Peoples Daily Newspaper, Saturday 23, February, 2013

www.peoplesdaily-online.com

www.peoplesdailyng.com

VOL. 3 NO. 28

SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013. . . putting the people first

RABI’UL AKHIR 13-14, 1434 AH

N150

JTF kills 15 insurgents in Maiduguri

PASSAGE Mudi Spikin: End of northern >>Pages 13, 14&15 nationalists?

Al-mizan

>>Page 6

editors released

PERSONALITY

>>Page 2

ENTREPRENEUR

Behold first student to wear eye glasses at Katsina College, Shettima of Ilorin, nicknamed Maitabarau

Zogale business in Niger state

>>Page 8

>>Page 17

N E W S

Court orders fresh trial of Wabara over N50m bribe >>Page 5

Cover

Interview

Entertainment

Governors' forum is enemy of Nigeria's democracy —Activist Olufemi Aduwo

Goldie: More questions than answers

>>Page 46

>>Page 25

Ghost workers: Nigeria's unending nightmare? >> Pages 9,10 & 11 WWW.PEOPLESDAILYNG.COM

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Feature News

Al-mizan editors released

By Jamila Nuhu Musa

T

h e editor of a Hausa weekly newspaper, Almizan, of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shiite) under the leadership of Sheik Ibraheem Zak-zaky, Mohammed Musa and Awwal who was arrested in December has been released by the State Security Services, Friday night Reports said Awwal Musa, who was arrested in an early morning raid on his house by agents of the State Security Service, SSS, on Monday, has been released.

A staff of the publication had confirmed earlier that the editor was released by the SSS and was on his way to Kaduna from Abuja.

"Just as no information was given to us as to why he was arrested, we also don't know the circumstances of his release until he gets back," the official said.

He said more details as to why the journalist was arrested and released will be known today.

Nigerian and foreign journalists and organisations had condemned Musa's arrest and the continuous harassment of Al-Mizan journalists by security operatives.

Officials of the State Security Service (SSS) had recently rearrested the editor of the Kaduna based vernacular newspaper, Almizan, Mallam Musa Muhammad Awwal, forty-five days after they released him on bail.

It would be recalled that the Editor was arrested alongside his reporter, Aliyu Sale on the 24th December, 2012. Reports said they were released on the January 1st, this year following pressure mounted by stakeholders in the media industry.

His wife, Hajia Hannatu had told newsmen her husband was arrested by the combined team of the SSS and the Army.

She said he was arrested around 4.am on the fateful day after their house was ransacked and then he was whisked away.

"After the search, they went away with him; they took his laptop and phone. They did not molest anybody like they did the last time. When I asked them why they were arresting my husband again, they did not say anything," she said.

It will be recalled that when the editor was released in January, he said the SSS officials did not inform him of the offence he committed that made them to keep him in their custody for eight days.

The management of Al Mizan newspaper in Kaduna in a statement after the arrest at the time said the State Security

Musa Awal and Saleh Service (SSS) in connivance with the Joint Task Force (JTF) refused to allow access or contact with the re-arrested editor of the paper, Musa Muhammad Awwal.

Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, in a statement said all efforts to reach the editor had proved abortive. Muhammad Awwal was whisked away from his residence in the early hours of Thursday February 14, 2013.

"As a result of their refusal to allow access to him, signals of fear and suspicion have been founded.

The security operatives, who have gone beyond the law to arrest him in an extra-judicial manner, have also refused to mention any reason for intimidating the journalist.

"With the flagrant disregard for civility and human rights by the security operatives and the frequent reports of violation of law and order, where security operatives are accused of extrajudicial practices, the life and safety of Musa Muhammad Awwal has become a source of concern to us. With his wife, children, relations, friends and well-wishers left in suspense and worry, the arrest of Musa Muhammad Awwal is a clear display of intimidation and lack of fairness to all and sundry. This

is also an outright violation of the tenets of democracy and abuse of his fundamental human rights," the Editor-in chief had stated.

He said they would not relent in their efforts to adopt all legally accepted methods in bringing an end to what he called the continued intimidation of Al Mizan newspaper and its staff.

Reports said at the time, that his arrest was not unconnected with the lead story of a past edition of the Al-Mizan Newspaper which revealed the atrocities of the Joint Task Force in Potiskum in which 84 persons were abducted by them.

The way and manner those charged with managing insecurity in the troubled areas was condemned by many as far from being encouraging because it further heightens tension and violate the civil rights of their victims.

Therefore, the I. M. Publication, publishers of AlMizan Newspaper, called for the immediate and unconditional release of Musa Muhammad Awwal whose arrest had violated due process and his individual human rights.

"It is unfortunate that in a country that attests to the theories of democracy that law and order could be so loose, that individuals could be treated in an

extra-judicial manner and their rights violated. The security operatives are given undue freedom to harass and molest innocent individuals thereby violating due process. It cannot be justified that seeking information by security operatives allows them to go ahead of the laws of democratically oriented societies.

In this regard, we shall not relent in our efforts in making this issue publicized all over the world which will subsequently reveal the inadequacies of the

security operatives. We hereby call on the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Guild of Editors, Press Union of the Islamic World, Nigerian Bar Association, Human and Civil Rights groups as well as all concerned and well meaning personalities that believe in the tenets of fairness and justice to humanity to out rightly denounce this atrocity perpetrated by security personnel in the name of providing security. Ibrahim Musa, reiterated.

Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

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News Creation of additional states, worthless venture, says ACF

By Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

body politics.“One big mistake the National Assembly could make at the end of its on-going review of the 1999 Constitution is to

try and create more states for Nigeria.“The ACF is not saying that the people of Katagum or the Idoma people do not deserve a state, as

looking into such demands perhaps with the exception of Bayelsa and Yobe states, there are agitations from all

T

he Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) says creation of additional states in the country would be a fatal mistake and urged the National Assembly to strike out the proposal if it eventually embarks on a review of the 1999 Constitution.According to the ACF Chairman, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, the creation of additional in Nigeria is not the priority of majority of Nigerians as, according to him, “the ACF has taken a stand that for now, creation of additional states is not our priority in this country.”Mohammed spoke yesterday in Bauchi, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary celebration of the Bauchi Radio Corporation (BRC). He noted however that the group’s position should not be misconstrued that it is against the creation of additional states in the country, in future.Describing the move as “a worthless venture” the ACF boss said that, “our leaders, workers, industrialists, women, youth and indeed entire Nigerians must use every opportunity and action either collectively or individually to create jobs for the teeming unemployed and eschew corruption in our

Oyo govt sacks YES-O cadets over bribery

By Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

T

he Oyo state government on Thursday announced the dismissal of five cadets from its Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES-O) over alleged extortion of money from the masses.

Commissioner for Information, Pastor Taiwo Otegbeye, who briefed the press over various public complaints on alleged misconduct of cadets, explained that the dismissal was in line with recommendations of a recent report of a panel which investigated the matter.He said that government would not condone any acts of misconduct from its agents and urged the general public to desist from offering bribe or other forms of gratification to government workers.As part of measures to check the trend, Otegbeye noted that government will soon issue name tags and identification codes to all accredited cadets.

Vice President Namadi Sambo(R), with the Director General, Nigerian Institutes of Policy and Strategic Studies(NIPSS), Tijjani Barde during a courtesy call on the Vice President

by NIPSS delegations at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Fire guts relief materials in Benue • As NEMA intervenes in Oyo rainstorm disaster

By Uche Nnorom, Makurdi and Inumidun Ojelade, Ibadan

A

fire incident in the afternoon yesterday engulfed a block of three classrooms in Makurdi local government area of Benue state where relief materials meant for last year’s flood victims went up in flames.Residents attributed the fire out break to a welding fault which sparked off fire inside one of the classrooms.Our correspondent reports that men from the state fire service along with officials from the State Emergency Relief Management Agency struggled to retrieve some of the materials.Executive Secretary of the relief management agency, Mr. Adikpo Agbatse, lamented the incident

regretting further that, “all materials in the classroom meant for flood victims were almost reduced to ashes.”However, a victim of the flood, Mr. John Adamu, who resides in Angwan Jukum, Wurukum area of Makurdi, accused government officials of sabotage and explained that there was no justification for keeping the materials in a school instead of distributing them to the victims.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has distributed relief materials as part of palliatives to victims of the February 17 rainstorm in Oyo state.Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at a programme in Ibadan yesterday handed over the materials in six trailers to the Oyo State Emergency Management Agency (OYSEMA) and the chairmen of affected local government areas.

SWF: FG lists modalities for operation By our correspondent

T

he National Executive Council (NEC) yesterday rose from its second meeting this year disclosing how the $1 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) will operate in order to meet the agenda set up for it by the Federal Government as it becomes operational at the end of next month.According to the Minister of Finance who is also the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME), Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, the operation of the fund will be in three areas: Stabilization

Fund, Infrastructure Fund and Future Generation Fund.Flanked by her counterpart from the Ministry of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, and the Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi, Okonjo-Iweala explained these investment windows will be explored by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) which is a corporate governance system put in place to fast track the use of the fund.On the recent pension scam, she said government had ordered the freezing accounts of the pension office to avoid further looting of its funds.

the other states in the federation.“But one does not need to be an accountant to know that additional states may translate into bigger bureaucracy and u n s u s t a i n able overhead expenditures without corresponding initiatives to development and good governance.“Development and good governance are the priorities that we at the Arewa Consultative Forum and indeed majority of Nigerians want our governments to establish.”He also stressed the need for leaders to think of priorities that would provide a road map for Nigeria’s development, peace, unity, and good governance.“No one has any doubt about what the people want. There are good actions and there are undesirable ones but we feel that there is time for everything and the time is simply not to take such actions that will consume the little resources we have for more pressing issues in the country,” Mohammed said.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Photo News

Heads of State and government of African-South American (ASA) countries, during their 3rd Summit in Malabo on Friday. NAN

Members of the law enforcement agencies and participants at a summit on partnership between Formal and Informal Policing Groups on Policing Human Rights in Abak, Akwa Ibom on Friday. NAN

President, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel (l), presenting the Union's position paper on Local Government Autonomy to Representative of the Speaker, Adamawa House of Assembly, Mrs Wilbina Jackson in Yola on Friday (22/2/13). NAN

Council Members, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport at the 18th Investiture and Conferment of Chartered Fellowship in Lagos on Thursday. NAN

L-R: Members of the Centre for Human Security, Olusegun Obasanjo Library, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, Emeritus Prof. Oladipo Akinkugbe and former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, at a news conference on a book titled "The Obasanjo Legacy 1999-2007", in Abeokuta on Friday (22/2/ 13). NAN

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 9 — SUNDAY 10, FEBRUARY, 2013

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News

10 killed in Plateau fresh attackFrom Musa Pam, Jos A t least 10persons were reportedly killed in a mid night attack on Thursday at Kogom village of Vwang district, Jos South local

government area of Plateau state.

In the attack, eyewitness accounts said that several other persons sustained

various degrees of injuries when suspected Fulani herdsmen swooped on the community.A survivor of the incident, Habila Musa, told our Correspondent that the attackers were dressed in military uniform and that the operation lasted about an hour

during which the attackers deployed guns and machetes on the unsuspecting villagers.According to him, “it was at about 9 pm when I just finished eating my dinner when I heard sporadic gun shots behind my room. “At the

Gov. Umaru Tanko Al-MAkura of Nasarawa State assisted by Dep. Gov

S/Court orders fresh trial of Wabara, Abdullazeez, Osuji, They also contested the proof discretion judiciously and over N50 million bribe of evidence arguing it does not judicially.

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

T

he Supreme Court on Friday ordered an Abuja high court to try a former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, Senator Ibrahim Abdulazeez, and a former of Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, for alleged bribery offences committed in 2005 while in office.

The order came after the accused persons used an appeal against ‘leave granted for their trial’ by the Abuja High Court in 2005 to block their trial for eight years.

The Federal Government had slammed a 15-count criminal charge on them to which there were attached names and addresses of witnesses as well as three proofs of evidence from 21 witnesses.

Wabara, Abdulazeez and others are alleged to have demanded N50 million from Osuji , to secure the easy passage of the 2005 budgetary allocation of the Federal ministry of Education.On his part, Abdulazeez is alleged to have received a further sum of N5 million for facilitating the

deal.The accused pleading not guilty to the charges and applied through their counsel for the trial court to set aside the leave granted to the Federal Government on the ground that they were tried and convicted during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

establish any prima facie case against them.

But in the judgment delivered by Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, the apex court said that the proof of evidence, “discloses sufficient materials on the basis of which the trial court has exercised its

“On the whole, I hereby allow the meritorious appeal, set aside the judgment of the court below, restore the trial court’s decision and remit the case to that court for trial of the respondents to be conducted and concluded expeditiously.” he held.

time, my door was still open and I quickly moved out and raised alarm but we were helpless because the military checkpoints were closed.”

Habila who narrowly escaped the gun shots added that, “the attackers started shooting and before we could do anything, they have killed four of my younger ones and six others.”Reacting to the attack, Special Adviser to Governor Jonah Jang on Media and Publicity, Hon. Ayuba Pam, who was at the scene described the incident as barbaric and vowed that government do everything to ensure the return of enduring peace in the state.According to Pam, “at about 8 pm, I received a call from one of the operatives of Operation Rainbow informing me that there was an attack at kogom village“I got a report that four people were killed and later another report came in that 10 people were killed including children.

“We are very surprised that up to this moment that we thought peace has come, we are still experiencing killings.“Recently, the Gbong Gwom Jos together with the Emir of Wase went on peace tour in the four local government areas to strengthen peace but unfortunately, the killings are continuing.”District head of Vwang, Da Choji Balack, condemned the attack and called for immediate withdrawal of men of the Special Task Force (STF) in the state accusing them of complicity.Meanwhile, the commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Olivia Dazyem, has described domestic violence against children in the guise of house help as a major setback in the lives of children in the country.

Dazyem disclosed this during the first sitting of the 5th session of the Plateau state Children Parliament held at the Women Multi-Purpose Centre in Jos.She charged parents not to abuse the rights of children in the name of correcting them.

Zaki-Biam: Victims demand N41.8bn compensation from FG

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

V

ictims of the 2001 ZakiBiam massacre have asked the Federal Government to pay the N41.8 billion which a Federal High Court awarded them six years ago.Soldiers had during the invasion of Zaki-Biam in Benue state reportedly killed over 2,000 residents with several others wounded and property destroyed.The court awarded the N41.8 billion against the Federal Government as punishment for arbitrary deployment of armed soldiers against innocent and armless citizens who were either

brutally killed or inflicted with permanent injuries.

In a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, the victims asked the President to respect and obey the rule of law by ordering the payment of the judgment debt without any further delay.

In the letter dated February 20, 2013 and signed by their Counsel, Chief Sebastine Hon (SAN), the victims recalled that the N41.8 billion was awarded to them by Justice Lewis Alagoa in 2007 in the judgment in their suits where they demanded payment of N200 billion for the state assault against them.

The victims recalled that the government had initially appealed to the Court of Appeal but later through its team of lawyers applied to settle the matter out of

court.They however regretted that six years after the out-of-court settlement proposal, the government has not made any tangible moves to meet its own part of the settlement agreement.

According to the letter, “your Excellency, this is more than 12 years since innocent lives were mowed down without provocation or aggression by Nigerian soldiers and this is almost six years since an important court like the Federal High Court ordered the Federal Government to pay compensation to the victims of that unprovoked assault.

“However, no effort has been made to assuage the feelings of those victims of crass illegality; and there seems to be no such remedy in the near future except if you intervene as a matter of urgency.

“It is in the light of the above that we crave your esteemed and highly valuable intervention as the father of the nation, by ordering all the necessary departments of the Federal Government to immediately comply with the terms of the judgment of Allagoa.

“Such a step, Your Excellency, will reassure our clients and the larger Tiv interest they directly or indirectly represent, that they are still Nigerians.” In his judgment, Justice Alagoa had also held that the invasion by soldiers was unprovoked illegal, brazen, arbitrary and unlawful because there was no outbreak of war or imminence of war in the areas when the soldiers were moved out for the killing, maiming and destructions.

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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

My thoughts With Ayodele Samuel 08074420617 (SMS only)

News

A toast to NYSC @ 40

4

0 years ago, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was designed and launched to forge national unity amongst Nigerians. A post civil war era invention; NYSC scheme remains the salt every Nigerian graduate must taste irrespective of culture and tradition.

Close to the time NYSC will be celebrating its 40 years of existence, Brigadier General Nnamdi Okore-Affia was appointed Director General. It was the period, when the scheme was almost brought to its knees, and most criticized due to the security challenges facing the country, which also threatened the core objectives of its establishment.

I remember my meeting with Okore-Affia, at a not too good range during his visit to Taraba state at the Batch C' 2011 orientation camp under the then State Coordinator, Hajiya Zainab Isah where he spoke passionately about the scheme at 40 and how the youths can unite the country.

Going by its record, am convinced that NYSC programme is an ideal innovation by its founding fathers because it has played countless roles in developing our communities.

In the last 40 years, millions of corps members community development projects have benefitted the Nigerian rural communities with hundreds of schools, roads, markets, public toilets, hospitals among others being built by corps members for host communities.

The sweet experience of national service cannot be overemphasized. The scheme has integrated millions of Nigerian youths from south to north, east to west, promoting inter-ethnic marriages and other ties. The service year connotes a full year of selfless service and self reliance though, dragging youths from their home zones to completely new terrains and cultures with only stipends for sustenance; yet most graduating students (as I did) looked forward to the programme with glee and pride, not necessarily because it was mandatory and a primary prerequisite for securing any government appointment as a graduate, but because the experience was most rewarding to the individual and the country at large. It never mattered so much where one was posted and corps members were treated with dignity by host communities and organizations. All these still characterize the NYSC in the last four decades.

Yes! the NYSC has many issues with the public, but as an Ex corps members the relevance of the scheme far outweighed its faults hinged on its neck. For a country with diverse peoples and cultures where the state cannot guarantee safety and security, Okore-Affia has put it on his priority list to protect the lives of the youth population instead of exposing them to undue and inexplicable risks.

The establishment of a Distress Call Center (DCC) an ITbased system and innovation that seeks to put the Corps and security personnel on alert concerning distressed corps members by the Director General is to enhance corps members' security and easy communication between them and the officials of the scheme when in distress, and this had saved many lives of corps members and put the 40 years old scheme on track.

The center was commissioned in less than six months that Okore-Affia took over mantle of leadership. The issue of tackling post NYSC unemployment crisis is being handled through the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development in the Orientation Course contents for corps members; beginning from batch "A" 2012, this change in the contents was necessitated by recent developments in the country which were not envisaged by the founding fathers of the scheme 40 years ago. "Such challenges included serious post-service unemployment and over-crowding of the orientation time-table with activities that were not very beneficial to the corps members among others".

This training has yielded results, thousands of Corps Members who passed out last week, are now ready to put their skills into creating jobs in a society where more than 50 million youths are jobless.

But let us face the reality, NYSC officials need to be more patriotic in the posting and deployment process, 'concessionary posting' should be done based on merit, facts and not the 'pay as you come' style that has negated the Yakubu Gowon House, reducing it to a corrupt business center where very influential parents of graduating students lobby and pay huge chunks of money in order to be posted to choice areas, apart from leading to overcrowding of certain areas, it is killing the patriotic spirit of the scheme.

JTF kills 15 insurgents in Maiduguri *As residents flee, banks, businesses close shops From Mustaphha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri

A

t least 15 suspected insurgents were killed on Thursday night in a shootout between unidentified gun men and operatives of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.

Reports said that trouble started when insurgents, armed with assault rifles and explosives, came out in large numbers and attacked the Ibrahim Taiwo Police Divisional Headquarters, along Baga road.

It was gathered that the gun duel which started at about

10.30 pm lasted for over five hours and causing panic among residents following horrifying sounds of gunshots and multiple explosions.

The attack was however said to have been repelled by a combined team of policemen and soldiers stationed at the entrance of police station.

A number of the attackers who were said to have escaped with gunshot injuries, had reportedly launched the assault at the police station in order to free their colleagues being detained there.

Our correspondent reports that the incident disrupted socio-economic activities in the city yesterday as banks,

markets, schools and shops remained closed.

Eyewitnesses said that several houses suspected to be the hide-outs of the militants in the neighboring Ummarari and Jajeri wards were set ablaze by the rampaging soldiers.

The latest incident came barely eight hours after a similar attack incident in which a suspected suicide bomber detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) targeted at a JTF patrol vehicle, along Gamborou road in Maiduguri metropolis, killing three persons and leaving over 100 shops and houses burnt down.

Jonathan hosts Brazillian President today

By Our Correspondent

P

r e s i d e n t Goodluck Jonathan will receive President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil today in Abuja and hold talks with her on the further expansion of trade and economic relations between Nigeria and Brazil.

President Rousseff's official visit to Nigeria is in furtherance of efforts to boost economic and developmental cooperation between Nigeria and Brazil, which were initiated during President Jonathan's

visit to Rio de Janeiro last year.

At talks with the Brazilian President during the visit in June, 2012, President Jonathan had called for increased Brazilian support to Nigeria for the development of mechanized agriculture, power generation and other sectors in which Brazilians are globally acknowledged experts.

President Rousseff had, while accepting President Jonathan's invitation to visit Nigeria, assured him that Brazil, currently the world's sixth largest economy, would

be glad to deploy the skills and expertise which its people have acquired in many fields, including engineering, construction, technology, public infrastructure, hydropower generation and largescale mechanized agriculture, to support economic growth and development in Nigeria.

According to Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati "A new Memorandum of Understanding between both countries will be signed after talks between the two leaders and their delegations in Abuja today.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 7

Interview Jonathan has failed the nation —Rev. Adegbolagun Rev. Solomon Adegbolagun a cleric, community leader and President of Centre for Righteous Living CRL, a non-governmental organization recently hosted top Christian Leaders, government representatives and newsmen in Lagos where he insisted that President Good luck Jonathan must be more active on his fight against corruption because he has failed the nation. Our Lagos Correspondent, Ayodele Samuel was there.

Quality Leadership Rev. Adegbolagun has said there is a need for politicians to prepare and get requisite training to practice politics and democracy in Nigeria ahead of the next several elections.

He reasoned that since politics has been seen as a career of some people to manage the affairs of others, the business should not be placed in the hands of opportunists but committed and serious-minded people, he charged the Church to be at the fore front as the vanguard of such leadership training.

According to him, the current crop of politicians doesn't have the required training because Churches have not been able to train leaders who can face the challenge of governance.

"If you look at other professions except you trained you cannot practice. In Nigerian politics anybody just comes and he becomes the leader without a full preparation for the challenges of

leadership.

"If anybody wants to succeed in government he needs to have the thorough knowledge and teachings about governance and what leadership entails. Even in the scripture leaders were prepared and trained. That was how Daniel got into governance, but in the Church today there is no leadership training, there is no Sunday school for leaders, and we need to have them. We need to do the same in Nigeria if this country should survive."

Centenary Celebration On the Nigeria's Centenary Celebration, Rev. Adegbolagun advised the Federal Government to have more emphasis on things that could unite and stabilize the people of Nigeria.

"The Celebration is welcomed because this is against the backdrop of the prediction that the nation would not stay together for this long."

He then called on the government to allow Nigerians to

Rev. Solomon Adegbolagun express themselves through sovereign National Conference as it had been suggested in some quarters, asking "why is it that we cannot worship in our own way in the same Country and why are some Churches are yet to have Certificates of Occupancy in some states in spite of all efforts made towards that direction. So if we are practicing federalism or unitary government, let us come together and discuss it."

Jonathan's Presidency President Jonathan must

sustain the little improvement in power generation to finish up with National Power Project he had started.

"Let him do all he can and ensure there is power for all Nigerians. If he can do this many of his mistakes will be overlooked.

He also called on President Jonathan to work seriously on youth empowerment, in view of the rate at which Nigerian youths are coming out of school without job, emphasizing that it is dangerous for the nation. He also

called on the federal government to encourage the states to do likewise.

Rev. Adegbolagun, who believed President Jonathan was doing hisbest, however noted that the President had failed the nation in where he was supposed to stand strong against some situations, citing allegation against the Federal Capital Territory which budgeted to spend 4 billion naira on First Lady's Mission House when majority of Nigerians were dying of hunger.

Adegbolagun also called President Jonathan to be more active on his fight against corruption.

"The government ought to have spoken out against corruption in the land, up till now, the President has not dismissed anybody in government for corruption, many of them still hold on despite criticisms and well publicized allegations."

Adegbolagun therefore charges all political and religious leaders across the nation to begin to groom and develop others as disciples who could be in charge after them.

"The time has come to start to make disciples who will latter go and make disciples of others. In other professions you can't practice if you are not trained, in the Church today, there is the need for leadership training in all walks of life,"he emphasized.

Foreign investors will bridge gaps in emerging economies —Investor Mr. Idy Ekong, is the Director, GTC Energy Ltd, an international firm specialized in providing comprehensive, integrated solution to energy industries in emerging economies. In this interview with Stanley Onyekwere, he talks about the prospect of foreign investment in Nigeria's economy especially in oil and gas sector.

Excerpts.

Tell us about GTC Energy?

GTC Energy is a capacity development firm that is channeled towards bringing positive solutions to the oil and gas sector. We offer and deliver training in a variety of format with focused programmes that helps in meeting organization's needs. We also take care in selecting high quality management trainers for efficient service, facilities and service standard. More so we focus our developmental strategies into these three categories: Training, Consulting and Commissioning of new oil and gas sector.

Why the choice of Nigeria?

Nigeria been the largest oil

producing country in Africa and the sixth in the world, we deem it necessary to contribute meaningfully in making sure that this sector of the economy grow more than what are seeing today. We will incorporate our expertise knowledge and that of our counterpart in Nigeria to see that power, oil and gas sector is equated with the foreign countries. All these and many more prompted us to develop our interest in Nigeria.

What can you say about the Nigerian business terrain?

Demographically Nigeria is an interesting country with different ethnic groups and

religious groups. For me this is a blessing to GTC Energy and Nigeria respectively. We are aware that Nigerian economy comprises of the public and private sector which GTC cuts across. And having worked for the country for ten (10) years, we are familiar with the requirement of the country.

Although our primary focus is on oil and gas, which comprises of the upstream and downstream, it also focuses on both the public and the private non-sector, that play an important role in the nation's economy. Coincidentally, having stayed in the country for longer period of time, we observed that the energy sector in Nigeria has not come up to standard when compared to what is obtainable overseas. As a result of this, the company is seeking to partner with the Nigerian Government to see that the power sector of the economy would be ranked the same with that of her foreign counterparts, thereby,

Mr. Idy Ekong encouraging foreign investors to invest in the country. And this may go a long way in ameliorating the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. In fact, we may not be able to achieve this loadable project without the assistance of some private and

public companies in Nigeria. This is why our target is basically the private and the public sector.

Although our first target is the public sector which we believe that when this innovation is welcome by the public, the private sector will abide by it.

PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Personality Behold first student to wear eye glasses at Katsina College, Shettima of Ilorin From OlanrewajuLawal,Ilorin

D

espite being on his sick bed, AlhajiAbubakar Lai, the Shettima of Ilorin, famously known as Maitabarau had agreed to speak to Peoples Daily Weekend, a clear pointer to his undying penchant for the work of Journalism, of which he was a one-time Editor-in-Chief of a number of Publication companies in the North.

While the thoughtprovoking interview was going on, Peoples Daily Weekend observed the Octogenarian's repeated mention of either Nigeria or Barewa College, a memory that surely remained green on the mind of the Emir's of Ilorin loyalist chieftain.

No surprise that the Shettima of Ilorin easily recalled with nostalgia the memorable days of Barewa College, as his 232 number at the College was just the next number to Inuwa Wada, Magajingarin Kano's own which was 231 at the college.

He again recalled that one of his students was late Aliyu Mustpha, the Lamido of Adamawa.

The multi-lingual Maitabarau, even at over 90 years old, still believes he could travel across the country, meet his old friends, impact on young ones and still perform his role as Shettima to the Ilorin emirate council.

For him, the northern region is a home of peace, where education has no limit.

Shettima, a teacher and disciplinarian sees no difference between the boy and a girl child when it comes to training and learning. His strict rules and guide earned him "no nonsense father" among his wives and children.

Alhaji Abubakar Lai, Head master, editor and civil servant, was born at Elah along River Niger, a journey of about

Alhaji Abubakar Lai

Shettima of Ilorin, AlhajiAbubakar Lai two hours north of Pategi, Edu local government of Kwara state on 1st November, 1919.

He is popularly known in his country home as Alhaji Abubakar Ilorin while during his sojourn in Katsina, he was fondly called Maitabarau because he was mostly bespectacled.

In fact, as the story goes, he was the first student to wear eye glasses in Katsina College in 1933 as no student had ever used one since the school was established in 1922.

Lai attended Pategi Elementary School and the Ilorin Middle School before he proceeded to the old Katsina Higher College from 1933 to 1938 and then went to the University of London between 1954 and 1955 on a northern regional government scholarship.

He started his working career as a teacher in Yola Middle School in 1938. Later, he taught at the Ilorin Middle School in 1946 and Sokoto

Middle School in 1948 respectively before he became headmaster of Okesuna Senior Primary School in 1952 to 1954 after which he secured another scholarship to study in the United Kingdom.

On his return, he was appointed as senior visiting teacher for all schools by the Ilorin Native Authority from 1955 to 1958, from where he sought transfer of his service to the northern regional government ministry of education, to take charge of the literacy campaign programme in the then Kabba Province, now in Kogi state.

He was later transferred to the Ministry of Information where he headed the translation section in 1961, and then became Editor-inChief of all the then vernacular publications in the North.

In 1963 he was transferred again to the Federal Government Service as Chief Compliance Officer with the National Provident Fund,

Federal Ministry of Labour and reached the position of Acting Director in 1974, a position he held till 1975 when he retired at the age of 55.

The Shettima of Ilorin at one point also served in the Federal Ministry of Establishments, with the Udoji salary review commission and the Federal Ministry of Information as a contract Officer for a short period.

The Octogenarian also served at various Boards and Parastatals in Kwara State. He was at Kwara State Public Service Commission, Kwara State Schools Boards, Kwara State Scholarship Board. He also worked at the Public Complaints Commission of both Kwara and Sokoto States.

He was turbaned as Shettima of Ilorin in November 1979 by late Alhaji Sulu Gambari, the 9th Emir of Ilorin.

Besides, the former teacher was the first Chairman of Ilorin

Progressive Union between 1946 and 1948. He is also a linguist due to his travels across the World, and speaks Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Fulfude, Arabic and English fluently.

Shettima, according to his profile, could greet in Ebira, Kanuri and Koto, Igala, Itsekiri, Swahili, French, German, Dutch, Malay, Japanese, Pakistian, Busanci (Bokobari).

He was awarded with the National Award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) for more than five decades of dedicated Public Service as teacher, translator and administrator in various parts of Northern Nigeria.

His first wife, Alhaji Oyeladun Lai, daughter of late 10th Emir, Alhaji Abubakar Baba-Agba described her husband as hardworking man and dedicated to children's life.

Princess Oyeladun who married Shettima at her tender age said they met during their secondary school days and started dating until the relationship culminated in marriage.

She recalled that, her salary was N2, 500 when she retired stressing that she has been under Shettima's roof and she gives glory to the Almighty Allah for this.

The Second wife, Hajia Arafatu Lai, who married Shettima at the age of 20 years, and has six children, noted that her husband, apart from being angry when provoked, he is a man every woman would love to have as husband. She said that his affection for education, children's discipline and protection of family members and friends makes him stand unique among his peers.

While speaking on behalf of the children, Shettima's first daughter, Hajia Fatimoh Abdul described her father as intelligent, good father whom every children would be proud.

Former Head of State, President Olusegun Obasanjo with AlhajiAbubakar Lai

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 9

Cover

Ghost workers:

Nigeria's unending nightmare?

By Soji Oyin Matthew Aramude, Suleiman Idris & Illiya Garba

I

n 2011, the country witnessed quite a number of publications on ghost workers in the Nigerian public sector. Some of these ghost workers had "served" long enough to become pensioners according to a point of view.

Many analyses in various quarters also revealed amazing figures which portrayed the Nigerian public sector as a haven for phantom workers.

There were allegations that many rural local government secretariats are ghost towns except at the end of the month when salaries are due

for payment. Even when workers come to work, they stand under trees to chat and while away their time or conduct other businesses. With Local Government Chairmen presiding over their constituencies by proxy, claims abound that "workers" travel from as far as Lagos to Kebbi (a thousand mile round-trip) to pick up their pay cheques.

In 2003, the Federal Ministry of Defence discovered 24, 000 forged names on its payroll.

In that same year, a personnel screening exercise revealed that there was a difference of 40,000 names in the government's official records. In states like Niger, Lagos, Bauchi, and

Zamfara, the number of discovered ghost workers ranged from 608 to 20,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. The reported case of a month old infant on the government payroll, earning about N15, 000. a month shows the ingenuity with which fraudsters manage to exploit the system.

Apparently, the issue of ghost workers is an additional financial burden on Nigeria's fiscal budget. These unreal workers cost the Nigerian government some N84billion annually. In order to cut the wastage, the federal and some state governments had embarked on an auditing exercise of the civil service, in some

cases, collecting biometric data to identify existing ghost workers and to deter potential ones. This is a plausible effort and has yielded some result. However, it is not enough in itself.

In January 2012, it was reported that 2,000 more ghost workers were discovered in Zamfara State, many of them were housewives and underage children, suggesting that there are socio-economic factors sustaining the prevalent existence of ghost workers in Nigeria.

In 2012, the Ogun State Government discovered an unusual ghost worker in its workforce. A man, whose mother, a primary Contd on Page 10

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 10

Cover

Nigeria's unending nightmare?

Some of their placards read: "NIMC DG is deceiving Nigerians, NIMC DG must go, NIMC DG is a thief, barawo, No more tomorrow, Onyemenam enemy of progress."

All efforts to calm the staff down by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Asokoro, Ahmed Musa, and other National Assembly security and administrative staff were resisted.

"We are all aware that the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, revealed at the Council Meeting that over N100 billion has been saved through the exercise from 153,019 workers that have been audited so far by system.

This was at the end of last month. The sad incident of ghost workers is usually sustained by a chain of syndicates and cabals who feed on inflating the actual number of workers while fleecing the nation of tons of billions of naira annually," he said.

Ahmed said the whole incident left a barrage of questions unanswered and issues unresolved, hence the need for the House to investigate it.

The motion was adopted without debates and the adhoc committee is expected to submit a report on its findings to the House within two

President Goodluck Jonathan Contd from Page 9 school teacher in the State, died over eight months, was collecting his mother's salary from the state government, according to the state governor, Ibikunle Amosun.

The knotty issue of ghost workers has been a primordial problem dating as far back as the beginning of mankind.

Though it cannot be safely said that the issue of ghost workers is non-existent in developed climes but the gravity of what is called ghost is felt more in developing countries and one of the reasons for the development may not be unconnected with the attitude of the ruling class who are best described as clueless and bereft of vision for the nations they lead.

From South Africa to Egypt, it is the same story and today, you hear reports or stories of two million ghost workers in Zimbabwe and the next day, 7,000 ghost workers are discovered in Gambia.

For Nigeria, the Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, revealed recently that after auditing 153,019 workers on the Federal Government's payroll, 45,000 of them turned out to be ghost workers.

Briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting, Ngama said the discovery of the ghost workers had resulted in the reduction of the wage bill by about N100 billion.

The ghost workers were discovered in 215 ministries, departments and agencies under the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). The meeting was devoted to the performance report of the ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs in 2012.

Ngama explained that the IPPIS was introduced to enhance efficiency in personnel cost, planning and budgeting based on actual verifiable number and not estimates. He said the government had so far undertaken staff audit in 215 MDAs and audited 153,019 staff as at January 2013.

According to him, "we are doing a lot to reduce recurrent expenditure by making salary administration very efficient and we are employing technology in doing that. We have introduced the IPPIS through which we are paying the salaries of Federal Government employees and agencies centrally.

"And, because we have the detailed biometric of every staff, we can weed out ghost workers. What we have done so far, we have covered 215 MDAs and we have discovered

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala 45,000 ghost workers and that has reduced the total bill by about N100 billion.''

He said that government had also established the Treasury Single Account as a unified structure of government bank account that gives a consolidated view of the cash position.

He said, "92 MDAs are currently on TSA, 97 Abuja-based MDAs will be added by March 2013.

The Ministry is tasked with efficient microeconomic management, mobilization of fund for real sector development and introduction of structural reforms that will enhance creation of jobs."

The minister also said that the Ministry of Finance, for the first time, broke the jinx surrounding late preparation of budget as the 2013 budget was presented at a record time, in September, 2012, noting however that grey areas hindering the signing of the budget by the President would soon be resolved.

Apparently shocked by the revelation, the House of Representatives set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the incident of ghost workers in the Federal Civil Service.

The investigation which came on the heels of a recent report by the executive that it discovered some 45,000 ghost workers in its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and recovered a whopping N100 billion.

In a resolution that followed a motion of urgent public importance, the lawmakers want the ad hoc committee to determine the exact amount of monies lost; the exact figures of monies saved or recovered and determine what the monies were used for by the Executive.

Sponsor of the motion, Hon. Idris Ahmed (ACN/Plateau) said that given the fact that one of the constitutional duties of the House was ensuring prudent management of the nation's resources, it was incumbent on the Legislature to review the report presented by the Executive.

According to Section 88 (2) of the 1999 Constitution provides that, "The power conferred on the National Assembly are exercisable only for the purpose of enabling it to expose corruption, inefficiency, waste in the execution and administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement and administration of funds appropriated by it." Ahmed acknowledged that the IPPIS was introduced to enhance efficiency in personnel cost planning and budgeting but observed that under the policy, personnel cost was supposedly based on actual verified number of staff and not estimates.

Nigerians were shocked by what was

Head of Service, Alhaji Abubakar Sali revealed prompting some protesters who thronged the National Assembly and barricaded its entrance.

Workers who resumed work early could neither drive to designated parks nor trek to their offices as the over 4,600 sacked staff of the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) blocked the main gate.

Few policemen on duty watched helplessly as the aggrieved protesters who had carried out similar demonstrations in the past stormed the city from the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

National Chairman of the disengaged staff of NIMC, Ushe Fidelis, said they had vowed to sustain the action. He said they would only leave if the Senate President, David Mark, explained to them why the Director General of NIMC planned to recruit 18,600 new staff after sacking 4,600 of the former staff of the commission. Fidelis lamented a situation where several investigative inquiries into the imbroglio in both chambers of the National Assembly failed to yield results.

It was learnt that most of the protesters kept vigil to ensure their early arrival at the National Assembly.

Most of the male protesters carried placards while their female counterparts held green leaves. All vehicular movements were at a standstill as staff parked their cars far away thereby blocking the entire stretch of road leading into the complex from the National Arcade.

weeks.

In Niger state, no fewer than 4,096 suspected ghost workers have been discovered on the pay roll of the State Government.

The shocking number of ghost workers within the state civil service does not represent the genuine 32,171,000 civil servants cleared by the various professional staff auditors commissioned by the state government since its inception in 2007.

Peoples Daily Weekend investigation revealed that the state government is presently spending about N2.2 billion as salaries for its civil servants while the sum of N800 million is been expended on political office holders including the governor, monthly.

It was gathered that the latest company commissioned by the state government, Mariavia Limited was given the mandate to re-verify the Niger State civil servant biometric data capture, biometric identification/ payment card and payroll management system projects.

Several attempts to interview the former Head of service, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane on the issue of ghost workers, before the swearing-in of the new one, Barr. Aminu Yusuf was fruitless.

However, a source hinted that the officials of Mariavia were in a better position to comment on it, in view of the recent re-shufflement to give more details on the exercise of which several Contd on Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

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Cover

Nigeria's unending nightmare?

Contd from Page 10 calls on the mobile phone of one Kareem A.T, said to be the project manager proved abortive as a lady, who picked the calls insisted that that they were in Lagos as at the time of filling this report.

In Kano State, government had discovered about 8, 000 ghost workers after a biometric data exercise in its civil service.

The state commissioner for Information, Dr. Umar Jibril, who disclosed this to newsmen after the weekly executive council meeting at Government House, Kano, said the council had received an interim report of biometric data exercise in respect of the state and local government staff, and that it revealed over 8,000 ghost workers.

Dr. Faruq said that the state government had inherited over 43,000 workers from the former government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, and that from the report, only 34, 000 were cleared by the committee that conducted the exercise.

The Kano State government then set machinery in motion to prosecute 135 civil servants discovered for irregularities following the Human Resource and Bio-metric data excercise meant to capture workers in both states and local government services.

The state government had engaged the services of Fidelity and Unity Banks to ascertain discrepancies in the actual number of staff strength on the pay-roll of the government.

The Head of Service in the state, Alhaji Umar Shehu Minjibir, had said during the exercise, that 24 cases of under-aged workers and 16 over-aged workers were identified by the consultants at the local government level while it also discovered duplication of staff numbers involving over 100 staff, with two cases of impersonation which were also recorded during the exercise.

"The Kwankwaso administration had reportedly underscored the need to meet up with the cutting-edge technologies and the desire to automate human resource records of the state public service with a view to integrating the data with the payroll system so as to streamline the actual staff strength as well

NSGF Chairman, Gov Babangida Aliyu

NGF Chairman, Gov Rotimi Amaechi

Gov. Ibikunle Amosun

Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

as facilitate prompt payment of workers' salary.

The Anambra state government in 2009 introduced a centralized automated salary payment system for its workforce. The scheme,

which was provided by the United Bank for Africa (UBA), was to help provide accurate data base for all aspects of personnel, financial planning and administration. Apart from

eliminating delays in remitting salaries of workers, it was also meant to remove fraudulent activities in the payment of salaries.

“Laid down rules are not followed in recruitment�

Mr. Benjamin Okewu, is the President, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria, (ATSSSAN), in an interview with Peoples Daily Weekend, he said the revelation of federal government that it had discovered 45,000 ghost workers, is its claims, thus the onus lies on it to prove them, in this interview with Sulaiman Idris.

W

h a t is your union's reaction to the revelation that N100 billion is being spent by the Federal Government on 45, 000 ghost workers so far discovered in the MDAs? It is the Federal Government's claims, therefore the onus lies on it to defend and prove those claims. For us in aviation, I do not totally agree that we have ghost workers, and also, l am not saying it is not possible because of the ways and manners appointment were done in the industry in the last one year, there is that tendency that we have ghost workers in the federal civil service.

Do you think government needs to change existing policies in order to check such incidents?

Government has enough policies in place to guard against the occurrence of

this kind of situation but unfortunately where people are given opportunities to serve in leadership positions, they frustrate these policies and at the end you see that these policies are jettisoned. When you do not follow the laid down guidelines by advertising those vacancies you want to fill, inviting the appropriate people for the interviews and at the end pick the best, there is tendency for you to have ghost workers because if for instance, I am in a ministry and l am given directive by the Minister saying write letters for these people, the tendency is for me to also say ok, l also have people looking for jobs, l will put their names and as it continues to go down like that, more names will continue to fill the list and before you know it, ghost workers are everywhere.

In your opinion, has the political dispensation of the last 12 years in

Mr. Benjamin Okewu anyway encouraged rising cases of ghost workers in the civil service?

Exactly, and that is what we call political interference which of course is the bane of why ghost workers exist in Nigeria.

Some people insert the names of people into

the employment lists and get the salaries for them, maybe their relations. These people do no t come to work but because they feel that they are in position, they can use their influence to do that, the people remain on the pay roll without actually showing up physically to do the jobs and they collect salaries and in the process, government expenditure is over bloated and you have ghost workers everywhere.

What steps do you suggest that government can take to curb the menace?

The step we must take is that we must follow the laid down processes for recruitment. Government must do verifications from time to time; the exercise is for you to physically see those people. The tendency is for them to catch those who are ghost workers and there are people who work in multiple places because of their political connection. Since it is not mandatory for them to physically present themselves where they claim to be working every day, they manipulate the process and they just go on undetected and because we do not have biometric data system that captures biometric of everybody. When we have that, it will detect any dubious duplication in the system.

PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Feature Nasarawa: Almakura's solution to youth restiveness

By Ali Abare Abubakar

A

ccording to a recent United Nations report on unemployment in Nigeria, there has been steady increase in the rate of unemployment in the last two years from 21.1 percent in 2010 to 23.9 percent in 2012.

The report shows that about one in four Nigerians are currently unemployed. Nigeria also has one of the worst youth unemployment rates in sub-Saharan Africa, at 37.7 per cent - which means two in five Nigerian youth are unemployed. These damning verdicts are contained in a 291page publication called 'The African Economic Outlook 2012' jointly published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA; the United Nations Development Population, UNDP; the African Development Bank Group; and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

In Nasarawa state, the situation is not much different from what obtains nationally, with most youth left to wallow in depravity and want, easy tools in the hands of selfish individuals seeking political relevance. The situation is even more pathetic considering that the state lacks industrial base for the creation of employment, with almost every employable person depending on government job, which is not forthcoming simply because government does not have the resources to provide job for all.

This has left various administrations in the state to device means of giving the youth a sense of belonging by initiating schemes aimed at empowering them through mostly skills acquisition, with the past administration of former governor Aliyu Akwe Doma establishing the Nasarawa State Vocational and Relevant Technology Board, with a view to impacting various skills on the youth towards self employment, with the agency having four centres across the state.

In line with the initiative of the Doma administration, over

Governor Al-makura 2000 youth from across the state were absorbed into the board's training centres to be taught various skills ranging from welding and fabrication, electrical and electronics, building technology, wood work and carpentry, masonry among others, with the trainees at the end of their various courses expected to benefit more in the form of government empowering them with capital to set up individual businesses and to become employers of labour.

Somewhere along the line however, this laudable objective was abandoned for other less wholesome endeavours, with the 2000 youth already far into the training left to their fate, with many of the beneficiaries unable to settle down having being dislocated from their homes under the delusion that government would assist them in setting up individual businesses.

With the inception of the Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura administration, and his

“

In Nasarawa state, the situation is not much different from what obtains nationally, with most youth left to wallow in depravity and want, easy tools in the hands of selfish individuals seeking political relevance.

"New Deal for Nasarawa State", youth who were the vanguard of the heroic struggles that brought him to power, formed a large part of his administration, with many of them empowered either as commissioners or local government and development are administrators, with yet more given other appointments in a bid to integrate the youth into governance and thereby give them a sense of belonging.

Right from the onset, during his first broadcast to the people of the state, Governor Almakura rightly acknowledged that the youth in the state have been abandoned by previous administrations and that he would not toe the line of previous administrations at empowering the youth by doling out stipends to them. He said as a populists government that is responsive to the needs of the people, his administration is abreast of these happenings and that his government is set to rehabilitate youths across the state, but like it is done in the past, for instance, the doling out of stipends which only serve to further impoverish the beneficiaries who are made to be dependent on such largess.

Al-makura disclosed that his administration will seek to identify individual interests among youths, with a view to horning such potentials after which government will provide financial assistance that could lead to setting up small scale business that can actually empower its beneficiaries.

Only recently, the governor announced a bold plan to recruit 30 youths from each of the 147 electoral wards of the state; as traffic warders, to control the movement of vehicles along

congested routes in the state, mostly in metropolitan area, as well as along the Karu axis; sanitary inspectors and community health workers, to assist in keeping the environment clean.

As much as such initiative allows for the creation of job opportunities for the youth, however, a novel step that has been taken towards youth empowerment in the state, is the decision of the Al-makura administration, through the Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB), to award a N1.2 bn direct labour initiative for the Relevant Technology Board to construct wooden lockers and seats for primary schools across the state.

This gesture is quite unlike what obtained in the past when such juicy contracts are mostly awarded to political cronies who may end up diverting the funds or ultimately producing substandard materials.

Explaining further, Chairman of NSUBEB, Malam Abdulkarim Muhammad Abdullahi, told our correspondent that the initiative was part of the CPC administration's responsibility in making sure that on the youth empowerment programme, the institutional capacity that helps promote development, is fully in place. He described the initiative as part of the positive change programmes of Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura.

Malam Abdulkarim maintained that what has previously undermined the development of the state was that "funds are not judiciously utilised or deployed to institutions, to the constituencies that deserves

such interventions."

He observed that the state Relevant Technology has established an envious record on skills acquisition, with its products in furniture making, automobile repairs, etc ranking among the best in the state.

The NSUBEB Chairman added that what the governor has decided to do was to use the facilities available to the state government and assign a parastatal of the state government to use its trainees to produce the products instead of going to the open market where substandard things are produced, which he said is the reason why public schools in the state hardly get quality furniture.

He said the idea behind the decision to engage the services of the Relevant Technology is to enhance capacity, part of the Nasarawa state Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) and to promote self reliance, by giving the youth hope to develop their talents, specialise in all the areas of human endeavour that will make the state depend on its resources rather than going out just like other states across the country.

On his part, General Manager of the Nasarawa State Vocational and Relevant Technology Board, Engineer Ibrahim Adamu, explained that the governor gave the go ahead for the board to produce the schools' furniture because "we have sets of trainees, about 2000 of them that are due for graduation and the governor in his wisdom, saw it necessary to give us this direct labour so that we can generate money to actually empower these youth."

He said it is only proper that after learning various skills, the trainees are empowered to establish their individual workshops for them to showcase their potentials.

Engr. Adamu lamented that the previous administration ordered the youths to leave the premises when it became clear that funds to set them up in business was not available but that on his inauguration, Governor Al-makura argued that it was not proper to train an individual and then let such a person go back to the street without some form of assistance.

He stated that in line with the state Youth Empowerment Scheme, the governor thought it wise to empower the youths properly by assisting them in setting up their businesses.

When our correspondent visited the premises of the board in Lafia, enthusiastic trainees were busy with the work at hand, as well as stack of finished school furniture awaiting clearing. One of the trainees, Adigidzi Moses, expressed gratitude over the gesture by the government, as according to him, "we have waited for long to be empowered like this and now I can't wait to start my own business."

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 15

Special Report Dr. Mudi Spikin’s treatise (Wassiya) Below is Spikin’s treatise, (like a Will), giving account of how his corpse should be treated, after his death. In the poem he invokes on Allah to grant him the opportunity to die in his own house and called on his family to bury him immediately.

He meticulously enjoined his family and relatives to converge in his house whether it’s day or in the night, on hearing the news of his death and urged them to waste no time in proceeding to the grave yard after the prayer was said.

‘The Will’, Wasiya, then admonished that people should go back to their daily activities the moment he has been laid into his grave, warning that no one should cry about his death and that a week’s or a year’s commemoration is not needed.

His songs, also, are on the lessons of life.

Kanawas at his burial

A few of Mudi's Literary Hausa poetry works Poem Ta'ala ina rokonka ranar da zan cika Kasa in cika Allah cikin daki na Gaban duk iyali na da 'ya'ya da 'yan'uwa Allah ina rokon ka sai a gidana Idan na cika yan'uwa na gaya muku Da kun ji cikawata ku taru gidana Idan har da rana abin yazo ko cikin dare Batun jinkiri kar dai ya faru wurina Idan anyi sallah an gama kar a dakata A dauka kawai hanyar zuwa kabarina Idan anka je da zuwa a sani ciki kawai Cikin hankali domin tuno lamarina Kasar kabarin kuma kar a ware daban-daban A turo gaba daya duk ta watsu a kaina Idan aka kare gini da an tashi an gama Ku koma wajen harkarku ya jama'ata

Batun sadakar Uku, ko Bakwai, ko ta Arba'in Kaza shekara wallahi babu ruwana Irin masu kukan nan da ihu da razana Don Allah na roke ku kar kuyi kaina Ina tausayin ku kwarai zuwa gun jana'iza Kaza wahalar tafiya hakan kabarina Kaza wahalar wanka da dauko ni don zuwa Cikin makara tafiya zuwa karshe na Hakika a rannan da da ikon da zan iya Ya sa tausayin a wajen dukan jama'ana Anan zan tsaya domin wasiyarmu ta tsaya Mudi Spikin ne uba ga Amina.

Song A ya jama'a ina tashin Ku dan ku rage yawan bacci Ayau na zo gareku da sha Wara don kara inganci Mu wo himma mu tashi tsaye Mu gyara kasa ta san yanci

Mu kawo shawara mai kyau Mu tashi mu yaki jahilci Rashin illimi ya sanya yau Kasar nan ke yawan baci Fa sai mun tsaya gyara Na sosai babu jahilci Sannan zamu san matsayi Mu tsere wa wulakanci Idan ba tattali a kasa Hakika dole ta baci Idan an zubda hakkin yan Adam domin wulakanci Idan masana kwarai an zub Da su domin rashin yanci Idan sharia ta zam ciniki Ana nunnuna bambanci Idan kuma masu aiki sun Zamo duk babu inganci Idan aiki ya zamto ba Ayi, sai an ciwo hanci Idan hairi a baki ake Fada sharri cikin zuci Idan da akwai yawan hassada Da bata mutum da iskanci Idan da akwai yawanta saki Na aure don wulakanci Idan ba tanadi wai duk Wata sai anyi angwanci Idan aure ya zam a kasa

Ana yi ne da jahilci Idan kayan biki aka mai Da su tamkar na dillanci Idan ga jahilai a kasa Na kin canji da shashanci Idan da zama na banza, ba Sana'a ai ta kakaci A sa fatala gaban goshi Da hula wai tsageranci Ana ta musu ana karta Ana zance na wawanci Idan kuma ga yawan zargi Na banza ga rashin yanci Idan wani dan'uwa wai yayi Samu ayi munafunci Idan sharri ya zo a iza Nufi dai ayi wulakanci Idan da akwai yawan camfi Da bori masu shashanci Idan da akwai yawan tsegun Guman banza na jahilci Idan a kasa ya zam an go Yi bayan masu lalaci Idan mai gaskiya ya zamo A kullum zai ga kaskanci Idan gata ya sanya wadan Su yin shirme da shashanci Idan aka maida wadansu kamar Ace bayi rashin yanci

Idan yan kasuwa suka zam Sana'a aita hainici Idan ga karuwai a kasa A kullum ai ta fasicci Idan da giya an ta Ru kullm nuna iskanci Idan ba tausayi a kasa Mutane na ta makirci Idan kuma har amana tai Kadan sai nuna ha'inci Idan har maluma suka bar Sani i zuwa fagen baci Idan bidia ta zam an gir Gina kuma babu sassauci Idan yaya suna sabon Mahaifa har da kaskanci Idan a kasa akwai wannan Hakika dole ta baci Fa sai in anyi aiki za Hiri ba nuna lalaci Sa'annan zamu san haske Mu tserewa wulakanci Abinda na farfadan nanYan 'Uwa da akwai muhimmanci Fa duk gyaran wadannan na Garemu cikin batun yanci Mu daina abinda bashi da kyau Mu daina biyewa jahilci.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Tourism

Ikogosi: Nature's gift to mankind I

n the heart of Ikogosi, a small, quiet town with rich, local customs, in the Western part of Ekiti State (Ekiti Tourism Corridor), lies a warm spring which has now catapulted Ikogosi-Ekiti to national and international limelight. What is mysterious about the Ikogosi Warm Spring is the fact that, flowing side by side the warm spring, is another spring, a cold one.

According to experts, it is a geological wonder to have such occurrence out of the same rock formation and this Ekiti flagship tourist destination is said to be the only one of its kind discovered anywhere in the world. The warm and cold springs of Ikogosi originate from a close proximity, come to a meeting point, and flow onward together with each spring retaining its thermal identity.

It represents uniqueness and is the first of such occurrence in the world.

The warm spring has a temperature of up to 70oC at the source and 37oC after meeting the cold spring. The meeting point of the warm and cold springs is a unique attraction to tourists.

The springs sprout out and flow with a constant temperature and volume up to 150 litres/seconds from morning till night, at all seasons, all-year round. The whole environment of the spring has been deliberately left un-tampered with, for ecotourism appeal while the source of the warm spring has been provided with a viewing structure for easy spotting by tourists. Strangely also, there is a tree and a palm growing from the same source at the meeting point area of the warm and cold springs. A wonderful work of Mother Nature!

Another unique quality of the Ikogosi Warm Spring is its acclaimed curative power. It is widely-believed to have some kind of therapeutic effect which relieves body aches and all sorts of ailments. A lot of tourists visiting the place take advantage of the large warm water swimming pool provided for this purpose and other recreational needs. It is also the home of the 5-star Gossy Brand Spring Water bottled by UAC of Nigeria.

There are a few legends surrounding the origin and discovery of the Warm Spring and have been passed down generations for centuries. One such myth says that the warm and cold springs were the two wives of a great hunter. One of his wives was said to be temperamental while the other was a quiet woman. One day, the two wives had a fight and after being rebuked by their husband, the temperamental wife changed to the warm spring while the quiet one turned to the cold spring.

Another legend has it that

a powerful hunter, while hunting for animals in the forest, first found the warm spring. After the discovery, he went to town with the story and the townspeople on learning about curative powers of the spring, started to worship the spring.

Whatever is the true situation remains to be found out as the story of the Ikogosi Warm Spring is told elsewhere and nothing might be compared to taking a trip to this serene place to see things for oneself.

Facilities: In order to give tourists and visitors a long-lasting experience, a well-landscaped 116-hectare resort is located around the warm spring at Ikogosi-Ekiti. The resort has one (1) Executive VIP chalet, three (3) VIP villas, twelve (12) western suites, seventy-five (75) standard rooms of different styles, themes and offerings and seven support staff quarters. All accommodation facilities are currently undergoing

redevelopment to turn the place to an international standard resort.

Other features include open green areas, brook walk lanes, waterways, relaxation spots,

external area beautification, gated exclusive areas, secure general areas, etc.

The State government now seeks highly-discerning local and international investors to

partner with, towards a choice destination providing quality services on a sustainable basis.

The Ikogosi Warm Spring is surely a location where the whole world seeks to go.

The spot where the warm and cold springs meet

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 17

Entreprenuer

Every family should have Moringa meal daily, says expert Hajiya Hassana Garba is a civil servant who specializes in processing Moringa (Zogale), and is also the proprietress of Hassamad General Services Limited, in this interview with our Niger state correspondent, Iliya Garba, she says every household should plant Moringa in the garden and include it in their daily meals.

T

ell us briefly the importance of Moringa leaf?

Moringa leaf is a very important plant. It is regarded as food and also have health benefits because of the high nutritive content that it has, it tendss to suppress ailments, ranging from diabetes, hypertension, cancer.

One good thing about it is that, it boosts the immune system of the body because of its high class nutrients.

Can you expatiate on this?

Yes! For the purpose of security I will not mention names, because a lot of people have testified to this, that, madam do you know what this Moringa has done for me?

Some people have even come to say it has increased their vision particularly, and equally neutralized the blood sugar level in their body.

You see particularly with the adults, its only in this part of the country, mostly African countries, that you will find a person eating a big bowl of eba or amala with a small quantity of leaf soup, in the Western world you discover that a plate of food is always shared into three, you have the carbohydrate on one side, protein, and vegetables. So Moringa lets everyone haven all these when you eat. If its planted at your backyard its easier to include it in your diet.

I want to also say that a tea spoon of dried Moringa powder contains seven times the nutritional value in an orange, and you can have four times

calcium in that same single tea spoon, the same thing you can have in a glass of milk, and four times vitamin "A" in a carrot, you know carrot contains vitamin "A" particularly carotene. So Moringa leaf contains so much vitamin "A" than in the carrot, as well as the percentage you can have in banana, it equally has a lot of iron.

However, according to India's traditional medicine history, it takes care of about 300 diseases, meaning that the leaf, stem, root, and seed are all medicinal.

How do you source for the leaf?

Though we have a lot of contact farmers, who have it or plant it as a fence garden, we have some major farmers that have the plantation. We have Moringa plantation around Kotagora area, as well as from our basic farmers like Alhaji Sani Bakiko who is one of our major suppliers in Minna here at Tungan-goro.

In the area of marketing, we are facing a lot of challenges because, for now we are yet to get a sophisticated machine to ease our processing method, but we are managing locally available fabricated machine which is however giving us some problems.

How about marketing the product?

Actually, the awareness is very low that is why we want to create more enlightenment. We have a market here in Minna at Saiko, directly opposite Texaco filling station, and we have another branch very close to

Garba with her Moringa products

masallachin juma'a, Central Mosque, that is, the Islamic medical centre.

How has government supported you in Moringa production?

Well, we are operating single handedly for now. However, we hope government will come in and support our farmers in production

of the leaf. We also want support from the government in the area of mechanization. We need production machines to enable us meet international standard so and we need linkages because Niger state has potentials, with comparative advantage more than any other state in Nigeria. It has fertile land and is an avenue to improve investment in agriculture and other sectors.

Have you met requirements of NAFDAC?

Hajiya Hassana Garba

We have gone as far as registering with NAFDAC, and it has made the first and second inspection. We are operating under hygienic condition.

What advice do you have for the general public on Moringa?

I will advice every family to have Moringa plant, planted in the garden at home, in the backyard because of its nutritional value, and make sure it is included in their meal daily.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 18

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

Let's share your love story.

Tips for successful online dating

Heart Matterz With A'isha Biola Raji E-mail: rajia39ishabiola@yahoo.com Phone: 08082071393 (Text only)

My sister proposed on my behalf, now she is not picking my calls Hello Aisha.

My name is Zeyam and I met this particular girl on Facebook, we became friends and we do communicate through phone.

She later got to know some of my family members through the same channel as my sister always speak with her on phone too.

She called me one day and said my sister has proposed to her on my behalf. I did not tell my sister to do that.

The girl said she would rather like me to propose to her myself. Now she doesn't pick my calls again. What should I do? I have not met her in person yet.

Re From what you have written, it seems you want to meet her first before taking a decision whether to propose or not, but your sister has acted faster by doing it for you.

All you need to do is try and make-up with your girlfriend first by sending her text messages. If she refuses to pick your calls, she

must surely read your text message, so send one to her. Be careful though; pick your words carefully so that she doesn't get angrier with you.

After you might have become friends again, you can then propose to go and visit her at home which will afford you the opportunity to see her, which will in turn inform your decision whether or not to propose marriage to her.

Reactions by our esteemed readers:

By Erin J. Shea

I

n 2000, Brenda Allison graduated from law school and moved to Chicago. There, she found a supportive group of friends, an apartment within walking distance of the city's hottest spots...and absolutely no time to date.

"I'm a lawyer, and it's a job that takes up a lot of time," she says. "I didn't know how I was going to meet someone, especially when with what little free time I had I wanted to spend it with my friends."

Heeding advice from friends living in New York City, Allison turned to the Internet. "There weren't a lot of people using the Internet to date back then," she says. "I had to go to Kinko's and scan in a picture of myself for my profile." Soon after that, she was on a date.

"I met this guy for drinks, and everything was going fine.

I have a tendency to mess with my hair when I get nervous, so I start running my hands through it. An hour or so into the date, he looks me straight

in the eyes and says: 'You have got to stop touching your hair because it's driving me crazy. I don't know if I'm going to be able to control myself!' I didn't know what to say to that, so I told him my friends were at the back of the bar, which they were. I never went out with him again."

For Allison, that night was the beginning of series of dating travails. Despite a few duds and near misses, her perseverance, plus an online connection seven years later that resulted in a marriage proposal, would eventually reaffirm her belief that online dating is an ideal way to make a real connection with another person.

"Meeting someone in a bar never quite worked out," she says. "The bar scene was always about 'Hey baby, you're hot' after a few drinks."

Though once considered the sole province of the nerdy and socially challenged, online dating has come a long way.

How people finding success in love online? According to experts,honesty, patience and

a well-thought-out profile are all anyone needs to find true love.

The profile: The key to successful dating online is a well-written user profile. A profile is the unique, customizable area on an online dating site that contains biographical information about yourself, as well as photographs and details about what you're looking for in a potential mate.

"A lot of people get really intimidated by the profile process," says Whitney Casey, relationship insider for Match.com. "But when you think about it, when you go out, you get only one chance to make a great first impression. With a profile, you get as many as you want."

Casey suggests new users break down their profile in to four parts, the picture, the headline, the username and the paragraph. Gather a group of friends to help you out, and go step-by-step. "Your friends are going to keep you honest," she says. "Plus, they'll make sure you use the best picture of yourself."

To be continued…

My name is Dantanimu, I want to pray that may Allah grant all your request. Continue to believe in God. Well-done.

Re - Thank you MallamTanimu, May your own request be granted too.

Hello A'isha, Just read your column on Relationship in Peoples Daily Weekend. Keep it up. From Abdulsalami, Kaduna. — Anonymous Re - Thank you so much Abdulsalam, how is Kaduna?

Remain peaceful.

Hi A'isha, I am seriously enjoying your Relationship column but you have to expand it please. May Allah reward you and Peoples Daily Weekend Amin. From Maharazu Kano.

Re - Thanks for your prayer Maharazu, we will see to it.

PAGE 19

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Beauty Tips

Useful tips for black neck R

a r e l y do you see women with very dark underarms and necks. The reasons for this range from acute skin discolouration, skin allergies and an overactive thyroid. A malfunctioning thyroid can give rise to patchy and pigmented skin on the surface of the neck.

Dark neck is also very common during pregnancy when women suffer from a skin condition called as melasma.

The discolouration can cause the woman to become self-conscious and she may shy away from wearing deep necks and sleeveless tops and blouses.

A black neck can be treated effectively in its earlier stages. Here are three useful tips for a black neck.

Homemade bleaching remedies Some simple homemade bleaching remedies can effectively help to minimize a black neck. Mix some lemon juice in a teaspoon of gram flour and rub this paste on your neck and face evenly.

Leave it on for 15 minutes and wash it off with cold water. The lemon juice acts like a bleaching agent and helps to reduce pigmentation.

Vinegar especially apple cider

vinegar helps to combat skin discolouration. Mix apple cider vinegar with coarse oatmeal and scrub your neck area gently with this mixture. This will help to reduce the dark patches on the neck.

Yoghurt is another good option for bleaching. Apply some thick and cold yoghurt on your neck region and wash off after some time. The yoghurt has a cooling affect and also reduces irritation.

Neck packs The use of neck packs can help to reduce black surface areas of the neck and give you a beautiful and glowing skin. These packs also help to prevent the damage seen on the neck by aging. Here are some neck packs that you can use to reduce a black neck.

Fuller's earth rack Make a paste of water and fuller's earth also called as multani mitti. Mix a teaspoon of rose water to this solution and apply this pack on your face. Wash off after 15 minutes. It will make your neck skin fair and smooth.

Fenugreek Pack Make a skin pack of fenugreek seeds,

besan and curd. Apply this pack on your face and neck and wash it off after some time.

Vitamin E Vitamin E is excellent for all skin related ailments and problems. Take a capsule of Vitamin E if you are suffering from a black neck. The doctor may prescribe these especially if you are suffering from a thyroid problem or a contact allergy.

The Vitamin E will prevent your skin from reacting. You can also get a rich

source of vitamin E by consuming a diet that is rich in almonds. Alternately, apply a paste of crushed almonds and milk on your neck for soft, smooth and supple skin.

Some women directly apply the capsule of Vitamin E on their skin. Break open the capsule and empty out its contents in a bowl. Add some water and apply this paste on your neck region. The paste may smell foul but you can wash it off after some time. Do not forget to moisturize your neck area.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 20

Learning Book Review

With Augustine Aminu 07038749120 julius2001_a@yahoo.com

How to determine a reading schedule D espite your best efforts, it's s o m e t i m e s difficult to stick with your plan to finish that list of books. Other projects get in the way.

You may find yourself overwhelmed by the size of the book you've chosen. You may just let the habit of reading slide or slip until you've forgotten much of the plot and/or characters; and, you feel that you might as well just start over. Here's a solution: Set up a reading schedule to get you through those books!

Here's how: 1 . Pick a list of books you'd like to read.

2 . Determine when you will start reading your first book.

3 . Select the order in which you'd like to read the books on your reading list.

4 . Decide how many pages you will read every day.

5 . If you've decided that you'll read 5 pages per day, count the number of pages in the book that you've selected to read first.

6 . Write the page span (1-5) down on paper next to your selected start date. It's also a great idea to the write your schedule up on the calendar, so you can track your reading progress by crossing off the date when you've finished your reading for that day.

7. C o n t i n u e through the book, tracking where each stopping point will be.

You may decide to mark the stopping points in your book with a post-it or pencil mark, so the reading will seem more manageable.

8 . As you page through the book, you may decide to alter your reading schedule (add or subtract pages for a particular day), so you'll stop and/or start on a new chapter or section of the book.

9 . Once you've determined the schedule for the first book, you can move on to the next book on your reading list. Follow the same process of paging through the book to determine your reading schedule. Don't forget to write the page numbers

bleary-eyed. In other words, if the book seems too overwhelming, stop reading for a bit. Take this time to organize your ideas about the book. Write down the questions that you have so far--about characters, the plot, the author, the setting, ideas, etc. If the concepts are still too difficult to grasp, sketch out yo u r i d e as--with images or colors. Or, try talking about it with a friend--to flush out what you are thinking (and feeling) about the work.

7 . Don't stop reading for too long. It can be tempting to put off finishing the book when the book seems too difficult, but don't give in to that temptation. If you put off continuing your reading, you'll forget what you've accomplished thus far.

down next to the appropriate date on a piece of paper and/or on your calendar.

1 0 .By structuring your reading schedule in this way, you should find it easier to get through those books on your reading list. You can also get your friends involved. Share your schedule with them, and encourage them to join you in your reading. It's great fun, you'll be able to discuss your reading experience with others! You could even turn this reading schedule into a book club...

Even if you have lots of experience in reading books, you will still come across books that are just difficult to get through.

You may find the reading slow because of the subject matter, the language, word usage, or the convoluted plot and character elements. When you are just attempting to get through the book, it may not really matter to you why the book is difficult.

You just want to finish the work, so you can move on to your next reading pick. Here are some tips, when a book is difficult to read.

1 . Find your reading spot--a place where you can be comfortable and read.

Under what conditions are you able to concentrate, study, and read most effectively? It may be easier for you to read at a desk, at a table in a quiet library, on the grass, by the lake, or in one of those cushy chairs at Starbucks.

Some readers can't concentrate when there's any noise around them, while others can read anywhere.

Reproduce those ideal conditions--particularly when you're reading a difficult book.

2 . Keep a dictionary with you as you read the book. Look up any words you don't understand.

Also, jot down literary references that are escaping you.

Are comparisons being made that are escaping your understanding?

Look those references up!

3 . Look at how the book is organized by reading through the table of contents and reading the introduction (which may give you some idea of what the book is about, and why it is important).

4 . Don't let the book discourage you. Read the entire book, so you'll get a sense of what the book is about: who the characters are, what is happening, what some of the themes or contexts may be, etc.

This technique is sometimes called "skimming," but make sure you read as much as possible. The idea of to get a sense of what the book is about and what the author is trying to accomplish with the work; so when you go back and re-read the material, it won't be as difficult.

5 . If you own the book you are reading, you may want to highlight passages that seem important.

Otherwise, you can take careful notes--keeping track of quotes, characters, or passages (with page numbers).

Some readers find that by using flags or page markers, they can more easily find those sections that are essential to an understanding of the book. Or, you may mark sections that you don't understand, so you can come back for a closer read later.

6 . Don't become

You may forget about important elements of the plot or characterization. The gist of the book may begin to slip away as well. So, just keep on reading!

8 . After you've read through the book once, re-read the book. Fill in the gaps that you missed the first time. As you read and re-read passages of the novel, try reciting the book out loud. Some readers can more easily grasp difficult language and/ or concepts when they hear the words while reading. Read those difficult passage s t h a t you skipped over the first time.

Start making connections between the book you're reading and other works you've read.

PAGE 21

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Healthy Living

Why having a beard is healthy for you

By Claire Bates

F

rom Ben Affleck and George Clooney to Hugh Jackman, Sam Mendes and Joaquin Phoenix, it seemed every celebrity male has joined the beard brigade.

The look that was first spotted on hipster twenty somethings has been taken on by their dads' generation.

Many women won't want to put up with a scratchy-faced partner. But think twice before you tell your man to reach for a razor, because beards and moustaches might be beneficial for men's health.

This is still, it has to be said, an emerging field of thinking but here, with tongue half in bearded cheek, we reveal the health upside of men's facial hair...

Protects against the sun A fuzzy face offers significant protection against sun damage and skin cancer, according to a recent study from the University of Southern Queensland published in the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry.

The researchers found that the parts of the face covered by beards and moustaches on average had a third less exposure to harmful UV rays compared with hair-free areas.

The study was conducted in the Outback sun with mannequins and stick-on beards (1.5in and 3.5?in long), with a clean-shaven mannequin used as a comparison.

The researchers used dosimetric techniques, which measure the amount of rays or radiation absorbed in a given time.

Their results showed the beards appeared to offer 90 to 95 per cent protection against the

sun, depending on length of hair.

Generally hair offers good protection against the sun, says Dr Nick Lowe, a leading Londonbased dermatologist.

That's why women have much less sun damage if their hair covers the back of their necks and the sides of their faces.

'It's also a question of the thickness of hair,' he says. 'It's similar to an SPF factor - the higher the hair density and thickness, the higher the SPF. 'I frequently see the classic example of this when I work in southern California.

'A balding, bearded surfer

will have more sun damage and pre-cancers on their heads than they will on the top of their faces.'

Another theory is that coarse, curly beard hair breaks up the sun's rays, says Iain Sallis, a consultant trichologist.

'Light travels in straight lines, but when it hits curly hair the light waves refract, or break up, so they hardly ever reach the skin underneath.'

It also depends on how long the beard has been growing.

Sun damage can also occur when it reflects off surfaces below the face - such as pale sand or water - so hair growth on men's faces will add to the protection under the chin and neck.

However, Dr Lowe recommends men with facial hair use a thin sun lotion or spray that isn't too greasy over the hair because a lot of beards are not very dense.

May prevent asthma attacks Men whose asthma is triggered by pollen and dust could find facial hair -- or more specifically, a big moustache -helps reduce their asthma symptoms.

Moustaches that reach the nasal area may stop allergens going up the nose and being inhaled by the lungs, says Carol Walker, hair medical expert and owner of Birmingham Trichology Centre.

Dr Rob Hicks, a London-based GP, thinks it's only pollen - which is sticky - that might be trapped this way, preventing it getting into the airways.

'Dust particles are microscopic,' he says.

Even if moustaches did trap dust, then a downside, according to Dr Hicks, is that it can build up

and it just takes one wipe or knock before it goes into the nose.

'In theory, a moustache could stop things that trigger asthma entering the airways, but it would have to be a big one,' says Dr Felix Chua, a consultant respiratory physician at the London Clinic, Harley Street.

Slows down ageing Over time, facial hair can help keep the skin young and in a good condition.

The hair stops water leaving the skin - keeping it moisturised by protecting it from the wind, which dries the skin and disturbs the protective skin barrier, says Dr Lowe.

'Also, if you put a moisturiser on then it will stay put under a beard or moustache much better than on an exposed or shaven skin where it can be more easily rubbed off.'

The simple presence of hair follicles on the face also helps, as do the sebaceous glands in the skin that coat the hair in protective oils.

Anywhere hair follicles and oil glands are present including the chin, lower face and sides of the - makes the skin thicker (and men have more hair follicles in this area than women do).

'Thicker skin is more resistant to damage, even if the man doesn't have a beard, compared with women, whose skin tends to be thinner and have fewer hair follicles,' says Dr Lowe.

Helps fight off coughs Thick beards that have grown under the chin and neck will raise the

temperature of the neck and may help battle colds, says Carol Walker.

'Hair is an insulator that keeps you warm. Long, full beards that trap the cold air and raise the temperature of the neck are going to be an added bonus when you're under the weather,' says Carol.

'When you have a sore throat, the body builds up temperature to kill the virus.

'It has to run its course, but the warmer you keep yourself and the more fluids you drink equip you to fight it better.

'Hair around the chin and neck adds another layer of protection.'

Facial hair can act as a physical barrier to cold temperature, says Dr Chua.

'A higher body temperature can help a cough, though you need to look at the underlying causes to treat it, too.

'I've had patients who have said that if they wrap up by using something like a scarf their cough gets a bit better. It's possible that a beard could also do this.'

Prevents nasty skin rashes Not shaving means no more nasty rashes. Shaving is usually the main cause of bacterial infections in the beard area, says Dr Martin Wade, consultant dermatologist at the London Skin and Hair Clinic.

'It can lead to razor rash, ingrown hairs and conditions such as folliculitis (infection of the hair follicles that causes spots), so men would benefit from growing a beard,' he says.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

With Aunty A'isha

Sights and sounds

PAGE 23

rajia39ishabiola@yahoo.com 08082071393.

SHOR T ST OR Y SHORT STOR ORY

The Borno Empire

Little frog and big buffalo

B

W

orno which is one of the oldest kingdoms of West Africa, boasts of a dynasty that lasted for as long as a thousand years. The KanemBornu Empire was a large African state which existed from the eighth century A.D. and lasted until the middle of the nineteenth century. It covered a region which today includes the modern-day countries of Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria.

The empire was found by the Zaghawa nomadic people, who may have been the first in the central Sudan to acquire and make use of iron technology and horses.

The Zaghawa, after establishing themselves as the ruling nobles, gradually mixed with the preexisting people of the area. The eventual outcome of the mixture of ethnics was a union of cultures and the creation of a mixed population that is known as the Kanuri.

The most outstanding group that entered the Chad region in early times was the Beni-Seif under a leader known as Dugu. They set up a state and then began a Seif dynasty of Borno. With her Capital situated at N'jimi in Kanem east of the lake. The Seif kings were known by the title Mai. The empire became very visible during the reign of its most illustrious king Idris Alooma (1571 - 1603).

It was believed that Idris Alooma was greatly inspired by the counsel of the Queen-mother (MagiraAicha).

This was displayed when he sent an embassy to Tripoli on the advice of the Queen-mother as one of his first directives being the King.

Idris Alooma was a skillful administrator and a war lord who gave serious attention to the promotion and the prosperity of Borno Empire. He encouraged education and created diplomatic ties between Borno Empire and the North African countries at the other end of the Trans-Sahara trade routes.

After the death of Idris Alooma, the successive leaders could not maintain the position of power and influence he built for the Empire.

However, in the course of time, the Borno monarchy progressively declined in the sustenance of leadership laid down by Idris Alooma. The army was not maintained at its former strength and the outer regions of the empire were not adequately defended.

hat's the matter? Why are you here? asked Dr.Dove as he landed on the branch of a tree near them? "I made a promise to carry this small frog on my back to the pond near that banyan tree but it has become difficult for this small frog to reach my back," said the buffalo.

"You want to carry the frog on your back, isn't it? askedDr. Dove Yes, said the buffalo.

"Then I have suggestion to you. You both come along with me. Dr.Dove led them towards the pond, all the three reached

the pond.

"Dear small frog you first jump into the water," said Dr.Dove The small frog jumped into the water and looked up by turning back towards the buffalo and Dr.Dove.

"Now dear Buffalo you walk into the water and sit down in such a way that your back is just touching the surface of the water level in the pond," said Dr.Dove.

The big buffalo did as suggested.The little frog understood what is to be done; it immediately jumped onto

the back of the buffalo with ease and settled there.

Soon the buffalo too understood and came slowly out of the water with the little frog on its back. The little frog and the big buffalo were happy and thanked Dr. Dove.

"Now tell me where I shall take you," asked the big buffalo.

"Not to the pond again but back to my home in the woods in the north," pointed the little frog.

Seeing how happy they were Dr. Dove flew away.

The End

HIS AND HERS CORNER

Kids too can be fashionistas

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 22

With Aunty A'isha

rajia39ishabiola@yahoo.com 08082071393.

AFRICAN TALES

MODEL OF THE WEEK

How frog changed to prince

Cultural dance at a school in the FCT

ACTIVITIES

O

nce upon a time, there was a king who lived in a beautiful palace that stood near a forest. He had several beautiful daughters.

There was a lake at a distance from the palace.

During dry season, the youngest princess would sit near the lake playing with a golden ball.

One day, while she was playing with her ball, the ball fell into the lake. She started crying. Seeing the princess weep, a frog said to her, "What's the matter? O, princess! Why are you crying?"

The princess was surprised to hear the voice. She looked here and there and her eyes fell on a frog who was peeping out of the lake water. The princess said, "O frog, see, my ball has fallen in the lake. How can I get my ball back,please help me."

The frog laughed and said, "Oh! This is what you are crying for. Now stop weeping.

I will certainly help you."

Then he thought for a while and said, "Tell me what you will give me in exchange for bringing the ball out of the water."

The princess said, "Dear friend, I am ready to give you anything. You may ask for jewelry, pearls and even my golden crown in exchange for the golden ball."

The frog replied, "Dear princess, I do not want any of these things. I only want your true friendship. I want to share your lunch and dinner and want to be a good friend of yours. If you agree to make me your friend, I can bring your ball out of the water." The princess readily agreed and said, "I accept your proposal, now please go quickly and bring my ball."

She was very eager to get her ball back. 'The frog is mad that's why he wants to make friends with me,' she thought.

Meanwhile, the frog took a dip and brought the ball out of the water. As she saw the ball,

the princess jumped out of joy.

She picked it up and ran to the palace.

The frog also followed her and said, "Wait, dear princess!

Take me with you as you have promised. I cannot run as fast as you." Instead, the princess ignored the frog.

She reached the palace and forgot her promise to the frog.

Next day when the princess was sitting on the dining table with her father and sisters, she heard a noise coming from outside. The sound of climbing the stairs could be heard clearly.

The next moment someone knocked at the door and said, "O princess! Please open the door. I have reached here after so much trouble."

On hearing the voice, the princess rushed and opened the door. The princess was surprised and frightened when she saw the frog. She quickly closed the door and went back to the dining table.

To be continued‌

Using different colours of your choice, paint the picture below. Name and describe the objects.

Show your work to your teacher for correction.

Cheers!

CREA TIVITY CREATIVITY

How to make a frog, prince

T

his frog may not be a prince, but he is certainly charming! So be ready to be wooed by this jumping jack's charm.

What you need: Paper plate Green and black paint brush Scissors Red thick paper Green and white chart paper Glue What to do: Paint th e paper plate

green. When it's thoroughly dry, fold the plate in half.

Cut out a 3 x 7 inch 'tongue' from the red thick paper. Stick it on the centre of the fold.

For eyes, cut out a pair of 1 x 2 inches white rectangles and round the upper edges.

Fold each rectangle in half and glue the lower portion to the top of the plate. Add black eyeballs with black paint.

Cut frog legs out of green

chart paper, a shorter set for the front, and a long, bent pair

for the back.

Your frog prince is ready

to take a long leap and charm all your friends.

PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Digest The hidden bacteria lurking on phones L

ong after we've swiped and tapped our smart phones, or sent and received texts, our devices retain a biological history of our actions.

Students studying bacteriology at the University of Surrey imprinted their mobile phones on to Petri dishes to see what they might carry.

Yuck: Students from the University of Surrey imprinted their phones on Petri dishes to culture any bacteria on them. Here the whole plate is covered by the spreading growth of a bacterium called Bacillus mycoides Although the results after just three days looked pretty grim, thankfully most of the bacteria were harmless - nevertheless, it just shows the invisible life that can lurk on your phones.

Some disease-carrying bacteria were occasionally found, such as Staphylococcus aureus - a common cause of Staph infections including food poisoning, impetigo and even septicaemia.

It is thought that 20 per cent of people are long-term carriers of the bug, which often lurks inside the nasal passages.

The colonies of bacteria that form after the phone has been imprinted are from the body's invisible bacterial flora.

Now that the messages have been electronically received or delivered, they represent a tangible and biological residue of our manifold hellos and goodbyes.

Bacteria can utilise many different things as vectors in order to promote their transmission.

Insects, water, food, coughs and sneezes, sexual contact, and rain are

just a few examples. The mobile phone appears to be no exception to this rule.

Unusual but effective way of engaging students: Surrey University lecturer Dr Simon Park got undergraduate students in his Practical and Biomedical Bacteriology class to imprint their mobiles in the growth medium.

Dr Park said: 'It seems that the mobile phone doesn't just remember telephone numbers, but also harbours a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil and other matter' Dr Simon Park, senior lecturer in molecular biology, said: 'As part of a course called Practical and Biomedical Bacteriology, an undergraduate module that I run, I get the students to imprint their mobile phones on to bacteriological growth Petri dishes so that we might determine what they might carry.

'It's unusual but a very effective way of engaging our students with the often overlooked microbiology of everyday life.

'The ecological niche on the body for Staphylococcus aureus is the nostrils, so a furtive pick of the nose, and quick text after, and you end up with this pathogen on your smartphone' Dr Simon Park, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology, University of Surrey 'The ecological niche on the body for Staphylococcus aureus is the nostrils, so a furtive pick of the nose, and quick text after, and you end up with this pathogen on your smartphone.

'You can clearly see the outline of the phone on this, but the whole plate

is covered by the spreading growth of a bacterium called Bacillus mycoides.

'This pattern of growth is unique to this bacterium and because soil is its natural habitat, we know that this phone or its user had recently been in contact with soil. Each phone tells a

story.

'From these results, it seems that the mobile phone doesn't just remember telephone numbers, but also harbours a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil and other matter.'

Steven Tyler on cocaine use: 'I spent $5m on drugs'

S

teven Tyler has spent more money on drugs than most people will make in their lifetimes. The Aerosmith frontman, 65, recently opened up about his past cocaine use in an interview with Australia's 60

These pictures show the hidden life on your phone - the bacteria that lurk on your mobile.

Minutes -- and it's nothing short of shocking.

Asked whether it was true that, as written in his 2011 memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, he spent some $20 million on blow in the 1970s and '80s, the rocker said no. But the real number wasn't that far off.

"Probably, realistically, 5 or 6 [million], easy," he revealed. "But it doesn't matter. You could also say I snorted half of Peru, but, you know, it's what we did."

Indeed, Tyler has spoken candidly in recent years about his history with drugs. In 2011, he revealed to Dateline that during Aerosmith's heyday in the 1970s and '80s, the band's tour rider included a small off-stage cubby where they could tend to their coke habit.

"I needed blow," he told Matt Lauer.

"I needed that cocaine. I needed it." That need nearly ruined him, he added. "It took my children away, it took my marriages away. I was on my knees."

Tyler got sober in the mid-'80s, but he later relapsed. In 2006, he became addicted to prescription medication while being treated for hepatitis C. That led him back into old habits, and in December 2009 -- after a Thanksgiving binge on cocaine and pills -- he checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic.

A short time later, the musician found a new way to get his thrills: by taking a job as a judge on American Idol, serving on the Fox series for seasons 10 and 11 in 2011 and 2012. Last year, he told Time magazine that he took the job because he needed something risky in his life. "I'm one of those people that -obviously, since I've wound up in rehab eight times -- take dangerous things and jump in with both feet," he said. "I think I'm addicted to adrenaline."

PAGE 24

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 9 — SUNDAY 10, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 25

Kannywood Entertainment Nollywood Goldie: More questions Chart busters in the G Kannywood industry A Obviously, the Kannywood movie industry has come to stay and is making the desired impact on the Nigerian movie scene and in the whole of Africa. Here are some of the chart busters in the industry……………

Ali Nuhu The Glo Ambassador is one of the most highly rated actors in the Kannywood/Nollywood industry. Some of the younger and up-coming actors including the award winning Sadiq Sani Sadiq have confessed to being mentored

by Nuhu.

Abdullahi Surajo Zainab Indomie The beautiful face of Kannywood, she is called Zainab Indomie because of her role in one of the movies that actually brought her to limelight.

Ummi Zee Zee She is gentle and soft-spoken, and is known to interpret her roles accurately. She is quoted in a recent interview as saying that her biggest dream is to marry former military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, [IBB].

Mohammad Rabi’u Rikadawa, aka Dila, is one of the big names in Kannywood.

The optimistic movie star in an interview recently, said, “Nollywood has succeeded in setting the pace for all other motion picture industries within the continent. Nigeria is a great nation with dynamic potentials, most especially in the entertainment world. I wish to announce once again that Kannywood is a strong pillar for Nigeria’s success in the world of cinema”.

Sadiq Sani Sadiq -Recipient of the Tozali Best Actor of the Year in 2012 Sadiq Sani Sadiq, is a promising actor in the Hausa movie industry. Born and bred in Jos, he obtained a Diploma in Mass Communication at the Centre of Distance Learning and Continuing Education, University of Abuja before venturing into the entertainment industry.

Within the shortest possible time, Sadiq, also known as Gambo Uban-Tani, carved a niche for himself and registered his name among the A-list stars in Kannywood, which earned him HENNA-BALL awards as Kannywood’s BEST ACTOR of the Year 2012.

o l d i e 's untimely death stirred a storm of controversies that cannot simply be wished away. The big question revolves around her marriage. Before her death, if you'd ask showbiz followers about Goldie's marital status, two out of three responses would be "single." The remaining would be "no idea." It hardly occurred to anyone outside her close circle that the Harvey surname she was bearing was not a stage but her marriage name. Indeed, the Skibobo singer created a cloud of deceit around her marital status. During press conferences, questions about her marital status were curtly cut off. On Facebook, Goldie's marital status was inconclusive. "Single" but not searching and an occasional vague affirmation that she was "in a relationship," was all Goldie offered as explanation for her marital status.

Many did not know Goldie wedded let alone, married a white man. Now a certain Andrew Harvey, a Briton, has announced himself, by uploading photos of their wedding that proved beyond doubt the verity of their 2005 wedding. So Goldie was married?

Really?

At the BBA Stargame, Goldie was viewed through the lens of a single girl.

Against this new background, you begin to wonder, what the hell was a 30-year-old woman with a seven-yearold marriage doing in the wild, whimsical house of the Big Brother Africa, where sex can happen at a short notice?

Then you begin to wonder, where was Mr. Andrew Harvey when Goldie was gallivanting with Prezzo? A married Goldie flirted and got cosy with Prezzo, going as far as kissing him.

For a married woman, that was so unAfrican. Even outside the BBA, her love chess with Prezzo continued. There were strong indications that at the time of her death, the Nigerian pop diva and the Kenyan rapper were still love interests. One doesn't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the marriage was not the made-inheaven picture Mr. Harvey is now painting. Now Harvey is not making Goldie a saint as much as he is further

casting aspersion on her image as a married wife.

Toxic reports in the wake of her shocking departure insinuated that Goldie's was into drugs. These allegations, debunked by close pals, are just mere conjectures. What is common knowledge was that her friendship with Denrele Edun, the eccentric Channel O presenter, who also happened to be her business partner and co-presenter of their impending reality show, was not ordinary.

Now talking about Denrele, the initial story was that Goldie died in Denrele's arms. The question is: where, in the house, or on the way to the hospital, because the hospital declared the singer dead on arrival.

There had been different accounts about Goldie's last minutes. The stories, sketchy but riddled with inconsistencies. So who is going to give us a blow-by-blow account of the last minute, including the names of people who were there? One report said her brother was in the house with her. When Entertainment Express

last few minutes before her death.

What, where, when, how, and who were the eye-witnesses?

Questions, questions, questions. It is better to let the dead to rest in peace.

And in this clime, we do not speak ill of the dead. But this has to be said about the late entertainer: Goldie lied to us.

It is no crime for a celebrity to keep her marital life out of the public radar - Onyeka Onwenu did it successfully. A stern I-am-marriedbut-my-marriage-is-not-a-matterfor-discussion response from Goldie would have been enough.

Goldie misinformed us by her utterances, she misled us by her actions. She owed us an apology, even in death.

An insider, who spoke with us recently, said the family of Goldie wants the Police to invite Denrele, for questioning, since he claimed that their hale and hearty daughter died in his arms. "This I can tell you is the family's position. They want Denrele to tell them and the world the circumstances that led to Goldie's death", disclosed this insider who does not want his name in print.

visited her apartment at No 30B Ologun Kufere Street Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, the following day, the apartment was deserted save for a weeping househelp who went in, packed her two suitcases and fled from the house.

Then you ask again a whole lot of questions: What is the police doing about it? Where are her family members?

The autopsy report indicated that Goldie died of hypertension. But the public needs to know the back story, particularly, the details of the Late Goldie and her husband Andrew Harvey

Rotimi Makinde holds introduction with Beauty Queen fiancée

P

opular Nollywood filmmaker turned politician, Rotimi Makinde, held his wedding introduction with his girlfriend, Oyebanke Oyelami recently The occasion was held in Osun State with family and friends in attendance. Rotimi is in love with a 23-year-old beauty queen, who is presently a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State where she is studying Political Science.

She emerged Miss Osun 2012.

The duo met last year. Makinde's earlier marriage crashed in 2010.

He had three children from the union.

We learnt that their wedding will take place later in 2013 when Banke, as his fiancee is called, is through with her studies.

Nigeria: How the CIA almost disrupted my movie production – Niyi Towolawi

lmost every Nigerian filmmaker shooting a multicultural movie that requires flying-in foreign technical crew into the country has a story to tell.

Owing to the state of insecurity being witnessed in various parts of the country, it is a tough call trying to convince and guarantee the safety of lives and equipment.

These challenges and more are some of the issues that United Kingdom based Nigerian movie producer, Niyi Towolawi, had to confront while shooting his latest film titled "Turning Point."

Shot on location for five weeks in New York, Philadelphia and Delaware, all in the U.S., and Nigeria, between October and November 2011, Towolawi, who has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Manchester, and a Masters in Computer Science from Oxford University in the U.K. shared some of the hurdles he had to scale through.

He says, "When my crew members were trying to get their visas, they were advised not to come to Nigeria. The CIA has a very comprehensive website that talks about the risks in Nigeria which says they were 70 per cent more likely to be kidnapped and there are tons of diseases and threats. It took me two months to convince them (CIA) that Nigeria is a safe country. Luckily, one of them knew someone who came to shoot a commercial here in Nigeria and he was like it(Nigeria) is the best place he has ever been to and that kind of convinced them a bit. Besides the equipment that was brought into the country was worth $200,000 and they could not get insurance in the US to actually bring it into Nigeria and I could not get them in Nigeria as well. I had to convince them to bring them along."

Full of optimism with regards to the positive responses the movie will generate when it begins showing in Nigerian cinemas in a few weeks time, Towolawi's face lights up in a smile when he recollects the great time the cast and crew had while shooting in Nigeria.

"They ate Suya everyday and then I took them to Kuramo Beach were they ate Indomie noodles and fried eggs and took tons of pictures. Then we went to Obalende market and area boys came out in droves then the key grip (person who supervises all grip crews and reports to the Director of Photography) from new York, who shot videos for Biggie, Tupac and other artistes showed some of the videos to the area boys.

Surprisingly, one of them rapped to the songs. we had hundreds of area boys participating in the film without asking for payment. When we were leaving, they were all taking pictures," he said.

?

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Hollywood/Bollywood Sunny Leone to do item number in complete an item Shootout at Wadala song in Sanjay

T

he Jism 2 babe who had earlier denied performing an item number has lastly produced up her thoughts and is all set to shake her luscious booty in Ekta Kapoor's action flick. Has she succumbed towards the Television czarina's stress?

Final year, Sunny Leone produced news by performing on well-liked Bollywood item numbers on New Year's Eve. Clearly, the Jism 2 babe must've produced large moolah for just a couple of minutes of dancing. But keep in mind some time back, the babe had rubbished reports that she will probably be performing an item song in Anil Sharma's Singh Saheb The Fantastic starring Sunny Deol. This really is what she stated then, "No item numbers.

Correct now I'm only focussing on Ragini MMS 2 as well as PeTA (Individuals for the Ethical Therapy of Animals) ad." Then why did Sunny alter her mind… as well as her concentrate?

The hot news surrounding the super hot babe is the fact that she has lastly agreed to

Gupta's Shootout At Wadala, created by Ekta K a p o o r .

Understanding that the gangster drama is garnering great buzz all more than, Sunny's choice to shake a leg within the film could also be credited to her simultaneously operating with Ekta within the m u c h anticipated horror flick Ragini MMS 2. If Ekta has asked her (study stated) to complete the item song, then clearly she cannot say NO to her, correct Sunny?

But then we wonder what produced her say no to Anil Sharma's film. Cash problems? What ever it is… our khabroo informed us that it was Sanjay Gupta's concept to rope in Sunny for the song. The rehearsals from the dance sequence choreographed by Ahmed Khan are currently underway and Ms Leone will probably be noticed inside a ghagra choli for the very first time. So are you currently eagerly searching forward to determine your fave Indo-Canadian pornstar performing the desi jhatkas and matkas?

The Bachelor: Sean Lowe fantasy suite rejection ahead?

B

y now, you've likely read The Bachelor spoilers for insight on who wins Sean Lowe's final rose on March 11. Or you've purposely avoided said spoilers.

Either way, we'll leave that conversation alone here. Follow the above link for all those details. Right now, let's talk about Monday's big episode.

It's Fantasy Suite time ... or is it, given Sean's born-again virgin status?

AshLee Frazier, Catherine Guidici

and Lindsay Yenter accompany Sean to Si Kao, Thailand, where the sun is hot, but the Fantasy Suite may be not.

The woman who gets sent home Monday night reportedly does not take this surprise well.

We're talking a tear-filled departure, with no words exchanged.

"It's one of the most heartwrenching goodbyes ever on the show" says an E! source. "She is downright devastated and it's impossible not to feel for her."

So who is it? Brings us to our second maybe-spoiler.

AshLee Frazier reportedly struggles a bit on her date, which requires her to swim through a pitch-black cave ... and that's before the Fantasy Suite situation.

According to ABC, she "draws a moral line in the sand." Hmm. AshLee, like Sean, is very religious, so it's hard to say how this will impact her chances.

Still, you have to wonder if her days are numbered.

As for Catherine and Lindsay, less is known about their dates, but Sean clearly enjoys the fun-loving, easygoing side of each. They could be your final two.

Then again, Lindsay Yenter may be too young, and Catherine Giudici too much of a wild card for familyoriented Sean ... who is engaged to the winner.

What do you think? Who's Sean going to choose?

Anurag Basu Hunt For Madhubala

F

ilm maker Anurag Basu, who's scripting late singer Kishore Kumar's biopic, continues to be looking for the actress to play yesteryear diva Madhubala in the movie.

"I am hunting for Madhubala but it's too soon to speak about it. Casting takes place 2 to 3 months before we begin shooting. The movie is at its initial stage & would probably release

next year," Anurag said.

While Ranbir has been roped in to play Kishore Kumar's role, there have been reports that Kangna Ranaut or Katrina Kaif might walk into the role of Madhubala.

Having said that, no official confirmation has been given.

The biopic goes on floors soon.

Bollywooodgossips.com

Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z Tour Dates: Announced!

S

orry, Blue Ivy Carter. But you may be spending a lot of time with nannies this summer.

With a Beyonce world tour already announced, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake have now confirmed they will also be criss-crossing the United States in just a few months.

Billed as the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour, tickets go on sale to the general public February 28. Others may be available sooner via Facebook promotions.

When is this amazing duo stopping by a city near you? We've posted the tour dates and locations below.

July 17: Toronto, Ontario July 19: New York City July 22: Chicago, Ill. July 26: San Francisco, Calif.

July 28: Pasadena, Calif.

July 31: Vancouver, British Columbia Aug. 4: Heshey, PA Aug. 6: Detroit, MI Aug. 8: Baltimore, MD Aug. 10: Boston, MA Aug. 13: Philadelphia, PA

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 27

Homes Fool the eye; make a small room look bigger I

n a small space, everything counts. This write-up will teach you how to make a small room look bigger, by simply applying a few clever tricks.

Small rooms can feel confining and uncomfortable. Luckily we can utilize certain design concepts that fool the eye and make interiors seem much bigger and spacious than they are in reality.

Colour techniques, furniture arranging and smart lighting ideas are just some of the topics covered in this piece. These ideas will hopefully bring inspiration and help with your future projects, such as decorating or even property selling.

Use light colors and clever contrasts Cream colours and icy blues are just a few of the best colour combinations that can convert a tiny interior into a seemingly bigger living area. It is all about optical illusion. It is a generally known fact that light colours make a room look bigger and brighter. Light and brightly coloured walls are more reflective making a space feel open and airy, which helps maximize the effect created by natural light. Dark colours on the other hand absorb light, making a room look smaller.

For an optimum effect, select soft tones of blues and greens, and always remember that brighter rooms look bigger and more inviting. A good way to go is painting your wall trim and mouldings in a lighter colour than your walls. When you paint your mouldings light, the wall appears further back, making your living room appear bigger.

Lighting is a key element in opening up a space.

By allowing natural light to flow freely inside the room, you will be surprised at how this will open up the interior and make it look larger. If you do not have a lot of natural light, you can add some creative lighting effects. You will be amazed at how this small addition can make a big difference. If you do have access to natural light, make full use of it and bring it into your home with the help of large windows. This will instantly connect the room with the outdoors, no longer limiting your space. Make sure window coverings are sheer, or are pulled back, to bring more light in. If the view is bad, use hanging plants and potted flowers near the windows. Lamps will bring in special colour and focus attention.

Cut the clutter Keep your room tidy and organized. There's nothing that makes a small space feel cramped more than having too much stuff.

With things neatly arranged and out of sight, the space that is in view will feel orderly and open. A cluttered room equals a smaller

room. Don't cover your walls with a lot of pictures. One large painting works better than a group of small paintings. If there's too much going on, all clamouring for attention, it can make the room feel busy and crowded. When decorating a small room, create a focal point, one area or feature that will draw the eye. In the dining room, the focal point will probably be the table.

In the bedroom, it will most likely be the bed. Make that focal point the star of the room. Arrange the furniture so that focus is drawn to that area, and keep the dĂŠcor in the rest of the room to a minimum (limit the number of accessories).

Keep the floor as clear as possible.

This is one of the most important ways to maintain a sense of

spaciousness. And one more tip: take out large rugs to create the illusion of more floor space.

Well placed mirrors can do wonders Mirrors can make your room look larger. Use a focal point and angle your mirrors towards it, which will give the illusion of depth. The mirrors also reflect both natural and artificial light to make a room brighter during the day and night. They bounce light deep into the room, making it appear larger. Placing a mirror near a window to reflect the outdoors is especially effective.

Mirrors on the walls and glass tabletops will make it seem like there's a more open flow. You can also use mirrored cabinet doors to make spaces feel large and

uncluttered.

Inspired furniture arrangements Sometimes furniture can take a lot of space. To avoid that, here are some useful tips : -Use multi-function furniture like a chest that can be used as a coffee table, sofa beds, chest of drawers, and beds with drawers for storage. Use an expendable dining table, folding tables and nest of tables, which can be tucked away when you don't need them.

-Place the large pieces of furniture against the walls so the open space in the middle is not broken up.

-Scale the furniture to fit the size of the room and don't block walking pathways.

With furniture and accessories blocking the view into a room and to open spaces, a room will look cramped.

By moving furniture out and away from walkways, you'll open up the space and make it feel larger. If you can see the floor, the room will look larger. Having oversized sofas or too much furniture will make the living

room look smaller.

-Consider having at least some of the furniture pieces the same color as the walls. Even the bigger items like armoires and chest will begin to blend in to the room and widen out the room.

-Setting your furniture at an angle works because the longest straight line in any given room is it's diagonal. When you place your furniture at an angle, it leads the eye along the longer distance, rather than the shorter wall. As an added bonus, you often get some additional storage space behind the piece in the corner, too!

-If the furniture in your room is tall, that might be making it seem as though the ceiling is lower than it actually is. Make sure there is plenty of space between your furniture, too.

-Choose a sofa and chairs with open arms and exposed legs. A glass table, will keep keep the appearance of a open and free space. This allows light to filter under the furniture, making the room appear airier.

Freshome.com

PAGE 28

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Cuisine

Coconut Candy (kwakumeti) T

h e r e are other snacks or desserts referred to as coconut candy but the sweet chewy coconut candy displayed here is the one made in northern Nigeria. Though some work goes to grating the fresh coconut meat into tiny pieces, the snack itself is easy to make.

Ingredients: -1 head fresh coconut with the juice -200g icing sugar (powdered sugar) -Water Method of preparation: Break the coconut, making sure to collect the coconut juice from it.

Remove the meat from the shells and grate into small pieces.

Make sure to grate along the meat of the coconut rather than across it. This is so that you'll have long thin coconut pieces rather than a mass of grated coconut.

Directions: Pour the coconut juice into the pot.

Add the icing sugar (powdered sugar). Stir.

Add the tiny coconut pieces

and stir.

Add water to the same level as the coconut pieces.

Cover the pot and set to boil at high heat.

Once the contents start boiling, stir continuously till all the water is just about evaporated.

Reduce to low heat and continue stirring.

At a time, you will notice that the contents have started sticking together. That is the sugar caramelising.

Keep stirring till the coconut pieces start turning slightly brown.

Turn off the heat and scoop the very hot coconut candy onto a flat plate and leave to cool down.

Once cold, you can serve as dessert or eat it as a snack.

The coconut candy should be sticky when cold. It should not be dry.

You can store it in the freezer for up to a month.

This is supposed to be a very sweet snack that is why all that sugar is used in the preparation but feel free to reduce the quantity of sugar.

Orange juice concentrate

O

r a n g e juice concentrate allows storage of the juice until a later date.

Orange juice concentrate is often frozen and later made into orange juice by adding water to the mixture.

The juice must have the water removed to become a concentrate.

The procedure for removing the water is a simple one, though time consuming.

Instructions: Pour the orange juice into a plastic, thin-necked jug. Allow extra room for the juice to expand. Place the jug in the freezer and allow it to freeze completely. The amount of time it takes to freeze will vary depending on the amount of juice.

Remove the jug and put it upside down over the wide-necked container. Allow the juice to melt and drip into the second container. The water crystals melt slower than the juice, so the initial drips are concentrated orange juice.

Discard the plain ice when the drops are no longer orange. This is not a necessary part of the juice.

Repeating the freeze-and-drip process twice will result in a fine concentrate with minimal water content. Freeze and store the concentrate when it is finished until ready to use.

Allow the ice to melt naturally.

Adding heat will result in ice melting faster and more water in the end result.

Pots & Pans

With Hajiya Ramatu Usman Dorayi

PAGE 29

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24 FEBRUARY, 2013

Womanhood

Mistakes mothers should avoid when raising a child

B

eing a single mother should not stop you from raising a child well. Being a single parent is not a walk in the park since you need to take over the responsibilities and roles of your partner at the same time. Creating an open communication with your children is effective in building a harmonious relationship with them.

No matter how careful and well you are raising your children, you are still vulnerable to committing the common mistakes that single mothers often do make. Here is a list of common mistakes that single mothers should endeavour to avoid when raising a child: Lying to your child This mistake is common among divorced parents.

Single mothers tend to leave their children behind when it comes to the status of the divorce papers or if they're still in contact with the child's father.

Although your intentions of not hurting your child are good enough, dishonesty will only make matters worse. Once the child finds out that you are not giving out the real story, this may lead to mistrust on the child's part. With children, particularly teenagers, trust is

often difficult to regain.

Spending quality time with your child As a single mother, you may have to balance work and family while recovering from the emotional pitfalls of a recent divorce, separation or abandonment. You may be present at home, but you may not be talking to your kids (i.e. you are emotionally unavailable). It is important to spend quality time with your children. There is no required number of hours or frequency per week that you should spend with your children. The important thing is that, you take some time off to ask them how they're doing and then, actively listen.

Best friends forever Most single mothers want their child to see them as a best friend. This can present problems of role confusion for the child. It may work when your child is an older teenager, but it will be difficult when children are below 12 years old.

Younger children are very "black and white" thinkers (all or nothing). This means that it is not possible for them to see you as a friend if you set the rules and must be obeyed.

Lack of a discipline plan Instilling discipline in children is traditionally the

male partner's responsibility and single mothers usually avoid this role, because it seems to conflict with their nurturing roles. Lack of discipline on your part, however, will usually result in manipulation from your children. To avoid this mistake, creating a discipline plan will do.

Create a discipline plan when you are in a good mood. If you do it when you are angry, frustrated or overwhelmed, you may end up creating rigid and unfair rules. It is important to have a solid and credible relationship with your child before enforcing house rules.

Let your children know what you expect of them in advance and then follow through with it.

You do not need to be adversarial when delivering the consequences.

Avoiding outside help Most single mothers assume that their child is doing well despite a recent family crisis such as divorce or the death of a partner. Some single parents also feel that they can singlehandedly raise their child well. However, you should think about getting the help of a professional counselor or a well respected close family member when your emotions are consistently overwhelming and out of control.

PAGE 30

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Archives

Do you have old pictures for memories?

Send them to julius2001_a@yahoo.com

From left: Nigerian poet, Christopher Okigbo with Chinua Achebe and Alex Ajayi in the 50s

First ILO (International Labor Organization) African Regional Conference, Lagos, Nigeria, December 1960.

Louis Armstrong meets Ahmadu Bello

Oba Adenji Adele ll (a Yoruba chief) and his wife are welcome by the Duke of Devonshire at the Commonwealth Relations’ Office.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 31

Leisure WORD SEARCH

Photo of the day

With Augustine Aminu

A Real Lagos Child

Find the Birthday Gift related words listed at the bottom of this page in the birthday gift word search grid. The words may be forwards, backwards, up, down, or diagonal. Circle each letter separately but the letters in each birthday gift related word may be used in more than one of the words.

Birthday Gifts Word Search I V E S M C O G I F T B O X L

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African quotes "A barber does not shave his own head."

"A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches."

"A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother puts into his palm."

"A comb becomes bad when it hurts you."

"A cutting word is worse than a bowstring, a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not."

"A fool looks for dung where the cow never browsed."

"A fool may chance to put something into a wise man's head."

"A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride."

"A stranger has big eyes but sees nothing."

"A stream cannot rise about its source."

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Proverbs • A man who lives on the bank of a river does not use spittle to wash his hands.

• A person is a guest for one or two days, but becomes an intruder on the third.

• A bag that says it will not take more, and a traditional doctor who says he would not leave anything behind are both sure to suffer.

• A bird can drink much but an elephant can drink more.

• A bird does not change its feathers because the weather is bad.

• A bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill does not know that it is still on the ground.

• A bottle of oil warmed over the fire has no means of producing oil by itself.

• A bush fowls' playground is never appreciably spacious.

• A chief is a reward of God • A child does not die because the mother's breasts are dry.

CARTOON

PAGE 32

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

F

Compiled by Miriam Humbe

The world of models

A

world of glamour, grandeur and creative energy often unparalleled, models represent centuries of trends, some successes and some flops, and constant striving towards creating the next "it" look for the fashionista in us all.

Should you choose this path, know the essentials of the business in order to be seen in

the best light, by taking care of yourself physically as you are a symbol of beauty and health that men and woman strives towards.

You can achieve this by keeping your hair well groomed, maintaining an even complexion by drinking plenty of water and eating healthy foods, plus, establishing a good workout regimen with a trained professional.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 33

Business

L-R: Representative of Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Mr. Johnson Odekina; Vice Chancellor, Nasarawa State University, Prof. Shamsudeen Amali and Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Dr Barclays Ayakoroma, at the 2012/2013 Matriculation at National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in Lagos on Friday. NAN

Money market activities this week - a review

O

ne of the major developments in the Nigerian money market this week was the introduction of new guidelines for banks, financial holding companies and their subsidiaries by the CBN. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CBN, had in a circular issued on Feb.19, directed that credit by a bank to its holding companies would be regarded as return of capital in computing its capital adequacy.

The apex bank said that a bank's loans to its subsidiaries, where the credit is fully secured, would be assigned as risk weight of 100 per cent, otherwise it would be deducted from the capital when computing capital adequacy.

The CBN said that it had identified that recent crisis in the financial system had highlighted several weaknesses in the banking system.

Mr Rasaq Quadri, a former President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), described CBN's action as a corrective measure and not punitive.

He said that this would restore investors’ confidence in the sector.

Quadri said that the apex bank was also working to enhance stability in the financial system, adding that the new guidelines would save the sector from another round of financial crisis.

He attributed the 2008 financial crisis in the banking sector to lack of effective supervision on the part of the CBN. Also during the week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that the composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped from 12 per cent in Dec. 2012, to nine per cent in January 2013.

NIPPS, a key driver of Transformation Agenda By our Reporter

V

ice President Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo has described the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPPS) Kuru, Jos, as a key driver of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

The Vice President stated this yesterday, when the management of NIPPS led by the Director General, Professor Tijjani Muhammad Bande, paid him a courtesy call at the State House,

Abuja.

Vice President Sambo who is also the supervising authority of NIPPS, said “with the qualitative product of the Institute our transformation Agenda will surely be achieved because it will be strengthened by what you are producing.”

Arc Sambo while expressing delight with the achievements of the institute over the years, assured that the President Jonathan led administration would ensure that the Institute succeeds in meeting its mandate.

Earlier, the DG of NIPPS, Prof

Tijjani Bande, expressed the appreciation of the Institute to President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo for the importance they place in the activities of the Institute. He stated that NIPPS was a critical tool for government, adding that there was no institute on the African continent that meets its standards.

Prof Bande noted that the Institute had achieved tremendous improvement in the quality and standards of researches churned out by its staff and students particularly the Senior Executive

Course it runs. He said the Researches have been adjudged to be world class by both local and international stakeholders.

He used the opportunity to appeal to the Federal Government for improved funding for its activities and remuneration of its staff. He stated that the Institute plans to invite the former Prime Minister of Namibia, Mr. Hage Geingob to deliver the lecture at its 2013 Annual Lecture.

Prof Bande was accompanied to the event by other top management staff of the Institute.

MDAs owe insurance companies N24bn premium debts —Finance Ministry

T

h e Federal Ministry of Finance says government agencies owe N24 billion premium debts to insurance companies.

This was contained in a circular with ref. no: F15441/S.11/111/312 issued by the ministry and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.

The circular was signed by Dr

Yerima Lawan Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance.

The circular said that it was not proper that these agencies owed the debts in spite of the yearly budgetary provision for the premiums by the government.

“The ministry is making effort to end the menace and era of nonremittance of insurance collections and premiums.

“It is aiming to consolidate the ongoing effort to sanitise the insurance industry.

“The MDAs and other stakeholders are directed by this circular to make returns on premium collected and remitted to the National Insurance Commission in compliance with Section 50 of the Insurance Act,” the circular said.

It said that any agency that

failed to comply with the directive to pay their debts would be sanctioned.

It said that any insurance contract entered into without full payment of premium in advance would be legally unenforceable.

The circular said that payment of premiums would help insurance companies to meet their obligations. (NAN)

Tourism practitioner calls for upgrade of tourist sites

M

r Olubeko Ogunbade, the Managing Director, Freedom Tourism and Hospitality Outfit Services, on Friday called for the upgrade of tourist sites across the country.

Ogunbade made the call in an interview with the News Agency of

Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, most tourist sites are in poor conditions.

He said that upgrading some of the dilapidated tourist sites would lead to an influx of tourists into the country.

A lot of our tourist sites, such as

beaches, relics and historical monuments, are in bad condition and this could distract tourists from visiting such places.

“We need to pay attention to upgrading and improving our tourist sites in order to make them the best tourist destinations,’’ he

said.

Ogunbade said that the nation’s tourist centres should be given the needed facelift to attract more tourists and generate more revenue.

He urged the federal and state governments to collaborate in order to develop tourism in the country.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 35

Strange world Man who died on way to late wife's memorial buried beside her Horse meat found inside burger

I

A

n upstate New York man who died on the way to his late wife's wake was buried in a plot beside her on Wednesday, after a dual funeral service that capped a 66-year marriage, their daughter said on Thursday.

Norman Hendrickson, 94, a retired assistant postmaster in an Albany suburb, stopped breathing in the limousine on the way to a wake on Saturday for his late wife Gwen, who died earlier this month after suffering for years from Parkinson's Disease, daughter Norma said.

Funeral home staffers laid Hendrickson in a casket and placed him beside an urn containing his wife's remains in a viewing room, while daughter Merrilyne posted a lighthearted sign for arriving mourners: "Surprise - it's a Double-Header Norman and Gwen Hendrickson.Norma Hendrickson said her parents were buried side by side in the same plot on Wednesday, along with some of the ashes of their late son, who died in 2008, and a watercolor painting her sister Merrilyne had made for them.

Funeral director Elizabeth NicholsRoss, a family friend, said the couple laughed a lot and would have enjoyed the irony of the situation - especially Norman, who loved jokes.

"I don't blush easily, but he told ones that made you blush," she said.

She joked with the family that their father, who was known to be thrifty, would have loved to save the costs of a

second funeral, so she didn't charge the family for two services.

Mourners took the surprise in stride, Nichols-Ross said.

"Oh, that doesn't surprise me," she quoted one mourner as saying. "He wanted to be with Gwen.'"

– Reuters

t is unlikely the exact number of people in the UK who have unwittingly eaten horse meat will ever be known, the chief executive of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has conceded.

Catherine Brown said that testing was the right way to address the issue, and said the focus would be on areas of higher risk.

But she admitted that how many people who had unknowingly eaten horse meat was likely to be impossible to ascertain.

"I don't think that we ever will (know how many), because these tests are a snapshot, so even where we find things it is very hard to work out how long, what number of batches, so I think it is unlikely that we will ever know that. It is shocking," she told the BBC. Her comments came as the head of a major UK supermarket chain insisted that the horse meat scandal was not "the tip of an iceberg".

Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury's told BBC's Newsnight programme that supermarkets had not been slow to react to the scandal, but conceded there was a long way to go before the food industry could fully explain how the crisis has come about.

He said last night: "I don't think it's the tip of an iceberg. I think there are some encouraging signs from today's tests that we are starting to get to the bottom of this particular issue.

"We, in Sainsbury's, have a huge testing programme - we have 50-odd people, whose full-time jobs are to test product.

"They test raw materials when they come into the factory. The product is delivered to our warehouses and we buy product, as customers do, to test it too. And most of the industry would say something similar.

"So, we go to great lengths to ensure our food is what we expect it to be. Trust is the core of our businesses."

Officials investigating the horse meat mis-labelling scandal will continue examining evidence today after three more plants were raided.

The FSA visited two premises in Tottenham, London and one in Hull, Yorkshire, on Thursday.

Investigators, accompanied by police officers and local authority officials, made seizures at the three sites and removed meat samples for testing.

– UK News

India to launch mission to Mars this year – Mukherjee

I

ndia will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday, as the emerging Asian nation looks to play catch up in the global space race alongside the United States, Russia and its giant neighbor, China.

"Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India's first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite," Mukherjee told parliament.

India will send a satellite in October via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the red planet, blasting off from the southeastern coast in a mission expected to cost about $83 million, scientists who are part of the mission say.

The spacecraft, which will be made in India, will take nine months to reach Mars and then launch itself in an elliptical orbit about 500 km (310 miles) from the planet.

"The mission is ready to roll," Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist from the India Space Research Organization (ISRO), said by phone from the city of Bangalore.

India's mission to Mars has drawn criticism in a country suffering from high

levels of malnutrition and power shortages, and currently experiencing its worst slowdown in growth in ten years.

But India has long argued that technology developed in its space program has practical applications to everyday life.

India's space exploration program began in 1962. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon. India is now looking at landing a wheeled rover on the moon in 2014.

– Reuters

PAGE 36

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

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Open letter to Nigerians in the Diaspora Re: Sovereign wealth fund WRITE TO US I

came across an article by one Professor, May Akabogu-Collins, entitled, "A Nigerian Spring-Long Overdue"; after reading the article, I was constrained to write this open letter addressed to all Nigerians in the Diaspora. I was one of you but have returned home, and I have no regrets. It was in 2005 when I had a long discussion (or should I call it a debate?) with a friend, who was then residing in Germany, about my decision to return and take a teaching job at the newly established American University of Nigeria. He did not conceal his anger at my decision, even as he assured me, "I give you just six months, and you will regret your decision to go back to Nigeria." I have been teaching (both African and non-African students) at the American university of Nigeria since January 2006, and I have no regrets.

Akabogu-Collins, a visiting professor at the American Business School, Paris, wrote how he was ashamed to disclose to his students on his first day in class, that he was a Nigerian; rather, he confessed that he told them he was an American! He also said how a planned family union with his aged mother and family members in Nigeria was called off to the chagrin of his daughter in the US only because of the news of the lack of safety of life in Nigeria.

He concluded by asking who would lead Nigeria in a mass uprising, which he thinks, is the best way for a rescue of Nigeria. I am at a loss here?

If a scholar is ashamed of his Nigerian roots, he has no message for the youths. Mr. AkaboguCollins declared he would prefer to be associated with Niger Republic! He left Nigeria for the US in 1980 after his first degree at the University of Ibadan, and, according to him, he has stayed back since. This gentleman should be older than me, and people like me should learn from him about genuine patriotism. There are many things that make us unhappy about our country Nigeria, and I have written quite a bit about some of those. But we must not descend down the path that makes us ashamed of our nationality.

You may have a second nationality (US, UK, Australia, etc.), but you remain at best second-rate in those countries when the chips are down. A mistake some Nigerians make is to blame everyone else but themselves for Nigeria's problems. A nation cannot develop beyond the intellectual reasoning of her intellectuals. Who should build Nigeria for you to come and enjoy? Americans built America.

Europeans built Europe. Japanese built Japan.

Nigerians must build Nigeria. Nigerians who are ashamed of Nigeria, ashamed of any association with Nigeria cannot build Nigeria.

There is no African student that completes a

Peoples Daily Weekend welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Editor, Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja.

Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com semester with me who would bear the inglorious sense of shame for being African. There are Nigerians in the Diaspora that have risked their reputation and even life by publicly advancing the Nigeria cause. How can we even start solving Nigeria's problems when we are too ashamed to be called Nigerians? We quarrel about poor governance in Nigeria, and we should and proffer solutions. But we must not tolerate obscenities against Nigeria where we are. Where I am, such obscenities can never go without appropriate response and some education about Nigeria.

Wherever I travel in the world, I brandish my Nigerian passport with pride. When I read about some Nigerians being ashamed of holding a Nigerian passport, I burn within. No man can make you ashamed; you accept shame as a choice.

We must tell the Nigerian story, for our glory is in our story. And this is the Nigerian story.

In seeking to enthrone democracy in our public conduct in Nigeria, we have been most outspoken in the past 13 years about the best path to follow. Our democracy, in principle, is the closest to America's in Africa. But an error we are working at correcting is that we have refused to be creative. We must create a system that works for us. Some of us have called for a sovereign national conference, where we shall talk at the table of brotherhood in order to ensure three things- justice to all constituent parts of Nigeria, fiscal independence to Nigerian regions, and removal of waste in our governance systems.

Ours is work in progress. But I would not join foreigners to take up stones against Nigeria. The Nigerian electorate is becoming more enlightened. They are beginning to understand the powers they have, and this makes electoral fraud more difficult to commit. In some Nigerian States, good governance practices are being established, and this shall continue. The grand designs of impunity we observe at the federal level and in some states of the federation have come under the lenses of Nigerians. Unlike in the past, Nigerians are reacting to weird and fraudulent budget proposals, questioning dubious expenditures of government, and putting a lot of

pressure on government officials to explain their conduct in office. More transparency means growing confidence that we shall eventually have good governance, by which I mean public conduct that guarantees the most good to the majority of people.

Nigeria has had issues of insecurity. Nonetheless, the news we read in the newspapers and the stories we hear from family members at home should not make Nigerians in the Diaspora to think the worst about their country. Gun shootings are not as common in Nigerian schools (including children schools), movie theatres, and public places as they are in the US. Assault weapons are not common on our streets and in people's homes as they are in America. Every country has their challenges at certain periods of history. But the citizens must not thereby be ashamed of their country.

Nigerian professors in the Diaspora should in large numbers start taking up visiting positions in Nigerian universities. This is one way the Nigerians in the Diaspora can help. In terms of conditions of service, Nigerian professors are living very comfortable lives comparable to the standard of living of their counterparts in more prosperous economies. If Nigerian professors in the Diaspora can organize themselves and come in their hundreds to teach undergraduate and graduate students, supervise graduate theses and projects, and contribute to university governance through committees, they would be inspiring confidence in their country. Listen, it is always greener on the other side. I would be careful to accept a teaching position in some universities in the USA if it were only for salary and conditions of service. There is no safe place on earth; your safety is only conditional. How do you live? What are your offence scores? I visit my hometown freely without any police escorts, and I am a public commentator who says some things that obviously don't sit well with public officials. I should think that hiring police protection only draws unnecessary attention to yourself. You cannot fully explain the joys of interacting with the local people until you have experienced it. Do you care for your community people, or better

still, do they perceive you care for their welfare? I think sometimes we are too conscious of our self-importance or status. We are simply Nigerians; that remains the truth.

What is government? In your family, you are government. In your local community in Nigeria, you are government. If you have got lost in the Diaspora and have cut off all interactions with your local society, how should they react when you suddenly appear with police escort? One, it is an insult on them. And even if they should ordinarily ignore you, they would not. Two, you should be inspired to return at least for a season, like the biblical Nehemiah did, and help take off the reproach of Nigeria that you have so much heard about. Come build these broken walls. Don't be ashamed of Nigeria; be proud that the same Nigeria has produced you. Some of you got a leg up with Nigeria's petrodollars that enabled you to have cheap but qualitative university education in Nigeria. You left and refused to come back. You owe Nigeria. Some of you left your university jobs on study leave with pay. You still owe your Nigerian universities monies you are yet to pay back. Return and pay your debt.

Nigerian public universities have some of the best students you can find anywhere in the world. It is not easy to get admission into a public university in Nigeria due to high demand and intense competition for the few available spaces, and that is partly why not a few Nigerian students are forced to study abroad. We have what they call "The American education." We can create the Nigerian education that prepares the student to be aware of his or her nation-her challenges, position in Africa and the world, history, and prospects. Nigerian professors at home and in the Diaspora can collaborate on this. We must be adaptive but not conformist.

Not everything American, for instance, is the best. We are forced to accept what is not the truth. Expressions such as "collapsed Nigerian university system", "unemployable Nigerian graduates", "half-baked PhDs in Nigerian universities" are too general and not specific.

We have fallen for this. Even the federal government is carried away by this and has instituted in the twenty-first century a scholarship program to assist every year 100 graduates with first-class degrees to study in the "top 10 universities" in the world. In spite of our acclaimed education, we have failed to discern the global politics in education. We must build and can build the "best" system of education we want, and cut down on this huge capital flight and invest the savings on education at home.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba, shilgba@aun.edu.ng

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 9 — SUNDAY 10, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 37

Opinion 2015: PDP, APC set for epic battle!

By Simon Imobo-Tswam

W

i t h 2015 silhouetted against the political skyline, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the soon-to-be registered All Progressives Congress (APC), look to engage each other in an epic and historic political battle. And since elections are not necessarily won or lost on Election Day, the ground work has started.

The PDP, which has been the ruling party since the return to democracy in 1999, has had ample time to stamp its image on the national canvas, development-wise. Alas, it has stamped its image, but it's not that of development, it is an image of scandalous inefficiency and crass mediocrity. Although the evidence on ground makes this incontestable, PDP still makes half-hearted protests.

The major opposition parties, namely: the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), tired of making individual and half-hearted attempts at wrestling power from the PDP, have finally agreed to merge into a mega party that will thus confront the PDP behemoth, Come 2015.

Even though the Labour Party (which controls Ondo State) is still in exploratory talks with the leading lights of the mega party, having described itself as a Social Democratic party in its manifesto, it is generally believed that it will gravitate, in the end, to the APC. And though the leadership of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had the rug pulled under its feet on the eve of conclusive merger talks, its National Chairman, Victor Umeh, has gone on appeal.

But, however, it goes, the main faction of APGA, will certainly join the APC; and when it does, it will bring along APGA's heart, soul and backbone!

For although Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra

State seems to be clearly ambivalent as to whether to pitch his tent with the newest party on the block or to cross over to the PDP, his Imo State counter-part, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, is completely sold out to the Mega Party Project.

Last Tuesday when he addressed the press after a meeting of the "APC governors," Okorocha drew the line about what he termed APGA-APGA and APGA-PDP. This coded statement could signify that either PDP has, as usual, infiltrated APGA ranks or a minority tendency in APGA is looking in the direction of the PDP. In practical terms though, it means Obi is standing alone as he is already estranged from the party leadership. In effect, it makes the Peter Obi position tenuous: if and when he joins the APC tomorrow, he will be doing so as frantic late-comer, with no leveraging aces; and if he joins the PDP, he will be doing so as a political orphan - with a fractured platform, a shrinking constituency and, in consequence, a political liability!

So between the parties, they have 11 governors i.e. Lagos, Oyo, ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Edo (all ACN) as well as Nasarawa (CPC), Imo (PDP) and Zamfara, Borno plus Yobe (ANPP).

If and when Anambra and Ondo Join, the tally will climb to 13. And with closet "APC governors"like Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and potential APC governors like Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Magatakarda Wamakko, the APC looks poised to upset the PDP hegemony at the next elections.

Now whether it does so, only time will tell, and the next steps the APC takes in the next few weeks and months will be at once crucial and critical.

Among these are the holding of the individual party conventions to approve the merger and wind-up; the election of pro-term national officers to run its affairs till its maiden convention, the articulation of its governance

philosophy in terms of manifesto, constitution, program thrust, political framework etc. It is these more than anything else that will give the new party its face/identity.

And from statements emanating from the "APC governors" it is clear that the new party is Social-Democratic in outlook, meaning: it is a little to the left of the centre. Now, this contrasts sharply with the PDP, which is neither to the left nor to the right, nor even at the centre, but fancies itself as a "mass movement." It is no surprise, thus, that for the past 14 years, this mass movement, with a mass (amorphous) vision has been ambling and sauntering and shuffling and wobbling in the public space. So the APC will force the PDP to either remain a "mass movement", moving in mass directions, and so, moving nowhere exactly or o situate itself properly on the ideological spectrum.

For the APC, it must look at five or six areas, which I prefer to call national emergencies.

These are: 1. The restoration of confidence/faith in the government. The quality of governance has progressively degenerated from 2003 down, but right now, it is at its lowest ebb.

Where there should be performance or something approaching it, there is crass mediocrity; and where there should be, at least, some hope, PDP appears to have thrown up its hands in helpless surrender. If innocent citizens are bombed, it is an act of God; and if floods wash away people, it is an act of God. PDP is now running an act-of-God government.

It has just emerged that in 10 years (20002010), PDP effortlessly supervised the export of N20.6 trillion to Euro-American and Caribbean havens. And in 2011 alone, while haranguing us with slogans about the dividends of democracy; it exported $19 billion from the country! Those who have for long chided the country for exporting only crude

oil can now be happy: we are also exporting cash!

And even though the party, thanks to INEC and our prostrate judicial system, both the National Assembly and the Presidency, the PDP does not know what to do with the 2013 budget! And not that the budget would be implemented when the needless crisis is over!

2. Security. The APC must devise genuine and concrete methods of tackling the problem of insecurity in the country. There must be an alternative to the crude and clueless tactics now on offer. What is even worse is that under PDP, government is feeding fat on our fears.

MDAs now have security votes besides their normal budgets. Even the armed services like the Police and National Security and Civil Defence corps (NSCDC) have special security votes! To put it bluntly, insecurity, especially the Boko Haram scourge, has become a meal ticket!

Government is now not only dancing on the graves of victims of the various terrorist attacks, it seems to be holding a bazaar. Its slogan: Power to the People may as well read: Agony to the people.

Other areas are: Energy, Infrastructure and Economic diversification and Corruption.

Towards these the APC should convene a national summit or retreat, where its members, besides a broad spectrum of critical stakeholders, will brainstorm on Project Nigeria; setting targets, devising strategies, setting timelines and evaluation mechanisms.

This way the new party will have a practical multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional and multi-visioned policy/ programme documents with which to hit the ground running when it transits from opposition party to government party.

Simon Imobo-Tswam, a veteran journalist and newspaper editor made this contribution from Abuja.

Cult activities: Dent on image of tertiary institutions

By Charles Ikedikwa Soeze

W

hile delivering some findings of psychology as aid to educational policy at the centenary hall, Ake Abeokuta, on Monday, 22nd January, 1973 at 4 p.m. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (of blessed memory) the best president Nigeria never had according to the late ex-Biafran warlord, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegu Ojukwu stated that education has two functional and inseparable facts: learning and development (L&D). There can be neither without the other.

Therefore, it is a truism to say that teaching automatically implies learning and vice versa.

However, while teaching implies the existence of living people or students, there can be learning without the existence of a living teacher. It is therefore appropriate to say that a good deal of our knowledge in life derives from natural phenomena and from the general setting of the society in which we live.

In this connection therefore, education has been a means of transmitting one's culture from one generation to other. It is the process of bringing about permanent change in the students and pupils behaviour. Since it is the oldest industry, it has been applied by the society to preserve, maintain, and upgrade its social equilibrium.

Generally, education in any country is expected to bring about social changes in attitude; motivation and incentive which will culminate to technological change, invention and imitation. Education is also expected to play a vital role in the structural integration of a

plural society by equalising occupational and economic opportunities, raise the level of selfreliance, deduction, responsibility, nationality, loyalty, a sense of co-existence, cooperation, fairplay and understanding (Wang: 1976).

Education as a whole therefore should broaden the outlook of the recipients who work for peace and harmony in times of stress and strain.

Obviously, Nigeria's realization of education's potency as the key factor to social, economic and political development formulated a new policy on education as an expression of government's way of achieving that part of its national objectives through education as tool (Adeyemi 1999). These objectives as stated in the second, third and fourth national development plans are, the building of a just and egalitarian society; a united, strong and self-reliant nation; a great and dynamic economy; a free and democratic society; and of bright and full opportunities for all citizens.

Currently, secret cult activities have dented and denigrated the image of our tertiary institutions including primary and secondary schools; this is a dangerous dichotomy and should be urgently addressed. One can say that there are good reasons to believe that many of the early secret cults in the world were originally founded as benevolent associations for laudable and objectionable purposes. It is claimed that in China, secrete associations have always played vital roles in the life of the Chinese, which extend to their politics, religion, commerce, trade unions and the criminal underworld. In Nigeria, according to Fadipe (1970), among the Yoruba, there existed in the past, the ogboni secret society which was

associated with the making of laws and administration. It also existed among top civil servants in the defunct Midwest Region.

Members became power brokers in the appointments and promotions of top civil servants.

The beginning of secret cults on campus dated back to the formation of the pirate confraternity in the 1950's by a group of undergraduates of the University of Ibadan among whom was the noble laureate, Wole Soyinka. At this period, university education was an exclusive preserve of the children of the rich or high class. The poor children of the less privileged who managed to gain admission into the system were made to encounter a lot of problems through strict conventions which must be followed and adequately obeyed. These acts of ''Colonial Aristocracy'' made some students which include Wole Soyinka, Aig Imoukhuede, Nathaniel Oyelola, Olumuyiwa Awe, Ifeghale Amata, Ralph Opara and Pius Obeghe formed the confraternity to fight against these negative tendencies of colonial mentality, elitist behaviour, and all other forms of social ills. The association fought seriously against moribund convention, fight for humanistic ideals and to fight against corruption and tribalism, the pirate confraternity, it is clear that the pioneers had benevolent purposes. Without mincing words, campus cult activities have taken a new dimension which is not only tarnishing but denigrating the image of students, staff, management and the education industry generally.

It is abundantly clear that the cultists in

Nigerian tertiary institutions have made nonsense of higher education. The cultists now use the association as a tool for perpetrating violence, killings, robbery, vendetta, hooliganism, gangstarism, force, unjust denial of other students, false confidence, examination malpractice, fraud, violation of rules and regulations of schools among other bad acts that are against acceptable societal norms and valves.

No doubt, the pride of higher education has been wiped off, as no student feel too proud to introduce himself or herself as an undergraduate or student of a tertiary institution because the cultists have soiled the image of the large number of students.

It is appropriate to say that cult activities on our campuses, universities, polytechnics, colleges of education including primary and secondary schools now pose a serious threat even on national unity. The human and material losses that often attend the operations of cults have become scandalous, leading to calls for a decisive measure by government and the larger society to stop their devilish and criminal acts. Recently, Idiong Bassey Nathaniel and Ekanem Bassey Nathaniel who were rusticated for cult activities in different tertiary institution allegedly murdered their father Professor Nathaniel Bassey who retired from the Department of Economics, University of Calabar, over his N45m gratuity. Where do we go from here according to a popular musician?

Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, charlessoeze@yahoo.ca

PAGE 38

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 16 — SUNDAY 17, FEBRUARY, 2012

Online comments 2015: Thinking aloud

As always, your columns are enlightening and to the point.

Unfortunately, the PDP has introduced do or die politics, the North has lost its core values, people are eliminated for mere pittance, the youths are angry, very angry, and they will take their destiny in their hands. The Northern Governors ought to be aware of this massive frustration and lack of jobs. 2015 will either be a victory for the toiling masses and the country or the beginning of the end.

– Mrs. H.A Mohammed

Hospital wants handcuff removed from patients to facilitate treatment Is the Nigeria Police working or doing what they are supposed to do, at all? Why should bail issue be an excuse for the police to damp a suspect at the hospital unattended? Why should the hospital be their new custody? If they wish his leg severed they could have gone ahead, after all, they have been accused of killing such suspects in the past. The better the police be our friends the better.

– Dankatsinawa

him the reason. Allah yafitar da Hamza Al'mustapha daga wannan mugun kangi da yatsincikansa,yakuma karya dukkan wani me hannu wurin tsareshi.

– Salisu Ibrahim

Islamist group, Ansaru, claims responsibility for kidnap of 8 foreigners am surprised and I disappointed to hear this.

Ansaru group claimed to have abducted foreigners sent to repair their road, so now it is not Boko Haram but Ansaru.

This is the more reason why government should not dialogue with any group at all because if it dialogues with Boko Haram, Ansaru will come up and after Ansaru another group may also come up.

– Uche

Presidency has lost credibility – ACN

We have said time and again, that any government needs to be credible to win the trust of the citizens, without which it cannot govern effectively.

– The Business Dispatch

I had 9 surgeries in 1 month, says Patience Jonathan

Haba Nigerians, what pleasure do you derive from painting someone black? For me and my entire family, we will continue to pray for the Ebele Jonathan's family, not only the President and the First Lady, God in his infinite Mali war: Repatriated mercy will surely see them Nigerian soldier dies in through to the end in Aso Jaji Rock. Wishing our able Is hardship not part of Mother quick recovery, long Military training? life and prosperity.

– Yourname – Mary Rengmang from Jos

Nigeria has many corrupt people, says ex ICPC boss

Death sentence against me miscarriage of justice – Al Mustapha This is ridiculous, injustice a n d unfairness. How some will be detained for more than 20 years in prison without knowing his fate. And when he was not found guilty, also sentenced to death by hanging? I have the believe that everyone knows what Military Order is ,that when a Superior command you to do something, that you are expected to obey and do it Instantly without asking

Mustafa Akanbi should shut up his mouth. This is the same ICPC judge that ruled that Obasanjo was free of corruption. How did he, now, see that a lot of corrupt people are in Nigeria?

Where was he when Obasanjo was busy cleaning Nigeria's coffers? Akanbi should be arrested and sent to prison for such irresponsible ruling.

– Jimmie Jihnson

APC alternative to PDP in 2015 – Gov. Aliyu Okupe you are wasting your time and deceiving yourself in defending PDP and Jonathan, although that is what you were paid to do.

Jonathan cannot be trusted simple, here is a man that denied his party written agreement on zoning, lied about his wife's health condition, Jonathan should not continue beyond 2015.

Nigerians now have a far better alternative in APC and General Buhari.

– Awojobi Olakunle

PAGE 39

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

International

Russia slams US response over Damascus blast R

u s s i a n has accused the US of applying double standards over Syria and blamed Washington for blocking a UN Security Council statement condemning a car bomb attack in Damascus.

Moscow's statement on Friday came a day after Syrian state television reported the deaths of dozens in the blast on a busy highway in Mazraa district, damaging nearby Russian embassy buildings in the capital.

"We are disappointed that, as a result of the United States' position at the United Nations Security Council, the terrorist act in Syria was not condemned," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference after talks with China's foreign minister.

"We believe this is double standards and see in it a very dangerous tendency by our American colleagues to depart from the fundamental principle of unconditional condemnation of any terrorist act, a principle which secures the unity of the international community in the fight against terrorism."

Russia has used its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to protect President Bashar al-Assad from three consecutive resolutions aimed at putting pressure on him to end the nearly two-yearold conflict.

The US has called for Assad's departure but Moscow says his removal must not be a precondition for any solution of the conflict.

State media said 53 died in the car bomb attack in Damascus, while activists said the death toll was at least 60 [AFP]

Tunisian president names new prime minister

M

oncef Marzouki, Tunisia's president, has asked Ali Laarayedh, the interior

minister, to form a government within 15 days, after the main Islamist Ennahda party named him as their candidate, the

Laarayedh, left, has been asked by President Marzouki, to form a government within two weeks [AFP]

presidential spokesman has said.

Marzouki's spokesman told a news conference on Friday that Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi had formally nominated Laarayedh to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who resigned on Tuesday.

Laarayedh, the country's interior minister, was a founding member of Ennahdha, and served as the party's secretary-general in the 1980s, up until his arrest in 1992. He served 14 years in prison.

Ennahdha is the largest party in the National Constituent Assembly with 89 of the body's 217 seats.

Marzouki's secular Congress for

the Republic party, the secondlargest with 29 seats, has already said it will join a new Ennahdha-led coalition. As such, Ennahdha should have little trouble getting the 109 votes needed for a majority.

But Ennahdha's choice is likely to raise hackles among liberal Tunisians, some of whom accuse Laarayedh's interior ministry of failing to curb violence by political Islamists against advocates of secularism, including journalists and artists.

"He is the official candidate of Ennahdha for prime minister," Mouadh Ghannouchi, son of party chief Rached Ghannouchi, said earlier on Friday.

Three killed in Yemen ahead of protest rally

P

o l i c e in Yemen have shot dead three people who were heading to a rally in Aden for southern independence, as the deeply divided country marked a year since the ousting of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president.

Officers said on Thursday that a passer-by was also killed when, according to Southern Movement member Fathi Ben Lazraq, "they [the police] fired on activists trying to reach the place where the rally was being held" in the city's Parade Square.

Reports said police were trying to prevent clashes between them and the Al-Islah (Reform) party, which held a demonstration in the same

square in support of national unity and of interim President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

Naser al-Khabji, a Southern Movement leader, said that "clashes could break out" if proHadi supporters demonstrated.

Security sources said police also wounded 34 southerners in clashes around Aden, with the Southern Movement saying they were trying to prevent protesters from entering the port city from neighbouring provinces.

Two policemen were hurt by sniper fire from the rooftops of buildings surrounding the square, security officials said.

Aden was paralysed as security forces deployed heavily around the city.

Supporters of the separatist Southern Movement gathered in Aden to rally for southern independence [Reuters]

S Africa's Pistorius gets bail in murder case

S

o u t h African magistrate Desmond Nair has granted bail for Oscar Pistorius, the Olympian athlete star accused of murdering his girlfriend.

During his summarising of arguments on Friday, the forth day of the bail hearing, Chief Magistrate Nair said he did not believe that Pistorius was a flight risk. He added that the prosecution had failed to show that Pistorius had a propensity for violence.

"The accused has made a case to be released on bail," The decision by Nair drew cheers from Pistorius' family and supporters at the Pretoria magistrate's court, although the athlete appeared unmoved as the decision was read out.

Earlier in the day, the prosecution vehemently opposed bail to Chief Magistrate Nair in a case that has transfixed South Africans and brought international media attention to the nation's justice system and police capabilities.

Pistorius is charged with one count of premeditated murder in the February 14 killing of Reeva Steenkamp. He says he accidentally shot her, thinking she was a dangerous intruder inside his home, lurking in a toilet stall off his bedroom.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel called Pistorius' version that he shot Steenkamp accidentally improbable and argued that Pistorius did not have to have planned the killing for days in advance for it to be premeditated.

PAGE 40

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Feature

Sack of NIMC staff: Meal ticket evaporates

By Abdulwahab Isa

E

mployment exercises in Nigeria is often conducted in a cult-like manner that sacrifice merit and principle of federal character on the alter of cronyism, and in some cases, outright impunity.

From the innocuous Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), to the horsewhip-carrying Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), including Nigeria's juiciest cash cow: the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the tactics are same.

Unemployment figures by the National Bureau of Statistics including ones issued by twin financial bodies- the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) squarely blames Nigeria's precarious insecurity situation on the huge army of unemployed youths.

With the advent of present democratic dispensation, government jobs are by no means an easy task to come by on merit.

The stakes are increasingly getting higher, essentially because elected politicians are increasingly getting in the way of recruitment exercises by cornering vacancy slots to their wards, a situation that leaves brilliant minds of no influence gasping for breath.

Two likely scenarios confront a graduate seeking placement in any of the MDAs or the paramilitary establishments.

He is either adopted by a highranking political office holder as his candidate; or does the alternative- 'purchase' the offer, which comes with a price tag.

The private sector is weakened, rendered hapless and inefficient by an unfriendly business environment. With the exception of Dangote Industry Group, private firms routinely close shop in Nigeria, occasioned by lack of power and pervasive security situation.

In the heat of scramble for few available jobs by desperate Nigerian graduates, some civil servants are fighting hard to retain their meal ticket following what they consider unjust and a pre-meditated sack by an overbearing CEO. On Tuesday this week, hundreds of sacked staff of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) recently dismissed by the commission on account of invalid qualification stormed the National Assembly protesting their sack. The leader of the protesting staff, Mr. Ushe Fidelis vowed before lawmakers to sustain strike momentum unless their plight is addressed by the lawmakers.

They accused NIMC management under Chris Onyemenam of plotting to recruit 18,600 new staff after sacking 4,600 of the existing staff of the commission.

Fidelis, who spoke on behalf of his troubled colleagues lamented a situation where several investigative inquiries into the issue by both chambers of the National Assembly failed to yield the desired result which is to

Former members of staff of National Identity Management Commission blocking the entrance to the National Assembly to demand for the intervention of the parliament in their case, recently in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa recall the dismissed workers.

Addressing the protesters, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity, Senator Abdulmumini Maigoro, said that the Senate would look into the situation, assuring them that the parliament will do everything possible to unravel the situation behind the sack.

Before Tuesday protest, NIMC aggrieved staff had held Onyemenam hostage.

Reports emanating from NIMC last year clearly indicated a commission reeling under squabbles between the NIMC Staff and the DG over his intention to sack about 4000 workers Clearly, two issues formed the core of the face-off. Initially, they resented their sack which most

claimed was done to pave way for DG loyalists and appeasing some interests. But when it became apparent to the affected staff that their fate had been sealed and accomplished, they rejected what they called peanuts as their pay-offs.

An aggrieved staff who pleaded anonymity had declared then: "Yes, we have agreed to leave and accept our fate, but we cannot accept this 'peanuts' as pay-off, after we have put up to 10 years in a government organisation, how can he pay us off with just N300, 000 after spending 10 years of our life in the said commission.

Collectively, they put a lie to a claim by their DG that they

are incapable to function in the task of providing a new identity card which the commission is set to undertake.

Some NIMC sacked staff alleged the thought of their sack was hatched soon after the release of the N30.066 billion for the implementation of National identity card.

The DG has defended his action as according to him, majority of the over 10,000 workers he inherited were ghost workers, as according to him that some of them had employment in other organisations while still collecting salaries from NIMC. He said that "while more than 3,000 ghost workers were eliminated in 2008, the organisation continued to bear the brunt of paying for another

3,000 ghost and redundant workers until August when they were asked to go.

"The nominal roll of the defunct Department of National Civil Registration (DNCR) had over 10,000 members of staff, with a correspondingly high number of executive cadre staff who have remained idle since the massive card production exercise unde the SAGEM card issuance scheme that ended in December 2006.

"Management took certain decisions to address these immediate challenges; first was to ascertain the nominal roll of over 10,200 people. At the end of the exercise, we could not account for over 3,000 members of staff inherited from DNCR," he said.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 41

Weekend Nigeria may bid to host 2019 AFCON, says Amadu

By Patrick Andrew

T

h e Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may be to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations if the Federal Government agrees to a proposal to be submitted through the National Sports Commission (NSC) to that effect.

Making this known during the week, the General Secretary of the NFF, Musa Amadu, confirms that plans are underway for the football federation to formally approach the authorities for permission to forward a bid for the hosting rights

of the AFCON 2019 to CAF. " The decision for Nigeria to bid for the 2019 Nations Cup is not to be done in isolation by the NFF. It is a national bid and you have to get the approval of the necessary authorities before you can make a move; right now am not aware we are bidding for it,'' he added.

Amadu said Nigeria's bid would be hinged on the Super Eagles' recent success where they defeated their Stallions of Burkina Faso counterparts 1-0 clinch the trophy for the third time.

However, he said that bidding for the hosting rights of the

continental fiesta is not a matter the NFF would singularly decide but need the federal government consent before formally approaching the continental body for the rights.

Should the NFF put forward the bid, it would be the second under six years. It had bidded for the 2010 hosting rights but CAF opted to give that to Angola, 2012 to Gabon/Equatorial Guinea joint bid and the 2013 to Libya.

But Libya could not because of the internecine war that consumed late Col.Muamar Gadafi but South Africa stepped in to host. However,

Ofor Okenwa said Mba has always been a player of Rangers as he was sent on loan to Dolphin in the first instance.

“We don't have to start joining issues with Warri Wolves on who owns Sunday Mba. Any contractual agreement of a player is with the state FA, and that is Delta state F A. “ Like when Mba joined Rangers from Enyimba, he was duly registered in Enugu F A and his papers are still on my table.

Even his loan deal to Dolphin, it was duly documented,” said Okenwa.

“Warri Wolves are crying wolf. We don't have any business with them because Mba is a

registered player of Rangers. He joined us from Enyimba, then we loaned him to Dolphin, who in turn loaned him to Warri Wolves without our consent,” added Rangers media officer Foster Chime.

“Mba is our player. A player has the right to say where he wants to play and Mba has come out to say he wants to play in Rangers.

“Rangers even gave him transport fare to Abuja to team up with Eagles before they left for Faro.

He was training with us, his Honda Accord is parked in our Enugu camp and I know he will be glad to team up with Chibuzor Okonkwo, his childhood friend from Jos.”

Rangers, Warri Wolves fight over AFCON hero Mba

R

angers have declared that AFCON hero Sunday Mba is their bonafide player contrary to the claims by Warri Wolves, where he last played.

Mba, who shone at the Nations Cup in South Africa and even scored the championship winner in the final against Burkina Faso, is bound for an overseas club soon.

Warri Wolves have maintained the overseas-bound Mba is their player, but Rangers have now come out to dismiss such a claim. Already, Wolves are demanding one million euros from whoever declares interest in their prize asset.

Enugu state FA boss Chidi

Musa Amadu, NFF Scribe

CAF awarded Nigeria the rights to host the world in the FIFA U-17 fiesta in 2009.

Weekend Peoples Sports recalls that Nigeria had previously hosted twice; first in 1980 and 10 years later together with Ghana came to the rescue when Zimbabwe was unable to do host the continent because of economic reasons.

The General Secretary said Nigeria would lack nothing in terms of facilities since those used for Nigeria '09 cadet championship were of standard plus the additional ones built by

states after the tournament.

Meanwhile, he has assured that efforts are in top gear for the 2014 World Cup qualifying game between Nigeria and Kenya, next month at the UJ Esuene Stadium Calabar. ``I know that preparations will begin in earnest in early March for the 2014 World Cup when the coach will call his players to camp in readiness for the qualifying match against Kenya. ``The Kenyans would come with the intention of causing an upset; that alone is a big task and we must be prepared,’’ he said.

Super Falcons coach to be appointed soon, says NFF

T

Sunday Mba being mobbed by teammates after he scored the decider against Ivory Coast in the AFCON quarter-finals match in South Africa.

h e Secretary-General, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF, Musa Amadu, has confirmed that efforts are in top gear to appointed the head coach for Super Falcons.

Amadu yesterday that arrangements were nearing conclusion for the engagement of the coach to give direction to the team.

“There are ongoing plans to hire a new coach for the Super Falcons. The team will be totally overhauled in terms of the playing personnel and the

coaching crew. It is the objective of the NFF to return the Super Falcons to the pinnacle of the game in Africa.

Only last week, the football federation board through its spokesman, Emeka Inyama, had assured that the new Falcons coach would be appointed within weeks.

Inyama had equally said that the long awaited NFF technical director was being considered and added that efforts are on to empanel the technical crew of Falcons as well as others.

PAGE 42

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Federations to receive funding on performance, says Minister

H

enceforth, sports federations would only receive budgetary allocations based on provable records of sound planning and implementation and performance.

Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, who said this on Thursday during the presentation of materials to states for distribution to schools by the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), said only sports federations are convincing in performance would be allowed to assess part of their allocations. ``All federations are likely to get basic funding, but they must show some proof of performance,’’ he said.

The minister, who was represented by the Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr Patrick Ekeji, said a lot of changes would be made in charting a way forward for sports in the country.

He added that after the 11th All Africa Games in Maputo, ``we have reviewed our performances at the commission level and we also reviewed our performances at the 2012 Olympics Games’’. ``This is the reason why we will have to make a lot of changes in charting the way forward on how we administer and manage sports in this country, as there will be a marked deviation from how we used to do it. ``Consequently, all federations will have to show verifiable proof of achievements and regular monitoring, evaluation and reevaluation to access part of the funds that may be available. ``This will make the federations and their board members to be more effective and attract sponsors into sports. We are hoping that the measure will attract more money into sports administration as there

is the need to have strong federations.’’

Abdullahi added that the NSC would play the role it was established to play, which is to provide policy guidelines and monitor implementation.

He said the policies, which will soon be published, might not go down well with some people. ``In no distant time, some of the policies will be published and we will ensure that they are followed. The decisions may not be too popular with some people, but there is no way a child will be born and there is no shedding of blood. `It, therefore, means that the decisions might be tough, but then, only human beings take tough decisions. The federations will have the opportunity to compare how other federations had fared in the last four years and this will make them to be more accountable.’’

Dwyane Wade makes a spectacular jumps dunk in a recent game

15 ECOWAS ministers meet NVBF rekindles over dissolution of SCSA grassroots interest through kits donation

By Patrick Andrew

By Albert Akota

T

h e Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) has donated 50 balls and four nets to each of the 37 state volleyball associations in the country.

Presenting the items to the state’s representatives at the National Stadium Abuja, the president of the NVBF, Engineer Abu Gumel, charged the states to take the game of volleyball to the grassroots by delivering the materials to secondary schools in their respective states.

Gumel said the presentation of the equipment is meant for ginger grassroots interest and subsequently development of the game.

He promised to steer the national body to monitor the efforts at creating awareness and developing national consciousness for the game. Gumel also said that the NVBF would monitor the distribution of the materials to ensure it is use for talent hunt at the grassroots level.

Accordingly, he charged the 36 states and the FCT to send feedback to the federation on the use of the materials and urged them to be transparent and accountable in the distribution of the items even as the lowest levels.

“One of the major challenges and constraints to the development and growth of sports generally in the

third world and Nigeria in particular has been lack of basic facilities and training equipment.

“Volleyball played at professional level is a big time business, no wonder the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) has deemed it fit to extend its hands of fellowship to Nigeria volleyball in terms of balls and nets, “he said.

Gumel further said that the reflection of many individual and organizations whose focus and shown concern have helped the NVBF to lift the sport to greater height.

He commended the federal government for it unflinching supports in the area of material, funding and moral support.

W

e s t African Sports Ministers are to convene in Abuja on Tuesday to deliberate on the resolution for the winding off of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) and other salient matters of sports development and cooperation within the region Accordingly, the National Sports Commission (NSC) and hosts of the meeting is working assiduously to ensure that sub-regional dialogue is conducted under an atmosphere conducive for shrewd deliberations.

Malam Abba Yola, Special Assistant

in October, 2011.

Already, no fewer than eight countries from SCSA Sports Development zones 2 and 3 and six other sport technocrats have indicated interest to participate at the meeting.

These include Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau and Liberia.

Issues Topics to be discussed during the meeting amongst others are; Hosting of CIGEPS Regional meeting slated to hold in Nigeria in March, 2013; MINEP V meeting in Germany; ECOWAS position on the winding up of SCSA; ECOWAS Games and ECOWAS countries’ performance at the Olympics.

President wants taekwando re-branded to attract sponsorship

G

Minister of Sport, Bolaji Abdullahi

to the Director – General of NSC, Mr Patrick Ekeji, said in a release that the meeting is at the instance of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA). Also, Nigeria is currently the chairman of the African Union Council of Ministers of Sports (AU-CAMS).

“Issues to be discussed at the Abuja meeting include the decision and resolutions taken at the AU-CAMS4 that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October 2011.

Yola said in the statement that issues to be discussed at the Abuja meeting include the decision and resolutions taken at the AU-CAMS4 that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

eorge Ashiru, the President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Black Belt College, has called for the re-branding of the sport in the country to make it attractive to sponsors.

Ashiru said in Lagos that the sport could be repackaged in such a way that private companies would be interested in investing.

“It’s about branding. A sport that’s popular will attract marketing and advertising companies. They would want to associate with it so that they can get mileage. Let the sport be associated with intelligent people, associated with children in schools,

associated with the academia.

"I didn’t know that taekwondo had so many professors, I didn’t know that they had so many PhD holders involved in taekwondo; I didn’t know that so many doctors. Because you all wear the same outfits you all look like you’re all athletes so when they start seeing that, there’s a potential to reach out.

"Then it’s a good place for us to sell our product, so we will need to move from the sport just being a sport to becoming a brand, a product so to speak that you can package.

“You can’t expect companies to just sponsor for emotional reasons there has to be a business basis for making that

decision; I think that’s the side we now need to move on’’.

Ashiru said focus should be on managing, marketing and branding of taekwondo as a sport that would henceforth attract the public and private companies and added that it is one of the top three sports that could attract medals for the country at international competitions.

Taekwondo is an Olympic event. It’s one of the guaranteed Olympic sport now.

We already have at least two quality international medals at the Olympic level.

Not to talk of African Games and the others.

So like I said it’s about image. If a company has so much to spend, they would think.

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 43

City meets Chelsea in mere sideshow T

w o months ago few could have imagined a Premier League clash between Manchester City and Chelsea would have little bearing on the title race yet Sunday's fixture is likely to be eclipsed by top against bottom battles.

With 12 games left, champions City are 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester United, who visit bottom side Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, while third-placed Chelsea are a further four points behind.

With their title challenges all but over and Champions League spots looking likely, the focus have switched to respective managers Roberto Mancini and Rafael Benitez, who know that any defeat can harm their job prospects long-term.

Benitez is only in charge at Stamford Bridge until the end of the season but his hopes of a more permanent role seem doomed because of his unpopularity with the fans. Meanwhile, media reports have speculated that Mancini could be axed in May. Chelsea skipper John Terry, desperate to get back in the first team for league matches after a spell on the bench following injury, believes the club have plenty to play for and not just in the FA Cup and Europa League.

"This season has been a little disappointing, we've let Man U get so many points ahead of us, but everyone is dropping points and we can still easily get second place," he said.

"If we can go on a run, with the two boys back from the African Nations (Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel), we have a real chance."

The Sun newspaper was forced to publish an apology on Wednesday over an incorrect

S

Mikel and Yaya Toure in action story about a bust-up between Terry and Benitez but whether the former England captain starts at City on Sunday (1330) remains to be seen.

A 3-1 home defeat by Bayern Munich in Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg has left nervous Arsenal on the brink of missing out on a trophy for the eighth season in a row and grabbing fourth spot is now crucial.

first-half substitute to score one goal and make another as United beat Reading in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday.

But Nani, who is out of contract in 2014, has struggled for form and has made only five league starts this term.

The United manager has indicated that he wants to keep the winger, who signed from Sporting Lisbon in June 2007.

Ferguson said: "Nani is definitely one of the best match-winners in Europe. He scores incredible goals. He has an incredible talent for winning matches. We would like him to

I will never resign —Wenger

A

r s e n e Wenger has insisted he never considered walking away from the biggest crisis of his 16-year reign as Arsenal manager, but he has refused to be drawn on any speculation that he will remain in charge at the club beyond the end of his current contract in 2014.

Wenger's agitated and angry exchanges with journalists ahead of the Champions League clash with Bayern Munich on Tuesday night led many to conclude the veteran boss was cracking under the pressure of another season of indifferent results, but he has moved to insist he has no intention of leaving Arsenal

Barclays Premier League Fulham v Stoke Arsenal v Aston Villa Norwich v Everton QPR v Man Utd Reading v Wigan West Brom v Sunderland Sunday Man City Newcastle

Arsenal trail fourth-placed rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who visit West Ham United on Monday (2000), by four points in the race for the Champions League playoff spot.

Manager Arsene Wenger's position as manager could look even more brittle if they lose to Villa, who are a place and a point above the drop zone after a 2-1 win over West Ham United last time out.

Manchester United demands Nani consistency

ir Alex Ferguson says Nani can secure a long-term Manchester United future if he consistently performs well.

The Portuguese winger, 26, came on as a

WEEKEND FIXTURES

any time soon.

After their FA Cup defeat against Blackburn was quickly followed by a thumping defeat against Bayern to ensure this has been the most traumatic week of his historic reign as Arsenal boss, Wenger admits he has been rocked by setbacks he was not expecting and yet quitting is not an option he has considered.

When asked whether there had been a moment of the last week when he considered resigning as Arsenal boss, Wenger was unequivocal in his response.

"Never, not for one second," he stressed.

stay."

Nani, though, was linked with Arsenal and Tottenham ahead of the last transfer window, despite Ferguson insisting that he had no intention of selling him.

Outgoing United chief executive David Gill has made plans to try to extend the Portugal international's stay.

Ferguson said Nani wanted a guarantee of regular first-team football, but has told him that the best way to achieve that is to keep playing well.

"The love for the game and the love to win (keeps me motivated).

Arsene Wenger

v v

Chelsea Southampton

French Ligue 1 Rennes AC Ajaccio AS Nancy Troyes Evian TG Valenciennes Sunday

v v v v v v

Sochaux Lille St Etienne Bastia Montpellier Toulouse

Lyon Bordeaux PSG

v v v

Lorient Brest Marseille

Capital One Cup Bradford v

Swansea

German Bundesliga Bayern Munich v VfB Stuttgart v Hannover 96 v Mainz v Augsburg v Hoffenheim Schalke 04 v

Werder Bremen Nurnberg Hamburg Wolfsburg TSG F/ Dusseldorf

Sunday B/M'gladbach Greuther Furth

v v

B/ Dortmund B/ Leverkusen

Spanish Primera Liga Athletic Bilbao v Sunday

Real Sociedad

Mallorca v Real Zaragoza D/ La Coruna Barcelona Rayo Vallecano Celta Vigo Atletico Madrid Real Betis

Getafe v v v v v v v

ONO Estadi Valencia R/ Madrid Sevilla Valladolid Granada Espanyol Malaga

Italy Serie A Sampdoria Parma Bologna Atalanta Juventus Cagliari Inter Milan Rayo Vallecano Celta Vigo Atletico Madrid Real Betis

v v v v v v v v v v v

Chievo L Catania Fiorentina Roma Siena Torino AC Milan Valladolid Granada Espanyol Malaga

PAGE 44

P I C T O R I A L

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Sweden-born Palestine midfielder Imad Zaarata, told reporters the unique secret of his success and the progress Palestinian football is making.

Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez has defended Fernando Torres, despite the striker proving wasteful as the Blues progressed to the Europa League last 16 after a 1-1 draw with Sparta Prague

Galatasaray officials have reacted angrily to Schalke's decision to appeal against the result of Wednesday's Champions League match due to doubts over Didier Drogba's eligibility

England bring back Manu Tuilagi, Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley for the Six Nations clash with France

Britain's Heather Watson suffers a 6-1 6-2 loss to Stefanie Voegele in the quarterfinals of the US Indoor Championship

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 23— SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 45

Health Interview

Launching free maternal child health care in Borno

By A'ishaBiolaRaji

A

ddressing health issues in Borno has been quite challenging, but despite the problems, Borno state has made a lot of progress in the area of reinvesting subsidy in the health sector (SUREP programme), this particularly, in Maternal and Child Health (MCH).

According to Dr. Salma Anas, Commissioner for Health, Borno state, in a chat with our reporter, the challenges have not hindered commitment of the state government in the delivery of quality health services to the people of Borno state."We have made giant stride in the past 1 ½ year that we came on board, we have strengthened almost eighteen health care facilities at the secondary facility level and our focus is still on primary health care level. "We have done a lot of equipping, providing of drugs and also partnering with the National Primary Health Care to ensure that we get the best out of the nurses and Midwives that are deployed through the Midwife Service Scheme and also the SUREP program before we prepare our counterpart funding."

The commissioner explained that, even though the state has challenges on the delivery of health care services especially on polio, where there is need to move from house to house, with lots of threat to the lives of health workers, and the challenge of curfew that still exists, the state government has continued to provide necessary support so that women don't die as a result of pregnancy and delivery.

According to her, there are however innovative ways of facing the challenges, "We have come up with innovative ways on how to contain these problems, what we are doing now is not to limit the work of health within the health sector but to widen the scope to involve all our partners especially the community and religious leaders.

"With respect to access to facilities by pregnant women, we have made a lot of adjustment in terms of getting the women to the facilities as early as possible within the onset of labour, and also changing the shifting time to make it a twelve hour shifting time and having medical doctors within facilities at all times."

"Also, we try to make sure we have our ambulance services available and we are collaborating with the Joint Task Force (JTF), to ensure that, our ambulance services are allowed to pick up women within their homes and take them to health facilities within the metropolitan areas."

However interestingly, there are numbers that have been distributed by the JTF, of which the women or

Dr. Salma Anan-Kolo, Commissioner for Health, Borno State whoever concerned is expected to call. "We have announced on the television and the radio and through gatherings and community leaders, the numbers that have been distributed by the JTF which a woman in labour can call and will receive ambulance service immediately.

On how far the state has gone with polio, the commissioner has this to say, "With respect to polio, we continue to intensify on the awareness creation especially as we have set up a group of strong advocates comprising religion and community leaders, that are very influential within the community.

Dr. Ado J.G Muhammad, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency

"They are engaging with the community to ensure that, they are well informed about polio."

However, the state has realized the need to intensify on routine immunization by improving on the health care facilities spread across the state. "Currently, we want to also intensify more effort on routine immunization so that more women and families will have the ability to bring their children for immunisation.

"What we need to do, to make it more attractive is to strengthen those primary health care facilities to have comprehensive services, not only immunization services."The attraction in Borno is not immunisation but you know that when you have access to such facilities, you have access to treatment, basic health care delivery and maternal health services. "So in view of that, to make it very attractive to people, we have just launched the free maternal service delivery," she declared.

According to Dr. Salma, the services also include secondary facilities where facility strength in terms of human resources already exists. "Our vision is to ensure that, we scale up in each and every place, a minimum of five primary health care facilities that are functional with a required human resources, and also in delivering free maternal health services.

These, she said are some of the innovative ways, "When all these are available; they make it attractive to the community and make them believe in the efficiency of the facilities. "We are trying to change that attitude of lack of belief in our facilities due to the fact that, the facilities have not been functional. "We are now shifting to providing facilities that are functional and can cater for the needs of the people in terms of health care services and that will be the entry point so that we can win their hearts."

The commissioner said the health sector is expected to provide health care system for everyone irrespective of status. "In terms of an emergency, the health sector is expected to provide health service for affected victims irrespective of background."

She said the major priority of the state is to further strengthen the health care system. "Our priority is to strengthen the health system and that is what we are doing."Each facility has minimum requirement of equipment and we have University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital that deals with more complicated issues. "When we came in about one and a half year ago, we just had about 38 medical doctors but now we have 110 medical doctors so there is an improvement in terms of attracting them. "In the area of nursing, we have partner and counterpart funding similarly to what the federal government is doing," she concluded.

PAGE 46

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Interview

Governors' forum is enemy of Nigeria's democracy-Activist A

t present the ruling party, PDP seems to be in crises, as Nigerian don't you see the PDP crisis affecting the nation?

I believe that whatever happens to a party like PDP in a nation like ours may also have effect on the totality of government because if the ruling party does not get it right, it may affect a lot of things. Based on our own investigation, we discovered that the problem with the governor in Adamawa has to do with some personal agenda. You will recall that during the convention of PDP, the same Nyako we are talking about delivered the whole Adamawa State 100 per cent to Jonathan and I think these are the kind of issues that we must first get right. Where was Bamangar Tukur then? Nyako delivered his state 100 per cent and that means that Nyako is on ground. I think to avoid a bigger crisis in PDP, President Jonathan should put a committee in place, made up of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and if possible, some people from the civil society to go and study what is going on in Adamawa State and report back to him.

It is also believe that the problem in the PDP is associated with power tussle between the PDP national chairman and PDP governors. Many people also seem not to be comfortable with activities of the Governors' Forum (NGF) in recent time, what is your take on this?

I am not comfortable with the Governors' Forum because what they are doing is illegal. During Obasanjo's government, what some governors did was a sort of showing off. If you recall, then, they would organise parties; wear the best dresses, eat pounded yam and go.

But the present Governors' Forum is the killer of democracy. Look at what they are doing to local governments.

Because local governments are supposed to be autonomous and account for the money they collect from federation account, but some of the governors steal the local governments' money through joint accounts and now tele-guard the National Assembly not to amend the constitution. Not for Nigeria's interest but for their own interest.

Looking at the way the Governors' Forum is behaving, you can see these Governors are the number one enemy of Nigeria's democracy.

Some of the governors are aspiring to be President but I believe that in a free and fair election there is no way they can win because of their attitudes.

For me I believe that we may not go anywhere with the proposed constitutional amendment because the Northerners will not allow a single state to be created. For me, I am against creation of additional

Mr. Olufemi Aduwo, a human rights activist and social crusader is also the National Coordinator of the Rights Monitoring Group (RMG) and Country Director, Center on Convention for Democratic Integrity (CCDI), in this interview with Ayodele Samuel, he said there is no one single solution to fighting corruption.

Femi Aduwo states because we have many states that are not viable. Many of the states we have presently are not viable and how many of them can survive through their Internal Generated Revenue (IGR)? Many of the states depend largely on the allocation from the federation account to survive. I disagree with the notion that the more you create states, the more you bring government closer to the people. Papa Obafemi Awolowo was Premier of the Western Region and a lot of changes were done in the Western Region.

Considering the rate of corruption in the system, how do you think corruption can be tackled in Nigeria?

Hong Kong was probably the most corrupt country in the world, corruption was a way of life and existed from womb to tomb. In 1974, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) swung into action and within three years about 247 government officials including police officers were prosecuted for corruption and related offences. There is no one single solution to fighting corruption, it requires a well thought out and comprehensive strategic plan- we need to examine the various factors that mainly affect the fight against corruption. If I may ask, is there adequate political will to fight corruption in Nigeria? Is there any political interference in

investigating corruption cases? Is the political system defective? Is there any corruption in the election process? Is there adequate support from the legislative arm in fighting corruption? Is there adequate accountability and transparency in the government? Is the fight against corruption based on a reactive or proactive approach? These and many factors are impending war against corruption. The bench is in a mess and given constitutional power to force executive to prosecute corruption cases will not help the matter.

So, what do you think is the way forward?

There must be an amendment to many of the laws in the country.

We have to look at the issue of plea bargaining very well. It doesn't make sense that Lucky Igbinedion was arraigned for about N8billion and under plea bargaining, you asked him to go and pay about N500million. What is the meaning of that? I am of the view that under plea bargaining anybody caught in the web of corruption should pay the money he stole and after paying the money, he should be jailed. If you steal N80billion, after paying the N80billion back, you should go to jail. We will be making mockery of ourselves if somebody stole N10billion and you ask him to pay N100million after paying that money he goes scot free. We need to

change our attitude and that should be paramount to the society.

Ahead of 2015 presidential election the speculation about President Jonathan running for second term is creating a lot of issues in the country. Would you advice President Jonathan to run in 2015?

President Jonathan must contest. I have said it that he is in his first tenure and those people that went to court to say that President Jonathan is in his second term are just wasting their energy. He has contested once under the constitution and he will contest again in 2015. During 2007 presidential, it was late President Umar Yar'Adua that was elected as President and not Jonathan, Jonathan only completed that term as required by the constitution after

Yar'Adua 's death.

There are several calls for amendment of Nigeria's Constitution and the National Assembly has commended the amendment process, what is your opinion?

I believe that in a normally functioning federation where the fiscal relations among the federating states are properly established, it should not be the responsibility of the President for instance, to make pronouncements on policy issues that are bound to disproportionately affect the people in the different states of federation like wages issue. This is because of differences in the resource endowments of the states in the choice of investments and development projects. It was the operating of genuine fiscal federalism that allowed the regions run by the founding fathers of Nigeria to develop their resources individually, competitively and to the benefits of their people. The workers in Western region at a time were paid a minimum daily wage of five shillings well above what was paid at the federal and other regions.

Today, it is however ironical that the oil producing states and highly commercial and industrial states like Kano and Lagos, feel incapable of paying the level of wages being paid to federal employees. This is a manifestation of the distortion of fiscal federation. Those who are calling for Sovereignty National Conference believed that if the National Assembly members since 1999 till date, are sincere to the Nigerian project, some critical aspects of the constitution, like fiscal and devolution power could have been addressed. I am afraid what we will get at end of this exercise of amending the constitution may not be in the interest of the country and majority of Nigerians because the National Assembly is not serious about the exercise.

“

There must be an amendment to many of the laws in the country. We have to look at the issue of plea bargaining very well. It doesn't make sense that Lucky Igbinedion was arraigned for about N8billion and under plea bargaining, you asked him to go and pay about N500million. What is the meaning of that?

PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

PAGE 47

From the Pulpit Walking in dominion (I)

"T

hen God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" (Gen 1:26 NKJV) A very important phrase in that Scripture is "let them have dominion."

God created man to have dominion over the works of His hand. Verse 28 says, "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"

(NKJV) We see again that word dominion. According to that Scripture, God blessed man and, among other things, gave man the mandate to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Dominion mandate If you compare Gen 1:26 and 28 to Gen 1:22, you will see the difference in how God related to man and other creatures. "And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'" (Gen 1:22 NKJV) God blessed the sea creatures and the birds too but they were only to be fruitful and multiply - they were not given dominion; only man was given power to have dominion. In Gen 8:17, we also see God permitting other creatures to abound, be fruitful and multiply but He didn't give them dominion. "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping

Matthew 5:1,2 h e last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, spoke 400 years before the advent of Jesus Christ. It was His coming that broke the inter-testament period of silence between the books of Malachi and Matthew, between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament.

He came to reveal God's Word and will to man. He came to save and to lead us into the fullness that we can have in God. He is the Saviour, Lord and Teacher. His teaching brought spiritual life and growth to His hearers. Prior to this chapter, Jesus Christ had been calling people to repentance and discipleship; and many people had responded to His call (Matthew 4:17-25).

Until a sinner repents, there is nothing Christ can teach him because he is dead in sins and trespasses. When the sinner answers Christ's call and comes out of darkness into the light, out of sin unto the Saviour, out of spiritual death unto eternal life, then he could be taught by the Lord. When the Lord calls anyone, He makes the individual to forsake his past to follow Him wherever He leads.

During His earthly ministry, He taught the people, preached to them and healed those who were sick among them. He enlightened them and showed them the way of the Lord. Multitudes were attracted to His ministry. He taught three categories of people - His disciples, the multitudes and the people (Matthew 5:1,2; 7:28,29). Disciples are learners who can become

T

thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.'"

(Gen 8:17 NKJV) God has dominion over all things that He created. His dominion is over all the earth and all that is on the earth under the earth and in heaven. It is everlasting. (Ps 103:22,145:13, Dan 4:3, 34, 7:13-14, 1Peter 4:11, 5:11, Rev 1:6). But God has given man the mandate to live in dominion over all the works of His hands. "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet." (Ps 8:6 NKJV) God created man in His own image and delegated His dominion unto man to act on His behalf on earth unlike the other creatures. Ps 82:6 says, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." (NKJV) In John 10:34, Jesus Christ referred to this Scripture when he said, "Is it not written in your law, I said, 'You are god'"? (NKJV) God made man just a little lower than Himself and put man on earth to act on His behalf.

That was what He put Adam in the Garden of Eden to do. "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." (Gen 2:15 NKJV) Adam's exercise of dominion Adam was exercising dominion until Adam and his wife, Eve, sinned.

None of the creatures of God refused or resisted Adam. All the animals man is afraid of today submitted to him because he was walking in dominion.

God didn't name the animals; He brought them to Adam to name. He did that because He had delegated dominion on earth to man (Gen 2:19-

20). Ps 115:16 says, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD's; but the earth He has given to the children of men." (NKJV) It will be wrong to give someone a position but deny him the authority or power to function. God has created you to walk in dominion.

What is dominion?

The word dominion in Gen 1:26, 28 is radah (raw-daw) in Hebrew, and it means "to rule, to have dominion, to dominate, to tread down" To have dominion means to be the master.

"Then God said, 'Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life‌ (Gen 1:26 NLT) In Ps 8:6, the Hebrew word translated dominion is mashal (mawshal). Mashal means "to rule, to have dominion, to reign" Considering those two Hebrew words 'radah' and 'mashal' we can see what God means when he said "have dominion" God wants you to rule, dominate, reign, prevail against, and govern the earth.

God's original dominion mandate was not that of man having dominion over fellow human beings. Jesus told his disciples, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you..."

(Matt 20:25-26 NKJV) Paul says something on dominion in this regard in 2 Cor 1:24: "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand." (NKJV) God's dominion mandate given to man is not to lord it over fellow human beings. God instituted government for the purpose of maintaining order and peace, and everyone is to obey government and

GREEN PASTURES

By Pastor T.O. Banso cedarministryintl@yahoo.com GSM: 08033113523 submit to it to the extent that this does not violate the Word of God. (Rom 13:16, Titus 3:1, 1 Peter 2:13-16). But when a people have been subjugated or conquered physically or spiritually, they come under dominion.

Man's dominion is over other creatures of God. In Gen 9, after the flood, God, in blessing Noah and his sons, told them:"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth"(Verse 1 NKJV) God didn't add "have dominion" But I believe what God did in the verses immediately following that statement was to explain the dominion mandate. God said, "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man." (Gen 9:2-5 NKJV) Did you see how powerful having dominion is?

You're either exercising dominion or you're under dominion; you're either dominating or you're being dominated.

Unfortunately, man lost dominion

in the Garden of Eden but through Jesus, the former dominion is restored to man. Alleluia! Micah 4:8 talks about the former dominion being restored to Jerusalem.

I'll stop here today and conclude this message next week when I shall be talking about the restored dominion and how you can walk in dominion.

TAKE ACTION! If you are not born again, kindly say this prayer now: "0 Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and surrender my life to him today. I invite Jesus into my heart today. By this prayer, I know I am saved.

Thank you Jesus for saving me and making me a child of God" I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible believing, Bible teaching church in your area where you will be taught how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May the Lord make you a Cedar Christian.

May you grow into Christ in all things becoming all God wants you to be.

Learning to grow in his presence apostles; none can be an apostle overnight; you must first be born again, go through discipleship before becoming an apostle - the sent out ones. In His presence, we learn all that we need to live and to grow into Him. 1.

LEARNING IN HIS PRESENCE Matthew 5:1,2; John 3:2; Matthew 22:16; John 8:2,28; Matthew 26:55; Acts 3:22-26; 22:14,15; Matthew 11:29; Isaiah 50:4-7.

There is no secret meaning about Jesus' going to the mountain to teach the people. Seeing the audience was a large crowd, teaching on the plain like the rest of the people would not afford the listeners the opportunity to see Him. He needed to stay on an elevated plain so that everyone could see Him just like we use platforms today.

There was orderliness in His congregation: He was set, settled, well-placed. He had His disciples as well as the multitudes in His audience but His disciples came out of the multitudes to the Lord because they wanted to learn.

Jesus is not only a Saviour and Lord, He is also a Teacher. People in His time knew Him to be a Teacher of a higher level: "Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men". What kind of teacher can draw you closer to God, link you with

FAITH DISCOURSE WITH

Pastor W. F. Kumuyi God and channel your faith to God but a teacher come from God? He was a Teacher come from God because He was teachable before the Father. Likewise, we cannot be effective teachers unless we are teachable. Jesus taught so much in His three years of ministry because He did not limit His teachings to a day of the week but He made it a daily affair. He taught daily "in the temple" in the power of God. Any day not given to teaching was considered lost.

From the ministry of Jesus, we learn that (i) He taught without fear, without favour (ii) He taught with focus and freshness (iii) He taught with firmness and finality (iv) He taught with faith and forbearance (v) He taught freely and fully (vi) He taught frequently and fervently (Luke 23:5) (vii) He taught faithfully and fearlessly.

2.

LEANING ON HIS PROMISE Matthew 5:1,2; Deuteronomy 31:12; Philippians 4:9; John 13:17;

15:4,5; Philippians 4:13; Romans 8:3,4; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 3:20.

Christ is "a teacher come from God" indeed. The difference between Him (Christ, the great Teacher) and other teachers like Moses, David and Daniel was that His Words proceed with transforming power to accomplish in His hearers His good purpose.

These Old Testament saints could not transform the people they taught but Christ had the power to teach and transform His hearers.

While the audience of these Old Testament teachers could not find grace to obey the truth they were taught, the audience He taught received enabling grace to obey His Words. This happened as they listened and leaned upon the Lord for grace to obey Him. As they relied on Him, they received the power to practise what Christ taught them.

Thus, they received the fulfilment of His promises in their lives. We also need to lean on the promise of God

to be able to practise the Word of God. The purpose of teaching or listening to the teaching of the Word of God is not just to acquire head knowledge. It is so that the Word can bear fruit in our lives and characters.

It is so that the Word we hear can become principles in our hearts by which we live. "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you" (Philippians 4:9). What we know must correspond with our practice because knowledge is a means to an end. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17).

Believers must endeavour to receive grace from God to be able to obey His Word. This is because Christ's teachings are supernatural; and we need supernatural power to be able to do them. People are not able to practise the Word of God when they do not rely on Him. They find certain truths in the Word of God too hard to obey. But the truth is, believers can obey every Word of God because it is through it that He strengthens us. The indwelling Christ enables us to obey the Word of God. It is possible to obey every Word of the Lord. Against rising doubts, every believer must in faith reassure himself that: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). The power of the Word of God works in our hearts by faith to activate us to do His will.

The purpose of learning is doing and the power for doing is Christ in us.

BIG PUNCH “The NJC has sent a clear message that the days of judicial impunity are over. We therefore call on President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Jonah Jang to approve the retirement of Justice Archibong and Justice Naron respectively as recommended by the NJC.” – Suspension of judges by NJC

SATURDAY 23 — SUNDAY 24, FEBRUARY, 2013

Mali as a Doctrine

‘T

h e goal,' the Defense Minister of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said categorically on January 20, 2013, 'is the total reconquest of Mali.' So it came to pass. And the planning and execution were exquisite. The plan started with the coup d'état of March 22, 2012, which ousted a democratic government due to vacate power in just five weeks. That paved the way for the reconquest of a country, which is supposed to have a government and an army, by another. The actual invasion reveals a perfect orchestration, as observed by F William Engdahi, Global Reseach, [10/2/13], quoting the French journalist, Thierry Meyssan: The transitional President, Dioncounda Traore, declared a state of emergency [January 11, 2013] and called to France for help. Paris intervened within hours to prevent the fall of the capital, Bamako. Farsightedly, the Elysée had already pre-positioned in Mali troops from the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment ("the Colonials") and the 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment, helicopters from the COS (Special Operations Command), three Mirage 2000D's, two Mirage F-1's, three C135's, a C130 Hercules and a C160 Transall. What a convenient coincidence! By January 21 US Air Force transport planes began delivering hundreds of French elite soldiers and military equipment to Mali, ostensibly to roll back what we were told was an out-of-control terrorist advance south towards the Mali capital.' This is the beginning of Mali as doctrine.

Go back to 1957: France created the Common Organization of the Saharan Regions (Organisation commune des regions sahariennes, OCRS), comprising the inner boundaries of the Sahel and Saharan countries of Mali, Niger, Chad, and Algeria. The aim was to control these resource- rich countries, and tie them economically and politically to France, by an umbilical cord. The Algerian War of Independence killed the project. Return to 2007: America created AFRICOM, which is an adaptation of the 1957 French Blueprint, but expanded to include Nigeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia. These will be countries under direct control, tied to America and its allies, by an umbilical cord. Mark the coincidence! In a groundbreaking analysis, Canadian geopolitical

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analyst and sociologist, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, [as quoted by Engdahi], notes that: 'The map used by Washington for combating terrorism under the Pan-Sahel Initiative says a lot. The range or area of activity for the terrorists, within the borders of Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania according to Washington's designation, is very similar to the boundaries or borders of the colonial territorial entity which France attempted to sustain in Africa in 1957. Paris had planned to prop up this African entity in the western central Sahara as a French department (province) directly tied to France, along with coastal Algeria.' Terrorism, in short, rhymes perfectly with the Blueprint for the repossession of Africa's strategic resources, or more precisely, reconquest of Africa. We are, to be sure, back to the age of the Scramble for Africa, the doctrine Mali symbolizes.

The meaning of Mali to France is this: copper, phosphate, bauxite, gems and, most strategically, plenty of gold, plenty of oil and gas - and, above all, plenty of uranium.

Sebastian Elischer, [Foreign Affairs 12/2/13], believes that Mali will eventually spill over to Republic of Niger, and from thence probably to Nigeria. The meaning of Niger is this: three-quarters of France's energy from uranium, plus oil, plus other resources which even Niger may not as yet know, but which are known to France and her allies.

So, French soldiers are already in Mali, and Chinese soldiers, and American soldiers, in a country that is supposed to be sovereign.

And the meaning of Africa is this: a continent, never its own master, destined only as raw material for the other races of the human family. J. Peter Pham, [quoted by Engdalin], an advisor of the US State and Defense Departments, sees Africa merely as home of hydrocarbons, precious stones, infinite but largely untapped riches of the earth and so he defines the role of AFRICOM in terms of: 'Protecting [America's] access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources which Africa has in abundance … a task which includes ensuring against the vulnerability of those natural riches and ensuring that no other interested third parties, such as China, India, Japan, or Russia, obtain monopolies or preferential treatment.' Nothing at all is ever said of the African people, African nations, African interests. They don't matter!

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Ibraheem Sulaiman sa427420@gmail.com

Western powers under a false pretense and a false doctrine, represents indeed an existential threat that would ultimately surpass all others. What violence is worse than to take by force the freedom and the resources of others?

Nigeria's involvement is hard to explain. The West are very clear on why they invade Mali: it is to secure

French soldier in Mali Africa is thus reduced to a theatre where other nations compete with each other in plunder and exploitation. There had been the Slave Trade, the Scramble for Africa, the Colonization, and now, the New Scramble for Africa.

According to Eliza Griswold: 'What might be emerging more clearly into public consciousness is a sense that Africa is a zone of strategic concern for the west...we're entering an era in which it becomes a place where western powers directly intervene to protect their interests. So what might this mean for the continent, for some of those key countries, to be placed in this position? And how will it affect our perception of Africa and Africans?'

Mali is now a harbinger, as Eliza Griswold asserts, of a looming catastrophe: 'the Sahel, the vast grassland north of the equator, has become the latest battleground in the west's war on Islamic militants.'

Much attention is drawn to 'Islamic extremists', projected as representing an existential threat to West Africa, the Sahel and the whole world, whereas the region

faces far more urgent, truly existential threats. About four and a half million Malians, out of the total population of sixteen million, face an acute food crisis. Climate represents another threat.

Nowhere, Griswold observes, is this a more urgent issue than in the Sahel, where both flash floods and droughts - which contribute to the Sahara desert's southern spread are growing more extreme. In Africa, she says, there are now more people fleeing the weather than fleeing war. And then, the most pervasive and bizarre of all the threats - bad government. 'Oil underlies much of the Sahel - and its well-known curse leads to that curious paradox in which governments such as Nigeria's or Chad's, which receive billions in revenue each year, impoverish their citizens,' Griswold further observes. 'Despite vast wealth, these states don't safeguard most people's rights to the basic infrastructure of roads, water, electricity or education.' And most important of all, the reconquest of Africa now being undertaken by

their strategic energy security, the same reasons, mainly, for the Iraqi invasion, the same reason for French troops in Niger, the same reason, if need be, that Nigeria might one day fall prey to 'total reconquest.'

As Patrick Kane [Huff Post 14/3/ 13] has noted: 'The truth behind the "war on terror" is that it is part of Western powers' imperialistic quest to secure natural resource reserves for their corporations. We should all fear for the peoples of energy-rich regions as the global resource grab plummets new depths.' Nigeria is, of course, at war in Mali. What, however, is of utmost concern is its mode of involvement. The country goes to war in a surprisingly casual manner. It is clear that if Mali drags on Nigeria will face a blowback and Northern states will probably bear the brunt. Yet neither the Northern governors, the Northern legislators in the National Assembly nor the Northern leaders show any concern.

Mali has the potential of bleeding Nigeria to death, even though Nigeria is embarrassingly only at the periphery of a war whose real meaning is, New Scramble for Africa.

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