Peoples Daily Newspaper, Tuesday 28, May, 2013

www.peoplesdailyng.com

Vol. 11 No. 7

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

. . . putting the people first

FG deports 103 illegal aliens

Troops foil insurgents attack in Borno

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Rajab 19, 1434 AH

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Adamawa pupils weep over Children Day cancellation

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FG announces bidders for Kaduna DISCO, Afam GENCO

By Our Correspondent

T

he Federal Government has released a list of successful bidders that crossed the evaluation stage for the Kaduna Distribution Company and Afam Generation Company.

Both companies will now move on to a commercial bidding process that will be televised nationwide.

This was one of the outcome of the meeting of the National Council on Privatization (NCP) presided over by Vice President, Muhammad Namadi Sambo

yesterday at the State House.

The Ouncil also deliberated on a memo seeking approval of the technical evaluation report for the selection of liquidator/MITEL and NITEL. Chairman of NCP Technical Committee, Atedo Peterside, told

State House Correspondents that for the Kaduna Disco, seven out of 11 bidders were successful and were invited to the financial bid opening stage.

The pre-qualified bidders include Axis Power Distribution Ltd, Nahco Consortium, Incar

Power Ltd, Aiteo Consortium, LEDA Consortium, Northwest Power Ltd and Copperbelt Consortium.

For the Afam Genco, four bidders crossed the evaluation stage out of nine.

Contd. on Page 2

Why we suspended Amaechi — PDP

By Lawrence Olaoye and Umar Mohammed Puma

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he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday suspended Rotimi Amaechi, the embattled governor of Rivers state and the winner of the controversial Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairmanship election last weekend.

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, explained that his suspension became inevitable following his refusal to obey the directive of the Rivers State Executive Committee to rescind his decision dissolving the elected Executive Council of Obiokpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The governor in his response to his suspension by the PDP alleged that it was a witch-hunt.

Amaechi, who responded to his suspension in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the NWC issued a Press Statement to suspend him without any invitation and fair hearing.

“I was not invited by the National Working Committee of PDP, I was not given fair hearing.

What I heard was that: why did I refuse to reinstate the suspended Obio/Akpor Council executive?”

The governor said he had Contd. on Page 2

It’s witch-hunt — Rivers gov Party may collapse — Atiku

Former President Shehu Shagari (2nd left), commissioning Garba-Duba Road constructed by Sokoto state government as part of Democracy Day celebration, yesterday in Sokoto. With him are the state Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko (left), and other government officials.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

News CONTENTS FG announces bidders for Kaduna DISCO, Afam GENCO News

2-10

Editorial

12

Op.Ed

13

Letters

14

Opinion

15

Metro

16-18

Business

19-22

Stockwatch

23

S/Report

24-25

Defence

26-27

Agric

28-29

Police: Faith and trust as endangered species, Page 4

Int’l

3--34

Strange World 35 Digest

36

Politics

37-38

Newsxtra

39-40

Sports

41-45

Leisure

47

Columnist

48

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

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

Phones for News: 070-37756364 09-8734478

Contd. from Front Page The successful bidders were listed as Primeniza Energy Ltd, Televas Group, Forby Energy Ltd and TES Power Ltd. “The Council approved that the under-listed pre-qualified bidders for the Kaduna DISCO are invited to the financial bid opening stage after the submission of the required post qualification security.

“The bidders are Axis Power Distribution Limited, Nahco Consortium, Incar Power Limited, Aiteo Consortium, LEDA Consortium, Northwest

Power Limited and Copperbelt Consortium.

“It would be recalled that in accordance with the approved transition timeline for Kaduna DISCO a total of 11 bids were received as at April 16th.

“Like Afam GENCO, the evaluation was also conducted between April18-28 by two teams of right evaluators with representations from the BPE, NERC, Ministry of Power, CPCS, NIAF and Nexant.

The pre-condition for any bidder to qualify for the commercial bidding stage, according to the

technical committee, it has to score 75 per cent, although the committee will continue conducting due diligence to further cross check the information provided by the successful bidders.

The first stage of the evaluation was to establish completeness and substantial responsiveness of proposals and of the 11 proposals received for Kaduna, seven were deemed to be complete and substantially responsive and were passed to the technical evaluation stage.

The NCP also announced

that three firms have been short listed to participate in a mini financial bid process for a guided liquidation of NITEL. Peterside did not give the names of these companies, saying it was against the traction of the process to do so.

Atedo said that in line with the approved transaction timeline for Afam Power Plc, a total of nine bidders were received on April 16th and the evaluation of those bids was conducted between April 18-28 by two teams of eight evaluators with representations from BPE, NERC,

Why we suspended Amaechi — PDP Contd. from Front Page the power to dissolve the local government but desisted from doing so in order to allow the legislature do its job. “….So you see the political witch-hunting. It is so ridiculous.

My Party (PDP) must rise above political witch-hunting”, Amaechi continued.

“Governor Amaechi did not suspend Obio/Akpor Council(executive). I hope you know, I have the power and my power is to dissolve. I can dissolve Obio/Akpor Council(executive).

But I have not done that. What the Assembly is doing is that they are investigating corruption. But the party said they should not investigate corruption, is it fair?”

This is coming as the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has called on the founding fathers of the ruling party to urgently wade into the crisis in the party to avoid its imminent collapse.

The PDP yesterday announced the suspension of the Rivers state governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) over his alleged insistence on the dissolution of the Executive Council of Obio Akpor Local Government in the state.

The PDP disclosed that the NWC took the decision after an emergency meeting chaired by its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

The statement reads: “The National Working Committee at its emergency meeting on Monday, 27 May, 2013 considered the petition submitted by the PDP Rivers Executive Committee against His Excellency, Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Executive Governor of Rivers State for violating Articles 58 1 (b), (c ), (h) and (m) of the PDP Constitution following his refusal to obey the lawful directive of the Rivers State Executive Committee to rescind his decision dissolving the elected Executive Council of Obiokpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

“The National Working Committee after preliminary hearing, in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 57 (3), 59 (3), 59 (5) and 29 (2.b), hereby suspends the Executive Governor of River State, Rt Hon. Chibuike

Rotimi Amaechi as a member of the PDP and refers the matter to the appropriate disciplinary committee of the Party.

This is in furtherance of the determination of the leadership of the Party to enforce discipline at all levels within the Party.”

But keen watchers have pointed out that the suspension slammed on Amaechi may not be unconnected to his alleged anti-party activities by contesting and winning the chairmanship of the NGF in defiance to the PDP Governors Forum’s directive to it’s members to vote its consensus candidate, Jonah Jang, the Plateau state governor.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party while answering questions on why the NWC resolved to suspend the Rivers state governor explained that the party received a petition against him from the state chapter last week.

Metuh said the petition contained a lot of allegations just as he added that Amaechi’s suspension has nothing to do with the ongoing crisis in the NGF. According to him, “the leadership of the PDP believes that the NGF is non-partisan. PDP has no direct relationship with the NGF but is only interested in the PDP Governor Forum.”

He added that the decision to suspend Amaechi was in the interest of the party even as he stressed that it was not meant to witch hunt him as being variously speculated. He said the decision was meant to test the party’s constitution and strengthen the party. “We hope that this process would help the party.

We don’t nt anybody to go but we want to test the constitution of the party.”

But the former Vice President in a statement issued on his behalf by his Media Office yesterday warned of dire consequences should the founding fathers of the ruling party continue to watch as things are getting worse by the day in the party.

He urged concerned founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to speak up and come together to save the party from imminent trouble capable of leading to avoidable implosion and mortal crisis.

Atiku, who expressed worry at the worsening polarization of the party and internal divisions which might weaken the party structures at the state and deepen the crisis between Governors and the President, added that as one of the founding fathers of the party, he had a duty to call on other founding members to rise to the occasion and caution the forces that are bent on tearing the party apart and providing the ammo for self destruction.

He lamented the failure of the National Executive Council (NEC) to meet in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution and the inability of the Board of Trustees to rise to the occasion of arresting this ugly development.

According to him, the bitter internal divisions within the PDP, which has led to crisis in the party leadership in some states, division in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the suspension of a sitting Governor over disagreements on

principle could have been avoided if the founders of the party had added their voices of caution and moderation.

Meanwhile, the party has however set up an Investigative Panel chaired by Chief J.K. Gadzama (SAN) with Anicho Okoro as the Secretary to investigate Amaechi’s culpability in the petition against him. Other members of the committee include the PDP National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, Arc. Inalegwu Onche, Friday N. Nwosu, Hon. Udorji Amedu.

Others are Ola Kukuyi, Hon. Wakil Mohammed, Barr. Ysuf Jangwe, mrs Bola Doherty and Barr. Taminu Adamson.

The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in its reaction described Amaechi suspension from the PDP as a colossal affront on democracy and a dagger in the soul of its practices.

“We ask, What is the crime of Chief Amaechi? We profer an answer: he won election as Chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum by 19 votes to 16 scored by his closest challenger”.

The party in a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Emma Eneukwu, said, “even though we respect the internal dimension of the recent decision of the PDP, but as committed democrats we are constrained to react in view of its wider implication in our nation’s democratic practice. We wonder at how a political party that lays claim to democratic usages could rise to suspend one of its own for winning an election”.

FG deports 103 illegal aliens From Femi Oyelola

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aduna State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday paraded 103 illegal aliens, from Niger Republic.

According to the the State Comptroller of NIS, Hamman Yerima, “the Kaduna state Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service as usual conducted mop up operations against illegal immigrants in the state and this time around, we conducted an operation in Kachia local government area on May 26, 2013, and we arrested 25 illegal

immigrants.

He said that illegal aliens would be deported immediately to Niger Republic.

He said that majority of the aliens were picked up in Government Reservation Areas (GRA) of Kaduna metropolis, nd urged Nigerians to engage only legally permitted aliens.

He blamed the influx of llegal aliens into the country on nation’s porous borders, saying that that the borders should be fully equipped.

“The next day, we also conducted an operation in high brow areas of

Kaduna North, that is, Ungwan Rimi GRA, Malali GRA, Ungwan Dosa and Marafa where we arrested 59 suspects.

“Then at the toll gate, we arrested 17 suspects and earlier on, we arrested two suspects, so all in all we have 103 suspects. And all These suspects are going to be repatriated this evening (yesterday) by the special grace of God. They are all Nigeriens. They are into menial jobs. They can be lured with small amount of money to do anything. We are sending them back by road.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 3

News Troops foil insurgent attack in Borno

By Joy Baba

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roops of the Special Forces have foiled attempt by the Boko Haram members to regroup as they intercepted messages sent to fleeing insurgents “not to give up but fight to the end.”

This was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Defence Information, BrigadierGeneral Chris Olukolade, in Abuja yesterday.

Olukolade in the statement said the attempt by some of them to heed the call was foiled during

Arrest 25 insurgents, kill three the weekend as they were trailed to some settlement towns towards the border where they planned to regroup.

According to the statement, “troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force carried out an operation which resulted in the capture and destruction of the insurgents assembly points sited in the outskirts of Kaneram Dan Katsina, Tumbu Dabino and Mallam Fatori area north of Baga.

“The towns and settlements have now been secured while cordon and search operation is also ongoing in the area after the insurgents have been dislodged.”

The statement further said the troops, while combing the forest found a man who had been held hostage in the forest since last year bound in handcuffs as his captors fled during the troops attack on the biggest camp in the forest adding that a number of fresh grave, more

arms and ammunition, burnt vehicles and other equipment were also discovered.

DDI also said that a total of 25 insurgents were rounded up while three died including a high profile terrorist identified as Abba who has been on the list of most wanted persons.

“This incident happened during an encounter with troops of the task force as the insurgents were finalising moves to carry out

an extensive terrorist operation around Maiduguri.

“The captured ones were all apprehended with their weapons which include rifles, pistols, double barrel guns and various calibres of ammunition during a raid operation of the JTF in Kumshe and Bulunkutu area.

“Although they succeeded in killing a security operative of the Task Force, they were all apprehended before their main planned infiltration with more arms to cause mayhem in the city” the statement said.

Sambo condoles Sultan, Kano Emir

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he Vice President, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, has commiserated with the Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar over the loss of Hajiya Hafsatu Abubakar, wife of the late Sultan of Sokoto Siddiq Abubakar III who died on Wednesday 15th of May 2013 at the age of 72 years after a brief Illness.

Sambo described her death as a great loss not only to the Sultan the entire family and the caliphate but to the nation at large.

Sambo also commiserated with the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, over the death of his wife Hajiya Rabi.

Sambo, according to his spokesperson, Alhaji Umar Sani, described both deaths as a tragic loss to the country.

According to the Vice President, “I deeply commiserate with the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano over the sad incidences of the loss of their loved ones.

“May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace and May Allah SWT grant them Aljannah Firdaus and their families the fortitude to bear this loss.”

First Lady, Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan, and Minister Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, cutting cake with children, during the 2013 Children Day celebration party, yesterday at the State House, in Abuja. Photo: Joe Oroye

Dana: Families receive N175m compensation From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

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arley a week to the one year anniversary of the death of more than 153 passengers aboard a Dana Airline that crashed in Lagos, 11 families of the crash victim has so far received the mandatory $100, 000 compensations while 62 others has taken the airline to court.

Spokesperson for the airline, Mr. Tony Usidamen told reporters that 62 families members of the victims, both Nigerians and foreigners has sued the carrier over the accident

involving one of its aircraft on June 3, 2012, just few minutes to landing at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.

Usidamen said compensation to such families’ representative complete verifications and legal bottlenecks involving such families.

According to him “11 families of the crash victims had received full compensation of $100,000 while about 21 more, whose grant of probate had been processed would receive full payment soon”.

Also he affirmed that as at 24th of this month, 125 families who

completed their claim forms and whose verification were free of any controversy had received interim compensation of $30,000 following legal verification of documentation and next-of-kin status.

Again the Dana spokesperson disclosed that family representatives of 8 victims were yet to submit any documentation.

“Nine severely affected ground victims who lost their properties were identified a while seven accepted the initial compensation which varied according to the extent of loss suffered, two declined”.

Furthermore he said “Delay in completion of the payment process is due to incomplete documentation, mwultiple claim cases, challenge in securing grant of probate/letter of guardianship (in the case of minors) and legal suits.

Our insurers are, however, sparing no efforts in processing all claims in accordance with the applicable law.

“Progress is also being made in compensation of ground victims and negotiations are on-going with affected residents to settle all genuine claims within the shortest possible time,” Usidamen explained.

Senator raises hope of PIB passage

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e n a t o r Nkechi Nwaogu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Oil and Gas Resource, said that she was optimistic that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be assented to before the end of 2013.

Nwaogu told newsmen in Aba on Monday that consultations were still

on with stakeholders, especially from the northern part of the country, to address fears on the bill’s contents.

According to her, any moves by any section of the country to delay the passage of the bill will do more harm than good.

She said that the PIB would transform Nigeria’s economy,

unbundle the gas sector and moderate how businesses should be done in the oil and gas sector.

“I am optimistic that with the PIB before the National Assembly, it is expected that the gas sector will be unbundled and be more transparent,`` Nwaogu said.

She said that infrastructure

decay and poor funding of public goods were major challenges facing the development of the gas sector in the country.

Nwaogu said that partnership between the Federal Government and the private sector would attract growth to the oil and gas industry.

(NAN)

Ambassador’s car snatched at gun point in Abuja

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ustralian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Jon Richardson, was yesterday evening said to have been attacked by gunmen who snatched his car at gunpoint.

The incident took place around a popular restaurant in Wuse 2 area of Abuja yesterday, according to sources. There was no report of any casualty or injury in the attack, but sources said the robbers made away with the diplomatic vehicle.

Car snatching has become frequent in the Federal Capital Territory in recent times, although security agencies have been making concerted efforts to stem the tide.

Mr Richardson is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and had previously served as High Commissioner to Ghana and Director of the Africa Section in DFAT. He was most recently Director of the Department’s Resources and Business Liaison Section, representing Australia in such bodies as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Kimberley Process on conflict diamonds.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

Police: Faith and trust as endangered species The massacre of scores of Policemen on May 7, 2013 by members of Ombatse, a militia group in Alakyo, Nasarawa state and in Bama, Borno state justifiably united the nation in grief, anger and sympathy for the Nigerian Police Force, which has, in the past couple of years, become the target of bomb and gun attacks by insurgents, terrorists and other criminal elements in the society. But this notwithstanding, the criminal tendency among some of the Police Force’s rogue elements would make the larger society’s empathy only short-lived, writes Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

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ince the May 7th brutal killings of about 50 policemen and 10 operatives of the Directorate of State Security (SSS) by a band of cultists in Nasarawa state, hardly a day passes without sympathetic commentaries in support of the Police in the media, both conventional and social. Headlines like “The Police at the mercy of terrorists and criminals” and “Nigerian Police as endangered species” have of recent become familiar lines in the media.

But the narrative, where the Nigerian Policeman is concerned, is not always one that evokes empathy. As far as the ordinary citizen is concerned, faith and trust in the Nigeria Police Force are also endangered.

And in an attack in Bama, Borno state, on the day of the Ombatse massacre, the insurgent group, Boko Haram killed 22 policemen, among the 55 people who lost their lives. The life of policeman, especially in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Plateau and Adamawa states, would seem to have of late become fair game as far as Boko Haram and other criminal groups are concerned.

A month before these incidents, on Friday, April 5 to be exact, 16 policemen, in a convoy of boats heading for Azuzuama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of President Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa, were attacked by militants as a result of which 11 of them died.

In January last year, a daring Boko Haram attack in Kano left 192 people dead, including 40 policemen. To be sure, the number of attacks on police formations and personnel is as numerous as the body count.

But the Police, which, has over time, laboured with the slogan “The Police Is Your Friend” to appeal for the public’s understanding, confidence, faith and trust, would also seem to be responsible for the negative perception that has dogged it over the ages.

Fatal “accidental” discharges at police check points across the country have become almost everyday occurrences that it no more comes as a shock whenever some innocent citizen is felled by a police bullet for refusing to grease palms at check points. In what is clearly extortion going awry, innocent members of the public have continued to be sent to their early grave with the culprits rarely sanctioned by their superiors. Even where a show of

IG, Mohammed Abubakar public arrest of the errant policeman is made, it is in most cases only to calm frayed nerves, after which nothing much is heard of the case.

The exception has almost always been where the victim of such “accidental” discharge is not an average citizen.

The ill treatment on the ordinary citizen, notably bus, taxi and other commercial

vehicles drivers, is not limited to the check points in cities and towns. Their counterparts, bar drivers of NARTO vehicles, plying the highways fare no better, possibly worst.

Fierce looking gun wielding MOPOL on the highways are always a sight to loath and avoid, especially by the society’s lesser mortals.

Forcing drivers to stop, often, at gunpoint,

“

And finally, the leadership of the force is also not helping the image of the service by its obsequious attitude towards the Presidential Villa and the various government houses in the states. Their conduct if anything only suggests that their loyalty is not to the Nigerian Constitution but to the temporary residents of the state houses.

members of the Highway Patrol combine the job of Police, VIO and Customs Service to ensure that as many hapless drivers as possible are extorted. Once coming to Abuja from Kaduna, this writer was stopped by a team of the Highway Patrol.

Finding nothing wrong with the vehicle’s papers to nail me, the officer accused me of underpaying custom duty charges.

Thanks to the GSM, somebody from Abuja had to intervene before they could allow me to proceed on my journey, because I refused to play ball and give them “pure water” money. Are the ogas on top at the Force Headquaters really ignorant of this daylight extortion on our highways?

Then there is the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) in the Federal Capital. As often as not, their victims are no more criminals of any hue, not to talk of robbery, than them. A friend told me that about two months ago, his brother was going home on foot in Utako around 8.30 pm when a SARS team arrested him for moving about “without any identification on his person”. Upon his arrest, the brother sent an SMS message to alert my friend, who then quickly rushed to the scene of the arrest, which was only a walking distance from his house. When he got there and introduced himself as a working journalist who was there to identify his detained brother, my friend was told to “go and write whatever nonsense” he wanted. He was even threatened with an arrest if he did not leave the place. However, when the team was about to leave the area, they told my friend to go to Utako Police Station to “bail” his brother. On reaching there, he was told to follow the team, which as in a convoy of four Toyota Hillux vehicles, in his car to the SARS’ Asokoro Headquatrs.

According o him, half way to the SARS Headquarters, one of the Hillux vehicles stopped and he was asked also to stop, upon which one of the Policemen asked him to give them N20, 000 to secure the release of his brother. He told them that he could manage only N10, 000, which he had at home. He was directed to go and bring the money. According to him, on his way to his house he got a call on his brother’s ‘phone and it was one of the policemen who told him the rendezvous where he would deliver the money. After bringing the N10, 000 his brother was released, but not before the police “confiscated” the N5, 000 he had on him. According to my friend, while all these things were going on, he was made to understand that ‘Oga on the top’ was allegedly in the picture of the transaction; meaning that he must deliver the N10, 000 he had admitted to having. Is it therefore any wonder that the SARS is derogatively referred to as Special Armed (not Anti) Robbery Squad?

And finally, the leadership of the force is also not helping the image of the service by its obsequious attitude towards the Presidential Villa and the various government houses in the states. Their conduct if anything only suggests that their loyalty is not to the Nigerian Constitution but to the temporary residents of the state houses.

It will take more than an ordinary slogan for the Nigerian Police Force to regain the understanding, confidence, faith and trust of the larger society and beyond.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 5

News

Yero reshuffles cabinet From Mohammad Ibrahim Kaduna

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aduna state Governor, Muktar Ramala Yero, yesterday reshuffled his commissioners with eight retaining their portfolios.

The Commissioners who retained their portfolios are those of Education, Mohammed Usman, Information, Saidu Adamu, and Justice, Jonathan Kishi Adamu.

Others include Commissioner of Works and Transport, Sulieman Richifa, Commissioner of Women Affairs, Mrs. Maria Dogo and Commissioners for Special Duties, Halima Saidu Labo, Felix Gimba and Ali Kalat respectively.

A statement signed by the Director General of Media and Publicity, Ahmed Maiyaki, said the Yero approved the re-shufflement with immediate effect.

He urged members of the council to rededicate themselves to selfless service to people of the state.

The affected Commissioners are, Ibrahim Ramalan Giwa as Commissioner of Science Technology, Gambo Lawal, Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Suleiman Ibrahim, Commissioner of Local Government, Timothy Gandu, Commerce and Industry, Zakaria Shamaki, Commissioner of Inter-Governmental, Dr. John Ayuba, Commissioner Water Resources, Turaki Kalik, Commissioner of Poverty Alleviation, and Sani Aminu Mohammed, Youth and Sports.

Others include, Magaji Hunkuyi as Commissioner of Economic Planning, Isa Idris Umar, Lands and Surveys, Bashir Ibrahim Sakadadi, Agriculture, Sunday Katung, Finance, Nazifi Mohammed, Rural and Community Development, Nasiru Aliyu Damau, Chieftaincy Affairs, Patrick Maigari, Health, while Hon. David Audu Chatjok and the new commissioner is to replace Zakaria Shamaki as the Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources.

R-L: Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Kachalla, Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Minister of Finance Dr.Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, during the meeting on National Council on Privatisation, yesterday at the State House, in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Emergency rule hasn’t stopped insurgency - Ndume

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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he chairman of the senate committee on Millenium Development Goal (MDG), Ali Ndume, has said that despite military operation in Borno state, the insurgents are still terrorising the state.

Speaking with newsmen yesterday, Ndume, PDP Borno, disclosed that as at last communication with his father in the state, he was told that the Primary school which he attended has been razed down by

Boko Haram insurgents.

He also said that a reverend friend of his was killed few days ago, pointing out that while the military are making efforts to stop the crisis, the insurgents are still there.

While explaining that Borno is very wide for the soldiers to secure, Ndume said that both the military operate from different points in the state.

He therefore urged the government to approach Boko Haram issue with sincerity, arguing that no

amount of sacrifice was too great in the efforts to stop the insurgency in the north.

“Whatever that needs to be done should be done in utmost sincerity. No price is too much to stop the insurgency”, according to him.

Speaking on the job racketeering being investigated by the Senate, Ndume blamed the federal government for not providing enough jobs.

He said that if the jobs were enough for Nigerians, there would not be need for racketeering of

jobs, recalling that during his graduation days, jobs were waiting for him, unlike what obtains today.

Meanwhile, Ndume dismissed the Democracy Day being celebrated in the country, saying that there was nothing spectacular thing to celebrate after 14 years of democracy in Nigeria.

“The oversight is seen by the executive as an interference by the lawmakers. They don’t give you the cooperation you deserve”, he added.

Gov Aliyu calls on FG not to ban Almajirci Group demands creation of 18 additional states

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iger state governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has called on the Federal government not to ban the almajiri system in the country saying that it will affect the culture of the people.

He made this known yesterday in Minna when he received the Senate Committee on Education led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije who visited him in Government House, saying that the country has to put in place another system that would absorb the almajiris in the country by properly integrating them into the formal education system.

According to him, “in the Senate, I overheard the Senators asking the northern governors to ban Almajiri school system; you do not ban a culture without putting something in place.

“I am so happy with Universal Basic Education’s (UBEC) arrangement because of the way they have reduced chances of corruption in our school system. I believe we are doing something about almajiri system and I agree that the way we are doing it now, building almajiri schools will not solve the problems.

“They must be treated as citi-

Gov. Aliyu Babangida zens and not to make it look like a stigma, it is not a question of banning it, but it is a matter of what do we do to make sure that they are absorb into formal school system,” he said.

“Many of these children can not trace their parents because they were scattered all over the northern states and beyond. It is something we need to sit down and tackle properly.”

Furthermore, he said, the problem of the almajirai cannot be solved by merely building almajiri

schools but knowing their number and making adequate provision for their integration.

According to him “in Niger state alone, there are 3784 Quranic schools with a population of nearly 500,000, some of the pupils in the Quranic schools have grown beyond the school going age for primary schools.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education Senator Uche Chukwumerije had applauded the giant steps taken by the Niger state government to turn the education sector around saying that “Niger state is one of the states that we can proudly hold up as a leading light in education in the country”.

He added that 21 states in the country are lagging behind in the payment of their counterpart fund to the Universal Basic Education Programme, a development he explained, has been retarding the growth of the education sector.

By Umar Muhammad Puma

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s the House of Representatives’ constitutional amendment process continues, participants at the conference on post independent state creation has called for the creation of additional states in each of the geo-political zones in the country.

Chairman of the occasion, Prof.

Jerry Gana, in his opening remarks, said creation of more state would bring greater stability to our federal system, adding that “the question of initial viability should not used to deny our people the strong desire to have more state.

With qualitative and visionary leadership, each state can be very viable if available land and mineral resources are fully develop”.

“We appeal for justice, fairness and equality in considering this sensitive matter of the creation of state, if Nigeria is to be peaceful, progressive and prosperous, we must release the creative energy of our people by fully recognizing the

very strong spirit of self-determination”, he said.

Mr. Yakubu Ugwokwo, while delivering his keynote address said the conference was a platform for Nigerian leaders to view the issue of additional states in the best interest of the people to accelerate the level of growth and development of the country.

“We want t o create the impression that democratic government can create states in Nigeria, and indeed, the present government should create states, instead of allowing the idea that it is only military that are capable of dictating on the issue of state creation to stand. “the proposal for the cre ation of 18 more states, based on criterion already put in place, if effected in the ongoing exercise, will truly allow the accommodation of various sentiment of the people, be they, ethnic, historical, political, economic, cultural, would drastically refuse the urge of Nigerians to request for creation of more state for a long time to come,” he said.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 6

NEWS Nasarawa to set up committee on Alakio killings From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia

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asarawa state government will set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the recent killing of over 100 security personnel in Alakio, a village 10 km away from Lafia, the state capital.

Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura stated this in a speech he delivered on the occasion of a sympathy and condolence visit by members of the PDP Concerned Forum, led by the former governor of the state, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, yesterday at the Lafia Government House.

Al-makura disclosed that with the recent happening in the state, it has become necessary for government to take a step further by constituting a judicial commission of inquiry to commence the meticulous process of unraveling those behind the Alakio killings.

The governor stated that as a responsible administration, government has since the emergence of the Ombatse militia group, taken all the procedures and due diligence as required by the rule of law, to make sure that no stone is left unturned in the search for the killers and bringing them to book.

“Whoever are their sponsors, we will fish them out. Already information is at hand regarding some supporters of this devilish group. It will be left for the judicial panel to unravel all those involved and I assure you, they will face the full wrath of the law,” Al-makura stated.

Earlier in his address, leader of the Nasarawa chapter of the PDP Concerned Forum, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said they were at the Government House, “in our capacity as citizens of Nasarawa state”, to express sympathy to the government, people of the state and relations of the slain security operatives over the unfortunate happening in Alakio.

The former governor described as ironical that security men drafted to Alakio to carry out lawful duty of ensuring the security of lives and property of the people, “became the victims of the cocktail of insecurity challenges engulfing” the state, vowing that “their death must not be in vain.”

He noted that since the security operatives gave their precious lives and blood so that citizen of the state may feel secure in their homes, “the least the government and people of this state can do is to reciprocate their sacrifice by fishing out their killers so that they will face the full weight of the law.”

While maintaining that it is their duty as citizens to stand shoulder to shoulder with the state government in this obviously difficult task of defeating the forces of darkness stalking the land, Sen. Adamu, warned that no one should try to underplay the enormity of the current security challenge.

“We hate to think or believe that these cultists and or ethnic militia are playing the script of their tribal political lords.

Security Agents Screening Children, during the 2013 children day celebration, yesterday in Bauchi.

Photo: NAN

Nigeria lost N200b to fire disaster in 2011 – fire service boss

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

T

he Controller General, Federal Fire Service, Olusegunn Okebiorun, has revealed that the country lost about N200b on cases of fire disaster.

Okebiorun gave this shocking revelation yesterday while addressing newsmen on the

challenges of fire service in the country.

He said the figure was the highest ever recorded by the service, pointing out that the figure for other years fluctuates around N50b to N60b respectively.

The CG further lamented the deficit of the equipment at the service, saying that the

service needs more equipment to contain cases of fire disaster in the country.

“We need contemporary equipment to effectively fight fire disaster in the country. We are seriously lacking behind compared to other saner climes where cases of fire disasters are handled almost immediately before it inflicts so much

damage”, he declared.

However, Okebiorun said all hopes are not lost, as the service is currently working to upgrade facilities in the country to contain the challenges within its reach.

He assured that an academy is underway to train its staff on use of contemporary equipment to be armed on the war against fire disaster in the country.

We have invested N1bn in Nigeria’s economy - Minolta

By Abdulwahab Isa

F

oremost maker of digital printing machines and IT software, Konica Minolta, has said it has so far invested in excess of N1 billion in Nigeria’s economy.

Managing Director of Skysat Technologies Ltd, partners of Konica Minolta, Mr. Izzat Debs confirmed the figure in Abuja during the opening ceremony

of a two-day Konica Minolta print solutions exhibition, with the theme: “Productivity and Profitability Comes Alive.”

He said a significant portion of the investment is in the training of local technicians, opening up offices across Nigeria’s major cities and machines.

His firm was contributing to deepening Nigeria’s economy, by supplying various digital printing machines in Nigeria

and engaging local technicians to service the machines, he added.

He said machines supplied

by Minolta could be used by commercial printers as well as corporate organisations to meet their printing needs, just as he noted that the success of a similar exhibition held in Lagos earlier in the year encouraged the company to stage another one in Abuja.

Port Harcourt is the next city to host its exhibition, he said.

In his remarks, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, represented by his Special Adviser, Mr Steven Amuche, said: “We are convinced that the exhibition of array of Konica Minolta machines will further drive investment in the printing sector,” adding: “printing is a lucrative business.”

Adamawa children weep over Children’s Day cancellation

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any primary school pupils who showed up at the Ribadu Square, Yola, Adamawa State on Monday for the usual festivities on Children’s Day, wept openly when they were told to go home, as the event had been cancelled.

The News Agency Nigeria (NAN) reports that the cancellation was announced by the Ministry for Women Affairs, citing the current state of emergency imposed on the

state for the decision.

NAN reports that hundreds of pupils had besieged the square in anticipation of the celebration only to be told to go home, making some of them to break down in tears while others asked whether the event had been shifted to another venue.

Our Correspondent reports that a lot of them were unable to comprehend the meaning of state of emergency and

why it should affect their celebration.

Some pupils from Nasarawo and Yelwa primary schools who could not bear the reality conducted a mock march pass before departing the parade ground.

Also, some parents who brought their wards to the square complained that the cancellation was not given publicity and criticised the government for the action.

``Why should they cancel this children celebration? You can see the children are sad on a day they are supposed to be happy. ``The state of emergency did not seriously affect normal activities in Yola, particularly from 6 a.m to 6 p.m. ``So I wonder why they cancel a children event that is supposed to take place from 10 a.m to 12 p.m,”, Malam Abdu Musa, a parent said. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 8

Photos Splash

L-R: National Coordinator, Nigeria Centenary Restoration Group, Rev. Dr. Chuks Alozie, member of the Group, Chief Kem Ajiehm and the Adviser of the Group, Prof. Chiemele Abejonwe, during the Group’s media briefing on the activities to mark Nigeria Centenary celebration, recently in Abuja.

L-R: Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Chief Edwin Clark, his wife Dr. Bisola Clark, and Delta state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, during cutting of the cake at the 86 years birthday celebration of Chief Edwin Clark, on Sunday in Abuja.

Pupils of Olanike Dairo Children Central Nursery and Primary School dancing Asonto, during Children Day celebration, yesterday at Onikan Stadium, in Lagos.

L-R: Senator Gbenga Ashafa representing Lagos Central Senatorial Zone, Administrator, Lagos state House of Assembly, Taiwo Adesanya, and CEO Ladtop Nig. Ltd, Engineer Olaide Adeanya, during the 50th birthday celebration of Taiwo Adesanya, recently in Lagos.

R-L Deacon D. Lemuel, leading prayers for Rev. and Mrs. Gracious Okoronkwo of the New Estate Baptist Church, Apo, Abuja, during the Democracy Day revival service, on Sunday at the Faith Baptist Church, Airport Road Lugbe, Abuja recently.

Photos: Joe Oroye, Mahmud Isa, Justin Imo-Owo and Olawale Rotimi.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

News

At 86, Clark still active in nation building, says Sambo

By Stanley Onyekwere

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ice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has said that elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark, who last Sunday celebrated his 86th birthday, is not only active but full of life.

Clark, in his view, is an icon and living legend whose sense of devotion to national integration is unrivalled.

Sambo said that even at an advanced age, the elder statesman still believes in the sovereignty, unity, indissolubility, and the indivisibility of this nation, which explains why he is still committed and working hard towards peace and prosperity of the nation.

Speaking at the event to mark the birthday in Abuja, Sambo who described Clark as a patriot that is always by the truth and stands by it, also commend him, for his laudable contributions to national development also extended the appreciation of President Goodluck Jonathan

and the good people of Nigeria to the foremost nationalist for his invaluable advice and wise counsel.

He said: “As a patriot, Chief Edwin Clark believes in the sovereignty, unity, indissolubility, and the indivisibility of this nation as such, he puts Nigeria first in all that he does.

“We appreciate your unique role and contributions towards peace and prosperity of this nation and pray for a healthier, more prosperous long life and showers of heavenly blessings so that we can continue to tap from your wise counsel.

“For our generation and generations yet unborn there is a lesson for us from the life of this great sage, who at 86 is not only active but also full of life.”

In his remarks, cautioned public office to shun corruption and guide against being intoxicated by the office they hold, urging them to be selfless in their service to the nation.

PAGE 9

CAC seeks review of 20-years law

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Management of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) yesterday demanded for the review of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA)/ No.1 of 1990 which has been in operation for over 20 years to enable it keep pace with changing economic circumstances and modern business practices The Commission said that it has not received any budgetary allocation from the Federal Government since 2001 but depends on internally generated revenue.

Speaking through the Registrar-General Mr. Bello Mahmud, the Commission disclosed that it “has made submissions and also participated at different stakeholders workshops on the review of CAMA organised by the Nigerian Law Reform with no meaningful achievement” therefore appealed to the House of Representatives Committee

...Says it has not received budgetary allocations from FG since 2001 on Commerce on oversight visit to Commission to “ensure the amendment of the law as it now impedes contemporary business practices in the light of national and global reforms.”

According to Mahmud, “the CAMA require amendments particularly to address the following areas: Strengthening the Regulatory and Enforcement power of the Commission; Making provision for on-line Registration of Companies; Review of penalties; Empowering the CAC to remove erring directors and officers of companies in line with the practice in most companies Registries globally; Defining the role of CAC in the implementation of Code of Best Practices”.

Mahmud added that “the Management has embarked on the de-

ployment of fibre-optic to replace the unreliable V-sat links on its Wide Area Network involving five states offices, namely Lagos, Kano, Kano and Enugu and the Commission has been registering companies within 24hour in line with the performance contract entered into with the Hon. Minister.

Arrangements have been concluded to extend the fibre-optics link to additional 5 in 2013 including Port Harcourt office” He stated that “the upgrading of the Commission’s software is also on course while the Department of International Development (DFID) through the office of the Minister of Trade and Investment is providing support to the Commission to test the efficacy of the new software, before final deployment,” he concluded.

Bayelsa: Police dig up arms in coastal settlement

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he Police Command in Bayelsa on Monday announced the recovery of 1,700 rounds of ammunition buried in the ground in an abandoned building in Koluama I community in Southern Ijaw.

The recovery also included eight pump action rifles, five AK-47 rifles and19 magazines. .

Displaying the recovered items before newsmen at the command headquarters in Yenagoa, Commissioner of Police (CP), Tonye Ebitibituwa, said a police squad jointly carried out the operation with the Navy.

Ebitibituwa said the building was deserted when the security operatives raided it and recovered the items on Sunday following a tip-off.

He stated that although no arrest was made, the success of the operation was an indication that most communities were not safe as criminal suspects were using them as their hideouts.

“These arms and ammunition were buried in the ground .The house was deserted. By digging up the ground, these arms and ammunition were found.

“We have eight pump action guns, five AK-47 rifles, 1,700 rounds of ammunition and 19 magazines,” he said.

Ebitibituwa said the police would very soon mop up arms in the state to ensure that peace and security were not threatened by bandits.

“The import of what we have discovered is serious. This is not going to be the end.

“We are going to mop up more arms. With the information given to us, we will make use of it,” he said.

The CP also commended the efforts of the policemen and the naval ratings, noting that with adequate support security operatives would perform optimally and reduce the crime rate in the state. (NAN)

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (middle), and Zamfara state Governor, Alhaji Abdul’Aziz Abubakar Yari (right), during the flag-off, of road construction of Kaura Namoda,Birnin Magaji, Zurmi and Shinkafi Local Government township road in Zamfara North Senatorial Zone, at the weekend.

DSP collects sand from court premises for suspected rituals

By Feyi Afisunlu

A

man who allegedly went into the premises of the Imo State Customary Court of Appeal, Owerri, to collect sand for ritual purpose was on Sunday arrested by security officers at the court.

The suspect identified as Alphonsus Madu claimed to be a

Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, serving in Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

“My name is Alphonsus Madu. I am a Deputy Superintendent of Police. I am the Ika Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Akwa Ibom State Police Command,” Madu said.

When queried why he came

under the heavy rain to collect sand from the court premises, Madu confessed that he had a case pending in the court.

“I have a land matter pending in the Customary Court of Appeal, Owerri. I have been fasting all day in respect of the matter.

I came to pick some sand from the court premises in continuation of my fasting and prayer,”

Madu said.

Madu who was reminded that the court was a hallowed establishment and that he could lose his job as a result of his action said he was very sorry.

“I am not here for ritual purposes. I have no intention to go into any ritual. I only needed the sand for my personal prayers. I am afraid that this act may jeop-

ardize my service,” Madu said.

Reacting , Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Katsina, said: “Even if the man is a serving police officer, he has no reason to be in the court premises on Sunday and under the heavy rain.”

Katsina said he would interview the man on Monday to ascertain if truly he is a police officer and why he preferred visiting the court premises under the rain to collect sand.

“The man must be a funny human being. Does he not know the security situation in the country? I have ordered the DPO, New Owerri Division to bring him to my office for interview,” the Police Chief added.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 10

News Briefs Lokoja listed for resilience profiling programme

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okoja,the Kogi state capital has been listed for a United Nation’s Resilience Profiling Programme towards the expected 2013 flooding.

The Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi, made the disclosure at an interactive session with residents of Kabawa, John Holt, Kpata Koto and Nataco communities in Lokoja local government area on the need to ensure stakeholders participation in the beautification project of the government.

The vital place of Lokoja as a gateway and a rapidly growing urban city devastated by last year’s flooding, Awoniyi disclosed were the criteria used by the UN in the selection process.

From Sam Egwu, Lokoja

Man escapes death as tree falls on his sitting room

A

middle aged man, Adewale Adebaju, of Ijebu-Mushin, Ogun, on Sunday narrowly escaped death when a tree uprooted by windstorm fell on his sitting room where he was lying down.

Adebaju, a civil servant, however, sustained injury on his face while some of his properties were destroyed by the windstorm.

Narrating his experience to the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Ijebu-Mushin on Monday, Adebaju said his survival was by a `miracle.`

Ilorin students protest police shooting

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ll major roads in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital were barricaded by students of Kwara State Polytechnic over one of students shot by a police officer on patrol.

Our correspondent gathered that the incident occurred at about 10 am while police officers were on patrol along Post-Office/Murtala Muhammed Way. An eyewitness said that the police officers who were on patrol allegedly stopped a taxi cab but the driver did not stop. It was learnt that the angry police officer shot at the taxi but the bullet hit a male student who was on his way to school.

From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

L-R: Minister of Women Affairs, Hayiya Zainab Maina, FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, and Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, taking salute from the pupils of AR- RAHMAN International School, during a march past to mark this year Children Day ceremony, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Insecurity: Emir protests JTF’s house to house search in Daura

T

he Emir of Daura in Katsina state, Alhaji Umar Farouk Umar has protested the house to house search by securities agents deployed in his domain describing the act as in human and unwarranted .

Speaking when he received Members of the National Assembly from Katsina State under the Platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who paid a visit over the recent

attack by unknown persons said the house to house search policy would not address the issue of insurgency.

He described traditional rulers as custodians of the people and that they are ready to support and cooperate with security agents with a view to achieving a common goal.

He said what happened in his Emirate was unfortunate even as he commended the three senators from Katsina state

and 10 members of the House of Representatives from Katsina state who came to commiserate with the people of Daura.

The Emir appealed to them to make laws that will transform the lives of the people.

Speaking with journalists shortly after the visit, Hon. Mansur Abdulkadir Funtua attributed the precarious security situation in the country to what he described as misrule by the People’s Democratic Party

(PDP).

According to him, “for almost 15 years, the ruling party has failed woefully to address the problems of poverty, unemployment, corruption and insecurity,” noting that no meaningful government anywhere in the world can fold its arm and watch people kill innocent souls and government officials loot public funds and go unpunished.

Falana laments high cost of justice From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

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agos lawyer and civil rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has lamented what he described as the high cost of justice in Nigeria stressing that it has made it difficult for poor citizens to have access to justice.

Falana, made the observation while delivering a lecture during the launch of the Annual Law Journal of the Law Students’ Society, University of Ilorin, The Jurist, in honour of Mrs. Folake Solanke, the first female Senior

Advocate of Nigeria.

In the lecture, entitled, “The Anti-Corruption War in the Nigerian Judiciary: How Far? How Well?,” Falana noted that apart from the fact that the common man are economically disabled from having access to the court, the Constitution, he noted has ousted the jurisdiction of the court to adjudicate on the provisions of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principle of the State Policy which have guaranteed the socio-economic rights of the Nigerian people.

“No doubt the Judiciary has contributed to the protection

of political and civil rights but as such rights are meaningless to the majority of the poor and disadvantaged citizens, the courts should use their judicial powers to defend and promote socioeconomic rights.”

He added that if Nigerian judges are not prepared to re-invent the wheel like their Indian counterparts had done by making socioeconomic rights justiciable through judicial activism, they should be prepared to discard the reactionary doctrine of locus standi in order to allow public interest litigators to enforce the welfare laws that have

been enacted by the Parliament.

He stressed that these laws are now being breached with impunity by the government.

He commended Justice Mukhtar for repositioning the National Judicial Council to take up the urgent task of restoring confidence in the judiciary, expressing his optimism that heads of the various courts and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) would monitor and drive the reform agenda of the CJN in order to restore the confidence of the Nigerian people in the courts.

SERAP seeks information on N700bn spending

By Sunday Ejike Benjamin

S

ocio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) yesterday gave a 14day ultimatum to the federal government to provide information on the spending of N700 billion borrowed between December 31, 2012 and April 30, 2013 or be ready to face a legal action.

The Executive Director of the organization, Adetokunbo Mumuni, in the letter dated May 27, 2013 and

sent to the Accountant – General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, made available to newsmen asked President Goodluck Jonathan to suspend borrowing, noting that: “It would take legal action should the government not provide the information withi14 days”.

The organization said that, “the government has borrowed over N6.54 trillion from national sources and its external borrowing is growing, there is no evidence on the ground to show that the huge sums of money have been put to good use

to benefit millions of economically and socially vulnerable Nigerians.

In fact, we fear the money could have been mismanaged, diverted or stolen.”

“Despite this huge borrowing, the same period also witnessed decreased spending on basic social services such as roads, electricity, health, education, and thus explaining in part why the government has lagged behind in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We are further concerned about the country’s

growing debt problem because this will continue to weaken the capacity of this government to fulfill its human rights obligations and commitment, thus throwing millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty,” the organization also said.

“SERAP is concerned about this high level of spending by the government within this short period of time, especially given the fact that government borrowed almost the same amount between 2011 and 2012.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

Money Tip:

PAGE 11

Money Sense

Are you prepared for the job quit?

Before you buy a cell phone

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he recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4, and the excitement surrounding it, has got me thinking about the way that people choose a new phone. I have bought dozens of handsets over the years, ranging from very simple feature phones to the latest smartphones, and I have to wonder how many of them were bought just because of a flashy commercial. Though it pains me to admit it, the answer is probably too many.

Samsung has recently been announced as the biggest smartphone company in the world, probably largely due to the massive success of the Galaxy range of handsets. I would be the first to admit that the Galaxy S3 is one of the best phones I have ever owned, but should that outweigh all other considerations when I go looking for an upgrade? I have been disappointed before when buying the latest handset, even though the model that came before was great.

These days I always try to follow three simple rules when looking for a new phone: 1. Wait. I never, ever, buy a new handset on launch day, no matter how much hype surrounds it or how much my gut tells me it will be brilliant. It is not unusual for phones to be launched with small but annoying bugs and problems. Buy a handset on day one and you won’t have chance to learn about these.

2. Read. There will certainly be previews, and even some reviews, available for a phone before it is launched, but not usually enough to make an educated decision. I have had friends ask me if they should buy a particular smartphone because it has a micro SIM card, like that makes a difference to what the phone can do.

Wait for a few days and there will be hundreds of reviews available, both online and in print. Read as many as you can, from a variety of sources and learn about the phone before you make your choice.

3. Think. Although that may sound like obvious advice, when I say think, I mean really think about what you want from a new phone. Do you want it because it just because it is new or because your mates are all getting one?

The Galaxy S4 might sound amazing, but the multi-core processor, 4G capability and S-Beam are overkill if all you ever do is make calls, send SMS messages and play the odd game of Bejewelled.(Source: About.com)

Quote “Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” - Lakshmi Mittal: Steel Tycoon

T

he tendency to quit your job might be borne out of the desire for more challenges, lack of job satisfaction, questionable company policies or the desire to explore other career opportunities.

Whatever might have compelled you to quit your job, ensure you plan effectively so you do not regret your actions after a short while.

If you are married or do have dependants, you certainly have to consider your spouse, kids or dependant before quitting your job. Preferably, discuss your decision with them so that they prepare their mind for the possible implication, especially if you do not have another source of income for the time being.

However if you are single, then

it is a much more simple task, as your decision will rarely affect anybody except you.

“Do not plan on dipping into your retirement savings to support yourself while you look for a new job” say Kelly Anderson, personal finance expert.

However if that is your only source, it is advisable you save at least three months worth of money needed before quitting the job. This is a total sum of your expenses; debt (if any), fixed, and variable for one month multiplied by three. However, if you feel you are not financially secure yet, then it is obvious you need to postpone your quit date, says Martin Dasko, publisher Studenomics.

Financial experts advice you evaluate your budget before

quitting your job. This enables you know how to switch to a single source of income which likely might be your savings.

Although the goal is to maintain your standard of living, you might have to make some sacrifices when you quit your job these include cutting down your spending drastically and paying more attention to your budget, experts say.

Anderson maintained that insurance is a big issue when you quit work. Don’t leave your current job until you have a plan for replacing your health insurance, especially if your previous employer offered you one.

It is advisable you review several private insurance policies, so you can pick one that meets

loan. Properties eligible for home loans include HDB flats (direct purchase and resale), private properties which are already built and private properties under construction.

Banks charge interest from the date the home loan is first disbursed, usually when you pay the remaining purchase price (after paying for the option and down-payment) to the seller. The disbursement may be in stages if the purchase price is to be paid

progressively. The repayment schedule sets out your monthly payments and the dates on which you must pay it.

How much can you borrow?

Two main criteria banks use to assess your loan eligibility are: Financial commitment-to-income ratio This is a computation of your total monthly debt obligations (e.g. existing home loan, car loan, overdraft facilities and other credit facilities) to your total monthly income. This is to determine your

your needs without busting your budget, say Anderson.

According to Dasko it is important you remember you need to pay your debts (student loans, home, auto) If you have any. If you can not pay your debts then you will get yourself into some serious trouble. You might get forced into bankruptcy or you might get stuck with paying more interest on your debt.

As you plan on quitting your job you need to take your current debt into consideration Depending on your situation, you might need to find a new home for your retirement savings. Figure out the best solution for your retirement savings before you leave your job and be proactive about any rollovers.

However, experts advise do you plan on contributing to your retirement plan while not working.

But, if you planned in advance and saved sufficiently, you may have enough in your retirement account to make up for any time you aren’t contributing.

According to Anderson, voluntarily leaving a job should never be a snap decision. Even if you are very unhappy at work, take the time to carefully plan your finances before your exit.

You don’t want to quit your job only to end up finding a new job with less pay, less satisfaction and less challenges than your former.

Buying a Home: What do you need to pay for?

B

uying a home is probably the biggest financial commitment for most Nigerians. It is a longterm commitment which should be carefully planned upfront.

Before you start looking for a home to buy, first work out what you can afford as well as find out what you need to pay for.

What you can afford depends on your current income and expenses, available savings as well as the loan amount you are eligible for.

Buying a home involves making some upfront payments, as well as monthly payments such as your housing loan instalments and conservancy charges.

What is a home loan?

A home loan or mortgage loan is a loan to buy property and secured on the property that you buy. A home loan is usually repayable in monthly instalments.

Before taking up a home loan, make sure that you can afford the repayments. Do ask for a repayment schedule to help you estimate costs.

Your bank should also provide you with a residential property loan fact sheet to help you understand the terms of the

repayment ability.

Specifically, for loans taken from banks to purchase HDB flats, the monthly repayment instalment cannot exceed 30% of a borrower’s gross monthly income. For loans taken up with HDB, a 35% limit applies.

Loan-to-value (LTV) ratioThis is the amount of loan taken out on a property in relation to its value expressed as a percentage.

PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

EDITORIAL

esterday, May 27, was marked globally as Children’s Day. It has been so since 1964.

However, in Nigeria’s Adamawa state, school children who had turned up at Ribadu Square in Yola, the state capital, for the traditional march past were told the ceremony had been cancelled because there is a state of emergency in the state.

Two other states – Borno and Yobe – are also affected because of the raging Boko Haram insurgency in that geo-political zone. The children wept as they walked back home.

The disappointment of the Adamawa school children lends credence to a recent study by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of The Economist magazine, published in London, which predicted that Nigeria would be the worst place for a child to be born in 2013. It examined the quality of life in 80 countries based on key variables like crime, trust in public institutions, health of family life and government policies. Nigeria placed last over all, managing just 4.7 out of a score of 10, below Kenya with 4.91. Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Angola are considered better places to be born than Nigeria.

Conspiracy theorists among us, including policy makers, will dismiss this study as the usual smear campaign against the country. But was it not a Nigerian education minister who recently admitted that the country has 10.5 million out

of school (OOS) children out of the world total of 61 million? Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’I admitted at a recent UNESCO meeting that with 42 % of school age children out of school, a rise from the 2000 level, Nigeria faces “a very serious challenge”. This in spite of the federal government’s universal basic education policy, an extant Child Right Act and the country

“

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Children’s Day, Nigerian child’s horror

The ritual is over, but let us –parents and government – continue to spare a thought for the future of the Nigerian child. A secure future for the child is Nigeria’s future secured signing up to the MDGs. The shame of the Nigerian child’s lack of access to elementary education is that it can be helped if we decide to be less corrupt than we are. UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitory Report says the country could educate 2.4million of its OOS children if its oil revenues are better managed.

According to it, 20% of our oil receipts can raise over half a billion dollars annually for education. But this

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

remains a big “if”. Will this happen in a country whose oil wealth is shared between local and international thieves as well as corrupt politicians?

Decreased government investment in education does not only rob the Nigerian child of a bright future, it also stalls the country’s development.

Several generations of potential Nigerian leaders are to be found in those 10.5 million that are out of the school system currently. And so are potential armies of criminals, even terrorists. This should make us all shudder. But ours is a country where nothing shocks for as long as our today seems secure.

The EIU study was based on its 2030 forecasts. It is the year when children born this year will have become adults. But with our country reputed to have the highest child morbidity and mortality rates, how many children born today will live to be adults? Even those who are lucky to survive deadly childbirth complications will have to contend with kidnappers, ritualists, traffickers and sexual molesters.

The raging sectarian Boko Haram insurgency in a part of the North has claimed several children among hundreds of its victims.

Another Children’s Day has come and gone. The ritual is over, but let us –parents and government – continue to spare a thought for the future of the Nigerian child. A secure future for the child is Nigeria’s future secured.

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CHAIRMAN MALAM WADA MAIDA, OON, FNGE DIRECTOR/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RUFA’I IBRAHIM MANAGING EDITOR ABDUL-AZEEZ ABDULLAHI

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 13

Opinion Something cheerful in Kano

By Nosa Igbinadolor

I

voted for Jonathan in 2011. I campaigned volubly for him in the public soap box and in the media; I crusaded shrilly to friends and foes alike of the great expectations of the future that will trail a Jonathan victory.

I admit to all these and more. I have since taken an oath to be dumb to the theatre of the bizarre playing out in different parts of Jonathan’s Nigeria. I wish I could be blind and deaf to the creepy stage show touring the Nigerian socio-political landscape, but alas, as the French will say, c’est impossible.

While we live in a most interesting time in Jonathan’s Nigeria, talking and scripting about the out of the ordinary state of affairs we have found ourselves in, is increasingly becoming wearisome and foolish.

An exercise in folly, I dare say!

After all this is a government of epistemological nihilists that has got its mind made up about nothing, and anything not geared towards winning the 2015 elections is of peripheral importance to the political

By Ose Oyamendan

P

oor President Goodluck Jonathan! The man must loath sleep now. I’m guessing every time he dozes off he has a nightmare where Rotimi Amaechi pops up and shrieks, “still alive!”

The good Christian that he is, the president would surely not wish the Rivers State governor any ill. But he must wonder why the man won’t stay dead, politically.

They sliced him, diced him and sprinkled him with some pepper before they threw him in the grinder. Yet, the man came up whole!

I’m not even the president of my house yet I worry about that Amaechi dude sometimes. He combines Yoruba and Ibo names but claims to be from Rivers State. Jonathan being the rookie president he is doesn’t realize that’s a ground for impeachment if he can buy the State legislators with a slice of the security vote.

No wonder ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo always laments the state of the nation. GEJ learnt nothing from OBJ. For the last few months, Amaechi was the ball in a political Ping-Pong game, Naija style.

The presidency smashes him.

The opposition serves him as a soft lob. His party elders practice forehands with him.

The man’s fault was that he was the head of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum, something that sounds like a committee of egg heads until you realize one member can’t even count to 20. He had some spat with the president and boom, he was told “no more forum for you”.

Somehow, Amaechi took it as a joke and last Friday, showed the president the joke was on him all along.

mandarins in power. I have decided to take cognisance of the fact that in the midst of the sorrows, tears and pains that have become our lot in Jonathan’ Nigeria, there are still a few oasis of reason, a few archipelagos of hope and rationality that thrive amidst the salad of calamities the President has managed to marinade together with his do nothing, inefficient, ‘my hands are tied’ attitude.

Kano state is one of such sanctuaries of optimism. There are a few actually, extremely few and in the north, you can count them all on the fingers of your left hand. I was last in Kano two years ago on a consulting assignment and I was thoroughly unimpressed with what I saw.

The road network was crumbling; even the facade of intra-national and international commerce was all but gone. The Kano I saw was a synonym for what was once a thriving Nigerian state that had since gone catabolic.

Then I went to Kano a couple of weeks ago and I liked what I heard and had great expectations in what I saw. In the midst of the violent zealotry that is

ravaging large swaths of the expansive northern landscape, development of a sustainable type is taking place in Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Kano. The roads are coming up albeit slowly but what has most impressed many is the state government’s education development policy that has seen the state investing more than credible amount of its budget on visible educational activities. While Boko Haram fanatically rejects education and more than proves its belief by attacking and burning down schools, Kwankwaso’s Kano has sought to form young minds and reform deviant psyches through the emancipative power of education. In Kwankwaso’s Kano, two universities with a bias for the natural and engineering sciences have been established and are being solely funded from the state’s budget. At a time when governors of many oil producing states go home with hundreds of billions of naira and have little to show for it, Kano state government on the other hand has been widely acclaimed for the prudent manner it has managed its finances through a

highly disciplined fiscal policy that the Federal Government and its economic management team could learn from if only they could be humble and admit their helplessness.

Kano has sent hundreds of students overseas on scholarship not waiting for PTDF to do so for him as some states are wont to do. What would make a state government in one swoop send one hundred of its citizens abroad for training as pilots if not to strategically boost the capacity of the state to meet the human resource challenge of the future?

The setting up of a Government College in Kano more than thrills me. It shows a government that recognises the transformative role played by Government Colleges of yore whether at Ibadan, Umuahia, Zaria, Keffi, etc and is keen to use lessons learnt from the past to build a modern educational system that can support the future. While government at the centre continues to think and talk oil and gas, Kano state government loudly by its actions and activities talks human capital development as the change catalyst of the present and the

The abiku governor The man won an election he was supposed to lose. The president found out that trying to eradicate Boko Haram was one thing, trying to do away with Amaechi was a different ball game. It was so bad, Godswill Akpabio, Amaechi’s brother governor and one-time BFF, faltered in kindergarten arithmetic. Akpabio claims 16 is a higher number than 19. In fairness to him, he may be reading 16 upside down which gives him 91 which means we may be expecting 56 more states!

We can all stop worrying why budgets don’t get balanced and why the standard of education is tumbling down. I wish Akpabiomath was known twenty years ago. I could have convinced my father and saved my bruised behind by telling him my 40% in math is actually greater than my baby sister’s 75%.

“

The funny thing is Jonah Jang, the aged governor of Plateau State who can’t control his own state and whose face is often knotted into a question mark was “selected” as the alternate chairman of the NGF, evoking images of a guy who couldn’t get the girl, goes into a doll shop and gets himself a female doll. You wonder whom to pity? The guy or the doll?

I get this feeling the governors, most of them babies when Jang was a lively bachelor charming the ladies of the middle belt, are having fun at the expense of the old man. I mean, how do you tell a man he was the winner of an election he sat through and lost?

The whole drama is like chronic dysentery. Just when you think it’s impossible for anything to come out, another wave comes. What next? An opposition spokesman would compose a

press release declaring Babatunde Fashola the new chairman of the NGF because, on account of income, Lagos technically is worth fifteen states! That and his brother opposition governors who can count to 10 will put him over the edge.

All this over an office that is as unconstitutional as the First Lady’s office. At least, in defense of First Ladies everywhere, it’s assumed they share the first man’s bed. The NGF chairman is an anomaly. No one cares who shares his bed except you’re jobless which a lot of young Nigerians are.

What does the chairman of the NGF really do? He represents the governors who control delegates.

Kaching! 2015!

I really feel bad for the president. He can’t win over the opposition. He’s struggling to convince Nigerians he actually does work for Nigeria. Now, his

All this over an office that is as unconstitutional as the First Lady’s office. At least, in defense of First Ladies everywhere, it’s assumed they share the first man’s bed. The NGF chairman is an anomaly. No one cares who shares his bed except you’re jobless which a lot of young Nigerians are. What does the chairman of the NGF really do? He represents the governors who control delegates. Kaching! 2015!

future. The investment in girl child education including the setting up of two modern girls’ colleges in Unggogo and Jogana is visionary especially against the backdrop that states in the north need to be more creative and calculated in order to bridge the vast gap in girl child education with their southern counterparts No doubt, Kwankwaso’s eight years in the political wilderness between 2003 and 2011 must have been used by the governor to assess his failures and his vision for the future if he ever accessed power in the state. He came back in 2011 and many expected little from him as we expect little from our elected officials. However, the governor sent a clear and decisive warning about his EDUCATION agenda immediately he resumed office. At a time when Jonathan’s Nigeria is the centre of universal mortification, the hard road travelled by Kwankwaso and his government, cheerfully shows that there are still a few good men in government. Nigeria is still redeemable.

Nosa James-Igbinadolorvia nosa.igbinadolor@gmail. com own party is turning him into a piñata. And, that’s gotta get you thinking – where did the president’s advisers learn their trades?

Sometimes, it feels they picked up their political education at a noisy bus stop.

Just when the president was hoping people would forget he was a former governor and had a hat in the ring, his spokesman Rueben Abati, jumped into the fray and denied his boss’ involvement thus reminding everyone of Jonathan’s involvement. And, just to seal it – Akpabio, Jang and some governors went to hobnob with the Vice President. Or, does Abati want us all to believe Sambo has gone “Atiku” on GEJ? In the past, the president’s men couldn’t stop Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s election as speaker even though they could have flooded the town with alcoholic rumors based on his last name.

Then, they asked the man to get into a tug-of-war with David Mark and his not so honorable or distinguished colleagues. Just to mess up the president’s good luck a little, they asked him to change UNILAG’s name – assuring him that every Yoruba man will throw their daughters at him.

Now, the president is lucky that Amaechi, despite everything, still loves him. Or, what do you make of his victory speech: ”We want to pledge our steadfastness and resolve working alongside Mr. President to better the lives of our people as we render transparent and accountable stewardship.”

Ouch! I can see Amaechi in the president’s dream guffawing, “rubbing it in!”

Ose Oyamendan is a California, US-based Nigerian filmmaker.

PAGE 14

Letters & Opinion

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

Nigerian Governors Forum: Another ‘Tower of Babel’?

By John Danfulani

O

n Friday, 24th May 2013, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) re-elected Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as their Chairman. His first tenure expired months ago but unbridled interest of parochial strings pullers within and outside the ruling party truncated efforts for an immediate elections. Interested parties are polarized along two broad clusters known as pro and anti Amaechi.

The camp of embattled Chairman of NGF is made up of recalcitrant PDP Governors and all opposition Governors. While the anti consists of die in the wool PDP Governors under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State-Mr. president’s Man Friday and henchman.

Re-election of Amaechi and denial of his victory by a faction made the drama that ensued the most classic comic relief series of our time. If Nigeria were Hollywood, an award winning movie starring dramatic personas like Godswill,Yugudu, Shema and Jang would have been on the way.The official umpire told the world that Amaechi defeated Chief Jonah Jang with a simple majority of 19 to 16 votes.This is an indication that their electoral formulae is First-Pass-The-Post.

It was authoritatively reported that before the umpire’s final pronouncement, Gov Godswill Akpabio and his brigade of “bad losers” stormed out of the venue of the event in protest of some technicalities and cosmetic procedures bordering the reelection of their Chairman.

President Jonathan’s men

challenged poison and re-election of potency capable NGF Chairman of inflicting on grounds of lethal injuries to Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, venue and a opponents. The text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written prior intra party Yar’Adua boys arrangement in Katsina and contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters that endorsed Adamu Muazu of 150 words, Articles 750 words.

Please include your Chief Jonah Bauchi can tell name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be Jang. However, stories of these one finds it eels better than addressed to: extremely hard all of us. to digest why Malam The Editor, they forgot the Isa Yuguda illegality of survived PDP’s Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, the venue and manipulation 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. participated in and brute display Email: opinion@peoplesdaily-online.com the elections. of power in 2007 Sure, the in Bauchi and SMS: 08134607052 elections took crushed them place in Rivers without any coercive mannerism in shoving State Government Lodge in microscopic iota of pity. And in their unpalatable wishes down Abuja; and incidentally, Amaechi 2011 switched back to PDP and the throats of members as well is thWe Governor of Rivers State won against CPC’s hurricane as elected and appointed office and a contestant. Irrespective of that blew across most northern holders. But are political decision where the elections were held, can States. Shema is also a survivalist holy orders or articles of faith people of such standing, pedigree, desert rat with multiple exit holes that can’t be violated once there and immunity be compelled to that makes him elusive to his is a shift in interest? This should vote for a candidate they don’t enemies. He fought the vicious be commonsensical even to the want in a lodge that isn’t a creed Yar’Adua boys and the former wettest political Jack in the field or jungle full of Amaechi’s trigger First Lady and CPC’s Katrina to a or chancellery. happy gangsters and thugs? The standstill and won his re-election Is strategic team of Mr. tactical needful was an outright in 2011.There isn’t chance for President barren of this cum fierce objection of the venue Jonathan and Akpabio’s scheme impeccable realism in the art of before the commencement of the to survive the treachery of these politics? I can now see why the process. And if that oozes into two Governors along with notable river of wonders will forever flow. deaf ears of people piloting the PDP mavericks like Kwankwaso, proceedings, they can stage a walk Mr. President and his hit men Lamido , Wammako and Aliyu. forgot how they badly shuffle their out. They knew this but refused The final choice was a bad political cards by promising and to act, why this loud cry over spill one and too controversial to breaking promises to Governors milk? To put it blunt: who is to sell.Ordinarily, Jang as the only Shema and Yuguda. Is there any blame for their tactlessness, folly Northerner in the race ought to wonder the duo acted the fool and complacency? have cornered all northern votes and served the much painful On their point of having the based on his being a member commitment of all PDP Governors vengeance dish to Goodluck of Northern Governors’ Forum Jonathan at the zero hour? The to file behind Jang before the and Mr. President’s clone. But two Governors are veteran wolves election, there isn’t doubt on we know that since becoming with razor sharp teeth that laugh that, knowing the cruel methods the Governor of Plateau State, but dangerously coated with of the Presidency and their Plateau has been witnessing

WRITE TO US

Terror comes to Supreme Court

By Seyi Olu Awofeso

T

he wife and daughter of Supreme Court Justice Rhodes-Vivour are spending their third week in captivity without trace, and, with no ransom asked.Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Aloma Maryam Mukhtar, is now fretful, after having written to the Police to more quickly uncover this kidnap, and after flying from Abuja to Lagos earlier this week to meet and give heart to Justice Rhodes Vivour, but so far, the Police have no good clue, except the plate number of the car in which the Vivours had travelled from Lagos.

Till date, no one has yet come oto inform the police of the abductors’ car itself, to help focus investigations on the likely whereabouts of both kidnapped women. The police, in effect, rely on just one piece of apocryphal information, saying the abductors had made a phone call to Justice Rhodes Vivour asking 300 million Naira as ransom. That un-proved phone call reportedly originated from a location between the border town of Ondo and Edo states, last week, but Justice Rhodes Vivour denies ever receiving such ransom call. At any rate, a smart Alec might have cleverly interposed himself to make a quick buck from Justice Rhodes Vivour’s anguish by pretending to be the abductor.

So, this un-usual kidnap remains as mysterious as it was 16 days ago, when the kidnappers

intercepted both women on the Benin Expressway, and vanished with them, without making any monetary demand or political statement till now. So long as the car in which both women travelled is not found, the abductors presumptively drove it alongside theirs and likely hid it in a lock-up garage or in a forest, or used it as get-away car for the kidnap and drove it to their hideout for future use as operational car after repainting it, or had possibly dismantled it, by breaking it up into parts for disposal or for sale, to scuttle any trace.

Typically, ransom for kidnap cases takes a week to negotiate in Nigeria, as happened with the mother of the Minister for Finance, Ngozi OkonjoIweala, when 10 million Naira was reportedly paid, from the federal treasury, as ransom to the kidnappers in December last year. By contrast, Justice Rhodes Vivour’s case has now crossed that line and crossed the typical time-frame twice over to raise genuine fear for the lives of the two captured women, as there’s growing doubt if this is a gardenvariety kidnap case since it no longer looks like it. “Yes, at this point, we will need to look at some other angles”, an exasperated Police Officer told journalists.

It is unclear how numerous the other angles police will plan to ponder but Justice Rhodes Vivour was one of the five justices who declared President Goodluck Jonathan duly elected President

at the 2011 election. But that fact, standing alone, does not explain the kidnap of his wife and children, since the Supreme Court’s decision of December 28, 2011, in that case of Buhari vs. Jonathan, was unanimous.

Justice Olufunlola Adekeye had delivered the lead judgement, with Justices Musdapher, Mahmud Mohammed, Walter Onnoghen, Afolabi Fabiyi, Bode Sylvester Ngwuta, and Rhodes-Vivour himself, concurring.

For sure, many kidnap cases remain un-resolved in Nigeria but that does not automatically render those cases political anymore than it suggests Nigeria’s police’ lack of central investigation equipment. One such un-resolved case is that of a Nigerian television broadcaster, Alhaji Rasak Aremu Gawat, who’s been missing since July 2012 after he’d parked his car at the Lagos Marina. That Justice Rhodes Vivour declared

“

Goodluck Jonathan duly elected in his separate court verdict of December 28, 2011, will not therefore explain the current kidnap of his wife and daughter 16 days ago, on May 10th, without further facts, but so far, no corroborative facts are available, but that’s no reason to lose sight of this slight possibility, since two militia groups had since last year announced a common intention to “kidnap the wives and children of government officials”.

As terror against Nigeria’s lower court judges has continued like this over the years, it has scuppered the judiciary’s already thin capacity to regulate an increasingly violent Nigerian society. For example, no fewer than three other judges gave press interviews in the last two years, complaining of receiving threat messages on their mobile telephones. Others have kept quiet after reporting death threats

By contrast, Justice Rhodes Vivour’s case has now crossed that line and crossed the typical time-frame twice over to raise genuine fear for the lives of the two captured women, as there’s growing doubt if this is a garden-variety kidnap case since it no longer looks like it

ethno-religious crisis of apocalyptic magnitude! And local and external sympathizers of the so-called settlers saw the hand of Esau but voice of Jacob in the skirmishes.

Sentiments against Chief Jang in most northern State are so thick like a September cumulus. It was a huge miscalculation to think Governors that people of their faith and ethnic group are at war with Jang’s people will support him.Faith and other mundane ethnic sentiments wouldn’t permit support without rancor from his northern colleagues in NGF. Now we have two Chairmen of NGF. The saga goes on. It is glaring that all roads will soon lead to the judiciary for a verdict on who is the authentic Chair of NGF.I t’s clear that the political system is deficit of sincere and modest elements. Actors are still playing and acting the old way of Machiavellian strategy of the end justifies the means. It’s shameful if State Chiefs who are leaders of millions will not conduct their affairs with decorum and observe simple rules they set for themselves. This is a sign of how they might handle election and electoral process in 2015. It is also vivid that our democratic space is fast shrinking because of inordinate ambition and extravagant greed of politicians.

No speck of doubt is still hanging in the air, they will crush and flatten their challengers in case people refused them mandates in 2015.

John Danfulani teaches political science at Kaduna State University (KASU) to the police. But in all of this, the Supreme Court justices were unscathed, even as the prisons department of the Interior Ministry announced last week that no fewer than 48 prison officers in its own employ have been killed by rampaging militias.

If a retaliatory or political motive were to have led to the kidnap of Justice Rhodes Vivour’s wife and daughter, he would become the first Supreme Court victim of terror, as Nigeria chokes in the grips of revolutionary pressures. Likely true observation, and again, as further signal occurrence, Boko Haram a fortnight ago announced it has now resolved to kidnap the wives and children of government officials, with a warning added that the Police need not look for such missing family members because those captured “shall have started new lives as domestic servants” inside Boko Haram’s camps.

However, there is devilry in the details of that recent Boko Haram announcement. For it obscures a larger picture. Whilst Boko Haram operates as a militia group in northern Nigerian Nigeria, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta operates in the southern coast, and for so long as both groups had warned the public of a common intention to kidnap family members of government officials, it complicates Police investigation by rendering any of the country’s land territory as possible a place as any, where both Mrs. Rhodes Vivour and her daughter might still be found, hopefully alive.

Seyi Olu Awofeso is a Legal Practitioner in Abuja

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 15

Comment An uncommon gift called good-bye Let me tell you something.

I’ve got the gift of good-bye. It’s the tenth spiritual gift. I believe in good-bye. It is not that I’m hateful; it’s just that I’m faithful.

And I know whatever God means for me to have He’ll give it to me.

And if it takes too much sweat I don’t need it. Stop begging people to stay. Let them go…. If someone can’t treat you right, love you back, and see your worth…let it go!!! – Poem by T.D. Jakes

I

once found myself stuck in a ‘crazy’ relationship. Crazy in the sense that the person with whom I was involved had messed up again and again and again. Yet I had stuck to her. Like a fool.

The sensible thing to do was to quit. More so as my partner had made it seem that without her Sonde would cease to exist.

Indeed, the more I tried to make the relationship work, the more Jumaina became more proud, more haughty, more this and that.

To shorten a long story, all my efforts were in vain. That relationship crashed at its prime.

The scars took many months to heal. It was one of the toughest moments of my life. Imagine putting all your body, heart and soul into a venture, only to discover later that the other party had been less than sincere.

“Why, God, why?” I kept asking for some time. “Why me? Why let me endure such heartache?” As time went by, the answer to that heart-wrenching

SONDE’S DIARY

By Sonde Abbah

asonde@yahoo.com 0803-2159-249 (SMS only, pls) question started to emerge. It gradually dawned on me that it had all happened for a purpose. A purpose that would be beneficial to me in various ways for the rest of my life….

One of the life-long benefits derived from that educative experience is what the notable writer, T. D. Jakes, calls “the gift of good-bye”. The “tenth spiritual gift”. The gift of telling someone to go to hell whenever that person assumes that without him or her you cannot exist. The gift of letting

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go.

“I mean, hang up the phone!” says Jake. “When people can walk away from you, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. The Bible says that ‘They came out from us that it might be manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us’ (1 John 2:19)….

Let them go.”

This time last year, a photographer was hired during my school’s Children’s Day

ceremony. We treated this man like royalty, only for him to start acting like Oliver Twist and Shylock combined, when it was time to deliver our photographs.

Because I needed the photographs urgently, the man apparently thought that I would crawl on mud for him. Nonsense. I let go of the whole stuff, including the hundreds of Naira we had paid him as advance fee.

“Let me tell you something.

I’ve got the gift of good-bye…. It is not that I’m hateful, it’s just that I’m faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have He will give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don’t need it. Stop begging people… let them go!” So says Jakes.

On page 45 of the August 31, 2012 edition of this newspaper my colleague, Patrick Andrew, wrote about the hubris and arrogance that often reign whenever Mikel Obi is invited to play friendly football matches for

Why does Mikel keep indulging in this rubbish? Because our Super Eagles’ coaches lack the courage to let him go.

Hear Jakes: “If someone can’t treat you right, love you back, and see your worth…let it go!” Mikel and his ilk have shown again and again that they can’t requite Nigeria’s love, that they cannot see the nation’s worth. But will we ever let them go? Will we ever call their bluff?

Nigeria’s Super Eagles. The young man would act as if he were bigger than Nigeria, as if Njgeria needed him more than he needed Nigeria.

He would feign injury in order to dodge such matches, only for the same “injured” Mikel to be seen playing for his club, Chelsea, the next day.

Here Mikel goes again. As Nigeria prepares to face Mexico in a key friendly match this week, the chap opted to display what Patrick Andrew had called “unpatriotic and unprofessional” antics. Would a Messi ever treat his country, Argentina, like that? Would a Ronaldo ever treat Portugal’s invitation so shabilly?

Why does Mikel keep indulging in this rubbish? Because our Super Eagles’ coaches lack the courage to let him go. Hear Jakes: “If someone can’t treat you right, love you back, and see your worth…let it go!” Mikel and his ilk have shown again and again that they can’t requite Nigeria’s love, that they cannot see the nation’s worth. But will we ever let them go? Will we ever call their bluff?

Or will we continue to massage their elephant-size ego?

“There are people who can walk away from you,” Jakes tells us. “And hear me when I tell you this! When people walk away from you, let them walk. I don’t want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you.”

Banning almajiri street begging menace

By Ujudud Shariff

T

he recent call by the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, on Northern state governors to ban street begging by almajirai Almajiri Street Beggars from our streets and empower them through education is a noble request that requires the support of all. This call is important in the context of a recent study conducted by the Ministerial Committee on Madrasah Education which put the population of Nigeria’s almajiris in Nigeria at about 10 million!

This calls for a drastic action to save ourselves from the uncertain future that lies ahead of us all.

But it is also obvious that for Nigeria to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) goals there is need for an accelerated intervention by the Universal Basic Education Commission to integrate Qur’anic education (traditional tsangaya/almajiri education) and western education.

The menace posed by the almajiri beggars to the security, socio-economic and political wellbeing of especially the northern states where the practice is endemic was realized since 1987 in Kano State when Group Captain Mohammed Ndatsu Umaru was the military

governor of the state. He had the foresight to establish four Committees on Almajiri, Women, Zakkat and Social Mobilization.

The Almajiri Committee under Sheikh Isa Waziri after touring the whole state and consultations with Islamic and traditional leaders, strongly recommended its banning as it was NOT ISLAMIC to beg anyhow. Infact, the Zakkat Committee strongly recommended how the monies collected from the rich (Zakkat) could be used to support the poor, the destitute, the weak, the disabled and women. It was a pity Group Captain Umaru was transferred out of the state in 1988 before he could have enacted a law to ban the Almajiri menace in Kano state! But thanks to General Babaginda for adopting our Report on Social Mobilization chaired by the late broadcaster, Alhaji Adamu Salihu, to produce what came to be known as MAMSER (Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice and Economic Recovery) in July 1987! Thank God it is reported recently by the Commander of the Kano State Hisbah Board, Malam Aminu Daurawa, that the Kano State Government has already submitted a Bill to the State House of Assembly to ban Almajiri begging in the state!

We remember with nostalgia the noble role played by the late

General Hassan Usman Katsina in waging a dogged fight against the almajiri system in the North.

He argued that children should be saved from begging a nd enrolled in to islamiyya schools where they would be taught the combined Islamic and the Western education.

We are happy to acknowledge the most important programme introduced by President Goodluck Jonathan is the harmonization of Islamiyya and basic western education in almajiri schools he opened in Sokoto state on April 1o, 2012. We are also happy with pioneering role of Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo in Zaria where he established special modernized primary schools for almajiris. So far about 124 primary schools have been constructed for the Almajiri education in Northern Nigeria by the Federal Government and they are to be handed over to the state governments for implementation. If truth must be told, and we are never afraid off saying it, the almajiri problem is essentially a northern problem; and if we expand the analysis, it is essentially the Hausa/Fulani problem of Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto,and Kebbi States. You can never see a Tiv almajiri, an Idoma almajiri, Yoruba almajiri, Nupe Amajirior, even a Fulani almajiri!

As such it is incumbent of the government of these states to

embrace the initiative of the federal government to liberate and redeem our children who are forced to leave their parents the tender age of 5 to go for Koranic education that they hardly get.

These children are always used in fomenting violence and as political thugs.

I salute Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state for getting the streets of Lagos free of the menace of almajiri beggars and deporting all those who are arrested to their states of origin.

This is very shameful for all northerners of the Hausa/Fulani stock! We have to swallow our pride and join the crusades of rehabilitating and educating the Almajiri. All the North West states identified should make laws to ban almajiri beggars from our streets and get them enrolled in schools to further their education.

It should become unlawful for any parent to send their children for the so- call Almajiri education where they are turned as beggars to feed themselves and teachers.

We are encouraged by the “intervention strategies” of the National Implementation Committee on Almajiri Education programme of the Universal Basic Education that identified and adopted three models of intervention: Model 1 dwells on “Integration of traditional tsangaya/Qur’anic school

within its original location”.

This entails the provision of the following (i) construction of a block of classrooms with office and store with furniture, (ii) a block of 50 pupils’ dormitory with furniture, (iii) a borehole with hand-pump, and (iv) VIP toilets. The second model states that almajiri schools involve “the establishment of a model almajiri school to serve a group of tsangaya/Qur’arnic schools, with the following facilities (i) two blocks of class rooms with office and store, including furniture, (ii) a recitation hall and office with furniture, (iii) a Mallam’s residence, (iv) a borehole with hand-pump and (v) VIOP toilets.

The third model involves the “integration of basic education in established Islamiyya and Ma’ahad schools. This will involve provision of infrastructure and other facilities based on the needs of specific school”.

Finally, we call on President Jonathan to vigorously pursue the Almajiri Education programme not only for the sake of posterity which will write his name in gold but also for 2015 when our votes are assured. Let history record that Jonathan gave northern children what their own parents could not give them.

Ujudud Shariff is reachable on ujushariff@ yahoo.com

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 17

METRO

Group tasks FCT Minister, NUJ over book on graft exposure

By Stanley Onyekwere

F

CT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, has been admonished to “toe the path of honour” in respect of the much hyped forthcoming book by a Kaduna-based media outfit, which reportedly details “mind boggling and unprecedented” alleged corruption in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration under his watch.

Making the clarion call in an interview with a group of journalists yesterday in Abuja,

the protem National secretary of the youth wing of Yobe Awareness Forum (YAF), Mallam Hussein Turaki urged Senator Mohammed to, “in the spirit of transparency and in line with the kind of courage expected of public officials of his ilk,” let the said book be published first “and then dispute the facts presented therein and/or even sue the authors, rather than crying wolf as he is doing now.”

The YAF chieftain spoke against the backdrop of the recent claim by chairman of the FCT chapter of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Chuks Ehirim,

that Mohammed had petitioned his union over the forthcoming book by DESERT HERALD newspaper, alleging blackmail.

“The reasonable thing to do is for the minister to allow the book to be released, then react as he may deem fit,” Turaki stated. “As an anti-graft and transparency watchdog, we at YAF feel disappointed that Minister Mohammed, in cohort with his Man-Friday called Ehirim, has opted to resort to cheap propaganda against DESERT HERALD and its publisher, Tukur Mamu, for no just cause.”

He added: “Another disturbing aspect of the whole thing is the way Ehirim has virtually turned NUJ in Abuja into a megaphone for the FCT minister, praising him shamelessly even over patently anti-people policies. For instance, when millions of Abuja residents were crying out over that infamous policy to ban commercial buses from plying the metropolis, Ehiri’s NUJ rose to the minister’s defence.

“The same thing happened when this same minister decided to use billions of tax payers, money to build the so-called African First

Ladies’ House. All Nigerians and the media alike rose in unison to condemn this wastage, but Ehirim threw caution to the wind by using NUJ to support that move.

This, in our view, is ungodly and unprofessional.”

Concluding, the YAF scribe urged the minister and Abuja NUJ to “stop insulting the intelligence of Abuja residents in particular and Nigerians in general thrpugh their sundry ungodly antics”.

“We, like other compatriots, are watching with keen interest to see how far this show of shame will be stretched,” he said.

Fire Service Training centre unveiled in Gwarimpa

By Adeola Tukuru

I

n line with internationally best practices, the FCT Administration has established Fire Service Training Centre in Gwarimpa II District, for enhance emergency services in the territory.

FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed made this disclosure recently, while presenting his Score Card to the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , recently.

Senator Mohammed stressed that this action has become necessary considering the way Abuja is expanding with its unexpected demographic figures perhaps due to security

challenges in other parts of the country.

The Minister recalled that his Administration saved 239 lives from fire incidences in and around the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the preceding year of 2012.

Senator Mohammed further recalled that his Administration during the same year 2012 was also able to save property worth N3,176,700,000 from inferno.

He noted that within the same period from January to December 2012, the FCT Fire

Service received 486 fire calls as well as 103 rescue calls.

The Minister however lamented that in the process a total number of 69 lives were lost and property loss amounted to N765,700,000.

Senator Mohammed revealed

that his Administration in consonance with the principle and vision of the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan has also established an Emergency Communication Centre for the Federal Capital Territory in Gwarinpa II District.

Children’s Day: Kuje boss tasks parents on wards quality upbringing

By Adeola Tukuru

C

hairman of Kuje Area Council, Hon Shaban Tete has called on parents and guardians to give quality time to the upbringing of their children and wards so as to make them responsible leaders of tomorrow.

Shaban, gave this charge

yesterday during the Children’s Day celebration in Kuje with theme: Our Children, Our future: Our Collective Responsibility”.

He urged that it is not right for parents, society or state to ignore children’s welfare, adding that no nation progresses in that direction.

In his words: “We must ensure that for no reason must any child’s

education suffer a setback, same with their health, shelter, food and development”.

“As leaders in our various capacities ,it is our duty to formulate policies geared towards protecting the rights of the Nigerian children in whatever way we can to protect them from abuses of different kinds and ultimately

providing an atmosphere for quality education”.

“Recent reports have shown that the abuse and trafficking of children has risen and I call on all asundary to double their efforts at ensuring that children in Nigeria are keenly protected from criminally minded individuals and groups”, he said.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

AMAC unserious over polio eradication – Management team M

By Adeola Tukuru

ember of the Management support Team, on polio eradication in FCT, Dr. Mrs. Dorothy Nwodo, has said, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has shown no seriousness in the course of polio eradication in FCT. This was said at the expanded meeting of the FCT Taskforce on Polio Eradication and Routine immunisation recently while she was giving the report on mission to Abuja Municipal Area Council.

In her words : “AMAC was the poorest in terms of polio eradication.

We choose AMAC because of the poor

performance, the unrealistic work load and lack of planning.

She however, urged AMAC and Bwari area councils to pay up arrears of the N1,500 stipends to facilitators to avoid them developing low morale.

“We are requesting that the FCT Administration as soon as the money reach the health secretariat, it should be made available for mobilisation,” she said.

Secretary, FCT Primary Health Board, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed, said, the meeting was called so as to assess the performance of the polio eradication in the territory.

“The meeting was called today because we wanted to do an expanded

meeting on polio, taskforce on polio eradication, routine immunisation, we decided to invite all the traditional ruler and religious leaders.

“Their is polio in Nigeria for a very long time and gradually we are going to get it right. The meeting is called to assess our performance and our challenges, and how we overcome them.

“As we have new chairmen of the area council coming on board, we need to sensitise them, we need to tell them that look, polio eradication is the top priority of FCT Administration, top priority of Mr. President and the whole world is watching Nigeria and it is very unfortunate that you see an outbreak of polio in FCT which is the center part of

Nigeria.”

In his address, Secretary Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Ademola Onakomaiya, said, urge everyone to take the issue of polio seriously as it affects the children and the future of the country.

“Nigeria is the only county in the Africa and one of the last three countries of the world that is yet to eradicate the polio virus. While FCT is one of the only nine states in Nigeria that have recorded polio virus outbreak this year”.

“The importance is that we are talking about children, we should take this noble course seriously, there won’t be any Obama, minister or president if they all have polio,” he said.

Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide (middle), with members of Ministerial Committee on the Implementation of Apo Resettlement Scheme, during the submission of the committee’s report to the Minister of state, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Suya sellers urge FCTA on land

By Usman Shuaibu

T

he newly elected Chairman of Suya Sellers Association in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Musa Sulaiman, has requested the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to allocate a piece of land to association to enable its members to carry out their businesses effectively in the six area councils.

Sulaiman, who made this

request yesterday in interview with newsmen in Abuja, after he was sworn –in as the chairman for four years.

He urged the FCT Administration to give necessary support to Suya Sellers to operate in the territory.

According to him, his leadership would work hand in hand with the FCT Administration for the overall development of the association.

He promised to take members along for the benefit of the

association and urged them to contribute their quota towards the development of the association.

The chairman appealed to the members to continue to obey the rules and regulations guiding the association, while advising them to be law-abiding citizens of the constituted authority in anywhere they operate.

Performing the swearing – in ceremony, Barr. Frank Azubikie Ezechi, charged the chairman to deem it fit to work with confines

of the law for the benefit of the association Ezechi advised Suya Sellers boss to give equal treatments to members of the association, this, according to him, members will be very happy with his administration.

On their parts, the chief of butchers in Abuja, Malam Usman Datti and his counterpart in Gwagwalada, Alhaji Nura Rimi Pleaded with the members of the association to give the cooperation to the chairman.

NGO seeks more empowerment for orphans

F

irst Choice Foundation, an NGO, yesterday called on Nigerians to give more attention to the welfare of orphans in the country.

The spokesman of the foundation, Mr Albert Irabor, made the call at a social function organised for orphans in Abuja as part of this year’s Children’s Day celebration.

Irabor decried the lack of

attention and care for the orphans in the country and urged Nigerians to have a change of heart towards the plight of the vulnerable people in the society.

“We are here because today is the internationally celebrated day for the children, and in First Choice Foundation, we reach out to orphans such as these.

“So, we are here basically to share the day with the kids and we

are privileged to have sponsored this, we are proud to be part of this.

“Look, when you give out there is more to giving, than receiving.

“These people that are disadvantaged, some of these kids that you see here could be the president of this country they just need that little help.

“There’s a whole lot of blessing that comes with it beyond our imagination.”

Irabor said that the vulnerable children were endowed with untapped potential which, he noted could be lost if they were ignored.

“My advice is, reach out more; if it was possible to mandate companies, organisations, as part of their social responsibilities, make it mandatory that certain percentage of whatever they get should be spread across, that would be better.

Children’s Day: Cleric tasks Nigerians on tolerance

By Adeola Tukuru

I

t was all glitz as some children in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) converged yesterday in their beautiful attires, at the Four Square Gospel Church in Asokoro to mark the church’s Children’s’ Day celebration .

Speaking to journalists at the event, the Senior Pastor of the church, Reverend Babajide Olowoda said the event was to remind Nigerians to exude the attribute of children by accepting one another as brothers and sisters.

The event which saw children of diverse age grade coordinating the different segments of the church service featured a lot of attractions.

Among them were praises and worship led by children, choreographic displays of gospel musics, recitation of Bible verses, chapter, drama presentations, music by the children choir and presentation by the Excellence Violin Group from the children’s church.

In his words : “It is to remind ourselves to accept each other as Nigerians. We should all bring ourselves to their( childrens) level.

No ill feeling, bitterness and rancor.

Children quarrel one moment and in the second moment they are back playing together. That should be the ethos of our country. That must be the ways we must live our lives and show good examples to our neighbours”, he said.

Continuing the Senior Pastor added: “We are also reminding them that we are depending on them because they hold for us the future. If children can perform for us the way they are doing, it shows to me that Nigeria is going to be great again”.

On moral decadence which has eaten deep into the society, the cleric noted that the church has a role to play in restoring the moral rectitude of our society by helping to bring up children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

“We can be sure this will help to keep this country together. Violence, intolerance and corruption follow after what we call the trickle down phenomenon. It trickles from the head down to the base of the pyramid and the children are watching. Parents must take no chances, our teachers must be well trained and ready to impart the best in our children. They must all stand up and fill the gap or else Nigeria will be heading to the brink of its fall”, Reverend Olowoda said.

The event which saw children of diverse age grade coordinating the different segments of the church service featured a lot of attractions.

Among them were praises and worship led by children, choreographic displays of gospel musics, recitation of Bible verses, chapter, drama presentations, music by the children choir and presentation by the Excellence Violin Group from the children’s church.

Our reporter who covered the event, reports that the children all wore excitements on their faces till the end of the event.

One of them, a guest musical artist, who featured at the event, Favour Emmanuel, advised parents to take care of their children and bring them up in the way of the Lord.

Asked what inspired her to go into music, the 8-year-old gospel musician who has made her debut with an eight tracks album titled ‘Greatest Inheritance’ said “I love Jesus so I want to sing for him”.

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

METRO INSIDE FCT COURTS 23-year-old driver docked for stealing

T

he police on Monday arraigned a 23-year-old driver, Emmanuel Ndukwe, in the Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, for alleged theft.

The police prosecutor, Cpl. David Udeh, said that on May 23, at about 2.30 a.m. one Silas Habu, a trader at the Wuse Market, Abuja, reported the accused at the Wuse Zone 3Police Station.

According to Udeh, at about 1.10 a.m. on the same day, Habu said that while he was asleep, the accused came into his house and stole a bag containing his personal belongings.

He said the content of the bag include a Samsung handset valued at N20, 700, the sum of N17, 000 and four pieces of clothes.

Udeh told the court that during police investigation, the bag containing the handset and two pieces of clothes was found in possession of the accused.

He said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 287 of the Penal Code.

Section 287 provides that whoever commits theft shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or with fine or with both.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the offence, and Senior Magistrate, Mrs Mimi Kastina-Alu, granted him bail in the sum of N20,000 and a surety in the like sum.

She said the surety must live within the jurisdiction of the court, and adjourned the matter to June 13,2013 for hearing. (NAN)

Security man jailed 6 months for stealing laptop A

n Abuja Magistrates Court has sentenced a 26-year-old security man, Elijah Onu, of Eminent Security Guards, Abuja, to six months imprisonment for stealing.

The Magistrate, Mrs Ramatu Gulma, who sentenced Onu after he pleaded guilty to the offence, however, gave him an option to pay N5,000

fine.

Gulma said the sentence would serve as a deterrent to those who might want to engage in the act of stealing.

Police prosecutor Abdulahi Alhassan had told the court that Cpl. David Sunday of the Anti- Terrorists Squad, Delta, who is on special duty in

Abuja, arrested the convict on May 19.

Alhassan said the convict was arrested by the police with a bag containing a laptop and an oceanic bank cheque booklet belonging to one Ojeagbulu Ehimoudiamen.

He said that during investigation, the convict confessed to have stolen the bag from a car parked on a street

at Area 10, Garki Abuja.

Alhassan said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 287 of the Penal Code.

Section 287 states that whoever commits theft, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to five years or with an option of fine or both’’. (NAN)

Police arraign man, 34, for mischief, theft

T

he police yesterday arraigned a man, Yakubu Haruna of no fixed address, in a Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court for mischief and theft.

The prosecutor, David Udeh, of the Wuse Police Station, told the court that the matter was reported by Garba Musa of Berchar Street in Wuse, Abuja, on May 25.

Udeh said that on May 18 Musa parked his Station Wagon Golf car with registration number BR 396 KMC at the above address.

He added that an unknown person opened the car and stole a Samsung cell phone and a HTC cell phone which were kept inside the car.

The prosecutor said that a car stereo and two pairs of shoes, all valued at N129,000 and 20 dollars were also stolen from the car.

He said that Haruna was arrested on May 23 with the stolen Samsung cell phone.

Section 327 of the code stipulates that whoever commits mischief shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or fined or suffer both punishments.

Section 287 states that whoever commits theft shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or with fined or with both.

The Senior Magistrate, Mrs Chinyere Nwecheonwu, granted him bail in the sum of N50,000 with a surety in like sum.

Nwecheonwu said that the surety must be someone living within the court’s jurisdiction and adjourned the case to June 10,2013 . (NAN)

Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha (middle), chatting with a cross-section of Children’s from different Schools in commemoration of the Children’s Day Celebration, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

2 men docked for alleged possession of dangerous weapons

T

he police on Friday arraigned two men in an Upper Area Court in Mararaba, Nasarawa State for alleged impersonation and possession of dangerous weapons.

The accused are Abdullahi Musa, 28 and one Mamuda, both residents of Mararaba in Nasarawa State.

The Police Prosecutor, Mr Stephen Kwaza, told the court that, on May 23, the accused were intercepted by the police at Sani Abacha Road in military uniform.

Kwaza said that the accused were also having in their possession a military jack knife, a female gold necklace and other offensive weapons suspected to have been stolen.

He said that when the accused persons were questioned, they claimed to be ‘Man-O-War’ members, but could not give a satisfactory account on how they came about the military uniform.

The prosecutor said that the

offences contravened sections 179 and 319(A) of the Penal code.

The accused however pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecutor said that the accused should not be granted bail as the matter was still being investigated.

Counsel to the accused, Mr Kwabugge Peter prayed the court to grant his clients bail, saying that such is at the discretion of the court.

The Presiding Judge, Mr Vincent Gwahemba, granted the accused bail

in the sum of N100, 000 each with two sureties in like sum.

He said that the sureties must be responsible and reasonable persons who must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court.

He said that the sureties must also have landed property and their place of residence must be verified by the court registrar.

Gwahemba adjourned the case to June 12, 2013 for further hearing.

(NAN)

Businessman, 40, in court over alleged breach of trust

A

40-year-old businessman, Oluwaseyi Opowoye, was arraigned in a Wuse Zone 2 Chief Magistrates Court for alleged criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The accused is a member of staff of Somotex Nigeria Limited, located at No. 4, Manya close, Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja.

The Police Prosecutor, Mr Abdullahi Adamu, told the court that, on Feb.25, one Stephen Olorunleke reported the accused to

the Divisional Police Headquarters, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja.

According to Adamu, Olorunleke who is also a staff of the abovenamed company, had entrusted the accused with some air conditioners belonging to the company in the month of June, 2012.

He added that the accused, instead of keeping the air conditioners which were worth N1.7 million, sold them and converted the money to his personal use without Olorunleke’s consent.

Adamu said that the offences of criminal breach of trust and cheating were contrary to sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.

If found guilty, the accused could be sentenced to a maximum jail term of seven years or an option of fine or with both.

The accused pleaded not guilty.

The Counsel to the accused, Mr Ola Olowokenyin, applied for his bail under Section 36 (5) of the 1999 Constitution, which presumes an accused person innocent until otherwise proven.

He prayed the court to grant his client bail on liberal terms promising that he would not jump bail.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Ramatu Guluma, granted the accused bail in the sum of N1 million and a reliable surety in the like sum who must be resident within Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

She added that the surety must produce copies of utility bills in respect to the residence.

Guluma adjourned the case to June 19 for hearing. (NAN)

Peoples Daily, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Page 19

INSIDE

Power outage cripples economic activities in Birnin Kebbi - Pg 20

Etisalat signs N 192bn financing with Nigerian banks - Pg 21 L-R: Group Managing Director, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mr. Bisi Onasanya, Chief Executive Officer, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr. Bello Maccido, and Chairman, FBN Holdings Plc, Dr. Oba Otudeko, during the 1st Pre-AGM luncheon of FBN Holdings Plc, yesterday in Lagos.

NCP approves privatisation of Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange

By Abdulwahab Isa

T

he National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved the adoption of a core-investor strategy for the privatisation and revitalisation of the Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange (ASCE).

According to a press statement issued by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) at the weekend, and signed by its Head, Public Communications, Chigbo Anichebe, the NCP noted that a privatised ASCE would provide stable prices and a sure market for all agricultural produce locally and internationally as well as guarantee employment for millions of Nigerians and provide raw materials for industrial production.

The commencement of the privatisation process of the ASCE is aimed at re-positioning it to meet its primary objective of providing stable prices for all agricultural produce.

Consequently, the council also approved the setting up of a steering committee to be chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments for the exercise.

The Steering Committee was established with a view to identifying the best options for resuscitating the exchange.

The constitution of the steering

committee was one of the high points of the third meeting of the NCP in 2013 which held on Thursday, May 9, 2013 in the Presidential Villa Abuja.

Members of the Steering Committee include the

“

resuscitating the Exchange.

The NCP had further noted that ASCE had witnessed various operational challenges arising from inadequate equity base, impairment of shareholders’ funds arising from operating losses,

The commencement of the privatisation process of the ASCE is aimed at re-positioning it to meet its primary objective of providing stable prices for all agricultural produce.

Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance; Ministers of National Planning, Agriculture and Rural Development and Communications Technology.

Others are the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Director General of the BPE and the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Steering Committee was set up with a view to identifying the best options for

”

lack of sector infrastructure like standardised silos and warehouses to store commodities and generate the warehouse receipts that could be traded on the exchange.

Other limitations of the exchange included the absence of enabling laws to guide the operation of Warehousing Receipt System (WRS) and the lack of patronage by private organisations and relevant government agencies.

However, it was learnt that after

extensive deliberations, the council adopted core investor privatisation as the strategy for revitalising the commodities exchange.

Already, the BPE has commenced work to ensure that the privatisation of ASCE is implemented in a manner that meets the objectives of the federal government in order for the exchange to enjoy sustainable growth and add value to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The ASCE is (besides the Nigerian Stock Exchange) one of two principal stock exchanges in Nigeria.

It is located in Abuja, the country’s capital, and it was founded in 1998.

The ASCE is primarily involved with the trading of commodities such as maize, sorghum and millet, as opposed to trading in securities such as bonds and company stock.

Aganga tasks SMEDAN on service delivery - Pg 22

MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY

Know when to forgive

A

s a leader, it’s your job to hold people accountable. But you also need to know when to let them off the hook. Letting go of peoples’ past wrongs will help you build a brighter future for your team and your organization.

Sure, it’s tempting to hold a grudge against an employee who went behind your back, or a colleague who failed to meet his goals and tarnished your team’s

reputation. But don’t go around settling scores. Instead, make sure employees know the consequences of their actions and then move on. Tell them that you believe they can change or make up for their mistakes.

Anger and blame are unproductive emotions. Giving people a second (or even third) chance is better for you, and them, in the long run.

Source: Harvard Business Review

Peoples Daily, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Page 20

Energy Company News

Crude oil price

T

he price of crude oil fell yesterday as traders, concerned about global energy demand, took profits ahead of economic data from China and the United States.

Benchmark oil for July delivery was down 59 cents to $93.66 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract fell 10 cents to $94.15 a barrel on Friday.

Analysts said traders took profits before May unemployment data is released today in Washington, USA, which should help clarify the state of the recovery in the world’s biggest economy.

Lagos Digital Bridge Institute

T

he Lagos Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), an initiative of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which seeks to train and educate future leaders and innovators in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), will open training activities in July this year.

Director of Projects at the NCC, Nnamdi Nwokike, gave the information in Lagos at the weekend, during an inspection visit of the complex.

NCC is one of the five agencies under the direct supervision of the ministry, and the visit was part of the ministry’s oversight function.

TCN recovers transmission network Stories by Etuka Sunday with agency reports

T

he Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday announced that it has recovered its transmission network and apologized for the nationwide power outage which occurred on Friday, 24th May, 2013 as a result of the collapse of the transmission grid.

In a statement signed by its General Manager (Public Affairs), Mr. Dave Ifabiyi, TCN explained that a fault occurred on a major transmission line from Benin to Lagos through Osogbo and shut down the Egbin, Omotosho and Olorunsogo Power Stations, resulting in blackout nationwide.

According to the statement, recovery efforts by the company’s’ engineers to rectify the fault as well as bring up the system took some time, due to the magnitude of the incident. Although power supply has not been fully restored in pockets of areas within some states, the company however assured that it expects that the system would be fully recovered by the end of Sunday, 26th May, 2013.

In another incident, TCN said that three of its transmission

towers were damaged by rain storm, in the North Western part of the nation, affecting a major 330kV transmission line taking power from Kainji to Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi state and to the Niger Republic.

It noted that repairs are ongoing but would take some weeks to complete. This, TCN said, would however cause load shedding in Zaria in Kaduna state; Funtua in Katsina State; Gusau and Talatan-Mafara in Zamfara state; Sokoto in Sokoto state as well as Birnin- Kebbi in Kebbi state.

However, arrangement has been put in place to give skeletal electricity supply to the affected areas, through the Kaduna Transmission sub-station.

While TCN regrets the inconveniences the incidents have caused its valuable customers within the nation and Niger Republic, it assured that it will continue to work towards stabilizing and expanding the nation’s transmission grid.

..as power outage cripples economic activities in Birnin Kebbi Residents

of

Birnin

Kebbi,

…apologises for weekend’s blackout in Kebbi are living in darkness following power outage since Friday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Already the situation has crippled social and economic activities in the town, including acute water shortage. The residents have also been forced to sleep outside their rooms to avoid excessive heat at night.

The Business Manager of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Malam Lawal Kangiwa attributed the situation to the collapse of high tension power line at Kainji in Niger state.

He said it was difficult to give specific date for the restoration of electricity to the state, but assured the residents that the PHCN was working hard to restore back power supply.

NAN reports that water vendors had taken advantage of the situation to hike prices by about 200 per cent. A 25-litre container of water which was sold for N10 before the power outage, now cost N30, while a barrow of eight water containers had gone up from N100 to N300.

A water vendor, Usman Aliyu said the vendors now patronise

PHCN successor coys: Investors must make full payments before takeover - BPE

Iraq oil exports

I

raq Oil Minister, AbdulKareem Luaibi has declared that Iraq oil exports has averaged 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) this month as it was affected by attacks on a northern Kirkuk pipeline while production was 3.15 million bpd for the month.

In a declaration by the minister yesterday, he said further that Iraq needs to boost exports to consolidate its position as OPEC’s second-largest producer, but infrastructure bottlenecks and repeated attacks on its northern export line have so far kept the country short of a 2013 target of 2.9 million bpd.

May exports are flat compared with the previous month’s shipments of 2.6 million (bpd), and total oil production of 3.1 million bpd.

commercial bore holes to source for water, which was expensive, but failed to say how much the bore hole operators were charging.

Malam Umar Farouk, a resident of Birnin Kebbi, said he was forced to buy water from the vendors as there was no functional public water tap at the Badariya area of the state capital, where he resides.

He said the lack of electricity had forced his family to sleep outside their rooms due to excessive heat. ``The rains have not started and no electricity supply, and I do not own a generator,” he said.

At the Federal Medical Centre, the Yahaya Memorial Hospital, as well as some public buildings, NAN observed that they now rely on generators for their power needs.

Others groaning under the situation include sellers of sachet water and drinks.

Malam Bashiru Ali, a provision store owner, said he was making brisk business because of the generator he uses.

He, however, complained that most of the customers now charge their cell phones at his shop, adding: ``I cannot send them away because they are my customers.” (NAN)

L-R: Divisional Head, Information Technology, Unity Bank Plc, Atiku Zubairu, Divisional Head, Secretariat & Quality Management Unity Bank Plc, Aisha A. Abraham; Managing Director, Unity Bank Plc, Ado Yakubu Wanka; Managing Director, Digital Jewels Limited, Mrs Adedoyin Odunfa; Executive Director, Risk Management Division, Unity Bank Plc, Rislanudeen Muhammad; Mr. Olu Keshinro

T

he Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) says investors bidding for the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies will only be allowed to take-over the companies upon 100 per cent payment of their bid consideration.

This is contained in a statement signed by BPE’s Head, Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe.

The agency debunked

rumours that there was a secret handover of PHCN successor companies to the investors who had not completed the outstanding 75 per cent payment of their respective bid considerations It stated that the successor companies would be formally handed over to the bidders after full payment, at a ceremony which would herald the takeover of the companies by the private sector. ``We will like to put on record

the fact that the National Council on Privatisation has approved the constitution of Transition Committees for the 15 PHCN successor companies for which preferred bidders have paid up 25 per cent of the bid value. ``The terms of reference for the transition committees, as already publicised by government, are: ``To facilitate the smooth transition of the management and operational control of the successor

companies to the purchasers; To allow purchasers to access to the companies in order to prepare for the implementation of their business plans laid out in their proposals submitted to the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

Others include: ``To provide a forum for the purchaser to engage with existing management and employees, and to allow BPE and the purchasers to monitor the ongoing operations of the company to ensure they are operating in an efficient manner and in compliance with the terms of the Share Sale Agreements.’’

The Director-General of BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said all the stakeholders had a mutual interest to ensure that the companies operated in a way that would maintain their value during the transition period.

He reiterated that the transition period could be several months and that transitional arrangements would provide a platform to ensure that the companies and the purchasers are ready for the hand-over.

He noted that both management and staff of all PHCN successor companies and all key stakeholders in the sector had been properly briefed on the transition committees’ operational modalities. ``They have no executive powers,’’ he said.

It could be recalled that Share Sale Agreements were executed between the preferred bidders and the BPE on Feb. 21. (NAN)

Peoples Daily, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

ICT

Page 21

MultiChoice Africa partners AU to celebrate Africa’s rising glory Stories from Chris Alu

M

ultiChoice Africa, a pioneer of pay television in Africa with an unmatched track record of over two decades of investment in the continent has announced its partnership with the African Union (AU), a successor of the Organisation of African

Unity-bringing Africans in over 50 countries across the continent, the 50th anniversary celebrations of the OAU/ AU on both DStv and GOtv. Additionally MultiChoice is providing a service to free to air broadcasters across the continent to receive footage of the celebrations free of charge

as a service to Africa. Tune into DStv and GOtv on channels 197 and 99 respectively to share in Africa’s greatest moment.

Its agenda will be no different to that of the AU on Saturday, the 25thMay, when MultiChoice Africa will be celebrating pan Africanism and the African Renaissance,

bringing to television screens a world-class spectacle.

As a proudly African company, MultiChoice understands its responsibility as a corporate citizen-that solutions to Africa’s prosperity should come from within. Providing sustainable solutions to the continent’s growth story requires a loyalty

from its people, to share common goals as Africans and further the greater African agenda.

As a champion of regional integration and social cohesion, through its investment in the M-Net and SuperSport channels, MultiChoice has achieved great strides in the development of original African programming, the growth of local sporting leagues as well as showcasing the best quality productions across the continent.

It has grown its local content offering to 7 quality premium channels including the popular Africa Magic channels which are accessible to the entire continent.

New NBC boss reiterates commitment to service

T

He noted that the workshop would equip participants with the necessary skills and tools to effectively manage the spectrum properly, particularly as countries in African join the rest of the world to move through epochs of development, the next one of which is the transition to digital terrestrial television broadcasting.

In a keynote address, Omobola Johnson, minister for Communication Technology, represented by Festus Daudu,

director in the Ministry and a member of DigiTeam Nigeria, welcomed the participants to the 10-day training.

The minister noted that the importance of spectrum management in the areas of security, Communication, broadcasting, and various kind of electronic application, cannot be over-emphasised.

Johnson stressed the need for African Countries to manage spectrum in a most efficient,

he Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Mr. Emeka Mba, has said that the world will never again face the nightmare of chaos that accompanied the beginnings of radio broadcasting in the use of the radio spectrum in the 1920s.

“This is due to the resolve by the International Telecommunication Union to connect all the world’s people wherever they live and whatever their means, and to protect and support

everyone’s fundamental right to communicate through the allocation of global radio spectrum and satellite orbit, as well as developing technical standards” Mba made the statement at the opening ceremony of the workshop on spectrum Management in Abuja.

The director general acknowledged the relevance of the ITU and believes the International Telecommunication Union stands as an example of how useful International cooperation could be.

E

Etisalat signs N192bn financing with Nigerian banks

tisalat Nigeria has signed a US$1.2 billion (N192 billion) medium-term syndicated loan facility with consortium of Nigerian banks.

The company plans to use the proceeds to refinance the existing commercial medium term debt of $650 million and continue its network rollout across Nigeria.

The company will also continue the release of innovative products and services to its over fifteen million subscribers.

The facility includes both Naira and US dollar tranches from a consortium of Nigerian banks, namely: Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, United Bank of Africa, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank, Keystone Bank, First City Monument Bank, FSDH Merchant Bank, Mainstreet Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Union Bank.

Speaking about this key transaction, Hakeem BeloOsagie, EMTS chairman, highlighted that the loan is yet another key step in the company’s development.

According to the chairman, “Etisalat Nigeria has grown from strength to strength reaching 15 million subscribers earlier this year. This loan is a

testament to the robust strategy of the company and the faith of the banking community. It will serve to further boost the company and the telecommunications sector.

It is important to also note the enabling environment created by the Federal and State governments of Nigeria as well as the National Communications C o m m i s s i o n ” .

In this process, Etisalat Nigeria has benefited from the experience and support of its pioneer shareholders; Etisalat Group, Mubadala and Myacynth.

Commenting on the

Airtel Network’s Chief Marketing Officer resigns

transaction, Steven Evans, chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria, said, “We are delighted with the continued support and confidence shown by so many banking partners.

They have shown great faith in the company since launch and we view that as a sign of their endorsement of Etisalat Nigeria’s strategy and execution capabilities.

“We aim to continue to focus on our network expansion, our investment in 3G, as well as ensuring we offer the uncompromising network quality and customer service our subscribers have come to expect from us.

T

he Chief Marketing Officer of Airtel Networks Limited, Mr. Olu Akanmu has resigned his appointment with the company to pursue other interests-with effect from last Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

According to Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, “Mr. Akanmu led the marketing function at a crucial time in the life of our organisation and brought

Hakeem Belo-Osagie

his over two decades of marketing experience and a rich knowledge of the telecommunications market to bear on his role as our CMO. On behalf of all of us at Airtel, I wish him the very best in his future endeavours”.

A statement issued by Airtel’s Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR, Mr. Emeka Oparah said a replacement for Olu will be announced shortly.

MTN kicks-off data verification of its subscribers

M

TN Nig. Ltd has kicked-off its subscriber data verification exercise, in culmination of its SIM registration campaign.

According to Wale GoogLuck Corporate service Executive officer, though the vast majority of MTN subscribers have since complied with the Nigeria Communications

Commission (NCC)’s directive to register their SIMs, we feel an obligation to crosscheck all subscriber information.

“This is because the NCC has made it clear that all unregistered SIMs or those with incomplete information will be disconnected by 30th June”, he stated.

He advised subscribers to check their registration status by texting ‘REG’ to a verification short code, 746, which has been set up specifically for that purpose.

Goodluck also advised subscribers to register newlypurchased SIMs, particularly those in data-enabled devices.

“We would like to again remind our subscribers that the registration directive covers all SIMs, from those in mobile phones to those inserted in Fastlink internet dongles, iPads, laptops, Point of Sale terminals (POS), Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) as well as those embedded in car-tracking devices, among others.

rational way such that it is made available to the citizens in a nation without interference with other applications within that nation and across borders.

The minister urged delegates to give maximum attention to the training and thanked ITU for choosing Nigeria as a centre to host participating African countries.

Netxcell to partner MTN on service delivery

N

etxcell Limited, a telecom applications and value-added services (VAS) provider, has tied up with Funmobile, a West African company that offers entertainment and information with multimedia forms of video, music and gaming.

Through this partnership, Netxcell will implement services for MTN, a telecom operator in Africa with GSM licences in 21 countries across Africa and West Asia, leveraging the local know-how of Funmobile.

Netxcell said it would provide technology solutions like IVR (interactive voice response)based services voice chat and information and subscription dialers, in Nigeria and other West African countries.

It is said that Nigeria’s mobile market grew 18.51 per cent in 2012, of which 5.6 per cent growth was registered in the fourth quarter only.

And, 10 per cent of the total subscriber base in Nigeria currently accounts for 3G, according to the Wireless Intelligence report titled Global Cellular Market Trends and Insight.

Under the tie-up, while Netxcell will be responsible for driving the products from registration phase, profile maintenance, filtration, connectivity (with Funmobile and MTN), usage, promotions and billing, Funmobile will start offering voice chat with Netxcell’s support and with its local know-how and expertise to handle day-to-day activities.

Economy

Peoples Daily, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Page 22

PenCom kicks-off verification Aganga tasks SMEDAN on service delivery for retiring MDAs workers

By Abdulwahab Isa

A

bout to retire Federal Government employees in service of various Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that are treasury-funded are to undergo a screening to be conducted by National Pension Commission(PenCom).

A statement by PenCom Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Onurah said the exercise is meant for employees in the service of the Federal Government who are due to retire between January and December, 2014 by virtue of attaining 60 years of age or 35 years in service whichever is earlier or 65 years in service or 70 years of age for employees of tertiary institutions is for the purpose of payment of retirement benefits.

The exercise, scheduled between June 3, and July 11, 2013 will cover 14 centres across the federation.

PenCom, in the statement, specified that the physical enrolment also covers those who have already retired but are yet to be enrolled.

Employees are requested to attend the enrolment exercise with the originals and copies of letter of appointment, birth certificate/ declaration of age, promotion letter and pay slip indicating grade level and step as at 30th June, 2004.

Other requirements for the enrolment exercise include letter from the MDAs indicating retirement and first appointment dates, grade level and step as at July 2007 as well a s the current grade level, authenticated past records of service and current pay slip indicating grade level and step. They should also come along with evidence of registration with a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) indicating Personal Identification Number (PIN) and

one passport photograph.

To ensure a successful and hitch-free exercise, the Commission requires the services of at least, one Pension Desk Officer from an MDA so as to assist in identifying potential retirees as well as confirm the authenticity of the documents presented by the employees.

Medically unfit employees are exempted from the exercise but the Commission advises their Pension Desk Officers to come with their documents and a letter from a suitably qualified physician or medical board certifying that the affected employees are not physically or mentally capable of carrying out the functions of his/ her office The statement advised employees to take part in the exercise as only employees who have been enrolled will be issued with the Federal Government Retirement Bond.

NDIC boss gets ICAN merit award

Minister of Trade and Investment. Olusegun Aganga

T

he leadership of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has been directed to reposition the agency to perform its critical role in the nation’s economic transformation.

Dr Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, gave the directive at the launch of the agency’s On-line Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) registration platform.

This is contained in a statement by Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, the Chief Information Officer, SMEDAN in Abuja at the weekend.

While noting that the agency was strategic in wealth creation and a major force in driving the economy, the minister urged the staff to work with determination to achieve its target.

Aganga, who commended the agency for the launch of the platform, stated that it would provide the government with the required data on small scale businesses in the

country.

He added that it would also enable the government to proactively manage and coordinate SMEs affairs.

“You should be able to make the entrepreneurs to buy into the programme and make it more accessible by making the information therein in local languages.’’

He also instructed the agency to align itself adequately with the Bank of Agriculture and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to be able to strategically coordinate various needs of small scale businesses.

The Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Masari, said the launch of the platform was designed to streamline the activities of the MSMEs. Masari said arrangements had been concluded to inform Nigerians on the need to take advantage of the all-important platform.

The D-G said measures were being put in place to address some of the issues raised in the minister’s directive. (NAN)

ANLCA issues N2m as insurance to families of departed members From Olawuni Oladapo, Lagos R-L: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim receiving ICAN 2013 Merit Award from Chairman of the occasion, and Vice-President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Alhaji Kabir Alkali Mohammed, during the merit award ceremony organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) Abuja chapter, on Sunday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Umaru Ahmad Ibrahim, at the weekend received a prestigious merit award from the Abuja District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) for his outstanding managerial contributions which has deepened the confidence of depositors in the banking system in Nigeria.

During his tenure, the Deposit Insurance Coverage levels were increased twice to meet the realities of the economy and promote the needed stability in the financial sector. The insured sum was

reviewed in the first instance from the N50, 000 to 200, 000 per depositor for Deposit Money Banks and introduced N100, 000 per depositor for Microfinance Banks/ Primary Mortgage Institutions.

Thereafter, in 2010, both were raised to N500,000 and N200, 000 respectively. This coverage level was applied to settle depositors of the 103 microfinance banks liquidated in 2010.

Again, his management introduced the idea of Bridge Bank in the Nigerian banking sector, in the interest of the banking public, as a failure resolution option, which was internationally applauded as an act to prevent systemic crisis and outright liquidation that would have had severe consequences for

depositors and other stakeholders in the banking system.

The merit award, which was held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by the District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) was given to individuals who have shown exceptional character and managerial prowess at ensuring successes and growth in the various spheres of the Nigerian economy.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the event, the Managing Director/ CEO, NDIC, Umaru Ahmad Ibrahim said, “The award is a recognition of NDIC’s contributions to the stability of Nigerian Management System.

It is also a recognition of the fact that we have always encourage professionalism in the NDIC.

I

n fulfillment of the promise it made when it was inaugurated three years ago, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has presented a N2 million cheque to widows of two of its late members.

At a special prayer session, which took place at the ANLCA National Secretariat in Lagos recently, the money was given to the families of Late Mr. Prince Udegbe, former secretary of ANLCA Tin Can chapter and received by his wife Mrs. Dora Udegbe and the family of Mr. Ambrose Eke, late Public Relations Officer of airport’s chapter of the association.

While presenting the cheques, ANLCA National President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu said that the insurance scheme was put in place to cushion the effect of the departure of any of its members on their families.

Extolling the virtues of the departed members, Shittu said that the tin can secretary, Udegbe who died in 2011, worked tirelessly and even gave out his personal property to assist the association.

“Udegbe is an example of what an association official should be, that is why I always tell people to live for the association and not to live on the association; most of the problems we have in ANLCA today is because people live on the association”.

He also commended the late airport PRO, Mr. Eke for his tenacity, even as he described him as a God fearing man.

He however noted that no amount will be enough to replace the soul of the departed ones.

Prince Olayiwola Shittu later decorated the women as honorary members of the association, even as he urged them to visit chapter chairmen of ANLCA and work with them in running the affairs of their husband’s companies.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

STOCK WATCH

Report as at Monday, May 27, 2013

PAGE 23

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 24

PAGE 25

SPECIAL REPORT

Children’s Day: A clarion call to curb child theft in Nigeria

By Buki Ponle

S

ome hapless children do not know the significance of the Children’s Day because they have already been snatched away from their biological parents and sold out to the highest bidder.

Similarly, the import of Democracy Day has no meaning to several children who are languishing in their captors’ den.

On ceremonial days such as Children’s Day and Democracy Day in Nigeria, fortunate chubby children, particularly selected for the occasions, are usually advertised, while millions of the hapless ones are tucked in inconsequential nooks.

Concerned observers note that the child theft phenomenon in the country has assumed a frightening dimension, making it a topical issue in the public discourse.

This, coupled with the strings of child rights’ violations, has also deepened child vulnerability in the country, they add.

There have been stories of baby swapping or outright theft of babies in hospitals’ maternity wards, baby sales by some mothers and phoney motherless baby homes and orphanages.

Nigerian children are increasingly becoming vulnerable; they are often exposed to maltreatment or child labour as roadside hawkers or house helps.

The children are also exposed to child trafficking, prostitution, baby mothering and in extreme cases, they are victims of ritual killings.

The recent chilling and bestial confession of a Lagos couple who ensnared helpless, hapless and defenceless children is a case in point.

It is somewhat astonishing that children can be turned into objects of trade brazenly in a country which boasts of a child rights’ law and other related regulations.

It is quite ironical that such bizarre things are happening in a country where policies aimed

These young boys joined their peers to celebrate 2013 children’s day, yesterday at Children’s Day rally, in Abuja. Photo: NAN

at promoting the wellbeing of children have been formulated and reviewed to ensure the survival, development and protection of the Nigerian child.

Nigeria is a signatory to international and continental conventions on the rights of the child. The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and its AU derivative are cases in point.

Nigeria, in partnership with development agencies, has also put some measures in place to develop health care services for mothers and children, while developing strategies for their enhanced welfare.

In spite of the policies, laws and conventions protecting the rights of Nigerian children,

policemen from the Lagos State Police Command recently arrested a couple and two others for alleged child theft and trade in children.

Seven children, reportedly stolen by the suspects from their parents’ homes in Lagos and other parts of the country, have been recovered from the suspects by the police.

One of the suspects, Adaeze, who was pregnant, blamed the devil and her husband for her complicity in the crime, disclosing that they have been involved in the illicit trade for around five years.

Strange enough, she confessed that her unborn baby already has a prospective buyer. ``Please forgive me; I was

talked into it by my husband.

He asked me to get a child for him and promised to pay me N400,000. When I asked what he wanted to do with the child, he assured me that it was not for ritual purposes and that his boss, Mrs Benedict, takes such children to the motherless babies’ homes. ``Our targets are usually couples with more than three children. What we do is to move into an area and stay there for about two to three months to get acquainted with the people. ``Immediately we get any child, we would vacate the vicinity and relocate to another area where we are not known.

We usually hire single-room apartments without furnishing

them,’’ she said.

Concerned citizens, however, insist that the

discovery by the police is just a tip of the iceberg, as there may be many Adaezes and Benedicts lurking around, flouting extant child rights laws and undermining societal, family values.

Such unscrupulous elements in the society care less about the psychological trauma that is usually inflicted on parents whose children got missing.

All the same, if the suspects’ claims that the buyers merely wanted to adopt the children are true, nobody should have the temerity to go to that length in efforts to adopt a child.

Mr Okechukwu Okpara, a lawyer, stressed that there were legal procedures for child adoption, adding that couples, who were genuinely interested in adopting children, should never feel ashamed to come forward and follow the laiddown procedures for child adoption. ``Children are not objects that can be displayed for sale, no matter the cost; as such practice not only violates the children’s rights, self-esteem and dignity but the real essence of humanity. ``It is also a manifestation of what some people can do to acquire money,’’ he added.

Concerned over the alarming rate of child rights’ violations, the wife of Ebonyi Governor, Mrs Josephine Elechi, has called for stiffer penalties for offenders, saying that the current child’s rights law was too lenient.

According to her, it is the sacred duty of the government and the family to ensure that the child is well-protected from abuses and maltreatment.

Elechi said that a lot of violent assaults were being committed against the child on a daily basis without the culprits being brought to justice.

She, however, stressed that she would collaborate with relevant stakeholders in efforts to amend the Child’s Rights Act and strengthen it. ``Our children need our protection from criminal elements in the society and

from all forms of sexual and economic exploitation. ``We will stop child trafficking, child labour and forced child prostitution; we will strive to restore the dignity of the child. ``We will strengthen our child’s rights law such that offenders will get maximum punishment for their crime against humanity,’’ she said Elechi stressed that the rape of any girl-child was tantamount to a rape on womanhood and a flagrant attack on the entire society.

She, nonetheless, appealed to parents, especially mothers,

to be mindful of the kinds of company which their children and wards kept and the places they visited. ``I urge you to devote more time and resources to giving your children positive training and orientation because today’s child is tomorrow’s hope,’’ she said.

Nevertheless, Ms Jean Gough, UNICEF Country Representative in Nigeria, underscored the need for collective responsibility for child’s protection, entailing the input of the community, government at all levels, traditional and religious

leaders as well as the civil society and the media ``All children are entitled to protection, as enshrined in the Child’s Rights Act,’’ she said.

As the public awaits the prosecution of the suspected dealers in children in Lagos, analysts stress that the outcome of the case would be a test case in dealing with other cases of child theft, which appears not to have been specifically captured in the child’s rights law.

They insist that if the various interventions for child survival, development,

protection and participation are to be meaningful, child theft must be eliminated at all costs. ``Of what use is a wellnurtured child who is stolen and sold like a chicken?’’ they quip.

The analysts, nonetheless, appeal to states, which have yet to domesticate the Child’s Rights Act, to do so without further delay.

So far, 24 states have adapted the law which was passed by the National Assembly in 2003.

Source: NAN

“

It is also a manifestation of what some people can do to acquire money,’’ he added.

Concerned over the alarming rate of child rights’ violations, the wife of Ebonyi Governor, Mrs Josephine Elechi, has called for stiffer penalties for offenders, saying that the current child’s rights law was too lenient

L-R: Minister of Women Affairs, Hayiya Zainab Maina, FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, and Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe. taking salute from the pupils of Peace Setter Academy, during a march past to mark 2013 Children Day ceremony, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

DEFENCE

Insurgency: Army ‘won’t celebrate death of any innocent Nigerian’

By Lt. Col Sagir Musa

T

he palpable insecurity in the Lake Chad Region occasioned by armed banditry, arms trafficking and border intrusion along Nigeria’s border with Chad, Cameroon and Niger necessitated the establishment of a Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in 1998 with Baga town in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State as the Headquarters.

The initial mandate of the Task Force was to conduct military operations in the Lake Chad Region, checkmate banditry activities and to facilitate free movement of the member states of the Lake Chad Basin Commission across their common border.

However, the activities of Boko Haram Terrorists(BHTs) in Baga as the epicenter of strategic activities in terms of arms procurement, planning for attacks and reception centre for foreign insurgents or mercenaries (due to its proximity to porous borders) obligated and justified the expansion of the Task Force’s mandate in April, 2012 to include the fight against terrorism. The Task Force is composed of elements of the Chadian, Nigerien and Nigerian Armed Forces with a Nigerian Brigadier General as the commander.

Unlike the JTF Operation RESTORE ORDER that is in charge of the entire Borno State, the MNJTF in Baga is in charge of Lake Chad region and is administratively and operationally independent of JTF Operation RESTORE ORDER in Maiduguri. Their compositions, command structure, mandate and Area of Operational Responsibility are also different. However, there is synergy and collaboration between the two JTFs. Since its inception in 1998, the MNJTF has been operating in Baga without major friction or complain from the locals. The Task Force and its host community (Baga) have been peacefully coexisting without any infraction on the part of the MNJTF despite several attacks on its isolated locations by the terrorists. The unfortunate incident of 16 April, 2013 was primarily caused by the insurgents’ unprovoked attack and further compounded by incendiary materials, types, caliber of weapons and tactics used by the terrorists.

The reactive measures carried out by the Task Force further lured it into the evil plot of the insurgents as it is a known character of terrorists to purposely engage in selective scorched earth tactics by setting houses and other valuables on fire to smudge security agencies, instill fear and pains to the people. It was obvious from intelligence, that the style of the ambush, barrage of fire and explosion that rocked areas where the confrontation took place was planned to wreak destruction of cataclysmic proportion. The strategic use of worship centers and houses to stockpile arms, ammunition, IEDs and served as launching pads for attacks on the MNJTF troops further assisted in the element of surprise achieved by the terrorists and the level of destruction that fol-

lowed. The insurgents planted IEDs on JTF routes and shot through loopholes. They appeared to display mastery of IED bombings, used Rocket Propelled Grenades, General Purpose Machine Guns and threw Hand Held Grenades against the troops. They clearly knew troops’ movement and so they buried and remotely detonated IEDs on their route of advance which caused the death of one personnel, many sustained various degrees of injuries and damage to two operational vehicles.

In line with professional formation, troops must necessarily return fire even for self survival. Here lie the endemic problems of urban warfare or fighting in built-up areas.

Fighting in built up areas is tasking, hazardous, cumbersome and arduous. There is limited view of space and fire, visibility and maneuverability is limited. Ambush attrition losses are high and collateral damages cannot practically, completely be avoided. Non combatants may not fully appreciate the complex nature of fighting insurgency and the unmitigated misery and sorrow inflicted to local communities and security agents by the terrorists. Similarly, the regular hazards, tribulations, deprivations and death suffered by security agents is mostly under reported and seemingly show little concern by the press, some elites and leaders in Nigeria.

For instance, within one week - from Thursday 25 April to Thursday 2 May, 2013, a total of about 40 Nigerian Policemen lost their lives through various terrorists’ attacks in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno and Kano States. From 2011 to date, in Borno State alone, hundreds of JTF personnel have paid the supreme sacrifice during fighting with Boko Haram’s insurgents. All these have not received commensurate condemnation or attention from the putative conscience of the nation.

Terrorism is multifaceted; it thrives on publicity and propaganda.

Thus, to carry out a particular operation without getting any publicity out

of it would be wasteful to a terrorist’s cause. Hence, targets are selected for maximum propaganda and publicity value, for example, the attempted attack on Monguno barracks, the ambush of MNJTF troops on patrol and the subsequent destruction that followed. Similarly, terrorists, their collaborators and financiers use whatever means to justify their horrible acts, distort facts, whip up sentiments and smear the image of their traducers. They maximize the use of propaganda to court sympathy, attract attention and sway public opinion towards their cause. The military in Nigeria is shy or deficit in propaganda, forceful information campaign or is relegated to the background. Hence it is glaringly behind the terrorists in the effective use of the media for propaganda. This shortcoming the military is heav-

“

Nigerian military is not for occupation and destruction. It will never celebrate the death of any innocent Nigerian anywhere. But individuals or communities that harbour criminals to attack security agents must be ready to face the consequences of their actions!

Lt. Col Sagir Musa ily paying for with terrible consequences on its image, reputation and operations.

The phenomenon of Boko Haram’s insurgency is complex, intriguing and not understood by many. And within the interstices of Boko Haram activities, lay the criminal and political dimension of its character, activities and operations.

World over, terrorists do society no good, but rather, are harbinger of pains, sorrow, destruction and death. Destruction, arson and kidnappings are increasingly becoming permanent features of terrorists in Nigeria. The inferno in Baga was clearly caused by terrorist actions through the deliberate use of highly inflammable, acidic IEDs and other incendiary materials. Furthermore, gasoline explosion from grinding machines from a few private residences (whether intended or not) further fuelled the destruction in Baga town. The Baga disaster was also obviously exacerbated by delayed or floppy information management by the military, deliberate terroristic convolution of facts and the ignoble roles played by local champions for provincial benefits.

In view of the cacophony of divergent figures of the dead and the

plethora of criticisms, the military has lately made it sufficiently clear that Baga is open to local and international assessment. The MNJTF has shown readiness to provide security cover for individuals and groups willing to visit the area. The phenomenon of Boko Haram’s insurgency is a tragic failure of leadership, – a reflection of the manipulative, parasitic, unproductive, selfish elites/leaders at various levels of our societies.

Nigerian military is not for occupation and destruction. It will never celebrate the death of any innocent Nigerian anywhere. But individuals or communities that harbour criminals to attack security agents must be ready to face the consequences of their actions!

Leaders must be sincere and patriotic; they should not play to the gallery. They must eradicate or reduce poverty, insecurity, unemployment, inequality and illiteracy in their domains. Leaders - civil or military, must be conscious of the consequences of their actions or inactions, especially in dangerous situations.

Lt-Col. Sagir Musa is the spokesperson of the Joint Task Force

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 26

DEFENCE

Liberia: New peacekeepers urged to be dedicated

By Joy Baba

N

ewly inducted Peacekeepers under the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) have been charged to dedicate themselves and assist Liberians to overcome their current challenges.

The Force Commander (FC), Major General Leonard Ngondi, gave the charge recently at Kakata, Margibi County, while addressing Peacekeepers of Alpha Company, Nigerian Battalion (NIBATT) 31 and Pakistani Engineers (PAK Engrs) 19.

General Ngondi, who was on a working tour of UNMIL Facilities in the area, pointed out that it was to ensure peace reigns permanently in Liberia that the mission have come and to assist them achieve their dreams of prosperity, peace and human dignity.”

He further charged them to respect the people the way they were, adding that he was sure that with their assistance, they (Liberians) can overcome the challenges that confront them today.

The FC also stressed the need for the Peacekeepers to embrace the principles of professionalism, respect for diversity and integrity which he said were the basic tenets on which UN-

MIL stood.

General Ngondi explained that professionalism ensures that one does what he is supposed to do at the right time, while respect for diversity allows for cohesion among the 56 nationalities that make up the UNMIL family, adding that the principle of integrity exudes the spirit of discipline in the Peacekeeper.

Earlier in an address to the officers after listening to briefs from various UNMIL Military and Civilian Unit Heads, Ngondi expressed satisfaction at the level of cooperation which he observed was existing among the troops and called on them to continue in that spirit.

The FC maintained that to deliver on the mandate of UNMIL, it was important that stakeholders understood the key challenges of the Liberia people, which he said hinged on the lack of human capacity and infrastructure.

The briefs were presented by the Commander, UN Police Region 1, Mr. Ayhon Arsian, the Team Leader, Military Observers Team 3, Lieutenant Colonel Nasim Parvez, the Head of UN Field Office, Margibi County, Mr. Ivan Kotov and the Officer Commanding, Alpha Company, NIBATT 31,

Force Commander, Major General Leonard Ngondi, (middle), Commanding Officer, NIBATT 31 (L), Col. Obinna Ajunwa and other officers during the FC’s official visit to Kakata, Margibi County in Liberia recently.

Captain Bashir Ahmed, who hosted the event.

Captain Ahmed in his brief had

assured the FC that his Company which had responsibility for providing security to key points and vulnerable

points at Kakata in Margibi County, was fully in charge of the area in line with the UNMIL mandate.

Oil theft: JTF impounds vessel, 2 barges laden with 507,500 litres

T

L-R: Naval Director of Information, Commodore Kabiru Aliyu, Chief of Training and Operations, Rear Admiral Olufemi Ogundimi and Chief of Policy and Plans, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ogbor during a press conference at Naval Headquarters Abuja.

Photo: Joy Baba

CDS urges troops to adhere to rules of engagement

By Joy Baba

C

hief of Defence Staff (CDS) Admiral Ola Ibrahim has urged troops participating in the operation in the states where state of emergency rule was declared have been urged to adhere strictly to the rules of engagement and all codes of conduct stipulated for the operations.

The CDS, represented by the head of Defence Headquarter Operational Assessment Team, Maj Gen Lawrence Ngubane stated this while visiting the troops to ascertain the progress and effectiveness in the operation.

He further said the whole exercise was a major test case on the capacity of the security forces to manage the nation’s security issues as mandated

by the Commander in Chief.

Ibrahim also said the troops exhibit high standard of commitment and discipline in all steps taken during this operation adding that they must bring their training to bear and work within the law.

Addressing communities in the operational areas, the CDS’s thanked the people for cooperating with the troops operating in their locality noting that the Defence Headquarters was delighted that there has been no report of molestation or abuse of citizens’ right s since the operation began.

He further said the soldiers were there to end the harassment by the terrorist whose activities have been hampering the people’s social and

economic activities such a s farming, schooling and public service.

Responding on behalf of Kirenowa community, a leader in the area said the presence of the soldier was a great relief as many citizens including him had to flee to Maiduguri for safety.

In Gomboru Ngala, a community leader expressed expressed appreciation to the troops assuring the of his community’s cooperation in order to continue to make the town safe and secure.

The special operation to rid the nation’s border territories began May 16, 2013 and camps of insurgents have been sacked and destroyed with a lot of terrorist captured.

he Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, said on Sunday that it had impounded a vessel and arrested 21 suspects in its fight against oil theft in the region.

JTF’s spokesman Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu said in a statement that the task force also seized two barges used by oil thieves in an operation between May 17 and May 24.

The statement issued in Yenagoa said JTF personnel seized a vessel, MV ERISHNA DOLPHIN, along Obi Creek in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

The vessel will be secured at the Brass River Terminal within Bayelsa waterways.

Also 11 oil theft suspects operating two barges laden with 7,500 and 500,000 litres respectively of suspected stolen crude oil were arrested at Bakana Creek and Abonema Waterfront in Rivers by troops of 146 Battalion of JTF, Sector 2.

“The barges, which are now

secured at Abonema Wharf, were intercepted during one of the antioil theft patrols carried out by Gun Boat troops of the Battalion.

“The suspects have been taken into custody by Headquarters Sector 2 to help in preliminary investigations after which they will be handed over to an appropriate agency for prosecution.

“In similar anti-illegal oil bunkering and anti-pipeline vandalism operations, a total of 21 illegal oil distilleries and 41 pumping machines have been scuttled in Ondo, Edo and Delta states.

“Fifteen of the illegal distilleries were discovered along Takula Creek and Itakpe at the boundary between Ondo and Delta states where 40 steel surface tanks and 25 pumping machines used in the illegal trade were scuttled in Situ,” the statement read in part.

Nwachukwu further said that several equipment and facilities used by the oil thieves were destroyed within their operational locations in the Niger Delta during the raids. (NAN)

R-L: Director, Defence Information, Brig-Gen. Chris Olukolade and Deputy Director, Defence Information, Group Captain Adebayo Makun addressing journalists recently at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja.

Photo: Joy Baba

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 31

African Union: Between hope and despair

By Abdi Ismail Samatar

T

he modern idea of an African Union was best articulated by the founding president of Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah was a visionary leader who realised that colonially constructed nations were economically and politically vulnerable to the machinations of the Cold War and neo-colonialism.

As he dealt with American and British schemes to destabilise Ghana, and as he watched the devastating British, American and Belgium intervention in the Congo, he became even more persuaded of the critical need for imagining Africa beyond the colonial map.

Theoretically, the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 embodied the hope that Africa’s new leaders would undo the cultural and economic domination of the continent’s countries, and create integrative multi-nation projects.

Yet as the 50th anniversary of the OAU (now the African Union, or AU) was celebrated in Addis Ababa on May 25, ordinary Africans crave for the dreams deferred over the last 50 years.

The challenges post-colonial Africa faced were towering as liberation demanded reconstruction in many spheres, such as culture, education, politics, economy and most certainly, leadership and self-image.

Upon independence, many African countries’ economies relied on the export of raw materials whose value depended on the whims of external markets.

There was little that any African country could do to change this in the short run. However, a clear appreciation of the hopelessness of sustaining this “banana republic” structure was the first step in the transformation.

Restructuring such economies required effective leadership and a population willing to sacrifice in exchange for a better life for the next generation.

An Africa-centric strategy taking stock of the circumstances of each country and those of the continent would have made agriculture and domestic food security the first priority while expanding investment in other sectors as well. Agricultural development and food security would have completely eliminated the twin scourges of hunger and destitution, and would have restored the dignity of the African people.

One cannot blame African leaders for the massive structural impediments inherited from the colonial era, but they must be held responsible for the failure to deploy Africa’s human agency to shore up national and continental vulnerabilities.

A far-sighted exception to the general disappointment of the last 50 years was the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. Unfortunately, the organisation was riven by factionalism between Francophone

The African Union headquarters in Addis ababa. and Anglophone countries, and between proponents of socialism and capitalism.

But the OAU had some successes, including mediation between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1964, and support for the liberation movements in southern Africa.

With the exception of Angola, the OAU and African political leaders took a principled and unified stand on independence for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Why were African leaders unable to embark on collective economic projects? For answers, one need not look too far beyond the sectarian and dictatorial national projects to see why such efforts failed.

For example, Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta was unwilling to give up some of its economic advantages in order to advance the collective benefits of the East African Common Market. Giving up a little advantage now to gain a lot more later eluded Kenyatta - and it led to the demise of the common market. Such logic was an extension of Kenyatta’s local

politics which suffocated dialogue, alienated many of his former comrades and turned Kenya into a single-party state.

Kenyatta became the wealthiest man in the country while the majority of the population remained mired in poverty.

Personal accumulation of public power and translating that into private wealth is at the heart of African leadership syndrome, with perhaps the worst example being the calamitous reign of Mobutu SeseSeko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

However, there have been notable exceptions as well, such as Ian Khama of Botswana, Julius KambarageNyerere of Tanzania and Aden Abdullah Osman of Somalia. Khama’s steady hand kept South Africa at bay from invading Botswana. He also presided over the establishment of the continent’s first “developmental state”, while Botswana sustained a good degree of liberal democratic practice.

Although Nyerere ran a singleparty state guided by African Socialism, he ensured that

“

Exploiting this opportunity requires simultaneous political-economic transformation in each country and the continent at large. Sleeping on the switch by free-riding the current resource boom will only reproduce Africa’s “Dome of Shame”

ethnic tensions did not become a poisonous political factor in the country. He also did not amass a private fortune like so many of his counterparts.

Osman of Somalia was perhaps the most democratic leader of all, and deeply respected constitutionally mandated divisions of power between the branches of government. In the end, he was the only leader among his generation to leave office democratically.

With the total liberation of southern Africa came a new chance to rejuvenate the OAU. A new agenda to reform the organisation was launched under the leadership of President Mbeki of South Africa, which led to the formation of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the renaming of OAU as the African Union (AU).

Although it was hoped that NEPAD and the AU could jumpstart a progressive agenda across the continent, the necessary political realignments have yet to be realised in most countries. As a result, neither organisation has been able to embark on collective material projects which are developmental game-changers in the medium term.

Recent growth data indicates that the continent has beengrowing fast in the last decade despite the global economic slowdown. This is certainly welcome news to most Africans, who hope that this tide will not fade away like previous ones driven by resource-based revenues. The IMF and the World Bank have argued that Africa’s recent growth has been facilitated by policy and political reforms that governments adopted in the last two decades. Although there is a grain of truth in this claim, the fact is that policies prescribed

for and imposed on Africa by these organisations devastated the continent for more than two decades.

If anyone can take credit for the “turn-around” of African economies, it is the ordinary Africans who exerted pressure on their governments and the exceptional appetite for resources of the new Asian Tigers. To scale up current growth and turn it into selfsustaining development requires major regional and continental joint projects aimed at beneficiation of raw material and deepening and expanding local markets for African products.

Will current African leaders rise to the challenge of the next 50 years? There is a fleeting opportunity for the continent to auspiciously position itself in the emerging post-North Atlantic economic map. Exploiting this opportunity requires simultaneous political-economic transformation in each country and the continent at large. Sleeping on the switch by free-riding the current resource boom will only reproduce Africa’s “Dome of Shame”.

Much like the past 50 years, there are a few leaders who are fully aware of what must be done and who have the courage to take charge. Unfortunately, most of Africa’s current leaders are too slavish to Western ideological domination and to their avid gluttony to comprehend what is at stake. This leaves politically organised civic movements to mobilise the population and produce the leadership and institutions necessary to make the 100th anniversary of the African Union the people’s halfcentury rather than a celebration of buffoonery.

Source: Al Jazeera

PAGE 32

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, MAY 27, 2013

Over 70 rebels killed in Sudan’s South Kordofan

S

udanese army said it killed more than 70 rebels of the revolutionary front which attacked Al-Dandaro area in South Kordofan state.

“More than 70 of the rebels were killed and the rest fled the area,” said Al-Sawarmy Khalid Saad, Sudanese army spokesman,

in a statement.

He added that the armed forces are still chasing the rebels and continuing the combing operations to ensure security and stability in the area.

The South Kordofan and Blue Nile states have been witnessing armed clashes between the

Sudanese army and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector since 2011 after South Sudan’s independence.

In late April, the revolutionary front alliance, which brings together the SPLM/northern sector and three Darfur rebel

movements, including the Justice and Equality Movement/Jibril Ibrahim faction, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/AbdulWahid Mohamed Nur faction, and the SLA/MinniMinawi faction, attacked Um Rawaba and Abu Karshula areas in South Kordofan state. Source: Xinhua

Al-Shabaab literally defeated but still threat to Somalia says President Sheik

A

l-Shabaab has been literally defeated but still alive being threat to Somalia, the region, and to the world at large, said Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud.

Attending the 21st African Union (AU) Summit, which is coinciding with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the pan-African organization (OAU/ AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the president told reporters that a lot of developments have been achieved in Somalia since the incumbent government took office eight months back.

Al-Shabaab is still alive despite its command and control is dismantled, said the president.

“Al-Shabaab has been literally Somali President, Hassan Sheik Mohamud defeated; and they are on the run. of Somalia is dealing with the of the security, the nascent state But, their threat is still there in difficult situations the country is institution in Somalia is struggling Somalia. As far as there is that facing related to state institutions, with all these difficulties,” said the threat in Somalia, there is a threat security forces, and justice system president. to the region, and there is a threat to among others.

He also revealed that the the world at large,” said Mohamud.

“We are dealing with a situation G o v e r n m e n t h a s d e v e l o p e d “So, Al-Shabaab is still alive where state institutions are not in priorities based on a six-pillar but their command and control is place; security apparatus, security policy framework, including dismantled. Because of that failure forces and security institutions security, judiciary reform, public now they are fighting each other are not in place; the justice system finance management reform, and among them,” he said. is either not there or lacks trust service delivery among others.

The president also stated with the society. So, these have The unity of Somalia is among that the incumbent government been compounded by the problem one of the major priorities, which

the president said his government is seeking to address through peaceful means and dialogue.

“Somalia is fragmented; it is divided into regions, clans, groups, and that was the situation for 20 years. The current Somali government is busy on... and organizing to have one Somalia.

The unity of Somalia is among one of the major six-pillar policy and that unity the government is seeking on basis of peaceful means and dialogue,” he said.

“However, there are groups parties whereby people are still controlled by people who are still interested in localized powers, establishing localized powers instead of in the expense of national authority or national government; and all these are being addressed to dialogue and discussions and in the last four months the Somali government, the cabinet and the parliament were actively involved in the political outreach to different regions of Somalia whereby success has been registered with the formation of interim administrations that paves the way for the formation the federal units of Somalia,” he added.

Source: Xinhua

African leaders want ICC to drop Kenya trials

A

frican leaders are due to pass a resolution urging the International Criminal Court to refer back to Kenya the crimes-againsthumanity cases against the country’s top leaders, according to a senior African Union official.

RamtaneLamamra, AU’s security commissioner, said the resolution would be passed on Monday as the continental bloc continued with activities to mark its golden jubilee.

“We will be approving this morning what the ministers have proposed, definitely,” Lamamra t o l d t h e A F P ne w s a g e n c y , referring to a draft agreed on Friday by foreign ministers.

The resolution calls for the ICC to refer back to Kenya the cases against recently elected President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto.

Kenyatta and Ruto, elected in March, both face trial in The Hague for their alleged roles in orchestrating deadly violence after

President Uhuru Kenyatta (R)and Vice President William Ruto. the in 2007 election which left 1,100 people dead.

Leaders will call for the “termination of the ICC process ... jurisdictions in Kenya will have to take care of the situation”.

Lamamra said.

“Heads of state will support what the ministers have proposed.”

Lamamra was speaking on the sidelines of the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital.

The proposal would have no legal impact on ICC proceedings if passed, but would significantly boost Kenyatta’s standing.

It would be the first time the

pan-African body has moved formally against the ICC, even though Kenyatta is the second African leader to face trial, after genocide charges were brought against his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir.

Amnesty International, the UKbased human-rights campaigner, has criticised the move, saying it is a “worrying attempt by the Kenyan authorities to avoid justice”.

Amnesty International called on the 34 AU members who have signed the ICC’s founding Rome Statute - including Kenya - to “protect the international justice mechanism they have committed to”.

Both Kenyatta and Ruto deny the charges and have agreed to cooperate fully with the ICC. Kenyatta’s trial is due to open on July 9, while a date for Ruto’s trial is expected to be set later this month.

However, Lamamra said Africa remained committed to justice on the continent.

Reports say Ugandan general hiding in London

A

Ugandan general who leaked a letter alleging an assassination plot against army officers opposed to the president’s son succeeding his father as leader has requested the protection of British police.

David Sejusa, a spy chief who sits on Uganda’s military high command, will not return home anytime soon, the Associated Press reported on Sunday, quoting the general’s lawyer, Joseph Luzige.

Luzige said Sejusa was hiding from Ugandan undercover agents allegedly sent to track him down in London, where he has been since a local newspaper published a story about his letter.

“Sejusa told me there is a team of people who have been sent to London to hunt him down,” the attorney said. “He said these people’s intentions are not good at all.”

Luzige said Sejusa believes his life is in danger and is now “very cautious”.

The lawyer’s claims could not be independently verified.

Judith Nabakooba, the spokeswoman for Ugandan police, said she had no comment on this matter. “I’ve not been briefed,” she said.

Sejusa, who directs Uganda’s domestic and foreign spy agencies, recently wrote a letter to the internal security service urging an investigation into reports that those opposed to the rise of Ugandan President YoweriMuseveni’s son risk assassination.

Museveni’s son, a brigadier named MuhooziKainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted and received military training at prestigious academies like Sandhurst in Britain and Fort Leavenworth in the United States.

Kainerugaba also heads an elite army unit that protects the president and national assets like oil fields.

General David Sejusa

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, MAY 27, 2013

PAGE 33

Asia and Middle East

Communist rebels kill Philippine commandos

C

ommunist fighters have set off a roadside bomb and opened fire on a lorry carrying police in the northern Philippine province of Cagayan, killing seven police commandos and wounding eight more.

The members of the elite police Special Action Force were travelling to a hospital on Monday for a regular medical test when the rebels, hiding in the bush along a road in Cataratan, detonated the explosive device and sprayed the vehicle with gunfire, according to a police spokesman.

Al Jazeera’s JamelaAlindogan, reporting from Manila, quoted government officials as saying that a group of 30 armed rebels launched the attack.

“The Philippine spokesperson we spoke to earlier said that it was a premeditated and coordinated attack by the New People’s Army,” she said.

She said the attacks were a common tactic by the Communist group to seize weapons.

The rebels have been waging a 44-year rural-based Marxist rebellion, which has claimed an

estimated 120,000 lives.

The government recently suspended peace talks brokered

by Norway after the rebels rejected an immediate ceasefire.

Commenting on Monday’s ambush, Rodrigo de Gracia, a regional police director, said the police commandos returned fire but were overpowered by the rebels, who later fled with weapons from the slain officers.

The wounded officers managed to escape on foot and were rescued by government troops in the Ballesteros Municipal Hospital in Cagayan province, more than 400km northeast of the capital, Manila.

Troops set up roadblocks and dispatched reinforcements to track down the assailants, GenerosoCerbo, police spokesman, said in Manila.

The New People’s Army rebels accuse successive Philippine administrations of subservience to US interests and failing to improve the lives of the poor.

Their numbers have dwindled to an estimated 4,000 fighters amid battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism.

The communist fighters in a drill They are listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and the EU. Alexander Padilla, the chief government negotiator, said early

this month that the exiled rebel leader, JomaSison, had himself proposed to fast-track the talks by establishing a ceasefire and a committee with the government

to discuss political and economic reforms.

However, Sison later backed off and blamed the government for the impasse.

Burma opposition Syrian TV reporter condemns killed covering conflict Rohingya ‘twochild policy’ A

B

urmese opposition leader Aung San SuuKyi has condemned a decision by local officials in Rakhine state to enforce a “two-child policy” on Rohingya Muslims.

The ban has been in place since 1994, but officials recently began enforcing it in areas where they say the high birth rate is fuelling ethnic tension.

The tensions led to violent clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the western state last year.

Ms SuuKyi has been criticised for not speaking up for Rohingya rights.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were displaced by the violence and live in temporary camps.

The 1994 ban, that prevents Rohingya Muslims having more than two children, was allowed to lapse in recent years.

But a commission set up to investigate the violence in Rakhine suggested the use of family planning education to address what it described as the rapid growth of the Muslim population.

On Saturday, authorities in Rakhine introduced the two-child policy in two townships, Maung Daw and Bu Thee Daung. It is not clear how it will be enforced.

“Under this directive, Bengali [Rohingya] men are allowed

to have only one wife and each married couple can have two children. Where there are more than two children, they are considered illegal,” Reuters news agency quoted a senior immigration official as saying.

Ms SuuKyi told reporters she could not confirm whether the policy was being implemented, but if it was, it was illegal.

“It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights either,” she said.

Phil Robertson of the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the move as outrageous and chilling.

HRW have accused the Burmese authorities of being party to ethnic cleansing during the violence in June and October last year, which left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000 displaced.

The Rohingyas are a stateless group of some 800,000 people who are not recognised as Burmese citizens.

The United Nations describes them as a religious and linguistic minority from western Burma, and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

However, many Burmese officials refer to them as Bengalis - a reflection of the widespread belief that this community belong in neighbouring Bangladesh.

S y r i a n T V correspondent working for a progovernment channel has been killed while covering clashes near the border with Lebanon, the country’s Information Ministry says, in the latest death of a journalist in Syria’s more than two-yearold conflict.

Yara Abbas, a prominent female war reporter for stateowned Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was attacked by rebels near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, the ministry said in a statement carried by Syrian state television.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group also reported her death on Monday, saying she “was killed by a sniper close to Dabaa airport”, north of Qusayr.

The group said other members of Abbas’s crew we re wounde d, without providing further details.

Syrian TV flashed a breaking news alert which read: “The ministry of information ... announces that colleague Yara Abbas has been added to the ranks of the martyrs, killed by terrorists near Dabaa airport.”

The Syrian army, backed by fighters from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, began an assault nine days

ago on Qusayr, where rebels hold sway.

Both the rebels and the regime view the town as a key strategic prize, because it lies near the Lebanese border and by the road connecting Damascus to the coast.

Abbas was a common sight for Syrian television viewers.

She frequently reported alongside Assad’s forces from the frontline of Syria’s conflict.

Dozens of journalists

Late Yara Abbas

have been killed, wounded or kidnapped since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.

Over that time, more than 94,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Journalists covering the conflict, on both the government and rebel sides of the front lines, have been caught in the crossfire - or targeted - on several occasions.

PAGE 34

Europe and Americas

G

erman Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants to reach an agreement with China over import tariffs and avoid triggering a damaging trade war.

Earlier China’s Premier Li Keqiang had warned he was unhappy with European Union probes into Chinese pricing practices in a number of industries.

The EU wants to levy tariffs on Chinese solar panels and phone gear amid claims they are unfairly undercutting rivals.

Chancellor Merkel now wants “intense” talks between the EU and China.

She was quoted as saying that Germany would use its position of power within the EU to ensure that the talks were productive.

According to the Associated Press news agency, she said that Germany would work for the issues to be resolved as quickly as possible because she did not believe that tariffs would help either side.

“We should very intensely use the next six months, and Germany will do everything to ensure that the talks will

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, MAY 27, 2013

German Chancellor moves to cool EU-China trade dispute

T Chinese Premier Li Keqiang with Angela Merkel really advance,” she explained.

Mr Li and Mrs Merkel were meeting as part of the Chinese leader’s first overseas tour. Before Germany, he had already touched down in India, Pakistan and Switzerland.

China’s premier has been warning that any attempt to impose tariffs

would be seen as protectionist and ultimately hurt consumers.

“This decision will not only harm jobs in China, as well as development in the affected industries, but it will also affect development and endanger industry in Europe,” he told a press conference in Berlin.

The probe into whether China has been selling solar products below cost is the biggest ever undertaken by the EU. EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht has proposed taxes averaging 47% on solar imports and a decision is expected next month.

EU divided over Syria arms embargo

T

he European Union nations remained divided on whether to ease sanctions against Syria to allow for weapons shipments to rebels fighting the regime of Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

Britain is the most outspoken proponent of relaxing the arms embargo but faces opposition from some members that feel more weapons would only increase the killings and tarnish the EU’s reputation as a peace

broker.

Austria’s foreign minister, whose country opposes arms deliveries to the rebels, said on Monday that if there is no agreement the arms embargo would collapse.

“The positions are far apart,” Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister, said. He said it was not clear if the EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, will reach an agreement on the issue.

Assad has been using extensive

firepower against lightly armed rebel factions.

More than 94,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad’s regime erupted in March 2011, according to the latest UN figures.

Both sides have agreed in principle to enter direct talks in the Swiss city of Geneva next month, backed by both the US and Russia.

Several nations say that arming the opposition would create a level playing

field that would force Assad into a negotiated settlement.

“It is important to show we are prepared to amend our arms embargo so that the Assad regime gets a clear signal that it has to negotiate seriously,’’ William Hague, UK foreign secretary, said.

The date, agenda and list of participants for the so-called Geneva 2 conference remain unclear, and wide gaps persist about its objectives.

Protest held against Athens mosque plan

M

embers of the ultraright National Front have led dozens of protesters in a march against the Greek government’s plans to build the first state-funded mosque in Athens, the capital.

The government has budgeted about one million euros ($1.3m) to build the mosque at a reduced price because of the country’s economic crisis, which has delayed the process. However, construction was expected to begin next year.

The protesters, including a woman dressed in nun’s clothing, waved Greek flags at the rally on Sunday as they shouted: “We don’t want sharia, we want Greece and Orthodoxy” and “No to mosques, give money to the schools.”

EmmanouilKonstas, the National Front general secretary, said that plans to build the religious centre were unacceptable and that the government should refrain from catering to the religious needs of immigrants while the country faced an economic crisis.

“It is unacceptable in every way,” Konstas said.

“The religious needs of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants shouldn’t be a matter of concern for the government;

Colombia, FARC rebels reach agreement on land reform

Protesters in Athens they should be deported since they came here illegally. And for the rest who are here legally, there are enough places for them to pray,”

Konstas said.

“A ls o, during this hars h economic crisis, it is unacceptable for so much money to be spent on

the building of a mosque.”

Athens is the only European Union capital without an official Islamic mosque or cemetery.

he government of Colombia and leftwing FARC rebels have agreed on land reform, after more than six months of peace talks.

“This agreement will be the start of a radical transformation of rural Colombia,” read a joint statement.

The deal calls for the economic and social development of rural areas and providing land to poor farmers.

Land reform is one of the most contentious issues in the talks on ending five decades of conflict.

“Today we have a real opportunity to attain peace through dialogue,’’ said the Colombian government’s chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle.

“To support this process is to believe in Colombia,” he told journalists at the talks in the Cuban capital, Havana.

The FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, has been in talks with the government on the Caribbean island since last November.

Farc chief negotiator Ivan Marquez said several issues remained unresolved and would be dealt with in later discussions.

“We have advanced in the construction of an accord that will necessarily be checked over before the completion of the final agreement.”

The talks in Cuba are the fourth attempt to reach a negotiated settlement of the conflict, the longest-running in Latin America.

Sunday’s agreement calls for fair access to land, and rural development - two key causes of the armed conflict.

It also calls for the creation of a land bank, as a way to reallocate land, including areas seized illegally during the fighting.

Analysts and aid groups say much of it was taken by far-right paramilitary groups on behalf of cattle ranchers and drug traffickers.

The government, however, blames at least a third of the seizures on the Farc - a claim the rebels deny.

Peace talks will resume on 11 June on the second major issue - the rebels’ participation in politics.

After Sunday’s agreement was announced, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter: “We celebrate, really, this fundamental step in Havana... to end half a century of conflict.

PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, MAY 27, 2013

Liars face off in world’s biggest liar competition E very year, experienced liars from all over the globe gather in Santon Bridge, a tiny village in Northwestern England, to compete for the coveted title of world’s biggest liar. Before you make any suggestions about who should participate in this wacky contest, you should know politicians and lawyers are barred from entry, as they are considered to have an unfair advantage.

The World’s Biggest Liar competition is held every year, in November, in honor of of 19thcentury Bridge Inn landlord Will Ritson, who was famous for his incredible stories. He always claimed his tales were true, although most of them sounded like this: the turnips in Wasdale (a valley in Cumbria) are so big that after locals quarry into them for their Sunday lunch, they can be used as sheds for their

PAGE 35

sheep. In honor of this legendary liar, the Santon Bridge pub has been organizing a competition to crown the world’s biggest liar. Competitors have just five minutes to tell the biggest and most convincing lie they can think of, without using any props or scripts, or telling jokes. Over the years, people have won the contest with

stories about World War II German submarines invading England to capture digital television decoders, or magical journeys to Scotland in trash cans that went under the sea.

It’s reported that one year, a bishop went on stage and won the contest with a single line: “I have never told a lie in my life!”

The most celebrated liar in

the history of the competition is local John Graham, a.k.a. Johnny Liar, who between 1994 and 2008 won seven world’s biggest liar titles. In 2011, first place went to Glen Boylan, who told a story about betting on a snail race with Prince Charles, who advised him to remove the shell to make it more aerodynamic.

Finally! Japanese company develops gas-deodorizing underwear

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hanks to Japanese company Inodore, the days when passing gas in public was seen as a social taboo may soon be behind us. If you can keep the noise level down, their odordeodorizing fabric does the rest, absorbing up to 99% of gas smell.

I know what you’re thinking, fart-proof underwear have been around for a while now, but according to Professor Hiroki Ohge of Hiroshima University they didn’t do such a great job of neutralizing smells. Ohge first got inspired to work on this unusual type of underwear when he traveled to America to study how diseases could affect the smell of people’s flatulence. In theory, by analyzing the smell of gas, along with its main component, hydrogen sulfide, one could be able to tell if

he was suffering from a disease without having to succumb to more complicated examinations.

While researching in the US, the Japanese professor noticed stores were selling various cushions and shorts that used activated carbon and charcoal to deodorize body smells. After analyzing them he identified some flaws in their design and technology, and upon returning to Japan, he began working on his own improved smell-neutralizing fabric.

He presented his idea to about 50 textile companies, and eventually one of them showed interest in his idea. Because activated carbon and charcoal were found weak and presented the danger of eventually falling out of the clothing, Ohge decided to use ceramic instead.

The ceramic material’s countless

tiny pores were ideal for the task, and the fact that it was strong enough to hold up to wear and washing made it ideal. Ultimately, the ceramic component was broken down into nanoparticles

World’s longest word has 189,819 letters, takes 3.5 hours to pronounce

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he full chemical name of the world’s largest known protein has 189,819 letters and is considered the longest word in any language. If you’re one of those people who loves to watch paint dry, you can even watch a 3.5-hour video of a guy pronouncing the whole name.

Titin, also known as connectin, is a giant protein composed of 244 individually folded protein domains connected by unstructured peptide sequences. Also, the gene for titin contains the largest number of exons (363) discovered in any single gene.

Titin is important in the contraction of striated muscle tissues, but it’s mostly known for its technical name, which is sometimes referred to as the longest known word in any language.

The name “titin” is derived from the Greek “titan” (a giant deity, anything of great size), but it’s the full chemical

name that really does it justice. I could just paste it in this post, but it would take you forever just to scroll through it, so I’m just going to say it starts with methionyl… and ends …isoleucine.

You can fill in the middle part yourself.

But if you’re really curious to hear someone pronounce the world’s longest word, there’s a boring cool video of some Russian-sounding guy who takes around 3.5 hours to go through all the letters, and even grows a beard in the process. After a while, it all starts to sound like mumbling, but you have to admire the poor guy for his effort.

For obvious reasons, the full chemical name of titin is not listed in dictionaries, as many lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as verbal formulae, not English words. Well, call it what you will, a word, a formulae, a short story,

this thing, whatever it is, is pretty darn long. Geekologie even has a text file with the name available for download, but just looking at it just makes my eyes hurt.

Man reading out the world

and attached to the underwear fabric, making it invisible to the naked eye. Completed in 2008, the smell-proof underwear were first introduced in nursing homes for the elderly, where it did a great

job of neutralizing both flatulence and old age smell. That’s one of the great things about Inodore’s special fabric, it can mute all kinds of bad smells, from gas to sweat and even that old age smell produced by a chemical known as nonenal.

The Japanese company has used the revolutionary fabric to create all kinds of ingenious undergarments that can cure you of smelly feet, stinky armpits, and block foulsmelling gas. As you can expect, their goods have been received as a godsend by people with sensitive stomachs. “Seeing it advertised on TV I thought I’d give it a try,” one customer said. “I tried farting [in a pair of the underwear] as an experiment and I was truly shocked! The deodorant effect is outstanding!” via RocketNews24

Indian artist paints with his tongue

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ow here’s a hobby that’s bound to leave a bad aftertaste. Ani K, from Kerala, India, makes paintings using his tongue.

No, he doesn’t hold a paintbrush with his tongue, as I mistakenly believed at first. He actually slathers paint on it, which he then transfers on to canvas to create beautiful images.

Sounds rather gross to me, but the talent is certainly something to behold.

Ani K, who works as a drawing teacher, says he was inspired by an artist who painted with his foot and wanted to do something like that. He started off using his nose, but he realized that was done before and he wanted something unique. That’s when he zeroed in on his tongue. “I thought of giving my tongue a try and succeeded,” he says. “Many newspapers reported it. I got a good response. Then, I made it a regular practice.”

As you might have guessed, tongue-painting is certainly nothing

Ani, K. like candy-tasting. Ani used to suffer from severe headaches and body aches at first, due to the chemicals and the smell of paint. Sometimes he even had nausea. But he wouldn’t give up on his unique technique, and now he’s become immune to the side effects.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 36

DIGEST

Menopause does affect a woman’s memory

By Emma Innes

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omen who have hot flushes during the menopause experience more memory problems, new research suggests.

The study, published in the journal Menopause, showed that there is a direct link between hot flushes and memory problems.

Researchers at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago, U.S., tested the attention and recall of 68 women.

All of the participants were aged between 44 and 62 and each was experiencing at least 35 hot flushes a week.

The women were also asked to complete questionnaires about

Women who have hot flushes during the menopause experience more memory problems than those who do not. They also have memory problems for longer

By Rachel Reilly and Emma Innes

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arents ‘cleaning’ baby dummies by sucking on them could help protect their children from asthma and eczema.

Researchers believe the transfer of microbes could increase the bacterial diversity of babies’ digestive systems and boost immunity.

The transfer of bacteria in the mouth from parents to babies may help strengthen a child’s digestive system which could in turn boost immunity

People who are overweight, smoke, or drink heavily, are more likely to suffer unpleasant symptoms during the menopause their menopause symptoms, mood and memory.

The results revealed that the women who had the most hot flushes performed worst on the memory test - and the worse the hot flushes, the longer the period of memory loss.

The findings back-up support previous research on menopause-related memory loss.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York found that fluctuating levels of female hormones can affect the memory.

They found that women tend to be worst affecting during the first year of the menopause.

However, they also discovered that the effects are

unlikely to be permanent.

Another previous study revealed that people who are overweight, smoke, or drink heavily, are more likely to suffer unpleasant symptoms during the menopause.

Researchers at the University of Queensland found that women with unhealthy lifestyles are more likely to experience menopausal night sweats.

They also found that welleducated women are less likely to develop these symptoms.

Characteristic symptoms of the menopause include hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and irregular periods.

But there are many symptoms that relate to hormones during the

two to three years preceding the menopause (the ‘perimenopause’), says Professor John Studd, a consultant gynaecologist at the London PMS and Menopause Clinic.

Among the other reported problems are headaches, formication of the skin — an itchy sensation like crawling insects — and thinning hair and skin, as well as memory problems, brain fog, confusion, depression and the inability to concentrate.

Not everyone will experience these symptoms — it depends how sensitive they are to oestrogen and progesterone.

Source: Dailymail.

Sucking on your baby’s dummy before giving it to them may prevent asthma and eczema in childhood ‘We know these bacteria are important for development,’ said Dr Wilfried Karmaus from the University of Memphis, who has studied asthma and eczema, but who was not involved in the new research.

Being delivered through a vaginal birth, for example, exposes babies to more of their mother’s bacteria and has been linked to fewer allergies in childhood.

However, no one has ever looked at transfer of bacteria through dummies before, Dr Karmaus said.

For the new study, researchers recruited pregnant women at one Swedish hospital and followed them and their children for three years.

The 184 infants in the study were particularly allergy-prone because 80 per cent had at least one parent with allergies.

When the babies were sixmonths-old, 65 parents reported ‘cleaning’ their dummies by sucking on them.

The children were tested for allergies at 18-months-old and 46 of them had eczema and ten had asthma symptoms.

Those whose dummies had been sucked on by their parents were 63 per cent less likely to have eczema and 88 per cent less likely to have asthma, compared

Toddlers are less likely to suffer with immune-related conditions such as asthma and eczema if their parents suck their dummies when they are babies

to the children of parents who did not use the cleaning technique.

By 36-months-old, however, the difference had disappeared for asthma.

Parental dummy sucking was still tied to a 49 per cent lower chance of a child having eczema, the researchers from Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg found.

There was no clear link between parents’ dummy cleaning method and babies’ sensitisation to common

allergens, such as cats, dogs, eggs or peanuts, at either age.

In a smaller analysis of 33 infants, the same researchers found that babies whose parents did suck on their dummies had different types of bacteria living in their mouths to those whose parents did not.

‘This is a simple measure which is really, really nice,’ Dr Karmaus said. ‘But we need a trial to be really sure

that this is protective.’

A gold-standard trial would involve randomly assigning some parents to regularly clean dummies by sucking on them and others to never use that method.

In the current study, Dr Karmaus said, it is possible parents who decided on their own to suck on their child’s dummy were different from parents who did not in other important, allergy-related ways.

‘It could be that these parents have more time with their children, a less stressful relationship with their children, hug their children more or whatever,’ he told Reuters Health.

For now, he said, parents should know that using their mouth to clean an infant’s dummy may be worth trying - and at the very least, should not be harmful.

That technique may also be a necessity from time to time, Dr Karmaus accepted.

‘Sometimes you take two or three pacifiers with you but if all are dirty and your child is crying, there’s nothing you can do but clean it yourself.’

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 37

Egya’s 12 years of representation has been a waste, says Nasarawa CPC Woman Leader INTERVIEW

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ou are a major stakeholder in the present Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) administration of Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura. How can you assess the leadership style of the governor now that the administration is reaching mid tenure?

The administration of Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura, has so far done tremendously well in the two years the governor has been in charge.

Looking from every aspect of human development: from education to health, urban and rural development, power, portable water supply, just name it, Almakura has sufficiently demonstrated his capacity for initiating change, sustaining this change and making it work for the benefit of the people.

Above all, however, he has practically demonstrated the philosophy of change by making accountability, probity and responsiveness as cardinal objectives of his administration, instead of the prevailing culture of impunity, waste and profligacy. The fiscal discipline the governor introduced in the running of government has so far ensured that resources accruing to the state are channeled toward moving the state forward. In terms of physical infrastructure, even a blind man can feel the impact of his pragmatic approach as he embarks on transforming the state, particularly, giving Lafia, the state capital, a befitting status.

Can you go into specifics, in terms of the projects so far executed by the CPC administration?

Take for instance, education.

For the first time in the history of Nasarawa state, the sector which has continuously suffered neglect by successive administration, is now being rejuvenated and given a new lease of life through the active participation of the State Universal Basic Education Board. For the first time again, we have been able to access intervention funds from UBEC, having being dutifully paying the state’s counterpart funding, so that the money can be ploughed back into building new schools and renovating others. So far, SUBEB have embarked on a project tagged “Project 144”, whereby 144 new schools are currently undergoing construction spread across state. This particular project consists of building series of 3 and 4 blocks of classrooms, with adequate toilet facilities in various schools across all the local government and development areas. This project is ongoing, with many of them completed and already in use. If you happen to see new block of classrooms, as you move pass through Nasarawa, painted in the CPC colours, then you are seeing the physical manifestation of change as enunciated by the apostle of change, Umaru Tanko Al-makura. Aside of that, there is the Al-makura model

Hajiya Hajara Danyaro, was first state woman leader under the administration of former Governor Abdullahi Adamu but later appointed the Special Adviser on Inter Party Relations to Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura.

She is presently the state Woman Leader of the CPC in Nasarawa state. In this interview with Ali Abare Abubakar, our Nassara state Correspondent, the coordinator of Taaliya Women Organisation, examines the leadership styles of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the CPC. Excerpts:

Hajiya Hajara Danyaro school project, where 36 model schools are being built across the state, with three of these nearing completion in Lafia, Akwanga and Keffi. Lafia, the state capital, will have four of such, with two already completed at the Bukan Sidi Junior and Senior secondary schools. We also have two in Doma, where the former governor of the state came from, who performed woefully during his tenure, as he could not even sink one borehole in his country home. But Al-makura, with his desire for change, will build two of his model schools in Doma as well as in Obi, Awe and Deddere, with one each in Jenkwe, Keana and Giza. In Akwanga zone, two of the model schools will be sited each in Nasarawa-Eggon, Akwanga, Wamba. While one each is to be built in Mada Station, Nunku and Mama.

In Keffi zone, two will be sited each in Toto, Nasarawa town and Keffi. Also, one each in Kokona, Umaisha, Karu, Tudun Wada. In all, 36 of such model schools comprising of duplex blocks of classrooms will be constructed across the state and are to be provided with adequate facilities to make teaching and learning conducive.

Take the intervention in the power sector. The present administration has since inception, bought and installed over 70 transformers. We have 22 of these installed within Lafia metropolis, with 8 in Akwanga, 5 in Keffi, one each in Precious FM and NTA Lafia, 300 KVA transformers, so that the stations can transmit without hitches. One transformer each installed in Obi, Duduguru, Sabon Gida, Bukan Kwato and two installed also in Agyaragu. In all the areas where these transformers were installed, the people are now enjoying steady supply of power. The governor, in his magnanimity, made

sure that it is not only the buying and installation of transformers but that all other requirements are met so that electricity is distributed across the state, particularly in the rural areas to boost economic activities and to halt the rural-urban drift. Al-makura installed these transformers across the state. In Udege, he installed in Mararaba and Odu. Odu ward of course, is where Samuel Egya came from, the man that represented my zone at the House of Representatives for 12 fruitless years.

Iam from Nasarawa Local Government area and I can testify to you that Hon. Egya, for the 12 years he was at the National Assembly, we did not benefit from a single project that he initiated.

For us that he represented, it was 12 years of waste and misrepresentation.

For the 12 years that I voted for the PDP, I was not just a supporter but the first Woman Leaderof the state; it was 12 years of pestilence and deceit.

Odu could not get a transformer during those years until the coming of Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura.

You are from Nasarawa Local Government area where the scarcity of drinking water has persisted for the past 20 years. How has the present administration tackled this issue?

Yes, indeed for us in Nasarawa, drinking water has continued to pose a challenge to most families. It is more of so much water but no drinking water.

For the past twenty years, the people have groaned under the complete lack of drinking water. Successive administrations in the state have shied away from tackling the problem, paying only lips service to a matter that touches on the lives of the people of the area. The previous administration

of Aliyu Doma, awarded a contract for the Nasarawa expanded water works but as it was characteristic of the PDP government, the award was merely deceptive as it remained only on paper as that government failed to execute the contract as it refused to make any financial commitments to facilitate the project. Then, more significantly, the governor dusted the file for the old contract by Doma, paid all the liabilities incurred by the government for its failure to honour its part of the contract and re-awarded the job for the expanded water works. As Iam talking to you now, the contractor has been mobilized, with dredging equipment already on site, working. As soon as the Nasarawa expanded water works is completed, water scarcity in the town and neighboring communities will be a thing of the past. The governor was only three months in office when water started flowing in Nasarawa town.

On the aspect of urban and rural development, some are of the opinion that Governor Almakura solely concentrated on Lafia, the state capital, leaving the rural areas unattended.

How true is this?

It is not true. The governor is reaching out and touching every nook and cranny of the state. Taking a cue from what I have earlier said, with ongoing interventions in road construction, power supply, education, just name it, Al-makura has so far spread his development efforts across the state. Be it in Sabon Gida, Mararaban Gwangwan, Adogi, etc, the CPC administration has made its presence known to every community in the state by embarking on people oriented projects and they will testify to that anytime, any day. The matter of developing Lafia, the state capital, is not peculiar to Nasarawa state. It is a known fact that the state capital has been neglected, with the basic infrastructures befitting a major city like Lafia virtually absent. It is the practice all over the world and Nigeria in particular, for the state capitals to be given befitting status. And so it comes to pass that Al-makura has taken the gauntlet to build Lafia and make it worthy of a state capital just like any other in the country. Go to Abuja, the Federal Capital, and you will see for yourself the effort of the Federal Government to develop the city to a world class status. For fear of sounding immodest, I will say that the governor has fulfilled more than 75 percent of the electoral promises he made to the people of the state in just two years. Just some days ago and for the first time in the state, farmers, who constitute more than 80 percent of the population,

receive farming inputs as at when due. The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in the state expressed delight that for once farmers are getting fertilizers and other farming input in time unlike in previous dispensations when such came too late. Look at the road constructions ongoing across the state. For each local government headquarters, Al-makura contracted 3 km of road and we can all testify that many of these roads have been completed.

Finally, if you are asked to compare governance in the state under the PDP and now the CPC, what will be your take?

Honestly, everybody is aware that I was the first Woman Leader under the PDP, under the leadership of former governor Abdullahi Adamu.

If we are to compare the work of the CPC government with that of the PDP in 12 years, I can say there is a marked difference. Al-makura has done in just two years what the PDP has failed to do in 12. Let us be sincere, the roads being undertaken by Al-makura now, had it been previous administrations have taken the pain to do so, our governor will be doing something else.

But he has to start from the scratch.

As far as Iam concerned, the PDP has failed woefully from the federal to the state government. To give an example with my federal constituency, where Samuel Egya represented me for 12 years, I was part of his campaign team as his female coordinator. Today, he has nothing to show for the 12 years of fruitless misrepresentation. Even his ward, where he was born and brought up, it was only recently that Al-makura installed a transformer in the area and for once the people can en joy electricity. Not only that, within the first year of office, our governor sunk two boreholes for the people of Odu. That was why when Egya shamelessly sought re-election for the fourth time, the people rose together to show him the way out by denying him their votes.

You were part of the campaign train when PDP went to Nasarawa local government and you noticed how the people rejected his candidature openly by booing him whenever he was presented. But as always the case, leaders of the PDP don’t always listen to the voice of the people and they went ahead to field him and he was disgraced by the people. Even after the election tribunal ordered for a re-election in Odu, he was again floored. He could not even provide a single transformer worth N500, 000 to his people in 12 years. His years at the House of Representatives have been a total waste for the people of the Nasarawa/Toto constituency.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 38

POLITICS

Insecurity: Invest in intelligence gathering, Rep tells FG From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina

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ouse of Representatives member from Katsina State, Ahmed Baba Kaita (CPC, Kankia/Kusada/Ingawa), yesterday called on the Federal Government to invest more in intelligence gathering if it is serious in tackling the current security challenges facing the country.

The lawmaker also counsel the government to make the training of its security personnel a priority

so as to prevent criminality in the country.

He noted that the last 10 to 15 years in the country had witnessed appalling security challenges that could be likened to those found in failed states.

Kaita lamented that every passing day, Nigerians are witnesses to crimes and other related evils by a “more determined and more violent” set of people or groups.

He said the National Assembly makes allocation to the security

department in billions and trillions of Naira, yet the se curity challenges do not seem to reduce or completely fizzle away.

He said that after the NASS has done its work, “It is left for the executive to utilize this money judiciously to make sure that it trickles down to the states and local governments for our collective safety.”

He added that notwithstanding current security situation, government must be seen to be responsible as well as up and

doing in protecting the lives and properties of its people.

He however added that since security was paramount in any given county, adequate investments should be made in the areas of security intelligence as well as retraining of security personnel.

This, the lawmaker said, would go a long way in turning around the fortunes of the country which had been negatively affected during various insecurity situations.

L-R: Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, chairman Senate committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, and Senator Joshua Dariye, during the committee’s visit to the governor, yesterday at the Government House, in Minna.

Tsav carpets governors over NGF election From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

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social critic and former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, has lamented the sham election conducted by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF last Friday, maintaining that the election portends danger for the country’s democracy in 2015.

Tsav who spoke in a telephone

interview with his this reporter regretted at the immature action of the governors for their inability to conduct a simple election.

He described the governors as lacking morals, integrity and dignity, wondering why most of them should dance to the President’s tune instead of upholding democratic norms.

“Every one who is elected and takes oath of office and allegiance

as a State governor is expected to be above reproach, temperate, self controlled, respectable, reliable, impartial, dependable, honest, forthright and God fearing. The Governor unanimously agreed to hold election for the position of chairmanship and appointed Mr. A.B. Okauru as returning officer of the election and Governor Rotimi Amaechi won. Only for Governor Akpabio who is neither the

returning officer nor electoral officer to declare Jang as winner. Couldn’t the governors have resolved the issue quietly or they simply want to satisfy the President”, he fumed.

The social commentator also condemned the sudden suspension of Governor Amaechi by the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, questioning: is this democracy?

What are the factional governors teaching the youths?

Ogun 2015: Group commends LP over guber-ticket zoning From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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s the race towards the 2015 elections in Ogun State gathers momentum, The League of Ogun West Professionals has hailed the decision of the leadership of the Labour Party to cede its gubernatorial ticket to the western part of the state This decision, according to the group, would balance the political inequality and redress moral injustice

in the state.

In a statement released and signed yesterday in Lagos by its President, Mr. Akin Abioro, the body averred that the party’s resolution would boost the chances of the zone at producing the first governor in the 37-years existence of the state.

“It is with full embrace and great appreciation that we receive and commend the leadership of the Labour Party for zoning their ticket for 2015

gubernatorial slot to Ogun West.

“This singular act shows that the party and its leadership are in tune with the yearning and outcry of Ogun people. Definitely, this is the most popular and people-centric decision to be taken by any political party in the annals of politics in our dear state.”

The body, which also called on other political parties to follow the footstep of the Labour party, however, urged other divisions in the state to

rally round whosoever the Labour party would present from the zone, saying that the bound that ties the three district in the state goes beyond politics or party line.

“We appeal to our fellow brothers and sisters from Ogun Central and Ogun East to work together with us so as to ensure that the moral and political imbalance in the state is redressed once and for all, afterall, injustice to one is injustice to all,” Abioro said.

UPP will be the party to beat in 2015 – Scribe

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he National Secretary of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Ogbuehi Dike, has said that UPP will be the party to beat in the 2015 general elections.

Dike made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja. `` We are going to penetrate every nooks and cranny of the country to make sure UPP wins elections in 2015. `` We have started selling our manifestoes to Nigerians, and we are telling them to vote for us and the reason why they should vote for us,” Dike added He said that the party was going to go from house to house and from room to room in the manner that the members of the Jehovah witness conducted their evangelism.

He assured Nigerians that UPP would be of great benefit to the development of the country as it will play a different style of politics to change the existing situation. `` UPP shuns politics of personalities and embraces politics of issues and ideas that can bring everybody together as one family. `` Our party is made of politicians of repute who know how to play the game better than the crop of politicians handling the affairs of the nation since the inception of the fourth republic,’’ he said According to him, even though the party is a young party, the players are very old in the game.

He said that the party was going to showcase its strength and readiness in the Anambra governorship elections later in the year and in 2015. `` Preparations are already going on so as to launch our party in the South East, South West, South South and in other parts of the country. `` But we are going start from the South East where we have our stronghold before going to the other parts of the country.

He expressed optimism that the party would win Anambra governorship elections later in the year.

He said that the party had all it takes to win the election because of its level of preparation and commitment.

According to him, UPP is not just registered to win an election and form government, but to run an all-inclusive government where everybody will benefit.

The UPP scribe promised that the party, if voted into power, would embark on programmes that would have direct bearing on the lives of Nigerians.

Dike expressed confidence that if voted into power, the party would also give priority attention to the establishment of more primary healthcare centres. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 39

News Extra

Hijab: Muslim students protest in court From Matthew Irinoye, Lagos

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HOD Education Kosofe LD, Mrs. Folake Ajayi (left), presenting gifts to Ogudu Primary School students, during the Berkley Science Magnet School community service programme to celebrate 2013 Children Day, on Friday, in Lagos.

PDP wades into Taraba crisis, sets up fact finding c’ttee

By Lawrence Olaoye

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he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday waded into the crisis rocking the party in Taraba state.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party in a brief ceremony inaugurated a 7-man fact finding committee on the political status of the state chaired by Senator Hope Uzodima with Senator Abubakar U. Gada serving as the Secretary. Other members include Barr. Ahmed Gulak, Alhaji Shittu Mohammed, Alhaji Bala Buhari, Prof. Richard King and Mrs. Bolajoko Doherty.

At the inauguration, the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, charged the committee to find out and report the extent of the political harmony or otherwise among he

key stakeholders within the ruling PDP family in Taraba state; “Interact and establish the most effective approach, to reduce to the barest minimum, the fears of all the contending interests in Taraba state; “Fast track the process of constitutional adherence as it affect he current status of the office of the Governor of Taraba state,” amongst others.

NUJ pickets Champion Newspapers over unpaid salaries The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Monday picketed the head office of the Champion Newspapers at Ilasamaja, Lagos, over unpaid salaries to journalists.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Champion Newspapers owed its workers 20 months’ salaries.

Mr. Deji Elumoye, the Chairman, Lagos council of NUJ, led the union, who picketed the organisation at about 11 a.m.

Workers of the organisation were sent out of the main building by the NUJ members before barricading the main gate.

The union members, who carried placards with various inscriptions such as “Champion management is insensitive to workers’ welfare”, “Champion management dey fat while workers dey lean” and “Iwunayawu don’t allow Champion to die,” also sang solidarity songs.

Addressing the staff, Elumoye said that the union decided to picket the organisation because the management refused to fulfill the promises it made to the union on the unpaid salaries. ``We have to resort to picketing

because Champion’s management is not sincere. ``They reneged on all of their agreements. We even went to the extent of signing an MOU with them. ``After series of meeting and they were not forthcoming, we had to resort to picketing, and now that we have started picketing, there is no going back,” he said.

Mr Gbenga Lawal, NUJ Secretary, B Zone, South West, also described the nonpayment of salaries as “dehumanising”, saying the staff should not be allowed to suffer. ``Enough is enough, there is no reason why people should work and not be paid. It is inhuman and we will not support evil.”

He said that the organisation owed some of the workers 20 months’ salaries. (NAN)

Subsidy theft: EFCC begins trial of suspects From Matthew Irinoye, Lagos

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prosecution witness at the ongoing trial of suspects of fuel subsidy scam, Hammed Lawal yesterday told a Lagos High court sitting in Ikeja, that the analysis on the documents of claims by the oil marketers showed that the suspect did not supply the said products.

The defendants, Samuel Bamidele, Abiodun Kayode Bankole and their company, A.S.B. Investment Company Limited were alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to have fraudulently obtained payments from the

petroleum support fund as subsidy for the importation of petroleum motor spirit (petrol) to the tune of N1,341,471,735.67.

The witness, led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) told the court presided over by Justice Lateefat Okunnu that investigation revealed that the vessel conveying the petroleum product left Sweden on February 20, 2011 contrary to claims by the defendants that the vessel left Sweden on February 9, 2011, The witness, who was one of the EFCC’s investigative team also alleged that documents relating to the discharge of the mother vessel

were forged.

He said: “This particular claim of 20,000 metric tonnes of premium motor spirit from Sweden never got to Nigeria because there was no discharge from the mother vessel to first daughter vessel” Lawal, a graduate of accounting from Bayero University, Kano, further told the court that the documents his team got from Quality Marine Services, concerning the discharge of the said product, confirmed that the forged documents never emanated from Quality Marine Services.

The letter to the Quality Marine Services and the Bills of Lading were

later admitted in evidence.

But Lawal in his cross examination by the defense counsel, Anthony Idigbe, (SAN) said he never confirmed the quantity of the products from the ship’s captain before discharge.

He was also unable to answer questions put to him by the defence on the certificate of origin and the cargo manifest.

Lawal’s inability to answer the questions infuriated Idigbe, who told the court that the investigation done by EFCC about his clients was not comprehensive since it excluded the certificate of origin, certificate of quality and cargo manifest.

uslim students in Lagos yesterday protested around the state capital, Ikeja to show their displeasure over the decision by the Lagos State Government to ban the use of Hijab (veil) by female muslim students in public schools.

The protesters, led by Muslim teachers and clerics, under the aegis of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Lagos State Chapter, and carrying placards with inscriptions like ‘Hijab is our right, it must be respected.”

‘Fashola, to be forewarned is to be forewarned, ‘Lagos State Government, stop discrimination of our female students’ said they would continue to protest and explore every available means to ensure the rights of Muslim students to wear hijab in public schools is protected.

The Nigerian police mobilized to the scene to avoid miscreants hijacking the rally.

The protesting students who wore hijab on their various uniforms said they would continue to wear it to schools until the court decides whether it is legal or otherwise to do so.

At the proceeding held before a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja and presided over by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, counsel to the state government, Samuel Muniru Ajanaku informed the court that the state has restrained from filing a response because it believes that the matter can be resolved out-of-court. Counsel to the applicant, Taiwo Hassan Fajimite did not object.

Children’s Day: Group doles out food, clothing to women, children

By Stanley Onyekwere

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n the spirit of this year’s Children’s Day celebration, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Teenz Global Foundation (TGF) yesterday in Abuja doled out food and clothing to over 250 women and children in the Angwan Lambu community, in Keffi local government area of Nasarawa state.

The beneficiaries who gathered at the Angwan Lambu community primary school in the area received items such as Indomie noodles, sweets, Bobo beverage, stockings, female and male clothes of different sizes and shapes.

Chair person of TGF, Mrs. Ijeoma Idika-Chima said the gesture was part of the Foundation’s way of expressing love towards children, especially less privileged ones in rural communities, and also to let them know that despite where they are, they can be whoever they want to be in life, if they keep focus.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

News Extra

Emergency rule: GSM coys shut down services in Adamawa From Umar Dankano,Yola

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elecommunication networks in Adamawa state were yesterday cut-off with groaning residents going to the neigbhouring Taraba state to communicate or access internet services.

Our correspondent reports that all the GSM networks—Airtel, MTN, Glo and Etisalat—were unavailable since early morning yesterday, obviously turned off as part of the military operation aimed at ridding the areas of insurgents. No official statement has been made on why the cell phone services were turned

off.

Residents of the state woke up yesterday to realise that what they thought was a minor problem with mobile telephone services the previous day was actually a deliberate action by the mobile networks, who are believed to be complying with directives from the Nigerian military.

Many residents believed that the networks were put off as part of strategy to demobilise the insurgents in the state.

“I think the cell phone service cut was taken in order to give way for soldiers to launch unhindered onslaught on suspects in targeted areas,” a Jimeta resident Na’omi

Daniel has said.

She lamented that , “all major national telecom carriers, MTN, GLO, ETISALAT and AIRTEL are grounded, leaving residents confused especially as there is no official information either by the network providers, the state government, or the military.’’

Similarly motorists who came to Yola ,the state capital from the border towns said Cameroonian authorities also turned off telecommunication signals that reach those communities.

“We relied on Cameroon (for network services) for a very long period of time but we woke up today (yesterday) and found out that all the

signals are gone,” a motorist said.

Also commenting, residents of nearby towns said that GSM services were turned off across the 21 local government areas.

Malam Bakari Musa , a bus driver from Mayo-Belwa said he noticed the service failure late in the night.

“I was worried when I discovered the shutting down of GSM services, because I left my child terribly ill”, he said.

Recharge card sellers,said their source of livelihood has been affected and so most of them were forced to remain at home.

“This is a big problem as I have not sold a single recharge card since morning,” Babangida said.

BRIEFS UN lists Lokoja for resilience profiling programme From Sam Egwu, Lokoja

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okoja, the Kogi State Capital has been listed for a Resilience Profiling P rogramme towards the expected 2013 flood by the United Nation.

The Kogi State Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi made the disclosure at an interactive session with residents of Kabawa, John Holt, Kpata koto and Nataco communities in Lokoja Local Government Area on the need to ensure stakeholders participation In the beautification project of the State government.

The vital place of Lokoja as a gateway and a rapidly growing urban city devastated by last year’s flood, Awoniyi disclosed, were the criteria used by the UN in the selection process.

‘Bauchi govt committed to children’ From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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L-R: Minister of State for Works, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Environment, Mr.Taiye Haruna, and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications Technology, Dr. Henry Akpan, during a meeting with Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, yesterday at the State House, in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Bishop commissions catholic housing estate

By Stanley Onyekwere

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ishop of the Catholic Diocese of Lafia, in Nasarawa State, Most Reverend Dr. Mathew Ishaya Audu weekend commissioned the Saint Sylvester Catholic Estate in New Nyanya, near the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Containing almost 200 plots of land and located in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, the vast property belongs to

parishioners. It was an initiative of the Church Council, designed to bring worshippers together in God’s spiritual community.

The development is coming just as the Bishop also inaugurated about 22 Eucharistic Ministers which are to help distribute the Holy Communion within their respective parishes.

Speaking at the venue of the Estate commissioning, Bishop Audu commended the initiative of the Church Council of Saint Sylvester

Independent Mission, noting that the idea of having an estate to accommodate worshippers was a welcome development.

He urged the parishioners to close ranks and use the opportunity to strengthen the bond of relationship amongst themselves and gain God’s salvation.

Bishop Audu, in a demonstration of humility, turned down a request to have the estate named after him and sought the permission of the

Church Council to instead name the two zones of the estate after Saint Sylvester and Mary, Queen of the Apostles respectively.

He thanked parishioners of Saint Sylvester’s Catholic Church under the leadership of Reverend Father Lawrence Soja Anyembugu for their commitment, dedication and loyalty, stressing that his prayers for them was to gain salvation after their sojourn on earth.

Southern Kaduna lawmakers incompetent, group says From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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s Nigeria celebrates Democracy Day tomorrow, a group under the aegis of Center for Development and Rights Advocacy (CEDRA) has accused the lawmakers representing Southern Kaduna constituencies at both state and Federal levels of nonperformance and vowed to vote out incompetent ones among them come

2015.

According to the group, Southern Kaduna people were yet to benefit from any dividends of democracy from the lawmakers.

Addressing newsmen in Kaduna to mark the democracy day, CDERA spokesman, John Danfulani said the area have about eight lawmakers in state House of Assembly, five in House of Representatives and one Senator.

“We are appealing to all Southern Kaduna people to discard such characters by voting them out in 2015 elections. The survival of the area depends on competent and capable representatives, and so vote out incompetent lawmakers as we begin a trip to greater heights.

“Since we are talking on midterm assessment and Democracy Day, we quite appreciate a handful of representatives from Southern

Kaduna who have done well especially in the House of Representatives. But we wish to stress emphatically that there is no single BILL sponsored by our representatives at Nigerian Senate, House of Representatives and Kaduna State House of Assembly that has direct impact on the lives of Southern Kaduna people.

“So we are wondering, if they really know the functions of lawmakers.

he Bauchi State government under Governor Isa Yuguda is committed to and doing everything possible towards improving the lives of children in the state.

Speaking at this year’s Children’s Day celebration organized by a Bauchibased non governmental organization (NGO), Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWOYDI) in collaboration with Action Aid Nigeria, The Bauchi State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmed Faggo, stated that since assumption in office six years ago, the Yuguda administration had put in place children-friendly policies and programmes aimed at making life better for children in the state.

Children’s Day: NGO makes case for out of school kids

By Etuka Sunday

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s Nigerians celebrated another Children’s Day yesterday, a NonGovernmental Organization based in Abuja has advocated for funding of education for over 10.5 million out of school children across the country.

The foundation said there was an increased need for proper management of the country’s resources to ensure that the over 10.5 million out-of-school (OOS) children are absorbed into the school system.

Briefing journalists in Abuja as part of activities to mark this year celebration, the President, Mrs. Jumai Ahmadu noted that in the data released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 41

22 Eagles set to depart Germany for USA today

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Efe Ambrose arrived in camp last night

Vincent Enyeama

Sunday Mba

o fewer than 22 Super Eagles were in their Nuremberg, Germany camp midday yesterday even as the team prepares to depart Germany today to Houston, USA for the friendly international duel against Tricolore, their Mexican counterparts on May 31.

Though Head Coach Stephen Keshi will travel with 18 players, Peoples Daily Sports learnt that 21 players trained yesterday morning while two others were expected to hit camp last night before their departure today.

Keshi confirmed yesterday that he was expecting more before they depart and few others after the international friendly game.

“I am expecting Efe (Ambrose) and (Ogenyi) Onazi on Monday, and (Brown) Ideye will join us in America. But we’re not going to go with everybody to the USA. There has been huge dedication and commitment here and I’m sure

Nyamweya sent out a passionate appeal to the public to support the initiative.

“The federation has done its best to support this team but now we want to involve the public because this team belongs to them.

We want to assure them that all the money raised will be used for the intended purpose.”

“We have put in place measures to ensure accountability on how the funds are spent,” Nyamweya said.

that those we will pick for the match against Mexico will do Nigeria proud.”

Keshi expects to have midfielders John Mikel Obi and Fegor Ogude and forward Ahmed Musa for the two FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Namibia, and the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil.

The trio will be waiting to join the delegation in Frankfurt, Germany after the high-profile friendly in America and would therefore be involved in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches and the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil.

Nigeria will play against Kenya and Namibia in Nairobi and Windhoek before travelling to South America for the tournament involving continental champions.

For the Friday’s friendly game, Keshi said only the selected players would make the trip to prosecute the match adding that four players would be dropped from the 21 in camp.

Dynamo Kiev striker Brown Ideye will join the team in the USA. The players that trained in the morning yesterday were goalkeepers Vincent Enyeama, Ejide Austin, Akpeyi Daniel and Chigozie Agbim. The following defenders were available: Gambo Mohammed, Solomon Kwambe, Benjamin Francis, Odulami Kunle, Echijile Elderson, Azubike Egwuekwe, Godfrey Oboabona and Kenneth Omeruo.

The midfielders in camp are Babatunde Michael, Sunday Mba, Obinna Nwachukwu and John Ogu. The forwards are Anthony Ujah, O n k u G o m o , Emeka Eze, Joseph Akpala and Oduamadi Nnamdi.

“Mariga wants to start the coming season free of injury and that can only be achieved if he does the operation now. He has wished the team well and is confident that Kenya have the best squad capable of gunning down the Super Eagles at home,” Wanyama added.

Mariga, who last featured for Kenya during the 2012 AFCON qualifier against Uganda Cranes in Kampala, is among foreign-based players coach Adel Amrouche had summoned to camp to prepare for the match.

Since joining Parma, Mariga has not enjoyed enough playing time after he was stretched off after damaging his abductor following a collision with an opponent, five minutes into his full debut against Genoa on February 15.

Wanyama also confirmed that midfielder Victor Wanyama, who turns out for Scottish champions

Celtic, was due in the country on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Kenyan captain Dennis Oliech is already in the country though he is not eligible to face Nigeria having picked two yellow cards.

Oliech was spotted at City Stadium on Saturday watching a premiership match between AFC Leopards and his former club Mathare United.

He did not feature for his club Ajaccio, who were involved in a relegation battle in the French Ligue one against Nice. Though they lost 2-0 against Nice, Ajaccio survived relegation.

The Kenyan skipper will however, be eligible to play when the team travels to Malawi on June 14 for a World Cup qualifier.

His absence against Nigeria has forced Amrouche to recall Kepha Aswani, who plays for Al Nasr in Oman.

Kenya FA dangles more dollars before Harambee Stars’ to beat Super Eagles Stories by Patrick Andrew

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he Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is leaving no stone unturned to boost the morale of Harambee Stars as they intensify preparations for the crucial 2014 World Cup qualifying game against the Super Eagles in Nairobi, Kenya on June 5.

Only yesterday, the football federation increased the daily allowances of Harambee Stars players to Sh10, 000, N17,800 ($118) per day ahead of the fiesta, which they believe victory is certain to guarantee Kenya the ticket to the World Cup finals in Brazil.

Initially, the players were to receive Sh3, 000 ($35) per day, the allowance was increased by about three hundred percent when the foreign-based players started arriving in the camp over the weekend.

This initiative is different from the launch last week to raise Sh250million ($25,000) through Short Message Services (SMS). Members of the public will contribute Sh20 to a short code number 20870.

The initiative dubbed “Mbao kwa Bao’, seeks to generate public involvement in the quest to raise enough financial incentive for the players. FA boss, Sam Nyamweya, had sent out a passionate appeal to the public to support the initiative.

Yesterday, Nyamweya said that the latest decision to increase the allowances is meant to motivate

the players to a level that they will be condemned to beat the Eagles on June 5.

Aside from the financial incentive from the government, Nyamweya has challenged multi-national corporations and philanthropists to identify with the aspiration of the East African country by offering whatever they think would ginger and motivate the team ahead of the all-important match.

The decision comes barely

two days after the federation in conjunction with BTP Proactive officially launched a fund-raising initiative that will see local fans contribute money to help the team.

The initiative dubbed “Mbao kwa Bao’, seeks to raise Sh250million through Short Message Services (SMS). Members of the public will contribute Sh20 to a short code number 20870.

Kenya FA President Sam

Mariga pulls out of Kenya squad to face Nigeria

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Macdonald Mariga

arambee Stars have suffered a setback in their build up for the 2014 World Cup finals qualifier against the Super Eagles of Nigeria following the withdrawal of their mainstay, Macdonald Mariga.

The midfielder, who laces boots for Italian Serie A side Parma, ruled himself out of the World Cup qualifier because he is scheduled to undergo a minor knee surgery in USA and thus will not be available for the decisive fixture against the African champions.

According to the father of the towering Inter Milan midfielder who is on loan to Parma, “Mariga will not be available because he has to undergo an operation to heel his troubled knee. The surgery will take place almost the same time when we will play Nigeria and thus he will not make it.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUES DAY, MAY 28, 2013

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SPORTS

We would rather lose FIFA Confederation Cup than miss out on World Cup 2014, says Keshi

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fter about two weeks of camping in Nuremberg, Germany, preparing for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Namibia and the Confederation Cup in Brazil all in a few weeks time, the team flies out today to the USA where it will test its strength against the Mexican opponents.

The international grade A friendly to be held in Houston offers the Stephen Keshi-led technical crew the needed chance to assess the physical and mental attitude of the players ahead of the competitive duels in June. Before jetting out of Germany, Keshi took time off to talk to Supersports.com.

Here are excerpts.

Do you have all the Players you need in Camp now?

There are 20 players in camp and we are expecting more to join us in Houston before the friendly with Mexico”.

What do you expect to get from that match?

It is a fantastic opportunity for us to try new systems, integrate new players and get everyone into the right match mentality just before we face Kenya Nigerians and indeed most of Africa were surprised

that the Kenya match ended in Nigeria salvaging a draw in the last minute. What have you learnt from that game or what exactly went wrong?

Oh! There were too many distractions before the game. Also the home based players were not fit and a lot of outside influence but that will not happen again.

A lot of people did worry that the host state government turned that match into some carnival to welcome the newly crowned African champions. Too many people forgot that there was indeed a match to

be played?

I am not saying anything except to say that God is working with us and that we will be prepared for this match. The focus is there and we have the determination to get a good result

“Make no mistake we will give the tournament our best shot but it is really to come back next year as one of Africa’s representatives at the World Cup that we are working towards”

The Super Eagles will be competing in the Confederation Cup a fore runner for the World Cup in Brazil: A prestigious tournament for sure, but a friendly one in every way. So, if you are asked to choose now - win the FIFA Confederations Cup or Qualify for World Cup 2014 with the Super Eagles?

I will choose qualifying for the World Cup each time.

Yes, the FIFA Confederations Cup is also good but nothing beats or compares to FIFA World Cup that is the real deal.

That is where I aim to be and where I want my players to be playing”.

There seems to be a clamour for new blood to be added to the Nigerian squad with a lot of players born and bred in Europe but of Nigerian descent about. Is there a plan to try and look for or any hope for these players?

For sure. I am always looking at ways and players who will improve this team; so if I see any player or players who I believe can improve on what we have currently I shall get them in and have a look at them closely It is not always about playing ability, it is also on if the player or players can fit into the team ethic we are building here. The Super Eagles team is not a closed shop.

“

Make no mistake we will give the tournament our best shot but it is really to come back next year as one of Africa’s representatives at the World Cup that we are working towards.

Keshi

Ejo blames poor preparations for Sand Eagles beach tourney failure

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and Ragles Chief Coach, Adamu Ejo, attributed the poor performance at the just-concluded African Beach Soccer Championship in Morocco to inadequate preparation.

The failed to book a place in FIFA Beach Soccer after losing to eventual winners Cote d’ Ivoire in the group stage and Senegal in the semi-final at the just ended African qualifier in Morocco.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from El Jadida, Morocco, Ejo said that the preparation ahead of the competition was poor compared with previous ones.

Nigeria placed fourth and failed in the bid to secure a ticket for World Cup expected to run from Sept. 18 - Sept. 28 in Tahiti.

Nigeria finished fourth after losing 2-7 to hosts, Morocco.

The two finalists of the championship, Senegal and Cote D’ivoire will represent Africa at the World Cup. The coach said it was the experience of players that helped the team to win its first two matches but it became difficult

as the championship progressed. ``The preparations we had for this championship was not like the type we had in the past.

We only camped for a few days before the championship. ``But, I thank God for the player’s experience because that was what helped us to win our first two matches. As the championship progressed, it became tougher and ended the way it did,’’ he said.

Ejo added that the team ran out of luck at the semi-finals but injury suffered by some players cost them the third place win. ``It was a lesson for the players but the team was just unlucky at the semi-finals, because it was a narrow escape as it ended 8-9 in favour of Senegal. ``Since two of our key players were injured during the match, we had to engage some new players for the third place match. This adversely affected us, because it took us time to blend,’’ Ejo said The beach soccer coach, however, noted that the team needed to get new players to

complement the ageing ones for improved performances at competitions. ``That we have to do immediately on getting back, so that we can start planning ahead of 2015,’’ Ejo said, stressing, ``I am sure that by the time we do this, we will have a stronger team come 2015 because we have the talents in the country’’.

FIFA Beach Soccer Refereeing Instructor, Sunday Okayi, who attended the meet, said it was high time some of the players were replaced. ``Some of the players need to be replaced because they have aged but the Nigerian `win-atall-cost mentality’ is affecting us. ``We don’t want to leave these players and get new and young ones because we want to keep winning, but for how long are we going to wait? ``We don’t have to wait till we get beaten with a wide margin before we will start the process of getting new players,’’ he said.

He added that poor officiating cost the team the third place position.

Sand Eagles, runners-up at

the last African championship, reached the quarter finals of the 2011 World Cup in Ravenna,

Isiaka Olawale of Sand Eagles

Italy. They lost to four-time world champions, Brazil at an added time.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

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SPORTS

Five breakout players of the season 2012-13

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ootball is a sport in an almost constant state of transition. Just a year ago, few would have predicted the way that Bayern Munich dismantled Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, or that Manchester City would end the season with an empty trophy cabinet. Sport, as always, has the ability to surprise.

When predicting the breakout of youth footballers, the results can be similarly unpredictable.

Talent, hard-work and even luck are all major factors in which young players will eventually succeed at the highest level.

For a combination of such reasons, some of the best players at youth level will inevitably fail to progress when promoted to senior level. Breaking through, then, at that level is a major achievement.

Therefore, as we come to the end of this 2012-13 season, it is fitting to look back at which rising stars have taken their opportunities to shine at the highest levels.

Who are the players who have, in the course of one campaign, written their names into the minds of clubs Europe-wide? Below, let’s take a look at five of the best. t the start of the season, it was unimaginable that French defender Varane would find himself first choice at Real Madrid just a few months later. He has, though, seized the opportunity granted by manager Jose Mourinho to place himself firmly above Raul Albiol, Ricardo Carvalho and Pepe in the pecking order.

Varane has been on the radar since making his senior debut for Lens in 2010, earning a move to Real Madrid a year later. It has been in the second half of this second season at the Bernabeu that he has firmly established himself - making a total of 28 first team appearances.

While tall and physically strong, Varane has impressed with the speed at which he has adapted to the mental demands of playing for a top club in big competitions.

There have been mistakes, as is to be expected, but he has quickly moved on from any such blips to

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Name: Raphael Varane Age: 20 Club: Real Madrid Position: Centre-back Nationality: French

ability was proved justified.

Pogba has already been somewhat tentatively linked with a move away from Turin, with Real Madrid the supposed destination.

For the moment, though, he is succeeding in Italy, has a Scudetto in the trophy cabinet and would be best served continuing his development with the guarantee of first team football. hen Aston Villa made Christian Benteke their big money signing (believed to be around £7 million) last summer, there were many people worried that the club had made a mistake in gambling upon a 21-year-old from the Belgian Pro League.

Those worries would only increase as Villa made a slow start to the new season.

Benteke, though, has repaid the faith shown by Villa’s board. Had he not been sent-off in his final league appearance of the season against Chelsea, the Belgian would have had the chance to write his name into history on the Premier League’s final week.

With 19 goals in 34 appearances, he came agonisingly close to joining an elite group of players to have scored 20 league goals in their debut campaign in the English top-flight.

While Villa fans may initially have worried about his acquisition, it was Benteke who ultimately played a major role in the club’s Premier League survival.

With pace and strength in abundance, the striker proved a handful to defences up and down the country, while his link up play with fellow forwards Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andi Weimann was crucial to the team’s run of form late in the season.

A hat-trick against Sunderland and a dominant display against Liverpool at Anfield remain highlights of a fine overall campaign.

There is already said to be serious interest in the striker from some of Europe’s biggest sides, with his successful adaptation to the Premier League having captured the imagination.

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Name: Viktor Fischer Age: 18 Club: Ajax Position: Forward Nationality: Danish

Name: Dani Carvajal Age: 21 Club: Bayer Leverkusen Position: Defender Nationality: Spanish

Name: Paul Pogba Age: 20 Club: Juventus Position: Central Midfield Nationality: French

put in a string of highly-impressive performances. His concentration levels, in particular, have been a major reason behind his rise to prominence.

His success at club level, which saw him take part in crucial Champions League clashes with Manchester United, Galatasaray and Borussia Dortmund, also caught the attention of France’s selectors at international level.

Varane has made three World Cup qualifying appearances for Les Bleus this campaign, and could be a young star to watch at next summer’s tournament in Brazil.

Mourinho has been criticised in the past for not handing opportunities to young players, and while Varane may not have been a Madrid-produced player, the Portuguese manager should be praised for his faith on this occasion. Varane is already well on the way to justifying those selection calls. his time last year, Danish forward Viktor Fischer was finishing his first campaign as an Ajax player as the joint top scorer in the NextGen Series youth competition.

While that was a fine achievement in itself, his rise to become an integral member of Ajax’s Eredivisie-winning squad this season is even more impressive.

With Fischer’s abilities already well known, and the hype beginning to rise, Ajax head coach Frank de Boer was understandably slow to introduce the player to the first-team at the beginning of the campaign.

Once included, though, it was no longer possible to contain the expectation levels. Two goals on his full Eredivisie debut against PEC Zwolle in November set the tone and he would quickly go on to become a regular starter for the Amsterdam outfit.

A confident individual, Fischer overcame a small slump in form midway through the campaign to finish his first senior season with 10

league goals in just 23 appearances from his left-sided starting position - as well as contributing four assists.

With a game built upon fast interchanges and lethal finishing when cutting in on his preferred right foot, Fischer has immaculate technique to back up his style with substance.

Links to some of Europe’s biggest clubs have inevitably surrounded the player since well before his first team debut. He will likely remain at Ajax for the time being, but it will be no surprise to see several big-money bids for his services should he continue his improvement next campaign. fter impressing for Real Madrid’s Castilla side last season, Dani Carvajal moved to the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen in an attempt to continue his development at a higher level.

It would appear, though, that Real Madrid are already regretting his release, with reports continuing to link the Spaniard with a return to the Bernabeu.

Carvajal’s contract at Leverkusen means that Real Madrid are able to recapture him this summer for a fee in the region of €6.5 million.

While that would represent a €1.5 million loss for the club, it is a price many would consider worth paying for the rising full-back star.

With Real’s current right-back Alvaro Arbeloa drastically out of form, Carvajal’s performances in Germany have begun to resonate all the more profoundly at his former club.

The 21-year-old Spaniard is a modern full-back, skilled in defence and ever-willing to join the attack.

He has been a contributor of several assists in the Bundesliga this season, pushing forward down the right flank, while always remaining aware of his responsibilities. He may still, on occasion, be caught out-of-position, but has improved in this respect as the season has progressed.

Returning to the Bernabeu will be a challenge for the young fullback, but one that he is capable of succeeding at. Carvajal is combative and determined in defence, and is reasonably good aerially for a player of just 5’8” in height.

Given his outstanding displays this campaign, and impressive attitude, it would be little surprise to see Real Madrid splash out to recapture his services this summer. He is simply too good to be allowed to slip away. he departure of Paul Pogba from Manchester United last summer left many at Old Trafford with a sour taste in their mouth, as the Frenchman rejected the offer of a new contract to join Turin giants Juventus.

Thus far, it would appear that his decision has paid dividends.

Pogba has rapidly gone on to become a first team regular, as well taking his first steps at senior international level.

The powerful central midfielder’s talents have always been known, with his range of passing and quality of ball-striking strong features of his game since youth level.

It has been remarkable, though, to see him transfer his abilities to senior level with such ease.

Pogba has never lacked confidence, but the calm with which he has approached Champions League, Serie A and international football is highly impressive.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s disappointment at his exit from the English game is understandable.

While Pogba may have been shown a red card on his international debut against Spain, it was a game that showed much of the young star’s best attributes.

Against a midfield containing the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, he held his own throughout, and was perhaps unlucky to see red for what was a display of youthful naivety.

Tactically disciplined, strong in the tackle and calm in possession, Didier Deschamps’ faith in his

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A

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Name: Christian Benteke Age: 22 Club: Aston Villa Position: Striker Nationality: Belgian

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 44

SPORTS Kirui to defend world marathon title

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efending world marathon champion Abel Kirui has been included in Kenya’s provisional team for this year’s Moscow championships, Athletics Kenya (AK) said over the weekend, despite concerns over a leg injury.

Kirui, who won the first of his two world marathon titles in Berlin in 2009, missed the London Marathon last month due to a stress fracture in his right shin.

“We are crossing our fingers and hoping that Kirui will recover in time for Moscow,” AK technical committee chairman Paul Mutwii told reporters.

Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat, who won the women’s marathon title in Daegu in 2011, was also picked as part of the provisional six man and six woman list.

Paris Marathon champion Peter Some, world 25km record holder Dennis Kimetto and last year’s Tokyo Marathon champion Mike Kipyego also made the men’s list, AK said, along with distance runners Bernard Kipyego andBernard Koech.

The provisional women’s list includes London Marathon winner Prisca Jeptoo, 2008 Amsterdam Marathon champion Lydia Cheromei, and Rotterdam Marathon title

holder Jemimah Jelagat.

Margaret Akai, who won the Daegu International Marathon last month, and Lucy Kabuu are the other women in the team.

The team will eventually be cut to four in each category.

NBSF vows to feature in Taipei IBAF Championship

T

he Nigeria Baseball and Softball Federation (NBSF) yesterday vowed to participate in the July International Baseball Federation (IBAF)

Abel Kirui

championship in Taipei with or without the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) sponsorship.

Kehinde Laniyan, the NBSF Secretary, said in Abuja that the federation was looking elsewhere for sponsorship because ``participation will enable the team to improve on its world record’’. ``We are still going for the competition. The NSC up till now has not accepted to sponsor the team. The commission said it has no money for us, so we are looking elsewhere. ``We are not going back, we are going to attend the championship whether the NSC sponsor us or not,” he assured.

Laniyan said that arrangement was being made to ensure that the team get sponsors from

Ebewele, urges Africa Junior Championship athletes to be disciplined

SWAN seeks increased budgetary allocation to sports

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he Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), FCT chapter, has appealed to the Director-General of National Sports Commission, Gbenga Elegbeleye, to ensure increased budgetary allocation to sports.

This was contained in a communiqué released yesterday in Abuja by Kayode Adeniyi, the Chairman of FCT SWAN. According to the communique, issued at the end of a recent SWAN Congress, the director- general is better placed to guarantee improved allocation to the commission, being a former legislator.

It expressed dismay at the sports minister’s decision to reduce funding of some sports federations.

The communique noted that Nigerian athletes often performed below expectation due to lack of motivation.

It, however, called for a review of athletes’ grants, pointing out that the country’s athletes failed at the London 2012 Olympics because of lack of inspiration. ``Preparations should be on top gear for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Grassroots sports and age-grade sports development should be given top priority; enough of poaching athletes,’’ the communiqué said.

It urged Elegbeleye to establish closer ties with his directors to ensure his success at the commission.

private individuals and companies.

He said the federation had reached out to some companies that had volunteered to assist the team to participate in the tourney.

The secretary said he wondered why the NSC could not sponsor the team for a competition of such magnitude from its budget.

He said the justconcluded Super 5 Softball Championship in Ilorin was used by the national coaching crew to select talented players for the national team.

The secretary added that the federation had scheduled its National U-14 Championship for July in Lagos, and its All Schools National Baseball and Softball Championship in August for Port Harcourt.

Nigeria’s relay team that won the 4x 100m at the African Junior Championship held in Warri.

They, along with 52 others, are currently in camp.

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rown Ebewele, the Camp Commandant for the 11th Africa Athletic Junior championships next month in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday

urged the athletes in camp to be disciplined.

Ebewele said that it was compulsory for the athletes to adhere strictly to their coaches’

instruction to ensure victory at the championships. ``My advice is for the athletes to adhere to their coaches’ instruction and time

target. If the coaches tell them to run 47min for the 400m race, they should do so. ``The coaches know better than the athletes, the reason why they were called to train the athletes. I see no reason why the athletes should disobey their trainers,’’ he said.

At the moment, there are 54 athletes and 16 officials were currently in camp at the High Performance Centre at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), River State.

The camp is to prepare the athletes ahead of the championships in South Africa and the IAAF 8th World Youth championships scheduled for July 10 to July 14 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

According to Ebewele, the training of athletes which started yesterday would be intensive; stressing that the Golden League held early this month at UNIPORT had not allowed the athletes to undergo rigorous training.

Roland Garros

Champions Sharapova, Nadal advance as do Li, Wozniacki

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afael Nadal’s bid for an unprecedented eighth French Open title was given a shake yesterday by unheralded Daniel Brands but he survived the scare to overpower German 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 6-3.

Similarly, Li Na, the 2011 champion, and Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska were early winners at the French Open yesterday as defending

champion Maria Sharapova advanced to the second round..

Sixth seeded Chinese star Li was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Anabel Medina Garrigues, while Radwanska, who has never got beyond the last 16 in Paris, breezed past Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-1, 6-1 and will face America’s Mallory Burdette in the next round.

Maria Sharapova dusted Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei 6-2 6-1 to start her French Open title defence

in the first round.

Nadal, the defending champion, who before this year had only lost once in 53 matches at Roland Garros, dropped the opening set of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career as Brands, the world number 59, unleashed a barrage of attacks off both sides to leave the third seed reeling.

The Spaniard, who arrived in Paris having won six titles in eight finals since his return

from a seven-month injury layoff, eventually found his rhythm to stead y t h e s h i p a s t h e 25-year-old Brands’ bighitting gameplan ran out of firepower.

Former world No 1 who is yet to win a Grand Slam singles title Caroline Wozniacki shrugged off the challenge of 10 seeded British hope Laura Robson, to breeze into the second round of the French Open with a 6-3, 6-2 win.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 45

SPORTS PICTORIAL

3

2 5 4 pictorial 2] TThe Naze Millionaires retain their position on the log of the NPFL after a home win over Sharks as Kwara United thumped free falling Kano Pillars to take over second spot

6

3] Christopher Atkins opens his Scout’s Notebook to select the five breakout players of the 2012-13 European seasons 4] Double Olympic champion Mo Farah admits staying unbeaten is “really important” after a fifth straight win in the London 10,000 road race yesterday.

5] Carl Froch says Andre Ward must travel to England if he wants to challenge for his IBF super-middleweight crown.

6] The 21-year-old will move to Barcelona this summer after the Catalans reached an agreement with Santos, ending two years of long and arduous negotiations - but why now?

Paris Saint-Germain ended a 19-year wait for the French title when they were crowned Ligue 1 champions this term, clinching their third championship after previously topping the table in 1985/86 and 1993/94.

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

PAGE 46

SPORTS Coach begs media to report lesser sports

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enjamin Orakpo, the Head Coach, Lagos State Badminton Association (LSBA), has urged the media to give more publicity to lesser sports to enhance their development in the country.

Orakpo confirmed in Lagos that too much concentration on developed sports like football had affected the growth of the so-called lesser ones. ``Lessersportsinthecountryhave been faced with low media coverage; the incident has been working against the awareness creation of these sports. ``The truth is that all sports have potential to medals for Nigeria, but they are not getting the actual attention required and are not given the same opportunity like football. ``The unequal attention has affected the interest of the coaches and athletes of such sports which in turn had contributed immensely to the slow pace of their development,’’ he said.

The coach therefore appealed to the sports industry to enhance the development of other sports by giving them the much need awareness to gain public interest. ``In fact, if you ask many parents and some learned people of what badminton is, you will find out that many will claim ignorance of what it is. ``There should be sufficient publicity and coverage by our media whenever other sports are having competitionstoattracttheinterestofthe general public to watch them,’’ he said.

According to him, the step would go a long way in drawing individuals and corporate bodies that might be interested in supporting the sport through sponsorship.

FIFA age limits could be ‘discriminatory’

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roposed age limits for FIFA officials could be considered as a form of discrimination, President Sepp Blatter said yesterday, as the 77-year-old reaffirmed his opposition to the idea.

“It’s not up to me, we are in a democratic process with the member associations voting,” he said in an interview with FIFA’s website.

“However, personally, I’ve already said I was against the age limit as I believe it is not a relevant criteria, not everyone is the same at 60, 70, 80, etc. It could even be seen as discriminatory. Passion makes the difference.”

FIFA’s annual Congress in Mauritius will decide on Friday whethertoimposeagelimitsforsenior FIFA officials as well as limiting the number of mandates they can serve, which is currently unlimited.

“I am not against a limitation of a number of mandates; this rule applies in many democracies in fact. But then it should apply to everybody,” said Blatter who is in his fourth mandate.

Blatter also praised the reforms FIFA has already implemented to root out corruption following a series of high- profile cases.

“I believe in our process, we achieved a lot already and the system in place works well. I think it’d be unfair to say we are not doing well,” he said.

Momoh says coaches under pressure to indulge in quick fixes

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arrison Momoh has attributed coaches’ resort to under table dealings to achieve results to the pressure being put them by the authorities to produce with limited logistics.

According to the retired athletics coach, the pressure has equally led to the country’s poor performance in international competitions in recent times.

He said yesterday in Lagos that thepressure,hadforcedcoachestocut corners to the detriment of grassroots

development programmes. ``If we want to curb age cheats in our sport then the various sporting authorities in the country should avoid giving coaches unrealistic targets. ``It leads coaches to go all out to ensure that they achieve the targets to secure their jobs, which will not help in developing sports in the country,” he said.

The ex-coach said that the development had made it impossible, for the country to

President Goodluck Jonathan receiving King David the WBO boxing champion when the boxer presented the title to him.

get the best out of its budding talents; because they are not allowed to thrive accordingly. ``We need to look into developing our sports, rather than focusing on getting quick results at competitions,” Momoh said.

He urged coaches to desist from unwholesome acts that could tarnish their reputations in their discipline.

Momoh also appealed to the AFN to provide a level platform for all its athletes to thrive for major competitions irrespective of their cadre. ``Elite athletes should not be the utmost focus for the AFN, when athletes are striving to qualify for competitions like the Olympic Games; all athletes should be given equal opportunities,’’ he said.

cheeky second half goal from Stone Thompson was all Sharks needed to edge a bad tempered Rivers State Federation Cup contest 1-0 against Go Round FC at the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium yesterday.

Go Round FC had their moments either side of the break but failed to convert the gilt-edged opportunities that fell their way.

The win means Sharks will now join Dolphins as representatives of Rivers State in the 2013 Federation Cup. Sharks had protested against the scheduling of the game as they played a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) game against Heartland in Owerri barely 24 hours earlier.

However, the three-time Cup finalists showed little signs of

exhaustion and controlled most of the play in the bad tempered contest that saw both sides finish with ten men apiece.

Assistant coach of Sharks, Daboere Dokubo said the win justified his side’s position as “Port Harcourt’s top football club”.

“We played a very difficult league match yesterday (Sunday) and still won convincingly today.

We have proved ourselves as Port Harcourt’s top football club,” he told supersport.com.

Sharks will have the chance to match words with action when they face Dolphins in the final on Wednesday at the Port Harcourt Liberation stadium by 3pm.

The draws for the round of 64 stage of the competition will hold on Thursday in Abuja with teams from 36 states of the Federation thrown in the hat.

Fed Cup: Sharks squeak through A

NRA blasts Mba over comment on referees

By Albert Akota

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he President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) Alhaji Ahmed Maude has lambasted the Nigeria Football Federation consultant on referees’ matter and FIFA Advisor on referees Mr. Linus Mba for alleging that Nigerian referees’ are too old, and therefore incapable of officiating at FIFA’s tournaments.

According to the NRA boss, Mba’s comment has greatly discredited the country’s referees before the international community since the comment came from one who should have intimate knowledge of Nigerian refrees.

He was particularly irked that Mba made the derogatory comments despite knowing that Nigeria have 28 FIFA badged referees.

“We have a total of 28 Nigerian referees that has received FIFA badges to operate as FIFA referees and assistant referees this year. Among these, centre referees have Abubakar Ago, Joshua Amao, Benjamin Odey, Bunmi Ogunkolade, Henry Ogunyamodi, Solomon Wokoma.

“Assistant referees, Tunde Abidoye, Robert Aundugh, Abel Baba, Auwalu Barau, Peter Edibe, Chukwudi Onumajuru, Zubairu Sani, women referees, Foluso Ajayi, Uloma Nwogu,

Nigeria’s relay team that won the 4x 100m at the African Junior Championship held in Warri.

Felicia Okwugba.

“Women assistant referees: Grace Agudosi, Stella Eloji, Elizabeth Igwenagu, Bosede Momoh Futsal referees, Mark Agbo, Saheed Ayeni, Ibrahim Umar, Paul Umuago Beach soccer referees, Suleiman Jimeta, Sani Mohammed, Jelili Ogunmuyiwa, Michael Ushie

“Edibi has officiated in Africa Nations Cup for four editions why would he (Mba) tell the world that our referees are too old, he has killed our referees, “he said.

Maude assured that after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Nigerian referees would be a regular faces at every FIFA World Cup adding that his administration is working

to ensure that more Nigeria officiates at the 2014 World Cup. He said that his optimism was based on the performance of Nigerian referees at the ongoing Nigeria Professional Football League, noting that 130 referees have passed the COPA fitness test at the National Stadium, Abuja before the league kicked-off.

Men’s 100m 1. Tyson Gay (US) 10.02 2. Ryan Bailey (US) 10.15 3. Keston Bledman (Trinidad and Tobago) 10.16 Men’s 200m 1. Warren Weir (Jamaica) 20.11 2. Alonso Edward (Panama) 20.38 3. Jeremy Dodson (US) 20.65 Men’s 400m 1. Joshua Mance (US) 45.59

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op seed Serena Williams beat Anna Tatishvili 6-0 6-1 yesterday to emphatically book her place in the second round of the French Open and avoid last year’s embarrassment of an opening-round exit.

The American, whose only singles title at Roland Garros came in 2002, entered the tournament on a 24-match winning streak and showed no signs of taking her foot off the gas as she steamrollered the 83rd-ranked Georgian in 51 minutes.

Williams, chasing a 16th grand slam title, looked ominously athletic as she wrapped up victory in an unseasonably chilly Paris, putting to bed the memory of her only first round loss at a grand slam, last year’s exit to France’s Virgine Razzano.

After her opponent sent a forehand wide on match point, she waved to all four sides of the stadium before embarking on the greater test of conducting the courtside interview in French.

Earlier, Italian fifth seed Sara Errani, the 2012 runner-up,

PAGE 47

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

LEISURE

Some Interesting Facts Did you know 11% of people are left handed?

Did you know August has the highest percentage of births?

Did you know unless food is mixed with saliva you can’t taste it Did you know the average person falls asleep in 7 minutes?

Did you know a bear has 42 teeth?

Did you know an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain?

Did you know most lipsticks contain fish scales?

Did you know no two corn flakes look the same?

Did you know lemons contain more sugar than strawberries?

Did you know 8% of people have an extra rib?

Did you know 85% of plant life is found in the ocean?

Did you know the Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters?

Did you know ‘Topolino’ is the name for Mickey Mouse Italy?

Did you know a lobster’s blood is colorless but when exposed to oxygen it turns blue Did you know armadillos have 4 babies at a time and are all the same sex?

Did you know reindeer like bananas?

Did you know the longest recorded flight of a chicken

was 13 seconds?

Did you know birds need gravity to swallow?

Did you know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E Did you know the least used letter in the alphabet is Q Did you know the 3 most common languages in the world are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English?

Did you know dreamt is the only word that ends in mt Did you know the names of all continents both start and end with the same letter?

Did you know the first

letters of the months July through to November spell JASON? Did you know if you try to say the alphabet without moving your lips or tongue every letter will sound the same?

Did you know a cat has 32 muscles in each ear?

Did you know Perth is Australia’s windiest city?

Did you know the flag for Libya is unlike any other being a solid green color Did you know goldfish can see both infrared and ultraviolet light?

Did you know the smallest bones in the human body are found in your ear?

Did you know cats spend 66% of their life asleep?

Did you know Switzerland eats the most chocolate equating to 10 kilos per person per year?

Did you know money is the number one thing that couples argue about?

Did you know when lightning strikes it can reach up to 30,000 degrees celsius (54,000 degrees fahrenheit) Did you know spiders are arachnids and not insects?

Did you know each time you see a full moon you always see the same side

PHOTO OF THE DAY

SUDODKU

Now that’s a neat parking trick. This car was left pointing upwards when it landed on its back end after crashing. The grey Vauxhall Corsa was held up by a wire on a telegraph pole after it ran off the road. All five people in the car escaped unhurt in Chillesford, Suffolk.

Source: TheSun.co.uk

www.peoplesdailyng.com

. . . putting the people first

TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013

SPORTS LATEST

Palace returns to EPL after beating Watford

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God is a democrat, (He) does not support rigging but if you rig and succeed, that means God approves of it — Gov. Jonah Jang of Plateau state on the Nigerian Governors Forum chairmanship election he claims to have won

Gov Fashola: Rein in these barbarians P

evin Phillips grabbed the golden goal to fire Crystal Palace into the Premier League and end his play-off final hoodoo.

The evergreen striker, who turns 40 in the summer, kept his nerve to blast in an extra-time penalty and dashes his former club Watford’s dreams of promotion.

It was a special moment for Phillips, who had lost all three of his previous play-off finals.

It was special too for Manchester United-bound Wilfried Zaha, the young winger who signed off as a Palace player by winning the penalty and ensuring they will join him in the top flight next season.

Special too for manager Ian Holloway, whose Blackpool side was beaten by West Ham in last year’s final, and who has been the fiercest critic of Watford’s controversial use of loan players.

And it was special for Palace chairman Steve Parish and his coowners, who saved the club from going bust three years ago and can now look forward to a windfall in the region of £120 million.

Those high stakes seemed to overwhelm Watford, whose key performers this season simply did not show up at Wembley.

The Championship’s player of the year Matej Vydra, one of the 10 players Watford borrowed from sister clubs in Italy and Spain, endured a miserable first half and limped off at half-time.

Instead it was Zaha who caught the eye throughout, and he lured Marco Cassetti into the clumsy lunge which ultimately settled the match in the 104th minute.

The 20-year-old, Sir Alex Ferguson’s final signing for United, created Palace’s only chance of the first half with a scintillating run down the right, leaving Nathaniel Chalobah and Cassetti chasing shadows before pulling the ball back to Owen Garvan, whose shot was blocked.

Watford, the top scorers in the Championship this season, were strangely subdued and caused few alarms in the Palace penalty area.

QUOTABLE QUOTE

eter Viereck once defined barbarism as “blindness to the standards of conduct which civilization has imposed on human nature”. Civilization is less about scientific inventions and technological advancement and their concomitant enhancement of the quality of life for the generality of humanity. It is more about what the ancient Greek writers called “taming of the savageness of man and making gentle the life of this world”. The savageness of man is tamed by moral and ethical restraints found on the concept of justice, individual worth and personal equality. Any behavior not restrained by these ideals is barbarism.

So, barbarism does not mean lack of knowledge, wealth or material efficiency.

It is psychological, ethical and moral. Therefore, it is possible to strut around in Western tailored designer suit or expensive, exquisitely, tailored agbada and spout the Queen’s English, and still, be a barbarian. You can have academic degrees and professional honors and prance around the corridors of power and the hallowed chambers of law making, and remain a barbarian. Some travel in planes, own personal jets (like some Nigerian governors), and actually, pilot the jets themselves but are barbarians. You can hold sway from the pulpit of a sprawling church and enthrall thousands with your insightful oration on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be a barbarian.

In Lagos State, officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) Brigade and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) posture as roving disciplinarians and experts in traffic control, respectively. Yet, despite their colorful uniforms and pretensions, their ranks are teeming with barbarians.

To go about the city of Lagos trying to “enforce discipline” is a pointless act. And to brutalize innocent and hapless individuals in the name of enforcing discipline is criminal. Without knowing it, the masses behave like their role models - the leaders. By their own behaviors, the power elite dictate the behavior of the masses.

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GUEST COLUMNIST Tochukwu Ezukanma maciln18@yahoo.com

Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola Nigerians are generally lawless, corrupt and greedy because our leaders are lawless, corrupt and greedy. To ignore the lawlessness and indiscipline of the Lagos State power elite (elected and appointed government officials and those in the highest echelon of the state bureaucracy) and then, unleash KAI officials to impose discipline on the masses is unvarnished hypocrisy. In their barbarism: cruelty, brutality, and viciousness, KAI officials behave as though they are yet to realize that the era of slavery is over.

LASTMA officials, like the officials of other government agencies, abuse their powers.

They accuse motorists falsely, intimidate them and extort money from them. In addition, they have, shown lamentable disdain for human lives. They have, on a number of occasions, killed motorists for minor traffic offenses.

For example, on the 24 of December 2012, two LATSMA officials beat a 54 year old commercial bus driver, Isaac

Popoola, to death. The two officials stopped Popoola’s bus, and ordered him to come down from his bus. He refused, demanding to know his offense. They refused to tell him his offense. And, evidently, incensed by his refusal to obey their order to step down from the bus, they “started beating him on the head with the iron of the seat belt and hitting his head against the steering and the door frame till he died”.

Again, at Motorways bus stop, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, a bus conductor, popularly known as “Ilorin” was killed by LATSMA officials. The bus conductor was hanging at the door of the bus.

In an attempt to stop the bus driver, a LASTMA official threw a metal object (wrench) at the bus.

Unfortunately, the object missed the bus and hit the conductor, knocking him off the bus. As he fell off the bus to the road, a LASTMA pick-up van, which was trailing the commercial bus very closely, crushed him. The conductor died on the spot.

There have been other

instances of LATSMA officials killing motorists. Extra judicial killing is deplorable under any circumstance. It may be excusable in very dangerous situations where law enforcement agents, in combating armed and dangerous criminals, are confronted with making on the spot decisions in defense of their own lives. But to kill an unarmed motorist for whatever reason is unpardonable.

It is an egregious case of contempt for the human life – an unparalleled act of barbarism.

Please, Governor Fashola rein-in these barbarians. KAI officials should be reminded that the era of slavery is over. And as such, Nigerians citizens, though, poor, powerless and voiceless are not slaves and should, therefore, not be treated as such. They should know that assault is a criminal offense and that, as they go about beating up people, they are breaking the law. They should be taught to enforce the law without punching people in the face and kicking them in the stomach and groin and destroying their wares and stealing their money and goods. In other words, that, in their “enforcement of the law”, they should endeavor to treat Nigerians with respect and decency.

LASTMA officials should be taught to respect the sacrosanctity of the human life.

It is thoughtlessness bordering on dementedness for a LATSMA official to think that due to his uniform, insignia and government assigned roles in traffic control that he can trifle with human lives. They should learn that no one life is superior to another.

Every man “is a special thought of the Creator’s mind”. The life of a LATSMA official, Commissioner of Transportation and even, the state governor is not superior to that of a bus driver or a bus conductor. For any individual to feel superior to another is fantastic absurdity. And what ever it is that fuels that false feeling of superiority can only be rubbish, or at the very best, useless embellishment. Essentially, we are all equals assigned different roles in accordance to the will of God. Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234 814 292 9046. Cell: +234 802 443 2099; 803 7007 759. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141