Tue 25 March 2014

TheGuardian Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Vol. 30, No. 12,871

www.ngrguardiannews.com

N150

Govt plans electricity import to boost supply From Emeka Anuforo, Abuja

• Signs pact with DR Congo

ACED with challenges of FFederal poor local production, the • Woos foreigners to invest in TCN Government may reach out to countries with higher generation capacity and those with very ambitious electricity generation programmes to boost supply.

Already, the Federal Government has signed a Memoran-

• UNIDO installs hydro-power plants

dum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase power from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country cur-

rently planning to produce at least 40,000 megawatts of electricity from its dams.

In a related development, the

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has commenced the installation of mini hydro-

power plants across the country as a deliberate move to boost electricity in the country.

Congo is fine-tuning work to expand electricity generation to over 40,000mw from dams through the ‘Grand Inga’ mega-project. Experts estimate that the project could provide 40 per cent of Africa’s electricity needs.

It is expected to become the world’s largest hydro project and could provide more than 500 million people with renewable energy when completed, according to available information on the Congo project.

Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakili, said at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

NNPC denies minister’s personal use of chartered flight – Page 3 Ajimobi visits ‘evil forest,’ revokes certificate of occupancy – Page 7

Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina during his visit to an Asian company where allegedly expired contaminated frozen fish was discovered in Lagos... yesterday.

Egypt sentences 529 Islamists to death –Page 9 Villages torched, fleeing residents drown in fresh Benue violence –Page 89

PHOTO: OSENI YUSUF

‘Missing Malaysian plane crashed in Indian Ocean’

By Chukwuma Muanya and Oghogho Obayuwana (with agency report) SAD end has come in the frantic search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane as the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the aircraft crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, Nigeria through the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has made available several satellite imageries as a clue towards global efforts in

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the search for the missing Malaysian aircraft.

The news is a major breakthrough in the unprecedented two-week struggle to find out what happened to Flight 370 which disappeared shortly after take-off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew aboard on March 8.

But with the location of the plane itself still unknown most likely somewhere at the bottom of the sea - profound questions remain about what

• Nigeria participates in search brought down the aircraft and why.

Dressed in a black suit, Najib announced the news in a statement to reporters yesterday, saying the information was based on an unprecedented analysis of satellite data from Inmarsat.

He said the data indicated the plane flew “to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites.”

“It is therefore with deep sad-

ness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some members of families of other passengers broke down in tears at the news.

“We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate,” Selamat told The Associated Press (AP)

in Kuala Lumpur.

Selamat said the airline hasn’t told the families yet whether they will be taken to Australia which is co-ordinating the search for the plane.

He said they expect more details today.

Search teams from 26 nations have poured over radar data and scoured a wide swath of Asia for weeks with advanced aircraft and ships in a deeply frustrating attempt to find the plane.

Malaysia Airlines said in a

statement to the families that “our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time.”

“We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain,” the airline said. “The ongoing multinational search operation will continue as we seek answers to the questions which remain unanswered.”

A Malaysia Airlines official, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

2 Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Nigeria participates in search for Malaysia’s missing plane CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 who declined to be named cit-

ing company policy, said there are no plans to fly the families to the Australian city

of Perth until wreckage is found.

The plane’s disappearance shortly after take-off from Kuala Lumpur on a routine flight to Beijing has baffled investigators who have yet to rule out mechanical or electrical failure, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or someone else board. on Officials have said that the plane automatically sent a brief signal - a “ping” - every hour to the Inmarsat satellite even after other communication systems on the jetliner down. shut The pings did not include any location information, but an initial analysis showed that the location of the last ping was probably along one of two vast arcs running

south. and north Najib said Inmarsat had done further calculations “using a type of analysis never used before in an investigation of this sort,” and had concluded that the plane’s last position was “in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west Perth.” of On Monday, ships rushed to the location of floating objects spotted by Australian and Chinese planes in the southern Indian Ocean close to where multiple satellites have detected possible remains of the lost airliner.

One ship was carrying equipment to detect the plane’s vital black box, but it remained uncertain whether the vessels were approaching a successful end to the search or another frustrating dead end.

The Guardian learnt that as a member of International Charter for Space and Major Disaster, Nigeria is required to contribute five per cent of its satellite imageries for peaceuses. ful Head, Media and Corporate Communications of the agency, Mr. Felix Ale, in a statement made available to The Guardian said the Space Agency in its efforts since the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8 has acquired several images which it made available to relevant Malaysian government department for further analyses.

The imageries are being analysed to spot debris that may indicate the possible location of the missing plane, its crew and passengers.

According to him, the Director-General of the agency,

Prof. Seidu Mohammed, described the current situation as challenging not only to the Malaysian government, but to global developmental efforts.

He said vast expanses of the ocean need to be observed and searched thus requiring international efforts.

The NASRDA helmsman further stated that in a bid to garner resources towards a successful search, the United Nations (UN) and Malaysian government requested the assistance of leading space agencies worldwide, and NASRDA is playing its part.

Mohammed also sent his condolences to those affected by the tragedy, saying NASRDA is able to task its spacecraft to take pictures across the globe.

Government woos foreigners to invest in TCN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 an investors’ conference organised by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in Abuja yesterday that some of the electricity to be bought from Congo would also be exported to some neighbouring countries where Nigeria’s transmission network expands to.

He added: “Nigeria is in bilateral and multilateral relationships at various stages of advancement with other governments for the importation and exportation of power. For example, Nigeria has signed MoU with Democratic Republic of Congo for the importation of electricity from the Inga Dam Power Plants, for both local consumption and export to other countries.

“The Inga is envisaged to exceed 40,000mw on full exploitation. TCN network spreads to all parts of the country and across the border to some neighbouring countries to form part of the West African Power Pool (WAPP).

“With the realisation of Inga and other initiatives, Nigeria will become a regional hub in international electricity trade, exporting large swathes of internally-generated as well as imported power to WAPP countries.

On Nigeria’s local generation, he stressed how vandalism had been a very big problem but was optimistic that things will improve for the country to reach about 4,500mw.

He noted that the conference was put together to lure foreigners to invest in transmission.

Wakili, who earlier presented a speech on behalf of the Minister of Power, Prof.

Chinedu Nebo, stressed that the reforms in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) presents huge opportunities for investment.

He said: “The Federal Government has taken steps to improve and sustain gas supply to existing prospective power plants.

“The foregoing measures will greatly ramp up the total generation on the TCN grid, necessitating the massive and rapid expansion of the transmission and other infrastructure. It is projected that TCN requires $8 billion in the

Prof. Nebo next five years to prosecute its capacity expansion programme. We hereby invite all and sundry to partake in this investment bonanza. Government has established various mechanisms to safeguard and protect your investments in TCN and elsewhere in the NESI.” He added: “The electricity supply industry has undergone radical changes. Traditionally, the NESI involved itself with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power, usually by vertically-integrated utilities.

“For Nigeria, the main features of the reforms are to expose the erstwhile vertically-public utility to competition in the generation and distribution and to move the power sector from the then centralised structure towards a decentralised structure. This administration will provide the enabling environment and level-playing ground for all comers to engage in every aspect of the electricity business with security of portfolio.”

Chairman of TCN board, Ibrahim Dahiru Waziri, stressed that ‘chronic’ underfunding was one of the challenges that had plagued transmission over the years.

Noting that the board and management had been given a free hand to run TCN, he stressed that the funds from

donors would be properly utilised.

Waziri said the company had a target of $1.5 billion yearly.

“What we are looking at in our template is $1.5 billion yearly for the next five, six years. Some years may have higher while others may be lower, but generally, it is within that range,” he noted.

Waziri added: “We have plans because at the end, everything we are doing is to make sure that we attain 20,000mw wheeling capacity by the year 2020. But at the ‘moment’ on a balanced system where everything is working, we believe we can transmit up to 7,000mw of generated power.

“Issues generally relating to gas and water at dams do affect what is available for wheeling. But we at TCN as at the moment can transmit up to 7,000mw and we want to move to 20,000mw. It should be noted that we can only attain that objective if we get the level of funding that we are looking for. The Federal Government has always been gracious by accessing loans for us. We heard the World Bank is giving us $700 million. Now with other multilateral and bilateral agencies that we are getting money from, we will be able to achieve that.”

On gas and the worsening power situation, he stressed: “Gas supply has dropped significantly within the last two

weeks. That has resulted in reduced generation as of this morning to about 2,500mw, back to square one. But we are addressing all these issues.

“Then of course we had accidents along Benin-Sapele Road and a lot of transmission lines collapsed due to fire incidents and this affected a very small area in that locality in terms of giving them power. But like I said earlier, these issues are being addressed.”

The organisation and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Taraba State Government and the International Centre for Small Hydro-Power Plant (ICSHP) in China have already successfully installed a 400kW small hydro-power (SHP) plant in Kakara community of Taraba State.

The SHP, according to a statement from UNIDO yesterday, is expected to provide sustainable access to clean energy for industrial activities to local industries and the adjoining villages.

“The installation of the 400kW SHP is one in the series of other SHP plants that will be installed across Nigeria,” UNIDO said in Abuja yesterday.

A statement from the organisation noted: “At the moment, similar projects have been implemented by UNIDO in Waya Dam, Bauchi State and Ezioha Mgbowo, Enugu State. The UNIDO SHP sites in Amoke, Benue State; Ikejile, Osun State and at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, have reached an advanced stage of implementation.

“Sustainable access to power is a basic necessity for inclusive and sustainable industrial development in developing countries like Nigeria,” UNIDO Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Patrick Kormawa said.

He said: “We have identified 200 sites for the installation of SHP plants and affirm that the potential for SHP plants is very high in Nigeria. We are willing to work with our partners, the Energy Commission of Nigeria and other federal ministries to increase SHO development in communities across Nigeria.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 3

News Confab delegates oppose chairman’s nomination of committee heads From Terhemba Daka and Karls Tsokar, Abuja ELEGATES to the national conference yesterday rejected a proposal to give its leaders the prerogative to nominate chairmen and deputies of the proposed 20 committees submitted for adoption.

However, the proposal that leadership of the various committees should reflect gender balance was subtly declined by the Conference Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, who said that members of the different committees would decide their leadership.

Meanwhile, Chief Mike Ozekhome has called on very wealthy delegates to donate their monthly allowances to the poor. He listed such class on persons as “high-healed delegates at the conference, such as retired but wealthy civil servants, former governors, former ministers, retired top military and diplomatic corps brass and captains of industries.”

Others are “business gurus, first class entrepreneurs and professionals and highly respected traditional rulers and elder statesmen, many of whom are not only very wealthy but also have their state governments providing

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Ozekhome wants high profile conferees to forfeit allowances full accommodation and feeding for them,” stating that “some of these should join us in donating allowances to the poor.”

The 20 committees brought to the floor for adoption include the Committee on the Devolution of Power, which would consider fiscal federalism, under which revenue sharing, resource control and sharing formula would be discussed.

There is as well as policing, council administration and the role of traditional rulers and institutions in governance.

There is the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government, under which federalism, regionalism, state creation, geo-political zones, forms and content of government (Presidential or Parliamentary) and Legislature (Bicameral, Unicameral) or part time/full time.

The Committee on National Security is proposed to discuss the Armed Forces, bothering on civilian oversight of the security sector and review of the Armed Forces Act. They will also look at reforms in the Nigerian Customs Service, Road Safety Corps, ter-

rorism/counter-terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping, small arms proliferation, communal violence, election violence, oil theft and smuggling, sea piracy, organised/transnational crime like money laundering, human/drug trafficking and terrorism financing.

The other committees are Committee on Environment, Politics/Governance, Committee on Law, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Reforms. Also proposed are committees on Social Welfare, Agriculture, Public Service, Electoral Matters, Energy, Religion, Immigration and Transportation.

Also proposed for adoption are Committee for Science, Technology and Development, Committee on Civil Society, Labour and Sports, Committee for Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters, Committee on Land Tenure Matters and National Boundary, Committee on Trade and Investment and Committee on Public Finance and Revenue Generation.

However, a traffic snarl at the entrance to the National Judicial Institute (NJI)-venue of the conference- yesterday

forced a late commencement of the meeting. Security agencies attached to the conference had a difficult task controlling the gridlock, thereby forcing the conference chairman to suspend deliberations until more members were able to enter the hall.

According to a delegate, Musa Aremu, the complicated administrative procedure contributes to the chaos, as well as the traditional rulers and all the chiefs, who come in convoy with security details, congesting the place.

Femi Falana suggested that all papers and other documents meant for plenary should be placed on the delegates’ seats as a way of reducing conference procedures.

More so, despite the huge budget, most of the delegates yesterday were not served lunch, as the food supplied by the contractor, Medua Kitchen, a subsidiary of Variant Altimate, was not enough for the 492 members.

Secretary of the Conference, Valerie Azinge, while apologising to the delegates, assured that the unfortunate experience would not reccur as the

former supplier, NICON, would return today.

Ozekhome, who is a nominee of the Federal Government, told newsmen that his allowance would be made available to the less-privileged members of the society.

He said: “I will collect the money and distribute it to the less-privileged and needy members of the society, the holoipoloi, the vast majority of the Frantz Fanons of the wretched of the earth that populate the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

“I will not agree to further enrich the Federal Government of Nigeria by returning my conference allowances. For one thing, the money has already been appropriated and released from government coffers.

“The skewed Nigerian system where corruption is very rife suggests that the money can develop wings and fall into wrong hands within government bureaucracy by flying away. I will not have the means of knowing if it is really returned to the Federation Account.

“For another, the less-privileged members of the society can be empowered with the allowance, through scholarship and bursary awards, capac-

ity building, skills acquisition, empowerment programmes, such as grants to local women for farming and petty trading, purchase of motor cycles and tricycles for the youths, donations of sewing machines, milling machines and hair dryers for peasant women in the rural areas.

“Donations of medical, food and clothing items to orphanages, leprosoriums, old women and men’s home and the teaming beggars on our streets across Nigeria, this makes more sense to me.”

Also, Chukwuemeka Ezeife has proposed that there are wide ranging agreements that needed to be considered to confront the many challenges in Nigeria today. In a release made available to the media yesterday, Eziefe said that among other things, if the conference extends to the 2015 elections, “it makes sense to suspend anything about the election, if it clashes with securing the performance of one Nigeria.”

He proposed that regional government is not completely out of place as long as it is based on “the principle of unanimity in decision making.”

Govt admits collapse of out of court settlement in SWF From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja TATING that efforts at reachSment ing an out-of-court settlewith the 36 states on maintaining the Excess Crude Account and the transfer of $1 billion from the account to the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) has failed, the Federal Government now looks up to the Supreme Court for a final decision on the matter.

Consequently, the Supreme Court has fixed September 23, 2014, for hearing on the Federal Government’s application seeking to amend its statement of defence. The plaintiffs had initiated an action against the Federal Government at the apex court, praying it to decide whether states have a share in the SWF. The Supreme Court had earlier granted a request by the

Police declare Biafran Zionist leader wanted From Lawrence Njoku, Enugu EADER of the pro-Biafran group, the Biafran Zionist Movement (BZM), which recently attacked the Enugu Government House and threatened takeover of the former Eastern Region by April 1, Mr. Onwuka Benjamin Igwe, has been declared wanted by the Police for alleged treasonable felony.

In a statement yesterday, the Police in Enugu said that Igwe was wanted as one of the suspected actors in the unlawful act, adding that the command had made several arrests over the incident.

The statement was signed by the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu.

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parties to settle the matter out of court and to explore an amicable resolution of their disagreement.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, however, counsel to the Federal Government, Austin Alegeh (SAN), told the court that settlement efforts had failed.

Therefore, he has filed an application praying the court to amend his statement of defence. Alegeh further prayed the court to order the plaintiffs to furnish him with their amended statement of claims to enable him amend his statement of defence.

Arguing on behalf of counsel to the 36 states’ governors, Yusuf Ali (SAN) did not oppose the application, though he noted that the information the defendant was asking for had been included in the papers they (plaintiffs) filed before the court.

Executive Vice President and CEO of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Jin-Yong Cai and Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during their meeting on IFC’s plan to invest up to $1.5 billion in key sectors in Nigeria.

NNPC denies minister’s exclusive use of chartered jet From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE Nigerian National T Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied reports that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, employs chartered aircraft on the corporation’s expense for personal use.

A statement in Abuja yesterday by the NNPC Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, said the corporation has not chartered any aircraft for the exclusive use of the minister or any of its official.

The corporation also noted that contrary to the informa-

• Says law allows it to own aircraft tion being peddled in some quarters, Alison-Madueke has not chartered any aircraft for personal use or the use of her family.

However, it noted that in consonance with the legal instrument that establishes the corporation as a commercial entity to engage in the oil and gas sector, the NNPC, in the course of discharging its statutory and commercial functions, engages third parties for the provision of services outside its core business.

It noted further that this practice is common and

acceptable in the local and international business environment in which it operates. Specifically, the NNPC declared that there was nothing prohibiting it from owning or chartering an aircraft.

On the contrary, by the enabling legislation, NNPC is empowered to “hold, manage and alienate moveable and immovable property and enter into contracts or partnerships with any company, form or persons which in the opinion of the corporation will facilitate the discharge of the said duties under this Act.” (Section 6 of

the NNPC Act, Cap. N123, LFN 2004).

It also stated that operations in the oil and gas sector are time-sensitive and often require prompt attention, which cannot be achieved using regular scheduled flights, and it is standard practice for large oil and gas corporation such as NNPC to use the most efficient means of transportation to ensure effective and efficient coverage of the vast scope of critical oil and gas assets under their purview.

According to the NNPC, it has always availed itself the use of owned or chartered aircraft in its business, which

includes the transportation of its top functionaries.

Therefore, “it is pertinent to note that the international oil companies operating in joint ventures with NNPC regularly charter aircraft as dictated by the exigencies of their business.

“Indeed, some have moved from owning aircraft to using the charter option.

Other national oil companies, such as Sonangol of Angola, have also chosen the charter option. The advantages of the charter option include zero capital and maintenance costs resulting in a lower financial outlay and thus an improved cash flow.”

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

4 | Tuesday, March 25, 2014

ISSUES IN THE NEWS

Why civil servants carry burden,

By April 1, the Federal Civil Service Commission will be 60 years. Abuja Bureau Chief, Madu Onuorah and Tony Otaru spoke with Chairman of the Commission, Deaconess Joan Ayo, on the milestone, the place of the civil servant in the development of Nigeria and other issues.

• We should adhere strictly to rules and regulations • ‘Challenges, achievements of Federal Civil Service at 60’

tions and extant circulars.

In other words, for us to be able to build a patriotic, highly disciplined and highly cultured workY April 1, the Federal Civil Service Commission will be 60. force, we need to do two things which are the responsibilities given to the Civil Service How has the journey been and the challenges so far?

Indeed, by April 1, 2014, the Federal Civil Service Commission Commission - adhere strictly to rules and regulawill be 60 years old, which means that this Commission came tions in the discharge of their functions and into existence on April 1, 1954. By the fact that it came into exis- ensure that we recruit civil servants that are tence before Nigeria became a nation-state underscores the capable of ensuring sustainable development importance of the Federal Civil Service Commission to gover- of a nation-state within some given values, disnance. The Commission was put together by our founding cipline and professionalism. We cannot do that fathers based on the advice on the then Secretary of State. The unless we recruit the right set of people. That is idea for the Commission was based on the agreement by the why meritocracy comes in first. Does this perNigerian delegates to the 1954 Constitutional conference to re- son qualify to be given the job or is he or she affirm the acceptance of the political neutrality of the Nigerian the best for the job? So, hypothetically, if we have three people looking for the job and we public service as follows: “We fully support the principle that all public service questions interview them, everything being equal, we including appointments, promotions, transfers, postings, dis- want to be sure that whosoever has the highest missals and other disciplinary matters, should be kept com- score gets the job. The combination of academpletely free and independent of political control. We hope that ics, character and professionalism, that is what the traditional principle of promotion according to qualifica- the Civil Service Commission stands for. And in the tions, experience, merit, without regard to race, will be main- race for meritocracy or impartiality, we do not overlook the principle of Federal Character. tained.”

And of course, right from the onset, even in the early days The whole idea of having the Commission devoid of political interference is to be able to enthrone meritocracy, impartiality, of the Constitution in the First Republic, all these functions discipline, professionalism, loyalty, patriotism, integrity and of of the Federal Civil Service Commission have been course, accountability because if these core values are not enshrined. Even today, the 1999 Constitution stipulates clearly the funcenthroned, we will not have the tions of the Federal Civil atmosphere, the conducive environment for civil servants When the Commission was first put Service Commission in terms of princito operate in. And these are the in place, given the limited numbers ples and laws. And core values that over the years we have been trained. The of civil servants in those days, it was to be able to do its jobs effectively, Commission is supposed to be called Public Service Commission t h e the regulatory arm of governCommission is ment to ensure that we adhere and the role of the civil servant was directly strictly to the rules and regula- so enormous. Even right now, the responsible to role of the civil service is that organ the President in the disof government that performs the charge of its vital role of advising on policy, antici- functions.

When the pating problems and challenges, Commission exploring tactical and strategic was first put in place, options, assembling, storing and given the limretrieving data upon which decisions ited numbers Deaconess Ayo of civil serare taken, and deploying human, vants in those days, it was called Public Service material and financial resources for Commission and the role of the civil servant was so effective execution of public policy. enormous. Even right now, the role of the civil service is that organ of government that performs the vital role of advising on policy, anticipating problems and challenges, exploring tactical and strategic options, assembling, storing and retrieving data upon which decisions are taken, and deploying human, material and financial resources for effective execution of public policy.

Placed at the centre of government and close to policy makers in the Executive arm of government, the civil service is well positioned to grasp the broad challenges facing the nation, and to develop an appreciation of how effectively other arms of government, the civil service is well positioned to grasp the broad challenges facing the nation, and to develop an appreciation of how effectively other arms of public service are responding to the challenges. It is precisely because of the civil service’s symbiotic relationship with the rest of the public that some observers frequently confuse the former with the later.

As far as these observers are concerned, the term civil service is synonymous with public service and vice versa. Tempting as it is to equate one with the other, the public service is not the same as the civil service. Whereas the civil service is intimately involved in the formation of policy at the headquarters and the delivery of service through its field outlets, the public service covers a wider terrain. It, the public service, includes the civil service, as well as other non-civil service but publicly funded agencies performing a variety of specialised functions. These functions may be commercial, quasi-commercial, regulatory, academic or industrial. The mandate of each agency is spelt out in its enabling Act along with the processes and procedures needed to accomplish its distinct purpose.

So, the civil service is tasked to implement government plans and policies, its budget and also ensure that government projects are executed at the minimum costs with the highest level of efficiency. All this was put in place and we started on that level. But somewhere along the line, we experienced discrepancies in what should be and what it is. Up till 1975, it was called the Public Service Commission and it played significant roles particularly during the war, to ensure that Nigeria was put together as a united nation. Nobody can forget the role of the civil service in the negotiation of the Aburi Accord.

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And of course, in most cases, it is always the civil service that stands in during transitions from one government to the other, especially during the military era as it was the civil service that map out for the incoming government the policy guidelines and the implementation of whatever they have to offer. So, the civil service has been the machinery not only of implementing government’s plans, programmes and policies, it has been the mainstay of the machinery that has helped Nigeria together as one.

But over the years, we have had different governments coming in and they have affected the civil service in their own ways, as the civil service is a product of its own society. This is because the creatures called civil servants are Nigerians. So, whatever norms and values over the years that have affected the society have also affected the civil service. I will say that we have had a long way; we have come through some difficult times with different system of governments that have been put in place. But it is still the machinery of government that has come to stay.

The Federal Civil Service Commission is no longer employing people and there are also allegations that applicants now give bribes before they are considered for federal jobs.

First, we are still employing people. If you check the newspapers in 2012 and 2013, we advertised. In fact, it is now that you can just say openly that we are still employing people because there are records of advertisement in all the newspapers. We also have had advertisements online for recruitment through our website. Since I got here, we started in 2012, we have started advertising positions. And don’t forget that the Civil Service Commission does not create vacancies. Vacancies are forwarded to us from the MDAs through the Head of Service. And when such vacancies come, we advertise and people compete and we select. So, the allegations that we no longer recruit is out of it.

But even in the recruitment exercise over the years, they have been filling forms. These forms are free and we make that very clear. You are not supposed to pay for the forms.

But during the exercise last year, we caught some people selling the forms and we handed them over to the police. They printed fake copies of the forms at Oluwole and Mushin in Lagos. These are the kind of people selling our forms and we handed them over to the police for prosecution. Definitely, the Civil Service Commission has been vindicated that those forms were not gotten from us. Since we got here, we have been work-

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

5

ISSUES IN THE NEWS

blame of governance ing quietly and silently with security and anti-corruption agencies the Independent Corrupt Practices and Offences Commission, State Security Services. And we insist that transparency is maintained in whatever we are doing. In 2012, we recruited 108 candidates for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Within the past three years since I got here, we have recruited 8,514 Nigerians and the recruitment exercise is still on-going in the sense that we still have the batches for some other MDAs to be recruited. So we are recruiting.

The Civil Service, which ought to be the engine room of the nation is being blamed for Nigeria’s underdevelopment. How can this civil service be used to effectively drive the nation’s development?

Well, the best way is what we’ve been doing, which is to formulate sound policies, plans and programmes for the government and when they are approved, to make sure they are executed.

Every other nation does that and we don’t have any system different from what is in other nations. But basically, more of the execution of the plans and programmes are not done by the civil servants. For example, in the construction of roads, most of them are contracted out to contractors, both foreign and local.

So, essentially, in executing such policies, the civil servants are not to be blamed.

But the bulk of the blame for corruption in Nigeria is laid at their feet?

Well, that is why they are called the civil servants. We bear the burden of being blamed for anything that goes wrong. People always forget that they are called servants, servants of the people. And because they are responsible to the government of the day and operate in an environment of anonymity, civil servants are not supposed to go out there and say, it is not me that is responsible or it is me. When it is good, the boss takes the praise. But when it is bad, the civil servant takes the blame. So, that’s the aspect of our training; we are exposed to the core values of anonymity, which make the civil servants carry the burden, to always be seen but not to be heard. In reality, it is not always that the civil servant that is to be blamed. Perhaps, the blame is even with the society that allows vices such as corruption to thrive.

There used to be the abuse of transfer of civil servants from states to the federal service. What is your position?

Actually, transfer is part of the system. It is part of the process that has been in place over the years and it had its own procedure. Basically, before transfer is effected, there would be an advertisement saying that the positions are vacant in certain areas or that the civil service requires this or that kind of skills that are not available. The purpose is to enhance or enrich the workforce. And that should be the practice. But over the years, this procedure was abused and transfers started coming, partly on political or patronage reasons. The bad effect of transfers is that when it is done haphazardly, it now brings a situation where some people who do not have as much qualifications as those that are already in the service are brought to supersede them.

This is because in the states, it is faster to get to the top. At the federal level, it takes some time. Everything being equal, for you to become a director in the Federal Civil Service, you must have put in at least 22 or 23 years in service. In the state civil services it could take between 10 to 12 years, depending on which states we are talking about. So, the man from the state with may be 12 or 13 year’s experience comes in as director at the federal level, lording it over his colleagues in the university who is just a Grade Level 13 or 14 officer. This is very demoralising. This is why we said that to give our serving officers at the Federal Civil Service the benefits of rising, transfers should be put on hold.

Let them enjoy the benefit of rising on the job. So, that is why such transfers have been put on hold.

Because of this, we’ve not had any transfer from the states to the Federal Civil Service for two or three years. But we hope that when we need people in specific areas where we do not have the skills, advertisement will be placed, both internal and external, so that everybody can enjoy the benefit of applying, competing and if you are good enough, you will come in.

How can the Commission regain the glory envisioned by its founding fathers?

Well, if you are conversant with what has been going on here, we have put in place some stringent measures to ensure that we have transparency exhibited in the way we conduct the promotion examinations. Since, I got here, what we’ve done is to make sure exams are set the very day they will be administered.

This is done in a conference setting where the commissioners are there round the table. Surrounded by security personnel, they pick questions right there. Once we roll out the questions, we put them in the boxes, lock them and they are escorted to

First, we are still employing people. If you check the newspapers in 2012 and 2013, we advertised. In fact, it is now that you can just say openly that we are still employing people because there are records of advertisement in all the newspapers. We also have had advertisements online for recruitment through our website. Since I got here, we started in 2012, we have started advertising positions. And don’t forget that the Civil Service Commission does not create vacancies.

So for me, there is no other lifestyle that would have done that for me except this life that I have lived as a civil servant. And I am proud of it. But whatever others might have made of it is a different story. But for me, I have gotten the best out of this system that has built me up to be, by the grace of God, what I am today. And it has also given me a sense of responsibility to my society, that I am expected to plough back to the society all that the society expects of me, including representing Nigeria everywhere I go, being conscious of the fact that I carry the name of Nigeria on me.

Deaconess Ayo the various centres with the chief examiners of the centres and one of the commissioners.

When they get to the examination centre, the security officers surrender the box; it is opened in the open glare of the candidates (the civil servants). They bring the questions papers out and distribute them. Once they finish, the answer papers are put back to the box, locked up in the glare of all and taken to the vaults of the State Security Services. They are not brought here at the Commission. And when they are ready for marking, they go to the marking centre where the security personnel will be around throughout the marking period.

And as you can see, the whole process is opened up for better transparency. And finally, we also sit with the security personnel when we are doing the selection. This kind of transparency should be encouraged. This is why in the past two or three years, the exams have been so transparent; there is no need for you to loiter around to say you want to give anybody money. It doesn’t help because it is not just one person that is involved.

It is collectively done; so if you give an examiner any bribe and it comes to selection and it is marked, it may not even be that examiner who will do the marking. And even if he does the marking, when the final collation is being done, it will be detected because it will now be done collectively under the strict supervision of the chairman of the commission, some commissioners and the SSS. So, every process for anybody to do anything unwholesome has been blocked.

Reforms carried out in the civil service are not fully impacting on the people in terms of better service delivery.

I would not say that the people are not feeling the impacts carried out in the Federal Civil Service by the Commission. There have been a series of reforms over the years in terms of content of work, approach to work and attitude to work. I am not going to say that the people are not feeling the impact of the reforms.

What I would say, however, is that for the Federal Civil Service, we have embarked on just trying to do what we should be doing, which why I said earlier that the responsibility of the Federal Civil Service Commission is to ensure that they carry out its constitutional responsibility, through ensuring strict adherence to rules and regulations and re-enacting our core values. That is all we need to do. We don’t need to do anything else. There are rules and regulations binding on the civil servants and as we recruit, we ensure that we adhere strictly to the rules and regulations. And as we evaluate the performances of the civil servants, we are guided in our core values. If those two are put in place, there would be no problems. It is where we do not enforce these two that the civil service runs into problems.

In the past, some cadres of junior officers, from Levels 1-4 were removed. It appears some of them are back into the service.

Why? There has never been any reversal. And I tell you, am not aware of cleaners being employed. And they cannot employ cleaners without reference to the Commission. This is because the Federal Civil Service Commission has oversight for both the junior staff committee for promotion and discipline and the senior staff committee for promotion and discipline. In fact, it is just part of our functions that we designated to the MDAs. But we are still there to supervise and monitor them. They still have some drivers but not at the Levels 01-04. They have at a higher

level because there is no way we will not need drivers for official assignments; to drive the buses or official vehicles for traveling.

These are the ones still there. We still have official drivers but there is no more recruitment at the grade levels 1-4.

What reflections do you have of your years as a civil servant and what the service is to you?

I am proud to have been a civil servant. It is a service that builds you up in terms of discipline, accountability, due diligence and remembering that all eyes are on you and you must learn how to do it right. So, with that type of career upbringing, it makes me know that I am accountable to people around me, that I cannot just take laws into my hands. That is one. Two, it has also helped me to build up the system within me that makes me know that punctuality is the sole of business, that I cannot just walk in and out of any place, that there must be a time I resume in my office and a time am expected to close. So, it has built me up to have a highly disciplined life, to behave within some norms and values expected of me.

So for me, there is no other lifestyle that would have done that for me except this life that I have lived as a civil servant. And I am proud of it. But whatever others might have made of it is a different story. But for me, I have gotten the best out of this system that has built me up to be, by the grace of God, what I am today. And it has also given me a sense of responsibility to my society, that I am expected to plough back to the society all that the society expects of me, including representing Nigeria everywhere I go, being conscious of the fact that I carry the name of Nigeria on me.

So, I cannot afford to do just what I like. It puts me on guard to know that am not just for myself, that am representing a people, a nation and the destiny of that nation rests on my shoulders. That is the way and ideal life of the civil servant. And this is my recollection of what the civil service means to me and what it has made of me.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

NEWSSPOT

Fraud, intrigues, show of power in NIS recruitment From: Karls Tsokar, Abuja.

UTHORITY and power are two different things, while power is the force by means of which you can oblige others to obey you.

Authority is the right to direct and command, to be listened to or obeyed by others.

Authority requests power.

Power without authority is tyranny,” so said Jacques Maritain.

The Guardian investigation of the recent recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is a practical manifestation of demonstrated raw power and gives credence to the fact that the government is bloated and infested with fraud and abuse of power.

When the advertisement for recruitment into the NIS was first published, the Comptroller General of NIS, David Parradang, also a member of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB), had to warn the board of imminent catastrophe if the right was not done, as he was unaware of when the decision to recruit was taken and the contract outsourced to a company called Drexel Nigeria Limited, with which the Minister had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

In a protest letter to the Secretary, CDFIPB ref NIS/HQ\ADM\495/T/77, dated 9th September 2013, atten-

“A

tion to Dr. R.K. Attahiru (director), the CG drew the attention of the board secretary to the advertisement and questioned when the decision was taken. He also pointed out a breach of the board’s act in the said advertisement and warned of the impending mistake the exercise would become if due process was not followed.

It reads in part: “I wish to draw your attention to an advertisement…calling for application of suitably qualified persons for appointment into Category ‘A’ (Superintendent Cadre) and ‘B’ (Inspectorate cadre) of the Nigerian Immigration…

“I wish to further state that this advertisement for employment took me by surprise and the agency which I head (the Nigeria Immigration Service).

“I am aware that the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board Act CAP: 12, 2004 confers power of appointment on the board. However, the same power equally delegates such powers (i.e. recruitment) to the services – particularly recruitment into category “B”.

“The said publication or advertisement for appointment of persons into the Nigeria Immigration Service without consultation or any input whatsoever from us is to say the least, surprising

Abba Moro

David Parradang

and embarrassing to me.

“Accordingly, I feel and request that the advertisement be withdrawn to allow for full consultation in order to avoid a repeat of the experiences of past recruitment exercises,” Parradang wrote.

It is imperative to note that, Attahiru was removed as the Secretary of the board, few weeks after he signed the advertisement that appeared in the newspapers that called for the recruitment exercise, S.D. Tapgun succeeded him.

In his reply to the CG, the then new Board Secretary Tapgun in a two-page letter to the CG of NIS reference No CDFIPB/943/T/6, dated 29th October 2013, acknowledged the receipt of the CG’s letter, expressing the “board’s regrets, that as a major stakeholder, he was not consulted before the publication”, he further assured him that useful lessons have being learnt and appropriate corrections would be taken.

He also affirmed that the decision for the board to recruit all cadres of the service was not as a result of a policy shift by the board nor “the publication has in anyway stripped the service of the exercise of such powers. But “at the closure of the portal, the applicants will be processed and those that fall within the purview of the NIS will be accordingly forwarded”, Tapgun wrote.

This position sharply contrasts with Tapgun’s claims to the National Assembly that, “When we, the members of the board, learnt about the recruitment, we wrote the Minister that we are not in support of engaging the services of a third party to conduct recruitment for the Immigration Service, but he ignored our letter and went ahead to engage the consultant.”

In a meeting presided over by Tapgun in his office on February 7, 2014, and attended by three representatives of Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited, decisions were taken regarding the recruitment and other financial responsibilities expected from both parties.

The attendance list show S.D. Tapgun, Director/Secretary, CDFIPB; Chairman, Jael Kpatuwak;

Deputy Director (A&P), Okhamera A.I.; Assistant Director (Admin), Bello Torankawa; Assistant Director (A&P), Hamid Abdulhamid; Assistant Director (MM) and Aduku M.M., Assistant Director (D&GP) all from CDFIPB. Others from CDFIPB who attended the meeting were Chukwu O.C, who represented the Assistant Director (F&A), I.M. Makama, the LA and Nasiru Yusuf of the ICT Unit.

Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited, the company saddled with the mandate to handle the recruitment was also represented in the meeting by Theodore Maiyaki, William Butau and Abioye Bankole. While Mrs. V.T. Oyedeji CIS (APU) represented the Immigration Service and Abubakar A.A. represented the LA of the Federal Ministry of Interior.

In the meeting, a budget of N112, 381, 200 was proposed and presented for consideration, but members present observed that there was a need to review the budget upwards with N5, 619, 060, bringing the total to N118, 000, 260.

This was to “include items such as duty tour allowances for officials of NIS, cost of radio and television announcements, cost of setting examination questions, cost of digital printing machine, marking scanners and contingency 5 per cent of the total cost” and submitted to the committee at the next meeting where approval was given.

The use of stadia for the conduct of the recruitment examination was arrived at when the committee, having heard the divergent views on the state of facilities and availability in the states of the federation and Abuja, that Kpatuwak (DD A&P) directed NIS officials to find out the capacity to accommodate the large number of the expected applicants.

“The idea was to see whether lecture theatres at universities, polytechnics and colleges of education could be used in addition to stadia with a view to accommodating the anticipated huge turn out of prospective candidates during the exercise.”

It is interesting to note that examination numbers were being considered, but Kpatuwak again raised concern over those that submitted hard copies of their application, that they were supposed to be given equal consideration like their online counterparts. It was at this juncture that the representatives of Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited said the board should take a decision on that.

The date for the examination was considered for either 3rd week of March or 2nd week of April 2014. Drexel representatives agreed that, “once the proposal was accepted by members, prospective candidates would be notified through their email addresses.

Another meeting was held between CDFIPB and Drexel on March 5, 2014 to talk about plans for a “successful execution of the recruitment exercise”, and it was here that the IT consultant reminded them that the contract agreement did not require them to fund the exercise, which is contrary to Section 2.28 of the agreement.

It was at this juncture that the Board decided to go for second option to instead conduct a physical fitness test, because the Minister of Interior had “given the marching order for the examination to be conducted on March 15th 2014.”

The Guardian investigation discovered that the funds to conduct the exercise were not accessible, as the money the applicants paid had disappeared into thin air. NIS was then instructed to ensure the exercise took place willy-nilly.

To this end, an urgent meeting of the Steering Committee was called on Friday, March 7, 2014 with 11 officials from CDFIPB and NIS, the chairman, Tapgun, Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration (DCG) Human Resources, H.Y. Malgwi and CIS (Appointment), Mrs. Oyedeji in attendance.

At the meeting, it was observed that Drexel was trying to be economical with the truth as per the agreement, the recruitment exercise was not captured in NIS 2014 budget and besides, the budget is yet to be approved.

So, “if the service goes ahead to fund the exercise, there could be audit query as it had already being made public that the money collected from the applicants will take care of the exercise and most state governments may not be ready or willing to foot the bill taking into cognizance that money was collected from applicants, and no fund is available now to execute any recruitment exercise on 15th March 2015.”

The recommendation in the meeting was that “whatever option, fund has to be made available by Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited, who collected the money from applicants; the date to be shifted to either last weekend in March or 2nd week in April 2014 for proper arrangement to conduct a successful exercise and a memo be raised to the Minister of Interior on the issues

observed.

Also that the minister should write to the states soliciting for assistance from the governments and additional N5, “an 000,000.00 be budgeted for hiring of ambulances and buying water”.

The memo was taken to the minister but he did not accept most of the recommendations. He, however, instructed that Drexel as a consultancy do their part and it was now the responsibility of the Ministry, Board and NIS to ensure a hitch free recruitment exercise.

The Guardian recalled that the minister in November 2013 had in the bid to “set the records straight” told Nigerians that “the Ministry of Interior does not charge any fee for jobs…that the N1, 000 fee is the charge by the consulting firm to defray cost of accessing the website, to fill forms and was also intended to save the applicants the cost of travelling to Abuja to submit their application forms, as well as avoid other inherent risks, including unauthorised middlemen activities and other abuses.

“The N1, 000 charge was approved for the consultant after due consultations with all relevant government agencies”.

Although, it is still not clear how many Nigerians paid the money or applied for the job in the first place, the minister had, however, told journalists at the National Hospital, the day after the incident that “one million people didn’t apply for this exercise. I said it before and repeated myself severally, that the records are there for everybody to see, 526,650 people applied for the exercise…”

Though the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media, George Udoh has remained uncommunicative since the disaster happened, a source in the Interior Ministry said the decision to award the recruitment exercise to the consultants was taken by the minister who felt it would be more transparently done. “Regrettably, now a disaster has happened, because they were more interested in the money rather than doing the right thing.”

The source continued: “The truth is that since the disaster happened, some of the files have grown wings and flown away. Many people have been seeking for information regarding all of these but none that is available is verifiable. But frankly speaking, 700,000 people applied online and remember there were others that submitted hard copies, and also paid. So, who collected their money?

“Drexel is not known anywhere to have handled or conducted similar assignments before now. Such a huge responsibility is usually given to an experienced hand to do, but the powers that be gave it to them”, the source said.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 NEWS | 7

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PDP wins five councils in Nasarawa polls From Msugh Ityokura, Lafia HE opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State has won the election in five local councils.

Chairman of the state electoral body, Umar Moddibo, declared the results at the state headquarters of Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission (NASIEC).

Moddibo said the PDP won in five local councils of Keffi, Keana, Nasarawa Eggon, Akwanga and Kokona.

He admitted that it was wrong of him to announce the results at the state headquarters of the commission instead of the council wards as stipulated by law.

The reason he explained was due to technicalities.

T

Osun pensioners protest non-payment of arrears From Tunji Omofoye, Osogbo ENSIONERS in Osun State P yesterday staged a protest against the non-payment of their pension arrears by the state government, blocking major roads in Osogbo, the state capital.

The pensioners, who converged on the popular Olaiya Junction carried placards bearing various inscriptions.

They prevented vehicular movement on the busy road for several hours.

Some of the protesters slept on the road during the protest, while others chanted anti-government choruses.

But the state government, in a reaction, said it is doing all it can to ensure the welfare of retirees receives urgent attention, blaming the situation on dwindling resources, which has affected all states of the federation.

A spokesperson of the retirees, Mrs. Ronke Aderibigbe, said the retirees resorted to protest after several attempts made to dialogue with Governor Rauf Aregbesola on their plight had failed.

Balewa varsity teachers down tools over allowance, admission list From Ali Garba, Bauchi HE Academic Staff Union of T Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) branch has begun internal industrial action.

Members of the ATBU’s chapter of ASUU have vowed not to submit the results of the just concluded examinations and shun registration and screening of both new and returning students anytime the university management announces the resumption for the 20132014 academic session.

Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi, the ASUU’s branch Chairman, Dr. Abubakar, said they decided to embark on the strike as a result of the way and manner the Earn Allowance was allegedly shared to the disadvantage of the varsity teachers.

“Our members that fought for this Earn Allowance through industrial action only got 32.5 per cent while the non-academic staff got 67.5 per cent. This is unacceptable to us and we are calling for the reversal of the sharing formula,” Abubakar said.

Ajimobi visits ‘evil forest,’ revokes certificate of occupancy From Iyabo Lawal, Ibadan OVERNOR Abiola Ajimobi G of Oyo State yesterday led members of the State Executive Council as well as all the arms of the security agencies in the state and a forensic expert for an on-the-spot assessment of the ‘evil forest’ where several decomposing bodies were found and several victims of a kidnap syndicate were rescued last Saturday in the state capital.

The governor, who was conducted round the forest by security chiefs, expressed sadness at what he called man’s inhumanity to his fellow man.

Ajimobi, while expressing shock at the gory scene where several people had been held hostage by the kidnappers called for a minute silence and led prayers for the repose of the souls of those who died in the kidnappers’ den.

While describing the incident as most unfortunate, Governor Ajimobi announced the immediate revocation of the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of the expansive forest and directed that the bush be

cleared.

He said this was necessary so as to ensure easy access to whatever had been transpiring in the forest.

He also pledged that the

entire area would be combed by security agencies to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to book.

“We came here with all the security chiefs. We have seen

Ajimobi

things for ourselves. It is surprising that such a thing existed here for a long time.

Nevertheless, we will take the following actions: We will revoke all the C of Os of the owners of the land; government is taking it over immediately. Then we will set up a panel of forensic experts; we will get to the root of the matter and then we will find out those involved in the act. Even though we were told that the inhuman transactions here had been in existence for over 10 years, we will dig it up,” the governor said.

While tasking the people to be security conscious, the governor said it was unimaginable that an event as horrendous as this had been going on in the neighbourhood for over 10 years and the people living in the area had not alerted security agencies about it.

Governor Ajimobi, who addressed the crowd at the scene, including the head of the community, Chief Isiaka Bello Olupoju, promised the unemployed youths in the area automatic employment in the State Youth

Empowerment Scheme (YESO).

He urged those interested in the job to register their names with the village head for onward transmission to the government.

The governor also promised to meet with the entire community next month with a view to rub minds with them and know their needs with a view to addressing them.

He, however, advised the people to avoid brigandage, thuggery, violence and anti-social activities, urging them to provide security agencies with necessary information as regards any strange movement within the neighbourhood.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed Ndabawa, also assured the people that whoever was involved in the unfortunate incident would be arrested and prosecuted.

Chief Olupoju and two other members of the community also gave graphic narration of the incident and urged government to come to their rescue.

Okorocha flays reported attack on Mark’s convoy in Imo From Charles Ogugbuaja, Owerri HE Imo State government T has refuted media report that the convoy of the Senate President, David Mark, was attacked in Orlu area on Friday while on his way to attend the burial of a business mogul, John Anyaehie, saying such never happened.

In a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rochas Okorocha, Mr. Sam Onwemedo, and made available to The Guardian in Owerri on Monday, the state government said it was shocking for such claims to have been made, especially after getting responses from the state police command through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO),

Mrs. Joy Elemoke, that the command was not aware of such incident.

The statement reads in part: “More shocking to Imo government was also the reaction of Orji and by the grace of God, the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum. We have also taken cognizance of the reaction of the Imo State Police Command through the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joy Elemoko (SP), stating that such incident never happened in the state.

“The reports on the claimed attack, the reaction of Orji and the reaction of the Imo State Police Command alluding that there was no attack on the Senate President or on his convoy, have all made the Imo State government to become suspicious of the

whole claims on the alleged attack.

“In all the media reports, none could mention the particular place or spot or area the attack took place. One of the reports said the attack took place in Orlu axis of the state. What this means could only be explained by those behind the claim.

“One of the reports also said that the attack took place in Orlu Senatorial Zone of the state. This claim is also questionable, because Orlu Senatorial Zone has 12 local government areas and the alleged attack must have taken place in one of them and would have been mentioned under normal scenario. The whole claim therefore looks vague and heightens the state government’s suspicion.

Akingbola challenges court’s jurisdiction in N47.1b theft charge

By Bertram Nwannekanma ORMER Managing FIntercontinental Director of the defunct Bank Plc (now Access Bank), Dr. Erastus Akingbola, yesterday raised objections over the alleged N47.1 billion theft charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), challenging the jurisdiction of a Lagos High Court to entertain the charge.

Akingbola, in two separate notices of preliminary objection filed on his behalf by his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), questioned the jurisdiction of the court presided over by Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo to try him.

Similarly, his co-defendant, Bayo Dada, had filed a similar application before the court.

At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, Olanipekun informed the court about the applications,

which he said have been served on the prosecution (EFCC).

Olanipekun reasoned that since the matter is starting afresh, it is better for the applications to be taken before any further development on the charge.

He predicated the grounds of the objection on the fact that there is a similar charge involving Akingbola and the EFCC pending before the Federal High Court, Lagos.

He also argued that the main witnesses listed in the proof of evidence at the Federal High Court are the same witnesses also listed in the proof of evidence before this court.

According to him, the subject matter of the alleged offences relates to banking operations and operations of capital issues, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.

In his response, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala (SAN)

argued that the applications were premature and should be held in abeyance by the court.

According to Ukala, the applications offend Section 262 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State 2011, which provides for speedy dispensation of criminal matters.

But in his short ruling, Justice Lawal-Akapo opted for hearing of the applications before further development on the matter.

He, however, directed parties to consolidate their positions and fixed April 2 for arguments on the applications.

Akingbola and Bayo Dada were billed for re-arraignment on a 22-count charge of conspiracy and stealing of N47.1 billion belonging to the defunct Intercontinental Bank.

The trial began in 2011 but has been continually stalled due to the transfer of the case to different judges.

“In the whole reports, none could remember to mention the particulars of the vehicle said to have been riddled with bullets. And those involved in the said convoy did not also remember or deemed it necessary to report the incident to either the nearest police station or to the state police command.

But they reported the incident in pages of newspapers and two days after the alleged attack.”

According to Imo government, “the reaction of Orji was surprising and shocking.

He spoke as if he knew those

who carried out the alleged attack. He condemned it and said it was aimed at eliminating the senate president, and urged the senate president not to be deterred.

“In an attack like the one being claimed, the Governor of Abia State would have called on the police to investigate the incident, where the attack truly took place, to know whether those behind the attack were after the senate president or it was mere coincidence, and whether it was politically motivated or purely criminal operation.”

8 | Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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PHOTONEWS

Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed (right) receiving the Valparaiso University, Indiana Graduate School award for promoting education and culture from Linda Oyewopo (left) and Abbey Badejo, representatives of the institution, at a ceremony in Washington DC.

President Goodluck Jonathan (left) and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi (right), during their visit to Pope Francis 1 at the Vatican City.

Managing Director, ARM Life Plc, Teju Ogunjimi (left); Managing Director, Peakthrust Insurance Brokers Limited, Abimbola Onakomaiya; Deputy Chairman/CEO, HOGG Robinson Nigeria Limited, Amos Adeyeye and Chief Sales Officer, ARM Life Plc, John Mayne during the ARM Life Plc Partners Forum in Lagos.

PHOTO: SUNDAY AKINLOLU

Bishop of Isikwuato, Rt. Rev. Agbai Obadiah (right); Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; Bishop of Uzuakoli diocese, Rt. Rev. Chiemeka Ogbonna and his wife, at the Honourofic award of Diamond Mother to Onyejeocha at the Methodist Church Nigeria, Diocese of Isikwuato, Abia State.

Maritime Man of the Year 2013, Anthony Emmanuel Nted (left); Deputy President General, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Dipo Ogunleye and Managing Director/CEO Maritime Media Limited, Elder Asu Beks, during the 17th edition of Maritime Industries Merit Award in Lagos.

PHOTO: GABRIEL IKHAHON

Senator Clever Ikisikpo (left); Senator Abdulkadir Jajere; Senator Odion Ugbesia; Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Okechukwu Itanyi; Senator Abu Ibrahim; Deputy Minority Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Abu Ibrahim at a workshop for legislators hosted by NCC.

Non Executive Director, Olusegun Oloketuyi (left); MD/CEO, Associated Discount House, Abubakar Jimoh; Chairman, Associated Discount House Limited, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; Suzane Iroche; Nurudeen Fagbenro and representative of Larry Ettah, Muhibat Abbas, at the 20th Annual General Meeting of Associated Discount House in Lagos.

PHOTO: CHARLES OKOLO

President, White House Group, Austin Eruotor (left); Principal Consultant, Rare Gem Consulting UK, Chinwe Maduike and Chief Executive Officer, White Waters Limited, Nsikak Daniels, during a press conference to announce the forth-coming Foreign Business Investment in Lagos.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 9

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WorldReport Egypt sentences 529 Islamists to death N Egyptian court yesterA day sentenced to death 529 supporters of ousted

A relative (centre) of passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries after hearing the news that the plane plunged into Indian Ocean at a hotel in Beijing…yesterday. The missing Malaysia Airlines jet came down in the Indian Ocean, Prime Minister, Najib Razak said, as the airline reportedly told relaPHOTO: AFP tives it had been lost and that none on board survived.

Obama rallies world leaders to isolate Russia RESIDENT Barack Obama P delved into a day of delicate diplomacy yesterday as he sought to rally the international community around efforts to isolate Russia following its incursion into Ukraine.

Hours after arriving in the Netherlands for a nuclear summit, Obama held oneon-one talks with Chinese President, Xi Jinping. China has often sided with Russia in disputes with the West, but United States officials have been appealing to Beijing’s well-known opposition to outside interference in other nation’s domestic affairs.

Obama treaded carefully in statements with Xi before their meeting, saying only that they planned to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

“I believe ultimately, that by working together, China and the United States can help strengthen international law and respect for the sovereignty of nations and establish the kind of rules internationally that allow all peoples to thrive,” Obama said in a subtle appeal for Chinese support.

He added that he and the Chinese leader would also seek to “work through frictions that exist in our relations” on matters like human rights and maritime disputes.

Xi, for his part, pointed to areas of potential cooperation with the U.S. as he settled in for what Obama described as a wide-ranging session. “It is like a menu — and a rich one at that,” Xi said through an interpreter.

Ukraine military pulls out from Crimea KRAINE announced the U evacuation of its troops and their families from Crimea yesterday, effectively acknowledging defeat in the face of Russian forces, who stormed one of the last remaining Ukrainian bases on the peninsula.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been besieged on bases in Crimea, offering no armed resistance but refusing to surrender, since President Vladimir Putin declared Moscow’s right to intervene at the start of the month.

Moscow formally annexed the region last week and its forces have been seizing the last Ukrainian bases in recent days.

“The National Defence and Security Council has instructed the Defence Ministry to carry out a re-deployment of military units in Crimea and evacuate their families,” acting president, Oleksander Turchinov told parliament in Kiev.

The move, he said, had been made following threats by Russian forces on the lives and health of Ukrainian service staff and their families.

Russian forces, using stun grenades and machine guns and backed by two helicopters, swept into a marine base in the port of Feodosia early yesterday, overrunning one of Ukraine’s last symbols of resistance. Ukrainian officers were taken away for questioning, Ukrainian officials said.

An official withdrawal from the base was due to start at 3 p.m., Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said.

Ukrainian flags were taken down inside the base.

Russian forces used similar tactics to take Ukraine’s Belbek air base in Crimea on Saturday.

Russia’s seizure of Crimea after the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president by mass protests in Kiev has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.

Obama’s meeting with Xi opened a week of international travel where crisis in Ukraine tops the agenda.

After arriving in the Netherlands on a sunny and brisk meeting with Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, Obama asserted that the U.S. and Europe stand together behind Ukraine.

No issue commands more of Obama’s and Europe’s attention than Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the fear that Moscow could decide to expand further into Ukraine.

Islamist, President Mohammed Morsi in connection to an attack on a police station that killed a policeman, convicting them after only two sessions in a mass trial that raised an outcry from rights activists.

The verdicts are subject to appeal and would likely be overturned, rights lawyers said. But they said the swiftness and harshness of the rulings on such a large scale deepened concerns that Egypt’s courts have been politicized and that due process is being swept away amid a monthslong crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters since the military removed the president last summer.

Egyptian authorities are holding a series of mass trials of Morsi supporters, with anywhere from dozens to hundreds of defendants at a time that have already raised worries among rights observers.

Yesterday’s verdicts by a court in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, were the first such mass trial to issue death sentences.

The court held two sessions.

In the first on Saturday, the judge angrily shouted down requests by defense lawyers

for more time to review the prosecution’s case for the hundreds of defendants. In Monday’s session, security forces barred defense lawyers from entering the courtroom on orders from the judge, the provincial police chief said.

“We didn’t have the chance to say a word or to look at more than 3,000 pages of investigation to see what evidence they are talking about,” Khaled elKoumi, a lawyer representing 10 of the defendants, told The

Associated Press.

All but around 150 of the defendants in the case were tried in absentia. The judges acquitted 16 defendants.

The 545 defendants in the case were charged with murder, attempted murder and stealing government weapons in connection with an attack on a police station in August in the town of Matay in Minya province. One police officer was killed in the attack.

98 die in Africa’s Lake Albert shipwreck T least 98 people died A when a boat capsized at the weekend on Lake Albert, which lies between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday.

“Based on information UNHCR has received so far from the authorities and refugees, 41 people were rescued and 98 bodies recovered” after Saturday’s disaster, the refugee agency said in a statement.

“As many as 250 people may have been aboard the boat,” added the UNHCR, which reported that the ill-fated vessel had been transporting Congolese refugees returning to their homeland from Uganda.

The UN agency said staff were “shocked and saddened” by the “tragedy ... in which a large number of Congolese refugees, including children, were drowned.”

The boat that sank was “one of two that left from Hoima district on the eastern (Ugandan) side of the lake on Saturday morning, carrying refugees who had been living at Kyangwali refugee settlement but were heading back home to eastern DRC of their own accord,” the UNHCR said.

Survivors were taken to the Bundibugyo district, to the southwest of the lake, where they have been taken under the wing of the Ugandan state and the UNHCR and its partner agencies, according to the statement.

10 | Tuesday, March 25, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Politics Not yet Uhuru for Ekiti PDP From Muyiwa Adeyemi (Head, Southwest Bureau, Ado-Ekiti) ITH the election of the former governor of W Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, as the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend, it is not yet party time for the opposition party that aims at defeating Governor Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the governorship election holding on June 21 this year.

Fayose was declared winner by the PDP Special State Congress Committee, headed by former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, who expressed satisfaction at the orderly conduct of the delegates.

Ordinarily, the Special Congress ought to put to an end the eight months of intense debate over whether the party should hold the primaries or allow its candidate to emerge through consensus.

President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly held a meeting with all the aspirants last July, and was quoted to have advised the aspirants to consider the consensus option. Since then, the party leaders and aspirants were divided, as most of them queued behind the President’s advice, while Fayose insisted on holding primaries.

Though Odili declared the election that was boycotted by 13 aspirants as free and fair, analysts in the state believe that the last is yet to be heard,,as the aspirants that boycotted the primaries have taken their battle to the Presidency.

Curiously, the state chairman of the party, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, who alleged that the result of the Ward Congress that produced the delegates had been doctored to favour Fayose, boycotted the primaries.

Indeed, Ogundipe and some party executives went into hiding and switched off their phones, although the Director of Publicity of the PDP in Ekiti State, Gboyega Aribisogbon, said the absence of Ogundipe could not affect the validity of the primaries since he had no role to play in the election.

From the 477 votes cast, Fayose scored 462 to defeat other aspirants that stayed away from the election they described as “one man show of shame.”

Fourteen of the 33 aspirants were cleared by the Senator Ndoma-Egba screening committee to contest the election. However, only three of them collected the N2.5m delegates’ forms.

They are former Police Affairs Minister, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (Rtd), former governor of the state, Chief Abiodun Aluko and former Afenifere spokesperson, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

Announcing the result of the election, Odili said Olubolade polled seven votes, while the duo of Adeyeye and Modupe Ogundpe polled three and one votes, respectively.

Odili explained that 544 delegates were accredited for the congress, while 477 votes were utilized, out of which four were voided.

Declaring Fayose the winner of the election, Odili said: “I think you have seen that the process for the conduct of this primaries is transparent. I think you are all satisfied with the process” and the delegates chorused yes.

“Having scored the highest number of votes, Peter Ayodele Fayose is hereby declared the winner.” The pronouncement elicited ovation from the delegates.

Odili clarified that the conduct of the primaries was connected with the resolve of President Jonathan and the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, to reposition and deepen internal democracy in the party.

“PDP is the largest party in Africa and we must show this by following the normal rules the way we have done today,” he said.

“Our leader, President Jonathan and National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu have resolved to reposition the PDP through internal democracy and this we have demonstrated today.”

Fayose, who expressed happiness over his victory, promised to embark on process of reconciliation for the party to remain united and well-fortified to confront the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in the election.

The former governor, who pleaded with other aspirants to work with him, said with their support, it would be easier to defeat Governor Fayemi.

Fayose

Odili

Olubolade

His words: “Let me first thank our party leaders for doing a great job by conducting free and fair primaries. Now, we have to commence on a process of reconciliation by appealing to our brothers who may be aggrieved in any way with this process.

“Nobody can run a government or party all alone. Losing an election or getting the governorship ticket is not the end of the world. There are other positions like the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives or Senate, which they may have interest in. We have to work together for the aspirations of all of us to be met.

“I am now a better person 11 years after my first election as the governor of Ekiti State. I am now more matured (sic) more responsive and more experienced. So, I plead with my brothers to sheath their swords because I am ready to cede positions to all of them.”

loses his membership for reasons other than non-payment of annual subscription may be readmitted on the recommendation of his Ward Executive Committee, through the Local Government Area Executive Committee, to the State Chapter of the party, and ultimately made to the National Working Committee, subject to ratification by the National Executive Committee.

“From the provisions of Chapter II, Section 8(17) of the PDP Constitution, Mr. Fayose’s readmission into the Party required the ratification of the National Executive Committee, which has not been done.

“Therefore, an appropriate candidate for the party, not Ayo Fayose, will be chosen by our party. That candidate will go ahead and win the June 21 election, by the grace of God.” On the primary poll, the aspirants said: “A supposed primary is said to be going on now. But we all know that a primary election is not done by only one person. A primary is done by at least two people.

“Thirteen out of the 14 governorship aspirants of the PDP in Ekiti State are here present. It is only Ayo Fayose, a non-member of the PDP, that is at the Eagle Centre doing the fraudulent primary.

“Our State Chairman, Chief Makanju Ogundipe, all the three senatorial chairmen and other major members of the State Exco are not in the so-called primary. Our party members should therefore know that the fraudulent primary they are holding is an exercise in futility. It will not stand, it cannot stand.

“We shall take our case to our President, who is the leader of our party. We believe the President cannot be part of the charade going on here in Ekiti. We should not worry; we should stay calm and be assured that justice will be done.”

boycotted the primaries.

According to a source close to them: “Instead of 544 delegates that attended the congress, 849 were expected. There were supposed to be three ad-hoc ward delegates for the 177 wards, making 531 and 312 automatic delegates, making 849.

“That is the reason you did not see party leaders like former Governor Segun Oni; Senator Ayo Arise; former Minister of Education, Prof.

Tunde Adeniran; former Minister of Aviation, Prof. Babalola Aborisade; former Chairman of the party, Chief Ropo Adesanya; former Vice Chairman of the party, Chief Dipo Anisulowo and a host of others.

“The prominent PDP leaders stayed away because they were not happy with the way Fayose and his people hijacked the ward congress, but we know the president will not fold his arms and allow the party to lose election in Ekiti State.”

Before the primaries, Arise had condemned the ward congress and said any candidate that emerged through the process would not be acceptable to the party members.

Arise alleged that last Wednesday’s congress witnessed hijack of electoral materials and compilation of a fictitious list of delegates by the committee, assuring that the party members would resist the committee from smuggling fictitious names into the delegate lists.

“Anything short of a fair process will not be acceptable in Ekiti. We will not allow a fraudster to impose another fraudster on us in Ekiti.

Ekiti is the most educated state in Nigeria. We know what we are doing and we know where we are going,” he said.

“Nobody can come to Ekiti and start behaving like an emperor. We will use all legitimate means to fight for our rights. We won’t care writing a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan. So, it is either they do what is right, if they know that the person they are supporting is popular or postpone the primaries.”

But the primaries were not postponed. In fact, many party faithful had expressed their happiness on the emergence of Fayose as the candidate of the party.

While they view some of the other aspirants, apart from Adeyeye, as Abuja-based politicians who relied so much on the federal might, Fayose is seen as the grassroots politician who is always with them to cater for their needs.

And they expressed this with the carnival that greeted his election, as some motorcyclists and his supporters were seen dancing and pumping Champagne on Saturday.

As some party faithful continue to celebrate what they called “the dramatic return of Fayose,” the last seems not to be heard because the battle line has just been drawn between those who took President Jonathan’s advice as an “order” and those who believe Ekiti PDP members had spoken.

HOWEVER, before the commencement of the election, thousands of pro-consensus advocates had besieged the Great Eagle Hall, the venue of the primaries, displaying placards and singing anti-primaries songs.

Immediately Olubolade, Aluko, Adeyeye and Ambassador Dare Bejide arrived at the scene, the protesters surged to the gate, to be addressed by the leaders who had expressed objection to the primaries.

But the police dispersed the protesters with tear gas. In the ensuing pandemonium, Olubolade, who almost fainted, was whisked away to Ikere Road in an open Hilux van with registration number FR 845 ABJ. The group later re-grouped at Abiodun Aluko campaign secretariat at Ajilosun Road, AdoEkiti, where they described the primaries as “a one man show, which will not stand.”

They also described what happened to them as “a deliberate ploy to scheme them out of the process.”

Addressing their supporters outside the venue of the primaries, Senator Aluko, who spoke on behalf of 13 aspirants that boycotted the primaries, said that Fayose was not a member of the PDP, stressing that his readmission into the party did not satisfy Chapter II, Section 8(17) of the party constitution.

According to him: “Chapter II, Section 8(17) of PDP Constitution states that: ‘Any member who

THE justice the disgruntled aspirants are seeking is for the president to invalidate the primaries and pick one of them even when it was obvious that 13 of them could not agree and pick one to face Fayose in the primaries.

Fayose had insisted that since the election was for Ekiti people, they must be allowed to pick the candidate of their choice.

Besides, some of the aggrieved aspirants will also base their argument on the low number of delegates, especially the elected officers that

While they view some of the other aspirants, apart from Adeyeye, as Abujabased politicians who relied so much on the federal might, Fayose is seen as the grassroots politician who is always with them to cater for their needs. And they expressed this with the carnival that greeted his election, as some motorcyclists and his supporters were seen dancing and pumping Champagne on Saturday.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 POLITICS 11

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Awolowo, national conference and burden of loyalty patronal service. This was not unexpected considering the events that have occurred since Ijebu-Igbo ceased to hold the conclave of the Yoruba leadership.

By Dare Babarinsa T was not surprising that Chief IofObafemi Awolowo, the first premier the defunct Western Region, continue to enjoy the loyalty of his followers and admirers more than 36 years after he was called to higher service.

Awolowo, premier until 1959, was a leader of leaders and his deeds and pronouncements continue to have impacts on the course of our country’s history.

Shortly after the death of Dr. Nelson Mandela, the South African icon and first democratically elected president of that country, many members of the iPad generation, while showering encomium on the great man, bemoaned the fate of Nigeria, which they claimed has never enjoyed the kind of leadership that Mandela provided South Africans.

Not so, countered Odia Ofeimu, the poet literati, who was Awo’s private secretary. He said, and I agree with him, that Awo was an authentic hero with universal dimension. He changed our world in many fundamental ways.

On Thursday, March 6, 2014, Awo’s faithful followers gathered again to mark his post-humous birthday. He would have been 106. His 98-year-old widow, the magnificent Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo, the Yeye-Oba of Ife, was the chief hostess.

In attendance were members of the Old Guard and new entrants into the sanctum. Among the old guards were the likes of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Sir Olanihun Ajayi, Senator Femi Okunronmu and Chief Ebenezer Babatope. Also in attendance were Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Senator (Mrs.) Daisy Danjuma and many other dignitaries.

In the afternoon, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, the Ooni of Ife, led an array of traditional rulers to attend a book presentation in honour of Nigeria’s most famous widow, Chief (Mrs) H.I.D Awolowo.

What is surprising is that after so many years, the passion of the Awoists has not diminished. In a country where memories are short and historical lessons neglected, it is a delightful surprise that Awo remains a notable exception in our national malaise of collective amnesia.

Many years ago, I had sent Ms Adebola Adewole, one of my most enterprising colleagues in TELL, to interview Chief Simeon Adebo, the former Secretary to the Government of the defunct Western Region, who served in the cabinet of Awolowo.

Adebo was later to become renowned as a first-class diplomat, serving as the first Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

“I will never go to Ibadan again,” Adebo told Adewole. “The military boys have desecrated Awolowo’s office. A place that should have been preserved for future generations has now been turned into an office space for some civil servants.”

Adebo was not a politician, but a firstclass bureaucrat. I never had the opportunity of having a close encounter with Awo. The nearest I came close to him, apart from the unforgettable experiences of covering some of his campaigns, was when he picked Alhaji Mohammed Kura from Bauchi State, as his running-mate for the 1983 presidential election.

I had been assigned by Dayo Onibile, our news editor, to cover the story for our newspapers, the National Concord, owned by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O) Abiola. I boarded a taxi from Isolo for Awo’s Parklane, Apapa residence.

The taxi driver was simply too excited when he learnt that I was going to Awolowo’s house. He would not take the fare of one naira! “I am doing it for Papa,” he said.

If you think that was strange, there were more stories of respect for the

ESPITE the waning influence of D the core Afenifere leadership, they have taught us that a nation

Awolowo Awo mystique. One night, robbers seized a car from a lone driver in Apapa. When they discovered later that the car belonged to Oluwole Awolowo, and the portfolio they had stolen with substantial amount of money in British pounds, belonged to Awolowo, they returned the car and the portfolio. One morning the car was found parked in front of Awo’s house in Apapa. This happened during the Buhari military regime!

Despite many years of interactions with the top echelon of the Awoist vanguard, I am confounded by the preponderance of his influence over each and every one of them.

After his return from illegal detention in 1985, I had gone to Owo to see Chief Adekunle Ajasin, the first elected governor of old Ondo State, as part of my research for my book, House of War. Ajasin had been detained for 20 months by the military dictatorship of General Muhammadu Buhari, which also seized the travelling documents of Chief Awolowo. I had gone to Owo with my friend, Bayode Ajala.

Papa Ajasin laced his comments with the views of his leader whom he respected so much that he would not even mention by name. “It was our leader who said I should make Chief Akin Omoboriowo my runningmate,” he said. “I always follow his advice.”

Some years later, I was at the home of Chief Alfred Rewane, the outstanding chieftain of the opposition National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). I had gone there with Funminiyi Afuye, my colleague in Idile Oodua, a leading underground resistance movement against the Abacha military dictatorship.

Rewane, who was Awolowo’s private secretary when the latter was Premier, would always remove his cap whenever he mentioned Awo’s name as a sign of respect. Rewane was assassinated in his home in 1995 by suspected agents of the General Sani Abacha dictatorship.

In 1998, Abacha, the military dictator, died suddenly. His death was followed a month later by that of Chief Moshood Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections.

His victory was annulled by the General Ibrahim Babangida dictatorship. Abiola was later arrested and detained by General Abaca in 1995.

ABIOLA’S death changed the political game in Nigeria. Hitherto, we had thought with the death of Abacha, Abiola would be released by the military headed by General Abdulsalami Abubakar. We wanted him to play a pivoted role in the new dispensation and if possible, to head a coalition Government of National Unity. Our hopes were shattered with his death.

In the underground resistance movement we formed to resist military dictatorship, one of our most outstanding leaders was Chief Bola Ige, first elected governor of old Oyo State.

Babarinsa Ige, a liberal intellectual and lawyer, was an intrepid follower of Chief Awolowo. Despite his education and his wide travels, it was difficult to convince him that Awo could have been wrong in any of his political moves.

One of our debates often centered on Awo’s spectacular bid for power in 1979, the same year Ige was elected governor. “He was rigged out by the military and their Northern friends,” Ige would always insist. “They invented the twelve-two-third formula that has no basis in law or commonsense!”

“Even if there had been a conspiracy against him, Awo collaborated with his detractors by making fatal strategic errors,” I always countered our beloved Uncle Bola. He, a southerner, made another southerner his vicepresidential running mate. Both Awo and his running mate, Chief Phillip Umeadi, were Christians and lawyers.

Awo, who was also the chairman of his party, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), could not find a suitable running mate in the entire Northern half of the country. By the time he made the adjustment in 1983 with the selection of Alhaji Mohammed Kura, the opposition against him had become a granite formation.

Uncle Bola, however, believed that the Nigerian people would not have minded “these so-called strategic errors,” but for the grand conspiracies of Awo’s opponent who were afraid of his coming to power.

Then with the death of Abiola, Uncle Bola made it an open secret that he, too, was interested in the presidency.

Most of us in the Alpha Group, in which I was privileged to serve as secretary, supported his aspiration.

Late in 1998, I had followed Chief Ige to the Metropolitan Club, Lagos, where he was invited as a guest speaker. It was in that speech that he made it known that he was interested in the presidency. That weekend, we met in Ibadan where the topic of discussion was his presidential ambition.

“The next thing now, sir, is for you to open a campaign office in Lagos and Abuja,” I suggested. “The Bola Ige for President Campaign Office.”

To him, such suggestion was outlandish. Said he: “Our leader would not like that!” By that time, the leader had been dead for more than a decade.

But the faithful interpretations have not always led to expected results. In the frenetic participation for elections in the aftermath of Abiola’s death and General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition programme, the Awoist Vanguard was busy interpreting what the position of the leader would have been.

Confronted with the dynamic nature of post-military Nigerian politics, they were dogmatic and unbending. This approach finally led to two parallel lines; one supporting Chief Olu Falae and the other, Chief Ige, who was also the deputy to Senator Abraham Adesanya in the Afenifere leadership.

Our team, the Alajobi Committee over which I was privileged to serve as the chairman, decided to troubleshoot. Many of our leaders in Alajobi, including Femi Yerokun, the vicechairman, our secretary, Professor Akin Onigbinde, Engineer Bayo Adenekan, Jimmy Agbaje, Tokunbo Ajasin, Ayo Afolabi and Tola Mobolurin, reached out to the leadership of Afenifere, to ensure that all of them were present.

When Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande would not budge, Tokunbo Ajasin told him that this was an assignment expected of us by Awolowo! Alayande came.

From my recollections, the March 26, 2000 meeting was the best attended meeting of Afenifere Leadership since the death of Abiola.

It was held at the Ijebu-Igbo country home of Senator Adesanya.

Present among many others were Adesanya, Ige, Otunba Solanke Onasanya, Chief Olu Falae, Chief G.O.K Ajayi, Senator Ayo Adebanjo, Sir Olanihun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Opadokun, Chief C.O. Adebayo and Alhaji Ganiyu Dawudu. All the members of Alajobi leadership were present. Archdeacon Alayande presided over the meeting and I assisted him.

Despite the camaraderie at that meeting and the backslappings, the war continued. We foreswore the leaders not to make anymore provocative press statements. They were silent for some months and then dutifully disobeyed us.

Since then, the landscape has changed dramatically while the Awoist Vanguard remained essentially moored in shallow waters.

Many of the leaders have moved to God’s headquarters, including Adesanya, Ige (who was assassinated in December 2001, suspected as part of the fall-out of the political crisis in Osun State), Onasanya, Adebayo Adefarati and Dawodu.

It was not surprising that many of the remaining members of the vanguard regarded the yearly patronal service for Awolowo as an opportunity to pay tribute to the hero and confirm their fidelity to the ideals and ideas enunciated by the great man in his many books and precepts.

They are a vanishing tribe of valiant men who, at the most critical time in the contemporary history of this country, put themselves in the line of fire. They are authentic heroes of our struggle against military dictatorship. But they are not perfect men.

They love our country and our people with passionate ardour, but when the bugle of victory sounded at the end of the bitter struggle against military rule, found themselves on the losing side.

In 1999, the Afenifere leadership was able to help in installing five of the governors in the federation. Times have changed tremendously since then. Not one of those governors was at Ikenne during the March 6

dominated by politics without principles cannot prosper. They remain loyal to what they call the Awo ethos.

They carry the burden of their greatness with principled aplomb and pride.

They have showed us that if our republic must grow and prosper, then the leadership must be loyal to certain and predictable principles.

They are proud men because they have many things to be proud of.

Indeed, whatever anyone might claim, the Afenifere leadership remains the most respected, the most trusted and the most authentic in the Yoruba space. They bear the burden of loyalty to the most enduring and most respectable tradition of leadership in Nigeria.

It is great that they are all embracing the opportunity for constitutional dialogue that has been provided by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

One of their own, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, who was a commissioner under the late Second Republic Governor, Bisi Onabanjo of Ogun State and who was elected into the Senate in 1999, served as the midwife of this new national conference.

It was Awolowo, in his book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, who described Nigeria as “a mere geographical expression.” As one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, he participated in the several constitutional conferences that eventually led to the independence of Nigeria in 1960.

But the resultant Independence and later Republican Constitution was not capable of holding Nigeria from sliding into chaos. By the time General Yakubu Gowon called for a Leaders of Thought Conference in Lagos in 1966, to discuss the future of the Nigerian federation, two chiefs of state had been assassinated in office; two out of the premiers had been killed also and Awolowo, the Leader of the Federal Opposition, had served term in prison for treasonable felony.

The Leaders of Thought Conference, held in Lagos, came to an abrupt end when the East, under the leadership of Lt Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, recalled its delegates. The result was the Civil War that led to the death of an estimated one million Nigerians. The eloquence of violence had failed Nigerians.

President Jonathan said last week that it is time for Nigerians to invest in dialogue, to chart the course of our country’s future. There is no alternative that is worth considering.

“Yesterday’s prejudices should die with yesterday,” said the President on Monday, March 17 while declaring open the National Conference.

“Today is a new day. This is the dawn of a new era. This is an opportunity to think anew. We must jettison the poisonous mind-sets of the past, which were built on unhealthy competition among our diverse groups and peoples.”

Of course, this national conference is not the same thing as we clamoured for in 1998 after the sudden death of Chief Abiola in military detention.

But times have changed and it is time our leaders learn to interrogate the reality of the Nigerian Commonwealth and from this get the best benefit for the people. After all, Papa Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya loved to tell us: “It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war!”

I did not ask him however if this was also one of the aphorisms from immortal Awo. Chief Ebenezer Babatope, I am sure, can confirm that.

• Babarinsa, journalist and entrepreneur, is the Chairman and Editor-inChief of Gaskia Media Limited, Lagos.

TheGuardian

12 | Tuesday, March 25, 2014

www.ngrguardiannews.com

Conscience Nurtured by Truth

FOUNDER: ALEX U. IBRU (1945 – 2011) Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it. Uthman dan Fodio 1754-1816

Editorial Herdsmen, farmers and violent clashes HE spate of violent clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local farmers of comT munities especially in Benue State as well as in other states of the federation has sadly compounded the menace of insecurity in the land. These clashes occur with precision and immediacy; they are very fatal and merciless, and often escalate into ethnic and religious crises. What is worrisome is that despite their frequency, news about these clashes is often dwarfed by reports of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Although these clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in many communities in the Middle Belt of North Central Nigeria did not start today, the latest incident was brought to the spotlight when gunmen burnt down many villages and also opened fire on the convoy of Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam who was on his way to Gbajimba in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State on a fact-finding mission, following incessant invasion of the communities by herdsmen.

Just as the governor has reacted, this is a very disturbing situation considering the volatility of the state over the national question. The air is rank with tension, there is disenchantment everywhere, and people are easily provoked to violence by the slightest animosity. In short, what is on display is a groundswell of anger, occasioned by poverty and public distrust for government and this has the potential to turn a clash between local farmers and activities of Fulani herdsmen into a time-bomb.

However, this has not always been the case in this country. There were times a symbiotic cordiality existed between the Fulani herdsmen and their host communities, such that farmers derived organic manure from cow dung discharged by the cattle, and the local population enjoyed the ready supply of meat and dairy products, while the herdsmen and their cattle depended on the farmers for food.

In summary, a subsistent economy flourished and facilitated healthy social relations.

This is no longer the case in a rapidly expanding Nigeria, where grazing areas are shrinking. The herds have little or nothing to graze on, thereby causing them to forage on the farm lands of communities on their routes. In some cases, the local people poach their cattle in retaliation, resulting in frequent fatal clashes between the farmers and the Fulani herdsmen. This development has made it necessary for the idea of grazing reserves and routes for herdsmen to be revisited.

In furtherance of this objective, relevant committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have submitted a bill proposing the establishment of National Grazing Routes and Reserve Commission to address the security challenges posed by the frequent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and their host communities nationwide. Irrespective of the contents and the mandate of the bill, the proposal for the establishment of grazing reserves and routes seems to have gained some acceptance by a section of the country. To support their proposal, proponents of the grazing reserves and routes refer to the 1970s when the Federal Government provided ranches, grazing routes and grazing reserves for the cattle rearers. This argument is further strengthened by the claims that the Kaduna State Government has blazed the trail by designating grazing reserves and routes for the herdsmen.

Notwithstanding the success, if any, of the Kaduna State initiative, the idea of designating grazing reserves and routes is obsolete. The dynamics of social evolution, notably overpopulation and urbanisation, has rendered this initiative virtually non-feasible.

Moreover, there is also the argument that the Land Use Act, which empowers government to acquire land and utilise it for the good of the people, is being deliberately exploited by some members of the political elite to usurp lands belonging to communities of other ethnic groups.

Beyond this, proponents who argue from a security standpoint posit that grazing reserves and routes are not expedient, given the security situation of the country. It is argued that under the guise of grazing, illegal immigrants and possible terrorists find their way into the country.

That they live on the road and in constant relocation is one of the peculiar strategies of survival for nomads everywhere. Cognizant of this fact, it is imperative on the Federal Government and the people to devise lasting solutions that will both respect the cultural integrity of the Fulani herdsmen for whom cattle is an integral part of well-being, and protect the local communities whose survival is threatened by indiscriminate grazing on their farms.

One way of addressing this problem is the establishment of feedlots in states of the federation. In these feedlots, cattle can graze, the herdsmen can live and forge a viable economic scheme with the host community. Given the socio-economic development of Nigeria, it is no longer fashionable for herdsmen to appropriate grazing routes and lay claim to such, without infringing on the rights of their host communities, who themselves must protect their livelihood. To put an end to this frequent occurrence, the nomadic cattle rearer and the farmer must understand that they both need each other, not only for their survival, but also for the sustenance of the community.

However, this kind of symbiotic gesture demands serious economic commitment and healthy social relations. Establishing feedlots would require intra-state partnership and public-private partnership initiative for the desired result to be achieved. Such partnerships entail equity participation of the parties concerned as well as government assistance.

It also demands inclusiveness, education and enlightenment so that the cattle rearers and indigenes of the local communities do not take laws into their hands.

This way, both parties become indispensable parts of the value chain of the economy.

LETTER

Information and government spokespersons In my early years, I StialIR: observed a few presidenspokesmen in the developed democracies speak on behalf of their principals and about sensitive issues with a humble mien, candour and tact, and some of them influenced my points-of-views about the affairs of the world.

Accepting to work for your country should not be frowned at, because Nigeria belongs to us. As such, Nigeria needs the efforts of all for nation-building: critics as well as supporters of leaders of government. Nigerians are keen to be educated with the truths for national growth especially when the truth-giver is a revered presidential spokesperson.

In divulging information to the Nigerian people, a spokesperson must do so with a healthy respect for the opposition and all critics because, like the privileged envoys, Nigerians love their country (even if that measure of love might be unequal) and have the right to know how the affairs of state are run.

Vigorous criticism must be offered for nation building

and the absence of criticism signals the end of growth. No democracy in the world is free from criticism. The way critiques are taken, determines how stable and rational a government can be. I suspect that spokespersons in Nigeria have the mistaken belief that responding to critics of government is the major aspect of their job description. Daily engagements with the people of Nigeria on development initiatives of the leaders of government are more important than the venting of sour grapes.

Can we see a spokesman come to address Nigerians periodically on efforts taken by government to further or even start economic growth?

Will we see them tell us what actions government is carrying out in the area of unemployment? Maybe clarification on the projects the government has undertaken to stop corruption in politics/the police force/the military, even strategies in place to improve health/education.

Who knows the way government is ensuring that the sharing

and monitoring of oil revenues reach the poor Nigerian citizen? What about proposals for laying infrastructure especially in the rural area? These and many other strategies by a spokesperson will make us see the government as progressive and desirous for the growth of our country.

As a replacement for the presidential media chat, which is always insipid because some journalists in the past saw such opportunity as a privilege to chat with the president and never asked fiery questions like you see on CNN or on BBC Hardtalk, media team could perform a great service by changing the communication strategy and counselling the president to do a monthly televised Stateof-the-Nation speech that will focus on his ‘to do list’ and achievements of his administration’s major goals.

The team of presidential communication experts owe Nigeria a duty of open and transparent government, nothing less.

•Simon Abah, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

13

Opinion Challenge of the Fulani herdsmen?

By Luke Onyekakeyah S the Federal Government battles the guerA rilla war launched by the Boko Haram in the Northeast region of the country, an equally vicious battle is raging ceaselessly in Central Nigeria, this time at the instance of “Fulani herdsmen” and “unidentified gunmen”. This battle predates the Boko Haram confrontation.

As it were, the Jonathan administration is confronted with these deadly battles in the Northeast and in Central Nigeria. The two battle fronts have contributed in making Nigeria anarchic. People are being slaughtered daily and means of livelihood and hopes shattered. Government is overstretched. This is to reaffirm that Jonathan is the most besieged president in Nigeria’s post-independence history. No other president had faced this kind of situation.

The spate of killings and destruction of property attributed to Fulani herdsmen in recent times across Nigeria’s North-Central region down to the Middle Belt and even to the southern parts of the country is worrisome. The development has raised questions on whether or not the perpetrators of the dastardly acts are really Fulani herdsmen or some other groups hiding under the name to commit havoc. Have the security agencies confirmed that the attackers slaughtering hapless villagers and setting houses ablaze across the northern landscape, particularly, Benue and Plateau states, are really cattle Fulani?

The traditional Fulani herdsmen we know are lanky and docile in outlook and don’t appear dangerous when herding their animals. They move with their herds of livestock in loose flowing robe, with round raffia hat and long stick across their shoulders. The known ammunition they carry is bows and arrows, used to defend their livestock from wild animals and intruders. Real Fulani herdsmen don’t carry AK47 assault riffles, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons as being reported.

Are these the ones launching the series of reported attacks real Fulani herdsmen? If so, how come they have morphed into a band of marauders who abandon their livestock to attack villages? Where are the livestock kept when they are engaged in attacks? There seems to be no traces of livestock, which would be difficult to control in the event of gun battle and arson

as is rampant in the Middle Belt. The attacks are well- organised. The marauders wreak havoc and disappear without dead livestock littering the areas.

If the attackers are truly Fulani herdsmen, then, the country has a serious challenge at hand. Finding a lasting solution would remain a daunting task even after the Boko Haram crisis is over. The cattle Fulani need large grazing fields for their livestock, which is not easy to come by without the full cooperation of all the state governments in the North. The problem arose because much of the hitherto grazing reserves in the North have been overtaken by desertification after they were abandoned. The solution is to provide grazing lands for the herdsmen. But if the marauders are not Fulani herdsmen but some nefarious elements hiding under the name to cause havoc, then the security apparatuses should be more circumspect and brace up for battle. So far, there has been no serious military deployment to confront the attackers and that explains why they seemed to be having a field day.

One is inclined to think that though the Fulani herdsmen are facing precarious situation due to dwindling grazing lands, the problem does not exist only in Nigeria but throughout the entire Sahel region of Africa. Fulani herdsmen are found in countries like Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, Sudan, to as far as Egypt, among others. These countries suffer more from desertification than Nigeria. Nigeria is not the worst hit.

Why are the Fulani herdsmen in the other countries that face even harsher environmental condition, not slaughtering their countrymen as the herdsmen in Nigeria are doing?

This is why I think that some elements are hiding under the Fulani herdsmen to commit havoc and by so doing blackmail the government. Worsening insecurity is one weapon critics of the Jonathan administration have used against him. But the whole thing seems to be contrived. The battles seem to be stage-managed.

There is need to establish the veracity of this matter and not just rely on unverified information. Nowadays, amid the insecurity plaguing the nation, it seems that different groups are on the rampage to destabilise the country.

There are the Boko Haram guerillas; there are “unidentified gunmen” and there are Fulani

herdsmen. Each group is as vicious as the other.

Apart from the Boko Haram attacks in the Northeast, the other attacks in Central Nigeria are attributed to either “unidentified gunmen” or Fulani herdsmen, a situation that complicates the nation’s security. Who are the “unidentified gunmen”? Has anyone been captured and identified to make things easy? The country can’t be fighting with “unidentified gunmen”. Fighting unknown enemy is more daunting than the contrary.

Whereas, the Boko Haram crisis appears to be defined, the other equally brutal attacks are undefined. No one is held responsible. Usually, the marauding attackers wreak havoc at night and disappear with no trace. Thousands of people have been killed. And each time this happens, the nation’s security is stunned; they remain transfixed until another round of attack is perpetrated. I am persuaded to pry into this matter because the cattle Fulani or Fulani herdsmen did not start rearing livestock today.

If they are the ones staging the attacks, why are they restive in Nigeria than elsewhere? Why is their situation different here?

There is no doubt that things have changed.

Most of the vast dry hinterland that formed the traditional grazing lands has been overtaken by development and desert encroachment.

This has forced the Fulani herdsmen to migrate southwards into non-traditional grazing lands used by sedentary farmers. Cattle rearing and sedentary farming don’t go together. It is the failure of the states governments (Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna), with large populations of herders to preserve the traditional grazing lands that is at the root of the problem. The only way out is for those states to resuscitate the grazing reserves as a major agricultural revitalization programme.

On that note, the bill at the National Assembly (NASS) to establish National Grazing Routes and Reserves comes to mind but with a caveat.

The North is the traditional ecological home for commercial cattle rearing. While it is proper for the state governments in the North to establish grazing reserves, it would be improper to require states in the South to do the same. The South is rainforest and is ecologically unsuitable for cattle grazing. Besides, there is land scarcity in many parts of the South.

Nigeria has distinct ecological zones that more or less determine the traditional occupa-

tion of the inhabitants. From the coastlines northwards is the mangrove swamp, rainforest, Guinea Savanna, Sudan Savanna, and Sahel Savanna. The rainforest which broadly extends from the coast to the north of Enugu, Abia, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states is dominated by trees in a dense jungle ecosystem. This zone is suitable for the production of root crops and is most unsuitable for cattle rearing. There is also the presence of tsetse flies that harm livestock.

North of this zone is the extensive Savanna belt with its characteristic, more open country and short trees intermingled with grasses. This zone, which extends to the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert, is the traditional home for cattle rearing. The land in this zone doubles what you have in the South.

It is political and wrong-headed for anyone to propose a bill that requires every state in the federation to establish grazing reserves for the Cattle Fulani. Where in the Niger Delta and Southeast would the grazing reserves be established? Where will Lagos State establish grazing reserves? Given the acute land scarcity in the South, where will the populations in these areas do their traditional farming occupation?

It looks like some people want to ride on the back of the cattle Fulani to reach and occupy the South. That would breed more communal strife between the indigenous populations and the herders. That way, the aim is defeated.

Since the North has more extensive landmass, which is the traditional home for cattle rearing, the states in the area should be required by law, to reactivate the grazing reserves. The fishermen in the Niger Delta, whose waters have been polluted by oil, are not asking for freshwater body upland to carry on with their fishing activities. Similarly, the farmers in the Southeast, whose lands have been devastated by erosion, are not looking elsewhere for land to continue their farming activities.

In the same vein, the cattle Fulani should not expect to have the entire Nigerian landscape given to them for livestock herding. It is easier to create grazing reserves by irrigation in the North than to clean up oil-polluted waters or reclaim erosion-devastated badlands in the Southeast. The state governments in the North should embrace the challenge of providing grazing reserves for their herdsmen.

How the Ukraine crisis ends

By Henry Kissinger UBLIC discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But P do we know where we are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins.

Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between them.

Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United States.

The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there.

Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709, were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet – Russia’s means of projecting power in the Mediterranean – is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.

The European Union must recognize that its bureaucratic dilatoriness and subordination of the strategic element to domestic politics in negotiating Ukraine’s relationship to Europe contributed to turning a negotiation into a crisis. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities.

The Ukrainians are the decisive element. They live in a country with a complex history and a polyglot composition. The Western part was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939, when Stalin

and Hitler divided up the spoils. Crimea, 60 per cent of whose population is Russian, became part of Ukraine only in 1954 , when Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian by birth, awarded it as part of the 300th-year celebration of a Russian agreement with the Cossacks. The West is largely Catholic; the East largely Russian Orthodox. The West speaks Ukrainian; the East speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate the other – as has been the pattern – would lead eventually to civil war or breakup. To treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation would scuttle for decades any prospect to bring Russia and the West – especially Russia and Europe – into a cooperative international system.

Ukraine has been independent for only 23 years; it had previously been under some kind of foreign rule since the 14th century. Not surprisingly, its leaders have not learned the art of compromise, even less of historical perspective. The politics of post-independence Ukraine clearly demonstrates that the root of the problem lies in efforts by Ukrainian politicians to impose their will on recalcitrant parts of the country, first by one faction, then by the other. That is the essence of the conflict between Viktor Yanukovych and his principal political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko. They represent the two wings of Ukraine and have not been willing to share power. A wise U.S. policy toward Ukraine would seek a way for the two parts of the country to cooperate with each other. We should seek reconciliation, not the domination of a faction.

Russia and the West, and least of all the various factions in Ukraine, have not acted on this principle. Each has made the situation worse. Russia would not be able to impose a military solution without isolating itself at a time when many of its borders are already precarious. For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.

Putin should come to realize that, whatever his grievances, a policy of military impositions would produce another Cold War. For its part, the United States needs to avoid treating Rus-

sia as an aberrant to be patiently taught rules of conduct established by Washington. Putin is a serious strategist – on the premises of Russian history. Understanding U.S. values and psychology are not his strong suits. Nor has understanding Russian history and psychology been a strong point of U.S. policymakers.

Leaders of all sides should return to examining outcomes, not compete in posturing. Here is my notion of an outcome compatible with the values and security interests of all sides: • Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political associations, including with Europe.

• Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago, when it last came up.

• Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. Internationally, they should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland. That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia.

•It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to annex Crimea. But it should be possible to put Crimea’s relationship to Ukraine on a less fraught basis. To that end, Russia would recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections held in the presence of international observers. The process would include removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.

These are principles, not prescriptions. People familiar with the region will know that not all of them will be palatable to all parties. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction. If some solution based on these or comparable elements is not achieved, the drift toward confrontation will accelerate.

The time for that will come soon enough.

• Kissinger was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. The article was

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

14 Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Opinion The listening Pope on his way here

By Bashorun Randle NCE word got out that Pope Francis I is on his O way to Abuja, Nigeria for the World Economic Forum on Africa, the scramble by other world leaders to sign on has become frenetic. Virtually, all the G-7 leaders are coming just to shaft Vladimir Putin the President of Russia for invading Crimea and posing a very serious threat to the rest of Ukraine. They have refused to show up for the G-8 meeting scheduled to hold from June 4-5, 2014 in Sochi, Russia where the winter Olympic Games were recently concluded.

Barack Obama (United States of America); David Cameron (Great Britain); Angela Merkel (Germany); Stephen Harper (Canada); Francois Hollande (France); Matteo Renzi (Italy); and Shinzo Abe (Japan) have declared their passion for Africa and are determined to follow the lead provided by the Holy Father who has no Army, Navy nor Air Force. The Pontiff’s only weapons are his faith and his Bible. As for Russia, Vladimir Putin is not waiting to be invited. Being a former KGB officer, he has decided to “boycott” the G7 by showing up in Abuja. It has become a game of political chess being played according to the rules of poker.

While in Nigeria, the Pope and the other world leaders are determined to get to the root of the over-domination of the accountancy profession by only four firms – “The Big Four”.

Ironically, as a pre-emptive strike, President Goodluck Jonathan has visited Pope Francis I in the most sacred sanctum of the Vatican.

The Holy Father was moved by the spirit to launch his own pre-emptive strike by putting his own house (the Vatican) in order before venturing further afield into the murky and complex matter of political accountability, financial transparency and corporate governance.

Hence, the other day, Pope Francis launched the campaign to clean up the financial affairs of the Vatican by appointing eight cardinals and seven lay financial professionals from around the world to serve on a new Council for the Economy, which will oversee the Secretariat for the Economy created by the Holy Father towards the end of February 2014 and headed by Cardinal George Pell who is an Australian. What is truly remarkable is that the membership of the council is

spread among 12 nations. There are only two Italians and one American – Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and vice-president of the U.S bishops’ conference.

For the records, the “Seventy Senior Elders” (chartered accountants) can claim some credit for the zeal with which the Holy Father is pursuing his reform agenda at the Vatican. We started by prodding the last pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI after whose retirement we zeroed in on the new Pope. We are truly delighted that the Council’s most senior lay member is Joseph F.X. Zahra who started off as Director of Malta’s Central Bank and proceeded to serve on the board of various international organisations. He has established a well-earned reputation for integrity and diligence. The Holy Father himself declared on CNN that his main focus are not the trappings of office but on evangelization and pastoral activities which will be driven by genuine transformation of the spirit of the church.

Simultaneously, the pontiff is determined to institutionalize transparency and checks and balances in the way the Vatican functions. Most emphatically, Pope Francis I wants to free up resources to serve the poor, the downtrodden, the hopeless and the helpless. That is precisely why he is heading for Abuja. Transformation and spiritual cleansing are right at the top of the Holy Father’s agenda.

Ahead of the World Economic Forum on Africa, all the delegates (as well as those who were in Davos) have been provided with the following extract from the interview Joseph F.X. Zahra granted to Globe newspaper (John Allen), Al Jazeera and BBC (Zainab Badawi’s Hardtalk): Globe: In layman’s terms, what’s the role of the new Council for the Economy?

Zahra: It’s part of a broad reform which has three components. The first is the new Secretariat for the Economy, which has been put on the same level as the Secretariat of State. [Note: By tradition, the Secretariat of State is the most powerful department in the Vatican.] It will be responsible for overseeing all the Vatican’s economic functions, including finances, procurement, human resources and so on.

The second is the Council for the Economy, which is not merely a consultative body. It has

authority over the new secretariat and other economic departments. All annual budgets and financial statements will have to be approved by it. This is the first time at such a high level there’s been a council in which cardinals and laity are full members with the same voting rights.

The third element is the Auditor General, who will be appointed by the Pope and who will report directly to him. The auditor general will conduct annual reviews of accounts, but also has the authority to carry out special investigations if they are required.

Bishops have long complained that it’s impossible to get a straight answer from the Vatican about how much money it actually has. One year from now, will you know the answer?

That’s the idea, to be in a much stronger position to get the full picture of the Vatican’s financial situation. It’s a new venture and I can’t give any guarantees, but this is absolutely one of the reasons the council was created.

Once you have the information, will you make it public?

The pope wants transparency. We have to meet and discuss what we’re going to do, but it’s reasonable to explain that whatever’s released will have more detail than the current annual financial statement.

Can you promise that once this system is up and running, there won’t be any more scandals?

In addition to transparency, we’ll also have checks and balances. In the business world we call it the “four eyes approach.” We’re building a system of controls that will ensure these scandals never happen again.

The Financial Information Authority provides another mechanism to look into suspicious transactions and take action. We’re going to have a complete landscape of proper governance.

What’s your experience as a lay person in a clerical world?

The issue isn’t whether one is a lay person or a cleric, because it’s always a question of personality and character. The trick is building relationships. We’ve had a difficult six or seven months because of the rhythm which the pope wanted us to work, but that has nothing to do with dealing with clergy.

Our commission, made up almost entirely of

laity, made a number of recommendations for reform that have been accepted. That says a lot about the willingness of the prelates in the Vatican to listen.

Have you run into an old guard in the Vatican resistant to reform?

Anytime an institution tries to change there’s always resistance. I would say the level of resistance we’ve run into so far is no different than I have encountered in any corporation or government. What people have to understand is that holding on to the status quo is unsustainable, that they have to move with the times.

Pell has said he believes that within a short time millions, if not tens of millions, can be saved. Is that realistic?

The Pope wants to avoid duplication and waste, and to move in the direction of simplification and rationalization. If we do that, money will be saved. I don’t know how much, but if we’re going to be effective there’s no point in aiming at hundreds or thousands. We need to set the bar high and think in terms of millions.

For the Pope, saving money isn’t an end in itself.

He says this money is supposed to serve the mission of the church, especially helping the poor and marginalised. He wants it to go to healthcare, education and development, as well as evangelisation and pastoral activities.

There aren’t any women on the council. Why not?

The Pope has spoken strongly about the role of women and the absence of a woman on this one council in no way means they’re being barred or shut out. It’s more about the fact that the Pope wanted to move fast. Five to seven lay members were members of the study commission, while another is an advisor to the Prefecture of Economic Affairs, so they’re all known quantities.

As we get going, there’s nothing to stop us from drawing on advisors and consultants, and some of those people will definitely be women.

As the Holy Father has made it known that he is considering wading into the protest by the “Seventy Senior Elders” against the “Big Four” international accountancy firms, Joseph F.X. Zahra has provided Pope Francis I with the “Red Book” (List of Reported Accounting Scandals).

• Randle, chartered accountant, wrote from Lagos.

Arogbofa and the Signal Corps bond

By Eric Teniola T seems a tradition for officers of the Signal Corps of the NigerIofian Army to be given political appointments. The appointment Brig.-Gen. (rtd.) Jones Oladeinde Arogbofa as Chief of Staff to the President appears a continuation of that tradition.

There was General Murtala Ramat Muhammad (1938-1976). After gaining his school certificate at the Government (now Barewa) College in Zaria in 1957, Muhammed enlisted in the Nigerian Army and was sent to Britain for training at Sandhurst Royal Academy as an officer cadet. His training completed in 1961, he returned to Nigeria as a commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and was posted to the Army Signals.

Murtala took his first political appointment as Minister of Communications in replacement of Chief Joseph Sarwuan Tarka (19321980) on August 7, 1974, which he combined with his military duties at Apapa. He was holding both offices when he was named Nigeria’s new Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on July 29, 1975.

There is also David Bonaventure Alachenu Mark (66), a man some claimed is addicted to power. He enlisted in the Military School, Zaria, 1962-1970, Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was commissioned into the Nigerian Army Corps of Signals and promoted Lieutenant in 1970. He served in other capacities before his appointment as Military Governor of Niger State and later Minister of Communications, 1987-90. For the past 15 years, Mark has been a Senator and for the past seven years he has been the Senate President.

There is Major General (rtd.) Abubakar Tanko Ayuba (69). He enlisted in the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1967, and proceeded to the School of Signals, Blandford Camp, UK, 1970, U.S. Army SouthEastern Signals School, Georgia, USA; Command and Staff College, Jaji, 1978-1979; joined Nigerian Armed Forces, commissioned second lieutenant, Signals Corps 1967 among others, long before his appointment as Military Governor of Kaduna State, 1990. He represented Kebbi South in the Senate between 2007-2011, a seat now occupied by Major General Muhammed Magoro (rtd.).

There is also Brigadier General Alagbe Raji Rasaki (rtd.) (66) who enlisted in Nigeria Military School from 1962-1966, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna 1967-1970, Command and Staff College,

Jaji, 1977-1978; joined Nigerian Armed Forces, commissioned second lieutenant, 1970 to rise to commander, Signals Brigade, 19781980. He was military governor, Ogun State, 1986-July 1988, appointed military governor, Lagos State, July 1988.

Major General (rtd.) Leo Segun Ajiborisha (66) was also once Commandant of the Corps of Signals. He has also served as Principal Staff Officer to the former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar between 1998-1999. That post is the same as Chief of Staff in the modern day era.

The office of Chief of Staff was created by President Olusegun Obasanjo when he became President on May 29, 1999. Incidentally, Brigadier General Arogbofa was one of the Principal Officers to Major General Ajiborisha when he was the Commandant of the Signals. He was at the Apapa house of Major General Ajiborisha when officers behind the failed coup of Major Gideon Orkar on April 22, 1990 stormed the house. How General Arogbofa escaped on that day is still a mystery. Gen. Ajiborisha who was the first Governor of Osun State, now lives quietly in Apapa, Lagos. He is of the Olorogun Adodo and Onimole Families in Isale-Eko, Lagos. His father is from Epe while his other name is Musa. Other members of that family include Chief Rex Ajibodu, Mr. Murphy Ojikutu, Mrs. Derin Osoba, Otunba Gbenga Tiamiyu, Hon. Femi Onimole and Dr. Jide Bawala.

There was Col. John David Dungs (rtd.) former Governor of Delta State. He too is from the Corps of Signals. He is a governorship aspirant in Plateau State.

We often talk of espirit de corps among serving or retired officers within the Military. That of the Signals Corps of the Nigerian Army is the strongest. For example, when the former Governor of Lagos State, Brigadier-Gen. Raji Rasaki wanted a DFRI director in Lagos State, he picked on Brigadier-Gen. Arogbofa. Three years ago, when the same General Raji Rasaki wanted to be Governor of Oyo State, he picked on the same Arogbofa to be his campaign manager, even though he is from Oka in Ondo State.

There is an abiding trust among officers of the Signals Corps which cannot be explained. They treat themselves as brothers irrespective of tribe and religion. In 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo retired all military officers who had held political appointments in the past, Arogbofa was among those retired. His greatest regret was that he did not make it to the rank of Major

General or be appointed the Commandant of Corp of Signals.

Since his retirement, with his family away in the United States, Arogbofa jogs daily at his Ogudu residence in Lagos along with his best friend Group Captain Banky Ladele, who was also retired

by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Very often he will visit egbon, Col. Olu Craig (rtd.) who also lives at Ogudu GRA estate in Lagos.

To his credit, he is a good neighbour and a member of the Redeem Christian Church of God partaking in the Church activities.

His name was not among those rumoured to be Chief of Staff to the President but I am aware that his brother, Seinde Arogbofa is the Secretary of Afenifere. Why the President picked him, only the President can explain. His friends, among others, include Remi Omosowon, a school proprietor and Mr. Segun Oni, former governor of Ekiti State whom he met at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

The expectations among serving and retired officers of the Corps of Signals are that Arogbofa will perform well and be loyal to the President. We are going to see more of him in the media but not likely to hear much from him. By the nature of that job, he is to be seen and not to be heard. Unlike Ministers or Heads of Government agencies, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President has no budget to defend before any Committee of the National Assembly.

Brigadier Arogbofa is to work in the background, accountable only to the President and his conscience. I read in the papers recently that the people of Fugar in Edo State were rejoicing over the removal of their son, Mike Oghadiome as Chief of Staff to the President because unlike their late hero, Admiral Okhai Mike Ahkigbe, he never brought any development project to Fugar. The people of Fugar must know more of Mike Oghadiome that we do not know about and the office he once occupied. I hope the people of Oka in Ondo State will not rejoice too, after the tenure of Brigadier General Arogbofa as Chief of Staff to the President.

The post is not a miracle post. The Chief of Staff does not have absolute power like that of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation or the Minister of Finance or the Governor of Central Bank or even that of the Minister of Petroleum Resources. His major power is access to the President. That in itself is power.

• Teniola, a former director at the Presidency, now lives in Lagos.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 15

Focus A high price for neglecting nomads All over the country, Fulani herdsmen have been involved in violent clashes with farmers in local communities, resulting in loss of lives and destruction of homes and properties. ROTIMI LAWRENCE OYEKANMI reviews the establishment of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) in 1989, which was intended to integrate the nomads into the society and how the federal government’s failure to strengthen it over the years, has led to unintended consequences.

YNICS had erupted in an unprecedented C uproar in the late 80s, when the idea of establishing a commission for nomadic education was mooted under the defunct Ibrahim Babangida administration.

Jubril Aminu, Professor of Medicine and a Fulani from Adamawa state, who was the country’s Education Minister at that time, was believed to have conceived the idea. But due to his controversial nature, cynics had accused Aminu of trying to favour his kinsmen at the expense of other parts of the country.

There have been previous attempts, as far back as 1953 and later in the 70s, to establish schools for the nomads in the old Katsina province, North Eastern Region and even in Benue and Plateau states. But most of the schools collapsed due to design and delivery problems.

Nonetheless, the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) was established as one of the parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) via Decree 41 on December 12, 1989, to provide education of good quality for migrant farmers, fisherfolk and pastoralists. But Aminu left office shortly after the commission was established, and was succeeded by the late Prof Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, who wisely brushed aside calls by the same cynics, asking him to scrap the commission, and went ahead to solidify it. But he also spent barely two years. Since then, the commission had suffered chronic underfunding, and had been struggling to fulfill its mandate.

Today, Nigeria is paying a heavy price for neglecting the nomads. With the benefit of hindsight, Aminu’s action was probably based on his foresight. There is barely any region in the country at the moment, where the nomads have not clashed violently with the local people, leading to loss of lives and destruction of properties. With lack of basic education and their harsh living conditions, necessitated by their constant movement across hundreds of kilometeres, day and night, to find fresh pasture and water for their cattle, it was certain that the nomads would, from time to time, get involved in fatal skirmishes with rural farmers who would not tolerate the invasion of their cultivated farmlands by some errant cattle.

For instance, both Kaduna and Benue states are currently under attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen. According to recent reports, several killings and wanton destruction of properties were first recorded in Birnin Gwari and Makarfi local council areas in northern Kaduna, in the last quarter of 2013, while the southern part of the state is also now experiencing deadly clashes. Two Saturdays ago, more than 100 people were killed in the Ungwar Gata and Chenshyi villages under the Kaura local council area of the state, after an invasion by cattle rustlers, who were armed with guns and other sophisticated weapons.

The situation was so bad that the President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Dr Ephraim Goje asked the state’s Commissioner of Police and the General Commanding Officer 9GOC) of the First Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, to relocate their offices to Kaura.

Also at the weekend, 45 persons were feared dead in Gbajimba, headquarters of Guma Local Council of Benue State, during a bloody clash between Tiv farmers and suspected Fulani fighters. This is coming on the heels of another bomb attack by the Boko Haram insurgents on a crowded market in Bama village, which killed not less than 20 people.

And in Plateau state, another bloody clash was averted by security men when gunmen, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, stormed Rantya Low Cost area of Nyago Gyel District of Jos South local council and began shooting sporadically.

Why are the Fulani herdmen so aggressive?

In a paper she presented at a workshop on Adult and Non Formal Education in 2008, the former Executive Secretary of the NCNE, Dr

A nomad with his cattle

Aderinoye Nafisatu Muhammad gave an insight into the nature of the nomads.

Quoting Shazali & Ahmed (1999) and Muhammad (2004), she linked the “precarious nature” of nomads’ existence to the increasing threats, “occassioned by pressures from population explosion, intense competition over scarce natural resources, culminating in farmer-pastoralists conflicts resulting in tragic consequences; and a host of other pressures associated with a situation of excessive growth rates of both human and livestock populations, which local environments cannot effectively sustain.”

Some analysts are also pointing to the ability of Boko Haram’s sponsors to recruit northern youths for their campaigns, to the prevalent illiteracy in the North Eastern part of the country, especially Bornu state, the epicenter of the insurgency. Had many of the youths been educated, they argued, it would have been difficult for anybody to hoodwink them with religious sentiments and turn them into extremists.

Muhammad also identified three main dynamics that tend to exacerbate the existence of the nomads, which could also explain their aggressive nature. The first factor, she explained is the “sheer neglect by governments of the development of the indigenous economies of the nomads, in spite of the substantial contributions such economies make to the national economy, through sustained livestock and dairy productions.” Second, she stated, is “the perception of pastoralism as unfriendly to the environment, which has made it difficult to guarantee the protection of the rights of the pastoralists to gain their livelihood from the land in many parts of the country.”

And thirdly is the “individual characteristics of the nomads including illiteracy, attitudes, beliefs, values, motivation and limited exposure, which profoundly affect the development of their indigenous economies.”

She added: “Until recently, for the vast majority of the pastoralists and migrant fisherfolk, formal education was not accessible. Young chil-

Muhammad dren of school age of both sexes even today, are often engaged in animal husbandry practices (such as herd grazing and dairy production) or fishing on high seas and rivers, instead of being enrolled into schools. This lack of formal education puts the nomads at significant disadvantage in the society, lacking both the necessary political awareness and enlightened members, who could organize them into pressure groups that would pursue their interests and lobby governments at local, state and federal levels to address those interests and other development issues.”

With the recent appointment of Prof Rashid Aderinoye as the commission’s Executive Secretary, a radical turnaround is envisaged.

The commission is expected to put lofty arguments forward to fast track its activities and move at a geometric rather than arithmetic rate to achieve its objectives. The results of the recent mapping of nomadic schools in selected communities in five states that enjoy the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), underscored the urgent need.

The objectives of the study were to, among other things: generate evidenced data on nomadic girl child enrolment, retention, progression and transition; engender enrolment, retention, progression and transition in nomadic schools; identify factors impeding the effective participation of the girl -child and to create awareness among parents and stakeholders on the importance of girl child education.

The exercise was conducted in selected schools within the nomadic communities in Bauchi, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi states. Twenty per cent of the nomadic schools in each state were sampled and instruments were administered to teachers, pupils and parents all aimed at getting information.

The study revealed that the rates of enrolment, attendance, completion and transition of girls in nomadic schools were abysmally low. There was a wide disparity in favour of males, while participation of the girls dropped significantly

at upper primary levels – 4, 5 and 6. Majority of the girls could not complete primary six and could not have the opportunity to transit to Junior Secondary School.

About eighty per cent of the schools visited in Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi and 50 per cent in Zamfara and Niger, had permanent structures, although, they were mostly in deplorable conditions. All the schools lacked recreational and sports facilities. In relation to the number of pupils in the schools, the classrooms and furniture were inadequate as majority of children sit on the floor and some classes were under tree shades.

Sixty per cent of the schools visited had multigrade arrangements occasioned by inadequate number of classrooms, inadequate number of teachers, and fewer pupils per level. All the teachers reported that they had no training on multigrade methodology and were having serious challenges in coping with the situation.

Besides, in spite of the fact that the NCNE, in collaboration with Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) and UNICEF developed and produced instructional materials, the lack of funds has hindered the mass production of the textbooks for the nomadic pupils.

The teachers complained bitterly on issues of capacity development and lack of materials.

The factors found to be impeding effective participation in schooling were: ignorance on the importance of girl child education by nomadic communities; hawking of diary products; early marriage; heavy domestic chores; herding duties and lack of financial support.

Others include: absence of female teachers in the schools; teacher truancy and attrition; unfriendly school environment and fear of molestation of the girls.

The study came to the conclusion that sensitization of parents on the value of girl child education, provision of adequate teaching and learning materials and the promulgation of laws on adequate punishment for male teachers who harass girls in the upper primary classes, could encourage girls to take to schooling.

Muhammed stated that to get the nomads interested in education, they should be involved in all the processes. She said: “It is important to address the basis of people’s involvement in educational programmes. The integrated education initiative of the NCNE, which incorporates components of other community improvement and development programmes, has attracted the interests and active involvement of the nomads in the basic education programmes. Educational planners and policy makers would do well to incorporate these and other programs directed at poverty reduction on their nomadic education programmes.

“The nomads are more receptive to education delivery systems that are more flexible and that are in accord with their wishes and needs.

Young people from nomadic backgrounds can be trained to become effective teachers if it is done in a way that is both acceptable to the communities and is relevant to their needs and aspirations.

“Training and recruiting girls as teachers has a major influence on the willingness of nomadic communities and families to enroll their daughters in school. A potentially strong influence on nomads’ participation in basic education programmes is involving the nomads directly in planning and implementing policies and programmes. Greater flexibility and local control offers educational planners powerful tools to provide the best possible education to all children, particularly those most in need such as the hard-to-reach nomadic populations.

“Emphasis on culturally relevant educational materials is an important positive influence on quality of teaching and learning.

Use of ICT in the delivery of basic education supports and improves the quality of classroom instruction and strengthens teacher quality.”

And more importantly, it has been argued that NCNE’s programmes should be included on the Universal Basic Education (UBE) funding scheme.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

16 Tuesday, March 25, 2014

TheMetroSection Suspected armed robber meets Waterloo while selling stolen car From John Akubo, Dutse

The car thief looked desperate to sell the car, hence, we pretended to be assisting him with a client that would buy the car. We quickly notified the police, who came in mufti, posing as prospective buyers...

The suspect...and the stolen car tive buyers.”

Items recovered included: the Honda Accord car, one Berretta pistol with four rounds of live ammunition and the sum of N5, 500.

The commissioner warned armed

robbers to steer clear of the state because any hoodlum who makes any attempt to commit crime in the state, would also be eliminated.

He assured the public of the commitment of the Police Command to-

From Charles Coffie Gyamfi, Abeokuta HE Ogun State Governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, T Abeokuta would have been gutted by fire yesterday but for the quick intervention of the men of the State Fire Service.

The fire, which began at 11:00 am from the Protocol Department of the office complex, spread to the office of the Head of Service. Attempts by the staff to put off the fire before the arrival of the firemen failed, forcing them to break the louvers to enable them evacuate some properties. Properties de-

stroyed included computers, furniture and some files.

The State Executive Council meeting that was holding at the time of the incident was suspended briefly and Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his cabinet members rushed to the scene to assess the extent of damage.

Amosun in a brief remark stated: “We thank God that no life was lost and no one sustained an injury”.

The Head of Service, Mrs. Modupe Adekunle, who addressed journalists disclosed that the fire ig-

nited from an air-conditioner at the Protocol department.

“It was a power surge from the air-conditioner, it came suddenly. There were some officers in that office, so when they saw it, they tried all means to put out the fire. The only thing affected there were just some sets of computer,” she stated.

She added: “The cause of the fire might be from the Independent Power Supply or Public Power Supply since we do not have a generating set here, but we thank God that the damage was very minimal.”

Catholic knights walk to protest against ‘evil of abortion’ ORRIED by the rising W cases of abortion and attempts to legalise the act, the Knights of Saints Mulumba (KSM) of the Catholic Church, Lagos Metropolitan Council over the weekend took to the streets to campaign against what they termed ‘the evil of abortion.’ The Knights insisted that the child in the womb is a human being from the moment of conception.

The five-kilometre rally, which took place from the Church of Annunciation, Abraham Adesanya Estate, Ajah and terminated at Catholic of the Transfiguration, focused on the dangers of abortion with the theme, ‘’The human family: A fountain of grace’’.

Addressing the press shortly after the rally, Metropolitan Grand Knight, Dr. Charles Mbelede, raised an alarm that the society needed to shun any idea of abortion.

Mbelede explained: “The child in the womb is a human being from the moment of

HE death has occurred of Madam Ndidi Angelina T Ujomu at the age of 88.

wards protecting lives and property in the state.

He said the public should continue to assist the police with useful information because it would be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Fire outbreak in Ogun governor’s office

By Chukwuma Muanya

Ndidi Ujomu , 88, for burial April 4 A statement by her son-inlaw, Nduka Mike Okonji, says; “ A service of songs holds on Thursday, April 3, at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, Ibusa, Delta State at 6.00p.m.

Funeral Mass holds on Friday, April 4, at the same church, at 10.00a.m. to be followed by interment at the family compound at No. 48, Umejei Road, Umuja Umuezebo Ogbowele Quarters, Ibusa, Delta State.

Outing service holds on Sunday, April 6, at the same church at 9.00a.m.

Condolence visits and funeral ceremonies continue on Saturday, April 5.

She is survived by Mr. Anthony Ujomu, Mrs. Christiana Adichie, Mr. Sylve Ujomu and others.

OLLOWING a tip-off from patriotic Frobber members of the public, an armed met his waterloo along KiyawaBuji Road in Jigawa State while attempting to dispose a stolen Honda with Registration Number RSH 748 SG. The State Commissioner of Police Kayode Theophilus, who briefed newsmen in his office, said a team of anti-robbery personnel from the Jigawa State Police Command and the Monitoring Unit with the assistance of Ali Kwara, pretended to be buyers.

The suspect later realised that they were there to arrest him hence he brought out his gun and engaged the police in a gun duel. Theophilus confirmed that the suspected armed robber was gunned down.

It was gathered that the car was stolen from Abuja.

According to an eyewitness, who did not want his name on print, “the car thief looked desperate to sell the car, hence, we pretended to be assisting him with a client that would buy the car. We quickly notified the police who came in mufti, posing as prospec-

Briefs

conception and any attempt to terminate it makes you a killer. Pro-life programme was designed to demonstrate their fate, which taught them life is sacred from the moment of conception till death.”

Mbelede, however, admitted that there have been challenges in carrying out the campaign. ‘’One of our challenges is the erosion of our cultural values.

Our values as Nigerians have been Westernised. Thus, some find it hard to accept our advocacy for protection of human life through shunning abortion, and the use of contraceptives among others.

But the truth is that, there is nothing like unwanted pregnancy. Every conception is God’s gracious gift to mankind, and should be protected.’’

He, therefore, reiterated the need for singles to dissuade from pre-marital sex, adding if any reason pregnancy occurs, either between married couples or singles, it must be preserved.

A cross-section of Knights of Saints Mulumba (KSM) of the Catholic Church, Lagos Metropolitan Council at the event “We need to control ourselves. We have to be sexually disciplined,’’ Mbelede said.

The Deputy Metropolitan Grant Knight, Egbert Imomoh, admitted that having unwanted baby at times could be stressful and demanding in which some people might not be able to withstand the pressure. But, they have designed special package to bring succour to the victim.

Imomoh added: ‘’To assist women with unwanted preg-

nancies, the Catholic Church has opened centres where they can deliver and be taken care of part of which, is Hosanna House. Also, we want to give them little amount to help them run their families and we are making available a toll free line where they can call and talk to somebody who can help them without paying for the call. And these benefits are not limited to Christians.”

The Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM) was estab-

lished in Nigeria on June 14, 1953 by the late Reverend Father Abraham Anselm Isidahome Ojefua; a Priest and Monk from Illah Monastery in present-day Delta State and modeled after the Sacred Order of Catholic Knighthood. It has a current membership of over 20,000 (both male and female).

The women wing known as the Ladies of Saint Mulumba (LSM) was inaugurated on June 24, 1978 in Calabar (present day Cross River State).

Ujomu

Group seeks govt’s assistance to check quacks in drilling industry S the world celebrated 2014 A Water Day over the weekend, the National President, Association of Water Well Drilling Rig Owners And Practitioners (AWDROP), Michael Ale, has urged government at all levels to assist the association to curb quacks and other irregularities in county's drilling industry.

He said “it is not a good idea for government to give out water projects to non- professional or political associates instead of accredited professional drillers.”

He also raised alarm over the activities of foreign drilling operators, who are not accredited or licensed by the government, insisting that the drilling business should be left in the hands of the accredited and trained Nigerian youths who are also members of AWDROP. He said: "Why are we alien in our own land? Foreigners who are drilling operators thrive well through unsecured finance from our local banks that give them upper hand to operate than many indigenous accredited drilling contractors who are qualified."

Ale disclosed that the Federal Government did not deem it fit to explore the opportunities available to ban poverty through access to safe drinking water by using professional drillers and supporting small scale drilling industry

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

17

Cathedral Circle dedicates Rock Apartments to senior citizens

By Wole Oyebade ERIATRICS care in Nigeria received a boost last weekend as Cathedral Circle dedicated its new ultra-modern facility - The Rock Apartments, located in Ibeshe, Ikorodu, Lagos – to cater for senior citizens in the country.

The centre, courtesy of the Cathedral Circle of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, is first of such facilities to be solely dedicated to the care of the elderly in Nigeria.

The 2.2-acre centre comprises a social welfare building, five bungalows and a chapel of worship for residents among other social amenities that make life comfortable.

Dedicating the apartments last Saturday, Diocesan Bishop of Lagos and Dean Emeritus Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Adebola Ademowo said the apartments was “a show of concern, magnanimity and charity” towards the aged in the society.

Located in a spacious and quiet ambience of Ibeshe suburb of Lagos, the facility aims to set a standard in the care of the elderly and re-

G

verse the plight of senior citizens in the country.

Caring for the senior citizen is quite demanding and the structure on ground appears set to offer best of services in geriatrics.

The social welfare centre, donated by Modupe and Folorunso Alakija, is to meet their medical needs and other requirements that are characteristic of aging. The building has a doctors’ clinic, dispensary and treatment room. Others are kitchen, toilet and shower facilities, and a common dining room of 20-seater.

Besides the welfare centre, Chief Ernest Shonekan donated one of the three bungalows Type A, to be occupied by residents. The bungalow consists of four self-contained apartments, each of which has a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, one sitting room and a kitchenette. Each apartment flows into a large central lounge/sitting room for the common use of all tenants.

There are altogether three numbers of Type A bungalow houses in the Rock Apartment. Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun and Mr. Modupe and Mrs. Folorunso Alakija donated the other two.

NDDC donates 696-bed hostel to UNIBEN HUGE burden has been lifted at the University of Benin A (UNIBEN), as students who have been experiencing accommodation difficulties on campus now have access to a 696-bed, modern hostel built and delivered by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), according to a statement by the Head, Corporate Affairs, Ibitoye Abosede.

He said the commissioning and handing over of the hostel turned the Ugbowo campus of UNIBEN into a carnival ground, at which key officers of the university community acknowledged NDDC’s gesture as worthwhile, amidst intermittent drumming and singing by a large crowd of students.

The UNIBEN Pro-Chancellor and Governing Council Chairman, Senator Effiong Bob, commended NDDC for fulfilling its mandate of intervening in circumstances as this.

He said: “I thank the NDDC for a job well done.”

Speaking on the impact of the project, the President of the Student Union Government (SUG), Osifo Osasere Favour, said: “This will go a long way in solving accommodation problems in the school. We thank NDDC for this wonderful project.”

Inaugurating the hostel project, the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is also the Chairman of the Advisory Council of NDDC, thanked NDDC for building the hostel.

He said that NDDC, as an interventionist agency, has been doing a lot.

“We are impressed by the work NDDC is doing. We will do all we can to enable NDDC get funds to do more.”

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw said: “We are quite pleased to be in University of Benin today, to hand over this project to the students of this institution. This project is the second of these prototype hostel projects we are commissioning within our 100 days in office.”

Noting that the commissioning of the hostel at UNIBEN shows how important the students and youths are to NDDC, Ewa-Henshaw said: “We will pay special attention to students and youths.”

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDDC, Sir Bassey Dan-Abia, said: “The provision of this 696-bed hostel

by NDDC will contribute immensely to easing the overcrowding of hostels witnessed by our children and increase the students’ access to decent accommodation on this campus.”

PSSDC tasks public servants on transparency in public procurement UBLIC Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), Magodo, P Lagos, has urged public servants on the imperative of operating with the mindset that depicts frivolity, corruption or indiscretion use of public funds as an erosion of a better life for generations yet unborn.

Speaking at a three-day course designed for officers of the Lagos State Public Service entitled: “Understanding Procurement Management,” Director-General of PSSDC, Mrs. Olubunmi Fabamwo stressed the need for public servants to eschew corruption and all its tendencies so as to build a society we all could be proud of. She implored them to also dispose public funds and property in their care with utmost integrity. Fabamwo noted that there has been a significant increase in the importance of managing the procurement function. According to her, the increase in purchasing volumes puts greater pressure on the control of costs, quality and lead-times. “The new development in the Procurement function is that buyers, in addition to managing supplies, listen to the market in order to detect new trends and technical progress resulting from technology. With the advent of economic meltdown, the Procurement function has become less operational and more strategic in nature.

Clerics and members of Christ Church Cathedral, Marina, Lagos at the dedication by the Bishop of Lagos and Dean Emeritus, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Most Reverend Adebola Ademowo, of Rock Apartments, a project of the Inner Circle Society of Christ Cathedral Church at Ibeshe, Ikorodu PHOTO: CHARLES OKOLO …on Saturday paved walkways.

Chief Michael Ade Ojo doBishop Ademowo was the He said: “The centre is not According to Ademowo: nated a Bungalow Type B in residential Chapel, also spon- going to be run by us, but we “The Rock Apartment is a memory of his late wife, Elizsored by the Alakijas, in are giving it out in partnerreplica of what we see abeth Wuraola Ojo. memory of late Christiana ship with people in hospitalabroad. All the people that The bungalow, a slightly Margaret Ayodele Alakija. ity and geriatrics care smaller version of the Type A, have donated buildings are President of the Club, Engr services. They will advise us not living for themselves consists of four self-conSegun Adeyinka said the vion other necessary facilities alone, unlike others that are tained apartments. Each of sion of the apartments for and that may take another busy stacking away monies the apartments, however, senior citizens was to enthree months.” and not ready to help othconsists of one bed-sitter courage more provision of Adeyinka added: “It is a facilers.” with an en-suite bathroom, accommodation, comfort, ity to care for senior citizens, “You are different and it is a and one sitting room. recreation and companionand not an old people’s Like the Type A version, each lesson for us all. We came to ship to the elderly and lonely home. The senior citizens of this world with nothing and apartment also flows into a in their twilight years. like minds will come towe will take nothing away very large central lounge/sitHe said though the idea gether, play together and be from it,” he said. ting room. This sitting room dated back to 2002, the catered for by specialists. It is The Archbishop congratuhas two large balconies, each dream had come through not going to be a free event, lated President of the Circle of which contains facilities after several years of dreambut the cost will be subsifor coffee making, light cook- and members for the ing, waiting and planning. dized.” “thoughtful initiative”, deing and laundry facilities.

Adeyinka was optimistic The Cathedral Circle was scribing it as “a centre of To complement the buildthat the centre would be founded on August 7, 1977, great turnaround and breakings is a borehole and water open to the public in the with aim of promoting felthrough for the Cathedral treatment plant, 100 KVA next three months, after lowship among members Circle.” generating set, power distriwhich management logistics and service to the church.

Of particular delight to bution system, car parks and would have been sorted out.

Firm organizes skills acquisition programme for over 60 persons

By Isaac Taiwo FIRM, Cosmos Trade A Nigeria Limited, recently organized a skill acquisition programme for over 60 people in the country. The company has been in business of Ice Cream and Coffee all over Nigeria with footprints in Ghana for the past 19 years.

Speaking during the empowerment programme, the Managing Director, Mr. Tunji Olaniyi, said the organization was not just in the business of equipment and raw materials, but also giving the technical knowhow in terms of skill acquisition.

“Our commitment to skill acquisition is corroborated by our identity: “Ice Cream & Coffee University,” which we regard as the pay-off for the company.

“The reason we want to be identified with this name is because we want to make it clear to our customers that we are not only in the business of the equipment and the raw materials, but we also give the technical know-how, which is also known as skill acquisition.

“We know that having the equipment is important, but knowing the nitty-gritty of the workability of these products is also very vital and this is our own contribution to the economy. We go as far as bringing in facilitators from overseas to teach people how to acquire skills and how to set up decent and profitable cafeteria,” he said.

Olaniyi, who described the

event as about the 10th edition, having held similar trainings at Four Points, Museum and even Sheraton among others in the past, also identified their target audience as those in Ice Cream and Coffee businesses as well as those willing to go into the business all over West Africa.

“Having the Italian Console, Stefano De Leo attending this event underscores his understanding of the synergy between our Company and Italian Companies,” he said.

Commenting on the event, the Italian Console said that Italy was known for best products and expressed happiness that the Cosmos Trade Nigeria Limited is

into Ice Cream and Coffee while Italy is best known for Coffee.

“Cosmos Trade Nigeria Limited is well known and this is the reason Italy is collaborating with Ice Cream & Coffee University on having improvement on Gelato Ice Cream,” he said.

The former Governor of River State, Mr. Donald Duke, who gave a keynote address, attributed the proplem facing the nation to the shortage of skills and unemployment.

“Beneficiaries of today’s skill acquisition would acquire skills, set up business, employ people and start contributing their own quota to National Development.

“Skill acquisition is one way to improve our economy and not just education anymore.

“You learn to read and write and the next thing is to acquire skills and I have said it over and over again, that every brain untrained is a drain to our society and it has become necessary to address our entire educational system to give skill acquisition the rightful place.

“We must ensure that our educational system is such that would create value to each and everyone of us while the next thing is to invest on skill, health, infrastructure and technology and arrive at zero-employment,” he said.

Italy’s Consul General to Nigeria, Stefano De Leo (left), former Governor, Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke and Managing Director, Cosmos Trade, Tunji Olaniyi during the opening of the workshop in Lagos...recently

18

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

19

Business TCN needs $7.7b to improve power transmission HE Transmission T Company of Nigeria (TCN) would require $7.7 billion (N1.2 trillion) to expand and improve the power situation in the country.

The TCN Managing Director, Mack Kast, made this known in an interview with the NAN in Abuja yesterday.

Kast said the TCN was working on a five-year expansion plan aimed at

The TCN is working on a five-year expansion plan aimed at increasing the wheeling capacity to 10 Giga Watts (GW) by 2017, 13GW by 2018, 16GW by 2019 and 20GW by 2020. increasing the wheeling capacity to 10 gigawatt (GW) by 2017, 13GW by 2018, 16GW by 2019 and 20GW by 2020.

“What we are saying is that in the next five years, we will need about 7.7 billion dollars to expand our infrastructure and significantly

improve the power situation in the country,’’ he said.

He attributed the epileptic power to a drop in gas supply in the country, adding that the generating capacity dropped from 4,000 megawatts to 3,000

megawatts.

Kast said the electricity supply chain comprised Generation (GENCOs), Transmission (TCN) and Distribution (DISCOs), explaining that disruption to any of the segments would lead to epileptic power supply. ``We have some generation issues, the TCN has the capacity to evacuate all the power being generated right now.

``The generation capacity right now has dropped to about 3000mw. This keeps fluctuating on a daily basis due to vandalism and gas challenge,’’ he said.

The managing director said the Federal Government was working with relevant stakeholders to address the gas challenge and other issues in the power sector.

He said the investors’ conference, which began yesterday, was put together as

part of the TCN’s strategic plan to fashion out a framework for people to invest in the transmission sector. `` We hope that investors will sit with us on a round table to work out modalities for their participation in future investment.

Kast described TCN as a vital link between the effective supply and demand for power by Nigerians, and stressed the need for the sub-sector to be funded for optimum service delivery.

IFC to invest $1.5b in Nigeria HE International “We are very committed to Finance Corporation enlarge our commitment T (IFC), yesterday, unfolded and scale up our invest-

plans to invest $1.5 billion (about N246 billion) to support housing and infrastructure development in Nigeria.

Executive Vice President of IFC, Jim-Yong Cai, made this known to newsmen in Abuja shortly after a private meeting with the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala.

Cai said that the investment would focus on housing, transport and other infrastructure, especially power.

“IFC has been following what is happening in key sectors of the Nigeria’s economy and we are encouraged to join in the investment in some of them, especially housing which is important in providing homes to many citizens.

Minister of Agriculture And Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina (left) Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Shri A. R. Ghanshyam and foremost British Economist and Honorary Professor Of Economics at the University of Manchester, Terence James “Jim” O’neill at the Launch of Airtel Premier at the Eko Hotel in Lagos at the weekend.

‘Nigerians consume only 250,000 tonnes of LPG a year’

By Sulaimon Salau IGERIANS consumed only a paltry 30 per cent or 250,000 tonnes, out of the 850,000 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) reserved for domestic use last year.

The Managing Director, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Haruna Momoh, who disclosed this at the National Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) inaugural conference in Lagos, said this translates to a meagre consumption figure of 1.8 kilograms per capita, compared to the West African regional average of 3.5 kilograms.

Momoh, however said the figure had placed Nigeria among the lowest LPG consuming nations in Africa.

“There is an urgent need to reverse this trend and join the rest of the world in maximizing the benefits of

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this abundant resource,’’ he stated.

The PPMC chief said there was urgent need for action, to stimulate LPG use, suggesting that Nigeria could adopt the “Indonesian Model” to popularize LPG. He said a lot of revenue could be saved by Nigeria if the populace could embrace LPG, rather than relying on wood and kerosene for cooking.

Momoh noted that resources spent on kerosene subsidy, could be put into more productive areas, such as infrastructure development, education, health and agriculture for the welfare of citizens.

He lamented that some problems, including high cost of cylinders and accessory start-up kits, low public awareness, poor infrastructure, kerosene subsidy and a lack of investment in the value-chain had continued to make many Nigerians not to embrace

LPG. The managing director, therefore, called on stakeholders in the downstream to join forces with government to pursue the vision of deepening the use of LPG. Meanwhile, The Executive Vice-Chair of Techno Oil Ltd, Mrs Nkechi Obi, said the solution was for government to engage in gradual removal of kerosene subsidy over a period of five years to compel Nigerians to use LPG. She suggested that government should discount equivalent of 20 per cent of the value of the kerosene subsidy for every year and channel same to LPG support.

She lamented that subsidizing the consumption of kerosene was increasingly becoming harmful to Nigeria’s economy.

Obi said the savings on the subsidy could be spent on the acquisition of gas cylinders to promote utilisation

of LPG. She also urged government to invite entrepreneurs to invest in the LPG infrastructural development the same way fuel depot infrastructural development was executed and assured investors return on investments “With all sincerity, government subsidizing kerosene is not sustainable and it is also not healthy because the world has moved on and Nigeria also has to move,” she added.

Comparing Nigeria with the neighbouring countries, she said Ghana currently has per capita consumption rate of 3kg; Cameroon, 1.9kg; South Africa, 5.5kg and Morocco, 44kg.

“This is in spite of the fact that Nigeria has the highest gas reserve in Africa,’’ she stated, lamenting that over 80 per cent of the Nigerian population still depend on kerosene and wood for cooking.

ment in Nigeria,” he said.

IFC Country Manager in Nigeria, Solomon AdegbieQuaynor, said that 255 million dollars (about N39.82 billion) of the proposed investment in the country would go to Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company.

“The opportunity the IFC is going to bring is going to be much, but ultimately it is to make sure that NMRC as an institution is sustained.

“We are going to help in the area of public governance, formal under writing standards, among others,” he said.

Adegbie-Quaynor added that IFC would key into what the World Bank was already doing to improve the environment and other issues in the housing sec-

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BUSINESS Tuesday, March 25, 2014

AREF secures $100m for sub-Saharan IPPs

By Roseline Okere

The African Renewable Energy Fund (AREF) has raised $100 million for the development of grid-connected renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

The fund, set to be managed by Berkley Energy Africa, will be distributed to independent power producers (IPPs) for five to 50MW solar, small hydro, wind, geothermal, biomass and waste gas projects.

AREF said in a media statement that it will commit $10 to $30 million to the development stage of each project, and larger projects may be able to acquire additional funding.

“We hope to raise an additional $100 million for the fund within the next 12 months”.

It noted that the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the fund’s lead sponsor, contributing $65 million.

“It also brings significant financial knowledge and experience through its ties with other initiatives such as Sustainable Energy for Africa (SEFA), which will also set up a Project Support Facility to aide development at early stages to broker bankable projects.

“AfDB is also heavily involved in the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative led by the United Nations and The World Bank. SE4All strives to achieve global access to electricity and safe fuels and to double the share of renewables adoption and energy efficiency improvements worldwide — all by 2030.

“As the Africa hub for this initiative, AfDB is a “prime

catalyst for renewable energy investment on the continent,” said AfDB regional director for the East Africa Regional Resource Center Gabriel Negatu in a release.

“As Africa’s largest infrastructure finance partner, we understand the value of supporting both large-scale and smallscale projects as part of our strategy for Africa to promote inclusive and sustainable growth”.

It listed other investors to include the African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company (ABREC), which co-founded the inititaitve with AfDB, the West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Nigeriabased Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Dutch development bank N e d e r l a n d s e

FinancieringsMaatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (FMO), and the U.S.based non-profit the Calvert Foundation.

“The launch of a first pan-African dedicated renewable energy fund, with a center of gravity in Africa, sourcing a majority of its capital from Africa at an exciting time in the evolution of macroeconomic factors in Africa’s favor, presents a propitious environment for the investment of AREF,” According to Berkeley Energy’s managing partner TC Kundi “we aim to ensure that a part of Africa’s growing need for power is met through responsibly developed clean energy projects that improve the generation mix and maximize the use of local resources.”

Akpabio laments shortfall in revenue OVERNOR Godswill G Akpabio has attributed inability of his administration to execute most development projects in the state to a loss of about 44 per cent revenue collection from Federation Account last year.

Akpabio, who stated this at Ikot Abasi Council hall during a town hall meeting/constituency briefing in Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency, admitted to have collected about 36 per cent revenue in 2013 from the Federation Account.

He described the revenue shortfall as a national problem caused by crude oil theft and bunkering which adversely affected revenue accruable to the federation account and usually shared among the three tiers of government on a monthly basis.

The Governor lamented that the revenue shortfall has stifled redemption of some of his electioneering promises to people in the federal constituency and execution of projects especially roads listed in the 2013 approved budget, assuring to include some projects he could not execute in the handing-over notes to the incoming administration.

Akpabio however, announced the state government has completed 298 in the federal constituency, noting “In terms of other projects, we have done a lot for this Federal Constituency. At the inception of this administration, we promptly completed the first phase of the Ibom Power Plant, which we met at 65 per cent level of completion. We have also done 12.9 kilometers of urban roads in Ikot Abasi LGA. We have handed the old Housing Unit to the Navy and donated land for a Navy Secondary School.

According to him, “we have also built and commissioned a brand new General Hospital at Eastern Obolo with state-of-the-art equipment. The Akwa Ibom State University is sited at Mkpat Enin and not only have we invested heavily in the development of its infrastructure, the school is set to graduate its first set of students. We have also tarred 13.5 kilometers of urban roads in Mkpat Enin.

“It should be noted that government exists to meet the needs of the citizenry.

We have therefore embarked on several other projects which benefits cut across the entire state. Such

projects and programmes include the Security Villages in all the local government areas in our state, the free and compulsory education programme of this administration, as well as the free healthcare programme for pregnant women, children and the elderly. We also completed the Ibom International Airport, which we met at site-clearing level.

“We also completed the first phase of the Ibom Power Plant and put our state in a pole position for uninterrupted power once a few hitches are solved. You may know about our Ibom E-Library (the first of its kind in West Africa), the Ibom Specialist Hospital, the Ibom International Stadium (which would be completed this year), the Ibom Gas Plant, the Tropicana Entertainment Centre, a one-stop, state-of-the-art hospitality complex, and so many other projects, which are for the benefit of all Akwa Ibom people in spite of their location outside your Federal Constituency”, he pointed out.

In another development, Akwa Ibom Government has confirmed establishment of 14 factories in the state.

Governor Akpabio while responding the contribu-

tions of a one-time Chairman of Ikot Abasi LGA, Obong Amaete Ntuk on the industrialisation of the 31 local government areas of the state at Ikot Abasi Council hall during a town hall meeting/constituency briefing in Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency hinted that the investors are to produce cassava and manufacture television sets, airconditioners and other household materials.

Obong Nsima Ekere, immediate past state Deputy Governor commended the Governor for hosting the town hall meeting to hear from the masses and opined that Ikot Abasi or Oron Federal Constituency be considered for the 2015 Governorship position zoned to Eket Senatorial istrict since Eket Federal Constituency had already produced two former Governors.

Dr. Akpan Micah Umoh, member representing Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives said the town hall meeting has provided the people of the federal constituency an opportunity celebrate Governor Akpabio’s achievements to the people.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 BUSINESS

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UBA subsidiaries emerge ‘World’s Best Emerging Markets’ banks in Africa HREE subsidiaries of the T United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, have emerged as World’s Best Emerging Market Banks in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Senegal respectively.

Specifically, UBA Burkina Faso, UBA Cameroun and

UBA Senegal were considered the best in their various countries of operations by Global Finance magazine in an exclusive survey on the ‘World’s Best Emerging Markets Banks in Africa 2014’ in the region and in 31 countries, by the Magazine’s

editors, with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and banking consultants.

Global Finance reports on the international finance sector, covering such topics as corporate finance, joint ventures and M&A, country

Oracle lists benefit of big data for businesses

By Faith Oparaugo OR consumers to enjoy more tailored and fully customisable packages and tariffs, Oracle has listed the benefit of using big data as a business solution in the telecommunication sector.

Speaking in Lagos, at a forum on ‘Big Data’, Nigeria’s Country Director of Oracle, Adebayo Sanni said that with a growing increase in consumption of data rich content by consumers across all devices, ‘big data’ serves as a viable solution to bridge the demand-supply gap.

He added that increased customer expectations further aided complexities for communications service providers in terms of customer service, billing, complaints handling and marketing as well as in the technical challenge of being able to switch on services or roll out new offers and tariffs quickly and effectively.

According to him, the sophistication of mobile and broadband Internet networks meant they were perfect for embracing big data for their own advancement.

They were able to carry intelligence data on performance and demand through networks, which were designed and exist only to convey data.

He noted that as telecommunications companies faced up to a future of voracious bandwidth demand and highly discerning – and vocal – customers, big data therefore offered one of the very best tools to plan and maintain networks.

Sanni pointed out that big data would ensure that operators were optimising their network resources and responding to customer requirements in a way that would both improve bottom line and enhance the customer experience.

He noted that the insights into our behaviour that big data analysis brought about provided a clear benchmark against which fraudulent activity can be rapidly identified and shut down.

“One example of how location-based data is making a major difference is where mobile operators are looking to invest in their networks. Operators typically want to make that investment either where it is needed, such as increasing or introducing mobile network coverage in an area which is poorly served, or where that investment will be most appreciated and most popular with profitable customers.

“Typically this will be in a city location with a rapidly expanding population of increasingly mobile datahungry workers. It will not necessarily be where those individuals live, so simply checking a relational database of the most profitable

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customers against the addresses their bills are sent to, won’t be enough.

“Mobile data usage needs to be measured in the locations where the data is consumed, in real time at velocity, not retrospectively at the end of the billing period.

“For operators, this may mean determining where their most profitable customers are when they are most active and where clusters of good customers may be putting a strain on the current network infrastruc-

ture due to increased data consumption.

“Big data can also activate other technologies such as automated menu screens for call centres, so once a problem is recognised in certain areas, calls from those areas are met with a message informing them the fault is being dealt with.

“This can save customers time spent sitting on the phone and can save companies money in terms of reducing call handling in the call centre,”a he said.

profiles, capital markets, investor relations, currencies, banking, risk management, custody, direct investment, and money management.

The magazine also holds several awards ceremonies throughout the year to recognize the winning financial institutions and companies.

The largest of these ceremonies is held contemporary to the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

“Faced with slowing growth and volatile markets, these banks are star performers under increasingly challenging conditions,” said Joseph D. Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance. “The banks that Global Finance is honoring may not be the largest or oldest, but they are the best at targeting their products and offerings to the specific markets they serve.”

Criteria for choosing the

winners included growth in assets, profitability, strategic relationships, customer service, competitive pricing, and innovative products. In addition, for the first time, a poll of Global Finance’s corporate readership was conducted in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of the results.

The Global Finance World’s Best Banks 2014 Awards Ceremony will be held during the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, on the morning of Saturday, October 11, 2014, at The Washington National Press Club This is the 21st year that the magazine has selected top banking performers in emerging markets. The report covers best banks in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa .

Commenting on the significance of these awards to the

UBA Group, the Chief Executive Officer, UBA West Africa, Oliver Alawuba, stated that the Global Finance Awards to UBA in three different countries in Africa testify to the fact that UBA Plc made the right decision to venture into Africa in the first place.

He said:” in this era of slow economic growth, high markets volatility and rapid changes in the regulatory environments across Africa , banks are facing increasingly challenging operational environments, yet UBA country subsidiaries are able to target their products and services offerings to specific markets that drive the economies of their countries of location.”

“That is why many of the UBA country subsidiaries are doing well and would continue to do well in years to come,” he noted.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY 23

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IMF suggests use of negative rates if Franc faces more pressure HE Swiss National Bank should consider charging T banks on excess reserves if the franc rises against the euro, the International Monetary Fund said.

“Negative interest rates on banks’ excess reserves may need to be introduced in case of renewed strong pressures on the franc,” the IMF said in a statement today following its annual Swiss Article IV consultation, repeating comments made a year ago. The franc “remains moderately overvalued,” it said.

The Zurich-based central bank set a minimum exchange rate in September 2011 to shield Switzerland from deflation and a recession after investor anxiety caused by the euro region’s debt crisis pushed the franc close to parity with the single currency. While that turmoil has abated, political uncertainty over Ukraine’s Crimea region renewed pressure on the franc. The SNB confirmed the cap last week.

“We don’t see the conditions to abandon the exchangerate floor have materialized so far,” Enrica Detragiache, IMF mission chief, said at a press conference in Bern today. “It’s probably too soon to claim that the Swiss franc and Switzerland are no longer a safe haven.”

The franc has appreciated 0.8 percent this year, based on the Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes, making it the fourth-best performer behind the New Zealand dollar, the yen and the Australian dollar. It traded at 1.21995 per euro at 12:35 p.m. in Zurich. Against the dollar it stood at 88.57 centimes.

Detragiache said the franc was overvalued by 5 percent to 10 percent.

“Monetary conditions need to be expansionary,” Thomas Moser, alternative member of the SNB’s governing board, said at the same press conference. “We share the view that the Swiss franc is still overvalued.”

At its policy review on March 20, the SNB reiterated its pledge to defend the cap with unlimited currency interventions and take further measures, if needed.

Air Berlin to be delisted, Etihad to lift stake ILING German airline Air A Berlin (AB1.DE), almost 30 percent owned by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, will be delisted and Etihad will raise its stake to 49.9 per cent, a German weekly reported, possibly as a prelude to combining it with Alitalia.

Citing company sources, WirtschaftsWoche magazine said a group of German shareholders, among them former and current company executives, would raise their stakes to hold more than 50 percent between them, preserving the carrier’s German status.

Air Berlin, Germany’s No.2 airline after Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), needs to remain German so as not to lose its traffic rights outside the European Union.

Smaller investors, who now

($1.8-$1.9 billion) available for acquisitions in Switzerland and Italy, the company’s chief financial officer said in an interview published on Saturday, “When we talk about M&A (mergers and acquisitions) at Swisscom we look at two countries mainly: Switzerland and Italy.

Smaller companies, especially IT service providers come into consideration,” Mario Rossi told Germany’s Boersen-Zeitung.

Given the Swiss government, Swisscom’s majority owner, has imposed a net debt ceiling of 2.2 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisa-

implemented, declining to comment further.

It said at the time it was pushing back its annual results by a week to March 27.

Etihad is also in the final phase of due diligence to take an equity stake in troubled Italian flagship carrier Alitalia, which is burdened with more than 800 million euros of debt and is facing increased competition.

Talks have intensified and sources close to the matter said Etihad might be interested in buying a stake of up to 40 percent in the Italian carrier.

Banking and industry sources said Etihad was looking into ways to combine Air Berlin and Alitalia to generate synergies and to preserve Air Berlin’s international traffic rights.

Cisco joins cloud computing race with $1 b plan ISCO Systems Inc plans to offer cloud computing services, pledging to spend $1 billion over the next two years to enter a market currently led by the world’s biggest online retailer Amazon.com Inc. Cisco said it will spend the amount to build data centers to help run the new service called Cisco Cloud Services.

Cisco, which mainly deals in networking hardware, wants to take advantage of companies’ desire to rent computing services rather than buying and maintaining their own machines.

The company said it plans to deliver the service with and through partners including Australian telecom service provider Telstra, tech distributor Ingram Micro Inc, and Indian IT company Wipro Ltd. “Customers, providers and channel partners ... want to rapidly deploy valuable enterprise-class cloud experiences for key customers — all while mitigating the risk of capital investment,” Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s president of development and sales, said in a statement.

Cisco’s plans were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Enterprise hardware spending is dwindling across the

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Swisscom has $1.9b for acquisitions ELECOMS group T Swisscom (SCMN.VX) has 1.6-1.7 billion Swiss francs

hold 38.5 per cent of the group’s shares, would be bought out, WirtschaftsWoche said, adding Turkey’s Sabanci family would also exit.

The family’s investment vehicle ESAS owns 12 per cent, Air Berlin’s website said.

Etihad has been building a network of airlines by buying up minority stakes as it seeks to channel more passengers from its partners’ planes to its Abu Dhabi hub.

Officials at Etihad were not immediately available for comment on the WirtschaftsWoche report.

An Air Berlin spokesman repeated a statement the company made on Wednesday, saying it was in advanced talks over options that would have a substantial impact on the airline if

tion, Rossi said the company had firepower for M&A in the range of 1.6 to 1.7 billion francs.

Swisscom is present in Italy through broadband network operator Fastweb, which it acquired in 2007 for 4.6 billion euros.

Rossi reiterated that Swisscom had no plans to sell Fastweb, following speculation it could be a target for cash-rich Vodafone (VOD.L), and said the network operator should make a positive contribution to Swisscom’s free cash flow from 2015.

He said he believed Italy was over the worst of its economic problems, “we’ve reached the trough and therefore can expect some tailwind from the economy.”

globe as companies cope with shrinking budgets, slowing or uncertain economies and a fundamental migration to cloud computing, which reduces demand for equipment by outsourcing data management and computing needs.

Microsoft Corp last year said it was cutting prices

for hosting and processing customers’ online data in an aggressive challenge to Amazon’s lead in the growing business of cloud computing.

Shares of Cisco, which closed at $21.64 on Friday on the Nasdaq, were up 0.28 percent at $21.70 in pre-market trading on Monday.

These discussions are at an early stage and any deal would likely face challenges from Rome and Italy’s organized labor, who have already fought several attempts to end the independence of the country’s loss-making flagship carrier.

A tie-up, be it a commercial accord or a full merger, would also probably force Air Berlin to leave the Oneworld alliance of airlines and to join SkyTeam, of which Alitalia is a member.

With such a tie-up, Etihad would widen an air traffic empire that already stretches from the Seychelles to Ireland and Australia, gaining access to populous regions and lucrative routes. It has also entered into a strategic code-share deal with Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA).

WirtschaftsWoche said that Etihad boss James Hogan would seek the German government’s backing for the Air Berlin deal, which would be worth more than 100 million euros ($138 million).

Air Berlin ran into financial problems after expanding too rapidly in the last decade. It faces stiff competition from the likes of easyJet (EZJ.L), which is expanding in Germany and trying to tempt business customers in Europe’s largest economy.

In November, Air Berlin scrapped its aim of breaking even at the operating profit level in 2013 and warned it would only come close to analyst forecasts for a 40 million euro loss before interest and tax if it found additional sources of income.

Sources said Etihad was looking into ways to combine Air Berlin and Alitalia to generate synergies and to preserve Air Berlin’s international traffic rights. These discussions are at an early stage and any deal would likely face challenges from Rome and Italy’s organized labor, who have already fought several attempts to end the independence of the country’s loss-making flagship carrier.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Business 27

Nigeria may increase gas supply to Ghana

By Sulaimon Salau with agency report HERE are indications that T Nigeria would soon increase gas supply to Ghana, through the West African Gas Pipeline.

The Federal Government has expressed commitment

towards a continuous supply of gas to Ghana to operate her thermal power plants. The country had witnessed drastic drop in power supply recently due to low gas supply.

Top energy officials of both countries made the commitment at meetings

Kano emirate partners electricity Disco to tackle vandalism From Murtala Muhammed, Kano ORRIED by incessant W power failure occasioned by alleged sabotage and vandalism, Kano emirate council resolved to work in concerted efforts with Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) to end the social menace.

Under the traditional leadinstitution in ership Northern Nigeria, traditional heads, district and ward heads exert significant influence on their various communities. This historical fact was what the electricity company sought to tap from and as such enhance their productivity in Kano.

The ward head of Yakasai Quarters Alh Habib Dauda, who spoke on behalf of the leaders promised council’s readiness to assist the company to significantly reduce the high non-technical losses in their various areas of influence.

At occasion that thronged 40 ward heads (Mai unguwas) organized by the Dala Business unit of Kano Electricity Distribution Company, the business manager in the unit Mal. Awwalu Ya’u said the collaboration with the traditional leaders was to revive the Transformer Committees and replicates the Customers’ Consultative Council to restore sanity in the system.

Ya’u hinted apart from keeping vigilant at electrical facility in their environment, the members of the traditional council would

also be engaged to collect and distribute bills to customers in their domains.

The business manager stressed “the importance of the new partnership which emanated from the need to inform the people at the grassroots level that PHCN had ceased to exist as an entity and that KEDCO is the new company which succeeds the PHCN then owned by the government.

The concept still was to further keep our customers at the rural communities abreast of the fact that electricity is no longer a free commodity or social service rendered by the government prior to the privatization exercise which was concluded on Friday 1st November 2013”.

Ya’u lamented that despite the company’s efforts to render efficient service to teeming customers power theft or illegal connection have become incessant occurrence thereby making accountability for the energy delivered an impossible task in the business unit adding that such practice “must stop immediately if the communities wanted to continue to be served well

by KEDCO. “We have resolved to revive the Transformer Committees in order to keep vigil of the sub-stations against vandalism and power theft. Bills are to be collected and distributed by the ward heads while payments will be made at the KEDCO undertaking offices as well as at the various commercial banks” Ya’u affirmed.

Apart from keeping vigilant at electrical facility in their environment, the members of the traditional council would also be engaged to collect and distribute bills to customers in their domains.

As part of the media update on the current power situation held on Friday March 14, 2014, the Ministry indicated that one of the causes for the load management exercise being carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was because of the erratic and very low levels of gas supply from Nigeria, resulting in Ghana’s inability to power its thermal power plants to full capacity with Ghana’s Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Armah-Kofi Emmanuel Buah.

Ghana News Agency quoted a statement that its Energy minister, accompanied by the Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority, Kirk Koffie, visited Nigeria recently to discuss on a bid to boost gas supply.

As part of the media update on the current power situation held on Friday

March 14, 2014, the Ministry indicated that one of the causes for the load management exercise being carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was because of the erratic and very low levels of gas supply from Nigeria, resulting in Ghana’s inability to power its thermal power plants to full capacity.

After intense negotiations with Nigeria’s Minister for Petroleum, officials of the

Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell and Chevron, who together form N-Gas and who are the suppliers of the Natural gas to Ghana, the Ghanaian team was briefed about the causes of the low levels of gas supply and assured of a constant supply of 50 million british termal unit per day (MMBtu/d), up from the 30MMBtu/d or less being supplied in recent days.

It was, however, noted that the committed 50MMBtu/d falls far short of the contractual volumes of 123MMBtu/d, but could immediately at least keep the Sunon Asogli plant running, According to the statement the team also consulted with officials of the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company and the West Africa Gas Pipeline

Authority and explored other potential private gas suppliers.

The ongoing rationing of power across the country has been necessitated partly by a sharp drop in the volumes of gas received from Nigeria through the West Africa Gas Pipeline.

Alison-Madueke

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28 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY Tuesday, March 25, 2014

China’s manufacturing gauge falls as slowdown deepens HINA’S manufacturing C industry weakened for a fifth straight month, according to a preliminary measure for March released yesterday, deepening concern the nation will miss its 7.5 percent growth target this year.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics dropped to 48.1, compared with the 48.7 median estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by

Bloomberg News and February’s final 48.5 figure.

Numbers above 50 signal expansion.

Chinese stocks rebounded from initial losses on speculation that weakening growth will prompt policy makers to reconsider their aversion to broad stimulus measures.

Leaders face a balancing act of reining in credit expansion that’s fueled the risk of loans going bad, while averting an

economic slump that raises the odds of higher unemployment.

“The old growth engine is losing steam,” said Chen Xingdong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA in Beijing, whose estimate of 48.0 was one of the three closest to the result. While a new engine is powering up, including opening up some industries dominated by state-owned enterprises, if its speed “can’t

compensate for the loss of the old one, a third power is needed -- the power of policy,” said Chen, who previously worked for the World Bank.

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) fell as much as 0.2 percent after the report before rebounding to rise 0.9 percent at the close. The Australian dollar was up 0.2 percent at 90.97 U.S. cents after falling earlier today on the data, while the yuan climbed about 0.6 percent for the biggest daily gain in more than two years.

In the euro area, growth in

manufacturing and services stayed close to the fastest since 2011 in March, Markit said separately. The composite gauge stook at 53.2 as France improved, providing further evidence that the region’s recovery is on track.

The China manufacturing report, known as the Flash PMI, is typically based on 85 percent to 90 percent of responses to surveys sent to purchasing managers at manufacturers. The final reading will be released April 1.

On the same day, the National Bureau of Statistics and China

Federation of Logistics and Purchasing will publish their own survey of purchasing managers at about 3,000 manufacturing companies.

The official gauge’s February reading was 50.2, an eightmonth low and down from January’s 50.5.

The PMIs have increasingly become a barometer of China’s economy for global investors. One advantage is that they’re among the first gauges for each month, as government reports on trade, industrial output and retail sales typically are released several weeks later.

Korea’s Exchange seeks cut of $3 billion illegal gold trade OUTH Korea’s equity Sphysical exchange started offering gold trades for the first time today, as the government seeks to curb as much as $3 billion of black-market transactions.

Korea Exchange Inc., which has had bullion futures since 1999, aims to gradually replace illegal sales that total as much as 70 metric tons annually and deprive the state of an estimated $280 million in taxes. Customs officers intercepted 360 kilograms last year as the number of busts more than doubled from 2012.

Purchasing gold bars is a common way to hide income in Korea, where a shadow economy of unreported buying and selling accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product.

While Korea Exchange will reduce taxes on physical trades, smuggled gold is likely to remain as much as 7 percent cheaper, according to the Korea Precious Metals Distributors’ Association.

“It’s a big struggle for us to maintain our transparent business in an industry that’s tainted by illicit deals,” said Jeong Byung Nam, a director at Samduck Metals Co., a refiner from Incheon, west of Seoul. “Companies like us have to go into this physical exchange with a sense of duty or patriotism because it hardly offers us any benefits.”

Samduck is among the 57 refiners, jewelers and securities firms that have joined the trading platform. Others include Samsung Securities (016360) Co., Hyundai Securities Co., Shinhan Investment Corp., Woori Investment & Securities Co., Daesung Metals Co. and Korea Gold Trading Center.

While traders on Korea Exchange get a waiver on the 3 percent import duty for gold, they still pay a 10 percent value-added tax for taking physical delivery of bullion. Those who trade without taking possession of the metal will receive corporate tax deduc-

tions and a VAT exemption, according to the exchange.

“There’s no meaning to it if the exchange simply absorbs existing legal transactions,” said Yu Dong Soo, chairman of the Seoul-based distributors’ “Allowing association. investors who take physical delivery to benefit from tax exemptions would make it attractive for distributors.”

Korean Exchange is using 1gram units of bullion of 99.99 percent purity to spur liquidity. Delivery will be in 1 kilogram bars. Trading hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time.

There has been no trading in standard 1-kilo futures in Seoul for the past three years, while average daily transactions for so-called minifutures representing 100 grams was 141 contracts in 2013, exchange data show.

Prices in the the physical market closed today at 46,950 won per gram ($1,350 an ounce), with 5,978 grams traded, according to the exchange’s website.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY 29

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Russia may face recession as sanctions intensify ANCTIONS imposed by the SUnion U.S. and the European are pushing Russia toward a recession as the intensity of their economic penalties increases after the annexation of Crimea earlier this month.

Banks including state-run VTB Capital say the world’s ninth-biggest economy will shrink for at least two quarters as penalties for annexing Crimea rattle markets, curb investment and raise the cost of borrowing. Sanctions that have so far focused on individ-

uals via visa bans and asset freezes may be expanded to target specific areas of the economy.

President Vladimir Putin sent his popularity surging to a five-year high by making Crimea a part of Russia again after 60 years and says he won’t be swayed by foreign retaliation. Even so, the costs of the decision are starting to unfold, with Russian stocks this year’s worst performers and the economy set to suffer more than the West, said Mircea Geoana, Romania’s

government representative for diplomacy and economic projects.

“We’re witnessing the start of a new geopolitical and economic Cold War and I think it will take at least two to three years to establish some sort of equilibrium,” he said. “The ones who’ll pay the bill for this aggression, no matter how popular and patriotic it looks, will be the Russian people because there’s a huge difference between the economic force of the EU and the U.S. and that of Russia.”

Increased patent concessions to emerge under Microsoft, Nokia deal OKIA does not expect to it can't be ruled out," he said. chase of online chat company N close the sale of its phone The time needed to close the Skype in 2011. Nokia and business to Microsoft until April as talks with Asian regulators drag on, it said on yesterday, fuelling speculation it may have to make technology patent concessions to get the deal done.

After selling its loss-making handset business, Nokia which expected the deal to close this month - will derive more than 90 percent of sales from its telecom network unit, but its patent portfolio is seen as a promising source of future growth.

As a phone maker, Nokia has paid rivals for the use of their licenses as well as charging for its own. A newly restructured Nokia would be freer to push up those fees, analysts say.

Expected future revenue from patents make up as much as half Nokia's roughly 20-billioneuro market capitalization, they say.

Google and Samsung Electronics have asked Chinese regulators to ensure the 5.4 billion euro ($7.4 billion) deal between Microsoft and Nokia would not lead to higher licensing fees, according to media reports. "(The delay) is a bad sign. They have been discussing with authorities for quite a while already, and they still need more time," Nordea Markets analyst Sami Sarkamies said.

"The biggest risk is in the upside of their patents. It looks like Nokia will have to make bigger concessions to push the deal through," he said.

Nokia shares fell 0.7 percent to 5.24 euros by 1215 GMT. The Finnish firm said both companies remain committed to the deal, and Microsoft said it expects it to close next month.

"We are nearing the final stages of our global regulatory approval process," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said on the company's website. "Currently we are awaiting approval confirmation in the final markets."

Nokia also reiterated that its tax disputes in India would not have an impact on the deal schedule.

Indian authorities hit the company with a new $414 million tax claim last week, following a Supreme Court decision ordering Nokia to give a $571 million guarantee before transferring its Chennai factory to Microsoft.

Pohjola Markets analyst Hannu Rauhala said Nokia and Microsoft had several options on how to deal with the tax issues while the antitrust problem was essentially out of their hands.

"There is always the risk of further postponements (in deal closure). Based on the information they have given today,

deal, announced last September, is not exceptional for Microsoft, which took five months to complete its pur-

Microsoft have already received approvals from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Russia’s Micex stock index has plunged 13.1 percent this year compared with a 4.9 percent decline for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. It was little changed at 3:48 p.m. in Moscow.

The ruble is the secondworst performer against the dollar behind Argentina among 24 developing-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg, weakening 8.9 percent. It rose 0.5 percent today.

After the U.S. expanded sanctions March 20 to include businessmen linked to Putin, such as billionaires Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings cut their outlook on Russia’s credit grade to negative from stable, suggesting a downgrade is most likely next.

The two companies, which said Western banks are becoming reluctant to lend

to Russia, rate the world’s biggest energy exporter at BBB, the second-lowest investment grade and on par with Brazil and South Africa.

Even before the standoff with the West, the worst since the Cold War, Russia’s economy was facing the weakest growth since a 2009 recession as consumer demand failed to make up for sagging investment. The current situation in the economy “bears clear signs of a crisis,” Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said March 17 after the first European Union and U.S. sanctions.

Russia will probably dip into a recession in the second and third quarters of this year as “domestic demand is set to halt on the uncertainty shock and tighter financial conditions,” according to Moscowbased VTB. Russia’s central bank unexpectedly raised its bench-

mark interest rate by 150 basis points after the armed takeover of Crimea triggered a rout in the ruble. Putin completed his annexation of the Black Sea peninsula March 21.

Russia may shun foreign debt markets in 2014 because of higher borrowing costs, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. He expressed frustration at disruptions to MasterCard Inc. and Visa services for cards issued by banks on or linked to persons on the U.S. sanctions list.

“Some people say these sanctions won’t affect Russia’s financial system but they already are,” he said March 21.

Even so, the measures may not have much effect on the individuals targeted or on Putin’s thinking on Ukraine, whose government accuses the Russian leader of stirring up unrest elsewhere and planning an invasion of the country’s east.

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30 Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Appointments Forestalling anomalies in recruitment procedures

Famuyibo

Aremu

By Yetunde Ebosele HE dust raised by the illfated Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise is yet to settle down. Criticism has continued to trail the controversial scheme, which claimed the lives of no fewer than 20 job seekers including four pregnant women.

Apparently in response to

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public anger, President Goodluck Jonathan cancelled the controversial exercise and approved automatic employment for three members of each of the victim’s families.

But, the wide spread anger against the processes adopted has continued with economic and Human Resources experts urging the

president to do more by putting measures in place to stop the unfortunate incident from repeating itself.

An economist and Human Resources consultant, Dr. Matthew R. Otoide, in a telephone chat with The Guardian at the weekend called for what he identified as a “total reform” in Nigeria’s recruitment

Kaigama process.

He said, “how did we (Nigerians) get to this situation? What is the best way to get out of it? The Federal Government must be ready to solve this problem once and for all.

“It is unacceptable for government agencies, corporations and criminal minded individuals to defraud innocent job seekers on a sustained basis through sale of employment forms for nonexistent jobs. Check the pages of newspapers on a regular basis and you would understand what I’m talking about.

The government can clampdown on this fraud by getting the police and other security agencies involved,” Otoide added.

Not even the reported plans by the Presidency and the National Assembly to investigate in details the circumstances responsible for the unfortunate incident has been able to curtailed angry reactions from within and outside the country.

From Lagos, to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin, Kaduna, and Owerri and across the country the pertinent question begging for answer is “how and why was it allowed to happen?”

Indeed, Nigerians especially members of the human right community are united in their call for criminal prosecution and immediate sack of the Interior Minister, Abba Moro and other associated with the controversial exercise.

Also, Human Resources personnel experts are using the opportunity to once again advise the Federal Government to look inward and review where necessary provisions, which pave way for what, they described as “unacceptable and ridiculous” employment processes.

A cross section of Human Resources personnel, labour leaders and economists condemned any procedure, which compel job, seeks to part with money before employment.

For example, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) professional body that regulates the practice of human resource management in Nigeria argued that the reported death were avoidable.

CIMP said, “reports reaching us indicated that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has 4000 to 5000 job vacancies to fill. This originally portends very good opportunity for the Nigerian labour market, because it would reduce the number of unemployed persons in the country.

“It should also have been a very good opportunity for the Nigeria Immigration Service to recommend itself to the public and fresh graduates as a good place to work!

“However, due to abuse of office, unprofessional conduct and exploitation of candidates, these opportunities were marred by death of applicants, injuries and loss of dignity.”

Also, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the consultant that handled the recruitment exercise for allegedly not following civil service laid recruitment procedures.

PENGASSAN, which is a trade union of all senior staff in the oil and gas industry, also asked the Federal Government to without delay sack the comptrollergeneral of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and other senior officers of the paramilitary agency, who were involved in the exercise.

In a statement issued by the union, the PENGASSAN President, Babatunde Ogun, who condemned the recruitment procedure that led to the death of the applicants, demanded that the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, should also step aside pending the end of a probe to be instituted by the govern-

ment to determine the culpability of the minister and its officers in the fatal recruitment exercise.

Ogun criticised the collection of the N1, 000 application fee from each of the applicants He said, “it is the motive for maximum profit without respect for due process and laid down procedures for recruitment as prescribed in the civil service rule that caused the death of those applicants. The minister, who approved the collection of money from job seekers; the Comptroller-General and the consultant, who supervised and collected the money from applicants are driven by selfishness and greediness.

Ogun added, “aside from the civil recruitment service procedures, there are laid down procedures in any recruitment exercise, which include receiving applications, screening received applications by looking at the eligibility of applicants considering age, health ground, educational qualifications, and height, among others. It is at this stage that the recruiters do what is called ‘weeding,’ where many applicants are disqualified.

“It is after that the recruiter will now decide either to divide the applicants to groups if they are still many so as to get the best of the applicants required for the post advertised. The recruitment exercise for different groups can be conducted over a period of time even for the first stage to cope with the large numbers of applicants before the second stage, in multi stages recruitment exercise, said Ogun.”

Meanwhile, Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Isa Aremu has urged the Federal Government to declare emergency on unemployment and prosecute Nigeria Immigration Service for “industrial murder.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 35

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 APPOINTMENT

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Edo investor to employ 15,000 through farming From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City private investor, Festrut Conglomerate has said it would establish a farm, covering 100 hectares of land at Uzebba, Edo State that would provide not less than 15, 000 employment opportunities for the people of Edo State.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the company, Dr. Festus Asikhia disclosed this when he led a delegation on a courtesy visit to Governor Adams Oshiomhole at the Government House in Benin City. He said: “I have to go to my community where I can easily have access to land and I have acquired about 100 hectares of land for the takeoff of the company.

“Apart from the farm land, we have come to Edo State to discuss with the governor to build a new Edo City, a city with all the infrastructures, with recreational centre, a city where people can come in to rest.”

Asikhia said that when completed, the new city would attract investors to come in and invest thereby increasing state government revenue through taxes.

He further used the occasion of the courtesy visit to implore state government collaboration in order to succeed stressing that similar ventures had been established in Lagos and Abuja.

Responding, Oshiomhole said that the state government was willing to provide a conducive environment and partner with serious investors who wish to invest in the state adding that the State Public Private Partnership (PPP) was doing everything possible to create an enabling environment for investors to take advantage to invest in the s t a t e .

“Potential partners in the various aspects of the economy are working out various MOUs with a view to take advantage of the very conducive business environment that exist in Edo State. “So like I said to Hon. Rasaq Bello-Osagie, all you need to do is submit a detailed business plan to our PPP Office as they are familiar with our rules and the general principles that guide our interactions. It is our responsibility to give back to the community and society where we come from, for these are the minimum debts owned our people.

“In Edo State, we have made substantial investment in

A

IoD Nigeria opens new branch in Port Harcourt HE Institute of Directors T (IoD) Nigeria, a prime leadership organisation and a full-fledged affiliate of IoD United Kingdom will inaugurate its Port Harcourt branch today.

In a release signed by the Acting Director General of IoD Nigeria, Dr. Tony Fadaka, the Port Harcourt Branch, which will be the second in Nigeria after the Abuja Branch, is strategic to IoD because of the importance of Port Harcourt in the national economic d e v e l o p m e n t .

The release explained that the mission of IoD in Nigeria is to support directors and business leaders in fulfilling their leadership responsibilities by creating wealth for the benefit of business and society as a whole.

both the urban and rural areas, investment on roads, urban renewal and drainage control, linking rural communities so that people can take advantage

to go into mechanised farming and businesses in those communities as you plan to do.

“So your coming fits well into

our vision that the primary purpose of government is to make the rural urban areas

neater creating infrastructure to attract investment.”

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014 APPOINTMENT 35

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Fresh approaches to combating recruitment challenges

Scores of applicants at one of the venues of the ill-fated Nigeria Immigration Service’s recruitment exercise.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 Aremu, who led workers to picket immigration office, described the cancelled exercise as tragic.

“Again, avoidable deaths, tears and sorrow characterised a simple recruitment exercise of 4,500. This unacceptable development runs against the best employment practices as contained in Nigeria’s Labour Act and relevant conventions and resolutions of International Labour Organisation (ILO) guiding decent work as subscribed to by Nigeria.

“As at the last count, 19 applicants reportedly died in notable centres, namely Benin, Abuja, Minna and Port Harcourt. It will be recalled that in 2008, similar exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) ended in the unacceptable deaths of scores of applicants.

“As it was in 2008 (six years ago) the gender dimension of the deaths involved females and pregnant women in Benin. When we consider the pregnant applicants, we have invariably also killed unborn applicants. For a country that just marked International Women Day with fun fare, the deaths of female applicants do gross violence to the federal and states’ government claim to respect human and women rights. These nation-wide unprovoked deaths have negatively dented the notorious image of Nigeria as a country in which lives are being casually wasted in the communities, on the roads and now at recruitment centres.

“When tragedies get addictive and widespread, (as it is regrettably becoming the regular trade mark of the Nigeria Immigration Service) these are no more “accidents” or a flash but clearly avoidable incidents.

“Indeed, the deaths are nothing less than industrial murders, whose known perpetrators are known.

Nigerians do not need

another probe panel on this tragedy. In 2008 under Yar’Adua’s administration after similar carnage called recruitment, the Federal Government instituted a probe into the circumstances, which led to the death of scores of applicants nationwide. The outcome of this probe was never known.

Nigerians are probes-fatigue.

Indeed the probe has not stopped industrial murders.

This certainly should not be another opportunity for probe-panel beating.”

According to Aremu, President Goodluck Jonathan should demonstrate that no life of an applicant would be further wasted at any recruitment centre, adding that the President should “take preventive actions to prevent shameless exhibition of incompetence and non-service delivery by some of his ministers.”

Aremu added, “Minister of Interior, Abba Moro must get to the bottom of the recent deaths, failing which he must resign from administering a ministry increasingly notorious for employment scandals and employment tragedies. The minister is wrong to blame the victim applicants/job-seekers. The blames must go to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) bureaucracy which reportedly collected illegally as much as N6billion from applicants but failed woefully in putting appropriate mechanisms for genuine aptitude tests and applicants crowd control.”

Making reference to labour market policy, Aremu said what the nation needs urgently is far reaching new labour market policy that will put an end to what he identified as “serial primitive recruitment exercise which, leaves in its trail despair, tears and dead bodies rather than living employed applicants.”

Explaining further, he said, “Nigeria parades labour market institutions such as Federal Ministry of Labour, trade unions and employers associations. After the cente-

nary celebration, Nigeria must put an end to bazaar inhuman recruitment programme reminiscent of the hated slave market of the 16th century and colonial forced labour under Lord Lugard in 19th century.

He said two critical labour market issues flow from the recent immigration recruitment tragedy. “They are worsening unemployment situation and official lack of appreciation that labour market functions differently from any other factor market, and needs human face.

“The two can be summed up as absence of decent employment agenda by Nigeria’s governments at all levels in general. The two issues are also governance issues, which task the responsibilities and sensitivities of the federal, as well as, state governments of the federation.

“NIS has placements for 4500 new employees but at the last count, over six million applied. Nothing dramatises Nigeria’s unemployment crisis than the painful fact that so many applicants were called for such scandalously limited opportunities! The official unemployment rate is said to be 18 per cent. But NIS’ dramatised labour demand and supply statistics clearly belie this official unemployment rate according to Bureau of Statistics. What Nigeria has at hand is disaster that is already happening before us.

“The point cannot be overexaggerated! We indeed have unemployment Zunami. If the labour absorptive capacity of the federal departments such as immigration is so limited, we can then imagine the limitations of the private sector already constrained by factory closures, under capacity utilisation, absence of power and high cost of production.”

According to CIPM president, Victor Famuyibo modern recruitment systems have selection portals on computers and various batteries of tests, which could be

used to reduce physical interaction with that number of applicants.

“After applicants have submitted their applications and obtained their reference numbers, only registered applicants who will be properly catered for can sit for selection tests. This would then be followed by wellplanned interviews, assessment and selection based on

the pre-determined factors.

“This same process had been successfully deployed by many private-sector organisations and some public-sector organisations to avoid the kind of tragedy that attended NIS recruitment exercise.

“We, therefore, recommend that government agencies must deploy selection systems that would minimise physical interaction as much as possible. It is also important that every recruitment centre must have the capacity and personnel to accommodate, manage and control more than the anticipated number of applicants.

“The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) believes that upholding professionalism in all facets of our endeavors in Nigeria is the way we can usher in the type of progress we all expect in our country.

“We condemn any policy of “money for job.” Fleecing of young and unemployed persons is unacceptable. We were informed that each applicant in the NIS exercise had to pay N1000.00 and that millions of applicants paid this sum of money. This is very unprofessional and contradictory to the position of government as a responsible employer.

“All government organisations and even private-sector organisations must desist from collecting money from any applicant in Nigeria on account of their seeking employment. When applicants are subjected to this kind of exploitation and they

eventually get employed, they talk about the cost of getting the job and say “I must recoup the cost of getting the job.” A badly run recruitment exercise might be an initiation into corruption.”

Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, lamented that the ambitious youths and pregnant mothers died hungry, poor and in a state of agony in the midst of plenty.

“It is our candid view that the tragedy of unemployment is the outcome of Federal Government’s nebulous and inchoate economic policy which regrettably posits that government has no business in business. It exposed the monumental corruption which governs the reproachable economic policy.”

CNPP maintains that heavy investment in critical infrastructure is the only solution to durable employm e n t .

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Nigerian economy is informal and therefore has no infrastructural form; it is primitive and non-capitalist, for a capitalist state is predicated on an industrialised system.

“The fact is that the overdependence on the private sector is a farce, for 98 per cent of the captains of industry in Nigeria have no factory, even ‘pure water’ factory, they are petrol-dollar predators and therefore cannot provide employment.”

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Peoples’Digest

Published in association with

NIS Recruitment Crash: The HR Manifesto

Venues for NIS tests overwhelmed by applicants

By Aruosa Osemwegie GPHR, SPHR ITH the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment held on the 15th of March 2014, which claimed precious lives, a humongous price has been paid for our ignorance and existing mindset, with regards to recruitment in Nigeria.

We must learn from this. We will learn from this.

And here is the matter: our philosophy to recruitment in Nigeria is fundamentally flawed and everyone is at fault. To learn successfully from this avoidable incidence, we thus must unearth the foundational issues surrounding how we in the public and private sectors view recruitment.

Much as public and private sector leaders, human resource practitioners and job seekers all participate in the recruitment process, the process still remains a technical domain for the human resources function. Whilst the purpose of the legislative inquiries is to understand people, system and institutional culpabilities, our purpose is to chart a professional non-political way out of this labyrinth.

What is Recruitment?

This is the process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate (from within or outside an organization) for a job opening, in a timely and cost effective manner. The recruitment process includes analyzing the requirements of a job, attracting employees to that job, screening and selecting applicants, hiring, as well as integrating the new employee to the organization (ref. businessdictionary.com).

Put differently by the Australian HR Institute, “Recruitment can be defined as searching for and obtaining a pool of potential candidates with the desired knowledge, skills and experience to allow an organisation to select the most appropriate people to fill job vacancies against defined position descriptions and specifications. The purpose of the recruitment process is to find the widest pool of applicants to provide the greatest opportunity to select the best people for the required

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Source: simonateba.com roles in an organisation. Acquiring the best applicants for a role can be a competitive advantage for an organisation whereas ineffective recruitment and selection can result in enormous disruption, reduced productivity, interpersonal difficulties and interruptions to operations, customer service and long term costs.”

From the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, UK comes this description. “It is crucial to organisational performance.

Recruitment is a critical activity, not just for the HR team but also for line managers who are increasingly involved in the selection process. All those involved in recruitment activities should be equipped with the appropriate knowledge and skills.”

Some key phrases need to be restated here for emphasis: “best-qualified candidate”, “most appropriate people”, “competitive advantage for an organisation”, “crucial to organisational performance”, “critical activity”, “all involved should be equipped”.

Everybody knows but nobody knows Let’s begin by looking at the first cancer ailing recruitment. Here is a quote from a 2011 article of mine, “Before the Nigerian Capital Market crash of 2009, everyone ‘knew’ how the market worked. Literally everyone! Most felt the market was easy to understand and ‘manipulate’. I was even told that a CEO of one of the stockbroking firms said, “We don’t need research in this market.” This was a statement alluding that the market did not require any unbiased in-depth analysis. It seemed, then, that all you needed to do was to read the papers to see who was selling shares at a discount (discount my foot), buy some, then wait for a few weeks and your shares had appreciated. Voila! In short, at that time, everyone ‘knew’ what to do and so no one needed an in-depth analysis. And what happened after all – ‘knowledgeable’ investors had entire or

close-to-entire portfolios wiped out.

The issue of ‘hiring right’ in Nigeria is just like the Nigerian Stock market before the crash – everyone ‘knows’ what it takes to recruit properly so no one needs to take any lectures from another. No CEO or leader would admit that what he/she knows about hiring was from many years of trial and error. Most would readily concur that staffing a vacancy doesn’t require any in-depth analysis as such. And what has been the result – costly, avoidable, poor recruitments, redeployments and promotions. And I don’t mean costly in naira or dollar terms only. In this trial-errorlearn cycle, many mistakes have been made, even by some of the well-meaning amongst us. Every time executives, managers and government ministers assume that recruitment is a no-brainer, something or someone is lost. Such that if anyone were to have told the NIS to conduct an impact assessment of some sort on this planned exercise, that person would have been scoffed at.

Recruitment ‘isn’t’ a delicate process Devolving from the above, automatically, is that since it is a no-brainer, since everyone ‘knows’ what it entails, it therefore isn’t a delicate or scientific idea with guidelines and processes. We can start and run it in any way we choose and we will still arrive at our desired result (whatever result that is). We are aware of NIS and some other MDAs because of the scale and deaths. But in public sector and corporate corridors, leaders continue to deploy agbero recruitment methods except that the losses incurred are quietly absorbed by the institution and eventually the economy. Would you hand over your balance sheet to a vulcanizer? Would you start a skyscraper without a plan and an impact assessment? Each of us must decide to bring more intellectual rigour to the process of hiring. If planning is good for bridges, roads and buildings, then how much more do we need it when lives and destinies are involved?

It is a ‘sin’ to be a Job Applicant

The attitude we have towards anyone with the label of “job seeker” is primitive. The huge mistreatment, mal-handling and disrespect meted out to job seekers by both the private and public sectors must stop. The mindset that “there are loads of people looking for work, so we can afford to ill-treat” is wrong. Scores of managers and human resource personnel act as though they are doing candidates a favour.

They act as though they weren’t applicants at one time in their careers. Certainly this is worse with the public sector and that is what culminated in the unfortunate NIS recruitment saga.

Treat and address applicants the way you would like to be treated and addressed. You are not allowed to abuse or curse under any circumstance. The demeaning attitude with which we handle candidates shows up in many ways. Do you keep them waiting – intentionally? Just as you would like people to have respect for your time, then have respect for their time.

I have even heard of the practice where some people deliberately let people wait for hours, on end, in a bid to test their ‘hunger’ for the job. Are you kidding me? Who told you that psychologists have discovered a correlation between ability to wait and performance on the job?

You can’t just design a process that suits your ego. When you sent them the invitation did you as much as hint that the interview or test would run for the whole day so that they can prepare and plan? Do you know if he or she has a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon? Even when we are constrained and have to keep them waiting, can we at least be humane about it? Offer an endless stream of apologies. Offer drinks and snacks. Some people have even been known to reschedule with such impunity you would think they are junior God. “Tell them to come back tomorrow.” Did you bother to find out if they had planned to help their ailing Uncle that next day?

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37

NIS Recruitment Crash: The HR Manifesto

What about testing and interviewing conditions? Can we all just use this incidence as a wake-up call for us to put in place much more civil and thoughtful processes? Are they going to be in the sun for hours because they have the misfortune to be looking for a job in your organisation? Would they sit on the floor or even have to lap themselves? If your facilities can only accommodate ten people, COMFORTABLY, then invite ten or less per batch, or hire a bigger venue. This ‘oga-at-the-very-top’ attitude to applicants must be curbed by each of us. This ‘they don’t have a choice, aren’t they the ones looking for work’ has got to end, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s dedicate our new resolve to the lives that were lost.

Mass recruitment is massively flawed Hiring en masse has too many flaws and inherent dangers that the best thing is to do away with them. This applies both to the public sector, oil and gas companies, and even banks who, from time to time conduct nationwide recruitment campaigns. If you must hire a lot of people, then it should be staggered into several steps and batches and conducted over a reasonable period. If you have ever been involved with conducting tests for large numbers, like I have, you would know that crowd control is always an issue – you may have gotten away with it but the odds are always stacked against you.

It also seems that with unemployment and corruption running high unabated, youth restiveness is increasing every day. A large number of candidates, at once, in one location, puts pressure on all your resources, such as security, personnel, technology backend, test administration instruments, candidate management etc. Any slight glitch or delays on the part of the recruiting company is multiplied in proportions when you have a large number. But with a smaller number, you can quickly course correct and salvage the situation. With better planning, a longer period can be used, resulting in less risk and better outcomes.

Recruitment is a job, it is not a corporate social responsibility and so let the people who are being paid for the job be resourced to do their job. And planning is the beginning of that job.

Human resources practitioners and consultants should ask for more time, and hiring organisations should budget more time.

Who should fund recruitment?

Talking about budgets, naturally brings the question of funding. Who should bear the cost of recruitment? Let it be known that the direct or subtle practice of charging applicants a fee is professionally wrong and insensitive.

Applicants already bear some costs in their bid to become employable and accessible. We pray to God that this would be the last time this kind of terrible incident will happen. This is a scam.

It is institutions that charge money from applicants that make it possible for scamming schemes to exist. When the money is made is it returned to the Federation account? If so, are we then saying that a country that isn’t providing unemployment benefits is now funding its activities, not from tax, but from the blood of job seekers? Thankfully that isn’t our case in Nigeria.

Hiring costs money. You didn’t hear me. Let me repeat. It costs money, time and efforts to

Peoples’Digest

Coming Next!

The Future of Recruiting…

EXT month, we have something incisive, useful and eye opening.It’s what you need to know about the five most important trends shaping the future of recruiting from a global survey. This is for career people, hiring managers, recruiters and HR departments. And, most significantly, it revolves around the new importance of social media. Don’t miss it!

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Here on Peoples’ Digest next month!

hire people. Henceforth, we should adequately budget for it. Recruitment costs must be clearly articulated and planned for. The approving Minister or CEO, shouldn’t retort with, “What are you going to spend all this money for? Isn’t it just recruitment that you are doing” We are not advocating that recruitment budgets should not be questioned or vetted. If the right philosophy on hiring is in place, if it is understandable with bridges and roads, then more investments must be committed upfront to the recruitment process.

Public Private Partnerships against unemployment Also underlying the NIS RecruitmentGate is the sheer number and heightened desperation of unemployed youths. This calls for everybody to get involved much more than ever before. Government alone cannot skin this elephant. At least they haven’t succeeded in doing so all this years! So shall we continue in apathy and ask that grace abound? I made this comment in a publication, “Should we then fold our hands until millions of people and dreams die? Never!

That which you can pitch in, pitch in. However there is strength in unity. I propose for more public private partnerships (PPP) against unemployment. PPP is a business relationship between a private-sector company and a government agency for the purpose of completing a project that will serve the public. Publicprivate partnerships can be used to finance, build and operate projects such as public transportation networks, parks and convention centers. Financing a project through a public-private partnership can allow a project to be completed sooner or make it a possibil-

ity in the first place (investopedia.com).

What stops us from having collaborations between the Federal and State Governments and the Private sector? A lot of effort is being expended against unemployment but it is happening in silos. Wouldn’t we gain much more if we harnessed and pooled our resources?

Some groups and corporate organisations are loosely concerned about unemployment.

They don’t think it is their concern. How many more lives must we lose before you know that it should be your concern? And we must go beyond agonizing. Every organisation should have a scheme targeted at crippling unemployment and youth unproductivity. If you don’t have one, start one within your industry or contribute towards one.

Professionals and business people should look out for ways they can contribute.

Churches and mosques most certainly must contribute. Start a small venture capital fund with friends with the intent to sponsor some of the best business ideas you hear – you would be surprised at what one hundred thousand naira can do for some. Consulting and auditing firms should come together to conduct free business clinics for existing SMEs. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do” – John Wooden. “If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it” – Anthony J. D’Angelo. Finally I leave us with this Arabian proverb, “If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.

FEEDBACK COLUMN We believe these articles contain great information that policy makers, business leaders, human resources practitioners and the general public can use for quality decisions. Your own reaction, positive or critical, can shed more light, in practical ways, on the body of knowledge that we are sharing. As such, your feedback is important to us.

Please mail us at peoplesdigest@peopleprime.net to respond or expand the body of knowledge on any of our treated topics, including past publications.

We appreciate your feedback. Please include the topic, date of publication along with your observations, questions or comments plus your contact information in the email.

Applicants at a job fair in China

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Source: chinadaily.com.cn

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‘NYSC has trained over two million graduates since its inception’ From Kanayo Umeh, Abuja O fewer than two million Nigerian graduates have passed through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme since its inception in 1973, an Assistant Director, Malam Muhammad Momoh, has said.

Momoh disclosed this when participants from the Zimbabwe National Defence College visited the NYSC Headquarters in Abuja at the weekend.

He said that the scheme started with 2, 364 graduates in 1973, adding that now over 250, 000 graduates were mobilised in three batches each year for the national service.

The assistant director, who is in charge of special projects, said that the scheme’s objectives were to develop common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.

“It was also to enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self-employment and to work as a team to have a virile nation,’’ he said.

Momoh said that the programme of the scheme, included orientation courses, primary assignment, community development service and passing out.

“The service year focus primarily on four sectors which are agriculture, education, health and infrastructure in line with the present administration to develop the host community with their contributions,’’ he said .

He said that the corps members had been supporting all other sectors, including participating in electoral activities, national census, among others .

“We are into collaborations with agencies like Energy Commission on renewable energy, NEMA in disaster management and control, EFCC, ICPC, MDG and Bank of Industry for corps members to secure loan.”

He added that the scheme had helped The Gambia to have an institution similar to NYSC and Sierra Leone was trying to replicate it.

Earlier, the Head of the delegation, Air Vice Marshal Michael Moyo, said that they were in Nigeria to learn and improve upon their system back home.

Moyo, who is also the Commandant of the college, commended the way they were received in all the places they had visited.

“I am impressed on the level of development in Abuja,” he said, and commended the way Nigeria was able to contain its internal strife .

In his response, NYSC Director-General, Maj-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, said that the scheme had achieved a lot within its 40 years in existence, adding, “we owe this achievement to the founding father of this scheme.

According to him: “Any graduate you see in Nigeria that is working must have passed through the NYSC scheme. It is a compulsory one-year service. Any graduate from a university or a polytechnic must

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pass through the scheme except, of cause, some of us who wear the uniform because joining the army is considered a service.

“We have done some assistance to other countries in the past like it was brought out during the presentation; we helped in establishing the

scheme in The Gambia and so we are still open to render such assistance to any other country that might require it in the future,” he said.

Flour Mills appoints new board member HE Board of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (FMN) has announced the appointment of Foluso Phillips as a non –executive director of the company with effect from March 12, 2014.

Foluso, who was the executive chairman and founder of Phillips Consulting Limited, a firm engaged in business and management consulting, with offices in Nigeria and South Africa.

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He is a qualified Industrial Economist, a Chartered Management Accountant of the United Kingdom and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

He brings with him experience and expertise in finance, business management, enterprise development and macro-economic policy management.

Phillips who is very active in

the Nigerian corporate scene sits on many boards as a director, trustee or shareholder of commercial organisations, NGOs and charities.

He is the chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, chairman, Nigeria/South Africa Chamber of Commerce, chairman, Interbrand Sampson West Africa and chairman, Web Liquid West Africa.

Phillips also serves as director, Special Olympics of Nigeria,

Ekiti begins payment of hike in pension From Muyiwa Adeyemi, Ado Ekiti KITI State Government has commenced payment of the six per cent and 15 per cent increase in the pension of the retirees in the state.

A statement from the Office of the State Commissioner for Information and Civic

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director, Vigeo Holdings (a Power & Energy company in Nigeria), advisory board member, Africa Leadership Academy (an African Leadership Senior School based in Johannesburg).

He demonstrates a special interest and a keen commitment to the African Renaissance, and he is very active in supporting panAfrican initiatives in his different spheres of endeavour.

Orientation explained that the gesture was in fulfillment of the promise made by Governor Kayode Fayemi at a meeting with the pensioners in Ado Ekiti in January.

The statement noted that the six and 15 per cent increases which were supposed to have taken effect from October 2003 and January 2007 respectively were never paid by successive administrations.

Stressing that though the increase in pension that took effect from February 2014 would lead to a considerable upsurge in the state’s recurrent expenditure and put obvious pressure on the meager resources of the state.

The statement reiterated that the gesture was a display of the irrevocable commitment of the Fayemi-led administration to the welfare of the people in the state particularly the elderly and pensioners.

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Trustfund begins mobile operations From Collins Olayinka, Abuja N a step to make information available to customers real-time and solve challenges associated with the pension contributory scheme, the Trustfund Pensions Plc has begun operations. mobile The Chairman of the board, Mrs. Ngozi Olejeme, who unveiled the buses in Abuja, said the desire to ensure Trustfund customers go through minimum difficulties in assessing their accounts influenced the decision to establish the mobile offices.

Her words: “We are going into mobile operations because we appreciate the desirability of our customers to have their enquiries attended to promptly. So, instead of our customers to

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start looking for where our offices are, they can just stroll to any of our mobile office buses where they can access their Retirement Saving Account (RSA) realtime. The pension administration landscape is growing, hence the increased competition that we have witnessed over the last few years and towards that end, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have to be innovative on how to satisfy their customers. This also shows that we care about our customers and want them to reap full benefits of the scheme upon retirement. If contributors are able to sort out every grey area while they are still working, it is most unlikely they will have any serious issues with their account when they retire.”

On his part, a Director in the company, Richard Uche, paid glowing tributes to Olejeme and the Managing Director of Trustfund, Mrs. Helen Da-Souza for their cutting-edge ideas that have propelled the company as a leading PFA in the country.

“Since establishment about seven years ago, Trustfund has grown from strength to strength due to the untiring efforts of the chairman and managing director. These buses are mobile offices that will offer various products that Trustfund has and to ensure our customers reach

us easily. We don’t want to sit in the office and expect our customers to come to us, but rather we have chosen to go to our customers because they are the reason we are in business,” he stated.

The Independent Director of the PFA, Mrs. Osaretin Demuren, who lauded the scheme, said that the initiative would help retain Trustfund as the leading PFA in the country.

The Executive Director, Corporate Services, Musa Nasir, said that the focus of Trustfund since 2010 had been to reach out to cus-

tomers with a view to satisfying them and resolving any issues they may have.

He added: “We then discovered that the best way of doing this efficiently is to reach them wherever they are. We also found that it is not ideal for our customers to go to our office any time they have issues they want resolved. The mobile offices have facilities to register new customer, process customers PIN number, printing of statement, amendment to records, and resolve benefit issues. ” He explained that there were

four sets of staff that included marketer, customer relationship officer, benefit officer and a Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) officer who is there to resolve every issue that have to do with the old NSITF scheme.

According to him, the mobile offices were equipped to handle every issue that relates to the new scheme with competent officers manning them.

Musa hinted that the mobile office was still at pilot stage, saying there are two buses in Abuja while there is one in Lagos. .

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Labour NASU seeks sack of minister, Immigration boss over employment stampede From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE Non-Academic Staff T Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the

Comptroller General of David Immigration, Parradang immediately.

In a statement signed by the General Secretary of the union, Peters Adeyemi, NASU flayed the remaining of both the Minister and Immigration boss in office even after many

‘Embrance outsourcing to tackle unemployment ’ From Nkechi Onyedike, Abuja.

NVIEW of the recent stamIabout pede that led to the death of 20 job seekers during the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise, the Vice Chairman, Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria, Obiora Madu has called on the Federal Government to key into opportunities in the outsourcing sector, to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

Also, the Acting Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Ashiru Daura has said that in today’s knowledge-based economy, the Information Technology (IT) have the capability of providing jobs for the people.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of Business Process Outsourcing Certification Training in Abuja, Daura noted that Nigeria has not fully tapped into the potentials of the IT sector, adding that young millionaires in the world like the Google, the Facebook, Billgate are all in the IT sector, He said, “most of our youths feel they can get employment only through government jobs, government in other countries of the world is not the leading employer of labour, but the private sector.

The IT has the capacity to provide jobs in a knowledge based.

Daura stated that the purpose of the programme is to train young unemployed undergraduates and equip them with outsourcing skills while the certification is to help them get employed in the outsourcing industry.

But Madu, who decried the way and manner the NIS job test was carried out across the country, said, “somebody from the association will never do that shady thing that happened. If people want to get serious minded outsourcing they should come to the association, somebody from the association will never carry out that job that happened because it is unbelievable that you can get that kind of people into the stadium to write that kind of exams when you can put all the applicants on a criteria by putting all the applicants on the Internet and they don’t have to gather, they can go to the internet and key in from anywhere and if it 30 minutes test, and

once 30 minutes is over, it cuts you off and from the back end you reduce drastically and you have a few people to deal with. In this century it is sad that this kind of thing is happening.”

job seekers lost their lives while some sustained various degrees of injuries.

The union berated Moro for blaming the stampede on applicants because they were impatient It added: “The Minister of Interior, Abba Morro, rather than taking responsibility for the lack of foresight and maladministration and resign his appointment, blamed the job-seekers for being responsible for their deaths and the injuries they sustained because of impatience. Since no public officer ever takes responsibility for their actions or inactions in Nigeria, talk less of resigning their appointment, the onus now is on Mr. President to do the needful by immediately sacking Abba Morro and the

Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service.”

NASU stated that the mass recruitment was a disaster in waiting going by previous experience, saying, “from the onset, it was clear to any discerning mind that the whole exercise was going to be a fiasco that will end up in a tragedy. The Ministry and the NIS were aware of the high incidence of unemployment in the country, which is put at 38 per cent and even higher, if the World Bank figures are to be relied on. They were aware of failures of previous mass recruitment exercises. One had thought that learning from the mistakes of others; they would have taken adequate measures to ensure theirs will be hitch free. It has

turned out not to be the case.”

Adeyemi wondered when stadia become examination centres and why were the examinations not staggered to avoid chaos and easyly crowd control?

He then pondered how were the examination scripts to be managed and scored to select the successful applicants to fill the 4,500 vacancies alleged to be available.

The NASU Scribe then reasoned that the answers to the posers are not far from the simple reason that the socalled aptitude test or examination was only a scam, aimed at fulfilling all righteousness and a cover up because the vacancies had already been filled by applicants who have very influen-

tial connections at the National Presidency, Assembly, the Judiciary, among Ministers, other top government functionaries and captains of industries.

Adeyemi also slammed the recruitment exercise as a sham and avenue to exhort money from hapless unemployed Nigerians.

He said: “The criminal free use of tear gas against these young unemployed graduates as if they were common criminals at some of the centres contributed to some of the stampedes that led to the deaths. It is scandalous for these young Nigerians to have purchased their deaths with one thousand Naira each.”

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MarketReport EQUITY MARKET SUMMARY

AS AT 24-03-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA www.primera-africa.com

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MARKET INDICATORS

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 MARKET REPORT 77

AS AT 24-03-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA

Equities dip marginally on the Exchange Stories by Bukky Olajide HE equities market closed yesterday, with a marginal slide, as Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index [ASI] depreciated by 0.50 percent to close at 37,601.53 basis points, compared with the appreciation of +1.29 per cent recorded previously.

Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at 9.02 per cent.

Market breadth closed positive as Oando led 24 gainers against 22 losers topped

by Airservice at the end of yesterday’s session, although, an improved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Market turnover however closed negative as volume traded depreciated by 18.20 percent against -3.32 per cent upbeat recorded in previous session.

ETI, UBA, and FBNH were the most active to boost market turnover, with ETI and Zenithbank topping the market value list.

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On sectoral indices, oil sector recorded +2.59 per cent to emerge the most active sectoral performance among others while banking is the least hit with -1.96 percent loss recorded today.

Meanwhile, the redemption of N320billion worth of FgN bonds during the week was the key event that influenced the direction of market activities in the review week.

The Over The Counter [OTC] market was characterised by increased activities as a result of demand from domestic investors, particularly the pension funds.

This development resulted in a slight increase in price of some traded bonds though there was a reversal of this trend towards the end of the week. We expect the current level of activities in the market to continue in the week ahead pending the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

May & Baker seeks special funding window for drug firms ANAgINg Director, May M & Baker Nigeria Plc, Nnamdi Okafor, has called for a special collaboration among capital market regulators, operators and pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to create a special funding window for the industry.

Speaking at the quarterly sectoral dinner of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at the weekend in Lagos, Okafor said there were several investment opportunities in the healthcare sector but amenable funding remains a challenge.

According to him, the NSE, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , pharmaceutical manufacturers and other healthcare operators need to work together to create a special window of investment funding for the healthcare industry through the capital market.

He noted that the demand for drugs and medical care remains an advantage to domestic producers as well as an opportunity for growth and development of the sector.

He outlined that Nigeria’s population, coupled with its high incidence of diseases makes the country a vibrant pharmaceutical market, noting that official statistics suggests that Nigeria has one of the highest incidents of malaria, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis and other diseases especially among children under 10 years of age.

Okafor added that the government has indicated its intention to revamp the healthcare sector by initiating several reforms such as improved expenditure on the health sector and the empowerment of regulatory agencies.

“With an improved situation, pharmaceutical manufacturers have confidence to

approach the capital market for funds, knowing that their investments will be quick to recover. The market has capacity to identify foreign investors interested in the pharmaceutical business and I hope it will not be improper to arrange collaborative meetings for local companies with such investors,” Okafor said.

He pointed out that May & Baker Nigeria had undertaken several significant investments in recent period through its internally generated revenue and borrowed funds noting that the recovery at the capital market provides opportunity to better funding through the market.

“With the recovery in the capital market it is our hope that more conducive funding windows will be available to us and we shall count on the support of the NSE and other operators in the capital market if we decide to approach the market,” Okafor said.

Encouraging other healthcare companies to list their shares, Okafor said that listing has added values to May & Baker Nigeria pointing out that it will in November celebrate its 20 years of listing on the NSE. According to him, the company has gone to great lengths to improve value for its shareholders as it invested heavily in the construction of a world class pharmaceutical manufacturing facility which its asset holding by more than 100 per cent by an additional N4 billion.

He commended the courage and patience of shareholders and investors who willingly sacrificed their dividends when the company was building the Pharmacentre, assuring that with the progress it has made, the company is in good position to continue its tradition of robust dividends to shareholders soon.

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GlobalStocks

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday

U.S. stocks decline as gold weakens .S. stocks fell for a second U day as a report showed slowing growth in manufacturing while European shares slid amid concern the Ukraine crisis may escalate.

Gold had its biggest drop of the year.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.5 percent to 1,857.96 at 3:27 p.m. in New York, yesterday after jumping the most in a month last week. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 1.2 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 1.1 percent as world leaders gathered in The Hague. The euro advanced against the dollar and Russia’s ruble strengthened for a second day against the U.S. currency. Yields on 10year Treasury notes dropped, erasing earlier gains. Gold futures slipped almost 2 percent.

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Europe for talks as Russia, which completed its annexation of Crimea last week, masses soldiers on the border with Ukraine. Data today showed the pace of U.S. manufacturing activity slowed this month, while other reports indicated China’s manufacturing industry weakened in March and growth at euro-area factories and service providers held close to the fastest since 2011.

China’s leaders have pledged to accelerate policies to support the economy.

“What really spooked people was the U.S. PMI,” Chris Bouffard, chief investment officer with The Mutual Fund Store in Overland Park, Kansas, said in a phone inter-

view. His firm oversees $9 billion. “It’s more of the mixed data and the slower-thandesired economic recovery that just persist. Every time we get a little of momentum, we take a couple steps back with one of the economic readings coming in below expectations.”

The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent last week as data from jobless claims to manufacturing showed the economy is strengthening after unusually harsh winter weather. The benchmark index reached an intraday record on March 21, touching 1,883.97 before retreating. Reports on housing, gross domestic product and durable goods are among the economic data due this week.

“The market has been running into resistance at 1,880,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at RW Baird & Co., said by telephone from Sarasota, Florida. His firm oversees $110 billion. “Today it’s a question of what catalyst can come in and generate extra volume.”

The Markit Economics preliminary index of U.S. manufacturing decreased to 55.5 in March from 57.1 a month earlier, the London-based group said today. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. This month’s reading was the second-highest since January 2013. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 19 economists was 56.5.

The Chicago Fed’s national index rose to 0.14 in February versus a forecast of 0.08 in a Bloomberg survey. It was

revised to minus 0.45 in January from minus 0.39.

The bull market in U.S. equities this month entered its sixth year, with the S&P 500 surging as much as 178 percent from its 2009 low, as three rounds of bond purchases from the Federal Reserve helped fuel economic growth in the past 11 quarters.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on March 19 that the central bank’s stimulus program could end this fall and benchmark interest rates may rise about six months later. The Fed had previously said it would not raise rates for a considerable period, without specifying a time frame.

Health-care stocks led declines in the S&P 500 today, slipping 1.4 percent as a group.

The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index is poised to enter a correction, or a drop of 10 percent from its record in February.

The gauge of 121 drugmakers has lost 9.7 percent from Feb. 25 through last week after rallying 369 percent from a six-

year low in March 2009. The index sank 3.1 percent today, meaning it will officially enter a correction if it closes at this level.

The biotech index sank 4.4 percent on March 21 after Gilead Sciences Inc. was asked

by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to explain how the company set an $84,000 price for its Sovaldi drug, a hepatitis C treatment.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a gauge for U.S. stock volatility, added 1.8 percent to 15.27. The index, also known as the VIX, last week fell the most since February, sinking 16 percent.

Yields on Treasury 10-year notes fell 1 basis point to 2.73 percent. The U.S. will sell $109 billion in fixed- and floatingrate debt this week, including $32 billion of two-year notes tomorrow.

The Stoxx 600 dropped after it jumped 1.8 percent last week. The number of shares changing hands in Stoxx 600-

listed companies was 11 percent lower than the 30-day average for the time of day, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg.

Royal KPN NV lost 4.2 percent after Citigroup Inc. downgraded the Dutch telecommunications operator.

Deutsche Post AG rose 1.7 percent after a Welt am Sonntag report said Europe’s largest postal service will increase its mail profit target by 60 percent.

Growth in euro-area manufacturing and services stayed close to the fastest since 2011 in March as France strengthened, providing further evidence the region’s recovery is on track. Indexes for manufacturing and services based on surveys of purchasing managers were little changed from February, London-based Markit Economics Ltd. said in a statement.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said the risk of war was growing amid calls from U.S. lawmakers for more Western

support for the Kiev government. U.S. officials said Russian troops are massed along virtually the entire Ukrainian border and have about doubled in number from when Moscow’s defense ministry first announced military exercises.

Russia’s Micex Index fell 0.7 percent, reversing an earlier gain. The ruble advanced 0.4 percent against the dollar.

The euro jumped 0.3 percent to $1.3838. The yen rose less than 0.1 percent against the dollar, reversing a decline of as much as 0.4 percent.

China’s manufacturing industry weakened for a fifth straight month, according to a preliminary measure for March released today, deepening concern the nation will miss its 7.5 percent growth target this year. The preliminary purchasing managers’ index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics was at 48.1, below the 48.7 median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Dollar firms against euro on weak German data HE dollar rose against the T euro yesterday after signs of slower growth in Germany worried traders and expectations of tightening U.S. monetary policy continued to support the greenback.

Data showed the German private sector slowed in March, disappointing investors who were positioned for a better reading on the euro zone's largest economy.

The euro's losses reversed from an earlier European session high after surveys showed French business activity grew in March at its fastest in more than 2 1/2years, beating forecasts for further contraction.

The weak German data triggered the potential for more monetary easing from the European Central Bank, which would likely weaken

the euro further, said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management in New York. "Germany is going to determine ECB policy," he said.

Partly supporting the euro has been the perception that the European Central Bank is reluctant to ease monetary policy any further. The euro's resilience prompted the pres-

ident of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, to complain on Friday that the currency was too strong for euro zone exporters.

Investors snapped up the dollar last week as they bet on a U.S. interest rate hike early in 2015, after Fed Chair Janet Yellen surprised markets by raising the prospect of such a move.

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Quote of the week

Law

“the proudest confessions are always barely legal. the fondest memories are always underage. the most innocent experiences are always infantile.” Bauvard, Some inspiration for the overenthusiastic

Constitutional obstacles before confab As delegates to the national conference settle down for deliberation after an initial hiccup that characterized its inauguration last week, BeRtRAM NWANNeKANMA reports that it is not yet Uhuru for the confab as there seem to be constitutional hurdles, which need to be scaled through before a successful outing.

FoCUS HE convocation of the national conferT ence was seen as a welcome development for many Nigerians, especially activists, who had been clamouring for such an avenue that would allow Nigerians discuss their common heritage.

However, since the release of the modalities for the conference in January by the Federal Government, some activists had come hard on government, describing the conference as a mere jamboree incapable of solving the nation’s recurring problems.

To these groups, the motive of the exercise will serve no purpose in solving various challenges facing the country.

According to them, “that the report of the national Conference will be ratified by the National Assembly is confusing as the National Assembly has not resolved the agitation of our people for a People’s Constitution to replace the 1999 Constitution forced on us by military dictatorship.

They also argued that unwarranted ratification would neither improve constitutional thought, effect, legality, legitimacy or expectation of the people of Nigeria, since the National Assembly cannot give us a Constitution by amendment.

“The complaint of the people of Nigeria warranting the call for a national conference is that the diverse people of the nation separated by language, morality, location, religion and region need to agree on the terms of their relation in a free national dialogue originated by the free will of the people.

“This is different from a political council with politically-directed interests and personalities”, the activists reasoned.

Some activists had even gone ahead to challenge the constitutionality of the conference.

One of such activists is Dr. Tunji Abayomi, who has urged a Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the Federal Government from going ahead with the national conference, In the civil suit, Abayomi argued that President Goodluck Jonathan does not have constitutional power to convoke or convene a national conference without the consent of the National Assembly.

The lawyer wants the court to determine whether a national conference could be convened by the President and/or Federal Government of Nigeria without a law made by the National Assembly enabling them to do so.

Also, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) filed a similar suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja, asking it to stop the holding of the planned national conference because the Federal Government does not have the constitutional powers to convene such conference.

In a suit filed, which has the Attorney General of the Federation and Clerk of the National Assembly as defendants, the rights group seeks the court’s declarations that the proposed national conference is a usurpation of the powers of the National Assembly under Section 4 of the Constitution.

Nwobike (SAN) Relying on the 2003 decision of the Supreme Court in Gani Fawehinmi v Ibrahim Babangida SC.360/2001 in respect of the faulted Oputa Panel, the group argued that the Federal Government cannot legally set up a national conference in a federation like Nigeria to deliberate on issues outside the exclusive legislative list of the constitution, and it can only do so through the National Assembly.

Other reliefs sought by the group include a declaration that the proposed National Conference by the Federal Government of Nigeria is unconstitutional and violates the provisions of Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, being an illegal usurpation of the constitutional powers of the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.

The group also wants the court to determine whether the National Assembly can allocate and appropriate funds in the Appropriation Act for purpose of holding a National Conference that is not permitted or mandated by the constitution or law.

They further asked the court to determine whether the proposed allocation of 7 billion

if there is no road where we are headed, my advice is that we do the right thing by building a foundation that will be difficult to pull down by any dangerous storm (this time, we mean wicked men and women who do not mean well for the country.) Let our leaders carry out a surgery on this Conference now before we go too far and then discover that the conference is carrying a tumour by which time it may become impossible to carry out the surgery

Ubani naira by the Federal Government in its proposed Appropriation Bill 2014 for holding the national conference is contrary to its obligation under Chapter two of the Constitution, which required government to demonstrate rational and optimal utilisation of national resources, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act and other laws governing the proper and efficient use of resources, and, therefore wasteful, unlawful and inappropriate.

However, a Lagos-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Joseph Nwobike, was of the opinion that the president has the legal powers to convoke the national conference.

He argued that as an executive president, President Goodluck Jonathan wields enormous powers, which include convoking a national conference to discuss the wellbeing of Nigerians.

He said: “There are no clear legal impediments. In terms of the expenditure associated with it, I believe that the National Assembly may have appropriated it or given its anticipatory approval.

“Above all, I believe that the benefits that the country will derive from the conference.

Clearly outweigh the demerits, I think that Nigerians once again have a veritable opportunity to ventilate their grievances and articulate some solutions to them”, he added.

For the Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, Monday Ubani, there are so many issues militating against having a successful national conference again.

Ubani, who said he is not too comfortable that there is no legal backing for the conference, said he had been at the forefront of advocating for a legal backing before the con-

vocation of the conference.

“My suggestion was that there ought to have been an enabling Act of the parliament spelling out the modalities, the proceedings and the outcome of the conference. The conveners did not follow this road and as usual, we hurriedly put together this conference with a view that it would not succeed.

Therefore, if it is challenged in court that it is illegal and that the President does not have the legal backing to constitute the conference using only his executive powers, I will not be surprised if the challenge becomes successful.

“We hope and pray that this should not happen as it will amount to sheer waste of resources if the courts rules that the President lacks the legal power to constitute the conference without an enabling Act. Am also not comfortable with the requirement that consensus shall be reached by 75 per cent of the delegates.

“That requirement is draconian and unattainable in a country as divisive as Nigeria.

The minority will clearly have their way in this conference, as no agreement will ever be reached on any issue. In fact, it will be the reign of terror of the minority all the way.

That again calls to question the real intention of those convening this conference. Why would they constitute this conference and set up parameters that are so high that will make agreements impossible. Well, what Fela sang many years ago is becoming a reality “no agreement today, no agreement tomorrow”. It will be very sad if this last effort to recover Nigeria from the pit of hell

CoNtiNUed oN pAge 82

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80 LAW March 25, 2014

LawPeople

“Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Banire: Advocate of reforms in justice delivery system Profile

By Yetunde Ayobami Ojo is an incontrovertible that the IinTadministration of justice system Nigeria is bedeviled with various problems, which have negative impact on quick dispensation of justice.

These problems, many legal minds, believe have negative effects on the nation’s campaign for foreign investors, since one of the key considerations for foreign investments is the availability of affordable means of settling disputes, which is inevitable in commercial ventures.

One of such concerned lawyers is Dr. Muiz Banire, a revered commercial lawyer, based in Lagos, and an advocate of reforms capable of tackling the multifaceted problems beclouding the administration of justice in the country.

According to him, one of such problems that need prompt attention is delay, which is capable of frustrating anybody.

He said: “ It is a common saying in law that “justice delayed is justice denied.”

Today, you go to court to eject a tenant who is not paying rent but you cannot get him out for the next 20 years because of delay in our courts.

“There is a problem of infrastructure, particularly technology.

There is also a question of competency and indirect problem of miscalculation.

“For example, if you want to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), there are a number of cases you are expected to have adjudicated at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

“As a result, virtually every lawyer that wants to become SAN will appeal against every matter, no matter how irrelevant.

“They know they won’t win but because they just want to become SANs. That is why you have so many cases pending at the Court of Appeal and that further complicates the problems.

Banire, therefore, wants a reassessment of these criteria in order to curb these problems.

According to him, although the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is trying her best, there is still need to institutionalize the reforms, since she will soon complete her tenure. Nobody can guarantee that after her tenure, the same reform will continue, unless it is institutionalized.”

The astute lawyer also commented on the debate for the abolition of SANship, saying the title should only be given to deserving lawyers.

He said:”There is merit in the argument of abolition in the sense that the appointments have been abused. It is also a fact that there is restriction on it. Some of us believe that if it is 100 people that are qualified, let them be appointed, instead of narrowing it to just 10. That is why there has

Banire been abuse in the process.

“I am not sure I want to support the clamour for its abolition. The only thing I will advocate is that when people are qualified or meet the criteria, they should be given. It should be automatic. It should not be narrowed down to a particular number.

“The law does not allow lawyers to lobby for it, but somehow, you are also required to be known by those who will approve your appointment.

“So, you can see the conflict inherent in that because nobody will recommend you if he does not know you.”

On the issue of the abolition of death sentence in our legal system, Banire said: “I have always belonged to the opinion that it should not be

“It is a common saying in law that ‘justice delayed is justice denied. ’ Today, you go to court to eject a tenant who is not paying rent but you cannot get him out for the next 20 years because of delay in our courts”.

abolished.

“You only need to be a victim before you can appreciate it.

Some people will say it is not serving as deterrent but I know it will serve as deterrent. In those days, when they used to execute them on television, people shivered whenever they watched it.

They normally had a re-think that they didn’t want to die in such way and by that, it had prevented many people from engaging in criminal activities. “ But how many are they killing these days and how many have the governors signed?” He asked.

Born on October 6, 1966, in Olowogbowo, Lagos Island Local Council, Lagos State, Banire attended Lousa Soares Nursery School in 1970-1972 and St. Jude’s Primary School in 1972-1977 both in Mushin Lagos for his elementary certificate. Thereafter he proceeded to Archbishop Aggrey Memorial Secondary School, Mushin between1976 and 1983 for his secondary school certificate (WASC and GCE).

Between 1983-1984 Federal School of Arts and Science, Victoria Island, Lagos for Lower six (A Level). Upon his graduation, he proceeded to University of Ilorin I between 1984 and 1986. He was also in University of Lagos, Akoka, and Lagos 1986-1988 for his law degree.

He obtained his B.L (Barrister-atLaw) at the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island in 1988-1989.

In the year 1990-1991, he got his LL.M (Master of Laws) Degree, and got his Ph.D. (Property Law) in University of Lagos in year 2005.

Banire said he was motivated to read law by the late Chief Justice Fatai Williams and Adetokunbo Ademola.

The astute lawyer said as a child, he was enamoured with the respect, that usually go with the legal profession and therefore, decided to pursue the profession vigorously even though, he was not born with any silver spoon. “ That is why I studied law in my first degree, went back for masters’ before starting my legal practice in 1989. “ It is something that I have so much love for. It is the profession I have always enjoyed. If you go back to my primary school days, my classmates would tell you that I had always written my name as Chief Justice Adeyemi Banire. So, I have always cherished that profession. “ After my secondary education, I was almost derailing to study economic but somehow, through Divine intervention, I found myself back to law. I believe that is what God had destined me to do,” he added, Banire did his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with Legal Aid Council, Abeokuta, where he made his first appearance in court.

He was sent to defend an alleged murderer.

He captured the moment thus: “ It was challenging. Interestingly, I was to defend an alleged murderer in a murder case. You can imagine what it looked like. I was jittery to the extent that I forgot to concentrate on procedural aspect rather than the substantive law as if that was what would happen in court that day but graciously enough, the matter did not go on.”

Banire was at Chief Gani Fawehinmi Chambers for his chamber’s attachment in1989.

Thereafter, he worked as Counsel in Seun Akinbiyi & Co, Lagos between 1990-1991, Principal Partner, Akinbiyi, Banire & Co., Ikeja in 1991-1995.

He was a Senior Lecturer, Department of Private and Property Law, Faculty of Law University of Lagos between 1991 and 2010.

He was a Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Matters to the Lagos State Governor in June 1999, Commissioner for Special Duties, Lagos State (July 1999August 2000), Commissioner for Transportation, Lagos State (August 2000-May 2007), Commissioner for the Environment, Lagos August 2007May 2011 and Principal Associate, M.A Banire & Associates, Ikeja Lagos.

Banire is registered with the Law Society England, Member of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar Association, Nigerian Institute of Management and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, amongst others.

Banire has written several books and a recipient of several honours and awards.

He is married with children.

Do you know…

Illegality Connotes an infraction of the law. It means that which is contrary to the principles of law, as contradistinguished from mere rules of procedure- A.G. Ekiti State v. Daramola [2003] 10 NWLR ( Pt. 827) 104 at 162, [ S C]; [2003] 36 WRN 10.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 LAW

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81

LawReport Where native law and custom governing succession is codified that regulates the mode of succession (1) In the Court of Appeal, Benin Judicial Division, Holden at Benin City, On Friday, February 14, 2014, Before Their Lordships: Ibrahim Mohammed Musa Saulawa, Justice, Court of Appeal; Ayobode Olujimi Lokulo-Sodipe, Justice, Court of Appeal; Tom Shaibu Yakubu, Justice, Court of Appeal Appeal No.CA/B/19/2006 Cross-Appeal NO.CA/B/19A/2006 Cross-Appeal No.CA/B/19B/2006 Between Prince Rasak Yesufu Ogiefo (appellant) and HRH Jafaru Isesele I (Onogie of Ewu); The Permanent Secretary, Directorate of Local Government & Chieftaincy Affairs, Edo State Attorney-General & Commissioner For Justice, Edo State Robert Omosu Ehigimetor Aisenonken Iyonagbe Ihimekpen (respondents).

RGUABLY, by virtue of the codification of A Exhibit P, the Bendel State Legal Notice No 70 of 1979 (supra), any other native law and custom hitherto regulating the mode of succession to the throne of Onogie of Ewu has become rather inapplicable. This is because the principle has long been settled, that where the native law and custom governing succession to a particular throne or title has been duly codified by way of a chieftaincy declaration (as in the instant case), then it is the declaration that regulates succession to the throne or title; not any other custom or usage.

So held the Court of Appeal, Holden at Benin City in a unanimous leading judgment delivered by his lordship, Ibrahim Mohammed Musa Saluawa (JCA); his Learned Brothers: Ayobode Olujimi Lokulo-Sodipe and Tom Shaibu Yakubu (JJCA), concurring while dismissing the appellant’s appeal.

The appellant was represented by Chief D.O. Okoh (SAN), W.O. Ovbiebo and F.A. Aghedo K.O. Obamogie with Miss S.E. Oyamedan for the 1st respondent while the 2nd & 3rd respondents were represented by Oluwole Iyamu SolicitorGeneral, Edo State with P.E. Aziegbemhin, C.A. Ebosele, R.O. Oahimire, F.E. Oseh-Kayodele, M.O. Eruaga and the 4th -6th respondents were represented by Prof. A.O.O. Ekpu with A.U. Obeh, H.E. Akpasubi.

The facts are as contained in the body of the judgment.

The instant appeal is a fallout of the judgment of the High Court of Justice, Edo State, Benin Judicial Division, which was delivered on February 11, 2005. By the judgment in question, the lower court, Coram, the Hon. Justice F.S. Erhonsele, granted the 1st respondent’s (plaintiff’s) claim in part, and dismissed the appellant’s (defendant’s) counter-claim.

The genesis of the present appeal is traceable to June 5, 2000. That was indeed the day the 1st Respondent instituted the suit (No. HEK/32/2000), vide a writ of summons, in the court below against the appellant/crossrespondent, the 2nd and 3rd respondents, respectively, seeking some declaratory and injunctive reliefs.

• A declaration that under Esan Native Law and Custom applicable in Ewu succession to the throne of Onogie of Ewu is by primogeniture i.e. from father to eldest surviving son; • A declaration that the plaintiff herein is the legitimate successor to His Royal Highness, Ojiefo II, Onogie of Ewu, who joined his ancestors on August 6, 1997, and is, therefore, entitled to the rights, benefits and privileges attached to his office as Onogie of Ewu. Remarkably, the 4th – 6th respondents came into the matter in the lower court consequent upon the appellant’s counter-claim. The 4th 6th respondents’ statement of defence to appellant’s counter-claim.

At the end of the trial, the lower court reserved

judgment, which was delivered on the said February 11, 2005, to the conclusive effect, thus: On the whole, flowing from the reasoning and reasons given above, I hold that the plaintiff relying on Section 2 of Bendel State Legal Notice No. 70 of 1979 is the legitimate successor to the throne of the Onogie of Ewu following his father’s demise in August 1, 19797 as the Onogie of Ewu. However, with particular regard to the appellant’s (1st defendant’s) counter-claim, the lower court came to the conclusion that: The entirely (sic) of the 1st defendant’s claim is (sic) his counter claim fails.

It is common knowledge that apart from the main appeal, (CA/B/2006 filed by the appellant (Prince Rasak Yesufu Ogiefo), there are also two other cross-appeals filed by the 1st respondents, and the 4th – 6th respondent, respectively. Regrettably, the two cross-appeals have not been given a distinct appeal number.

In the circumstance, therefore, I have deemed

Justice Bulkachuwa, PCA

it expedient, for ease of reference, to specifically identify the two cross-appeals of the 1st respondent and 4th -6th respondents in question as CA/B/19A/2006 and CA/B/19B/2006, respectively.

The notice of appeal, predicated upon three grounds was filed on 15/4/05 in the court below (pages 394-395 of the record).

It spans a total of 17 pages. At page 5 of the brief, two issues have been formulated to the following effects: As between the appellant and the 1st respondent, who is the successor to the throne of the Onogie of Ewu. (Grounds 1,2,3 & 4) Whether the injunctive reliefs granted is supported by evidence on record. (Ground 4) The argument on issue No.1 is contained at pages 6-13 of the appellant’s brief. Without much ado, the appellant’s learned senior counsel submitted on issue No.1, that the appellant is entitled to inherit the throne of the Onogie of Ewu by whatever mode. Exhibit P, the Bendel State Legal Notice of 1979 was copiously alluded

to, as being the applicable law that regulates succession to the title of Onogie of Ewu. Juxtaposing the evidence of the appellant and that of the 1st respondent vis-à-vis Exhibit P, it was contended that succession to the throne of Ewu is not firma terra. It is automatic. It is subject to the completion of (certain) prerequisites. That, the 1st respondent failed woefully to establish his entitlement to the throne (of Ewu) for the reasons that he: Failed to prove that he performed the burial ceremony of the late Onogie; Failed to prove that he completed the customary prerequisites of sweeping, climbing and wrestling; Lived all his life in the palace; Failed to call any of his brothers and sisters to prove that he has performed the burial rite of the late Onogie and could not show any evidence to support his claim even if it is a mere picture; Failed to call as a witness the person who allegedly installed him as Onogie; and that The Kingmakers of Ewu, the 4th, 5th and 6th respondents stated in their pleadings and testimonies that the 1st respondents has not been installed as the Onogie and gave unchallenged evidence.

It was further submitted that the appellant called three witnesses and testified in proof of the pleadings thereof. That the appellant’s right to inheritance was sustained by the burial of his late father, the heir to the throne of Ewu, who was the first son of the Onogie of Ewu and was groomed for the stool right from birth.

It was argued that the lower court failed to realise and appraise the customary significance of the burial of appellant’s father at the Kings Cemetery, which was pleaded and highlighted in the oral testimonies of the appellant, his witness and the Kingmakers, in line with the decision in Odofin Vs Mogaji NC Vol. 11. Page 275. That, the important customary law was not debunked by the 1st respondent either in the pleadings or evidence stands unchallenged and uncontroverted, and the lower court was bound to rely and act thereupon. See Ezigbo Engineering Company Ltd. Vs. Iwuamadi (2009) 16 NWLR (pt. 116) 44 @ 63 D-F; Omorogbe Vs. Lawani (1980) 3-4 SG 108.

The court is equally urged upon to hold that the appellant has proved on the preponderance of evidence that he is entitled to the throne of Onogie of Ewu, and accordingly resolve issue No.1 in favour of the appellant.

On Issue No.2, it was submitted by learned silk that there is an uncontroverted evidence that the appellant has been installed by the kingmakers as the Onogie of Ewu, and that the appellant has been given a staff of office in recognition of his ascendancy to the sacred throne of Ewu. That from the record, the respondent has not challenged the installation and recognition of the appellant. And that there is no relief seeking that the installation and recognition, therefore, be declared null and void. Thus the reliefs for perpetual injunction are non sequitur, the court has been urged upon to resolve the second issue in favour of the appellant.

Conclusively, the court has been urged to uphold the appeal, set aside the vexed decision of the lower court, and in its place grant the reliefs (sought) in the appellant’s counterclaim.

On the other hand, the 1st respondent’s Amended Brief of Argument, dated 18/4/12 but filed on 20/4/12, was settled by K.O. Obamogie of K.O. Obamogie & Co. it spans a total of 21 pages.

The issue No.1 is argued at pages 7-16 of the 1st respondent’s brief. From the outset, it was submitted that it’s the primary responsibility of the trial court, that saw and heard witnesses testify, to evaluate the evidence before it and pronounce on the credibility or probative value of the evidence adduced before it. That it’s not the business of an appellate court to substitute its own views for those of the trial court. See Fagbenro Vs. Arobadi (2006) 7 NWLR (pt. 978) 172 @ 193.

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LAW Tuesday, March 25, 2014

FamilyLaw

You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words.

----- Elizabeth Gilbert

Legal perspectives of marriage (17) Paternity and modern science HEN working with guideline forW mulas, how are the parents’ incomes determined?

A. States use the parents’ net income or gross income. Gross income is the parents’ income from all (or almost all) sources, including wages, investments, and other sources). Net income is equal to gross income minus federal and state income taxes, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, health insurance, and perhaps union dues.

For self-employed persons, the determination of income may be complex.

Courts will allow deductions of reasonable business expenses before determining net income. But courts may disallow unusually high business expenses and depreciation that reduce income artificially without hurting the parent’s cash flow. Thus, certain expenses that are deductible for tax purposes may not be deductible from income for the purpose of setting child support.

How much child support should a noncustodial parent expect to pay?

That question is difficult to answer precisely because guidelines vary between states and because courts may depart from the guidelines. But some examples can be given.

What is an example of a guideline for child support based on the income of only the noncustodial parent? A. Here is the “percentage of obligor’s income” guideline, which was in effect in Illinois in the year 2000: Number of Percent of supporting children1 2 3 4 5 6 or more party`s net income 20% 25% 32% 40% 45% 50% Under this guideline, if a noncustodial parent (“supporting party”) had a net income of $40,000, the annual level of child support would be $8,000 for one child; $10,000 for two children; $12,800 for three children, etc.

What’s an example of a support for-

mula based on the incomes of both parents?

Support guidelines based on the incomes of both parents often are referred to as “income shares models.” Under these guidelines, the court first adds the net income (or in some states, the gross income) of both parents. Then the court consults a long table—or computer program— which assesses the total obligation of support as a percentage of the combined incomes and the number of children. Generally, the percentage drops as the combined incomes rise, on the assumption that financially well off parents need to spend a smaller portion of their incomes on their children than parents who are less well-off. The court multiplies the combined incomes by the percent figure and obtains a dollar amount that the child or children are considered to need for support.

Then the responsibility to pay that support is divided between the parents in proportion to each parent’s incomes.

Here is an example using Colorado’s child support schedules. Assume a father and mother have two children and a combined annual gross

income of $60,000—$40,000 earned by the father and $20,000 earned by the mother. The schedules put the guideline amount for support at $11,508 per year ($959 per month).

Since the father earns two-thirds of the parties’ combined income, he would pay two-thirds of the children’s support ($7,672 a year) and the mother would pay one-third ($3,836). If one parent had primary custody of the children, the other probably would make a cash payment to that parent.

The parent with primary custody probably would not make a cash payment as such, but would be assumed to be spending that amount on the children. Alternatively, the parents might set up a checking account for the children’s expenses and both would deposit their respective shares into the account.

What are reasons for ordering more support than the guideline amount?

This will vary from state to state and will depend, in part, on what expenses the guidelines include and do not include. But some common reasons for giving support above the base guideline amount include: child-care expenses, high medical or dental expenses of the child that are not covered by insurance, and voluntary unemployment or underemployment of the parent who is supposed to pay support. Expenses for summer camps and private schools also might be a basis for setting higher support levels, particularly if private schools or summer camps were part of the family’s lifestyle during the marriage.

What are reasons for setting support below the guideline amount?

Again, this can vary from state to state, but common reasons for setting support below the guideline amounts include support obligations from earlier marriages and large debts to pay off (particularly if the debts are related to family expenses). If the support guidelines are based on the income of only the noncustodial parent and if

Courts may disallow unusually high business expenses and depreciation that reduce income artificially without hurting the parent’s cash flow. Thus, certain expenses that are deductible for tax purposes may not be deductible from income for the purpose of setting child support. the custodial parent has an unusually high income, then the noncustodial parent can argue that the custodial parent’s income is a reason for setting support below the guidelines. Also, if the guidelines do not have a cap or maximum level of income to which they apply, the high income of the noncustodial parent is a basis for setting support below the guidelines.

For example, using the Illinois guidelines described earlier, if a noncustodial parent has three children and an annual net income of $200,000, that parent can argue that the children do not need the $64,000 per year that the guidelines call for.

What is the effect on child support if the parents have joint custody of the children? That depends on the nature of the joint custody arrangement. If the parents have joint legal custody (by which they share in making major decisions regarding the child), that will have little effect on child support.

If the parents have only joint legal custody, one parent still has primary custody of the child and handles payments of most of the child’s day-today expenses. The custodial parent’s expenses for the child have not been reduced by the joint custody arrangement. If the parents have joint physi-

cal custody and the child spends a substantial amount of time with each of parent, support might be set at less than the guideline amount since both parents are likely to handle day-to-day expenses for the child.

(Parents, however, will need to coordinate payments on major expenses such as camp, school, clothing, and insurance).

Is child support paid while the child is with the noncustodial parent for summer vacation or long breaks? A. In most cases, yes. Courts figure that many major expenses for the benefit of the child—such as rent, mortgage, utilities, clothes, and insurance— have to be paid whether the child is with the custodial parent or not. So, usually, a full support payment is due, even if the child is with the noncustodial parent. On the other hand, the parties themselves (or the court) are free to agree on payments in different amounts during vacation periods when the child is with the noncustodial parent.

The lower amount for vacation periods with the noncustodial parent might reflect savings to the custodial parent for food expenses or childcare.

Do divorced parents have to pay for their child’s college expenses?

That depends on the state and the parties’ agreement. Courts in some states will require parents to pay for a child’s college expenses (assuming the parents can afford it and the child is a good enough student to benefit from college). Courts in other states note that married parents are not required to pay for their child’s college expenses, and, therefore, divorced parents are not required to do so either. Regardless of the state’s law on compulsory payment of college expenses, the mother and father can agree as part of their divorce settlement to pay for these costs. Courts usually will enforce those agreements.

Constitutional obstacles before confab CONTINUED FROM PAGE 79 fails because of premeditated thoughts, sheer wickedness and lack of love for the country or from criminal negligence of those in charge of our national affairs with dire consequences to the polity and citizenry.

“If there is no road where we are headed, my advice is that we do the right thing by building a foundation that will be difficult to pull down by any dangerous storm (this time we mean wicked men and women who do not mean well for the country.) Let our leaders carry out a surgery on this conference now before we go too far and then discover that the conference is carrying a tumour by which time it may become impossible to carry out the surgery”.

Ubani’s arguments also received a tacit support from the immediate past chairman of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Taiwo Taiwo, who said the national conference is not the type Nigerians desired, especially at a time in our national life when we appear more divided along ethnic lines more than we were at the time of our founding-fathers.

“There are so many groups along religious, ethnic and social lines to be ignored based

on their threats against the overall interest of Nigeria.

“The way the delegates were chosen, appointed or anointed is not any different from how the military chose those who produced our previous constitution. Many of them don’t even represent the people from their respective areas.

“I will prefer a situation where the true representatives of the people are actually nominated by the people, after all, it’s meant to be government of the people, by the people for the people!

“The President with all due respect cannot usurp the powers of the National Assembly.

In actual fact, the Constitution has laid down procedures for amending it. What we need in view of our current problems, especially as a nation, is a Sovereign National Conference.

“How long are we going to run from the reality that we are not yet a nation? How long are we going to run away from the reality that we do not have a proper federal system? How long are we going to run away from the reality that we don’t have proper separation of power?

Do we really need all the old hands who had been involved in the Nigerian project for years without any meaningful solution?

“There are many constitutional obstacles that this conference will have to cross if they

are able to achieve any meaningful dialogue in view of the set minds and the agenda of the various groups congregating in Abuja conference.

“There are some who are trustworthy like the chairman who has proven himself as a man of integrity. I just pray some are not just going there to warm seats and collect the jumbo pay for nothing. The way forward is a

Taiwo

conference made up of true representatives of the people who will congregate and be frank as to whether we should still remain together and do business as usual or fashion a new political arrangement where all of us will be assured of equality, rule of law regardless of where one comes from, real religious, economic and social freedom.

LAW Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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Court strikes out suit against National Youth Council’s president From The Courts

By Bertram Nwannekanma USTICE Okon Efreti Abang of a Federal High Jfiled Court, Lagos on Monday struck out a suit by one Anyebe Agbo Odeh against the President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Henry Nwabueze following the decision of the plaintiff to withdraw the matter.

In the suit, which also had the Incorporated Trustees of National Youth Council of Nigeria as second defendant, the plaintiff filed an Originating Summons and a motion for interlocutory injunction seeking an order restraining the defendants from conducting fresh elections pending the determination of his substantive suit .

He also filed another motion seeking to nullify the election of May 25, 2013 that produced Henry Nwabueze as president on the ground that the election was done during the pendency of the suit.

However, while the parties were awaiting the ruling of the court on the already argued applications, the defendants decided to steal the match on the court by going ahead to hold another election/congress in Minna, Nigeria, which also produced Abdullahi Abdulmajeed as president.

The action prompted Odeh to file a motion of notice brought pursuant to order 26, Rule 1& 2(1) of the Federal High Court Rules 2009 in which he urged the court to nullify the election / congress of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, which took place in Minna, Nigeria from August 21- August 24 on the ground that it was done during the pendency of his suit.

Suing through his counsel, Nnamdi Nweke, the plaintiff also wants an order restraining the Incorporated Trustees of National Youth Council of Nigeria (the second defendant), their agents, assigns and privies or any body claiming through them from parading themselves as executives of the National Youth Council of Nigeria either elected and/or appointed from the purported election,

which took place in Minna, Niger State.

After hearing the arguments from counsel in the matter, the trial judge on November 28, 2014 voided the election of Abdullahi Abdulmajeed, while verdict on the substantive suit against Nwabueze’s election still pend in court.

However, at the resumption of the matter yesterday, counsel to the plaintiff, Nnamdi Nweke informed the court of his decision to withdraw the suit on the ground that the plaintiff had reached an amicable settlement with the National Youth Council of Nigeria (the second defendant) in the suit.

The position of the counsel was also corroborated by Uchenna Eze, counsel representing the second defendant, who told the court that parties had agreed to a term of settlement.

But the second defendant’s counsel opposed to the application for the withdrawal of the suit on the parties had already joined issues with the plaintiff on the matter.

In his ruling, however, Justice Abang held that the plaintiff has the legal right to withdraw his suit at any time he deemed fit.

The judge subsequently struck out the suit.

Justice Auta, CJ, FHC

Rights group decries state of human rights in Nigeria

By Bertram Nwannekanma UMAN Rights group, the H Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), has decried the deteriorating situations of human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria in the last three years, saying it is of grave concern to civil societies in the country.

The concern by HRAN, a network of over 250 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working to promote and protect the respect for human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria, was contained in a copy of its 2013 report, submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, on her official visit to Nigeria.

The report contained in a statement endorsed by the Chairman of HRAN’s Steering Committee, Chino Obiagwu, as well as Lanre Suraj and Hilda Ochefu, all members of the Steering Committee in Abuja last Wednesday, demonstrated that the situation of human rights in Nigeria remains deteriorating, in the following patterns: increased cases of extra-judicial executions and summary killings; continued use of torture as state-condoned tool of law enforcement; widespread genderbased violence and sex crimes; forced eviction of poor urban communities; denial of educational rights with students of public universities at home for more than a half of the year.

Other areas listed in the report include increased cases of corruption and apparent lack of commitment of government to punish corrupt public officials; violations of rights of children and the failure of Federal and state Governments to fully implement the Child Rights Laws; repressive counter-terrorism administration resulting in increased gun violence and insecurity.

HRAN also mentioned continued use of death penalty with the recent execution of four prisoners in Edo State despite their appeals pending in court; the absence of commitment to prosecute politically exposed persons who were accused of corruption and abuse of office as none of the former governors charged to court since 2007 has been effectively prosecuted; poor investment in infrastructure such as power, roads, rail and health delivery, despite open profligacy in government.

“For example in 2013, the government procured new presidential planes and top aviation officials

spent over $220 million to purchase two cars, yet primary to tertiary education are severely underfunded.

“Above all, there is very high rate of impunity on these issues because most cases of violations of human rights were not prosecuted and fewer victims are given redress,” the group added.

“The findings in our 2013 human rights report showed that despite commitments of Nigerian government to the international community to respect human rights, as contained in ratified treaties and recommendations of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, as well as government’s National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights 2009, there is little visible commitment on the part of the government to make reality the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by citizens.

“Despite passing the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act 2011 that expanded the mandate of the Commission and increased its potential to be truly independent, the government has continued to starve the Commission of funds and the necessary tools to fully implement its mandate. After three years of being given statutory powers to investigate and issue judicially enforceable decisions, the Commission is yet to make any of such binding decision.

“Also, the Human Rights Fund, as well as fiscal autonomy provided in the new Act, have not been fully implemented.

“Freedom of expression and the press suffered severe setback in 2013.

Despite passing into law the Freedom of Information Act 2011, government institutions continued to operate in complete secrecy.

“Hundreds of requests for informa-

tion from civil society organisations and the media are routinely denied or ignored and many court orders to enforce disclosure of information were insolently disregarded. Example, after three years of an order of a Federal High Court, Abuja, that federal legislators should disclose their earnings to the public, the order has not been complied with. So also several judgments against government were disobeyed.

The group, however, noted that despite these setbacks, the government has within the year 2013 improved the legal and fiscal framework for the independence of the judiciary, resulting in reduced corruption in the justice sector. “Many judicial officials were sanctioned for abuse of office. There was also remarkable decrease in the rate of common crime across the country, though terrorism and kidnapping continued to increase in the NorthEast and South-East respectively.

“It is also commendable that government demonstrated its willingness to peaceful negotiation with identified terrorists groups, and have effectively disarmed militant groups and restored relative peace in the Niger Delta. The police authority has also in 2013 increased its internal disciplinary measures, resulting in investigation and punishment of tens of thousands of erring police staff within the year.

“However, there is need for government’s prudent investment in the security intelligence sector in order to increase capacity for effective and proactive crime management”, it added.

The findings by the group also showed that over 3,000 were direct victims of human rights violations in 2013 in Nigeria covered in 687

reported incidents. This showed an average of two violations and over 10 victims daily. Under violations around the administration of justice, 205 cases were recorded in chapter one.

“There were 1,766 cases of unlawfully killed in chapter two, with hundreds of thousands of persons reportedly internally displaced through violent terrorist attacks and destruction of communities in communal clashes.

“About 310 incidents of police arbitrary detention and brutality was recorded, with only 27 charged to court for prosecution.

Chapter two recorded 111 cases of violations of the rights of women with 69 documented cases of rape and sexual assault and 51 cases of domestic and other gender-based violence.

Fifty-five of the reported cases of rape were charged to court and 10 were fully prosecuted while the others were still in court.

“Chapter three: Economic, Social and cultural rights documents 38 incidents comprising 18 cases of demolition and forced evictions, five cases of violations of labour rights, seven cases of health rights violation and six cases of violation of rights to education. Within the year, millions of university students were at home because of lecturers’ industrial action between June and December.

Fifteen persons were reportedly killed as a result of strikes by health workers.

“Chapter four contains 155 cases of corruption involving money laundering, bribery and fraud including 72 incidents of theft of public funds by public officials. Up to 95 of all the recorded cases of corruption were charged to court with only 11 cases successfully prosecuted. The most violators of this group are public ser-

vants and agents of government.

“Under chapter five, 78 cases of violations and abuses against vulnerable persons were recorded. These violations included enslavement of minors, crimes against persons with disability, and abuses against the elderly. “In 52 of the cases affecting vulnerable persons, there had been arrests made or the suspects charged to court.

“In early 2014, the government passed into law the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act 2013 (SSMPA 2013), which not only prohibits and criminalises the institutionalisation of same-sex relationships, but also prevents the registration and sustenance of organisations, clubs or societies formed by LGBT people”, HRAN noted.

The law, in opinion of civil society, is draconian and infringes on rights to privacy, freedom of association and non-discrimination. The law will drive LGBTI community and their public health service deliverers and care-givers underground, with clear public health implications.

HRAN holds Nigerian government responsible for all violations of human rights by its officials or abuses by private citizens or criminal gang. The ultimate duty to protect its citizens and provide redress when violations occur rests with the government.

HRAN requests that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights demands from Nigerian government that all its institutions, including ministries, the Presidency and Office of the First Lady, as well as state government and organised private businesses, increase their commitments to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of Nigeria in order to deepen

N274m theft: Court begins trial of ex-Lagos Trade Fair staff June 18 LAGOS High Court, Ikeja, will on A June 18 begin the trial of five former employees of the Lagos

Adoke, AGF

International Trade Fair Complex charged with N274 million theft.

The defendants: Bassey Eyamba, Francis Dajilak, Lazarus Okocha, Barnabas Kolo and Eunice Okafor, were charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

They were arraigned before Justice Kudirat Jose on November 28, 2013.

The defendants had all pleaded not guilty to the 20-count charge of conspiracy and stealing preferred

against them.

The EFCC counsel, Mr. Anslem Ozioko, alleged that the defendants committed the offences between January 2009 and December 2011 in Lagos.

Ozioko said they had fraudulently obtained various sums of money belonging to their employer by renting and selling some plots of land owned by the complex.

According to him, the alleged offences contravened Sections 390 (6) and 516 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State 2003.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

INTeRvIeW

‘Corporate governance is gathering momentum in Nigeria’ Chief olusegun osunkeye oFR, ooN is the President of Society for Corporate Governance, Nigeria. He is also chairman of GSK Consumer Nigria Plc; Lafarge WAPCo Cement Plc; and former chairman, Nestle Nigeria Plc. In this interview, osunkeye spoke on the imperative of corporate governance in Nigeria. He said corporate governance in Nigeria is gathering momentum, especially in the Stock exchange after the creation of a lot of awareness. He explained that in view of the changing environment, nothing is static and so, corporate governance is evolving. He also dwelled on how his society is trying to get the Federal Government on board in order to make the unified code of corporate governance legalised into law for effective implementation and enforcement. He emphasised the teaching of civics and ethics in schools.

HAT are your perspectives on the state W of Corporate Governance in Nigeria?

Corporate governance in Nigeria is gathering momentum after we have created a lot of awareness. Many people know about it, especially in the Stock Exchange. We have had the code of corporate governance in Nigeria for 20 years and it is now being reviewed. It has been reviewed once or twice under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and further review is expected later this year.

The companies on the stock exchange are already imbibing corporate governance. But generally speaking, it is a work in progress.

By work in progress, I mean it is continuous to practise sound corporate governance in businesses in view of the changing environment and dynamisms of the environment; nothing is static. So, corporate governance is evolving and it is a continuous exercise.

Some people are saying that most of the problems bedeviling the quoted and unquoted companies are mostly issues of lack of corporate governance. Do you think that the work the society is putting in place in the stock exchange would necessarily address the problem?

Corporate governance generally affects the performance of companies because it leads to edge in competitiveness, if you practise sound corporate governance. This is because the stakeholders are majorly the investors.

What the investors want to see when they invest is sound corporate governance and the tenets of sound corporate governance are probity, transparency and accountability. They want to see company that is well run, that is accountable to its shareholders and other stakeholders, that is transparent, for instance in honesty and openness. Also, probity is integrity and character of the company as represented by the board of directors and management. That is what people want to see. So, at present, the laws by the Securities and Exchange Commission is affecting only public companies but actually, corporate governance is for all organisations whether publicly quoted or unquoted and be it private companies. It is the common trend to practise corporate governance through the three tenets mentioned and we want to achieve profitability at the same time comply with the laws of the country and also practise a sound corporate governance through holding regular meetings, putting committees in place i.e. audit committees and other regulation committees.

When all these are done, it would get through to some particular investors and would have confidence to invest in the company because they can be trusted.

The new campaign on corporate governance and other issues are more restricted to the private sector. Is it that the public sector is irredeemable or what? Why is your society so much concerned about private sector and not doing much in the public sector?

You are quite right, I support that view about the public sector. I happens to know that it is now under serious consideration to have a code of corporate governance, not just for the private sector, but also for the public sector and even including not- forprofit organisations. I think from what I have been hearing, it would be out this year. You know that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria is now responsible for corporate governance in Nigeria and there is committee set up as a steering committee for national code. Apart from trying to bring all the various codes together in one standard code, there are types of reference that has also been enlarged to bring in precisely what you have mentioned about public sector and even not-for-profit organisation. For me, it is a welcome development because then, it means that all organisations and entities are bound by the same code. This would help the country, it would help transparency, accountability, probity and integrity because that code is binding on all of the various sectors.

You are also an operator on the Nigeria Stock

Exchange (NSE). The stock exchange is not necessarily being affected by government policies. For instance, in the United States (U.S.), the appointment of Yellin as Federal Reserve chairperson immediately saw the movement of shares and stocks. What is your perception about this?

We are catching on that phenomenon now.

I know the stock markets in the U.S. are very advanced, but we are getting on. But indirectly, what is happening in the political and economy field is affecting the stock exchange. You can see prices have gone up; the cost of the CRR has increased, because of the various up and down pronouncements about how much money have been lost by NNPC, the different figures and so on. Now, I am told this afternoon that the CBN governor has been suspended and somebody else has been appointed. Let’s wait till tomorrow and see how the share prices of some banks would be like because the Central Bank is the overall regulatory authority in the banking sector maybe what you just said now is catching up in Nigeria. I learnt socks of bank prices fell today.

Do you think the proposed unified code of conduct or code of corporate governance in quoted institutions would actually bring about the required effort or effect?

I am of the opinion the scope of those cut up under corporate governance should not just be companies quoted on the stock exchange, after all companies quoted on the stock exchange are only 250 in Nigeria as a whole. So, it should affect the private stock and SMEs. However, it may not be as sophisticated as required from the public companies. What we are talking of, for instance, in corporate governance, are holding regular meetings, have controls, exercise risks as well as publish your account regularly. That is the kind of effort that is required by whether big or small, quoted or unquoted company. The new code should not only affect public sectors but also SMEs. Although they should be given many years to rise to that level.

How is your society trying to get the Federal Government on board in order to make the code legalised into law for effective implementation and enforcement?

That is under the purview of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. From our interactions with the council, which is exactly what they have in mind, when the new code comes out, it would not be as at present persuasive but it would be mandatory. That means, there would be sanctions.

At present, persuasive is urging you, asking you but not compelling you. It is either comply or explain at present. But when the new code comes, it would be mandatory that you comply. We are nearly there and I am full of expectations this year that when this comes out and it is mandatory, then it has a force of law.

It is believed that the attitude of the investors to the management of their capital is not really commendable and as a result of that, it affects the management of resource in quoted and other companies.

How do you think that investors can help in the implementation of code of corporate governance?

Investors have their monies in companies and therefore, they should not go to sleep. I think there are provisions in the law like CAMA Act; there are provisions even in the present code, which we say is at present persuasive, for shareholders to have interest in the affairs of the companies they are investing. That is why we have shareholders’ activism. They must show interest and get the board of companies or the directors of these companies to account to investors or shareholders. Shareholders should take more interest in where they invest in and they can emphasize this by attending shareholders meetings and raising issues for report. They can even have direct contact to

osunkeye companies’ directors to ask questions about the performance of their companies. And the media also has a role to play to bring out good corporate governance issues so that awareness is created for better corporate governance in companies generally. So, shareholders have a role to play; more and more, they are becoming active and that is in the right direction that they bring the board of directors who are supposed to be the people looking after the company to account. This is where accountability and transparency come to play.

What type of advice can you give to the board of directors in the area of trying to carry out the important decision that can make their company profitable?

The board is composed of individuals or the board is also a team. Let’s start by saying in football we have 11 people in a team and they have to work as one to score goals, which is the objective. Teamwork is important and this, therefore, means that the effectiveness of a board as a team starts with the individuals and if each individual is well chosen in composition, there should be a common trend among members of the team. In the case of corporate governance are integrity, probity, transparency and accountability, which we bring to the board. So, when we are sitting, we have values plus competency in our area of calling which is what we bring to the table for the board to be effective to perform. Then commitment, this is attending to the functions of the company, going to meetings regularly and also contributing meaningfully for the meeting. For the board to perform well, there should be togetherness, the board should work together as a team, which means, as a board member, much is required of you.

Board of directors is important to be led by an able chairman with teamwork and cohesion. Coming back to football analogy, if one of the team members has a broken leg, they become 10 men versus 11. It is worse for them when they send another one out to make nine against 11. So, it must be 11 fit members committed to score goals, which are the objectives of the board; to perform and be profitable at the same time complying with the rules, regulations and code of conduct laid down for the board.

There is always conflict of interest, how do you think they can address and deal with it?

In what I call group dynamics, there could be conflict of interest but conflict of interest could be minimised. In human relations, people have different agenda and opinion to deal with. The job of the board is to formulate policies where the management is to implement the policies. In the process, there may be different opinions on how to do things, it is the job of the board to create harmony between the board and management and the management must key in to the objectives of the board in the interest of the company because the two are working for the company. There could be conflict of interest sometimes; it is part of the code of corporate governance to disclose it. There are rules governing conflict of interest and then some boards would not even be allowed to make part in such discussions.

Some boards and management can sit in but can’t talk and there are codes for that. As much as possible, one should eschew putting yourself in the conflict of interest position. If you are doing contract in a personal capacity, in a case if it is unavoidable, then declare the interest and they would take it to account.

In your own opinion, what are the challenges facing the growth of corporate governance in Nigeria and what are the measures by your society and others of like minds put in place to tackle these challenges.

Challenges militating against corporate governance in Nigeria? There are many challenges, starting with external challenges like infrastructure. A company in Nigeria is expected to provide its own electricity either by buying its own generating set, is expected to provide its own water and in some places build its own road and so on.

These challenges divert ones attention from running ones business as it should because you’re so busy fixing what should be ordinarily provided by the state. Following on that is the challenge of bureaucracy, laws and implementation of laws. At the port, it takes close to three to four months to clear goods, that is a challenge. It is in those challenges that corruption is bred and it must be tackled. So, the Society for Corporate Governance, Nigeria is part of the society as a whole and there should be enforcement, which is also an encouragement for others to tow the line. The effort of the society like any other is to get infrastructure, to get bureaucracy reduced and therefore focus on what we are already doing like training, conferences and publications.

In view of these challenges, do you think corporate governance is currently growing in Nigeria?

It is growing and companies and boards of directors are embracing it because some have realised it is in their self-interest also.

When you embrace good corporate governance, it is a matter of imbibing not only as a board but personally as well. Part of corporate governance is when we talk of probity, honesty and we are also talking of accountability. To be accountable for the resources given to you to manage, we are talking of transparency which is disclosure. Why do you want to keep it? So, it is in your selfinterest to do all these things because the person you are dealing with will have more confidence in you even at personal level. So, take that to the board if you are a board member or director. Take these qualities to the board - transparency, integrity and probity. Not just the law is there or the code is there, but as a way of life as a person. It should start from one person; goes to the board and the country will be a better place.

Just like they say the country starts from the nuclear family. Te quality of the nuclear family affects the nation, it is the individuals that form a board and as such,they should imbibe these qualities and make it a way of life.

To be CoNTINUeD

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APC govt will probe alleged missing $20b, says Okorocha From Adamu Abuh, Abuja N All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration would investigate the alleged missing $20 billion from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) if voted into power in next year’s general elections.

Chairman, Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, assured that this would be actualised once an APC-led government takes over the leadership mantle after the 2015 polls.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a one-day Roundtable of Progressive Governors, Legislators and Civil Society Organisations, with the theme, Governance “Improving Transparent through Budgeting, Accountability and Effective Public Financial Management”, Okorocha maintained that the PDP led government has failed to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.

At the forum were former Head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, many APC members in the Senate and the House of Representatives, including their leaders, and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Earlier on, Buhari had restated his opposition to the on-going National Conference, saying it runs contrary to the provision of the constitution that empowers the National Assembly members to initiate changes or amendments of the

A

• Buhari restates opposition to confab constitution.

He noted: “This is why I expressed my personal view about the National Conference.

My view is that this is the duty of the National Assembly, it is in place and it is capable of doing it, let it do it and let us save the N7 billion allotted to it for other things.”

Okorocha said: “We must do things differently. Where else in the world, but Nigeria can a staggering $20 billion go ‘missing’? It is a mark of how low public expectations are in the Federal Government that only few people seem concerned about the unmitigated plunder of public revenues? If this state of affairs remain unchallenged, what would happen to Nigeria, if, God forbid, PDP retains power at the Federal level? This is a poser that every right thinking Nigerian must think about.

“The good news is that we will not allow that to happen. An APC government will open the books of government to public scrutiny from day one. We are committed to providing good governance that would promote equity, participation, transparency, accountability and the rule of law in a manner that is effective, efficient and enduring.”

In the communiqué issued at the end of the parley, participants urged the National Assembly to ensure the budgeting process is no longer sub-

jected to the whims and caprices of the Presidency.

There is an “urgent need to put in place a national budget time table to ensure that the budgeting process is not subjected to the whims of the Federal Government; structures and institutions at all levels must be strengthened to ensure accountability in budgeting; the budgeting process must be designed based on sector plans, not mere statements of intended expenditure or mere line budgeting to be executed at the whims of the civil service; and there must be provision for a closing figure for the previous year before any new budget is presented.

“The National Assembly’s oversight function must be reinvigorated to ensure strict compliance with budgetary provisions; Extra-budgetary expenditure which is an impeachable offence must be reined-in and punished where applicable; the envelope system, which guarantees payment amounts to certain lines charges regardless of needs must be discarded; there is need for more vigorous public hearings in relation to budgets and public expenditure processes; and there is urgent need to set up a National Assembly Budget Office similar to the Congressional Budget Office in the USA.”

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NEWSEXTRA Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Nigeria affirms commitment to fight against nuclear terrorism From Mohammed Abubakar and Azimazi Momoh Jimoh (Abuja)

• Mark urges end to killings

IGERIA took her campaign against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons to The Hague in the Netherlands yesterday where President Goodluck Jonathan reaffirmed Nigeria’s full commitment to the global fight against threat of nuclear terrorism.

Jonathan also said Nigeria would continue to pursue efforts to harness nuclear energy and technology for socio-economic development.

In his intervention at the ongoing third global security summit which opened in the Netherlands, the President said that while Nigeria would continue to support all efforts against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, the world must respect the right of countries to peaceful use of nuclear energy for development purposes.

A statement by the Presidential Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, quoted Jonathan as submitting that “As a developing country, Nigeria needs to harness nuclear technology for socioeconomic development. It is for this reason we subscribe to the view that international and regional cooperation efforts should be based on

the principle of maintaining a balance between nuclear non-proliferation obligations and the inalienable right of states to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for development purposes.

“While this is important, we would also like to draw attention to the need to maintain the highest standards of nuclear safety and security in establishing peaceful nuclear facilities.”

He told the gathering that in keeping with Nigeria’s commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the peaceful use of nuclear technology, the Federal Government has submitted an executive bill to the National Assembly to accommodate the country’s obligations under international treaties on nuclear safety and security.

“Nigeria accords high priority to all global efforts towards ending the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including nuclear weapons. To this end, Nigeria has since the last Summit in Seoul, strengthened the legal framework for fighting terrorism through the adoption in 2013, of an amendment to its Terrorism (Prevention) Act, thus ensuring the implementation of

N

more robust counter-terrorism measures in the country,” he added.

Meanwhile, worried by the unabating violence and brutal killings in the country, President of Senate, David Mark, has lamented that terrorists have degenerated to the level of beasts and were becoming insane.

Reacting to the latest attacks in parts of Benue State which claimed hundreds of lives and property, Mark wondered how some Nigerians have suddenly become so wicked and cruel to one another.

“I cannot understand why people have resorted to killing each other at will without the slightest provocation. This is not part of us.

This is highly inhuman and unacceptable,” he said.

Mark reminded Nigerians of the time-tested philosophy of Africans being their brothers’ keepers at all times, saying “we are still one people created by the same God. Neither religion nor politics or ethnicity should put asunder our cherished peace and unity.”

He, therefore, tasked security operatives to collaborate with one another in order to work out a synergy for resultoriented approach towards ending the killings.

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East-West Road unrealisable in 2014, as ministry gets loans for project From Abosede Musari, Abuja OPE for the completion H of the East-West Road this year has been dashed once more, as the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has declared that the December deadline was unrealistic.

The road, which is the biggest of the ministry’s 17 road projects in the Niger Delta, has become a source of worry to the people as they eagerly await its completion because of the economic advantages.

Completion date had severally been shifted – from 2012 to December 2013, then December 2014, and now first quarter of 2015, if even this would stand.

However, the Minister of State, Darius Dickson Ishaku, told newsmen in Abuja that the ministry was accessing some funding for

the project, which might see it delivered by first quarter of 2015. According to Ishaku, funds are coming from Africa Development Bank (AfDB) to the tune of $300 million, half of which was accessed in the 2013 fiscal year.

The remaining half will be accessed in 2014, as he hoped the funds would

come early enough ahead of the rains so that some work could be done this year, else the contractors would not be able to work for another nine months.

Ishaku revealed that N93.9 billion was made available

by SURE-P, spanning a period of three years from 2012 to 2014, and the ministry has already accessed the

funds in the last two years, remaining the 2014 part. The ministry also expects to approach Infrastructural Development Bank for funds.

Meanwhile, about N247 billion of the N350 billion budgeted by government has already been spent. Speaking on the achievements of the ministry so far, the minister,

who said it would begin the commissioning of projects in the next two months, noted that the exercise would begin with the skills acquisition centre in Otuoke, Bayelsa State.

According to him, some sections of the East-West Road have been completed but overall completion stands at 70 per cent, while

the construction of housing units for displaced persons in the nine Niger Delta states stands at 70.8 per cent.

Overall completion of skills acquisition centres in the nine states stands at 58 per cent, with the exception of the one at Otuoke, which is 82 per cent completed and would be the first to be commissioned, he noted.

Villages torched, fleeing residents drown in fresh fulani, Tiv clashes From Joseph Wantu Makurdi O fewer than 10 villages N were again set ablaze yesterday in a renewed clash between suspected Fulani marauders and Tiv farmers at Gbajimba, headquarters of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.

The state Deputy Governor, Chief Steven Lawani, also

told newsmen that some Tiv farmers resident in the area who were fleeing from the attack of the previous day got drowned at the River Benue at Turen crossing point, leaving many dead.

Guma Local Council Chairman, Frank Orsar Adi, who confirmed the incident to The Guardian on phone said he could not confirm

the number of those drowned, since it was difficult to go to the adjourning island bordering the council headquarters where the suspected mercenaries were believed to be hiding.

Lawani, who spoke to newsmen after distributing relief materials donated by the National Emergency Management Agency

(NEMA) to some internally displaced persons (IDPs) staying at the North Bank area of Makurdi, said it took the efforts of the youths who resisted the invaders from causing further mayhem.

The deputy governor also revealed that the aerial surveillance from the Nigerian Air Force has shown that the invaders came from Borno,

through Yobe, Plateau, Nasarawa states to Benue.

He said military men and policemen who were ordered to remain there have already been mobilised to the area, insisting that the people would be forced to defend themselves and reclaim their lands from the Fulani invaders.

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NEWSINTERvIEW

How to build Nigeria’s strength, by EU boss He came to Nigeria recently for programmes assessment and to be part of Nigeria’s centenary celebrations. In this interview with Foreign Affairs Editor, OGHOGHO OBAYUWANA, President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso spoke among others, on how to build on Nigeria’s strength for a resounding economy. Excerpts. you tell us a bit about the purpose of CI amAN your visit to Nigeria? very pleased to be here to attend the centenary of the unification of northern and southern Nigeria. Unification has brought Nigeria together as a modern State and as one and indivisible nation. It also presented Nigeria with some real challenges on developing a decentralized federal system of government but offered at the same time the dimension, extension and regional and continental projection that are not available to many countries. I will have the opportunity to meet with President Goodluck to review our extensive bilateral relations and to better align the priorities of our cooperation.

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has stalled now for too long, what is EU’s latest concession with regards to the EPA Development programme and what represents the way forward in this regard?

I am happy to tell you that there has been decisive progress over the last few months. At the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State meeting, held in Dakar in October 2013, a historic decision was taken on the adoption of a Common External Tariff (as of 2015). The role of Nigeria in this respect was crucial. This development accelerated regional integration and enabled a breakthrough in the negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. Negotiations have in fact just been concluded at Chief Negotiators level. Political endorsement is now required and I expect the ECOWAS Summit that will take place next month to mark its final agreement. The EU West Africa EPA is expected to attract investments through ensuring larger export markets and reducing the cost of doing business.

At the same time, the EPA will also maintain ample protections for those sectors, which are critical for the economic development of West Africa, such as agriculture, consumers’ goods and minerals related industries whose products will nonetheless enjoy duty free/quota free access to the EU. Once adopted, EPA will help the region’s global competitiveness and provide a fundamental contribution to the creation of sustainable employment.

Nigeria’s presidential election comes up in February next year. What do you think Nigeria should be doing to have an improvement on the 2011 elections? To what extent would be the EU’s involvement in the exercise in terms of material support, monitoring etc.?

Since 1999, Nigeria has made enormous progress in developing a democratic electoral process in a very complex political system. I really commend Nigeria’s election management body, INEC, for the progress made, especially as the last elections held in 2011 were reckoned to be the most credible. However, there are always improvements to be made and lessons to be learned. I believe INEC must work on establishing a robust and reliable voter registration system and encourage all voters to register. There must also be an effective voter education campaign. But responsibility also lies with the politicians and political parties to play the game fairly and encourage their supporters to vote peacefully. All Nigerian parties should put the national interest first, and insist on respect for transparency, law and order.

Now in terms of support that the EU can offer, we already contribute to a pool fund (nearly €20 million) along with other development partners, which is working closely with INEC, civil society, with the political parties and with the National Assembly. In the past we have also sent observer missions, and we are certainly ready to do so again, but this depends on an official invitation from the election management body.

Nigeria is set to become officially Africa’s largest economy, what implications do this have for European businesses who might like to operate in Nigeria? What is your message to them and to the Nigerian government in this regard?

We are encouraged that despite challenges, the economic outlook for Nigeria remains

positive and robust. This is also thanks to progress recorded by the Nigerian Government in some critical areas such as macro-economic stability, electricity deregulation and agricultural transformation agenda. International investors are increasingly upbeat about Nigeria and I believe that foreign direct investment in Nigeria will continue to grow. Growth is mainly occurring in the non-oil sector where EU remains Nigeria’s most important trade and investment partner. EU companies are looking for opportunities worldwide in high growth areas and, apart from growth and size of the market, the quality of the business environment is a key concern. Legal certainty, policy consistency and competitiveness remain paramount in sustaining growth and investments. I am pleased that Nigeria is also moving in the right direction in these areas. The upcoming EU Africa Business Forum which will take place in Brussels on 31st March – 1st April, just ahead of the EU Africa Summit will further open up opportunities for consolidating business linkages between Nigeria and the EU. What is the state of the current EU-Nigeria country programme?

The European Union is working closely with the government of Nigeria to implement the Transformation Agenda to enhance the socioeconomic development of Nigeria and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Funds allocated from the 10th European Development Fund (for aid operations in Nigeria total nearly 700 MEUR (1 billion USD).

For the 11th European Development Fund, approximately €0.5 billion has been allocated for aid operations in Nigeria. I am pleased to confirm that discussions are ongoing between the European Union and the Government of Nigeria to finalise the priority sectors of cooperation for the 11th European Development Fund. This will maintain the overall focus measures to encourage economic growth and expand social equity.

There will be a particular focus on assisting the government to improve access to Primary Health Care and combat malnutrition especially in the northern states as well as support for government action to restructure the electricity sector to increase efficiency and provide more equitable access to electricity.

Given the seeming intractable nature of insurgency in Northern Nigeria and vices such as piracy in the Niger Delta, is the EU thinking of reworking its support strategy for Nigeria?

The insurgency in the north east of Nigeria is a terrible scourge with the killing and maiming of thousands of innocent civilians.

You know also that Boko Haram is now widely labelled as a terrorist organisation. In terms of EU cooperation with Nigeria, we are already funding a wide range of social projects aimed at poverty alleviation in the north of Nigeria, and in our new programme we will give an even greater focus to the north east. We do believe that one of the best ways of tackling this insurgency is to promote development, especially to favour skills and job creation for youth, and on the other hand to ensure that basic human rights are respected at all times. The situation in the Niger Delta is a bit different and requires a real commitment from the government to tackle oil theft and piracy. This is vital for peace and for the Nigerian economy as whole; it is critical that local communities recognise that they have a proper share of the revenues through local development. It is also the only way of ending the terrible environmental damage that is being wreaked on the delta through oil spills. The EU has been working in the Delta for many years encouraging local development initiatives and greater share of benefits to communities. We are also preparing an EU strategy to help combat piracy and illegal trafficking of people, drugs and arms in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Nigerian Universal Periodic Review (UPR) took place in Geneva last November. What are the expectations of the EU now in terms of

Barroso

The European Union is working closely with the government of Nigeria to implement the Transformation Agenda to enhance the socio-economic development of Nigeria and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Funds allocated from the 10th European Development Fund (for aid operations in Nigeria total nearly 700 MEUR (1 billion USD). For the 11th European Development Fund, approximately €0.5 billion has been allocated for aid operations in Nigeria. I am pleased to confirm that discussions are ongoing between the European Union and the Government of Nigeria to finalise the priority sectors of cooperation for the 11th European Development Fund. the recommendations of the UPR? As you know, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is designed to assess the respect of a range of human rights issues in a country. The Nigeria UPR commended the Government for positive initiatives such as the National Human Rights Commission and the Freedom of Information Bill to mention just two. But it also raised the very serious problem of impunity, access to justice, torture and death penalty among others. The Government assured its partners that it would address these issues and we hope to see an improve-

ment in these areas.

There has been so much fuss about the criminalisation of same-sex relationship in Nigeria. What is the EU’s position on this?

The criminalization of same-sex marriage bill also targets minority groups. We do believe that no one should be discriminated on the basis of his race, gender, age or sexual orientation. This is a fundamental principle in any democracy. Once any minority is discriminated against, everybody else has good reason to fear for their own rights.

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Sports Ahead Brazil 2014 World Cup

Organisers need N10m for Ekiti 2014 Nigeria Open Tennis tourney

No room for bench warmers in Eagles’ squad, says NFF

By Alex Monye HE Nigeria Football T Federation (NFF) Technical Committee says it would go the extra mile to ensure Super Eagles’ boss, Stephen Keshi, selects only players active in their clubs for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. NFF Technical Committee member, Paul Bassey, told The Guardian yesterday that the committee was satisfied with the pool of players available for selection ahead of the Mundial, adding that it would help the coach to pick the best legs for the World Cup. Bassey, however, said he is concerned with the qualities Keshi expect from a player before he earns a place in the World Cup squad, saying the fact that some key players in the team are benchwarmers in their clubs does not bode well for the country.

In a bid to avert any manipulation in the process of selection, Bassey said the committee would strictly scrutinise the list of players for the World Cup, adding that some established stars like Victor Moses, Mikel Obi and others may be excluded from the squad if they don’t start playing active roles in their clubs. ‘’The Technical Committee don’t have any problem with

Keshi in terms of the Eagles 40-man list. You should understand that the Eagles’ boss doesn’t have a team yet.

“Picking this number of players would afford him the chance to discover the best legs for the World Cup. But one issue that we wouldn’t allow is the selection of players who don’t play regularly for their clubs for the World Cup. “A coach that is serious to fly in the Mundial must build his team around players who are in top form.

“We can not allow players that are bench warmers in their clubs to be fielded in the Eagles team where there are enough Nigerian players commanding first team shirts in their clubs,’’ Bassey said.

He added: “Big players in Chelsea and other top clubs in Europe change clubs because they want to get more playing time so that they can make it to the World Cup. “I am afraid to let you know that some notable figures in the Eagles squad may fail to play in Brazil if Keshi does not justify their inclusion. Any player playing active role in his club is 100 per cent qualified to be in Brazil.

“Yobo moved from Turkey to England because he wants to have more playing time.

What the committee stands for is reality on ground.

Costa Rica 2014 FIFA U-17 Women World Cup

Flamingoes goes spiritual for Spain them.”

LAMINGOES winger, quered On what Nigerians should FthatAminat Yakubu, believes God would help the expect from the Flamingoes national Under-17 Women team to succeed at the ongoing FIFA Cadet World Cup in Costa Rica.

Nigeria wrapped up their impressive start in the group stage at the fourth U-17 Women’s World Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win over Mexico yesterday morning to record three wins out of three matches in La Sabana Stadium, San Jose.

Yakubu commended her teammates for their performance against Mexico and dedicated her award and goal to God. Bearing in mind Nigeria is yet to progress past the quarterfinal and will be hoping to change, she said, “We know God is behind us and He will do more great things for us at this tournament. With God everything will be possible against Spain.”

She dedicated the victory against Mexico to God, noting that the North Americans underrated them going into the final group game.

“Mexico thought they were going to beat us, but with God and determination, we con-

against Spain, the Rivers Angels’ attacker promised that the team would put in their best to advance to the semifinals, adding, “we are going to step up our game in the quarterfinal to see the semifinal.”

The Bala Nikyu’s ladies will meet Spain in the quarterfinal of the game by 3am on Friday morning (Nigeria) in Liberia,

REPARATION for the maidP en edition of the All Nigerian Open Tennis

Stephen Keshi and John Obi Mikel during Nigeria’s successful 2013 African Nations Cup campaign in South Africa.

The NFF says the coach may not be allowed to take benchwarmers to the Brazil 2014 World Cup. PHOTO: AFP

… Keshi not worried by criticism UPER Eagles’ coach, SnotStephen Keshi, says he is letting criticism of his playing methods, selections and decisions affect him.

He has not lost to African opposition in a competitive game in three years, yet his methods have been questioned.

But Keshi insists that he can cope with criticism from sections of the country’s support.

“This is life and not everybody is going to like you,” Keshi told BBC Sport.

“So who am I to worry about everybody loving or not liking Stephen Keshi? I don’t care as long as my family loves me, as long as I am doing my job and I have good health - the rest is nothing.

“As long as I can put smile on

somebody’s face every day, make them happy, that is all because I can say thank God.” The former captain of the Super Eagles, who took over a faltering side in 2011, restored the country’s pride by winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and also led them through a successful World Cup qualifying campaign.

Despite all his successes, speculation about Keshi’s future has been rife in Nigeria since February, with local media reporting that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are shopping for a foreign coach.

“Worried about my job? You see this job we have is that they hire you today and they fire you tomorrow,” he said philosophically.

“I have done my best in my job for Nigeria and if they decide to fire me and bring someone else, so be it.”

The NFF has insisted his job is not under threat ahead of the World Cup, Keshi admits speculation over his position is understandable.

“I believe I am strong enough and I have got the experience to handle it,” said the former Togo and Mali boss.

“It happened in 2002 when Amodu Shaibu and I qualified the country for the World Cup. It also happened in Togo.

So if that’s it, so be it.

“If people want to talk, I can’t stop it. I don’t worry about speculation about my job, I don’t worry about anything,” he added.

Nigeria gets WTF wildcard for Youth Olympics in China OR its consistency in the last Fformance few years, as well as the perof its athletes at most international competitions, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has given Nigeria wildcard to compete at the 2014 World Youth

Olympics in Nanjing, China.

At the WTF qualifiers concluded at the weekend in Taipei City, 39 countries, including two African nations, Egypt and Morocco, secured their places at the global championship holding

Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke (standing middle), with other dignitaries during the unveiling of the 2014 National Sports Festival theme song, logo and mascot at the Venetian Arena in Calabar… on Friday.

later in the year in China.

Despite the inability of Nigerian athletes to secure a place from the qualifiers, the world ruling taekwondo body considered its pedigree at the global stage and the performance of Team Nigeria’s nineman contingent in awarding one of the 20 wildcards available to the country in the male event of the Olympics.

Meanwhile, out of the 74 qualification places up for grabs at the two-day qualification tournament, which was held at the Taipei Arena, host - Chinese Taipei clinched five tickets, showing its supremacy in taekwondo. The taekwondo competition of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games scheduled for August 17 to 21, 2014 in China.

Five countries took home four qualification places. They are Egypt, Azerbaijan, Russia, Belgium and Mexico, while four nations won three tickets, which are Ukraine, Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands.

Championship billed for Ekiti State tennis centre, Trade Fair Complex, Ado Ekiti is in top gear. But the organisers say they will need N10 million to organise the event.

The championship, scheduled to serve off from April 27 through May 4, 2014, is being organised by the Ekiti State Tennis Association in conjunction with the Ministry of Sports, as part of the state’s programme to improve the standard of the game in the country.

According to the Ekiti State’s Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports and Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC), Yemi Owoseni, a former NTF first vice president, the essence of making the championship open is to give opportunity to young talents to compete alongside older players. He added that it would also expose them to competitive championship among their pals.

“We are targeting about N10 million to organise this championship in Ekiti come April to May, 2014. The state government under the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi has raised the standard of sports across the state, so the government is firmly behind this championship.

FIBA Africa award has justified my position, says Ahmedu

By Adeyinka Adedipe ROPRIETOR of the Dodan P Warriors Basketball programme, Col. Sam Ahmedu (rtd) has said the award conferred on him by FIBA Africa has shown that his contribution to the development of basketball in Africa and the world stage is recognised.

Ahmedu, a member of the FIBA Africa Central Board since 1997 and currently President of the FIBA Africa Marketing Council, got “The Vermeil Star” Award along with eight other recipients across Africa, which included Vice President, Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Mukthar Khaleh.

The award was conferred in recognition of his contribution to basketball both at the local and international levels spanning about 47 years.

Ahmedu told The Guardian that the award meant a lot to him “The award, though one amongst many, means a lot to me. It is an indication that my contributions to the development of the game on the continent and the world stage is recognised.

“For the award coming from an esteem continental organisation as FIBA Africa, is gratifying, against the background that in my own country such contributions by me and other individuals are relegated to the background for selfish and parochial reasons.”

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014 SPORTS 93

Glo Premier League Matters Arising

Club owners, LMC feud over exclusion of Nembe City, Giwa FCs Shortly before the kick off of the 2013/2014 Glo Premier League season, the managers of the league, League Management Company (LMC), headed by Nduka Irabor, excluded two privately owned clubs, Nembe City and Giwa FC, from the competition for allegedly being unable to meet the basic requirements for participating in the league.

Both clubs have since appealed to the LMC to reconsider that decision, pledging to comply with all the stipulations within a given time frame. The LMC in a release on Sunday disclosed that it has sent the clubs’ appeal to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which is the country’s apex football authority.

Prior to the clubs’ appeal, however, the Club Owners Association met in Abuja last week after which they wrote a letter entitled: “Present State Of The Glo Premier League (Matters Arising),” which has generated controversy over whether the Club Owners have the right to direct the league body on how to run the Glo Premier League.

By Christian Okpara The Club Owners’ letter to the LMC dated March 20, 2014, reads: RESENT State of The Glo Premier League (Matters Arising) With the compliments from the chairmen and managers of the Glo Premier League, we are pleased to convey to you the decisions of the Premier League Club Chairmen and managers (Club Owners) on the present state of the Glo Premier League 2013/2014 season.

You will recall that the Executive Committee of the Club Owners met with your leadership led by Hon. Nduka Irabor over the exclusion of Giwa FC of Jos and Nembe City FC of Nembe on grounds of alleged non-compliance with registration requirements for the 2013/2014 Season.

You will also recall that the meeting discussed possible ways of ensuring an amicable resolution of the challenges caused by the exclusion of the two teams with a view to readmitting them into the fold.

However, we, the undersigned (as attached) have observed with keen interest the several litigations arising from the said issue, as it affects the Premier League viza-viz the inability of the LMC to appropriately respond to these issues and brief us accordingly.

Consequently, the Premier League Clubs after its meeting held on Wednesday 19th March 2014 hereby resolve as follows: 1. That the LMC is hereby urged to admit the two affected clubs to the League immediately and reschedule their outstanding matches, while all further registration formalities/requirements be ongoing as the League progresses.

2. That Clubs also strongly advised the two affected clubs to appeal to LMC to consider their readmission so as to commence with immediate effect the fulfillment of the remaining requirements and other registration processes if they have not done so within the time frame of the licensing deadline.

3. That the LMC is further urged to include the affected teams (Giwa FC and Nembe City) in the fixtures of Week 3 League matches.

4. The clubs are desirous of seeing the league season progress peacefully but will be forced to take any action that we deem fit to protect and reserve the integrity of the league.

Please accept the assurance of the entire Club Owners.

Cc: NFF, NSC, House of Reps Committee on Sports, Senate Committee on Sports.

Below is the LMC’s reply to the letter, signed by its chairman, Nduka Irabor.

P

Re: Present state of the GLO-Premier League (matters arising) received two letters IonHAVE purportedly written by and behalf of Club Owners Association on matters aris-

ing from the registration of clubs to participate in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) 2013/2014 season. In substance, both letters are the name and this letter should suffice as a reply to both.

The tenor of the letters would suggest well-meaning intentions on the part of the clubs collectively without more besides but, the point must quickly and clearly be made that good intentions by themselves only cannot and should not be allowed to overthrow and supplant law and order, established rules of association, administrative norms and precedents and, common sense.

Nonetheless, in accordance with our belief that contentious issues are best resolved by continuous engagement of all parties concerned, I perceived this reply as an opportunity to once again reiterate the salient points in issue as far as the registration of clubs for this season is concerned.

Law and Order Following the regulatory decision not to register Giwa FC and Nembe City FC on account of the failure of both teams to meet the registration requirements set for this 2013/2014 NPFL season, two (2) separate but identical law suits have been filed against the LMC and NFF. The first is Suit No. FHC/J/CS/21/2014 pending at the Federal High court, Jos with the adjourned date set for 27th March, 2014.

The second case is Suit No. PLD/J148/2014 filed at the High Court of Plateau State, Jos. The adjourned date for the second suit is 26th March, 2014.

As a law-abiding body, the LMC has instructed its lawyer, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, who has the necessary court papers in defence of LMC and is also seeking the Courts to discharge the ex-parte interim orders made by both courts.

In addition, the important points to be noted about the two suits are as follows: The two suits have been filed in different courts, the Federal High Court and the High of Plateau State.

The suits purportedly have been filed by two individuals who are unknown to and have never had any transaction whatsoever with LMC. Curiously, in both cases the Plaintiffs have not made any claims for themselves at all but all their claims are for the benefit and interest of Giwa FC, which is also a defendant in both cases.

The ex-parte interim orders made by both courts are contradictory; the first orders the LMC to take certain steps while the second order restraints the LMC from taking those same steps.

We have not seen and are not aware of any court order stopping the NPFL and since we have engaged the court process, we will not rely on the impression of all manner of persons on the interpretation of any order made by the

LMC Chairman, Nduka Irabor court.

Chief Olujinmi, SAN has filed papers in both courts for the LMC to challenge both cases and have whatever ex-parte order made discharged.

We have received legal advice from our lawyer about our position in law as things stand. We have obliged you with the benefit of this advice by attaching his letter for your perusal and records.

The law imposes a binding obligation on all persons and authorities to desist from interfering in the judicial process once it has been commenced or set in motion. We should all let the law take its course.

Established Rules of Association of Football As football clubs you are all aware that football worldwide is governed by rules and regulations made by FIFA, the Confederations (CAF, in our case) and the Federations (NFF, in our case). You are also aware that the central dispute resolution principle running through these rules and regulations is that all members of the football family should settle or resolve their differences only by the domestic dispute resolution mechanisms provided for by these rules and regulations. It is punishable by a ban or expulsion from the game for any club or individual to resort to the ordinary court and law to resolve football issues or disputes.

This principle is designed to safeguard the integrity and stability of the sport of football from the vagaries and arbitrariness of politics and, the structures and rigours of the law; elements which will otherwise stultify the growth and development of football and, certainly eliminate its essential nature as a sport of fair play and goodwill among the diverse peoples of the world.

It is a matter of regret that your letters choose to ignore these guiding and binding principles and rules of our game and league.

To your knowledge, Giwa FC is a party to the two law suits filed against the LMC and NFF,

Club Owners representative, Alloy Chukwuemeka the supreme football governing body in Nigeria. It is to your knowledge also that all the prayers and the claims in these suits are for the benefit of Giwa FC and are a challenge to the authority of the LMC and the powers of NFF. It is a matter of record that Giwa FC has not denounced or dissociated itself from these suits and publicly bind itself to be subject to the laid down rules and regulations of the game and our league. Rather Giwa FC is actively promoting these suits publicly and waiting to reap the benefit of the cases.

Similarly, it is a matter of public record that Nembe FC has written a petition to the House of Representatives over the decision not to register it for the season. This is a step quite alien to the rules of our league and rules of the game worldwide.

In addition, Chief Rumson Victor Baribote, President of Nembe FC has filed a suit challenging the legality of LMC’s management of the League and alleging fraud against the President of NFF, Alhaji Aminu Maigari in the constitution and incorporation of LMC. (Suit NO. CV/4146/13: Chief Rumson Victor Baribote v. (1) League Management Company (2) Alhaji Aminu Maigari).

It is clear, therefore, that there is a determined effort to disrupt and subvert the orderly processes of our league and, by your letter, you appear to have lent your support to and have become complicit in these condemnable actions.

As Clubs of the NPFL, you are aware that apart from being the administrator of the professional football league in Nigeria, the LMC is the First Instance Body (FIB) and the NFF has constituted the Appeals Body (AB) as far as Club Licensing and registration are concerned. Under the NFF Club Licensing Regulations and the Rules of the League, all decisions taken

by LMC are appealable to the relevant appeals body or committee.

These processes have been

available and utilized by Clubs of the League since the foundation of professional football in Nigeria.

In our view, the responsible position or intervention for any Club in this matter is to advise their sister Clubs who may be aggrieved by any decision of the LMC to explore the laid down process of appeal in the Rules.

Football Administrative Norms and Precedents We are constrained to remind you of particular cases of administrative norms and precedents for resolving grievances within the football family worldwide, since it appears from your letter that there is an attempt to descend from property to the promotion of arbitrariness and disorder in the administration of our League.

Last football season, two Nigerian Clubs, Rangers International FC of Enugu and 3SC of Ibadan were in a dispute over the transfer fees of a player. 3SC petitioned to CAF on the basis of which Rangers International FC was thrown out by CAF from its continental championship for fielding a player whose transfer fees had not been paid by Rangers.

Rangers appealed and its appeal was dismissed by CAF. There was no records that Club Owners in the NPFL wrote to CAF or NFF to take any position on the matter, or make it their business to act as arbiters, notwithstanding that both Clubs are from Nigeria and the fact that both teams were their sister Clubs in the same league.

TP Mazembe of Zaire, in 2011 was disqualified by CAF from its continental championship for infractions of the rules relating to the status of a player.

Cape Verde, after successfully participating in Africa World Cup qualifiers, was denied the right to attend the World Cup for the first time in the nation’s history for listing (not for playing!) an ineligible player to feature in a match.

The country’s appeal to FIFA was unsuccessful.

In 2006 a sports tribunal in

Italy demoted Juventus to the Italian Division two and stripped it of two league championship titles; Lazio and Fiorentina were also demoted to the Italian Division two and AC Milan was spared demotion but had 15 points deducted and was disqualified from the Champions League.

Despite the severe sanctions to the elite club sides of Italian Football, there were no protests from any other club sides or association of owners of clubs.

Rangers FC Glasgow, Scotland was demoted to the third division from the premiership for infractions of financial regulations of the Scottish League.

The overwhelming number of clubs voted to block the return of Rangers FC to the premiership without first serving the punishment.

Malaga FC of Spain was issued a season long ban from UEFA Champions League for financial irregularities (in this case owing players and other clubs). The ban was imposed irrespective of the fact that the team qualified to play in the tournament the next season. The club appealed to CAS, the apex Court for sports disputes. The ban was upheld.

Portsmouth of England, FC Duisburg of Germany, FC Zurich of Switzerland and other clubs too numerous to mention have all suffered bans and disqualifications and other sanctions for infractions of league and football rules.

What is evident in these and other cases is that the principle of individual responsibility is fixed and does not shift from the particular club sanctioned for breaching football rules. In other words, the overriding interest of the clubs of any League should be that all other participating clubs must be held to account for observing the rules of the game and maintaining the integrity of the league.

An illustration should suffice to demonstrate how the breach of the rules by one CONTINUED ON PAGE 94

94 Tuesday, March 25, 2014 SPORTS

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Sports Festival: We are not hosting to win, says Imoke

By Gowon Akpodonor O achieve the aim of returning glamour to the National Sports Festival, Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke has declared that the state would not follow the footprints of past host of the games, whose main focus was hosting to win at all cost.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony of the 19th National Sports Festival theme song, logo and mascot at the Venetian Arena, Calabar, Imoke declared that his administration would deliver the best ever games in the history of the Sports Festival, which will run from November 23 to December 7.

From the mid 1980s till date, the festival seems to have lost

T

its glamour and focus of its founding fathers, following the win at all costs attitude of most of the states that had hosted the championship in the past.

The Calabar 2014 Sports Festival is tagged ‘The Centenary Games’ to commemorate Nigeria’s 100 years and Governor Imoke says they would host a festival that will live long in the mind of Nigerians. “We are not hosting to win unlike the slogan of some states that hosted the festival in the past,” he said. “Over the past few years, Cross River has managed to expand the scope of its tourism offering to also emerge as the premier sporting events destination in the country,” Imoke said.

Speaking further, Imoke said that the Games, which are thrown open to foreign and local athletes, would be transparent to the satisfaction of all participants.

The Games’ mascot is called Bamba, a breed of gorilla found in the Boki rainforest of Cross River State. The festival theme song ‘Standing Tall’ was written and performed by son of the soil, Sunny Neji.

And unlike past situation, where politicians take the center stage, Cross River State is engaging its past athletes, including former Africa female track queen, Mercy Nku and ex-Super Falcons player, Effionwan Ekpo, in organization of the 2014 Sports Festival.

DStv BBL: Oluyole wins battle of Warriors

By Adeyinka Adedipe LUYOLE Warriors of Ibadan defeated Dodan Warriors of Lagos 91-86 in one of the week three games of the DStv Premier Basketball League played at the weekend.

The game tagged ‘the battle of the warriors’ went the homers way, as they continued their impressive run in the league. Dodan Warriors were playing their first game and battled hard for the two points, but met stiff resistance from the Ibadan team.

Also, Union Bank bounced back from last week shock defeat to Nigeria Customs by beating Police Baton 72- 59.

Kwara Falcons, who played their first game in the league, defeated Nigeria

O

Customs 58-53, while Islanders beat Royal Hooper 62-45.

In the Savannah Conference, Kano Pillars made it three consecutive win of three by beating Bauchi Nets 119-55, Kada Stars beat Niger Potters 68 39, Plateau Peaks lost to Mark Mentors 45 -54, while Gombe Bulls defeated Nigeria Immigration 72 – 43.

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) technical head, Muktah Khaled commended the teams for their conduct in the three weeks old league and stated that they have shown that they prepared well for the season.

“The teams have shown a lot of improvement from last season. They have played

great basketball and I hope they will continue to thrill the fans at different venues across the country.

“While some top teams have continued to do well, the other ones are also battling hard to stay afloat and that brings out the competitiveness in the players as well as the teams,” he added.

Mark Mentors coach, Peter Ahmedu hailed his team, but noted that they still have to improve, as they target the final Eight in Lagos. “The players are improving with each game and I hope that they would have become a formidable unit before the league gets half way.

“Our target is to improve on our fourth place finish last season,” Ahmedu added.

Taraba FC relishes fine form

By Adeyinka Adedipe EW entrant into the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), FC Taraba are relishing their fine form after beating El Kanemi 1-0 at the Jalingo Stadium in the week three match played at the weekend.

Speaking after the match, FC Taraba Chief Coach, Ndubuisi Nduka expressed satisfaction with the doggedness of his boys, noting that the goal came as a result of the determination of the boys to win the game.

The coach stated that he noticed his players were sloppy in the first stanza because they were in a hurry

N

to score. He, however, advised them to calm down, play a passing game and was happy that they got the three points.

Nduka argued that FC Taraba was gradually entering into their element as the league progress and it would be a much-improved side by the fifth week of the season.

“What I can say is that our team is getting better with every match. And I want to assure that by the time we get to the fifth week, we would even be stronger than this,” he said.

El Kanemi came into the match with very strong pedigree having narrowly missed

the title last season and they controlled the midfield, striving hard to get the first goal.

But the Coach Ndubuisi Nduka led boys defended stoutly and went on the rampage when they had the opportunity, as the first half ended goalless.

The FC Taraba boys, however, came into the second half with a changed mentality and took the game to the visitors. The foray paid off as El Kanemi conceded the only goal in the 80th minute from a Iyorhe Lute volley.

FC Taraba, which now has six points from three matches, will travel Nembe City this weekend.

President, Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Tijani Umar, Minister for Sport, Dr Tammy Danagogo and Louis Odom, General Manager, Zenith Bank, Maitama, during the opening ceremony of Zenith Bank National Women Basketball League at the National Stadium Abuja at the weekend.

For LMC, Club Owners, a season of letter writing CONTINUED FROM PAGE 93 club affects the interests of other stakeholders and jeopardize the integrity of the league as a fair and transparent competition.

In the event of the refusal of any club in our league to pay the minimum wage, for instance, the interest of nearly one thousand other players of the league are immediately put at risk as other clubs may take a cue from this to begin to shortchange their players.

The integrity of the league is also immediately compromised by such lack of adherence to rules and the triumph of the whims and caprices of others who, ordinarily, should be no more than another class of stakeholders in the league. It is only a matter of time before the football league descends into mediocrity and chaos. On this point, we are all too familiar with the immediate history of our league, until the intervention of NFF in December 2012.

Validity of your letter The question of the validity of your letter is a matter I have reserved for last before ending this reply. From the enquiries I made personally upon receipt of your letter, issue of individual and collective integrity has been raised.

Having regard to my position, it will be quite remiss of me if, in good faith, I do not seek to establish proper conduct in the performance of our respective duties in our league.

The actual owners of the clubs I shall name have spo-

ken with me and confirmed the facts I will set out shortly.

The clubs are Kano Pillars FC, Warri Wolves, Heartland of Owerri, Kaduna United and Bayelsa United. These are the facts: (a) Some club representatives who allegedly signed the attendance sheet attached to your letter were never at the meeting. (b) Some other representatives who attended the meeting did not have the mandate or authorization to attend or agree to the conclusions conveyed in your letter. © Another class of representatives who openly disagreed with the said conclusions in your letter have been misleadingly presented as agreeing to these conclusions.

It is a point that must be made that your attendance sheet has been signed by Chief Rumson Victor Baribote for Nembe City FC as well as the representative of Giwa FC. The first point is that your association has made these two clubs judges in their own cases in the circumstance of this mater and in flagrant violation of the enduring principles of natural justice.

The second point is that the clubs all know very well that Chief Baribote is under NFF ban from football activities in Nigeria and yet your association in open defiance of constituted authority presents him to the public as a person who is entitled to determine or give ‘‘directives’’ as to the administration of football in Nigeria.

It must be stated clearly that your association by these

actions is actively promoting an alternative scenario of anarchy and disdain for established processes in the administration of football in Nigeria.

In this respect, the defence that you acted merely out of good intentions will not avail your association as, I am certain we are all familiar with the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

As stated previously, the soul of football as a sport and business is fair play and integrity.

It is on this basis only that we have decided not to withhold from you the courtesy of this reply, as we are in the circumstances entitled to or, indeed, obliged to do.

The overriding consideration for us is that you as well as other stakeholders should be sufficiently apprised of the facts and issues emanating from the registration of clubs for the 2013/2014 NPFL season.

This reply to your letter is our discharge of that responsibility to keep you informed.

The point must be made, however, that unanimity on an issue does not necessarily translate to the right or proper position on the matter. It is totally unnecessary to stretch the bounds of good conduct, as has been done in this case, all in an attempt to present a façade of unity that does not address the issues at hand.

In our view, it is more helpful for all stakeholders of our League for the Clubs to cooperate and pool resources to assist other clubs in fulfilling their licence and registration obligations. We would commend to all the example of Bayern Munich which, in 2014,

loaned two million Euros to Borussia Dortmund when the latter club could not pay the salaries of its players.

For the future, I trust that we should be guided by the wisdom that there is no proper way to doing that which is improper.

Conclusion I would like to draw the attention of the Club Owners Association to the use of words in your letter, which attempt to usurp the authority of the LMC. Your use of words such as ‘‘order,’’ ‘‘direct,’’ ‘‘immediate’’ in your widely circulated letter, reflects an erroneous impression that the LMC is subservient to your association.

These words not only attempt to erode the legitimacy and permanency of the role of the LMC in the management of the Nigeria Professional Football League, it bothers on an attempt to supply various litigants with substance to press their tenuous claims.

Please, let it be made very clear here that the LMC is not an employee of your association. Our relationship is strictly and solely consultative. The LMC operates solely as a Licensee of NFF and NOT your association, and thus will not be ‘directed’ by it on this or any other matter.

I am pleased to note that these offensive words have now been removed or expunged in your second letter, which disingenuously has been given limited public circulation.

Accordingly, we wish you to recall that the minimum reg-

NFF President, Aminu Maigari. istration conditions for the NPFL 2013/2014 season were agreed and settled after two consecutive meetings between LMC and all the clubs of the League. Also, these registration conditions have always been in our Rules for the League since 12007, but never applied or observed.

We should bear in mind also that these registration conditions are designed to protect the weak and vulnerable (players, coaches and other staff) and also to protect the integrity of the League.

The rules require all clubs of the League to undergo the registration or licensing process annually, before the commencement of every season. In a way, they represent a fitness test for the clubs to demonstrate every season that they deserve to continue as professional football clubs, properly so called, and not ramshackle entities or slave camps for the players, coaches

and other staff.

There is, therefore, no basis for the contrived controversy and dispute about these minimum conditions, with which some of us continue to assault daily the sensibilities of our fellow Nigerians who instead expect, and we firmly believe deserve, to be entertained by the spectacle of the leading professional football league in Africa.

It is within our capabilities to achieve the honourable, patriotic and exciting goal of creating a world class football league for the teeming millions of Nigerians who have grown weary of our clubs’ lingering excuses and lack of will to apply ourselves to the task at hand.

Let us rise to this challenge.

Nduka Irabor (Chairman, League Management Company Ltd.) Cc: NFF, NSC, House of Reps Committee on Sports, Senate Committee on Sports.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 SPORTS 95

EUROPEAN ROUND - OFF

‘R’Madrid confident of win over Sevilla’ LOOK ahead to the midA week action in the Spanish Primera Division as Real Madrid aim to return to winning ways.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will be looking for ways of channelling his players’ anger in the wake of a stunning Clasico, which saw them defeated 4-3 on home turf.

With the title race well and truly back on as just one point separates the top three, Madrid have no time to mope about decisions they felt went against them in a match featuring three penalties and a red card for Sergio Ramos.

Cristiano Ronaldo blasted the referees and claimed there was a bias shown against Real Madrid while Ramos, who saw red for the 19th time in his career, also suggested there was an agenda against Madrid.

“If they wanted to balance the league table, they’ve done it,” he said.

Tomorrow’s night sees Madrid travel to fifth-placed Sevilla, and the heat is now on in the stretch run of the season.

Karim Benzema, who scored twice before being sacrificed when Ramos was dismissed, insisted Madrid could remain optimistic about their title chances, pointing to the fixture list with challengers Barcelona and Atletico still to face each other.

“It was a night with a lot of key moments and now we’ll try and beat Sevilla,” he said.

“At this point in the season the matches are all finals and we know that Atletico take on Barcelona on the final day, so we have to think about ourselves in order to win.”

The come-from-behind win at the Bernabeu answered Barca’s critics as they put themselves right back in the picture.

Lionel Messi was the hattrick hero on the night, and he is eager to build on the momentum at home to Celta Vigo tomorrow’s night.

“It was a very important victory for us,” Messi said. “It was a brilliant game for the fans and for us. We can’t just stop here though, we have forget about what happened and focus on the future.”

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (right) trying to stop Real Madrid’s Christian Ronaldo in El-clasico match that ended 4-3… on Monday.

PHOTOS: AFP

Martinez backs Marriner over error VERTON manager E Roberto Martinez has leapt to the defence of under-fire referee Andre Marriner and believes it is not in the interests of foot-

We’re knocked down without feeling, says Wenger RSENAL manager Arsene A Wenger admits he has been left puzzled by his side once again failing to turn up in big game after they went down 6-0 at Chelsea.

The heavy defeat on Saturday lunchtime ruined Wenger’s 1,000th match in charge and severely dented any title ambitions, with the Gunners now down in fourth place, albeit still with a match in hand on the leaders.

Wenger’s team appeared to

have learned no lessons from their 6-3 defeat at Manchester City earlier this season and the subsequent 5-1 mauling at Liverpool where they trailed 4-0 inside 20 minutes - as Arsenal were torn apart by Jose Mourinho’s rampant Blues during a blistering opening spell.

The French coach is expecting a response against Swansea today’s night, but admits he needs to get to the bottom of why the players

Wenger

again failed to deliver a big performance when it was needed the most.

“We felt we prepared properly, but we did not turn up, so it is puzzling,” Wenger said.

“After 20 minutes, it was game over and it became a long, dramatic and dreadful afternoon.

“That is the most disappointing, when you prepare with the intensity that we do, you then turn up for your game of the season and are never even in it.

“This is puzzling because we were shocked and knocked down basically without feeling you have had a chance.

“The team is healthy and willing, but still the way it happened against Chelsea, we have to think deeply about because it is not the first time and (we have) to respond in a proper way on Tuesday (today).”

Referee Andre Marriner has apologised for sending off Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs in error following a handball by midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on 17 minutes, which saw Eden Hazard roll in Chelsea’s third goal from the penalty spot to effectively end the match as a contest.

Bayern hit with partial stadium ban AYERN Munich have B been sanctioned with a partial closure of their stadium for the Champions

Today’s Premiership fixtures Arsenal vs Swansea 8:45p.m.

Man United Vs Man City 8:45p.m.

Newcastle vs Everton 8:45p.m.

League quarter-final against Manchester United after fans displayed a homophobic banner against Arsenal.

UEFA’s control and disciplinary body ordered that the section of the stadium where the banner was displayed should be closed for the second leg against United.

The club have also been fined €10,000 for the “discriminatory behaviour” over the banner, which also targeted Arsenal’s German

midfielder Mesut Ozil.

UEFA said in a statement that as a result of “Bayern supporters...displaying of an illicit banner, the UEFA control and disciplinary body has decided to order the partial closure of the (stadium) in particular, the closure of sector 124 for Bayern’s next UEFA competition home match, namely their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester United on April 9.”

ball to challenge every error made by match officials.

Marriner wrongly sent off Kieran Gibbs for deliberate handball instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in Arsenal’s defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.

The referee, who was in charge of last year’s FA Cup final, apologised to the Gunners after the game and will learn later whether he has been dropped for the coming weekend’s games as a result of the mistake when the Premier League announces its match officials list yesterday.

Arsenal are likely to appeal against the dismissal on the grounds of mistaken identity and although the onematch ban will be transferred to OxladeChamberlain, there has been some suggestion the Gunners will then appeal the suspension as the shot appeared to be going wide, and that therefore a

goalscoring opportunity was not denied.

Martinez believes referees should be given some leeway in terms of the errors they make and does not believe new rules should be introduced to make greater user of technology.

“I wouldn’t think you should put something in place if that happens again because it is so rare and I think at that moment the referee was completely sure,” said the Toffees boss.

“I think we would be going a little bit too far. I think goalline technology was a really important breakthrough but from that point on I think we need to allow referees to do their job.

“I am sure in that incident he would have listened to the players and listened to the fourth official to try to get some help, but you need to be strong.

“Andre Marriner has incredible experience and it was one of those situations

that happens in football.

“We have an elite group (of referees) in our league and for me it is one of the best in world football.

“We need to increase that group and help them have good training and development but we need to let them get on with their job.

“Errors are part of the game and there will be errors, misjudgments and mistakes but that is part of football and you need to accept it because that is what makes football what it is.

“It should be part of the game. It is not a black and white decision at times, it is a little bit more of interpretation.

“I think we need to rely on the referees and I think the referees in this country are as good as they get.”

In Saturday’s incident, Oxlade-Chamberlain, tried to tell Marriner he was the guilty party but the referee stuck to his original decision to send off Gibbs.

United ready for derby battle, by Moyes AVID Moyes wants D Manchester United to prove they are still a force to be reckoned with by beating Manchester City today’s night.

City are big favourites for the derby at Old Trafford due to their higher league standing and the fact that United have struggled against the top teams in the league this year.

A 1-0 victory against Arsenal aside, Moyes’ men have not beaten any of the sides in the top nine in what has been a truly disappointing maiden season for the Scot.

Moyes wants that to change on Tuesday though.

“We want to try and perform better in the bigger games than what we have done,” the United manager said.

“It will be important for us to show the level of what we have got.

“I think we have got the level and we are not as far away as many people would have us and I have no doubt it will improve. We want to show we are still in there fighting.

“We will do everything we

can to win. We go out to win every game, not just the derby game.

“Obviously it means a lot more to the supporters and the city if you win a derby game.”

United are 12 points behind City, and Manuel Pellegrini’s men have played two less matches.

The Red Devils go into the match on the back of encouraging wins against Olympiacos and West Ham though.

United had to field Michael Carrick at centre-half at Upton Park because of injuries to Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand. Nemanja Vidic was also absent through suspension.

The United captain remains banned for the visit of City, but Moyes would not give away anything about the fitness of the three injured players.

“For this Barclays Premier League game we’ll do everything we possibly can to get the (injured) players back,” was all that Moyes would say

when questioned on the matter at his pre-match press conference.

Should none of the trio be fit, Moyes is certain he has a good enough back up in Carrick.

Carrick performed well keeping Andy Carroll quiet on Saturday, but the pace of Alvaro Negredo, who is expected to lead the line for City in the absence of the injured Sergio Aguero, will present the England midfielder with a different and perhaps more dangerous

Moyes

TheGuardian

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

By Saheed Abiodun Dada T was through one of the classics written by Prof. Pat Utomi titled ‘Managing Uncertainty: Competition and Strategy in an Emerging Economy’ that I came across prebendalism. This concept caught my fancy and I decided to take further epistemological exercise as regards its source and meaning. This effort brought me in contact with one of the most authoritative and pedantic authorities on Nigeria’s political history; Richard Joseph.

Prebendalism in recent scholarly studies is associated with Richard Joseph in his books ‘Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria 1978. Others are Affluence and underdevelopment; The Nigerian Experience 1976, Class, State and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria, (year unknown), ‘Can the Nigerian Project be Salvaged? Brown University March 2012, ‘Rise and Fall of the Second Republic (1987), Prebendalism and Dysfunctionality in Nigeria; July 26, 2013 and so on.

Prof. Richard Joseph, an American scholar, once taught at the University of Ibadan as a visiting scholar in the 1970s. It was then he wrote these books which are still relevant to the reality of our situation in Nigeria even after decades. There are books for the moment and there are books for all moments. The works of Richard Joseph belong to the latter.

Prebendalism, according to Richard Joseph is ‘A sense of entitlement that many Nigerians have to the resources or revenue of the state. Elected and appointed officials, government workers, members of ethnic, religious groups to which they belong feel that public office is a pre-bend that should be appropriated to benefit private interest, members of their families, cronies and kinsmen’ (Wikipedia). This practice consequently leads to neo-partrimonialism which is a situation of Patron-client relationship for the misappropriation of state resources—in other words, a sense of entitlement to the supposed ‘National cake’.

The history of Independent Nigeria is the history of corruption, nepotism, favouritism, and ethnocentrism. Victor Dike, in his book, ‘Corruption in Nigeria: A new paradigm for effective control’, defines corruption as a violation of established rules for personal gains, a perversion of change from good to bad, misuse of public power or resources for private benefit. He further categorised corruption in Nigeria into three classes: ‘Political Corruption (Grand), Bureaucratic corruption (Petty), Electoral Corruption’ (Massive; my word).

Corruption in Nigeria has become a hydraheaded monster which has eaten through the fabrics of our entire society, mainly because the rule of law in Nigeria has been thrown into the abyss. Corruption is psychological; its contagious effect stems from leadership to followership, when the people realise the government does not have the political will to address it but all they get from them in this regard is pure sophistry. They see leaders violate laws, loot billions, cut corners and still go away with it.

Subconsciously, the followers feel attracted to cutting corners.

The recent recrimination among governments Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the administration of oil proceeds is a testimony to the high level of kleptocracy and prebendalism in Nigeria. The Central Bank chief first came out to blow the whistle about $59 billion which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not remit into the Federation Account, although after reconciliation the figure came to $10.8 billion and not $59 billion as the CBN chief had alleged. The import of this is that these agencies are working at cross purposes.

President Goodluck Jonathan seems not convinced that corruption is the number one problem in Nigeria that has militated against our growth. He mentioned lack of infrastructure, lack of foreign investment among other factors as the problems. For numerous Nigerians it is not so, blaming the existence of bad roads, power outage, dearth of infrastructure, ASUU strike and the low capacity utilisation on it.

The recrimination between CBN chief and the

I

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Prebendalism and kleptocracy in Nigeria

NNPC officials as regards kerosene subsidy may also be seen as a product of corruption. It was alleged that some oil marketers pay N195 billion bribe to get allocation between 2010 and 2012 (Punch February 15, 2014). The report also claimed that kerosene marketers pay N25/liter to get allocation which is then sold at N49. This added to overhead cost makes the N50/liter to the end users unrealistic. The NNPC, of course, denied the allegation.

The whole NNPC and $10.8 billion debacle raises several trembling angst amongst Nigerians.

Mr. Sanusi’s allegation along with the letter to the Presidency has now elicited action from the latter by way of forensic auditing of the NNPC account.

Now to the issue of productive corruption,

can corruption be any productive? Back in 2005, I attended an international conference which had in attendance former chairman of Transparency International in Nigeria, Retired General Ishola Williams and the late Prof.

Samuel Aluko who, in his presentation, advocated for productive corruption amongst our leaders who have taken advantage of their position to perpetrate prebendalism. His argument was that they invest such loot in the economy.

He believed this would have a multiplier effect of job provision for the teeming Nigerian youths. Other speakers such as General Ishola Williams vehemently opposed this theory, saying there cannot be anything beneficial or productive about corruption both in the short and long-term. Whether or not corruption can be

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As the various political parties prepare for 2015 elections, Nigerians should look beyond money politics. They must demand for responsibility, transparency and accountability in government. Any money spent by politicians to buy our votes to them is an investment which will be recouped when they get elected. For every money looted by the political class, youths will be deprived of employment; roads will be left in forlorn, and there will be perpetual power outage productive is a matter of dialectics.

Now to the issue of ‘Affluenza,’ a term that was recently coined by international media (CNN): It refers to the reckless lifestyle borne out of exuberance associated with the children of the affluent. These children engage in all forms of social vices. Reports have it that children of the super rich in Abuja now engage in racing competition with all sorts of Porsche cars sometimes constituting nuisance. They are kids who recklessly display affluence not because they worked for it but because their parents have used their positions to amass wealth with impunity.

Prebendalism, neo-partrimonialism and kleptocracy in Nigeria have further plunged down moral ethics amongst Nigerians. These have made Nigeria to be the biggest paradox in the world today, a nation of people living beside the Atlantic Ocean yet wash their hands with spittle, according to Victor Dike ‘the essence of ethical philosophy is to make everyone a better man.’

All anti-corruption drive by EFCC, ICPC, Transformation Agenda and Code of Conduct Bureau of the government have yielded little or no result.

As part of the panacea to addressing bureaucratic corruption, public/civil servants must be well remunerated and given some sense of security even after retirement. As part of the strategy to stamp out corruption, the former Singaporean leader, Lee Kwan Yew advocated attractive salaries for civil servants in form of anti-corruption allowance. This, according to Amartya Sen, will bring about income effect and substitution effects (Victor E. Dike). The law in Nigeria has not taken its full course in tackling barbaric theft of public resources. If we must tackle the wanton plundering of public resources, our criminal justice system must be strengthened backed by political will. The law must be a respecter of no one. It must be structured to make corruption difficult to perpetrate, if perpetrated, to be easily detected and prosecution and penalty certain, this will serve as deterrent.

The drive must also be extended to corporate and business leaders for them to embrace corporate governance with best global practices.

Those found wanting should be made to face the music. Fresh in our minds are celebrated corruption cases in the U.S. involving Enron Corporation, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson.

These companies have gone to the abyss of history, also not forgetting the New York billionaire Bernard Maydoff who bagged over 50 years in prison.

As the various political parties prepare for 2015 elections, Nigerians should look beyond money politics. They must demand for responsibility, transparency and accountability in government. Any money spent by politicians to buy our votes to them is an investment which will be recouped when they get elected. For every money looted by the political class, youths will be deprived of employment; roads will be left in forlorn, and there will be perpetual power outage. These three categories of corruption mentioned earlier must be tackled head-long. Also corruption of the mind which bothers on our moral fabrics must also be tackled. This is an era of enlightenment and we should not allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by their political sophistry. A word is enough for the wise that cares to listen.

• Dauda wrote from Lagos.