannot be handled orally or by a sequence of cellular telephone calls.

The flaws in process and want of legality reinforce the twin damage that this entire episode does to our constitutional values.

First, it denies women, especially married women, equality of opportunity contrary to our constitution. Ifeoma Jombo-Ofor, a 58-year old married grandmother was born in the former Eastern Region of Nigeria in 1954. By the time she got married 33 years ago in 1979, her parental origins had become Anambra state but her husband was from Imo. In 1981, she was appointed a magistrate in Anambra. In 1991, when Abia state was created, her husband’s state became Abia. In 1998, the Abia state government appointed Ifeoma Jombo-Ofor a judge of the state’s High Court. She has served in this capacity ever since.

In any serious clime, this story of her exclusion from judicial oath

of office would be laughable. The process was ham-handed to say the least and it is surely tragic that we have got to a point where the defining issue in judicial appointments is not whether the candidate is up to the difficult job of being a judge but where they come from.

What CJN Mukhtar suggests by her action is that there can be no potability of origins for the Nigerian woman. Yet in 1985, the Supreme Court had decided in Olowu v. Olowu [1985] 12 S.C. 84, that there is, in fact, such potability. For married women, this is important. Every married woman belongs to the place where she is born and also to the place into which she is married. This dual identity is not opportunistic.

Instead of affirming this fact, the CJN took an administrative decision whose immediate impact is to diminish public service opportunities open to married women in Nigeria by rendering them effectively stateless. For this, Nigerians are entitled to take her to task.

Ironically, 20 years ago, the same NJC’s predecessor, the Advisory Judicial Committee (AJC), rejected the appointment of a female judge from then Cross River State because she was an unmarried mother. So as a woman, you lose professional preferment, whether married or unmarried.

Secondly, the “rules of origin” in the judiciary require urgent attention. Three years ago a judge of the Lagos High Court, Bunmi Oyewole, was refused elevation to the Court of Appeal because his origin is Osun state. In October 2012, the NJC reportedly declined to support his nomination as Chief Judge of Osun state because he is a judge of the Lagos State High Court. Mere mortals may struggle to make sense of this.

The treatment of Justice Jombo-Ofor is disgraceful and beneath the dignity of the judicial branch. On 7 November, the Senate resolved, in an unprecedented step, to condemn the decision of the Chief Justice and request her to swear in Justice Jombo-Ofor. She should comply.

She should also review and clarify the criteria for federal judicial appointments. This mess of origins must be cleaned up.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu chairs the Council of the National Human Rights Commission.

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234-09-8734478. Cell: +234 803 606 3308. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141