Peoples Daily Newspaper, Tuesday 22, January, 2013

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

Vol. 10 No. 16

Monday, January 21, 2013

. . . putting the people first

16 police recruits roasted in auto crash >> PAGE 2

AFCON: Eagles set to perch on Stalions >> PAGE 41

Rabiul Awwal 10, 1434 AH

N150

Group claims attack on Mali-bound troops >> PAGE 3

2015: Jonathan tightens grip on PDP Drafts Maduekwe, Mantu, others to cleanse BoT Tukur plots to neutralize governors’ influence

By Lawrence Olaoye

A

head of the 2015 Presidential election, there are indications that President Goodluck Jonathan has perfected strategy to take over the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in order to pave way for his nomination as the party’s candidate.

This is coming as the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has equally begun to make surreptitious moves to neutralize the awesome influence of the PDP governors in his National Working Committee (NWC).

A source within the Presidency told Peoples Daily that Jonathan has recalled the nation’s High Commissioner to Canada, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, to head a newly created Crisis Management Desk in the Presidency.

Maduekwe, according to the source, would be assisted by Professor Jerry Gana who heads of the committee set up to clean up the membership of the PDP’s Board of Trustees (BoT).

Both stakeholders are to be assisted by Senators Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina. Interestingly, the foursome played significant roles in the failed third term agenda of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The term of reference for the group, the source revealed, was to ensure the purge of Contd on Page 2

Sokoto state Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko (2nd right), exchanging greetings with the father of the day, former President Shehu Shagari (2nd left), during the wedding fatiha of four of the governor's children, at the weekend in Wamakko, Sokoto state.

Ado Bayero flown to London, three arrested From Edwin Olofu, Kano

T

he Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, who was attacked by unknown gunmen on Saturday, has been flown to London for medical attention.

This is just as news filtered out

yesterday afternoon that three persons have been arrested in connection with the attack that left not fewer than six people dead.

The Emir’s departure to London at about 1.35 pm yesterday was witnessed by the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr.

Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Islamic scholars and some top government officials.

It was learnt that the traditional ruler needed medical attention as he may have sustained some injuries from glass shrapnel in the attack.

In an interview with reporters at the airport, Kano state Deputy Governor confirmed that some arrest had been made by the security agencies, and investigations have commenced over the attack.

Security source in Kano

revealed to our reporter that on Sunday three persons were arrested and they are cooperating with security agencies in their investigations.

The deputy governor said: “It’s very unfortunate Saturday Contd on Page 2

PAGE 2

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

CONTENTS News

2-10

Editorial

12

Op.Ed

13

Letters

14

Opinion

15

Metro

16-18

Business

19-22

S/Exchange S/Report Law Education

23 24-25 26 27-28

16 police recruits roasted in auto crash N From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

o fewer than sixteen newly recruited police officers were yesterday Sunday were burnt to death while about six sustained serious injuries in a fatal motor accident in OmuAran, in Irepodun Local Government area of Kwara state.

The newly posted recruits were said to be on their way to Nasarawa state when the accident occurred at about 10 a.m. leaving 13 of them burnt beyond recognition.

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he House of Representatives will on January 31, 2013 unveil the collated results of the Peoples Public Sessions it conducted on the review of the 1999 constitution on November 10, 2012 across 360 federal constituencies of the country.

According to the Deputy Speaker/Chairman, House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the collated results will be presented at a public ceremony to be held at the House of Representatives during which the voting pattern on all the issues itemized in the template for voting during the sessions will be unveiled

The accident occurred when the Toyota 18-seater bus they were traveling in from Ilorin had a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz 190 model car marked AC 345 DKA and immediately burst into flames.

It was gathered that many of the unlucky police recruits were of Kwara origin who had just finished their training in Lagos and were on an exchange posting to Nasarawa state.

Eyewitnesses said the driver of the Mercedes Benz car, which was heading toward Omu-Aran at top

speed, lost control of his vehicle and rammed into the bus close to the Federal Government College in Omu-Aran.

“The bus immediately caught fire,” the eyewitness said.

Confirming the accident, Kwara State Police Public Relation Officer(PPRO), DSP Femi Fabode said the police was aware of the accident and that people died but could not confirm the number of the victims as at press time.

The 13 corpses, which were burnt beyond recognition, had been deposited at the morgue by

officials of the FRSC. Those who sustained injuries were taken to the Omu-Aran General Hospital for treatment.

The Divisional Police Officer in Omu-Aran, Mr. Rasak Adebayo, confirmed the incident, saying that his command had started investigations.

An official of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) at the scene said the bodies of the dead have been deposited at a morgue while the injured were taken to the Omu-Aran General Hospital for treatment.

Constitution amendment: Reps to release results of public sessions as decided by Nigerians at each federal constituency.

Ihedioha, in a statement signed by the Clerk of the Committee, Chinedu Akubueze, said the ceremony is in keeping faith with the commitment made by the House to make the process of the Peoples Public Sessions and indeed, the entire constitution amendment exercise transparent and accountable to the Nigerian people.

He added that as was the case when representatives of stakeholder organizations and civil

society groups were invited to actively participate in the conduct of the Peoples Public Sessions and the collation process thereafter, representatives of labour, trade unions, students, women, professional groups and other stakeholders have been invited to the ceremony on January 31.

The ceremony to be presided over by the Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwa, would also have the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, in attendance.

Others billed to be at the ceremony include representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), National Youth Council, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and representatives of civil society organizations.

Ikimi to lead ACN's merger talks with CPC, ANPP As House probes Mint’s missing billions Page 4

Health

29-30

Int’l

31-34

Strange World 35 Politics

37-40

Sports

41-46

Leisure

47

Columnist

48

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

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

Phones for News: 070-37756364 09-8734478

From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

T

he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has appointed a 19-member committee with the mandate to negotiate its planned merger with the Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its national

publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the ACN said the committee, to be chaired by Chief Tom Ikimi, has as members Aremu Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Governors Babatunde Fashola and Rauf Aregbesola, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Senator George Akume and Hon. Abike DabiriErewa.

Other members are Senator Lawal Shuaibu, Chief Audu Ogbe, Chief Achike Udenwa, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Senator Chris Ngige, Dr. Usman Bugaje, Hadjia Rabiat Eshak, Dr. Ibrahim Lame, Alhaji Yusuf Ali and Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The ACN said the appointment of the committee is an indication of its total commitment to making the

merger a reality, adding that there is no going back in the party’s determination to work with the CPC and the ANPP to rescue and salvage Nigeria.

The ACN also congratulated the leadership of the CPC and the ANPP, which have already named their own merger committees, for their patriotism and appealed to all Nigerians to support the planned merger.

2015: Jonathan tightens grip on PDP Contd from Page 1 the BoT with a view to refilling same with members of the party with unalloyed loyalty to the President.

The BoT could not elect its chairman after former President Obasanjo’s resignation because the tenure of most of its members has expired. Jonathan has been making frantic efforts to install his loyalist, Chief Tony Anenih, as the BoT Chairman while

Obasanjo was rooting for Chief Ahmadu Ali instead.

Both camps could not reach a consensus on who becomes the BoT chairman and the Presidency quickly devised a means of weeding out those suspected to be against his candidate by setting up the Gana committee to clean up the body’s membership.

Further to the plan, Jonathan in concert with the PDP Chairman, has devised a means to checkmate the powers of the

PDP governors in the affairs of the party at the headquarters by bringing the six Zonal ViceChairmen back into the NWC after so many years of absence.

This, according to the plan, is to counter-balance the existing dominance of the organ by proxies of the governors.

It was learnt that Tukur recently met with the six Zonal Vice Chairmen of the party in Kaduna to brief them on the latest development in the party’s

administration. Although it has been severally refuted, insinuations are rife that the 27 PDP governors are plotting Tukur’s removal in order to take total control of the party’s machinery.

Efforts by Peoples Daily to speak to the party''s National Publicity Secretary, Olisah Metuh, last night on these developments were unsuccessful as it was learnt he is a way in Malaysia on vacation.

Ado Bayero flown to London, three arrested Contd from Page 1 attack on the Emir, but we thank God that his royal highness was able to survive it although he lost his three guards during the attack; but as you can see now the Emir is leaving for medical checkup in London and he is stable.

“We have embarked on prayers and believing God that those attackers that are not the

indigene of this state and even some of them are aliens, will be exposed. I spoke with the Emir and he is healthy and narrated to me how it happened”, he said.

Ado Bayero was said to have travelled alongside his son Sanusi Ado Bayero (Chiroman Kano) and other palace guards who were in his entourage and sustained injuries.

Before the attack, Bayero had been visiting a hospital in London on several occasions to seek medical attention.

Gunmen Saturday attacked the convoy of the Emir near Murtala Mohammed Mosque at Hausawa quarters in Kano metropolis, killing his driver, orderly and a palace guard. But he was said to have escaped unhurt.

The gunmen also killed an Interim Management Officer (IMO), Alhaji Salisu Abdullahi Kura, and two other persons.

Two of the Emir’s sons, Ciroman Kano Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero and Turakin Kano Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero, who were on the entourage, also sustained gunshot injuries in the hand and leg, respectively.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 3

Govs plan to scrap LGs – Sen Adeyemi L-R: Former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Abba Musa Rimi, with Jigawa state Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, during the former’s condolence visit to Governor Lamido over the death of his uncle, late Sheikh Abubakar Bamaina, yesterday.

Man bags 15 months for trespass, theft

By Our Correspondent

T

he Chief Magistrate Court 1, in Damaturu, Yobe state has sentenced a 20-year-old man, Abdullahi Mohammed, a labourer from Gumsuri ward, Damboa local government area of Borno state for trespass and theft contrary to sections 348 and 288 of the Penal Code.

Police prosecutor, Corporal Bulama Maina, told the court that the accused person trespassed into the house of one Adamu M. Buba of Nayinawa Kandahar ward in Damaturu, Yobe state and carted away property worth N25,000 an offence which runs contrary to sections 349 and 288 of the Penal Code.

He said the items stolen include children’s clothes, one piece of textile material, among others.

After the charges were read to the accused before the court, he pleaded guilty and asked for leniency.

In his judgement, Chief Magistrate Gambo Hussaini Jumbam, said the prosecution had proved its case and sentenced the accused to three months imprisonment with no option of a fine for the offence of trespass and another 12 months imprisonment

By Richard Ihediwa

C

Group claims attack on Mali-bound troops

A

n Islamist group blamed for abducting Westerners claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Nigerian troops heading to Mali yesterday, according to the Desert Herald.

Suspected Islamist gunmen opened fire on a convoy of troops leaving Nigeria en route to deployment with West African forces in Mali, killing two officers and wounding eight others, in Kogi state on Saturday.

The statement in the online newspaper said the attack was part of a mission to stop Nigerian troops joining Western powers in their “aim to demolish the Islamic empire of Mali”.

“We are warning the African countries to... (stop) helping Western countries in fighting

against Islam and Muslims or face the utmost difficulties”, said the statement by the group, whose full name Jama'atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan means “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”.

The attack came after a report that a veteran jihadist claimed responsibility for al Qaeda for a mass hostage-taking in Algeria, in which at least 23 hostages and 32 militants were killed, and called on France to stop air strikes in Mali.

Ansaru is one of several radical Islamist groups seen as the leading security threat to Nigeria.

Dubbed a terrorist organisation

by Britain, it has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a French national last month,

citing France's ban on full-face veils and its support for military action in Mali as reasons for the abduction.

Thought to be a breakaway from the Boko Haram sect, it has risen to greater prominence over the past few months. Unlike betterknown Boko Haram, it seems to have a much more thorough focus on global jihad, rather than a domestic political agenda.

It also said it was behind a dawn raid on the Special Anti Robbery Squad in Abuja in November, in which it said hundreds of prisoners were released.

Security sources suspect it was behind the kidnap and killing of a Briton and an Italian in northwest Nigeria, and of a German in the city of Kano, last year. (Reuters)

Kaduna PDP gets new chairman From Nasiru Mu'azu Isa, Kaduna

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lhaji Abubakar Gaiya Haruna, the Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs, has been confirmed as the substantive chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna state.

This was confirmed to newsmen after a closed door

meeting of PDP stakeholders at the State House, Kaduna.

Alhaji Idris Shuaibu, a member of the party in the state said the choice of Haruna was excellent as he would steer the party to election success in 2015.

Another member of the party Hon. Godfrey Gayya, a member of the House of Representatives representing Jaba federal

constituency, said Haruna is a tested veteran of the party with a lot of experience having served as a commissioner in different dispensations.

It would be recalled the former chairman of the party, Nuhu Bajoga was appointed as deputy governor of the state following the death of late Governor Patrick Yakowa.

hairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Smart Adeyemi, has alleged that there was a desperate move by state governors to ensure the scrapping of local governments in the ongoing constitution amendment exercise but vowed that the National Assembly will resist such.

Adeyemi, who stated this at a news briefing in Abuja at the weekend, also accused state governors of sabotaging development of the local government areas by allegedly cornering the huge monthly allocations to that tier of government.

He said the members of the National Assembly are poised to ensure that the governors do not have their way in the bid to remove the third tier of government; noting that the local governments are there to take governance to the people at the grass roots.

He countered arguments by the chairman of the Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, that Nigeria is the only country with a third tier, noting that the country must not ape others but develop systems that best suit its needs as a country with socio-cultural diversity.

“We will do everything possible to resist any attempt to stop the third tier of government from being entrenched in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The third tier system of government is the only government of the people at the grassroots. Let nobody think about the two tier system of government.

That will not be allowed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We the people will rise against that move.

I will join other stakeholders to go on a nationwide demonstration. To run two tiers of government is to further impoverish the people”, he said.

“If our federal system of government is going to be different from what is operational in other countries let it be because equally, I have never heard of any federal system where governors come together as governors forum and get involved in policy formulation and implementation. I have never heard of governors’ forum in United States”, he said.

Adeyemi accused the governors of impoverishing the local governments by cornering the allocations meant for that tier through the State and Local Councils Joint Account which he said is fraudulently managed by states.

Nasarawa crises not religious, says Al-makura From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

G

overnor Umaru Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa state has denied any link to religion in the spate of communal skirmishes across parts of the state, stressing that such clashes predate the creation of the state.

Al-makura stated this in an address he made while holding a meeting between representatives of Eggon and Fulani herdsmen

from the southern senatorial zone of the state, adding that there is political undertone in the crisis since, according to him, “if it is a crisis involving Fulani herdsmen and farmers, is it only in the Southern senatorial district that farming activities are ongoing?”

The meeting which held yesterday at the Government House, Lafia, had in attendance leaders of the Eggon community including a former Chief Judge of

the state, Justice Ahmed Ubangari, as well as representatives of the Fulani community led by Sen. Walid Jubril, the Sarkin Fulanin Nasarawa.

Also at the meeting were the Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai II, top security operatives and government officials.

The governor blamed the absence of a functional leadership for the prevailing state of

insecurity, blaming selfish leaders for instigating the people to take up arms against each other, just so as, according to him, “to fulfill their selfish desires.”

He recalled with nostalgia the peace prevailing in the state before the series of crises became the order of the day, urging community leaders to rise up to the occasion by calling their people to order.

As a step towards checking incessant skirmishes between

farmers and herdsmen, Almakura disclosed plans to set up a committee to map out grazing routes across the state, as well as build earth dams to provide drinking water to farm animals.

Al-makura also revealed that he is creating the office of the Special Adviser on reconciliation, to avail the people the opportunity to reach him and to report directly to him cases of communal clashes.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

As House probes Mint’s missing billions

By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi

W

hen in the first week of December, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index Report 2012 placed Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt country in the world, out of a total of 176 countries surveyed, the halfhearted indignation from government officials had hardly registered when the news broke out that a staggering N2.1 billion of newly printed N1, 000 notes have mysteriously disappeared from the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), also known as the MINT. But as is the wont in Nigerian, the media is always misquoting, misrepresenting or out rightly mischievous, which is why public office holders rarely come clean whenever they are put on the spot for one misdeed or another. They wax eloquent in their flippant denials, regardless of the allegation against them. But more often than not allegations of impropriety against officials eventually turn out to be true.

Which is exactly the case in the missing N2.1billion at the Mint. Although the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Mint’s supervising agency, had said the missing amount was about N2 billion, the Managing Director of the Mint, Mr. Ehi Okomoyon claimed that the amount was only N1.5 million, with his media adviser,Mr. Obi Adiele, even more economical with the truth as he claimed that the actual amount missing was just N900,000, a far cry from N2.1billion.

On Thursday last week, after considering a motion sponsored by 61 lawmakers, the House of Representatives in plenary decided to investigate the missing of the N2.1 billion from the NSPMC’s vaults after considering a motion sponsored by 61 legislators. A special ad hoc committee was raised and mandated to investigate the alleged disappearance of the money, consisting of newly printed N1, 000 notes, from the vaults of the Mint.

Leading the debate on the matter, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Albert SamTsokwa said that, “We are disturbed that there has been conflicting information on the actual amount of money declared missing. While the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it was about N2 billion, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) has claimed that the amount was N1.5 million and the media adviser to the managing director claimed

When a national daily broke the news of the missing billions at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), the Mint for short, it was vehemently denied by the management, which ridiculously quoted between N900,000 and N1.5 million as the actual amount missing. Now that the House of Representatives has waded into the matter, will the truth out?

CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, please.

House Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal that the actual amount missing was N900,000.

“He also claimed that it was due to a security breach and that a security operative was arrested in Lagos with the said sum of N900, 000. It is also important to point out that about nine workers of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company were summarily dismissed from the establishment after news of the theft became public knowledge.”

Hon. Sam-Tsokwa further informed the House that, “This is the second known time that large sums of money have allegedly disappeared in the course of production due to security breaches as admitted by the management of the NSPMC.” Indeed, as soon as the news of the disappearance of the money broke out in the first week of December, the House of Representatives had ordered for a probe into the matter, with the Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Honourable Chukwudi Onyereri announcing that his committee had already waded into the matter with a view to finding out the truth of the matter.

The committee had then invited the Governor of the

Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamaido Sanusi, who is also the Chairman of the NSPM and the management of the company.

But even before the intervention of the National Assembly, that CBN had instituted a discreet probe as a result of which the Mint’s embattled Managing Director and the Head of Security, Emmanuel Balawere were suspended from office in what was to be the second time Mr. Okomoyon was suspended, having served a three-month suspension in 2007 when Charles Soludo held sway as CBN governor.

It is just as well that the

House has waded into the matter because the opposition political parties are attributing the serial floundering of government coffers to the Jonathan administration’s insincerity in fighting corruption.

The National Publicity Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Mr. Emma Uneukwu, had this to say, “One basic fact is that corruption has become endemic in this country and the present leadership is paying lip service to fighting it.

Since people have discovered that the present government is not serious with fighting corruption, they have resorted to all forms of

“

But with the administration’s notoriety for reluctance to prosecute big time cases of corruption, regardless of the amount of human and material resources expended in the process, the House’s probe may, after all is said and done, end in the trash bin; just like many others before it.

criminality and brazen acts of corruption. It’s happening everywhere, the pension board, the NNPC, name it. So, the NSPMC is not an exception.

“Until Nigeria gets a leader, who is serious with fighting corruption, embarrassing things like this will keep happening and the country will not move forward.”

And his opposite number in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mr. Rotimi Fashakin said, “If confirmed, this is unprecedented in Nigeria’s history. It seems, under this regime, all forms of bizarre acts of brigandage and banditry are possible. Do not be surprised that like all other cases of corruption, no conviction shall be established.

Under this Jonathan-led regime, Nigeria’s bleeding and pillaging has continued unabated.”

But with the administration’s notoriety for reluctance to prosecute big time cases of corruption, regardless of the amount of human and material resources expended in the process, the House’s probe may, after all is said and done, end in the trash bin; just like many others before it.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 5

Attack on Kano Emir L-R: President John Mahama of Ghana, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Alpha Conde of Guinea, and President Goodluck Jonathan, during the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, on Saturday in Abidjan.

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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Northern govs condemn attack on Emir, soldiers From Illya Garba, Minna

T

he chairman, Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) and governor of Niger state, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has condemned in strong terms the attack on the motorcade of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero by yet to be identified gunmen on Saturday.

The forum also condemned the coordinated attack on Nigerian soldiers travelling in two luxury

buses from military formations in Southern Nigeria to Kaduna for onward deployment to Mali by unknown gunmen at Abobo village, a few miles from Okene in Kogi state on Saturday.

The attacks on the Emir of Kano claimed the lives of his driver, orderly and three palace guards; while two soldiers lost their lives and many others were injured when their convoy was attacked with IEDs and other deadly weapons in the early hours of same day.

Governor Aliyu in a press statement signed by his deputy Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Bala Bitrus, said it is a brazen act of terrorism and the height of disrespect for the traditional institution in Nigeria which must be condemned by every concerned Nigerian.

This spate of insecurity in the country is coming at a time when the search for a lasting solution to the increasing cases of insecurity was becoming everybody’s

series of such attacks in the country.

PDP’s national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday said the party was deeply saddened by the wave of attacks and urged those behind the dastardly acts to have a rethink.

While stating that there was no justification for bloodletting, the party said Nigerians should learn to live harmoniously with one

another adding that those who have grievances of any kind should seek legitimate means of getting redress instead of resorting to violence.

The party urged the security agencies to rise to the occasion and ensure that those behind the attack on the Emir and other Nigerians are brought to book. It also urged the Emir not to give up in his selfless contributions to the state and the nation in general.

Saturday 19th January, 2013.

In a press statement issued in Kaduna yesterday, JNI commiserated with the families of the deceased, the Kano state government, the Kano Emirate Council and the entire people of Kano state over the criminal and cowardly attack.

JNI reiterated its earlier calls to governments at all levels to give security of lives and property of

citizens the utmost priority it deserves.

JNI called on all Muslims to intensify prayers to bring to an end the security challenges facing the nation.

The statement further called on the authorities concerned to carry out thorough investigations in order to unmask and arrest the perpetrators of the crime.

…a sacrilegious assault – PDP

By Lawrence Olaoye

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he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has condemned last Saturday's attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, describing it as a sacrilegious assault on the respected traditional institution.

The party also commiserated with the families of those who lost their lives in the attack as well as others that have been killed in

…It’s cowardly – JNI

From Nasiru Mu'azu Isa, Kaduna

J

ama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) under the leadership of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, yesterday condemned in the attack on his Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero on his way from an Islamic function on

Nigeria is bleeding – Tinubu

concern, Aliyu said, describing the attackers as ‘faceless individuals’ who are bent on instilling fear and creating a state of apprehension across the country in order to attain their selfish motives.

Aliyu while calling on the Emir to remain steadfast in his stance against acts of terrorism and all forms of criminality, also urged the Nigerian Army not to be discouraged by the attacks but to see the trend as a wake-up call to evolve ways of protecting the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

The Federal Government, he said, must quickly brace up to the brazen activities of faceless persons across the country who are turning the country into a terror zone by launching a sweeping campaign to mop up dangerous weapons in the hands of some criminally-minded individuals.

ational leader, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu has described the attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero and his convoy as most condemnable and unfortunate. According to Tinubu, a most frightening dimension in the attacks unleashed by terrorists on Nigerians and prominent leaders is being witnessed, which suggests that there is no hiding place and no one is safe until the government tackles the problem of insecurity. “Nigeria has sunk to a new low in insecurity”, Tinubu maintained.

“These incessant attacks and this most recent one on the respected Emir of Kano is unacceptable in a country governed by an elected government invested with power and state resources to ensure efficient security for all its citizens.

Nigeria continues to bleed, while those charged with protecting their lives flounder and fiddle in their response to a problem that could undermine national security and endanger our young democracy”.

Tinubu further stated that the pipeline disasters and deaths, the bombings of churches and mosques, the car accidents on the roads and the ravaging fire disasters signpost a nation bleeding from many places.

Tinubu queried the level of intelligence gathering in the country and the alert system considering that almost a year ago a most deadly attack of multiple bombings occurred in Kano. He called for better coordination and sharing of information and an intelligence alert system that is efficient.

Describing Alhaji Ado Bayero as a well-respected traditional ruler and one with a progressive orientation who has led his people with courage and vision, Tinubu recalled his visit to the palace in Kano mid last year where he met with the Emir. “His desire to see a better future for his people and his commitment to a more democratic society was never in doubt”.

Gaya calls for caution From Mohammed Adamu, Kaduna

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enator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, (ANPP Kano South), has condemned the attempt on the life of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero in the Kano metropolis last Saturday.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the senator on Communication and Strategy, Idris Afegbua, Gaya said the level of insecurity in the country is becoming alarming.

He said at this time when Nigeria is wooing investors to the country to address youth unemployment, insecurity is becoming a cog in the

wheels of progress. He further said the incessant attacks by unknown gunmen is impeding businesses in the state.

Senator Gaya also advised the Federal Government to create an avenue where dialogue can be used to resolve the crises that has cost thousands of lives.

Senator Gaya called on the security agencies to rise to the occasion particularly now that issue of autonomy of local councils is in the front burner of political debate in the country.

The senator appealed to all Nigerians to be their brothers’ keeper.

PAGE 6

Nigerians are pleased with FERMA - Perm Sec

By Mohammed Kandi

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ermanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works, Dr. Abubakar Koro Muhammad, has commended the management and staff of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), for executing the presidential directive on Operation Zero Potholes by yuletide in 2012.

Muhammad, who gave the commendation during a working visit to the agency's head office in Abuja, said FERMA lived up to the expectation of Nigerians.

In a statement issued by FERMA's head of communications and public relations, Maryam M. Sanusi, he said the agency had since overcome the era of rampant challenge of potholes on the federal roads.

According to him, the board, management and staff of the agency feel proud that such negative public commentary has now given way to commendation, hence the need to ensure that the current positive image was sustained by remaining focused on its mandate all year round.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

NIS recruitment scam: Interior Ministry sets up probe c'ttee

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

I

n the wake of the recruitment scam that rocked the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), and also led to the sack of its former Comptroller General, Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzoma, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has set up a six-man committee to investigate how the former CG ran the service, with an intention to correct all abnormalities.

The committee is chaired by the Director Paramilitary, Mr.

Keftin Amuga, while Dr. Rufai Kawu is the deputy chairman.

Other members of the committee include; Alhaji Kurfi A. Ibrahim, Babandede Mohammed, Mr. E. S. A. Ojo and a representative of the State Security Service.

Inaugurating the committee behind closed doors last week in Abuja in the presence of the Acting Comptroller General, Rilwanu Bala Musa, Moro, said he received some petitions and appeals from some officers of the service bordering on fraud,

injustice and tribal sentiments in the conduct of the promotion exercise.

He stated further that other serious allegations ranging from certificate forgery and non-adherence to the principle of seniority in determining officers eligible for promotion were also received.

His words: "After the last promotion of officers in the NIS, I received some petitions and appeals from some officers of the service bordering on fraud, injustice and tribal sentiment in the conduct of the promotion

L-R: Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Isa Bello Sali; DirectorGeneral, Bureau of Public Procurement, Engineer Emeka Ezeh; and a member, Houses of Representatives, Hon. Uzo Azubike, during the retreat for Federal Permanent Secretaries, on Saturday in Lagos.

SURE-P begins distribution of forms for 15,000 jobs in Ekiti From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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he Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), has commenced distribution of forms to interested applicants in the community services, youths and women employment scheme under which 15,000 youths are to be employed this year with 3,000 beneficiaries to be recruited in the first instance, while another 2,000 in February.

Thousands of applicants besieged palaces of traditional rulers in the headquarter towns of the 16 local councils in the state last Friday to obtain the forms and register for the scheme.

Addressing the youths at the palace of the Oore of Otun-Ekiti, Oba Adedapo Popoola, the chairman of the State Implementation Committee (SIC), Rt. Hon. Femi Akinyemi disclosed that by the end of February, the first 3,000 beneficiaries of the scheme would receive their first salary.

He said the scheme, when fully implemented would reduce poverty and crime in Ekiti state.

On why palaces are being used for the recruitment exercise, Akinyemi said: "We chose to use the palaces of our traditional rulers so as to show to the whole world that the programme is not designed for members of any political party".

Akinyemi, who monitored the forms distribution with the three senatorial coordinators of the programme, Mrs. Tosin Aluko (Central), Hon. Kayode Ogunsakin (South) and Hon. Dare Olaosebikan (North) and the State Director, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Dr. Jumoke Oni, noted that the programme was not designed for any political party.

exercise.

"There were other serious allegations ranging from certificate forgery and nonadherence to the principle of seniority in the determining officers eligible for promotion, these are all serious allegations that cannot be ignored", he said.

Part of the terms of reference given to the committee is to verify the allegation of secret recruitment/ appointments for sale and to investigate allegation of nepotism and adoption of primordial sentiments in the promotion of officers within the service.

Photo: NAN

Rescue police training institutions from decay, says ex-IGP

By Lambert Tyem

F

ormer Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo-Jimeta, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue, as well as draw a marshal plan to salvage, the nation's police training institutions from total decay.

Speaking with some crime correspondents in Abuja at the weekend, Gambo-Jimeta lamented the neglects of police training institutions by successive administrations which he said it has resulted in the deplorable

condition of most of the country's police colleges as well as other government institutions.

Reacting to Friday's unscheduled visit to the Police College in Ikeja, Lagos, by President Goodluck Jonathan, following a documentary on the college by Channels Television, the former National Security Adviser, said the visit portrayed Jonathan as a president who sees wrongs and corrects them.

"My joy knew no bounds when I saw the President himself at the Police College after Channels Television had shown the decrepit

and most horrible situation in that premier training institution for our police officers and men. Mr. President's prompt response to be there could only come from a very decent heart that requires the type of change thiscountry wants.

"When Channels Television showed us the footage of that video, that was two nights before the President's visit, I was so depressed because this was the institution I had attended from 1958 to 1960 and one of the best in the entire African continent. So when I saw it the way Channels TV exposed it, I was terribly devastated‌

"Then I also remembered a similar thing we saw about the National Stadium in Abuja, one of the best in the world. We just woke up to see the type of neglect and rubbish that it had turned out to be. So Mr. President has exonerated himself as a person who, when he sees anything wrong, he will do everything in his power to correct it. I hope he will do everything within his power to launch a marshall plan to retrieve that institution and similar institutions that has been neglected throughout the country," he said.

NACGRAB releases 12 new crop varieties - Director From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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irector, National Centre for Genetics Resources and Biotechnology, (NACGRAB) Mr. Wasiu Odofin, has disclosed that 12 new crop varieties developed by agricultural researchers were released to Nigerian farmers between July and December 2012.

Odofin who spoke with journalists in Ibadan, said the

amount was approved out of a total of 25 varieties submitted for registration and approval to the National Committee (Crops) on the Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries.

Giving a breakdown, Odofin said in July 2012 a total of 12 crop varieties were submitted for release and registration at the NACGRAB which is the committee' s secretariat.

He said the figure was made

up of 11 maize varieties - eight from the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); another two from IAR; and one from Mosanto, the Candel Company Nigeria Limited.

Apart from these, he said there was one variety of cassava submitted from the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike.

"Out of the 11 maize varieties

submitted for consideration, only five varieties were approved, released and registered.

"They include: Ife maize hyb2, Ife maize hyb-3, Ife maize hyb-4, Ife maize hyb-5, and SNK 2778", Odofin said.

On the only cassava variety released in July, the NACGRAB chief executive said the variety "UMUCASS 41" was released based on its high starch yield and dry matter as well as high yield.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Jonathan leaves for Switzerland, Ethiopia

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

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resident Goodluck Jonathan will embark on a working visit to Switzerland and Ethiopia today with engagements in Geneva and Davos devoted to drawing the attention of more members of the international business finance community to Nigeria’s immense investment potentials.

President Jonathan will at a meeting with an Eminent Persons Group on Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda in Geneva tomorrow lead a drive to attract greater foreign expertise and capital to boost the Federal Government’s efforts to rapidly transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Members of the Group include Mr. Bill Gates, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Kofi Annan, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, the President of the Africa Development Bank, Mr. Donald Kaberuka and the Chairman of the Del Monte Produce Group, Mr. Mohammed Abu-Ghazaleh.

The President would, at a special session of the annual

meeting of the world’s leading businessmen and industrialists at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, also promote new incentives for investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector targeted at attracting greater international support for the establishment of a much more successful and profitable agro-allied industry in the country.

The session would also focus on the establishments of staple crop processing zones and medium to long term financing options for agriculture in Nigeria.

On Thursday, President Jonathan who will be accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adewunmi Adesina, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for

the Economy, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is scheduled to host a private session with representatives of leading multinational companies under the auspices of the Business Interactive Group on Nigeria.

The President will also seize the opportunity of his participation in special sessions of the World Economic Forum to draw fresh global attention to the great opportunities

which ongoing reforms and deregulation, privatisation and commercialisation of former public sector monopolies have opened up for willing investors in key sectors of the Nigerian economy such as oil and gas, power supply, communications, transportation and agriculture.

President Jonathan will meet privately with the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands

Fire Service records 188 fire incidents, 18 other emergencies in 2012

T

he Federal Fire Service, Lagos State Command, yesterday said it recorded 188 fire incidents and 18 other emergencies, including collapsed buildings in 2012.

Mr Chike Njoku, the command’s Public Relations

Uduaghan justifies demolition of illegal structures From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

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overnor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state has described urban renewal as one of the greatest challenges facing governors in Nigeria.

The Governor stated this at the weekend when he paid a courtesy visit on the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun shortly after attending a grand reception organized by the South-West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in honour of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

According to him, urban renewal was one of the greatest challenges that requires boldness to execute and involved stepping on peoples’ toes as houses and sources of livelihood may be destroyed.

He stated that “even when some people are not happy, everybody will be happy at the end because we are working for the generality of the people and the interest of the state.”

Governor Uduaghan reiterated that the government and people of Delta State are looking at an economy beyond oil and as such, other sectors of the economy are being developed.

He also said that governors do not work along political party lines once elections were over, because they have a responsibility to work in the interest of everybody.

Evacuation of heaps of refuse at a car-wash in Lugbe area of the Federal Capital Territory by Clean and Green Greater Abuja set up by the FCT Minister of State, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, at the weekend.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

By Abubakar Ibrahim

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he Kaduna International Trade Fair has been slated for February 22 to March 8, 2013, president of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), Dr. Alimi Bello has said.

Briefing stakeholders during courtesy visits to the embassies of Iran, India, Pakistan and Egypt in Abuja recently, the president said he was happy to announce that the famous Kaduna International Trade Fair would hold on schedule.

The team also visited the Central Bank of Nigeria, Media Trust Limited and Blueprint newspapers in Abuja.

Dr. Bello was accompanied on the visit by Alhaji Awwalu Makarfi, first deputy president, Hajiya Farida Mahiba Dankaka, second deputy president, Alhaji Mukhtar Taju, a former member

and Norway, the President of Costa Rica and the Chief Executive Officers of the Huawei Technologies Company, Total and Coca-Cola Worldwide on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

He is expected to leave Switzerland on Friday for the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa.

Officer (PRO), made this known in Lagos. Njoku said that 168 deaths, including the victims of June 3 Dana plane crash, were recorded, while 48 lives were rescued.

“In December alone, we recorded 27 incidents of fire outbreak, the highest in one month during the year within the Lagos metropolis. Many people were so carefree about their safety during the yuletide,” Njoku said.

The spokesman said that within the same period, 16 false alarms were recorded, adding that the false alarms were made both with good and bad intentions.

According to him, the causes of the fire, included fireworks, candle light, storage of petroleum product wrongly, and other human carelessness.

He also blamed fuel scarcity experienced during the year, which made people to store fuel in their homes and wrong places, for the fire incidents.

“We attended to more fire incidents in 2012 than the previous years, particularly toward the end of the year. The fire incidents happened in private homes, public buildings, warehouses, sawmills and fuel tankers,’’ he said.

The spokesman said that the service had carried out enlightenment campaigns among the populace and in the schools on fire prevention.

(NAN)

Kaduna Fair opens February 22 of council and Malam Usman Saulawa, the Director General of the Chamber.

Speaking at the Embassy of Iran, Dr. Bello said they were there to appreciate the Iranian participation at last year’s trade fair despite the security challenges they faced and to solicit their support for this year’s edition of the fair.

Responding, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Saeed Koozechi said while recognising the fair as Africa’s most famous,the embassy officials would also visit Kaduna to review the arrangements made for this year’s trade fair.

At the Embassy of Egypt, Ambassador Asharaf Salama said there was a need for the Egyptian investor to come to Nigeria at this time given the situation in the

country today.

At the High Commission of India, the High Commissioner, Mr. Mahesh Sachdev noted the role played by KADCCIMA in promoting mutual relationship between India and Nigeria.

The High Commissioner stated that ‘despite India’s population of 1. 2 billion people, yet we are the largest exporter of rice to the world,’ adding that India and Nigeria were working together to promote agriculture.

At the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Malam Sulaiman Barau received the KADCCIMA officials.

Barau said that the KADCCIMA story was a compelling one, and pledged to visit KADCCIMA in Kaduna before the trade fair kicked off.

At Daily Trust, they were

received by the Managing Editor, Malam Sulaiman Mohammed; the president thanked the management of the newspapers for the coverage extended to the trade fair last year and called on them to continue.

He announced that for the third time, KADCCIMA would be conducting a quiz competition for senior secondary school students as an addendum to the trade fair.

Last years’ edition of the quiz saw Jigawa State coming first and Benue State second. There would be as usual cash prizes and laptops to be won, the president said.

At Blueprint newspapers, the KADCCIMA executives were received by the Executive Director, Malam Salisu Umar and Executive Editor, Hajiya Zainab Suleiman.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 9

Group blames poverty, unemployment for rising youth restiveness From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

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Muslim youth group, the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisation (NACOMYO), has identified poverty and unemployment as the root cause of youth restiveness across the country.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the first executive council meeting of the Nasarawa state chapter of the organisation, which held in Uke development area, Karu local government council, signed by its president, Salisu Musa Alkali, NACOMYO warned that the security situation in the country was alarmingly deterioratingwith the rampant killings of innocent civilians on the one hand, and the “unprofessional conduct” of security operatives on the other.

The group observed that the moral degradation of Nigerian youths was assuming a crisis dimension, which does not portend well for the development of the country.

NACOMYO equally blamed the federal government for employing double standards in its response to conflict resolution, such as using nonviolent strategy when it gave

amnesty to Niger-Delta militants but uses force to address the Boko Haram issue against natural justice.

The communiqué blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for lacking the will to tackle corruption as according to the group, “the non prosecution of individuals and government officials involved in high profile corruption cases, which has been dully investigated by relevant government agencies, is an indication of the lack of serious commitment of the federal government to tackle corruption in the country.”

NACOMYO urged parents to live up to their responsibilities by showing more commitment to the moral upbringing of their children and wards, while calling on the federal government to urgently implement the reports of various committees and agencies that investigated high profile corruption cases to serve as deterrent to others.

NACOMYO then commended Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura for reducing school fees and paying NECO fees for its students in public schools, which it said, would make education accessible to the less privileged in the society.

Two cops shot in Kaduna From Nasiru Mu’azu Isa, Kaduna

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wo policemen were shot at Sabon Layin Kawo of Kaduna on Friday, leaving one reportedly dead while the other is receiving treatment from injuries sustained during the attack.

The policemen were said to be on patrol in the area and were sitting beside a chemist when

the alleged gunman opened fire on them instantly killing one and wounding the other.

The State PRO of the force, DSP Aminu Lawan confirmed the incident and death of the policemen in a phone chat with our correspondent in Kaduna.

He also confirmed that no arrests were made but investigations were ongoing.

Man hangs self in Bauchi From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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man who apparently wanted to die rather than just make a scene, chose a secluded location along Bauchi Jos road to quietly commit suicide by hanging himself by the neck from a tree.

Residents of the area discovered the deceased in the early morning of Saturday.

Passersby also gathered to witness the unfortunate incident that touched the minds of all those who came to the scene.

The man, in his 20s, hanged himself at Miri village in Bauchi Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

Police from the GRA police station along Yandoka road came at 7: 40 am, to remove the unidentified man’s corpse.

Items found on the deceased were an old bible, pictures that showed him being baptized by a clergy dated September 2012 in

water with jubilant people at the background taking pictures of the ceremony.

He was smiling in most of the pictures as he was being baptized by immersion in water. It is not yet certain whether he left a suicide note. The deceased also left a handset and his face looked happy.

Sporting a pair of jeans and polo T-shirt, the deceased also looked healthy.

Unverified information had it that the deceased hailed from Alkaleri.

The police took his remains to the Trauma Centre of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching hospital where a doctor certified him dead.

A police officer was seen answering calls from the deceased handset and informing those who know him to come to the GRA police station.

L-R: Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo; former President Olusegun Obasanjo; his Wife, Bola Obasanjo; former President of Ghana , John Kuffor, and Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, during the celebrating of “Baba Obasanjo an outstanding Nigerian statesman and national icon”, on Saturday in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

200,000 Nigerian women suffer from VVF - USAID M

ore than 200,000 women in Nigeria are currently suffering from vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) condition, Chief Iyeme Efem, Programme Manager, USAID Fistula Care Project in Nigeria, has said.

The Nigerian VVF patients, according to Efem, represent about 40 per cent of cases of the scourge in the world.

He said in Calabar that the disturbing magnitude of VVF prevalence in the country had forced the Federal Government to order care of 66,000 patients in 2013.

“The prevalence of the scourge in Nigeria is worrisome and President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered that 66,000 persons living with VVF conditions should be given free repair surgery in 2013”, he said.

Efem said a National Strategic Framework for the Elimination of Obstetric Fistula in Nigeria, covering 2011 to 2015 was currently in place, adding, however, that the President’s target might not be attained in 2013.

He attributed his fear to lack of funds, saying that due to inadequate funding, USAID was only able to carry out repair surgeries on not more than 8, 000 patients in its centres across the country in 2012.

“Federal Government’s budgetary provision for the care of VVF patients in 2011 and 2012 were N300 million and N250 million, respectively; but the money was not released and no one could account for it”, he said.

He said the cost of repair surgery on a VVF patient was 250 dollars (about N39,000),

adding that an additional N50,000 was required for the rehabilitation of the patient after surgery.

He urged the relevant authorities to release all approved funds for the handling of the scourge.

“It took us a lot of time and energy to convince the Federal Ministry of Health to provide and pursue budget for VVF treatment in the country.’’

The USAID programme manager said dearth of professionals in the field was another drawback to meeting the target.

“In Nigeria, we are still in dire need of trained medical personnel on VVF. “Only a few Nigerian doctors and nurses have ventured into the treatment of VVF and this will affect the government’s programme in that area, this year”. (NAN)

Youths demand ministry in Kwara From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

K

wara state chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), has demanded for a Youth Ministry to be carved out from the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development.

The State Chairman of the Council, Mr. Kazeem Adekanye who made the request at the weekend during the council youth training retreat entitled “ Youth Capacity Building; Receipt for Security and Economic Stability”, said the separation of the Youth Ministry from Sports would enable the government to focus on the youth development.

He noted that since federal

government had done the same thing, it would not be odd in for the Kwara state government not to follow suit. “ I must not fail to use this opportunity to request for the creation of a separate Ministry of Youth akin to what is obtainable at the National level and some states.”

The state chairman who commended Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s administration on his efforts on youth empowerment, vocational centre at Ajase –Ipo, said the involvement of youth in governance should not be seen as a threat to senior citizens but complimentary. in his keynote address , Secretary to the state

government, Alhaji Isiaka Sola Gold, who was represented by a Director in Political Office, Elder David Adesina promised to deliver their message to the state governor.

He said the present administration was determined to consolidate on its present gains and further expand avenues for the youths.

Also speaking,the Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development Hajia Ramat Adesina Abaya , charged the leadership of the Council to be proactive and resilient in the tasks of restoring the lost glory of the society by combating societal ills through more voluntary organisations.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Attack on Kano Emir barbaric, says Yuguda From Ahmed Kaigam, Bauchi

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auchi state Governor, Isa Yuguda has described Saturday’s attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji (Dr) Ado Bayero, where three lives were lost, as barbaric and shocking.

A press statement issued and signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Ishola Michael Adeyemi said, “I received the sad news with shock, wondering why someone will want to take the life of another person particularly that of one of the leading royal fathers in Nigeria who is genuinely and deeply committed to peace and peaceful coexistence.”

Sympathising with the royal family over the unfortunate incident,Yuguda also condoled the families of those who lost their lives defending the Emir, saying that, “they died in active service laying down their lives for the Emir, and may Allah grant the departed aljannatul firdaus and their families the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”

He also sympathised with the government and people of Kano state over the incident, praying Allah to avert future occurrence just as he wished the royal father quick recovery from the shock and trauma the attempt might have caused him.

Court to sentence $188,858 smuggling suspect today

By Lambert Tyem

A

Federal High Court sitting in Abuja will today sentence one Abdulrasheed Ibrahim for attempting to smuggle $188,858 out of Nigeria .

The accused person on Thursday January 17, 2013 pleaded guilty to the one count charge of money laundering preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. According to a press release issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s Acting Head, Media & Publicity, Ibrahim was arrested on Wednesday November 7, 2012 as he prepared to board a Dubai , United Arab Emirates bound Ethiopian Airline.

A total of $188,858 was found on him. He had declared the sum of $45,000 but a search revealed additional $143, 858.

Upon arraignment on Thursday January 17, 2013, the accused pleaded guilty to the charge.

The prosecuting counsel, Chioma Okongwu tendered evidence of a certified true copy of export currency tendering list along with the sum of US 188,858.00 and prayed the court to convict the accused accordingly.

The defense Counsel Abubakar Y. Ndakele raised no objection to the tendering of exhibit, marked 1,2,3,4 respectively. The trial judge, Justice Adamu Bello adjourned the case to January 21, 2013 for sentencing.

L-R: Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, exchanging pleasantries with Emir of Dukku, Alhaji Abdulkadir Haruna El-Rasheed, during the emir's visit to the governor, recently at Government House, in Gombe.

Masts: Niger Warns Telecoms Coys From ILIYA GARBA, MINNA

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n an effort to sanitize the activities of Telecommunication service providers, the Niger state government has ordered them to settle with the host community before seeking approval from the government to erect masts.

The Commissioner for Land and Housing, Dr. Peter Sale Sarki who was represented by the

General Manager of the Niger state’s Geographic Information Centre, Dr Abdul Hussaini, made this known weekend at a press briefing in Minna.

He said the providers must also put back in proper state, any area dug to bury cables.

He said that government had written to the Federal Ministry of Communication reporting the lapses witnessed in the activities of some of the telecommunication

providers in the state.

Dr. Sarki also said that the state government would henceforth penalise providers with N150,000 fine and warned host communities to stop indiscriminate allocation of land to the companies especially in areas close to residences because of the health hazards they pose to the people.

Meanwhile, the government said it has waived the payment of

accumulated ground rents for residential building owners in the state under the recertification of land titles which the government began on January 1 this year but added that all property owners in this category, would be made to settle the current bill.

He reiterated that commercial buildings have to pay all outstanding levies before the end of next month when the timeframe given by government would lapse.

Jigawa youths laud Lamido on budget implementation From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

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ational Youths Council of Nigeria(NYCN), Jigawa State chapter has on behalf of the youth organisations in the State, congratulated Governor Alhaji Sule Lamido for achieving the highest budget performance and fiscal discipline in the country with 95% implementation of the 2012 budget.

This was contained in a press statement issued to Peoples Daily and signed by NYCN Public Relations Officer, Comrade Aminu yesterday in Dutse.

According to the statement, "the budget implementation is an unprecedented display of sense of responsibility and commitment by the state executive in providing for the needs of the Jigawa State populace as a top priority".

It adeded that, " the 2013 budget proposal shows a healthy growth of 5%, indicating very good growth " "NYCN is particularly impressed by the significant increase in State revenue with internally generated revenue (IGR) having the highest percentage increase of 15%

against 2012 estimates and across the board rise in the statutory allocation (11%), VAT (13%) and Federal Stabilization account (8%) respectively", he said.

This breakdown, according to him, showed that Jigawa State was on the path to economic independence as a result of sustained economic stability and healthy growth nurtured over

the last seven years by Governor Lamido.

“Indeed, Jigawa State is now a pacesetter and a light to the North and the Federation in terms of achieving outstanding progress toward economic independence, peaceful coexistence and stability.

The 2013 budget shows another quality of this administration of ensuring

inclusive and commitment in achieving Millennium Development Goals MDGs through improving on the provision of free maternal and child health services by over 300% increase in funds allocated to programs that have already provided free maternal and child services to over 2 million infants and their mothers since inception in 2007.

Adoke berated over delay in prosecuting Lawan From Ayodele Samuel,Lagos

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he Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has berated the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke for allegedly withholding the report of police investigation and draft charges against the embattled former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Hon. Farouk Lawan for allegedly receiving $620, 000 bribe from an oil magnate, Femi Otedola.

Reacting to the news that the police had sent the case file to Adoke since August 2012, the Executive Chairman of the

Coalition, Debo Adeniran derided the Minister of Justice for his “constant practice” of shielding corrupt people.

"It is so unfortunate that our AGF could cover up such magnitude of corruption. We knew from the outset that the whole scandal broke out to rubbish the authenticity of the House of Representatives' report.

Though the bribe giver claimed it was a sting operation done in connivance with the men of the State Security Service, my question still remains, why did it take both Otedola and the SSS two solid months to speak up after giving the marked dollar. I am still maintaining that the oil magnate is as guilty as Lawan himself,

because if he (Otedola) did not make the payment for himself, he probably paid the bribe to let his friends in the industry off the hook of the Farouk Lawan's Committee.

To this end, the AGF should make public the police investigation and ensure apposite prosecution of both the bribe taker and the giver," Adeniran said.

Adeniran added that there were salient issues raised in the committee report that President Goodluck Jonathan must attend to, if he is sincere with his anticorruption fight and be taken serious.

"It is so unfortunate the Farouk Lawan's report went the way of others, but there are some salient issues that must be treated with steel glove.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Even the rich now fear running out of money

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f you worry about making money on the way up, you also worry about losing it on the way down. So, it should come as no surprise that wealthy Americans and Nigerians " according to several different studies are now concerned that they will run out of money as the Great Recession• will put the pinch on their finances for the foreseeable future.

But psychologists say there are two forms of worry,• the one that involves anxiety and fear, and then productive worry•, where individuals use their concern as a motivational tool to solve their problems.

Current worries have produced lower expectations, increased savings and the unlikely emotional feel-good power of smart shopping• and being thrifty, if only because those solutions are easier and more realistic than trying to play a fast game of catch-up.

The Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America,• set to be released on Wednesday by American Express Publishing and Harrison Group, will show that 53 percent of the nation wealthy are now worried that they could run out of money, in large measure because many of the respondents fear the country is headed for an economic depression.

Meanwhile, the 10th annual Phoenix Wealth Survey released Monday, showed that America millionaires have been stripped of their confidence and sense of security. The survey, conducted

by The Phoenix Cos., which sell insurance and annuities to highnet-worth consumers, showed that roughly one in four people felt their wealth was extremely• or very secure• for the long term; nearly half of the surveyed millionaires felt their wealth was safe as recently as two years ago.

People who are focused on wealth who spend much of their time worrying about making it and how they can better their future financially " have a greater chance of attaining wealth, but they also feel the pain of loss more acutely,• said John No singer, a Washington State University professor who studies behavioural finance and investor psychology.

They are better off after this loss of wealth than most people, but emotionally they are hurting more than people with less wealth but different priorities.

Added Meir Statman, a professor at Santa Clara (Calif.)

University: ‘This economy is playing mind games with peoples aspirations. If you benchmark yourself against the richest man in town" and that is frequently what wealthy people do you are going to feel mighty poor in the

Quote

Quote: Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were - David Rockefeller

best of conditions. ... Yes, the market is bad, but a lot of wealthy people are making themselves miserable when their finances have merely taken a blow, not some fatal beating.• In short, don't cry for millionaires.

Dreams down the drain But rich or poor, there appears to be a phenomenon at work here that is as much psychological as it is about cash.

Clearly, investors personalise losses more than gains. But for investors who have reached their financial goals, setbacks represent the destruction of a dream.

For a person who believes that a certain amount of net worth " whether it is $200,000 or $10 million makes them set for life, seeing their portfolio shrink is like watching their dreams die. The financial world is full of stories of ordinary folks who amassed enough money to be set for life even with a market downturn

but who then lived as if they had nothing. If $1 million was the goal, for example, $850,000 suddenly feels like failure, even if it means little or no change in standard of living.

Among wealthy families, 80 percent feel like they have had substantial hits to their financial security and 88 percent have become more resourceful in terms of making financial decisions, • said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of Harrison Group, a connecticutbased research-consulting firm.

The savings rate for these families has gone through the roof, up to 12 percent.

The irony is that despite the worries and the cutbacks and having to be more resourceful or spend less to make their money go further, the percentage of families reporting themselves to be very happy is up, • Taylor added. Twothirds of the families say they are very happy, which is up since 2007.

Taylor believes that represents a turn toward optimism. Tuesday consumer confidence numbers generally showed a big step up in confidence, although the overall numbers remained in negative territory.

And if spending less, being a smart shopper and saving more are helping to raise the self-esteem of the wealthy, there at least a chance that these changes will be permanent, that old spendthrift habits will not return even if the market continues to rebound.

This is where behavioural finance experts disagree. Most believe that current economic woes have been enough to make people take temporary measures, with the hope that happy days will return, allowing the investing public to go back to its old habits.

Some, like Taylor, think the new habits feel good enough that they will live beyond this recession.

The permanence of these lifestyle changes is up for grabs, said

Donald MacGregor of MacGregorBates, an Oregon-based firm that studies consumer and investor behaviour. The easy thing is to change habits now , but to assume this is an aberrant situation and things will get better in the near future, near being the next year.

And if things get better, rich or poor will probably go back to what they were doing a few years ago.

But we may also be looking at a different economic way of life, • MacGregor added. So people are right to be worried, but their anxiety is really doing anything other than making them lose sleep. ... If you can take your anxiety and turn it into productive worry and make your situation better â if you can solve this problem in the best way for yourself, by changing spending or savings habits the one thing you can be sure of is that you will be better off no matter when the economy comes around.

Enhancing personal finance with banking products in democratic setting

T

here is every truth in the saying that banking products on parade for banks customers to access or explore in improving their personal finances have improved in recent years. This fact may be traceable to the return of democracy after so many years of military rule in the country, or to the aftermath effects of the banking consolidation. Whatever the reasons which in most cases turns out to be the banking consolidation of 2005 there is the possibility that democratisation may have played a key role as experts believe that good policies are often taken during a democratic governments.

This may be the fact as the banking consolidation was a proposed policy long before the coming of democratic government, but it took a democratic government to bring it to bear, as the gains are on record.

There is no doubt that there are still lots of challenges in meeting personal financial aspirations despite this form of leadership in the country, however, the evidence of an improved and more efficient banking system especially in terms of customer choice is very visible.

For some bank customers, while admitting that the banking consolidation has made banking a more rewarding experience since they can now access loans to carry out partly or fully their financial goals and aspirations, especially soft loans from the microfinance banks, a number them maintain that it has nothing to do with democracy but the increase in banks capital base in 2005.

The variety of banking products to choose from when seeking an easier means of meeting personal financial needs

have indeed increased with better enhanced features in savings, current accounts or hybriddeposit accounts and innovation in the use of ATMs for deposit, withdrawals or foreign exchange transactions.

Banks now offer internet banking facilities, both local and international credit and debit cards among others, enabling easy access to accounts details and usage of cash or money anytime, which was not the case some years back.

Buoyed by the banking consolidation that made more money available to Nigerian banks, increased competition among these banks has reversed the trend of depositing money in the banks for fear of theft, not minding interest rates or benefits attached.

Not with the attractive and mouth-watering packages that most banks offer depositors; they are faced with a predicament of choosing among different bank products offering benefits that promise enhanced personal finance status.

For Bank PHB, there are offerings like the Bank PHB Partners Account, which not only enables customers earn bonus interests for introducing customers to the bank, but also pays customers interests on their deposits.

Bank PHB Pay time enables customers have stress-free access to funds before payday; and Bank PHB future Account, a savings account for children and teenagers, which supports parents and guardians to plan the education of their children or ward. The other features and benefits include insurance cover, scholarship awards for beneficiaries and payment of high interests. Also from Bank PHB is Possibilities, a bouquet of consumer banking products designed to make it possible for the banking public to acquire any desired asset of their choice including cars, electronics, and shares of quoted companies, and even landed properties and houses with ease.

The banks Partner account provides opportunities for

customers to earn extra income by introducing customers to the bank.

Partners, • besides allowing customers to earn the normal interest on their deposits, also allows them to earn bonus interest• for new customers introduced.

Intercontinental Bank also presents a variety of products, varying from aspire savings account, specially designed to give undergraduates the opportunity to imbibe a savings culture, to interest free savings account that enables customers enjoy all the benefits of bank account without the element of interest, current account in classic form where extra value is added and support provided for customers.

The Intercontinental-edu support also provides opportunities where school fees is guaranteed from crèche to university, while the Intercontinental divine account (I divine) gives churches a unique opportunity to access funds for specific needs and ensure specific growth of the church.

Others products of the bank include the I-cash (international and local brand), I-Diaspora products, which creates financial wealth for Nigerians in the Diasporas and the Intercontinental Diamond Fund, among others.

Zenith Bank also presents a variety of products for both the corporate, individual savings and investment needs.

For the individuals, it parades products such as account opening and investing opportunities, bureau de change operation services, money transfers among others, while the corporate banking group enjoys services like corporate internet banking automated cheque writing, reconciliation tool, and automated payroll, among others.Source: www.monyning.com

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 12

EDIT ORIAL EDITORIAL

F

PDP: Physician, heal thyself

or the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the last three weeks have not been the best of times as it has been enmeshed in a series of crisis, including personal acrimony, that is threatening to tear it apart. At present, the leadership of the party on whose shoulders the governance of the country rests appears to be in no shape to govern. The party is caught in a blinding frenzy of power struggle ahead of the 2015 elections.

While not trying to be a judge in the party's power politics which its leaders have described as a family affair, we at Peoples Daily, and other well-meaning Nigerians, are very disturbed that the party controlling the government at the centre as well as 27 states is finding it difficult to steady its course.

Though President Goodluck Jonathan has been insistent that he, as the national leader of the party, is on top of the crisis, we are worried that the situation is worsening rather than improving and we see a situation where the quarrels will result in the abandoning of the mandate the party got from Nigerians to deliver good governance.

We are further dismayed that PDP has not been able to put its house in order to elect a new Chairman of its Board of Trustees, (BoT), a position that became vacant with the resignation of former President Olusegun Obasanjo last year. It is a shame

that its National Working Committee (NWC) has become an assemblage of strange bedfellows engaged in power struggle characterized by hatred, mudslinging and endless scheming.

At another level is the disagreement between the governors of states controlled by the PDP and its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, over the control of the party machinery in Adamawa

“

There are speculations that the crisis in the PDP is a direct consequence of the desperation of stakeholders to grab the machinery of the party ahead of the 2015 elections state which sadly pitched the governors against the President. This multifaceted internal crisis in the socalled biggest political party in Africa is a potential big threat to political stability in the country in the sense that the party may eventually dissolve in chaos and be unable to govern before new elections are held.

The inability of the array of

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leaders in the PDP BoT to peacefully and orderly elect one of their own to become chairman exposes further the absence of an ideological thread binding the disparate elements in the party brought together only by a common desire for spoils of office. Are we beginning to see the undoing of a house built on the quicksand of avarice and thievery?

There are speculations that the crisis in the PDP is a direct consequence of the desperation of stakeholders to grab the machinery of the party ahead of the 2015 elections. Chieftains are said to be seeking to outplay one another so as to secure a vantage position or bargaining edge especially to influence the nomination of the party's candidate in the presidential election.

We see this desperate power play in the count down to 2015 as coming too early in the day for a party that has the burden of redeeming its image before Nigerians who see it as a non-performing party. We believe this will also over-heat the system and poison the political environment ahead of the elections.

If PDP wants to stay on its feet as a real party, it must learn to manage its affairs in a manner that shows it understands the enormous responsibility it shoulders to deepen Nigeria's fledgling democracy. And this it must demonstrate by enthroning internal democracy and respecting the democratic ethos.

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OUR VISION

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

By Godwin Onyeacholem

H

e is simply not the one he claims to be. Beneath the facade of his alluring rhetoric lies is the face of pure cruelty. To many residents of the hollow universe called Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, a space the perpetually dishonest ruling elite fraudulently christened CENTRE OF UNITY, it should by now be clear that Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, Minister for FCT, is not a friend of the poor.

To say that Nigerian leaders are incurably wicked is to risk scorn for hammering on the obvious. By this time last year, the country was about ending a standstill as Nigerians poured onto the streets, boiling with anger as they protested the withdrawal of a non-existent petroleum subsidy by an administration they had hoped would be more sensitive to their plight.

However, this time a different face of the recurrent state-inspired callousness has emerged in a section of the country (the FCT) with the banning of mini buses from entering and plying routes in the city centre. The motorbikes have long since been barred by the Nasir El-Rufai administration.

And in the absence of a wellstructured and efficient means of transportation, the minibuses which commuters in Abuja call "araba", rank next to taxis as the only reliable means of commuting within the city, and to and fro the satellite towns.

Now, these buses, going by the new plan, can only ferry passengers from the satellite towns up to a designated point in the city and then stopped by armed security agents who order commuters out and the buses to turn back. Typical of this regrettably dysfunctional system,

PAGE 13

A minister and his anti-people policies

these security guys and FCT officials are already making brisk business, extorting bus drivers.

These designated spots have become the new bus stops, far from the city centre. Once commuters disembark, they would have no choice but to do the forbidding distance to the city on foot. The buoyant ones could take a taxi though. It is the same experience when returning. In their usual fashion of putting the cart before the horse, the initiators of this new order say they would put a large fleet of bigger, privately-run buses on the road to bring commuters from wherever straight in to the city.

With the ban, commuters and drivers of the mini buses have been launched into a new phase of suffering. Coming into the city and going out has become a nightmare, and bus owners, drivers and conductors would now have their daily income severely whittled down - that is if they manage to remain in business.

Just as in the fuel subsidy policy, the poor is also at the receiving end of this obnoxious action. For any keen observer of this polity, a feeling of deja vu is not lost. The rage and anguish that attended the removal of petrol subsidy and caused massive demonstrations in major cities across the country last January have started manifesting since this new transport plan took effect early this week. At the time of writing this piece, FCT officials were holding talks with "stakeholders" about "temporarily" shelving the plan.

The administration says it resorted to this measure as a way of decongesting the city and ensuring that Abuja "does not

become another Lagos," a reference to the perennial traffic gridlock for which Lagos is notorious.

But it is a big lie. What has just happened is the typical, wellorchestrated policy of the ruling class to take from the poor and give to the rich. This has been the style of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999. The word out there, which has been confirmed by many staff of the Ministry, is that Minister Bala Mohammed barred these small buses from the city to allow his friends, associates and party bigwigs have a sizable share of the road transport business in Abuja.

This assertion cannot be far from the truth. Since "coming to power" - to use the more coarse, debased and bumptious language Nigerians love so much - in April 2010, the Minister's answer to sanitizing Abuja has been to systematically deprive the less privileged and make life more difficult for them.

And in the course of entrenching this unstated policy, he shamelessly empowers the rich, the snobbish class to which he belongs, and tells the poor to go to blazes. At least he has indicated that the residents of Mpape, a suburb densely populated by the poor, whether they like it or not, their houses would go down and give way to a new settlement that would be formed by members of his own class. He has already levelled over 500 buildings in another suburb, Lugbe, and declared rather impudently that many more would be demolished in different areas occupied by the poor.

Besides farming out areas originally occupied by the poor to the rich, the Minister also demonstrates irrelevant competence in shadow-chasing by pursuing and arresting sex workers, not minding that many of the ladies who are being arrested and detained are only found walking alone and suddenly

“

What has just happened is the typical, wellorchestrated policy of the ruling class to take from the poor and give to the rich. This has been the style of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999. The word out there, which has been confirmed by many staff of the Ministry, is that Minister Bala Mohammed barred these small buses from the city to allow his friends, associates and party bigwigs have a sizable share of the road transport business in Abuja

The Nigerian elites need to pray T

By Pius Adesanmi

he day the Nigerian masses realize that they by far outnumber the patrician elites in Nigeria, will be a very bloody one. As I alluded at the end of point 2, the Nigerian masses have a stirring undercurrent of volcanic anger within them that will one day erupt if things come to a head. Take for instance a situation where a driver is earning around 35,000 naira monthly.

This converts to about $225 a month. So someone who drives you, drives your children and essentially has your life in his hands while handling the steering, labouring from dawn till dusk, earns 35,000 naira a month. All this as you strip him of every modicum of dignity while yelling at him and calling him "stupid", "idiot" and other rains of abuses for excusable errors, from the back of your air conditioned SUV. Yet you expect him to have morale and serve you loyally? I spoke to some of the working poor. Take it from me, they are angry.

The man old enough to be my father's age mate who felt the need (despite my protestations) to prostrate before me for the sake of a few N500 notes is angry and one day he won't take it anymore. We really need to tackle poverty. That was what made me most

despondent. The wad of N500 notes I gave that man would do nothing to alleviate his poverty even if ten people were similarly generous. It will not avail him much because his poverty has almost become an institution to him. A mountain that cannot be moved. Knowing that there was nothing I could do to be of lasting help was very discouraging. I further deduced upon interacting with people that since there is only so much people can do to help, they are forced to turn a blind eye and pretend that they cannot see the abject poverty that surrounds them. Soon people become jaded and desensitized losing their basic humanity. So, a

poor beggar comes to them and they see a nuisance not a life worth saving, they don't see an existence which could easily be theirs if the lottery of life had yielded a different result.

I earlier alluded to the toilet attendant in the MMIA lounge during my return journey. I went to use the restroom and saw this attendant who was probably the same age as me. I looked at this guy and it occurred to me that the only difference between the two of us was that I was fortunate to be born to parents who could afford to send me abroad for my studies years ago. . Our situations could easily be reversed. I listened to his

“

One inspiring lasting thought is the unyielding optimism of the average Lagosian despite the fearful odds. We have an indomitable can do attitude which keeps us going no matter what we face. An unbowed optimism which makes a man caption his slum bungalow in a poor neighborhood with the words "Castle of Joy" emblazoned for all and sundry to see

story as he appealed to my generosity while handing me a towel to wipe my hands. I looked into my wallet and found that that all I had left was dollars. You see, by the time I made it through security I was out of naira having "seen" all the immigration and customs officials. Under my breath, I muttered "there but for the grace of God go I" and gave him some money from my wallet. I will never forget the look of appreciation on his face.

I hope you don't think I'm being self-congratulatory because I'm not. I'm only pointing out how we're wasting our talent resources in Nigeria. This toilet attendant is a university graduate for crying out loud. All he needs is opportunity and he could contribute far more substantially to the greatness of Nigeria than he does as a toilet attendant. I despondently left the toilet en route to board the plan. I had walked a quarter of the distance to my departure gate when I realized that I left my college ring on the sink as I washed my hands.

This ring is a prized possession of mine and is of high sentimental value in addition to it being costly.

I gave it up for lost. Surely this attendant would realize the monetary value of this ring. I beat a path to the toilet and there was the attendant with my ring

embarrassingly bundled into waiting buses and labelled prostitutes by the thugs he grouped under a bogus task force.

In Abuja, the Minister's idea of a sex worker is not just any woman walking alone; it also includes a woman enjoying an evening stroll with the opposite sex. As a result, many girlfriends, many sisters, many wives are still being seized and abducted from their boyfriends, brothers and husbands by the Minister's overzealous task force.

At the same time, this man directs his nastiness at street hawkers, chasing and arresting the fruit seller, the shoemaker, the okpa (a popular local delicacy among the poor) seller and all manner of hawkers. These are the same people to whom the Minister appealed to vote for PDP. This, certainly, is not the method of a man who is genuinely out to serve the people. Not even in more unkind capitalist cities does this happen.

In the face of the infrastructural and other challenges facing the FCT, such as inadequate supply of water, lack of good access roads in the interior, insufficient and ill-equipped classrooms, poor quality teaching staff in schools, dreadful healthcare delivery, pathetic work ethic in its civil service and much more, the least anyone would expect from a Minister with a background in an unequalled public service function such as journalism, is to continue to hound the poor. It's indeed a shame.

Godwin Onyeacholem is reachable on gonyeacholem@gmail.com; www.giraffemagazine.com.ng heading in my direction attempting to return the ring. He could have, but he didn't steal it.

With this anecdote, I left Nigeria with the realization that despite our endemic problems, we have the potential to be truly a "Good people and a Great Nation". We just need to be led by those who can appeal to the best in us, not the worst. Who sees the dignity in every man regardless of ethnicity, sex, religion or social class.

People ask me this question and, to answer it simply, "e go hard oh".

For one to move to Nigeria from the Diaspora, one most ask the question, "how much is your peace of mind worth?" Yes, there is money to be made and many opportunities to harness, but what is the opportunity cost of going through the many bureaucratic and logistical roadblocks?

One inspiring lasting thought is the unyielding optimism of the average Lagosian despite the fearful odds. We have an indomitable can do attitude which keeps us going no matter what we face. An unbowed optimism which makes a man caption his slum bungalow in a poor neighborhood with the words "Castle of Joy" emblazoned for all and sundry to see. We would do well to channel that can do spirit for collective good rather than divisive ill. We can and must do better.

Pius Adesanmi is Canadabased scholar of Francophone and Anglophone studies.

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Is Senate ready to pass national health bill?

By Isah Ibrahim

T

he much advocated National Health Bill is on the move again. It was recently passed for the second reading in the floor of the Nigeria's Senate. I was opportuned to be at the senate gallery in December last year during the re-presentation of the bill before the senate for the first and second reading by the senate committee chairman on Health.

After undergoing several legislative protocols for seven years and many months later in the presidency without been assented, the Nigeria's health bill is back to the national assembly for another reading. Considering the obstacles the bill suffered in the previous years, number of questions are being raised by those concerned about the bill. They include the following: What stops Mr. President from assenting the bill? Who are behind the presidential attitude?

Do our leaders really have a concern towards revolutionizing the country's health industry? Will this bill gets the final approval of the National assembly members, when one look at the period it's consumed within the lawmakers before it was passed? Is the National Health Bill an executive bill or a private bill?

According to the 1999 constitution, after 30 days of the

By Mohammed Sheh Faskari

O

f the three arms of government in a democracy that is devoid of the vagaries of corruption and other mundane pursuits of the actors, the judiciary stands out shoulder high above the legislative and executive arms. This is because, beside its traditional role of adjudicating in instances of conflict between the citizens, the judiciary is also saddled with the statutory responsibility of generally sanitizing the political terrain. It does so by interpreting the law and the constitution as it is, arbitrating in cases of disputes between the executive and the legislative arms and by ensuring compliance by the political actors to the rules, letters and spirit of the game. The nation's judiciary can be said to have acquitted itself to a large extent in view of the retardation it suffered along with other vital institutions of democracy in the long years of military dictatorship. However, there are too many instances that the judiciary has grossly come so short of its bidding that cannot be explained away with the omnibus excuse of hang over from the numerous years of military rule.

The sordid manner by which the judiciary handled the conflicts thrown up by the Sokoto Governorship Election of 2007 will for a long time remain a question mark on the credibility and competence as well as a big stain on the cloak of neutrality and non partisan posture that those on the altar of justice are universally clouded. Similarly, Nigerians particularly those from Benue State would not forget in haste, the verdicts by the judiciary on

President's inaction on the Bill, the annually by citizens for foreign requirement for health facilities to bill is to be recalled to the National medical trip, citing the recent meet the standard.

Assembly (NASS) for a 2/3 hospitalization of Taraba state "Our country claims to be giant majority vote to override the governor, Mr Danbaba Suntai of Africa, but we are one of the few inaction of the president to sign it who sustained serious injury in a countries in the region that were into law. backward in our During the health sector. recent reading, None of the comments by p r e v i o u s the Chairman, government of Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text S e n a t e the country messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written Committee on neither military contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 Health, Senator nor civilian has words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and G y a n g made any a valid location.

Letters to the Editor should be addressed Dantong, and serious attempt to: those of the to address our other ten health sector The Editor, senators that problem, said Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, spoke about the S e n a t o r bill were very A b u b a k a r 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. encouraging. It Bagudo.

Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com was interesting Senator SMS: 07037756364 for the fact that Nenadi Usman the senators also opined that have clearly exhibited their much helicopter accident. Some senators "we spent a lot of resources on MDG interest about the bill considering in their contributions before the 4 and 5 with poor outcome. The its importance to the common senate chamber asked the federal bill will help in achieving MDG government to declare the state of 4&5, citizen.

Most of the Senators that emergency on the health sector The bill was unanimously contributed before the Senate floor, considering the deteriorating passed for the second time and gave lamented over none assenting of condition of both public and private the health committee four weeks the bill by the executive arm of health institutions in the country. within which to report back to the The senators said the problem senate for third reading. government. Out of over the ten senators that make their of Nigeria in respect to the bill was The National Health Bill is an submission about the bill only one not the in existence of the law important tool aimed at senator cautioned the senate from rather poor commitment of our addressing funding gap in the passing the second reading of the leaders addressing the problems in health sector and ensures bill. Some of the senators decried our health sector by investing and improved quality of healthcare at the entire all levels. The bill is also meant at over billions of naira being spent implementing

WRITE TO US

CPC crisis: Judiciary yet in murky waters of partisan politics certain election disputes which, in popular opinions, amounted to a judicial complicity in a rape of their rights. Of course, it doesn't speak well of the nation's judiciary that a felon was severally acquitted of charges of perjury and mindless of looting of public treasury only for the same man to be found guilty and jailed in Britain on the same charges. The sad implication here is that, with sufficient political clout and financial muzzles, justice can be perverted to make a rogue appear as a saint of unblemished character.

Besides the instances that certain men and women in the nation's temple of justice were seen in the eyes of the public to have been influenced by factors other than the spirit and letter of the law, there have also been the bizarre spectacles of conflicts of jurisdiction between the courts. Again, the

Sokoto governorship debacle comes up as a poignant reference point in this regard. In that case, while the then electoral law unambiguously stated that the resolution of disputes on governorship elections should terminate at the level of the Appeal Court, the justice Katsina Alu's Supreme Court brazenly overlooked that provision by claiming jurisdiction. The latest scenario of judicial summersaults on the issue of jurisdiction was displayed when a High Court sitting in Abuja claimed jurisdiction and went ahead to deliver judgement in a case that had been handled by the two superior Appeal and Supreme Courts' decision to adjudicate in the crisis of the representatives of Katsina State on the platform of the CPC in the Senate and House of Representatives.

This has expectedly given rise to

“

If this perspective is correct, lay but enlightened observers of the judiciary, judicial traditions and due process are wondering if the Federal high court, Abuja, has not, by its judgement on the Katsina CPC representation at the National Assembly, set a precedence where we can have two conflicting court judgements on the same issues and involving the same parties of plaintiffs and respondents

enlightened debates, speculations and innuendoes in the public domain.

According to published records of the case, a group of CPC members in Katsina State had challenged at an Abuja High Court, alleged substitution of their names in the list submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, for the 2011 elections. The verdict of the presiding judge which favoured the plaintiffs was in turn, challenged by the party at the Appeal Court which upturned the verdict of the lower court.

Undaunted by the verdict of the Appeal Court, the litigants who were forced to vacate their seats in the National Assembly on the strength of the judgement of the Appeal Court went on to the Supreme Court which ruled that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the case. Surprisingly, the affected two senators and eight Representatives went back to the High Court to challenge the verdict of lack of jurisdiction by the Supreme Court. Then last Friday 11th January, 2013, the trial judge, Justice Gladys Olotu delivered a judgement that reversed the one earlier given by the Appeal Court which, impliedly was backed by the Supreme Court in its verdict of 'non-jurisdiction."

There are many questions being asked in the public domain as a result of the Justice Olotu verdict. Firstly, on what ground would Justice Olotu have derived the powers of jurisdiction of the High Court in a case that had been

strengthening Nigeria's weak health system, which the World Health Organisation has described as the fourth worst health system globally, and will also entrench primary care as the entry point for health care and guarantee basic minimum package for patients. Nigeria, through use the on-going consideration of the National Health Bill and the implementation of the Bill by the government to ensure Universal Health Coverage, and the embedding of immunization, nutrition, enough health workers etc in a comprehensive primary care system. Other benefits of the draft piece of legislation, if it becomes law, will be: Free medical care for children less than five years old, pregnant mothers, the elderly above 65 and people with disabilities. It would also guarantee basic minimum health package for all Nigerians, permit universal acceptance of accident cases by all health facilities in Nigeria - public or private; ensure the quality of health care services through the issuance of Certificates of Standard to all health institutions.

Nigerians wait to see whether the recent efforts by the senate to pass the bill will yield the expected result.

Isah Ibrahim can be reached on Isahmaru77@yahoo.com disposed of by the Supreme Court?

This question is pertinent because of the well known rule that a subordinate court of law cannot entertain a case that has been to a superior court of law unless the case is reverted to the lower court. If it is argued that the Supreme Court did not as such adjudicate in the case but merely dismissed it for lack of jurisdiction, yet what becomes of the verdict of the Appeal Court, also superior to the Gladys Olotu's High court, which was passed on the same case way back in April, 2011? Facts of the case available to the public have not revealed that the Abuja High Court presided

by Justice Olotu was dealing with a case that is, in content and objectives, different from the one much earlier handled by a High Court. The Appeal Court and the Supreme Court. If this perspective is correct, lay but enlightened observers of the judiciary, judicial traditions and due process are wondering if the Federal high court, Abuja, has not, by its judgement on the Katsina CPC representation at the National Assembly, set a precedence where we can have two conflicting court judgements on the same issues and involving the same parties of plaintiffs and respondents. For these and many wore issues raised by the Justice Gladys Olotu's judgement last Friday, it looks to many onlookers that, by omission or commission the judiciary might have plunged once again into the murky waters of partisan politics.

Definitely the last has not been heard of this issue and therefore, Justice Olotu may not have given the final verdict.

Mohammed Shehu Faskari wrote from No. 14 Liberia Road, Malali, Kaduna.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

By M.D. Yusuf

I

ndeed, lack of gainful employment especially among the youth is a source of worry. At my age, which is over 80, my greatest worry has been this phenomenon of youth unemployment which I literally sleep and wake up with daily.

In my capacity as the Chairman of Katsina Vocational Training Centre, which was established formally and has active since 2000, I have for long been following youth's activities and indeed, the situation they are in. The centre has spent ten years offering services to the youth nonstop.

The centre was built on the need to awaken the consciousness of our youth with a view to making them know what rally are their problems and how to address them. We train them on different trade and skill and, assist them to make them self - reliant. We organize lectures and seminars where we instil in them the need to imbibe good conduct.

Importantly, we scout for employment opportunities for some of and offer assistance and advices to those who have shown sign of capability, to go back to school to expand their horizon.

Every year we graduate trainees in well attended ceremonies where guest lecturer offers lectures on wide ranging issues most especially issues related to youth and

PAGE 15

Youth restiveness in Katsina state

unemployment.

Although I cannot say we have achieved a lot in all the years we have been running the centre, I sure know that we have given our own contribution to the youths of Katsina state and indeed, to the present generation. We shall continue to offer our contribution by the special grace of Almighty Allah.

It is on this note that I shall offer my suggestions to this committee.

One act reasonable for lack of vacancies in some places of work is this attitude of some government officials who fix their children in some of these vacant positions not minding the fact that some of these children may still be in schools or are not qualified for the jobs. This scenario occurs regardless of the fact that these government officials have the means of paying for their children's school fees and so should have relinquish these vacancies to others. Another ugly trend is situation where some traders will take-up government employment instead of leaving the jobs for other since they are into trading. What happen is that every month they receive salaries even without working. Some even work in the three tiers of government at the same time. It is believed that some put their children who are still schooling,

their house-helps and even unborn children on government payroll, posing as workers. I urge this committee to look deeply into this as addressing it will ensure availability of more vacant position. I challenge you to imagine what sort of discrepancy this nasty attitude creates among the citizens.

There is the unfortunate trend where some government officials include fictitious names in government payroll for them to collect the money afterwards, at the end of every month. This scenario obtains in all tiers of government. It occurs and is perpetrated by senior government officials and even some junior staffs of admin departments and those responsible for the payment of salaries. Indeed, if this trend can be address, these monies that end up in the pocket of these dubious workers will be channel toward addressing the challenges of unemployment. I urge you to take note of this and how to tackle it.

Our youths have come to see the continuous lack of affection as shown by the elites. They have unfortunately, been seeing all those with position of authorizes as cheats who are all out to deceive them.

As a result they youth views the elites with suspicion. Consequent upon which even the elite who

make his money through genuine means is viewed with such suspicious. This unfortunately, has led the youth into erroneous believe that only government officials or people who cut corners becomes rich. I urge you to note this and see how you can tackle it.

In KVCT, we have seen youths approach us with this line of thinking but once we disabused their minds, we see them striving to be self-reliant. As a matter of fact, once a youth has this misconception in his mind, any assistance rendered to him amounts to no issue as he won't take it with the deserved seriousness.

Let ask ourselves that these youth, how do we re-awaken their thinking to enable them discover who they really are, where they are coming from, where they want to go and to know what their immediate and long term problems are. Indeed, it behold on us to assist them know how they can solve their problems. The unfortunate situation of this country has led our youths to develop what could be described as" diseases of the mind" so much so that until we address this disease, our laudable plans to reposition the youth will be in vain.

To achieve the task of re-

awakening the minds of our youth, we need to adopt skills and tactics that are carefully selected.

We necessarily have to involve traditional rulers, religious leaders and indeed every other influential member of the society.

Of course the media and other important organization must be involved too. We need to organize talk-shows for days where everywhere one goes in the state; the issue to be discussed will revolve around the challenges of unemployment. This will assist greatly in passing the message across. I have no doubt that the committee can do this and it will change the thinking of youths and consequently serve as an example to the whole country. It is necessary for your committee to harp on the need for philanthropic individuals to assist the need in every part of the State and the country at large. Lack of assistance from philanthropist has often created bad impression among the masses with negative consequences. I enjoin you to access this critically and address it.

M.D Yusuf, a former IGP, is the Chairman, Katsina Vocational Training Centre, 3 Muhammad Dikko Road, Yaranci, Katsina, Katsina state

thought that all hands are supposed to be on deck to make the environment a freer place. This is exactly the reason why Nigeria is always represented at all climate change conferences, whether RIO+ 20, or 10. But the huge market emanating as a result of the endless turnover of old technologies and the need to create space for the new ones has continued to prove irresistible to hideous businessmen whose only thought is financial gratification and not the safety of the environment-or the risk they pose to human health.

However let us examine some school of thoughts as to why this evil trade persists.

The first are those die hard critics who continue to believe that for Toxic Waste substances to be categorized as dangerous, it must be such that can cause instant death. These critics fall in the category of people who continue to resist Government efforts to change the status-quo. They allude to the fact that since they are ubiquitous across the country, no death has been directly related to them. They cry foul each time a vessel is seized at the ports; and you hear them say: "oh, after all they found only common television sets, DVD's, Microwave and refrigerators! So what's the big deal? Really? We must pity them because they are obviously unaware of the differences between End-of-life products and Near-Endof-life.

The second school of thought is provided by the experts who have successfully explained that strange deaths from cancer, lung and respiratory infections, kidney and liver failures have been traced to these e-wastes!

Further studies also reveal that

they are also responsible for men's low sperm count!

E-wastes, for those who do not know, consist of old and outdated electronic gadgets and materials such as refrigerators containing Chlorofluro Carbon (CFC) considered dangerous to human health. The expiration of chemicals used in their manufacture converts them to toxins which become injurious to human health when the gases are inhaled.

They are also environmentally unfriendly as they pollute the air and reduce the oxygen which is the main ingredient of the air we breathe for life.

Ghana recently placed higher tariff charges on second hand cars to discourage their importation, which explains why newer vehicles are on Ghanaian roads.

Again, in China, the media reacted strongly to dangerous levels of pollution recorded in many northern cities. It was reported that air pollution soared past levels considered hazardous by the World Health Organization.

These are proactive measures similar to the type initiated by NESREA.

In fact a recent study has shown that GREEN schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020. Quoting one Nick Hewitt who worked on the study with colleagues from the Lancester University says "Trees grown to produce wood fuel - seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal is good, but then they also release a chemical into the air that, when mixed with other pollutants have detrimental effect on air quality".

These researches are farreaching examples to show to the numerous critics shouting blue murder whenever E-waste disclosures are made that the world has indeed gone ahead. You don't wait for material death to occur before you do something.

This I believe is another major point in NESREA's crusade.

Thanks to NESREA, Nigerians are rapidly coming to terms with reality. The agency has even revealed the existence of the Harmful Waste (Special Criminal Provisions, etc) promulgated as far

back as 1988 which prohibit the carrying, deposition and dumping of harmful waste on any land, territorial waters and matters relating thereto. Such is the weight and powers of this Harmful Act that it stated in one of its clauses [Chapter HI, schedule 6 (a) and (b)] that any carrier including aircraft, vehicle, container and any other thing whatsoever used in the transportation or importation of the harmful waste; and any land where the harmful waste was dumped SHALL be forfeited to and vest in the Federal Government without any further assurance other than this Act! Some of us have come to believe that this dangerous practice have continued because offenders caught in the past are never punished. This is where NESREA earns our praise. No matter how big, no one should be bigger than the law. We must begin to implement our laws so that there would be no more sacred cows or unpatriotic elements.

This writer would not be surprised if in the coming days, the actions of NESREA in exposing the rot at the Nation's Entry points would begin to witness a rash of sponsored write-ups to hide the truth.

Few Government Agencies have spoken up the way NESREA has done to check-mate these forces of darkness out to desecrate our environment.

It is a thing of delight that, at a time that Nigerians were still basking in the Christmas celebrations, NESREA woke up to the challenge to ensure that Nigeria’s territorial integrity was never breached.

Alhaji Umaru Ndanusa wrote in from Rayfields, Jos, Plateau state

e-wastes, NESREA and the environment

By Umaru Ndanusa

N

igerians woke up early morning on Thursday 10th of January to yet another horrifying spectacle: A shipload of Toxic Waste had been imported into the Nigerian shores!

After all the Federal Government had done to sensitize Nigerians, especially traders of second hand electronic goods on the do's and don'ts of Used Electronic Electrical Equipment, otherwise known as UEEE, the dangers and the terrible outcome on human health, it is tragic that a group of people who call themselves businessmen would still go ahead to test the will and resolve of the Federal Government.

What is particularly disturbing is that although it is true that Nigeria's entry points - the airports, border points and the Ports, are porous, the fact that these unscrupulous businessmen still manage to evade detection at the point of embarkation is a source for concern. The immediate assertion here is that there is indeed a rush or rather collusion in Europe to discard these items anywhere but their country!

Otherwise why would anyone in his sane mind import non functional equipment in two 40 foot containers?

The point must be made that at this time, Nigerians must decide either to move forward in line with Mr. President's Transformation Agenda or lag behind in terms of development.

Nigeria is no longer a big market for dumping. Yes, these may have been the fad in the distant years of the 80's and 90's; now it is no longer so. With new technological advances, it is

“

E-wastes, for those who do not know, consist of old and outdated electronic gadgets and materials such as refrigerators containing Chlorofluro Carbon (CFC) considered dangerous to human health. The expiration of chemicals used in their manufacture converts them to toxins which become injurious to human health when the gases are inhaled

PAGE 16

Ado Catholic Community organises mass wedding for couples

By Etuka Sunday

O

ur Lady of Fatima Catholic Church AdoSama in Nasarawa state at the weekend organised a mass wedding for five couple who are its members to encourage those who are willing to get married in the church but are constraint by their financial status to do so.

The wedding which was organised in partnership with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Ministry (CCRM) Ado-Same, was also in fulfilment of the scriptural injunction which says that a man must leave his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one.

Speaking shortly after the nut was tied, the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Lawrence Anyembugu Soja said that the coming together of the coupes was not done with desperation but to fulfilled one of the seven sacraments of the church which is the sacraments of matrimony.

Anyembugu said that marriage should not be reduced to mere provision of money and food for the family but should be built on love and mutual respect been the yardstick for good or successful marriage.

The Clergyman advised them not to discussed their problems with their colleagues at work or their business partners but should learn how to resolve issues among themselves.

He also advised men to cultivate the habit of buying attractive gifts for their wives and women should always be inquisitive about the whereabout of their husbands by insisting that they live a holy life.

He however warned parents not to interfer with their children’s married lives by imposing their negative ideas on them but should guide them through the right part.

Some of them who were seen dancing uncontrollably especially Mr. and Mrs Lucky told our reporter that they prepared for the marriage for ten years therefore there was need to dance to the glory of God. In like manner, Mr.and Mrs. Adama thanked the CCRM for giving them the opportunity to participate saying that the mass wedding has reduced the cost of the celebration.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

FCTA officials plot to scuttle resettlement of Garki indigenes

By Josephine Ella Ejeh

F

acts have emerged on how some key officials of the Department of Resettlement and Compensation of the Federal Capital Territory Administration are making attempts to scuttle the moves to resettle the original inhabitants of Garki despite the efforts and arrangements that have been made by the Ministerial Committee on Apo Resettlement Scheme to actualise this, for their selfish interest.

A reliable source in the FCT Administration, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed this to Peoples Daily at the weekend.

To further lend credence this, the indigenes have also

accused officials of the department of sabotaging the efforts of the FCT administration towards their resettlement, demanding that the Department of Resettlement and Compensation be restructured if the administration was to achieve any meaningful resolution of the resettlement crisis.

“We want to be resettled and integrated by the Administration within the Apo Resettlement and Garki Village.

We are demanding that we are allowed to be part of the implementation process. The Administration should not allow the Department of Resettlement and Compensation to drive the implementation process because they are responsible for

the current crisis in resettlement. ”The Department of Resettlement and Compensation cannot be trusted with the implementation of any resettlement scheme as it has failed woefully in the last four years. We want the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, to restructure the department and bring in trustworthy people and understand the objective of the department,” the President of Garki Youth Association (GYA), Comrade Joel Yazegbe told journalists at the weekend.

The group which also demanded the full implementation of the report of the Ministerial Committee on Apo Resettlement Scheme headed by the Solicitor

New look Herbert Macaulay Way at Wuse market, still free of its traffic jam in spite of suspension of FCTA's new transport policy, last Friday in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

General of the FCT, Mrs. Helen Oloja, urged the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, to ensure that the full report is published and implemented immediately.

It would be recalled that the Ministerial Committee, which was inaugurated by the Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, in August 2012, submitted its report on December 13, 2012.

“We don’t want the report to go the way of other reports of past administrations which were not implemented. We commend the Federal Capital Territory Administration for setting up the Ministerial Committee on Apo Resettlement Scheme. This is the best attempt made by the FCT Administration to once and for all resolve the problem which has lingered for four years.

“The members of the Committee met with all stakeholders including the elders, traditional rulers, youths and others. They also visited the area to see things for themselves. We told them our demands and we are hoping that they will keep to the trust they showed during the stakeholders’ meetings,” Yazegbe said.

The youth leader, who noted that the indigenes would hold a news conference on the issue soon, warned that they would not accept partial implementation of the report.

He also called for upward review of the movement and inconvenience allowances to be paid to each household being resettled.

“The current payment of allowance of N35,000 as contained in the allocation letter is grossly inadequate.

We told the ministerial committee that the allowances should be improved upon. It is meager,” he said.

Commuters applaud FCT Minister for lifting ban on mini buses

R

esidents of Gwagwalada Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have commended the FCT Minister, Sen. Bala Mohammed, for the three-week suspension of the ban placed on mini buses from entering into Abuja city.

A cross section of the residents who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gwagwalada, appealed to the minister to suspend the ban indefinitely in the interest of commuters.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on January 15, 2013

commenced the enforcement of the ban which it claimed, was in line with transportation master plan of territory.

Mrs Mabel Bamidele, a resident, expressed satisfaction with the suspension of the ban.

“The minister has listened to the public outcry, particularly the poor masses.

To enforce the restriction order, the FCTA should make available alternative arrangement to cushion the effects of the ban on commuters considering the cost of transportation in FCT”, she said.

Bamidele said the

suspension of the ban had reduced the stress faced by commuters who were compelled to trek long distances to get to their destination.

“It has not been easy for us since the commencement of the enforcement because the mini buses drop us at Lugbe, instead of going straight to the city. It was not a funny experience because we have to pay more to go to work since we have to board another bus to get to the city,” Bamidele said.

Another resident, Emeka Obi, who called for indefinite suspension of the ban, said the three-week suspension given by

the minister would not make a significant difference.

He said the enforcement of the restriction order without adequate alternative would not be in the interest of residents.

Obi said the hardship would be much on the poor masses.

“I was happy when I came out this morning and discovered that the buses were back again because my fear earlier was the long time I would have spent on the road,” he said.

Obi said the suspension had eased the transport difficulties he faced in the two days the ban was enforced. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

INSIDE FCT COURTS Teenager in prison for alleged extortion, assault

A

Karu Upper Area Court, in Nasarawa state has remanded an applicant, Goddy Omozurwubo, in police custody for causing hurt.

Omozurwubo, an applicant, of Aso ‘A’, Maraba, Nasarawa state, is arraigned for alleged joint act, extortion and causing hurt.

Police prosecutor Silas Nanpan told the court that Samuel Attahokon of Area ‘A’, Nyanya, Abuja, reported the case at the Nyanya Police Station on January 16, 2013.

Nanpan said that on the said date, while Attahokon was going to work at Nyanya phase 2, Omozurwbo and one other now at large, attacked him with a scissors and plier.

“The accused injured Attahokon on his left hand and collected his Samsung phone cell phone valued at N13, 500.Attahokan paid N2,500 for treatment at the Nyanya General Hospital,’’ Nanpan said.

He also told the court that the allegations against the accused contravened the provisions of Sections, 79, 292, 245 of the Penal Code, but Omozurwbo denied the allegations.

He adjourned the case to April 17, 2013 for hearing. (NAN)

PAGE 17

Woman, 42, begs court to dissolve 13-year-old marriage A

staff of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Mrs Blessing Okeh, has pleaded with an Abuja Customary Court to dissolve her 13-year-old marriage.

Okeh said that her husband, John, was a drunk and that what puts her off the most was that he was always coming home late at night.

“My husband is a habitual drunk, one day he came back by 3 a.m. and started beating me and the children; it was by the

grace of God that we survived the attack,’’ she said.

She said that her husband was a violent person and that he could say anything to anybody regardless of the person’s status.

“Due to my husband’s violent nature he was dismissed from his office, but because of our children, I had to beg my brothers and sisters to help him get his job back,’’ she said.

She said her husband assaulted her in the presence of her uncle and threatened to kill

her, adding that nobody would be able to stop him.

Okeh added that her uncle reported the incident to the Inspector-General of Police through his solicitor, Mr Julius Agu and Associates in a letter dated June 1, 2010.

She said that her husband also formed the habit of insulting and beating her up even during pregnancy.

“My husband beat me to a state of coma when I was six months pregnant,’’ she said.

She, however, said that the marriage had produced four children, and that she was ready to cater for them.

Okeh pleaded with the court to dissolve the marriage on the ground that it had failed.

Counsel to the petitioner, Mr Julius Agu, told the court that all attempts made by the parties to resolve the issue out of court had proven abortive.

Presiding Judge Suleiman Ismaila adjourned the case to February 26, 2013. (NAN)

Court warns driver to stay away from trouble

A

n Abuja Senior Magistrates Court at the weekend warned and discharged Moses Hassan of Gishiri Village, Abuja, saying he should to stay away from trouble to avoid the wrath of the law.

Senior Magistrate Binta Dongoyaro gave the warning following a report of criminal force and assault on Amina Ahmed of Katampe Estate, Maitama, Abuja.

Police prosecutor Abdullahi Alhassan told the court that the case was reported at Gishiri Police Post

by Ahmed on Tuesday.

According to the prosecutor, Ahmed was jogging on Tuesday, when the accused trailed and attacked her from behind, thereby committing an assault on her personality.

Alhassan added that when the accused noticed that passers-by were gathering at the scene, following shouts by the complainant for help, he ran into a nearby bush where some men caught and beat him up.

He was later handed over to the police, the prosecutor added.

When the court asked the accused, a mini bus driver, what happened between him and the lady, he said he was only trying to “toast’’ her for friendship as he was going to the garage to pick his bus for the day’s work.

According to the accused, “I saw the lady and I liked her, I joined her to do the sporting exercise all for me to get her for friendship. I tapped her and held her hand. (NAN)

Fire-fighters putting out fire from a burning petrol tanker, on Friday at Zuba, in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

Tenant arraigned for allegedly assaulting landlord

A

tenant, Ibrahim Ahmed, 35, who resides at Lugbe, Zone 4, Abuja, at the weekend arraigned before an Abuja Senior Magistrates Court for allegedly assaulting his landlord, Mr. Joseph Ogbor.

Ahmed is standing trial on a one-count charge of criminal force and assault contrary to Section 265 of the Penal Code.

Police Prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah

Elijah told the court that the case was reported on Jan. 16 by one Ogbor of the same address to the Lugbe police station.

Elijah said that, on the same day, Ogbor accosted Ahmed demanding that he should pay for the electricity bill which he owed for seven months, but refused to pay.

He said that Ahmed, instead, allegedly beat up Ogbor, and that,

in the process, hit him on his mouth which almost removed two of his teeth.

The prosecutor said that during investigation, Ahmed admitted to having committed the offence.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the offence.

Senior Magistrate Binta Dogonyaro granted Ahmed bail in the sum of N100, 000 with a reasonable surety in like sum

which must reside within the court’s jurisdiction.

Dogonyaro said that the surety must have a means of livelihood and should submit evidence of such before the court.

She said that the surety must also swear to an affidavit of oath, promising to present the accused in court as at when due, and adjourned the case to February 4, 2013 for hearing. (NAN)

Apo 6: Court adjourns for adoption of written addresses by counsels

A

n Abuja High Court at the weekend adjourned suit on Apo six killing to March 6 for counsels to file written address over the legal tussle to recall one of the witnesses.

At the resumed hearing of the case Mr Chris Uche, the prosecution counsel, had recalled one of the witness when the counsel to the first accused, Mr Rickey Tarfa, raised an objection.

Mr Ede Ayuba, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, was recalled to the witness box for continuation of cross examination

by the prosecuting counsel.

Tarfa, counsel to DCP Danjuma Ibrahim, one of the accused, had raised a legal issue, saying that before a witness could be recalled certain special circumstance must be established.

He said: “The evidence the witness is coming to give must relate to his earlier testimony.

“It is not an opportunity for the witness to give fresh evidence or re-testify by filling in the gaps created in his earlier testimony accordingly.

“The prosecution is required

by law to make an application and not just to inform the court that he has two witnesses, who indeed, turned out to be witnesses being recalled.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the court had on Thursday admitted a medical report on the autopsy carried out on the five auto spare parts dealers and their female companion, allegedly killed by six policemen.

Those killed were Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony

Nwokike and Tina Arebun.

The deceased aged between 21 and 25 years were returning from a night party in 2005 when they were killed by the policemen.

The policemen standing trial are: Danjuma Ibrahim a deputy commissioner of police and Othman Abdulsalami , an assistant superintendent of police, still at large.

The others include Nicholas Zacharia, Emmanuel Baba, Emmanuel Acheneje and Sadiq Salami, were all constables.

(NAN)

BUSINESS

PAGE 19

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Email: aminuimam@yahoo.co.uk

INSIDE

- Pg 20

Sterling Bank’s customers win SUV, cash prizes

Mob: 08033644990

Dangote donates N20bn Abuja General Aviation Terminal to charity in two years set for commissioning today

By Ibrahim Kabir Sule

T

he philanthropic works of the Pan African conglomerate-Dangote Grouphave increased astronomically to a staggering N20 billion between 2011 and 2012.

The Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility scheme in Gboko communities also hit N492M last December, a statement from the group said.

The Group had donated N2.5billion to victims of flood in the country, making it the highest corporate donor to flood victims in the history of the country.

Dangote had donated N50million worth of relief material and N150million cash to flood victims in Kogi State, a statement from the group said.

President of the Dangote Group Alhaji Aliko Dangote also announced a N230million women empowerment fund for Kogi State.

Modeled after the Group’s N600million empowerment scheme for Kano women, the Kogi’s donation is expected to help ginger economic activities among women in the state.

In 2011, the conglomerate’s social responsibility activities were valued at N15.5billion, in what industry watchers described as unprecedented.

The group had intensified its Social Responsibility schemes across Africa.

The statement said early in the year the group had maintained its philanthropic tempo as it doled out a whooping $500,000 to victims of explosion in Republic of Congo. ”The Dangote Industries Limited has also donated N100millon to the University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano within the first quarter of last year,” the statement added.

The group had supported the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with a million naira within the first quarter of 2012.

The president of the group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, was quoted as saying in an interview that he is determined to intensify his charity works, and as well create jobs for many Africans.

“About this philanthropy, I think from this year, I personally want to take it very seriously. I want to be much more aggressive than what we have had in the past.

“We already have a foundation which will do all these things, but I am trying to see what we can do to encourage, not only Nigerians, but other Africans,” Dangote said.

He added: “I am not going to give all my money to charity, but I am going to try my best and give part of that money to charity. I am working hard on it,”

From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

T

he General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja will be commission today bringing to two facilities so far done in the remodelling exercise being carried out by the aviation ministry as part of the country’s airport transformation exercise.

General Manager, Corporate Communication of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN Mr. Yakubu Dati said the works started on the terminal in October 2011 when domestic flights were transferred to the international wing of the airport

to pave way for the expansion.

He said “The remodelling entailed the expansion of the left, right and frontal areas of the old Domestic Terminal to accommodate more modern facilities, including a conference centre, kitchen and dining area for VIPs. The operational area for both arriving and departing passengers has also been substantially increased, to make provision for a pilot’s lounge, a food court of international standard, shops, offices for airlines, games room etc.”

Dati told reporters the exercise leave nine more similar facilities being given a facelift

to be completed in due course.

Parts of the facilities upgraded at the terminal include CCTV cameras installed at several points and X-ray scanning machines for quick processing of passengers and cargo.

The FCT airport, which will be commissioned by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu according to the GM is the first to be constructed at the airport since its inception in the early 1980’s and will now handle all non-scheduled flights at the airport while domestic flight operations will continue to take place at the present location of the international wing.

StarTimes hits one million subscribers in Nigeria From Muhammad Adamu, Kaduna

O

ne of the Digital Terrestrial Technology (DTT) service providers in Africa, in collaboration with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), StarTimes, has recorded over one million subscribers.

The General Manager, Idoko Osward has said during the new Digital Video Broadcasting Technology-2 (DVB-T2) technology in Nigeria and some African countries. He said the DVB-T2 technology is the advanced version in the DTT operation.

Osward said one of the major potentials of the DVB-T2 is its ability to contain more channels , one frequency on DVB-T2 can take up to 25 channels.

“StarTimes mission of ensuring every home in Nigeria enjoys affordable digital entertainment is backed with its collaboration with the NTA.The relationship with NTA is a strategic partnership that will help Nigeria in actualizing its 2015 digital deadline.

“StarTimes will leverage on the existing platform of NTA to provide quality digital service to every home in Nigeria and in

doing that, the whole country won’t find it difficult to get digitalized even before the 2015 transition.

“Another problem StarTimes is gradually solving is the accessibility and affordable of digital service, compared to what we use to have , StarTimes has made digital service affordable and enjoyable by all”, he said.

The GM also stated that apart from the company’s brand that understands the needs of its teeming subscribers, the new DVB-T2 has also been launched in every operating states that includes Enugu, Uyo, Aba ,Ilorin, Yola, Benin while 15 other offices and that of Zaria will be established by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Part of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja, which will be commissioned today.

Nigeria’s foreign reserve hits $44.6bn

By Aminu Imam

T

he Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed yesterday that Nigeria’s foreign reserve has reached $44.6 billion benchmark.

She disclosed this during the 31st Meeting of the Convergence Council of Ministers and

Governors of Central Banks of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), in Abuja last Friday.

The minister proudly said the country has been mounting defences against unforeseen economic tragedies.

She said, “on the back of greater efficiency in the management of our resources, our foreign reserves soared from US$32.6 billion at the end of 2011

Management Tip of the Day

H

3 ways to battle e-mail overload

as your inbox reached its size limit? Have you lost track of who’s waiting for a response? Most people struggle to stay on top of e-mail. Here are three tactics that might help:1.

Reply by phone. Quick calls can often eliminate dozens of e-mails.

A five-minute chat may be more

efficient than crafting a message that adequately explains the situation.2. D o not copy. If a message you’re sending requires a recipient’s attention, include that person in the “to” field; if not, leave them off entirely. Tell colleagues to do the same.3.

Put down the

smartphone. When you have a few minutes between meetings, don’t respond to e-mail on your mobile’s tiny keyboard. Wait until you’re back at your desk or with your laptop or tablet, when you can craft a better response in less time.

Source: Harvard Business Review

to about US$44.6 billion now.

“The Excess Crude Account, ECA, balance has also improved from $4.57 billion in August 2011 to about $9 billion now. Our Sovereign Wealth Fund is up and running and will oversee the $1 billion set aside by the government.

But more important, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is embarking on a strong program of economic diversification – which is the only real buffer for our economy.”

The Minister further disclosed that Nigeria has made a serious move in investing into agricultural, housing, solid minerals, and the creative industry sectors.

Her words, “In an effort to limit our dependency on oil revenue, and create jobs, it is a fact, that our present growth rate is being sustained by the activities of the non-oil sector.”

PAGE 20

COMPANY NEWS NIPOST

T

he National Address System for Nigeria (NAS), a project aimed at creating data bank for proper documentation of street names, will soon be in place.

Speaking to stakeholders at a forum, organised by the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) in Lagos last week, Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said the significance of proper street addressing system is a universal trend.

She told the gathering that an improved addressing system has a positive economic impact on communities and contributes to the efficient distribution of essential services to the citizenry by government agencies. It is not only critical and essential for postal services, but imperative for establishing the foundation upon which economic and social development, poverty alleviation and an overall improvement in the standard of living can be attained.”

National Planning Commission

N

igeria Vision 20:2020 got another fillip with the commncement of a sensitization campaign aimed at educating Nigerians on broad goals and objectives of the Nigeria Vision 20:2020.

The radio campaign, which is currently running across major radio stations, is one of many communication programmes that have been outlined to enlighten Nigerians on the commitment of the Ministry of National Planning to ensuring that the country becomes one of the top 20 economies of the world by year 2020.

Multi-disciplinary marketing communications firm, Verdant Zeal, which got the nod of the NPC to act as its communications agency after a keenly contested pitch in 2010, created the jingles produced in Pidgin and English, with extensions to key local languages to address the ethnocultural and religious demographics of the country.

HCL Infosystems

I

ndian Systems Integration services and Hardware company, HCL Infosystems has revealed its plans to join the Tablet market chase for the Nigerian market, with the release of its products, the ME tablets.

The three new ME tablet devices, which are the Y3, U2 and the V1 has become the key spinners in the tablet market in the Middle East. Now the Company is looking at translating that market success to Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania will be on display at the leading stores from February 2013.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Sterling Bank’s customers win SUV, cash prizes From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

S

terling Bank at the weekend gave out a brand new Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) to one of its loyal customers AmadiNna Homa who emerged the grand prize winner in its savers’ business promotion.

The winner’s account is domiciled at the Trans Amadi (Port Harcourt) branch of the bank.

Other winners in the second group including Enilari

Oladipupo, Musa Adamu, Adeleke Olusegun and NunuJanet Aduka smiled home with N1 million each while Badmus Dauda, Danjuma Ringin, Lawal Kadijat & Maruf and Nkiri Denis among others won N500, 000 each.

There were also consolation prizes such as home theaters and refrigerators won by 10 other customers.

The requirement for the star prize is saving a minimum of N100,000 for three months, while

that of N1 million is N50,000 for three months and N500,000, N25,000 for three months.

The winners emerged after electronic draws witnessed by Consumer Protection Council (CPC), National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), the media and members of staff of the bank.

Sterling Bank’s Head, Retail Markets, Donald Osa-edokpolor said rewarding these customers is a confirmation of the bank’s integrity and commitment to its

customers. According to him, the exercise is also part of the lender’s commitment to financial inclusion, which entails reaching the unbanked segment of the population with financial products.

He said the bank will continue to support its loyal customers in growing their businesses and meeting their personal needs. He advised the bank’s customers to cultivate savings culture to enable them save funds for the rainy day.

According to the statement, Kuru, who spoke recently at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) venue of the 28th Omolayole Management Lecture series themed “The future of enterprise in the age of collaboration,” said although it takes a lot of hard work and commitment to achieve these virtues collectively and individually, there was no better value the leaders can bequeath to the younger generation in the country than to leave them with the legacies of efficiency of management, quality service, discipline and high moral values.

He said all over the world, countries that have experienced and are still going through impressive economic, social and political growths, transparent and sincere leadership styles at all levels as well as high moral standards are those that realised that low moralism, poor knowledge, bad leadership or management structures, indiscipline and poor service standards among other vices are not the bedrock for building a stable and programme economy.

To achieve this in Nigeria, Kuru said there was urgent need to positively collaborate with

other nations with the view to leveraging their advantages and approaching every endeavour from the perspective of enterprise, which he defined as the ability to think of new project ideas and turn them into successful ventures.

Kuru identified what he described as “I want to own it all,” syndrome, which he said has characterised the normal Nigerian psyche as a factor affecting Nigeria’s growth negatively. According to him, it is becoming more glaring that the growth and expansion of the country will be limited with this negative ideology.

Enterprise bank MD restates need for discipline, good mgt T

he Managing Director/Chief E x e c u t i v e Officer, Enterprise Bank Limited (EBL), Mallam Ahmed Kuru has described high moral values, efficient management, service discipline and culture change in both the public and private sectors of the Nigeria’s socio-political and economic landscape as the panacea for stable growth.

This was contained in a press release issued by the bank on Friday, and signed ny its Head, C o r p o r a t e Communications, Olusola LongeOkenimkpe.

CBN’s MPC meeting holds today

By Aminu Imam

T

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

Current Inflation rate = 12.3 % Source:CBN

he 230th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has been scheduled today to review the performance of key economic indicators in Nigeria and the global economic outlook.

According to a press statement issued by the apex bank on Thursday, the Governor of the CBN will brief the media on the outcome of the meeting the same day.

Analysts expect the MPC to maintain the Monetary Policy

Earnings Report for Banks Source:Pro-share Nigeria

Rate (MPR), which is the key benchmark interest rate at 12 percent.

CBN to sell N826.31 bn in T/ bills in 1st Quarter

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday announced plans to raise aboutN826.31 billion ($5.26 billion) worth in treasury bills ranging between three months and one year in the first quarter of the year.

It plans to auction N331.29 billion in 91-day, 182-day and 364-day paper in January, 354.93 billion naira in the same range of bills in February and 140.09 billion of same range in March at its twice-monthly auction.

Offshore investors’ interest in local debt has surged since the JP Morgan included it in its emerging market government bond index last October. Barclays will add Nigerian debt to its index from March 2013.

The CBN issues treasury bills regularly as part of monetary control measures to help lenders manage their liquidity and control the money supply.

The west African power house announced plans on Wednesday to raise between N210-360 billion in sovereign bonds ranging between 5 and 20 years in the first quarter of the year.

PAGE 21

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

NSE tops 1.099 shares on investment Stories from Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

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ransactions on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) last week recorded an appreciation of 1.099 shares as a turnover of 3.259 billion shares worth N21.636 billion in 34,651 deals was traded in contrast to a total of 2.160 billion shares valued at N16.998 billion that exchanged hands in 31,241 deals the previous week.

The review the market activity showed that the Financial Services sector continued its vibrant dominance in the activity chart (measured by turnover volume) recording the highest trading volume of 2.477 billion shares valued at N15.399 billion exchanged hands by investors in 22,627 deals, representing 76.01%, 71.17% and 65.30% of the volume, value and number of deals executed on the stock market respectively during the week.

The Conglomerates sector (measured by turnover volume) followed with a recorded volume of 423.299 million shares valued at N771.622 million traded in 1,117 deals.

Cheif Executive Officer , NSE, Oscar Onyeama The Consumer Goods sector (measured by turnover volume) was third with 141.525 million shares valued at N3.673 billion traded in 5,671 deals. The top three sectors accounted for 3.042 billion shares valued at N19.844 billion traded in 29,415 deals, thus accounting for 93.34%, 91.72% and 84.89%, of the volume, value and number of deals respectively.

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc of the Diversified Industries subsector was the most active with a volume of

415.970 million units followed

by U B A Plc and Diamond Bank Plc. The top three equities with a total volume of 1.022 billion units of shares contributed 31.37% and 20.38% respectively to the total turnover and value for the week.

Also traded during the week was 565 units of NewGold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) valued at N1.440 billion exchanged hands in 4 deals in contrast to a total of 413 units valued at N1.1042 million transacted last week in 5 deals. There were no

transactions through the stock market in the FGN Bonds, State/Local Government Bonds and Corporate Bonds/ Debentures sectors.

Specifically, NSE AllShare Index appreciated by 5.91% to close at 30,927.18 while Market Capitalization of the listed equities increased by 5.92% to close at N9.893 trillion.

A review of the equity price movements indicated that sixty-eight (68) equities gained while nine (9) equities recorded price declines and prices of one hundred and eighteen (118) equities remained constant. When compared with the preceding week, fifty-two (52) equities gained while twenty (20) equities recorded price declines and prices of one hundred and twenty-three (123) equities remained constant.

Unilever Nigeria Plc led the losers chart shedding N2.41 kobo followed by John Holt Plc N0.64 kobo while Nestle Nigera Plc topped the gainers table appreciating with N24.00 kobo followed by Dangote Cement Plc N14.00 kobo.

Onyema hinges capital market growth on PIB passage, power deregulation

T

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has called for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assemble and deregulation of the power sector to enhance growth of the nation’s capital market.

The exchange maintained that unless these issues are addressed mega companies such as the telecom, oil companies and the agricultural sector may not be attracted to the market for listing.

The Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr Oscar Onyema while addressing the NSE world Press Conference yesterday in Lagos noted that the exchange is presently wooing 16 companies into the market, adding that it needs the support of the government to ensure that such

is achieved.

He insisted that quick passage of the PIB will enhance oil companies’ participation in the market. He observed that these companies are presently reluctant because they may be waiting to know what the content of the bill will be.

According to Onyema, the NSE target of a trillion dollar market by 2015 will become a mirage. He said, unless number are aligned”.

Onyema regretted that NSE market capitalization accounted for only 17 per cent of the nation’s GDP, which he described as one of the lowest in Africa. He attributed the drop to non-participation of these mega companies in the market.

Giving an appraisal of the capital market performance in

2012, Onyema maintained that the NSE was one of the top performing exchanges globally.

The NSE All Share Index (ASI), he said grew 35.45%, and average daily turnover for equities was N2.65 billion ($17.05 million), up 2.71% while the capitalization of listed equities increased by 37.31% from N6.54 ($43.08 billion) to N8.98 trillion ($57.77 billion).

He said the year closed with two new equity listings on the Main Board and 10 new bond listings.

Peeping into 2013, Onyema assured that it is largely positive for both the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian capital market as changes implemented in 2012 begin to crystallize in 2013.

He further gave assurance that by the end of 2013, the NSE

expected to be well-positioned to adapt business to meet the needs of its clients and to enable the Nigerian capital market absorb the forces of change reshaping global financial markets and the global exchange landscape.

The Exchange will continue with innovations centered on technology and product development, as well as on advocating changes to policy adding “By the end of 2013, we will have established our technology competitiveness, restored our regulatory soundness and advocated the policy changes necessary to enable us absorb the forces of change.

The Exchange will be wellpositioned to adapt our business to meet the shifting needs of its clients”, he said.

INVESTORS NEWS BITS

Ecobank Transnational Inc

E

cobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank) has disclosed that it will sell shares, and bonds in order to meet rising capital requirements in the African countries where it operates.

Ecobank has operations in 33 African countries, and many of these countries are asking their financial institutions to recapitalize in order to deepen their capacity.

Ecobank, CEO, Thierry Tanoh said, “We’re starting to see in a lot of countries requirements by central banks to raise minimum capital requirements. If this continues quite aggressively we might have to look at raising additional resources.”

The CEO, who took over from Arnold Ekpe last year, also said that the bank may consider listing its shares on an Exchange outside Africa.

AfDB

T

he African Development Bank, (AfDB), last week priced a $1 billion fixed rate US Dollar Global benchmark due 15th March 2018. The deal pays a coupon of 0.875% and a spread of 5 basis points over Mid-Swaps, equivalent to 20.45 basis points over the UST 0.75% due 31 December 2017. Joint Lead Managers on the transaction are BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and Nomura.

Following the strong demand for top quality US Dollar denominated Supranational product evidenced in the primary market over the past week, AfDB decided to launch a 5-year US Dollar Global benchmark in the London afternoon on Tuesday 15th January, announcing a new long 5year transaction with initial pricing thoughts of MidSwaps plus 5 basis points area.

Oando Plc

S

Source:Pro-share Nigeria

hareholders of Oando Plc have endorsed the N54.6 billion right issue of the company, even as they advised other investors to take advantage of the offer to increase their portfolios to reap the benefits of the huge investments inherent on the offer.

The company is shopping for N54.6 billion from existing shareholders through a rights issue of 4.548 billion ordinary shares at N12 per share. The offer opened December 28, 2012 and is expected to close on February 8, 2013.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 22

Rosehill Group bolstering Nigeria, S/Africa economic ties - Envoy

By Aminu Imam

O

ne of Africa’s emerging business conglomerates – Rosehill Group- is seeking to grow the business and economic ties between the Africa’s top economies-Nigeria and South Africa, the outgoing High Commissioner of South Africa to Nigeria said in Abuja at the weekend.

Ambassador Jeremiah Kingsley Mamabolo, who spoke at a dinner organized for him by the Rosehill Group, said the group is a big name to watch being one of

Africa’s most reputable business team, a statement from the group said.

“I have enjoyed the humility and friendship of Nigerians,” the High Commissioner declared.

The trade volume between the two countries, he said, had hit a whopping $30 billion by mid of last year.

The envoy has been redeployed as his country’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

Speaking, chairman of the Rosehill Group- Alhaji Suleiman Yahyah- described the envoy as an experienced diplomat who had

managed effectively sensitive diplomatic issues between the two countries since he came to Nigeria.

As part of its huge investment, the chairman said his group is one of the real estate companies selected to build new districts for Abuja through the Federal Capital’s land swap policy.

The Group is diversified with interest in oil and gas, trading, infrastructure development, power and engineering, information and communication technology, financial services and property development.

Rosehill has established interest in Aviation Handling services, hotels and entertainment and infrastructure concessioning, agriculture and management.

The group is head-quartered in Abuja with business offices in Kaduna, Lagos, Gusau, Rome (Italy) and Dubai (UAE).

The Rosehill Group has in its kitty: NAHCO Aviance, Deluxe Suites, Rosehill Luxury Suites Ltd, Rosehill Ltd, Rosecom IT, Tartar Cargo, Maitama Amusement Park, Madeira Ltd, Turnkey

Stanbic Pension crosses millionth customer mark

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he management of Stanbic IBTC Pensions, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, is celebrating its one millionth customer under its Retirement Savings Account package.

Speaking on the development, the CEO of the company, Mr. Demola Sogunle said the landmark achievement solidifies the company as the leading pension management company in Nigeria.

He said, “One million customers in less than a decade is an important achievement and reflects well on the solidity of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers as Nigeria’s leading pension fund administrator.

Chairman/CE Rosehill Group, Alhaji Suleiman Yahyah(L) and the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, David Macrae in a chat at a dinner organised by the Rosehill Group for the outgoing South African High Commissioner, Jeremiah Kingsley Mamabolo in Abuja...weekend

R

enewed efforts by the Federal Government to sustain the existing improvement in power supply received a major boost with the unveiling of the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke at the Nigerian Petroleum D e v e l o p m e n t Company, (NPDC) operated Oredo field in Edo state.

The facility, which currently supplies 65 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) has ramped up NPDC’s total gas production to a record level of 400MMscfd with projected growth to 600MMscfd by year end is envisaged to provide invaluable tonic to the Federal Government’s power supply aspiration.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs. Alison-Madueke noted that the project is in line with the ongoing reform process in the industry designed to vigorously ensure the monetization of the nation’s gas endowment through gas to power and other gas related industrialization.

....as NPDC reaches new level in gas production The Minister stated that the Oredo gas project, which is 100 percent local content in both design and construction is reflective of the Federal Government’s desire to grow and support effective indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry.

“It is this commitment to support indigenous oil and gas production growth that led to the assignment of a number of assets to NPDC. Government’s commitment is further reflected in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2012 currently before the National Assembly, where special consideration has been given to indigenous players in the industry,’’ said the Minister.

Providing technical details of the project, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Engr.

Andrew Yakubu said the IGHF which symbolizes NNPC’s response to the Federal Government gas to power initiative is the first major gas

development project aimed at realization of NPDC’s strategic growth plan of being an integrated oil and gas company.

He explained that currently, the Corporation through the NPDC is pursuing with vigor the development of more resources in order to provide gas to PanOcean Oil Company (POOC) to achieve optimal utilisation of their gas plant.

As at the last check, NPDC produces an average of 130,000 barrels of crude per day and currently ranks the 5th largest oil producing company in the country. Records indicate that going by recent performance, NPDC is poised to surpass its growth target of 250,000 barrels of oil per day by the year 2015.

The NPDC Oredo IGHF is sited on Oil Mining Lease (OML) 111.

The Lease consists of three fields with an average production capacity of 6,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) with more prospects for further development.

“We are very optimistic about the future and the assurance that we give our present and our future clients is that we will continue to manage their funds in a very responsible manner.”

He indicated that the company had ‘Assets Under Management’ in excess of N865 billion and pays out N1.65 billion to over 23,000 retirees monthly.

“Over N112 billion has been paid regularly to retirees since we commenced operations in 2005.

Our aim is to continue to set ever higher standards of service delivery and ensure that our retirement savings account holders derive maximum value from their investment,” he explained.

Analysts see revenue potential in Facebook’s new search tool

FG to consolidate on F improved power supply

By Muhammad Nasir

Project Ltd, Rosehill Engineering, Empire Group Ltd and Rosegas Ltd among others.

Last year, a deportation row had threatened the diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Some of the South African businesses that have made inroads into Nigeria include: MTN, DSTV, Tiger Brand, Stanbic IBTC bank, while First Bank Nigeria Plc has a representative office in South Africa, just as the Dangote Group had acquired a controlling stake in Sephaku Cement of South Africa.

acebook Inc’s new search tool has strong potential to generate revenue for the social networking company but it is unlikely to challenge Google Inc’s supremacy in web search at least in the near term, analysts said.

The “graph search” tool, unveiled last week Tuesday, lets users trawl their network of friends to find everything from restaurants to movie recommendations and marks Facebook’s biggest foray into online search.

“We see some highly monetizable category suggestions for Graph Search (restaurants nearby, games), and it should be easy to incorporate commercial search results via Facebook’s partnership with Bing,” BofA Merrill Lynch analysts said in a note.

Facebook currently has a partnership with Microsoft Corp, whose Bing search engine provides search results for external websites.

Microsoft also integrates certain Facebook results into its Bing search results.

The brokerage estimated Facebook could add $500 million in annual revenue if it can generate just one paid click per user per year, and raised its price target on the stock by $4 to $35.

“As of now, we do not see Graph Search as a threat to Google Web search. Looking forward, Facebook Graph searches could be competitive with certain categories

of Google searches, such as Places & Maps,” the brokerage said.

Google has been trying to combine social networking and search for more than a year by integrating Google+ into its search engine.

Facebook’s shares were nearly flat in premarket trading on Wednesday, as the rollout of the search tool fell short of some of the more optimistic predictions including that the company would introduce its own smartphone or an Internet search engine. (Reuters)

Lagos state to go after tax evaders From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

A

fter over four years of advocacy, the Lagos State Governor; Babatunde Fashola says it is now time for the state to go after tax evaders.

The governor noted that only 3 million out of the 8 million taxable people pay tax thereby putting the government under immense pressure to deliver on the numerous programmes it set out to do.

Though there is no new legislation on taxes in Lagos, however like the model canvassed during the recently conclude U.S. election, the rich will have to pay more in the state.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 24

PAGE 25

How to make Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system work better B

y most accounts, the global economic crisis and the outbreak of diseases have negatively affected the health care programmes of most African countries. Rising deaths from communicable and noncommunicable diseases on the continent have been a serious source of concern to heath experts, an anxiety heightened by the rising cases of malaria fever, diarrhoea, cancer, diabetes, malnutrition, sickle cell, pneumonia and polio, among others.

Minister of Health, Prof.

Onyebuchi Chukwu, recently announced that more than 350,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed every year in Nigeria. Besides, a recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that communicable and noncommunicable diseases account for 64.7 per cent of deaths in Africa. It states further that noncommunicable diseases cause three million deaths annually, adding that 7.8 per cent of the deaths are due to injuries.

However, the Nigerian situation appears somewhat grim because the first WHO Global Status Report on noncommunicable diseases in 2011 listed Nigeria and other developing countries as the worst hit, while fatalities from these diseases.

Moreover, recent reports

by UN and World Bank state that 144 women die in Nigeria everyday as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications. Ignorance, illiteracy and inadequate facilities are reported to be the prime reasons for the increasing rate of maternal mortality in the country.

Worried by these reports, health experts are, therefore, confronted with the challenge of evolving a functional health system that is capable of providing sound and affordable health care delivery. The experts also think of how best to address these health issues, as part of overall strategies to reduce the country’s disease burden. However, some of the experts believe that the issues can be

more hands, including a medical doctor who will work on a permanent basis,’’ she said, conceding that in recent times, the clinic had witnessed an influx of patients from neighbouring communities.

She, however, said that due to the dearth of wards at the centre, men, women and children were usually admitted and lodged in the same room for medical observation.

She, nonetheless, conceded that if a patient’s health condition was severe and beyond the clinic’s capacity, such patient was usually referred to Wuse General Hospital, Kuje General Hospital and some specialist hospitals for advanced medical care.

Jimoh noted that the turnout of women at the centre for antenatal care and childbirth was quite impressive.

All the same, Prof.

Chukwu, said that about 5,000 midwives and 1,000 community health workers were deployed to 1,000

primary health centres via the Midwives Service Scheme since 2009, noting that the scheme was to ensure that expectant mothers in rural and hard-to-reach areas are attended to by skilled birth attendants during childbirth.

He said that the initiative was part of an effort to reduce the disturbing rate of maternal and infant mortality across the country.

He added that the Federal Ministry of Health had also

procured and distributed emergency obstetric care items such as Magnesium Sulphate, Misoprostol tablets, anti-shock garments and contraceptive commodities.

Besides, the minister said that the ministry encouraged capacity building for service providers and initiated a public awareness campaign, which was targeted at reducing

“

There has been an intensive scaleup in the procurement and distribution of anti-retroviral drugs and commodities for HIV and AIDS, meaning that people living with the virus now have expanded access to the right medication

maternal mortality by 30 per cent. He also said that the procurement and distribution of anti-malaria drugs and commodities such as Long Lasting Insecticide Nets had been intensified.

“The sector achieved a reduction in malaria prevalence from a slide positivity rate of about 50 per cent to 33 per cent in 2009.

It has also achieved 46 per cent universal coverage in the provision of long lasting insecticide nets, significantly reducing new cases of malaria infection.

“Moreover, there has been an intensive scale-up in the procurement and distribution of antiretroviral drugs and commodities for HIV and AIDS, meaning that people living with the virus now have expanded access to the right medication,’’ he said.

As regards the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the minister stressed that efforts had been made to strengthen the scheme and reposition it to enhance the

Late Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti

Health Minister Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu effectively addressed via the overhaul of the Primary Health Care (PHC) programme, which was introduced by the Federal Government in 1988.

The late Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, himself a minister of health, stressed during the launch of the PHC programme that it would make health care delivery quite effective, particularly at the grassroots level. It was then envisaged that most of the communicable and noncommunicable diseases

would be addressed via the programme.

However, observers insist that the PHC programme, which is supposed to be the bedrock of the country’s health policy, has suffered years of neglect by successive administrations.

Mrs Juliana Jimoh, Higher Community Health Extension Officer of the Primary Health Centre in Lugbe, FCT, shares similar sentiments. She said: “Most the facilities are in a state of disrepair, the equipment and

infrastructure are either deficient or obsolete, while the referral system is almost non-existent at all levels.’’

Jimoh also noted that there was insufficient manpower in the health centre to cater for the increasing demands of patients. “We don’t have enough staff; we only have six workers and about eight volunteers, while a doctor visits the centre occasionally.

We need more space, the space we have is too compacted; we also need

WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo

citizens’ access to health care services. Besides, Chukwu said that the implementation of the “Saving One Million Lives’’ initiative was targeted at expanding the access of the poor and vulnerable members of the society to good health care services via various mechanisms.

On the continental level, Dr Luis Sambo, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, gave the assurance that the global health agency had restructured its Health Promotion Strategy to address the increasing menace of preventable diseases in Africa. He stressed that the aim of scaling up the health promotion initiative was to tackle the major causes of preventable deaths

on the continent.

Sambo said that the programme would also reduce disabilities and major illnesses emanating from communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The initiative, he added, would also reduce problems associated with maternal and child health, while curbing new and re-emerging threats to the people’s health in Africa.

He said that the WHO Regional Committee for Africa approved the restructured strategy, adding that its implementation would cover a period of 10 years. The regional director emphasised that the strategy proposed seven priority actions in efforts to address public health conditions. He said that the

actions included strengthening the stewardship role of the ministry of health, as well as strengthening technical and institutional capacity at national and local levels.

According to him, the other interventions include a sustainable mechanism for financing health so as to ensure adequate funding for interventions in health programmes and strengthening functional partnerships. All the same, analysts observe that only purposeful health policies that are sustained by strong political will can free Nigeria and Africa at large from the shackles of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

(NANFeatures)

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013 08028402920 sbejike@gmail.com

The many hurdles of state creation Stories By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

L

ord Frederick Lugard amalgamated the North and Southern parts of the River Niger in 1914 into what is today known as Nigeria. During the course of his administration, the aforesaid country was split into three provinces, the North, the East and the West, with administrative headquarters in Kaduna, Enugu and lbadan, respectively.

Ibadan is an indigenous town while Kaduna and Enugu were the creation of the British Government. The British administration was honestly and judiciously put in place to the satisfaction of the people, During the British administration local politicians emerged in the persons of Mr Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and his friend, Tafawa Balewa.

The three states were lopsided, resulting in an argument on the need to split the country into smaller units, and the Mid-West politicians came up with a request that their area be carved into a state. The non-Igbo people in the East wanted COR state while the non-Hausas and Fulani of the North wanted Middle Belt State.

The British did not like the so-called fragmentation.

In 1960, Independence was granted to Nigeria, under the leadership of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as prime minister and G o v e r n o r - G e n e r a l , respectively.

In 1963, the Mid-West was created, without political sincerity for the COR state while the Middle Belt state was not created.

Agitation continued until the military coup of January 15, 1966. The Army came into power against the will of the people and there was nothing

Senate President David Mark the people could do. They had to co-operate.

The counter-coup that brought Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, led to the creation of 12 states. This singular action endeared him to the people.

The Army could not agree on the creation of more states due to the murder of Igbos in the North and the non-trial of the coupists headed by Lt. Col. Kaduna Nzogwu. The result was the declaration of Biafra Republic as an Independent state by late Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu. The refusal to rescind the declaration resulted in the civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970. More states were again created after the civil war.

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar It was not long after that seven more states were created making it 19.

To give credence to what was then known as two-third syndrome; two additional states were added totalling 21.

The new creation took place after the defeat of Lt Col. Ojukwu. It was not long before General Babangida added another nine states bringing the number to 30. The bug of state creation had bitten the army boys as the states were created politically without minding the economic factor which is more important.

The present National Assembly seems to be encouraging people to apply for

creation of states.

The creation of an additional State is not coming without the usual political wrangling that embodies State creation in Nigeria. The National assembly had been flooded with requests for creation of states from various states and geo-political zones in the country.

The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, while reacting to the clamour for state creation linked the country’s economic backwardness to the creation of numerous states, saying that countries that were at par with Nigeria in terms of development – like Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and others

Rights commission investigates AEPB raid, abuses

T

he National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has commenced investigation into several reported cases of alleged human right abuses involving officials of Abuja environmental protection board (AEPB).

The Executive secretary of the Commission, Professor Bem Angwe who disclosed this while exchanging views with newsmen said the commission has received several complaints from the victim of such alleged misconduct by the officials of the Board and has since commenced investigation into the allegations.

Angwe also revealed that the commission has also called on the chief of army staff, Lt.-Gen.

Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika and the FCT command commissioner of police, Mr. Adenrele Shinaba to investigate the allegation that some men in army uniform abducted and raped some women in Abuja under the guise that they were prostitutes.

“The commission which gathered that the matter is already before the federal secretariat Abuja police station however condemns in its entirety all forms of rights violations and is ready to ensure that the rights of the victims are enforced’’, Angwe added.

Under section 35 of the AEPB Act of 1997, street begging, trading and prostitution are prohibited. But in the bid to

enforce this law in Abuja, the AEPB enforcement squad carries out raid and seizes the hawkers’ article of trade.

There are reported cases by some of the hawkers that they were in most cases conveyed in their vehicles and made to cough out some amount of money in exchanged for the return of their wares.

Others have alleged that the AEPB squads are in the habit of converting their articles of their trade for their personal use especially if they were unable to pay the right fee to collect their wares back.

The chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Mrs. Dupe Atoki, who is also a

member of the NHRC board said ACHPR is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples’) rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and considering individual complaints of violations of the Charter.

She however noted that the NHRC board which is one of the principal partners of the ACHPR appeared to have been on holiday for the last six years.

Consequently, she urged the NHRC board members to return the commission to its proactive and dynamism of the past in order to address cases of right abuse and impunity in Nigeria.

in the 60s and 70s – had moved on without creating more states.

He noted that Nigeria was more focused and tilted towards the direction of development when she had four regions in the 60s and 12 states in the 70s, adding that with the creation of 36 states and increase in the number of local government areas, its economy had retarded.

He disclosed that there were no fewer than 57 requests for state creation pending before the National Assembly, adding also that for any state creation to be realized in Nigeria, a political process was required to get endorsements of no fewer than 24 houses of assembly.

Ndoma-Egba further said even though states creation was possible, the constitutional provision had made the process so cumbersome.

In the same vein, an Abuja based Legal Practitioner; Barrister Max Ogar shared the same opinion with the Senate Leader. He told Peoples Daily Law that, “no state can be created under a democratic government”.

The constitution, he noted is clear on the procedures for state creation in a political dispensation.

The Legal Practitioner said, “The procedure for state creation under the constitution is too cumbersome. Beyond the fact that I personally believe that we don’t even need additional states in the country, but for purposes of balance and equity, the South –East needs additional states, but we cannot even have that additional states because if you are not creating any state from the North, no lawmaker fro m t h e N o r t h , whether at the level of the state House of Assembly, in the House of Representatives or in the Senate will support you to create an additional state in the South-East.

“The issue of creating additional state, practically and legally is impossible, there is no need of going into details. The procedure is too cumbersome.

Two third majority of each state House of Assembly must give assent for any state to be created in any part of the country.

“That means that if you want to create a state in the North West, the Enugu state House of Assembly must support it with its 2/3rd majority, and so it is with other State Houses of Assembly, after which it goes to the National Assembly and the same process has to be followed.

“State creation is not going to work in the country, so let stop wasting our gun powder on the issue of state creation. It is like a camel passing through the eye of a needle than for us to create new states under a democratic”, he pointed out.

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

New curriculum: FCT secondary education board setting the pace

By Maryam Garba Hassan

A

s part of efforts to address unemployment among graduates, a situation that is threatening the peace of the country as idle youth are prone to being lured into crimes in the Nigerian society and to start producing job creators, the Federal Government through the National Council of Education (NCE) in March, 2012, launched the newly restructured curriculum for all senior secondary schools in the country, known as Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC).

The new curriculum is aimed at producing secondary school graduates who are well prepared for higher education as well as having relevant functional trade and entrepreneurship skills to eradicate poverty, create jobs and generate wealth in the country.

The plan however was for the new SSEC to be operational

by September 2011 starting with year one of the Senior Secondary School and the first batch of the Basic Education Certificate holders.

The curriculum stated that students must offer one trade or entrepreneurship subject from the 34 approved entrepreneurial subjects and five compulsory subjects while the implementation process will be systematically through year two to year three until the old curriculum is gradually phased out and the first batches of graduates of the programme are expected to graduate by the year 2014.

This is to enable school authorities to identify schools to start with, employ teachers in that field who are largely scarce, provide the equipment needed for the practical aspect of the courses and to plan a time table to accommodate the new courses as well as to avoid clashing with core subjects before the full implementation of the policy.

With the new development, educationists in the country applauded government’s initiative in this regard, considering the rate of unemployed graduates it has, the rate of poverty in the country and the neglect suffered by the various vocational training centres which are mostly regarded as jobs or skills reserved for illiterates or school dropouts in the society despite the enormous potentials it has to boost the economy.

However, months after the introduction of the new

curriculum and more than a year before the dateline for the graduation of the first phase of the students who benefit from the system, the FCT Secondary Education Board under the Education Secretariat in its quest to continue to deliver qualitative education, is taking

the teachers trained are the technical and pioneer group of teachers and she urged them to take good advantage of the training and work tenaciously to impart not only knowledge but enterprise culture of relevant skills to the students while preparing them for future

certificate.

She said the students when trained will also make a difference in the economy, starting from their immediate households and ultimately, the whole the Nigerian society adding that it is in the right direction in the transformation

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai

the lead inthe implementing the newly restructured senior secondary curriculum.

The Board recently commenced the trade-subjects implementation with the training of over 230 teachers from the senior secondary schools in the FCT. The Director, FCT Secondary Education Board, Mrs Yelwa Fatima Baba-Ari said the FCT Administration through the Secondary Education Board is keying into the newly restructured curriculum on trades subjects early hence the need to train the teachers on the different entrepreneurial skills.

According to her, the policy is a laudable initiative designed to produce secondary school graduates who would be wellfitted and prepared for higher education as well as having relevant skills needed for poverty eradication, job creation and wealth generation.

Yelwa stated further that

self-reliant ventures which will add value to their lives and bring about economic progress.

“We have made budgetary provision in 2013 to increase the number of teachers in the trade subjects. We are training between 230 and 250 teachers for the programme,” she said.

Greater emphasis is placed on practical skill acquisition to qualify for the senior secondary

of the economy.

On assuming the leadership of the FCT Secondary Education Board as the Director, Yelwa Fatima Baba-Ari, initiated the establishment of seven comprehensives schools in the six area councils to enable FCT become one of the first to implement the policy by the National Council on Education.

Essentially, the new

“

We have made budgetary provision in 2013 to increase the number of teachers in the trade subjects. We are training between 230 and 250 teachers for the programme,” she said.

curriculum (SSEC) was conceived by National Council of Education (NCE) in 2005 to restructure the existing senior secondary curriculum that would lead to a complete overhaul of contents, standards and knowledge matter and implant skills for enhanced practical knowledge to the recipients.

The Board therefore has embarked on the idea of seven comprehensive schools called Cluster Centres which would focus on the trade subjects in order to equip the FCT students with the relevant entrepreneurship skills.

This idea is to make it easier for each student to offer tradesubjects peculiar to the area council without stress as about seven or more schools formed the centres in the area councils.

Another feature of the centre is the provision of transport to move students to their various centres without stress and clash of classes. The cluster centres are GGSS Abaji, GSS Bwari, GSS Gwagwalada, GSS Karshi, GSS Kuje, GSS Kwali and Model Secondary School, Maitama.

She however said the schools identified will be arranged according to the zones within the FCT to ensure that all axis benefit from the programme and that time table for the subjects have been planned in such a way that while the teachers are at the centres teaching the courses, they do not miss their normal classes in the other subjects they teach.

She howerer said some of the challenges facing the policy include lack of qualified teachers in such courses, lack of equipment which is expensive, high cost of consumables and the issue of few privately owned entrepreneur schools which is a general problem in the country.

Yalwa said teachers in that trades have been posted to the schools to teach the subjects for 2 hours a week and also do the practical aspect of the courses..

The task ahead of the board and even the states when they implement the policy is the sustainability of the courses especially as one of the challenges the state governments are likely to face is the limited number of qualified teachers in the field.

Another issue to worry about is that of maintenance of the equipment as maintenance has always been a major problem with Nigerians as well as the board’s readiness to ensure that those equipment purchased with huge amounts of money are maintained and safe guarded for generations of students to benefit from the skills?

PAGE 28

FUNAAB Wins “Africa’s Best Institution’s” award From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

T

he Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has won "Africa's Institutions of the Year (2012) Award in SouthAfrica.

FUNAAB was awarded by prestigious Campus Sneak Africa, after touring Universities in the continent.

According to the Producer/ Director, Campus Sneak Africa, Mr. Fazzy Adebayo Adesoji, FUNAAB was trailed by University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Adebayo said FUNAAB's feat which was broadcasted to the whole world "attracted lots of positive comments and emails from all over the world commending the institution's efforts to giving qualitative education to students in an easylife environment.

Many also confessed it was a paradigm shift for them as against their odd belief of what the school is", he added.

Campus Sneak also congratulated the University on its Silver Jubilee Anniversary.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Western World not fair to NigeriaForeign Scholars From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

F

oreign Scholars under Nigeria Commonwealth and Bilateral Education Agreement Scholarship; and FUNAAB Foreign African Scholarship Scheme (FUFASS) have described and adjudged Nigerians as good people, contrary to general impression, especially the Western World.

The foreign Scholars were undergraduates and postgraduates students of Universities in the country.

Speaking, at a dinner,

marking the end of a 5-Day 2nd edition of the Orientation/ Acculturation Programme, organized by the Federal Scholarship Board in collaboration with (FUNAAB), the foreign scholars said until other fellow foreigners, especially from oversees countries visited Nigeria and spend some time, they won't appreciate the fact that Nigerians are good people.

According to the Governor of the Scholars, Mr. Abdul Koroma, a Sierra-Leonean and a student of Mathematics, University of

Ilorin, "If you are far, you will not like to come to Nigeria. As a scholar who has spent up to two to three years now, I want to assure people that the story we are getting outside there is very different from the one obtainable here in Nigeria.

"There are bad eggs and good people everywhere and Nigeria is not an exception.

However, I will beat my chest saying that 80 percent or even more than 80 percent of Nigerians are good people.

"Therefore, foreigners, mostly

white-men should not allow the remaining 20 percent Nigerians to influence them negatively against Nigerians," he added.

Speaking in the same vein, a Ph.d student under FUNAAB Foreign African Scholarship Scheme, Paul Bangura said "Nigerians are very nice people. Oh my God, they are very nice, especially Yoruba people.

Yorubas are too much welcoming and I gain a lot from their culture".

Taraba Governor to renovate schools for conducive learning From Yusha'u Alhassan Jalingo.

T

araba State Acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar has expressed dismay over the dilapidated condition of some schools in the state.

Umar stated this when he paid a surprised visit to Government comprehensive secondary school Jlingo, to assess the condition under which exchange students were living.

He assured that the school will soon wear a new look when the renovation work at the site is completed.

On the provision of amenities, Umar assured that beddings furniture and other needs of the school would be provide.

Speaking on unfavourable learning atmosphere in the schools commissioner for education Yakubu Agbaizo said no parent would like his children to stay in such a condition and expect better result.

Agbaizo said Government had already given approval for the renovation and construction of new structures in the school.

He advised parents not to give up as government was doing everything possible to improve the situation of the school to make it conducive for learning.

Responding, the principal of the school Safiyanu Umar expressed happiness for the visit pointing out that the impact of the present government will soon be felt.

Graduating students from the Department of Environmental science, national open university of Nigeria, during The 2013 2nd convocation, at The Weekend in Lagos.

Photo: NAN

NOUN graduands lament challenges

S

ome graduands of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in completing programmes in the institution.

They spoke in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria at the second convocation ceremony of the university at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

A total of 7,220 students graduated at the ceremony attended by dignitaries, including the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruquayyatu Rufai, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan.

The graduands were

awarded certificates, diplomas and degrees at the event.

One of the graduands, Mr Peter Oladosun, who studied Peace and Conflict Resolution at degree level, expressed displeasure that he spent six years instead of four years.

Oladosun also expressed regret over the inadequate number of facilitators for the distance education. ``We were told when we were admitted that there were facilitators who would be helping us; but that was not the case as we had facilitators only for the first two years.''

He also said that students had no specific study centres in Lagos but moved around for lectures.

`` NOUN, Lagos, needs a permanent study centre,'' he said.

Mr Itseghosimhe Iyesomi, who studied nursing, told NAN that some students were not computer literate but had to take examinations online.

He said that this affected the performance of such students.

Mrs Beatrice Nwachukwu, who studied Business Studies, expressed dissatisfaction with the organisation of the convocation ceremony.

She said that there were not enough materials for the graduands. ``People were struggling over the few available ones.

"Though I am happy being a

graduate today, the general management of this event was poor.

"I think the major cause of the poor organisation was the lack of adequate funding," she said.

Nwachukwu called for adequate funding to ensure that the institution functioned effectively.

However, Mr Donatus Agu, who studied Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Master's level, told NAN that he was happy to graduate in spite of the challenges.

He said that he acquired much knowledge and exposure during the programme.

"My course was a two-year programme, and I concluded it within the given period,'' he said.(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

What are date rape drugs? hese are drugs that are sometimes used to assist a sexual assault. Sexual assault is any type of sexual activity that a person does not agree to. It can include touching that is not okay and attempted rape. These drugs are powerful and dangerous. They can be slipped into your drink when you are not looking. The drugs often have no color, smell, or taste, so you can't tell if you are being drugged. The drugs can make you become weak and confused or even pass out so that you are unable to refuse sex or defend yourself. If you are drugged, you might not remember what happened while you were drugged. Date rape drugs are used on both females and males.

The three most common date rape drugs are: " Rohypnol: It is the trade name for flunitrazepam. Other names given to this drug are: Circles, Forget Pill, LA Rochas, Lunch Money, Mind Erasers, Poor Man's Quaalude, R-2, Rib, Roach, Roach-2, Roches, Roofies, Trip-andFall and Whiteys. " GHB, which is short for gamma hydroxybutyric acid.

GHB is also known as: Bedtime Scoop, Easy Lay, Energy Drink, Gamma 10, Salt Water, Soap and Vita-G " Ketamine also known as: Black Hole, Bump, Cat Valium, Green, Special K and Super Acid These drugs also are known as "club drugs" because they tend to be used at dance clubs and concerts.

The term "date rape" is widely used but most experts prefer the term "drug-facilitated sexual assault." These drugs also are used to help people commit other crimes, like robbery and physical assault. They are used on both men and women. The term "date rape" also can be misleading because the person who commits the crime might not be dating the victim.

Rather, it could be an acquaintance or stranger.

What do the drugs look like? " Rohypnol comes as a pill that dissolves in liquids. Some are small, round, and white. Newer pills are oval and green-gray in color.

When slipped into a drink, a dye in these new pills makes clear liquids turn bright blue and dark drinks turn cloudy. But this color change might be hard to see in a dark drink, like cola or dark beer, or in a dark room. Also, the pills with no dye are still available. The pills may be ground up into a powder. " GHB has a few forms: a liquid with no odor or color, white powder, and pill. It might give your drink a slightly salty taste. Mixing it with a sweet drink, such as fruit juice, can mask the salty taste. " Ketamine comes as a liquid and a white powder.

Effects of drugs on the body These drugs are very powerful.

They can affect you very quickly and without your knowing. The length of time that the effects last varies. It depends on how much of the drug is taken and if the drug is mixed with other drugs or alcohol.

Alcohol makes the drugs even stronger and can cause serious health problems, even death.

Rohypnol The effects of Rohypnol can be

T

PAGE 29

Date rape: What women should know

felt within 30 minutes of being drugged and can last for several hours. If you are drugged, you might look and act like someone who is drunk. You might have trouble standing. Your speech might be slurred. Or you might pass out. Rohypnol can cause these problems: Muscle relaxation or loss of muscle control, drunk feeling, problems talking, nausea, can't remember what happened while drugged, loss of consciousness (black out), confusion, dizziness, lower blood pressure, stomach problems and death.

GHB GHB takes effect in about 15 minutes and can last 3 or 4 hours.

It is very potent: A very small amount can have a big effect. So it's easy to overdose on GHB. Most GHB is made by people in home or street "labs." So, you don't know what's in it or how it will affect you.

GHB can cause these problems: Relaxation, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, problems seeing, loss of consciousness (black out), seizures, can't remember what happened while drugged, problems breathing, tremors, sweating, vomiting, slow heart rate, dreamlike feeling, coma and death.

Ketamine Ketamine is very fast-acting, you might be aware of what is happening to you, but unable to

move. It also causes memory problems. Later, you might not be able to remember what happened while you were drugged.

Ketamine can cause these problems: Distorted perceptions of sight and sound, lost sense of time and identity, out of body experiences, dream-like feeling, and feeling out of control, problems breathing, convulsions, vomiting, memory problems, numbness, and loss of coordination, aggressive or violent behavior, depression, high blood pressure and slurred speech.

Legality of the drugs in Nigeria Some of these drugs are legal when lawfully used for medical purposes but that doesn't mean they are safe. These drugs are powerful and can hurt you. Now in Nigeria, they should only be used under a doctor's care and order, where it is prescribed for sleep problems and to assist anesthesia before surgery.

Caution: Don't accept drinks from other people, open containers yourself, keep your drink with you at all times even when you go to the bathroom, don't share drinks, don't drink from punch bowls or other common, open containers, they may already have drugs in them. If someone offers to get you a drink from a bar or at a party, go

with the person to order your drink, watch the drink being poured and carry it yourself. Don't drink anything that tastes or smells strange, sometimes, GHB tastes salty. Have a nondrinking friend with you to make sure nothing happens. If you realize you left your drink unattended, pour it out. If you feel drunk and haven't drunk any alcohol or, if you feel like the effects of drinking alcohol are stronger than usual, get help right away.

Ways to tell if one might have been drugged and raped It is often hard to tell, most victims don't remember being drugged or assaulted. The victim might not be aware of the attack until 8 or 12 hours after it occurred.

These drugs also leave the body very quickly. Once a victim gets help, there might be no proof that drugs were involved in the attack.

There are some signs that the person might have been drugged: You feel drunk and haven't drunk any alcohol or, you feel like the effects of drinking alcohol are stronger than usual. You remember having a drink, but cannot recall anything after that.

You find that your clothes are torn or not on right and loss of memory on what really happened while you passed out.

What to do if you think

you've been drugged and raped " Get medical care right away. Don't urinate, douche, bathe, brush your teeth, wash your hands, change clothes, or eat or drink before you go. These things may give evidence of the rape. The hospital will use a "rape kit" to collect evidence. " Call the police from the hospital. Tell the police exactly what you remember. Be honest about all your activities.

Remember, nothing you did including drinking alcohol or doing drugs can justify rape. " Ask the hospital to take a urine sample that can be used to test for date rape drugs. The drugs leave your system quickly.

Rohypnol stays in the body for several hours, and can be detected in the urine up to 72 hours after taking it. GHB leaves the body in 12 hours. Don't urinate before going to the hospital. " Don't pick up or clean up where you think the assault might have occurred. There could be evidence left behind. " Get counseling and treatment; feelings of shame, guilt, fear, and shock are normal. A counselor can help you work through these emotions and begin the healing process.

PAGE 30

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

HIV: Early introduction of antiretroviral drugs slow virus down, reduce risk of passing it on

G

iving HIV drugs to a patient as soon as they are diagnosed could slow the damage to their immune system and delay the need for long-term treatment, say researchers.

This in turn, could reduce the spread of the disease.

Patients don't usually receive antiretroviral therapy until their immune system has been significantly weakened by the infection.

A mature HIV infection (blue cells) spreads: Scientists say treating the virus early could reduce the risk of passing it on However, a team from Imperial College London found giving treatment as soon as possible had a long-term protective effect lowering the amount of virus in the blood for up to 60 weeks after it was stopped.

Study leader Dr. Sarah Fidler said "These results are promising and suggest that a year-long course of treatment for people recently infected with HIV may have some benefit on the immune system, as well as helping control the virus.

"The treatment also reduces the amount of virus in the body for some time after the patient

has stopped taking the medication. This could be very important for helping reduce the risk of passing on the virus to a sexual partner."

Scientists studied 366 HIV patients who had all been diagnosed within six months of being infected.

Some patients were given 12 weeks of drugs after being diagnosed while another group had drugs for 48 weeks after diagnosis. A third group was given no drugs until their immune system was

compromised (when disease fighting cells (CD4 T-cells) reached 350 cells per cubic millimetre of blood.)

In a healthy adult, the T-

treatment 157 weeks after infection.

Those in the group receiving antiretroviral for 12 weeks began their lifelong course of

Cell count is between 600 and 1200.

The researchers then measured the time until each volunteer's T-cell count dropped below 350 or they began a lifelong course of antiretroviral medication.

Antiretroviral drugs are usually prescribed when a patient' T-cell count hits 350cells per cubic millimetre On average, participants who had received no medication needed to begin taking a lifelong course of

treatment on average 184 weeks after infection (a delay of 27 weeks not considered as a significant effect by researchers).

However, those volunteers who received antiretroviral for 48 weeks took an average of 222 weeks before beginning long-term treatment, a delay of 65 weeks.

Plus over the whole time of the study, participants on the 48-week course had higher CD4 T-cell counts than those in the other two treatment

groups.

This potentially reduced their risk of developing secondary infections such as tuberculosis. They also had lower levels of HIV in the blood for more than a year after stopping treatment compared to the other volunteers, which could play a part in reducing the risk of passing on the virus to sexual partners.

The researchers found no evidence that treatment within the first six months of infection led to the virus becoming resistant to the drugs or that coming off the course led to unexpected deaths or damage to the immune system.

Professor Jonathan Weber, chief study investigator, said it reinforced the importance of regular testing, "Early testing and diagnosis are incredibly important. When a person first contracts HIV, they are at their most infectious, but they are also often unaware that

they have contracted the disease and hence are more likely to spread the infection.

'The sooner they can be diagnosed, the better our chances of limiting the spread of the virus and the sooner they can be offered appropriate guidance and counseling."

However, the cost could be an obstacle to rolling out such treatment in poorer parts of the world.

Tip: Living positive with HIV If you are diagnosed with the HIV virus, the first thing you have to do is to keep your emotions in check: calm down.

This is not going to be the death of you yet! There are several millions of people afflicted with this deadly virus but still lead normal and healthy lives due to the abundance of medicines available in the market which may not necessarily cure the disease but will definitely contain the virus. The secret here is self- motivation and that can make you live your life completely.

Your relations and associates are the ones that you should be looking to for support at this juncture and they will definitely help calm you down.

Consulting with a social worker or a counselor will keep away depression. Regular health check-ups to determine the body's immunity levels should also be done by a qualified doctor. Finally, remember that you should come to terms to the fact that you are infected.

It's important that you understand how the HIV virus multiplies inside your body and its effect on the immune system. The Viral load test tells you how much of the virus you have at present in your body and the CD4 test tells you how strong your protective system is. It's important that you know both of them.

Always understand that HIV is NOT infectious. Casual contact like sharing utensils, embracing or shaking hands will not spread the disease and this is what your relations and friends need to understand.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

ANALYSIS

By Harvey Young

I

f you've ever seen a person purchase a pack of cigarettes featuring an image of a blackened, cancerous lung, then you probably understand that big issues like global warming may never be solved. The cause of inaction: an inability to stop future dangers for want of short-term pleasures. Pleasure almost always trumps longterm self-interest.

It is difficult to contest the fact of rising temperatures and their volatile effects. The oceans are a bit warmer. Polar ice is melting at a faster rate each year. There's less snow on certain mountains.

The evidence is everywhere.

Among those who recognise the realities of global warming and climate volatility, some dismiss them as part of the Earth's natural temperature cycle. As we've learned from school textbooks, science fiction novels, and even children's television cartoons such as Dinosaur Train, our world used to be a lot warmer. The extra heat then was and, perhaps, now is simply a part of our planet's normal climate cycle.

Call it the divine plan of Mother Nature.

Others urge us to acknowledge that we are the cause or, at least, the accelerants of the Earth's heating cycle. We pollute the air, the land, the seas and then we shrug when asked to identify the causes of climate change. Just hop on a plane to any major industrial city and you'll see that we're not entirely without fault as you descend through a layer of rust-coloured smog.

There is not consensus, not even among environmentalists, on whether global warming can be stopped. However, there is agreement that the levels of pollutants released can be reduced and a widespread belief that the resulting decrease could create climate stability.

We can lessen our future impact on the environment.

Certainly, nations need to agree to reduce the amount of pollutants that they emit.

There's also a role for each of us to play. Recycling, planting trees, reducing our energy consumption, and carpooling are just a few of the available options.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the majority of us will apply ourselves to this cause. Here's why.

It is extraordinarily difficult to find the motivation to act now to prevent something that possibly, maybe, just might occur 100, 250, or 1,000 years from now.

Although the effects of global warming can be felt today - an increasing frequency of hurricanes, heat waves and droughts, the truly spectacular consequences such as the rising of the oceans to the point that they envelop islands

PAGE 31

Why we won't stop global warming

Simply purchasing a pack of cigarettes illustrates how unconcerned many are for long-term consequences. or droughts that transform farmlands into permanent deserts are unlikely to occur in this millennium. When the consequences of global warming are so far beyond the horizon, there seems to be little incentive to act.

Even efforts to try to encourage people to preserve the world for their descendants, their children's children's children rarely succeed. Our sense of time spans two generations back in the past and two generations forward into the future. That's it. Most people cannot name a single great-grandparent. Few parents can conceive of the possibility of their child someday becoming a grandparent. It's our historical and future-looking myopia that makes it pretty much impossible to for us to even imagine the distant future.

Also, let's admit that some of the short-term effects of global warming can be outright pleasant. In my hometown, Buffalo, New York, a city notorious for blizzards and winter storms, last week

the temperatures briefly climbed high enough that residents could leave their coats at home for a few days.

The ability to play golf rather than shovel snow in January can make climate volatility seem more like a gift than a curse.

It's human nature to struggle with temptation and to not always act in our longterm best interest. It is selfevident that many of our personal health problems and social ills - from obesity to random murders - could be eliminated or drastically reduced if people could manage to resist that urge to eat that extra slice of cheesecake or buy that assault weapon which was meant to be deployed in war zones and not in movie theatres or classrooms.

Nevertheless, we indulge and bad things happen.

We, especially in the US, like big cars and we like to own more than one of them. We, by the tens of thousands, go to racetracks and watch for hours as cars circle the speedway. We go to arenas,

“

also by the thousands, to see Monster Jam events, cars and trucks outfitted with giant wheels crushing normal size vehicles. This is not a critique.

These events are a lot of fun... but they also are an anathema to people who campaign against global warming since they make entertainment out of excessive fuel consumption and unnecessary carbon emissions.

In this increasingly fast paced world, we struggle to keep up and, for that reason, we may not be inclined to slow down in order to sort and recycle. How many times have we, in a rush, elected to throw everything in the trash even when a recycling bin stood next to the rubbish container? How many times have we requested plastic bags simply because they can make it easier to unload the car quickly after an outing to the grocery store?

It's not that we're antienvironment. It's just that we think of ourselves as being too busy to be actively in favour of it. Carpooling is a great idea

A desire to be seen as trendy can motivate action on a large scale. Within certain income brackets, a hybrid car, solar panels and LEED certified homes are must-haves. It's environmentally friendly peer pressure. All the cool people are doing it.

- but it often takes longer to travel to where you want to go. Planting a tree sounds very environmentally friendly, but how many people do you know who have actually planted a tree and, besides, who has the time to go tree planting? We could give money to a service that will hire someone to plant a tree for us somewhere in South America... but that sounds like a scam.

As unlikely as it seems that people will apply themselves to this cause to create climate stability, history tells us that people will work in their longterm best interest when it aligns with their short-term self-interest. We can see examples of this today.

Governments often motivate its citizens to act responsibly by threatening them with fines. We buckle our seatbelts or wear helmets because those acts are mandated by law. In some cities, local governments charge to collect trash but not recycling - thus incentivising (or penalising) certain behaviours.

A desire to be seen as trendy can motivate action on a large scale. Within certain income brackets, a hybrid car, solar panels and LEED certified homes are musthaves. It's environmentally friendly peer pressure. All the cool people are doing it.

Local disasters - the devastation left in the wake of increasingly frequent hurricanes, respiratory problems caused by the combination of high heat and smog, the pollution of well water - help people to see that some of those long-term effects are happing nearby and right now and that they need to be challenged and corrected.

It may be difficult to imagine the world in which your children's children's children might live but it's pretty obvious that there's a problem when you (and your child) can't go outside because of poor air quality and can't swim in the local lake or river because of elevated bacteria levels.

Rather than appealing to a person's good nature and sense of moral responsibility, the campaign to slow down global warming and bring about climate stability might be better served to appeal to their baser instincts. If a person can be convinced that acting in the long-term interests of others will immediately improve their lot, then they probably will do so.

Source: Al Jazeera

PAGE 32

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Algeria: Hostage death toll 'could rise'

T

West African leaders urge global support on Mali

he death toll of foreign and Algerian workers taken hostage during a siege at a desert gas facility may rise from 23, an Algerian minister has warned.

A final tally would be released in the coming hours, communications minister Mohammed Said told Algerian radio.

British, US, Norwegian, and Japanese nationals are among the missing after the siege at In Amenas, which was ended by an Algerian army raid on Saturday.

Algeria said its troops had

killed all 32 hostage-takers.

Officials said the army launched its assault after Islamist militants began killing foreign hostages.

Mr Said said he very much feared the death toll "would, unfortunately, be revised upwards".

He added that the militants were from six different countries, "nationals of Arab and African countries, and of non-African countries".

Unconfirmed reports from In Amenas spoke of a number of bodies discovered by troops making the

site safe.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have blamed "terrorists" for the hostages' deaths.

Three Britons are confirmed dead, and a further three are missing, feared dead. Their families had undergone an "absolutely dreadful ordeal", Mr Cameron said on Sunday.

UK officials were "working hard" to locate the missing, said Foreign Secretary William Hague.

"Everything seems to indicate" that a Colombian citizen resident in the UK is among the dead, the

W

est African leaders meeting at an emergency summit in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan have urged more global involvement to help ward off rebels in Mali.

Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast president, who is also current head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc, said on Saturday that it was high time others did their bit to help end the crisis.

"The hour has come for a broader commitment by the major powers and more countries and organisations to the military operations to show greater solidarity with France and Africa," he said.

"We must speed up the reestablishment of Mali's territorial integrity with the logistical support of our partners ... [and] go beyond our current deployment numbers," Ouattara said, calling for international financial support for African nations involved in the Mali effort.

African leaders were also urged to fast-track the deployment of African troops to boost a Frenchbacked offensive in Mali against fighters led by the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Dine.

Meanwhile, the French air force bombed rebel position in Timbuktu. An Al Jazeera reporter witnessed three air stikes - at 8pm, 8:30pm and 1am local time - on Saturday and Sunday morning.

One of the strikes hit a compound that used to belong to Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, which the Mali rebel leadership was using as its base in the town. The French have not confirmed the strikes.

Speaking at the Ivory Coast summit, Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, said: "France was obliged to intervene very, very rapidly, otherwise there would have been no more Mali ... but it is well understood that it is the Africans that must pick up the baton."

Ivory Coast President, Alassane Ouattara

Some of the hostages during the siege.

Colombian president has said.

But he added that information about Carlos Estrada, who worked for BP, was "not 100%".

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned of bad news to come.

"According to what we have heard from the Algerian government, there is indeed grim information about our citizens," he said.

Mr Abe said he had asked the Algerian prime minister to make all efforts towards confirming the status of Japanese nationals.

Two Malaysians are unaccounted for, as are five Norwegians.

"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by alQaeda and other violent extremist groups in North Africa," said Mr Obama on Saturday.

"We will continue to work closely with all of our partners to combat the scourge of terrorism in the region."

Mr Cameron called it a "vicious and cowardly attack". He acknowledged there had been some criticism of the Algerian authorities' response, but said it was "extremely difficult to respond and get this right in every respect".

State news agency APS said 685 Algerian workers and 107 out of 132 foreigners working at the plant had been freed, citing interior ministry figures.

The nationalities of some of the hostages killed are still not known.

Gbagbo ally extradited to Ivory Coast

C

harles Ble Goude, the chief youth protest organiser for Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivorian president, has been extradited back to his native country after being arrested in Ghana a day earlier, officials have said.

"After a police operation jointly carried out by Ivory Coast and Ghana, Charles Ble Goude was arrested on Thursday in Ghana," said a joint statement from the Ivory Coast justice and interior ministries on Friday.

"He is currently being held in Ivory Coast as part of legal proceedings involving him that are already under way in Ivory Coast."

A former youth minister and powerful orator known for galvanising popular support for Gbagbo, Goude, was the subject of an Ivorian arrest warrant for his role in the December 2010-April 2011 post-election crisis that left at least 3,000 people dead.

The protest was sparked by Gbabgo's refusal to accept defeat in the presidential election to Alassane Ouattara, who currently leads the country.

Supporters of both candidates were accused of engaging in violence against their opponents during the crisis.

According to Nick Kaufman,

Goude's lawyer, Ghanaian police said his client was arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC, however, said that it had no "public link" with Goude, 40, although this leaves open the possibility of a sealed warrant being issued.

Goude came to the political fore for his skill in rallying large-scale protests demanding the withdrawal of French military present in Ivory Coast in the years following a failed coup in 2002.

Sanctioned by the UN in 2006, accused of inciting attacks against its

staff, Goude went on the run in West Africa. He had spent time in Ghana, home to a number of Gbagbo loyalists.

Leader of the pro-Gbagbo "Young Patriots", Goude has been touted as a possible target for trial by the ICC, joining his former boss, who has been detained by The Hague-based court since the end of 2011 pending his trial for crimes against humanity.

Goude insists he is innocent of any crimes.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday that it welcomed the arrest but called on Ivorian authorities to ensure that Goude was treated fairly.

Gambia's public sector to have 4-day working week

G

ambian President Yahya Jammeh has decreed a four-day working week for public officials, making Friday a day of rest to allow residents in the small West African state more time for prayer and agriculture.

Jammeh said in statement the decision was made in light of demand from the general public. The shorter working week will take effect from February 1.

The new public sector working times in Gambia, a sliver of land stretching inland from the West African coast along the river Gambia, will be Mondays to Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"This new arrangement will allow Gambians to devote more

time to prayers, social activities and agriculture going back to the land to grow what we eat and eat what we grow for a healthy and wealthy nation," the presidential statement said.

Though it has a secular state, Gambia's population is overwhelmingly Muslim.

Jammeh seized power in the popular European tourist destination in a bloodless military coup in 1994.

He has since been accused by activists of human rights abuses during his rule. In August, his government drew international condemnation for executing nine death-row inmates by firing squad, prompting it to suspend 38 other planned executions.

The government warned, however, that the executions

would go ahead if the crime rate increases.

One of Africa's more controversial rulers, Jammeh said in 2007 he had found a

remedy of boiled herbs to cure AIDS, stirring anger among Western medical experts who claimed he was giving false hope to the sick.

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh attends the leaders meeting at the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Asia and Middle East

S

yrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, has called any discussion of the future role of Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president, in the nation "unacceptable".

Moualem's comments, broadcast on Syrian TV on Saturday, come a week after LakhbarBrahimi, joint UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, said

U.S., China in deal on U.N. North Korea rebuke

T

he United States and China have struck a tentative deal on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning North Korea for its December rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said on Friday, andRussia predicted it would be approved by the council.

The resolution would not impose new sanctions, but would call for expanding existing U.N. sanctions measures against Pyongyang, the envoys said on condition of anonymity. They added that China's support for the move would be a significant diplomatic blow to Pyongyang.

The 15-nation council could adopt the compromise resolution next week, they said.

Russian U.N. Ambassador VitalyChurkin confirmed the diplomats' comments in remarks quoted by the Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency, saying that adoption was likely early next week.

"I expect we will support it," RIA quoted Churkin as saying. "I don't expect that the U.N. Security Council members will have any serious problems (with the resolution)."

"Our position is that the North Korean rocket launch is a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, so the council should react," he said.

China plans emergency measures to control Beijing air pollution

B

eijing is to unveil unprecedented new rules governing how China's capital reacts to hazardous air pollution, the official Xinhua news agency said, as deteriorating air quality threatens to become a rallying point for wider political dissatisfaction.

The rules will formalize previous ad-hoc measures, including shutting down factories, cutting back on burning coal and taking certain vehicle classes off the roads on days when pollution hits unacceptable levels.

Air quality in Beijing, on many days degrees of magnitude below minimum international health standards for breathability, is of increasing concern to China's leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy.

PAGE 33

Talk of Assad's future dismissed by Damascus Assad should not have a role in a transitional government.

"No one should dare discuss the position of the president ... this is unacceptable. Also we have said that we are ready to continue the cooperation with Brahimi and we

think that his upcoming mission became now richer because we have a political agenda that he can help in."

Moualem said the upcoming dialogue that was promoted in Assad's last speech will be

transparent and guaranteed.

"The national dialogue is transparent and guaranteed and if the participants wanted to build a new Syria, they would be welcome," he said.

However, Moualem did go on to criticise regional neighbours, including

Qatar, for their role in the Syrian conflict.

"The countries that are arming and funding [fighters] are known. They are Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the United States," he said.

In the hours before the Saturday evening interview, clashes continued in and around Damascus, as government airstrikes were followed by several explosions in the Damascus suburbs.

Activists reported heavy shelling in Daraya as a UN delegation headed from Damascus to the southwestern city of Daraa.

Austrians vote in referendum on ending conscription

A

ustrians are voting in a referendum to decide whether the country retains compulsory military service or switches to a professional army.

The issue has divided politicians in the coalition government, and voters.

Supporters of change say a professional army would be more effective, but critics say the move would put Austria's cherished neutrality at risk.

Austrian men must serve six months in the army or nine months in civilian service when they reach 18.

Opinion polls have predicted a win for those wanting to keep conscription, but with turnout among the 6.3 million electorate expected to be low the result is by no means certain, correspondents say.

Few countries in Europe require compulsory military service anymore. France abandoned conscription in 1996, and Germany most recently in 2011.

Calls for an end to conscription are growing in Austria's equally neutral neighbour, Switzerland.

Currently, some 22,000 men are drafted into military service each year.

Those who do not want to serve must spend nine months working in community jobs, such as ambulance drivers and in senior citizens' homes.

The centre-left Social Democrats say the current make-up of the armed forces does not work for the 21st Century, arguing that a professional army is needed to work more effectively with other European armies.

Defence Minister Norbert Darabos called the current force outdated in an era of "counterterrorism, cybercrime... [and] failed states".

But the conservative People's Party is arguing against change.

Interior Minister Johanna MiklLeitner said the current system "fits Austria like a glove and is the best guarantee for all future challenges".

Opponents fear the move will not only prove more costly, at a time when Austria is trying to cut spending, but will also push the country towards membership of Nato and the abandonment of neutrality they have observed since 1955.

Bashar al-Assad

The Unha-3 (Milky Way 3) rocket carrying the second version of Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite, is launched at West Sea Satellite Launch Site in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province.

Some 22,000 Austrian men are currently conscripted into the military each year.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 34

Europe and Americas 'Strong case' for EU referendum, says Hague

T

here is a "strong case" for the British public to decide on the UK's future relationship with Europe in a referendum, William Hague has said.

The foreign secretary said he wanted the UK's EU membership to be a success but "fresh consent" would likely be needed as the institution changed.

David Cameron postponed a major speech on the future of Britain in Europe because of the Algerian hostage crisis.

Mr Hague said the speech would take place at some point this week.

Details of where and when the prime minister would be speaking would be announced on Monday, he added.

In the eagerly anticipated address, Mr Cameron is expected to argue that the UK wants to remain in the EU but on different terms and that a referendum could be held after the next election to give the public their say on the outcome of a future renegotiation.

However, this is likely to depend on the Conservatives winning the next election and other EU nations being willing to agree to changes - including the return of certain powers held in Brussels to Westminster.

Extracts of the speech - released to the media before Friday's planned event in the Netherlands was postponed - suggested Mr Cameron would have warned that the UK could "drift towards" exiting the EU if problems were not addressed.

Mr Hague told the BBC that policy would be guided by the national interest and while the UK wanted an "outward looking" EU to prosper, the institution had changed a lot since the 1975 referendum which approved the UK's entry.

"We want to get a better relationship with the EU - there are changes we want in that relationship," he told the Andrew Marr show.

"We also need to see how changes in the Eurozone are affecting the EU and how that affects this country and the

William Hague

In two-day inauguration, Obama sworn in at White House P

resident Barack Obama has taken the official oath of office in a small, private ceremony at the White House on Sunday, setting a more subdued tone for his second inauguration than his historic swearing-in four years ago.

Sunday's events began when Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, making her the first Hispanic judge to ever administer an oath of office for one of the nation's two highest offices.

Obama will still be sworn in publicly outside the U.S. Capitol today with all the traditional pomp, but that event will be mostly for show.

Technically, Sunday is the only one that really counts according to the Constitution, which mandates that the president take office on January 20.

Compared to the momentous atmosphere of Obama's first inauguration, the mood will be different this time.

A bitter 2012 election fight, stubbornly high unemployment and fiscal showdowns - both past and still looming - have tempered the hope that Obama symbolized when he took office four years ago after sweeping to victory on a mantle of change as America's first black president.

This time the crowds are expected

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) takes oath of office. to be smaller and enthusiasm surrounding the event diminished.

"For a lot of people, this is kind of old hat," said Russell Riley, an expert on presidential rhetoric at the University of Virginia. "The newness and excitement around the president's first history-making inauguration has given way to time-worn political reality."

Early Sunday morning, Biden's

family, about 120 guests and a few reporters witnessed the private swearing-in ceremony in the main foyer of his Naval Observatory residence. Biden used a bible with a Celtic cross on the cover that has been in his family since 1893.

Leading Democrats including House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attended the low-key ceremony which took

about 5 minutes.

Obama and Biden repeat the oath of office the next day in the customary ceremony on a giant platform outside the West Front of the Capitol overlooking the National Mall. Ronald Reagan in 1985 was the last president to take the oath twice to avoid holding Inauguration Day festivities on a Sunday.

Oxfam says world's rich could end poverty

T

he world's 100 richest people earned enough money last year to end world extreme poverty four times over, according to a new report released by international rights group and charity Oxfam.

The $240 billion net income of the world's 100 richest billionaires would have ended poverty four times over, according to the London-based group's report released on Saturday.

The group has called on world leaders to commit to reducing inequality to the levels it was at in 1990, and to curb income extremes on both sides of the spectrum.

The release of the report was

timed to coincide with the holding of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

The group says that the world's richest one percent have seen their income increase by 60 percent in the last 20 years, with the latest world financial crisis only serving to hasten, rather than hinder, the process.

"We sometimes talk about the 'have-nots' and the 'haves' - well, we're talking about the 'havelots'. [...] We're anti-poverty agency. We focus on poverty, we work with the poorest people around the world. You don't normally hear us talking about wealth. But it's gotten so out of control between rich and poor that one of the obstacles to solving

extreme poverty is now extreme wealth," Ben Phillips, a campaign director at Oxfam, told Al Jazeera.

"We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many - too often the reverse is true," said Jeremy Hobbs, an executive director at Oxfam.

"Concentration of resources in the hands of the top one per cent depresses economic activity and makes life harder for everyone else - particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

"In a world where even basic resources such as land and water are increasingly scarce, we cannot afford to concentrate assets in the hands of a few and

leave the many to struggle over what's left."

Hobbs said that "a global new deal" is required, encompassing a wide array of issues, from tax havens to employment laws, in order to address income inequality.

Closing tax havens, the group said, could yield an additional $189bn in additional tax revenues. According to Oxfam's figures, as much as $32 trillion is currently stored in tax havens.

In a statement, Oxfam warned that "extreme wealth and income is not only unethical it is also economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive."

Colombia 'prepared for end of FARC rebel ceasefire'

C

olombian President Juan Manuel Santos has warned the country's largest rebel force, the Farc, not to resume its attacks once the group's temporary ceasefire expires on Sunday.

Farc negotiators declared the unilateral truce two months ago at the start of peace talks in Cuba.

The Colombian government has refused to cease military operations during the negotiations.

It argues that the Farc would use the opportunity to rearm.

President Santos said the security forces were prepared

for any possible resurgence in violence, but urged the rebels to refrain from any "terrorist

President Juan Manuel Santos

attacks".

The president said committing acts of terrorism

was relatively easy.

"You put a guy with a briefcase full of explosives next to a building, a bank, or a shop; that's very easy, but it's a sign of weakness," Mr Santos said.

Negotiators for the Farc declared the two-month unilateral truce in November.

For its part, the Colombian government has refused to cease military operations during the negotiations, arguing that the left-wing rebels would use the opportunity to rearm.

The talks aim to end five decades of an armed conflict that has killed an estimated 600,000 people in Colombia.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 35

Hotel commissions graffiti artist Nick Walker to 'Vandalize' garage T

his week in the world of outrageous art, a swanky hotel in Indianapolis has commissioned British street artist Nick Walker to decorate the walls of its parking garage with pre-ordered graffiti designs. Yes, unlike other businesses, the Alexander Hotel welcomed a man with a can of spray paint to "vandalize" it's property, all in the name of contemporary art.

The graffiti murals are located on the concrete walls of the hotel guest parking lot, featuring familiar urban art themes like masked figures and bubble lettering.

Another design simply reveals the word "vandalism" plastered on one of the lot's columns, only the letter "v" has been replaced with a heart Ă la the "I Love New York" emblem.

Unsurprisingly, the hotel then

Dog turns up to dead owner's church every day

C

iccio, a 12-year-old German shepherd, waits in vain in front of the altar of the Santa Maria Assunta church in the village of San Donaci in the southern region of Puglia.

He heads to the church as soon as the bells begin to ring each afternoon, just as he did for years when his owner was alive.

The woman, who was known in local dialect as "Maria tu lu campu" - "Maria of the fields" - died suddenly in November.

Ciccio attended the funeral, following his mistress's coffin as

it was carried into the church.

The dog's devotion has so impressed villagers that they have adopted him as their own, giving him food and water and letting him sleep in a covered area outside the church.

The local priest, Donato Panna, allows him to sit in front of the altar during Masses, baptisms and other services.

He is now hoping to find a new home for the faithful hound.

His behaviour is reminiscent of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier who became famous in Edinburgh for spending years guarding the grave of his owner.

The dog's devotion has so impressed villagers that they have adopted him as their own.

proclaimed itself "one of the most controversial, yet inspiring parking garages in the nation."

If you were thinking these images are a little too Banksy-esque for comfort, you're not alone. Walker is described in a press release from the hotel as a contemporary of the famed UK street artist (whose own work is now more often seen in the confines of a gallery or art fair than

on any city streets). But don't worry, the graffiti is real. A press representative from the hotel even told The Huffington Post in an e-mail exchange that Walker opted for nocturnal work hours, going as far as to say it was as if "he didn't want to 'be caught.'"

What can you expect from a $44 million, boutique style art hotel, though? Of course they would hire

an artist to creep around in their garage at night to fake-evade authorities in order to create an "authentic" yet palatable graffiti art experience. Our thoughts? Maybe the hotel should focus more on its pricey interior artworks, curated by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and less on its "lowbrow" basement art, made to look like it didn't cost just as much.

EasyJet paid overweight passengers to leave plane

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ccording to a report in the Liverpool Echo, Thursday's 7.05am flight from John Lennon Airport was delayed for an hour-and-a-half because it was 300kg overweight.

Simon Lay, an engineer, said staff offered ÂŁ100 compensation to any passenger willing to depart the plane, but struggled to find any takers. A group of passengers then had a whip-around, doubling the

compensation on offer - and four fliers duly volunteered to leave.

Other passengers then carried out a second collection to reimburse those who had provided the extra ÂŁ400, he said.

An easyJet spokesman told the newspaper that the plane was overweight due to an "exceptionally high proportion of male passengers" on board.

It added that it was not its policy

to allow passengers to provide compensation and said "as far as we can establish no other arrangements between passengers were made".

But Mr Lay said: "The whipround certainly happened, I put two quid in. I saw other people throwing in fivers."

The four passengers who volunteered to leave were put on another flight to Geneva which took off without incident later that day.

An easyJet spokesman said the plane was overweight due to an "exceptionally high proportion of male passengers" on board.

PAGE 36

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

A grid for Yobe’s rural communities

By Babangida Jaba

D

espite its phenomenally huge economy and the breathtaking progress it has made over the years, America still worries about the state of its infrastructure and frets over how other countries, such as China,Singapore and even Russia,try to outperform it building the bridges and highways and high speed internet that could give them a competitiveedgein aconstantly changing world.

To maintain its traditional preeminence and scale up its current World Economic Forum ranking, the US now appearskeento move back -to the Great Society era of the 1960's - by undertaking reconstruction projects, rebuilding infrastructure and improving schools. In fiscal 2013, for instance, the Obama administration plans to spend a record $476 billion through 2018 on highway, bridge and mass transit projects. It also plans to spend $30 billion on school modernization and another $30 billion to help states retain (and not fire) their school teachers.

So, what does this say about the social services that a government, at whatever level, must provide to stay competitive and make its people live a happier, healthier and wealthier life? Well, the American experience shows that to tap from the creative genius of a people, their government must continuously invest in them - in the roads and bridges they need to move products to the markets; in the schools that would teach their children the skills they need to become innovators of the future; and in agriculture and healthcare to grow food and stay fit, amongst others.

In more ways than the United States, these are the investments we desperately need in great numbers in Nigeria today. We need our governments at the local, state and federal levels tofully deploy the resources at their disposal to intervene in real and concrete ways in our lives as we live them, andmove away from being 'long on rhetoric and short on substance', as President Obama would say.

This means returning to the drawing board and building our communities - and our nation - from the bottom up. It means local communities must be consciously engineered and empowered to have access to clean water and sanitation, basic healthcare and basic education to be able to engage in agriculture and other economic activities that could lift them out of poverty.

Although the story differs in different parts of the country, and is often a mixed bag of success and failure,the outlook from Yobe State gives one reason to be hopeful. Hereis a part of Nigeria which had suffered a mindless and criminal insurgency and, for nearly a decade before that, avoidable deprivations but still retains an amazingly hopeful look to the future, as the currentadministration in the statecontinues its work to improve the lives of the people.

For example, at a time that unemployment has become such a combustible social problem across the country, the Yobe State government, under Governor Gaidam, recruited full-time over 4, 000 NCE, HND and University graduates and provided social safety nets to over 6, 000 diploma holders.

The government is also said have funded several thousand other youths to undergo skills training at the Sani Abatcha Youth Center in Kano and provided resettlement materials to them after graduation.

The Yobe State government is fully invested in other sectors as well. In roads construction, for example, the government has built over 700 kilometers of road and is currently building a 300kilometer long road to link the vast swathe of the state's north from Kanamma to Machina. It has built countless other local roads and bridges and culverts to link communities and open them up to the world.

These efforts have commendably not been restricted to the state level alone. Governor Gaidam is keen to ensure that the local governments do their part, too. This is because they are the pivot through

Yobe State Governor

IBRAHIM GAIDAM which local communities are easily reached.

Speaking at the swearing-in of newly appointed chairmen of local government management communities in Damaturu last Thursday, the governor spelled out in broad terms what he believes the local councils should focus their attention on. "The councils are expected to give attention to such activities as opening up Fadama farms, provision of water pumps, seedlings and animal traction, as well as purchase of KEKE NAPEP and sewing machines for distribution to their peoples at subsidized rates with a view to creating job opportunities, alleviating poverty and empowering our youths for self-reliance. The councils should also ensure proper maintenance of drainages in the major towns to avert flooding".

"Local government council chairmen", the governor added "are also expected to send unemployed youth in their areas to the BEST centers and vocational schools in the state and elsewhere in the country to enable them acquire the necessary skills for self-reliance. They are hereby directed to personally undertake periodic inspection of projects in their respective areas to ensure that projects are executed according to agreed specifications".

If the local councils in Yobe State apply themselves to meeting these goals, there is little doubt that rural communities would be transformed. And over the last three years, there is a growing trend in this direction. Happily, Governor Gaidam is not only just outlining earmarks. He always gives teeth to his

“

It means local communities must be consciously engineered and empowered to have access to clean water and sanitation, basic healthcare and basic education to be able to engage in agriculture and other economic activities that could lift them out of poverty.

programmes. For instance, before the tenure of the last councils expired, the governor had approved the release of over N5 billion for the local governments to undertake direct c o m m u n i t y projects that would address the specific needs of their people.

Recent media reports indicate that the Gaidam administration has r e m a r k a b l y democratized the process through which these projects are identified and executed in b e n e f i t t i n g communities. For i n s t a n c e , communities in a given local government area, say Bursari, would be asked by their local government council to identify projects they need established or upgraded in specific towns or villages. Through local community leaders, associations and councilors, identified projects are then communicated to the local government council, which then collates various requests and forward them to the governor for funds approval.

Although this might seem a little cumbersome, it allows for transparency and active community involvement and ensures that individual communities take ownership of projects provided in their localities.

Reports also indicate that the Yobe State government, going forward, has set up a monitoring committee to tract how funds released for the local councils are utilized. Governor Gaidam himself had indicated that the performance evaluation of the councils was one of the criteria used to determine the return of some of the council chairmen to their positions after the expiration of their first tenure. It follows that no local government council would take things lying down and each one of them has had to apply itself to the task of investing in and thus empowering its local communities. This seems to me a very effective way of growing Yobe's economy from the bottom up.

Regardless of ongoing security challenges challenges that are increasingly being met with the active collaboration and support of the general public - Yobe's rural empowerment drive and investment in local communities aggregate what even the biggest economies of the world are doing to build healthy, highly productive societies.

Given the breadth of developmental challenges that the state and indeed the country faces, however, the work to build and re-rebuild and thus spread wellbeing and prosperity must be pursued and sustained in every possible way. That's the only insurance, long term, against the social dislocations that have threatened to consume the whole country.

This is the message that Governor Gaidam wishes to convey to his newly appointed council chairmen.

Babangida Jaba writes from Teburin Gambo area, Sabon Gari ward, Gashu'a Yobe State

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Obasanjo describes Okorocha a failure From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

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overnor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state at the weekend got the shocker of his life when former President Olusegun Obasanjo openly described him as a failure.

Obasanjo, who spoke in Abeokuta during the grand finale of a civic reception organised in his honour by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South West zone, responded to the governor’s comments.

Okorocha, a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), had in his goodwill message jokingly referred to the ex-president as his “colleague.” Okorocha, who defected from PDP to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), was an unsuccessful presidential aspirant on ANPP platform in 2003.

He recalled his days as Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs to Obasanjo and said he gave advice that led to the good things done by the former Head of State. He absolved himself from all the “bad things” allegedly done by the former President, saying he was always out of the country whenever Obasanjo erred.

The governor also contended that the greatest undoing of Obasanjo was his decision to take up the national leadership of PDP as its Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman.

He argued that the former president transcended all political parties but should always think of taking up the national leadership of the country. “Obasanjo is indeed PDP. But in the actual sense, he’s a national leader. He does not belong to the PDP alone but a national leader of Nigeria. If I have another opportunity to advise him, I will tell him to be the national leader of the country and not the national leader of the party,” he said.

“We are here to give honour to whom honour is due. Obasanjo will remain unmovable and unshakable man. He is a man very difficult to describe. He represents different things to different people.

“He is not afraid fighting any battle,” the Imo governor said.

Responding, Obasanjo said, “Those who have come here to say, even people like Rochas Okorocha.

Rochas, I met him not long ago by virtue of the fact that he was brought up in Jos. One of the few cities that I found in the 50s and 70s as genuine melting pot in Nigeria; he probably would not have been able to achieve what he has achieved. He is a true Nigerian. And when he wants to pull me down, he will say we are colleagues. How can I be a colleague of a failure? You are a failure in contesting for the presidency of Nigeria!

PAGE 37

PDP crisis: No plan to remove Tukur, says Wamakko

By Lawrence Olaoye

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okoto state governor, Alhaji Aliyu Kagatakarda Wamakko, has dismissed speculations that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governors have perfected plans to remove the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

According to him, the governors and the PDP national officers have been operating from time to time as true family, such that any controversial issues within the party were amicably resolved in its and Nigeria in general The Sokoto state governor said the recent rumble within the PDP at the national

R-L: Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, congratulates President Jacob Zuma, after Zuma's election as leader of the party, during the ANC elective conference, recently in Mangaung, Free state.

headquarters was not about crisis as the media had widely reported, noting that the party was only undergoing a process of transformation which according to him would strengthen it.

Wamakko would be the second state governor within the week to give a perspective on the breakdown of confidence among the National Working Committee of the PDP in relation to the issue of suspension of the Adamawa state executive of the party, and the subsequent intervention by PDP governors.

The Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan had earlier given a similar account on the development within the PDP as he said that the state governors never, at any point in time, sat to resolve to oust the PDP National Chairman as reported.

Wamakko who spoke with journalists on the latest development stressed that the party was one and as united as ever, being the only party in Nigeria with established democratic tendencies, a reason he said PDP would not break as imagined in some quarters.

Wamakko, who thanked President Goodluck Jonathan and leaders of the party on their efforts towards raising the morale of every member ahead of the future elections, appealed to members nationwide to support all efforts by the party and the presidency to continue to spread the dividends of democracy across the country.

He said, “We are more united as a party. The opposition thought that the party was heading for the rocks based on the media reports

which did not represent the true situations in PDP. What we are experiencing in PDP is what I will describe as democracy in action in which each member has the right of expression and action meant to promote the interest of the party.

“As a governor, I can tell you that at no point did we sit to decide that we would remove our National Chairman. We as governors never planned action capable of derailing democracy or causing any form of distraction to the governance of Nigeria and we are not going to do that as democrats.

“Rather, our efforts are geared towards attending to the issues at stake with a view to resolving them amicably with the assistance of President Jonathan. The good thing now is that the party is moving on and it would continue to move on no matter the antics of the opposition” The Sokoto state governor, however urged members of the NWC to continue to work as a family in order to get the steam to direct the affairs of the party more effectively. He canvassed openness and transparency in the activities of the national officials so that the rest party members would continue to repose high confidence in them.

Wamakko said the PDP governors would continue work in harmony while promoting the ideals of democracy in the country and all the same serving as a good source of inspiration and support to the party at all levels.

Stop campaign of calumny against Ajimobi, ACN warns Accord From Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

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he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Oyo State chapter, has warned the Senator Rashidi Ladoja-led Accord Party (AP) to desist from what it called a campaign of calumny against the party-led government in the state over its urban renewal exercise, stating that Ladoja, while governing the state, demolished major buildings in the state, as well as shops and shanties and no one brought the government down for doing so.

The ACN made this known in a release issued in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Hon. Dauda Kolawole, in reaction to an advertorial in a newspaper on Friday attacking the government over the matter. According to the ACN, it was high time the Ladoja-

led AP was put in its right place as a party that thrives in deceit, doublestandard and which hoped to make an inroad into the hearts of the people by banking on their short memory.

"We could not have forgotten so soon how the Ladoja government demolished the church building on Ring Road, as well as the office of a construction company on the same road and heavens did not fall. The Ladoja government equally demolished shops at Orita AperinAdesola road, Orita Aperin-Elekuro road, Orita Aperin-Adekile road and Academy Under bridge and no one sought to destroy the government at the time.

"No one labeled the government Hitler for these acts. Why then would the Accord Party embark on a campaign to destroy the Ajimobi government which is being

applauded all over for sanitizing the mess brought on the state by past governments' inactivity? In any case, Ajimobi is constructing about 7,000 shops at Scout Camp, and there are about seven others scattered round Ibadan. The eleven local governments in the state capital are also building markets. Can Ladoja point at a single market he constructed in four years?" the ACN asked.

The ACN said that what was obvious from the governments of Ladoja and that of Ajimobi is that while both liked to see a clean state that is the pride of all, the former was timid, uninspiring and afraid to take critical leadership decisions, preferring to fool the people because of its quest for their votes while the latter is conscious of its place in history and is not afraid to take painful decisions which, at the end of the day, will

benefit the people of Oyo state.

"Even the Mimiko government that Ladoja's people regaled us with in the said piece demolished so many markets at Arakale area of the Ondo state capital, preparatory to the relocation of the market men and women. It is now that Akure is beautiful that everyone is applauding his government. The Ondo people also went through similar pains that some market owners are undergoing in Oyo state," said ACN. Hon Kolawole said the party was at one with the author of the piece which provoked the Accord Party's rejoinder where the writer stated that while Ladoja was busy dreaming of a new and great Oyo state throughout his regime, Ajimobi is busy actualizing all the dreams that the former PDP governor dreamt and even more.

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Why I returned to PDP, by exGov. Kalu

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R-L: Hon. Mohammed Sani Umar Kalgo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Kalgo/Birnin Kebbi/Bunza Federal Constituency, his daughter, Mariya Kalgo, her husband, Ibrahim Atiku, mother of Mariya, Hajiya A. Kalgo, and her son, during the wedding reception of Mariya and Ibrahim, at the weekend in Abuja.

Centre scores Reps low on corruption

By Augustine Aminu

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he Centre for Good Governance, Peace and Media Advocacy has scored the Rt. Hon Aminu Tambuwal led leadership low over what it described as the dwindling image of the House of Representatives in the public domain.

The Centre said Nigerians are particularly worried by the series of corruption allegation against the leadership, members and the illegal composition of the house which their regular vote of confidence passing on itself has not been able to justify.

The Director of the Centre, Comrade Philip Agbese, in a statement issued yesterday and made available to our correspondent lamented that the Tambuwal led leadership of the House has continued to paint itself white while the series of allegation of corruption

leveled against members of the house and it’s leadership has remained a source of negative concern to Nigerians and the international community.

He therefore call on the leadership to as a matter of urgent national concern address the negative question of illegal members occupying the green chambers which a civil society organization had in a press conference threatened to organize a naked protest during the week to address.

According to the Centre, it has investigated the issues raised by the civil society and discovered that the Tambuwal led leadership of the House might be in an unholy alliance with their old colleague, Mr. Orker Jev, in a bid to deny the legitimate winner of the Buruku Federal Constituency which, according to him, is not in the interest of constitutional

democracy, rule of law, fairness and justice to the people.

The Director therefore charge Tambuwal and his colleagues to do the right thing by swearing in the legitimate winner and holder of a certified INEC Certificate of Return, Mr. Sekav Iyortyom immediately to restore the confidence of Nigerians in the house. The Centre also queried that any further attempt to write new rules of composition by the Tambuwal led leadership of the house would call for anarchy which it promised to mobilize against through mass action in line with the law.

“The Centre has become pathetically worried that the integrity of the House of Representatives is gradually sliding into the abyss because of the numerous allegation of corruption, lack of tolerance for rule of law and illegal composition hanging on its

leadership and majority of members in the house. It is a very negative trend on the image of the entire House and must go beyond its regular vote of confidence passing exercise which has done nothing to improve on the present battered image of the house.”

“The Centre is therefore calling on the Rt. Hon Aminu to as a matter of urgent national concern inaugurate the legitimate winner of the Buruku Federal Constituency if there is no evil romance or unholy alliance with the usurper, Mr. Orker Jev who continued to occupy the Green Chamber of the National Assembly leaving the legitimately recognized winner by law, Mr. Sekav Iyortyom and his constituents out of the affairs of the country for so long a time, release all reports on fraud in the house and make itself available for scrutiny on the present car saga rocking the house.”

2015: Lawani’s posters flood Benue From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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osters of the Deputy Governor of Benue state, Chief Steven Lawani, for governorship in 2015 have flooded Makurdi, the state capital.

The poster which read ‘no vacancy in 2015’ was said to

have been pasted very early Sunday morning by an unidentified person.

This reporter gathered that as soon the posters were pasted, certain supporters of Lawani including his brother, Alechenu Lawani, and Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Ejembi Ogwuche, quickly went out to

tear them.

It could be recalled that Lawani contested governorship of the state in 2007 that saw the emergence of Gabriel Suswam as governor while he was nominated as his deputy.

His poster is coming on the heat of growing concerns and

complaints of marginalization of Idoma race in the governance of the state. The Idoma people are clamoring for governorship in 2015. All efforts made to get the reaction of Mr. Ogwuche failed as he refused to pick his calls or respond to text message sent to his phone.

2014: Group restates commitment to produce Anambra's next governor

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he indigenes of Anambra North Senatorial Zone under the umbrella of 'Olu na Adagbe Peoples Assembly' on Friday restated their commitment to produce the next governor of the state in 2014 polls.

They made their resolve on Friday in Awka at a forum organised for the stakeholders by the group in Awka.

In a speech delivered at the occasion, the secretary, Olu na Adagbe Peoples' Assembly, Mr Ike Ochie, said that the area had contributed immensely to the

evolution of the state and Nigeria.

"The area comprising seven council areas in the state and even beyond in Kogi, Delta and Enugu states, have contributed immensely to the evolution of Nigeria, as well as served as one of the pillars for the development of the country.

"The huge deposits of oil and gas discovered in Aguleri and the Onitsha main market which remains the main market in the sub region, among others are located in Olu na Adagbe community.

"The community has equally played great roles in the political and

economic development of Nigeria and Ndigbo in general and Anambra in particular," he stressed.

Ochie emphasised that the zone must be accorded the right position in Anambra politics.

One the way forward, Ochie said that the group had embarked on campaigns to sensitise indigenes of Anambra North to come up with credible candidates that have a track record of service to the people.

"We have worked intimately with traditional rulers, town unions and other stakeholders to achieve this objective.

"We have reached out to Olu n Adagbe communities outside the North senatorial zone to enlist their support," he said.

The group would maintain a level playing ground for all those interested to vie as candidates in 2014.

The secretary however, regretted that since the creation of Anambra 22 years ago, no indigene of the zone had assumed the exalted position of chief executive in the state, despite their contributions in serving as the food basket of the state.

(NAN)

ormer governor of Abia Chief Orji Uzor Kalu said at the weekend that he returned to the PDP after an agreement with other founding members of the party, urging him to return.

Speaking with newsmen at his Igbere country home, near Umuahia, Kalu said there was no going back on his decision as the PDP executive in Igbere Ward `A' had already issued him a membership card.

He explained that he returned to the PDP to re-jig the party and realise the dreams of its founding fathers. ``All the founding members of PDP have met and decided that we should all go back to our party because if we continue to leave it to the animals, they will put it into shame and Nigerians no longer have confidence in the party,'' Kalu said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that Kalu was readmitted to the PDP by his community ward, Igbere Ward `A' on Jan. 16, at Igbere in the Bende Local Government Area.

But Mr Emma Nwaka, the Abia PDP Chairman, had while briefing newsmen on Jan. 18, dismissed Kalu's claim.

Nwaka said that all the party's executive members in Igbere Wards `A' and `B' resigned their positions on Jan. 10, this year.

He also claimed that Chief Amaechi Ukoh, the Igbere Ward `A' Chairman who issued the card had resigned and submitted the party's cards and register to the state's PDP Secretariat.

But contrary to Nwaka's position, Ukoh was sighted at Kalu's home in the company of other officials of PDP's Igbere Wards `A' and `B'.

Ukoh told reporters that he was yet to resign as a ward official of the PDP, noting that he was in hiding because the PDP state officials were using military men to trail them in their homes. ``In the past four days, we have been on the run because they are using military men to pursue us in our homes and I use this opportunity to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the matter,'' he said.

Kalu also condemned the actions of PDP leadership in Abia over what he described as ``false propaganda on my re-admission''. ``I already have PDP card number 9787845 and there is no going back''.

He said that such uncoordinated propaganda presented the state PDP leadership as not only irresponsible but fake. ``We want all these deceits in Abia State to stop because we are going to fight for democracy, we are going to remove inept government and put a credible one in the state. ``All those living by propaganda would soon stop; corruption will stop, all the manipulation of Abia people will stop. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 39

Mimiko gives condition for new cabinet From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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ndo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday disclosed that his new cabinet would consist of a crack team of dynamic people who shares his vision for a greater Ondo state.

According to him, other qualities of those likely to make his new cabinet would be people who are capable of learning new things and break new grounds in his determined efforts at taking the to greater heights yet.

Mimiko made this disclosure in Washington DC in the United State of America (USA) at a Media round table

with journalists in that country. The governor had last Thursday made a presentation on the success of his health programme in Ondo tate to world health experts as a guest of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

According to him, aside his new cabinet, efforts would also be made to re-orientate the Civil Service in the state for optimum performance to drive his government’s policies during the second term.

Mimiko, who is one of the dignitaries from around the world that would be gracing the Second Term Inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington DC tomorrow,

while fielding questions from reporters stated that it was traditional and expected that somewhere soon, the cabinet had to be dissolved to give room for a new government that would be sworn-in on February 24.

He however revealed that the type of people that would be in the cabinet would “be people who share my vision, people who are capable of learning new things and breaking new grounds and of course, I will leverage on my experience in the last four years about my interactions; about people, to get the work done.‘‘ Mimiko was quick to reiterate that aside from the

members of his cabinet who he added must be dynamic and vibrant people who have eyes on developing Ondo state and bequeathing an enduring legacy for the next generation of the people, the civil service must be repositioned to drive the new vision.

His words: “Our Civil Service must be vibrant and capable of delivering on our programmes. The new Head of Service in Ondo state has been mandated to ensure a more proactive and vibrant Civil Service where every Ministry, Agency and Departments of government (MDAs) must live up to its responsibilities.

“There is the need for a lot

ANPP blames PDP for high rate of poverty

SERAP wants ICPC to probe spending on trainees' welfare

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he All Nigeria People’s party (ANPP has accused the PDP led Federal Government of President Jonathan for failing to consolidate on the gains of democracy and reduce the rate of poverty in the country.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party and former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, stated this in a North-East merger talks meeting held in Bauchi saying that the moves to unseat the PDP government is necessary following the increasing and alarming rates of poverty, security challenges attributed to unemployment in the country.

The ANPP committee resolved to reach out to prominent members that left the party out of grievances as well as create awareness among Nigerians on the need to join the bandwagon of the proposed merger with other opposition parties.

The BoT chairman added that already a three high powered committee has been constituted and saddled with the responsibilities of carrying its assignment assiduously towards successful merger with other opposition political parties in the country.

The merger, he stressed, is regardless of any political, religious and tribal affiliation, but the need to effect perpetual change for the yearnings and aspiration of people.

According to Shekarau, already the Contact and Mobilization committee headed by the former governor of Borno state, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, had just finished its tour of the country creating awareness among eminent personalities and civil societies.

The former governor assured that the ANPP will not compromise its position on the merger proposal even as he stressed that the ANPP would play outstanding roles in unseating the PDP come 2015.

of improvement in the Service.

We have to shift from celebrating success to the celebration of outcome. Let those who sit on files in MDAs know that ultimately peoples lives would be affected by their actions and inactions. We are trying to change the mindset of our Civil Servants that if a file is before you, you should be able to see the outcome and effect. For instance, if a file on drug procurement is on your table on Friday and you think you can wait till Monday or Tuesday to treat it, you must think about the patients that would be affected by that delay.

That is the type of things we want now.

Oyo state Political Office Holders, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Non-Ministerial Departments, during a two-day retreat, recently in Ibadan.

Photo: NAN

Tinubu condemns attack on Kano Emir, says Nigeria's bleeding From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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ational leader, Action Congress of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu has described the attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero and his convoy as most condemnable and unfortunate.

According to him, a most frightening dimension in the attacks unleashed by suspected terrorists on Nigerians and prominent leaders is being witnessed which suggests that there is no hiding place and no one is safe until the government tackles the problem of insecurity. "Nigeria has sunk to a new low in insecurity", Tinubu maintained.

"These incessant attacks and this most recent one on the respected Emir of Kano is unacceptable in a country governed by an elected government invested with power and state resources to ensure efficient security for all its citizens.

Nigeria continues to bleed, while

those charged with protecting their lives flounder and fiddle in their response to a problem that could undermine national security and endanger our young democracy". Tinubu further stated that the pipeline disasters and deaths, the bombings of churches and mosques, the car accidents on the roads and the ravaging fire disasters signpost a nation bleeding from many places.

Tinubu queried the level of intelligence gathering in the country and the alert system considering that almost a year ago a most deadly attack of multiple bombings occurred in Kano. He called for better coordination and sharing of information and an intelligence alert system that is efficient.

Describing Alhaji Ado Bayero as a well-respected traditional ruler and one with a progressive orientation who has led his people with courage and vision, Tinubu recalled his visit to the palace in

Kano mid last year where he met with the Emir. "His desire to see a better future for his people and his commitment to a more democratic society was never in doubt".

Tinubu called on the security agencies to go beyond just the arrests of the masterminds but to dig deeper towards gathering important intelligence that can help unravel the present deplorable state of insecurity in Nigeria. Tinubu asserted that political stability and effective national security go hand in hand and where the latter is missing or inadequate, the political pillars are weakened and subsequently may collapse. He said the opposition have put before the Jonathan government concrete suggestions on how best to tackle the security issue. "We are willing to partner in order to secure the lives and property of innocent Nigerians who die and are maimed daily for no fault of theirs".

non-governmental organisation, SocioEconomic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has called for urgent probe of the spending for the police trainees' welfare in the last 10 years.

SERAP made the call in a petition dated Jan.18, which was addressed to the Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta. A copy of the petition signed by Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director, SERAP, was made available to newsmen on Sunday in Lagos.

The group said: "SERAP believes that investigation by the ICPC into the spending of budgets meant for police colleges across the country would provide the much needed accountability. "This will help to establish whether the money budgeted to improve the infrastructure in the colleges and welfare of its trainees has been spent as allocated or simply stolen, misused or mismanaged."

It urged the ICPC to ensure that the suspected perpetrator be brought to justice. SERAP said that a recent investigation and documentary aired by Channels TV had shown that the training facilities at the Nigeria Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, were in a bad shape.

"The college is overcrowded (housing 3,000 people instead of 750); that students hostels are in dilapidated conditions and lack beds, mattresses and decent and functioning toilets.

"The dehumanising conditions of the Police College, Ikeja and other police colleges across the country seem to explain why the force has been unable, for many years, to provide adequate security for the common man and to effectively tackle crimes," it said.

The organisation said that the colleges would not be able to train officers capable of addressing the nation's security challenges, if the funds meant for their training were being mismanaged. (NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Officers urge INEC to set up social media unit

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L-R: Secretary General, Coalition of Civil Society Group for Transparency and Good Governance, Ambassador Muhammad Ibn Ahmad, Chairman, Comrade Ali Abacha, and Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Babanagari Suleiman, during a press briefing on reaction to the 17 Northern Groups Unite for 2015, at the weekend in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Obasanjo, a true nationalist, says Delta governor From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

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elta state governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a nationalist who believes in one Nigeria.

Uduaghan gave the description at the weekend when he visited former President at his residence at Abeokuta, Ogun State during a grand reception organized by the South-West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in honour of the former Nigerian leader and immediate past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. According to the governor, the former President is an international figure who believes so much in Nigeria and has

worked for the nation’s development and unity.

At the grand reception held at the Alake Palace, Uduaghan disclosed that the former President has also,ensured that Delta state was empowered to provide food not only for the people of the state but for Nigerians through the Obasanjo Farms which he partnered with the Delta State government to establish at Ogwashi-Uku. “Because of our Delta Beyond Oil Programme, we have a farm which is one of the biggest in West Africa and through the farm, President Obasanjo has ensured food security in West Africa,” the governor said, reiterating that the Poultry at Ogwashi-Uku will be one of the biggest poultry farms in West Africa when fully operational.

He described Chief Obasanjo as

a man who stands by what he believes in and does not waver no matter the situation, stating that once the former Nigerian leader believes in a course, he pursues it to a logical end.

Also speaking at the occasion, President Goodluck Jonathan who was represented by his Vice, Alhaji Namadi Sambo stated that Nigerian history cannot be complete without mentioning roles the former President Obasanjo played in ensuring the development and unity of the country.

“You have a special place in the history of Nigeria,” the President said, adding that Chief Obasanjo “spent greater part of his life in public life and laid a solid foundation which we are building on.”

Those who spoke at the

occasion included the governors of Imo, Akwa Ibom, among others and notable leaders like the Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur who poured encomiums on the former President for believing and working for the progress of Nigeria.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said it was important for Nigerians to appreciate their leaders when they are alive, observing that such would encourage such leaders to do more for the society and also, encourage others to emulate them in working for the people rather than self.

He thanked those who organized the reception for celebrating him while alive and urged them to always work for the unity of the country.

CPC candidate sets to revamp agriculture in Gwagwalada

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chairmanship candidate in Gwagwalada, Malam Ibrahim Yahaya, said yesterday that he would boost agriculture in the Area Council.

Yahaya, the CPC flag bearer, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that Gwagwalada, being an agrarian community, should capitalise on the huge FCT Municipal population to upgrade its agricultural potential. ``It is indeed time to surmount

the major challenges facing the production capacity of farmers in the area,'' he said.

Yahaya said that if elected, his administration would adopt a new measure in fertiliser acquisition and distribution.

He said that credit scheme for small and medium scale farmers would be introduced. ``We will ensure proper supervision in the way and manner fertilisers are purchased and distributed so that the product gets to the farmers at the grass

roots. ``We shall also make funds available to farmers to expand their farms for sustained food production,'' he said.

Yahaya said the cardinal point of his administration, if elected, would to revitalise the dwindling agriculture, health care delivery, Security and Sanitation.

He said that one of the best ways to tackle security challenges was the provision of infrastructure, job creation as well as justice to all, irrespective of tribe or religion.

He said the revamping of the agriculture sector would marginally reduce employment in the area council.

Yahaya, however, said that there would be no meaningful development without peace and security.

He said that security challenges within the area council would be attended to.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that council election is slated to hold across the six Area Councils of the FCT in April. (NAN)

ublic Affairs Officers (PAO) in INEC have called for the establishment of social media unit and media Think Tank to boost contemporary information management in electoral process.

The officers made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of a three-day workshop on ``Managing the Media for Successful Electoral Process'', jointly organised by the commission and NAN Bizcom in Makurdi.

The communiqué released to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, also called for the holding of media roundtables at the national and state levels to discuss various aspects of the election process in an election year.

It called on INEC to intensify the training of officers on Information Technology to equip them with the tools to cope with large-scale communication. ``In order to inform the public adequately and effectively, the Public Affairs Department must sustain its current tempo of timely dispatch of press releases and information to the states. ```The PAOs must prepare press kits and handbooks on electoral matters and collaborate with media -related organisations. ``They must be proactive, not only in news syndication but also in media monitoring.''

The communiqué underscored the need for public affairs officers to be professional ``despite the charged environment'' and be able to give constant feedback to the commission. (NAN)

Association lauds Jonathan's visit to Police College

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he Champions Youth Development Association of Nigeria (CHYDAN), yesterday commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his surprise visit to assess the level of decay at the Nigeria Police College, Ikeja.

This is contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Umar Ismail, President of the association, which was made available to newsmen in Lagos.

Ismail said that such visit was the first by a sitting president since the establishment of the school.

He said the visit was an indication that the Federal Government was ready to address the problems facing the Nigeria Police and the nation's security challenges.

According to him, we are highly impressed with the visit of Mr President to the Nigeria Police College, Ikeja.

"Nobody for once, thought that Mr President could personally come and inspect every department of the college. ``Since the establishment of the college over 70 years ago, no sitting president has visited the institution. ``Addressing security challenges in Nigeria in 2013 will be one of the ways through which the president can build the confidence of Nigerians.

"We do pray and hope that he will touch other sectors, including power and job creations,'' Ismail said. (NAN)

PAGE 45

PICTORIAL

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

1] Napoli failed to make up ground on Serie A leaders Juventus as they had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Fiorentina.

Facundo Roncaglia scored from inside his own half before Edinson Cavani equalised.

2] Frankie Gavin defends his British welterweight title for the first time with a ninth-round stoppage of Jason Welborn in Walsall.

3] Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka play out a five-set epic after Agnieszka Radwanska beats Ana Ivanovic to reach the quarterfinals.

4] South Africa captain AB de Villiers is banned for two ODIs for a slow over-rate in Saturday's game against New Zealand.

1

5] Steven Gerrard has said he would love to see Wesley Sneijder join Liverpool and believes the Netherlands playmaker would be a superb signing.

6] Saracens beat Edinburgh 407 and secure a bonus point to put themselves in pole position for a home Heineken Cup quarter-final.

7] Jamie Donaldson wins the Abu Dhabi Championship by a shot after overhauling Justin Rose's two-stroke overnight advantage.

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3

4

5

6

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PAGE 44

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

DR Congo fightback to draw with Ghana

D

emocratic Republic of Congo recovered from a two-goal deficit to draw 22 with title favourites Ghana as the African Cup of Nations burst into life yesterday after two goalless draws on Saturday’s rainsodden opening day.

Ghana scored the first goal of the competition in the Group B game at the sun-drenched Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium when

Emmanuel Agyemang Badu stabbed home from close range after a superb run and return pass from surging left-back Kwadwo Asamoah.

The defender then made it 2-0 himself when he was left unmarked following a 49th minute corner to head in off the underside of the bar.

But DR Congo halved Ghana’s lead four minutes later when Tresor

Mputu scored with a sweet flick after 53 minutes. They levelled 16 minutes later when Dieudonne Mbokani, who had his shirt pulled

by Jerry Akamino and dived theatrically in the box, picked himself up and scored from the spot.

Youssouf Mulumbu almost won it for Congo with 82 minutes on the clock but was denied by a superb low diving save from Ghana keeper Fatau Dauda.

Sex hawkers strike it rich in South Africa

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cene form Saturday’s AFCON opening ceremonyBafana may not be scoring goals or winning games but at least sex workers in South Africa are striking it rich at the AFCON. Business was great during the World Cup three years ago and prostitutes in Johannesburg said they hope to score big during the AFCON because “African men like sex”.

Also acccording to the Sunday Sun, the police will ease on arrest of the sex workers during the championship, which ends on February 10.

“AFCON brings us business. We are changing the prices because we have guests in our country,” said one of the prostitutes, who goes by the nickname Snooky from Mpumalanga.

Another prostitute in her 20s by the name of Pinky from KZN said: “During the soccer tournament an average price for a quickie is R40 (about $5).

“We are expecting to make a lot of money because African men like sex. Perhaps we will get rich and leave the trade.

Another added: “During the World Cup we made a killing and the AFCON is another major tournament for us. African men are here and we should take care of them.”

Emmanuel Agyemang Badu of Ghana

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Tresor Mputu of DR Congo

Ejide fit as Eagles defy rains

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oalkeeper Austin Ejide is fit again just as Eagles defied the rains to train at the weekend ahead of today’s clash against Burkina Faso.

Israel-based goalkeeper returned to full training Saturday in Nelspruit after he suffered a muscle tear in a warmup game against Cape Verde in Portugal. “I feel real good and ready, but I am taking it easy as the medics have advised, but am feeling real good,” Ejide declared.

On Saturday evening, goalkeeper trainer Ike Shorunmu took the former Gabros shot stopper on a special

training with Ejide turning out impressive dives, punches and general conditioning of a good goalkeeper.

He is fit for the clash today and should at least be good for the bench against Burkina Faso.Eagles defied heavy downpour on Saturday and Sunday to train ahead of the game.

“We can’t take chances whether

Finishing needs improving he Group A 2013 African Cup of Nations match between Angola and Morocco can only be described as a physically combative one as tackles flew in thick and fast, with no quarter being asked nor given by either side.

As the teams lined-up before the game it was clear that their physical stature would play a part, and that it did in a high-paced affair.

Angola were certainly the aggressors in the first 45 minutes as they tried to outmuscle the Atlas Lions, but the Moroccan team were not to be outdone and held their own in some physical confrontations.

The Moroccans certainly played the better football in the first half and were the more technically sound side as they managed to create chances almost at will with their slick passing and off the ball running.

Still, the Atlas Lions’ finishing

Coach believes Bafana can win trophy

lacked something to be desired, but a lot has to be said for Lama, the Angolan keeper, who produced a number of good saves to keep his side in the game going into the half time break.

The second 45 saw a change in tactics as Angola pressed forward and did more of the attacking while Morocco looked to hit their African neighbours on the counter-attack.

Still, despite seeing more of the ball the Angolans could not create a decent goal scoring chance. In fact, it was Morocco who had the better of chances in front of goal, but again their finishing was poor.

With the game ending goalless, both sides will go back to the drawing board and hope their finishing improves as they both take to the field on Wednesday, January 23rd, for their second Group A match – Angola to face South Africa and Morocco to face Cape Verde.

Austin Ejide

it rains or not,” Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi said when asked about the readiness of the team.

The team captain Joseph Yobo said it is good to be back in the bright sunny weather of Africa.

“It’s been good since we got here and I think the players are gradually getting used to being together and I know we will have a beautiful tournament,”the Eagles skipper stated.

outh Africa coach Gordon Igesund says he can fully understand the frustration of the Bafana Bafana fans after the disappointing start to their Africa Cup of Nations campaign, but insists they can still win the tournament.

The hosts launched the continental showpiece with a goalless Group A draw against Cape Verde Islands at the National Stadium on Saturday.It was a disappointing outcome against a team that was making its debut at the finals.

“We have very passionate fans in South Africa, they give us fantastic support,” Igesund told a press conference in Durban yesterday.

The expectations are very high and there’s a lot of pressure on the team at the moment.”

Igesund felt that some of the pressure was completely unwarranted, explaining that it had come from supporters expecting Bafana Bafana to emulate the 1996-winning team.

“There’s a lot of talk about the 96 squad, it’s right in our faces all the time. When I say in our faces, I mean our players want to emulate that, the nation wants them to, the legends want them to do it,” he said.

The disappointment of the result, in the broader context, was somewhat lessened later on Saturday when the other two teams in the group, Angola and Morocco also played to a goalless draw.

“We obviously want to be in a position where we have our fate in our own hands, so I was absolutely delighted that they also drew 0-0,” Igesund said.

“This means we all start on equal footing again. But we can’t afford to have another performance like that again.”

The national boss remained optimistic, though, that his squad had the ability to go all the way, urging fans not to give up on them.

“Football’s a funny game,” he added. “I’ve seen that over the many, many years I’ve been involved in the game, strange things can happen.

“If we can just get the momentum and confidence going, score those goals, get a good result under our belts, get the confidence in ourselves and the confidence of the county behind us, anything is possible.”

Bafana play their next match against the Angolans in Durban on Wednesday.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 43

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PAGE 42

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

NBBF holds consultative forum/ pre-season seminar

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he Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) says that everything has been put in place for its Stakeholders Consultative Forum/ Pre-season Seminar scheduled to be held at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) auditorium at the Abuja National Stadium today.

NBBF’s Assistant Secretary, Aminu Samuel, who disclosed this said that the federation was expecting no fewer than 100 basketball technical personnel and

administrators at the events.

According to him, the forum will be preceded by the federation’s Annual General Meeting , while the pre-season seminar will hold at the same venue tomorrow through Friday, Jan. 25 beginning from 9 o’clock each morning.

“We are looking forward to a high level of attendance at the three events, in view of the sport’s rising profile in the country.

“We all recall the giant strides the sport took last

year, with the D’Tigers’ performance in the male basketball event of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“This brought about more recognition for the game, as well as heightening expectations for our programmes in 2013,’’ Samuel said.

He said the AGM, as well as the Forum would provide the platform where stakeholders would have a glimpse at the federation’s itinerary for 2013 and added that

the pre-season seminar would also help to keep the body’s technical officials abreast with current trends in the sport.

“The seminar will help us in ensuring that our game officials such as match commissioners, umpires, referees and table officials are kept abreast of new rules.

“We will also refresh their memories about existing rules and latest developments, in readiness for the

upcoming new season competitions,’’ Samuel said.

Among those expected are the members of the board of the NBBF, state

Women’s Professional League gets March 2 kick-off date

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he Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) Board has fixed March 2, 2013, as the kick-off date for the 2012/2013 Women’s Professional League

Deaflympic Games: Coach wants help for early preparations

K

Bolaji Abdullahi, Sports Minister

M

iguel Angel Garcia knocked down Orlando Salido four times before winning the WBO featherweight title on a technical decision in New York on Saturday night.

Garcia finished the fight at Madison Square Garden with a broken nose but won on a technical decision.

A clash of heads in the eighth round resulted in the challenger’s nose being broken and the fight was stopped on the advice of a

W

amiludeen Banjo, the Head Coach of Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation (NDSF), has called on corporate organisations to assist deaf football players participate at the 2013 Deaflympic Games.

The deaf football team is known as The Deaflympic Games has been scheduled to run from July 26 to Aug. 4 in Sofia, Bulgaria and Nigeria’s representatives the Deaf Super Eagles will be featuring.

Banjo said in Lagos that the team, which qualified for the 2013 Deaflympics since 2011, had yet to observe any major camping ahead of the main event, because of a lack of funds.

“They made a promise that they will support us but it may not be full support but we have look for sponsorship drive as well to support everything we want. Well, our camping, we want the camping to start from Lagos State, maybe Gov. Fashola can support us.

“Then after that we want to move to Ibadan for them to understand the football orientation, so that it will motivate them; that is why we want to have our camping in different areas.

“If we are opportune to have enough money, we want to go outside the country to have some form of acclimatisation for one week and play a friendly match there then come back before the major competition.

“We want some companies like banks, parastatals, insurance to support us even individual, who are sport lover to try and do something to support us so that we can achieve our aim towards this competition.’’

Banjo said the players ought to have adequate training to ensure that they represented the country well at the competition, adding that adequate training was necessary to enable them select the best players to represent the country.

The sports to feature at the Games are: Wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), Taekwondo, Tennis, Volleyball and Athletics.

Others are: Badminton, Basketball, Beach volleyball, Tenpin Bowling, road Cycling, Football, Judo, Karate, Mountain bike, Orienteering, Shooting, Swimming and Table tennis.

season, an official said over the weekend in Abuja.

The NWFL’s Secretary, Isaac Ajisafe, who made the disclosure, said this was part of decisions taken at the board’s meeting in Abuja on Thursday, stressing that the meeting also discussed guidelines and the timeframe for the new season.

“Registration of clubs for the season has which has been pegged at N100, 000 per club, will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 22 and end on Feb. 18,’’ Ajisafe said.

The secretary also said the board further resolved that the League’s Congress would hold immediately after the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

“At the congress, some other vital decisions as resolved by the board would be ratified,’’ he said.

Ajisafe disclosed that draws for the 2012/2013 Women’s Professional League season would be held during the Congress.

Garcia wins WBO title with broken-nose doctor before the ninth round could start.

Garcia was leading 79-69 on two cards and 79-70 on the third at the time and deservedly became the new champion.

The 25-year-old had knocked the champion down twice in the first round, once in the third and again in the fourth. Each time Salido’s

orld marathon champion Edna Kiplagat, Olympic silver medallist Vivian Cheruiyot and former Olympic champions Asbel Kiprop and Nancy Jebet Lagat, were beaten in Kenya’s Defence Forces and Police cross country championships on Saturday.

Lucy Kabuu, the runner-up at last year’s Dubai Marathon, snatched victory in the women’s 8km race

Edna Kiplagat

basketball association chairmen and secretaries, officials of league clubs as well as match officials and other basketball stakeholders.

gloves briefly touch the floor as Garcia’s blistering left buckled his knees.

Garcia is still undefeated as a professional. He has now won 27 of his 31 fights by knockout.

The 32-year-old Salido’s record dropped to 39-12-2, with 27 knockouts. He won the IBF featherweight title in May 2010 but soon lost it. He

took over the WBO title in 2011.

But after the fight against Garcia he looked like a victim of a traffic accident, with his right eye almost swollen shut.

Earlier, Gennady Golovkin stopped Gabriel Rossado in the seventh round to retain his unbeaten record and his WBA and IBO

middleweight titles.

Rosado was cut near the left eye in the second round and was bleeding so badly that his corner eventually threw in the towel.

Golovkin, who is from Kazakhstan, is undefeated after 25 fights, of which he won 22 by knockout.

Rosado, who is from Philadelphia, now stands at

21-6; 13.

Roman Martinez, the WBO super-featherweight champion, and Juan Carlos Burgos drew over twelve rounds – 117-111 for Burgos, 116-112 for Martinez and 114-114.

Martinez, a Puerto Rican, improved to 27-1-1; 17.

Burgos, a Mexican, dropped to 30-2; 20).

World, Olympics champions beaten at Kenyan cross country meets at the police championships in 27:16.9, ahead of Kiplagat, who timed 27:17.3.

Vivian Cheruiyot

World junior cross country champion Geoffrey Kipsang won the men’s 12km race in 35 minutes, while the world’s fastest marathon runner Geoffrey Mutai followed in 35:53.7. Kiprop was ninth in 36:53.

Cheruiyot finished outside the top 10 but told reporters she has no interest in the World Cross Country Championships and instead had used the event to prepare for her 5 000m and 10 000m title defences at August’s World Athletics Championships in Moscow.

The races are preparing athletes for the national championships next month, when the team for the world championships in Poland in March will be selected.

African double champion Gladys Cherono won the women’s 8km at the Defence Forces meeting in Thika, some 45km north of the capital, in 27:40.

Leonard Oleitiptip, who won the race in the last African championships, beat a talent-studded field to take the men’s 12km title in 36:07.

Among his casualties was 2010 world cross country champion Joseph Ebuya, who finished fourth in 36:18.

Cherono beat world indoors 3 000m champion Hellen Obiri, 2008 Olympic 1 500m champion Jebet Lagat and former world 10 000m champion Sally Barsosio.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

PAGE 41

Eagles need mental strength against Stallions, says Kurfi

T

he proprietor of the Future Africa Football Academy, Alhaji Aminu Balele Kurfi, says the difference between the Super Eagles and the Stallions of Burkina Faso will be mental strength, character and discipline during the match.

Alhaji Aminu Kurfi therefore urges the technical crew to concentrate energies on building the mental strength of the players, instead of focusing solely on their physical condition. He believes no tactics will produce the desired result if the players lack individual intuition to create and push for success.

“The coaching crew should instill that mental discipline, something that was hardly seen in the opening matches of the Nations Cup. In the game between South Africa and Cape Verde Islands, it was obvious both teams were physically well prepared as was the case in the Angola versus Morocco game.

“But the missing link was that mental strength: ability to apply commonsense in certain situations rather depending on the usual robust African display. The Eagles must rise above physical display, be tactical and creative.

“Sometimes an individual

brilliance could make the difference. That’s what the team would need to be inspired to raise the tempo of the game,” he said stressing that though the Stallions should not be underrated but wondered what on earth for now will put Nigeria and Burkina Faso on the same scale.

Fixtures Nigeria vs Burkina Faso Zambia vs Ethiopia Results Ghana 2 DR Congo 2 Mali 1 Niger Rep. 0

Alhaji Aminu Kurfi

Zambia Govt dangle US$90,000 bounty

A

s the Chipolopolo begin their quest to defend the trophy they won last year in Gabon/ Equatorial Guinea, the Zambia says they will get US$90,000 each if they retain the Africa Cup trophy in South

Africa.

Zambia Sports Minister Chishimba Kambwili said the Chipolopolo, who against all odds won the trophy last year at the Gabon/Equatorial Guinea tournament, bonus will be

cumulative.

“Overall the Zambia national team will be paid US$90,000 each for lifting the trophy,” Kambwili said.

“That is a cumulative figure from the first game I the group

stage game to the final.”

The bonus is rise from the US$57,000 offered minus fringe payouts for winning the 2012 tournament held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Meanwhile, the Chipolopolo

Eagles set to perch on Stallions

By Patrick Andrew

U

ntil now, the Super Eagles may be a work in progress but that would hardly be tenable if they fail to be convincing in character, zest and hunger to achieve result at the 29th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.

That will be inevitable to restore pride, confidence and return to the limelight. And this Nations Cup provides the platform to get back into the consciousness of the continent.

The Eagles were among the continent’s leading lights in the 1990s but suffered dip in form and ultimately failed to qualify for the 28th edition of the Nations Cup. Today, they begin their march for resurgence with their match in Nelspruit against the Stallion of Burkina Faso in Group C. Already, embarrassed by their absence in the fiesta last year, all hands had been on deck to rebrand a youthful squad full of vim, glory hungry and resourcefulness. Players, who hope to

carve a niche for themselves and rekindle Nigeria’s dominance of continental soccer.

The Eagles may pin their hope for experience on skipper Joseph Yobo, Mikel Obi, Vincent Enyeama, Efe Ambrose, Ikechukwu Uche and Austin Ejide, the only members of the team with some Nations Cup pedigree.

All but Ejide are likely to be in the starting lineup against the Stallions in a potential make or mar opener for the Eagles.

But the Stallions should be written off with relative ease.

Burkina Faso coach Paul Put said his team will gun for a winning start against the Eagles whom he said have individual talent but have struggled to play as a team.

The Eagles though are likely to be spirited with some levels of teamwork going by their second flashes of brilliance against Cape Verde Islands a friendly. And with a blend of strength, youth and age, the Eagles should be paces higher than they were during the pre-tournament games.

Eagles in training yesterday ahead of today’s opener against the Stallions

kick off their defence of the title today against the Walyas, who are returning to the continent’s top flight championship, with a Group C opener.

According to the Head Coach of the East African team, Herve Renard, the future starts today for Zambia who begin their as quest for the defence of the title in South Africa against Ethiopia.

Renard said on the eve of their opening game against Ethiopia at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit that it has been a great honour to be custodians of the Africa Cup trophy, even though it was just a for a year.

“We are here to defend our title it is a big honour to get the title in 2012 and we were very proud to have it during one year only.

But it is better than nothing. At least in our life we know what it means to be African champions,” Renard said.

Renard said Zambia is not going into the game against Ethiopia comfortably perched on their laurels.

“We have closed 2012 and I said to the players it’s written on the board: ‘Never live in the past always learn from it.’ Now it is the future and the future starts tomorrow.”

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

Say what?

PAGE 47

Some Interesting Facts UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE FACTS •22. 1 x 8 + 1 = 9; 12 x 8 + 2 = 98; 123 x 8 + 3 = 987; 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876; 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765; 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654; 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543; 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432; 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321 •The word "dreamt" is the only common word in the English language that ends in "mt".

•Albert Einstein never wore any socks.

•The average human will eat 8 spiders while asleep in their lifetime.

•In space, astronauts cannot cry because there is no gravity.

•Hummingbirds are the only creatures that can fly backwards.

•An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

•Cockroaches can live 9 days without their heads before they starve to death.

•A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.

•The lighter was invented before the match.

•It is physically impossible for pigs to look up at the sky.

•The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!

•Scientists with high-speed cameras have discovered that rain drops are not tear shaped but rather look like hamburger buns.

•The first Internet domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com on March 15, 1985.

•When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone back in 1876, only six phones were sold in the first month.

•Approximately 7.5% of all office documents get lost.

SUDOKU

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Yesterday’s solution

SNOW JOKE ... the scene at Vicarage Road on Saturday ahead of Watford's victory against Huddersfield Source: TheSun.co.uk

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

. . . putting the people first

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013

SPORTS LA TEST LATEST

O

C

lint Dempsey scored a dramatic late equaliser to deny Manchester United a priceless victory at White Hart Lane.

The Spurs forward scrambled the ball over the line in time added on, to leave Sir Alex Ferguson's side just five points ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.

Robin van Persie had headed in his 22nd goal of the season midway through the first half to put United in control.

Spurs improved but substitute Wayne Rooney saw a penalty claim waved away

Chelsea enjoy Arsenal 2-1 home defeat

R

afael Benitez finally enjoyed some home comfort as Chelsea avoided throwing away another two-goal lead by clinging on to beat Arsenal.

It was very nearly Groundhog Day at snowy Stamford Bridge, with the Gunners making amends for an appalling first-half performance through Theo Walcott's first goal since signing his new contract.

But it was not enough to overturn the two-goal head start they gifted Chelsea, with Juan Mata's strike and Frank Lampard's penalty - his 195th goal for the club - ultimately proving the difference.

A Premier League double over Arsenal also saw the thirdplaced Blues move 11 points clear of their opponents and cast serious doubt over the top-four credentials of Arsene Wenger's men.

Benitez was spared his usual frosty reception, despite the wintry weather, with abuse reserved instead for an Arsenal team for whom suffering has become second nature.

That might have all changed had Olivier Giroud not drilled narrowly wide in the fifth minute after being threaded in

by Walcott, a miss that proved decisive, with Chelsea sweeping ahead in controversial fashion less than a minute later.

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The civil war was very unnecessary; time has come for us to put the events of the civil war behind us.

— Fromer President Olusegun Obabsanjo

The frontline gets wider The man who burns down his grains store must know where ash is expensive — Hausa proverb

Dempsey denies Man Utd victory at Spurs

QUO TABLE Q UO TE UOT QUO UOTE

n the day the Senate gave approval for Nigerian soldiers and airmen to join others from France, a few West African countries and Malian troops to fight a rebellion in Mali, the crisis in that country escalated.

French planes strafed rebel positions. Europeans kidnapped by allies of the Malian rebels were killed along with their kidnappers in an attack by Algerian troops.

President Jonathan flew out to attend a Summit on the crisis, and the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika revealed that some of the insurgents in Nigeria under the generic cover of the Jama’atu Ahlil Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (a.k.a. Boko Haram) have received training in Mali. The death of European civilian hostages in the process of being rescued by Algerian troops will raise public awareness in Europe over a new frontline which is likely to suck in not just France, but Europe in possibly a long-drawn conflict with massive potentials for collateral damage.

Mali will be an active theater of war in the next few weeks, months, or years. The rebels may be routed by the superior weaponry and intelligence of the African International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) in a matter of weeks, or the forces of Africa and Europe could be tied down in a prolonged conflict with an enemy that has roots and support in many neighbouring countries. If the intelligence suggests that the military defeat of a group of two to three thousand men under arms will be the end of this problem, it had better be very good intelligence indeed. If it suggests the possibility of the defeat and dispersal of an armed group, a radical improvement in the capacity of the Malian army in the north, a sustained and ultimately successful campaign of AL-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), and a marked improvement in the capacities of the basic institutions of the Malian state to prevent collapse, it should also foresee a prolonged engagement by all the parties currently in Mali.

It is important that this strategic intervention is informed by quality intelligence and strong political will to succeed, for a number of reasons. First, Mali represents the visible evidence of a problem which had built up over the last few years, feeding partly on local and age-long grievances, and partly on the massive restiveness among the Muslim population in Asia Middle East and Africa that had much to do with the US, NATO countries and Israel.

It is vital that the linkages between pockets of activities in Muslim activities are understood, because

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FIFTEEN MINUTES with Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed drbabaahmed@yahoo.com

French President Francois Hollande, says Mali action will last as long as necessary they represent a challenge to any strategy which seeks piecemeal solutions. Second, the terrain and the context of this engagement will be decisive in the manner it plays out. France may believe that it has mastered the Sahara owing to long-term preparations and commitments, but it is very doubtful if it can sustain a prolonged war against natives who are likely to fight as guerillas once the opening skirmishes are over. African troops fighting in a desert environment may be able to achieve short-term objectives, but political will of leaders and availability resources may be difficult to sustain in a war that goes beyond a few months.

Thirdly, every one of Mali's six neighbours is vulnerable to collateral damage. A quick and decisive military victory may give the impression of a solution, but in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Libya and one or two other African countries, it will take more than the defeat of the Malian rebels to obliterate the incipient or active resistance, or the intricate linkages which bind much of the activities of insurgencies or rebellions, or their roots. A good appreciation of what makes the Sahel region and northern reaches of West Africa fertile breeding grounds for instability and organized violence needs to be built. The Sahara is an intimidating asset and liability even to the communities which have lived for centuries in it, but it cannot, on that account alone, explain why it is currently the focus of such intense activities that threaten the sovereignty or even

survival of many countries in or around it, and by its own estimation, the strategic interests of the US and its European allies. A defense strategy that limits the vulnerability of nations and interest to the unique challenges of the vast Sahara must evolve out of this adventure, or if will merely fuel more instability.

There is yet another potential danger which needs to be addressed by this initiative. Containing rebel activities in Mali could trigger more hostile activities against governments and western interests in the region. The fragility of states such as Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad and even the Nigerian state (which is being severely challenged by a home-grown insurgency) will be a major factor in evolving a broad strategy. The worst outcome of a containment strategy which merely limits itself to rolling back the rebels in Mali will be the intensification of violence in countries and areas where it has already taken root.

Nigeria, Algeria and Libya are particularly vulnerable, and all countries bordering them or which provide routes or shelters will remain targets of insurgencies and rebellions.

Mali itself is particularly vulnerable, and the relatively-easy collapse of the democratically-elected government, as well as the present role of the military need to be addressed.

There will be legitimate expectations that the combined forces of Europe and West Africa will defeat the northern rebel army in Mail. It will also be reasonable to expect that some far-reaching steps will be taken to address Tuareg grievances and integrate than into the political process in Mail in the longer term. By the same token, it should be expected that AQIM and its related interests will fight back.

If the assertions that Ansar Al-Din and some elements of AQIM are already active in Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Niger, Algeria and Libya are valid, there will have to be initiatives by all these countries to deal with their threats as they manifest locally. While they will need to collaborate to improve defense of borders and movements of small arms and sophisticated weapons in the vast Sahara, strong political will has to be deployed behind finding the roots of threats, and solutions to them.

For Nigeria, the irony would not have been lost that it is sending over 1000 troops to Mali at a time when its own forces are being pinned down in streets and highways by an illusive insurgency. Nigeria is offering the lives and limbs of its soldiers to be part of a grand strategy to bring peace and stability to Mali, at a time when a large chunk of its own territory has become an active frontline. The military admitted that soldiers on their way to Kaduna to join others flying to Mali were attacked in Kogi State, with fatalities. The revered Emir of Kano was attacked in broad daylight, again with fatalities.

These events may or may not have any links with Nigeria's role in Mali, but it will be important not to assume that there are no connections.

Nigeria's contribution to rolling back a rebellion in Mali will be explained in terms of its strategic national interests. This will make sense in the light of information that many members of the insurgency have received training in Mali. These trained people will in turn attack the Nigerian state and population. A relatively symbolic contribution to a West African and European initiative to limit the incursion of militant Islam in the Sahel and Maghreb may escalate the Nigerian problem. This is all the more reason why the Jonathan administration should be more active in the search for options in the manner it relates to this insurgency. Just about everyone who has looked at this problem critically says that it has deep roots in bad governance, poverty and unresolved grievances. The modus operandi of the security agencies is also creating far more enemies than friends.

France and a few European countries, with US intelligence, have committed themselves to a campaign to roll back a rebellion, which may achieve short-term goals, but is uncertain in terms of the possibility of finding long-term solutions. Virtually all the West African nations contributing troops are doing so out of the obligation to put out a fire in a fellow ECOWAS member's country, but they are acutely aware that it could flare up in their own backyard. If the campaign is short, sharp and effective, they would congratulate themselves. If, however, it is prolonged by the nature of the enemy, or the appearance that Europe and the US want to occupy Mali for an extended period and possibly tap into its fabled wealth in mineral resources, then political support will be difficult to sustain behind this campaign. Nigeria needs to assess its role in this campaign very carefully, and take steps to limit its damage at home. We do not want to be on the losing side in Mali, and fail to win the battle in Nigeria.

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234-09-8734478. Cell: +234 805 727 9862. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141