Peoples Daily Newspaper, Monday 19, November, 2012

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

Vol. 9 No. 71

Monday, November 19, 2012

. . . putting the people first

Al-Muharram 5, 1434 AH

N150

Video shows JTF shooting captives in Maiduguri

By Isa Abdulkadir, with agency report

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video obtained by Reuters has shown men of the Joint Task Force deployed to Maiduguri, the Borno state

capital, shooting to death some of their captives.

However a spokesperson for the army said it was “impossible” for the troops to do such a thing.

The video was taken by a soldier who said he was present while the shootings took place two weeks ago. The soldier, who requested anonymity, passed it to Reuters yesterday.

In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few metres

away.

“Please don’t fire,” the man says in pidgin English. He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pick up truck to the left. A Contd on Page 2

No dialogue with Boko Haram, says Jonathan

Odi massacre a mistake No plan to remove fuel subsidy Monetization policy unimplementable

By Lawrence Olaoye, Mohammed Umar-Puma & Ikechukwu Okaforadi

C

ontrary to speculations making the rounds that the Federal Government had begun talks with the dreaded Boko Haram sect with a view to ending the insurgency in some parts of the country, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said the government is currently not in dialogue with the sect.

While responding to questions from a panel of journalists in a media chat, the President said the Boko Haram group is still operating Contd on Page 2

PD INDEX

18th Nov., 2012

CBN RATES $ £ EURO CFA RIYAL

BUYING 154.75 245.54 197.11 0.2885 41.26

SELLING 155.75 247.13 198.38 0.3085 41.53

PARALLEL RATES EURO £ RIYAL $

BUYING 207 255 42 157

SELLING 209 256 44 158

Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima administering a vaccine to a child during the inauguration of Immunisation Plus Day in Damassak, headquarters of Mobbar Local Government Area, yesterday.

Photo: NAN

Witchcraft: Man, 35 Curfew imposed as sets 111-year-old four feared dead in Taraba clash woman ablaze >> PAGE 2

>> PAGE 3

Amosgate: How Amos Adamu’s son received $1m >> PAGE 3

PAGE 2

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 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

Education

27

Health

29

Witchcraft: Man, 35 sets 111-year-old woman ablaze From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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35-year-old man, Tyoakaa Ijoho in Adamgbe village, Vandeikiya local government area of Benue state, went berserk and burnt an aged woman of 111 years – Mama Martha Gyuse Bonko to death on allegation that she was responsible for the death of his father.

Ijoho was said to have also burnt down over 10 thatched houses and destroyed several other property.

Int’l

31-32

Digest

36

Politics

37-40

Sports

41-47

Columnist

48

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area and had not been home for the past 18 years, came back and committed the heinous act.

Chafa said his mother, Mama Mezaga Chafa, aged 75, attempted to save the aged woman who is also blind from been burnt alive but her strength failed and she had to abandon the old woman who eventually burnt to death.

He further said the arsonist had been picked up by the Vigilante Group and handed over to the police in Vandeikya while the body of Mama Martha Gyuse Bonko has been

deposited at a private hospital in Tsar Mbaduku.

Chafa estimated items destroyed in the inferno to cost over N367, 000 and called on good spirited individuals to come to their aid, saying, “now we only sleep under trees”, adding that the victim would be buried after a postmortem is carried out.

It could be recalled that a big tragedy had struck Adamgbe village during this year’s Easter when St. Robert’s Catholic Church collapsed and killed over 22 parishioners.

No dialogue with Boko Haram, says Jonathan Contd from Page 1

Contentious issues as Nass amends the constitution, Page 4

Our correspondent’s investigation revealed that Ijoho, who lost his father to a snake bite recently, was bitter and suspicious that his father may not have died a natural death. His curiosity prompted him to consult a native doctor to determine the actual cause of his father death.

According to a close relation of Ijoho, Abraham Chafa, on discovering that some family members were allegedly responsible for his father’s death, Ijoho who resides in Konshisha local government

under cover and as such it would be difficult for the government to engage those persons not known to it in a dialogue.

Jonathan said “Presently the government is not dialoging with any group; there is no dialogue between the government and Boko Haram, though, there was news of a team that is talking about dialogue, but they have no face; you don’t have anybody to discuss with. So you can’t discuss anything with a faceless group; there is nobody that is coming out to say he wants to discuss on behalf of the group. So as far as we are concerned nobody, so no dialogue is going on”.

Responding to question as to why he had refused to adopt the Odi treatment for the Boko Haram insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country, Jonathan explained that the military action against the Bayelsan community, where only old men and children were killed, could not succeed in stopping the militants in that area.

He explained that had the military action been effective,

there would not have been any need for late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s government to initiate and implement the Amnesty Programme.

He said “Most of the people that were killed by the soldiers in Odi are old men, women and children; none of the militant that committed the crime was killed in Odi. If you mean bombarding Odi would solve the problems, I think it has not; and if you think the attack on Odi has solved the problems of militancy in Niger Delta, then Yar’adua government which I’m the Vice President wouldn’t have initiated the Amnesty Programme”.

Commenting on the implementation of monetization policy, Jonathan said though the policy was fantastic on paper, it was difficult to implement. While declining to comment on the sale of government houses to the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and Senate President ,David Mark, Jonathan said he already knew from inception of the monetization policy that its implementation

would be difficult.

Responding to suggestions that the policy be scrapped since it has become difficult to implement, the President said doing so would amount to policy summersault which he pointed out would not be good for the nation’s image. He however assured that efforts are being made by the government to reposition the nation’s mortgage sector so that government officials could assess mortgage loans to buy houses at tolerable interest rates.

The President equally assured that there would be no removal of subsidy in January, 2013 as being variously speculated. He said he was misquoted in some reports that the government was considering the removal of subsidy just as he blamed the current fuel scarcity across the country partly on human element and the fallout of different investigations conducted in the sector.

He however disclosed that subsidy regime would have to be revisited for investors who

already have licenses to invest in refineries in the country.

Commenting on the efforts of the government to address corruption in the nation’s oil sector, Jonathan said a lot has been done with the experts currently conducting forensic audit in the industry to ascertain its financial situation and level of degeneration.

The President said his government has been fighting corruption frontally in the country beginning with electoral corruption; followed by corruption in the procurement and distribution of fertilizers and tractors and, of recent, the corruption in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Responding to the allegation that several billion of naira was budgeted for feeding in the Presidency in the 2012 budget, Jonathan said there are a lot of government agencies lumped up in the Presidency and such would soon be moved out to clear the ambiguities associated with the seeming heavy budget attributed to the Presidency.

Video shows JTF shooting captives in Maiduguri Contd from Page 1 Nigerian soldier shouts “come out”, and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground. One of them kicks him in the head.

Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others.

Army spokesperson Colonel Mohammed Yerima said he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.

“How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics,” he said. “They will do the killing, say it’s the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It’s not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way.”

Nigerian forces have repeatedly denied accusations of

such abuses, saying the only times they kill suspected militants is during combat.

Those captured are questioned or freed, they say.

US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour Michael Posner said on Friday that the United States was seriously concerned by reported abuses committed by Nigerian security forces in their efforts to quell the insurgency.

Such alleged abuses usually occur shortly after members of the security forces have been killed or wounded in an attack by the sect.

The killings in this video happened after a bomb attack on a military patrol further up the road, the soldier who provided the footage said.

Another video from the same

source, which he said was taken after the executions, shows soldiers piling up about two dozen bodies in two bloody heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.

The videos could spur renewed calls for Nigeria’s security forces to change their approach to the insurgency, which critics say is prompting desperate, angry youths to join Boko Haram and encouraging the northern population to shelter them.

That uprising was sparked by a military crackdown on the sect in which hundreds were killed, including its founder and spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been accused of

treating the conflict as a security problem that can be solved with force alone, rather than addressing the root causes of the insurgency.

Amnesty International issued a report this month in which it said human rights abuses committed by security forces were fuelling the conflict they were meant to end.

The report said a “significant number” of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead.

The military rejected that report, including accusations that they execute suspects, as “biased and mischievous”. – Reuters

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Kaduna killings: Group alleges plot to blackmail Yakowa From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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he youth wing of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), says the series of killings in southern part of the state are designed to blackmail Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and pitch him against his people.

Reacting to last Wednesdays midnight attack at Madauchi village in Zangon-Kataf local government area of the state, during which six persons were killed including two pregnant women, the group in a statement at the weekend, urged southern Kaduna people to be wary of activities of certain elements who are bent on tarnishing the reputation of Yakowa as a seasoned administrator.

The statement signed by the group’s national president, Sabastine Bahori Luka, said: “the persistent killings in southern Kaduna are deliberately skewed to pitch the people of the area against the person of Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.

“They are also deliberately planned to cause confusion in southern Kaduna and blackmail the person of the governor.

“Our stand remains that the security agencies stationed in southern Kaduna must ensure absolute protection of our people without recourse to any negligence be it conspiracy or sinister motives to help in annihilating people of southern Kaduna state.

“We hereby demand full investigation of all the organised killings perpetrated in southern Kaduna and all those involved must be exposed and prosecuted to demonstrate the sincerity of the Federal Government in tackling terrorism and insurgency in the country.

“We want to state categorically that if these attacks and killings of our people are not checked, we may be left with no other options than to go all out to defend ourselves as our tolerance and silence should not be taken for weakness”.

PAGE 3

Curfew imposed as four feared dead in Taraba clash A

By Julius Ogar

dusk to dawn curfew was imposed in Ibi local government area of Taraba state following an outbreak of violence in the area which had just recovered from the floods

following the overflow of the Benue River in June.

Although the cause of violence was yet to be ascertained as at press time yesterday, sources alleged that a Christian vigilante group killed a Muslim resident who insisted on passing

through their checkpoint, triggering riots that have left at least four people dead.

Rioters burned down houses and shops in Ibi, the local government chairman – Isiaku Adamu, was reported to have said.

Witnesses said churches and mosques were also torched while residents were fleeing the town.

Commissioner of Information in the state, Emmanuel Bello said the authorities have sent troops to the area to quell the violence.

Mega party: Bakare set to dump CPC

By Lawrence Olaoye, Abuja & Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

…It’s a lie, party insists

trong indications emerged yesterday that Congress for Progress Change (CPC) vice presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential election, Pastor Tunde Bakare may have resolved to part ways with the party and its leader, General Muhammadu Buhari.

This according to our source followed the ongoing merger process with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and other opposition parties ahead of 2015 election which Bakare is said to

be staunchly against.

But in a swift reaction to the news yesterday, the CPC national publicity secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, in a text message stated: “There is no iota of truth in it. Please discard that lie”.

Our reporter however exclusively gathered that Bakare had before now made his stand known to Buhari that he cannot work with the Tinubu controlled ACN, insisting that the CPC should reorganise itself

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and go into the next election.

A close source to Bakare said since the issue of merger with ACN was not supported by Bakare, his relationship with the Buhari caucus led by Engr. Buba Galadima, Sule Hamma and the party leadership had gone sour.

“Very highly placed CPC members had been worried about refusal of Pastor Bakare to fall in line with the ongoing merger process which they believe is the only way of kicking PDP government out in the next

Chairman of Visafone Telecommunications, Jim Ovia discussing with the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote at the fund raising dinner for flood victims, held in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, last week

general election and they are showing him the way out”, the source said.

Our source also quoted Bakare as saying that he has never been a member of the CPC but was only invited as a running mate in the last election and would not bow to former Lagos state Governor, Bola Tinubu, for political powers.

It added: “He (Bakare) was begged to accept to contest the 2011 election with Buhari; he has never for once been a member. He’s the only running mate that stood behind Buhari after election, during tribunal and after tribunal, but the agreement is over. The coming together was for the purpose of election, which he played his part loyally to the party, Buhari and his conscience. Now he has decided to chart a new course in the country , he now faces his Save Nigeria Group”.

It was learnt that several efforts were made by former FCT Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, to persuade Bakare not to dump the party but proved abortive.

The source said one of such was a closed door meeting between elRufai and Bakare last week Sunday in Lagos.

Another independent source hinted that Bakare actually parted ways with the CPC and its leadership after he had counseled the Ondo state chapter of the CPC not to field any candidate in the state gubernatorial election last October.

Efforts to speak to Bakare proved abortive as his media contact said: “The issue is not ripe to be commented on”

Amosgate: How Adamu’s son received $1m

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amson Adamu, son of Amos Adamu, the suspended FIFA executive committee member has been alleged to have received a $1 million offer from 2022 World Cup hosts, Qatar.

According to The Sunday Times of London in its yesterday (November 18) edition with a front page headline “World Cup probe over mystery $1m offer”, Samson received the money “to fund a dinner and workshop on the eve of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa”.FIFA’S top investigator has been called in to examine evidence that the winners of the right to host the 2022 World Cup secretly offered $1m (£630,000) to the son of one

of the voters.

“Documents passed to FIFA by The Sunday Times show that the Qatar bid team offered the cash to Samson Adamu, 26, the son of Amos Adamu, the FIFA executive committee (exco) member”, The Sunday Times stated in its report.

It is reported that the Qatar bid deputy chief executive, Ali alThawadi brokered the deal months before the bidding contest to host the 2022 World Cup. The Qatar bid deputy chief executive was said to have denied knowledge of the $1 million offer to Adamu’s son but lawyers of the Qatar 2022 accepted there were discussions on the issue after they were shown evidence by The

Sunday Times.

The Qatar 2022 lawyers also claimed they “backed out of the deal after considering the relevant FIFA rules”.

FIFA has already passed the evidence of The Sunday Times to its chief ethics investigator, Michael Garcia, for scrutiny.

Samson, 26, was said to have used the $1 million to host “300 eminent guests” to a dinner to celebrate Africa’s football legends.

The British newspaper in its report revealed that the gala dinner actually gulped about $220,000, according to invoices it has as evidence.

“The agreement is between Kinetic Sports Association, a Swiss

company which Samson planned to set up, and a ‘private institution’ in Qatar which is bidding to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup . . . and wishes to acquire certain exclusive rights in connection with the events in order to promote its bid to host the competition,” reported The Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times reported that it has “complied with an official request by Fifa to hand over a cache of emails, invoices and documents relating to the legends’ dinner.”

World Cup bidding nations are not allowed to agree or enter into any form of financial dealings with families of the 24

Fifa exco voters.

The tabloid finally revealed that “Samson’s Nigerian company, Kinetic Sports Management, is registered at his father’s high-walled villa in a wealthy suburb of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital” with his brother, Philip, named as codirector.

His father, Amos Adamu, was sacked from his seat as Fifa executive committee and banned for three years from football.

Amos had been filmed by The Sunday Times in September 2010 offering to sell his 2018 World Cup vote for £800,000.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

By Lawrence Olaoye

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orld over, the constitution has been the ground norm for the regulation of modern societies and the dynamism of human relations especiallly in their terms of relationship has made constant alteration and adjustments of the guiding rules imperative.

Nigerian 1999 constitution fashioned after the American model has suffered series of criticisms arising from its compilation and composition since inception. Many have criticised the document bequeathed to the Fourth Republic by the transitory administration of General Abubakar Abdusalami as an exclusive document drafted by military apologists who had little regards for civilian administration. Though the document had been tinkered with in several attempts by the National Assembly since the inception of the Fourth Republic, there are indications that there are still many sections of the constitution that still needed to be amended to reflect the new realities in the country.

Nigeria, being a heterogenous society, no doubt have several areas of its constitution that would, from time to time, require revisitation in order to make it workable and binding on its constituents. However many have argued that the problem of the nation does not exclusively lie with the contents and composition of its constitution but with the operators of the document.

Nevertheless, so many constituents have traced most of the nation’s problem to the flaws inherent in the constitution deemed to have been handed down to the country by those who wield the state power of coercion.

It is the realization of this fact that makes the National Assembly to make it an annual ritual for the nation’s constitution to be reviewed and, posibly, amended.

The 2012 constitution amendment exercise currently being carried out independently by the Senate and the House of Representatives has vindicated those who believed that the 1999 constitution as mended needed more tinkering to reflect the thinking and aspirations of the people of the country. Though the House if Representatives, in its bid to make the exercise more inclusive and grassroot oriented adopted the independent constituency initiative by making each member to engage his/her constituents and bring their resolutions to the centre for reconciliation, the Senate opted for the traditional zonal engagements.

Both strategies however are rewarding as views and aspirations of most Nigerians as to how they could live together have begun to come to the fore.

Contentious issues that have been at the heart of most disagreements among most stakeholders, and the masses alike, in the country have begun to be thrown up for discussion.

The ability of the handlers of the exercise to arrive at amicable resolutions and acceptable

Contentious issues as NASS amends the constitution

Senate President David Mark amendment clauses would obviously go a long way in sustaining and stabilizing the polity.

Feelers coming from the engagements by the lawmakers both at their constituencies’ and zonal level have shown that certain issues in the current dispensation are not only contentious but controversial.

The 360 Federal Constituencies and the six geo-political zones of the country, of course, have different ideas on several issues and finding a common ground may be difficult if not well handled.

Although the abrogation of the onshore/offshore dichotomy has been seen as the fait accompli in most states of the southern parts of the country, especially in the Niger Delta, the North West zone has continued to demand for a revisit of the issue.

The campaign by the North West for the abrogation of the dichotomy was recently reechoed by the Kano state governor, Alhaji Rabiu Kwakwanso during the North West zone’s constitution review exercise by the Senate in Sokoto.

The Kano state governor, while presenting the position of the zone, argued that it was unfair for oil states in the Niger Delta to be receiving huge sums of money as derivation from proceeds of oil taken in the deep waters.

He said “This issue of onshoreoffshore dichotomy, all of us (North-West) believe that it is not fair, it is not correct and it is a

Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal pure injustice to all those that don’t have petroleum at the moment under their land,” he said at the event which was also attended by Senate President David Mark. “ I don’t agree or see as a person and as a governor why somebody will claim the ownership of a well that is 200 nautical miles away from his own land,” Kwankwaso said.

The North West position on the dichotomy is likely to spark a constitutional row with the Niger- Delta states that have come to be used to getting huge amount of 13 percent derivation fund from the federation account.

Already, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, and others from the Niger Delta region have kicked against the proposal put forward by Kwakwanso for the revisit of the dichotomy issue.

Another issue likely to sparkoff another round of arguments is the demand for more states. So far, over sixty requests have been made to the National Assembly by the six zones across the country for creation of more states. Though requests are coming from all over the country for state creation, the most stringent and convincing one is coming from the South East geopolitical zone which is demanding the creation of one more state for the zone to be at par with other regions in the country. Stakeholders from the South East argue that their zone remained the only one with five states; others have at least six and

the North West seven.

Apparently, looking at the procedures for the creation of state and the reality on ground, Deputy Senate President and the Chairman of the Senate Constitution Amendment Committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said the issue of creation of states would be difficult to handle. This is because the creation of a new state would require the concurrence of twothird of the present 36 state assemblies amongst others. It is unlikely that any state so created would enjoy such privilege.

Adopting the escapist option of creating a state per zone to bring the nations state structure to 42 with Abuja as the centre also would only amount to begging the answer, analysts have argued. Most of the states currently in the country are unviable and creating more would only exacerbate the nation’s troubles. Equally related to the issue of state creation is the need to re-examine the status of the Federal Capital Territory.

While some people are advocating that the FCT be elevated to a Mayorial status, others are of the opinion that doing such would only give the indigenes an identity that the nation may find difficult to control in years to come. Although, the Senate has ruled out the possibility of state creation, the House has yet to make any categorical statement on the matter.

Again, the demand for the creation of local governments and the adjustments to delineation of

constituencies across the country ostensibly to bring government closer to the people also cropped up in the constitution amendment exercise. The six geopolitical zones seem to agree with this proposal even as they want financial autonomy for the local government as the icing on the cake.

Among other contentious issues in the constitution review exercise is that of proving roles for traditional rulers in the country. While North East zone, through the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima, seems to support the idea of creating constitutional roles for the traditional rulers in the country, its counterpart in the South West kicked against the idea insisting that doing so would further compromise the integrity of the nation’s traditional institutions.

Speaking on the position of Lagos state, which, to a large extent represents that of the South West, Rep Babatunde Adejare and Solomon Adeola said the people from the South West maintained that the issue of traditional institution should not become a constitutional issue.

Adejare said “The people at the centre should not interfere with the culture of out people; this is a ploy by the centre to take control of our traditional institutions; traditional institution, indigene ship should be excuse from the constitution.

The Federal Government should understand the fact that it is not the master and we the servants.”

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 5

Multinationals continue plot to scuttle PIB O

By Richard Ihediwa

il multinational companies operating in the country are said to be heavily lobbying government officials, especially those in the top legislative and executive circles to abandon the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly.

Leading international companies are said to be worried about the bill which among other things, seeks to increase the nation’s oil revenue generated from Join Venture (JVs) and Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and reduce the undue profit they draw in the deals.

The companies are said to be engaging high powered lobby of lawmakers to abandon the bill or adjust the terms to suit their interests to the detriment of the nation.

It was gathered that the companies are using flawed premises to try to convince government officials that the bill, if passed will lead to massive pull-out of international investments in the oil and gas sector, which

they argue, would not be in the interest of the nation.

An industry source hinted however that the real reason the companies are kicking against the bill was because the proposed law seeks to spell out international best standards which will effectively check abuses and fraudulent deals in the industry.

The source said with the absence of such laws, the nation has been losing billions of dollars through certain sharp practices by some industry players.

“With the absence of an enabling law that sets out guidelines for operations in the oil and gas sector, the Nigerian government has continued to lose billions of dollars in tax due to unfavourable PSC (production-sharing contract) terms approved in 1993 which is no longer valid for current economic and business realities”, he said.

Giving an insight into what obtains currently to the disadvantage of the nation, the source said: “the PSC is designed such that the first five years where the huge capital is invested, the IOCs take a large

chunk of revenue estimate of 70 percent of the profit compared with 30 percent for the government.

“The current arrangement is bad because royalty is set currently at zero in the 1993 PSC. So, what the PSC designed for us is that the juicy part is where the IOCs enjoy. It is when the oil well is getting old that the government begins to receive higher profit of 60:40 ratio.

“The PSCs were signed when

price of crude oil was pegged at $20 per barrel. In this case, it implies, if the oil price goes above $20, government should take more from the wind fall.

But since the PSC started in 1993, oil price has always been above $20 per barrel, but government did not invoke the clause.

“The contract also said the contract will be due for review after 15 years – which expired in 2008. It was not done because the oil companies

threatened to relocate and government out of fear that time allowed it to linger.

He said the companies are not happy that the country has identified the loopholes and seeks to use the PIB to raise revenue per barrel from 86 to 87 percent for PSCs blocs and introduce flexible royalty arrangement that will enable the government to earn higher revenue as the prices of crude oil rises above $100 per barrel in JV fields.

Five arrested in Taraba for snatching N2.8 million From Yusha’u Alhassan, Jalingo

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ive suspects have been arrested by the Taraba state police command for snatching N2.8 million from their victim, Ubeh Felix Appex in Dan-nacha, Gassol local government area of the state.

The state Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), Amos Olaoye disclosed this to newsmen in a news conference.

According to the PPRO the suspects are Igwe Chukwuma, Ezinmi Okafor, Kinsley Nwosu and Ogochukwu Okafor.

The PPRO said the victim was in Jalingo where he cashed the money from First Bank, and that the suspects trailed him to

Mutum-Biyu where they offered to assist him in their gulf vehicle to Dan-anacha.

He further explained that it was during that process that the suspects observed that their victim was carrying money and they pushed him out of the car.

The PPRO said that the victim quickly contacted the patrol team on the road who mobilised and chased the suspect and arrested them at Garba Chede in a military check point.

He said the suspects were searched and the money recovered from them stressing that the command was still investigating the matter.

Kaduna gets N400 million to rehabilitate flood victims From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

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ice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the weekend, said the Federal Government has approved N400 million for the rehabilitation of victims of the flooding in Kaduna which affected a total of about 5, 600 persons while six persons were killed.

Sambo who spoke in Kaduna during a meeting with a cross section of the flood victims, also noted that President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the dredging of the Kaduna River as

part of efforts to check the menace of flooding in the area.

According to Sambo:..”The token grant of 400 million is only part of the support that we will continue to provide to the state.

“I am pleased to inform you that already, Mr. President has provided funds to support this year’s dry season farming.

“All the farmers in Kaduna state will be supported with improved seeds and other requirements so that during this dry farming season we will boost and replace what we have lost in the agricultural sector…”

R-L: Vice President Namadi Sambo with, Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina state during his official visit to Katsina state to inspects flood affected areas on Saturday.

NASU gives FG 14-day ultimatum

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he Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has issued a 14-day ultimatum to government to begin the implementation of an agreement signed with it or face industrial action.

This is contained in a communiqué issued and signed by the Deputy President, Wakili Tijani, chairman of the Trade Union Group (TGC) of NASU and Deputy General Secretary 1, Research and

Project (TGC), Emma Okonkwo, issued at the end of the union’s meeting in Abuja yesterday.

Although the communique lauded the intervention of Ministers of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Labour and Productivity, NASU berated government for not showing any urgency to implement the agreement.

“The council-in-session noted that the six weeks of grace given the Federal

Government to look positively into the grey areas of the agreement has lapsed without any meaningful resolution in sight”.

It, therefore, called on government to as a matter of urgency, expedite action in getting this matter resolved within the next 14 days, with effect from Nov. 19, 2012, or the union may be compelled to resume the suspended strike action in the sector.

Don, two others win cars in Unity Bank promo

By Abdulwahab Isa

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rof. Bulama Kabir, a customer of Unity Bank Plc, Bulama branch, Maiduguri, and two others have won new Hyundai cars at the grand finale of Unity Bank’s Aim and Win promo.

The Abuja grand finale which held at Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Centre over the weekend also produced two

car winners – Ita Obong Inyang, a Customer at Uyo branch in Akwa-Ibom state; and Usman Muhammad Baba of the bank’s Victoria Island, Lagos branch.

Besides the star prize winners, there were other three categories of winners spread across the five geopolitical zone of the country.

These, include the Unity Kids N1 million scholarship

category star prize. Winners in this category include, Peter Ozikufor of Afuse branch in Edo state (South zone), Farid Zakare Ibrahim (Lagos/West), Kadijat Dahiru emerged winner in North West; Uche Hossana Uzoma of Kubwa Abuja branch emerged winner in North Central while Ahmed Kabir Hamza emerged winner in North East and a host of other star prizes.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Kano govt confiscates illegal drugs worth N300m From Edwin Olofu, Kano

K

ano state government has confiscated illegal drugs worth about N300 million recently in its effort to check the menace of prohibited drugs and other substances abused by youths in the state.

Disclosing this while presenting

N50, 000 cheques to each of the 200 beneficiaries of Lafiya Jari Micro-credit scheme, during the graduation ceremony of the students at School of Hygiene, Kano, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said government has taken decisive measures to curtail the lingering problem eating deep into the fabric of the society.

He maintained that, the government's decision to shut down the Sabon Gari drugs market is in good faith taking into consideration the danger behind the uncontrolled hawking of drugs.

"We want to control the drug business in Kano that is why we decided to shutdown Sabon Gari

drugs market because its unhealthy to allow people to trade in medicines like any other common commodity", Kwankwaso said.

He pointed out that the state government is now working with many other international donors to improve the healthcare delivery system in the state.

L-R: Deputy Director, Surveillance and Enforcement, Consumer Protection Council, Engineer Shamm Kolo, Divisional Head, Products and Channels, Unity Bank Plc, Mr. Felix Ezeh, winners of Unity Bank Kids Scholarship Promo, Mr. Moses Egbo his wife, Rosemary Egbo, Regional Manager, Abuja Central of Unity Bank, Mr. Aminu Baffa and the Unity Bank Executive Director, Information Technology and operations, Alhaji Ahmed Yusuf, during Unity Bank’s Aim and Win Promo draws, on Saturday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-owo

By Richard Ihediwa

A

group known as the Coalition for United Nigeria (CUN), has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of trying to push President Goodluck Jonathan to unleash genocide on some parts of the north.

Chairman of the group, Alhaji Mustapha Dangana, at the weekend in Abuja, said the charge of slowness

by Obasanjo against Jonathan in dealing with the Boko Haram issue is tantamount to incitement to unleash genocide on some northern cities.

According to Dangana: "Obasanjo does not mean well for the North and

Boko Haram: Group berates Obasanjo over charges against Jonathan Nigeria by suggesting that President Jonathan should have replicated the Odi treatment in the North to nip the Boko Haram menace in the bud".

He however appealed to the President to ignore Obasanjo and continue with the present technique of identifying and taking out Boko Haram insurgents instead of employing extreme military actions against Maiduguri town and other places in the North as he (Obasanjo) did in Odi, Bayelsa STATE, when he was president.

…as NBC warns FG against dialogue From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

T

he Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) has described as admittance of failure should the Federal Government acquiesce to dialogue with the Boko Haram sect.

The presidentof the church, Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, who made this remark at the weekend during an interactive session with journalists in Ibadan, wondered how the idea of dialogue with the "bunch of criminals", killing people with impunity could be contemplated at all.

The clergy, who asked whether the Federal Government would dialogue with armed robbers, kidnappers and corrupt people as well as other criminals, said why should Boko Haram be singled out for dialogue?

Ayokunle maintained that the government should tell Nigerians why it is not able to arrest the members of Boko Haram and deal with them decisively in accordance with the constitution, describing as injustice, annoying and unthinkable the unnecessary compromise by the advocate of dialogue between the government and the sect.

Obasanjo had at a forum in Warri to mark 40 years of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor on the pulpit, relived how he resorted to extreme military action in Odi, when some soldiers were reportedly killed by some natives of the community.

On the Odi genocide, Obasanjo had said: "I attended to a problem that I saw; I sent soldiers; they were killed; 19 of them (were) decapitated. If I had allowed that to continue, I would not have the authority to send security

anywhere again. I attended to it…. If you say you do not want a strong leader, who can have all the characteristics of a leader, including the fear of God, then, you have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours".

Rejecting Obasanjo's position, the group said unleashing genocide on a community or an ethnic population as Obasanjo did in Odi was not a sign of strength but "a demonstration of inhumanity and irrationality".

Oyo to immortalise Lam Adesina From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

G

overnor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state, yesterday, said the government would immortalise the former governor of the state, Alhaji Lam Adesina who died last week.

The governor disclosed this while speaking at the fidau prayer held for the former governor and national leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) who died at a Lagos hospital on November 11, 2012, after a protracted sickness.

The Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, venue of the fidau prayer was thronged by friends, family members, political associates and

other eminent personalities including former governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos; the National Chairman of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande; Governors Babatunde Fashola, Rauf Aregbesola, Ibikunle Amosun, Kayode Fayemi and Adam Oshiomhole of Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Edo states respectively; former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mrs. Monsurat Sunmonu.

Governor Ajimobi, announced the establishment of what he called the Lam Adesina Scholarship Endowment Fund through which

Minister to probe mine mishap in Zamfara

By Mohammed Kandi

F

ollowing the recent incident of a collapsed mine at Dogon Daji village in Maru local government area of Zamfara state, which killed nine people, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Musa Mohammed Sada has inaugurated an eight-man team that will examine the incident.

Inaugurating the Board of Inquiry in Abuja, the minister informed that the panel was necessary to unravel the circumstances that led to the accident; adding that the effort is in line with the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007.

The board, chaired by Deputy Director, Mines Inspectorate Department, Engineer Dauda Awojobi, will work with other members including a representative each of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), the Nigerian Society of Mining Engineers (NSME), the Inspector General of Police, the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Zamfara state government and the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Department as well as the legal adviser of the ministry.

In a statement issued by the ministry's Deputy Director (Press), Marshall H. Gundu, Sada noted that,"the panel will undertake a visit to the accident site and assess the condition of the mine and nature of its operation."

Sada, who gave the panel powers to summon witnesses to give evidence on oath or produce any report that could aid their functions, however, asked it submit its reports within seven days.

CPC warns against sale of sub-standard goods in Kano

T

he chairman, Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) in Kano state, Alhaji Nuhu Bello, has warned supermarket owners against selling of sub-standard goods to consumers.

Bello gave the warning at a stakeholders meeting held in his office in Kano at the weekend.

According to him, the supermarket owners have key role to play in stopping the sale of smuggled, expired and sub-standard goods to the citizenry.

"We want to inform you that we are set to visit any supermarket at any given time to inspect your goods.

"We will not hesitate in taking action against anyone found selling sub-standard goods", he warned.

He also said that the committee had so far uncovered several items that were either pirated or smuggled into the state.

A member of the committee, Ghali Sule, told the meeting that the supermarkets should also monitor the kind of drugs, which they sold to consumers.

Sule pointed out that the committee members had discovered that many supermarkets in Kano were involved in drugs retailing, advising them not to sell prohibited or expired drugs to the public. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 7

Ministry distributes relief materials to flood victims

By Mohammed Kandi

A

s part of Federal G o v e r n m e n t ’ s intervention efforts to relieve victims of flood disasters, mostly women and children, in some parts of the country, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday commenced the release of 40, 000 metric tonnes of assorted foods to the affected areas.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who convened an emergency meeting of all state Commissioners of Agriculture in Abuja, informed that President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the release of assorted foods from the country’s National Strategic Food Reserve to ensure the proper feeding of flood victims.

He said the effort was the first step in the robust N9.7 billion Flood Food Recovery Production Plan of the ministry to support farmers affected by the flood.

Meanwhile, the assorted foods comprising maize, millet, garri and sorghum, would be simultaneously released from 10 of the country’s National Strategic Food Reserve silos in 1, 333 trailers for delivery to the victims of the flood in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, free of charge.

A breakdown of food allocated to the states indicates that Benue, Plateau,

Adamawa, Oyo, Kogi, Bayelsa, Delta and Anambra states fall in Category ‘A’, and will each receive 50 trailer-loads; Category ‘B’, which includes Lagos, Imo, Bauchi, Kano, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Taraba, Niger, Cross River and Edo states, will receive 40 trailer-loads.

Category ‘C’ which comprises Ebonyi, Rivers,

Kwara, Abia, Ogun, Ondo, Gombe and Katsina would be allocated 30 trailer-loads each.

States in Category ‘D’ would receive 25 trailer-loads each and they include Borno, Yobe, Enugu, Ekiti, Osun, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom and FCT. The release of the food consignments would be performed by the Minister of

Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina at Ogoja, Cross River State, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Bukar Tijani, would be at Jos, Plateau State and Gombe, Gombe State, while the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, would flag off the exercise in Ibadan, Oyo state.

L-R: Former Head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, Governor of kano state, Dr. Rabiu Musa kwankwaso, Former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwa and Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu, during the commission the Serbia General consulate office kano, at the weekend in Kano.

FG committed to health of Nigerians From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

T

he Minister for Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has disclosed that President Goodluck Jonathan was committed to all those things that would prolong the life of an average Nigerian.

The minister made this known at the official commissioning of Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Centre, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan at the weekend.

He explained that the audacity of President Jonathan to approve of the centre as well his making funds available for its construction was an indication of his commitment to longer life for the citizenry; otherwise, he said, the centre would have been a whiteelephant project.

While commending Anenih, the endower of the centre, the minister said lack of ‘positive selfishness’ was the problem of Nigerians placed in high places of authority, resulting in excessive accumulation of wealth that at the end of the day

becomes meaningless and unproductive.

He explained that by the time Nigerians understand the need to be ‘positively selfish’, they would start to pay attention to those things that in the future would be of benefit, not only to them, but to the generations coming behind them.

The minister used the centre being commissioned to drive home his point that the centre might be of immense value to the endower in his later years or those closely related to him

and urged that such gesture should be emulated by every Nigerian to make the future better secured for everybody.

In his remark, the endower, Anenih, who expressed delight at the honour bestowed on him by the foremost tertiary hospital in the country by naming the centre after him, said study had shown that the population of the elderly in the developing countries was rising.

“While it is good news that more and more people are likely to live longer and longer, we must be alarmed that the

facilities to cater for them are virtually non-existent. If the truth must be told, apart from a few exceptional cases, not much is being done in Nigeria by way of planning for or thinking of the welfare and health of old people.

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Temitope Alonge, disclosed that it was in line with the Federal Government’s policy of partnership with individuals and corporate organisations for sustainable health care delivery system that led to the initiative.

Jonathan congratulates new Chinese leader

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

P

resident Goodluck J o n a t h a n h a s congratulated Mr. Xi Jinping on his emergence as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, chairman of the country’s Central Military Commission and President-designate of China.

President Jonathan also

applauded Mr. Jinping, outgoing President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party of China for the orderly transfer of power to a new generation of leaders who have been entrusted with the huge responsibility of leading their great country into an even brighter future.

The President said he looks forward to working with Mr. Jinping and other new

members of China’s top governance organ, the Politburo Standing Committee to further strengthen the cordial relations between Nigeria and China.

According to his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, President Jonathan expects that under Mr. Jinping’s leadership, the already robust trade and economic ties between both countries will continue to grow for the benefit of their people.

Kano to construct second flyover, says Kwankwaso From Edwin Olofu, Kano

A

nother flyover is to be constructed by Kano state government in the Kano Central Business District, from Lagos Street-Murtala Mohammed Way-Wapa, the state governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso has disclosed.

He made this known during a meeting with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegates, popularly known as ‘Yan Biyar from the 44 local government areas of the state. He explained that the project is one of the biggest to be executed in the 2013 fiscal year.

Kwankwaso also told the gathering that the government will set up a new transport company to be tagged “Amana Luxury”, under which 500 new cars will be given to drivers as part of efforts to improve public transportation in the state.

He also announced plans to start a mobile clinic programme that will visit markets and other strategic places regularly as part of a grand design to improve the wellbeing of the citizenry, especially the poor, explaining that the government has already procured the first batch ambulances for the scheme.

Kwankwaso stated that the government will soon construct two public conveniences in two selected markets in all the 44 local government areas in addition to the construction of 27 new courts across the state.

Clergy wants Nigerians to make religion agent for national development

D

r. Mashhud Adenrele, the Amir, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Nigeria, has urged Nigerians to make religion a positive agent for the attainment of national development.

Adenrele gave the advice on Saturday at the Religious Founders Day entitled: “Social Security, National Peace and Sustainable Development, at the main Auditorium of the University of Lagos.

He said Christians and Muslims should enlighten the masses on the need for peaceful coexistence, noting that this would strengthen the acceptance of their collective prayers for the nation.

“We should fight against injustice, wickedness, violence, insecurity, persecution, whether hidden or open corruption, oppression and abuse of authority”, he said.

In his keynote address, Alhaji Bola Agboola, the Director of Lagos Operations, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), said religion is undisputable vehicle of national peace, security and sustainable development.

(NAN)

PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

73rd KANO STATE

O

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING

n Wednesday 14th November, 2012 (30th Dhul Hijjah, 1433 AH) the Kano State Executive Council held its Seventy third (73rd) sitting in continuation with its constitutional role of deliberating on important issues, policies and programmes aimed at impacting positively on the lives of its citizenry for the overall development of the state.

It could be recalled that during the Seventy Second (72nd) sittings the Council approved an expenditure of N1,772,046,011.81 for the execution of various capital projects across the State.

At this sitting, presided over by Gov. RABIU MUSA KWANKWASO, FNSE a number of memoranda were submitted by MDAs for deliberation to the Council, where an expenditure of N898,494,165.52 was approved for the execution of different projects as well as directives on certain policies and programmes were made as enumerated below: 1. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY TO STATE GOVERNMENT (A)Request for the release of funds to facilitate the second phase of ICT training for the Academic and non Academic staff of the State owned tertiary Institutions;The memorandum appreciated the support of the Kano State Government for ensuring prudent and efficient management of resources as well as improved accountability in the State Service through the introduction of various measures one of which is the usage of Computer Technology.

Council recalled the tremendous success recorded as a result of the first phase of the ICT training programme for the Academic and Non-Academic Staff of the State tertiary Institutions.

This memorandum requested for the release of the sum of N10,000,000.00 for the State Ministry of Science and Technology for the training of 100 Staff drawn from the State owned tertiary Institutions and to complete the installation of a dedicated portal for the Institutions.

It was in light of the foregoing that the Council approved the release of N10,000,000.00 and directed that the said amount should be charged from code 110412 of 2012 approved Budget.

(B) Request for the release of funds for the construction of new primary school at Koki Quarters, in Dala Local Government: This administration since inception has invested heavily in the educational sector leading to improved standards and effective utilization of both human and material resources. The administration inherited a sector in neglect with dilapidated and inadequate structures. More than N10billion Naira has been expended on the construction of classrooms, staff quarters and laboratories. New schools are being established due to increase number of school age youths who are finding it hard to join schools close to their communities. This explains the approval given in

This loan, which is revolving, is supposed to ease the transportation problems being faced by the staff of the Board. Council approved an initial sum of N100,000,000.00 as revolving loan to the SUBEB for such purpose.

2. MINISTRY OF WORKS, HOUSING AND TRANSPORT

ENGR. RABI`U MUSA KWANKWASO Executive Governor, Kano State

this sitting for the construction of a new primary school in Koki Quarters of Dala Local Government Area.

The sum of N84,238,275.79 was approved for the construction of the new primary school to cater for the school aged pupils in and around the area.

(C) Request for the establishment of (SERVICOM) office in Kano state: The content of this memorandum has intimated the Council of the need by the Kano State government to follow suit in the establishment of SERVICOM office in the State as directed by the Federal Government of Nigeria to promote the entrenchment of commitment to service.

The memorandum further highlighted some of the importance of the SERVICOM which is to among other things serve as an engine for service delivery.

Council considered and approved the establishment of the SERVICOM office in the State and to be named SERVICOMKAN. The Council also directed all MDAs to set up SERVICOMKAN units, which should be headed by an officer not below the rank of Deputy Director.

(D) Request for funds to facilitate for vehicle Revolving Loan Scheme for SUBEB:This administration acknowledged that the State is blessed with highly professional, loyal and committed Civil Servants that is why since inception efforts are being made to formulate policies that will support and provide welfare packages to all staff working for the State. Of recent, the sum of over N300 million was disbursed as loan to the staff of the State Service as vehicles loan. It is in this vein that the Council deliberated on the need to provide the same facility to the Staff of the State Universal Basic Education Board.

A. Presentation of Progress report on Kwankwasiyya, Bandirawo and Amana cities and the request for the provision of facilities and other Infrastructure for the speedy development of the cities: Kano State being the most populated city in the country requires expansion and the establishment of new settlement centers to contend with the daily increase in population.

This explains Government's decision to open up virgin land for the construction of three separate cities of Kwankwasiya, Bandirawo and Amana.

More than N15billion are being expended in the provision of facilities while hundreds of people were allocated land in these cities to make the idea a reality.

The progress report appreciated the effort of the Administration in settling compensation to all those whose properties were affected by the development. Council deliberated and appraised the recommendations of the Committee as follows; i. The allocation of commercial facilities to reputable indigenous businessmen and women. ii. The need to allocate the rest of the plots that are not yet allocated. iii. The need to provide public facilities like indoor sport, fire service sub-station, public convenience, refuse collection centre and cemetery (grave yard) with layout. iv. The need to provide vegetation and beautification at the sites. v. The need to consider effecting some changes where possible when constructing wall along Zaria Road which may likely affect some of the Commercial Plots. vi. Allocation of plots to middle class earners such as public and private workers, traders/ businessmen who are in need of shelter through housing loans to build their houses all with a view to facilitate the speedy developments of the Sites.

While noting the progress so far recorded on the sites, the Council approved all the recommendations made for the speedy development of the cities.

B. Request for the Construction of

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

PAGE 9

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012 perimeter block wall fence and 2 Gates at Kwankwasiyya city, along Zaria Road, Kano: The memorandum reminded the Council on the need for the construction of boundary wall fence and 2 befitting Gates at the ongoing Kwankwasiya city with a view to enhance the security of lives and properties in the area as well as to maintain the aesthetic and beauty of the city.

Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport as contained in the memorandum has evaluated the extent of works and accordingly prepared a Bill of Quantities in the total sum of N53,702,572.15.

Considering the importance of the project to the present administration and the entire Kano people, the Council graciously considered and approved the award of the contract at the cost of N53,702,572.15 and charge same from code 34030/140137 of the approved budget of the Ministry.

3. OFFICE OF THE HEAD OF CIVIL SERVICE, KANO STATE a. Presentation of commendation/ appreciation letter by the Kano State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC): The Kano state Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has in the content of this memorandum expressed appreciation to the State Government under the leadership of Engr. RABI'U MUSA KWANKWASO, FNSE over the success it recorded within the short time of its stewardship especially in the area of educational development.

The NLC further commended the State Government for sponsoring 501 Kano state indigenous youths to pursue various courses of studies at different universities across the world.

The Kano State Executive Council appreciated such a letter from the NLC, Kano State Chapter and promised to formulate and implement policies that will be of benefits to the citizenry. (b) Presentation of commendation/ appreciation letter from the Kano State Council of the Nigeria Union of Civil Service, Secretarial and Stenographic Workers: In appreciation to the approval and payment of Ram Bonus to all categories of civil servants in Kano state and that of October salaries before Sallah to enable the families of the civil servants to mark the festivities conveniently by Gov Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, Kano State Council of the Nigeria Union of Civil Service, Secretarial and Stenographic Workers expressed its appreciation to the Governor for the kind gesture.

The union while also commending the Governor for prompt payment of all entitlements and privileges due to workers in the state, it equally applauded the determination of the State Head of Civil Servants, Alhaji Umar Shehu Minjibir for taking bold steps in the entrenchment of industrial Peace and Harmony between the labour and the State government.

The State Executive Council while receiving the commendation noted and appreciated the keen interest of the union in monitoring government activities as it relates to the general development and welfare of civil servants in the state.

4. Ministry of Rural and Community Development Request for the construction of 33 KV new feeders for Tudun Wada complex from the new Kwanar Dangora 132 KV transmission station: Considering the relevance of electricity supply in development, this administration recognized

the need to provide electricity in the rural and urban centres. Government since inception has expended more than N1billion in the supply, repairs and rehabilitation of electrical installation throughout the State. In keeping with this, Council found it desirable to approve the request for the supply and installation of 33KVA new feeder for Tudun Wada people so as to address the lingering power outage bedevilling the area.

6 MINISTRY OF WORKS, HOUSING AND TRANSPORT (A) Construction of road network at Northwest University Campus:Council acknowledged this administration' s giant initiative of establishing a second University named Northwest University with a view to boosting education in the State. This University is as a result of the increasing number of the students graduating from Secondary schools but failing to secure admission into the Universities. The State and the neighbouring States are presently facing high number of such students.

The memorandum submitted expressed the importance of providing infrastructure at the proposed Northwest University, one of which is road networks that if provided will facilitate easy movement within the campus.

Therefore, the content has proposed for the construction of roads network of 1.9km in length comprising of ceremonial and secondary roads.

Based on the scope of work, the Ministry prepared Bid Documents for the execution of the Project.

The memorandum informed the Council that at the end of the Bid processes, the Special Ministerial Tenders Considered and Recommended Messrs ZAF Construction Company Limited for the award of the Contract at the total contract sum of N474,705,356.58. The Council having been satisfied with the foregoing approved the award of the Contract to Messrs ZAF Construction Limited.

7. Ministry of Higher Education A. Request for funds for the Study materials in respect of 106 Students admitted at various Universities in Turkey:Council recalled the sponsorship of 501 students for post- graduate courses at various universities overseas. This memorandum drew the attention of the Council that the study materials in respect of 106 Students admitted in various Universities in Turkey for post graduate studies was not included in the payment made so far.

It explained further that such non-inclusion of the study material was revealed in a discussion with one of the consultants of the programme, who disclosed that the sum of $620 is required to cover for each student's cost of study materials amounting to $65,720 The Council has approved the release of $65,720 to facilitate for the purchase of the materials for the 106 Kano State students studying their postgraduates courses in Turkey.

B. Accreditation of 13 Academic programs for the Kano University of Science and Technology Wudil;This memorandum notified the Council of the Letter received by the University from the National University Commission (NUC) detailing the commencement of accreditation for Academic programmes in all Nigerian Universities including KUT which was earlier scheduled to take place in October but rescheduled to November, 2012.

It also intimated the Council on the need for the university to participate in the accreditation exercise so as to secure the full approval of the NUC for 13 courses.

In line with that, the memorandum requested the sum of N147, 212,942.00 for the procurement and development of teaching and Research Infrastructure for the five faculties of the university in preparation for the accreditation.

While considering the request, Council approved and directed the State Ministry of Finance to release the sum of N147, 212,942.00 to the Kano State University of Science and Technology Wudil to improve their facilities for the accreditation exercise.

UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES OF THE 73RD EXCO SITTING 1. GOVERNOR'S OFFICIAL VISIT TO DUBAI FROM 8TH - 13TH NOVEMBER, 2012 Council noted the official visit by His Excellency, the Governor to Dubai. During the course of the visit His Excellency met with EMAAR Group, Creek Amusement Park, Dubai Cares, Al Maktoum Foundation, Emirates Aviation College (EAC), Gulf Medical University, Skyline University College (SUC) who have shown great interest and have promised to send their representatives very soon to Kano for possible investment opportunities.

2. CONDUCT OF 1999 CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW MEETINGS Council noted the recent meetings/ deliberations on 1999 constitutional review amendment and observed as follows: i. That the exercise is meant to favour some interest groups in the country. ii. That the exercise did not follow the due diligence process. iii. That the exercise is only meant to make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.

In line with the above, the Council is of the opinion that the 1999 constitution should not be tempered with.

3. KANO POWER DISTRIBUTION COMPANY (DISCO) Council noted with dismay the recent privatization of the Kano Power Distribution Company which did not follow the stipulated guidelines for such an important exercise. Council observed that the bidding process was unilateral which excluded the State Government from participating in the process. It was also noted that, the preferred bidder does not have the capacity to handle big state as Kano. The State Government has already written its position on the issue to the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) for noting.

4. PRESENTATION OF AWARD(S) TO HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR Council noted with delight the presentation of awards to His Excellency, the Governor by the following organizations: 1. Most Gender Friendly Governor Award' by the Institute of Gender Studies in Nigeria (IGSN).

2. Award of Excellence' by Abuja International Film and Festival.

3. Award by Kwankwasiyya Media Forum.

Signed: Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youth, Sports & Culture

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER, 19, 2012

No Mount Sinai for 2012 Christian pilgrims - Board

T

Sen. Adamu made the disclosure in Keffi at the weekend, during the opening ceremony of a free cleft and facial deformity surgery programme, organised by the Cleft Care Foundation (CCF), a conglomerate of FCT based volunteer professionals capable of carrying out surgeries on children and adults.

Cleft is a congenital deformity

of the craniofacial region.

The former governor added that the cleft centre would be built in collaboration with the FMC and the CCF, following which he requested the Chief Medical Director of the FMC, Dr. Joshua Gyang, to provide a space within the premises of the FMC for the siting of the cleft centre.

The former governor, in a chat with newsmen lamented that

illiteracy, traditional practice and beliefs have combined "to compound problems that are manageable or otherwise easy to handle", with cleft victims ashamed of coming out in the public to state their case. He urged stakeholders to launch appropriate medical advocacy for the people to know that facial deformities are curable.

inverters and lighting solutions came in from Tim Electric Limited Lagos to the Kogi State Government.

Receiving the lighting system, Deputy Governor Arc. Yomi Awoniyi, described the donation as timely as the light would be needed to illuminate the resettlement camp at the Federal Housing Estates acquired

from the Federal Government.

The State government, Awoniyi said, would relocate the remaining victims out of schools to enable pupils resume academic session.

The Deputy Governor, who doubles as the Chairman, Flood Management Committee, said the post flood management aspect of the flood disaster, requires the

support of all well- meaning citizens.

Earlier in his speech, Lanre Aboderin, Chief Executive Officer, Tim Electric Limited Lagos who described the magnitude of the flood disaster as massive, commended the manner with which the disaster was handled by the State government.

he Kaduna State Christian Pilgrims Board says that prospective pilgrims will not be allowed to climb Mount Sinai during this year's pilgrimage.

Rev. Joseph Yari, the agency's Executive Secretary, said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Sunday.

He said that the climbing of Mount Sinai would not be part of the activities lined up for this year's pilgrimage due to security challenges in some parts of Israel.

However, Yari said that the Kaduna State Government had given approval to 800 intending pilgrims from the state's 23 local government areas to embark on the pilgrimage.

He said that the registration of intending pilgrims had stated, while the screening of the pilgrims would commence on Tuesday, Nov. 20, and end on Thursday, Nov. 22.

Stressing that the screening period would not be extended, Yari said: ``Intending pilgrims should come to the board with their completed forms, two copies of epassport and a medical certificate from a government hospital. ``Each of the intending pilgrims should also bring a photocopy of Age Declaration Form, Indigene Certificate and six passport photographs, while married women should attach a letter of consent from their husbands to their documents.''

However, Yari said that persons who wanted to travel to Rome or Greece for their pilgrimage should come along with four passport photographs with white background for their visa processing.

He said that the age limit for prospective pilgrims to Rome and Greece was 50 years and above, while that for those going to Israel was 30 years and above. ``Once the intending pilgrims are booked for travelling; there won't be any change of dates for any reason whatsoever."

Yari also warned that this year, there would not be any refund of payment for prospective pilgrims who were scheduled to travel but refused to travel. (NAN)

polio virus cases. Kaduna ranks third after Katsina and Kano states which have 28 and 21 cases respectively.

Speaking at a two-day meeting with officials of the state's Action Committee on Immunization and a nongovernmental organization, Journalists Against Polio (JAP), Secretary of the committee, Lawal Abubakar, lamented that in spite of efforts at enlightening parents on the need to immunize their children, a cross section of the people still resist.

Though another round of the

immunization campaign continues today nationwide, according to Abubakar, about 16 communities in Birnin-Gwari local government area of state have been labeled "unreachable" for a number of reasons including the fear of being attacked by armed robbers who have since cast their den in the area.

He noted that some other areas refused to allow vaccinators access to their children amidst complain of lack of government presence demonstrated by the lack of portable water, access roads and

health facilities among others, while some parents also claim that the repeated rounds of immunization may be detrimental to the health of their children.

But as Abubakar put it, "endemic countries require repeated doses of polio vaccine to boost immunity," noting that an earlier rumour that the West introduced the vaccines to reduce the population of Muslims may not be unconnected with the apparent antagonism against the polio campaign from sections of the community.

Abubakar said,

"communities not reached by vaccinators because of insecurity due to fear of attack by armed robbers include wards like Kuyello, Magajin-Gari, Dogon-Dawa and Gayam with 16 settlements under them.

If one child is infected with the virus, it can be transmitted to over 200 children."

"There is need for immunization against polio as long as children are being born.

Vaccination will continue even if it is one child because it is costlier to keep a child with polio infection than to prevent it and parents who are kicking against

L-R: Director Finance and Accounts, National Primary Health Development Agency (NPHCDA), Mr. Daniel Ashogbon, Director Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Muhammad Abdullahi and Director, Admin and Human Resources of the Agency, Hajiya Lami Abubakar, during the 2012 Training of the Trainers Workshop on Medical Officers at MSS Cluster organised by NPHCDA, at the weekend in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Sen Adamu to build cleft, facial surgery centre in Keffi From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

F

ormer governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (PDP, Nasarawa West), has announced plans to build a cleft and facial surgery centre at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Keffi and to shoulder the surgery cost of about 60 patients.

More relief materials for Kogi flood victims

From Sam Egwu, Lokoja

D

espite receding water from the submerged homes and farmlands becoming visible again in Kogi State, displaced persons have continued to receive relief materials.

The recent donation of solar panel lighting system,

Polio immunization still resisted in Kaduna From Agaju Madugba, Kaduna

T

hough there are 14 cases of the wild polio virus in Kaduna state, indications have emerged that the area still has a high rate of non-cooperation with immunization campaign which tends to mar efforts at eradicating the crippling disease.

The disease has since been eradicated in virtually all countries except Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chad and Nigeria which alone has a total of 100 cases out of the 179 global wild

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 11

Make instant cash from sliced bread supply business in Nigeria B

read has been the major staple food from time immemorial, that's why everyone loves bread. Back in the ancient time, the word "Bread" denotes food in general and is still regarded so even down to this day. Most families eat bread more than once every day and it can be eaten in various forms with different spices.

The importance of bread as food has never been in question - There is hardly and tribe, religious group or race that doesn't eat bread. Therefore, dealing in bread as a business means you're dealing in product that is in high demand, and whatever return you're making from it, is going to be a stable return since you will be constantly supplying and getting your profit returns.

Sliced Bread is the ideal type of bread for supply because of its wider appeal and higher quality, not everyone eats Agege Bread though some people like that, but sliced bread is more likeable and is considered of higher quality (at least that's the general perception) some may disagree to that.

One beautiful thing about slice bread supply is that you make quick return; once you've done your marketing to get your regular retailers, all you will be doing is to supply them at interval and get your money cash at the point of supplying.

So, it's a business you can borrow money to do and be able to pay back almost the same day.

Another great thing about sliced bread supply which you will love to hear is that, it's a business that offers very decent return on investment and the repeat sell is almost endless once you hit a customer. If you are able to supply 500 loafs of slice bread with profit margin of about N40 per loaf, you'll make 500x40 = N20,000 every time you supply, and you can supply twice in a week depending on the demand and your brand. I'm experienced in this business and I can tell you this is the fact.

The requirements to run Sliced Bread supply

Quote "You make the most amount of money in times of great pessimism."

– Sir John Marks Templeton: Investor, businessman, philanthropist

distribution.

Having known the requirement, next is how to put everything together and get your business started

The requirements are simple and anyone can meet up with it including you! It's one of the cheapest businesses anyone can start and you don't need any further training more that what I'm going to explain here.

But, you need some hard work and I think that's the hallmark of every business, hard work is a virtue and you need it in your bread supply business if you hope to make lots of sales.

You need good customer base, I mean retailers to whom you'll be supplying to - the more retailers you have, the more breads you will be supplying and the more money you will be making.

You need means of transporting your bread; your customers/retailers are spread all over the place and in most

cases they don't come to you, you go to them to make supply and collect your money. You need at least a motor-bike for that purpose.

You will need a very good product that people love, you don't have to be supplying all the bread brands, one type is just enough but you need to get one that will be highly acceptable by consumers. Getting good bread may as well be the difference between success and failure in this business.

You will need offloading point where you will be offloading your sliced bread whenever you have a supply.

From there, you can distribute it to the retailers; if there is remaining breads or some you've not supplied, they will be stored there for future

Getting Started With Your Bread Supply • Look for a Brand: You need to know the bread you intend to supply so that you'll be able to explain better to your intended retailers. First, scan the area you want to be supplying and see what types of sliced bread that on sale.

That will help you to avoid encroaching on another supplier's territory, a supplier who is already supplying a particular bread brand in an area may prevent you from supplying the same brand he or she supply.

Then, go out and look for a unique good sliced bread brand that is not found in your area, visit bus stops in other area to see the types of sliced bread they are selling, pick the one you like and look at the label to get the contact address and phone number, you may ask the bread sellers for more details about the brand (how fast it sells and life span) they'll be willing to give you the information.

• Proceed to the Bakery: Personally go to the bakery to negotiate the franchise, the bakery manager will be more than happy to welcome you because, you are bringing new business to them and helping them opens a new frontier.

When I was in the business, we used to get the sliced bread for N80, sell to the retailers at N100 while they in turn sell N120.The manager or whoever is in charge of the bakery will be able to explain what is obtainable now.

Apart from the price, you

should negotiate logistics as well, like bringing the bread down to your designated offload point which is the norm but they will try to withhold it from you if you don't know.

Note: some well known brands (UTC, V-lue, Butterfield, etc) may not agree to transport it down for you except you are buying in super quantity.

• Get the Retailers: Having armed yourself with the exact product you want to supply, the next thing is to find the retailers.

Talk to provision shop owners and bus stop bread women, these two set of people are your biggest prospect as far as sliced bread is concerned.

Each person you talked to that accepted to get your supply, find out how many loafs of sliced bread he will be getting. At the end of the marketing, calculate the estimated number of loafs these people demanded for and base your buy on this.

• Get your supply equipments: Buy a Motor-bike if you can afford it (a Bajaj motorcycle goes for between N80, 000 - N100, 000) that will make your supply so easy and help you reduce over-head costs.

But if you can't afford that, just pay Okada man to take you round.

Find your offload point, it can be your home or a shop - go for shop if you can afford it (N100, 000 depending on the area) but if you can't afford that too, use your home until you raise enough money.

Once you have these things in place, call the Bakery and ask them to bring the bread down you're ready for business. If you can supply 1000 loafs in a week, you will be making N40, 000 weekly.

How to design professional blog website and earn N200, 000 regularly doing it for others

B

logs have become one of the most important types of website in the whole world due the educative contents it offers.

This days, the best place to learn is on the Blogs because, there you'd find varieties of contents and viewpoints. This very website you're reading is also a Blog and no doubt, you must have learnt one beneficial thing or the other since these while.

There are blogs for virtually any topic under the sun -Health, Nutrition, Weight lose, Business, Make money, Animal cares, Trainings, Entertainments, Sports, Technology, etc. Blog has made

knowledge sharing so easy that, what in that day could be considered secret is now easily accessible through Blogs on the Internet.

Apart from the knowledge sharing, Bloggers also earns good money -- There are power

Bloggers who earn above $200,000 (N30, 000,000) monthly while some amateur Bloggers earn From $200 (N30, 000) monthly.

Nigerians are not left out in these -- Blogging is becoming a phenomenon in Nigeria as it is

allover the world. Right now, we have more than 2,000 Nigerian Bloggers and more are still on their way.

Unfortunately, very few of these Bloggers have something presentable enough to be called a Blog, while so many others just blog for blogging sake -- not because they don't want good Blogs but because they don't know how to design professional looking blog.

There are equally thousands of businesses and companies who would like to have their own company Blogs -- and they are willing to pay anything to have a place on the Internet if they see who will help them with the blog design.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 12

EDIT ORIAL EDITORIAL

Men of God with wings

N

ot a few Nigerians have spoken harshly against the acquisition of a $40 million private jet by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor. Many of them did so with good reason: the glaring disconnect between the leader of the Church whose new jet symbolises affluence and power while the mass of his congregation nationwide wallows in poverty, constantly struggling to make ends meet.

Oritsejafor has now joined the league of a select influential Nigerians among them business moguls and politicians and a more exclusive list of church leaders who also own private aircraft.

The leader of the Winners Chapel, Pastor David Oyedepo and that of the Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, have since acquired their own which they say assist in the dispensation of the Lord’s word considering the vast network of churches they have built across the world.

In fairness to the CAN president, he did not acquire the airplane but it is a gift from his church members to mark his 40th anniversary in the church; however, many critics including some clergy have not let up on their criticism.

The archbishop of Sokoto, Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah who delivered a paper in Lagos over the weekend on ‘Church and the state in the pursuit of

the common good’, said: “The stories of corrupt men and women being given recognition by their churches or mosques as gallant sons and daughters and the embarrassing stories of pastors displaying conspicuous wealth as we hear from the purchases of private jets and so on clearly diminish our moral voice.”

Without a doubt, the responsibilities that fall on the shoulders of Oritsejafor as the leader of the Church in Nigeria

only serves to promote the belief among many that leaders of the Church in Nigeria have strayed from the narrow path and have now been swayed by worldly things. For the CAN president to be seen as such drives home the point forcefully.

At times like these when the global economy, especially our own, is in dire straits and ordinary Nigerians are faced with enormous challenges of living, it would have been good if Oritsejafor had not encouraged the gift in the first place in solidarity with the suffering of many Nigerians who are still trying to The embarrassing stories overcome the devastating effects of the of pastors displaying recent floods across the country and the many others who are victims of the conspicuous wealth as we senseless violence perpetrated by Boko hear from the purchases of Haram. The gift also debases our value private jets and so on clearly of sacrifice which the Church ought to spearhead. diminish our moral voice Oritsejafor’s acceptance of the are enormous and such that would airplane also brings to focus the extravagant lifestyles of our leaders require regular travels to meet the whose goal seems to be acquisition and challenges faced by the Church particularly with the spate of insecurity display of wealth. They seem to have that has seen churches become targets of cornered for themselves the enormous attacks by misguided elements and the resources of our land with which they daily assault our sensibilities. Such task of not only unifying the diverse misplacement of priorities has been, in Christian groups, but also promoting our opinion, the cause of our tolerance between Christians and underdevelopment. Unless there is a Muslims in the country makes it change of attitude first from our leaders necessary for the CAN president to be - both political and religious - we may able to move about with relative ease.

However, as some observers have not be able to change our nation for good. pointed out, his acceptance of the gift

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

“

OUR PEOPLE

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CHAIRMAN MALAM WADA MAIDA, OON, FNGE DIRECTOR/ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RUFA’I IBRAHIM EDITOR, DAILY ABDULAZEEZ ABDULLAHI

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“To be a reputable, profitable, innovative and technologically reliant media company offering world class services and products”

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

By Hassan Gimba Ahmed

A

re we not planting another unsavoury seed that may consume all while still harvesting the germinated unsavoury seeds planted long ago?

In any case, what do you make of a Government official who would brazenly display favoritism to graduates offered appointment by a Government trying to control spiralling security challenges?

Where graduates would be offered appointment and among them some who may not necessarily be as good but have relations in Government would be picked to start work while others are left lying fallow with the “appointment letters” in their hands?

Because people believe they cannot get justice even from the “last hope of the common man”, frustration has set in and those without hope are venting their pent up anger and frustration at a system

By Rotimi Fashakin

T

he news media, print and electronic, were awash with the news of the acquisition of a private jet by Pastor Ayodele Joseph Oritsejafor, the current President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the founding pastor of Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta state. The news had it that the special occasion, which had President Goodluck Jonathan in attendance, was a double-header- birthday and 40th anniversary on the pulpit. We were also told that it was a hugely exhilarated Pastor Oritsejafor that informed his congregants, for which they danced and sang for several minutes, that their money had given him a private jet, a 10seater bombardier/challenger 601 plane. Unconfirmed reports put the cost of the aviation bird (excluding fuelling, hangar charges and pilots’ fees) as ranging between N2Billion and N8Billion, depending on the age, model and fittings. The report further had it that this effectively put the flamboyant Pastor as a member of the crème de la crème of super rich folks in the nation’s polity. However, what was not clearly stated was whether, as the case with many Nigerian pastors, there is any difference between the church funds and Oritsejafor’s personal money.

I met Pastor Oritsejafor for the first time in 1981 as a student of University of Ife. A Christian musical group had invited him to preach at its campus-wide outreach program. First, he asked if we knew how to get excited. He went on to jump up a few times before settling down to preach. He told us about his experience with the ganjasmoking gangs in Lagos Island before his conversion. That day, Pastor Oritsejafor made such great impression on our young minds that we clapped excitedly. Later, in the late eighties, I read about the relationship turned sour with his erstwhile Mentor and Spiritual father, late Arch-Bishop Benson Idahosa.

This unmanaged disagreement ultimately led to his exit from Pastoral work at the Warri branch of Idahosa’s Church of God Mission.

Indeed, Pastor Oritsejafor’s jet is just another statistic in the fad among Gospel preachers in the

PAGE 13

Before I die (II) they believe has short changed and is continuing short changing them without let, sympathy or remorse.

They had to vent their anger and frustration in such a violent, albeit ineffective, manner because legitimately (assuming they were aware of it and have the means) they can never succeed.

Even though this nation does not believe in taking care of its citizens’ welfare like other more advanced, just and humane nations, I believe a lot of these disgruntled youths turned hoodlums, at a point, may not have needed as much as N10,000 or a little more to start a new business, become responsible men, take care of a family and cater for hapless dependants. Now it may be too late even if you gave them ten times that

amount as the “falcon is so far gone in its flight of fantasy and so may not hear the falconer”! Therefore, before I die, yes, back to my topic!

Before I die, insha Allah, I want to see how I can contribute in making sure that justice reigns supreme and the downtrodden and voiceless have a voice.

Before I die, I will ensure that my voice is heard where corruption is rooted and wallowing in comfort and I will lend my voice to ensure that those elected or appointed to serve do so at a minimal cost. After all, the caveat should be to serve and not to curve from the treasury! I see no reason why such category of people corner 80% of the commonwealth while leaving 20% to the remaining population.

Before I die, I will fight to see that public servants and top Government officials and their families attend the same schools and hospitals here as ours. Why should you be in charge of public schools or hospitals while you patronise those outside? Why should you care if they functioned? If I die, I will want my family to remember a husband, a father, a son, a brother and a grandfather, who loved and cared for them, with nostalgia and my friends, associates and leaders to feel the loss of an honest and loyal fellow; my subordinates a friend and a mentor. I intend to leave them all an enduring and lasting legacy, insha Allah.

I will want the masses to feel they have lost a friend, a pillar of

support who can be counted on to stand by and for them and the oppressor to realize one who meant well, who did not take it personal, is gone and for the nation to yearn for more of me who want to help build a nation where no man is oppressed.

My relationship with my creator? That is a secret between us and may He be with and for me all the way. Potiskum, Yobe and indeed Nigeria will not stop in its track when I die but I hope they can turn and look back while marching on to greatness and say “there goes Hassan Gimba, a man who meant well, may Paradise be his abode”.

To achieve that degree, I have to do what I mentioned above and more for Allah’s sake and since the Creator can call me at anytime, all these, seemingly daunting tasks, have to be done before I die.

Concluded Hassan Gimba can be contacted at agimbah@gmail.com.

Pastor Oritsejafor’s new jet and its potent materialistic lusts that bear no biblical basis. These avaricious desires have often been explained away as necessary to facilitate the movement of the founding pastors for the work of evangelization. Time and again, this argument has often been defeated by the fact: the Queen of England and the British Prime Minister, the heads of government of Britain – where most of the missionaries that brought the gospel to Africa came from – do not even have official private jets! It is part of the behaviour of man to rationalize obscenity. It does not occur to these pastors that, with a burgeoning army of unemployed youths and deliberate government policyto pauperize the citizenry, the only place of succour for the people should be the church! There is hardly any church with sustained and sustainable welfare program to cater for the peasants that form the preponderant population as congregants. It is incredibly callous to imagine the level of inequality that is cultivated and sustained in most Nigerian churches. In his speech at Stanford University in 2005, the late co-founder of Apple Computer said: “I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it” That aptly explains the indelible impression that a devoted, selfless and well-entrenched welfare programme of religious bodies can have on peasants. When the Nigerian pastor adorns himself with the most expensive garment from famous designers, he deludes himself with the same worn-out rhetoric: only the best is good for my God! The unfortunate thing is that this mindset is at variance with the biblical principles. From the Old Testament scriptures, the LORD had firmly established the principle of the-strong-helping-weak as a basis for continued national blessing. Of course, it is diametrically opposed to the world’s economic system –predicated on the ‘strong devouring the weak’. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15, the LORD, having established that the poor would always exist at any instantaneous time, went to establish their sustenance by the rich, as a basis for continued

blessings. The LORD reasoned that, by this mindset in HIS people, poverty would, inexorably, be banished in the Land. Also, this was the principle that the early believers showed in ‘Acts of the Apostles’ that distinguished them and caused such mighty miracles that was the magnetizing basis for numerical growth!

James ‘Jim’ Bakker is an American Tele-evangelist, former host with his then wife (Tammy Faye Bakker), now late, of the PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program. By the early 1980s, the Bakkers had built Heritage USA in Fort Mill, South Carolina, (south of Charlotte), then the third most successful theme park in the US, and a satellite system to distribute their network 24 hours a day across the country.

Contributions requested from viewers were estimated to exceed $1 million a week, with proceeds to go to expanding the theme park and mission of PTL. In their success, the Bakkers took conspicuous consumption to an unusual level for a non-profit organization. PTL’s fund raising activities between 1984 and 1987 underwent scrutiny by The Charlotte Observer newspaper, eventually leading to criminal charges against Jim Bakker. From 1984 to 1987, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 “lifetime memberships”, which entitled buyers to a threenight stay annually at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA. According to the prosecution at Bakker’s later fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships had been sold, but only one 500-room hotel was ever completed. Bakker “sold” more “exclusive partnerships” than could be accommodated, while raising more than twice the money

needed to build the actual hotel. A good deal of the money went into Heritage USA’s operating expenses, and Bakker kept $3.4 million in bonuses for himself. Following a 16month Federal grand jury probe, Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a fiveweek trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in Federal prison and a $500,000 fine. According to Frances FitzGerald in an April 1987 New Yorker article, “They epitomized the excesses of the 1980s; the greed, the love of glitz, and the shamelessness; which in their case was so pure as to almost amount to a kind of innocence.” Detractors often said the PTL, acronym for Praise The Lord, as meaning: Pass The Loot.

I have often believed that if the same kind of scrutiny that Bakker passed through is allowed in Nigeria, many of the pastors on the pulpit now in our Churches would be in Jail or on their way to jail!

Churches are exempted from paying taxes because they are categorized as non-profit organizations. However, if a supposed non-profit organization procures an asset worth hundreds of millions of naira for the luxurious indulgence of an individual, the State should, by fiscal policy, be made to eke some revenue from such transactions.

The ‘non-profit’ status conferred on any organization should subsist so long they exist to ensure that the preponderance of the people find meaning to life; if the purpose of a supposed non-profit organization changes to promoting ostentation, the status should

“

In all his sound and fury, Pastor Oritsejafor did not provide any evidence to link Gen. Buhari to the wave of unfortunate spontaneous revolt against vote theft in parts of the country beyond playing the role of a “false accuser of the brethren...

equally be reviewed. A closer look at this Oritsejafor’s plane connotes other things. The conspicuous presence of Mr President on the day has its portent.

Ordinarily, it can be said that, owing to the fierce closeness of the twosome, there is nothing strange in the President’s presence. Before the April 2011 Presidential election, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor had used his privileged position as CAN President to promote candidate Goodluck Jonathan as ‘the anointed of the LORD’ among Nigerian Christians.

Following the post-election violence, like a bolt out of the blues, Pastor Oritsejafor held a press conference on April 25, 2011 and called for the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB). It did not matter to the obscenely flamboyant pastor that his incoherent and unverifiable allusions are unsupportable in any organized human establishment. Sensing that this may be a prelude to his formal arrest by the Jonathan regime, GMB (through his spokesman, Yinka Odumakin) said: “Our attention has been drawn to a totally misguided call for the arrest of Buhari by Pastor Oritsejafor in a reckless abuse of the office of the President of CAN for purely political consultancy for Aso Rock. “It is unfortunate that he has chosen the Easter day, when most Christian leaders were espousing the message of love which the risen Christ symbolizes, to make a satanic call capable of only pouring gasoline into a burning flame which casts him in the mould of a PDP goon rather than a responsible faith leader whose words at the moment should be of healing and reconciliation.

“In all his sound and fury, Pastor Oritsejafor did not provide any evidence to link Gen. Buhari to the wave of unfortunate spontaneous revolt against vote theft in parts of the country beyond playing the role of a “false accuser of the brethren...”

The rumour mill had it that the President’s presence was actually to deliver into Oritsejafor’s hands, the generous gift from him. Indeed, the antecedents of Jonathan reveal his rich generosity to mthose who have helped his ascendancy to the throne. Dr. Reuben Abati, after his Contd on page 14

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

First lady’s health: Can we have something else?

By Cletus Soga

T

he world woke up to yet another distraction from Sahara Reporters, which has since carved its own image as a comprehensive smear machine.

Again, it’s about the first lady of Nigeria and her state of health.

It should be established upfront here that the nation has since moved on from the last mass distraction of the nation and her good people over whether the First Lady was ill or not. Of course, SaharaReporters has continued to jubilate over its “leadership” of that last campaign. Whatever may be the case, and this was obviously a mixture of truths, half-truths and outright irresponsible lies, plus a presidential handling that many people took exception to, Dame Jonathan has since returned.

Expectedly, everyone, especially the media, has turned its focus to more pressing personal and public matters. These include crucial issues in the life and

By Niyi Aborisade

T

he Nigerian government has finally capitulated under the Boko Haram insurgency as the latter declared victory and gave the former as the defeated party conditions to negotiate a ceasefire. They gave conditions that must be met before the ceasefire, which includes a peace talk that must take place in Saudi Arabia, compensation needs to be paid, that a governor be arrested and they even dictated who must represent the federal government.

I agree that to some extent Boko Haram has succeeded in inflicting terror into the heart of Nigerian people because when I discussed this matter with my older brother whom I have always considered to be a fearless man he begged me not to write anything against Boko Haram because they are too dangerous. My good friend also echoed the same sentiment.

However, I echoed the word of Major Alale to Major Ademoyega shortly before Col Odumegwu Ojukwu executed him, “a revolutionary must never despair” (Why We Struck by Adewale Ademoyega). I fear no evil.

The Nigerian Government

development of the nation. Here, people to understand that this is with the husband and how often. the media is back at its traditional an opportunity to turn the focus of Is that a constitutional role as agenda-setter for growth the constitution to their own requirement? Or how far will and development of society. Right welfare; the issues of safety and that go to free the neck of now, the concern of all well- security are still here, and many Nigerians from petrol scarcity or meaning Nigerians and well- other such. crime-breeding youth wishers should unemployment? be how to free Besides all the nation from the above, outfits the shackles l i k e that keep her Saharareporters Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text down. should begin to messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written F o r show concern for contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 instance, we the collective words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and are on the brink integrity and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed of losing an honour of the to: opportunity to media which bring order to they all The Editor, the muchinherited and Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, a b u s e d are enjoying. Or 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. petroleum would the young industry, by men at SR say Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com t h e this is the legacy SMS: 07037756364 controversy of patriots and assailing the fore-runners like Ribadu Report; the seemingly It is therefore worrisome and Ernest Ikoli, Nnamdi Azikiwe, intractable fuel queues are back suspicious that some young Babatunde Jose, Lateef Jakande, and biting hard; public Nigerians will, in the midst of all Adamu Ciroma, Segun Osoba, engagements are on-going towards these, devote themselves to Dele Giwa, Sam Amuka, and a review of the constitution with mundane matters, such as others too many to mention? the attendant need to assist the whether the First Lady travels One can’t but wonder if such

glorious virtues of the media which these notable icons represent were built out of mudslinging traditions that outfits like SaharaReporters have committed themselves to, such as the proverbial greedy fly and the corpse. Doesn’t it occur to them that pull-him-down and smearcampaigns like these further the unfortunate public impression of “cash-and-carry journalism”?

As a matter of fact, if SR cannot join the rest of the positive media to set constructive agenda of national development for the country, it should at least stop distracting well-meaning people from their focus on private and public good!

All said and done, if SR can’t find more beneficial social, economic and political things to form their focus other than “First Lady is sick, First Lady is not sick’’, then let them and their sponsors be told that Nigerians are tired and would like to have issues of development on the plate. I beg!

Cletus Soga wrote in from Marina, Lagos

readily jumped to accept the offer to negotiate with a terrorist group, which our eminent professor Wole Soyinka described as the ‘arrowhead of a decadent resistance’. As a matter of fact when I watched Prof Wole Soyinka on CNN making the pronouncement I tried to decode the hidden meaning of the ‘arrowhead and came to the conclusion that where there is a head there is a body that is pushing the head to act.

President Jonathan also confirmed that Boko Haram has infiltrated his government but failed to mention names.

It is a monumental shame and disgrace that the government agreed to negotiate with a terrorist group and what a bad precedent from a weak government who does not know the difference between their left and right hand. Boko Haram means “Western Education is forbidden”! How can government therefore negotiate with such a group who wants to bring us back to the Stone Age? The only language of the group is killing, maiming and destroying.

Boko Haram has no clear objective to warrant negotiation at

Jonathan should pluck up courage and do the most honourable thing by resigning from the government if he knows he cannot handle Boko Haram.

In the darkest days of Nigeria during the regime of late dictator General Sanni Abacha we had Nadeco, Nalicon, Civil Liberty Organisation and a host of other freedom fighters who resisted the dictator until he died. However, since we return to democratic rule, many of these associations have been disbanded and most of the members have joined politics. It is now crystal clear that there is a new war at hand with those who threaten to destroy our civilization and the core democratic values that we stand for. It is now time to regroup and take the battle to the enemy since the government cannot deliver us.

We should stop thinking it is only happening in the North and not in the South because they are like wild fire that is spreading to consume everything. If we fail to act in time to stop this aggression, they will come to the south gradually and they will not rest until they take over Nigeria completely. We must seek to arrest the process of Nigeria’s disintegration and reunite the country. Chief Obafemi Awolowo stated in one of his speeches in 1966 that “The welfare and happiness of the people of Nigeria are Indivisible so are the misfortunes and adversities.”

When the foundation is destroyed what can a righteous man do? A righteous man has to lay a new foundation before he can erect a new structure. It is time for the overdue Sovereign National Conference in order to renegotiate the unwholesome federal structure of the Nigerian system.

Boko Haram can send representatives if they so wish and table their grievances. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed!

Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer in the United Kingdom

WRITE TO US

Government’s capitulation to insurgents all. The question is whether the arrowhead is the main problem or the body that is pushing the head.

Are they fighting against the government by killing innocent civilians? It is my impression that we are fighting with the disgruntled political class in the North who are the main body behind the arrowhead. it is therefore submitted that any negotiation with Boko Haram will be fruitless unless we fish out the disgruntled political class who are sponsoring them.

With the acceptance of the federal government to negotiate, it appears that Nigeria is no longer safe to live in. “A COMMUNITY IN WHICH A DOG KILLS A TIGER IS UNSAFE TO LIVE IN” (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Voice of Wisdom). What happens to our Intelligence officers? Why can’t the Nigerian Government fish out the dissidents? Or is it that the power that is behind Boko Haram is greater than that of the Government? What of the Nigerian army? The so-called kill and go? The superior force has defeated them all though is an untrained but well organized army of Boko Haram. What a shame! A

dog has now succeeded in killing a tiger in Nigeria.

Whilst it is admitted that this is a tragic moment in the history of Nigeria, however, the Federal Government must not succumb and must not fail to display spirit of vigilance and daring and a sense of patriotism for the sake of national integrity. Any negotiation with Boko Haram will discredit the remaining little integrity of this present government.

In the civilized world, any form of negotiation with group like Boko Haram must be by way of covert operation and would be initiated by the government and not the other way round.

The government will first give them condition to renounce violence and stop the killings with immediate effect. As in all other areas of Government, the government of Goodluck Jonathan is a complete failure and a made mess of everything. According to Yoruba Adage who says “It is better not to mount the throne than to say I have no control over my domain” (a kuku ijoye o san ju enu mi ko ka ilu lo). President Goodluck

Pastor Oritsejafor’s new jet and its potent Contd from page 13 deployment of literary prowess in skewing negative public opinion towards GMB as the originator of the post-election violence in his The Guardian column, was promptly rewarded with a top position in Jonathan’s government. Confiding in his former boss and publisher as the basis for desiring the Job, Abati had reasoned that this would afford him the opportunity to travel around the world with the President. In short, in the despicable attempt to blacken GMB, there was a confluence of a life-long dream and a capricious lust for power!

What this obscenity in our churches portends is the disappearance of free, passionate service by the youths. Virtually everything is now monetized!

Churches now pay handsomely the youth (in the congregation) to play musical instruments for the weekly services. If the youth of the nation are being orientated with the mindset of constantly gauging their services against the pecuniary returns, then the nation’s future is blighted indeed. The wider implication of these societal anomalies is seen in the new private universities dotting the landscape.

The preponderance of these universities is owned by religious bodies.

I dare to ask: how many children of the peasants (of the church organizations) are in these schools that charge very prohibitive fees?

In the early 90’s, I was at a book launch in which the late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola, was the chief launcher. He bought some copies of the book (with a fat cheque) to be given to his alma mater, the Baptist Boys high school, Abeokuta.

He then went on to eulogize the Baptist convention for giving him a chance for education despite his indigent status. He further revealed that there was never any school term that he ever paid his tuition fees in less than four instalments! So it goes to show that whilst the missionaries, that travelled far and long to bring

the gospel, came with the mantra of ‘freely you have received, freely give’, the Nigerian clergy have now reviewed this to assuage their avaricious appetites. As I was putting finishing touches to this article, I discussed with a friend and class-mate at the University. He narrated how the Pastor of a church (that established a secondary school and University somewhere in Ogun state) withdrew his son from the secondary school (on the first year) because of inability to cope with the prohibitive tuition fees.

Rotimi Fashakin is the National Publicity Secretary of Congress forProgressive Change (CPC).

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

By Adebowale Adejugbe Take arms against a sea of troubles and in doing so, end them - Williams Shakespeare ew days ago, a very close friend of mine called me into his office, to deliver the news he had frantically left me several BBM messages on. The news he termed extremely important and one that couldn’t be done justice to, on the BBM platform. I’ve had my mind racing for two weeks before we eventually saw each other, pondering on what exactly was the “very urgent and extremely important message” that we couldn’t discuss on phone or BBM. My mind was playing the matrix, churning out possible scenarios, conspiracies and making out events.

In short, I was looking forward to hearing the news of a lifetime.

He didn’t disappoint me!”Debo, why did you leave Lagos for more than three weeks without even trying to get back on time?” he queried upon seeing me. “Business wasn’t exactly as I planned when I got to Ado Ekiti, few other issues came up that had to be addressed. Here I am though, I’m all yours now.” I replied. Same answer I gave when he asked the same question on phone, few days back.

Then, the bombshell! “That travel stuff I told you about has materialized o! I should be jetting out of the country in less than two weeks

F

By Nnimmo Bassey

E

xamining the matter of corporate accountability is serious business. It is especially serious in the context of present day debates on whether corporations are persons in their own right and can thus enjoy the sort of rights humans enjoy. The debate is interesting because of entrenched antecedents wherein corporations enjoy rights as persons but completely escape the sort of accountability that would demand commensurate punishments. Corporations may be fined or even closed down, but they cannot be imprisoned, for instance.

This corporate shield or firewall maintains the momentum of impunity.

It thus seems pertinent that when we speak of corporate accountability we must seek ways of opening up possibilities of bringing individuals hiding behind corporate firewalls to commit crimes such as environmental damage, or other objectionable activities to book. Those who commit ecocide must be held to account for their actions.

Standards for gauging corporate adherence to human rights have been set by the United Nations in its Guiding Principles. The Guide sets out global standards for preventing as well as addressing human rights abuses related to business practices.

Extractive sector companies in cooperation with the governments of the USA and the UK as well as some NGOs have also set their own guides termed “Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.” These principles are supposed to guide the companies in their work to ensure Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the respect of human rights. The corporations that have endorsed the Voluntary Principles include the major international oil companies in operation in Nigeria. Have they kept to the principles? That is an open question.

Corporations in Nigeria and

PAGE 15

What lies ahead

time. Just working on the ticket now.”

My countenance changed to that mood you’ll always want to find me in, I congratulated him and went on to ask few more questions on the Visa, Process, Country and Time frame.

The usual suspects.

“It’s still Qatar right? How about the school fees and the other issue we discussed?” I asked, trying to get as much information as I could. I was genuinely happy for him, after all the hustle and bustle of computer village, Ikeja. I felt he deserved a break finally. Not that he hadn’t travelled before; there were times he traveled to South Africa to relax and get phones across to Nigeria-thats the idea of relaxation I’m talking about-then coming back to hustle them on the “Floor” in Otigba. So, I had my expectations.

“Ha! That one no go work jare. Na Cuba dey stamp for me o and na 2months stay sef. It is already reading and I have to go on time, not to miss out.” He went on to explain how much was spent in obtaining that visa (my excitement dropped) and the cost of the ticket too, including how he sourced for funds to meet up, the stories he heard about Nigerians in Japan who are hitting it big working in poultries there. Needless to say that this Cuba thing gulped real money,

one that could help bring goods down to Nigeria, selling them off at huge profits. In the course of our conversation, he told me he wasn’t planning to come back to Nigeria anytime soon because there are routes from Cuba into the US and someone who left Nigeria three months ago had already made it to the US. He was interested in the success of that one person as against the several stories of the ones stranded in those countries, trapped between the devil and the extremely deep blue sea. He further said there is an option of staying with a 35-year old single mom in Cuba, who had made it clear to him that marriage must be part of the deal.

So many details that I can’t share here, but I’ve made my point with the little I was able to divulge. This case mirrors what goes on in an average Nigerian youth’s mind. We thirst for better or supposedly better climates where we could earn money, engaging in several menial jobs, to get by. We crave stabilityirrespective of what that means to us individually-that is better than what we experience in Nigeria. We leave our families, relatives, businesses, acquaintances etc here in search of greener pastures. This is how we think and I don’t blame “US”.

Out of all we discussed, one thing actually got me thinking, that “it is easier to travel as a South African citizen to several countries because they are not crazy about traveling like Nigerians. If you go to some embassies in SA, you won’t even see a single soul and there are several places they could go without going through the rigours of visa procurement.”

Read whatever you can into that statement and compare that to our situation in Nigeria! We flock the embassies day-in day-out in search of greener-or almost-green pastures, believing that what the other countries offer are far better than ours.

I told my friend “anywhere is better than Nigeria” after thinking about it for a while and I meant it.

Why do I think so? The Leaders, The followers, The Politics , The Business Climate, The Public Institutions, Families, The Government, The Institutionalized lies, The Roads, The Air, The Civil Service........ YOU! Nothing seems to be working here and who am I to discourage someone from what lies beyond our shores? To run from this spiritually drugged and addicted generation of ours? We run around in circles, doing nothing to salvage tomorrow.

elsewhere have become experts of spin and continually polish their image through manipulation of language and publication of glossy reports to cover up their wrongs. As an example, consider the innocuous shift of language where oil companies are no longer referred to as “oil companies” but as “energy corporations”. When seen as providers of energy they immediately assume the higher ground and amass an image of indispensability. If seen as oil companies, as they truly are, their polluting and damaging nature becomes visible.

One critique of this perception system is worth noting: “After the Ogoni and Brent Spar crises, Shell joined the larger global corporate risk management response framework, whereby perception management was re-organized to relieve pressure.

Shell instituted a vigorous perception management program at the firm level whereby it sought to re-vitalize baseline legitimizing narratives, burnish its reputation, undermine opposition reputations, and co-opt the messages.”

When we speak of corporate accountability we necessarily must ask the question as to whom corporations are expected to be accountable. To avoid this, corporations invented the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Are they accountable to the victims or to their partners and/or shareholders? Another notion that has gained ground in the mining and oil/gas sector is the Publish What You Pay(PWYP) as well as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). All these are good. But we must acknowledge their limitations.

CSR is an excellent template for corporations to show that they perform their civic responsibilities as corporate citizens. The budget for this should ordinarily come from the profits of the corporations but they

largely count them as part of their operational costs. This has implications for taxes and revenues that accrue to government. In the oil sector, the companies deduct these expenses as production costs, with clear fiscal implications as the costs of those projects are not independently verified or monitored. In a joint venture situation, it is especially obnoxious that the major shareholder, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), whose logo conspicuously adorns the project signboards, never claims ownership of those projects. If NNPC steps up to claim that they provide those school blocks and clinics it would become clear that the oil companies are majorly takers and not givers - and certainly not philanthropists.

The EITI or in NEITI in Nigeria as well as PWYP provide the corporations platforms to show that they are transparent and responsible. They have also become the Achilles heel of some of the corporations, especially those in the oil and gas sector, because they are not really ready to strictly do what those platforms demand.

Both PWP and EITI require that corporations publish payments made by them to governments of countries where they operate. Interestingly, oil companies through the American Petroleum Institute and other mining companies fought a US government reform that requires that mining, oil and gas companies who trade their shares on the

American stock exchange issue an annual report detailing the “type and total amount” of payments they make to foreign governments. These companies struggled to smuggle in clauses that would offer escape hatches through which they can choose which laws to obey and which to break - the laws of the United States or the laws of the countries in which they operate. They also claimed that disclosure could harm their business interests and that in some countries revenues are state secrets!

It is worthy of note that the companies had no problems with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) that requires the private sector to disclose payments made to governments and for the governments to disclose payments received. According to mining giant Rio Tinto, “Because the EITI also encompasses disclosure by governments, of payments they receive from companies, we believe it is more effective than the proposed rules at improving governance and eliminating corruption in both the private and public sectors. Therefore, we urge the Commission to follow the EITI principles to the fullest extent possible.”

Today, in recognition of the fact that all these transparency initiatives have overlooked a fundamental base, ERA/FoEN formally launches Publish What Crude You Pump (PWCYP). We demand that the oil companies must

The complexities of the Nigerian case is weird, if it can be classified simply. Our best-or not so best in many cases - brains migrate abroad in search of paradise. That paradise could be menial jobs for PhDs or better learned individuals, because something is better than the nothing we presently share among ourselves. A former boss of mine, who was director of a big business here in Nigeria, migrated to the United Kingdom to work as a nanny. You can picture that and get back to Dangote, apologize to him and encourage more PhDs to apply for that awesome driving job of his.

In no distant future - if things continue this way - our PhDs would start hawking “gala” on the street corners. Who says a Doctor won’t sell it better? The alternative could be for him to run to Niger republic and become a shoe cobbler.

As it stands now, our brothers and sisters are running out in droves to feel what lies beyond our borders. It is our way of taking arms against our sea of trouble, in order to end them. I will repeat those words carved out of my mouth like an ancient papyrus: “Anywhere is better than Nigeria”. I stand by it.

After all, there is a saying that supports our hustle: No paeans without pain. The clock keeps ticking on our bomb, it might explode sooner than we think!

Adebowale Adejugbe is @deboadejugbe

Breaking down corporate firewalls

“

An effective legislative framework for oil spill management needs to go far enough to ensure that apart from remedying the environment that it can provide enough deterrent for bad environmental behaviour

publish the exact amounts of crude oil and gas they pump from every well. A situation where revenue estimates are based only on crude figures from distribution/export points is unhealthy. Nigerians deserve to know what is going on at both ends of the pipelines. Publish what you pump! Time to metre the wells! Enough of the oil thefts!

Without this even Nigerian reserve crude oil and gas figures are fictional.

It has been said that corporations do not seek to do what is right but to close the doors of justice. Examples of this are found in their routine insistence at courts outside Nigeria that crimes committed here should not be scrutinized in their home bases.

Shell failed to block the suit brought against them at The Hague by four Nigerian farmers. The Bowoto vers Chevron case was held in the USA. Now the case of Kiobel versus Shell at the Supreme Court of the USA is a key test case as Shell is challenging a longstanding law that provides that corporations should not find hiding places for crimes committed anywhere.

Accounting Time! We have to examine ways of making corporations both responsible and accountable. One means of doing this would be to ensure that overseeing authorities or regulatory bodies are empowered, change tactics and take up their proper roles. We see this in the efforts of the Nigerian Senate to review the National Oil Spill Detection And Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act so as to provide that agency with the sort of teeth needed to make polluters pay. In the words of Senator Saraki to provide “An effective legislative framework for oil spill management needs to go far enough to ensure that apart from remedying the environment that it can provide enough deterrent for bad environmental behaviour.”

Nnimmo Bassey is on Twitter.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Kwali council commences one week mandatory cleaning exercise

By Adeola Tukuru

T

he administration of Kwali Area Council, FCT has begun a compulsory one –week cleaning exercise in all its ten wards in the aim to compete with the City Centre in terms of a clean and tidy environment and avert health

hazard.

The Head of Environmental Sanitation Department in Kwali, Alhaji Abdullahi Tarkwa, during an interview described clean environment as ‘a health friendly’ environment adding that that most diseases could be avoided when people decide to create

and stay in a clean environment and community.

The HOD Environment Sanitation solicited for understanding and cooperation among all in the council so as to make the exercise a rewarding experience for all in the council and FCT in general.

He however, revealed

during the interview that no defaulter would be arrested during the time frame for the exercise adding that it was meant to encourage good habit of keeping environment clean and tidy at all levels.

On rationale for the exercise, HOD Environmental Sanitation in the council said

such is in accord with a directive given to all the area councils by the Minister for State,Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide to ensuring that FCT remain a model city in the country and beyond.

He further explained that a workable strategies have been mapped out for the program urging people to desist from open defecation as it contribute to environmental pollution of every community.

Gwagwalada residents get free medical service

By Adeola Tukuru

O

Woman carrying firewood along Federal Secretariat in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

FCT College of Education elects new S.U.G officials

By Usman Shuaibu

T

he leadership of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) College of Education Zuba in Gwagwalada Area Council has sworn -in the newly elected Students Union Government (SUG) of the College.

The provost of the institution, Prof.

Ismail

Tijanni said that his administration would work hand in hand with the officials of the union.

He urged the executives to take their members along for the overall development of the union and charge them to be up and doing.

He further appealed to the officials to cultivate the habit of patient and endurance in dealing with issues that

affecting them in the college The provost warned the students against Cultism, examination malpractices and any other social vices, advising them to be good diplomats of the institution in anywhere they found themselves.

In his acceptance speech, the newly inaugurated SUG president, Mr Adamu OSanutu said that his administration

would maintain cordial relationship with the authorities of the College.

He assured his members that he would discharge his responsibilities effectively and called for co-operation of the entire students.

Osanutu, however, promised that he would be prudent and transparent in the management of public funds all the times.

4 men charged for joint act, forgery, cheating

F

our men, Danjuma Dauda, Uboh Aritts, John Dalla and Benjamin Obiakah, were arraigned before a Kubwa Upper Area Court on a threecount charge of joint act, forgery and cheating.

Police prosecutor Garba Abdul told the court that the case was reported at the Kubwa Police Station on Oct. 11,2012

by Innocent Ezeugomi, a resident of Maitama, Abuja.

G a r b a s a i d t h e accused jointly sold a plot of land to Ezeugomi in Cadastral Layout, Kubwa, Abuja, for N1.3 million in August.

He said that during investigation, it was discovered that the accused forged the documents of the land.

Abdul said the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 79, 366 and 322 of the Penal Code, but the accused pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor requested for an adjournment to enable him to present his witnesses.

The defence counsel, Mr Azubike Moneke , a lawyer from the Legal Aid Council, applied for bail for the

accused, but the prosecutor objected on the grounds that forgery was not “ordinarily bailable’’.

The Presiding Judge, Malam Mohammed Lawal, however, granted the accused bail in the sum of N300,000 with one surety in like sum.

He adjourned the case to Nov. 19,2012 (NAN

ver hundred people in Gwagwalada Area Council, FCT at the weekend benefited from a free medical services provided by a corps serving member in the council, Mr. Uche Bikwe.

Bikwe who is currently serving in the Health Department in Gwagwalada explained that he decided to provide free medical services to the people in the area as parts of his Community Development Programm (CDP) due to health implication to the people in the grass root.

Bikwe explained that from his free medical services at the grass root, he was able to discover different danger health situation in most of the people that came for the exercise such as high sugar level, high blood pressure among others.

Also the Officer in charge of Community Development Programm in Gwagwalada Zone,Kwajafa Haiwa informed that Community Development Programm is one of their cardinal NYSC, disclosing that during the program more people have benefited from the free medical services .

Haiwa also commended the corp member for his thoughtfulness in providing free medical checks to all who came for the exercise further explained how such project had impacted on the people positively .

She urged the council to provide more assistant to ensuring that health need of the people is made priority, adding that most patients suffering from one ailment or the other could be assisted to leave normal life due to free medical services which should have taken huge medical bills in the Hospital.

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Man, 27, opts to be held in prison for 1month

Kwali speaker tasks chairman to resolve disputes with traditional ruler

...I will be ready for trial after one month

S

A

27 year old-man, Idris Momoh, of no known address, on Thursday told a Karu Senior Magistrates court that he was not fit to face the trial wrongful restraint, criminal force and causing hurt ,that he will be ready in the next one month.

When the charge was read to him, Momoh said: ``I cannot take my plea. I was arrested and locked up by the police since yesterday morning. ``I have not eaten anything. I am hungry; therefore, I am not fit to face this trial now. I will be ready for trial after one month", he said.

Prosecutor Stephen Eimog explained in court that ``Isah Yusuf, of Block A, Flat 24, NIA Quarters, Karu, Abuja, was attacked by Momoh on Nov. 14,2012'' The Magistrate, Christopher Oba, had asked when he would be ready for trial and cautioned that ``If you are not ready now, I have no option but to keep you in prison until you are fit to stand trial''.

The Magistrate adjourned the case to Nov. 21,2012 for hearing.

(NAN)

By Adeola Tukuru peaker Kwali Area Council , FCT, Prince Lassa Yusuf Tampe has advised the chairman of the council Hon. Joseph Kwali Shazin and the Etsu Kwali,Alhaji Shaban Nizozo 111 to bury their hatchet and resolve their disputes for the interest of the

council and its teaming electorate.

The Speaker opined that the disagreement between the two could be trace to next year political bid where some individual are hell bent toward whisking power from the incumbent in the area.

He reminded them of the importance of peace and

togetherness within and outside Kwali saying that ‘when two elephants fight, it is the grass that would suffer which pray should not happen in his council in view of its long time disposition toward maintenance of peace and security.

“Most of this problems arise because of people desire to

Police arraign female lawyer, 43, for alleged forgery

A

43 year-old lawyer, Francisca Audu, of Udoyen Crescent, Opposite CBN Quarters, Karu, Abuja, was on Thursday arraigned before a Karu Chief Magistrates' Court for alleged forgery and cheating.

Prosecutor Francis Udofia told the court that Audu collected N2. 2 million from Amina Shehu, of Abacha Road, Nasarawa State, and gave her a fake land document located at Karu village. Udofia said the accused converted the amount to her personal use.

He said that during police investigation, it was discovered that the land document was fake and did not exist.

He said: `` the sum of N1.6 million was recovered from her'', adding that Audu wrote an undertaking to pay the balance.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Counsel to the accused, Ede Festus, applied for bail to his client.

Chief Magistrate Ahmed Shaibu granted bail to the accused in the sum of N1million and one surety in like sum.

Shaibu said that the surety must reside within the FCT had a well established business. He advised the accused to pay the balance of N600, 000 before Nov. 17,2012.

The magistrate adjourned the case to Nov. 17,2012 to enable the accused to pay up the balance.

Water vendor out for business at Mpape, Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

curdle favor from a traditional society, but what people forget is that no one is God, after all the era of political fatherism have come and gone, only those that with good tract records and credible political reputation could context and win political offices here.”

He observed with concern that continued keeping of malice against each other in the council by the two law makers does no one any good, adding that the incumbent administration have done what successive administration could not despite huge resources available to them at that time in the area.

Hon.Tampe who also promised to support his chairman in order for him to actualize his political ambitions for the electorate and the council in general denied allegation making around by opposition parties that his boss has not executed any project in the area. “ We have heard most of those false allegations, but let me tell you that all these could be traced to die heart politicians and money bag who would rather die, rather than see good in other person even though such has delivered democracy dividend to the people who elected him into office.”

The speaker who also described the incumbent administration in the council as ‘weak steady and slow’ further explained that his boss remain the most transparent leader, the council had ever produced in recent time.

FCT tasks farmers on GES enrolment

By Adeola Tukuru

T

he Federal Capital T e r r i t o r y Administration (FCTA) on Tuesday called for full enrolment of farmers in FCT into the Gross Enhancement Scheme (GES) of the Federal Government to enhance access to farm inputs.

The Secretary, Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, FCTA Mrs Olvadi Madayi, stated this in Gwagwalada at opening ceremony of a workshop on 2012

FCT farmers data base survey.

Madayi, represented by Dr Mike Uwazie, Director, FCT Agricultural Development Project (ADP) said the workshop became necessary following the need to strengthen awareness on GES. She dismay over the low level of enrolment into GES in FCT adding that 53,000 out of the 165,000 farming families were captured into the e-wallet scheme in the first phase.

"This is grossly inadequate and as stakeholders, your support is highly required to ensure that

all farmers in FCT are enrolled into the scheme before the next planting season.

"Since it our responsibility to mobilize our farmers to access the Growth Enhancement support, all hands must be on deck to ensure that farmer are sensitized to support our enumerators," she said She called on the participants to ensure that awareness on the survey was created in their various communities ahead of the exercise so as to make it easier for the enumerators.

Madayi however noted that

FCT recorded the highest number of farmers to access inputs under the e-wallet scheme across the country.

In his remark, Uwazie, represented by Mr Musa Doma, a Deputy Director with ADP pledged the commitment of ADP to ensure that farmers in FCT were comfortable and economically stable.

He attributed the poor farmer enrolment into GES to insufficient time allotted to the exercise, remoteness of some areas and other logistics challenges.

Police arraign man for misappropriation, theft

T

he police on Friday arraigned one Martins Julius of Behind Tamra Lines, Wuse, Zone 3, Abuja, at an Abuja Senior Magistrates Court for misappropriation and theft.

The prosecutor, Mr Christopher Roko, told the court that on Nov. 8, one Ngozi Ibe, of

the same address reported the case to the Wuse police station.

Roko said that the accused, who was working for the complainant, allegedly misappropriated the proceeds of the sales of 23 crates of drinks.

The drinks included assorted brands of beer, valued at N223,400.

He said that instead of the accused remitting the proceeds to the complainant, he dishonestly converted the money to personal use.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 309 and 287 of the Penal Code.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the

offence.

The Magistrate, Mrs Grace Adebayo, granted the accused bail in the sum of N100,000 and a surety in like sum.

Adebayo said that the surety must reside within the jurisdiction of the court and adjourned the case to Nov. 21, 2012 for hearing. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 17

1

1. Young boys entertaining guest at a

function over the weekend in Yardua Centre Abuja.

2.

A truck over loaded with firewood in Garki, Abuja.

3. Traffic warder on duty yesterday in Bwari, Abuja

4. An Okada rider on the move yesterday in Bwari, Abuja.

5.

A teenage girl patronizing her male counterpart who hawks sugar cane in Nyanya, Abuja.

Photos: Justin Imo-owo

3

2 4 5

BUSINESS

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Email: aminuimam@yahoo.co.uk

‘Sanction operators for poor network’ Subscribers tell NCC

By Chris Alu

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ubscribers of global system o r mobile communication, weekend, enjoined the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to sanction mobile network operators who fails to improve on their services and lower their tariffs.

In a telephone survey of 758 phones users aged 18+, which was conducted by NOI/Gallup Poll, subscribers said NCC should mandate network operators to improve on their service or else sanction them.

The results, which were based on Perception of Quality of Service (Best and Worst); and what measures to be taken to deter mobile network operators from rendering poor quality service, revealed that 45 percent of respondents are using dual lines, while another 19 percent use three lines in order to circumvent the network failure that usually cripples Nigeria’s networks.

The poll further revealed that most Nigerians would rather that the mobile network operators make concerted efforts to improve their service quality than the promo offers they make to their subscribers.

Of those respondents (26 percent) using only one line, the poll found out that MTN was the favourite with 89 percent being f

subscribers to the network, while Airtel (5 percent), Glo (4 percent) while Etisalat trailed behind with 2perecent.

However with regard to those who use dual lines, the favourite combinations are MTN/Etisalat 34 percent, MTN/Glo, 31percent and MTN/Airtel 29 percent.

When it came to the issue of main line used by dual line owners, MTN led the pack with 78percent, Airtel followed at 9 percent, while Glo and Etisalat were tied at 6percent.

On the matter of ratings by subscribers, Etisalat emerged the clear leader with 31percent of its subscribers rating it “Very Good,” followed by Airtel 19 percent and Glo 17percent. MTN brought up the rear with only 11percent respondents rating it “Very Good.” And on the reverse side of the ratings question, MTN was rated Very Bad by 7 percent of its subscribers while Etisalat and Airtel were given a rather clean bill with none of their subscribers rating them Very Bad. Similarly, when subscribers were asked if they were getting value from their main network provider, Etisalat subscribers were happiest with their network – at 76 percent, followed by Airtel at 62 percent and Glo at 55 percent.

MTN subscribers expressed the least satisfaction (53percent).

(Source: Information Nigeria.com)

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INSIDE

- Pg 20

Cluster development, panacea for MSME growth – SMEDAN D-G

Mob: 08033644990

US crashes out of Top 10 in World Prosperity Index

By Aminu Imam, with agency report he United States is no longer one of the world’s ten most “prosperous” countries for the first time according to the Legatum Institute of the United States.

The Legatum Prosperity Index assessed and ranked the prosperity of 142 countries based on eight sub-categories: economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, health, governance, education, safety and security, personal freedom, and social capital.

America experienced an “unprecedented” fall to twelfth in the rankings, as it experienced “weakening performance across five of the Index’s eight sub-categories.”

When referring to the U.S., the language of the report had a somewhat dire tone. It claims

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that ”the American Dream is in jeopardy,” and “the national ethos of the U.S. is under threat.”

The London-based public policy institute pegged the U.S.’ precipitous drop to a decline in consumer and voter confidence, along with a bleak economic and entrepreneurial outlook; four percent fewer citizens believe that “hard work gets you ahead,” and business startup costs as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) have doubled in the past two years.

In fact, the U.S. economy subscore dropped to twentieth and its personal freedom score dropped four points to fourteenth, just above Uruguay.

“Despite performing relatively well in a few subindices,” said Jeffrey Gedmin, President and CEO of the Legatum Institute ”it is clear that the U.S. is struggling to

overcome the barriers to prosperity. Good education alone will not keep prosperity afloat and whoever succeeds in the elections this week needs to address the factors that are holding the nation back from being truly prosperous.”

It appears that Legatume hopes the timing of the report’s release — which was made available to the public on October 30 — will have electoral implications in the upcoming presidential race.

The top twenty countries include Norway, Denmark, Sweden,Australia,New Zealand,Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland.

Others are Luxembourg, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Iceland, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

(Source:www.businessinsider.com)

Nigeria tops Africa’s FDI with N1.42bn

By Aminu imam, with agency report

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igeria, still riding on the strength of ongoing reforms, has become the leading investment destination in Africa after recording a foreign direct investment (FDI) of $8.9 billion (N1.424bn) in 2011, said Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, at the ongoing FBN Capital Conference which kicked off last Thursday in Lagos.

The $8.9 billion represents 16 percent of Africa’s total FDI of $55 billion in 2011.

Aganga, who was represented by Joseph Odumodu, director general, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), said the government was committed to consolidating on the gains so far recorded by strengthening the one-stop investment centre of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

“Our target is to achieve 48 hours response for all investment linked enquiries,” he said.

Attributing the FDI growth

to the growing investor confidence, Aganga noted that the creation of the Trade and Investment Ministry by President Goodluck Jonathan had impacted on the country’s economic growth through its strategic trade and investment policies and programmes.

Commending FBN Capital for organising the conference, the minister said the nation has the potential to sustain its drive towards emerging as one of the world’s leading economies given the continuous cooperation of all stakeholders.

Prof. Herbert Onye Orji, a Member of the Global Board of Harvard Business School, presents his fifth book to Prof. Nitin Nohria, the Dean of HBS in Boston after a recent Board meeting.The Book's title is, “Platinum essays in the philosophy of applied economics of development”.

Pension operators invest over N1.74tr in FG securities

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ver N1.74 trillion pension funds has been invested by operators in Federal Government securities.

The Head, Research and Corporate Strategy, National Pension Commission (PenCom),

Dr Farouk Aminu, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the amount represented over 61 per cent of the N2.9 trillion so far contributed by workers.

He noted that over N370 billion (13 per cent) had been

Management Tip of the Day

Maintain control when conducting a job interview

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hen interviewing a job candidate, your goal is to learn as much as possible so you can make an informed decision. It’s your job to keep the conversation focused and encourage the candidate to talk.

You should ask most of the questions and do most of the listening.

If the candidate gets off track, gently steer the conversation back to the topic. Use phrases such as, “You were saying earlier...” or “tell me more about...” Regularly summarize what you hear so you can confirm what has been said, make transitions to other topics, and limit the comments of a wordy candidate.

An example of such a summary would be, “Are you saying that there was a six-month period when you were supervising 20 people in two different departments? That must have been difficult. How did you stay organized and on top of what was happening?”

Source: Harvard Business Review

invested in money market, while N335 billion (12 per cent) was invested in ordinary share and real estate got N167.89 billion.

Aminu said that state government securities got N109.24 (four per cent), corporate debt security N72.10 billion (two per cent), unquoted securities N24.67 billion (one per cent) and other investment portfolio N23.49 billion (one per cent).

He noted that the regulation on investment of pension fund assets was revised to expand the allowable investment outlets to include alternative asset classes such as: Private Equity (PE) funds, infrastructure financing (Debt instruments and funds), supranational bonds, among others.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 20

COMPANY NEWS African ExportImport Bank

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xport Development Canada (EDC) has announced that it has provided a USD 30 million (N4.7 billion) five-year line of credit to the African ExportImport Bank (Afreximbank), the proceeds of which will be used to provide financing to African companies procuring Canadian goods or services.

According to the President, Afreximbank plans to use the facility for medium term financing to support purchases of Canadian goods and services from a broad range of sectors, including mining, telecommunications, transportation, manufacturing, energy and agro-industry.

In 2011, 457 Canadian companies used EDC’s products or services to undertake CAD 2.4 billion in export business in 46 African countries.

International Finance Corporation

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nternational Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has agreed to provide N800 million (about $5 million) loan to LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited.

LAPO is a pro-poor financial institution committed to economic empowerment of lowincome Nigerians through creation of access to responsive financial services on a sustainable basis. This is IFC’s first financing of a national microfinance institution in Nigeria.

This collaboration is to help expand the services of LAPO in serving poor and low-income borrowers and also the rural and urban poor women without access to other financing sources due to lack of collateral or ability to meet other requirements.

Agco Corp.

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gco Corp., the world’s third- largest farmequipment maker, plans to invest $100 million in Africa over the next three years to capitalize on an agricultural boom and a shift to commercial farming.

The company, based in Duluth, Georgia, opened a $35 million parts warehouse in Johannesburg in May and on Aug. 17 signed a deal with Algeria Tractors Co. to build a plant to produce Massey Ferguson tractors, Nuradin Osman, Agco’s director for Africa and the Middle East, said in an interview on Nov. 13.

Most of the future investment will come from existing funds, he said in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

FBN Capital investors’ conference 2012 ends amid high expectations

By Aminu Imam, with agency report

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he second edition of the FBN Capital investors conference has come to a close with Delegates and Participants hopeful for a better economy ahead of the coming year in 2013.

The key presentation for the day had Dr. Doyin Salami of the Lagos Business School speak on

the topic; ‘From Frontier to Emerging Market’.

He highlighted the need to diversify the economy into the oil and gas sector and also create a link between the Agric sector and Manufacturing industries noting that this will cut down on unemployment and improve the standard of living in the country The first session had panelist discuss on ‘Oil and gas sector growth: the contributions of

indigenous service firms’. Some note worthy facts in this session is how oil production has accelerated from 1.69 million barrels per day to 2.4 million barrels per day in the first half of 2012.

While the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry content Bill allows for players in the industry to use a greater share of indigenous companies and personnel, one of the key challenges panelists

sought to address is the difficulty these companies face in accessing capital.

Panel two had the likes of David Ladipo (Partner, Azura Power), Gareth Wilcox (MD, Ibom Power) amongst others discuss on ‘Delivering on power reforms: Focus on gas’ and financing’ with emphasis on the reform agenda and participation of private sector in the business of power generation and distribution.

Participants expressed delight with the outcome of the event as the conference sought to proffer solutions that would catalyze the growth experienced in the Nigerian economy.

Barclays follows JPMorgan Chase & Co., which added the West African nation’s bonds to its benchmark indexes last month.

Barclays made the decision after reviewing changes in the market and polling investors on governance and market accessibility. The London-based bank’s EM Local-Currency Index includes securities from 20 eligible countries with a market value of $1.62 trillion.

“It is a very positive development and the Nigerian economy is getting more credibility,” Jide Solanke, an analyst at First Securities Discount House Ltd., said.

“Everybody knows they have strict criteria for the inclusion to any government bond index.”

Borrowing costs for the Federal Government dropped since JPMorgan’s announcement in August to add the bonds to its GBI-EM index series. The yield on the 16.39 percent naira debt due January 2022 fell 324 basis points to 12.89 percent since the start of August, according to Friday’s prices compiled by the Lagos-based Financial Markets Dealers Association.

The yield on the nation’s $500 million of Eurobonds due January 2021 was little changed at 4.45 percent Friday.

The central bank, led by Governor Lamido Sanusi, has left the benchmark interest rate

unchanged at a record 12 percent this year, increased lenders’ reserve requirements and limited access to money auctions to stop dealers from buying foreign currency using naira purchased from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at a discount.

The CBN last week sold $29.88 million at the first of its

regular twice-weekly foreigncurrency auctions, the lowest amount in more than three years.

The Naira strengthened 0.3 percent last week “partly due to lower corporate demand to pay for imports,” Ecobank Transnational Inc. strategists to clients on Friday. (Reuters)

Naira firms as Barclays adds to bond index

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he Naira snapped two days of decline against the dollar as Barclays Plc said it will add the nation’s debt to its emergingmarket local-currency government bond index from March 2013.

The currency gained 0.2 percent to N157.05 a dollar by 12:18 p.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital last thursday.

The naira has increased 3.3 percent this year, the second-best performer in Africa.



Economic Indicators

As at:

M2* CPS* INF N14,040,713.7m Sep, 2012 IBR N14,928,461.1m Sep, 2012 MPR 11.3 Sep, 2012 10.8100 11/15/2012 91‐ 12 11/13/2012 day 12.75 11/7/2012 NTB 8.79 Sep, 2012 DPR 16.37 Sep, 2012 PLR US$110.7 11/13/2012 Bonny Light US$43,375,804,130.8 11/15/2012 Ext Res

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

Current Inflation rate = 11.3 % Source:CBN

Cluster development, panacea for MSME growth – SMEDAN D-G

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he DirectorGeneral of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Alhaji Muhammed Nadada Umar, has called for better collaborative efforts from governments at all levels to develop as many industrial clusters as possible to speed up the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in the country.

Alhaji Umar made the call while presenting a paper entitled SMEDAN’s approach to cluster development in Nigeria at the fourth Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF),

Earnings Report for Banks Source:Pro-share Nigeria

DG, SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammed Nadada Umar held at Nicon Luxury Hotel, in Abuja, recently.

He said, “All hands must be on deck to develop as many industrial clusters in the country as possible.

Cluster development is a working concept which demands a lot of commitment from all stakeholders”, while adding that both existing and new clusterpreneurs must have access to Business Development Services (BDS) to achieve success.

Alhaji Umar noted that SMEDAN, as an Agency of government saddled with the responsibility of developing MSMEs, had adopted clustering as one of its strategies for the quick development of MSMEs, just as the agency, in this light, partnered with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to adopt the SubContracting and Partnership Exchange (SPX), an investment facilitating tool which serves as a repository of technical information and match-making centre for industrial sub-contracting and partnership between buyers and suppliers to strengthen MSMEs. SMEDAN, he said, “is always ready to encourage and support the development of clusters and networks of MSMEs in Nigeria.

PAGE 21

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Stocks end week southward by 1.19% after a 7-day break N

igerian Equities experienced increased speculative trading amid high volatility in the week as bulls and bears jostled for supremacy considerably while market swings in favour of the bears to end the week with aggregate loss.

Market retraced by 317.36 basis points to extend the losses after a week break despite the three days of bearish rally- a cautious bargain approach is necessary in the coming weeks as the end of the year offloading season seems to be starting earlier than expected, considering the growing rage of bears.

Equities market experienced Monday effect to open the week downbeat, extending the losses by -0.41% while the breadth collapsed further on Tuesday, depressing the key benchmark indices by another -1.20% loses.

However, market regained its consciousness on Wednesday with +0.21% gain despite huge volatility that

pervaded market. The key benchmark indices ride on sustain moderate bargain to hold its breadth with a moderate gain of +0.04%.

Consequently, market activities on Friday closed in the green zone as the key benchmark index climbed by -0.17% while market closed the week with aggregate loss of -1.19%.

Further analysis on acquiring banks since transaction date showed that the share price of Access Bank Plc has recorded +72.93% gains with FCMB recording 16.67% losses while Union Bank Plc leads the chart with +266.99% gains. However, Sterling Bank Plc recorded +21.26% gains while ETI closed negative with -5.66% loss recorded.

However, the All-Share Index in the week under review plunged by -1.19% to close at 26,400.94 as against an uptick by +0.60% recorded last week to close at 26,718.30.

In the same vein, the market capitalization in the week depreciated by N101.13 billion (US$632.08 million) to close at N8.41 trillion (US$52.58 billion) as against appreciation by N50.58 billion (US$337.25 million) recorded last week to close at N8.51 trillion (US$ 56.74 billion).

The total volume traded in the week closed at 1.29 billion units valued at N9.41 billion

(US$58.83 million) compared with 1.18 billion units valued at N11.49 billion (US$76.58 million) exchanged in 14,048 deals last week.

The volume transaction in the week when compared with the previous week data moved up by +62.88% as against a decline by -23.18% recorded last week. Weekly value also went up by +10.56% as against negative position of -11.46% recorded last week. (Proshare)

Conoil’s revenue drops as industry challenges bite hard

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onoil Plc, one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous petroleum products marketers, has made public its Q3 results showing that the company continued in its H1’12 (second quarter) trajectory, following the company’s 5 percent (year on year) YoY decline in revenues to N114.7billion, 2.9 percent.

The petroleum product

marketer also witnessed a marginal 3 percent decline in cost of sales from 107 billion in 2011 to N103billion in the period under review.

Profit before tax posted a steep 84 percent dive to N699 million in 2011 from N4.5 billion in 2012 while profit after tax recorded a similar 84 percent drop to N476 million from N3 billion.

Nigeria bond yields tumble after S&P rating upgrade

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ields on Nigeria’s 10-year bond were down 38 basis points at the opening of trade last Thursday from their level before Standard & Poor’s lifted the country’s credit rating on Wednesday.

The 10-year note, which was trading at 13.98 percent before the ratings announcement, opened for trade on Thursday at 13.60 percent, while yields on other maturities have fallen between 10-20 basis points.

The fall in yields was also helped by Barclays’

announcement this week that it will add Nigeria to its emerging market local currency government bond index from March next year, aiding a drop in yields, traders said.

The 3-year and 7-year notes have shed 12 basis points since the ratings announcement to trade at 12.38 percent and 12.42 percent respectively.

“Yields will continue to fall given the effects of the S&P ratings, Barclays and JP Morgan bond index inclusions and positive economic indicators,

making local and foreign investors comfortable with Nigeria risk assets,” a Lagosbased dealer at Standard Chartered Bank, told Reuters.

On Wednesday, global ratings agency S&P raised Nigeria’s long-term foreign and local currency credit rating to BB-, three notches below investment grade, from B+, citing higher foreign exchange reserves and government reform efforts.

Barclays said in a report on Monday that 11 of Nigeria’s

government bonds had a market value of $13.9 billion (N2.2 tr), higher than its minimum requirement of $5 billion (N800 bn) in eligible debt outstanding to qualify for index inclusion.

It said Nigeria will make up 0.5 percent of the index.

Nigeria’s 10- and 20- year bond yields shed 300 basis points in a month in October as markets prepared for its inclusion in JP Morgan’s emerging markets index, meant to attract inflows of up to $1 billion (N160 bn) into the debt market.

Yield on Nigeria’s Eurobond down, Ghana up

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igeria’s $500 million Eurobond last week traded at $116.79, up from $116.74 with yield of 4.3 percent. The bond is rated ‘B+

by Standard and Poors (S & P) and BB-by Fitch.

Ghana’s $750 million bond rated B by Standard and Poors

and B+ by Fitch traded at $116.02, down from $116.23 the previous trading day. The Eurobond had Yield to Date of 4.78 percent, up from 4.74 percent.

The GTBank $500 million Eurobond closed at $108. 36, marginally down from $108.37

with GtD of 4.88 percent.

In the local bond market, Federal Government bonds traded at rates marginally above inflation. For example, the 5 year 10.50 percent bond closed at 12.26 percent while the 3 year 10.50 percent March 2014 bond closed at 12.59 percent.

The 7 year bond 10.75 percent March 2014 bond finished at 12.63 percent. The 10 year 9.35 percent bond due for maturity in 2017 has yield of 13.61 percent. The 20 year bond which matures in 2028 closed at a yield of 12.51 percent. Inflation is currently 11.78 percent.

INVESTORS NEWS BITS

Abuja Securities & Commodity Exchange

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he hitherto moribund Abuja Securities and Commodity Exchange is set to get a facelift as the Federal Government, last week, commenced the process of transforming the Abuja Securities and Commodity Exchange into a first-class commodity exchange.

This is part of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment’s broader Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan. The transformation is expected to be completed in the next 12 months.

The Commodity Exchange is a very important infrastructure for agricultural transformation, as well as looking into a transparent market for solid minerals and energy sectors.

AMCON

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he value of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s (AMCON) investment in the rescued banks has grown following the appreciation of bank stocks by 54 percent, BusinessDay investigation has shown.

For this reason, the corporation is not in a hurry to sell its shares in the financial institutions now.

In the wake of the crisis that hit eight banks, leading to capital inadequacy, AMCON had to inject funds into five banks and over N650 billion in the three nationalised banks.

The five banks were Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Equitorial Trust Bank and Union Bank while Afribank, Bank PHB and Spring Bank were bridged by AMCON and names changed to Mainstreet Bank, Keystone Bank and Enterprise Bank, respectively.

Geo Fluids Plc

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Source:Pro-share Nigeria

eo Fluids Plc will be listed on the Official List of The Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, November 23, 2012 at 11th Floor, Stock Exchange House, 2/4 Customs Street, Lagos.. Time is 1:30pm.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 22

The 25 best places to work around the world (I)

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ast week, Great Places To Work published its list of the best places to work based primarily on employee surveys combined with an audit of company policies and practices.

In the past year, these companies created 120,000 new jobs.

The best companies around the world are places where employees are truly excited about coming in every day.

“They have developed work cultures that align with their business, encourage innovation and support their employees both personally and professionally, and

that accomplishment deserves to be recognized,” Robert Levering, co-founder of Great Place to Work, told us.

Out of the 25 companies on

25. Mars Headquarters: USA Employees: 70,000 Why it’s great: ars follows five principles– Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – and makes it a priority to introduce new associates to these principles as a part of the onboarding process and training, which is available in 22 languages.

What employees say: “The one thing that sets Mars apart from other places is the genuine environment where everyone is willing to lend an extra hand, put in the extra hours or shuffle work around to accommodate our fellow employees – whether they [are] in a different segment or even a different country.”

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22. Novo Nordisk Headquarters: Denmark Employees: 33,970 hy it's great: Novo Nordisk emphasizes three responsibilitiessocial, financial and environmental-with the goal of empowering employees to provide service to their communities, particularly in the ways of diabetes education and prevention.

What employees say: "This job is so much more than a 9 to 5 position. Every day we are helping people with diabetes live a longer and healthier life. It brings so much pleasure to know you are making a difference in someone's life and saving lives."

W 23. Quintiles Headquarters: USA Employees: 26,676 hy it's great: When it comes to hiring, Quintiles puts a lot of faith and trust in its current employees for recruitment.

About one fifth of Quintiles's new hires come through the employee referral program.

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21. Cisco Headquarters: USA Employees: 66,599 hy it's great: Cisco maintains its own networking and collaboration technology to keep employees connected all around

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What employees say: "From the moment of recruitment right through to joining the company, you can feel and see that Quintiles is a really great place to work. People are genuinely happy, from the security guard up to the top directors - it is the best place I have worked, and I have worked at many good companies in 25 years."

the world, especially with its advanced video conferencing system.

What employees say: "Everyone, regardless of their role, is always willing to help and go above and beyond any normal expectation to make sure the job gets done."

19. Accor Accor hotel Headquarters: France Employees: 160,000 hy it's great: In Argentina, Accor's new hotel openings are celebrated with a special breakfast and champagne toast for new employees. All staff are invited so they can participate in the festivities while getting to know one another.

What employees say: "What I really like at Accor is the fact that you can transfer easily from one (location) to another upon request, which is allowing me to discover new countries, cities and cultures."

this year’s list, 20 are based in the U.S. and three are from Silicon Valley — Google, Cisco and NetApp. Microsoft dropped from its top

spot, but stayed on the list. CocaCola — ranked #23 in 2011 — dropped from the list and PepsiCo appeared instead.

This year’s newcomers are Accor, General Mills, Monsanto, Ernst & Young, PepsiCo, Autodesk and W.L. Gore & Associates.

24. SC Johnson H e a d q u a r t e r s : Racine,Wisconsin, USA Employees: 13,000 hy it's great: Each SC Johnson office has its own Now Thanks! program that provides on-thespot recognition for great work with praise and a monetary

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award.

What employees say: "Every day when I drive in there is a security guard at the gate who waves hello. Every day! It may be a different guard, but each one waves to every car that passes.

Everyone gets a warm welcome.

I love starting my day with a smile!"

20. McDonald’s Headquarters: USA Employees: 1,850,000 hy it's great: M c D o n a l d ' s proactively engages in employee development at each of its seven Hamburger Universities where workers

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learn at the hands of full-time restaurant operations professors.

What employees say: "I enjoy working for this company. I am respected for the job I do and feel part of the team. I am equally treated regardless of my special needs."

18. American Express Headquarters: New York, NY USA Employees: 62,877 hy it's great: "Prize Patrol," a group of four or five leaders, get together and surprise their coworkers with flowers or a gift in front of their colleagues to celebrate their accomplishments.

What employees say: "Nearly everyone that I have encountered in this company goes above and beyond to do their very best to serve the client regardless of [their position] in the organization."

"I love the flexibility with scheduling and being able to purchase an extra week of time off."

17. General Mills Headquarters: USA Employees: 39,000 hy it's great: "Connect" is General Mills's internal global social networking site available to all General Mills employees.

It fosters connectedness and the exchange of ideas and interests among coworkers.

What employees say: "Incredibly caring company and very socially and environmentally responsible.

Absolutely the highest ethics.

Truly proud to be a part of this company and have been treated incredibly well."

(Source: businessinsider.com)

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 24

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fforts to repair infrastructure and restore livelihoods destroyed by Nigeria’s recent flooding – the worst in five decades – require urgent funding and will take six months or longer, say aid agencies. Flooding between July and October affected 7 million people, displaced 2.1 million and killed 363, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

“Never before has there been a disaster of this scale or magnitude,” said Oxfam’s deputy regional humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria, Dierdre McArdle. “Finding partners who have the capacity to deal with it is challenging.”

President Goodluck Jonathan is channelling $110m (£70m) to the 33 affected states. He set up a committee on flood relief and rehabilitation, and held a fundraising event on Monday. But he was late to declare a state of emergency, which many observers and some aid agencies say slowed the response and hampered coordination.

“Assessments were delayed. The scale of it is enormous … We had a lack of data, so no one has known how many were affected until now … There is a lack of technical knowledge on

PAGE 25

Floodwaters recede but millions remain displaced and hungry Nigeria's worst flooding in five decades has affected millions of people, as a food crisis and the threat of diseases looms emergency response here,” said McArdle.

Plan insufficient Olusoji Adebowale Adeniyi, of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), told IRIN the scale of the disaster caught everyone off-guard. “It is because it is so vast that it could not be addressed quickly,” he said, adding that the government has a disaster preparedness plan in place, but that it addresses the needs of 500,000 people rather than 2.1 million.

Co-ordination is now improving. The UN Office

for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has sent a small emergency response team to support Nema’s coordination of information on the flood’s impact, and a humanitarian country team is working with the government’s flood committee.

“We now have a plan to work to,” said Adeniyi. “We know what we need to do.”

He welcomed the funding from the government but noted that its disbursal has been delayed by bureaucracy.

Food needs A joint Nema, UN and Oxfam emergency response

conducted across 14 states called for $38m to address education, health, water, sanitation, food security and protection needs.

63% of those displaced in the 14 states are staying with family and friends; the rest are camping in temporary sites or public buildings such as schools.

Over half the schools in these states are unusable

“

Food prices in many flood-hit zones have risen by 30-70%, said survivors in Warri, a town in Delta State. A trader in Warri, Angela Ikede, told IRIN a bag of rice now sells for $70, up from $57, and a bag of gari, or tapioca flour, costs $44, up from $25. In the Delta State community of Iyede Ame, residents of Oleh camp complained that relief food is being intercepted by staff working in the makeshift kitchen

Nigerians move along a flooded road in Okpe, Nigeria. Heavy rains for weeks flooded most of the oil rich Niger delta region. Photograph: George Esiri/EPA

because of damage.

Agencies are particularly worried about food insecurity, which is estimated to be “severe or very severe” in 82% of the communities visited, said Ocha. People in most camps are receiving food rations, but these are irregular and do not meet international norms.

Food prices in many floodhit zones have risen by 3070%, said survivors in Warri, a town in Delta State.

A trader in Warri, Angela Ikede, told IRIN a bag of rice now sells for $70, up from $57, and a bag of gari, or tapioca flour, costs $44, up from $25. In the Delta State community of Iyede Ame, residents of Oleh camp complained that relief food is being intercepted by staff working in the makeshift kitchen.

Poor shelter conditions Around 2,000 displaced people in Warri are sheltering in a primary school, said chaplain Funge Owe. “The sleeping conditions in this camp are pathetic – most people sleep outside, which is infested with mosquitoes,” he told IRIN. Residents share just 20 toilets, he added.

Residents are demanding more police protection, and the assessment team has noted that camp layouts do not account for protection concerns. Thus far, there have been unconfirmed reports of 19 rapes in camps in Benue State, said Oxfam.

Almost all of the flooded communities in the 14 states lack clean water; residents rely on streams or open wells. With a cholera outbreak still persistent in west Africa, Oxfam’s McArdle says clean water and sanitation is a priority to avoid an outbreak.

Future uncertain The extent of the damage to this year’s harvest is not yet known, but Friends of the Earth in Bayelsa State called the impact “catastrophic to crops”. Nema’s southern coordinator, Emenike Umesi, said a post-disaster assessment on agriculture will be conducted with

partners as the floodwaters recede.

President of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, John Onuora, said the flood may cause a “massive Uturn” in the country’s strategy to boost agricultural production and to lower reliance on imported rice through tariffs.

Several agencies are delivering aid: Unicef has distributed hygiene kits to 250,000 people; Médecins sans Frontières is operating mobile health clinics; and the Nigerian Red Cross, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is helping 10,000 households in Adamawa, Taraba, Kogi, Bauchi, Katsina, Cross River, Jigawa, Benue and Edo states, mainly with shelter, hygiene materials and non-food items.

Culled from London’s The Guardian

Flooded farm

Children wading through flood water

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012 08028402920 sbejike@gmail.com

The CJN needs time to look into petition against Justice Jombo-Offor before taking action, says Barrister Wahab Shittu handle some other cases, and, so you find out that their case schedule is very congested most of the times. Given the fact that corruption is the single most potent factor against our developmental aspirations, we need to now see it as a fundamental objectives that all of us must enlist to. One way is for us to establish special courts.

Beyond establishing these special courts, is to ensure that those who will man these special courts are people who are driven by integrity, knowledge, experience, exposure, most importantly is integrity. What is lacking in the conduct of our public and private affairs is the absence integrity and this is the most singular factor that has caused indiscipline and corruption. If we strengthen our institutions, we strengthen our systems, we strengthen our ethical and moral values, we also strengthen our societal traditions and our societal behaviours; we will be able to sanitize our judicial system. It is then that our judicial system will be able to embrace service delivery quality, forestall delays, avoid unnecessary technicalities and generally enhance the quality of the process.

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

W

hat will you say on the Justice Sector R e f o r m Programme of the Federal Government?

The Justice Sector Reform Programme of the Federal Government should be appreciated upon the background that the justice reform process is a continuous one. Given the dynamics of the society, there is the need to take into cognizance, emerging issues and contemporary matters as they emerge. I think the focus of the reform process ought to be on service delivery quality to avoid delays in the administration of justice and the need to ensure and strengthen the integrity of the process. When you are talking of integrity of the process, you are talking of a holistic reform package that would address the needs and limitations of all stakeholders, including judges, lawyers, registrars, court officials and other agencies that are critical to the Achievement of justice like the police, the prisons, legal aids, the federal ministry of justice, the various ministries of justice. In a democratic society, you are also looking at other arms of government, such as the executive arm and also the legislative arm, all of these people must enlist and collaborate in the reform package for us to have an efficient, effective and justice driven administration of justice.

Some of us who have been following matters in court know that you are versed as far as criminal prosecution is concerned, what is your overview assessment of criminal prosecution in the country?

My overview assessment of criminal prosecution in the country is that it is bedeviled with a lot of in adequacies. Frankly speaking, all the major stakeholders have a share of the blame. I want to say that lawyers on the side of prosecution have the share of the blame.

Lawyers for the defense also have the share of the blame.

Some of the Judges on the bench also have the share of the blame.

Those who are charged with the responsibility of investigating offences at the level of the police and anti-graft agencies also have a share of the blame.

The blame largely centers on corruption, integrity and delays in the administration of justice.

You can see that all of these stakeholders that have a role to play are guilty of one role or the other. It is either an untidy prosecution on the part of defense counsel, through unnecessary and frivolous applications to quash charges or even judges who granted unnecessary adjournments or who are not really in control of the proceedings. All of these people have one blames or the

Senate President David Mark

Barrister Wahab Shittu other.

The best way to deliver on the kind of expectations that all of us desire is for us to put in place control mechanism, to monitor the activities of all these stakeholders. In other words, if you are a prosecution for the state, your activities must be monitored in other to find out whether you are doing your job effectively or you are compromising the assignment given to you so that if found guilty, you can be penalized. If you are a defense counsel and you are seen to have gone beyond loyalty; because you have loyalty first to the profession, once you are seen subverting the ethics, there should be a mechanism to bring you to book. And then our judges too who are presiding over these cases, must be closely monitored in other to find out whether they are subverting

justice or upholding the tenets of justice. In other words, outside the judicial mechanism, there must be a mechanism to monitor the activities of everybody, so that at the end of the day, you know that you are under search light and so you cannot afford to the treat your professional duties with negligence.

It is in this view that there have been calls for separate courts to handle Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) matters, what is your take on this?

Well, calls for separate courts to handle EFCC matters arise out of the realities that we all know.

One, the judges who are saddled with the responsibilities of handling corruption cases also

“

I think the action of the CJN of the federation should be viewed with understanding. I don't think we should see her action amounting to a refusal to swear-in Justice Jombo-Offor. I think that the office that the Chief Justice of the federation holds is one that places an onerous responsibility on the holder of the office to be circumspect before taking a decision.

In view of all these, do you think the country is succeeding in the fight against corruption?

Nigeria is making some little progress in the fight against corruption because we are mistaken as to the approach that we should adopt in the fight against corruption. The view in the market place in Nigeria is that the fight against corruption can only be fought and won by antigraft agencies alone. I said no.

Corruption is very pervasive. It is derived from Latin verb corruptors, which is a breakdown. There is a general breakdown in the society, which means if we want to restore and enhance the quality of our society, then all of us must enlist, not just the anti-graft agencies.

In fact the anti-graft agencies must be monitored so that they can deliver on their mandate.

The civil societies, labour unions, professional groups, market women, everybody must be able to see, say and do something. Indeed, all of us must serve as watchdog. We don't have to surrender the business of fighting corruption to the anticorruption agencies alone and then you fold your hands when they are not doing what they are supposed to do. You have to protest in other to put them on their toes, carry out independent investigation in other to find out whether they are fulfilling their mandate. It is because we have tended to concentrate the fight against corruption on the antigraft agencies alone that is why there are the pervasive views in the market place that we are not making progress. But if we adopt a more holistic attitude towards

the fight against corruption and all of us are enlist in the fight, it is then that we will be able to sanitise our society.

One development in the nation's judiciary recently is the swearing-in of Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Offor along with other eleven Justices of the Appeal Court by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma Mukthtar on November 5, 2012, something happened along the line, and her name was dropped‌ (Cuts in) I think I have read a lot of criticism, comments over the issue which is very unfortunate.

I think the action of the CJN of the federation should be viewed with understanding. I don't think we should see her action amounting to a refusal to swearin Justice Jombo-Offor. I think that the office that the Chief Justice of the federation holds is one that places an onerous responsibility on the holder of the office to be circumspect before taking a decision.

If people raise petition against anybody, whether frivolous or meritorious, you are entitle to consider the petition, investigate the petition and find out whether the petition is of any utility value before taking any action. Am aware that the CJN didn't just stop the taking of oath, there was a petition and she needed time to look into the merit of that petition before taking an action. I believe that if she finds out at the end of the day that the petition has no merit, she will do what is proper by also swearing-in Justice Jombo -Offor.

Beyond that, upon looking at some of the issues that have been raised on the pages on the newspapers, that she was denied, were all speculations, assuming that the reason why the petition was written is anchored on the fact that she was assuming the state of origin of her husband and to that extent, she was not entitled, I think that will be wrong because that will defect the constitutional provision that no person should be discriminated against on account of his race, ethnicity, religion, tribal affiliation, whatever. Even that law will be offensive against the spirit of the constitution; because the constitution is supposed to be the organic law, which is supreme. So, all issues of federal character; indeed, in the appointment of justices, what should matter is competence, integrity, performance as well as knowledge of the law, not sentimental considerations.

I cannot begin now to speculate whether that was the only reason why that petition was written or there are some other reasons unknown to us. Let's awaits the outcome of investigations and see how the Chief Justice proceeds in this battle.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

T

he Federal Government says it will ensure access to internet technology for the socio-economic growth of the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan gave the assurance at the University of Ibadan 2012 Convocation and 64th Foundation Day Ceremonies held at the International Conference Centre of the institution.

Represented by the Minister of Education, Prof.

RuquayyatuRufa’i, Jonathan reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to support agriculture and Information Technology.

The President said the development would create millions of jobs for the teeming youths.

“Let me use this medium to restate my government’s commitment to building a digital economy, where technology will drive government, education and

PAGE 27

FG pledges commitment to technology as UI graduates 262 Ph.D holders private business,” he said.

Jonathan enjoined the graduating students to use the knowledge acquired to groom the economy and other people.

The Vice chancellor, Prof. Isaac Adewole, in his speech urged the Federal Government to establish a special rehabilitation funds to be used in upgrading facilities within the institution.

Adewole explained that the funds should be made to run for five years if the university was to regain its glory.

He said a total of 262

candidates, spread over 11 Faculties and two institutes graduated.

The VC said the candidates would be awarded the Doctor of Philosophy Degrees with the Faculty of Education leading with 74 candidates.

He explained that the rest were Faculty of science with 44 candidates and Agriculture and Forestry with 35.

Adewole said that the university was committed to creating and funding post -doctoral fellowships, adding that N100

million would be set aside for the initiative.

Chief WoleOlanipekun (SAN), Pro-Chancellor of the University, Said there was the need for better funding of all the country’s Universities if they were to be better players in the provision of tertiary education.

“Nigerian Universities have been lagging behind for quite some time now, bluntly but respectfully put, the University of Ibadan is being under-funded.

“I align myself to the plea for adequate funding of our

universities, it is also my passionate plea to government at various levels in this country to properly fund education,’’ he said.

The university conferred honorary Doctor of Literature, letters and Science on Prof. Festus Ade-Ajayi, former ViceChancellor, University of Lagos.

Others conferred with similar honors are Prof. Adetowun Ogunseye, Prof. chukwuka Okonjo and Prof. Umaru Shehu, former Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and Bayero University, Kano. (NAN)

Students commend Katsina govt on scholarships From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina

T

he National Association of Katsina State Students, (NAKASS) has commended Katsina state governor, Barrister Ibrahim ShehuShema over the release of N470 million for the payment of scholarship to the state’s students.

The acting chairman of the association, Comrade AminuKabir Dan-Kanjiba who made the commendation while addressing newsmen over the weekend in Katsina, noted that the payment for continuing students has commenced since the end of October.

Dan-Kanjiba similarly stressed that with the assurance they received from government, the payment of fresh students would soon commence, calling on all affected students to be patient as according to him ‘no eligible student would be left out’.

The chairman also commended the commitment of the administration of Governor Shema over what he said was its total commitment to the total implementation of free education and uplifting facilities in its schools.

He stated that with the current harsh economic condition in the country there was the need for the state government to consider the possibility of increasing the allowances which he said ‘would assist students to pay their school fees’.

Dan-Kanjiba called on the state government to consider the option of e-payment to replace the current system as a way of easing the rigours encountered during the payment.

The chairman praised the state government for appointing a seasoned educationist, AlhajiShehu Muhammad to head the state scholarship board while acknowledging the efforts of the state’s Commissioner of Youth, AlhajiMannirTalba and the adviser on Higher Education, Alhaji AliyuHarunaJani for their support to students in the state.

L-R: Acting Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Professsor Charles Onocha, Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike and representative of Learn Africa Publishers, Abeen Emmanuel, during the Minister's meeting with publishers of Federal Government UBEC free textbooks, on Friday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-owo

We need to preserve our culture, identity, says Don

By Muhammad Nasir

P

arent have been call upon to encourage their children to participate actively in learning their culture as a way to preserving it in their daily life’s.

The call was made at the weekend by the Director, Department of Policy and Implementation,Dr. Emmanuel Aina, who represented the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, AlhajiBala Mohammed at New Capital School Asokoro, Abuja.

Aina noted that both parents and children need to live a legacy by identifying with Nigeria’s

culture that will showcase their identity in the community of other nation, adding that culture is made up of material things which we can see and give us our identity such as our national symbols and other things that is indigenous to Nigeria, while the non-material aspect of culture are our value, moral and attitudes which are very important and the needs to inculcate it to children.

“Very soon, we will be having Abuja carnival which will display the variety of Nigeria’s culture. I think we need that constant reminder that we have an identity, and we need to

preserve it. Even onto our younger generation. The society has a lot to benefits from our culture,”Aina noted.

Meanwhile, Ralph Okeke, Anambra East/west federal constituency, representing Senator Smart Adeyemi,said parents should encourage their children to participate in this type of activities because it will help them to remember their culture and to be able to speak their language effectively.

“I am very impress because at a time we became worried that Nigeria’s culture is dying especially people from the eastern part of the country; the Igbos.But

Arabic, Islamic Studies Board wants grant for financial autonomy

T

he National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) has appealed to the Federal Ministry of Education to give it a take-off grant to make it fully financially autonomous.

A Professor of Arabic studies, RasheedAbubakar of University of Ilorin, made the request on Friday in a public lecture, titled “NBAIS: A legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna”.

The event was organised as

part of activities marking the 50 th anniversary of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

Abubakar said the grant would make the board financially buoyant and more efficient and highly recognised.

He also recommended that the Federal Government should support NBAIS with a minimum of one Federal Government College that would run the curriculum of the board in all relevant states of the federation.

He also asked the Federal Government to convert all colleges and institutes of Arabic and Islamic studies to universities to enable them to discharge their functions effectively.

The Vice-Chancellor of ABU, Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, said NBAIS had over 400 schools nationwide that had responsibility to maintain standards in the teaching of Arabic and Islamic studies. (NAN)

today, I saw the children displaying various culture of the country,”Okeke affirmed.

However, the Assistant Director of New Capital School OnuOmata, noted that each individual has a peculiar understanding of the meaning and importance of culture, adding that cultural awareness becomes a subject of interest because people of diverse backgrounds must live and work together.

He said, through cultural awareness, children can acquire better language skills and interest in the arts, geography, history and the sciences.

“There is shared bond in cultural similarity but communicating cultural awareness early in the youths helps them to develop respect for people from other cultural backgrounds,”Okeke noted.

He said education remains the most important tool for inculcating cultural awareness in youths, adding that New Capital School Asokoro proudly epitomises Nigeria’s unity in diversity.

However, a mini stadium was unveiled by the board of directors and the management of team of the School to hosts sports competitions such as football, athletics and future cultural events when completed.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Female enrolment in FCT mass education programme outways men’s W hat is the current literacy level of the indigence?

The literacy level of the indigence is quiet high, right now we are moving into different communities and the total number of literate people is tremendous in the FCT because of the influx of people into the FCT on daily basis and I believe with time we will get up to or above 50 percent of the population that are becoming literate. Looking at the number which is according to Area Councils, as at December last year, we have 17, 722,000 enrolment, among them 5, 480 are male while the women represent 12, 269. We have already started computing this years’ figure.

What are the strategies you implore in achieving your goals?

The strategies we implore at this level is to ensure that we have a mobilisation and monitoring division that go round the nooks and crannies of the FCT to certify that the illiterate come out to receive the training.

Again, we have different methodologies we adopt such as the use of radio programme to reach the habitants of the FCT which we distribute to the learners and the chiefs of the villages, once the programme is on they are around and again they have primers they use to read and write because they are taught through that process.

We also ensure that our facilitators who are about two to three at each of the centres are there all the time to ensure that whenever the students need assistance, the facilitators are there to render it. We make sure that the primers are always available so that they refer to the text books they use especially where there are pictures; this is for them to understand what the pictures mean. We also meet with the Area Council Chairmen at our zonal level to seek for their assistance whenever there is the need. For instance, the Bwari Area council chairman assisted us with the printing of high marks in large number and provided us with some radio sets which were distributed to the learners within the area council.

There is the process of classification, a process through which an illiterate or someone who cannot read or write is identified particularly when we come to classify them for the literacy by radio programme where we give them papers to write something down before grouping them according to their literacy

Musa Mai Kasuwa Yakubu is the Director FCT Agency for Mass Education. In this interview with Maryam Garba Hassan, he speaks on the literacy level of the indigence which he said is on the increase, the strategies the agency implore to achieve its goals, the programs they offer and the enrolment of women in the various programmes which according to him, more than that of the men among others.

Musa Mai Kasuwa Yakubu level of understanding. The next step is to prepare them for the programme.All communities have such people and our duty is to get them and educate all of them massively.

Mass education is not all about reading and writing but also about enlightenment of people on many things so that they become part of the society they live.

Have you put in place any infrastructure facility at the centres because some of these programmes still operatie under trees?

We don’t have any serious problem with infrastructural facilities this is because the agency do not have formal schools because it is only in charge of non -formal education so, the structures we use are the ones used by the formal sector. Sometimes we use the community’s primary and junior secondary schools as well as the chief palaces and community halls in the villages and towns where we

need to educate the people.

Where we do not have our own structures, the women use the Chief‘s house for their skills acquisition programme but we always emphasise on having our own structure in all the villages we have centres. The FCT government is trying her best to ensure that there are infrastructural facilities at every centre. We have zonal offices in all the area councils of the FCT and these are facilities that are to some extent a little bit adequate but our

problem at the moment is lack of space to put more structure for our learners. We have lots of programmes we are running ranging from skills acquisition, women programmes and the literacy programme such as basic literacy, post literacy and continue education and for the vocational section we also have a lot of programmes.

The major challenge we have is lack of teachers in all the specialised areas. We do not even have them that is why we encourage HND certificate

“

Our literacy by radio programme is one of the best in the country because they are apt and consistent though the funding is one challenge that we have in that area but we are going to surmount it gradually as we have been able to capture it in the 2013 budget

holders to go for skills acquisition courses.

How do you relate with your sister agency at the national level?

We relate well with them.

Most of their programs are watered down to the state and it is exactly what they do there that we implement here. The policy decisions that are taken at the national level are what we implement at the agency.

They contribute to some extent in giving us some curriculum content as well as books and where we need assistance we write to them.

What will you consider as an achievement of the agency since inception?

We have achieved so much because other states come to appreciate most of FCT programmes and the strategies we adopt and use. We make sure that our literacy by radio programme is one of the best in the country because they are apt and consistent though the funding is one challenge that we have in that area but we are going to surmount it gradually as we have been able to capture in the 2013 budget.

When we come to skills acquisition programme, must villagers are now attracted to our ptogrammes because we invite them to it without any financial attachment. We do not ask them to pay too much money to be part of the programme but if anyone has learning skills then of course, he or she must be able to pay for some of the facilities he is going to use. Those are the only charges under our programmes order wise everything in our programme is free.

We have achieved a lot in Girls child education and women programme,more women now come into the programme because they are becoming more enlightened.

In what way can you say the mass literacy programme has contributed to the overall socio economic and political development of the FCT? Once you have an educated polity you have a better society.

Adults that are in this areas and not educated to some extent are those ones that are been deceived by the educated elites but when you are literate then it makes you a socialise individual.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 29

Examining health implications of red meat consumption

By OlayemiOkeniyi

I

n virtually all situations, festivities provide an electric mix of social interactions and pleasantries, which often involve exchange of food, meat inclusive.

Ramadan, Easter, Christmas and New Year celebrations present occasions for people to eat different types of meat in the mood of the season.

On such occasions, the prices of essential commodities, including meat, usually shoot up due to the abrupt increase in people’s demand for them.

Observers, however, note that the sudden increase in the demand for meat logically provokes a corresponding increase in supply without due consideration for the health of the animals being traded and slaughtered.

The seasonal increase in demand for meat and animals in markets across the country is typified by the recent Eid-elKabir celebration in October.

MrOnyekwere Anthony, a meat seller at the Garki Model Market, Abuja, confirmed that there was a sharp increase in the people’s demand for meat during the festivity.

“Although there was no marked increase in the price of beef during the Sallah, we, however, slaughtered more cows to enable us to have enough meat to sell and meet the people’s increased demand,’’ he said.

Anthony, however, conceded that there was always a huge demand for meat by certain customers such as hoteliers, operators of gardens and parks, restaurateurs and sellers of alcoholic drinks such as beer.

Festival or no festival, the people’s demand for meat appears somewhat insatiable, forcing some of the meat suppliers to care less about whether their products are wholesome or not.

The insatiable lust of most people for meat and meaty cuisines has been a source of concern to medical experts and dieticians who have expressed some worry about the health implications of uncontrolled consumption of red meat.

Red meat in traditional culinary terminology is meat which is red when raw, and not white when cooked Red meat includes, beef, goat meat or mutton and meat of most adult mammals and some fowl such as ducks.

In a recent interview with a newspaper in Ibadan, DrGboyegaAkere, a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, said that improperly cooked meat could

cause diarrhoea.

“Intolerance occurs when the body is unable to process the proteins found in red meat and because the proteins remain undigested, it causes inflammation and irritation to the lining of the intestines,’’ he added.

From the general to the specifics, many studies have established a connection between the consumption of red and some diseases. For example, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund insist that there is convincing evidence that red meat intake increases the risk for colorectal cancer.

Prof. Sheila Bingman of the Dunn Human Nutrition Unit attributes this to haemoglobin and myoglobin molecules which are found in red meat, saying that these molecules, when ingested, trigger a process called nitrosation in the gut, which leads to the formation of carcinogens.

Others have suggested that the nitrosation is due to the presence of carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines, which are created in the cooking process.

A 2011 study of 17,000 individuals found that people consuming the most grilled and well-done meat had a 56 and 59 per cent higher rate of

contracting some kinds of cancer.

Besides, there are suggestive evidence that red meat intake increases the risk of contracting esophageal, lung, pancreatic and endometrial cancer.

Experts, therefore, recommend limiting intake of red meat to less than 300g (11 oz) cooked weight per week, “very little, if any of which to be processed’’.

Some studies have also linked consumption of large amounts of red meat with breast cancer, stomach cancer, lymphoma, bladder cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer (although other studies have found no relationship between red meat and prostate cancer).

Several studies have associated red meat consumption with cardiovascular diseases possibly because of its high content of saturated fat.

However, increased beef intake is specifically associated with ischemic heart disease.

Red meat consumption is also associated with acute coronary syndrome as well as stroke, while it has also been associated with greater intimamedia thickness, an indicator of atherosclerosis.

A 2008 article published in Nature, an international weekly scientific journal, found that red meat consumption was “strongly associated’’ with

increased odds of acute coronary syndrome, with those eating more than eight servings of red meat per month being 4.9 times more likely to have cardiac events than those eating less than four servings per month.

The diseases and health implications induced by red meat consumption appears endless, forcing many experts to question the wisdom in eating red meat when there are more wholesome alternatives that are available for consumption.

The experts, however, single out goat meat as a wholesome variant of red meat. This, according to Desert Viking Ranch, an online publication, is because goat meat is an extremely healthy red meat, low in calories, fats and cholesterol, while it accounts for approximately 63 per cent of all red meat consumed worldwide.

Explaining the linkage between red meat and diseases, Prof. Frank Hu, a nutritionist at Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S., said that red meat, especially the processed one, contained certain chemicals that were associated with chronic diseases.

Hu is one of the leaders of a study team that studied a sample group of more than 100,000 people over several decades. Their findings were published in the Archives of

Internal Medicine.

The team posited that the chance of dying was 12 per cent higher for every extra serving of red meat which the persons in the sample group ate each day.

“The results are not really surprising because previous studies have found that the consumption of red meat is linked to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers,’’ Hu said.

Currently, there is a global campaign to sensitise the people to the dangers of eating too much red meat, especially at a later stage in life, while in Nigeria, the citizens are gradually being sensitised to the myriad health implications of red meat consumption. A nongovernmental organisation, Vegan Society, suggests that a total abstinence from eating red meat is somewhat desirable because it will preserve certain animal species from going into extinction, while aiding the eradication of some diseases.A vegan or vegetarian never eats meat or any animal product such as milk, butter, or cheese.HajiyaJummai Hassan, a nutritionist at the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, supports the vegans’ viewpoint, saying that the people should consider adopting a vegetarian diet to guard against certain n o n - c o m m u n i c a b l e diseases.Hassan said: “It’s not that you cannot be healthy if you eat meat, you can, of course, but meat is not the best.

However, a vegan diet can be more beneficial.“It reduces a person’s risk of contracting cancer, while preventing diabetes and diseases in the colon because of the high fibrecontent of vegetarian meals. It also protects the body against constipation and irregular bowel movements, while improving a person’s quality of life.”Hassan stressed that vegans were not missing anything by abstaining from eating meat and animal byproducts.

“The daily recommended protein that you need in the body can be obtained from plant protein,’’ she added. The nutritionist expatiated that some people were not healthy because they ingested the wrong diet. “Many people do not know how to go about picking and cooking the right kind of vegetables to maintain a balanced diet,’’ she, however, said.Many experts, therefore, urge the people to gradually switch to vegan diets, while avoiding fatty meats.They also stress the need for the people to make conscious efforts to cut down the quantity of red meat they consume because of the health implications of eating red meat.

Source: NAN

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C

an you name a ready-made food which is easy to chew, gets digested equally fast (so that it is a beneficial to the elderly and to infants);it is cheap and available all through the year. To top it all, it is tasty?

That is our very own banana, a fruit which is a complete food in itself,so it is worth understanding the health benefits and nutrition facts of bananas.

Though its origin is disputed, the banana most likely originated in Asia and perhaps India. Here it is abundantly grown in States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Assam. There are about 60-75 varieties of the banana throughout the world, Assam alone can boast of about 15 varieties. Abroad, the fruit is produced in the Caribbean islands; Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand.

A special quality that can be attributed to this fruit is its protective covering which apparently does not allow the edible portion to get contaminated by insecticides and lethal sprays, unlike fruit such as the apple which is susceptible to the aforementioned.

Nutritional facts of Bananas Bananas contain some vitamin A and vitamin C, besides having proteins which include 3 essential amino acids.

A ripe banana can make you richer by 100 calories. Low in fats and cholesterol, rich in essential fatty acids and iron and full of natural fruit sugar, the banana is 70% water which facilitates the cleaning of the large intestines. The pectin present in it makes it bad for constipation and good for you.

Banana has a low sodium content but high medicinal value. Say boo to all those who forbid obese people to eat bananas apparently because they are a rich source of carbohydrates. In fact, it is quite popular with athletes for its quick conversion into energy.

The ripe banana also has glucose, but because it is a low calorie, low fat, low cholesterol and low sodium food, it is well suited to people suffering from obesity or dropsy, a disease in which watery fluid collects in the body tissues. Such people are unable to utilize the sodium in the foods they eat. As a result, it gets accumulated in the tissues causing them to be overweight because of its tendency to attract fluids.

The banana is also suitable for those who are allergic to certain foods because its protein contains only benign amino acids, unlike other protein foods whose amino acids could cause allergic reactions like skin irritations, digestive problems or even asthma.

Children suffering from malnutrition or those with symptoms like loss of appetite and weight dislike for food, diarrhea, anemia or intestinal pain, can be immensely benefited by taking bananas. It is remarkably good for those

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Understanding the health benefits of banana

children who vomit frequently as the fruit is easily assimilated into the body and is tasty to boot.

People suffering from duodenal or gastric ulcers can also be benefited by its medicinal qualities. Bananas neutralize the over acidity of the gastric juices, thereby soothing the lining of the stomach.

In the case of digestive ailments like constipation, diarrhea, colitis, ulcerative colitis and spastic constipation, bananas ensure normal bowel

movements. Pectin with its water- absorbing capacity provides bulkiness in the absence of irritating foods.

Health benefits of Bananas Again, the banana is a gentle laxative and is also bland. This wonder fruit also changes the harmful putrefactive type of bacteria into beneficial ones.

What’s more, the banana-alone diet is also known to terminate uremia, a toxic condition of the blood due to kidney

malfunctioning.

Cardiac patients, take heart.

With low sodium, low f at and low cholesterol, bananas are just what you need. Here are some important health benefits of Bananas: • Eat bananas; you will never be a diabetes patient.

• Banana mixed with cards is an excellent antidote to loose motions.

• Banana kills the worms in the stomach and intestines, if taken regularly.

• Bananas cure anemia, a condition commonly found in women. Eat the fruit and watch tiredness and fatigue vanish. Its abundant iron content makes it excellent for expecting mothers.

• If the skin gets burnt, apply mashed banana on the same for instant relief.

• Banana mixed with rose water is an excellent face mask.

It smoothen the skin so well that you can actually tell the difference.

• The juice of raw bananas is very beneficial to the facial skin when applied externally.

Other uses of Bananas Be it raw or ripe, the banana is ever useful. Raw banana can be used to prepare sumptuous dishes like curries, snacks like cutlets and pakoras and even raitas. Children relish banana milk shakes and ice-creams.

It is maintained that bananas should not be eaten in a semi-ripe condition. Keep them at room temperature but avoid keeping other fruits or even flowers by their side. Ripe bananas exude ethene gas which accelerates the ripening of other fruits or flowers.

The banana is an ancient fruit and is considered auspicious, according to Indian mythology.

Perhaps our ancestors knew well its innumerable qualities. Banana also finds mention in the Vedas.

Even today, no holy work is considered complete without bananas. So, next time you go shopping, you know what not to forget money and bananas! www.healthtips.com

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 31

The latest Gaza catastrophe ANALYSIS

By Richard Falk

T

he media double standards in the West on the new and tragic Israeli escalation of violence directed at Gaza were epitomised by an absurdly partisan New York Times front page headline: "Rockets Target Jerusalem; Israel girds for Gaza Invasion" (NYT, Nov 16, 2012).

Decoded somewhat, the message is this: Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel when and if it launches a ground attack on Gaza must expect itself to be further attacked by rockets. This is a stunningly Orwellian re-phrasing of reality.

The true situation is, of course, quite the opposite: Namely, that the defenseless population of Gaza can be assumed now to be acutely fearful of an all out imminent Israeli assault, while it is also true, without minimising the reality of a threat, that some rockets fired from Gaza fell harmlessly (although with admittedly menacing implications) on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There is such a gross disproportion in the capacity of the two sides to inflict damage and suffering due to Israeli total military dominance as to make perverse this reversal of concerns to what might befall Israeli society if the attack on Gaza further intensifies.

The reliance by Hamas and the various Gaza militias on indiscriminate, even if wildly inaccurate and generally harmless, rockets is a criminal violation of international humanitarian law, but the low number of casualties caused and the minor damage caused, needs to be assessed in the overall context of massive violence inflicted on the Palestinians. The widespread nonWestern perception of the new cycle of violence involving Gaza is that it looks like a repetition of Israeli aggression against Gaza in late 2008, early 2009, that similarly fell between the end of American presidential elections and scheduled Israeli parliamentary elections.

There is the usual discussion over where to locate responsibility for the initial act in this renewed upsurge violence. Is it some shots fired from Gaza across the border and aimed at an armoured Israeli jeep or was it the targeted killing by an Israeli missile of Ahmed Jabari, leader of the military wing of Hamas, a few days later? Or some other act by one side or the other? Or is it the continuous violence against the people of Gaza arising from the blockade that has been imposed since mid-2007?

The assassination of Jabari came a few days after an informal truce that had been negotiated through the good offices of Egypt, and quite ironically agreed to by none other than Jabari acting on behalf of Hamas. Killing him was clearly intended as a major provocation, disrupting a carefully negotiated effort to avoid another tit-for-tat sequence of violence of the sort that has periodically taken place during the last several years.

An assassination of such a high

Palestinians being dug out from the rubbles as a result of Israel assault profile Palestinian political figure as Jabari is not a spontaneous act.

It is based on elaborate surveillance over a long period, and is obviously planned well in advance partly with the hope of avoiding collateral damage, and thus limiting unfavourable publicity. Such an extra-judicial killing, although also part and parcel of the new American ethos of drone warfare, remains an unlawful tactic of conflict, denying adversary political leaders separated from combat any opportunity to defend themselves against accusations, and implies a rejection of any disposition to seek a peaceful resolution of a political conflict. It amounts to the imposition of capital punishment without due process, a denial of elementary rights to confront an accuser.

Putting aside the niceties of law, the Israeli leadership knew exactly what it was doing when it broke the truce and assassinated such a prominent Hamas leader, someone generally thought to be second only to the Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniya. There have been rumours, and veiled threats, for months that the Netanyahu government plans a major assault of Gaza, and the timing of the ongoing attacks seems to coincide with the dynamics of Israeli internal politics, especially the traditional Israeli practice of shoring up the image of toughness of the existing leadership in Tel Aviv as a way of inducing Israeli citizens to feel fearful, yet protected, before casting their ballots.

In the background, but not very far removed from the

understanding of observers, are two closely related developments. The first is the degree to which the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements has made it unrealistic to suppose that a viable Palestinian state will ever emerge from direct negotiations.

The second, underscored by the recent merger of Netanyahu and Lieberman forces, is the extent to which the Israeli governing process has indirectly itself irreversibly embraced the vision of Greater Israel encompassing all of Jerusalem and most of the West Bank.

The fact that world leaders in the West keep repeating the mantra of peace through direct negotiations is either an expression of the grossest incompetence or totally bad faith.

At minimum, Washington and the others calling for the resumption of direct negotiations owe it to all of us to explain how it will be possible to establish a Palestinian state within 1967 borders when it means the displacement of most of the 600,000 armed settlers now defended by the Israeli army, and spread throughout occupied Palestine. Such an explanation would also have to show why Israel is being allowed to quietly legalise the 100 or so "outposts", settlements spread around the West Bank that had been previously unlawful even under Israeli law.

Such moves toward legalisation deserve the urgent attention of all those who continue to proclaim their faith in a two-state solution, but instead are ignored.

This brings us back to Gaza and Hamas. The top Hamas leaders have made it abundantly clear over and

“

over again that they are open to permanent peace with Israel if there is a total withdrawal to the 1967 borders (22 percent of historic Palestine) and the arrangement is supported by a referendum of all Palestinians living under occupation.

Israel, with the backing of Washington, takes the position that Hamas as "a terrorist organisation" that must be permanently excluded from the procedures of diplomacy, except of course when it serves Israel's purposes to negotiate with Hamas.

It did this in 2011 when it negotiated the prisoner exchange in which several hundred Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of the Israel soldier captive, Gilad Shalit, or when it seems convenient to take advantage of Egyptian mediation to establish temporary ceasefires.

As the celebrated Israeli peace activist and former Knesset member, Uri Avnery, reminds us a cease-fire in Arab culture, hudna in Arabic, is considered to be sanctified by Allah, has tended to be in use and faithfully observed ever since the time of the Crusades. Avnery also reports that up to the time he was assassinated, Jabari was in contact with Gershon Baskin of Israel, seeking to explore prospects for a long-term ceasefire that was reported to Israeli leaders, who unsurprisingly showed no interest.

There is a further feature of this renewal of conflict involving attacks on Gaza. Israel sometimes insists that since it is no longer, according to its claims, an occupying power, it is in a state of war with a Hamas governed

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

Gaza. But if this were to be taken as the proper legal description of the relationship between the two sides, then Gaza would have the rights of a combatant, including the option to use proportionate force against Israeli military targets. As earlier argued, such a legal description of the relationship between Israel and Gaza is unacceptable. Gaza remains occupied and essentially helpless, and Israel as occupier has no legal or ethical right to engage in war against the people and government of Gaza, which incidentally was elected in internationally monitored free elections in early 2006.

On the contrary, its overriding obligation as Occupier is to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Even if casualty figures in the present violence are so far low as compared with Operation Cast Lead, the intensity of air and sea strikes against the helpless people of Gaza strikes terror in the hearts and minds of every person living in the Strip, a form of indiscriminate violence against the spirit and mental health of an entire people that cannot be measured in blood and flesh, but by reference to the traumatising fear that has been generated.

We hear many claims in the West as to a supposed decline in international warfare since the collapse of the Soviet Union twenty years ago. Such claims are to some extent a welcome development, but the people of the Middle East have yet to benefit from this trend, least of all the people of Occupied Palestine, and of these, the people of Gaza are suffering the most acutely. This spectacle of one-sided war in which Israel decides how much violence to unleash, and Gaza waits to be struck, firing off militarily meaningless salvos of rockets as a gesture of resistance, represents a shameful breakdown of civilisation values.

These rockets do spread fear and cause trauma among Israeli civilians even when no targets are struck, and represent an unacceptable tactic. Yet such unacceptability must be weighed against the unacceptable tactics of an Israel that holds all the cards in the conflict.

It is truly alarming that now even the holiest of cities, Jerusalem, is threatened with attacks, but the continuation of oppressive conditions for the people of Gaza, inevitably leads to increasing levels of frustration, in effect, cries of help that world has ignored at its peril for decades. These are survival screams! To realise this is not to exaggerate! To gain perspective, it is only necessary to read a recent UN Report that concludes that the deterioration of services and conditions will make Gaza uninhabitable by 2020.

Completely aside from the merits of the grievances on the two sides, one side is militarily omnipotent and the other side crouches helplessly in fear. Such a grotesque reality passes under the radar screens of world conscience because of the geopolitical shield behind which Israel is given a free pass to do whatever it wishes. Such a circumstance is morally unendurable, and should be politically unacceptable. It needs to be actively opposed globally by every person, government, and institution of good will.

Source: Aljazeera

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 32

UN accuses Rwanda of leading DR Congo rebels UK suspends Uganda aid over corruption

B

ritain has suspended all financial aid to Uganda over a corruption scandal in which millions in donor funds were allegedly embezzled in the office of the prime minister, Amama Mbabazi.

Britain's international development department, or DFID, said in a statement on Friday that it was suspending development assistance immediately "as a result of initial evidence" from an ongoing audit.

Britain planned to give ÂŁ27m (about $42m) to the East African country this year.

Justine Greening, international development minister, said payments worth ÂŁ11.1m ($17.6m) that were due before the end of the financial year had been halted.

"Unless the government of Uganda can show that UK taxpayers' money is going towards helping the poorest people lift themselves out of poverty, this aid will remain frozen," the international development ministry said.

"We will expect repayment and administrative and criminal sanctions."

Britain, Denmark, Ireland and Norway had already suspended aid to the office of the prime minister following claims that staff funnelled 10m euros ($12.7m) from an aid programme into private accounts.

Mbabazi has expressed shock over the scandal, saying it must be investigated. However, some politicians have called for an inquiry into his role in the scam.

Uganda's auditor general reported last month that money intended to help develop areas devastated by the war against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had been stolen.

The report, released last month, said that the funds were lost through widespread fraud and embezzlement, with a network of officials perpetrating a scam in which some of the money was deposited into the private accounts of individuals.

The report documented numerous cases of forgery to justify fictitious expenses, and an accountant has since been taken to court over the scam.

A dozen Ugandan officials have been suspended pending investigations.

R

wanda's defence minister is commanding a rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that is being armed by Rwanda and Uganda, both of which sent troops to aid the insurgency in a deadly attack on UN peacekeepers, according to a UN report.

The UN Security Council's Group of Experts said in a confidential report that Rwanda and Uganda - despite their strong denials - continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in North Kivu province.

"Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23," said the 44-page report, which was seen by the Reuters news agency.

"Rwandan officials exercise overall command and strategic planning for M23," the report said. "Rwanda continues to violate the arms embargo through direct military support to M23 rebels, facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and facilitation of FARDC [Congolese army] desertions as well as the provision of arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice."

"While Rwandan officials coordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, Uganda's more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations," it said.

Minister of Defence General James Kabarebe (R), is at the centre of the allegations Bosco Ntaganda, a former Congolese general wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, controls the rebellion on the ground and M23 leader Sultani Makenga is in charge of operations and coordination with allied armed groups, the UN report said.

Both Ntaganda and Makenga "receive direct military orders

from RDF [Rwandan army] Chief of Defence staff General Charles Kayonga, who in turn acts on instructions from Minister of Defence General James Kabarebe," it said.

Nearly half a million people have been displaced due to the fighting.

M23 has proven so resilient that one senior UN diplomatic

source told Reuters that Rwanda has effectively "annexed" mineral-rich eastern Congo thanks to the rebel force.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said last month that the rebels had set up de facto administration in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, controlling the people and collecting taxes.

DR Congo rebels seize another town

R

ebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized another town after clashing with government troops backed by UN peacekeepers' helicopters.

The M23 fighters are said to be in a place called Monigi, 4km from Goma, increasing fears that they are advancing towards the oil-rich region's main city with the aim of capturing it.

The rebels said on Sunday that they have reached the "door" of Goma. "We're at the door... we are not in the city of Goma. It's not our ambition to

Members of the M23 rebel group

A

t least five people have been killed after a grenade destroyed a minibus in a Somali-dominated part of Nairobi, Kenyan security officials say.

Police said Sunday's blast in the capital's Eastleigh neighbourhood was probably caused by an explosive device.

Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi, reporting from the scene of the explosion, said here is a big population of Somalis in Eastleigh, adding that "it is very worrying because just last week there were two IED attacks in this neighbourhood", using the acronym for improvised explosive devices "I saw bodies ripped apart," a Reuters photographer who

take Goma. Nevertheless if (President Joseph) Kabila's army attacks us, we will pursue the enemy until it is repelled very far from Goma," Vianney Kazarama, a rebel spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

Nazanine Moshiri reporting from Nairobi, Kenya, also said that the rebels were "extremely close" to Goma.

"The rebels are actually 4km outside Goma. The airport is on that road...and if the rebels manage to take the airport, then Goma will fall to the rebels," she said.

Deaths reported in Kenya bus blast witnessed Sunday's blast.

Moses Ombati, Nairobi regional police commander, said a grenade had been thrown into the minibus, commonly referred to as matatus in Kenya.

He confirmed that five people had been killed, while the Kenya Red Cross said on its Twitter account that seven people had died and 24 had been taken to hospital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The force of the explosion tore apart the vehicle's roof and seats and shattered the window of a nearby cafe. Two other cars were damaged, the photographer said.

One of the injured being attended to by medical personnel

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Asia and Middle East

I

srael is continuing its assault on the Gaza Strip for a fifth straight day, bombarding the Palestinian enclave from both the air and sea.

Medical sources said three children were killed on Sunday. One of them was an 18-month-old killed in a air raid east of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, fighters in Gaza fired

PAGE 33

Israel pounds Gaza Strip from air and sea rockets into Israel. Two of them, aimed at the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, were shot down by Israel's anti-missile system, police said.

An air raid before dawn in Gaza

City targeted a building housing the offices of local Arab media, wounding several journalists from al-Quds television, a station Israel sees as a mouthpiece of the Hamas movement

which rules the Gaza Strip.

"At least six journalists were wounded, with minor and moderate injuries, when Israeli warplanes hit the al-Quds TV office in the Showa

and Housari building in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City," health ministry spokesman Ashraf alQudra told the AFP news agency, adding that one journalist lost his leg.

Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, and said journalists had evacuated after an initial strike, which was followed by at least two more on the site.

ASEAN Summit adopts human rights accord

S

Flame as Israeli rockets hit Gaza

outheast Asian leaders endorsed a controversial human rights pact on Sunday during an annual summit in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in which they also focused on bruising territorial rows and deadly unrest in Myanmar.

The summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which comprises of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei, hailed their declaration on human rights as a landmark agreement that would help protect the region's 600 million people.

"This certainly can be used to monitor the practice, the protection, the promotion of human rights here in the ASEAN countries," said ASEAN secretary

general Surin Pitsuwan.

But critics said it allowed too many loopholes for ASEAN, which groups together a diverse range of political systems, from authoritarian regimes in Laos and Vietnam to freewheeling democracies such as in the Philippines.

"Our worst fears in this process have now come to pass," said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

On the day the pact was signed, leaders were having discussions on China claiming virtually the entire South China sea, which spans vital shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in resources.

ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei also claim overlapping areas.

Over one million gather for rightwing leader, Bal Thackeray

T

Southeast Asian leaders at the meeting intertwine hands as a form of solidarity

he body of controversial Hindu nationalist politician Bal Thackeray has been cremated in Mumbai following a huge funeral.

Earlier hundreds of thousands of mourners filled the streets of the city as the body of Mr Thackeray was driven through the huge crowds.

Thackeray, who was 86, founded the right-wing Shiv Sena party and was revered by followers.

But he was also blamed for inciting tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

His body was dressed in his trademark sunglasses, and was draped in the Indian flag.

Security had been tight as crowds began gathering for the procession

earlier in the day, with thousands of police deployed.

But the crowds appeared calm as the funeral procession made its way to the cremation site.

His son Uddhav Thackeray lit the funeral pyre to chants of "Thackeray is immortal" from supporters.

Mr Thackeray was one of the most divisive figures in Indian politics.

A cartoonist by trade, he formed the Shiv Sena in 1966, partly with a view to keeping South Indian migrants out of Maharashtra state and to halt the spread of Islam.

In 2002 and again in 2008 he called on Hindus to form suicide squads to attack Muslims.

Iran warns against arming Syrian rebels

I

Loyalist follow the remains at it was taken round Mumbai

ran has warned against sending weapons to Syrian rebels, saying it will threaten regional stability and increase the "risk of terrorism."

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi said in a speech in Tehran on Sunday, as talks between Syrian officials and opposition groups tolerated

by President Bashar al-Assad were taking place, that "some countries envisage arming the opposition with heavy and semi-heavy weaponry."

Salehi said such arms deliveries would set a "dangerous precedent" and constitute "a clear interference in the affairs of an independent country."

No National Coalition representatives were invited to the Iran talks.

His speech comes as EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss the lifting of the arms embargo on arms deliveries to

Syria.

Russia has also warned in the past that providing the coalition with weapons would be a "gross violation" of international law.

Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi

PAGE 34

Europe and Americas

Mexico ex-mayor beaten to death

T

he former mayor of a town in western Mexico, who had survived two earlier assassination attempts, has been beaten to death.

The body of Maria Santos Gorrostieta, 36, was found in a ditch with a blow to the head three days after her family had reported her missing.

When she was mayor of the town of Tiquicheo she was twice shot at by gunmen, who also killed her husband.

Mexican officials have increasingly become targets of drug cartels.

There have been calls for the federal government to do more to s t e p u p t h e i r security.

Ms Gorrostieta was the mayor of Tiquicheo, in western Michoacan state, from 2008 until 2011.

Unidentified gunmen ambushed her in October 2009 as she was travelling in a car with her husband Jose Sanchez.

Mr Sanchez died of gunshot wounds sustained during the attack.

Three months later Ms Gorrostieta was seriously injured in a second ambush.

After being released from hospital following the second attack on her life, she said she did not know why she was being targeted.

"I have a clear conscience, I have never had any issues of any kind, be it money, family or crime related, and I have never had any fights w i th a n y n e i g h b o u r s o r residents of my town, or any other town," she said.

She also published pictures of the scars she had sustained in the two attacks in her local newspaper with a message thanking her family and supporters and vowing to "continue fighting, true to my ideals and my convictions, convinced that the truth will make us free".

About two dozen mayors have been murdered since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug traffickers six years ago.

While police say the motives behind the killings are not always clear, most attacks on local officials have happened in small and medium-sized towns in regions disputed by rival drug gangs.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

US President Barack Obama in South East Asia visit M

r Obama landed in Thailand's capital Bangkok on his first foreign trip after his re-election as president.

On Monday he will become the first US president to visit Burma, which has been praised in the West for freeing hundreds of political prisoners and holding its first contested election.

Mr Obama has been trying to

refocus US foreign policy towards Asia.

Analysts say the US is trying to counter the dominating influence of China in the region.

But US officials have repeatedly insisted that they want to work with China.

During his Thailand visit Mr Obama will meet Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and King

Bhumibol, the world's longest-serving monarch.

In Burma, he is due to hold talks with President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Over the past year the US and other Western nations have relaxed the slew of sanctions they had imposed on Burma, which was ruled by a brutal military regime for five decades.

But Mr Obama's aides told reporters aboard the president's plane that the US still had concerns about the extent of recent reforms.

Ethnic conflicts remain unresolved, including an increasingly bitter confrontation between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhine people in Rakhine state.

And US officials said they had been seeking assurances that Burma had distanced itself from North Korea, after accusations emerged in 2010 that the two states were sharing nuclear technology.

Barack Obama has begun a tour of South East Asia, which will include a historic visit to Burma.

Kurdish prisoners end hunger strike

H

undreds of Jailed Kurdish Separtists across Turkey have ended a 68-day-old hunger strike in response to a call from their jailed leader.

The Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan's call for the end of the hunger strike, which was staged to demand an end to his isolation in an island prison south of Istanbul, was announced by his brother on Saturday.

The move will fuel hopes of a fresh push to end a decades-old conflict between the Turkish state and the (PKK) - designated

a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union - in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

"On the basis of our leader's call ... we end our protest as of November 18, 2012," Deniz Kaya, a spokesman for the jailed PKK members, was quoted as saying in the association statement on Sunday.

Ocalan's announcement suggested a deal had been struck to end a protest that was becoming a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government.

Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan's

French protests against gay marriage

M

ore than 100,000 people have taken to the streets across France to protest the government plans to approve same-sex marriage and

adoption.

Saturday's protest, called the "March for Everyone," included pro-family and Catholic groups.

Several thousand people

Protesters on the streets of Lyon against the proposed law

marched in Paris, carrying signs with slogans such as "One child (equals) one father + one mother."

Some 70,000 people joined the Paris rally on Saturday, police said, though organisers put the figure at 200,000, with more than 30,000 others holding similar protests in towns around the country.

In the southeastern city of Lyon, 22,000 people protested, police said. Officers there detained around 40 youths who had come to oppose the main rally.

There were other protests in the northwestern towns of Rennes and Nantes, and in the northern town of Laon.

Up to 8,000 also marched in the southern city of Marseille, where they too were confronted by supporters of gay marriage.

In the southwestern city of Toulouse, police used tear gas against a group of several hundred activists who tried to confront the main rally of several thousand in a counter-protest.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a women's rights minister and government spokeswoman, defended the right of homosexuals to marry and to adopt as representing progress for everyone.

She said there had been a similar uproar when France backed civil marriages for gay couples 14 years earlier, yet this had since been accepted.

PAGE 35

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Federal allocation application: Yobe as a Case Study

Yobe State Governor

IBRAHIM GAIDAM

By Muhammad Nasir Muhammad

G

overnor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State stirred the hornet’s nest on November 18, 2012 when he called attention to the skewed nature of monthly federal allocation in the country. The revenue sharing formula of the last few years has seen the south witness astronomically large increases in allocation from the coffers of the federation at the expense of the north. “In this context, many other states, specifically in the South-south are today ahead of the northern states in terms of income from the Federation Account. This means that some states are getting richer while others are…wallowing in devastating poverty,” a newspaper quoted the governor as saying.

Kwankwaso’s righteous indignation at an odious federal allocation system that sees some local governments in the south-south receive more money from the Federation Account than some states in the north has continued to generate frenzied media chatter. But as a northerner who is also an economist, while I identify with northern governors’ angst over an unjust revenue allocation formula, and share in their quest for a review of the formula, I am also interested in moving beyond self-pitying lamentation and establishing a link between revenue allocation and performance.

Are huge federal allocations a reliable indicator of the ability and/or willingness of governors to meet the human and developmental needs of their people? Or, to ask the question another way, are state governors who receive meager federal allocations less likely to perform than state governors with huge allocations?

Let’s look at Yobe State as a case study. Yobe State gets one of the lowest federal allocations in the country. Its monthly revenue of between N3 billion toN3.5 billion (which includes monthly federation account allocation andVAT payment) compares with the monthly revenue of some local government councils in the south.

Out of theN3 billion-plus Yobe State receives monthly, approximately N1.4 billion is used to pay the salaries of government workers. (Interestingly, in spite of its low monthly revenue from the federation account, Yobe State is on record as the first state in the federation to implement the 18,000 naira minimum wage for its workers). The

state also expends up to N400 million inoverheads and other standing payments. That means, in essence, that the state spends nearly N2 billion every month on salaries and the cost of running the government, such as payingutility bills and maintaining government buildings.

This expenditure is obligatory and unchangeable. In fact, it can only increase as over 10, 000 more workers were being employed and added to the state’s workforce recently.

This means that the state is left with between N1 billion and N1.5 billion to build and renew infrastructure, such as roads, to build or provide more facilities in schools, to revitalize agriculture, to provide housing, and so on. That seems to me like an impossibly miserly amount to undertake any meaningful development project with. Yet, Yobe State’s Governor Ibrahim Gaidam is easily one of the top performing governors in the country. He stands out like a colossus among his peers in terms of the strides he has recorded in infrastructural development and the empowerment of the people he governs.

For instance, he has transformed the Yobe State University, hitherto anovervalued high school, into an institution that the highlyesteemed Professor Abdullahi Mahdi of Gombe State University has called the fastest growing university in the north. Similarly, the governor’s landmark achievements in building many housing estates, renovating and equipping many primary and secondary schools and constructing new roads are eminently beyond and above comparison in the history of Yobe State.And his investments in agriculture have resulted in remarkable improvement in food security in the state and have put smiles on the faces of many hitherto distressed and poverty-stricken subsistence farmers.

Consider this, too: at the time Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam took over as governor of Yobe State, there was only one main road worth the name in Damaturu, the state capital and that was Kano Express Road that connects the state capital to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Today, many exquisitely well-laid roads and solar-powered street lights dot the landscape of the state capital.

But it isn’t merely in the state capital that the governor is building durable, high-endroads; he has also built more than 700 kilometers of roads in representative parts of the state’s 17 local government areas and counting.For example, the vast northern part of the state from Kanamma to Machina is currently being connected by an ongoing road project stretching nearly 300 kilometers, aptly called the ‘Trans-Saharan road network’.

Governor Gaidam’s outstandingly admirable and praiseworthy performance in spite of the severely limited allocation his state gets from the Federation Account gives a testimonial endorsement to the issues raised by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi earlier this year. In a motion he called “Looming Danger of Bankruptcy in States:

“

Yobe State gets one of the lowest federal allocations in the country.

Its monthly revenue of between N3 billion toN3.5 billion (which includes monthly federation account allocation andVAT payment) compares with the monthly revenue of some local government councils in the south.

The Need for Fiscal Evaluation,” Senator Adetunmbi made public certain facts about the state of the financial health of the states in our federation that ruptured many people’s expectations. For instance, he pointed out that, based on figures from the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Rivers and Bayelsa states which receive some of the highest revenues from the Federation Account, were categorized, along with Oyo, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Gombe, as being financially vulnerable states, as being “unhealthy” in financial terms.

The senator also designated some states as beingin “critical condition” based on the statistics at his disposal. Those statesare Ekiti, Plateau, Benue, Edo, Borno, Adamawa, Cross Rivers, Enugu, Taraba, Ogun, Kogi, Ebonyi, Ondo and Kaduna states. Of these states, as the reader can see, you have the oil-bearing states such as Edo, Cross Rivers, and Ondo. Interestingly, Yobe State is neither listed among states whose finances are “unhealthy” nor among those in “critical condition.” Yet the state receives about the lowest federal allocation in the country. This goes to show that having lots of money from the federation account is not a guarantee for performance, just like getting low allocations from the federation account doesn’t necessarily stymy development strides.

As Daily Trust columnist Jideofor Adibe observed, in his reaction to these revelations, “The conclusion from this therefore is that there is no correlation between the amount of money available to a State and its financial health or what the government is able to achieve if it manages its resources prudently.”

The example of Yobe State bears a resounding testimony to this observation. The question on many observers’ mind is: why has Yobe State stood out as one of the fastest developing states in the federation in spite of the gravely limited resources it has at its disposal and in spite of the unfortunate security challenges thrust on it by mindless bloodthirsty zealots? Well, it is probably because Governor Ibrahim Gaidam is a trained accountant who understands and practices prudential management of limited finances. He is one of only a few governors with an accounting background in the country. Anybody who watches Yobe State dispassionately would tell you that the governor brings his accounting background to bear in his husbandry of the state’s resources in more ways than one. As Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, hisspokesman told the Sun in a December 15, 2011 interview, “The governor ensures that resources are judiciously deployed. And once you are able to cut waste and channel resources to where they are needed most, to the best use and best purposes, then you will be able to perform at optimal level.”

While the governor’s accountancy background does certainly contribute to the exemplary ways he has farsightedly managed the finances of his state, there is more to it than his accounting background. The governor’s honesty and judiciousness in managing Yobe State’sfinances must also be located in his deep moral core. Being an accountant, in and of itself, does not make people thrifty managers of resources. Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has a reputation as a profoundly Godfearing person who is permanently conscious of his duties to Allah and the people who gave him the mandate to superintend over their affairs. I think the governor’s background became important only because his religious convictions and deep passion for helping people less privileged than he is define the core of his personality.

The case ofGovernor Ibrahim Gaidam’s remarkable performance in spite of his state’slimited resources should prod us to think more creatively on how we can do a lot with alittle.

It is the reason that Sardauna Magazine, based in Abuja, named Governor Gaidam the ‘Best Governor in the North East’ last year for ‘using limited resources to make big impact’ in the life of the people of Yobe State.

Muhammad Nasir writes from Red Bricks Estate, Maiduguri Road Damaturu.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Stressful pregnancy ‘could make children easier prey for bullies’

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hildren whose mothers were stressed during pregnancy are more likely to be bullied at school, according to new research.

A study of nearly 9,000 children found anxiety during pregnancy could be passed on to the baby in the womb. Affected youngsters were more likely to cry, run away or feel anxious at school, making them easier prey for bullies.

Research leader Professor Dieter Wolke, of the University of Warwick, said: ‘When we are exposed to stress, large quantities of neurohormones are released into the blood stream and in a pregnant woman this can change the developing foetus’ own stress response system.’

The study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry is based on 8,829 children from the Avon Longtitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Prof Wolke said: ‘This is the first study to investigate stress in pregnancy and a child’s vulnerability to being bullied.

A mother's stress can pass to her baby in the womb

‘Changes in the stress response system can affect behaviour and how children r e a c t emotionally to stress such as being picked on by a bully.

‘Children who more easily show a stress reaction such as c r y i n g , running away, anxiety are then selected by bullies to home in to.’

H i s researchers identified the main prenatal stress factors as severe family problems, such as financial difficulty or alcohol and drug abuse, and m a t e r n a l

mental health.

Added Prof Wolke: ‘The whole thing becomes a vicious cycle, a child with an altered stress response system is more likely to be bullied, which affects their stress response even further and increases the likelihood of them developing mental health problems in later life.’

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) - which is also known as Children of the 90s - is a longterm health research project.

More than 14,000 mothers enrolled during pregnancy in 1991 and 1992, and the health and development of their

children has been followed in great detail ever since.

Last year another study by German researchers found a mother’s stress can spread to her baby in the womb and may cause a lasting effect.

They showed a receptor for stress hormones appears to undergo a biological change in the unborn child if the mother is highly stressed, for example, because of a violent partner.

And this change may leave the child less able to handle stress themselves. It has already been linked to mental illness and behavioural problems.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

“

Changes in the stress response system can affect behaviour and how children react emotionally to stress such as being picked on by a bully. Children who more easily show a stress reaction such as crying, running away, anxiety are then selected by bullies to home in to

New vaccine against most deadly strain of meningitis could soon be offered to all babies

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he first vaccine to offer broad protection against meningitis B is to be licensed for use in the UK, drastically reducing the number of children killed by the disease.

There are 1,870 cases of meningitis B in the UK on average each year, resulting in up to 200 deaths – half of which occur in the under-fives.

As many as 400 children a year are also left with serious lifelong complications such as limb amputations, blindness, deafness and brain damage.

Although vaccination programmes have been successfully introduced to combat other strains of meningitis, no vaccine against the B strain currently exists in this country.

Meningococcal B is the most common form of bacterial meningitis in Britain, one of the most deadly, and the one that poses the toughest challenge to develop a vaccine for because there are so many variations to target.

Bexsero is the first vaccine providing broad protection against 800 deadly meningococcal B strains which, in some cases, can kill within hours.

The European Medicines Agency, a drug regulatory body which covers the UK,

issued a ‘positive opinion’ on Bexsero yesterday, which means it is safe and effective.

This is the first step in an approval process that should result in the jab, developed by Novartis, being licensed within three months.

But the critical decision on whether it will become part of the routine NHS immunisation programme for babies and children lies with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the Government.

It will consider factors such as price, cost-effectiveness and compatibility with other childhood vaccines. The last major vaccine against meningitis – the pneumococcal vaccine – took five years to be introduced into the immunisation schedule.

Steve Dayman, founder of the Meningitis UK charity who lost his baby Spencer to meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia in 1982, said: ‘This is a landmark moment in the fight against meningitis. I have waited three decades to hear this along with many other families who have supported the cause.

‘It is vital that the vaccine is introduced in the UK immunisation schedule as soon as possible.

‘It will save countless lives

and prevent many people enduring the suffering caused by this devastating disease. We will be campaigning hard to make the Government introduce it.’

“

This vaccine could save many lives every year, but it could also save the long-term suffering that many survivors face after the disease Meningitis B affects nearly 2,000 people in the UK each year, many of them children, and results in death for one in 10 sufferers

Andrin Oswald, of Novartis, said the company was already in discussions with the Government and warned: ‘Every year of delay in a country like Britain costs the lives of dozens more children

who do not have to die – a sense of urgency is appropriate.’

In trials involving 7,500 children, adolescents and adults, the vaccine, which can be used for babies aged two months and older, produced antibodies against 77 per cent of strains.

Sue Davie, chief executive of the Meningitis Trust charity, said: ‘We see the devastation that meningitis continues to cause to victims and their families, tearing lives apart in a matter of hours.

‘This vaccine could save many lives every year, but it could also save the long-term suffering that many survivors face after the disease.’

But she warned that people must not become complacent as, even if Bexsero is introduced, people are still not protected from all types of meningitis.

She said: ‘It’s vital that everyone makes themselves aware of the signs and symptoms and remains vigilant.’

Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said: ‘The independent expert group on vaccines that advises the Government is currently looking at use of this vaccine and will provide advice in due course.’

Source: dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

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Boko Haram: No FG official has visited us, says Borno Govt INTERVIEW Inuwa Bwala, Borno State Commissioner for Information and Home Affairs, in this interaction with journalists in Abuja laments that no ranking officials from the Federal Government has visited the state since the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency even as he attempts to describe the state of affairs in the state and how the state government is striving to deliver the dividends of democracy, notwithstanding the security challenges. Our Acting Political Editor, Lawrence Olaoye was there. Excerpts: On the delivery of democracy dividends to the people: e are conscious of the fact that over the years, certain things that needed to be done for the state have not been done adequately. That is why our governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, on coming into office, mapped out how we can develop Borno state and we mapped out five areas of priority. Number one is agriculture. We are blessed with abundant resources and if we deploy such resources, and what we can get elsewhere, we can really develop Borno and bring it to a modern city state. Our priority area has been agriculture. As I speak to you, we have purchased over 1,000 tractors and distributed same to all the local government areas. We have brought in over 50 million improved seedlings for our farmers so that we can improve the yield of our local crops that have not been high breeded.

We have brought in large quantities of fertilizer and other farm inputs which we hope will help us turn around the agricultural output in the state.

Most importantly, we have put on ground a Task Force to turn around the agricultural fortunes of Borno state. It is headed by Engineer Ibrahim Ali, a renowned farmer, engineer and agriculturist. He along with Audu Ogbe and other prominent agriculturists are putting their heads together on how best we can invest in agriculture and maximize our yield form this investment. The second area is education. We have complained that Borno is educationally disadvantaged mainly because the infrastructure is not there. For this, we have embarked on aggressive renovation of public schools in the hope that we can reengineer interests of the public in public schools so we can make them compete favourably with private schools. As it is, we are renovating

W

24 secondary schools. We have actually renovated all the primary schools in the state; some are even converted to model schools. We are embarking on a unique programme, which is the Songhai model in which we teach Eastern style of education and Islamic education side-by-side and this has tended to appeal to our people because most of the schools we converted to Songhai schools are filled to capacity with student that are willing to learn.

On Borno being referred to as a failed state: Unfortunately, some of the comments and views held about Borno state were over-exaggerated; they do not capture the real situation on ground. And some of these people who criticize Borno state are people who have not and may never visit Borno state and they may never understand what is going on there. Very often, you find people on television who do not even understand our sensibilities discussing the situation in Borno state. We cannot pretend that we do not have a situation in Borno state, but I have always said that Borno is not the worst case scenario in this matter. It may have lingered on but you will agree with me that when it happens in other places, in one fell sweep, the casualty far out-number what happens in Borno state over time. So, we will be missing the point if we isolate Borno state as if the insurgency or the problem is the case of Borno state. Unless we regard it as a national problem capable of affecting any part of this country with every Nigerian capable of falling victim, we will be missing the point. I want us to look at it as part and parcel of this country.

Borno is after all, part and parcel of this country, a federating unit and so, we should not be treated as a pariah. Rather, we should be given a fair hearing; encouraged. We expect Nigerians to share in the plight of our people; to sympathize

Inuwa Bwala with us; to come to us and see what we are going through so that as Nigerians we can collectively proffer solutions to it.

On the issue of FG’s dialogue with Boko Haram There are three main components with this Boko Haram. We have some of our brothers who have ideological disagreement with us based on certain past policies, as a result they want to avenge themselves against certain individuals and institutions that brought about their agitation. That is the actual Boko Haram. But, greater number of this thing is political.

That is why, greater number of people being killed are from a particular political party (ANPP).

Yesterday, they killed somebody who converted from PDP to ANPP. General Mohammed Shuwa was the chairman of the Board of Elders of ANPP. So, I can continue to mention names for you. All the people being killed are of the ANPP. There is no single person from the PDP that has been killed. Politicians find a very good alibi in Boko Haram to commit all sorts of crimes. Armed robbers find a perfect alibi in Boko Haram to loot and destroy banks. Business men who have disagreements find Boko Haram a perfect alibi to unleash terror on their business partners. Things have gone so bad to the effect that you cannot clearly define which one is Boko Haram. The mention of names as possible negotiators have far reaching implications and that is

why some of them are opting out. I agree that those who have been named so far as possible negotiators are credible Nigerians. But, one cannot tell whether this demand is from Boko Haram or from people who want to use Boko Haram as alibi. This is because Boko Haram has a modus operandi, one of which is that in the background of all their conferences is the display of Arabic inscriptions which is what they believe in and part of their principal demands have been for declaration of Sharia in some states or even across the federation, that was missing in the last offer for cease fire. Boko Haram often address in Hausa, the two addresses were in English. At times, when you begin to read between lines, you find it difficult to understand which one is coming from these brothers or which one is coming from other sources. Doubt has already been cast on it but as a government, we believe in dialogue. Even if the talk are coming from people who are not actually Boko Haram, we welcome such talks and dialogue because we don’t want our people to be killed any further.

On the refusal of the Federal Government high ranking officials to visit Borno state I want to be fair to the President and all other federal government officials for failing to come to Borno state but I will never justify their actions. Incidents of higher intensity have happened in other places and they were there and assisted them. Because the problem persists in Borno state does

not take away the fact that we are a federating unit of Nigeria and we are entitled to all privileges enjoyed by all Nigerians. If as a child we feel that a child is not behaving well, you don’t throw away the child and the bath water. We expect them to have shown concerns even for political reasons, to have visited us. Our impression is that we are being given this step child treatment because we are in opposition political party. Otherwise, we expect the President to have come to Borno; we expect at least, the Vice-President to come to Borno and show sympathy to the plight of our people or even the Senate President or the Speaker, all of whom are northerners. As I speak with you, except on different missions, we have not received a Federal Government official from the rank of a minister up here, either to specifically assess the situation and advise the government on what needs to be done in the Borno situation, or for sympathy. We feel sad that our President has not visited us but we are hoping that some day, he will find reasons to come over. We don’t have to remind them of their obligations that Borno needs their attention.

On the state government efforts at ensuring job creation for the youths Development has to do with the human psyche and activity.

You do not set a time frame or project a particular figure. Our projections are very realistic that by the time we set sailing, we would have reduced to the barest minimum, the number of youths on our streets that are unemployed. The numbers that are roaming the streets of Borno and are very vulnerable and can easily fall victims to some of these anti-social behaviors. We believe that by the time we are three years in office, we would have provided jobs for at least, 5,000 youths. We believe that at that time, we would have provided reliable jobs for 3,000 women.

This is talking about Maiduguri metropolis and Gere alone. We have already instructed them to get a list of 1,500 youths and women in their areas whom we are going to engage in this Women and Youth Empowerment Scheme. We have 27 local government areas and if you multiply the figure added to the 8,000 we plan to employ in Maiduguri metropolis, it will give you the target of this administration in three years in terms of women and youth empowerment. In terms of agriculture, every commissioner is under directive to engage in farming; big time farming.

PAGE 38

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PDP slams Fashola, ACN over Lagos LG election case From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the SouthWest has described the arm-twisting tactics employed by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to subvert the course of justice in the ongoing Ikoyi/Obalende Local Council Development Area chairmanship election Appeal case as shameful and a further demonstration of the party and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola’s hatred for democracy and rule of law.

The party said the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Muktar and other wellmeaning Nigerians must, as a matter of urgency, intervene in the matter to prevent Fashola and his ACN from subverting the will of the people by blackmailing the judiciary into abandoning the case.

Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade, in a release issued yesterday said “it is shameful that Governor Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, will allow the kind of fraud perpetrated during the October 22, 2011 Local Government election and also go further to engage in shameless arm-twisting of the Appeal Panel into abandoning the case.”

“It should be recalled that our party candidate in the October 22, 2011 council polls, Hon. Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro, was declared the lawful winner of the Ikoyi/Obalende Local Council Development Area chairmanship by the election tribunal panel led by Hon.

Justice Dolapo Akinsanya on October 4, 2012.

“That decision was appealed

by ACN and its candidate Mr. Wale Adeniji. Few days ago, the Election Appeal Panel adjourned to November 15, 2012 for adoption of addresses by all parties to the case.

“However, we were surprised to learn that the court announced an adjournment of the case indefinitely without any

reason. This is an indirect way of ‘arresting’ the Appeal Tribunal’s judgment or stall the proceedings so as to allow the ACN candidate, Wale Adeniji, to continue to enjoy a mandate that does not belong to him.

“One then wonders what would have happened to elections in the country and petitions arising from them if ACN were to be the party in control of the Federal

Government. It is even more worrisome that Governor Fashola, a senior lawyer is the one at the helms of affairs in Lagos state where rule of law is being sent to the dogs.

“Well-meaning Nigerians must therefore save Lagos state from the political rascals in the ACN before they turn the state into a place where rule of law is meant for the marines,” the PDP warned.

L-R Deputy Speaker House of Representatives Emeka Ihedioha, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and Deputy Senate President Ike Ikweremadu during their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House Abuja on Wednesday.

Photo: Joe Oroye

“PDP’ll regain the South East states by 2015”

By Lawrence Olaoye

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he leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend declared that it will win back the states it lost to the opposition party in the South East by the 2015 general elections.

The PDP Assistant National Secretary, Onwe Solomon Onwe, told newsmen at the weekend that the party’s Reconciliation Committee chaired by the former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, would ensure that all those aggrieved members that made it possible for the opposition to clinch Anambra and Imo states would be reconciled to work for the party’s candidates by 2015.

He said the political situation in Anambra that made the PDP lose to All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) was peculiar because of the political influence of the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. With Ojukwu dead, Onwe said the PDP’s chance of regaining the state is brightened.

On Imo state, the PDP Assistant National Chairman said the party would capitalize on the rupturing

of the zoning structure by the emergence of Rochas Okorocha by presenting a candidate from the preferred zone in the state.

Onwe equally said that no one can stop the return of any aggrieved member of the party from returning in the spirit of reconciliation embarked upon by the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur led National Working Committee (NWC).

This is coming on the heels of the resolve of some PDP stakeholders and local government leadership of the party in Bende local government area of Abia state led

by Ihendu Eke to reject any move

by the former governor of the state, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, to return to the party.

Eke admitted that it was the moves in the past by the governor that made the party at the council level to withdraw party registers from the ward chairmen, saying that the registers are still at the party headquarters in Bende to avoid problems of wrongful admission of those he referred to as “unwanted politicians”.

Reacting to the hard posture of the Abia state chapter, Onwe, said the national leadership of the party will not condone any attempt by anyone to frustrate the

reconciliation agenda of the National Working Committee, NWC, and will directly handle applications for readmission if and when necessary.

“The present NWC under Dr. Bamanga Tukur is serious with the business of reconciliation in the party. We have passed resolution setting time limit for those that want to return from the Ward level.

We gave one month window period for returnees but if the need arises we can extend it. Going by the new spirit in PDP national leadership there is no way the state chapter can stop him (Orji Uzor Kalu) from coming back. The door is still open.”

CPC says late Saraki was a political colossus

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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ongress for Progressive Change (CPC) has commiserated with the family of late Olusola Saraki, describing him as a political colossus.

In a statement issued recently by the National Publicity

Secretary of the party, Rotimi Fashakin, CPC said it received, with huge shock, the news of the demise of the patriarch of the Saraki family peacefully in his home in the early hours of Wednesday.

It said that indeed, the late Saraki, in the last 35years, had been the recurring decimal in

Kwara Politics, saying “Undoubtedly, he bestrode the political terrain like a colossus, who struck a rhythmic partnership with the people”.

“We join the family, political associates, kwara state government and indeed all Nigerians on the death of the great man,” CPC stated.

SURE-P to employ 5,000 Ekiti youths next month From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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,000 youths from Ekiti State are to be employed under the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SUREP), Chairman of the State Implementation Committee (SIC), Rt. Hon. Femi Akinyemi has disclosed.

Akinyemi, who made this known in an address he delivered during a meeting yesterday with Ekiti State Stakeholders on the SURE-P said 3,000 youths will be employed before the end of November while another 2,000 will be employed in December.

He said the SURE-P was a programme specifically designed for the eradication of poverty, upliftment and development in Ekiti State, adding that his Committee was prepared to carry out the programme with zeal and vigour.

The Chairman however noted that the programme was not a free wheel programme but a well designed and thoughtful programme, which is part of the transformation agenda of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

He expressed confidence that the programme will be successful in Ekiti State, saying; "Looking at caliber of people from both 'divide' that are present in the hall today, I can see the light at the end of tunnel; I can see hope for the hopeless; I can see unity among Ekiti people again.

I can see Ekiti state where poverty will soon become a thing of the past because the major ideal of SURE-P is to tackle poverty and rescue our people from its bondage."

He said the Committee has three Senatorial Coordinators, Hon. Dare Olasebikan (North), Hon. Chief [Mrs] Tosin Aluko (Central), and Hon. Kayode Ogunsakin (South) while the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) State coordinator, Dr Mrs Abimbola Oni will serve as the Vice Chairman.

On the roles and responsibilities of the SURE-P, Akinyemi said: "There is Graduate Internship Scheme for our young graduates and to access this scheme you can visit www.wyesurep.gov.ng "There also is going to be recruitment of 3,000 beneficiaries for the month of November 2012 while another 2,000 will be recruited in December 2012. The SIU will register as many applicants as possible in each ward/ community but the SIC will do the final selection in accordance with the guidelines."

While assuring that the SIC will not allow fractionalization, sentiments and self-interest to prevail on its workings, Akinyemi implored the stakeholders to always feel free to contact any member of the Committee for necessary information on the programme.

He warned that members of the Committee will not be immuned to disciplinary actions, adding that "if any member of the committee runs foul of the rules and regulations of the SURE-P, he/she should be made to face the consequences."

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 39

Leave D/ Governorship position for women in Akwa Ibom, Mrs. Akpabio agitates From Mike Etim, Uyo

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kwa Ibom state First Lady, Mrs. Unoma Akpabio, has called on the political stakeholders in the state to concede the position of the Deputy Governor to women.

Akpabio explained that the law of nature which made the man as the head of the family and the wife as number two should be applied in the sharing of political positions in the state.

Akpabio who spoke at the Government House Monthly prayer meeting held at St. John Chaplaincy, Governor’s lodge Uyo commended the state House of Assembly and the political class in the state for supporting the appointment of Lady Valarie Ebe as the first Female Deputy Governor of the State.

She described Ebe as a pride of women folk to Akwa Ibom state and prayed God to enable her succeed in her new office.

In his contribution at the just concluded Hearing the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North East and Chairman Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, said in his opinion, women were not inferior to men and maintained that the constitution did not make room for special appointment of women into office.

The Senator pointed out that the constitution only said that no person or any sect or gender should be subjected to and disability to which other persons is not subjected to “If you want to reserve certain position for women, which constituency are you going to reserve it for. If you do that, you will be breaching the right of men to contest and the right of voters to choose who they want to vote for because you have limited them,” he said.

Speaking further the Senator said it was his believe that reserving a position for a woman constituted an insult to the woman stressing that women were not disabled or inferior to men.

He citied countries like Britain and Pakistian where Margaret Thatcher and Benezir Bhutto contested elections and won and countries like Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Sierra Leone as some countries where women are currently heads of government.

He charged Nigerian women whom he described as very intelligent to go for elective post instead of waiting to be appointed noting that women were holding the most powerful ministerial positions in the country. He listed some of the positions to include those of the Chief Justice of the Federation, Finance, Petroleum, Education and Aviation ministries.

L-R Former Minister of Information Prof Dora Akunyili and Kaduna State Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa during the Fund raising ceremony for the Flood victims held at the State House Abuja recently.

Photo: Joe Oroye

ACN, CPC proposed merger, a fusion of a brood of dictators, says PDP

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday described the proposed merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and other opposition parties in the country as the fusion of brood of dictators.

The PDP in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said it was not losing sleep over the proposed merger also pointed out that such development was good for democracy but warned against dressing fiction in the garb of historical facts.

Olisa stated “ While the PDP is not losing sleep over the merger of the two opposition political parties since it is an exercise in democracy and since both cannot defeat the PDP at elections, it is however not out of place for us to point out the major defects of the merger and why Nigerians will continue to reject it as an alternative to our great Party.

“The onus is entirely on these two parties to accept these glaring facts and seek ways out of the situation or to continue with the delusion that the merger of brood of dictators one of which does not disguise its relish for the funeral train, is what Nigerians need at the moment.

According to the PDP, the ACN is entirely owned by Bola Tinubu and brooks no opposition to his dictates. “It is no secret that the Governors of Lagos, Osun and Ekiti States as well as the woefully failed candidate of the Party in the recent Ondo governorship election were Tinubu’s direct imposition. It is also a fact that Tinibu unilaterally chased out Ope Bamidele who won the primaries for Ekiti Central Senatorial District and imposed his preferred candidate.

Nigerians can still remember how Tinubu’s wife made her way to the Senate,” the PDP added.

The party pointed out that the comments of the cross section of Yoruba leaders on the

recent victory of the Labour Party in Ondo state against an earlier call by the ACN for regional integration as the pivot of its campaign was an unmasked rejection of the ambition of one man to lord over an entire region.

The party asked “does the ACN have a constitution beyond what Tinubu dictates?

For a start, Tinubu’s position as the leader of the party has no place in the constitution of the ACN yet the man usurps the functions of the party’s constitutional structures, rendering the officers redundant.

The National Working Committee of the ACN which is supposed to meet every two months according to section 7, 18a & c of its constitution has only met twice in February and August this year while the de facto NWC meetings hold daily at Boudillion, Lagos Court of Tinubu, the Emperor,” Metuh pointed out.

Commenting on the CPC, PDP stated “the fact of the merger is that of a double

jeopardy as the case of the CPC is worse. Apart from the collywobbles of one man dictatorship, the party’s violent antecedent, and the unrepentant posturing of General (Mohammadu) Buhari, the owner of the party as again captured in his parable of the bloody baboon and monkey earlier this year in Kaduna is a recipe for a road to Somalia. That is not the preference Nigerians will ever imagine.”

“At the bottom line, Nigerians are faced with the worst form of indecent propaganda from the duo of Lai Mohammed and Rotimi Fashakin whom Bola Tinubu also donated to the CPC. It is either they are attacking and insulting the President, the National Assembly or other institutions of democracy or loosing sleep and get more rabid when their shortcomings are pointed out or are engaged in the illusion of an all powerful merger that will take over Nigeria, “ the PDP spokesperson declared.

Councillorship Poll: ACN to appeal Kwara tribunal ruling From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has rejected the Kwara State Election Tribunal ruling which nullified the election of the eleven councillors elected on the platform of the party.

The tribunal sacked the

ACN Councilors from Offa Local Government based on claims that the ruling PDP was not duly informed of the rerun ballot which took place in January 2011.

The constitution provides that election petition be concluded in 180 days but election disputes could drag for years under the KWASIEC law.

Kwara ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo dismissed the ruling as a political judgment and said the party would appeal it. “It is laughable that tribunal would nullify the election based on such spurious and laughable claim. The election was conducted by Kwara State Independent Electoral

Commission (KWASIEC) which is controlled by the PDP-led government,” Olawepo said.

“We are appealing the ruling right away and we hereby advise the PDP to know that our councilors remain the legal occupants of their offices until the appeal court says otherwise.”

PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Fuel price hike : Angry Nigerians warn Jonathan From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

T

he Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) alongside Nigerians across the country have warned the Federal Government against hiking the price of petroleum products in the country.

Nigerians who expressed their views on social networks and separate interviews with our reporter, said the planned total removal of oil subsidy is a ploy to increase pump price of petrol, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to shelve the idea.

Former Minister of Petroleum Professor Tam David West stated that what the Federal Government is doing is a “charade because a government that deceives its citizens consistently is sad.”

The former Minister, who has always claimed that the nation’s fuel subsidy regime is nothing but fraud, again affirmed his position saying there is no fuel subsidy in Nigeria rather what exists is ‘fuel subsidy megafraud.’

He argued that his allegation has been proven by the recent controversies on investigations into the sector by the committees led by Farouk Lawan and Nuhu Ribadu.

CACOL Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, said the FG should be wary of heating up the polity with any careless move because the nation is sitting on the keg of gunpowder. "President Goodluck Jonathan should desist from increasing the tempo of the nation unnecessarily. We all saw what the nation witnessed in January when the FG first took

this step. The loss of lives and properties is enough to teach any reasonable government morals that Nigerians would resist any hike in the price of petrol vehemently. The masses are groaning under the economic hardship created by the hike in the price of the product from N65 to N97 early this year. The imminent crisis that will greet another hike is better imagined," Adeniran warned.

According to CACOL"The President should first map out ways to frontally combat the

staggering corruption that is pervasive in our oil industry.

Corruption in the oil sector must be dealt with first before talking about total subsidy removal. It is not only unreasonable, but sheer wickedness, for a government that some people have defrauded trillions of naira in the name of subsidy payments with other underhand dealing, and is yet to recover that, to now place the brunt on the masses. President Jonathan must decisively deal with all pending reports and cases that have to do with the

petroleum sector and cleanse it of the pervasive sleaze before talking of total subsidy removal," Adeniran submitted.

Motunrayo Azizat, a student, said Nigerians have not enjoyed anything since the pump price was increased to N97 early this year.

With the planned increment, Nigerians will suffer more, “what's the objective and benefit we have enjoyed ever since the previous subsidy was removed, instead, things become so expensive and nothing to show for the hard life.”

L-R: National President and Chairman National Council NUTAG, Mr. John Igwe Ukala, Chairperson House Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Abuike Dabiri-Erewa, Member Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Ajibola Famurewa and Secretary General NUTAG, Comrade Jasper Emenike discussing on Nigeria/ Ghana Business Crisis, during the Presidential Audience with the National Delegation of the Nigeria Union of Traders Association, Ghana (NUTAG), at the National Assembly , recently in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Tukur never believed in internal democracy, says social activist

By Lawrence Olaoye

A

social reform advocate and political stalwart from Adamawa state, Daniel Richard, at the weekend said that the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, never believed in internal democracy and as such should never preach what he does not believe.

Addressing journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Richard, who said he is not a PDP card carrying member but has attended most of its meetings, pointed out that Tukur ‘s emergence as the chairman of the PDP was not as a result of internal democracy.

He also added that the reason why the party said it would rule the country for 60 years was that it would always get its mandate from the Supreme Court.

He said “It is a surprise thing to me that Bamanga is now talking of internal democracy; what system and what was the process he used to become the chairman of PDP? Did he participate? Did you vote for Bamanga. Bamanga is preaching internal democracy, the process that

he did not believe in.

“PDP is not a political party. PDP knows that it will get its mandate from the Supreme Court that is why it said it will rule the country for 60 years.

The 13 years it has ruled, it got the mandate from the Supreme Court and whether you vote or not PDP will get its mandate. 94 percent of the people in the National Assembly got there through judicial process. We have not started democracy yet. We are not practicing democracy

because I have not seen any political party driven by ideas and that is why I don’t belong to any party,” he said.

On the palpable fear that the country will split, the social advocate said it will not happen as long as the President, the governors of the 36 states, the local government chairmen collect their monthly allocations from the federation account.

Speaking on the report submitted

by Nuhu Ribadu that is generating controversy in the country at the

moment, Richard said controversy is trailing the report because Ribadu disappointed the people that appointed him to carry out the investigation.

“Do you have any idea how many reports have been done in this country?

They are more than a thousand. Before the committee is set up there is already a motive behind it. Ribadu as you know him went there without a script as usual and maybe if he had gotten the script he would not have done what he did,” he stressed.

PDP, ‘Nest of killers’ – CPC

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

C

ongress for Progressive Change (CPC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of masterminding various killings of innocent Nigerians, saying that the party is made up of violent people, which qualifies it as ‘nest of killers’.

Reacting to the commentary of the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, where he characterized CPC as a party that “believes in violence and religious politics”, CPC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, alleged that on November 29, 1999, PDP led Federal Government, in less than one year in office, invaded Odi, a predominantly Ijaw community in Bayelsa state, killing tens of thousands of unarmed civilians.

CPC also claimed that the same PDP government, under the leadership of the progenitor of the PDP, between October 22 and 24, 2001, ensured that some communities in Benue state were violently and crudely invaded, leading to the deaths of 300 people.

It listed the affected communities to include ZakiBiam, Tse Adoor, Gbeji, Vaase, Anyiin, Iorjaa, Jootar, Sankera and Kyado, regretting that the violence was an act of PDP’s indiscretion, which extra-judicial killings could have been avoided.

“In the eight-year rule of the same regime (1999-2007), the Nigerian polity virtually became a Sanguinary with the unresolved wicked assassinations that characterized everyday living.

“More bewildering was the fact that a serving Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Late Chief Ajibola Ige, was murdered in his home – in the full glare of his security details- with the origin of the murderous violence yet to be unraveled,” CPC stated.

It therefore insisted that as a party, under the leadership of disciplined Nigerians, has never been involved in acts capable of injuring the fragility of the socialpolitical equilibrium in Nigeria, adding that the party’s leader, Muhammadu Buhari, was rigged out of national elections three times, yet he ventilated his aversion to the injustice in the law courts.

AD condoles Adesina, Saraki, Eso's families

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

A

lliance for Democracy (AD) has condoled with the families of Alhaji Lam Adesina, former governor of Oyo State, Dr Olusola Saraki and Justice Kayode Eso on the death of the three statesmen.

In three different statements, the national publicity secretary of the party, Mr Rafiu Salau described the death ``of a great progressive leader, Alhaji Lam Adesina'' as shocking.

The party who commiserated with the country, the Yoruba nation and the family, described the late Adesina as a committed leader, who lived for the empowerment of the grassroots. ``As one of the founders of AD and a former governor of Oyo state on the platform of the party, his leadership taught the members that greatness is not the wealth a leader is able to accumulate, but it is the change a leader brings to his community''.

AD said the late Adesina

enlightened members on the path of leadership to an environment of equal opportunities.

On the death of the former Senate leader, Dr Olusola Saraki, the party commiserated with the nation on the death of one of the builders of democracy.

Saraki, AD said in a statement, built political leaders to serve the people. ``He was a political father and leader of the grassroots, and he was accessible to all class. He dined with

the poor, gave them hope and fought on their behalf for good governance'', AD said.

In its condolence message on the late eminent jurist, Justice Kayode Eso, AD described the demise of the elder statesman during the ongoing constitutional review as a great loss to the nation.

The party recollected various landmark judgments delivered by the late Eso while at the Supreme Court, saying such judgments stood the test of time.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 45

1

2 PUBLIC NOTICE

VINEFIELD ASSEMBLY INTERNATIONAL

3

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED CHURCH HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. PASTOR BENJAMIN OLEMADI 2. MRS ADA KAIZER 3. MRS EMY OLEMADI BENJAMIN 4. MR SOPAKIRIBA MAXWELL WEST 5. MISS CHRISTABEL BENJAMIN 6. MR HENRY EMENIKE 7. MRS MAUDLYN AHIAKWO OSAI. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

4

SIGNED: BASIRU OLUMUYIWA, 08062073630

PICTORIAL

PUBLIC NOTICE

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CARE FOCUS INITIATIVE THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. NNODI KINGSLEY CHIBUIHE (PRESIDENT) 2. IJEOMA JACINTA AZU (SECRETARY) 3. ANYANWU FRANK CHIKA 4. DR. KELECHI IKEDUM 5. TONY AZU 6. EDWIN AKWUEH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. TO GIVE EVERY CHILD A GREAT START IN THEIR HEALTH THROUGH EDUCATION. 2.TO TRAIN CHILDREN THROUGH WORKSHOP TO BECOME CONSCIOUS OF LIVING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED: SECRETARY

5

1\Brede Hangeland picked up Fulham’s first red card in 50 Premier League matches as Sunderland produced a rousing second-half display to record only their second Premier League victory of the season at the expense of 10-man Fulham.

2\Inter Milan said the current economic climate means they are unlikely to invest in new players during the January transfer window. The Nerazzurri also hinted they could be negotiating with Wesley Sneijder, who is reportedly out of favour at the club.

3\The Czech Republic took the lead in the Davis Cup final with victory in the doubles against Spain in Prague.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek beat Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 3-6 7-5 7-5 6-3 to put the hosts 2-1 up going into the final day.

4\Adrien Broner battered Antonio DeMarco to win the WBC lightweight title in Atlantic City on Saturday night. The unbeaten American stopped the champion in the eighth round. He sent DeMarco sprawling to his knees with a compact right to the body followed by a swinging left.

5\Kenya’s Lydia Cheromei outpaced the field over the last 27 kilometres to secure a comfortable win in the Yokohama international women’s marathon yesterday.

PAGE 44

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Eko 2012 Eko 2012

OYO Commissioner says team targeting top three spot

A

dedapo Lam-Adeshina, the Oyo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, has challenged Team Oyo to do the state proud at the forthcoming 18th National Sports Festival (NSF).

Lam-Adeshina said in Lagos on Saturday, that the athletes must justify the confidence reposed on Team Oyo by excelling at the national sports fiesta.

“Our athletes and Coaches have received enough motivation to excel at the forthcoming NSF. “Clinching at least the third position in the NSF, would go a long way to encourage the state

Nigerian taekwondoists in training

government to further invest in sports” he said.

The commissioner added that he recently hosted the coaches, athletes and executives of the sports Council in his office to evaluate the state’s preparations for Eko 2012.

He stressed that all hands must be on deck, to ensure that Team Oyo performed well to surpass its 7th position placing at the 2011 NSF which took place in Port Harcourt.

He added that the state would do everything within its capacity to reclaim its rightful place in the nation’s sporting circle.

NTRA to train taekwondo referees Benue tasks LOC on security

F

erguson Oluigbo, President, Nigeria Taekwondo Referees Association (NTRA), on Friday said that 50 referees would be trained to officiate with electronic equipment at the 18 th National Sports Festival.

The festival, tagged “Eko 2012’’, will be staged by the Lagos State Government from Nov. 27 to Dec. 9.

Oluigbo said that a seminar to acquaint them with the current

rules and regulations of the sport would be conducted next Monday and will end two days later.

“Our aim is to ensure that the competition is managed in such a way to avoid competitors protesting against unfair judgment on the part of the referees.

“The electronic scoring media will be used during the competition; therefore, officials need to be trained on the use of the equipment prior the festival.

“They will be trained on the use of the Protector Scoring System, Video Replay System, Electronic Socks Application System and on other officiating rules,” he said.

The President noted that there would be different registration fees for both the old and new referees.

He explained that at the end of the seminar, exams would be conducted and certificates awarded appropriately to those who were successful.

Swimming official assures on fair officiating

O

luremi Lawal, a resource person at the just concluded referees’ clinic organised by the Lagos State Swimming Association, has assured the public of competent officiating at the 18 th National Sports Festival (NSF).

Lawal said in Lagos, that the referees had been thoroughly drilled on the application of the current rules and regulation at the clinic.

It would be recalled that the clinic commenced on Nov. 14 and ended on Nov.17 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, with over 50 participants in attendance.

“Nothing but good officiating should be expected at the NSF because we have taken time to update the referees with current rules and regulations of swimming.

“The referees have been trained on the inspection of turns, judging of strokes and the importance of accurate time keeping.

“They have all performed well and I assure you that there will be no problem with officiating as far as swimming is concerned at the festival,” he said.

Lawal added that in spite of the fact that they were already conversant with what to expect at the NSF, it was still mandatory for them to attend the programme.

“We have introduced the

basic concept in officiating the breast stroke, back stroke, butterfly and free style events.

“One key note to take to mind is that a swimmer must break surface after 15 metres that is, a swimmer must come to the surface after swimming underwater within 15 metres.

“If he does not, then he would be disqualified because it is faster to swim underwater than on the surface,” he said.

Lawal noted that the clinic also had a practical session at the swimming pool complex, where the participants performed excellently.

D

avid Orngu, the Director of Sports of the Benue State Sports Council, has tasked the organisers of the forthcoming 18 th National Sports Festival (NSF) to ensure adequate security for contingents.

Orngu in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) over the w eeekend said that the call became necessary, because of the prevailing security challenges in the country.

He stressed that security must be given utmost priority during the NSF to enable athletes to perform without fear or hindrance.

“Security is very important and I urge the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to ensure adequate security for contingents coming for the festival,’’ he said.

Orngu said that the state’s contingent was working very hard towards a creditable outing at the festival.

Orngu vowed that the state would surpass its 10th position placing at the 2011 edition of the NSF which took place in Port Harcourt.

“The state athletes I believe will spring surprises in Lagos because the state government has provided the right kind of training, equipment, and welfare package,’’ he said.

According to Orngu, Team Benue would arrive Lagos on Nov.26 but he refused to divulge numerical state of the contingent.

NAN reports that Team Benue won 16 gold, 15 silver and 25 bronze medals at the Garden City Games in Port Harcourt.

Nigerian swimmers

…Ex-swimmers got biros and snacks as reward at festivals

T

wo ex-swimmers who participated in the maiden edition of the National Sports Festival in 1973, said they got ball pens and snacks as their reward.

The duo, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos, regretted that they were not handsomely rewarded during their days.

Comparing their days with what obtains now, they said: “Our time was a child’s play to compare with today.

“Nowadays, athletes are rewarded financially unlike

our time which was mere handshake with the state executives’’.

One of them, Bright Misabi, a swimmer from Bayelsa, who featured for Lagos State during his hey days, said the biennial competition had grown astronomically.

“I cannot believe that it is this same Games where we were given ball pens, towels, hangers and scholarships that people are making fortunes from,’’ he said.

Misabi said he envied today’s athletes for their prospects and

noted that they never had such plethora of opportunities in their time.

He said that the objectives of the festival were being achieved, adding that Nigeria had remained united, in spite of the socio-political and ethnoreligious differences.

The other, Wemimo Adebanwo-Raja, who also represented Lagos at the 1973 edition of the Games, said they took part in sports when passion was their only motivator unlike now.

“National interest was our

inspiration, but today, the rhythm has changed to economic interest,’’ she said.

She regretted that she was now old and no longer active to partake in today’s goodies that accompany the competition.

She called on the sports federations and state associations to always give preference to exathletes in selecting officials for events to engender professionalism in the Games.

NAN reports that in spite of their old age and frail looking stature they still have a knack for swimming.

PAGE 42

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Handball scribe urges federation members to close ranks

O

lusola Luke, the Secretary of the H a n d b a l l Federation of Nigeria (HFN), has admonished members of the board to close ranks in the interest of the sport rather than pursuing personal interest.

Luke confirmed yesterday in Lagos, that the sport could only grow when such a step was taken by members.

“It is high time, board members come together, and channel our resources towards programmes that will move handball to its rightful place,’’ he said.

He added that it would provide the necessary foundation to engage budding talents at the grassroots, in competitions that that would sharpen their skills.

“The success of the federation lies in the hands of the board members, and there has to be collective responsibility on the part of each member.

“We should strive to come up with progressive ideas, instead of engaging in needless criticisms,’’ he said.

The secretary called on players to dedicate themselves to their training, and to guard against acts that could disrupt the HFN’s programmes.

“If there is harmony in the federation, it would rub off positively on the all its programmes,’’Luke said.

Luke stressed that in spite of the near state of stagnation; the body had been engaged in spirited moves to attract corporate entities to partner with it in the promotion of its programmes.

Shola Ameobi

Onazi Ogenyi

Eagles will do well in South Africa, says Amadu

T

he Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the Super Eagles are in the physical and mental frame of mind to excel in South Africa at the 29th African Cup of Nations, next January.

This assurance was given by the General Secretary of the football federation, Musa Amadu, while appraising the Super Eagles’ recent international friendly duel against Venezuela, which the Eagles won 3-1.

“We are on the right track and like I said earlier this match is the last before the team goes into camp on December 17. The home-based will be training here for two weeks before the team will be going to Faro in Portugal to start training for the Africa Cup of Nations.

“We expect all the professionals to be in camp by January 4, and if we are able to get two weeks of intense training in Faro, we should be able to choose the final 23 for the Africa Cup of Nations. I am confident that we are on the right track and we will do well in South Africa,”

Amadu said noting that NFF would ensure that they lack nothing ahead of the tournament.

On the Miami, Florida game, Amadu, said the team showed spirit stressing that it was a good test for the Stephen Keshi charges, especially as it gave the coach the needed opportunity to take a second look at some of the players he would consider for the Nations Cup proper.

“It was a good outing for the Super Eagles and a good opportunity for the coach to look at some of the players that have not been able to play for Nigeria, particularly players like Shola Ameobi and Onazi Ogenyi, who was playing his second game for Nigeria.

“On the whole, it was a morale boosting game for the Super Eagles, the very last game in the year before they go into camping for the Nations Cup, and I must commend the boys for putting up a good performance against a very good South American side, and I think we can get better before the Africa Cup of Nations,” he concluded.

Ex-Gov wants golf courses at grassroots level

By Patrick Andrew

G

olf would remain exclusive to the privileged few, and therefore an elitist game, unless the authorities deliberately construct golf courses across the nooks and crannies of the country, according to the former Governor of Rivers State King Alfred Diete-Spiff.

The First Republic governor asserted the construction the courses across the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas would not create awareness and hasten the spread of the game, but help to demystify it.

Speaking at the tee off of

the CBN Governor’s Cup 2012 at the IBB Golf and Country Club in Abuja over the weekend, said the presence of the courses would ginger interest in the game especially now that the game is an Olympics medal winning event.

Peoples Daily Sports recalls that the game has been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a medal winning event at the Rio Games in 2016, and the royal father believes that Nigeria stand to profit from it because

Bolaji Abdullahi, Sports Minister

Nigerians have the capacity to excel in any game they have taken interest in.

“As you all know, golf will be played in the next Olympic Games as a competitive sport and it is about time we start gearing up and start preparing ourselves for it.

We have a lot of youngsters and dynamic and talented golfers that if given a little push and encouragement could get to the Olympics standard.

“But we must build more golf courses, I would encourage that every state put into their budget allocation for the construction of a golf course. Bayelsa State is

already taking the lead towards getting a golf course in Yenagoa.

“The local governments should also make parks with provision not only for walking but for golf activities in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games”, he said.

Though not exactly responding in that direction, CBN Director of C o r p o r a t e Communication Ugo Okoroafor said the annual CBN Governor’s Cup is part of the apex bank’s contribution to discover new golf talents for the country, adding it could be exploited by the National Sports Commission (NSC) to breed fresh talents.

In a similar vein, a member of the IBB Golf Club Board of Directors, General IBM Haruna called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to sustain the sponsorship of the annual CBN Governor’s Cup.

Ikhana’s resignation was the right decision – NFF

T

he resignation of coach Kadiri Ikhana as Head Coach of the Super Falcons was in consonance with the international standard practice and therefore the right thing to do, according to the NFF scribe, Musa Amadu.

Ikhana’s tutored Falcons had failed to retain the African Women’s Championship (AWC) in Equatorial Guinea after losing the semi-finals to the Banyana Banyana of South Africa and the Losers’ Finals to the Indomitable Lionesses.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised with Ikhana’s resignation but it was a dismal performance and based on the poor performance of the team in Equatorial Guinea, it was an honorable thing to do, and I must commend Ikhana for doing the right

thing. We must start to rebuild the team.

“Obviously, you can’t say Ikhana was the whole problem of the team; it is obvious that there are quite a number of players that have passed their prime and we must begin to have another team in

place.

“We will do an assessment of the totality of the team; we will do a total overhaul of the technical crew and the players”, Amadu laying emphasizes on rebuilding a new team.

Amadu, who said some

members of the team were not worth being in the team stressing that the Federation, would review the team’s outing in South Africa before taking decisive measures that he hopes would eventually turn around the fortunes of the team.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 41

Ethiopia’s Dinkesa again wins Obudu International Mountain race

A

two-time winner, Abebe Dinkesa of Ethiopia has again won the 2012 edition of the Obudu International Mountain race in the male category.

His compatriot, Etenesh Dironeda, also won the female category of the African Nations Mountain Running Championship.

Both of them went home with 50,000 dollars cash each and trophies.

Dinkesa who breasted the tape in 1.00.58 seconds had won the race in 2008 and 2010 while Dironeda returned with a record time of 1.00.03 seconds to win in Obudu for

By Patrick Andrew with agency report

N

igeria’s Golden Eaglets defeated their Malian counterparts in an Under17 African Championship by 2-0 at the UJ Esuene in Calabar yesterday, amidst protest that the Malians are over-aged.

Accordingly, the Nigerians played the first leg of the final round of the qualifying under protest on the allegation that the Malians looked too old for Under17s. The NFF though did not say when a formal protest would be lodged with the CAF. The Eaglets for the first time found a tough opponent in the Malians who kept possession well.

The hosts found it difficult to settle down in the early periods of the match as the Malians used their physique to their advantage.

Mali’s Under17s resorted to aerial balls and for the first time in more than 360 minutes, Nigeria’s

the first time.

Macdonard Ondara from Kenya came second while Robert Chemosine also from Kenya took the third position with a time of 1.02.00 and 1.03.00 seconds in the male event.

In the female category, the 2007 winner Rita Jepto from Kenya came second clocking 1.02.45 seconds while Kipoech Paskalia from Kenya emerged third with 1.04.02 seconds.

In the Nigerian category, runners from Plateau swept the first three and first two positions in the male and female categories, respectively.

Emmanuel Gyang from

Pankshin took the first position, Gideon Goyep and Danjuma Gyang from Vom took second and third positions, respectively.

In the female race, Deborah Pam came first for Nigeria and 8th in the African championship, Janet Dung and 13-year-old Jacinta Machu from the Ranch community came second and third among the Nigerian athletes and 9th and 10th in the African championship, respectively.

Commenting on the outcome of the race, Dinkesa who was full of excitement said that unlike last year when he came distant 11th he was

delighted that he came tops in the 2012 edition of the race..

“I prepared very well for this race and I am happy I won. The new course is very tough and it is amazing,’’ he said.

Dinkesa, who wedded this year in Addis Ababa, said he was dedicating the victory to his wife and promised to come back stronger in the 2013 edition of the championship.

“Winning the race and conquering the mountain was not easy because the course is rugged and hilly, but I will come back next year. I am not afraid of any challenger,’’ he said.

Abebe Dinkesa, winner of the Obudu Mountain race

goalkeeper, Adeyinka Adewale was made to work.

But it was the impressive Wilfred Ndidi who put Nigeria in front on 24 minutes with a headed goal from a corner kick.

Kelechi Iheanacho then came close to making it two for Nigeria just past the half hour mark but his attempt fizzled wide.

In the restart, Bernard Bulbwa was guilty of missing twice from goalscoring positions in quick succession as Nigeria continued to press for a second goal.

The Nigerians finally cracked open Mali’s defence with seven minutes left in the business end of the game for their second goal through Alhassan Ibrahim who benefited from a rebound after good work from Success Isaac.

It was the first time that the Nigerians will score less than three goals in a match in the CAN Under17 qualifying after defeating Guinea 7-0 and Niger Republic 101, both on aggregate, in previous rounds.

Mali will play hosts to Nigeria in Bamako in a fortnight with the winners of the two-legged game qualifying for the championship in Morocco next year.

Speaking after the match, head coach Manu Garba, lauded the players for living up to the billings.

“ You can all see that they are bigger than our boys but that is not our problem because we know that size doesn’t play football.

“We have to praise these boys for being able to play and score two goals against Mali and I’m confident we would secure the needed result in Bamako to qualify for the tournament in Morocco.”

The Golden Eaglets according to Garba would be ready to confront the Malians in Bamako in a fortnight notwithstanding the size of the opposition.

“If we had taken some of those chances we missed, we would have scored more goals but I’m confident we can beat them in Bamako,” he said.

On his part, the Malian coach, Sanni Coulibaly, said that his boys played well. “They lost to ill-luck; I wish Nigeria goodluck,” he said through an interpreter.

Meanwhile, the Golden Eaglets would observe a one-day break today and tomorrow will resume preparations for the return leg in Bamako in two weeks time.

CAF U-17: Golden Eaglets play under protest, beat Malian counterparts

NSC denies plan to shift sports festival date

T

he 18th edition of the National Sports Festival will not be postponed as is being speculated in some quarters.

This authoritative because the National Sports Commission (NSC) has dismissed reports to that effect stressing that the alleged lack of funds to prosecute the festival was the figment of imagination of its authors.

The Director of Elite Sports

Chief Patrick Ekeji, DG, NSC

Department in the Commission, Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba, declared matter-fact that noting would hinder the commencement of trhe festival barely a fortnight from today, in Lagos.

“It is starting November 27 this year, and today is November 17, so in less than two weeks, the National Sports Festival will start in Lagos”, Ojo-Oba said.

“The National Sports Commission (NSC) has the Main Organizing Committee (MOC) and they have been in regular touch with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in Lagos. Don’t forget that the games belong to the National Sports Commission and Lagos is just the host city, so I don’t subscribe to your opinion that we have left the whole thing in the hands of the Lagos State government.

“It is our property and Lagos has applied to host and we are in regular contact with them (Lagos State), and by the grace of God we will organize a befitting and high class games, one that everybody will come to appreciate”, he said.

…Maigari splashes N1 million on Eaglets

T

he Golden Eaglets were N1 million richer yesterday after beating their Malians counterparts in the first leg of the final phase of the CAF 2013 African U-17 Championship qualifying fixture. .

President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, appreciated the players with the sum after they

overcome their bigger opponents 2-0 at the U. J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar.

“I am delighted by your performance today, just as I was when I watched you against Guinea in the second round some weeks ago.

Certainly, you are the future of Nigeria football. But I want you to keep level heads and

continue to improve as you abide by the instructions of your Coaches.

“I am giving you this sum of money as appreciation of your toil and enterprise against a Malian team that looked much older, and also to motivate you ahead of the return leg in Bamako in two weeks,” Maigari said.

Golden Eaglets of contesting for possession of the ball when they confronted their Guinean counterparts at the UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 47

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FACTS * Octopus have three hearts. * If you ate too many carrots, you would turn orange. * The average person spends two weeks waiting for a traffic light to change. * 1 in 2,000,000,000 people will live to be 116 or old. * The body has 2-3 million sweat glands. * Sperm whales have the biggest brains; 20 lbs. * Tiger shark embroyos fight each other in their mother's womb. The survivor is born. * Most cats are left pawed. * 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

* A Blue whale's tongue weighs more than an elephant. * You use 14 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Keep Smiling! * Bamboo can grow up to 3 ft in 24 hours. * An eyeball weighs about 1 ounce. * People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles. * When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air. * Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.

Two herons fight over a fish in the Camargue area of southern France Source: Weird facts

ACROSS 1 Neuter reflexive pronoun (6) 5 Pieces let into a garment (6) 8 Unruly child (4) 9 Acknowledgements of payment (8) 10 Race first run by Pheidippides in 490BC (8) 11 Eric __, former Montly Python comedian (4) 12 View (6) 14 Rowing crews (6) 16 Goggle (4) 18 Infidelity with a married person (8) 20 Bobby __, soccer legend (8) 21 Counter-current (4) 22 Road-making machine (6) 23 Mr Hemingway, US writer (6) DOWN 2 Sashes wound into caps (7) 3 More than usual (5) 4 Equally importantly (3,4,6) 5 Because (of) (2,11) 6 Staining (7) 7 Sum of all amounts (5) 13 Became invalid (7) 15 Long vehement harangues (7) 19 Co-ordinate (3,2)

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012

SPORTS LA TEST LATEST

Sunderland get back on track

S

underland registered their first Premier League away win since February and ended a run of five games without victory by overcoming 10-man Fulham 3-1 yesterday.

Brede Hangeland was sent off for Fulham after half an hour, but although Steven Fletcher's opener for the visitors was cancelled out by Mladen Petric, goals from Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon gave Sunderland the win.

With 10 goals to their name, Martin O'Neill's side are no longer the lowestscoring team out of England's 92 league clubs.

Victory lifted the Black Cats above Wigan Athletic into 15th place, three points above the relegation zone, while Fulham remain ninth.

Ancelotti admits PSG are in crisis

P

aris Saint-Germain coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted that his side are in crisis after they suffered a 2-1 loss to Stade Rennais on Saturday.

The capital club were unable to find a way past the Breton outfit, who had been reduced to nine men shortly after the break, and are now without a win in their last three Ligue 1 games.

"I am very angry. I don't think we had a good attitude on the pitch. It's very difficult at the moment because we lost two home games and that's not possible for the team we want to be.

"We're in crisis and I don't have any problems with saying that. We have to get out of this period quickly, and if we have the attitude, character and professionalism, we should do.

"To get out of it, we need to change something, and I will change that something.

Everyone has to do more. I am here to make a team and, at the moment, we are not a team," he told reporters after the match.

PSG will look to get back to winning ways when they travel to Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine on Wednesday in Champions League action.

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QUO TABLE Q UO TE UOT QUO UOTE There is actually no magic formula for solving the violent extremism posed by Boko Haram. What the country needs to do is to adopt a muti-faceted response, (including) the disciplined use of force in which security forces abide by the clear rules of engagement. – Michael Posner, US Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour

The babel from Sokoto A dog with a bone in his mouth does not bark - Ghanaian proverb.

T

he Sokoto zonal public hearing conducted by the Senate on November 14-15 on amendments to the constitution was profoundly revealing. The symbolism of holding the zonal hearing in a State and city which serves as the springboard of much of the ethno-religious tendencies which dominate much of the north today appeared lost on the vast majority of the people who participated in the hearings.

Although it was mentioned by one or two speakers as a deliberate choice, in reality the choice may have been informed more by security considerations than anything else. Certainly the venue was very far from Kano and Kaduna, the western frontlines in the war against an insurgency which itself claims substantial legitimacy from the spiritual fountain which Sokoto represented. It was also safe as a PDP stronghold, and V.I.Ps and Senators need not have feared hostile mobs or environments.

There is the possibility that the choice of Sokoto was informed by the idea that it represented a political fortress of the people of the region, or, in any case, majority of them.

Those who made the journey to participate in what turned out to be an expensive charade would have noticed how peaceful and serene Sokoto and neighbouring states are, compared to others in the zone or in the north. You would think that the people have never heard of Boko Haram; and even the few police and military checkpoints that are barely visible are looking out more for rampaging mobs which have terrorized villages in Zamfara and Kaduna States than insurgents.

Northern leaders may have been lulled by the idea that there was no pressing need to be at Sokoto at the hearings. Certainly, only the Governor of Kano State of the seven governors in the zone attended. The Sultan and the host governor were absent. The Emir of Gwandu and a sprinkling of traditional rulers put up an appearance, and one of them made a presentation on behalf of traditional rulers. There were no prominent clergy; no politicians save the senators whose participation was apparently mandatory and paid for; no intelligentsia and very few young people, except for those who followed senators around fighting each other for little money. The women there were the usual

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FIFTEEN MINUTES with Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed drbabaahmed@yahoo.com

Gov. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto state retinue which followed politicians around; except for one or two very brave women who insisted on being heard. The multitudes of northern groups which sprang up in the last two three years were absent, except for groups such as the CODE Group and the Arewa Reawakening Forum who braved odds and a noisy and chaotic atmosphere to have their voices heard.

What the Sokoto zonal hearing lacked in political muscle and quality was more than made up by a surfeit of pedestrian and selfdefeating presentations. The vast majority of the presentations made cases only for creation of states in the northwest zone. The vast hall in which the hearing held was taken up by placed-carrying people bussed-in from especially Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Katsina states to make cases for creation of additional states. These cases made, at great expense to the public and with active support and funding

by Governors and some of the senators in the hall received loud ovations from mobs that took over the hall. Presentations which attracted attention and applause, which were few, included those which made cases for full autonomy for Local Governments, removal of immunity clause against elected persons, and those related to sharing of national assets and resources.

The governor of Kano state made maximum use of the passing presence of the President of the Senate, David Mark, to raise the bar in the case he has been making for review of the onshore-offshore dichotomy, and the fact that the southeast has no special right to demand additional state(s) in a manner that suggests that it is a do-or-die affair. He played to a very popular gallery, and his no-holdsbarred stance may have contributed to the painstaking assurances given by Senator David Mark that the review exercise was going to be fair and thorough.

For a two-day event which addressed the fundamentals of the Nigerian nation held in a part of the country being increasingly defined by poverty and violence, those who thought they will hear presentations or suggestions on how the constitutional amendment exercise could mitigate the problems of the north were sorely disappointed. Not one single presenter mentioned Boko Haram, or the crippling levels of corruption and insensitivity which is alienating the bulk of the citizenry from the democratic process. There were elder statesmen, many of whom should have stayed at home and sent their grandchildren to the hearing, with their contribution if necessary. There were submissions from regional groups, and elderly members who are part of regional groups who chose to present their own views. Groups from Kaduna State showed the deep disunity around the clamour for another state by the unseemly scramble for Kaduna city in all their demands.

Proposals were presented to create two or three states from states which daily claim that they can barely invest in infrastructure and human capital development after paying salaries. Governor Kwankwaso who made a passionate case for review of revenue sharing formula and the weakness of the north had three delegations from his state looking for their own states, apparently with his blessing.

The Sokoto zonal hearing exposed the lack of vision and

cohesion in the north. It exposed the contempt of governors and other prominent politicians for the democratic process in the manner they boycotted a popular avenue to work with the people, principally because they have the powers to shoot down any proposed amendment they do not like. The biggest contribution made at the hearing was towards the cause of the southeast zone for additional state(s). Now that northerners are falling over themselves for additional states, the coast is clear for the southeast. If one additional state is created in the southeast, a major political goal would have been achieved by leaders from that zone. But two, three or four additional states in the north will crippled the region further, and compound its poverty and the fragmentation of its leadership.

The rest of the nation must be lamenting the disastrous collapse of leadership in a region which a few years back basically set the rules of the game. No northern leaders led by vision, or competence during the entire preparations and conduct of these hearings. Little wonder, therefore, that the vast majority were left to believe that state creation is what the entire exercise is about.

Still, when all is said and done, the lack of leadership and foresight in the north may have inadvertently saved the region and the nation from a very expensive blunder. Every state for which a case is made is as deserving for consideration as others, including those from the southeast and south-south. Since you cannot create 19, 27, or 43 new states, the solution lies in creating none. Similarly, since the nation appears to have ignored the clamour from the south-west for substantial devolution of power to states (and the implied strengthening of zonal arrangement and greater autonomy), this too will not enjoy an overwhelming national endorsement in the end. The case being made by the south-south for larger share of revenues from oil and gas will also fail, as it confronts a nation which also wants more, not less from them.

The political fortunes of the north are dwindling by the day.

The rest of the nation will be increasingly exasperated by a region which merely presents itself as a spoiler, a weak and divided people who cannot even decide what they want. If any evidence is needed that the region needs to radically improve the manner it organizes itself, it was all there in the open to see in Sokoto, Makurdi and Gombe last week.

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