Peoples Daily Newspaper, Saturday 20, July, 2013

Vol. 3 No. 48

SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Ramadan Timings 2015: Jonathan for Abuja must go —Prof.

MAGRIB ALFIJR Ango Abdullahi 6.57 p.m.

>> 24,25

4.57 a.m.

RAMADAN 11 - 12, 1434 AH

N150

Muhammadu Kazallah Katsina: The forgotten warrior >> 40

Al-mustapha:

How the prison changed me Pgs 9,10,11

News Feature

Double dating: wife kills husband with stone Pg 8

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POLITICS

2015: Tukur, Nyako and struggle for the soul of Adamawa Pgs 14,15

SPECIAL REPORT

Mararaba Bridge: Where the good, bad and ugly mingle Pg 38

Page 2

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

News

Al-Mustapha begged me to follow him to Kano —Fasehun Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

T

he founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC),Dr. Frederick Fasehun yesterday gave reasons for following Major Hamza Al-Mustapha to Kano just as he canvassed for legislation that will include thef duration of trials for criminal prosecution.

Addressing newsmen on his involvement with the Al-Mustapha issue in Lagos, Fasehun described his support and trip to Kano with the recently acquitted Al-Mustapha, as a quest for a handshake-across-theNiger.

“The trip was a request from AlMustapha to ensure that I hand him over to his people safe and sound, through Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero” he said.

Fasehun lamented the undue extension of trials without duration in Nigeria and urged the Judiciary to invest in modern equipment to speed up the dispensation of justice.

“The detention and trial of this

Officer and his co-accused represented an injustice on its own.

“It hardly happens in the civilised world. If a trial is unduly delayed, it may cause prejudice to the Defendant.

Currently, the Nigerian Constitution and law books maintain an indecent silence on the duration of trials. Nigeria must hasten to copy “The United States’ Speedy Trial Act of 1974” that establishes time limits for completing the various stages of a federal criminal prosecution.

The OPC founder also called for the probe and sanction of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court by the National Judicial Council, NJC. “Many a Nigerian simply wanted life for life, and demanded the head of Al-Mustapha and his co-accused Alhaji Lateef Shofohan for the blood of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, who fell to assassin’s bullets on June 4, 1996 around SevenUp, Ikeja area of Lagos.”

“The judicial killing of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha would have been as evil as the cold-blooded killing of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola,” he said.

Fracas: Kebbi suspends senior students at govt girls school From Ahmed Idris Birnin Kebbi

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ollowing the weekend fracas between the SS1 and SS 11 students in Dr. Aminu Abubakar Government Girls Secondary School Gwandangwaji , the Kebbi State government has ordered the suspension of all the SS1 and SS 11 students who were involved in the impasse.

Speaking to People’s Daily Weekend on the violence in the school premises yesterday, the Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Ismaila Ganda Kamba who represented Govenor Saidu Usman Nasamu Dakingari, said that from the investigation conducted by the state government, the team discovered that the crisis was between the students, and not with the school management.

The crisis that lasted about two hours between the students was caused by seniority tussle, but no lives were lost. However, 16 of them sustained various degrees of injuries and were taken to the Sir Yahaya General Hospital for medical attention.

Speaking to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, one of the affected students parents decried the state of learning in the school, adding that her daughter was seriously injuries and now on admission. ‘’ I have two daughters, one in SS11 and the other one in JSS11. With this incident, I will withdraw my children because no light, water and other learning facilities in the school. Just look at the school premises yourself’’, she said.

Also narrating the cause of the crisis to Peoples Daily, a senior teacher in the school, Mallam Musa said that

the school authorities recently assigned few students from SS1 to be assisting the SS11 prefects, adding that the SS1 students capitalised on that and disrespected their senior colleagues, thereby sparking the crisis on Saturday around 10pm when there were little or no staff in the school.

L-R: Chief Imam, Apo Legislative Quarter Jumaat Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Nura, Sarkin Kurudu village Abuja, Mallam Haliru Bako and the Chairman, Al-khulafa’ur Rashidun Foundation, Alh. Inuwa Bakari Jalingo, during the capacity Building Training for Pioneer Members of ANNUR Saving and Loans Group Kurudu Center, organized by Al-Khulafa’ur Rashidun Foundation, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Police to Governors: You can’t stop funding us

By Lambert Tyem

C

ontrary to threats by some governors in Nigeria especially from the North, to stop funding the police in their various States if it fails to perform its constitutional roles, Police authorities in Abuja yesterday said such threats are speculative.

Police Spokesman Frank Mba during a telephone interview with the Peoples Daily Weekend said that Police authorities regarded the threats as speculative as governors remain the Chief Security officers of

THE INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SOCIETY This is to inform the general public that the above named society has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Abuja for registration under part ‘C’ of the companies and allied matters act No. 10F 1990.

The trustees are: 1. Ismail Sani 2. Abubakar Jimoh 3. Yushau Shuaib 4. Kuforoji Olorunsola 5. Sanya Adejokun AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To provide free emergency rescue materials to disaster victims.

2. To assist accident victims, including spreadind education to prevent accident on our highway 3. To provide relief and aid to the society in crisis and in emergencies.

4. To cater for the security and well being of the society.

5. To protect, preserve and promote the rights and previleges of the society.

6. To preserve a healthy and sustainable environment.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar General Corporate Affairs Commision, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed A. R GIDADO ESQ AGR MAN MALLAM BORGU & CO 08038498744

their various states with the police under them.

Mr. Mba further noted that Subsection 2 of the constitution spelt it out that :”(2) (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution and therefore, State Governors must carry out their responsibilities”.

“All State Governors are very responsible people that cannot abandon their duties. Rivers State Government in particular is so responsible even enough that they have so much supported the Police and is still doing so over and over again. And all other State Governors

are doing the same, so the question that if State Governors make good their threat by stop funding an antagonistic Police in their States is speculative”, the Police spokesman stated.

It would be recalled that four PDP Northern governors, Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Lamido Sule (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Murtala Yako (Adamawa) had last week visited Rivers state following the political crisis that rocked the State and threatened to stop funding the police if the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu, was not redeployed.

The Governors said, “We wish to call on the IG to hearken to the voice of reason and immediately redeploy and discipline Mbu. His actions smack of unprofessional conduct and partisanship unbecoming of his office.

CHANGE OF NAME I FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MISS. NNAMANI GRACE NDIDI NOW WISHES TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MRS. SAMUEL GRACE NDIDIAMAKA. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID.ISI UZO ENUGU STATE AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME I FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS JIBRIN MARK NOW WISHES TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS EMMANUEL IBRAHIM. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID.NIGERIA ARMY AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME I FORMERLY KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MISS TAMIDAH GAMBO BISSU NOW WISHES TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS MRS. TAMMY WILLIAMS UBAWUIKE. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID, THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

2015: North will not compromise Its future – Group tells Northern elders From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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group under the aegis of Northern Youth Forum yesterday came out point blank to accuse the Northern elders forum of being self-centred, saying the future of the north cannot be compromised to serve individual interest come 2015.

The group was reacting to the comment accredited to Professor Ango Abdullahi when he alongside Former Minister of Agriculture Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura organized a press conference on behalf of ACF and other five northern groups that Nigeria is sliding towards

Ramadan: Dangote donates food Items to Kebbi From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

T

he chairman, Dangote Group of Companies, Dr. Aliyu Dangote has yesterday donated thousands of rice and sugar Bags to the Kebbi state Government for this month of Ramadan.

The items was shared to the State government’s workers, individuals and stakeholders across the state yesterday at the Government House, Birnin Kebbi .

Peoples Daily gathered that the items worth millions of Naira, was given to the Kebbi state government as Ramadan gifts to the less privileged.

One of the beneficiaries, Mohammed Alhassan, who spoke to Peoples Daily Weekend said that Dangote has touched the lives of the masses by assisting them with food. ‘’Two of us shared one big bag of rice and sugar which I think I can manage throughout fasting and Sallah period , God will guide him and bless his wealth’’, he said.

anarchy and lawlessness.

In a statement signed by the Group’s Director, Media and Publicity, Engineer Bello Gambo Bichi and made available to newsmen in Kaduna, said they would always condemn negative utterances of elders from any section of the country.

The group challenged NEF, particularly Professor Ango Abdullahi to tell Nigerians and the North what he did to give value to the lives of Nigerians.

“Professor Ango Abdullahi was presidential Adviser on Food Security, what did he do to impact positively on the lives of Nigerians while in office?

Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura was a minister of Agriculture, he should also tell Nigerians

and indeed the North what he pretends to be fighting for, and the impact he made as a former Minister of Agriculture. “ While we condemn in strong terms the negative utterances of elders from any section of this country, we take exception to the rampant press conferences designed to promote selfish interests at the expense of all Nigerians,” the group said.

The group added that in terms of national leadership it would always advocate for a good leader and not just a northern leader pointing out that “Nigeria would be greater without ethnic champions, who cry over spilt milk. The future of the North will not and cannot be compromised to serve individual interest,” he said.

Dakingari tasks stakeholders on corruption, recruits 8,305 teachers From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

K

ebbi State Governor, Alhaji Usman Nasamu Dakingari has called on all the stakeholders on education in the state to fight corruption and apply discipline on students and the ministry at large just as he promised to recruit 8,305 teachers.

He made this call yesterday in Government House, Birnin Kebbi while receiving the committee’s report on recruitment of teachers, adding that if the Ministry could combat corruption, then there would be sound education in the state.

He added that his administration was ready to spend the remaining half of the year on education, but‘’if the management are not

committed then there is no how it can perform”.

Speaking earlier, the Commissioner of Science and Technical Education and chairman of the committee Alhaji Muahmmad Ruwa said that, a total of 8,548 candidates were interviewed while 8,305 were successful.

Ruwa added that the successful ones were, 1,794 graduates of HND and Degree, 5,822 NCE/Diploma and 689 non-indigenous while the committee was able to arrest those who presented forged certificate with the aim of securing employment in the state.

He then appeal to the kebbi state government to recruit all the successful candidates for the interview in order to meet up with the education challenges in the state.

Anambra guber: Ubah seeks LP ticket

By Lawrence Olaoye

B

usiness magnate, Ifeanyi Ubah, yesterday indicated interest in contesting the November 16 governorship election in Anambra state on the platform of the Labour Party.

The politician also explained that he dumped the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, for lacking those things he considered germane to his success in the election.

Briefing newsmen after the submission of his letter of intent, Ubah said he was compelled to seek election for the governorship

because of the downward trend of things in the state.

According to him, the state had deteriorated under the leadership of the APGA governor, Peter Obi, and bedeviled with youth unemployment, adding that some able bodied youths in the state have embraced crime for survival.

He lamented that Anambra state which is supposed to be the commercial hub of the country, had been reduced to the rubble awaiting a visionary leader of his ilk to rebuild.

Labour Party National Chairman, Chief Dan Iwuanyawu, in his remarks after handing over the governorship nomination

forms to Ubah said he received the letter of intent on behalf of the National Executive Council of the party.

He however told the aspirant that the party was still open to other members of the party from Anambra state who may want to contest the governorship election on the platform of the party.

While enjoining Ubah to work closely with members of the party from the grassroot to emerge the candidate of the party through an open and transparent primary to be conducted in due date, Iwuanyanwu took a swipe on some other parties he described as undemocratic.

News

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Ramadan Timing Day 11 TOWNS MAGRIB ALFIJR Aba 6.52 5.02 Abakaliki 6.50 5.04 Abeokuta 7.09 5.21 Abuja 6.56 5.02 Akure 7.01 5.13 Argungu 7.10 5.01 Ankpa 6.49 5.03 Auchi 6.57 5.09 Azare 6.48 4.44 Bama 6.33 4.31 Bauchi 6.47 4.50 Benin 6.58 5.14 Bichi 6.56 4.51 Bida 7.01 5.07 BirninGwari 6.59 5.02 BirninKebbi 7.13 5.07 Biu 6.36 4.32 Calabar 6.46 5.05 Damaturu 6.41 4.37 Daura 6.57 4.48 Dutse 6.52 4.49 Enugu 6.51 5.05 Funtua 6.00 4.57 Gombe 6.41 4.44 Gwoza 6.34 4.33 Gumi 7.08 5.04 Gusau 7.01 4.57 Gwadabawa 7.10 5.01 Hadejia ` 6.50 4.43 Ibadan 7.06 5.18 Ife 7.05 5.15 Ilorin 7.06 5.16 Jalingo 6.39 4.45 Jere 6.55 4.58 Jos 6.50 4.53 Kabba 6.59 5.09 Kafanchan 6.53 4.57 Keffi/Nasarawa 6.56 4.52 Kaduna 6.57 4.58 Kano 6.55 4.51 Katsina 7.01 4.52 Kontagora 7.04 5.07 Lafia

6.49 4.57 Lagos 7.07 5.21 Lokoja 6.56 5.21 Maiduguri 6.34 4.32 Makurdi 6.49 4.59 Malumfashi 7.01 4.51 Minna 7.00 5.04 Port Harcourt 6.51 5.10 Ringim 6.52 4.49 Shagamu 7.07 5.19 Sokoto 7.10 5.01 Warri 6.57 5.14 Yola 6.35 4.41 Zaria 6.56 4.56 Cotonnou-Benin 7.10 5.26 Ndjamena-Chad 7.25 4.25 Niamey-Niger 7.23 5.14 Younde-Cameroun 6.31 4.54 Source: Society for Propagation of Islam Kaduna)

Photo Splash PAGE 4

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe state distributing equipment under Sure-P programme in Damaturu on Thursday

Muslim faithful at the National Unity Annual Ramadan Lecture Year 1434 AH, recently in Abuja.

A farmer from Yadin Ward in Fufore LGA, Malam Hamisu Usman (2nd left), buying fertiliser under The Federal Government Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) from an agro dealer, Alhaji Hassan Hamman (right), during the commencement of GES in Yola, Adamawa, on Thursday

L-R: Secretary to Lagos state Government, Dr. Ranti Adebule, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mr. Femi Olugbile, Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adesina, Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos and Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, at the inauguration of Lagos state Secretariat Clinic in Alausa on Thursday

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of FCT, Engr. John Chukwu, Council/ Secretary Legal, Ima Okpongete and Director Survey FCT, Mr. Abiodun Alonge, during inauguration of FCT Boundary Field Team Committee on Thursday in Abuja.

Photos: Mahmud Isa & NAN

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20

— SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

News Don’t impose gay values on us, Minister warns West

By Abdulkadir Isa

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he Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru has warned all pro-gay countries to retract any move to impose the adoption of gay rights on Nigeria.

Ashiru said, every territory has its own values and as such, he expects each and every government or body to align with its core values.

“We don’t impose values on other countries and other countries

should not impose their values on us”, he said.

Gay rights was one among issues discussed at an interactive session organised by the ministry of foreign affairs with the diplomatic community in Abuja yesterday.

Ashiru said the meeting was necessary as the diplomatic community was supposed to be kept abreast with some recent developments within and outside Nigeria.

In his speech, he called on the

diplomatic community to warn all companies close to them and involved in oil theft in Nigeria as President Jonathan has set up a committee headed by the justice minister which includes the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Maritime Safety Authority (NIMASA) to take firm measures against perpetuators.

On the security situation in the North East, the minister said the army has recorded tremendous success in restoring peace in the affected

states with no human rights violation recorded.

On death sentence, the minister said the criminal code with which the country operates was inherited at independence from the colonial masters and therefore the country needs time to grow and consider abrogating the law.

The minister also brought to the fore, counsellorship matters being violated by the diplomatic community. He cautioned all ambassadors

and staff under them to imbibe the culture of formality in their correspondence within the country. This directive, he said, stems from letters addressed straight to the presidency, a practice strange to the diplomatic community.

“We object when ambassadors conduct activities that are incompatible with their status.With this attitude, I wonder if some ambassadors have passed through diplomatic training”, he lamented.

INEC unfolds plans for Anambra governorship poll

By Abubakar Ibrahim

T

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will from August 19th to 25th, 2013, conduct Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in Anambra State, preparatory to the governorship election scheduled for November 16, 2013.

Before the CVR, the Commission would conduct voter verification from 16th to 18th August, 2013. During this exercise, the Register of Voters for the state would be displayed at polling units statewide for voters to verify their registration status, a statement issued by Kayode Idowu, INEC’s chief press secretary stated.

“INEC on Thursday, July 18, 2013, met with national and Anambra State leaders of registered political parties to brief them on preparations towards the governorship election. The meeting provided an opportunity to give the stakeholders up-to-date information on the data of voters for Anambra State, the status and spread of the polling units, and the action plan for voter verification and CVR leading up to the governorship election.

Following the voter registration exercise conducted in 2011, INEC declared a figure of 2, 011, 746 registrants in Anambra State. The Commission has since subjected that data to Register Optimization Process, which involved data consolidation, the use of the Automatic Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) software to eliminate multiple registrations and the application of business

rules for printing of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs); ending up with a valid voter figure of 1, 711, 061 registrants.

The impending CVR offers opportunity for persons who have turned 18 years since 2011, or who were 18-plus at the time but did not register, or who had less than two fingerprints captured during the 2011 registration exercise, to get themselves registered ahead of the Anambra governorship election.

There are 4, 608 polling units in the state, spread across the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The Commission, at the stakeholder meeting on Thursday, identified 53 polling units in nine LGAs that are without data. It also disclosed the identity of four polling units that have been found to be located in the forest, assuring stakeholders that the status of these polling units is being verified and the Commission would make its decision on them known very soon.

The Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, urged the stakeholders to support INEC in mobilising Anambra residents for the voter verification exercise, the CVR and the November 16th governorship election.

The voter verification will hold at the polling unit level, while the CVR will hold at the Registration Area centres (i.e. Ward level) – except for the 53 PUs without data, where registration will hold at the polling unit level. The Chairman also assured the stakeholders that with the Register Optimization Process conducted, Addendum Registers will not be used in the Anambra election”, it said.

Governor Idris Wada, President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and SSG, Kogi state, Prof.

Olugbemiro Jegede presenting cash grants to beneficiaries in Kogi state, Thursday

Insecurity: KRPC task staff on safety measures From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

I

n its effort to ensure safety among its staff, the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) has test run its emergency facility with a call on the staff to be security conscious and be at alert anytime while at work.

Addressing thousands of staff who gathered at the refinery premises shortly after an emergency evacuation exercise organized by the management, KRPC Managing Director,

Engineer Ayodele Bolanle stated the need for regular staff readiness for emergency due to the nature of their job.

According to him, the purpose of the exercise was to remind the staff on what to do in an emergency situation.

“We have been holding such exercise in different areas but this time around what we have done was to simulate how everybody can be evacuated from the refinery. By this, we acquaint you of what to do in case

of emergency.

“Worldwide in case of emergency situation, you have more casualties in attempt to escape and you end up having panic all around, that is why we organized this drill exercise so as to educate ourselves on safety measures,” he said.

Speaking to newsmen, Executive Director Services Idi Muktar said the evacuation exercise was to test how ready KRPC was in evacuating almost 4000 staff including contractors and other third party staff .

16 Women to get loan from Khulafa’ur Rashidun Foundation

By Abbas Aminu Bamalli

A

non-governmental organisation, Khulafa’ur Rashidun Foundation has embarked on a capacity building training for sixteen women, mostly widows in Kurudu area of Abuja.

The trainees will each receive loan to establish business for self reliance.

The Chairman, board of trustees of the foundation, Alhaji Inuwa Bakari Jalingo said, the aim of the project was to assist the less privileged women to be self reliant and to build the future of their orphans.

“I once came across an association called Save the Children UK, which motivated me to embark on such project”, he said.

Jalingo said the type of skill

would determine the amount each woman would receive to establish the business of her choice, calling on them not to squander the money but to be judicious in using the loan.

In his speech, the chief of Kurudu, Mallam Halliru Bako, commended the foundation for its gesture, and called on other non-governmental organisations to emulate the

Khulafa’ur Rashidun Foundation.

He also told the beneficiaries to utilise the opportunity given to them not only on their children but the community in general, and promised to do all he could to ensure the right use of the loan.

In his remark, the chief imam of Apo legislative Juma’at Mosque, sheikh Muhammad Nura Khalid said “ given assistance to those in need is

also one of the ways that complete faith”, adding that if such people are not given assistance by the rich, they veer into negative thoughts.

A consultant and staff of Save the Children, Kaduna office, Hajiya Hajara Muhammed said the project embarked by the foundation should be admired by everybody as all the beneficiaries would be taught how to save and utilize their resources.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Crime Cycle

pmlcrimecycle@gmail.com 08138559513 (SMS only)

Court dissolves Anglican priest’s marriage over abandonment

By Stanley Onyekwere with agency report

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customary court in Aba, Abia state has dissolved an eight-year-old marriage between an Anglican cleric, Canon Chiemela Alozie, and Ifeyinwa, his wife, for denial of matrimonial rights.

The dissolution followed a suit filed by the priest claiming that his wife abandoned him since 2007 without any reason.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Alozie, who told the court that his wife packed her belongings and left the house without any reason, however

said, “efforts to reconcile with her failed as she refused to heed to calls and advice.”

Granting the divorce, the presiding Senior Magistrate, Mr Diamond Olewengwa, said the respondent had never appeared in court since the case started on June 3.

“The marriage, having broken down irretrievably and the respondent having refused to come to the court to state her case is assumed to have accepted the dissolution,” Olewengwa said.

The magistrate said the matter was called up four times between June 3 and June 24 for

hearing but Ifeyinwa failed to show appearance after she was duly served.

The court also granted the petitioner custody of their only child, Adachi, six, and ordered Ifeyinwa to refund the bride price of N60 to her estranged husband.

The court said that both parties were free to remarry.

Meanwhile, in Kwara state, a housewife, Folake Femi, has urged an Ilorin Area Court to dissolve her two-year-old marriage to her husband, Adeyemi, claiming he was fond of complaining.

The 27-year-old woman, who is a resident of Niger Area of Ilorin, told the court that her husband was fond of complaining about everything she does.

“My husband always criticises and condemns me in the presence of my friends, not minding the humiliation this has brought to me,” she said.

She said that their marriage was contracted in 2011 and had produced one female child.

“My Lord, I want an end to this marriage because I cannot endure the humiliation anymore,” she said.

The respondent, however,

objected to the prayer of his wife, saying he was still interested in the marriage.

“My wife needs thorough supervision whenever she is cleaning the house because of her lazy nature, and that compels me to always criticise her,” he said.

Adeyemi promised to always encourage her henceforth and prayed the court for an adjournment to enable him make a reconciliatory move.

The presiding Judge, Mr Yusuf Abdulkareem, adjourned the case to Aug. 30 for a report of settlement or continuation of hearing

Driver accused of stealing 11 ATM cards freed by court

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Grade 1 Area Court sitting in Aso Pada in Mararaba, Nasarawa State has discharged a driver, Anthony Iloka, 27, of Akun village, Mararaba, who allegedly stole 11 ATM cards and 3 ID cards.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Inuwa Maigida, on resumption of hearing applied for adjournment to enable him present his witnesses.

However, the Defence Counsel, Ndubisi Kalu, objected to Maigida’s application.

Kalu cited section 165 of the Criminal Procedure Code

(CPC), and urged the court to discharge the accused.

“Adjournment is a strategy by the prosecution to deny the accused his right to justice; and even if the court adjourns this case to 2015, the prosecution will still not bring any witnesses.

“From observation, the accused person’s health has deteriorated drastically due to lack of inadequate health care in the prison, I therefore urge the court to refuse the prosecution’s application and discharge the accused for want of diligent prosecution,’’ Kalu submitted.

Woman, 55, docked for assaulting 89-year-old

A

55-year-old woman is standing trial before an Ibadan Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly manhandling an 89-year-old man.

The Prosecutor, Insp. Oladeji Obayanju, said the defendant was arraigned on a one-count charge of assault.

He said Oludele committed the crime on June 14, at 8 a.m. at Odinjo area of Ibadan.

Obayanju said the defendant inflicted serious injuries on the 89-year-old Sunday Williams after she had rained blows on him.

He added that a heated argument had ensued between

the duo which led to the assault of the old man.

According to the prosecutor, the offence contravened section 354 of the Criminal Code Cap. 38 Vol. II of Oyo State of Nigeria 2000.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The defence counsel, Mr Tope Olayinka, applied for his client’s bail on liberal term.

Chief Magistrate Adams Adeshina admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N50, 000 with two reliable sureties in like sum.

Adeshina adjourned the case to Aug. 13, for further hearing.

(NAN)

The presiding officer, Mr Albert Maga, in his ruling said the prosecution had not presented any witness to prosecute the case since the commencement of the case on June 6.

According to him, “the court is not a warehouse where cases are kept without making any significant progress; I therefore, invoke section 165 of the CPC. The FIR is hereby terminated and the accused discharged.’’

Maga advised Iloka to immediately seek medical treatment, and warned him not to return to crime again. (NAN)

CJN Mariam Aloma Mukhtar

NSCDC arrests 2 suspected kidnappers in Jigawa

T

he Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Jigawa have said it arrested two suspects, who threatened to kidnap a top female government official in Dutse.

The NSCDC Commandant, Mr Muhammad Gidado, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the suspects were arrested on Tuesday in Dutse.

Gidado said the suspects demanded N500,000 from their victim, adding that they were arrested after receiving complaints from the victim on her encounter with them.

He said that the suspects had threatened to wipe out the

victim’s family if she failed to give them the money.

The commandant also said that the suspects had mentioned names of the victim’s children, their school and number plate of the school bus that conveyed them to school.

Gidado said the suspects had also mentioned the name of her husband and where he spent his time after office hours.

The commandant said the suspects were arrested following intelligence report and had confessed committing the offence.

He also said the NSCDC arrested two suspects who allegedly sold an improved rice

seeds to consumers in Kazaure Local Government Area.

He said no fewer than 40 people fell sick after the rice meal, saying their arrest followed complaint by the community about the residents that had diarrhoea and vomiting the rice meal.

The commandant explained that the improved seeds were provided by the local government to be distributed to farmers for planting in the area.

Gidado said that investigation revealed the suspects had so far sold 30 bags of the rice to more than 50 people in the area.

He also said that the suspects confessed committing the offence. (NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Digest

Compiled by Jude Melea Moses

Chinese businessman demands sheep as payment for goods

F

or the villagers of Kashgar, the sweetest deals on computers, smartphones, and tablets do not come with hefty price tags. To buy these increasingly popular electronics, all that they ever need are their sheep.

In this part of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, sheep have become as ubiquitous as cash itself. So for a 29-year-old computer dealer to offer special promotions in which these meek farm animals serve as an alternative mode of payment wasn’t too much of a stretch at all.

The dealer, Jie Huang, who hands out leaflets in nearby villages, advertising his promotions, points out that by using sheep to trade for his gadgets, people get a more realistic estimation of the value

of, say, a smartphone, which costs one sheep. A laptop, on the other hand, may be exchanged for four.

This idea eases out the common impression that computers are sold for more than what they really cost.

Huang adds that because these villagers live far away from cities, people also sell their sheep at a much lower value.

So trading them for a PC or a smartphone helps increase their value.

For devices that cost lower than the sheep exchanged, Huang returns the price difference in cash.

Today, Huang’s biggest challenge selling his electronics is the lack of Internet access in villages, reducing the gadgets’ appeal and functionality for many locals.

Anti rape: Indian students create hight tech lingerie

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ou can’t hide the fact that sexual violence against women happens consistently all around the world.

In many places, laws are already in place to protect women from such offenses; however, sometimes laws are just not good enough. So we need more concrete methods to eliminate or at least lessen crimes like these.

And that’s exactly what these three engineering students have in mind.

Manisha Mohan, Rimpi Tripathi and Neeladri Basu Pal, all from Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in Chennai, India, made an “anti-

rape” undergarment, or Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE).

“The lingerie, laced with modules of global positioning system (GPS), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and also pressure sensors, is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 KV, as well as alerts to the girl’s parents and the police.”

Ms. Mohan said in an interview.

“A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules will send an SMS on emergency number, as well as to parents of the girl.”

Scientists discover way to power mobile phones with URINE

M

ore time with your mobile phone could just be it; sending a text message or making a call, after scientists discovered a way of recharging a mobile phone with urine.

Researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory harnessed an electrical charge by passing urine through a stack of microbial cells, which reacted to compounds including chloride, sodium and potassium.

The resultant charge was enough to make a brief call on a Samsung phone, send a text message or browse the web, the Royal Society of Chemistry journal reported.

Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos, from the University of the West of England, said: “It’s an exciting discovery.

“Using the ultimate waste product as a source of power to produce electricity is about as eco as it gets.

“Making a call on a mobile phone takes up the most energy but we will get to the place where we can charge a battery for longer periods.”

The microbial fuel cells convert energy, which turns organic matter directly into electricity, via the metabolism of live micro-organisms.

The laboratory, a collaboration between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol, said the electricity was a byproduct of the microbes’ natural life cycle - the more they eat, the more energy they generate and for longer periods of time.

The scientists now plan to develop the technology to be able to fully charge the handheld device. Dr Ieropoulos added: “One product that we can be sure of an unending supply is our own urine.” More mobile power, more connection, more urine on our mobile urine powered mobile phone.

Man’s kiss of life saves Salty the dog

A

dog’s life was saved when a stranger gave it the ‘kiss of life’ after it had been hit by a car.

The dog is a Jack Russell cross breed, was struck outside his home in Ballarat, Australia, and didn’t look like he was going to survive until the Good Samaritan stepped in.

Steve Hunter, also of Ballarat, gave the five-year-old animal mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after he found it unresponsive on the side of the road.

“He was completely gone so I pulled his jaws apart, blew into his mouth and did CPR on the side of the road,” the delivery driver told the Herald Sun.

“I felt his chest and felt a couple of heartbeats so I scooped him up and took him back to the truck where I kept going, I squeezed his chest and he blinked and came around and then we rushed him off to the vet.

“I saw the owners had children and I thought “this is someone’s pet, you have to at least try you never know”, and this time it worked. He was pretty lucky.”

Salty the dog suffered a fractured pelvis and also had cuts on his head but is expected to survive.

His owner Jock Maule added: “I couldn’t believe it, I was very impressed that he had managed to revive him.”

PAGE 8

News Feature

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Double dating: Wife kills husband, blames Satan From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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or Issa Yunusa, a 48 years old Commercial motorcycle rider in Ilorin, his mistake in life was marriage to Fatimoh Issa, who bore three children for him but was allegedly behind his untimely death.

Fatimoh, who is cooling her feet at the Kwara State Criminal Investigation Department of Police Command left her first husband for one Gani Ajibade, 25 years old, driver of Keke NAPEP, and resident of Agata area for whom she bore a child and was expecting another child before things fell apart between the two lovers when he had an accident and money was no longer forthcoming.

Peoples Daily Weekend gathered that Fatimoh, a 30 years old woman, living at Gaa Imam, abandoned Gani again when she learnt that her first husband had fully recovered and has just bought a Boxer motorcycle.

Sources informed our correspondent that she left Gani’s house amidst rift and rancour with the estranged man and stole his mobile phone.

With pregnancy, late Yunusa accepted her on July 16, 2013 not knowing that his death has crept in.

According to reliable source at the scene of the incident, Fatimoh rushed out from Yunusa’s house at about 5am on July 17,2013 shouting for the neighbours help.

It was learnt that, few of the neighbours who managed to enter their room found Yunusa in his own pool of blood and proper check indicated he was attacked on the head.

According to security report, Fatimoh’s second lover traced her to her husband house prior to the incident to retrieve his stolen mobile phone and the deceased was reported to have told him that he would get it back for him.

Unfortunately, Yunusa could not live to tell the story of who attacked him on his bed while his wife and mother of his three children was with him.

Narrating the incident to our correspondent, a reliable source in one of the top security agencies disclosed that late Yunusa was killed while sleeping by his embattled wife with

heavy stone.

The source added that when neighbours were trying to rescue him, a taxi hired to take him to nearby hospital refused to carry him saying, “ I can’t allow him to die inside my vehicle”.

A check at the Kwara State Police Command by our correspondent showed that both Fatimoh and Ajibade were arrested and detained at the CID. Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of Kwara State Command, DSP Olufemi Fabode said the two sus-

pects were transferred from A Division to CID department and the prime suspect has confessed to the crime. “ She told us that it was work of the devil (ESU). We also asked her what she used to kill him, she said she use a big stone.”

The Command spokesman added that when Fatimoh was further questioned on who will take care of the children since she killed her husband, she kept mute.

Fatimoh, who is still with Ajibade’s pregnancy may likely spend her entirely life in prison if the Court eventually convicts her of murder.

The suspect Fatimoh and her lover, Gani Ajibade

Fatimoh holding the stone she used in killing her husband

SURE-P, Ramadan: Gaidam empowers women, others

By Uche Uche, Damaturu.

Y

obe state Governor, Alh. Ibrahim Gaidam has, despite the current security situation in the state making lives so difficult and miserable, put smiles on the faces of many people through the distribution of materials meant to empower women in the state to become self-employed so as to improve their economic wellbeing and the sale of grains at subsidised rates to cushion the effect of high market

prices.

Speaking during the occasion, the commissioner for women affairs, Hajiya Kabir Kolo said the items to be distributed in three categories under the state SURE-P programme include skill acquisition materials, 500 sewing and 200 knitting machines, 50 Deep Freezers and 500 local spaghetti making machines.

Others include 100 mini-grinding machines, 50 sets of bead-making materials which would be distributed

to 1300 women some of whom have already undergone training in these trades in the state women development centers across the state.

She pointed out the skill acquisition materials cost the state government the sum of N26.72 million.

In the second category of women in agricultural activities, the government approved the sum of N42 million for poultry farming and ruminant breeding in which a total of 260 women would benefit from a soft loan of N100, 000 each to start

up poultry production while a total of 400 women would benefit from a soft loan of N40,000 for ruminant breeding.

She said in the other category which is support to widows and other vulnerable groups, government would support and empower 850 widows and other vulnerable groups with the sum of N30, 000.00 each which all cost the state government the sum of N25.5 million.

Also, a total number of 12000

bags of assorted grains were sold to beneficiaries at a very reduced and subsidized rate of N1, 500 per bag.

Many of those who were opportuned to buy the grains said the sales came at the right time considering the Ramadan period where the grains are most in need but of high cost in the markets.

“If you go to the market now, you pay N7000 or sometimes higher for a bag of grain but you can see that we buy it at N3000 here. So, I’m happy” said Malam Bulama

Cover

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

How the prison changed me 10 & 11

Cover PROLOGUE Page 10

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

How prison changed me Al Mustapha: Prisoner – Al Mustapha of conscience

By Jamila Nuhu Musa

I

n an interview with the Voice of America, (VOA) Hausa service, recently Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former Head of State, Gen. SaniAbacha, MajorHamza Al-Mustapha gave an insight into his incarceration at the KiriKiri Maximum prison in Lagos. It centred onhow he lived his life during those traumatic years. He debunked insinuations of notoriety when he served under the late SaniAbacha, called ‘Military Dictator’ by many Nigerians,saying instead that his (Al Mustapher’s) service, was to his fatherland.He told the VOA,“There is one thing with me, when it concerns the welfare of the people, Nigerians or Nigeria itself or its security, no matter what you give me even if you gave me the world’s treasury I will not compromise on the integrity ofNigeria, its security, nor would I ever cheat Nigerians. That is the kind of person that I am.And I willremain so” Asked to explain a statement credited to him during the earlier verdict of a court which sentenced him to death before he was freed last week, where he said in Hausa, ‘IdanFir’aunayaisamayadawo’ translated to mean, if King Pharaoh can come back to life let him do so, he said it was philosophical. Adding, “In the first place, when I was sentenced to deathin Lagos during the trial, they said at the Court that they did not have any evidence against me, but that they wanted me to be sentenced to death because I worked for late Gen SaniAbacha who was the late Head of State and I was his CSO, and thatAbacha ruled this country the way he wanted.That they said was the sin I committed and that was what was written down in Court it was documented, that there was no evidence against me apart from that”.

Al- Mustapha reasoned further, that“The person whom you said this was his only offence, and then you sentence him to death? When that sentence was handed down, did you see that I was worried?He asked the VOA reporter.“I was not worried because I am not guilty of the offence.

And as a soldier I know about sacrifice to the nation.Come to think of it many soldiers with whom I got into the military have died at the war front fighting for their country but I am still alive, am I better than the soldiers that have died? No! I am not. So as a soldier I was not worrried about the death sentence, it is not in our character as soldiers.If you can remember I was the one even calming people down. And then coming back to the issue of King Pharaoh, itwas philosophical by which I meant, whoever thinks that he is greater than God, and that it is not God that has power over everythingthen that person deserves sympathy because whatever that person does, he will surely go the way of King Pharaoh who, despite the power he wielded as ruler hedied but did not come back to life. And then when I was discharged and acquitted, I gave thanks to the Almighty Allah for vindicating me.

The CSO however, has no regrets“the only thing that I would say was painful to me is the fact that we were accused of constituting terror to the people, that we worked against the people, that is not true. Those who knew us will remember when we worked for Gen SaniAbacha, that in Abuja, when Gen Abacha was Head of State, I left my office 6 am every morning. We were always sleeping in the office or on the streets because of the security of this nation, we worked round the clock and I was not paid any special salary or paid extra allowances. Gen Abacha did not give me any kobo outside my pay”.

He recounts his stay in prison “I became like a secondary school boy and drew up my own time table. Iwoke up at 1 am, prayed and read the Holy Quran, and did some writings up till 8am, and then I would sleep up till 10am thenreceive visitors, those allowed to come and see me. Then I would do my afternoon prayers uptil 4pm and then exercise myself. I made sure I encouraged other inmates to exercise so as to keep fit because people were dying in the prison because of ill health, some had stroke likeAlhaji Amana Tijjani, a Niger republic inmate who was hypertensive.

I also took it upon myself to repair some equipment in the prison which needed repairs.I also constructed two Mosques at the prison in Lagos and paid salaries to some people who taught Islamic lessons and preached on Fridays. I facilitated the giving of food to the needy and fed the Muslim Ummah during the Ramadan, this I have promised to continue to do despite the fact that I have been released.

Though attempts by Peoples Daily Weekend to interview AlMustapha in Kano failed as he was said to be on his way to his home town, Nguru, in Yobe state investigations in Lagos, specifically at the KiriKiri prison area showed how the CSO lived his life during the period of 15 years in the confines of the prison yard. How he took everything in his stride. From all indication the prison was his second home, where he transformed himself and showered inmates with love. This and many more in the report put together by our Correspondents.

9

By Soji Oyinlola, Ayodele Samuel, Mathew Irinloye, Suleman Idris, Lagos, Edwin Olofu, Kano

T

he Chief Security Officer (CSO), of former Head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Al-Mustapha, who gained his freedom last week, meant many things to the inmates with whom he stayed at the Kiri Kiri Maximum prison in Lagos. Despite his status before his incarceration, he was said to have maintained a humble lifestyle behind bars.

Other prominent people with whom he served at the Kirikiri Maximun prison, include the self styled Lagos Pastor, Rev. King, PDP National Deputy Chairman South West, Chief Olabode George, Former Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Arc. Aminu Dabo among others.

But one thing that distinguished him according to prison sources was his modest lifestyle and interaction with other inmates irrespective of class.

“He belonged to the VIP class of prisoners, he did not eat the prison food neither did he wear the uniform for prisoners, but that did not make him any different from the other inmates. He was always hosting guests in large

numbers, Governors, top military officials visited him in prison, and a National Security Adviser once came to see him. Despite all the influence, he still obeyed the ordinary prison warders when they gave him instructions”.

“He was not like other VIP inmates that felt too proud and always kept to themselves while serving their jail terms, we had many big men in the yard but AlMustapha was always full of life, he was closer to God during his stay here and he played table tennis a lot with the other inmates.

It was therefore not surprising that on the 12th, July, 2013, at about 2.30pm inmates at the Lagos Maximum Prison Kirikiri were jolted by the news emanating from the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos that the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Military Head of State General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza AlMustapha, who had spent 15 years behind bar with some of them had been set free.

As expected the inmates were extremely delighted as they danced round the prison vicinity, some in their cells talking loudly about the development, momentarily forgetting about their own plights with their activities disrupted for the day.

The jubilation was so much that Al-Mustapha was asked to address the inmates before leaving the prison yard.

Yerima, who spoke to our Correspondent in the vicinity of KiriKiri prison in Lagos, said “I

was there when the news of his freedom got to the prison, there was jubilation all over the place; all the inmates were happy, some were even crying until Al-Mustapha addressed them and urged them to be closer to God. It was quite emotional moment because he rekindled their hope that one day they too may regain their freedom”.

The man said.

Yerima, who was one of the regular visitors to Kirikiri said Al-Mustapha secured releases of many Northerners who were indiscriminately arrested by officials of the Lagos state Government. “You know at a point in Lagos, traders and Okada riders were arrested for some reasons, most of them were northerners and when they get to Kirikiri he would contact his lawyer to get them out, most times he got his friends to give them money to go back to the north” Yerima said “Al Mustapha has been a generous man even before he came to the prison, when he was Abacha’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) he helped many big people in Nigeria but unfortunately they abandoned him during his travail.

After he gained his freedom many people were calling to congratulate him I was wondering where they were all these years that he was behind bars. So he has many reasons to thank God.” Aside his exemplary behavior,

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

How prison changed me – Al Mustapha 10 the major had also honed his skills in sports especially Table tennis and became a champion behind the walls. According to fellow inmates, the tennis aficionado was best described as a disciplinarian who also had a large heart to accommodate those who were in need of help.

The Lagos state Prison Public Relations Officer, Biyi Jeje, said although he could not confirm some claims, he however corroborated the fact that the major played the role of a philanthropist to other inmates.

He described Al-Mustapha as a model prisoner throughout his stay behind bars, as he adhered to the discipline instilled in him during his military training and career.

He became quite skilled at tennis, a sport he knew nothing about before his plight.

“For some people, incarceration is enough punishment to transfer aggression but Al-Mustapha took it upon himself to help anyone in need to the best of his ability.”

He noted that Al-Mustpha was not treated preferentially from other inmates in the prison, but the prison staff accorded him respect because he conformed to the given rules and regulations.

“He also acquired effective interpersonal communication with his fellow inmates. During his stay, his personal activities were modified to suit the expected and desired behaviour. He therefore conformed to the norms of the prison whilst there.”

“He also has a highly outstanding personality make up.

In fact, he was highly disciplined which is not surprising considering his military background.”

An ex-convict’s account of AlMustpha’s conduct in prison Abudulfatai (other names withheld) had an encounter with AlMustpha during his incarceration in the Lagos prison, he was on awaiting trial for 7 years, but his memorable experience with the CSO was how he benefited from AlMustpha’s kind gesture behind bar.

He said that the Major had been known to have helped several inmates who were awaiting trial to secure their freedom by obliging them with his legal counsels.

“It was time for prayer in 2008 because Al-Mustpha always prayed with us, I was praying on my own when he approached me and we got talking, He asked what brought me there and why my case is taking longer time, I explained to him and he promised to talk to his lawyer about it.

“Two days later he came to call me that I should meet a lawyer, because my lawyer had stop appearing for me in court because I could not afford it , His lawyer then provided me with legal services without collecting any money from me and he secured my release after two years.”

For this old man, who declined to give his other name, but claimed to have met the former CSO in prison, He disclosed further that when his wife took ill and needed to

be operated upon, and Al-Mustpha heard about it, he arranged for the sum of N350,000 to be given to him for the purpose sometimes in 2010.

“I was in the prison when my wife needed a surgery and there was no money, one of the prisoners who usual played with Al-Musthpha took me to him, he listened to me , he was in the company of Chief Bode George when I met him but the Chief excused him when he saw us, he told me not to worry that my wife will not die, that life is all about helping people, so when they brought his food he took my contact and made available the money through one Hausa man, who told my wife at the hospital that her husband sent him, when they came to visit me at the prison I told them it was Al-Musthpa who made it possible for me to get the money” How he renovated multimillion Naira Mosque in Kirikiri- Imam During his stay in Kirikiri, AlMustapha also mobilised funds from friends and associates for the reconstruction of the Mosque to an Ultra Modern Central Mosque and Quranic School.

The Mosque was commissioned early this year at an event which was chaired by Dan Masanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule.

The event also brought in hundreds of friends and supporters of the former CSO to felicitate with him.

The Imam of the Muslim community Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri Mosque, Imam Adio Mulid Misbandeen said that the Mosque was in bad condition for years until Major Al-Mustapha approached him on the issue of renovation.

“Al-Mustapha had approached me that he would like to improve the condition of the Mosque, and he gave us contact of his friends who supported the project, during his stay in prison he was very close to God, he always attended prayers and other religious gathering and identified with the Muslim community.

While offering prayers for friends of Major Al-Mustapha who he said funded the project, he urged the prison service to look into the welfare of inmates in the Kirikiri prison.

Kiri Kiri will miss AlMustapha

T

he quiet environment of the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos, will give a first timer the ambiance of a town deserted but you must spent some few minutes within the area for you to realise that indeed, Nigeria’s foremost penitentiary is missing a dignitary who had bid goodbye to an environment that held him captive for years for a crime an Appeal Court jury sitting in Lagos acquitted him a week ago.

From all indications, the former Chief Security Officer to the late Nigeria Head of State General Sani Abacha was a prisoner who weathered the storm during his stay there. All the frills, the glamour and publicity he brought to the area will remain indelible in the hearts of many while the security personnel who daily ensured any attempted jailbreak is impossible

l even learnt he slaps Generals during his time, are you sure it is true? Clara, the owner asked this reporter.

However, from all indications, one thing is clear, the absence of Major Al Mustapha from the Kirikiri Maximum Security prison is both nostalgic and symbolic to not only residents, the security, co inmates and jury, the entire nation and his family has definitely seen one of the longest and turbulent trail in the history of the nation came to an end, albeit temporarily.

will heave a sigh of relieve that they can for now have some rest from the influx of people who visited the prison to see him.

Al Mustapha’s stay in the prison, one officer told our correspondent could be likened to World renowned and South Africa leader, Dr. Nelson Mandela sojourn in a Robin Island prison for 27 years as a prisoner of conscience while fighting for an Apartheid free South Africa.

Co-incidentally both personalities dominated the headlines in the two African giant countries albeit for different reasons. Now the iconic Madiba is lying prostrate in one of his country’s health facility at a splendid age of 95 looking frail while Al Mustapha, upon his release from jail received a tumultuous welcome in his state of Kano moments after he emerged from the door of the chartered jet that flew him to the ancient city last Saturday.

The mere mention of Kirikiri prison no doubt, elicits antithetical feelings in the minds of Nigerians and especially for inmates, however the days he spent there, for Al Mustapha was nostalgic.

When our correspondent sought to speak to people around, even the security officers from both the police and prison service gladly narrated the frills of his days especially whenever he is due to appear in a law court in Ikeja, when security was usually tightened, one of them joking said “he was a VIP extra-ordinarily”.

Also for residents and those making their way into the Ojo Naval Barrack from the southern gate which shared boundary with the Maximum prison, it is indeed a relieve to see the former CSO leave as eagle eyed mobile policemen no longer shout an ‘eh, where are you going, what do you want’ whenever one walked pass the place on foot.

However, it is bad business for the cook, who refused to be named as she lamented that there, will surely be a lull in business inside the adjoining areas surrounding the prison as Al Mustapha was a personality whose presence and stay was a good omen for her business. She said they were constantly kept on their toes in order to feed people who thronged into her restaurant to eat while he was in the prison.

“Whenever they wan take am go prison for Ikeja”, she enthused

in pidgin English, “policemen and other security people go plenty for here, and even outside self, so l dey rent some people to help me work on those special days. My broda we dey always pray make dem dey carry go like dat but now, he don comot, business don go down as dem don reduce”, she lamented.

“God go bring business for us” was all she said with an air of finality.

For the few mobile policemen who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, Al Mustapha’s journey to Kirikiri was an eventful one as he said there was always alertness around the vicinity of the facility with an Armoured Personnel Carrier stationed outside directly facing the gate. At first he looked anxious when he saw our reporter walked toward him and drew his riffle closer but a warm smile disarmed his stern behaviour. He said the anxiety of watching over their shoulder while the freed Kano state born Major has disappeared moment the vehicle took him away from the prison.

“We feel definitely relaxed now than before for those who were posted here. Al Mustapha was not just an ordinarily prisoner you know, he was one person with a lot of history surrounding him so we knew what we had on our hands when he was here.” The inspector told our reporter.

According to him, Al Mustapha’s friendly mien each time he was being taken to court only endeared him to us and even to journalists.

Even inside the adjoining Nigeria Naval barrack, the presence of Al Mustapha inside the Kirikiri Maximum prison was said to be the toast of visitors to the Mammy market, less than 3 kilometers inside the barrack. A joint owner who specialized in pepper fish and all sorts of drinks recounts several rancorous discussions and arguments usually among naval personnel who patronised her outlet saying it will take some time before discussions on the absence of the late Gen. Abacha’s CSO will stop.

I usually love the discussions and arguments about the man, maybe because the military officers’ knowledge of his alleged notoriety while he was the CSO to Abacha, each time they came here, they talked about him a lot,

Peoples views on Al Mustapher ‘s release Alhaji Tanko Yakasai is of the view that Al-Mustapha should consult his lawyers, and take necessary action against the injustice done to him.

“The people that planned this evil against Al-Mustpha should be punished; the court had discharged and acquitted him for lack of evidence but he was kept this long in the prison. I advise him to consult his lawyers on whether he could take legal action on the injustice done to him.

Barrister Okechukwu Nweze is a legal practitioner in Kano of 21 years standing in the Bar. He is of the opinion that the Appeal court ruling is kudos to the judiciary considering the nature of the case in question, which he said lacked evidence to convict him in the first place by the lower court.

“Ordinarily he shouldn’t have been convicted in the first place because the same court discharged the other two persons and convicted him. One will be left to ask the Learned Judge, that under what law did she convict Hamza Al –Mustapha?.

But I must say that the ruling of the Appeal court is Kudos to our judiciary that they can stand above board in a moment like this.

“I wish Al-Mustapha well and I urged him to forgive, because his case was a clear manifestation of gross injustice and persecution.

But he should thank God that after all these years he has regained his freedom. They said the truth is the only thing that is enduring, we have seen it in this case because in the first place the case lacked merit but for reasons best known to some people they just kept him in detention innocently.”

Alhaji Abdullahi Idris is a business man in the popular Kantin Kwari Market, he said he does not know Al Mustapha but he has been sympathetic towards his cause because of the injustice done to him and his family over the years.

“You can see that at the end of the day Al- Mustapha was vindicated, for some of us we knew that he has no case to answer, instead it was a grand conspiracy by some powerful people for him to be kept this long in detention. In fact their wish was to get rid of him but see how God does his things.

We thank God for his freedom and my happiness is that even the military authorities have said that he is still one of them.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 12

International

ICC: Judicial imperialism?

By Abdulkadir Isa

A

t the dawn of the cold war, evidently more democracies sprang up, more voices were heard than what obtained, freedom took a new dimension and many hopes were raised as to the promises of democracy dividends.

The world had become a single block system, but a newer block had emerged to impede the rocket-paced development on the platform of open markets or capitalism. The new enemy was Corruption.

Before then, loyalty to aligned party, focus on who takes the day and existence of stiffer forms of government overshadowed most events, forming a major guide to the tide of policy makers on the pathway to follow.

Soon as the arms raced subsided and economic power topped the agenda of most nations, amassing wealth saddled the front burner and of course many rolled up their sleeves and joined the dig.

Political power became headway to guarantee economic success through manipulations of figures and gross corrupt alliances.

It came with a price – lives and property of those who stood by the way. This generated concerns and forced nations to re-open files to curb the menace, files like that of an International Judicial body to oversee criminal cases ranging from human rights, economic crimes and even war crimes.

The idea of an International Criminal Court made sense to many as it raised hopes of creating the much needed checks and balance in threats to lives and togetherness of the newly acquired ‘free world’.

From inception the ICC was partly embraced and barely a decade up the hill, the court has come under major queries as to its purpose, direction and possible dependence on voices – major or minor.

To date, with 139 cases brought before it, no fewer than 30 Africans have been “publicly indicted” by the court and 8 of the courts pending cases involve Africans and no concrete presence of indictment the way of the western polity. Also, only 122 countries have penned their allegiance to the body as member states, with major world powers like the United States, Russia, India, and China contemplating membership despite the body as an arm of a supposed United Nations.

Basically the modus operandi of the body seems Omni-direc-

President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir tional, its guiding jurisdictions wearing faded strands and presenting a picture of the court sitting on pillars depicting external influence.

The United States, a nonmember state party to the ICC still convenes the courts meeting in New York, a meeting that determines most of the body’s important decisions like, election of judges, budget, rules of procedure and evidence, management oversight to organs of the court. The court maintains a liaison office in the US and in fact, the assembly’s Rome Statute Review Conference was held in New York. Considering the influence of host community in today’s world, the venue spells a bad omen for the court.

Still on location of offices, the court has a concentration of its outlets in Africa –Kinshasa, Tanzania, Kampala and even Bangui.

You erect outstations close to areas where you’re your campaign is geared towards. The message is clear.

Thomas Lubanga is currently in detention as sentenced by the court, with four other suspects Mathieu Ngjolo Chui, JeanPierra Bemba and Laurent Gbagbo, not forgetting Charles Tailor - all of coloured identity.

NGO’s keep playing a vital role in the activities of the court having founded it. Activities of the CICC with over 2500 member bodies that constitute its tentacles holding grip on some 150 countries. HRW and Amnesty

President of the ICC, Song Sang-Hyum

International are key actors in the CICC steering committee and as news, western funded.

As to war crimes, the ICC has failed define war crimes aiding the likes of Netanyahu to hide under the umbrella of “indecision”.

The inability of a “global body” to have defined rules doesn’t augur well for global tranquillity.

Another operational style by the ICC with hazy looks is the secrecy adopted during trials. In its own positions the court has tried to explain the necessity of holding controlled media presentation as against the normal practices. Then comes the question of fairness. If there is nothing to hide, why hide the process? They may look little, but a collection of such issues forms the magma that erupts and hardens resistance.

The same Human Rights Watch (HRW) that was at the forefront demanding al-Bashir’s arrest in Nigeria had contrarily reports that the ICC prosecution team “takes no account of the roles played by the government in the conflict in” countries like Uganda and Congo. This it claimed “led to flawn investigations because the ICC did not reach the conclusion of its verdict considering the government’s position and actions in conflict”. So what else will the alBashir hunt yield when it is clear that the Sudanese do not ascribe or subscribe to the courts mission?

By jurisdiction, it is provide in the Rome statute that the court is guided by four basic mechanism

Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda

which grant it jurisdiction: if the accused is a national of a state party to the Rome statute, if the alleged crime took place on the territory of a state party, if a situation is referred to the Court by the United Nation Security Council, if a state not party to the Status ‘accepts’ the Court’s jurisdiction.

With all these provision, one is left to wobble the real reasons behind al-Bashir’s warrant, because Sudan has ceased to be a member of the ICC thereby voiding the first mechanism. Also, the fourth mechanism does not provide for the court the right to try al-Bashir as his country disputes the charges in its totality.

A close comparison between the cases of al-Bashir and the duo of William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta canvasses that there is more than meet the eye. Both cases are hung on human rights violation and genocide.

William Ruto’s appeal to the court recently to hold proceedings of his trial in neighbouring Tanzania for him to cut cost and time of shuttling leadership responsibilities in Kenya and The Hague was rejected on the grounds that evidences could be intimidated. This is more of self-indictment because the court should have noted this before establishing a unit in Tanzania.

All the four accused in Kenya are today virtually free men as Kenyatta had recently been hosted by the no. 1 pro- ICC – England, and later China without the so-

called activist and NGOs moving for his arrest. On Thursday, witnesses in the Kenyatta trial made a dramatic U-turn frustrating all the effort and energy injected in the process so far.

With the foregoing, it is convincing that the perception is: the Dark Continent is either incapable of trying its corrupt officials or the orientalists just feel the necessity to do it for them. Imagine a Gordons Brown or George Bush being tried at The Hague.

Their crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t different from Joseph Koni’s, except if the docks are too small to accommodate lightskinned leaders.

If most the finance of this court comes from the West, those at the helm of affairs at the court are westerners and those who mount the docks are Africans, then the interpretation could also fall into thoughts of the Court with an imperial master motive.

It is a wake-up call on the conveners of the court to prove allegations of race-hunting wrong. The charter must be reappraised to attract as many as possible member states to give it that global look and those not involved in the body should be kept out strictly. Terms and conditions must be spelt out boldly and observed duly with utmost impartiality.

The international community is certainly in need of a global judicial body, global in approach, global in operation and global with the gavel.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 13

Interview

Poor cash flow is affecting Bauchi’s development —Commissioner Alhaji Aminu Hammayo is the Bauchi state Commissioner of budget and planning.

He spoke in an interview with journalists in Bauchi on the implementation of budget in the state. Our correspondent, Ahmed Kaigama, was there.

P

eople are accusing Governor Isa Yuguda’s administration of poor budget implementation. What is your opinion on that?

In terms of funding basically, there isn’t much you will be able to do because your sources of funding are limited. All of us are aware, particularly from the last quarter of last year, up to the present quarter, the problem that is basically associated with sharing of resources from the federation account.

It is a common knowledge that unlike what used to happen in the past when you are certain for example, that if a date has been fixed for the distribution of funds from the federation account, you are certain that a meeting is going to hold on that fixed date and allocation is going to be made on that day. Now, I can tell because I have also been part of Federation Account and Allocation Committee (FAAC) and I know that in the last year, that the days of meetings are fixed in the first week of January and the meeting take place on that day and allocation is done on that day and the funds are released probably within two to three days. Unfortunately, what we have now is a different thing entirely and is such that meetings don’t hold as regularly as they should.

They don’t even hold on the dates they are fixed. You could go for the federation allocation meetings for a whole week without holding the meeting and even if you hold the meetings, the release of the funds don’t come as at when due and I can tell you the experiences we had recently are such that the allocations that were made in February of this year are yet to hit the account of the state government. We are in July.

Not only at the level of the state but even at the level of national economic council where measures are being taken to address these issues arising probably from the problems in the federal ministry of finance and the management of FAAC and I believe that in few months or weeks we should be able to overcome such problems.

But that also tell you that there are problems, because probably the sources that are expected to fund the federation account are also, to a very large extent are drying up. You know the problem of oil pipelines being broken everyday, the level of production that have been fixed to fund the budget of 2013 will not be met. In fact, about thirty five percent of it being lost due to the activities of oil pipelines vandals and these are very fundamental issues that need to be addressed with all seriousness and I believe the federal government alone with state and the federal ministry of finance are trying to address the problem.

But it seems the case of Bauchi state is very peculiar...

In terms of the implementation of the 2013 budget, I have mentioned some of the constrains in funding and I believe that will to some extent affected our performances. But I tell you that in terms of recurrent expenditure, of course, we should be able to have done ninety to ninety five percent and if that is done and the sources of funding that intents to have negative effect on your plans, for your capital projects but we believe that if these issues are addressed, we should be able to achieve more than that.

What other problems do you think could be responsible for the poor implementation of

Alhaji Aminu Hammayo budget in the state?

The issue of contractors who are probably not competent enough or who are found wanting. I believe that government has started taking measures and I know that we have had instances where some of these contracts handled by incompetent contractors were revoked and given to competent contractors. In some cases, we had instances when a lot of pressures were put on the contractors and some of these projects that have been complained about over the few years, have been completed. I heard over the radio

that the Alkilari-Putu Road has already been handed over to the state government and I know that a few others have been completed and before the end of this year, they should be handed over to the state government too.

The state government through your ministry took the statistics of unemployed youths in the state with secondary school certificates. What do you intend to do with it?

First and foremost, I think it’s very important even for the purposes of planning that we have the statistic

of the unemployed youths... not for this year alone but in subsequent years ahead. In the short and medium terms, there are plans and the World Bank intervention programme which is on youth employment and social support strategises with proper data. Of course, there is the state version of the SURE-P programme which is also intended to create job opportunities for youths in all the 332 wards of the state and that is also been concluded in few months.

The programme will be rolled out and it will assist in taking some of the youths off the streets.

How Keke Yero is changing lives in Kaduna

By Mohammed Ibrahim

T

he recent launching and subsequent introduction of tricycles or keke Yero by Kaduna state governor Muktar Ramalan Yero, under its mass transport scheme through the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment programme has greatly impacted on the well being and living standard of the populace across the state.

Hitherto, people mostly women and children have been subjected to untold hardship in the hands of commercial motorcycle riders, popularly refered to as ‘Going or Okada’ riders. Many lives were lost apart from permanent impairments or injuries sustained as result of recklessness of

the riders as well as increase in social vices as been perpetrated or aided by the riders.

The ban on commercial motorcycle activities in neighboring states coupled with the serious security challenges prompted most of these riders to relocate to Kaduna to continue to engage in the practice which led to increased influx of such rider’s thereby increasing heavy traffic on our roads.

These amongst others prompted the state government under Yero to critically look at the states transport sector with a view to evolving possible solution that can go a long way in safeguarding the lives and properties of the populace.

One surest way was the introduction of ‘Keke Yero’ by the adminis-

tration in which over seven hundred tricycles were distributed to people at fifty percent less with a repayment period of between 12-24 months.

The project is mainly viewed as poverty eradication initiative because it possesses attributes, which include, Composite and mass gainful employment, Sustainable wealth creation, Provision of affordable mass transit services; and Providing opportunities for other ancillary mobile business services such as vending potable water, mobile food canteens, mobile grocery shops, post delivery, etc These tricycles have proven to be the safest and more comfortable for the populace. More people patronize them in view of high safety standard and efficiency. This singular thought

and motive embarked upon by the administration is commendable and should be supported by all and sundry.

Apart from the enhanced economic revenue earned from the operators, the government has greatly reduced unemployment as many of the users have hitherto been idle and had nothing for their livelihood.

The legion of area boys from an idle and wasting national human capital were transformed into a gainfully productive work force and creating mass gainful employment through the establishment of large numbers of small-scale transportation business particularly for the youth across the state.

Perhaps, the administration’s ef-

fort went further in providing security vans numbering forty to the state security outfit, operation yaki, purchase in addition to forty Nissan taxis, forty buses, as well as fifteen luxurious buses to be used across the state for intra and interstate services. This act by Governor Yero is a proven quality of an administrator who has the feelings of the common man at heart.

By and large, these giants steps taken by Governor Yero are commendable and has shown his clear desire and need to steer the leadership of Kaduna state for continues growth and development. i among many residents will continue to pray and wished him the best and to plead with him not tp relent in his efforts at empowering the down trodden.

Politics

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 14

2015: Tukur, Nyako and struggle for the soul of Adamawa

Gov. Murtala Nyako

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

hat the political differences between the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and his Adamawa home state governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako, has festered beyond redemption is incontestable.

Perhaps, what should be begging to arrest the attention of whoever is interested in the political development of the North Eastern state, as the 2015 general election approaches, is who will blink first as the two gladiators dig deeper into the trenches.

Although both political heavy weights have yet to publicly admit, there are feelings that the main crux of the matter that culminated into the rivalry between the duo could be aptly attributed to the quest for control of the soul of Adamawa state and the struggle for their political relevance in 2015 and beyond. Some critics are however of the opinion that the political supremacy battle between the two is sparkled by ego and selfishness.

It is a well known fact in the state that both Tukur and Nyako are working hard to install their

Alh. Bamanga Tukur sons as possible governor of the state in 2015 and as such, whoever would succeed must take control of the political machinery of the state.

Therefore, from the beginning, Nyako has never hidden his disdain for the emergence of Tukur as the National Chairman of the ruling party. Apart from the interest of the two in the governorship seat of the state, most state governors are never enthused with having the National Chairman of the party from their states for fear of political rivalry.

Observers are quick to point out that Enugu state never had peace until Okwesilieze Nwodo was removed as the National Chairman of the party.

Similarly, Nyako worked tirelessly against the emergence of his compatriot as the PDP National Chairman but stakeholders, who have a different game-plan with specific mandate which fits into Tukur’s personality, insist on having the former Gongola state governor as the PDP chairman.

Considering the overwhelming influence of the PDP governors and their larger than life postures, President Goodluck Jonathan strategists believe that an accomplished man of strong

character, not susceptible to possible manipulations by the governors would be needed to cut them to size. Tukur, who is considered to have seen it all in life, fits perfectly into this description and the Presidency was not going to allow anyone frustrate its agenda.

The PDP National Chairman, on assumption of office, chorused his programmes of 3 Rs (Reconciliation, Reformation and Rebuilding) anchored on party discipline and supremacy to checkmate the perceived excesses of the PDP governors, who were hitherto the ‘Lords of the Manor’ in the party.

Although the National Chair-

“

Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) man had severally explained that his motive for the dissolution of the Adamawa PDP Exco under Alhaji Kugama Mijinyawa, suspected to be loyal to Nyako, was in furtherance to his reformation agenda focused on returning the party to the people, critics read extraneous motive to his action. While some interpreted the party’s move to remove Mijinyawa to hit back at the Adamawa governor for refusing to support his candidature for the National chairmanship position, others saw beyond the obvious to narrow it down to the issue of control of the party’s machinery ahead of the 2015 general elections.

While some interpreted the party’s move to remove Minjinjiwa to hit back at the Adamawa governor for refusing to support his candidature for the National chairmanship position, others saw beyond the obvious to narrow it down to the issue of control of the party’s machinery ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The official reason for the disbandment of the Minjiyawa’s Exco in October last year was that it flagrantly disregarded and showed serial disobedience to the decisions of the NWC. The party had in a statement signed by its then National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, that “On behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our great party, the National Working Committee hereby dissolves the Adamawa State Executive Committee of the PDP. “This is in exercise of Article 31, section 2(e) and 29, 2(b) of the 2012 amended constitution of our party and consequent on repeated breaches of the constitution by the Adamawa State chapter. A caretaker committee has been set up in its place.”

But in a dramatic turn, the decision was later to be reversed by 10 of the 12 National Working Committee (NWC) members of the party, excluding only the National Chairman and the then Deputy National Secretary, Onwe Solomon Onwe. This was done under serious pressure from the PDP governors after the Ambassador Umar Damagun led caretaker Committee inaugurated to Contd on Pg 15

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 15

Politics

2015: Tukur, Nyako and struggle for the soul of Adamawa Contd from Pg 14

conduct a fresh state congress in Adamawa state had conducted its assignment which produced rival Exco in the state under the leadership of Chief Joel Madaki.

While the reinstated Minjiyawa’s Exco is considered loyal to the state governor, Madaki led group is perceived to be loyal to the PDP National Chairman. Although a Presidential Committee, led by the Jigawa state governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, recommended harmonization of the two groups in the state, this failed to douse the tension as both parties refused to bulge.

However, the first test of strength between the factions came with the need for a bye election into the state House of Assembly from Nassarwo/Binyeri state constituency.

The election was keenly contested between a PDP candidate and another from a relatively obscure Kowa party.

The Kowa candidate, who curiously came second in the election was generally rumored to have the backing of the state governor and his loyalists ostensibly to prove a political point in the state.

Already, the Madaki’s Exco has invited summoned critical members of the Nyako’s cabinet to appear before it to answer questions on allegations of anti-party activities they allegedly carried out during the bye election in the state, though the summon has been ignored by those loyal to the state governor.

With this development, the stage is set for the final onslaught against Nyako and his men by the Madaki’s leadership which would have the blessings of the party’s NWC underTukur. The Adamawa governor obviously anticipated that a big hammer in terms of suspension may have been programmed to fall on him and his supporters and therefore have resolved to move to another party for him to strategize for political relevance in the state by 2015.

Already, the Nyako’s group was served a raw deal recently when the list of delegates from Adamawa state forwarded to the Professor Jerry Gana led Special National Congress Committee by the Minjiyawa Exco was rejected and that of Madaki adopted. The implication of this is that the Nyako group may lose out if the situation continues his way.

Apart from this, some critics argue that the inclusion of Adamawa state in the states slated for emergency rule in the North East on account of insecurity was politically induced. A school of thought believed that the whole agenda was that the Presidency would declare full fledge emergency rule with the removal of the governors in order to relieve Nyako of his position so as to weaken his resistance, at least for a while. But, superior arguments, based on the fear that the opposition may use it as another campaign against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan since two of their states, Borno and Yobe, are to be involved.

Apparently, sensing danger, the Adamawa governor recently moved to defect to the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and by extension into the mega All Progressives Congress (APC) when registered. Responding to the insinuation that Nyako may have instructed his cabinet members and loyalists to decamp from the PDP, the state Director of Press and Public Affairs, Alhaji Ahmad Sajoh, said they were yet to decamp but are seriously considering ‘any relevant option’ including remaining in the PDP. He said “Actually, we’ve not moved from the PDP to any other party, but stakeholders are consulting and we are consulting widely.”

Sajoh equally disclosed that the Nyako group met with the governor’s son, Abdulazeez, who has not hidden his ambition to succeed his father come 2015. Political

“

President Goodluck Jonathan observers believe that beneath Sajoh’s denial of outright decampment is the reality that the Nyako group would move out of the PDP any moment from now. Intelligent reports have it that the governor had personally perfected plans to move into the ANPP having discussed same with the former Kano state governor and a chieftain of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau.

It was gathered that Nyako’s calculation in directing his followers to head into the ANPP was informed by his desire to be the major force to reckon with in the party which had concluded plans to coalesced into the mega APC. It was learnt that the Adamawa governor decided against the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) because of the dominance of the former Lagos state Military governor, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa. His group also rejected the option of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) because another Adamawa prominent politician, Marcus Gundiri, would be difficult to dislodge. Nyako’s group’s calculation, according to analysts, is that moving into an ANPP that is relatively weak would make it easy for them to take over

Although the APC may be a destination of choice to the governor, Nyako and his supporters must be ready for a bitter contest as those other aspirants on the platform of the opposition, including Marwa and others who contested against the governor in 2011 are ready to slug it out with whoever he backs, including his son, Abdulazeez, for the governorship ticket on the platform of the APC.

the machinery of the party and this would give them the opportunity required to negotiate slots in the soon to be registered mega opposition APC. Nyako’s political moves have, of course, caused some stirs in the politics of the state as some other figures whose statures have been dwarfed by the governor have equally begun to strategize. The recent decampment of the former governor of the state, Boni Haruna, into the ruling PDP is being viewed as one of the expected re-alignment of political forces in the state ahead of the general elections.

As the political atmosphere of the Adamawa state continues to get tensed, the state promises to be a theater of serious intrigues and unpredictability at all levels of the 2015 general elections. Although the APC may be a destination of choice to the governor, Nyako and his supporters must be ready for a bitter contest as those other aspirants on the platform of the opposition, including Marwa and others who contested against the governor in 2011 are ready to slug it out with whoever he backs, including his son, Abdulazeez, for the governorship ticket on the platform of the APC. The PDP on the other hand is not expected to rest on its oars in its membership drive in order to consolidate its hold on the state after the exit of the governor as so many other big wigs are equally planning to decamp into the party. The challenge to face the PDP however would come only if the leadership of the party refuses to conduct free and fair state congress that would produce an acceptable governorship candidate for the party. As critics continue to watch events in Adamawa state unfold with bated breath, there are indications that the struggle for the soul of the state in 2015 would be a straight fight between Tukur and the incumbent governor.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Homes

How to achieve colours coordination for furniture, walls and carpets

C

olor coordinating is one of the most challenging aspects in home decoration. Take time to look through books and websites on interior decorating and reflect on homes that impress you. Though it may seem daunting, learning to coordinate the colors of walls, carpet and furniture for the home comes down to following the some guidelines that designers and decorators use to create effective color schemes. With some exploration and practice, even a first-time home decorator achieves an effective, color-coordinated home.

Narrow down your color choices based on color schemes that appeal to you from pictures of home interiors then identify the dominant color for the room and limit the colors for the room to three or four.

Try out a monochromatic or neutral color scheme for a small room or any room where you want to create a spacious effect or minimize defects such as uneven windows, crooked trim or any other problems with the walls or architecture. A monochromatic color scheme refers to using variations on one color, such as pale pink, rose and scarlet, or lilac, violet and purple.

Neutrals include white, cream, taupe, beige, tan and gray. These kinds of color palettes are the most forgiving for beginners due to the low risk of clashing colors. Rooms with carpets, walls and furniture entirely in neutral colors work well in contemporary homes and carry the advantage of being easy to redecorate by changing the colors of accent items and accessories of the room.

Create a basic color scheme with two neutral colors and two other colors. Select a dominant neutral color such as cream and a secondary neutral color such as tan. For the accent color scheme example, the dominant color might be midnight blue with aqua blue as the secondary color. By choosing dominant and secondary colors, you create balance in the room, so there is not too much of any one color.

With this scheme, choose cream paint for the walls and paint the trim tan or cocoa. Select a sofa in midnight blue and accent chairs in aqua blue. Add tan or cocoa throw pillows and a carpet to match the secondary paint color, in this case, tan or cocoa.

Continue exploring possible color combinations based on interior design pictures or your favorite colors. Try the colors out rotating different color choices as dominant or primary colors and then as secondary colors. Vary the color intensities so that all the colors don’t compete. For example, don’t select all dark colors, or all pastels. Selecting one bright or deep color tends to add interest to a room. For example, in a room done in white, chocolate brown and olive, add some red accent items such as a vase,

a painting and throw cushions.

Obtain color samples of paint, carpet and upholstery or leather swatches for furniture you’re considering. Look at them near the windows of the room you’re decorating to see the colors in natural light. Visualize the colors at the sizes you intend to use them and factor the use of the area. For example, a lemon yellow carpet sample may seem appealing, yet as a wall-towall carpet the color tends to take up the room.

Medium color neutral carpets such as brown, tan and gray tend to camouflage soiling and may provide a lower maintenance option for households with kids and pets. Light and dark carpets tend to show soil, fur and any debris from outdoors instantly.

Light colored walls help small spaces appear larger and make effective choices for rooms with small windows or limited natural light as the pale walls tend to make a room look lighter.

Dark or bright paint colors may seem appealing on a small sample card, yet may be overwhelming on four walls. One option for adding bright wall colors is to paint one or two walls in a deep color and the other walls in a neutral shade--or select a softer color for the walls and use a bright or dark paint on the trim. ehow.com

Page 17

Fashion

Kiddies World Model of the week

Page 23

Zainab Manu Shelling, was 1 year old on the 26th of June, 2013. Wishing her more years ahead and many happy returns!

Pots

Trendy high waist and bustier tops Page 32

&

Pans Preserving your fruits and vegetables at Ramadan Page 28

HEALTH Diabetes education – Chronic complications of diabetes (Diabetic neuropathy) Page 19

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

How I made my marriage work—Sophia

M

y name is Sophia Williams and I have been married for the past 9 yrs, I’m blessed with 3 kids (2 boys and a girl) and I have the most amazing husband. I will like to correct the impression that most marriages don’t work. It depends on your determination to make your relationship the best ever. My experience would go a long way in showing single girls out there that marriage can work out fine if they make it happen.

I and my husband dated for a year before we got married. My friends thought it was too soon since we barely knew our selves, I was staying in Abuja while he was in Lagos, I came to the Capital city occasionally to visit him so after a year, we figured it was time to move to the next level which we did.

We got married and I started living the life of a married woman.

We loved each other so much but there were things we did not know about each other, that the long distance kept away from us and this posed a threat to our relationship afterwards. It was the fact that we were both very hot tempered.

I had very bad reputation of talking anyhow at the time. I liked to challenge everyone including him which he didn’t like. We

argued a lot and we would end up beating each other.

The first time my husband hit me, I ran to my aunt’s place and later came back home, it happened again and again. But one thing was significant, after the fight he would apologise and tell me how the things I said to him really hurt him and why we should try to tolerate each other.

After a year I told myself that if someone had to make things right, it was me. So I stopped nagging too much, prayed more often and asked God to help me control my temper. After a while I stopped challenging him to a fight and always made him feel more like the boss, and like magic, the fighting stopped.

I took in and gave birth to our twin boys the second year.

I was so engrossed with taking care of the babies that I forgot to give my husband the attention he deserved. There was a time when instinctively, I took my husband’s phone and was reading some of his text messages and discovered he was cheating on me, my children were 5 months old at the time. The girl in question was supposed to be a family friend but she was sleeping with my husband.

I went through the whole BBM

chat and saw the way the girl flirted with my hubby, how he tried to resist but eventually fell for her tricks. I was mad, but at the same time determined to stay calm. I didn’t mention it to him when he came to pick up his phone though I felt like insulting him instead I pretended nothing happened.

I decided to take some steps the next day by walking out and jogging with some neighbours, to exercise myself and after 2weeks I got a treadmill, (exercise machine) and started using it at home. I was still running in the morning and using the treadmill at night. After 3 months, I lost some weight coming back to 60kg which was my initial weight before I had the babies. I didn’t give up; I kept trying to look more fit than I ever was.

One night, my husband came home and said we needed to talk, I said hope there is no problem?

He said “there is”! And I said let’s hear it. He opened up to me about his affair with the girl. He told me everything that happened and even went ahead to show me their ‘chat’. He said he had ended the relationship with the girl but she kept calling back and begging him to continue the friendship.

Of course, she would not want to part with that kind of man. My

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

Relationship Heart Matterz With Nami Hassan Kadir

husband is rich and would shower gifts on people. Here he was, crying and apologising to me but I told him he shouldn’t worry, that it was my entire fault for neglecting him and making him to get the attention somewhere else. We made up and after two days he bought me a car out of guilt. It was my dream car.

We went back to enjoying our lives the way it was before, going to the movies, club and hanging out; I gave him all my attention.

After I gave birth to another child, my baby girl 3 years later, he didn’t cheat on me because I made sure I didn’t stop being a mother, wife, lover and friend to him. I started exercising myself again and was back in shape 4months after the child was born. We were so happy and my career and the home front were perfect as everything was intact.

But when I said “Home was fine” it didn’t mean we did not quarrel anymore I just made sure if I was going to quarrel about anything it was justified while I tried as much as possible not to be harsh or rude. There was a time we quarreled and couldn’t reconcile immediately and I confided in a male friend not knowing it was the last thing I should have done

even though he would advise me and make me go back home happy again. But one day when we had another quarrel and I drove off to the guy’s house it worsened my case as while pretending to console me he started kissing me then it dawned on me that he was not being sincere with me. So I pushed him off and drove back home and told my husband what happened. He said he understood and since then I stopped confiding in anyone no matter what the problem was.

My husband and I have remained the best of friends now, to the extent that my friends are envious of us. I think about my marriage often and the need to make things work because I am from a broken home and I knew what me and my sister went through at home, and I didn’t want my children to experience the same thing. I got married at 18, now I am 27 but I look like a 24 year old girl and I made sure to dress well and make up my face. I don’t tie wrappers except when I am attending meetings in my office. I liked to dress in shorts, miniskirts, short gowns etc, anything to keep me good looking and younger for my darling husband.

Sophia’s marriage tips At this point I’m going to say, ladies: 1. Bear in mind that marriage is not easy 2. Don’t go into marriage expecting too much.

3. Don’t think there would not be problems, there will always be problems, what makes you the woman is your ability to handle it.

4. Make your partner your friend, infact your best friend, lover, husband, mother, sister etc. That way he would be able to discuss any issue with you.

5. Never make yourself lose or engage in secret relationships with the opposite sex because you are married, your husband loved what he saw that’s why he married you; try to remember that.

6. Never share your problems with anyone because often you get the wrong advice from people, handle your problems the best way that you can with your partner.

7. Do not argue with your husband always or try to show you are the boss , let him have his say and make it look like he is right, especially if you see the situation posing a threat to the relationship.

8. For those who nag always, control yourself. That’s one thing men hate in women, nagging. It took me time to learn this. Never challenge him because it would make him feel he’s not in control and men don’t like this. So allow him to feel he is the boss.

9. Talk to him all the time, appreciate the things he does and encourage him to do more.

10. Don’t forget to make God your number one friend in your home. Don’t joke with prayer, it never fails.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

s p i T y t u a Be

How to get glowing skin naturally

E

verybody wants to get glowing skin. But how many of them know the right way of it? You can follow some natural tips for glowing skin and make you more attractive and beautiful.

There are many beauty products you can try for making your skin glowing and healthy.

Sometimes it is difficult to choose the best skin product and you have a chance to be wrong by choosing products that aren’t suitable for your skin. So, it is better to use natural products that you can manage easily and find in your home.

Here are some natural ways you should try and you will find instant result by using these natural skin tips mentioned below: -Water It is a very common idea but drinking plenty of water is very

essential if you really want a healthy and glowing skin.

-Lime juice Lime is another good natural resource to make skin healthy and radiant. You will get the surprising result by drinking lime juice. Take a lime and squeeze it. Then mix warm water with honey. Try to drink this juice every morning before taking your breakfast. This is also useful for your health as lime purifies blood.

-Banana mask You can use the banana mask with lime or orange and honey. First, wash your skin to use this mask. Mix banana and honey together. Then add a few drops of orange or lime . Keep the mask on your skin about 15 minutes and then rinse it off.

-Lemon Lemon is very effective for glowing skin. Peel a lemon and

rub it on your skin. You can add honey with this to get better results. Rub it carefully and then wait 3/4 minutes and wash your skin.

-Orange Another natural gift is orange which you can use to make your skin beautiful and healthy.

Orange can be very useful for your skin if you can make the proper use of it. Never throw away the peels, just dry peels and make powder by grinding them.

Then apply the powder with water on your skin. This is a very powerful scrub for skin.

Natural products are easy to find and not too expensive to buy. You can easily keep our skin clean and healthy if proper use of these natural gifts can be ensured. It is not too difficult to have glowing skin. What you need to do is to follow the right way and the right instruction.

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Compiled by Nami Hassan Kadir

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

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

I

welcome you to this weeks’ edition of WELLNESS COLUMN article on one of the chronic complications of Diabetes mellitus, Diabetic Neuropathy.

I like to thank my numerous readers of this column who wrote in to express their appreciation of the topic of discussed in the previous two editions on Diabetes and Ramadan fasting. I appreciate your comment and suggestions. For those with questions, I hope the answers address your concerns but should you need further clarification, feel free to get in touch with me.

Diabetic neuropathy may sound a big word but it literally means disease of the Nerve caused by Diabetes mellitus.

We shall take a look at this condition with a view to encouraging and educating people living with Diabetes out there on how best to cope with and manage them.

Late clinical manifestation of Diabetes mellitus involves a number of changes that involve small and large blood vessels as well as cranial and peripheral nerves.

This late manifestation correlates with the duration of Diabetes. Most person living with Diabetes are already living with one form of neuropathy or the other as a result of daily damage to the nerves due to persistent high blood glucose levels.

Diabetic neuropathies are the most common complications of diabetes affecting up to 50% of older patients with type 2 Diabetes. Diabetic neuropathy could be classified into two broad groups: 1. Peripheral Neuropathy A. Distal symmetric polyneuropathy B. Isolated peripheral neuropathy C. Painful Diabetic neuropathy 2. Autonomic Neuropathy - Erectile dysfunction etc.

1. A Distal symmetrical Polyneuropathy This is the most common form

of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, occurring mostly in the lower extremities which appear in a stocking-glove pattern. Longer nerves like the sciatic nerve are especially vulnerable, thus its impact on the foot leads to delay in motor and sensory nerve conduction in the peripheral nerves.

Sensory nerve involvement usually occurs first and it is generally bilateral, symmetric and associated with dull perception of vibration, pain and temperature. The sensory deficit may eventually prevent patients from feeling pain as it advances. Peripheral neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy and trauma also predisposes to the development of Charcot arthropathy which presents with pain and swelling and if left untreated, leads to deformity and ulceration.

B. Isolated Peripheral Neuropathy This involves distribution of only one nerve and it is mostly characterized by sudden onset with Subsequent recovery of all or most of the functions. It could be due to loss of blood supply (vascular ischemia) or traumatic damage.

The cranial and femoral nerves are mostly involved. Example is Diabetic amyotrophy which presents with onset of severe pain in the front of the thigh; this could lead to wasting of the muscles.

Management is usually use of analgesia and improvement in blood glucose control and the symptoms may improve with time.

C. Painful Diabetic Neuropathy This is characterized by hypersensitivity to light touch and sometimes severe “burning” pain, especially at night. This can be emotionally and physically disabling.

Doctors usually recommend some drugs to handle the pain and dramatic relieve often results within 48 to 72 hours.

2. Autonomic Neuropathy

The chronic diabetic complications affecting the autonomic nerves manifest with evidence of postural hypotension, gastroparesis, alternating bouts of diarrhea (mostly at night) and constipation, inability to empty the bladder (urinating) and Erectile dysfunction (which has lead to many cases of divorce).

Management of autonomic neuropathy has evolved over the years.

However, there is no consistently effective treatment for diabetic autonomic neuropathy. The symptoms are handled as the present. There is a need to see a specialist instead of handling this condition alone by a person living with Diabetes. Erectile dysfunction can be managed by medical, mechanical and surgical treatment modalities. This particular dysfunction has caused a lot of pain and disaffection in many families.

Many have attributed this to myths like witch craft and cause. We can attest scientifically that poor blood glucose control over the time contributes greatly to this condition.

Penile erection depends on relaxation of the smooth muscle in the arteries of the corpus cavernosum a process which is mediated by nitric oxide induced cGMP (cyclic 3’,5’-guanosine monophosphate) formation. Certain drugs are available and can be employed by doctors to assist people living with diabetes with this condition to maintain good erectile function. Care should

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

be taken not to self treat but to seek genuine medical attention should the need arise.

How do you screen for diabetic neuropathy?

1.

Symptomatic diabetic neuropathy involves pains in the regions, itching, prickling sensations etc. Neuropathy involves small and large nerve fibers.

2. Small nerve fiber neuropathy can be diagnosed by the use of intraepidermal nerve fibre density testing.

This helps rapid regrowth of nerves.

3. Large nerve fiber neuropathy is diagnosed by using positive electro diagnostic tests.

4. Both tests can be used in early detection of nerve damage Treatment, prevention and control of neuropathy 1. Regular exercises, 2.

Constant checking and maintenance of blood glucose level.

3. Regular checking of blood pressure. Which should not exceed 130/85Hg 4. Stop smoking and drinking.

Doing this increases your chances of nerve damage 5. Food control. Eat foods with low cholesterol.

6. Yearly check for nerve damage.

7. In essence, nerve damage can be avoided and controlled by just following these simple rules and it begins with YOU.

The second foot (2) shown above has poor blood circulation to the extremities compared to (1) given rise to cascade of foot problems like neuropathy amongst others.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Page 20

LEARNING

With Namy Kadir Hassan namy.kadir@yahoo.com

Bad Monkey

By Carl Hiaasen

W

ith its jauntily barbed tone, confidence and economy, this novel shows us a writer back in love with his franchise. There’s a sharp remark by Harold Pinter

about the risk a successful author runs of becoming a prisoner of style and subject matter. While writing one of his later plays, Pinter said he found himself thinking: “There he goes again.”

And the trap of familiar tone

Did you know?

and setup is even greater in populist fiction, where it is common , for a star author to be given a “uniform edition”, making the books all look the same. This is often only fair, because the writer has for some time been ensuring uniformity of narrative and character.

From its opening page, there is a confidence, economy and enjoyability to Bad Monkey that give the impression of a writer back in love with his franchise. A couple on a honeymoon deep-sea fishing trip in the Florida Keys reel in a severed arm which, for reasons of policing logistics, comes to be kept in the freezer of Andrew Yancy, a former detective who has been downgraded to the post of restaurant inspector (“roach patrol”) after sodomising his married lover’s husband with a vacuum cleaner in a fit of passionate jealousy.

How to be a Victorian

By Ruth Goodman

The earth is getting lighter everyday

T

he earth is getting 50,000 tonnes lighter every year, even as 40,000 tonnes of space dust fall on our planet’s surface during the same period.

So, why are we losing so much weight? You will be surprised.

At least, I never considered this and I was surprised to hear the reasoning in More or Less, a BBC Radio 4 program about statistics and numbers.

According to Dr Chris Smith and Cambridge University physicist Dave Ansel’s calculations, despite those 40,000 tonnes of space dust that become part of our planet every year, Earth loses 50,000 tonnes of mass. Is it because we keep launching rockets? No. These are their back-of-the-napkin calculations: Adding weight • Earth gains about 40,000 tonnes of dust every year, the remnants of the formation of the solar system, which are attracted by our gravity and become part of the matter in our planet. Our planet is actually made from all that starstuff.

• NASA says that Earth gains about 160 tonnes of matter a year because the global temperature is going up: “If we are adding

energy to the system, the mass must go up.” Oh, those crazy thermodynamics.

No effect • Of course, having more people or building stuff doesn’t add any mass to the planet.

Humans and things are made with the matter that is already in the planet. It’s just being transformed.

• Most of the rockets and satellites that we launch to Earth orbit eventually fall down back to Earth, so no real effect here.

Losing weight • Earth’s core loses energy over time. It’s like a giant nuclear reactor that burns fuel.

Less energy means less mass.

16 tonnes of that are gone every year. Not much.

• And here’s the big mass loss: about 95,000 tonnes of hydrogen and 1,600 tones of helium escape Earth every year.

They are too light for gravity to keep them around, so they get lost. Gone into space.

The result: the rough estimate is -50,000 tonnes every year. Which is about 0.000000000000001% less mass every year.

I

n August 1839, when Queen Victoria was just out of her teens, the 13th Earl of Eglinton convened a medieval tournament on his estate in Ayrshire. Thousands turned up in fancy dress to witness the cream of Scots aristocracy, canned in brass armour, tilting at each other on horseback.

The rain poured. The mud grew thick. Water sluiced through the banqueting facilities.

The knights struggled to keep in the saddle.

The event was, in the words of one tough critic whose descendants doubtless spent a lot of time in the cheap seats at the Glasgow Empire, “the most magnificent abortion that

has been witnessed for two centuries”.

Goodman’s method is a form of object divination. She handles Victorian materials, uses Victorian tools, wears and repairs Victorian clothes, in the hope that a kind of sympathetic magic will collapse the distance between the 19th century and the 21st. She has brushed her teeth with soot and scoured her pans with brick dust. (Both triumphs.) She has styled her hair with rice starch and rectified spirit. (“Very easy to make up and apply.”) She once forswore washing with water for four months. (Nobody noticed, leading her to doubt the received idea that people in the past were more malodorous that their present-day.

The society of timid souls

By Polly Morland

M

orland tells the story to show that, despite having made a career out of paddling in dangerous shallows, she is not what you’d call naturally brave. Still, she’s met plenty of people who are, and in this book she sets out to rummage inside their psyches to see if there is something – a trick of thinking, a way of being – that can be isolated, amplified and reproduced by the more craven among us. In an age of so many real and imagined terrors can we, in fact, learn to be brave?

Wisely, perhaps, Morland doesn’t use her enormous pants as the organising idea of her investigation.

Instead she revives an anecdotal curio from 1940s New York.

One of Morland’s first steps is to track down the descendants of those fearful New York orchestralists.

These days it turns out they’re all on beta blockers and managing just fine. It’s different, though, for solo performers. Morland talks to soprano Renée Fleming, who was booed by the loggionisti, the critical section of Milan’s La Scala opera house, in 1998 and had to take a year off before she could sing a note in public again. But, in truth, a book about panicking musicians does not make for riveting narrative, so Morland moves swiftly on to the kind of stuff that we can all agree is really, really brave.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Kiddies World

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

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

The River Nile

B E AD C

HIS AND HERS’ CORNER

Disney Angle Alvin and Chipmunks 4

Power Puff girls The River Nile is in Africa.

It originates in Burundi, south of the equator, and flows northward through northeastern Africa, eventually flowing through Egypt and finally draining into the Mediterranean Sea. The River Nile is about 6,670 km in length and is the longest river in Africa and in the world. Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest lake, is generally thought of as the source of the River Nile. On the northern edge of the lake, water pours over a waterfall, known as Ripon Falls, into a narrow opening which some people believe is the beginning of the River Nile.

The River Nile is formed from the White Nile, which originates at Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. These rivers meet in Sudan and then go on their long journey

northwards towards the sea.

This area was known as the Black Land. Further away from the river was the Red Land, a region of inhospitable desert.

Ancient Egypt could not have existed without the river Nile. Since rainfall is almost non- existent in Egypt, the floods provided the only source of moisture to sustain crops. Another way the Nile helped the ancient Egyptians was in trade. The Nile was the quickest and easiest way to travel from place to place.

In Egypt, the River Nile creates a fertile green valley across the,desert. It was by the banks of the river that one of the oldest civilizations in the world began. The ancient Egyptians lived and farmed along the Nile, using the soil to produce food for themselves and their animals.

Monster university new tailor 2

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

B

Kiddies World E AD

C

Page 23

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

CREATIVITY

How to make carrot juice Carrot juice is a nutritious drink and easy to make without a fancy juice machine. Adding orange juice to the mix makes it especially tasty.

ACTIVITIES

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

Things you need; -Carrots -orange -vegetable brush/knife -Blender -strainer 1. Clean your carrots. Wash the carrots under cold water.

Scrub them with a vegetable brush or knife if you can carefully.

2.

Chop your carrots. If you have an industrial-strength juicer, this step may not be necessary. If not, chop your carrots into 2 or 3-inch chunks.

3.Place your cleaned carrots in a blender or food processor.

Process until finely chopped or mashed. One may have to add a small amount of water if the carrots are not very moist and stir it.

4. Let it steep. Allow the

mixture stand for 15 to 30 minutes and using a hand strainer, strain the juice into a pitcher.

-Using the base of a glass or other blunt object, press the mash to extract as much juice as possible from the strainer.

- If you want to strain out even more pulp, pour the resulting

juice through a jelly strainer.

5. Juice 2 oranges, and add that tasty nectar to the carrot juice.It is optional, but it is tasty.

Keep an eye on your glass. If your carrots are extra-juicy, you may end up with more juice than glass. Conversely, if your carrots are dried out, you may need to add more.

king’s son happened to be hunting near their house, and saw a bird perched on the top of the fence round the house. The bird was watching the little girl, and was so entranced with her beauty that he did not notice the prince coming.

The prince shot the bird with his bow and arrow, and it dropped inside the fence, so the prince sent his servant to gather it. While the servant was looking for the bird he came across the little girl, and was so struck with her form, that he immediately returned to his master and told him what he had seen. The prince then broke down the fence and found the child, and fell in love with her at once. He stayed and talked with her for a long time, until at last she agreed to become his wife. He then went home, but concealed from his father the fact that he had fallen in love with the beautiful daughter of the tortoise.

But the next morning he sent for the treasurer, and got sixty pieces of cloth and three hundred

rods, and sent them to the tortoise.

Then in the early afternoon he went down to the tortoise house, and told him that he wished to marry his daughter. The tortoise saw at once that what he had dreaded had come to pass, and that his life was in danger, so he told the prince that if the king knew, he would kill not only himself (the tortoise), but also his wife and daughter. The prince replied that he would be killed himself before he allowed the tortoise and his wife and daughter to be killed.

Eventually, after much argument, the tortoise consented, and agreed to hand his daughter to the prince as his wife when she arrived at the proper age. Then the prince went home and told his mother what he had done. She was in great distress at the thought that she would lose her son, of whom she was very proud, as she knew that when the king heard of his son’s disobedience he would kill him.

However, the queen, although she knew how angry her husband would be, wanted her son to marry the girl he had fallen in love with, so she went to the tortoise and gave him some money, clothes, yams, and palm-oil as further dowry on her son’s behalf in order that the tortoise should not give his daughter to anotherB man.

For the next five years the prince was constantly with the tortoise’s daughter, whose name was Adet, andwhen she was about to be put in the fatting house, the prince told his father that he was going to take Adet as his wife. On hearing this the king was very angry, and sent word all round his kingdom that all people should come on a certain day to the market-place to hear the palaver. When the appointed day arrived the marketplace was quite full of people, and the stones belonging to the king and queen were placed in the middle of the market-place.

AFRICAN TALES The Tortoise with a pretty daughter

T

here was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the princes wives, and who found favour in his son’s eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.

Now about this time the tortoise and his wife had a daughter who was very beautiful. The mother thought it was not safe to keep such a fine child, as the prince might fall in love with her, so she told her husband that her daughter ought to be killed and thrown away into the bush. The tortoise, however, was unwilling, and hid her until she was three years old. One day, when both the tortoise and his wife were away on their farm, the

MODEL OF THE WEEK

Zainab Manu Shelling, was 1 year old on the 26th of June, 2013. Wishing her more years ahead and many happy returns!

PAGE 24

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Magazine

2015: Jonathan must go —Prof Ango Abdullahi

Professor Ango Abdullahi of Northern Elders Forum recently granted an interview to journalists in Kaduna, where he spoke on issues of national interest including the one-term agreement purportedly being shunned by President Goodluck Jonathan, zoning, the crisis in Rivers state and more.

Mohammad Ibrahim was there and reports.

T

here are people who think the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) which you also belong to is not as vibrant and aggressive as groups in other parts of the country. How do you react to this view?

Let me start the point that ACF is not being as assertive as you wish, this is not correct particularly as you raised the issue of the style of other parts of the country and their leaders.

In the North, we have certain traditions that are sometimes misread as weakness.

The fact that we don’t come out in shouting marches and in abusive language style and so on, sometimes give the wrong impression that we do not have deep-rooted concern for ourselves, which is not true. All of us here are members of the ACF. Looking at our history and diversity and style of governance makes us to behave slightly differently from others but I want to absolutely make it clear to us that the ACF and the other groups that have emerged in the recent past, are all talking about the same thing, are committed to the interest that underline northern interest, there is no question about that. If you hadn’t heard sufficiently and loudly enough, the North is determined and is insistent and will be insistent that the leadership of the country will rotate to it in 2015. I am making that very clear to you on behalf of all of us (the groups).

Not that the North is angry and power blind, it could be argued on the basis of the national arguments that are on ground today.

The North on the basis of one man, one vote; the demography shows that the North can keep power as long as it wants because it will always win elections but on the basis of the usual sacrifices that the Northerners do make in the course of the history of this country. Some of us who participated in constitutional conferences of 1987 up to the last political reform conference accepted that every part of the country should feel part of the leadership and this is the basis of the acceptance of rotation of power between the North and South. This is what happened in the constitutional conference I and many others attended and this is the basis of the

rotation between the North and the South.

There was no question of geo-political zones; geo-political zones were later introductions.

This is what the ruling PDP accepted quickly and I was part of the constitution drafting for the party and we incorporated it that there will be rotation between the North and South particularly in terms of the top leadership of the country and then the argument that follows, because this is something that usually is missing from the rules. The argument that followed immediately was that where will the rotation start from? Again it was argued and we northerners as usual thought that we should concede that it starts from the south because the North over the years whether civilian or military has taken a good share of the leadership.

The most recent crisis that led to the annulment of elections for example in the South-West as somebody from the SouthWest was seen to be winning the election and that election was annulled. These are the cumulative things that we decided that the South should start. That was how Obasanjo came to become our president under that arrangement and it was clearly for four years and then when he begged for the arrangement to be extended to match the constitutional allowance that a president could go for two terms; this was extended in an expanded caucus. All of them were present, Obasanjo was the first to sign quickly, President Goodluck Jonathan was also there at that time as deputy governor representing Governor of Bayelsa state at that time and he signed as number 37.

So, we all agreed that the south will have eight years and then the North will have eight.

When eventually Obasanjo, having seen some lacuna somewhere even tried to abandon the zoning as well as the constitution to proceed for the third term; he came to the North, again he thought that we will allow him to more or less without resistance, to handpick his successor. He handpicked Umaru Yar’adua, the constitution has been satisfied but the northerners have the president but Umaru was ill and he died two and half years in his

first term. It will make a lot of sense to accept that the constitution says for whatever reason if he is not there, his vice should take over and that was why Jonathan who was the vice president became the president of Nigeria and we thought morality or at least on moral ground, at the end of that four years, the North will take over; if it didn’t have eight years because of this transition, it will have at least six years. In 2011, I thought that it should have been the first purely on moral ground knowing that there is a rotation arrangement in place and that there was a dated agreement and all of them were signatories but they came out in public to say that they do not know about rotation.

Obasanjo started it, saying he didn’t know about rotation; Jonathan himself said he didn’t know about rotation. The issue here is that of another four years but recently we are now getting to know from one of the governors that they had some secret arrangement but they will still allow Jonathan to have another four years against one term, he pledged to them; they haven’t expatiated on this yet but it was revealed by the governor of Niger state that there was this pledge to do one term but it makes you think really, how could leaders be trusted if they cannot honour simple agreement whether written or unwritten; this is the hallmark of descent leadership to live and honour agreement.

Former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Richard Akinjide, said in The News magazine published about five years ago, that Nigeria has been facing crisis of census manipulation and that demographic experts always cite example from all countries in the coast of West Africa from Mauritania to Cameroun, southerners are always more populated than the North but it is only in Nigeria that we have the North more numerical than the South. What is your take on this?

My take is that Akinjide must have been an ignorant and selfish person. Of course, we have known his political prostitution for a very long time which he did to get

ministerial appointment. To those of you who are conversant with the simple secondary school arithmetic, the North’s landmass today constitute 75% of the entire landmass of the Nigerian state. I can tell you today that Kaduna state’s landmass is equivalent to the entire South-Eastern state. So take 10m2 and take one person there and say this is one man per square and then take 20m2 and put half a man there, what is the population density of the two squares; assuming that you want to add half of man to another half of man to make one man; the 20m2 has one man and the 10m2 has one man. I don’t know where you come from but for those who come from as many sections of Nigeria as you can, density of population does not need a final or there is no finality in square meter or square kilometre. What is important is that, what is the area multiplied by the population density; that will give you your final figure. There is no doubt today, I don’t want to behave like the chairman of Population Commission; when we get to that point, we will argue it. But I want to take you back to this manipulation that has started in 1903, you must have been accusing the British who did the population count for all this time and we were all under colonial administration and I couldn’t see why the British should favour the population of some sections of the country against the other but let me make the point that it is not true that the Forest (belts) are more densely populated than Savanna areas.

Talking about rotation or zoning, will you say former President Obasanjo betrayed the North and so come 2015 power should return to the region?

That is what we are trying to do now, we are trying to get what we think is our right by way of voting, that’s all. With regards to Obasanjo, he has always been a betrayer not only of himself but of others.

You spoke so much about returning power to the North but this North looks divided. What would you say about the North standing together towards this position?

This question has to do with the unity

Professor Ango Abdullahi of the North and the ACF, the Northern Elders Forum and all the other groups that I have alluded to are all on track and I think I wouldn’t say more than that, there is deliberate concerted effort to try mend these fences that have been largely broken from outside. The apparent crisis in the North with due respect is large exploitation of ethnic and religious sentiment and this has been done largely successfully by politicians looking for votes either in their locational constituencies or on the larger constituencies but I think this particular facade is being seen through now and as soon as we can sort it out and we are sorting that out with our brethren from across the northern states, all these will really come to pass. The political definition and political interest of various parts of the country will be the focus around which decisions will be taken as to where to put our votes.

There was anannouncement by the amnesty committee recently that they had agreed on a ceasefire with Boko Haram just for the boss of the group to say that he is not part of the agreement.

Why this contradiction?

The ACF, Northern Elders Forum and a lot of these fora, we can beat our chest and say we have been instrumental if the President eventually accept the need for a more peaceful approach to the resolution of the crisis we are having in the country. Rather than brute force, there must be some other ways to bring about a resolution of the crisis and we have argued that we should look at the experiences of other parts of the world and see whether sheer force is the answer to this kind of uprising or insurgency. Example of the almighty United States with all its military machines, it failed in Korea, it has failed in Iraq and is now failing

in Afghanistan. It is the almighty Unites States but it is trying to set up an office for the Taliban in Qatar for negotiations to start there as they head towards withdrawing their troops next year. So, who are you not to really take some of these lessons into consideration. While we were arguing for peaceful approach, there have always been people who thought that the force of the army should do the job and with every passing day, they are been proved wrong. Eventually the President accepted that this approach should also come on stream while North is binding the stick, the carrot can also be introduced and this is what gave birth to the dialogue and reconciliation committee and all of us were very happy. Infact it was a day after we visited and submitted some of these recommendations that this committee was virtually announced. Everybody was happy about it and we thought perhaps, with clearly shown sincerity maybe, we will get to the end of

“

this as soon as possible. As Maitama Sule will put it, “ to Jaw-jaw is better than War-war”.

So, we saw this but some of the disturbing development that came soon after was a state of emergency and before then, there had been a subsisting state of emergency in at least 15 or more local government including Suleija and the rest of them and particularly in the area.

So, we thought that there was already a state of emergency. All that is required is perhaps some modification or some intensification and so on; then there was this big state of emergency declared in three states and we realized that there must have been political pressure somewhere especially from those that did not believe that the government should dialogue with Boko Haram because we know there are such groups that have been making a lot of noise on this.

Unfortunately further, soon after this, there is a proscription. For those of you

The apparent crisis in the North with due respect is large exploitation of ethnic and religious sentiment and this has been done largely successfully by politicians looking for votes either in their locational constituencies or on the larger constituencies but I think this particular facade is being seen through now and as soon as we can sort it out and we are sorting that out with our brethren from across the northern states, all these will really come to pass.

who are lawyers and who understand what proscription means, when you proscribe something, the initial assumption is that it exists in law but something as happened that it needs to be proscribed but this particular insurgency did not ever exist in law. We are just trying to find where it is and how it is operating and this is the reason for setting up this committee to search for it and get somewhere; the links that will make it possible for us to really get their leadership to accept peace and then the proscription meant that they can’t show up, they can’t do this. Infact, I’m really surprised at how the committee is still working, I thought that by the time we have the state of emergency, soon after a committee like that have been formed and then immediately followed by a proscription, I was expecting that the committee was being disbanded.

What is your view on crisis in Rivers State?

The crisis in Rivers State is a sad reminder of our experiences in the western Nigeria crisis of 1963. It is symptomatic of the politics of intolerance which has remained the hallmark of our political experience since 1999. From Governor Dariye of Plateau State, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Chief Audu Ogbe, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, Dr. Ekwesilieze Nwodo, and most recently Chief Timiprye Sylva, all perceived enemies at one time or the other since 1999 had been subjected to venomous, vengeful and unforgiving treatment all in the name of politics and struggle for power. We call on President Goodluck Jonathan to order an immediate cessation of hostilities in Rivers State and stop using the Nigeria police to settle his political disputes. The Nigeria Police is not a political party and certainly not an arm of the PDP. It must not be dragged into the internal crisis of the President’s party. The governor and people of Rivers State, as indeed all citizens of Nigeria, deserve the full protection of the law and of their rights to live in peace under state-guaranteed security. No one should be persecuted.

Looking at the incumbency factor, don’t you think that President Goodluck Jonathan will definitely have his way particularly now that some of the northern governors who have indicated interest to contest for the 2015 election have kept silent?

How could Jonathan have his way if we are reading our laws and constitutions correctly?

Amaechi is a governor and if you look at the constitution of the country, he is the governor of Rivers state. The rules of his election are the same rules that brought about Jonathan as President. The rules that will dispose of Amaechi should be the rules that will apply to the disposal of President if it so happened. So, what should be left to Rivers state must be in accordance with the constitution and the law and we are not children. Nigerians are not children. You know yourself that he will have his way by your own question that if he has interest, he will have his way. He will use all means available to him but let’s hope that he will use means that are legal and lawful and allow Amaechi to also resist by lawful and legal means. So, everything will be settled on the basis of legality rather than sheer force that usually offend the rule of law.

What do you say about the agitation by the Middle Belt that should the North agitate for power, they should be the zone to produce the next president?

Our definition of the North is just one, our candidate could be from any part of the North.

We have no distinction but some people imagine that this is core,that is periphery, this is what and so on. We have just one North and the candidate we have or may have, will come from any part of the North. Take this from me as an assurance. Any competent candidate from the North irrespective of tribe or faith will receive the support of the North once we agree, so that one is settled.

Page 26

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Hollywood/Bollywood

Exhubby of Stephanie Okereke remarries S

ources disclosed to Nigeriafilms.com that the ex-husband of star actress, Stephanie Okereke, Chikelu Iloenyosi, has remarried.

The former Super Eagles defender finally walked down the aisle with another lady after

his celebrated marriage to the sexy ex-beauty queen turned actress packed up three years after they tied the knot.

The marriage is said to have produced two children.

Iloenyosi got married to Stephanie in 2004 and it

crashed in 2007. The actress remarried in April 2012 in France to Linus Idahosa in a glamorous wedding ceremony tagged ‘fairy tale’, shortly after a Lagos High Court had declared her 2004 marriage to Iloenyosi null and void.

Miranda Lambert not pregnant nor getting divorce

W

ith near-constant talk that she and husband Blake Shelton are heading for divorce, country star Miranda Lambert, debunked the rumors recently.

“For the record, I’m not pregnant - I’m drinking - and I’m not getting divorced,” she said, pretty much clearing up all celebrity gossip topics in one quote.

Lambert went on to say that all the tabloid speculation about her personal life has given a new meaning to her 2007 single, “Famous in a small town.”

“I’ve been pregnant, having twins, we’ve been separated, I’m drunk and alone, pregnant again, then we’re having twins again, and now we’re getting divorced.

“I can’t even name the stuff,” she said.

“It’s funny because I realize this song means even more to me now because I’m in the tabloids every week for being famous for something I didn’t even do.”

Lambert has spoken out about her buzzed-about relationship before.

MTV Video Music Awards: Justin Timberlake, Macklemore, Bruno Mars lead nomination

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ith the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards just over a month away, the network unveiled the full list of nominees, Hollywood reporter has said.

It revealed that leading the charge in six categories, including video of the year, are Justin Timberlake (for “Mirrors”) and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (for “Thrift Shop”). Bruno Mars isn’t far behind with four, and his “Locked out of heaven” is also up for the night’s biggest

prize.

Other multiple nominees include P!nk, Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Drake, Calvin Harris, Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 30 Seconds to Mars and fun.

A relatively new category, best video with a social message, features a diverse array of contenders including Kelly Clarkson’s “People like us,” Macklemore’s “Same love” and Snoop lion’s “No guns allowed,” among others.

Noel “number one” debut as Rhythm hit son of the week

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wo weeks into its debut, the song “Number One” by Noel Empraw, has hit radio airwaves running with fresh new tune this week.

The song made its best as “Rhythm hit song of the week” on Silverbird Rhythm94.7 including track-listed as new song of the week on 96.9CoolFM,Wazobia95.5.

Produced by Mr Magik featuring sensational singer Femi

Jubal, “Number One” is something new and refreshing with a nice blend of classic hip-hop on an indigenous backdrop with voice of great Mohammed Ali on the sign out.

Uber-talented act Noel Empraw, who has being working on his debut album also talked about using his music as an awareness tool for positive change amongst youths and campaign for corporate entities.

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Special Report

How the army, SSS intercepted petrol tanker loaded with arms in Kebbi From Ahmed Idris, Kebbi

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n the efforts of the Federal Government to curb the insurgency in some parts of the country, Kebbi state which has been crime and violent-free, recently came into the news on July 11, 2013 when security agents intercepted weapons from some suspected members of the BOKO HARAM sect who were trying to pass through the state to Sokoto.

The suspects met their waterloo when operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) and soldiers of the 1Battalion Nigeria Army, Birnin ,Kebbi state on joint patrol intercepted and arrested a petrol tanker loaded with arms and ammunition at the Sokoto/Kebbi border.

The petrol tanker belonging to Total Nigeria Plc with Reg. No. Kano XE 147 RAN fully loaded with various high calibers of dangerous weapons described as weapons of mass destruction, was said to be heading for Sokoto from Kano when the security agents acting on a tip-off intercepted and arrest the vehicle with its occupants.

The arrest which took place at Malisa village between Sokoto and Kebbi states under Gwandu local government area of kebbi state, was made possible last Thursday night but two out of the three occupants of truck escaped into the bush on sighting the security operatives while the third person who could not make it early enough was promptly nabbed and taken to the military headquarters with the tanker.

Intelligence reports revealed that some wealthy individuals sympathetic with the Boko Haram and its insurgent activities are the sponsors of the huge arms to beef up those already on ground in Sokoto with the aim of lunching heavy attack on the seat of caliphate as the month of Ramadan progresses.

Peoples Daily weekend gathered that the tanker avoided the direct route to Sokoto because of the heavy security check points along the roads and decided to detour through long distant rural roads from Kano to Birnin –

Gwari in Kaduna state, to Tegina-Kotangora road in Niger state and through Yauri, Koko in Kebbi state before being finally intercepted at Malisa Village some kilometers to Sokoto, the city of the caliphate.

Addressing newsmen, Saturday evening over the arrest and detention of the vehicle, the commanding officer, 1Battalion Nigeria Army, Birnin kebbi, Lt. Col Sunday Ayorinde Ilori stated that the joint efforts of the security agents on patrol had paved way for the arrest of the tanker and the occupant, adding that those who took to their heels on sighting the security men would soon be apprehended.

Col. Ilori who praised the gallant efforts of the operatives, also urged members of the society to be very vigilant and feel free to report any suspicious movement around them to the

The petrol tanker belonging to Total Nigeria Plc

security agents.

He told newsmen while showing them samples of the arms and ammunition that were stockpiled in the petrol tanker that the caliber of the weapons especially the PMG is enough to destroy a whole city within a day.

The commanding officer who did not entertain questions from newsmen said investigation was still ongoing and in the shortest possible time, his command will brief the press.

He explained that the security agents alone could not achieve this without the concerted efforts of the members of the public, adding that any useful information given, shall be treated as confidential. ‘’The efforts of Nigerian Army and that of the SSS in curbing the activities of the insur-

gents have started yielding results which lead to the arrest of the suspect with 3 AK 47 guns, 1 RPG Tube, 2 Bombs, 790 rounds of 2.7 millimeter bullets’’, Col. Ayorinde’’ He said.

He further called on law abiding citizens to continue to cooperate and support the government in trying to stop insurgency in the state and the country in general.

The suspect Ahmed Yusuf from Hadejiya in Jigawa State informed journalists that he was hired by two people he mentioned as Musa and Mohammed to take the weapons to Sokoto at an offer of N500,000 but he rejected the amount.

According to the suspect, owners of the weapons then threatened to kill him and any member of his family if he refused to carry out their assignment’’.

Pots & Pans Page 28

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Preserving your fruits and vegetables at Ramadan

With Hajiya Ramatu Usman Dorayi

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f you’re lucky enough to have abundant fruits and vegetables, especially now that it’s Ramadan, you’ll want to put every last orange, tomato or okro to good use. Preserving them can also allow you enjoy the fruits of your labour months after the fasting period.

There are several methods for preserving your fruits, vegetables and herbs. The method you choose will depend on the type of fruit or vegetable you are preserving. Keep fruits like oranges, apples and bananas as well as vegetables on racks to keep them safe from insects like ants or from being moist.

Other basic tips for fruits and vegetables’ preservation include storing even though we live in the age of supermarkets, you’re still going to need some help finding uses for all those produce which are quite expensive now.

However, storing is the easiest method for keeping your harvest, but most vegetables don’t have a long shelf life. So, only store fully mature, healthy vegetables. Any bruised or immature vegetables should be eaten fresh or preserved by other means. Clean off soil and allow the outside of vegetables to dry before freezing. Keep a few inches on stem of vegetables and also cut the green tops of root crops to an inch or so.

For freezing, many vegetables keep well in the freezer. When blanched and frozen soon after being bought, this can be the best method for retaining nutrients, as well as color, texture and flavor. Most vegetables can last 8 - 12 weeks in the freezer.

Kunun zaki with sweet potato

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unun zaki is a Nigerian drink made of soaked grain, mostly millet. It is particularly popular in northern Nigeria. Sorghum and maize are also used as a substitute for millet in preparation of kunu. It is whitish when prepared with millet or maize, while the Sorghum variant is slightly brownish in colour.

Ingredients: Grain: Millet is most popularly used for this drink. It is a specie of grain that contains small seeds. Sorghum or maize are other types of grains that may be used in place of millet for preparing the drink.

Sweet potatoes: A plant whose roots are starchy and sweet in taste. It lends sweetness to the drink.

Ginger and other local spices: This is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale plant, commonly used as a spice or for medicinal properties. It has a characteristic taste and flavour which

it lends to the drink and has a warming effect on the body.

Method of preparation: Soak millet in water over night, mixed with ginger and sweet potatoes if you like, and blended to give a thick paste. It is then sieved and allowed to settle. Take a portion of it, pour boiling water over half the paste, and the mixture is stirred into a thick consistency. The rest of the paste is added to this and stirred again.

Add sugar to taste or honey, serve cold.

Health and nutritional facts of Kunu Kunu has a range of health benefits. Millet, the principal ingredient of Kunu, contains a polynutrient called lignan, which has cancer fighting properties and is beneficial in heart disease. It is also known to reduce risk of diabetes. Millet is a rich source of phosphorus and magnesium, and is also recommended for health of menopausal women.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 29

Womanhood

Civil servant in court for impregnating girls 15 From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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young lady called Zahira Hamza has filed a suit against one Armaya’u Garba at the Chief magistrate court Bauchi for allegedly impregnating, assaulting and abandoning her with baby.

Zahira Hamza accused Armaya’u Garba, a husband to two wives, of assaulting her when she was 15 years old, a student of Government Day Secondary School, Bauchi.

According to her statement of complaint signed by her counsel, Barrister Ahmed Tukur, in a direct criminal complaint pursuant to section 143(D) of the criminal procedure court, Zahira alleged that Armaya’u, a civil servant who lives in Fadaman Mada area of Bauchi got her mobile phone number through her friend and started calling her in 2010 when she was 15 years old and a JSS II studentI. Zahira recounted that the accused told her he works with the Ministry of Finance, Treasury Division, and promised to change her school from a government (public) school to a private one.

The teenager said that on a particular day, he called her at the close of school with the intent of visiting her but she asked him to come to her parents’ house at Nassarawa. But Armaya’u refused on the ground that he is a family man who would not want to be identified through his car and leaked the story to his wives. He then asked her to meet him behind Nassarawa Primary School.

Zahira said in 2010, Armaya’u picked her out and dropped her at different occasions from Titin Gwalaga in Bauchi to Fadaman Mada where he was building a house as well as call her to meet him at Fadaman Mada. He then take her to the Alice Hamdala Hotel in the area and had sexual intercourse with her after confining her in one of the hotel rooms for six hours.

The complainant added that in November 2010, the accused also called her around Magrib(sunset prayer time) after closing hours to his office and took her to the Bauchi Club and had sexual intercourse with her.

She added that in January 2011 when she registered for SSCE (secondary school certificate examination), the accused called her to his house at Fadaman Mada with the tale that his two wives travelled for a wedding and they both spent the whole day together.

According to her, the accused asked her whether she was observing her period and she told him that she completed her period two days ago. Upon hearing that,he had intercourse with her in his house.

The whole mess started when Zahira missed her period and informed Armaya’u, who asked her to carry out a pregnancy test the result of which showed she was already pregnant.

He then asked her to enquire the cost of abortion at the Tashan Babiye hospital in the city. Zahira said she did and told him it cost N3000 but since then he refused to pick her calls.

After sometimes, Zahira alleged that she called the accused through another number and he picked , and she reminded

Minister for Women Affairs, Haj. Zainab Maina him about the pregnancy and if he needed the baby and the accused replied “Ai Yara Nemansu ake yi” meaning “children are something to behold” Zahira said she did not hear from the accused until after five months, when he called her to meet him in his office and offered to give N5000 for the abortion, a suggestion she refused because it was too late at that stage unless he wanted her dead, The complainant added that the accused took her in his car to his UBA Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), withdrew money and gave her the N5000 and told her that whenever she needed money, she should call him. And he then dropped her in a place close to Gwallaga Jummaat Mosque.

She said the accused called her again and advised her leave her parents and go to Kano since she has relations there and promised to take care of her until she delivered but never assisted her. She returned to Bauchi after two months and some weeks and her parents subsequently discovered the pregnancy.

After delivery, she said, her father summoned a family meeting and taking into consideration the status of the accused, decided not talk about the issue, and the complainant because of her tender age, could not do anything.

Things took a new turn when the family became unhappy that since the delivery of a baby boy, the accused abandoned her.

With no help from her relatives or those of the accused, she is planning to stop breastfeeding the baby who incidentally needs proper nutrition.

As a result, Zahira reported the matter at the Social Welfare Department.but Arniya’u refused to attend the sitting when

invited but instead he sent his lawyer, Counsel to the complainant, Ahmed Tukur said, now that the complainant is 18 years old and has fully discovered that her defilement by the accused person at 15 years of age has affected her life negatively and even stopped her from writing her SSCE, she is asking the court to try the accused person for the offences of procurement of a minor under Section 275 of the Penal Code (PC), wrongful confinement (S259 of the PC) and abandonment of child under 12 years (S 238 of the PC).

Armaya’u has responded with a move to stop the hearing by filing a motion on notice before the Bauchi State High court through his

“

The teenager said that on a particular day, he called her at the close of school with the intent of visiting her but she asked him to come to her parents’ house at Nassarawa. But Armaya’u refused on the ground that he is a family man who would not want to be identified through his car and the story leaked to his wives. He then asked her to meet him behind Nassarawa Primary School.

counsel Barrister Garba Hassan,represented

by Barrister Sadik Abubakar. He has asked the court to prohibit the Chief Magistrate Court number three from entertaining the matter and sought perpetual injunction restraining the court from continuing with suit, which was granted.

In the affidavit to support the motion of notice, Armaya’u is seeking the relief of the High court in Bauchi to prohibit the magistrate court from hearing and determining the case saying that the Direct Criminal Complaints filed against him by Zahira was a gross violation of his right of fair hearing.

Armaya’u who denied having any affair with Zahira is suing for defamation on the ground that he was reported to the Social Welfare department of fathering a child she delivered out of wedlock. He said,was not informed of the pregnancy or when the baby was delivered and was portrayed as a man who had a child out of wedlock.

He said when she took him to Social welfare, he also filed a defamation case against her before the Bauchi State Sharia Court number four and her counsel did not attend the court to file preliminary objection. Armaya’u expressed surprise that he was served with direct criminal summon for procurement of minor.

The accused alleged that the direct criminal complaint was filed as a ploy to deprive him of being heard by the Sharia court and to preempt the sharia court’s decision.

Meanwhile, Zahira’s case was mentioned on Wednesday at the Bauchi State High Court number seven with the presiding Judge Justice Aliyu Baba Usman adjourning the suit July 25 for further hearing.

Page 30

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Do you have old pictures for memories?

Send them to junioremma419@gmail.com

ARCHIVES

Salomon Igbinoghodua – Oba Erediauwa of Bénin, 1979

Fisher ‘ladies’ Victoria Beach, Lagos, in1951

Gambari market day along Ilorin, Nigeria in1951

Yachts at Lagos Yacht Club in 1951

Ilorin Nigeria street market with spinners in1951

Page 31

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 13 — SUNDAY 14, JULY, 2013

Leisure

CARTOON

STRANGE FACTS • When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second.

feet at all times.

• It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.

• The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old..

PHOTO OF THE DAY

• A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun’s • A cockroach can live • The poison-arrow frog surface. several weeks with its has enough poison to kill head cut off - it dies from about 2,200 people.

• It takes glass starvation. one million years to • Nose prints are used decompose, which • The placement of a to identify dogs, just like means it never wears out donkey’s eyes in its head humans use fingerprints. and can be recycled an enables it to see all four infinite amount of times.

WORD SEARCH Find the words which are listed at the right side of this page in the Word Search grid. The words can be forwards, backwards, up, down, or diagonal. Circle each letter QUOTES separately and keep in mind that the letters in each words Life is an opportunity, Life is too precious, do benefit from it. not destroy it. may be used in more than one words name.

Ram Bath Leisure Sports Business Euglena Condom Company Advance Production Single Advert

Life is beauty, admire Life is life, fight for it.” it.

– Mother Teres

Life is a dream, realize Effective leadership it. is not about making speeches or being liked; Life is a challenge, meet leadership is defined by it. results not attributes.

– Peter Drucker Life is a duty, complete it.

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them Life is a game, play it. defines my character and the quality of my Life is a promise, fulfill life. I can choose to sit it. in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the Life is sorrow, overcome gravity of my loss, or I it. can choose to rise from the pain and treasure Life is a song, sing it. the most precious gift I have - life itself.

Life is a struggle, accept – Walter Anderson it.

Achievement of your Life is a tragedy, happiness is the only confront it. moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, Life is an adventure, not pain or mindless dare it. self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral Life is luck, make it. integrity.

– Ayn Rand

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Compiled by Namy Kadir Hassan

Fashion

Page 32

Trendy high waist and bustier tops

•Clingy, sophisticated

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he high waist pants/ skirt and bustier tops trend has been going on for a while now and is still going on, as it has been seen everywhere with fashionable celebrities this season. You will totally love this Trend, because it gives you such a sophisticated yet edgy look at the same time. Like you are playing it safe whilst taking a risk too like in this Collection designs for high waist clinging skirts and structured tops made from silk, brocades and laces.

Fashion trends seem to come and go quicker than celeb relationships! Between bubble dresses, we’ve seen our fair share of fashion don’ts!

Few fads remain stylish and relevant through the years, and at times it’s easy for us to get lost in the fashion jungle of terrible trends.

If you’re looking for a fashion staple that never goes out of style, try a highwaisted skirt. A super cute outfits are crucial! With this fabulous number, the outfit possibilities are endless.

High-waisted skirts look adorable with bustier tops, cropped tops, a light blouse or even just a plain t-shirt.

Take a look at some totally trendy ways these are rocking this hot essential.

Courtesy: Illusion

Classical

Dress it down with a t-shirt and some flats, or dress it up with a blouse, a belt and some stylish pumps.

Kannywood & Nollywood

Page 33

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

AFMAN receives N30m bank loan From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

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rewa Film Makers Association of Nigeria (AFMAN), said it has received N30 million loan from the Bank of Industry in order to improve the Kannywood film industry.

This was revealed by the president of the association, Abdullahi Sani Abdullahi, a.k.a Baba Karami, at a press conference held in his office along Zoo road in the Kano metropolis on Saturday last week.

The president said the gesture was offered after a town hall meeting with the officials at the Government House to discuss ways of improving the association’s film market and tackle some problems bedevilling the association. “ This gesture was offered to us after a town hall meeting with officials, including officials of the Bank of Industry at Government House (Kano). We discussed on how to improve our film market and tackle the problems bedevilling our association. I was given the

Abdullahi Sani Abdullahi, President AFMAN

opportunity to speak at the meeting and I raised an alarm that our biggest problem is piracy. The government then pledged to assist us that it would get rid of those engaged in piracy.” “ It was after the meeting that officials of the Bank of Industry called my attention and invited me to Abuja where we discussed thoroughly and opened to me

How my fans made me shed tears in Cameroon crew before I joined the industry – Mustapha Musty made the difference for me, so I

Mustapha Musty Tell us about yourself?

I am Mustapha Mustapha, popularly known as Mustapha Musty. I was born in Gyadi Gyadi in Tarauni Local Government area of Kano State. I have a HND qualification in Business Administration. I am not yet married.

When motivated you to engage in film making?

I can recall, one day as I came out of our house I saw my friend, Shuaibu Kumurci, who is an actor in the Kannywood industry, he had come to visit a film director, late Tijjani Ibrahim at their rendezvous near our house. I exchanged pleasantries with him and then he introduced me to the director and his colleagues who were seated beside him.

It was a meeting point of directors, producers and actors, because Tijjani was the best director. then. That was how I became used to everybody there for about five years until Tijjani moved his office to Zoo Road.

It was later that I met Adamu Sani Yunusa who is the son of Alhaji Sani Brothers, a businessman in Kano. He was the first person that introduced me to film making and I embraced the opportunity since I was working with a cotton processing company before then and the work was seasonal so I would spend most of my time with the Kannywood artists learning from them about the Kano film industry.

Though I made friends in Kannywood and they advised me to join the industry I told them to wait until I had consulted with some people, for me to seek their opinion. I spoke with Aminu Muhammad Sabo who is a producer at the Sarauniya Film Production outfit on the issue. He

advised me to further seek opinion of my childhood friends in our area and then talk to my mother with a view to seeking her permission.

When I told my mother and my friends about my plan to become an actor, they all told me the same thing that it is a career worth pursuing.

Thereafter, an actor Adamu Yunusa presented two scripts to me and asked me to choose one of them. I chose the script of a film titled “Jaleela”. Before the release of Jaleela, he decided to see what I could do by creating a single scene for me to appear in, in another film called “Hawainiya”.

never faced any problems. It went to the extent that I was called “son of producers” because I am in good terms with them. However, I recall that at a point, in a location one actor whom I will not like to mention his name, was called to act a scene but he refused to show up.

Fine! if I get married at 58, actress Uche Obodo explodes

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Which was your first movie?

The fact that I was introduced in the “ Hawainiya” film and even acted a part in the movie, I identified it as my debut. It was the movie that also made me popular in the industry because I acted the part well; it was a wonderful performance, in just a scene. That drew attention of producers to me and they started to give me more scripts. That was how I eventually became engaged in the Hausa film industry.

How many films have you acted in so far?

I can’t say precisely, but they are many, they are about 500.

So which is your most favourite among them?

There are three of my movies that I love the most, they are “Jaleela”- I love this film because it was my debut film and I performed wonderfully in the film too. Then “Fatee”, I love this movie because it made me to burst into tears of joy in Cameroon, when my fans gathered in hundreds to greet and wave at me even as they chanted “fatee, fatee” at the location. I was even whisked into a car by security guards because of the surging crowd and commotion that ensued. I was very excited by that show of love by my fans in far away Cameroon because I had thought that I was not known in the industry but my mere presence had created commotion not in my country, but in another country, that made me cry. Then finally the film titled “Ja ni”- it was the film that earned me a lot of gifts from people especially women, so I am proud of it.

What problems have you encountered as an actor?

The fact that we were already friends with the members of the

opportunities our association are supposed to enjoy. We later realised that those kind of opportunities are being enjoyed by Nollywood.

We also observed that Kannywood movies are the most watched in the neighbouring countries, hence we decided to struggle to improve the standard of our films”, he added.

On how they got the loan from BOI, Abdullahi said: “ Amid the ongoing plans to start a capacity building programme for our film industry, which include giving training to our members on how to run a film industry, suddenly an opportunity emerged and we were invited to apply in writing by grouping ourselves in order to enjoy it. We formed three groupsgroup of producers, group of directors and group of artistes.

We kept pursuing it for seven months and eventually came up with N30m loan from the Bank of Industry”.

He said as directed by the Bank of Industry, Producers’ group is to make four movies to portray typical Hausa culture and religion with N10m, we have so far got good stories on the movies and would start making the film soon.

Directors’ group is also awarded N10m to purchase modern film making items which would be rented by the producers’ group in making those films. Artistes’ group is also given its share with which they proposed to buy a music van which has the equipment to advertise albums across the country through outreach performance to their target audience.”

Uche Obodo

arriage has become a very serious matter of discussion amongst the unmarried Nollywood actresses these days.

While those who are in it are managing or trying to get out of it, one that has not even have a taste of what that institution is all about, the pretty but stretch-marked Uche Obodo has confessed that, she is no longer bothered about marriage issue, even if it’s age 58 that she gets a man of her dream, she will wait.

According to her, “I want to be married someday. I am looking upon God for that. There is no rush in marriage; if you rush in, you rush out.

And I do not even want to rush out of my marriage in future. There is nothing like age in marriage.

We must reform Kannywood – AFMAN From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

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hairman of the Arewa Film Makers Association of Nigeria (AFMAN), Kano State Chapter, Isma’ila Na Abba Afakallah, has said that the association will stand firmly in reforming the Kannywood film industry of all bad reputation as a result of misconduct by some of the artistes, among other factors, so as to to upgrade its standard in the Nigerian film industry.

The chairman stated this during a meeting organised by the Kannywood Guild of Artistes, held at the Tarauni Local Government Social Welfare office, Gyadi Gyadi quarters in the Kano Metropolis.

He noted that the meeting was organised to map out strategies forreforming the industry as well as re-impose the existing code of ethics for crew members.

“We must stand firmly to reform Kannywood film industry against bad reputation as a result of misconduct by some of our artistes who neglect our code of ethics.

Hence, we deemed it right to meet with the Guild of Artistes in order to reform the conducts of all the crew members in the industry.

We have planned to re-impose

our existing code of ethics which must be abided by the directors, producers and the actors.”

Asked if there were no code of ethics in the industry before, the chairman noted that “the laws are already in existence but were neglected by of the crew members.

Therefore, the leadership of the association will no longer tolerate non-compliance by everybody in the industry. We are also planning to amend certain laws for development of the industry”, he said.

He also urged the artistes to be good ambassadors of the industry in the society by behaving well.

Isma’ila Na, abba Afakallah

BU$I#€SS PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Okonjo-Iweala: Still walking a tight rope

By Abdulwahab Isa

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oordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, though a Nigerian by birth but achieved global icon status by sheer dint of hard work and good parentage indeed remains reference point for everything good about Nigeria.

The mode of her appointment is probably the rarest in over 50 years of Nigeria’s existence, because at a time when others practically went cap in hand with the usual lobbying and politicking to get cabinet slot, a revered Iweala was not only headhunted, she dictated the terms and conditions for accepting the plum slot.

Rising to the pinnacle position at the World Bank as Deputy vice-president, MiddleEast region at the World Bank (2000-03), the Harvard-educated daughter of Professor Okonjo was first appointed Minister of Finance and Economy by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was apparently impressed by the towering profile she carved for herself at the top echelon of global bank. She obviously did not disappoint the expectation of her rating.

With versed knowledge in economic management acquired from experience, her wide contacts and towering reputation she bequeathed in her place of work at the Washington Headquarters of the World Bank, Iweala, with ease adapted her proficiencies to bear in the President Obasanjo administration.

Firstly, she led Nigeria’s Economic Team responsible for implementing the Obasanjo administration’s far reaching economic and social reform agenda by enthroning a new fiscal disciplined approach to handling the nation’s finances.

The reforms made particular progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, tripling growth, initiating a strong fight against corruption, and increasing transparency.

As Finance Minister in Obasanjo’s cabinet, she arranged the cancellation of US$18 billion out of the strangulating total foreign debt of an estimated $ 30 billion of Nigeria’s debt to the Paris Club and other groups of creditor nations in 2005. The remaining $12 billion of the debt was paid the following year with monies saved through budget reforms she enacted.

It is on record that her singular effort, even before joining the cabinet, led to the establishment of Debt Management Office (DMO), an organ that gave a platform for debt negotiation with the Paris club.

She has abinitio exhibited

her detest for corruption in all its forms- a vice acknowledged as Nigeria’s shackle, which is restraining its economic growth potential. Iweala attacked corruption frontally. She accelerated the privatisation and liberalization of enterprsies hitherto seen as a drain-pipe where scarce public resources are frittered to private accounts.

She signed Nigeria up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary standard for petroleum and mining industries. Under her watch, Nigeria’s inflation rate started slowing down.

In June 2006, Obasanjo changed his cabinet, giving Okonjo-Iweala the Foreign Ministry but allowing her to keep an eye on external debt.

When this responsibility was taken from her a few months later, she resigned from the government. She resigned and went back to her former organisation the World Bank; this time around on higher position, as Managing Director for Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia.

Subsequently, President Jonathan, on winning the 2011 presidential election unfolded his transformation agenda, an economic blue print to revamp the country’s ailing economy, and needed no lese than the revered World Bank icon, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to run his transformation vision. The bowler hat dressed president deployed all means to bring Iweala to his cabinet this time, a super cabinet Minister .

She was not only appointed Minister of finance, she has, by virtue of her schedule, the powerful portfolio of Coordinating Minister for the Economy , a vital schedule which makes her superintend on all things that have bearing on the nation’s economy transformation.

Unlike her first shot at cabinet position during the Obasanjo era where she recorded giant strides, her second coming with an expanded portfolio of Coordinating Minister of the Economy, with all its seeming glory, left a less cheering applause.

Prior to her present appointment, she met a nation descending fast to abyss in many fronts.

Corruption, the social cankerworm Obasanjo arguably fought, had staged a sad but triumphant come-back, and this time with reckless abandon, making Nigeria assume an inglorious high position on the global corruption index . It was then the norm for states’ resources to be pocketed by a few well-positioned individuals, who coincidentally are the same fellows now shouting with a high-pitch voice that corruption must be tamed.

On January 1, 2012, the Jonathan –led government removed the fuel subsidy. That action triggered a nationwide riot which had Dr. Iweala in the cross-fire.

She got the blame more than any other public servant for the removal of subsidy.

However, while economy is portrayed robust growing close to 6.5 of GDP, experts have punctured the assertion ascribing it a ‘paper growth economy’ given that today, Nigeria is faced with greatest social threat of unemployment.

Notwithstanding that critics say such youth employment schemes existed even before Ngozi’s first shot at Ministry of finance, but it never assumed the present monstrous face. Needless to say, government, in its wisdom, has evolved several novel mechanisms such as YouWin scheme, intern scheme for graduates and several others. These are mere drop of water in a surging ocean.

The budget till now is haphazardly implemented. This aspect invariably is a root cause of the constant face-off between Ngozi on the side of executive and members of the National Assembly on the other.

Another menace, that ofoil theft has gained the audacity never fathomed before. The nation’s economy is currently in a precarious position following the admittance by government that an estimated 400,000 barrels of crude oil are being lost daily to illegal bunkering, vandalism of infrastructure.

The Coordinating Minister for the economy admitted this fact recently, raising the alarm that revenue accruing to the Federation Account was fast dwindling.

To this end, she expressed the fear that government may not be able to implement the 2013 budget.

“We are losing revenue; 400,000 barrels of crude oil are lost on a daily basis due to illegal bunkering, vandalism and production shut-in. What happens is that whenever the pipelines are attacked and oil is taken, there is a total shut down. All the quantity of oil produced for that day will be

“

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala lost because it means government cannot sell it and it means a drop in revenue” notes the Minister in one of her sessions with the National Assembly to clarify reasons for the protracted crisis that has dogged 2013 Appropriation Act. And to confirm the premonition, for the first time ever in the history of Nigeria, government seems incapacitated to pay sala-

According to her, the government may default paying workers’ salaries in the next two months if the National Assembly does not restore budget cuts of about N72bn, a clearer indication that government is facing some challenges amidst alleged robust economy.

ries if the present circumstance persist.

This fear was raised by no other but Coordinating Minster herself. According to her, the government may default paying workers’ salaries in the next two months if the National Assembly does not restore budget cuts of about N72bn, a clearer indication that government is facing some challenges amidst alleged robust economy.

A patriotic Nigerian, driven with passion to render selfless service to the nation, NgoziIweala can best be summed-up for the support she received from a number of former World Bank employees and from publications including The Economist, Financial Times and Newsweek, during her ultimately unsuccessful World Bank presidency campaign which said, “If competition follows normal process, Kim stands no chance (against Ngozi Okonjo Iweala).

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 35

BU$I#€SS

Petition electricity bill fraudsters –NERC boss

By Etuka Sunday

he Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi has said that the practice where some questionable Nigerians especially in some communities are masquerading as electricity officers to defraud consumers is totally unacceptable.

Amadi, while bearing his mind on the issue, told our correspondent that victims of such sharp practices should complain to electricity forum office or Distribution Companies (DISCOs) but if not satisfied should write formally to the Commission for appropriate action.

Cases abound, he said, where rich men in some communities would oblige to buy transformers and after installation would be demanding for huge amount of money from the community members. In some cases, these community mem-

bers are asked to pay unspecified electricity bills as may be demanded by such ‘big men’ without following the standard billing system introduced by NERC. This, Amadi said is condemnable and totally unacceptable.

The NERC chieftain therefore advised the DISCOs to be on the watch out, so that electricity consumers are not defrauded unnecessarily by those who want to make money by all means.

On the issue of current increase in tariffs, the NERC boss said in designing the fixed charge, NERC ensured that very poor consumers on R1 group of payment are not charge the fixed charge and that most of the residential consumers are subsidized including those in R2 group of payment.

According to him, NERC is working tirelessly to ensure that quality services are provided to the consumers as value for their money.

STI launches pan-Nigeria product campaign

Dangote commences disbursement of N10bn to women, youths in 774 LGs

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overeign Trust Insurance Plc is set to embark on a pan-Nigeria press campaign with a view to highlighting the organisation’s different insurance products.

The campaign, according to the organisation, is scheduled to kick-off before the end of the current quarter.

It was also gathered that the initiative was also aimed at complementing the implementation of the company’s new business model which was adopted earlier in the year.

“The new business model is hinged on harnessing the enormous opportunities that are inherent in the Nigerian economy vis-a-vis the insurance industry in the country,” said STI Plc’s Head of Corporate Communications and Brand Management, Mr. Segun Bankole.

He further disclosed that the campaign would, among other things, educate the insuring public on the features, benefits and value of the different products on offer, as well as “the unique customer service experience that awaits prospective customers in any of the company’s offices nationwide.”

The campaign, he insisted, was also intended to give more vents to the STI brand and expound on the awareness drive for insurance patronage in the country.

However, when commenting on some of the challenges, Mr Bankole pointed out that the major militating factor against optimal patronage was lack of adequate information. This, he explained, could be effectively addressed through proper enlightenment.

“The simplicity of the concepts is geared towards making would-be customers, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, easily identify and connect with the brand. It will also help people to be able to recognise their insurable needs and ultimately get on the Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc train,” the company’s spokesman opined.

By Abdulwahab Isa

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he Dangote Foundation has, towards ameliorating widespread poverty in Nigeria and appropriately empowering both women and youths across the 774 local governments in Nigerian, commenced the disbursement of N10 billion grants to all the women and youths in the local governments across the country.

The fund disbursement is meant to enable recipients to meet immediate family and livelihood needs by providing a one-time grant to start up enterprises that will boost their economic and consumption activities and help reduce their vulnerability.

Speaking at the commencement of the disbursement in Lokoja, Kogi state, President, Dangote Founda-

L-R: Chairman, Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Foluso Phillips; Regional Manager (North,West & Central Africa) South African Airways, Mr. Ohis Ehimiaghe; and Country Manager (Nigeria), South African Airways, Thobi Duma; at the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting in Lagos, on Thursday

tion, Aliko Dangote said the Foundation in response to the widespread poverty in Nigeria, in 2011, instituted a cash transfer intervention - the Dangote Micro-grants Programmeto provide cash transfers to select poor and vulnerable Nigerians. The disbursement is expected to be completed in 24 months.

He explained that the cash transfer intervention focused on women who bear the greatest brunt of poverty, saying: “Our programme provides a one-off grant that enables recipients to grow or start an enterprise, invest in product assets, improve the health of their families, and/or take on new activities that reduce their vulnerability and enhance their economic standing. It has successfully assisted women and their families in Kano and Jigawa states.”

According to the business mogul, the cash transfer intervention programme is national in scope and will systematically cover all the 774 local government areas of Nigeria working through partnerships with state governments.

Explaining the partnerships with State governments, he said, “this is in keeping with Dangote Foundation’s belief in working through partnerships for effectiveness, scale and impact in tackling the challenges that we face as a nation. This is a key feature of the programme which aims to support and compliment state governments’ poverty reduction efforts.”

Lauding Dangote’s philanthropic gesture across the country and even internationally, the Governor of Kogi State, HE,Idris Wada enjoined other rich Nigerians to

emulate Aliko Dangote and share part of their wealth with the masses. He assured that Kogi state will do everything possible to partner with Dangote Group in any areas the company is interested in.

On the partnership with Kogi State, Dangote said, “we are pleased to be able to partner with Kogi Government to support 22,000 women across the state’s 21 local government areas. One thousand, 1,000 women per local government area, plus an additional 1,000 women from Obajana, our host community, are recipients of the Dangote micro-grants totaling N220 million in Kogi.”

A total of N1.31 billion has been disbursed already, with Kano State getting N1.04 billion and Jigawa N270 million. The disbursement in Kogi brings total disbursement to N1.53 billion.

Interest rates cannot crash to single digit, says CBN

By Abdulwahab Isa

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overnor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has said there is need to re-visit the re-designing of the Naira to shore up the Nigerian economy.

Also, the CBN Governor said the Excess Crude Account is down by $7billion because of our high dependence on imports. He also noted that interest rates in Nigeria cannot crash to a single digit because the nation’s inflationary rate as at last month was 8.4percent.

Sanusi who made this disclosure at a meeting organised by the House committee on Banking and Currency

said: “It is a rare occurrence for counterfeits to be dispensed by Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), because the notes are processed.

“One of the reasons we wanted to have a restructuring of the redesign of the currency a few months ago was because as explained, many of our notes had been in existence for upward of eight or even ten years.

“Now, best practice is that within a period of five to eight years you redesign the currency because after that period counterfeiters tend to catch up.

Sanusi explained further that “even at that, Nigerian notes in terms of what we see as counterfeit and processing, the percentage is very

low.“We had about 3.9 notes from a million notes 2007, 6 in a million notes in 2008, 8.4 pieces in one million in 2009, 7.4 pieces in 2010, 5.4 pieces in a million notes in 2011 and 8.4 pieces in 2012 of the notes processed were counterfeit.

“But with ATM machines it should not have happened because it has been processed and we would be very pleased to know if there are specifics about any bank so that we can draw their attention on the importance of processing them before putting them in ATM machines.”

“Now, unfortunately the redesign suffered because of all the noise around N5,000 and therefore it is

been delayed because that is what would have made it impossible for counterfeiters, so till they have to wait for another 5,6, 7 years before they learn how to counterfeit by which point , the CBN should be redesigning the notes again.

“I suppose that at some point the country would have to revisit the issue of redesigning the notes but at the moment based on popular demand, we have had to step down the redesign.”

On interest rates, delivering a low rate of interest is the easiest thing for us to do because the CBN prints money and interest rates come down when you have a lot of money and that is not a problem.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

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LETTERS & ONLINE COMMENTS

Nigeria under Jonathan: A theater of confusion

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igeria is currently passing through one of the most turbulent times of her existence since it gained independence from the British in 1960. Perhaps the times that could be compared to this period of chaos, confusion, widespread violence, leadership breakdown and political instability will be from 1966 to 1970 to the inglorious June 12, 1993 when Moshood Abiola lost his popular mandate to a dictator and the crisis that followed.

Across the length and breadth of the country it’s like a reality-television series taking place. Prior to now, Nigeria leaders used the populace as their punching bags, presently they have turned on one another. Leaders punching leaders in the full glare of the populace – by the way, that includes children. The boxing ring was set in the hallowed chambers of the Senate early this year over the budget row and the presidential state of the union address. Two opposing senators nearly kissed each other’s faces with their knuckles but for the timely intervention of the Senate president. The impasse between the presidency and the legislative assembly on the constitution is yet to be resolved. The Nigeria Governors Forum has maintained a polarized forum claiming separate legitimacy. Among the sectors, NUPENG of the oil and gas ended a 3-day strike only for ASUU and ASUP in education to succeed them. PHCN is increasing tariffs despite acknowledged poor value delivery.

The state of emergency in three northern states don’t appear to have deterred the members of Boko Haram in their quest for mayhem in the region.

WRITE TO US Peoples Daily Weekend welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Editor, Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja.

Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com adverts@peoplesdailyng.com pictures@peoplesdailyng.com contact@peoplesdailyng.com the latest blood of over 20 children testifies to the prevalent state of insecurity in the region. The kidnapping business is thriving in many southern states. Need I mention Rivers State is raging like an inferno? Adults, youths and children have watched, horrified as an elected leader repeatedly bashed the head of another elected leader not minding the heavy presence of security men who in a normal clime should have cuffed him for attempted murder. Then the height of it, a policeman trained to protect and be “your friend”, kicking and beating an elected official.

All of these happened within the first half of one year under the watch of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Recently the president asked Nigerians to score his performance so far. I am not sure whether he read the score cards sent in by many Nigerians on several media platforms, but it was one poor result after another. Since

his request, one would have thought the focus of the administration will be on how to accelerate meaningful development in all sectors of the nation’s economy. However it is one show of disappointment after another.

Makes one wonder what the remaining half of the year portends. The failure of leadership has never been so apparently than it is today.

Since coming into office in May 29, 2011 President Jonathan has left nobody in doubt the direction his administration was going – nowhere. It started with his inaugural speech which basically said nothing in terms of direction and vision of the government except make the usual politically correct promises that are never justified with well articulated plans. Expectedly, the report card of over two years in office is largely confusion and more confusion.

Nigeria is currently the 8th most corrupt country in the world, what more do we expect

in a culture of impunity, unaccountable leaders and perilous contradictions. The fetid air of confusion however appears to be benefiting the presidency as it has gone ahead to stoke the fire in Rivers State by calling for the probe and prosecution of the governor Chibuike Amechi and hiring protesters to block the International Airport in Rivers thereby holding hostage four northern governors who came to visit. The government is also showing no signs of mending the rift between it and the National Assembly on the issue of the budget and state of the union address.

ASUP may have suspended their strike with an ultimatum to the government to accede their demands within one month.

But we all know the government will again disappoint, so next year another strike.

Meanwhile the ‘indefinite’ ASUU strike continues because the administration is reneging on agreements it entered voluntarily. But considering the fact that their children are not students in any of the public universities no one should blame them to not understand the level of rot in the education sector.

It is high time this atmosphere of confusion end. 2015 is around the corner and already many political juggernauts are showing signs of storming times ahead. If the present political confusion persists, “free and fair” elections in 2015 may just be the next casualty.

Nonetheless, it will take a people who are tired of a putrid status quo and are ready to create and enforce the change they desire. No government is bigger than the people who made it.

Frank Onuoha is a Historian and Public Affairs Analyst.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

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Opinion

Dame Patience, Our President’s Darling Wife

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emocracy is readily associated with freedom: the freedom to be free in many respects and increasingly in Nigeria, many of our compatriots, particularly persons in positions of privilege and authority confuse this with the right to be disagreeable. The sober truth is that democracy is about rights and responsibilities, a democratic dispensation therefore cannot be a licence for disagreeable conduct as a norm; just as the possession of power in any form does not guarantee the right to be reckless or to ignore the etiquette required of office holders. Anyone in the corridors of power, either by chance or right, or appointment, is expected to behave decorously.

Dame Patience Jonathan, as she is now referred to, our President’s wife, failed the test this week in Okrika, Rivers State. It is trite knowledge that there is a critical difference between Yenagoa and Abuja, and a world of difference between being the wife of a Deputy Governor/Governor/Vice president and being the wife of Nigeria’s No 1 citizen. When people suddenly find themselves in such latter position, prepared or unprepared, anywhere in the world, they are taken through a crash programme in finishing and poise and made to realize that being the wife of an important man comes with serious responsibilities lest they sabotage the same person that they should be supporting.

If Dame Patience went through such reorientation, the course was incomplete. This week, we got a feedback drawn from her visit to Rivers state to launch her NGO – the Women for Change Initiative, when she ended up in Okrika, her home town. This homecoming became an egoistic show-off as she openly contradicted the state Governor, offering him unsolicited lessons on how to develop the Okrika water front and school system, in addition to pointed comments on the use of the English language.

The Governor had reportedly insisted that his administration must demolish some houses which adjoin the schools in Okrika in order to create a proper learning environment. Dame Patience disagreed.

She then gave an unsolicited lecture on the land tenure system telling the Governor: “I want you to get me clear. I am from here. I know the problems of my people so I know what I am talking…” The Governor tried to explain his administration’s policy and the larger public interest. The Dame reportedly cut him short: “But what I am telling you is that you always say you must demolish; that word must you use is not good. It is by pleading. You appeal to the owners of the compound because they will not go into exile. Land is a serious issue.” Wao! “that word must..is not good.” We must all commit that to memory as we re-learn Practical English according to Patience Jonathan!

If it is in the place of the President’s wife to teach a state Governor how to run his state, it is definitely not in her place to veto a state policy (the reason the governor used the word “must”), not even her husband has such powers.

It seemed as if Dame Patience Jonathan was determined to impress her kith and kin. She told them she had directed the governor not to demolish their houses. Then, she left straight for the airport obviously having overstayed her welcome and having behaved like a bad guest. She was scheduled to visit the prisons to grant amnesty to some inmates (is that really her duty or something that should be in her itinerary? ); she was also meant to commission some projects. The face-off between her and the governor put paid to all that.

On the eve of her arrival, a group which calls itself “the Okrika Political Stakeholders Forum” and “the people of Kirikese” had actually placed an advert in the papers welcoming “our amiable daughter and sister…to Rivers state and

An opinion by Reuben Abati in 2010

your home town Okrika.” They also brought up the issue of “the land reclamation and shore protection project at Oba Ama, Okrika being undertaken by the Rivers state government.”

(Daily Sun, August 23, 2010, p. 2). Either on the strength of this advertorial or private consultations, Dame Patience must have felt compelled to be a partisan stakeholder and intercessor. She needed to put Rotimi Amaechi, the state Governor in his place and that was what did. She recommended “pleading,” – that advice is actually meant for her. A state Governor is a duly elected official; and in a Federal system, he is not answerable to the President, and nowhere is the president granted the powers of a Headmaster over state governors. In Okrika, Dame Patience behaved so impatiently and spoke to Governor Amaechi as if he is on the staff of the Presidency. It may not be her fault though.

Amaechi caused it all by bringing himself to such level by undertaking to debrief Dame Patience about his administration’s programmes and activities in the misguided hope of getting cheap political endorsement. He should have asked his wife to attend to her. On the issue of land, Dame Patience should be reminded that the Land Use Act, Section 1 thereof, says the state Governor holds the land in trust for the people.

Land matters in the state are beyond the ken of the wife of the President!

The wife of the President of Nigeria, or a state Governor, or a local council chairman, is not a state official. The same applies to husbands if the gender is reversed. He or she is unknown to the constitution or the governance structure.

Recent history has however made it a convention to have the spouses of persons in such positions under the guise of providing support, play some ceremonial roles. This has been routinely abused. Under the Jonathan presidency, Dame Patience Jonathan even got a special allocation in the original budget for the 2010 Golden jubilee anniversary whereas she has no official, financial reporting responsibilities! The international standard is that spouses in these circumstances must not only appear but be seen to be above board like Caesar’s wife. They must not misbehave like Marie Antoinette.

When Cherie Blair, wife of former British PM, Tony Blair started buying up houses, apartments and antique furniture, the public raised questions. It didn’t matter that she was a professional in her own right, a Queen’s Counsel with a traceable source of income. There were also questions about the scope of Hillary Clinton’s influence during her husband’s Presidency: Americans wanted to be sure that it was the man they elected that was in charge, not his wife. A couple of weeks ago, the American public was up in arms against Michelle Obama and her poll rating dropped drastically after a visit to Spain where she and her daughter reportedly stayed in a $7, 000 a night hotel.

Much earlier, Nancy Reagan was also the butt of public criticism, with people asking: who is she? And this is not a female thing. In Britain, Prince Phillip, the Queen’s husband, is constantly criticized for putting his foot in his mouth. He once said for example that “British women can’t cook.” He told a visiting Nigerian President, all dressed up in babariga (name withheld): “you look like you’re ready for bed.” During a state visit to China, he told British students: “if you stay much longer, you’all be slitty-eyed.” Prince Phillip’s supporters insist that he is honest, but the majority ask: how is the Queen coping with such a man who is perpetually saying something offensive? There may be persons who defend Dame Patience’s aggressive style, but some of us

President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience ask: how is the President coping?

Since Dr Jonathan assumed office, he and his wife have been practically on the road. The Dame has travelled from one state to the other, under the auspices of the Women for Change Initiative. In every state she tells the women to vote and “make sure your vote counts if you like my husband.” Is she now a partisan politician?

The Jonathans must be told that Nigeria does

Dr Reuben Abati

not have a co-Presidency. We have only one president and his name is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. And by the way, what does Dame Patience Jonathan do for a living? She obviously does not have to deal with the challenges of rotation and zoning in her home, unlike the three wives of the Adamawa Governor, Murtala Nyako for whom zoning and rotation have become topical subjects or the wives of South African President Jacob Zuma – that is why she can afford to be so meddlesome!

When she misbehaves as she did in Okrika, she creates the impression that her husband is not in control of his own home. First ladies are prominent figures but their conduct is an eternal subject of public interest. In Nigeria, there was Victoria Gowon, there was also Ajoke Muhammed: dignified and restrained. There was Maryam Babangida – she was influential but no one could accuse her of verbal recklessness; Mrs Abdusalami Abubakar was a court judge, totally self-effacing, No major social party was complete without Mrs Stella Obasanjo, yet she controlled her tongue. Mrs Turai Yar’Adua was described as the power behind the throne and she proved that during the period of her husband’s illness but she was carefully reticent. At the state level, there was Remi Tinubu in Lagos state and Onari Duke in Cross River state who have both conducted themselves responsibly in and out of office. The new First Lady likes to travel, party, and talk outside the script. People are beginning to learn to read her lips in order to understand her husband. Dame Patience must not push her Goodluck.

-This piece was written by Dr. Reuben Abati in The Guardian of Thursday, 27th Aug 2010

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Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Special Report

Mararaba Bridge: Where the good, bad and ugly mingle The Mararaba Bridge which is the last bridge of the Mararaba bus stop is a bridge that is feared by many if not all; a bridge with a difference, writes Melea Jude Moses

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his innocent bridge was built to aid easy crossing from one side of the wide dual carriageway to the other by passers-by.

Even when the bridge has successfully carried out this responsibilities, there are still a hand full of passers-by who will rather risk dear life to crossing the road without the bridge.

Every now and then, this humble bridge bears the pains from the multitude of people coming around to shop in the Mararaba market legally or illegally. The potpoury of people you could tag as the good, the bad and the ugly. Out of these categories, the ugly and the bad are the most paramount in bridge, making the bridge one of the most dangerous and feared by both humans and their properties.

Malam Mohammed Mechanic, a Sociologist will always admit that a society without a pinch of crime is a sick society, but the situation in Mararaba Bridge where proliferation of both the male and the female folks involved in social anomy is disheartening.

Unemployment in the country may be begging for attention but that should not be a pass mark for anybody to involve in any crime. Bad peer groups, poor parental care and the euphoria to leave large as what we know as the BB (big boys) and the other BB (big babes) are some key factors to this malady.

Taking advantage of the traffic that traverse form the Federal Capital Territory down to Nassarawa state – which is crying for help from the government, majority of bad boys such as thieves, criminals and pickpockets,popularly known as the Agberos still drown the tears of rights of the citizenry to free and uninterrupted business under the very eyes of the state.

Even when many will like to visit relatives aside going to the market, one thing will always drag them back -Mararaba Bridge, the dangerous bridge.

To many commuters, the popular bridge has become like some parts Lagos due to area fatherism and their boys who can be very powerful in their territory of control with glee.

The criminal activities carried out by these hoodlums are done in broad daylight. They snatch any of your items such as mobile phones, laptops, handbags, and off they go. Any attempt to follow them is like one jumping from frying pan to fire.

This criminal activities is being done on a daily bases if not hourly. “I saw two young guys on a motorcycle as they sped up and snatched a lady’s bag and off they went while the lady screamed out her intestines in tears, but there was no one to help, not even the security personnel” said a man simply called James.

Don’t be surprised when you see moving cars with closed glasses amidst hot temperature, perhaps, prevention is better than cure. These hoodlums can disguise as anything to carry out their illicit acts.

According to a passerby, they sometimes disguise as road transport workers issuing out tickets. He said before his very eyes, one of the bad boys claiming to be a transport worker distracted the driver of a car,while the other bad guy dived through the front the window of the front seat and

People using the pedestrian bridge at Mararaba

Pictures of suspected phone snatchers and pick-pokets displayed on a notice board at Zone A Mararaba Police station snatched the man’s expensive mobile phones and disappeared.

“Sometimes these so-called policemen are witnesses to this entire malady but helping with the solution is the problem”, said James Dauda, a resident of Mararaba, adding that the policemen sometimes seen around the bridge appear to be scared of these bad boys.

Then you begin to wonder that, if the police who have been assigned to protect lives and properties of the commonman are scared of such bad boys, who then is that commonman that should not be scared too!”Dauda stressed.

According to Timothy who resides around the bridge, the government should declare state of emergency on the Mararaba bridge by assigning soldiers to take responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of the common man around the bridge since the police are lax about it, adding that the criminals could be more scared of the camouflage than the black and blue uniformed

men.

Attempt to reach the Police Public Relations Officer of the Nasarawa State Police Headquarters Lafia on his mobile number was not successful but the DPO of Zone A Police Station at Mararaba who prefers anonymity,assured citizens that they are on top of the matter.

He said many of the bad boys have been apprehended lately for various crime like pickpocketing, snatching of mobile phones and bags among others thereby reducing such cases drastically.

He added that the criminal activity found around the Mararaba Bridge is not exceptional to Mararaba bridge alone but other bridges with high population of people like the Berger, Wuse Bridges, etc.

Until the government is able to carry out a fire brigade approach on the Mararaba Bridge, through the necessary bodies, the edifice which since commission has never slept, will not stop the

interplay of the good, the bad and the ugly.

If inanimate objects can be felt, the Mararaba bridge is amidst insecurity, fasting, praying and longing for a day when the common-man can walk free along it, holding and making mobile calls as he wishes, leaving his car windows open laptops and other gadgets in it; with women posing with their handbags up the sunset and men walking without precautiously sinking hands into their pockets.

For now, we hoping the sun will rise again the next the day with more good people than the bad ones - not only at Mararaba Bridge but in Nigeria at large. For the memories of Mararaba minglers will always linger in the hearts of the victims, the villains and the story tellers.

Moses is an intern from Mass Communication Department, University of Maiduguri

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 39

International

Egypt’s Brotherhood promises more protests

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gypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called for mass protests again in a campaign to reverse the army’s overthrow of the elected Islamist president, but it also gave a first sign of willingness to negotiate with its opponents.

Still stunned by the July 3 toppling of President Mohamed Mursi, his Muslim Brotherhood and allies grouped in the National Alliance for Legitimacy urged nationwide rallies on Friday, predicting millions would take to the streets.

Also, Egypt’s military issued a stern warning against violence and interim President Adly Mansour said he would protect the country against those seeking “chaos” in his first address to the nation.

The military statement said that “whoever resorts to violence and deviates from peacefulness in the rallies will put his life in danger”.

The rallies aim to show that Mursi ‘s supporters are not ready to accept the new military-backed government “To every free Egyptian man and woman: Come out against the bloody military coup,” the alliance said in a

statement.

Brotherhood official Gehad el-Haddad, who represented the movement in previous EU-facilitated talks with other political groups, told Reuters news agency that the organisation would not retreat from its demand for the reinstatement of Mursi.

However, a day after a Muslim Brotherhood delegation met top EU envoy Catherine Ashton, a Brotherhood official also said that the movement had proposed a framework for talks mediated by the EU. Sworn into office on Tuesday, the cabinet of interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi busied itself with tackling the nation’s many woes, buying foreign wheat to replenish stocks and banking $3bn in badly needed aid from the UAE. Signalling for the first time a formal readiness for negotiations, Haddad said the Brotherhood had proposed through an EU envoy a framework for talks to resolve Egypt’s crisis.

“We never close the door to dialogue,” Haddad said.

The EU envoy, Bernardino Leon,

Russian protest leader freed temporarily

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Russian court has temporarily released protest leader Alexei Navalny from custody, but placed him under travel restrictions while he awaits the outcome of an appeal against his five-year jail sentence.

The court ruled on Friday that keeping Navalny in custody would deprive him of his right to stand in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8.

Prosecutors had unexpectedly asked for Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s biggest critics, to be allowed to await the appeal decision at home in Moscow after his conviction on theft charges in the city of Kirov.

The move could be intended to appease opposition activists who protested in their thousands against the verdict in several cities on Thursday, and to head off the danger of social unrest.

Supporters of the 37-year-old anticorruption campaigner marched on a local prison following the ruling in Russia’s northern Kirov region that found Navalny guilty of stealing $500,000 from a state timber company.

Police arrested at least two protesters in a standoff.

“I am very grateful to all the people who supported us, all the people who went to [protest in Moscow’s] Manezh Square and other squares,” Navalny said on Friday, rushing across the court to hug his wife after he was released from a glass courtroom cage.

“We understand perfectly well what has happened now. It’s an absolutely unique phenomenon in Russian justice,” he said in the court in Kirov, an industrial city 900km northeast of Moscow.

The Kremlin has not responded to calls for comment on the verdict and said nothing about Friday’s ruling.

The United States and European Union voiced concern over Navalny’s conviction, saying it raised questions about the rule of law and Russia’s treatment of Putin’s opponents. The White House called it part of a “disturbing trend aimed at suppressing dissent.”

Navalny, who emerged as a prominent opposition leader last year during anti-Putin protests, had planned to run as a candidate to be Moscow mayor in September against Sergei Sobyanin, a Putin favourite.

said the two sides remained far apart.

The military has denied orchestrating a coup, saying it intervened to prevent chaos following protests on June 30 against Mursi’s much-

criticised, year-long rule.

At least 99 people have died in street clashes since Mursi’s downfall, more than half of them when troops fired on Islamist protesters outside a

Cairo barracks on July 8.

A security source told the official Middle East News Agency that policing would be intensified at “all important and vital facilities” on Friday.

Israel-Palestinian talks suffers blow

T

he resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations was cast into doubt after Palestinian leaders called on Israel to agree a general border of a future Palestinian state before direct negotiations continue.

The Palestinian stand, at the conclusion of two high-level meetings, is at odds with Israel’s insistence that there are no preconditions to talks.

Palestinians leaders want the guarantee to ensure talks end with a result.

US secretary of state John Kerry held a surprise second meeting with Erakat early on Friday as he pressed to put a peace bid back on track before heading home.

After meeting first for 44 minutes, the two men were locked back in talks at 11:20am local time (0820 GMT) a State Department official said.

Wasel Abu Yussef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, said Palestinian officials decided to send top negotiator Saeb Erekat to meet the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Amman to “inform him that Pal-

estinians want guarantees regarding the general border’’.

That refers to Israel’s de facto border that separates Israel from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories that it captured in the 1967 war alongside the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians claim those territories for their future state, with modifications reached through agreed “land swaps” that would see major Jewish settlement blocks built in the West Bank becoming part of Israel in exchange for territories elsewhere.

The Palestinian meetings followed months of mediation efforts by the US. Hoping to push both sides into talks, US President Barack Obama on Thursday asked Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to work with Kerry “to resume negotiations with Palestinians as soon as possible”.

Netanyahu, whose rightist coalition government includes parties that back settlers in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, says he wants to start peace talks immediately, but

without preconditions.

The PLO’s Yussef said negotiator Erekat would also ask for more clarifications from Kerry on what Israel expects.

He said Palestinians did not want to reject Kerry’s efforts to restart negotiations outright. Another official in the meeting, said they felt pressure from Palestinians to not restart negotiations if they could not be seen producing substantive outcomes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas convened the two meetings with his advisers after a lengthy meeting with Kerry earlier this month.

Abbas, whose peace strategy is opposed by the Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has sought Arab League support in the past to engage Israel.

Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh called Kerry’s efforts “a waste of time”.

Kerry has not spelled out his proposals. But his efforts won the notable endorsement of the Arab League, which said they “provide the ground and a suitable environment to start negotiations”.

Cambodia opposition leader returns from exile

T

housands of cheering supporters greeted Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy as he returned from selfimposed exile to spearhead his party’s election campaign against well-entrenched Prime Minister Hun Sen. Sam Rainsy was greeted by a large crowd of supporters from his Cambodia National Rescue Party af-

ter he landed Friday at the airport in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Rainsy, who was pardoned by King Sihamoni at Hun Sen’s request a few days ago, lives in France, and had faced 11 years in jail after he was convicted in absentia for charges that he contends were politically motivated, including publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam.

Rainsy kissed the ground at the airport upon returning from France shortly after arriving on a flight via Bangkok. “I’m very happy. I came back to rescue the nation with you all,” he told supporters before heading for Democracy Park where he was due to speak.

The French-educated former banker holds joint French and Cambodian citizenship, and is travelling

on his French passport as his Cambodian passport was revoked by the government after his convictions.

However, Rainsy has been removed from the electoral register and cannot contest polls unless parliament amends the law.

A Cambodian government official told AFP that Rainsy’s pardon was requested by Hun Sen “in the spirit of reconciliation”, and Rainsy

had “no right” to run as a candidate in the July 28 polls.

Hun Sen has held power for 28 years, and his party holds 90 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly.

The opposition leader has been in exile since 2009 to avoid serving 11 years in prison on charges many consider politically motivated.

Compiled by Hassan Ginsau

Tribute Muhammadu Kazallah Katsina: The forgotten warrior PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

“Allah, you have not blessed me with children that will sustain my name and remember me. Allah I pray you should not wipe off my name from the history of Katsina.

I pray that one day, I will be remembered for the good works I did for Katsina”- Kazallah ( 1890-1965)

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popular Hausa musician, Dan Mani has this to say about Kazallah in one of his favourite songs in 1952: ‘ Look at Kazallah, he could not recognize us As he is talking, his mouth was foaming Warrior who fear none in the presence of the emir’Dan Mani (1952).

When the late Emir of Katsina, Muhammadu Dikko ascended the throne he was not popular and this made people to be wearing their cap on their foreheads, a synonym to “not as stable as Dikko’s Emirship”. Despite this, he used wisdom in dealing with Katsina people where he used carrot and stick strategy.

Dikko was a great warrior and therefore took the pleasure of inviting warriors from other kingdoms to become his court guards.

Dikko similarly married from other kingdoms with the view to strengthening relationship with them. He married a junior sister of the emir of Kano Abdullahi Bayero.

Among the warriors that Emir Dikko invited to his kingdom was Muhammadu Kazallah who on his request, was sent to Katsina by Emir of Kano, Abdullahi Bayero.

Kazallah was from Tofa and was a descendent of a famous voyager, historian and a writer, Ibn Batuta.

Muhammadu Kazallah was excited when he was sent to Katsina because he naturally liked the ancient city because it has many of his family members that the search for Islamic knowledge took to Katsina.

Among his relatives was a famous Hausa scholar, Malan Na Iya who lived in Zaria and whose descendants are still part of the famous Zaria circle of Islamic scholarship. In Katsina, he was closely related to Late Malam Falalu and a famous scholar on jurisprudence in Kano,

Muhammadu Kazallah Katsina

Malam Nuhu Mahardaci.

Kazallah was a warrior by any standard. He was a strong warrior and a fortified personality that no weapon fashioned by man ever harmed him as he had extra-supernatural powers.

“

One of his greatest assets was the way he controlled thieves and criminals by directing them through supernatural powers to either move or sit where they were.

The late emir of Katsina

Muhammadu Dikko was proud of Kazallah and always wanted him close to him. Whenever Kazallah want the emir to be at ease, he used to utter the emir’s popular praises “nothing will harm you as long as we

His wife’s sister, Zainab who is still alive, narrated to Peoples Daily Weekend, that Kazallah used to pray saying “Allah you have not blessed me with a child but I pray that my name should not be wiped out in the history of Katsina. I hope Katsina and Katsinawa will always remember me for my contribution to the society.

are with you”.

During his time, Kazallah constituted a major threat to thieves and bandits operating in Katsina.

Whenever Kazallah visited a spot where a thief operated and studied his footprints, it would only be a matter of time before he arrests him.

Kazallah was an Islamic scholar who spoke fluent Arabic and made contributions to Islamic matters in the palace. The history of Kazallah was little known in Katsina because he died childless.

Kazallah lived throughout the reign of Emir Dikko and died during the reign of the late Emir of Katsina, Usman Nagogo. He died at the age of 75 after five years of being bed-ridden with illness. According to his family, he spent his last five years reciting the praises of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and asking for Allah’s forgiveness.

His wife’s sister, Zainab who is still alive, narrated to Peoples Daily Weekend, that Kazallah used to pray saying “Allah you have not blessed me with a child but I pray that my name should not be wiped out in the history of Katsina. I hope Katsina and Katsinawa will always remember me for my contribution to the society.

Wamban Katsina and chairman of Katsina History and Culture Bureau, Alhaji Abba Kalli who was among those who personally knew Kazallah told Peoples Daily Weekend that “Kazallah was a great warrior of the emir and during his time, he had no equal among the palace guards”.

Kazallah’s name appeared in a lot of writings on the history of Katsina by the colonialists.

His picture was taken in 1960 and was published in British newspapers with the caption “those providing security for the emirs in Hausaland”.

Pundits in Katsina believed that scholars and historians in Katsina must conduct a research on these types of forgotten heroes in Katsina.

The leader of Sokoto Jihad, Sheikh Usmanu Ibn Fodio had his teachers in Katsina but they were not glorified by writing their history. Katsina was the first to establish a university-like institution at the Gobarau minaret.

Katsina attracted scholars from across Bilad Al-Sudan and the Maghriban state, famous among them was Sheikh Abdurrahman AlMaghili.

Page 41

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

WeekendSports

CAF Confederation Cup war resumes W

ar resumes across the continent today in the CAF Confederation Cup campaign as top class teams with seven former champions in contention.

The only new comers in the pack of loins are fast improving Saint George of Ethiopia who have never tasted podium honours in a pan-African club title.

TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Etoile Sahel of Tunisia and Entente Setif of Algeria have been crowned champions of the continent.

CS Sfaxien of Tunisia won the Confederation Cup twice since its 2004 inception and FUS Rabat of Morocco and Stade Malien of Mali once each.

And 25 years ago CA Bizertin of Tunisia lifted the African Cup Winners Cup – dropped along with the CAF Cup when the Confederation Cup was introduced.

The presence of three Tunisian teams and one from Morocco is no surprise as the North Africans have had three successes each in the nineyear competition.

Sfaxien and Etoile were the triumphant Tunisian teams and FUS, Rabat neighbours FAR and Moghreb Fes achieved glory for Morocco.

Hearts of Oak from Ghana, Stade Malien, and AC Leopards of Congo Brazzaville were the other winners of the Confederation Cup. CAF title winners seven times, Mazembe from southern Congolese mining city Lubumbashi are the team to beat this year.

The ‘Ravens’ began 2013 with their sights set on a far richer and more prestigious prize – the CAF Champions League.

But they were among the ‘drop outs’ after a shock 3-2 aggregate loss to Orlando Pirates of South Africa in the final qualifiers.

Mazembe are away to 1988 African champions Setif on matchday 1 while FUS host Bizertin in the second Group B fixture.

Setif are a match for most at home and a starsaturated Mazembe squad coached by Frenchman Patrice Carteron will do well to dodge defeat.

Goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba is sure to be busy and should Mazembe score, will perform his trademark bottombouncing celebration across the goalmouth.

FUS will be expected to make home advantage pay against Bizertin in one of three match-ups involving Champions League casualties.

The other brings together Saint George and Stade Malien in Addis Ababa, a city becoming accustomed to top-class football fare again.

Ethiopia competed at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after a 31-year absence and are a draw away from qualifying for the 2014 African Nations Championship.

And the ‘Saints’ squad packed with national team’s stars has become the first from the east Africa country to reach the group stage of a CAF championship.

Saint George are no strangers to Malian opposition having eliminated Djoliba in the Champions League before failing on away goals to

Egyptian giants Zamalek.

A Sfaxien-Etoile Tunisian derby pairs the two outfits who advanced to the mini-league phase via the Confederation Cup elimination process.

Sfaxien lost narrowly to Enugu Rangers in a mid-year play-off only to be reinstated when the Nigerians were dumped for using an ineligible player.

CHAN 2014

You must not fail again, Gaiya charges Eagles

By Patrick Andrew

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fter failing to qualify twice, the Super Eagles must break that unpleasant jinx by beating the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire in Abidjan to secure a berth in the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) to be held in South Africa, next February.

This charge was issued yesterday by the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Sports, Godfrey Gaiya, after watching the Eagles in a friendly game

against FC Abuja, which ended 1-0 in their favour.

The Lawmaker believes the Eagles’ first leg 4-1 trouncing of their opponents must be repeated to create fears in the minds of contenders for the CHAN trophy. First though, the Eagles must beat the hosts before their home fans in Abidjan on July 27, a task he says is not impossible. ``You should forget what happened in Kaduna as if nothing happened; go there and play on a zero level.

Instead, concentrate on the return leg and play as if the

score line is even,” he said and assured that he would be there to cheer them.

He urged the players to expect hard times in Abidjan because no away match in Africa is ever easy. ``There is no away-match that is easy, and from history, the Ivorians are always difficult at home. So, you must be prepared,” he admonished the players.

The Chairman reminded the players that Nigerians expect nothing but the CHAN ticket from the team and added that should the

feat be achieved it would showcase the quality of the domestic league.

“It is a tournament which is in its third edition and Nigeria has never qualified, so, the yearning of every Nigerian is for us to participate with our homebased players. ``If they do well, it will be a testimony to the development style we have seen in the domestic league; it will showcase our domestic league at the highest level.

Nigerians expect that we should go there and qualify

and also go to South Africa. ``With that, we will be able to show the world that our home-based players are capable of holding their own against the very best teams in Africa,’’ Gaiya said.

He assured that the sports committee would be willing and ready to assist the team to achieve the yearnings of Nigerians.

The team of 18 players will travel to Abidjan next weekend for the match.

The winner will join other qualifiers to vie for honours in the 2014 CHAN tournament.

Page 42

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JUNE, 2013

Sports

Fed Cup Round 16: 3SC, Enyimba rekindle rivalry T

he fixtures for the round of 16 matches in the Federation Cup has pitched two traditional rivals 3SC and Enyimba together a watering clash scheduled for July 24.

The two clubs have won the prestigious clubs’ trophy 10 times between them. But this year one would have to watch from the sideline from the quarter finals having drawn together yesterday at a pooled conducted by the organisers.

Enyimba won the Federation Cup twice in 2005 and 2009 while 3SC are the record winners of the oldest club competition in Nigeria with eight victories.

The Oluyole Warriors won their first in 1959 then as Ibadan Lions and they followed that up with seven other titles in 1961, 1966, 1969, 1971 (as WNDC Ibadan) and the last three in 1977, 1979 and 1995

Q

were won with their present name 3SC. The duo will do battle in Abuja, which recently hosted Ranger and had been the venue for the rescheduled Kano Pillars versus Heartland premier league game.

Both sides will put their best to scale through and light up their quest for a sip in the trophy which has eluded them for some time now.

There are other mouth watering ties as Heartland who have won the last two Federation Cup competitions square up against Sharks of Port Harcourt, who are seeking their first title after two losses in the final in 2003 and 2009 to Lobi Stars and Enyimba respectively.

Akwa United are in a hard battle against one of the most consistent Nigerian club sides, Rangers, who have waited for 30 years for a major trophy and will be hoping to break the jinx this year.

Super Eagles’ midfielder will miss the Rangers versus Akwa United match because he will be on national assignment (Fed Cup)

Qatar to stage 2015 world champs

atar will be the host for the 2015 world Amateur boxing championships.

CK Wu, president of International Amateur Boxing Association, released the decision from Lausanne, Switzerland, midweek.

Qatar beat Bangkok in

the bidding to stage the tournament. “It is very exciting for the AIBA to explore new horizons and we are looking forward to visit Doha in 2015,” Wu said.

Besides the boxing, Qatar will also host the 2022 World Cup football tournament as well as world championship

tournaments in handball in 2015 and road cycling in 2016.

The decision to award the boxing championships to Qatar made during a meeting of the AIBA’s

executive committee in Jeju, South Korea.

The biennial AIBA tournament will be held in Almaty in Kazakhstan from October 11 to 27 this year.

I

Abdullahi said following request for assistance until the boards settle down and hire their secretaries, the commission has stepped in to assist by appointing secretaries on temporary for six months to manage the affairs of the federations. ``The only thing we can do is to give a momentary appointment for six months to see how the secretariat will fair, ``We will post secretaries that will work for six months after which the presidents will get a secretary or continue with the one posted, if they have good working relationship,” he said.

The minister said some of the federation presidents had suggested that they should be allowed to appoint their own secretaries claiming that some of the secretaries posted to them were not loyal.

The minister said the commission had to post secretaries to federations as their presidents were the ones that failed to appoint their own secretaries, and should stop calling for the withdrawal of the one already sent to some federations.

Teams Enyimba vs Shooting Heartland vs Sharks Akwa Utd vs Rangers Tornadoes vs Warri Wolves Pillars vs Gombe Utd Nasarawa vs Sunshine Akwa Starlets vs Abia Warriors ABS vs Lobi Stars

Venue Abuja Benin Owerri Akure Jos Lokoja Calabar Minna

Chisora, Yank exchange punches for WBO title tonight

NSC to appoint temporary scribes for slowed down activities of the sports federations has federations.

n apparent renege on its promise to withdraw appointed secretaries in the different sports federations, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has concluded arrangements appoint secretaries for them but on temporary basis.

Sports Minister, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi disclosed at a meeting he held with all sports federations, was quick to say that it would be six months duration.

It would be recalled that at the inaguration of the boards of the federations some months ago, the minister had withdrawn all secretaries appointed for them and directed them to appoint new secretaries.

Of course, they were made aware that they would bear the responsiblities of those they hired.

The minister said he chose to act that way because several complaints that these secretaries operated with the civil service lethargy and have therefore been a huge drawback to the federations.

However, several months after these boards are yet to appoint new secretaries, a development that

Round of 16 fixtures

Dereck (L) and Haye before their fight which ended in a fiveround knockout in favour of Haye (chisora).

M

onths after losing to David Haye, in what apparently settled their out-of- the -ring riff, Derek Chisora returns to the square ropes to fight for the vacant WBO international heavyweight title in London this evening.

Chisora takes on Malik Scott in a duel that pitches the two that are known for their pre-fight antics, but are not among the leading boxers in their division.

Their clash at the Wembley Arena could, however, provide a measure

of entertainment. The 29-year-old Chisora has a professional record of 16-4, including 10 wins inside the distance.

His 32-year-old opponent is undefeated after 35 bouts. He drew once and won 12 of his fights by knockout.

Chisora was born in Zambia but now fights out of London. In his last six fights he won against Remigijus Ziausys, who had won 18, lost 43 and drawn 3 of his fights, and Hector Alfredo Avila, who record of 20-12-1 is no more inspiring.

In the other four fights Chisora lost on points over twelve rounds to Tyson Fury, Robert Helenius and Vitali Klitschko and a fifthround stoppage to David Haye. He is, however, a durable fighter.

Scott was an outstanding amateur and is a talented fighter with a good jab. The only blot on his record was in his most recent fight, in February this year, when he drew over ten rounds against Vyacheslav Glazkov, who was unbeaten at 14-0.

Scott should have enough class to win on points over ten rounds.

In Indio, California, former WBO champion Demarcus Corley meets the exciting 21-year-old Frankie Gomez over ten rounds in a junior welterweight clash.

Corley, 39, has a record of 39-20-1, including 23 knockouts. Gomez is undefeated after 15 fights and has Rafael Nadal won eleven inside the distance.

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Lyon’s Garde plays down Gervinho link

Sports

Manchester City agreed Jovetic deal M

anchester City will make Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic their fourth highprofile signing of the summer, subject to a medical.

City moved quickly to finalise the £22m deal for the Montenegro international as a new boss Manuel Pellegrini continues to reshape his squad.

City will also announce the signing of Sevilla forward Alvaro Negredo after he passed a medical on Thursday.

With the arrival of Jovetic and 27-year-old Negredo, who scored 26 La Liga goals last season, City will take their spending since the arrival of Pellegrini to almost £90m.

They have already signed Jesus Navas from Sevilla for or £14.9m and Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk for £30m.

Jovetic scored 13 goals in 31 games for Fiorentina last season and will help Pellegrini fill the void left by the departure of Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez.

Gervinho

L

yon coach Remi Garde has said he has heard nothing of a reported swap involving Yoann Gourcuff and Arsenal outcast Gervinho with the Ligue 1 club putting their faith in youthful talent.

French media have reported over several weeks Lyon’s interest in Gervinho, 26, who enjoys an excellent reputation in France following his significant contribution to Lille’s double-winning season of 2010-11.

Though Gourcuff, 27, remains part of Garde’s plans at the Stade de Gerland, his status

Page 43

as the club’s highest earner means he could be moved on as OL seek to balance their books, and president JeanMichel Aulas recently admitted the possibility existed that the France midfielder could leave.

His destination, however, seems unlikely to be north London in exchange for the Gunners’ unwanted Ivorian.

Should he stay at Lyon, where he signed a five-year contract following his estimated €22 million move from Bordeaux in 2010, Gourcuff believes he can contribute to the development of the squad’s younger players.

Marquinhos set for €35m PSG move

Jovetic

Chelsea in for Higuain

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helsea has entered the race to sign Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain, according to Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Arsenal have been keen to sign Higuain, 25, this summer and were thought to be close to a deal, before De Laurentiis confirmed his side are in talks to sign the Argentina international earlier this week.

However, there now appears to be another club chasing the former River Plate man, with the Blues apparently expressing an interest.

And Chelsea could now be favourites for Higuain’s signature as, according to AS, the striker is keen to reunite with his former Madrid boss Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues, though, will have to pay the €40 million asking price that Los Blancos are demanding - something that has reportedly proved a stumbling block for their London rivals Arsenal.

Madrid’s €40 million price tag is putting off potential suitors, and Higuain, who scored 16 La Liga goals last season, is beginning to get frustrated.

Cesc Fabregas

B

razilian defender Marquinhos is preparing to link up with compatriot Thiago Silva at the heart of the Paris Saint-Germain defence next season after a €35 million fee was agreed with Roma.

Marquinhos, 19, is on his way to Paris where he is expected to sign a five-year contract, paving the way for an exit from the club he joined only 12 months ago.

Marquinhos spent just one season in the Eternal City following his move

Moyes waits on Fabregas decision

to Serie A from Corinthians, and Roma are set to make a profit of over €30 million in that time.

It is not a surprise, therefore, that Marquinhos was left out of the Giallorossi’s first warm-up game of the summer on Wednesday.

Although Marquinhos looks to be leaving Roma, midfielder Miralem Pjanic has pledged his commitment to the Giallorossi cause despite being linked with Tottenham.

M

anchester United manager David Moyes said he is hopeful of hearing news that the club’s pursuit of Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas.

Currently in Sydney, Australia for the second-leg of their East Asia and Australia pre-season tour, Moyes told reporters before Saturday’s match against the A-League All-Stars that he hoped to have “good news” in the coming days concerning other new acquisitions, thought to include

Benfica defender Ezequiel Garay.

United are trying to negotiate a deal for Fabregas after the club made initial contact with Barcelona for the services of the Spanish international, with club chief executive Ed Woodward returning to Europe to handle transfer business.

But Moyes hinted that the 26-year-old Spain midfielder may not be the only business to be completed before the close of the transfer window.

Higuain

Page 44

Peoples Daily WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Sports

China PR will be out to defend their title at the EAFF East Asian Cup, which will provide Australia, Japan and hosts Korea Republic the chance to step up their preparations for next year’s FIFA World Cup.

Arsene Wenger has agreed to increase his offer for Luis Suarez to £40 million, according to The Sun, but Brendan Rodgers insists the forward is worth £55 million.

British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton will be out of action for between 12 and 16 weeks with a hamstring injury.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller writes to the BBC after a remark by John Inverdale about Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli.

British heavyweight Dereck Chisora promises an exciting fight when he faces unbeaten American Malik Scott today

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 20 - SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

PAGE 45

Interview Storm still gathers over Offa stool From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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he Judgment of Court of Appeal, sitting in Ilorin over the Olofa stool has come and gone but the storm might not be over as the deposed Olofa of Offa,Oba Mufutau Gbamosi Esuwoye II still sticks to his gun claiming to be still loved by his people.

The Appeal Court presided over

by Justice Hussein Mukthar, Justice Obande F. Ogbuinya and Justice Tijjani Abubakar on July 9,2013 in the suit no CA\I’ll\71\2012 filed by Alhaji Sheu F Oyeniyi (Magaji Olugbense Ruling House,Offa),Alhaji (Prince) Abdulrauf Adegboyega Keji and Prince Saka Keji, for themselves and on behalf of the Olugbense Ruling House, had ruled that the Respondents, Alhaji Yunus Bukoye,Essa of Offa, Alhaji Kadir Kolawole Bello,Ojomu of Offa,Alhaji Oseni Olaniyi,Balogun of Offa,Alhaji Zikrullah Kola Sanni Olaboye,Shawo of Offa,Alhaji Mufutau Mohammodu Gbadamosi Esuwoye, Attoney General of Kwara State and Kwara State Government confirmed that Offa stool was rotational.

The Anilelerin Ruling House was challenged at the High Court by the Olugbense clan after their candidate was not picked by kingmakers and confirmed by the State Government.

The aggrieved male ruling House, Olugbense, approached the Appellate Court after the High Court on the 19th July 2012 presided over

by Justice S.M Akanbi declared that Olofa of Offa stool is not rotational and upheld the appointment and installation of the 5th Respondents as the Olofa of Offa.

The immediate past monarch of the town Oba Mustafa Olawore Olanipekun Ariwajoye II who died in March 2010 belong to female lineage of Anilelerin ruling house of Offa.

The candidate of Olugbense male ruling group,Prince Abdulrauf Adegboyega Keji was a candidate for Olofa of Offa but was not picked by Kingmakers and State Government.

In their grievances, the Olugbense ruling House sought the Appeal Court to determine whether the learned trial judge was right in holding that exhibit G though an original copy of a public document, must be certified to be admissible in evidence, thereby refusing to attach any weight thereto; whether the learned trial judge was right in holding that the newspaper, Exhibit O,P,Q,R and S which contain evidence of rotational chieftaincy in Offa were wrongly admitted in evidence and that the exhibits are not worthy of being accorded any weight and to be expunged from the record.

The Complainants also sought the Appeal Court’s determination whether there is evidence on record to show or prove that the Olofa stool is rotational between the Olugbense Ruling House and the Anilelerin Ruling house and whether it was the turn of the claimants,Appellants, the Olugbense Ruling House to, in 2010, present the candidate to fill the vacancy created in the stool by the death of the immediate past Olofa of Offa from the Anilelerin ruling House.

The Olugbense Ruling House

Deposed Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II also wanted the Appeal Court to determine whether the learned trial judge rightly rejected the notion, principle and doctrine of fairness,justice,equity and estoppel in determining the right of the Appellants, the Olugbense Ruling House to present the candidate(2nd Appellant) to fill the vancancy in the stool created by the death of the immediate past Olofa of Offa in 2010 from the rival Anilelerin Ruling House.

In the lead judgment, Justice Hussein Mukhtar declared that “from the foregoing appraisal.exhibit G was an uncertified copy of a public document and as such falls short of passing the test of admissibility. It was rightly discountenanced by the learned trial judge. There appears to me to be nothing perverse in discountenancing an inadmissible evidence that was,in the first place,wrongly admitted during the trial proceedings. Issue one is therefore resovled against the Appellants.”

The Appellant Court further ruled that “ that ascension to the throne of Olofa of offa is rotational

between the Olugbense Ruling House and the Anilelerin Ruling House. That Anilelerin Ruling House having produced the immediate past Olofa,late Oba Mustapha Olawore Olanipekun Ariwajoye II who ruled for 40 years,should now give way to the Olugbense Ruling House to produce the Olofa of Offa on the basis of the established rotational chieftaincy since 1969.

“The selection, appointment,installation and recognition of the 5th Respondent as the Olofa of Offa by the 6th and 7th Respondents is null and viod and of no effect whatsoever. The 2nd Appellant who has been selected and nominated from the Olugbense Ruling House, whose turn it is to produce the next Olofa of Offa,is valid and he is entitled to be so recognised and installed by the 6th and 7th Respondents.

“The appointment and installation of the 5th Respondent as the Olofa of Offa is hereby nullified. The 7th Respondent shall forthwith consider the selection and nomination of the 2nd Appellant being the candi-

Members of Olugbense Family in jubilation after judgment

date of the Olugbense Ruling House in accordance with section 3 of the Chiefs(Appointment and Deposition) Law,Cap.C9,Law of Kwara State of Nigeria 2006. The 5th Respondent is forthwith restrained from parading himself as the Olofa of Offa”, the Judge ruled.

The judgment which had thrown the Anilelerin into mourning due to the huge amount of money the deposed Olofa had expended on palace, central mosque and other developmental projects in the town was received with joy by Olugbense Ruling House. Though, the Respondents had appealed the case at the Supreme Court and applied for stay in action, the Olugbense family have insisted that the judgment of the Appeal Court be immediately implemented.

Addressing journalists after the judgment, the spokesman of the family, Prince Saka keji said they aware that the deposed Olofa would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of Appellate Court but they want the state government to install their candidate immediately.

The family also dismissed claims by deposed Olofa, Lawyer R.O Rabbana that since the July 9 Court of Appeal Judgment, Offa has no peace stressing that supporters of Oba Esuwoye and people of the community have been trooping enmasse to their Ruling to congratulate them. “ It is astonishing,disgusting and naïve that some uninformed people out of mischief have even suggested that the Olugbense Ruling House should allow sleeping dog to lie and allow perfidy to continue. But we say no to this because our family does not wish to sell our birthright on a mesh of pottage. Our forefathers have made compromises before in the interest of peace in Offa particularly in 1969 when Oba Mustapha Keji was persuaded by the Government of the day to step down to allow the candidate from the female Anilelerin Ruling House to be produced to start the rotational process and he did. But in 2010 when it became the turn of Ruling House to produce the candidate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Oba Mustapha Olawore Olanipekun Ariwajoye from Anilelerin ruling house,our candidate now declared by the Court of Appeal as Olofa of Offa,AbdulRauf Keji was shock-

ingly and brazenly rejected by the Kingmakers and the Government.

“Therefore, our ruling House has lost faith in any arrangement that will continue to perpetually deny us our right to ascent to the throne of our forefathers. To us, continued peaceful and harmonious relationship between us and our neighbours can only be achieved through sober,mature and experienced leadership style as exhibited by the late Oba Mustapha Keji and Oba Mustapha Olawore Olanipekun during their memorable reign”.

Ironically, at the deposed Olofa palace, women, students were seen carrying placards in protest against the Judgment of Court of Appeal.

The leader of the protesting students across the six geo-political zones under the aegis of National Association of Polytechnic Students(NAPS) and National coordinator of Offa Student Leaders Forum(OSLF) Comrade Salahudeen A. Lukman, in interaction with Journalists, said they condemned the judgment of Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Hussein Mukthar, describing it as calculated attempt to destabilise the peace of the community.

They urged the Kwara State Chief Judge to sanction the Judge that sat on the matter.

“The student leaders of Offa local government area of Kwara state have identified the judgment of Appeal Court as a calculated attempt to destabilise the peace and order in our dear community. It appeared as conspiracy between the Justice Hussein Mukthar and the enemies of Offa progress in order to divide the good people of Offa so as to pave way for destruction of pampering development and lawfulness.

“Justice Hussein Mukthar and his colleagues of Appeal Court sitting in Ilorin the Kwara state capital who judged the case of Offa kingship suit is described by Nigerian students more or less like Justice Talba who judged the case of pension scam.”

Despite the alleged stage-managed protest, it was on record that Court of Appeal had confirmed rotation in the case of Offa stool but whether deposed Oba Esuwoye II would remain the Olofa of Offa, still hangs at the behest of the Supreme Court.

Prince Saka Keji

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21, JULY, 2013

Page 46

Interview

Youths should be empowered to transform Nigeria – Erebouye military, where are expected to find ourselves. You will find increased problems on the street.

Comrade James Erebouye, is an international Human Rights activist based in Ottakring, Wien, Austria. In this interview with STANLEY ONYEKWERE, the native of Edo state speaks on the way forward in transforming Nigeria and making it a better place. Excerpts:

Comrade James Erebouye Talking about the military taking over police duties, what is your take on that sir?

Yes, it is quite unfortunate that in a country like ours where security lapses is everywhere. You see, the Nigerian Police Force is not the problem, I have said it several times that corruption is our major problem in Nigeria. Corruption has eaten up to the womb of even the Nigerian woman to the extent that when a child is conceived, he or she will suck the corruption-infected blood.

We have been talking about

creating a better life for our youths who are our future generation, but the elderly ones seem not to understand it. Imagine, as old as I am today, those elderly men who were in power right from when I was in primary school up to when I finished all my international studies and later came back to Nigeria and still discover that those elderly men don’t want to give up government positions. In situations like this, security challenges are un-averted, you cannot stop it, it will continue like this. President Goodluck Jonathan is trying to do something, many times. I don’t want to always talk about Goodluck Jonathan all the time, because sometimes back, many said that I have gone silent because Jonathan is empowered.

First of all, the issue of the Nigerian police force which I know that Jonathan could have addressed properly but it’s still the issue of cabals. How can you manage police when their salaries are being disbursed on the first of the month and they will not get their salaries until the 15th of the next month, Where is the money going to? We are not fools and we all know that when this money is kept in the bank, just for one week, we will be able to ascertain the interest rate.

So, to whom does the interest go to? Is it to the police affairs ministry or the government. So, all these are the problems we fail to address and I feel it should be addressed this time around.

The current Inspector General

of Police, Mohammed Abubakar is good, but he cannot solve the problem alone. The military will continue to take over police duties until the police do their jobs. It’s not that the police are not active, but like I said, how do you expect a policeman to go and fight without ammunition? Last time I talked about finger print in the system.

All these things are what the police need because without all these things, nothing will work.You can imagine a citizen of Nigeria going about committing crimes in Kaduna, Yobe, Benue, Maiduguri and you don’t expect the Police to do something. How do you trace such persons, it is not possible. You read headlines on our everyday newspapers that the Nigerian Police have been equipped, yet no one can see clear evidences. Nigeria is a place where police use vehicles without headlamps, wearing uniforms without shoes. For God’s sake, these policemen are like you and I. Once the issue of corruption is not addressed, it will continue like that and the military will continue to take over the duties of the police. I remember in those days when I was a kid, once you commit an offence, you will be taken to the welfare department, then the police was too high. Gradually, we grew beyond the care of the welfare, we later found ourselves to the standard of the police. Now we are above the control of the police and now into the hands of the military and when we grow beyond the hands of the

2015 election: Do you have any fear towards the forth-coming election in Nigeria?

No, I don’t have any fear towards the forthcoming election, there is no going back. “No Goodluck Jonathan, No Nigeria”. I will continue to say this. Anything that will not make Jonathan to come back in 2015, Comrade James Orebouye will go back to action.

2015 is a must, no bargaining, don’t discuss it because that is the area I don’t want to talk about at all.

In the first place, four years is not enough for a president to do what he can do for a nation where corruption have eaten up all we have in the country. Jonathan should be given enough time at least eight years then after eight years if he fails, then negotiations should be carried on who becomes the next president. But there is one thing I want you to understand, this is not time for Muslim or Christian or whatever or Northerner or Easterner, this is not the time to discuss that because there is somebody in power, that person have to finish his tenure completely.

His system cannot be the one that everybody wants automatic change, no negotiations of 4years or 6 years tenure. Negotiations should start as from 2019, as from that time we can begin to talk about negotiating.

Talking about the PDP Zoning formula, lots of people are saying it should be restored.

What can you say on that?

If the zoning formula is being reverted to, where has it been for good 35 years. Does that mean that it is only the Northerners who know how to plan coup? Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, to name but a few.

These people are still clamouring around government. There are

certain people whose names are supposed to go to sleep for now, are you telling me that it is only Buhari we have in the North. Buhari was one time Head of State.

For how long have you been a Human Right Activist?

Well, it’s something I have been doing since I was born because in the first place, I don’t see any reason of leaving my country if everything is well. That is to tell you that right from when I was a kid, things began to go wrong. I left this country at a very youthful age, all because the corruption in Nigeria then was too much .It got to an extent that I almost gave up everything that have to do with Nigeria. I chose Jamaica as my hometown, but along the line, a thought came to my mind never to forget that wherever I am, I should always remember that I am an African.

“

In situations like this, security challenges are un-averted, you cannot stop it, it will continue like this. President Goodluck Jonathan is trying to do something, many times.

Health

Pregnant mother, 28, and unborn baby died three days after doctors TWICE misdiagnosed ectopic pregnancy as a stomach bug

A

pregnant mother died just three days after being sent home from a hospital where staff twice misdiagnosed the symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy for a stomach bug.

One doctor did suspect she might be suffering with the condition, that causes an embryo to implant outside the uterus, but was unable to confirm a diagnosis because the hospital’s specialist scanning service was closed for the weekend.

The family of Becky BenNejma, 28, were this week given an undisclosed six-figure compensation payout after the hospital trust admitted she was misdiagnosed and that their failings contributed to her death.

Mrs Ben-Nejma, who already had two children, visited Maidstone Hospital’s A&E department with stomach pains late on a Friday afternoon.

Medical staff suspected she had gastroenteritis and sent her home with painkillers.

One doctor - it later transpired - suggested she should be scanned for any possible complications with her pregnancy, suspecting she may have an ectopic pregnancy.

But the hospital’s specialist scanning department was closed for the weekend so he asked Mrs Ben-Nejma to return on the Monday for a scan.

The next day Becky complained she was in even more pain so she returned to the Kent hospital.

Incredibly, the A&E registrar still diagnosed it as gastroenteritis and simply sent her home with stronger painkillers.

Mrs Ben-Nejma had only discovered a few days earlier that she was seven-weeks pregnant.

The following morning, at around 7.30am, she collapsed at home into the arms of her

then 12-year-old daughter Charlotte, and suffered a heart attack.

Paramedics worked frantically to revive her and she was rushed into hospital by air ambulance.

She then suffered a second cardiac arrest while undergoing an emergency

operation to remove her fallopian tubes.

Mrs Ben-Nejma was kept on life support, before the agonising decision was made to switch it off and she died on December 20, 2010, her daughter Charlotte’s 13th birthday.

Tests revealed Becky

had experienced an ectopic pregnancy.

Details of Mrs Ben-Nejma’s death emerged this week after it was revealed her family had been given a compensation payout by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Medical director Dr Paul Sigston said: ‘The trust sincerely and unreservedly apologises for the failings that contributed to death of Mrs Ben-Nejma.

‘In order to ensure that such failings do not happen again the trust has introduced a range of measures including strengthening the emergency gynaecology service, which is now centralised at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, and as a result of which patients now have better access to senior staff, diagnostic equipment and treatment of emergency situations.’

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21 , JULY, 2013

Page 47

From the Pulpit What do you see? (III) GREEN

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herself, ‘Let me not see the death of the boy.’ So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, ‘What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.

And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.” (Gen 21:14-21 NKJV) May the Lord open your eyes too in your present situation so that you may see clearly what Heaven has in store for you. Then you will stop thinking of death but say with the psalmist: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” (Ps 118:17 NKJV) “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” (Ps 27:13 NKJV) The ten spies If the ten spies had seen very well, they would have come back with a good report similar to that of Caleb and Joshua. They didn’t see God giving them victory over the enemy; they saw themselves as grasshoppers and the enemy as giants and concluded that they were not able to go and fight the enemy. They thereby caused not a small discouragement and setback for the people. “And they gave the children of Israel a bad

Matthew 5:13; Leviticus 2:13; Colossians 4:6

Ministry of sanctified, salty saints

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he people who receive the grace of God and have the indwelling righteousness of God are the salt of the earth. “Ye are the salt of the earth…”, Christ taught His disciples and the people that came to listen to His message. The main thrust of salt is distinctiveness. Salt is distinctively different from the thing on which it has great influence. Similarly, as believers, we are the salt of the world; and there must be that distinctiveness between us and the world. This distinctive purpose or nature of salt is to influence or change the flavour of what salt comes in contact with. We, as believers also, by nature and purpose, must be different. We must maintain our ministry of penetrating, influencing and transforming others on the earth.

1 . S C R I P T U R A L IDENTIFICATION OF SYMBOLIC SALT Matthew 5:13; John 15:3,5,19; Ephesians 2:13-19; Galatians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 3:16,17; 6:11, 19,20; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; 1 Peter 2:9,10; 1 John 4:4; Romans 1:5-7.

JesusmentionsasymbolicsaltinHis teaching on the Mount: “ye are the salt of the earth…” (Matthew 5:13). This salt refers to, represents, symbolises and it’s emblematic of the believer. As a believer, you are to salt, season, influence and penetrate the earth. From this emblem, you need to learn what you should look like and what your life’s purpose on earth should be. It is not enough to possess all the spiritual virtues Christ taught in the beatitudes. In fact, the reason He grants you those spiritual experiences is so you can be a great influence in the world in which you live.

It is not everybody that is the salt of the earth. Christ marks out some people (“ye are”) whom He refers to as the salt of the earth. Other scriptural references to “ye are” reveal the identification and marks of those who are symbolically and metaphorically qualified as the salt of the earth. The people who have been cleansed by the word of Christ and are attached to, associated with and stick to Christ are the salt of the earth. The nature of Christ is imparted into them as the nutrients of a tree flow into its branches.

They are converted Christians who have responded to Christ’s call and have come out of sin, the world and its principles.

Cleansed by the blood of Christ, they have made peace or reconciled with God and are now citizens of His kingdom.

They have a change of life and nature.

They are the temple of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells. Salt of the earth are believers who have come out of their natural self, bitterness, and resistance to the truth. Blood-bought and redeemed Christians, also referred to as a chosen generation, light of the world, and in whom Christ abides, are the salt of the earth.

Identified, these are Christ’s converts, disciples, followers. They are the people that are called out of the world and cleansed. As such, they are humble, meek, righteous, merciful, pure, peaceloving, consecrated children of God and citizens of the kingdom of God. 2. SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE OF SALTY SAINTS Matthew 5:13; 2 Kings 2:19-22; Colossians 4:5,6; 1 Thessalonians 1:7,8; 1 Peter 3:1,2; Ruth 1:16.

Jesus spoke in the plain language

report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.’ (Num 13:32-33 NKJV) Caleb and Joshua saw the same giants that these ten spies saw but they also saw something else – they saw the promise of God to give Israel victory because that was the whole essence of bringing them out of Egypt in the first instance. “But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: ‘The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” (Num 14:6-9 NKJV) We often behave like these ten spies whenever we are confronted by the enemy; we forget the promises of God. We tend to behave as if the enemy is more powerful than God. The fear of the enemy destroys us faster than the real attack of the enemy. But God’s Word warns us not to fear the enemy. Jesus said, “And do not fear those who kill the body

PASTURES

od asked Jeremiah, Amos and Zachariah, “What do you see?” God is asking you the same question because as I said in previous editions, what you see is very important because what you see determines your belief, expectation and your behavior and actions. What you see determines what you get and what you see determines what you become. Today, I want to talk more on this principle.

Hagar and her son Hagar was blinded by the devil from seeing the Lord’s provision for her and her child at the most critical period in her life. She could only see the child die and not live because of lack of water whereas God’s provision was near her; crying would not allow her to see this. She never saw God’s provision until God opened her eyes.

You need to pray that the Lord will open your eyes to see what he has reserved for you despite your seeing emptiness in your lives, to see what God wants to make of your life despite your seeing yourself a failure.

See what happened to Hagar and how what she was seeing was completely opposed to what God had already provided for her but which she was blind to. “So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away.

Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to

By pastor t.o. banso

cedarministryintl@yahoo.com GSM: 08033113523 but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28 NKJV) Phil 1:28 says, “Don’t be intimidated by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.” (NLT) Did you see that?

Don’t be terrified by your enemies and this will show them surely their destruction has come because God will give you victory.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7 NKJV) Don’t let the enemy blind your eyes to God’s provision for you; refuse to focus on what the devil is placing before you. If he succeeds, you cut off yourself from experiencing what God wants to do in your life.

I believe God has spoken to you through this message. Be a doer of the Word, and it shall be well with you in Jesus’ name. May you see exactly what God wants you to see.

I’ll bring you the concluding part of this series next week.

TAKE ACTION! If you are not born again, I want to urge you to take the following steps:*Admit you’re a sinner and you can’t save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and

By pastor W.F Kumuyi His audience understood using objects they could identify with. When He said, “Ye are the salt of the earth”, His audience could easily relate to it because salt is a common household item. Salt has a great influence on everything around it.

As a believer and as the salt of the earth, what influence do you have on people around you and your community? Being salt means, you have a good influence.

Your life, influence and the impact of your life in the society should turn death to life, bitterness to sweet and decadence turned to decency. If you must influence other people, there must be a clear difference between you and them; you cannot have any influence on people if you are not sober when interacting with them. What kind of influence do you want to have on Christians and outsiders you come in contact with? Negative and bad influence tends to last long with us.

If you don’t understand that you are salt on earth, you are likely to do what you should not. Wives should live in such a way that their godly lives will influence

their ungodly husbands to repentance; mothers-in-law should take a cue from Naomi whose relationship with her daughters-in-law made them to stick to her even through life’s difficulties.

Masters and mistresses should have great positive influence on their subordinates such that they would want to be Christians.

The influence of salt lies in its difference, and we must be unspotted from the world. Salt preserves things from decaying. We are to preserve our world from moral decay and corruption.

As salt penetrates, so are believers to penetrate their world and influence the world with new lives. As salt flavours whatever it comes in contact with, so the flavour of Christ in us should make others thirsty for God and godliness. As salt is irrepressible, so must we spread real salt everywhere and our ministry will become unstoppabl 3.SOBERINGINTERPRETATION OF SAVOURLESS SALT Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34,35; 1

Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start to attend a Bible-believing, Bible -teaching church. There you will be taught how to grow in the Kingdom of God. Kindly say this prayer now: “0 Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and surrender my life to him today.

I invite Jesus into my heart today. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you Jesus for saving me and making me a child of God” I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations!

You will need to join a Bible believing, Bible teaching church in your area where you will be taught how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon.

May you grow into Christ in all things becoming all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. May the Lord be with you.

Kings 9:6,7; 2 Kings 17:17-20; Jeremiah 7:8-15; Ezekiel 28:14-16; John 12:31; Matthew 8:11,12; 13:47-50; 22:13; 25:30; John 15:6.

Savourless salt, sinful Christians, graceless church-men are cast out: they are rejected and do not belong to the Lord anymore. There is no eternal security. Those who are eternally secured are those who are currently living in righteousness and holiness. But those who have gone back into sinning, whether secretly or publicly, are not secured; they will be cast out. When a Christian takes things for granted and is not preserving the saltness, the grace, the strength of character, righteousness and holiness, he is “cast out”. For a Christian to be cast out means that he is rejected and separated from Almighty God and the privileged place he had been, like the Jews. They (the Jews) had privileges and opportunity but misused them; they had the laws and old covenant but failed to walk in the precepts, principles and practices of the covenants. They were consequently to be cast out. Such is the lot of all who are graceless, savourless and unholy.

The savourless salt, the sinning Christian, the graceless church member that has lost the virtue, the grace, the sweetness of salt will eventually be cast out into the outer darkness. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” If you go into secret sins, it is noticeable by the kind of life you live but if you remain in those sins and you die in that condition, you go to hell.

BIG PUNCH “It is a great pity that those who swore to defend our Constitution and to uphold the rule of law are the same people who use violence as a political tool and serially abuse the power entrusted in them.”

- Northern elders to Jonathan

SATURDAY 20 — SUNDAY 21 , JULY, 2013

Exclusive: US bankrolled anti-Morsi activists Emad Mekay, Berkeley, USA Source: Al Jazeera

P

resident Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt’s crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president.

But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country’s now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley show the US channeled funding through a State Department program to promote democracy in the Middle East region. This program vigorously supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt, after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011.

The State Department’s pro, dubbed by US officials as a “democracy assistance” initiative, is part of a wider Obama administration effort to try to stop the retreat of pro-Washington secularists, and to win back influence in Arab Spring countries that saw the rise of Islamists, who largely oppose US interests in the Middle East. Activists bankrolled by the program include an exiled Egyptian police officer who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi government, an antiIslamist politician who advocated closing mosques and dragging preachers out by force, as well as a coterie of opposition politicians who pushed for the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected leader, government documents show.

Washington’s democracy assistance program for the Middle East is filtered through a pyramid of agencies within the State Department.

Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars is channeled through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), USAID, as well as the Washington-based, quasi-governmental organization the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In turn, those groups reroute money to other organizations such as the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Freedom House, among others. Federal documents show these groups have sent funds to certain organizations in Egypt, mostly ADVERT: BUSINESS:

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run by senior members of anti-Morsi political parties who double as NGO activists. The Middle East Partnership Initiative has spent close to $900m on democracy projects across the region, a federal grants database shows. USAID manages about $1.4bn annually in the Middle East, with nearly $390m designated for democracy promotion, according to the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).

Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman – who served in Egypt’s elite investigative police unit, notorious for human rights abuses – began receiving NED funds in 2008 for at least four years. US Internal Revenue Service documents reveal that NED paid tens of thousands of dollars to Soliman through an organisation he created called Hukuk Al-Nas (People’s Rights), based in Falls Church, Virginia. Federal forms show he is the only employee. After he was awarded a 2008 human rights fellowship at NED and moved to the US, Soliman received a second $50,000 NED grant in 2009 for Hukuk Al-Nas. In 2010, he received $60,000 and another $10,000 in 2011.

In an interview with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, Soliman reluctantly admitted he received US government funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, but complained it wasn’t enough. “It is like $2000 or $2,500 a month,” he said. “Do you think this is too much? Obama wants to give us peanuts. We will not accept that.”

NED has removed public access to its Egyptian grant recipients in 2011 and 2012 from its website. NED officials didn’t respond to repeated interview requests.

Soliman encouraged the violent overthrow of Egypt’s government, then led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.

“Incapacitate them by smashing their knee bones first,” he instructed followers on Facebook in late June, as Morsi’s opponents prepared massive street rallies against the government. Egypt’s US-funded and trained military later used those demonstrations to justify its coup on July 3. “Make a road bump with a broken palm tree to stop the buses going into Cairo, and drench the road around it with gas and diesel. When the bus slows down for the bump, set it all ablaze so it will burn down with all the passengers inside … God bless,” In late May he instructed, “Behead those who control power, water and gas utilities.”

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Ibraheem Sulaiman sa427420@gmail.com

US President, Barack Obama More recent Facebook instructions to his 83,000 followers range from guidelines on spraying roads with a mix of auto oil and gas - “20 liters of oil to 4 liters of gas”- to how to thwart cars giving chase. On a YouTube video, Soliman took credit for a failed attempt in December to storm the Egyptian presidential palace with handguns and Molotov cocktails to oust Morsi.

Other beneficiaries of US government funding are also opponents of the now-deposed president, some who had called for Morsi’s removal by force. The Salvation Front main opposition bloc, of which some members received US funding, has backed street protest campaigns that turned violent against the elected government, in contradiction of many of the State Department’s own guidelines. A longtime grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy and other US democracy groups is a 34-year old Egyptian woman, Esraa Abdel-Fatah, who sprang to notoriety during the country’s pitched battle over the new constitution in December 2012. She exhorted activists to lay siege to mosques and drag from pulpits all Muslim preachers and religious figures who supported the country’s the proposed constitution, just before it

went to a public referendum. The act of besieging mosques has continued ever since, and several people have died in clashes defending them. Federal records show Abdel-Fatah’s NGO, the Egyptian Democratic Academy, received support from NED, MEPI and NDI, among other State Department-funded groups “assisting democracy”. Records show NED gave her organization a one-year $75,000 grant in 2011. Abdel-Fatah is politically active, crisscrossing Egypt to rally support for her Al-Dostor Party, which is led by former UN nuclear chief Mohamed El-Baradei, the most prominent figure in the Salvation Front.

She lent full support to the military takeover, and urged the West not call it a “coup”. “June 30 will be the last day of Morsi’s term,” she told the press a few weeks before the coup took place.

Michael Meunier is a frequent guest on TV channels that opposed Morsi.

Head of the Al-Haya Party, Meunier - a dual US-Egyptian citizen - has quietly collected US funding through his NGO, Hand In Hand for Egypt Association.

Meunier’s organisation was founded by some of the most vehement opposition figures, including Egypt’s richest man and well-known Coptic Christian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Tarek Heggy, an oil industry executive, Salah

Diab, Halliburton’s partner in Egypt, and Usama Ghazali Harb, a politician with roots in the Mubarak regime and a frequent US embassy contact.

Meunier has denied receiving US assistance, but government documents show USAID in 2011 granted his Cairobased organisation $873,355. Since 2009, it has taken in $1.3 million from the US agency. Meunier helped rally the country’s five million Christian Orthodox Coptic minority, who oppose Morsi’s Islamist agenda, to take to the streets against the president on June 30.

Reform and Development Party member Mohammed Essmat alSadat received US financial support through his Sadat Association for Social Development, a grantee of The Middle East Partnership Initiative. The federal grants records and database show in 2011 Sadat collected $84,445 from MEPI “to work with youth in the post-revolutionary Egypt”. Sadat was a member of the coordination committee, the main organizing body for the June 30 anti-Morsi protest.

Since 2008, he has collected $265,176 in US funding. Sadat announced he will be running for office again in upcoming parliamentary elections. After soldiers and police killed more than 50 Morsi supporters on Monday, Sadat defended the use of force and blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, saying it used women and children as shields.

Some US-backed politicians have said Washington tacitly encouraged them to incite protests. “We were told by the Americans that if we see big street protests that sustain themselves for a week, they will reconsider all current US policies towards the Muslim Brotherhood regime,” said Saaddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American politician opposed Morsi.

Some Egyptians, meanwhile, said the US was out of line by sending cash through its democracy program in the Middle East to organizations run by political operators.

“Instead of being sincere about backing democracy and reaching out to the Egyptian people, the US has chosen an unethical path,” said Esam Neizamy, an independent researcher into foreign funding in Egypt, and a member of the country’s Revolutionary Trustees, a group set up to protect the 2011 revolution. “The Americans think they can outsmart lots of people in the Middle East. They are being very hostile against the Egyptian people who have nothing but goodwill for them — so far,” Neizamy said.

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