Tue 21 May 2013 The Guardian Nigeria

TheGuardian Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Vol. 29, No. 12,563

www.ngrguardiannews.com

N150

Members of the Joint Military Task Force patrolling the streets of Maiduguri in Borno State…yesterday.

Military captures 120 Boko Haram members in Maiduguri From Madu Onuorah, Mohammed Abu-Bakr (Abuja), Gordi Udeajah (Aba), Njadvara Musa (Damaturu), Emmanuel Ande (Yola) and Obire Onakemu (Lagos) N a major crackdown on insurgents, the Defence HeadIquarters yesterday announced the arrest of 120 Boko Haram terrorists in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Determined to ensure lasting peace and security in the crisisridden northern states, the Brigade Commander of 23 Armoured Brigade Yola, Adamawa State, Brig.-Gen. Fatai Oladipo Alli, yesterday said that there will be no hiding place for the insurgents, assuring that the military was battle ready to crush terrorists.

• No hiding place for terrorists, says army chief • Yobe relaxes curfew Meanwhile, citing improvement in the security situation in the state, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State yesterday relaxed the curfew imposed in the state by two hours daily.

Similarly, the military yesterday began a three-day meeting in Abuja with representatives of non-governmental organi-

sations (NGOs), media and paramilitary services towards achieving a common course in national security operations.

In a related development, the Chairman of Abia State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the presiding Bishop of Glorious Life Gospel Centre, Aba, Rev. Goddy Okafor, on Sunday called on

the Boko Haram sect to take legal action against Nigeria to redress whatever their grievances are against the country rather than resorting to violence.

Also, a Niger Delta activist, Joseph Evah, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately dispatch his deputy, Namadi Sambo, to the

North to join forces with northern governors to tackle the lingering insecurity in the area.

Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, also disclosed that terrorists fleeing Nigeria towards Chad and Niger Republic are being contained by Multi-National Joint Task

Reps panel threatens arrest of bank chiefs over tax remittance - Page 6

Force in various locations towards the border.

Olukolade explained that the 120 terrorists were arrested when they converged in Maiduguri to bury one of their commanders who died in an encounter with special forces on Sunday.

He confirmed that the arrested insurgents are in custody of the Joint Task Force where they are being interrogated.

The Defence spokesman added that the military’s special forces have now liberated and secured the environs of New Marte, Hausari, Krenoa, Wulgo and Chikun Ngulalo, an area hitherto under the full

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

NEWS

Govt allays fears as aviation workers end strike

By Wole Shadare (Lagos ) and Murtala Muhammed (Kano)

F

LIGHTS and other aviation activities were disrupted yesterday as workers of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) made good their threat to embark on a strike.

The workers protested under the aegis of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).

The unions had issued a 14day ultimatum to the management of NAMA, which expired yesterday morning.

But the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi, has assured Nigerians and the international community that the country’s airspace remains safe for local and international flights.

The spokesman for the minister, Joe Obi, stated that the workers had shelved the strike, adding that this followed some resolutions taken at the end of a meeting in Abuja at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, with the leadership of the two unions and the management of NAMA. The unions’ agitation bordered on the full implementation of the approved salary

• Police beef up security, minister allays fear structure and conditions of service of the agency.

According to the unions, failure on the part of the management of NAMA in addressing the issue resulted in the industrial protest by the workers, which necessitated slow operations of air traffic.

The unions, led by their Acting General-Secretaries, Olayinka Abioye, Abdulkareem Motajo and Aba Ocheme, for Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) respectively, alleged that those deployed to the control towers did not have the prerequisite validation for various air traffic control service facilities and systems, adding that their taking over of operations such as ATC, Aeronautical Information Services, Aeronautical Communications and Air Traffic Engineering Services contravened the standards and recommended practices on security and safety of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The bulletin reads in part: “This seeming infraction on

the part of NAMA management is another exhibition of its culture of impunity, which portends grave consequences and or danger to the flying public.

“Airlines and pilots receiving directives and instructions from this category of personnel are doing so at their own risk, and neither the unions nor the real workers of NAMA shall be held accountable in case of any incident or accidents as those flying these planes are flying into the unknown. We have cautioned.”

Reacting, spokesman for NAMA, Supo Atobatele, said those deployed to man the positions of the striking workers were mentally and physically fit to discharge the duties.

The unions disclosed that there was an ongoing meeting in the Ministry of Aviation, stressing that if the meeting was not fruitful, they would paralyse aviation activities today nationwide. But before going to press, it was learnt that the workers had called off the strike.

The face-off between the workers and the management forced the Minister of Aviation to quickly call for a

meeting in her office yesterday to resolve the feud in order to save the sector from a total shutdown.

The Guardian learnt that there were delays by airlines as the few air traffic controllers were overwhelmed with the enormity of air traffic.

An airline was said to have cancelled a flight as a result of long delay it experienced on its Port Harcourt flight.

Also, possibly, in order to maintain law and order within the airport environment, NAMA management deployed stern-looking police officers to strategic places

within the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.

The combat-ready policemen were seen at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), MMA, the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2) and NAMA’s headquarters.

The unions claimed that the strike called by its leadership was to ask for increased welfare for the workers.

Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Evelyn Oputu (left); former President, Republic of Ghana, John Kufuor; Guest Speaker/Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke; President, South-East South-South Professionals of Nigeria, Emeka Ugwu-Oju; and Executive Secretary, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, Ernest Nwapa, during a lecture titled “The Future of African Energy in a Changing Global Market” at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, London… yesterday.

No hiding place for terrorists, says army chief CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 grip of the insurgents.

Olukolade stated that the area was liberated after the military destroyed all the terrorists’ camps sited in those localities.

He said that the troops are already interacting with locals and citizens, assuring them of their safety and freedom from the activities of insurgents.

Olukolade also noted that “advancing troops also observed a few shallow graves believed to be those of hurriedly buried members of the terrorist groups.”

He stated: “Defence Headquarters has observed the use of photographs purportedly taken in the areas covered by the operations and wishes to state that the photographs are questionable as they do not reflect any related reality of the social or geographical environment.

“This also makes the story they claim to depict of Nigerians fleeing to Niger Republic and other countries doubtful.

The media is advised to always strive to associate stories with accurate pictures in order to avoid misleading the public.”

The commander, who spoke

yesterday in Yola while addressing the troops from 174 Battalion, Ikorodu, Lagos, that arrived the state yesterday’s morning said that more troops were on their way to Adamawa to smoke out the insurgents from their hide-outs.

He said that the troops were to be deployed to the black spots and the borders to restrict people from coming into the state, adding that the action would cage the insurgents.

Alli, who cautioned the soldiers against harassing innocent people, urged the troops to be firm and ensure that water-tight security was maintained in the state for effective operations.

He stated that under no condition or situation would the military compromise its constitutional responsibility of protecting the country against external aggressors and maintaining peace and unity.

He further urged the people of the state to co-operate with the military by giving them information that can lead to capturing more terrorists in the state.

The decision to relax the curfew was reached at the Government House, Damaturu, after the governor met with the Joint Task Force (JTF) and heads

of other security agencies in the state.

In a statement by the governor’s special adviser on Public Affairs and Information, Abdullahi Bego, the curfew will now begin from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. daily, until the security situation improves.

Bego added: “Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has today (yesterday) approved an adjustment of the hours during which public movement is restricted around the state.

Consequently, restriction on movement now starts from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. daily throughout the state with effect from today, Monday, May 20, 2013.

The governor urged the general public to continue with the exemplary support and co-operation with security agents to ensure lasting peace in the state.”

The meeting, jointly sponsored by Defence Headquarters and Office of Security Co-operation of the United States (U.S.) Embassy, Abuja, will help the military work out consensus on a workable civilmilitary relations that will best address Nigeria’s current military challenges.

It is holding under the

Re: Public notice on IMSSL HE Director of InternationT al Masters Security System Limited (IMSSL), Col. Abayomi Samuel Dare (rtd), has observed that his photograph and name appeared in the public notice advertorial tak-

en by two former employees of the company and published in The Guardian of May 7, 2013. We agree with him that since the company is a licensed and registered limited liability company, there was

no need to have published the photograph of the director.

The error is regretted and we apologise for the embarrassment occasioned Col. Dare (rtd) as a result of the publication.

– Editor.

Lagos firm refutes alleged N40m indebtedness SSET and Resource ManA agement Company Limited has denied owing Flamin Nigeria Limited or SGF Nigeria Limited.

The Guardian had reported that Flamin filed a N40 mil-

lion suit at the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, seeking the leave of court to recover the alleged debt. However, in a letter to the company by the solicitors to Flamin, Okorie and Okorie, the firm said it

was not indebted to the companies earlier mentioned.

“Our client also unequivocally states that it is not indebted in any sum whatsoever to either of the stated companies,” the solicitors stated.

theme, Synergising all the potentials for enhanced national security.

Declaring the seminar open, Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Mike Omeri, asked the military to adopt a “less conventional” approach “that is more integrative of other stakeholders in the enterprise of security maintenance. This implies, therefore, that peace-keeping as it is generally conceived, should be de-emphasised while the concept of peace building involving continuous civil-military engagement instead of waiting until there are episodes.”

The three-day meeting ends tomorrow.

Addressing journalists after a church service at Ogbor Hill, Aba, in which Governor Theodore Orji was represented by his deputy, Chief Emeka Ananaba and was attended by the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Ude Oko Chukwu, among others, Okafor urged Boko Haram to note that Nigeria belonged to all hence their destroying it would affect everybody, including their members, friends and relations.

He expressed support for the state of emergency in the three northern states, saying that the action was overdue as “people had waited for such an action from Mr. President. Nigerians are anxious to see peace return and I consider the President’s measure as one of the ways this desired peace could return to the affected parts of our country that have been under serious security threat and breach for some time now.”

Evah made the call in Lagos at the weekend during the inauguration of the women’s wing of the Niger Delta Peoples Forum (NDPF), asking that when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was in power and was faced with the crises in the Niger Delta, he saw Jonathan as the best person to champion the move for a ceasefire in the area.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21 , 2013

4 NEWS

Issues in the news

Govt now running agriculture The Guardian’s Abuja Bureau Chief, Madu Onuorah, and Joke Falaju spoke with the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, on the changes in the agriculture sector. In this interview, the minister explained the challenges and prospects. Excerpts: HAT does Nigeria stand to benefit from this W movement from a government-focused to private sector-led agricultural sector?

My mission as Minister of Agriculture is not to maintain or manage poverty in rural areas of Nigeria. My mission is to create wealth - stupendous amount of wealth - for farmers in the rural areas. Look, nobody can give me any reason for the level of poverty we have in our rural areas because agriculture accounts for almost 70 per cent of employment in this country and roughly 44 per cent of our GDP. But the rural areas are decimated. People can’t change their thatched roofs, or metal roofs, which have become so brown. We don’t need rocket science to see that what we have there is serious poverty, serious structural poverty. That structural poverty is because of the poor performance and neglect of agriculture over so many decades.

When we found oil, we forgot about agriculture.

We also have to recognise that Nigeria has huge potential for agriculture. We have over 84 million hectares of arable land, out of which we only cultivate about 40 per cent. And even the 40 per cent we cultivate, not more than 10 per cent is optimally cultivated. This means that not more than 10 per cent of cultivated land uses high yielding varieties, fertilizers, mechanisation and so on.

And God has blessed this country with so much water. With 273 billion cubic metres of water, we have more water than Israel. Then labour is cheap.

We have 100 million youths all over the country; this means that agriculture, which is labour-intensive, would be able to absorb a significant part of this number. Finally, we have a large population of about 167 million people. We eat food, though it is imported, that’s the problem. And that’s why with this potential, Nigeria has absolutely no basis, no reason for being a net importer of food. It is just sheer neglect.

And when I look at it in my job as minister, what you don’t feel ashamed about, you cannot change. I have worked globally and I know it is a shameful thing that Nigeria cannot unlock her potential. We must be a net exporter of food. We must diversify this economy, because the demand for oil is falling in the United States. Oil prices are falling; other people are finding alternatives to oil, like solar and thermal energy. They are finding alternatives in wind energy and ethanol. So, what are we going to do when the oil dries up?

What we need is a sense of urgency in bringing structural change to that sector. Without this, I see ahead of us nothing but an iceberg. Unless we take corrective measures today, we are going to hit that iceberg. With the structural change, we will begin to create wealth from agriculture, as opposed to managing poverty, and to do that means we must take agriculture as a business.

If you are producing food, whether you are using seed, it is business. Fertilizer is business, storage,

processing and adding value is business. Transporting, warehousing, logistics - everything in agriculture - is business. That’s why as government, we launched the agricultural transformation agenda. It is not a political agenda, it is a very serious structural strategy we have in place to unlock the potential of agriculture.

And so, agriculture must be where Nigeria would begin to compete with others. We used to be No.1 in palm oil production in the whole world.

Today, we are importing crude palm oil from Malaysia. It is totally crazy. We have farmers with plantations all across the South East and South West that used to produce palm oil. The plantations are still there, why are we importing palm oil today?

We cannot continue to run a prodigal society where you have something but cannot use it, and you are constantly using other persons’ things.

Today, we spend N1 billion everyday buying rice from Thailand and India when we have vast, uncultivated land. That’s why Mr. President said we must restructure and change this sector and we have done that.

We have taken it out of the development realm and put it strictly in the business realm. We are doing major policy reforms to make sure our agriculture is more productive, more efficient, more competitive, and that it leads millions of people out of poverty. So, our goal is to modernise the sector, not to maintain it as it is.

What is the way forward in modernising agriculture from a government-driven development issue to private sector business-driven?

First, the most important thing is for farmers in a country to get inputs. We have land in abundance. Fertilizer, quality seed, mechanization and irrigation are very important to farmers. Then the other side, you have the marketing system that would be able to absorb whatever surplus is produced, and that you have a system to reduce postharvest losses as well have access to finance. Those are the things you need for agriculture to perform.

Let me start with the input system. When I became minister and came to this country, what I met on ground was a disaster on the input supply. We have been running an input supply system for several decades, where government was buying fertilizer, buying and distributing seeds.

This had gone on for over four decades and not more than 11 per cent of the farmers were getting these fertilizers.

They were being hijacked by powerful people, few large commercial farmers and government officials. The fertilizers were getting legs and hands and walking away from our farmers to

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina other countries. They go to Niger Republic, Chad and Benin Republic. All the fertilizers that were subsidised in Nigeria were not getting to Nigerian farmers, but government was essentially subsidising corruption and farmers in other countries.

People would wonder, how do you do that? I have been looking at the system since 1984. When I was doing my Masters and PhD thesis in the U.S., I lived for one year in a village called Maradi, close to Katsina in Katsina State, working on my research.

All I saw were Nigerian fertilizers on trucks and trailers always moving to Niger Republic. So, I’m talking of something I have been looking at for a very long time.

And so, we decided that we have to end that corruption in the fertilizer sector so that we can reach the farmers. Nigeria cannot be the place where people look at us with ridicule as museums of poverty when we can do something better. So, I brought the issue to Mr. President and he said, go ahead and deal with it. I’m happy to mention and even let Nigerians know that it took us exactly 90 days to end a corruption of four decades of fertilizer in the country.

We took the government totally out of it. Now, I don’t sign any fertilizer contract, I don’t sign any seed contract, neither would I sign any until I am done with the job. Government doesn’t buy coke or fanta, yet it is everywhere here. So, why was government buying fertilizer or seed except that some people were just making fat money from the system and denying the poor farmers what belongs to them?

And because we took the government out of it, dignity has returned to Nigerian farmers because they have access to the fertilizer. Contractors don’t sell fertilizer to government anymore; the seed companies don’t sell to us anymore. You go and sell your things to those that need it. Now, the importers or vendors sell directly to the farmers.

When we started, the fertilizer and seed companies had no supply chain, their only supply chain was to bring what they have to government. What

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do they bring to government? Most of the fertilizers had 50 per cent sand. When they were bringing seed to government and the Nigerian Government was paying for them, the seeds they were bringing were grain. They buy grains in the open market and sell it back to the government.

And you know that the price of seed is many times higher than the price of grain. So, it was the most corrupt thing going on in this country, the racket was serious. When I came here, I said I was not going to have any of that and we took it out.

When we took the government out, I wanted to make sure that I could reach every Nigerian farmer directly. I don’t need anybody to link me with them.

If you go to the bank and you want to collect money, you go with your cashbook and collect your money, you don’t need your neighbour or any politician. So, why were farmers depending on political hangers-on, who come to say they are representing them and they don’t represent them? We decided we have to meet the farmers directly and to reach them directly, I must know them. They are not ghosts or faceless people.

When I took over as minister, there was no record of Nigerian farmers. They were not known, yet they said they were spending money on them.

The question is, who was the government spending money on? Someone they don’t even know?

You can’t just spend government money like that.

I decided that we must have a database of our farmers because if you don’t know your customers, then you are doing bad business, except you are in the stealing business.

We started by registering them. By the first year, we registered about 4.2 million farmers. This year alone, we have already registered 10 million farmers. By next year we would register additional five million farmers. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the estimated number of farmers in the country is about 14.2 million.

Let’s just give ourselves an estimate of 15 million.

So, within two years we have registered all the

And when I look at it in my job as minister, what you don’t feel ashamed about, you cannot change. I have worked globally and I know it is a shameful thing that Nigeria cannot unlock her potential. We must be a net exporter of food. We must diversify this economy, because the demand for oil is falling in the United States. Oil prices are falling; other people are finding alternatives to oil, like solar and thermal energy.

They are finding alternatives in wind energy and ethanol. So, what are we going to do when the oil dries up?

What we need is a sense of urgency in bringing structural change to that sector.

Without this, I see ahead of us nothing but an iceberg. Unless we take corrective measures today, we are going to hit that iceberg. With the structural change, we will begin to create wealth from agriculture, as opposed to managing poverty, and to do that means we must take agriculture as a business

’

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

NEWS | 5

Issues in the news

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strictly as business, says minister We have in this country banned the importation of frozen chicken, but you find chicken legs and wings, all the bad parts that nobody wants. They are throwing that into Nigeria. Benin Republic is importing over 50 times what that they can eat. They are selling them in Nigeria. We must take ourselves out of the shackle of those that have kept us down.

I am the farmers’ minister and that entails I must ensure that the business of agriculture is successful. It would be a good thing that we extricate ourselves from the shackles of detractors. Nigeria should be exporting rice all over the place. I believe we can

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farmers in the country plus their biometric information, which means I have all their biometric information with me.

Then, we decided to reach them directly via technology, which is the mobile phone. If I want to call you, somebody else doesn’t pick it, I call you directly because you have a unique identification number that is yours alone. So, we decided on developed electronic wallets, a system where we reach farmers directly with electronic coupons, vouchers for seed, fertilisers and other inputs over their mobile phones.

It took us 120 days to develop the platform and roll out the whole country in our first year. In 120 days, we reached 1.2 million farmers.

They started getting their seeds and fertilizers, many touching bags of fertilizer for the first time ever. This year, we have registered 10 million farmers and we are going to reach every one of them because we have more data.

Last year, when we started, the farmers were like, ‘well, we are not sure of it,’ some even thought we wanted to tax them. Some thought it was for political reasons. But when they saw that 1.2 million of their neighbours got it, this year everybody came out to register. I deployed this year 11,000 people to the ward level all across this country to register the farmers. We have modernised the system.

Today as a minister, I can tell you which farmer got fertiliser, when he got it, where they got it, how much they paid for it and how much we paid, and how much the state government paid. It is a very transparent system. And as a result of that, the fertilizer companies last year sold N15 billion worth of fertilisers, not to government but straight to farmers. It had never happened before.

The seed companies changed. They sold N1.5 billion worth of high quality seed directly to farmers, not to government. Look at even the performance of the banks, last year I wanted them to lend N30 billion to farmers but they were hesitant. I am not blaming them, as it was the first phase of the programme. They started with lending N3 billion to farmers. When they did, the Governor of Central Bank asked them how much was their default rate. They said it was zero per cent. It had never happened.

So, this year, the banks are committed to lending N60 billion because they see that the system is working. One of the seed companies on the field got N400 million loan from First Bank last year.

This year, they have given him N500 million. The firm, Massler Hard Seed, had never borrowed money until we started our programme.

So, that tells you that a private sector-led, government supported effort is working. If it is not working, why would the banks be lending their money?

And what we are doing in the agricultural sector is not just the Federal Government alone, we have a very strong partnership with the state governments. Yes, the electronic wallet ended corruption in the procurement of fertilizers for farmers, but it also created a new partnership with state governments. The total amount that the electronic wallet saved the Federal Government was about N25 billion last year. These are savings that I would have signed off as contracts for the government.

Out of the N15 billion spent on the programme, N7.8 billion was contributed by farmers as participants in the project. They covered 50 per cent of the cost. Of the balance, we spent as Federal Government about N5 billion, while the balance of N3.7 billion was spent by state governments. So, it is a new partnership between the federal, state governments and farmers, where the beneficiaries also put something on the table.

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

However, I want you to also see what the private sector is doing.

When we started over a year ago, we had only 21 seed companies. By the end of last year, we had a total of 77 seed companies. And because the fertilizer companies saw that they could sell directly to farmers and make their profit, look at the investments that have started coming.

Aliko Dangote is going to put up for this country the largest urea plant in Africa, worth about $3.5 billion. A group called Ndorama is investing about N1.5 billion in a new fertilizer plant in Nigeria. Notorium, which has the largest plant right now making urea, has signed a new agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, which is putting in N1.3 billion. And they are doing this because the new policy on input is working. It is real business and everybody is making money directly.

What of the seed? When I became minister, we wanted to give our farmers in the North access to quality cotton seeds but could not find single kilogramme of quality cotton seeds in the country. We had to go Benin Republic and beg them. They said our President has to beg their President to give us the seeds. What a shame! How did we ever get there? And I said no, we are not going to do any such crazy thing.

We went to work and got a company called Wacot to develop for us certified cotton seeds. From them, we got 1,580 metric tonnes of high quality cotton seeds, which we distributed last year. The President said we should give it all for free all across the cotton-growing states of the North. The 35,000 farmers planted the cotton seeds on 75,000 hectares of land. We spent about N240 on every kilogramme of the seed. The one that farmers would get from the open market was N420 and it is bad quality seed.

So, the farmers all across the North got seeds free from the government. When was the last time such thing ever happened in this country? And they produced 240,000 kilogrammes of cotton. As a result of that, there is a group called Syngeta, the world’s No.1 seed company. They are just about opening office in Lagos because they have seen what is happening in Nigeria.

Nobody can do agriculture with hoe and cutlass today and make progress. That is not farming, that is punishment. So, we brought in a company called Agco, the world’s largest manufacturer of Mercy Ferguson tractors. And because of the reforms they see in Nigeria, they are investing $100 million to set up a tractor assembly plant here.

The ministry is putting up for this year a N3.5 billion mechanization service fund towards establishing several private tractor hiring service all across the country to give farmers access to mechanised services. And because of the electronic wallet system, this year, we are providing mechanised services support for farmers in this country through their phone.

They would get the coupon over their phone stating the amount of money government is giving them for mechanised services to plough their field. They would now go to the tractor-hiring centre, where we already would have sent the information to, just like we do now for seed and fertilizer. That is the modernisation that we are referring to.

Part of it has to do with processing. We lose a lot of what we produce. Kadawa Valley in Kano State produces the largest quantity of tomatoes in Nigeria, and Nigeria produces 65 per cent of all the tomatoes in West and Central Africa. Yet, Nigeria is the highest importer of tomato paste in the world, from China and Italy. What a paradox! The irony is that 45 per cent of the tomatoes in Kano waste away every day.

Take citrus (for instance), Nigeria is the No.2 in production of citrus in the world, after China. But you go into any supermarket and pick up any juice you find there, the only thing that is Nigerian in local content is water. What is imported is citrus concentrate mixed with water in Nigeria and sold to Nigerians as juice.

To get out of this shame, we worked with Dangote’s Dansa Group to put up a $30 million plant in Kano that would process the raw tomato into tomato paste. That would reduce a lot of the losses we currently have. Secondly, we worked with the Transcorp Group and Tony Elumelu Corporation and they set up in Benue State a new plant that is processing oranges that we have into juice.

The Dansa Group is working in the production of pineapples.

Nigeria is now No.8 producer of pineapples in the world, but every pineapple juice you see in this country is imported. But now, Dansa Group is investing $40 million to produce and process massive pineapple juice in Rivers State. So, we are investing with the private sector to do processing and value addition to what we actually produce in abundance.

Part of the transformation efforts has to do with modernising the financial sector to support agriculture. Mr. President directed that we must get access to finance for the farmers at single digit interest rate. If you look at agriculture in the U.S. since 1915, American farmers have been getting credit at 4.5 per cent interest rate.

That is why an American farmer is rich because they get very cheap finance. Their government supports them with very cheap subsidies.

But here, we have abandoned our farmers for decades and expect them to perform. It is like going to the Olympics without shoes and you are expected to win a race against Usain Bolt. I know that Nigerians like to pray, but God created man to work and you have to work because if you don’t work, you are not expected to eat. So, we cannot abandon farmers and expect them to suddenly become major players overnight. Miracles don’t happen like that.

One of the things we have done is recommending that about N15 billion be given to the Bank of Agriculture to lend to farmers in single digit rate. My ministry is working

with the Central Bank to develop a facility called NIRSAL. I was working on this with CBN Governor before I became minister. That facility would reduce the interest rate of banks for agriculture from 23 to nine per cent. And the banks have committed to lending about N450 billion.

I read in the newspaper about government distributing N450 billion, which is not true. The N3.5 billion would be leveraged from the balance sheet of banks. The banks would lend their own money, as Nigerian banks are awash with excess liquidity. What we are doing is providing risk guarantee to banks to lend their money. Government doesn’t have N450 billion to lend, it is their money the banks are going to be lending.

Finally, on the modernisation of agriculture, the next crucial thing is storage capacity. When I took over as minister, there were about 100 silos across the country that had 35 per cent completion. Right now, almost all of them are completed. So, we have the food chain from seed, fertilizer, mechanisation, to finance and storage. But the things we are doing are not political. They are structural things that would make Nigerian agriculture productive and efficient.

How are you handling obstacles towards implementation of the new agricultural focus?

You know, if you have a slave you would not easily let your slave go.

In the Bible, even when Pharaoh let the children of Israel go, after a while he said he wanted his slaves back. I was not appointed by the President to make the people who have been bleeding the economy happy. No! That is not my job.

My job is to make sure that dignity returns to the farmers of Nigeria, that we revive our rural economies, that we increase the incomes of those farmers. So, it is not about those people but about the masses. After all, it is the taxpayers’ money that we are spending. In the case of fertilizer, for instance, people would say I am a large farmer. Why is the minister not giving me subsidised fertilizer?

But let’s face it. Subsidy is not for the rich. It is for the poor, small farmers. My focus is to get fertilizer and seed to millions of small farmers across the country. So, if you are a very rich person and you are expecting the Federal Government to provide subsidy for you, I am sorry, that would never happen. The days when the rich take over the supply of fertilizer are gone.

Of course, we are also not saying we are not going to support large or medium scale farmers. We are going to support them through the facility of finance, like the NILSAR, so that they can borrow money at single digit interest rate. With this, if they want to buy a trailer load of fertilizer for their farms, they can get access to finance such and not corner the subsidized fertilizer that belongs to the

TO BE CONTINUED

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NEWS

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

News Reps panel threatens arrest of bank chiefs over tax remittance

By Adamu Abu, Abuja HERE is nobody in this “T country that is more important than the country.

Some of our bank executives, particularly chief executives officers, think they are above the law. The Committee on Finance would prove to them that there is nobody in this country that stands taller than the law of our land.”

With these words, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Dr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, yesterday lamented alleged refusal by nine chief executive officers (CEO) of some Nigeria’s banks to appear before members of his panel to render explanation on how their respective banks have been remitting tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the past three years.

At yesterday’s opening session of the panel’s investigation of tax remittance by banks, none of the banks’ chief executive officers honoured the lawmakers’ summon issued last week. But 12 banks sent representatives

and consultants while representatives of the remaining nine were nowhere to be found. Piqued by the development, Jibrin, flanked by other members of the committee, threatened to issue a bench order for arrest of the nine chief executive officers if they fail to appear tomorrow, 22nd of May, 2013 before the committee to show evidence of their tax remittance to the government purse.

Jibrin, who listed most of the defaulting financial institutions as Zenith Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Plc, Heritage Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc and Ecobank Plc, said the investigative exercise is in line with global best practices where banks are placed under tax scrutiny by parliament in view of their strategic role to the economy.

Saying the investigative hearing was aimed at shoring up the revenue base of the government as well as amend or enact relevant laws to achieve the desired goal, Jibrin reiterated the resolve of

the committee to strengthen FIRS and optimise the potential of the Nigerian tax system.

According to him, the refusal by the CEOs of the banks not to render account of their tax remittance transaction did not come to members of the committee as a surprise. “If whatever they are doing, like attending workshops and seminar, is more important than parliament, we shall all be witness to what would happen to them.

“We know that there would be a lot of antics, we know that there would be a lot of games here and there, but the good news for you and Nigerians is that we are prepared. It is in this exercise that we would ask the banks to open up their books so that we see what they are doing when it comes to their roles as collecting agents and we want them to also let us see what they are paying as tax because we are interested in building the revenue base of this country. We can’t tolerate a situation where somebody would just sit there and think he is too big, this committee would prove to him he is nobody in this country.”

Former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme (left); Rear Admiral Akin Aduwo (rtd); Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade; and Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, during third Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly Conference in Lagos… yesterday.

PHOTO: GABRIEL IKHAHON

Akinfenwa, Obioha in court over authentic AD chairman From Lawrence Njoku, Enugu HE Federal High Court sitT ting in Enugu yesterday adjourned to June 12 hearing on the suit over the authentic national chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

A former National Vice Chairman of the party in the South-East, Rev. Okechukwu Obioha, who claims to have been endorsed by stakeholders as its national chairman had taken another claimant to the position, Senator Akinfenwa Mojisoluwa, to court, asking it to determine among the two, the rightful national chairman of AD. Joined in the suit is the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Obioha, in the suit filed by his counsel, Anene Nzelu, is challenging a purported record held by INEC confirming Akinfenwa as the national chairman of the party, when he (Obioha) had emerged in a

convention held by the party on January 14, 2011 and monitored by the commission.

When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, INEC’s counsel, A.R Agboanike, asked for a short adjournment to enable them “put our house in order”, stressing that, they only knew about the matter last Friday.

She said they were called from Abuja to go to court yesterday over the matter, but without

the originating summons.

But Obioha’s counsel, Nzelu, opposed the application and requested for the leave of the court to move his application for an order of mandamus against the respondents. He insisted that by the rules of the court, they were already out of time, having failed to file their replies to the processes served on them more than seven days after.

Lagos appoints six new judges

By Bertram Nwannekanma OVERNOR Babatunde Fashola yesterday approved the appointment of six new High Court judges for Lagos State judiciary.

The new judges, comprising two magistrates, a senior state counsel in the Ministry of Justice and three private lawyers, brought the number of

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judges in the State High Court to 56.

The appointment is expected to fill the vacuum created by the retirement of Justice Inumidun Akande, the former chief judge, elevation of Justice Habeeb Abiru to the Appeal Court, retirement of Justice Benedicta Shitta-Bey and the demise of Justice Wasilat Abisoye Esther Ayo.

Commonwealth nations move to empower, protect persons with mental disorders From Chukwuma Muanya, Geneva EALTH Ministers of H Commonwealth member states yesterday adopted a legislative framework to empower, protect and care for persons with mental disorders.

The move followed realisation that the mental health legislation in many member states is outdated and does not fulfill international human rights obligations towards persons with mental disorders.

Also, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday told journalists that the country’s mental health laws are out of date and the country needs new ones. “Now everybody is talking about mental health. Currently, there has been a draft Bill by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to look at our mental health laws.

As you know, the last one was before Independence, so it is out of date and this is the reali-

ty,” Chukwu said.

The Commonwealth document titled “Metal Health: A legislative framework to empower, protect and care; A Review of Mental Health Legislation in Commonwealth Member States” was presented to the ministers and delegates at the 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland by Dr. Soumitra Pathare from the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune, India. It was commissioned by Commonwealth Health Professions Alliance (CHPA) and funded by Commonwealth Foundation.

The review found that mental health legislation in 20 per cent of Commonwealth member states, including Nigeria was enacted prior to 1960, before modern medical treatments became available and before many of the international human rights instruments came into force.

The framework recommended, among other things, that Commonwealth member states should urgently undertake reform of mental health legislation, ensure that the legislation meets their obligations under international human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and consider providing financial and technical support to low and middle income member states to undertake mental health law reform. It also recommends thorough review of all legislation to comprehensively address all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of persons with mental disorders, introduce provisions to promote decision making in mental health legislation and involve persons with mental disorders and care-givers, apart from other stakeholders, in the mental health law reform process.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

NEWS

Govt launches conduct code for private employment agencies

By Godfrey Okpugie CODE of conduct of practice for the Private Employment Agencies (AEAs) in the country has been launched in Lagos by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dry Clement Illoh.

At the launch, which was held at Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) house, Ikeja, Lagos, the Director, International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Country office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Gambia; and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Ms. Sina ChumaMkandawire, said PEAs, which play useful roles in a well-functioning labour market could as well contribute to a better and faster match between the supply and demand of work The director, who was represented at the event by a top official of the organisation, added that PEAs, by the vital role they play in the employment of people, could work with various government ministries, departments and agencies in Nigeria to expose the activities of fake and fraudulent PAEs and thus prevent them from taking advantage of unsuspecting job seekers by offering them none existent jobs and through such lure them into the hands of human traffickers, who promised them attractive employment opportunities abroad only to discover too late that they were deceived and trafficked.

Sovereign Wealth fund takes off in June with $850m • Minister lists benefits of emergency rule

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UNIBEN alumni lauds govt action to solve security problems HE University of Benin T Alumni Association (UBAA) has commended the Federal Government over the measures taken to curb insecurity challenges in some parts of the country.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the 75th National Council meeting of University of Benin Alumni Association (UBAA), Worldwide held in Abuja on Saturday and signed by the President, Worldwide, Dr. Clement Kayode Oghene and Secretary General, Dr. Emmanuel Oghre, it stated: “Council recalls its advice at its 74th National Council meeting, on March 23, 2013 at Ibadan, to the Federal Government on the need for concrete steps to combat the spiraling violence in the country and commends government for the various purposeful measures now being put in place with a view to arresting the security challenges be-deviling the nation.

leave the club at the end of the season after three years in charge of the Spanish giants.

President Florentino Perez revealed the decision at a packed news conference.

Mourinho, 50, who has been linked with a return to Chelsea, won the league and Copa del Rey at Madrid.

“We’ve decided to bring our relationship to an end,” Perez said. “Nobody’s been sacked, it’s a mutual agreement.”

Real are currently 13 points behind Barcelona in the league and were beaten by city

From Mathias Okwe, Assistant Business Editor, Abuja INALLY, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the body to manage the $1 billion Nigerian Federation Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), has announced plan to kick off its activities next month.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the Fund’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Uche Orji, said under the plan, the three investment windows would receive the following allocation: Future Generation Fund, $325 million; Nigerian Infrastructure Fund, $325 million; and Stabilisation Fund will get $200 million, representing 32.5 per cent each of the first two investment windows and 20 per cent for the stabilisation fund.

The remaining 15 per cent is to be ring-fenced and kept unallocated for now and used to top up each of the Fund’s investment windows where opportunities arise.

Orji spoke on the day the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, told global economic experts via teleconference that the recent declaration of emergency rule in three North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe portends great economic benefits to the people of the zone in particular and the Nigerian nation as a whole because before now, economic and social activities had complete-

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The Diocesan Bishop of Kaduna Anglican Diocese, Most Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon (left) with the Synod delegate, Bishop Rt. Rev. George Bako (rtd) and the Bishop of Bari Synod preacher, Rt. Rev. Idris Ado Zubairu at the second session of the 19th Synod of the Diocese of Kaduna Anglican Communion thanksgiving service at the Jaklaranda Farm Resort and Conference Centre, Kaduna on Sunday.

Southern leaders urge confab, seek end to corruption, others • Clark against power shift from South

By Seye Olumide ORRIED by the myriad of problems confronting the country, the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently convene a national conference to address the issues.

The SNPA made the call at its third general conference hosted by the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) in Lagos yesterday, agreeing that Nigeria needed to convene a national conference.

Meanwhile, the Ijaw National leader Chief Edwin Clark has described the machinations towards power shift from the south in 2015 as improper at this time in the history of the country.

The three co-chairmen of the event, Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi, Clark and former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme all emphasised the need for a national dialogue.

They equally identified lack of unity among southerners as a weapon through which the north has always been using as an edge against the region.

Gbonigi who led the South West delegate in his address on national insecurity commended President Jonathan for recently taking a bold and decisive action in confronting the menace of insurgents, as we have repeatedly advocated.

According to him, “The president now seems to grasp the full import of the insurgency in the north which is to chal-

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lenge the sovereignty of the nation state and establish a separatist Islamic fundamentalist state. It is their commitment to this agenda that has made them to spurn all the government’s appeasement initiatives like dialogue and amnesty. These moves only serve to embolden them and portray the government as weak. The only way to subdue terrorists, as the experience of other nations has shown, is to confront them head on with a combination of intelligence and military force.”

He added that now that the government has chosen to assert its sovereignty over the whole nation, we call on the very powerful and influential northern traditional institutions to prevail on their subjects to lay down their arms and respect the sovereignty of Nigeria.

Pointing out the fact that mere emphasis on the ending of the insurgency in the north will not by itself alone bring sustainable peace to the country, Gbonigi said there are many other centres of simmering discontent across the nation “many of which have the potential to burst out as open rebellious if the causes of grievances are not addressed.

This is why an all embracing national dialogue, or a conference, has become an imperative.”

Other issues, he highlighted in his speech, included the need to assist Mr. President in fighting corruption.

He also emphasized on the prevailing harsh economic climate, which he described as equally threatening the peace and stability of the country.

He noted that the level of graduate unemployment has reached alarming and unprecedented level in the history of the country while the various arms of government seem helpless.

Suggesting way out, he said governments must begin to create jobs that are sustainable and not tied to the apron springs of government budget.

Insisting that the SNPA has come to stay, Gbonigi recommended that each of the three zones making up the assembly should stop henceforth holding separate meetings with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the organisation should indeed strive to promote harmony within various groups and individuals in our territorial extent who engaged in one form of conflict or the other that can threaten the aims and objectives of our existence.

In his address, Clark, who led the South South delegates said Jonathan should organise a national conference on or before January 2014.

He added that if political leaders and forbears in the South had invested some of their energies, exceptional brilliance and wits in fostering a united southern Nigeria in the pre and post independence Nigeria, the challenges of fragmentation and distrust which have been very clearly exploited by the north to supplant us virtually all aspects of our political lives would have been avoided.

Real Madrid confirms Mourinho’s exit EAL Madrid have R announced that head coach Jose Mourinho would

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rivals, Atletico, in the Spanish Cup final last Friday. They also lost in the semi-finals of the Champions League in each of their three seasons under Mourinho.

“The club and manager agree the timing is right to bring our relationship to an end,” Perez added. “On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank Jose Mourinho for all his hard work. The team has improved in his three years and we wish him all the best.”

Real had not won a trophy in the two years preceding Mourinho’s appointment. His deal was scheduled to run until 2016 after he signed a

contract extension following last season’s La Liga success.

An agreement has been made on his exit now though, with fellow former Chelsea boss, Carlo Ancelotti, tipped to replace him after he expressed his desire to make the switch to the Bernabeu.

However, Perez denied that a replacement had been lined up to take over from Mourinho, stating: “We have no pre-contract signed with any managerial candidate. It is something we’ll have to look at in the coming days.”

Paris St-Germain’s head coach, Ancelotti, 53, had earlier said: “I’ve asked to leave

and I am waiting for their answer.” But the Ligue 1 champions’ Qatari president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said, “he (Ancelotti) asked to depart for Real Madrid. It is not possible because he has a contract for one year more, so that is our decision.”

Real have only two league games left to play this season, with Mourinho set to be in charge as he takes his team to the Basque region to face Champions League hopefuls, Real Sociedad on Sunday, before ending the campaign with the visit of relegationthreatened Osasuna on June 1.

ly collapsed due to activities of the insurgents in the affected states.

The NSIA chief executive shed more light on the investment plan of the Fund, saying “Investment in the Stabilisation Fund will start early June. The Future Generation has the same timeline but will continue till end of 2013 because it is a more diversified portfolio with a more complicated process.

“For the Infrastructure Fund, a very detailed and thorough review of possible investment areas and projects is ongoing.

The investments being considered are in health care, transportation, water resources, power and housing, among others.

“Our focus is on investments that are both relevant to the current needs of Nigerians and profitable and sustainable at the same time. We are ready to go anywhere to get the best deals for Nigeria because these investment platforms are commercial and not a charity.

We will therefore invest in areas that will generate high returns.

“We want to also be a credible vehicle to attract investors into Nigeria because many people out there are ready to come into Nigeria and invest, as Nigeria today is the best country in Africa with a very good international rating in terms of economic fundamentals.

Investors are keen on coming but they need credible partners like us that they can trust.”

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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15 feared killed in Borno auto crash From Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri

O fewer than 15 people N were feared killed on Sunday evening when a Kano Line commercial bus travelling to Maiduguri rammed into two vehicles while attempting to overtake a truck at Jakana

Arisekola Alao, cleric back Ajimobi From Iyabo Lawal, Ibadan HE Aare Musulumi of T Yorubaland, Alhaji AbdulAzeez Arisekola Alao, has pleaded with the Oyo State Muslim community to bear with Governor Abiola Ajimobi on some of his administration’s religious policies suspected to be inimical to their faith.

The Islamic leader, at the inauguration of the new executives committee for the community, stated that any confrontation with the governor could affect an anticipated healthy relationship between Muslims in the state and the government.

He was responding to the protestations of the new chairman of the Muslim community, Alhaji Kunle Sanni, on certain religious policies in schools.

Also, the second-term ambition of Ajimobi received a boost yesterday during the fifth synod of the IbadanNorth Anglican Diocese held at the St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral, Aremo, Ibadan, when he was eulogised for his outstanding performance within a spate of two years.

Village in Borno State.

Two other passengers were also injured in the multiple auto-crash, before the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) rescue team rushed to the scene.

An eyewitness told The Guardian that the accident occurred two kilometres away from Jakana Village, after the driver attempted to overtake two vehicles in the same direction towards Maiduguri.

He added: “All the passengers were trapped in the bus for 10 minutes, after it burst into flames. We had to mobilise the villagers to pull out the bodies of 15 passengers with the use of axes, hacksaws and water in

quenching the fire. The FRSC rescue team reached the village after we had pulled out the victims’ bodies before they were taken to the Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.”

Confirming the accident yesterday in Maiduguri, the Borno State FRSC Sector Commander, Mr. Amos Thizha, said the crash involved three vehicles, including the Kano Line commercial bus at Jakana Village.

He attributed the multiple crash to “over-taking and dangerous driving” on part of the bus driver, warning that drivers plying the MaiduguriKano road should exercise caution and observe traffic rules and regulations.

Chairperson, Northern Governors Wives’ Association, Dooshima Yemisi Suswam (right); Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio; Niger State Governor, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu and his Benue State counterpart, Gabriel Suswam, at the unveiling of the Almanac at the Northern Governors Wives’ Peace Forum in Abuja…yesterday

Ezeife, Ubah’s campaign group differ over zoning in Anambra From Uzoma Nzeagwu, Awka ONTROVERSY may continue to trail the 2014 governorship election in Anambra State, as former governor of the state, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, disagreed with Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah’s Director of Campaign Organisation, Ben Chuks Nwosu, in Awka yesterday over which zone should produce the next governor.

Ubah, who hails from Nnewi in Anambra-South Senatorial Zone, has since joined the governorship race and has been mobilising forces across the state in pursuit of his ambition.

But Ezeife, who was the chairman at a book presentation: The stolen mandate, written by Ogechukwu Ezeajughi, in his opening

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remark, said the next governor of the state should come from Anambra-North. He cautioned people from the zone to be serious and work hard to realise their dream.

However, in his reaction, Nwosu, who was a lawmaker in Anambra State House of Assembly, faulted Ezeife’s

position, insisting that Anambra citizens should be allowed to decide who governs the state.

Ezeife said: “There is an ongoing controversy, people of Anambra-North said it is their turn to produce the next governor.

Since Anambra Central and South

have each produced, for me, we have to show sympathy for Anambra-North. There are obvious supports from many Anambra people that they (North) should produce the next governor. Once they produce a credible candidate and give their full support, he must succeed.

Court discharges Lagos Speaker’s aide

By Joseph Onyekwere USTICE Samuel CandideJCourt, Johnson of the Lagos High Igbosere, has struck out the criminal charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Oyebode Atoyebi, personal assistant to the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.

Atoyebi was charged with conspiracy alongside a former banker, Olayinka Sanni, for fraudulently converting N32.5 million, which belonged to Resoucery BDC Limited to their personal use.

Both Atoyebi and Sanni were alleged to have conspired to perpetrate the crime on June

29, 2011, an offence contrary to Sections 390 and 516 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State, 2003.

The accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the charges and raised preliminary objections through their counsel, Abiodun Onidare, who had insisted that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the charge because the proper procedures were not followed by the EFCC. The EFCC, in its counter-affidavit, argued that it was late for the accused to object to the prosecutorial powers of the Commission to file the charge, adding that it has statutory powers to file criminal charges in the Lagos

High Court.

After considering the issues, the judge overruled EFCC’s argument as to the timing of the objection, which he said, was not affected or caught by any time bar.

The judge also held that at the moment, the EFCC does not have the fiat of the Attorney General of Lagos State to prosecute criminal matters in the state.

He stressed that the fiat exhibited by the EFCC was granted in 2004 in respect of Criminal Code Law and Criminal Procedure Law of Lagos State, 2003, which had since been repealed and replaced with Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011.

Council denies alleged dispute over Edo stool From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City

HE reported dispute in T South Ibie Clan in EtsakoWest Local Council Area of Edo State over the stool of its head, Aidonogie, has been denied by the Aidonogie-inCouncil. The Council said the dispute in the clan has since been laid to rest with the provision of the amended law by the Edo State House of Assembly in 2006.

It, therefore, urged members of the community to refrain from actions capable of disturbing the prevailing peace in the area.

The Council was reacting to a statement by some members of the community, which created the impression that the current Aidonogie of South Ibie, Alhaji Aliyu Danesi, was occupying the seat illegally following an Appeal Court’s ruling, which disqualified the two contenders of the throne.

Bauchi spends N800m on health insurance From Ali Garba, Bauchi O provide effective health care services to civil servants, the Bauchi State government has expended over N800 million on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) The state Head of Service, Abdon Gin, disclosed this yesterday when he received the executive members of the State chapter of Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) led by its chairperson, Hajia Kaltume Abdulahi Shall, in his office He added that since the introduction of the scheme from 2009 till date, about 14,000 civil servants in the state have benefited from theprogramme.

Abdon said the Yuguda led administration has been bearing the expenses since the introduction. “Civil servants are supposed to contribute five per cent which we are supposed to be deducting from their salaries monthly but the government has being paying everything to ensure that all the civil servants receive free treatment.

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Court orders release of subsidy fraud suspects’ passports

By Yetunde Ayobami-Ojo USTICE Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja yesterday ordered the release of the international passports of two alleged oil subsidy fraud suspects, Walter Wagbatsoma and Adaoha Ugo-Ngadi, for medical treatment abroad.

Justice Okunnu’s order was sequel to an application brought by their counsel, Mr. E. D. Onyeke, praying the court to exercise its discretion in granting the defendants’ application.

According to him, his clients needed to urgently attend to their failing health in foreign hospitals.

While granting the application, Justice Okunnu directed that the documents be

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returned to the Office of the Chief Registrar of the court within two weeks of its release.

However, Justice Hebeeb Abiru of a Lagos High Court also sitting in Ikeja had shortly after the defendants were arraigned, ordered the confiscation of the travelling documents as part of their condition for bail.

Justice Abiru has since been elevated to the Court of Appeal, necessitating the transfer of the suit to instant court.

Wagbatsoma, Ugo-Ngadi, Fakuade Babafemi Ebenezer, Ezekiel Olaleye and their company, Ontario Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited, are standing trial over alleged conspiracy, obtaining property under false pretence,

conspiracy to forge documents and altering.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty to the nine-count charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Meanwhile, at the last proceedings of the matter early in May, an operative of the EFCC, Damon Yelma, gave a graphic account of how the defendant swindled the country of N1.9 billion under the guise of fuel importation.

Under cross-examination by the defence team, Yelma told the court that his participation in the investigation was minimal and as such, he could not answer questions relating to documents tendered in court but that they were not authored by him.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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WorldReport Hezbollah fighters killed in battle for Syria’s O fewer than 28 members N of Lebanon’s Shiite group, Hezbollah, were reportedly killed yesterday as they fought alongside Syrian government forces in an assault on the rebel bastion of Qusayr, which raged into a second day.

But as official media reported that the Syrian army was consolidating its grip on Qusayr, a strategic prize in the two-year conflict, the ruler of Qatar, which backs the rebellion, condemned international community’s inaction on Syria.

According to agency reports, the battle in Qusayr began on

Sunday, when government troops backed by Hezbollah stormed the western town, casting a shadow over United States (U.S.)-Russian efforts to organise a peace conference on Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting had left about 56 rebels dead, six of them yesterday, and four civilians including one woman.

Quoting “reliable sources”, it said that “28 members of Hezbollah’s elite forces were killed and more than 70 others wounded in clashes in the town of Qusayr yesterday.”

U.S. flays rise in sentiments against Muslims, Jews HE United States has T denounced what it called a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, pointing to restrictions and violence against Muslims, including the faith’s minority sects.

Releasing a wide-ranging yearly report on religious freedom, Secretary of State John Kerry also voiced alarm at what he called rising antiJewish sentiment, and filled a position of special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.

The State Department report, which covered 2012, said that “Anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions were clearly on the rise – particularly in Europe and Asia.”

“Government restrictions, which often coincided with societal animosity, resulted in anti-Muslim actions that affected everyday life for numerous believers,” it said.

In Myanmar, officials allegedly fanned deadly antiMuslim violence in Rakhine state while in China, authorities showed less tolerance toward the mostly Muslim Uighur community and Tibetans, the report said.

It said that Muslims also faced new restrictions in 2012 in countries ranging from Belgium, which banned facecovering religious attire in classrooms, to India where schools in Mangalore restricted headscarves.

Jonathan, Mbeki seek check against illicit fund flows from Africa From Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja RESIDENT Goodluck P Jonathan and South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki have canvassed the need to check the outflow of huge funds from the African continent as they met yesterday at the State House in Abuja.

Mbeki, who is the head of the United Nations’ High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, arrived in Nigeria on Sunday to receive the “African of the Year, 2012 Award” by Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust newspapers in Abuja.

The former South African president earlier yesterday led the delegation of the panel on a courtesy call on Jonathan at the Villa. Both leaders held their talks behind closed doors.

A statement later quoted Jonathan as saying that the huge funds being illicitly taken out of Africa could solve most of the continent’s infra-

Continent loses $50b to illegal acts structural and other problems. “So, we must look within and check this hemorrhage,” he stated.

He said Africa “needs robust assistance from the developed world” to check this outflow, because “corruption would be minimised if there are no places to hide the illicit funds.”

He challenged oil refineries worldwide to ask questions

about the source of the crude they refine and added that his administration was taking definite steps to check the theft of crude oil from Nigeria.

Jonathan also called on the panel to carry out an in-depth and comprehensive study of the issue and produce a template that would help the continent combat the menace.

He directed all relevant ministries and agencies of govern-

ment to cooperate fully with the panel.

Earlier, Mbeki said the continent currently loses at least $50 billion every year through illicit fund flows. He added that the panel was determined to study the problem and propose solutions.

He said the panel would like to meet relevant members of the National Assembly in view of the need for legislation to check the potent threat to the survival of the continent.

Russia foils terror attack on Moscow, kills two plotters agencies in Russia StheyECURITY disclosed yesterday that had foiled a terror attack on Moscow, killing two of the plotters and arresting another.

In a statement yesterday, Russia’s National Anti-Terror Committee said: “Our forceful actions prevented an attempted act of terror in the capital.”

The statement said the men –

all three of them ethnic Russians – were detected on the outskirts of Moscow. A gunfight erupted during their attempted arrest, which left a Russian federal security official lightly injured.

The committee added that all three men are suspected of having received their training in the border region between

Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been personally informed about the foiled plot.

Meanwhile, three people were killed and nearly 50 injured yesterday in twin car blasts outside a court building in a southern Russian city in the restive region of Dagestan.

China, India agree to ease tensions over border face-off NDIA and China have Iease agreed to study new ways to tensions on their illdefined border after an army confrontation in the Himalayas, visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said yesterday on his first official foreign trip.

Li, the number two in the Chinese leadership offered New Delhi a “handshake across the Himalayas” and said the world’s most populous nations could become a new engine for the global economy if they could avoid friction on the militarised border.

“Both sides believe that we need to improve the various border-related mechanisms that we have put into place and make them more efficient. We need to appropriately manage and resolve our differences,” Li said at a joint news conference with India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Reuters reported that the two men appeared smiling and relaxed. India’s Foreign Ministry said they got on well.

There were small breakthroughs on trade, but no major agreements were signed.

Egypt sends back-up to Sinai after attack on police camp OLICE authorities in Egypt P sent reinforcements to the Sinai yesterday after an attack on a police camp in the wake of the kidnapping of security personnel.

The new development came as the presidency said in Cairo that all options were on the table to secure the release of the three policemen and four soldiers held last week in the lawless peninsula.

A report by Agence France Presse (AFP) claimed that 80 Central Security (riot police) units and 26 armoured personnel carriers were deployed in north Sinai hours after a police camp came under fire with heavy weapons at dawn, security officials said.

Hours later, unidentified gunmen opened fire at the Oja border crossing with Israel close to another police camp with no reports of casualties, the official MENA news agency reported quoting security officials.

The attacks further heightened tensions in the peninsula after last week’s kidnapping.

“The presidency did not negotiate with criminals,” spokesman Omar Amer told reporters, implying that future talks were not ruled out altogether.

“There are many alternatives on the table, but the goal is the release of those kidnapped,” Amer said.

“We don’t want a single drop of blood spilt,” he said.

Iraqi citizens and soldiers inspect the scene of one of two car bombs that exploded, killing several people and wounding dozens more in the main southern port city of Basra…yesterday.

PHOTO: AFP

Iraq moves to alter security strategy as violence kills 72 RAQI government has Ihaul announced plan to overits security strategy as a two-day wave of violence killed 72 people, including 24 police, bringing the month’s death toll from unrest to 349.

Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki, while making this known at a news briefing in Baghdad, said: “We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and the security strategy.”

“We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomor-

I assure the Iraqi people that they (militants) will not be able to return us to the sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq in past years. row (Tuesday) to take decisions,” Maliki said, without providing further details.

“I assure the Iraqi people that they (militants) will not be able to return us to the sectarian conflict” that killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq in past years, he added.

A car bomb exploded in Shaab, a Shiite area in north Baghdad, at around the time Maliki spoke, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20, officials said – just the latest in a wave of bombings yesterday.

Two car bombs went off in the main southern port city

of Basra, killing 13 people and wounding 48, while a wave of other bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 102.

In Balad, north of the capital, a car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing eight people and wounding at least 15.

Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam and is visited by hundreds of thousands of foreign pilgrims every year, most of them from neighbouring Iran.

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

POLITICS

Politics ‘Presidency, Fasehun in un-holy alliance over South-West’ Ayo Afolabi, South-West Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), in this interview with ABIODUN FANORO, accused the Presidency of conniving with Dr. Frederick Fasehun, leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) to resuscitate the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) with a view to destabilising the zone.

HY is your party jittery over plans to resurW rect the Unity Party of Nigeria.

I don’t understand what you mean that ACN is jittery over efforts to resuscitate the UPN. There is no reason why we would be jittery about anybody’s plan to do what he thinks would best suit his own situation. But we would call the attention of Nigerians and indeed our people in the South-West to the fact that some people are out to cause mayhem and destabilize government in the SouthWest. If we perceive or we come by knowledge into any information that anybody is doing anything that would affect our people negatively, it is our duty to bring that person to the hall of public opinion and public court, that is exactly what we have done.

You may need to draw a link between bringing to public opinion and the intolerance your party has shown.

According to the Nigerian Constitution as well as guidelines for the formation of political parties there is no where it has been spelt out that the Presidency could form and fund (new) political party as it is doing with the UPN. We find it very curious and so we want to be enlightened, Nigerians also need explanation on when it has become the responsibility of either the federal or state government to sponsor with state’s funds, the formation of any new political party. Don’t forget that at the conference in Okota, Lagos, where the UPN was resuscitated, a representative of the President in person of Dr Uranta Uranta, President Goodluck Jonathan’s closest friend was present at the occasion. The presence is simply for the Presidency to ensure that Dr. Frederick Fasehun did exactly what he was expected to do. In the light of this, is it not appropriate for us to call the attention of the Nigerian people to this illegal moves by the presidency in spending public funds with a view to destabilisng existing government in certain parts of the country? I think what should engage the attention of the Presidency is kidnapping that is dangerously finding its way into the only peaceful region in the country, the South-West which houses the country’s commercial capital.

But Dr Uranta has denied coming to represent President Jonathan.

The issue of denial is out of it. This is making a bold face after the whole dirty linen has been spread out in the sun. Let me remind all Nigerians, if only for them to know that we are not crying wolf, nobody knew about this move until we broke it open. It was after the ACN had broken it open that Dr Fasehun now came to tell Nigerians that he had applied for a contract to provide security for pipelines in the South-West. Let them explain the coincidence with the pipeline contract, with the presence of the President’s closest friend, Uranta at the Okota meeting as well as the recent visit of the Ijaw leader, Joseph Evah who led a delegation of over 200 people to Dr. Fasehun.

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The Evah visit was not only used to jointly celebrate the posthumous birthday of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, founder of the UPN, Fasehun used the occasion to announce the plan to resuscitate the UPN and went further to declare his support for Jonathan’s second term bid. We read all these coincidences as they want the Nigerian people and the SouthWest in particular to believe, in the newspapers. All these have come to show that the Presidency is jittery about the ACN. This is a multi party democracy, so how would the resuscitation of a political party destabilize a region?

If Dr Fasehun woke up on the right side of his bed and says he is setting up a political party, honestly, the ACN and the people of the SouthWest would not blink an eye. We know very well that Dr Fasehun is not a politician, we know that he cannot conveniently assemble 200 people within his area in Okota, apart from the OPC (Odua Peoples Congress) people. We cried out because the machinery of the Federal Government is being used to finance the set up. Remove this we are not afraid to go into election with Fasehun, if he genuinely decides to come into politics. It is within his constitutional and human rights, but he must exercise this without seeking undue support of the Presidency whose sole aim is to destabilise governance in the South West.

Let Dr Fasehun knows that we have our facts and they are un- deniable. Each time he goes to the Presidency, we know, because we monitor his visit to the Presidency and we would continue monitoring him, he has no hiding place in this new deal with the Presidency.

Why is your party finding it difficult to coexist with other parties in the South-West?

I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

There are other political parties in the SouthWest. There is the PDP (People’s Democratic Party), Labour Party is in Ondo, we are not quarelling with it, it is only when elections come that we fight it out and once elections are over, we are back at our normal relationship. We also co-exist with the CPC (Congress for Progressive Change) and the ANPP (All Nigerian Peoples Party). We are not fighting anybody or any party. It is only the PDP that is jittery and scared; that does not wish the opposition to exist and is busy doing everything to achieve this, including the FasehunPresidency unholy alliance. How would the President feel, if we direct government in the South West to sponsor a new party in the South -South for the sole aim of destabilizing it.

Even if the UPN sponsorship is true, isn’t that part of politicking, using legitimate means to over power your opponent?

Is it legitimate to use government’s money to sponsor new political parties? When did the PDP and the UPN become associates that the Presidency now looks for money and contract

We find it very curious and so we want to be enlightened, Nigerians also need explanation on when it has become the responsibility of either the federal or state government to sponsor with state’s funds, the formation of any new political party. Don’t forget that at the conference in Okota, Lagos, where the UPN was resuscitated, a representative of the President in person of Dr Uranta Uranta, President Goodluck Jonathan’s closest friend was present at the occasion.

to finance it?

Some people are of the view that rather than your party settling down to strategise on how to win, it is whipping up sentiments and crying foul where there is none.

How would Nigerians describe us? What would Nigerians say, if we wait after the election before we disclose this evil plan. Wouldn’t Nigerians blame us? Wouldn’t they say why did we not cry out before now?

People would be expecting you to advocate for one man one, vote, which could defuse any plot, rather than this cry against the coming of a new party?

More than any other political party, we advocate and believe very strongly in one man one vote. This would not prevent us from crying aloud when illegalities are being committed.

Which in this case, is the use of Federal Government’s funds and instruments to nurture a political party. There are governments in the South-West which bear the brunt of sabotage on these pipelines, the Presidency did not consult with them on how to secure these facilities. The Presidency however finds it more convenient to consult and engage an individual because it is now the time for “if you rub my back, I will rub your palm”. The Presidency is backing a party that is not out to win election but is out to deploy thugs and engage in destabilisation.

Is your fear about the fact that because Fasehun controls the OPC, he could be used to deploy them for political violence?

Go and find out that, it is not for me to tell you that. A few days ago, I read a news item where the National coordinator of the OPC, Gani Adams said he controls more than 90 per cent of OPC members. The ACN is not afraid of anybody. We therefore raise the alarm early enough where we come by moves any information that violence is being hatched by some people with a view to imposing it on the people of the region. This is our duty to them and to the land, it is not about whether we are winning or not, winning has been long settled.

If your governors and council chairmen have performed would a new

Afolabi

party have emerged?

Are there no other parties in the region? Let there be a million parties, we don’t care about that. It is not about performance or not. It is about an evil determination to destabilize the region for one man’s selfish interest in 2015.

Now on the issue of performance, we are today proud that we in the ACN parade the best performing governors in the country and we make bold to invite the whole world to come and see the miracles our governors are performing from Raji Fashola (SAN) in Lagos, Senator Abiola Ajumobi in Oyo, Rauf Aregbesola in Osun, Ibikunle Amosu in Ogun, Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in Edo State. This interview is not where we intend to celebrate them, however, I invite our critics to the streets of Lagos, and the towns and villages in other states under the ACN to see how public funds have been judiciously put into good use and not on frivolities like the Fasehun-Presidency destabilization project.

Anybody would have expected ACN to jump at the emergence of another progressive party that is directly from the Awolowo stable, but the reverse is the case?

How can we jump at somebody who is collecting money from the Presidency to revive a party with the aim of using it to destabilize the same region Awolowo toiled to build. You want us to jump at someone who is misusing public funds. Funds that that ought to be used to build roads, and equip hospitals, facilitate employment. Couldn’t this money be used to rebuild the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Sagamu-Benin Expressway, the Ibadan-Ilorin Expressway etc.

Talking about politicking, what is the difference between what Jonathan is accused of and what your National leader, Bola Tinubu did in 2011, when he allegedly dumped Nuhu Ribadu for Jonathan at the dying minute?

Where did you see Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) abandoning Ribadu for Jonathan. An election came, the people decided who they wanted as their president, so how is Asiwaju involved in that decision. During the election, everybody including Asiwaju in the rain and in the sun, went out to campaign for Ribadu, but the people in their own wisdom said they wanted Jonathan to continue. Why should Asiwaju be blamed for this?

Regrettably, Jonathan has paid back the people of the South West in bad coins and not in good coins. He abandoned all our roads, he abandoned all our cities, he abandoned everything that has to do with the South West.

With all these scenarios, how would 2015 be in the South West?

In 2015, the South West would remain firmly in the hand of ACN which would have finally metamorphosed into the APC (All Progressive Congress). In addition to that, we would ensure that no where in the region would the PDP get up to 20 per cent votes.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

No end in sight in Rivers’ PDP crisis From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt IVERS State Governor and Chairman Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has attributed his political ordeal to this week’s NGF election.

But whether he participates or not, the crisis rocking the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may not abate.

A pointer to this is encrusted in a sardonic statement by the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike at a thanksgiving ceremony in Port Harcourt by the new PDP executive council led by Felix Obuah at the weekend.

Wike, once an Amaechi ally, declared that with the ouster of the pro-Amaechi state PDP executive led

by Godspower Ake, power had returned to its original owners.

Although he did not mention these “original owners” of the party, the truth is that so long as President Goodluck Jonathan seeks re-election in 2015, concerted efforts will be made to ensure that the PDP machinery in Rivers is not restored to the governor.

In same vein, Wike, who is alleged to be nursing a governorship ambition, will ensure the sustenance of the status quo, to deny Amaechi the liberty to determine who succeeds him.

Rivers political scene has been tensed since an Abuja High Court ousted Ake and declared Obuah as the PDP chairman in the state. In what has been perceived as political vendetta, the House of Assembly went after Wike’s political protégée, chairman of Obio-Akpor council, Timothy Nsirim and all his 17 councillors.

In turn, the police, based on the directives from Abuja, have continued to occupy the Obio-Akpor council secretariat and might even declare the state’s House Speaker wanted over his allegation of a plot to kill Amaechi.

In retrospect, Governor Amaechi had affirmed he would seek re-election in this week’s NGF election when a delegation of the Catholic Laity, led by Most. Revd. Camillus Etokudo, Bishop of Port Harcourt Diocese, visited him at the Government House.

The governor attributed his political travails to the NGF election, which President Jonathan reportedly opposed, particularly as Amaechi is rumoured to likely be a running mate to a northern presidential candidate in 2015. The governor has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Amaechi, who broke his long silence since the inception of the crisis, urged the church to pray for him in the face of the swelling formidable odds against his NGF ambition.

He stated that those scheming to pull him down merely hated his guts and his innocuous proclivity to be honest, adding that some people had at times misconstrued this as arrogance, pomposity and brashness.

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Rivers political scene has been tensed since an Abuja High Court ousted Ake and declared Obuah as the PDP chairman in the state. In what has been perceived as political vendetta, the House of Assembly went after Wike’s political protégée, chairman of Obio-Akpor council, Timothy Nsirim and all his 17 councillors.

R

In a bid to thwart Amaechi’s re-election bid, the national leadership of the PDP had hurriedly set up the PDP Governors Forum, chaired by Governor Godswill Akpabio According to anecdotal accounts, the president is opposed to Amaechi seeking re-election as NGF chairman, “because if he wins, he will occupy till 2015.

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POLITICS

Amaechi

“The next prayer you will need to do for me is the prayer for the chairmanship of the Governors Forum because that is what all this crisis is about. So, don’t forget that aspect,” he said.

“Like a whirlwind, it will soon blow over. Like I told my friends, I will run; nobody will stop me from running.

Whether I win or not, it’s a different thing, but I will insist on running.”

In a bid to thwart Amaechi’s re-election bid, the national leadership of the PDP had hurriedly set up the PDP Governors Forum, chaired by Governor Godswill Akpabio.

According to anecdotal accounts, the president is opposed to Amaechi seeking re-election as NGF chairman, “because if he wins, he will occupy till 2015.

Wike seems to have re-echoed the PDP leadership stance when he declared on Saturday in Port Harcourt that the one paramount thing the PDP and everyone must not compromise at all times is respect for and following of President Jonathan.

“We cannot negotiate it. It is nonnegotiable. He (Jonathan) is our son and in-law. By the special grace of God, he will continue to be wherever he is until he tells us otherwise. We are in PDP. We will follow the programmes of PDP. We have no choice, but to support his government.

“I am appealing to every true PDP member that we will continue to support the President and Commander-in-Chief, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. That is important,” he said.

Similarly at the thanksgiving event, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, who is bouncing back from political obscurity, alluded to Amaechi’s purported vice presidential ambition.

“We do not want vice-president in 2015. We want president. We are assuring President Jonathan that Rivers State will vote PDP in 2015,” he said.

Former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) 2007 governorship candidate in Rivers State and a PDP chieftain, Tonye Princewill, said the prevailing situation in Rivers is that, since President Jonathan is from the South-South, anyone perceived not in support of his aspiration to govern Nigeria till 2019 would be isolated.

Ahead of this week’s NGF election,

Wike

the Federal Government has tactically demobilised Amaechi’s ability to crisscross the country by grounding the state-owned Bombardier BD 700 1A11 Global Vision aircraft, based on the allegation by the Aviation authorities that the plane was operating illegally in Nigeria with forged documents, having been registered in the United States of America.

The Federal Government has also overtly been exerting pressure on Amaechi in a bid to cow him from contesting the NGF election. The Police have refused to allow the governor’s appointed caretaker committee chairman of Obio-Akpor, Chikordi Dike, from entering the council secretariat on the claim that intelligence report indicated that some undisclosed aggrieved persons planned to bomb the secretariat.

In same vein, the Police command in the state has begun a gradual withdrawal of security details attached to state government officials, including the Speaker of House of Assembly, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Tony Okocha and the Chairman of Okrika local government, Tamuno Williams.

It would be recalled that on Tuesday last week Amachree, in an open letter to President Jonathan, raised the alarm about a purported plot to withdraw security personnel attached to government officials, to pave way for the assassination of himself, Governor Amaechi and other state legislators.

The Speaker accused the State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, of unceremoniously withdrawing the police orderly and escorts attached to him. He claimed that the gradual withdrawal of security personnel was aimed at making them susceptible to possible attacks from unknown assailants; hence, he called for the redeployment of the Commissioner of Police, whom he accused of connivance with the governor’s antagonists.

However, the Commissioner of Police has justified his action by describing, as absurd, a situation whereby mobile policemen, who are specifically trained to quell riots and insurgency, were being used to guard government officials instead of men of the Special Protection Unit of the Police.

“We have counter-terrorism unit; these are men trained in Israel. Their training cost million of Naira. Every

political office holder in Government House (Port Harcourt) wants to have an orderly from this special force, which is only meant for terrorism and I withdrew all of them when I took over. That was not their job. We have special protection unit; that is their job to protect VIPs,” he said.

Mbu hinged his decision to a general tendency to abuse the use of policemen in Rivers State. He explained that prior to Thursday’s withdrawal of the Speaker’s police orderlies, Amachree alone had 24 policemen, comprising of 15 policemen from the Special Protection Unit and nine others from the Mobile Police Force Squadron 19 attached to him.

Reacting to the alledged plot to assassinate Governor Amaechi, the Police Commissioner said the Speaker had raised serious issues about security threat and would be invited by the police for a thorough interrogation.

“That (assassination plot) is a very, very serious issue and the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly will be invited and will be interrogated to give us more facts and throw more light into the allegation,” Mbu said.

“He has to tell us how the chief executive of this state, who has the paraphernalia of security… and for God’s sack, why should the Commissioner of Police and the Director of State Security Services, why should anybody withdraw security from the governor of this state.”

Curiously, on Friday, the Police chief warned that the police would resist any attempt to use youths to disrupt the Felix Obuah’s faction of the PDP thanksgiving in Port Harcourt.

And during the thanksgiving, an anti-bomb police squad van, registered NPF 1764 C, and an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) were among the security equipment deployed to ensure a hitch-free ceremony.

Reacting to the situation in the state, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Dakuku Peterside, said the police occupation of ObioAkpor secretariat without the consent of the state governor was the height of lawlessness and a clear indication that the country was sliding closer into anarchy.

Peterside, who said he is not aware of any personal problem between

’

Governor Amaechi and President Jonathan over the NGF election, noted that, “Governor Amaechi’s only crime is that he puts a face to decisions made by his colleagues, very often for the interest of democracy and federalism.”

“However, the biggest unsaid problem is the perception by certain persons in the Presidency that Governor Amaechi has ambition to aspire to higher office.

“The attempt to criminalise ambition, if any, is the root cause of the perceived problem in NGF. This contradicts with the expectation of some of the president’s associates, who are pushing that he should go for a second term.”

A member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Gordon Bozimo, has rekindled hope for a possible resolution of the crisis, which, he described as unfortunate.

He revealed that the Chairman of the party BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and himself would make concerted effort to ensure the speedy resolution of the crisis.

“What I know is that the PDP, as a party, is capable of resolving whatever problem that exists. We should not give opportunity to the opposition to make profit from this. They should allow us solve this. It is unfortunate we have this problem within the party,” he said.

Even if Bozimo and others succeeded in the President and Amaechi sheathing their sword, the governor will still contend with who succeeds him in 2015.

With Amaechi’s faction of the party in court, challenging Obuah, who has been accused of not participating in the March 2012 state congress that produced Ake, there is no sign that infighting in the party would end soon.

A political observer, Doris Chukwu, told The Guardian that the division among the party’s elite portends more troubles ahead.

She noted that failure to agree on a mutual candidate in 2015 might lead to total war among the elite, and further weakening of the party or possibly the state government.

A former member of the House of Representatives from Port Harcourt Constituency 1, Mr. Igo Aguma, has warned that the PDP would lose its grip on Rivers politics it controls since 2003, if the leadership did not intervene and amicably resolve the crisis.

He said those fighting the governor are not doing so for altruistic reasons, but because the governor has refused to include them “in the politics of the state.”

“So, is it because you are not part of those that are running the state right now that the state must burn and boil?” he said.

“I want to call on Mr. President and the leader of the party to realise that Rivers State is a major home for PDP and the crisis in the state, if not nipped at this point, will lead PDP to lose elections in the state.”

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

TheMetroSection Man bathes girlfriend with acid

Briefs Nelly Umoh, 82, for burial Friday

• 23-year- old victim begs for financial assistance to go to India for treatment

HE death has occurred of T Mrs. Nelly Umoh at the age of 82.

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Blessing

Blessing’s back also affected

By Odita Sunday

He was my boyfriend. We had an argument in February. He beat me to the extent that I was unable to go to school for three days. I told him I was no longer interested in the relationship... and immediately, he poured an acid on my face.

F anyone had told Blessing Iman Ikhumhi that Okosun Cyril, the she once loved, would turn around and bath her with acid, she would not have believed it.

Neighbours and friends used to see the duo as Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

But they were wrong.

Even Blessing once saw him as “the best thing that could ever happen to her,” because she never believed the words of William Shakespeare, which asserts that, “there are daggers in men’s smile.”

Their romance turned sour with tragic consequence for Blessing, a 23year-old student of Edo State School

of Health Technology. If she would ever regain her sight she would see all men as “monsters” because she has seen “hell” in the last three months as a patient at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City.

Doctors in the hospital believe she may never see again except she is flown to a specialist hospital in India, where her sight could be restored.

Blessing’s story is a sad one. Her ordeal began when she told his boyfriend, who is now in police custody in Benin, that she was no longer interested in what she described as “uninspiring relationship.”

The news did not go down well with him. He visited her house and asked for a talk.

The victim had gone outside to meet with the man whom she thought might have come to settle with her and probably, persuade her to continue in the relationship, but to Blessing’s shock, she was bathed with acid.

From that fateful day, she has seized to see and has been on admission at the UBTH. “He was my boyfriend and we had arguments in February. He beat me to the extent that I was not able to go to

school for three days. I told him I was no longer interested in the relationship. He later tried to forcibly take my telephone, but I refused to give it to him. I told him he was not the one who bought it for me.”

“On March 23, he called and asked me to meet him in front of our house.

I refused initially, but he insisted, so I came out. He asked: “Do you mean you don’t want me again?” I said: “No! I was no more interested in the relationship. And immediately, he poured the acid on my face. Since that day, I have been on admission at the UBTH and the doctors say I might not see again except I am flown to India where my eyes could be restored. “ She noted that Cyril was the last person she expected to treat her so badly.

“I never knew he would have the heart to pour acid on me. I made a mistake. I have learnt the biggest lesson of my life. My prayer now is that God should touch kind-hearted Nigerians to come to my aide so that I would be able to get treatment abroad, since my parents cannot afford it.”

Umoh

Ikhumhi, a native of Fugar, Etsako Local Council of Edo State, has pleaded with public-spirited Nigerians to come to her aid.

Domestic violence has been on the increase nowadays as aggrieved lovers have been pouring acid on their estranged partners.

In March 2010, Oluwatoyin Safiu Morufu, from Oyo State, was reportedly bathed with acid by his wife of over 16 years, Uloma Beatrice, from Abia State.

In 2011, a suspect, Samson Igbinomewahin, 47, was arraigned at an Ebute Metta Chief Magistrate‘s Court, Lagos, for allegedly pouring acid on his wife, Mrs. Susan Jeremiah, 31.

Also, a 35-year-old man, Ndubisi Okoro in 2011 allegedly bathed his wife, Anthonia, with acid. He was arraigned before an Apapa Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, charged with attempted murder.

In November 10, 2012, a jilted man in Ikotun, an outskirt of Lagos, bathed his wife with acid. Men of Ikotun Police Division immediately arrested him. The list keeps rising everyday as acid bath has become a weapon of revenge.

Lagos CJ targets release of more awaiting trial inmates

By Bertram Nwannekanma ORRIED by the scary number of Awaiting Trial inmates in Nigeria’s prisons and the need to decongest the prisons, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, has targeted the release of a new batch of that category of inmates before the end of June.

Justice Phillips, who recently released 136 inmates from Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos, disclosed this during a visit to the Ikoyi prisons by members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, as part of activities to mark 2013 Law Week.

The Lagos Chief Judge,

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who was represented by Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Ogundare, said she was already working on a list of those who were recommended for release from among the prison inmates.

Justice Philips acknowledged that some inmates had stayed in the prison as Awaiting Trials longer that they would have stayed if they had been tried and convicted.

“I can assure that before the end of this quarter in June, I will visit you and release those that qualified to be released”, she assured them.

Addressing the inmates, the Chairman of the NBA,

Juctice Phillips

Ikeja branch, Monday Ubani, said the branch visited the prison with the aim of offering free legal services to inmates who have no financial means to secure the services of a

A service of songs holds on Thursday, May 23, 2013 at Ekpene Ikpan Nsit, Kilometre 8, Uyo -Etinan Road, Akwa Ibom State at from 7.00 – 9.00p.m.

She will be buried on Friday, May 24, after a funeral service at her family compound at 9.00a.m.

She is survived by children among whom are children: Elsie Okon; Johnson Umoh; Sunday Umoh; Joseph Umoh; Christy Edem; Moses Umoh and Mfon Umoh. In-laws are: Edem Akpan; Mercy Jeo Umoh; Esther Moses Umoh and Itohowo Mfon Umoh among other relations.

lawyer and have been awaiting trials.

Ubani expressed concerns on the plights of the awaiting trial inmates, whose rights, he said, were being trampled upon.

“The Ikeja branch is concerned about you. We are trying to make sure your matter is decided in the court instead of being on awaiting trials for a long time.

“We will render legal service free to those of you that need it but cannot afford a lawyer. Your rights must be protected,” he said.

Items donated by the Bar to the inmates included bags of rice, tissue papers, plastic buckets, tooth-

brushes, and detergents among others.

The Deputy Comptroller of Ikoyi Prison, Emmanuel Bamidele, said that over 500 inmates of the prison had so far been trained in various vocational skills.

Bamidele told the NBA members that the inmates were trained in skills such as shoe- making, soaps, insecticides- making, among other vocations.

“More than 500 inmates are fully trained in skills that could earn them a living when they eventually leave this place. We taught them how to make soaps, shoes and other things. If you give them a second chance, they will sin no more,” he said.

Umuode seeks N100m for building project MUODE Nsulu DevelopU ment Association, Lagos branch will on Saturday, May 25, launch its N100 million for its building project under the Chairmanship of Dr. Desmond Ali, at NEBO Hall, Albati Barrack, Ojuelegba, Lagos at 10.00a.m.

The Chairman, Umuode Nsulu Development Association, Lagos Branch, Mr. Iheanyi Oruh, said that “the association plans to use the fund to build a hall as well as other developmental projects in their home town in Abia State.” Chairman, Committee on Public Petitions, House of Representative, Uzo Azubuike, is the Special Guest of Honour.

NARD, Medical Guild give free medical services HE National Association T of Resident Doctors (NARD) and Lagos Medical

Guild, will today hold free medical check-up and cancer screening for members of Olusosun community in Lagos. The medical practitioners will also donate blood to raise awareness on the importance of blood donation.

President of ARD, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) branch, Dr. Olujimi Sodipo, said the community outreach was one of the programmes to commemorate this year's Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of NARD, hosted by LASUTH ARD. "We hope that by our action of voluntarily donating blood, we would be providing needed lifesaving supplies while more importantly, encouraging other members of the public to regularly participate in the voluntary donation of blood," he said.

METRO 13

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Photonews

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole (second right),Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria, Mr. Seni Adetu (right), Relations Director, Guinness, Sesan Sobowale (left) and Plant Manager, Chris Erahgbe during a courtesy visit to Edo State Government House...

In Edo, vigilance group leader kills friend on peace mission From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City HE head of a local vigiT lance group at Upper Uwa and Amadasun Street in Ikpoba Okha Local Council of Edo State, Lucky Amadasun, has allegedly killed his friend identified as Amaosa Otabor, who was intervening in a dispute between Amadasun and another friend simply identified as Osasu.

The late Amaosa, aged 27, was said reportedly shot in the chest and he died on the spot.

The incident was said to

have happened at the residence of Lucky on Sunday evening, during an argument between Lucky and Osasu. Amaosa was said to have tried to prevent Amadasun from shooting Osasu and the enraged Amadasun was said to have turned the gun on Osasu and shot him.

A cousin to the victim, Felix Ekhator, said they were informed about the incident at about 7.30p.m but before they got there, their cousin had been taken to the morgue.

He said they had repeatedly informed the police about activities of the sus-

pect but that the police insisted on giving licence to the vigilance group, which is headed by the suspect.

Amaosa’s friends, who were irked by the incident, set the suspect’s house as well as his father’s house ablaze. A vehicle and a motorcycle parked in the house, were also burnt.

When contacted, State Police spokesman, Moses Eguaveon confirmed the incident and said investigation had begun.

He said they would do everything possible to arrest the culprits.

However, no arrest has

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) (middle), Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc., Nico Vervelde (second right), Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal (left), Chief Executive Officer, Lagos State Security Trust Fund, Mr. Fola Arthur Worrey (second left) and ACPOL Odumosu, Commander Rapid Response Squad (RRS) Alausa during the presentation of four security vehicles donated by NB Plc. to Lagos State in Alausa…yesterday

Brand ambassadors: Banky W and Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw with Business Head, Hand Held Products, Mr. Emmanouil Revmatas at the official launch of Samsung Galaxy S4 phone in Lagos

Ogidi Union in Lagos celebrates China Achebe

By Adeniyi Adunola and Adebisi Olonade

ONS and daughters of SState, Ogidi resident in Lagos under the aegis of Ogidi Union of Nigeria (OUN) at the weekend organized a service of songs in honour of one of their most illustrious sons, the literary icon Prof. Chinua Achebe, who passed on recently.

At the event, which was held at W Close, FESTAC Town at the weekend, speaker after speaker eulogized Chinua Achebe whom they called “the man that put Ogidi on the world map of literature and culture”, “the Bishop who used all his novels to preach to Nigerians and

the world.”.

According to Rev. Kenneth Nwanonye Osita of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Igbobi, who preached at the service, “the late Chinua Achebe used his novel Things fall Apart to prophecy to Nigeria and now things have begun to fall apart in Nigeria and the people are No Longer at Ease.

He said Achebe was a man who hated evil but pursued good.

“His death came at God’s own time’, Osita said.

He urged Nigerians and particularly, the people of Ogidi to respect Achebe and glorify God and use their God- given talent to inspire and motivate hu-

manity just like Achebe did Also speaking, Chairman, Organizing Committee and Vice-President, OUN Lagos branch, Chief Clement Chukwuka, said the service of songs was held in Achebe’s honour as one of the founders of the organisation, “and to tell the world that the finest hero that put Ogidi Town in the world and indeed, our great Iroko tree is gone.

“It is to celebrate the success story of the great legend and icon, who came, saw and conquered the world.

“It is also to thank God for blessing Ogidi Town and Nigeria with the greatest gift of Achebe as a super brand,” he added

Miss Amina Dan Sule (left), Olekanma Doris, Arts teacher, Gabriel Sobola, Director, Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Mrs. Olufunke Amba, Afopefoluwa Laja and Head, Lagos Station, National Gallery of Arts, Mrs. Ekene Okoroma during the maiden Photography and Art Exhibition of the college in Lagos... at the weekend.

PHOTO: OSENU YUSUF

Police rescue Lebanese from kidnappers’ den

By Odita Sunday HE Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), led by the Officer-in-Charge, Superintendent of Police, Abba Kyari, of the Lagos State Police Command, has rescued a Lebanese business woman, Essa Dannawi, from the den of the kidnappers.

The 61-year-old victim was kidnapped from her residence in Ebute Metta on May 2, 2013 and was held at the kidnappers’ hideout in Oyingbo until men of the Lagos State Police Command rescued her.

Confirming the release of the captive, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State command, Mr. Umar

T

Manko, said the victim’s rescue was secured without any ransom paid as demanded by the kidnappers.

He said the police had swung into action after the victim was kidnapped and an extensive investigation pointed fingers at a member of the victim’s family.

He disclosed that during interrogation, her 23-year-old nephew confessed the part he played in the operation.

He said: “When the nephew confessed, he was arrested and we used him to set a trap for the remaining members of the gang. The gang leader was later arrested.

“Thereafter, we stormed their hideout in the Oyingbo area of Lagos, rescued the

victim and made some arrests but as of now, the remaining gang members are still at large.”

He added that during interrogation, the main suspect had disclosed on their modus operandi, especially in the kidnap of the Lebanese.

He said: “The nephew confessed that he had duplicated the key to the victim’s room. He gave the key to the gang members who went in and picked up the victim without much fuss.

“Now, the nephew is still helping us with prime investigation but investigations are still on. Also, the victim was returned in good health to her family.”

Kofo Adewunmi (left), Dr. Olaitan Adewunmi; Chief Abayomi Idowu Adewunmi; the celebrant, Chief (Mrs.) Oluwatoyin Adewunmi; Ope Adewunmi and Anu Aloba during the send-forth of Mrs Adewunmi as the Director, Finance and Administration, Teachers’ Establishment and Pensions, Lagos State...

14 | THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

TheGuardian 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 Of discrimination in varsity appointments EPORTS detailing how ethnicity and religion influence the appointment of R principal officers of universities and selection of applicants for top university courses, is a sad commentary on Nigeria. The castigating report did not only expose the complicity of the Federal Government in perpetuating a recourse to base sentiments on matters demanding merit, but also revealed a different kind of corruption, perhaps more devastating than the material one already crippling the nation.

According to the investigation of 27 old universities founded between 1948 and 2007, only four have vice chancellors that are not from the geopolitical zones, which the schools are located. The same is true of the nine federal universities established in 2011, which have three academics of northern extraction as vice chancellors of the six universities in the north. The remaining schools, which are in the south, are headed by academics from the south. Of the three federal universities established in the north this year, two are headed by northerners and one by a southerner.

This invidious primordial logic, which seems to have gotten the imprimatur of the Federal Government, has been the rule of thumb in the appointment of principal officers in federal universities for some time now. So entrenched is the resultant clannish chauvinism, that many universities have become huge town unions of ethnic inbreeding. In certain instances, there have been cases of applicants from one part of the country seeking academic positions in universities in other areas, only to be pointedly denied without recourse to their qualification and aptitude, and even told to go to their geopolitical zones for placements.

Scholars from the north, on the other hand, would rarely venture to seek positions in southern universities owing to the preconceived notion that, irrespective of merit, they will be denied on ethnic considerations. Many others have also been denied academic positions and privileges just because their name betrays their religious affiliation. All these derive justification from the politically expedient order of equity dubbed ‘federal character’ or ‘quota system’ – a controversial practice that is doing the nation more harm than good.

This development is dangerous. It is a brazen denouncement of the principles of excellence, merit, moral probity and intellectual freedom upon which the idea of a university is founded.

As citadels of learning and civilisation, universities are no places for parochialism and philistinism. What has gone wrong in the Nigerian university system to upturn the table? How did the sanctity of the Ivory Tower become so desecrated?

First, there is the leadership problem occasioned by what some have rightly called cascading mediocrity in university administration. Attributed to the dictatorial tendencies and incivility of years of military abuse on the system, this situation is one whereby every level of mediocre leadership elects or appoints inferior subordinates to carry on in magnified proportion the foibles of their predecessors. The result, as one critic observed, is “a linear parade of decreasing mediocrity that eventually runs the system aground”.

Secondly, which follows from the above, is that, in the absence of any purposeful vision for universities beyond routine production of graduates, there is an appeal to the tackiness of mass culture – mass production, mass education, mass appeal. Thus the motivation to sentimentalise power relations in the management of universities is a fad that allows uncritical, cheap populism as a guide in university administration. The success of the Nigerian university system lies not in the scandalous number of schools, not in the crowded campuses or even the architectural structures but in the calibre of leadership, teachers and researchers, that can produce the well cultivated mind, a mind radiating excellence, commitment to merit and the cause of the common good, tolerance of differences and enthronement of reason and freedom.

This is the model upon which universities must be run. It is gratifying that the Minister of Education, Ruqayyatu Rufai, at an event the other day, acknowledged this much when she declared: “The erroneous idea that chief executives or any principal officer (of a federal university) should come from its locality is alien to the system...”

The minister, as well as all stakeholders in higher education administration, must, however, match words with action by pursuing a leadership overhaul.

This should start from the constitution of the Governing Councils of the universities. To this end, those who must be appointed must be selfless, courageous persons of high moral probity and intellectual ability. Moreover, the practice of appointing indigenes or persons from the same geopolitical zone in which a federal university is situated should be discouraged.

Furthermore, rather than remain fossilised at their privileged positions, senior members of the university administration should deploy their experiences to promote academic excellence by genuinely mentoring upcoming academics and junior colleagues.

Nigerian universities must set high standards, beginning with transformational and visionary management of their own affairs, rather than routine administrative duties of managing subventions and running the establishment.

This entails developing a much broader outlook on the mission of a university.

And in doing this, merit as a measure is a non-negotiable minimum.

LETTERS

Re: Plagiarism in Nigerian universities N our editorial of Sunday, I‘Plagiarism April 21, 2013 titled in Nigerian Universities’, mention was made among other things that Professor Patrick Igbinoria of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Benin was suspended in 2008 for plagiarism. Prof. Igbinoria

has since written through his lawyer, H. O. Ogbodu (SAN) & Co, that the reference in the editorial created an erroneous impression that Prof.

Igbinoria committed plagiarism.

In the words of his lawyer clarifying the positions: “No doubt our client was sus-

pended in the year 2007 by the University of Benin based on an anonymous petition. He was recalled to duty after being given a clean bill of health. The implication of your publication is that he is guilty of plagiarism when that is not true.”

The error is regretted.

• Editor

Immorality is retarding Nigeria IR: Morality has suffered a Sbecause serious setback in Nigeria, the only immorality known to many Christians and Muslims is sexual “aberration”.

Consequently, too many Christian and Muslim preachers rarely criticize politico-economic exploitation that is at the root of Nigeria’s woes.

Many of the political rulers hate to see beggars on the streets, because they are affront to their consciences.

Yet, unemployment looms large, due to lack of adequate infrastructure to support industrial boom.

Nigeria is in serious crisis, because the only rule guiding politics and civil service is selfinterest. Many of the governors overlook positive areas of development and start demolishing people’s houses and shops to “beautify” the town.

Meanwhile, they find no solution to lack of potable water, epileptic electricity, illequipped hospitals and schools, etc.

Meanwhile, many Christian

and Muslim clerics turn blind eyes to the prevalent corruption, so as to obtain and protect their own shares of the loot. Yes, they have the vocation to preach, but they hide under the pretence of attacking sexual “immorality”, as in “indecent” dressing and homosexuality.

To many Muslims and Christians, apparently, sexual immorality is worse in the sight of “God”; politico-economic exploitation is a venial sin. Unfortunately, many universities are not different.

Hence some university administrators mount pressure on “indecent” dressing, while strategising on shortchanging the staff on salaries and allowances. They domesticate the workers’ unions toward total and unmitigated exploitation, instructing the university security officers to disperse “illegal” gatherings.

In some universities, the administrators engineer law lecturers to procure ways of

circumventing the rule of law.

Falsehood and falsification rule the land. What is most scandalous is the tactical involvement of students in the war against “rebel” lecturers. What happens to freedom of association?

The Federal Government spends money with wanton abandon on useless things, while basic amenities are neglected. State and local governments sink near innumerable boreholes, rather than attending to dams, thereby planting the seed of future earthquakes, as happen in borehole infested territories.

Christo-Islamic leaders encourage corruption by inviting political leaders to launchings. They relish “serving” in the pilgrim boards and having profitable flights to the “holy lands” to pray for Nigeria in distress. Hopefully one day, ordinary Nigerians will be wise enough to insist that religion be separated from politics.

• Pius Abioje, University of Ilorin.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

15

Business Appointments P27 Tackling graduates’ unemployment through internship scheme

NEITI blames weak institutions for N1.5 trillion debts From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has identified lack of strong institutions for the inability to recover about N1.536 trillion or $9.6billion owed Federal Government by oil entities.

Reacting to the rating by a report tagged “Resource Governance Index” by the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), which declares

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Nigeria’s extractive industries governance poor, NEITI Director of Communication, Ogbonnaya Oji, in Abuja yesterday, laid the blame on the slow pace of implementation of its findings and recommendations since 1999, which he claimed, contributed to the poor ranking of Nigeria in the report.

Oji also went ahead to say posit that though an InterMinisterial Task Team was set up to address the findings and

• Decries poor global rating recommendations of NEITI audit reports under a remediation plan developed by the team, implementation by government agencies have recorded little progress.

He added: “NEITI audit reports have consistently recommended inter-agency collaboration to recover an outstanding sum of $9.6 billion from companies. This finding

was uncovered by NEITI as under-payment, under-assessment and variance in royalties, signature bonuses, levies and taxes owed to the Federation.”

He reiterated that NEITI has consistently highlighted the need for openness and competition in the conduct of bids round for allocation of oil blocks, review of existing con-

Fromleft, Executive Director, Risk Management, Skye Bank, Dotun Adeniyi. Executive Director, Treasury south east, Amaka Onwughalu. and Group Managing Director/CEO, Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti. at the Bank Pre-Annual General Meeting in lagos yesterday.

PHOTO; SUNDAY AKINLOLU

Ogun benefits from N413 million IDA funds From Charles Coffie Gyamfi, Abeokuta GUN State government O has paid a total of N144 million as counterpart funds within the last three years thereby paving the way for benefitting communities in the State to draw N413.5 million from the International Development Association (IDA) fund for developmental activities.

Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Ronke Sokefun, who spoke in Abeokuta at the weekend to highlight the activities of her Ministry within the last one year also disclosed that activities of the various FADAM Groups (FUG) and Fadama Community Associations (FCAS) had led to the creation of 19, 963 jobs for people in the areas.

She explained that out of the number, 8,800 were women

while 1,500 were youths.

As part of the government’s efforts to transform the agriculture sector, Sokefun said the government had set up rice enclaves to boost local rice production as well as establishing cottage rice mills to promote production of quality rice.

The government, through her Ministry had, among others set up citrus, pineapple and plantain farms with irrigation and had also raised 1,000 Turkeys for festive periods.

The main challenges confronting her Ministry, according to her was inadequate funds and “Activities of unscrupulous elements involving in agricultural land encroachment, old subsistence farming method and avoidance of statutory fees”.

“It is our resolve to deliver our promises for the betterment of the good people of the state, as we march on in our efforts in re-building the state,” the

Commissioner affirmed.

According to her, the Ministry had conceptualise a programme to transform the agricultural sector to make it a more vibrant commercial entity that would position the State as the food basket of the nation.

In another development, the Commissioner for the Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mrs. Oluwande Muoyo who also addressed journalists in Abeokuta disclosed that government had developed a Public Financial Management Reform Agenda, “An action plan of corrective measures for enhancing the efficiency and transparency in the use of government resources and improving the public finance management system as well as quality of procurement”.

The Commissioner assured that “Transparency and accountability remain critical building blocks in good gover-

nance and our efforts to rebuild our dear State,” adding “This assertion underpins the importance of a wellfunctioning public financial management as well as procurement system”.

To ensure transparent accounting system, Muoyo stated “We saw the need to significantly improve our systems and we set out by inviting representatives of key stakeholders in and outside the civil service, including the organized private sector, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and conducted an unbiased and fair self-assessment of our entire public financial management and procurement systems using the globally accepted Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Framework”.

tracts with companies, efficient and reliable metering regime for measurement of crude oil.

Indeed NEITI reports have recommended for many years, the introduction of automation of data gathering and records keeping process, transparency and accountability in management of revenue flows from companies to the Federation account.

NEITI declared that Nigeria would fare better in global ranking if she adopts remedial issues were promptly addressed.

The report which measured quality of extractive industries governance in 58 counties ranked Nigeria in the 40th position out of 58 resource-rich countries across the world. According to the ranking, the extractive industries governance in Nigeria is very weak.

The assessment was conducted using the quality of four key governance components.

These include Institutional and Legal Setting; Reporting Practices; Safeguards and Quality Controls; and

Enabling Environment.

Information on three special mechanisms used commonly to govern oil, gas and mineral, which are state-owned companies, natural resource funds and subnational revenue transfers were also considered.

From the report, Nigeria fared better in institutional and legal setting perhaps as a result of the existence of several legislations on openness and transparency including NEITI Act, 2007 and Freedom of Information Act. On the enabling environment, Nigeria was poorly rated by the report.

While welcoming such global assessment, NEITI added: “For Nigeria to record significant improvement in such global ranking in future, there is need for prompt implementation of findings and recommendations contained in its audit reports. There is also the need for swift passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill now before the National Assembly.

When passed into law, the Bill will address substantial issues raised in the report.”

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

16 BUSINESS

Govt seeks new measure on tax administration

By Femi Adekoya O address the issue of mulT tiple taxation and plugholes in leakages of government revenue generating institutions, the Joint Tax Board (JTB), in collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the 36 State Boards of Internal Revenue (SBIRs) has identified the automation of tax registration activities in Nigeria as a

means to such end.

Specifically, the federal government has advocated the use of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to achieve its set objectives.

Acting Chairman of the JTB, Kabir Muhammad Mashi pointed out that “the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a platform which will harmonize taxpayers’ identification and registration in Nigeria.

According to him, the TIN

will create closer linkages between the various tax authorities in Nigeria, which is a cheaper and more convenient means of creating an efficient and effective Tax system for the entire country.

“This Tax registration process ensures that each taxpayer has a unique number to give him and the authorities concerned easy access to information about his tax status anywhere around the country, thus avoiding incidence of double or multiple taxation among other things. The Taxpayer Identification Number - TIN is unique to each taxpayer and may be quoted for all Tax purposes nationwide.

“The TIN will bring Nigeria’s tax administration and practice in line with global best practice; enhance taxpayer identification and registration; minimize leakages in tax collection; facilitate information sharing between various tiers of Government; create a more conducive environment for investors and ultimately inspire greater confidence in Nigeria’s taxation system”, he

added.

The TIN initiative of the JTB strategically aims at creating a national database of all taxpayers that links all relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian tax administration and ensure a performance that is at per with world class standards.

Advocates of the scheme believe that harmonizing the taxpayers database will by extension lead to the possibility of closer linkage and cooperation between the Tax administrators and various institutions in Nigeria to achieve greater information sharing and increased revenue generation.

Mashi explained that “The Joint Tax Board (JTB) has been mandated to provide efficient, effective and innovative solutions to proper tax administration practices while maintaining a tax friendly environment through effective and efficient flow of information in order to discourage double/multiple taxation and other manual tax administration related problems.

FIRS redesigns tax forms, may go electronic in third quarter

By Chijioke Nelson HE nation’s tax system T may go electronic in the third quarter of the year with the introduction of an electronic solution tax assessment form that will drive the project.

The process, codenamed Integrated Tax

Administration System (ITAS) is targeted at eliminating fraud in tax proceeds’ remittance to Federal Government coffers to eliminate manual procedures, provide ease of payment and personal tax assessment online.

The Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Kabir M. Mashi, made the disclosure during the opening of a two-day stakeholders workshop to review the redesigned tax return forms in Lagos.

Mashi noted that FIRS, in carrying out its responsibilities, had been faced with many challenges ranging from tax leakages associated with cheque conversion/diversions of various magnitude in early 2004; conspicuous inefficiencies in tax service delivery process; global challenges of information communications technology penetration; low level of public awareness and the need for capacity building.

According to him, FIRS collected over N5 trillion last year and poised to achieve the 2013 revenue target of N5.6 trillion, adding that the ITAS project, with initial target on the Company Income Tax, Petroleum Profit Tax and Value Added Tax, would go live before the end of third quarter.

He said: “The challenges are so enormous to the extent that tax compliance was not only affected badly, but the integrity of the entire tax administration system was almost lost. We had to deal with these challenges one after the other to guarantee a sustainable level of revenue for government to enable her provide essential services to the public.

“One of the ways to address these challenges was partly through automation, capacity building and awareness creation. We started this by initiating Project FACT, which is a bank payment solution, implemented to secure government revenue from all sources of leakages.

BUSINESS 17

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Polls fault $1-a-day poverty threshold for Nigeria

By Femi Adekoya GAINST the $1-a-day poverty threshold used in measuring absolute poverty in Nigeria, especially by development agencies, recent poll results released by the NOI Polls, one of Nigeria’s leading Opinion Polling and Research Organisation which works in partnership with The Gallup Organisation (USA) have shown a contradictory trend, thus faulting the use of the $1-a-day threshold.

Specifically, results from the polls revealed that only about two in 10 (19 per cent) respondents spend less than $1 a day on food and 80 per cent of them spend over N160 ($1) daily. The NOI findings further revealed that on the assumption that the respondents eat three meals a day, they spend an average of N713 ($4.5) on food daily.

These figures represent individual spending and not for

A

families or groups.

Indeed, the-Dollar-per-day measure of poverty, gained popularity among development agencies and statisticians especially after its adoption as the first UN Millennium Development goal to ‘halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day’.

Criticisms of the measurement arose as further considerations of how to align the measurement of poverty with changing economic indices became important, which eventually led to the adoption of the $1.25 a day as the new measurement in 2005 at Purchasing Power Parity (A specially adjusted dollar using a basket of goods that cost $1 dollar in America and comparing what it will cost in developing countries).

In 2012, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a

report stating that about 61.2 per cent (against 51.6 per cent in 2004) of the Nigerian population (about 112.47 million out of the 163 million Nigerians) were living on less than $1 a day at the end of 2010.

The NBS also declared that the relative poverty level (living standards of majority in a given society) was 69 per cent and absolute poverty level (minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, healthcare and shelter) was 60.9 per cent. This implied that majority of Nigerians were living on less than N160 a day.

Methodology from the polls showed that three questions were put forward to the respondents of the poll: A question on what type of food they consume for breakfast, lunch and dinner, a question on where they mostly eat breakfast, lunch

NRC woos private investors on projects

By Tosin Fodeke to add new impeStheEEKING tus into its operations in country, management of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), on Monday unveiled strategies towards involving private investors in its ambitious new railway system.

The move follows recent approval of the Railway Bill by the National Council on Privatisation and the federal government’s signing of a MOU with GE for setting up a locomotive assembly plant in Nigeria.

Managing Director of the corporation, Seyi Sijuwade who disclosed this at an interactive session with the media stressed that PPP initiatives will help in increasing capacity, efficiency and better service to Nigerians.

Sijuwade who flaunted increased returns from passenger volumes as a major impetus to investors further added that it had commenced the procurement process for selecting potential logistics service providers to partner with NRC. The areas include design, build, maintain, operate, and transfer (DBMOT) of warehousing to provide suitable, safe and secure storage space for goods, finance, supply, and operate modern facilities and provide services for loading and offloading of goods, finance, supply, and jointly manage with NRC, railway coaches to enhance passenger carriage capacity, finance, supply, and jointly manage with NRC, railway wagons to enhance freight haulage capacity.

He revealed that part of the new strategies being embarked upon include the outsourcing of on-board cleaning of passenger trains, catering, facilities management and ticketing service to enhance operational efficiency.

“We have finalized the presentation of the OBC for the Western and Eastern lines Concessions, we are moving to the next stage of selecting a transaction advi-

sor, the railway Bill has been approved by the National Council on Privatisation and will shortly be presented to the NASS for consideration and approval.

“Government has taken

steps in the right direction and a lot has been committed which has already started yielding the desired benefits, while we are working to address other areas of challenges.

and dinner and a question on how much they individually spend on breakfast lunch and dinner.

A Sample of 1002 phoneowning Nigerian adults, aged 18 years and above representing the six geopolitical

zones in Nigeria were interviewed by telephone using randomly generated numbers.

18

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Auto dealers begin discussion on price reduction

By Taiwo Hassan UTOMOBILE distributors of various brands of vehicles in the country have commenced the process of discussing with foreign automakers on how to reduce the prices of vehicles that are meant for the Nigerian market in order to curb the impact of grey market in the country.

Grey market is a situation whereby used vehicles otherwise known as tokunbo vehicles are being imported or shipped into the Nigerian market through the nation’s seas and land borders.

The move, according to the stakeholders, was to eliminate the impact of grey market on the country’s auto sector, especially with the parlance that ‘Nigeria is a dumping country’.

Besides, nearly all the used vehicles or tokunbo cars imported through various areas have posed environmental degradation to the country’s health sector.

In addition, they said, the Federal Government is losing billions of naira in revenue due to lack of proper duties being paid for their importation into the country.

Specifically, grey market is an avenue for tax evasion as it aided corruption due to irregularity in duty payments.

According to them, the move was necessary because the

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Nigerian auto industry was central to the development of global auto industry.

They pointed out countries like India and Ghana that have banned importation of second hand or tokunbo vehicles in recent time, adding that Nigeria cannot be an exceptional in the new vista opportunities.

Chief Operating Officer, Dana Motors Limited, Gitesh Yagnik, said tokunbo vehicles are dangerous to the development of the country’s auto industry, because they are not specifically built for Nigerian markets and do not come with original spare parts requirements.

He said the meeting with the vehicle manufacturers would enable the Federal Government to see why grey market should be banned if the government is determined to grow the nation’s auto industry.

“There is a big danger, in the sense, that tokunbo cars are not supported with the required spare parts. Because to support any particular car model, it must have its own requirements in terms of servicing, spare parts and after sale support services. People bring tokunbo vehicles into the country in large quantity without confirming if the models are good for Nigerians use.

BUSINESS 19

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

20 BUSINESS

Paga strengthens mobile payment network with Medplus partnership

By Adeyemi Adepetun AGA, a mobile payments P company and Medplus, a market leader in the Nigerian health and beauty service industry, have announced a strategic alliance, which will see both organisations combining the scale and reach of their respective business lines to provide consumers with unprecedented access to all Paga services and cashless payment options at all Medplus locations nationwide.

Founded in 2009, Paga is a home-grown payments service that provides access to fast and secure money transfer, bill payments, airtime top-up and merchant payments. Paga services are available on all telecom networks in Nigeria, and accessible via any phone or Internet enabled device, or through Paga’s rapidly expanding network of agents.

Medplus, which has been in operation since 1993, will be leveraging on this partnership as an opportunity to further bring additional services needed by Nigerians to its outlets, thus reinforcing Medplus’ position as a trusted service point in the local community.

Paga offers mobile payment across the country with the mobile phone as its major tool. The recipient does not need to have a Paga account; they simply go to the nearest agent to collect the money.

With this announcement the recipient can go to any Medplus to collect money sent to them.

Additionally people can visit any Medplus to initiate Paga transactions; most of which are now free – send money to anyone in Nigeria(Free if both sender and recipient are registered Paga users), free bill payments for DStv, GOtv, PHCN and many more; buy airtime on all major phone networks and other Paga services.

The partnership will see Medplus leverage Paga to promote cashless payments at its stores – people can walk into any Medplus and pay using cash in their Paga account.

This brings cashless payments to banked and unbanked people as it costs nothing to open a Paga account. Users can also deposit money into their Paga account for free at any Paga agent nationwide.

Since receiving its CBN

license in November 2011, Paga’s now boasts of over 350 businesses registered to use the platform to collect payments and over 1,600 agents in 23 states nationwide.

For the over 450,000 customers that now use Paga, the addition of Medplus’s strategic locations and exceptional customer service culture to the agent network will only serve to further promote Paga’s standing as the leading mobile payments provider in the country.

Speaking to both companies regarding the partnership, Paga co-founder, head agent network management, Jay Alabraba stated: “Growing our nationwide network of Paga agents through partnerships like this sits at the heart of our long term strategy; we are extremely excited to welcome Medplus to our agent network. The Medplus brand is trusted and well regarded, similar to the Paga brand.

Medplus also has an excellent customer service culture that aligns well with our values at Paga. Simply put, this partnership is about bringing convenience and better value to customers – they no longer need

to rely on inconvenient money transfer methods such as bus drivers or sending airtime scratch card; they don’t need to stand in long lines at the bank to pay bills or transfer money to loved ones – they just need to walk into their neighbourhood Medplus and use Paga. Partnering with leading organisations like Medplus is key to reaching our goal of

30,000 agents by 2015 - we will be announcing more such mutually beneficial partnerships in the coming months.”

Managing Director, Medplus, Joke Bakare added: “At Medplus, we pride ourselves on providing the highest quality products and delivering the best customer service to our customers. We envision Medplus as a one-stop

shop for all the critical needs of people in the communities that we serve – for this reason we regularly update the offering in our stores. We are proud to be associated with Paga; we chose to work with them because of their proven quality of their service, customer-centric approach to business, and overall leadership in mobile payments.

Flour Mills sustains market profile, launches new product

By Taiwo Hassan ONGLOMERATE giant, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc has introduced a new product – Golden Penny Sugar into the Nigerian market.

At the presentation of the product at a customers’ forum in Lagos over the weekend, the Group Managing Director, Paul Gbededo said Golden Penny Sugar was an addition to the range of food products in the Golden Penny food basket, which includes Golden Penny Flour, Semovita, Goldenvita, Pasta variants, Noodles and Rice.

He said Golden Penny Sugar had been produced to highest

C

international standards with Vitamin A fortification giving it finest pure white granules, which dissolve fast.

According to him, the product comes in 50 kilogram bags for industrial use by bakers, confectioners and bottlers, while household sizes are in one kilogram and 500 grams packs for the granulated and 500 grams for the cube version.

Gbededo assured distributors and customers that there was no cause for alarm over contamination of the product, pointing out that “Golden Penny Sugar has been hygienically packed in food friendly packaging materials to prevent effects of moisture and to help the product retain optimum freshness over time. It also gives it good shelf appeal,” he said.

The company’s marketing manager, Modupeola

Babalola, gave the assurance that Golden Penny Sugar would be affordable and always available all over the country due to the capacity of the company and its highly diversified distribution network.

Customers, however, commended the efforts of the company for making products of high quality available at affordable prices, thereby wishing the company greater success.

Besides, Flour Mills of Nigeria has been operating in the country since 1960, and continues to offer consistent value through innovative high quality and affordable products supported by exceptional customer service.

The company has succeeded in building a heritage of quality products in the food and agro-allied sectors of the economy making Golden Penny a household name.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

22 BUSINESS

Road construction cripples business in Asaba OMMERCIAL activities in C parts of Asaba have been paralysed as ongoing road projects in the city have made some areas inaccessible.

Investigations also revealed that particularly affected by the situation were the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) Road and the Ezenei Avenue.

Construction work on the roads and the drains, among others in the city, which commenced in January, had remained slow and have been caught up by the rains, which has set in fully.

The greater parts of the roads done through the DLA had to most times be shut to traffic, thereby making it difficult for people to move in and out of the area.

This had resulted to traders and artisans in the area to close their shops as little or no patronage was being recorded.

Some of the traders on DLA

Road said that the construction work had affected their means of livelihood as their customers had been forced to look elsewhere for their needs.

A carpenter in the area, Sunday Gabriel, who condemned the slow pace of work by the contractor, lamented that his customers had stopped visiting his shop due to difficulties in accessing the area.

Gabriel said ``since the construction of this road started last year, the level of patronage of our goods has dropped drastically because in most cases, this road is always blocked by the contractors handling the project.

“This has made it difficult for customers to come to us, except on very rare occasions when the customer has no alternative.’’

A grocery shop owner, Mrs Gloria Ojo, noted that she

had not sold anything reasonable since the construction work on DLA Road started.

According to her, ``the contractor handling the job is very slow and the work that should not exceed one week to do is now more than six months.’’

A barber, Mr Emmanuel Ibe and Miss Uju Enechi, a hair dresser, they also lamented the situation, saying that the persisting road work had made life difficult for them.

“Our customers don’t come again because those who have cars cannot drive onto the road just as they cannot come in taxis, too. And as you know, commercial motorcycles have been banned in Asaba’’, they said.

The lamentation was the same at Ezenei Avenue, where Mrs Clara Udoh said her restaurant business had been crippled by the inaccessibility of the road by people in the area.

Vice-Chairman, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, John Coumantaros (middle); Marketing Manager, Golden Penny Foods, Modupeola Babalola (immediate right); Group Marketing Head, Martin Anyanwu; during the launching of the new product, in Lagos.

Professional managers harp on youth empowerment

By Faith Oparaugo ROFESSIONAL careers manP agers have spoken on the need to work towards youth career professional development.

Speaking at the 2013 Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN) Career talk

recently in Lagos, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who was represented by the Deputy leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly said “it is incumbent on we as women, to ensure that girls receive the requisite and encouragement to enable them make the choices that

will position them for success as career women and homemakers.”

According to her, it is no longer contestable that women play a pivotal role in society, not only as supportive wives and nurturing mothers, but also as vibrant and effective drivers of the economy and responsible and humane leaders in virtually all other societal spheres.

She noted that it is therefore extremely vital that girls receive qualitative and comprehensive education that will prepare them for any challenge they may face, or responsibility they may be called to, in a male dominated world.

Much is expected and demanded of us by society as women and failure is therefore not an option.

Over 4,000 delegates set for Brimass’ business workshop VER 4,000 delegates from O within and outside Nigeria will listen to the United Statesbased leadership and personal success expert, Brian Tracy, at a business workshop holding in the country.

The 2013 for The Remarkable Leaders’ Conclave and Business Workshops is being organised

by Brimass, one of Nigeria’s fastest growing business support company.

With the theme “The Making of Innovative Leaders: Winning Leadership Strategies for Building World-Class Organisations and Societies” the event will hold in Lagos, Abuja and other selected cities including Asaba, Delta State.

According to the Chief Operating Officer of Brimass International Limited, Mr. Stephen Ojji, the delegates including entrepreneurs, business managers, business executives, political leaders, decision makers in government agencies, students and emerging leaders opportunity.

“They will to listen to and interact with Brian at six different summits over two days, in addition to more than 10 exclusive sessions and private seminars for interested organisations.”

According to Ojji, “The workshop is going to be an exciting and dynamic event that will allow participants to become professionals with keen insights into what makes a strong, innovative and successful leader whether in business or in politics.”

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

BUSINESS 23

NGO canvasses bill on safer roads RS Temidayo Ogan of the Temidayo Ogan Child M Safety and Support (TOCSS) Foundation, on Sunday called for a bill for safer road and road usage to minimise accidents in Nigeria.

Ogan, the leader of the NGO, made the call at a forum organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Chapel, Magodo, Lagos.

She said there was an urgent need to stop the increase of violence and preventable injuries and deaths, arising from driving on with the road.

Ogan noted that road traffic injuries and deaths had become a serious burden for the health sector.

“There is an alarming increase in the rate of road crashes and resultant injuries.

There is an urgent need to tackle this, and most of these

accidents are not recorded.

“Injuries and deaths resulting from road crashes have become a burden to the health sector, especially as there is no accurate statistics on this.

“Dying as a result of road traffic crash entails death from even three months after the crash.

“And because we don’t follow up, people even die two months after they were involved in crashes,’’ she said.

Ogan said that all tiers of government should collectively enforce a road safety system in the country.

“Government should get more interested in road safety.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is working hard but we have to do better.

“Our roads need to be in good condition. People also need to have better understanding of road usage and safety. It is necessary to have a bill for safer

roads.

“We need walkways. We need to get the few walkways back from petty trading. We need street lights.

“Our roads should be fixed. We demand safer vehicles with better safety features,’’ the TOCSS official said.

She said there was need for heightened road safety awareness.

“Bus (Danfo) drivers, tricycle, better known as (Keke Marwa) drivers, articulated vehicles operators.

“The drivers of privately-owned vehicles, children, pedestrians, everybody, we all need to have a total re-orientation on road usage and safety.

“Many of us move vehicles. We are not driving. We need to check this, right from the foundation.

“We are talking about screening, reading road signs, road markings, and other measures.

Flying revenue collection intensifies in Abia From Gordi Udeajah, Umuahia HE collection of what is called ‘Flying Revenue’ T from flying services has been intensified by the Abia state Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development Fund ( PPIDF) .

The revenue /fees which were imposed by the PPDIF Act on Cattle, Tricycle, Imported Containers and Commercial Vehicles are payable at points the service is rendered or sold.

Chairman of the PPIDF Mr Jonathan Agbai Kalu told The

Guardian that under the PPDIF Law, fees are imposed to be paid by designated property owners and occupiers or operators of the businesses provided in the Act cited as No 8 of 2010 and amended as PPDIF Law 3 of 2012.

It would be recalled that N100 daily fee was imposed on each Tricycle operator by the said law but which the operators wrongly claimed was payable annually instead and even went to court and unsuccessfully challenged it as an annual fee.

According to Kalu, the fees so

collected by the PPDIF are invested in the building, development and maintenance of state infrastructure as the name implies while the collection was statutorily invested in his PPDIF. On PPDIF modus operandi, he said that Fee Collection Agents were appointed and deployed in parts of the state while demand notices were being issued to payers who would go and pay the prescribed fees to the designated banks explaining that fees payable are determined by the size of the property.

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

BUSINESS 25

Border, roads remain closed, as prices of commodities rise From Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri S the Military Special A Operations (MISOP) continued in Borno state by the bombardments of 10 training camps and several hideout bases of Boko Haram terrorist’s insurgents, the troops Saturday closed six roads leading into Maiduguri, the state capital for six hours.

The temporary closures of roads into the metropolis, was according to a top military combatant in Maiduguri, to hunt for the fleeing; but wounded terrorists’ suspects from Sambisa Games Reserves (SAGR) and other training camps at Marte, Mafa and Gambouru/Ngala by ground troops at the weekend.

Consequently, some residents living in the borders towns of Gambouru/Ngala and Banki, were on Sunday “fearful and joined” the fleeing terrorists to the neigbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon in droves along with their family members.

At Gambouru/Ngala, a border town with Chad, the military killed 10 insurgents, with the recoveries of Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, rifles and ammunitions, including rifle magazines, 11 vehicles, four tricycles and 24 handsets from the fleeing Boko Haram insurgents.

Even the bombarded training camps and hideouts bases, according to the Director of Defense Information, Brig-Gen Chris Olukolade, are being taken over and occupied by ground troops in northern

and central parts of Borno state.

The military officer added: “the temporary closures of the roads leading into the city of Maiduguri and the indefinite shutdown of four Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) providers of MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, were inevitable to prevent the fleeing, but wounded insurgents from their destroyed training camps and hideout bases in Central and North parts of Borno state. The locals including residents of metropolis have to bear the brunt of inconveniences of travelling to relations and other destinations outside Maiduguri.

We are getting them on an hourly basis, as about 65 terrorists were arrested on Saturday; and today (Sunday) more could be arrested at the various military posts on the closed six roads.”

The closures of roads by men of Joint Task Force (JTF) in Maiduguri have caused the non-supplies of vegetables and other essential food items such as fruits, milk and eggs to the Maiduguri Monday Market (MMM).

The Guardian also learnt that such vegetables and other essential food items are supplied from the outskirts of the metropolis, and Damboa, Lake Chad Basin Areas, Jos and Baga, which was also attacked by the Boko Haram insurgents on April 16, 2013 with destruction of many lives and property.

Market prices of vegetables, milk and eggs, however on Sunday shot up by 100 per cent in the Maiduguri mar-

Govt introduces 148 agric. co-operatives, says president’s aide HE Special Assistant to the T President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said 148 agricultural co-operatives had been introduced to improve the agricultural sector in rural areas.

This is contained in 2013 MDGs report entitled: ‘’Ending Poverty in our Generation,’’ issued by a Media Consultant, Desmond Utomwe, in Abuja on yesterday.

The report said that agriculture was one of the target areas of the MDGs for improving the well-being of citizens, adding that MDGs was committed to achieving the 2015 target deadline. ‘’As agriculture represents one of the target areas to be improved, MDGs is introducing the funding of 148 agricultural co-operatives, one in each of the targeted local government areas,’’ it said.

The report said that the MDGs introduced the Conditional Grants Scheme (CGS) in states and local governments to enhance the agricultural sector through co-operatives. ‘’MDGs introduced CGS to the LGA in 2013 which includes provision for the creation of agricultural co-operatives, as it will help local farmers to organise the inputs

they need to enhance agriculture in the local communities.’’

It stated that the scheme involved entrepreneurial training, adding that the programme would expand agriculture and equip farmers of the various communities.

It further said that the entrepreneurial training was a way to train businessmen and women as it would enhance development in the rural areas.

The report explained that the aim of the co-operative was to mobilise small scale farmers to improve production and living conditions of rural dwellers.

It expressed the hope that the co-operatives would help to empower local farmers and to maintain the machinery as it had given better cultivation method to the rural communities.

It said that the Federal Government formed CGS in 2007 as a vehicle through which savings made from the debt relief would be expended on projects that would support the country.

It said that the scheme would help to actualise MDGs goals as it focused on improving local communities in agricultural sector, healthcare, schools and others.

ket.

The prices of tomatoes, onions and pepper shot up by 100 per cent, because a plastic container of tomatoes, for example sells for N200; as against last week’s price of N100.

A 50-kilograme bag of onions, also sells for N20, 000, as against the old price of N10, 000. Other items affected by the closures of roads in Borno state, include milk and eggs.

A crate of eggs has also sky rocked to N1, 500, up from its old price of N850.

As the market prices soar, housewives and residents resort to dried vegetables of okra, spinach, garlic, meat and fish supplied from the local fish ponds of farmers in Maiduguri.

Corporate Affairs Director of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, Mrs. Yomi Ifaturoti; Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo; and General Manager External Affairs PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, Tahir Mohammed, during a courtesy visit to the Commissioner in connecting with the forthcoming PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge for Secondary Schools.

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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Appointments Tackling graduates’ unemployment through internship scheme

Jonathan From Emeka Anuforo, Abuja 2012 survey on graduate A turnout and graduate employment in Nigeria conducted by educationists at the Department of Educational Management at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) reveals that Nigerian graduates do not possess employable skills to match-up to the requirement of jobs in the present day labour market.

The survey led by Akinyemi Samuel, Aimm Ofem, Igoy Bassey and Ikuenomore Samuel, though emphasised a widely known mismatch between graduate turnout, graduate skills and graduate employment, nevertheless emphasised a growing national concern on the subject.

According to the report, “The issue of graduate unemployment in Nigeria has become a national concern as the unemployed youths tend to be more anxious, depressed and unhappy with their attendant sleeplessness than those with jobs. This situation has not only posed a great challenge to the economy but also retarded the economic growth of the country. The graduate unemployment in Nigeria is attributable to the fact that employees’ education and skills acquired are inadequate to meet the demands of modern day jobs. This issue has become a phenomenal topic of discourse across professional gatherings in media and commentary reviews, employer surveys, national economic debates, social networks and employee forums.”

Apart from the qualifications that graduates possessed, the survey threw attention to other attributes which the employers emphasised as criteria for graduates’ employability.

Okonjo-Iweala “These attributes include verbal and written communication, analytical and investigative abilities, entrepreneurship and managerial skills, team work, computer skills, time management, drive and flexibility. The study found that Nigerian graduates did not possess employable skills that would make them marketable in the labour market and that graduate unemployment rate increased over the years,” the research stressed.

And with the National Bureau of Statistics putting the nation’s graduate unemployment rate at about 24 per cent, the federal government has seen an ally in its Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) as one of the possible solutions to the problem.

The Graduate Internship Scheme was introduced as part of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) aims to, among other things, provides window for building skills and enhancing employability. It seeks primarily to provide unemployed graduates youths with job apprenticeship opportunities that would expose them to skills and experiences relevant to the current labour market and enhance their employability.

Statistics released recently from the SURE-P office indicated that over 85, 500 graduates had so far signed on to the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS).

The federal government of Nigeria through the Public Works, Youth and Women Employment Component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) established the GIS, and aims to create opportunity for eligible graduate youths to be placed as interns in reputable public/private sector

firms to enhance building the manpower requirement.

Project Director of the scheme, Peter Papka, who spoke at a recent orientation meeting with some of the participating graduates, firms and other stakeholders in Abuja stressed that though the programme originally set a goal of 50, 000 graduates, over 85, 500 had applied and admitted, indicating urgent need to expand the programme.

The scheme implemented by the Federal Ministry of Finance provides fresh graduates short-term employment opportunity to sharpen their skills and gain some work experience and enhance their employability with a target to employ about 50,000 unemployed youth in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja in the first phase before the end of 2013.

About 1,000 beneficiaries would come from each of the states, with the number of participants to be raised to 100,000 in the next phase.

He said that the programme was ongoing at the same time in Abuja and Lagos, stressing that 50 firms had been cleared and admitted to participate in Abuja while 60 firms had been signed on in Lagos.

Papka stressed that the scheme was unlike the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), as graduates in the GIS were only sent to firms with the capacity to provide skills needed for career growth and industrial development.

He said: “In Abuja, as at today, we have over 5, 500 graduates who have applied to be part of this exercise.

Only 50 firms so far that we have found worthy of consideration are in the programme. This is not like another NYSC where graduates are sent to go and render

Kolade services that in my mind, doesn’t reflect the commitment that we need to place on our graduates.

“The different here is that any firm who wants to be part of this business, must demonstrate to us that they

have the capacity to provide our graduates with opportunities to enhance their skills.

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Every action necessary should be taken to preserve Nigeria’s sovereignty, says NLC

By Yetunde Ebosele HE leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has endorsed the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

Commending the Federal Government for the initiative, NLC President, Abdulwahed Omar, described the step as an ‘appropriate response’ to the ongoing crisis in the states.

According to the NLC president, the bloodletting and the coordinated and “audacious cross-bother attacks if not decisively checked are capable of over-running, over-whelming and balkanising the country”.

Umar in statement said: “As a pan-Nigerian organisation, which believes in the inalienability, inviolability and indivisibility of Nigeria, every action necessary should be taken to preserve its sovereignty against all acts of terrorism and insurgency”.

Umar also cautioned the Federal Government to spell out the rules of engagement to which the troops and other security personnel must strictly adhere or be called to account.

Explaining further, the NLC President said: “This is purely an internal security challenge, which if not initially mishandled requires more guile than brawn. It makes little sense for our troops to violate, alienate or annihilate the very populations they are

Omar

While the Congress insists that government must firmly address the issues of corruption, poverty, illiteracy, disease, unemployment and electoral injustice, it is concerned that the border communities often seem to breed insurgents or offer sanctuary to insurgents.

out to protect.

“How government troops handle this sensitive assignment will determine the speed and quality of their victory as well as decide the ranking of Nigeria in the comity of nations. The tragic incidents at Baga and Bama, which drew global condemnations are instructive enough.

“Although government has not dissolved the democratic structures in the affected states, the declaration of emergency should not be a tool for dealing with perceived political enemies.

“The emerging internal security challenges make imperative the need to modernise or re-equip our police force. It should be obvious now to the government that prolonged military exposure to internal security management carries with it certain risks.

“While the Congress insists

that government must firmly address the issues of corruption, poverty, illiteracy, disease, unemployment and electoral injustice, it is concerned that the border communities often seem to breed insurgents or offer sanctuary to insurgents”, said NLC. The NLC boss also used the opportunity to condemn what it described as the renewed violence across the land, “especially the mass killings at Baga, Bama, Bayelsa and most recently, at Alakyo in Nasarawa State and Agatu in Benue State. They leave a sour taste in the mouth, as the incidents are unprecedented and dehumanising”.

Umar added: “We however call on workers and the Nigerian people not to despair or panic. We cannot be overwhelmed if we resolve not to be. Even this trying moment shall pass

T

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THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

ITF signs MoU with DTCA on capacity building From Itunu Ajayi, Abuja HE Industrial Training T Fund (ITF) in Abuja has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) on capacity building.

The Director General of ITF Prof.

Longmas SamboWapmuk who signed the document on behalf of the ITF said that the idea of the MoU was first conceived and actualised in 2005 when ITF and DTCA signed a three year MoU to guide their collaborations in the area of human capacity building.

Wapmuk added that with the expiration of the first agreement in 2008, there was need to renew it so as to encourage future collaboration between the two agencies.

The DG said that the two organisations were in the joint venture to among other things train people and ensure that there was adequate manpower to ensure adequate skill for the Nigeria industries and for the purpose of exporting technical manpower to other African countries adding that Nigeria stood to gain a lot from there.

His words: “The MoU will now have a life span of five years; we hope to achieve the following among which are partnership with Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (VETA) of Tanzania for vocational training scheme in the informal sector, sourcing for funds to implement programme, DTCA/ASCON/ITF workshop

on experts harnessing, project monitoring and evaluation customised workshop, regional capacity building and identification of skill gap in technical vocational areas in the West African sub region.”

He added that the partnership with the DTCA was also to fulfill the mandate of the two agencies, adding that DCTA had discovered that their activities would be better enhanced with such collaboration.

In his remark, the DirectorGeneral of DTCA, Dr. Shuaibu Suleiman said that the collaboration was in line with the mandate of the two agencies in promoting skill acquisition not only in Nigeria but also across Africa.

He said: “The issue of collaboration and relationship with the ITF date back to 2005 when the first MoU was signed. We are truly interested in collaborating with the ITF because of the peculiar nature of the mandate of the ITF and the DCTA. We have an African mandate which focuses on deployment of skill across the continent and one of the very serious mandate of development of skill and facilitating such to the area of need.”

He went further: “DCTA has projects across Africa where we will need such expertise, it is therefore necessary for us to have this kind of collaboration with the ITF. Even recently there is a programme we were doing together before the signing of MoU and this shows how our mandates have a great link.”

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Tackling graduates’ unemployment through internship scheme CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 We are not sending our graduates to an environment where the graduate himself is even better than the organisation.”

He spoke further: “You will recall government’s commitment to youths employment, particularly since January 2012 through subsidy funds. One of the key priorities of government was to see how the proceeds of the subsidy funds are to be applied to empower, particularly our youths within the context of the social safety net programme of the SUREP. Nobody needs to be told this, but one of the greatest challenges we face as government today is that which relates to unemployment.

“And it behooves on everyone, government, private sector and government to find ways of dealing with this issue of youth unemployment. I also want to reiterate the fact that youths of this nation today are our leaders of today.

“We are not waiting until tomorrow, because whatever our youths are today is a reflection of what they will be tomorrow. I think that it is on the basis of that understanding that government found it appropriate that part of the proceeds of this be allocated to address the youth unemployment.”

He went on: “As it relates to this scheme, we are targeting our graduates whom we believe should be sufficiently strengthened with the capac-

ity to find jobs, and to also be able to contribute to national development. This is basically why this programme is important for the government. You will agree with me that today, there is no one organisation that would want to employ someone who doesn’t have some levels of experience. I recall that when I graduated from the university, I had requests from my state government to be recruited immediately after my NYSC. That story has changed. Today we have thousands of graduates who have graduated from our universities and polytechnics, yet they cannot find jobs.

“Government alone cannot deal with the issue of addressing the unemployment challenges that we have, particularly with getting the manpower base that would assist us with addressing the vision of 2020 that we have set for ourselves as the place that we want to be as a nation.

“Within the context of what government desires, the public private partnership arrangement is spreading to every aspect of our economy. Therefore, it is essential that all of us understand from the backdrop of youth unemployment challenge, that we take very seriously, both from the part of government, the part of the private sector, and the part of the interns themselves, the graduates to see that this is a very serious thing that is now on our table.

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Expert tasks human resource practitioners on talent management • As CIPM inducts 492 members

By Wole Oyebade IQUED by the challenge of finding requisite skills in organisations, an expert in Human Resource (HR) management, Ayodele Jaiyesimi, has tasked HR practitioners in the country to design functional talent pipeline in their organisations.

Jaiyesimi, who is the Group Head, Human Capital Management and Development, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, said such approach would keep organisations afloat at this time of talent-scarcity and their high demand in emerging markets.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Managing organisation’s talent pipeline in an emerging market’, at the 14th induction ceremony of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) held in Lagos at the weekend, Jaiyesimi observed that economic recession around the world had shifted attention to emerging markets in developing countries including Nigeria, where multinational companies now compete for sales, as well as for limited talents available.

Besides foreign companies increasing investments in these developing economies, survey has also shown that about 40 per cent of multinational companies are counting on emerging markets for survival. The problem, however, is about 34.4 per cent of the companies are concern about finding requisite talents, while 14 per cent are bothered about keeping them.

The implication, according

P

to the guest speaker, is that the scarcity-gap would continue to widen; increasing the challenges of finding and retaining talents in local organisations.

She added that this reality demands of HR practitioners to build talent pipelines in their organisations, to see to identifying and attraction of talents; recruitment process for right skills; learning processes and measurement of employee engagement among others, all in the bid “to keep talents available in the organisation.”

“The challenges we are facing today in HR are enormous. The workforce is so large but there is scarcity of talents. We have limited time to train, yet there are no ready-made hands. There is low employee engagement; paper qualification without commensurate skills, wage inflation outweighing productivity and so on.

“In all these, you can survive as courageous HR practitioners and organisation, by building organisational capabilities, developing the next generation of workforce with unique organisational culture and brand,” she said.

Jaiyesimi stressed that HR managers and organisations must not ignore the “Generation Y” (30 years below), “because they are soon to occupy the workforce.”

“More so, they have a different value system from the traditional workforce, and we need to have them actually connect with the organisation. Generally, HR practitioners must understand

that our assets walk out of workplace every night and our jobs are to ensure that they love coming back every morning.”

Congratulating the new inductees – 128 through practitioners’ route and 364 via examination – President and Chairman of Council CIPM, Victor Famuyibo, was confident that the practitioners would promote excellence in the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills to contribute more effectively towards accelerated national development.

Continuing, he said: “This responsibility of impacting best practice in HR management falls on us as an Institute at the corporate level; it also falls on you as an individual member in your little corner of the national economy, be it the private or the public sector.

“We therefore expect that you, in your individual capacities, commit to continuous self-development through study, experience sharing and thoughtful application of best practices in your areas of work,” Famuyibo said.

Registrar, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in his goodwill message noted that the theme was apt at this critical time of national development and talent deficit.

He said while training and retraining for effective productive workforce would be most important, HR practitioners must be prepared for the unexpected. “Just like a pipeline, you are only sure of the beginning, what goes on within is not always predictable, so HR practitioners would need to be dynamic to succeed,” he said.

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Lagos sacks 10 CBD workers, suspends 12 over misconduct

By Kamal Tayo Oropo HE Lagos State governT ment said recently that 10 workers in the Central Business Districts (CBD), an agency of government, were sacked in the last one year over cases of misconduct.

The Special Adviser to the State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on CBD, Mrs. Derin Disu, disclosed this at the ministerial briefing to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the current administration.

Disu said the dismissal was to ensure discipline and strict adherence to the rules governing the agency, adding that the workers affected undermined the

objectives of the agency and compromised the public image of government through their actions.

She also disclosed that the 12 workers of the agency were also suspended for various acts of indiscipline so as to serve as deterrent to others.

She however said a 15-day residential training programme was organised at the Sea School, Apapa for the CBD enforcement unit geared towards re-orientating the enforcement workers and improving their knowledge of traffic management and enforcement laws.

In the period under review, Disu listed some ongoing

projects around CBD in Lagos Island to include Ebute-Ero Police Station, installation of pedestrian guardrails along outer Marina Road, fabrication of concrete pedestrian guardrails along Carter Bridge as well as beautification of Tinubu Triangle, she put the total cost of the ongoing projects at N377.5 million.

On enforcement, she said a total of 873 vehicles were towed for parking illegally while seizures of goods for illegal street trading were made 117 times in the last one year.

On the State Road Traffic Law 2012, she said the agency alongside the

Nigeria Police, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and other enforcement agencies have collaborated to enforce the ban on motorcycles (okada) tricycles (keke Marwa) truck pushers and wheelbarrow operators from major roads and bridges within the CBD. She said the agency currently faces the challenges with loading and off-loading from cargo containers during restricted hours, adding that “traders continuously cite the lack of street lights at night as reasons for non-compliance and claim that their goods are left insecure within those hours”.

Maina challenges sack before Industrial Court From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja ACKED Chairman of the SReform disbanded Pension Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, has dragged the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF) and the Senate before the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Abuja, challenging his removal from office as Assistant Director of Customs, Immigration and Prison Pension Office (CIPPO), an establishment in the ministry of Interior.

Maina fell out with the Senate when he declined several invitations to appear before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service as well as State and Local Government Administration, saddled with the responsibility of probing the administration of pension funds to retired federal civil servants.

During the face-off, the Senate President, Senator David Mark, issued a warrant of arrest on February 2, 2013, directing the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar to arrest Maina.

Consequently, the police boss declared Maina wanted following a futile search for him, even though his counsel, Mahmud Magaji (SAN), claimed Maina was in the country.

But the pension boss succeeded in securing an order from the Federal High court, Abuja Division which quashed the arrest warrant against him and also granted an order of perpetual injunction restraining the IG from arresting him.

While quashing the order from the Senate, Justice Adamu Bello had, on March 27, held that the resolution of the Senate on that date was not valid, as same was neither gazetted nor published in government’s journal.

Part of Justice Bello’s judgment reads: “I grant an order of perpetual injunction restraining respondents from arresting the applicant on account of the warrant of arrest issued against the applicant.

“My decision is based on the failure of the Senate to annex the relevant document in its gazette.

“This should not send the wrong signal that the Senate does not have the power to summon any person for the purpose of investigation”, the judge held.

Joined in the fresh suit before the NIC President, Justice Babatunde A. Adejumo, are the Federal Civil Service Commission, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Clerk of the Senate as well as Clerk of the National Assembly.

NANS seeks employment opportunities for past leaders From Abosede Musari, Abuja

HE National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has appealed to the Federal Government to consider some of its past leaders for employment. President of NANS, Comrade Yinka Gbadebo, made the plea at the weekend in Abuja while honouring Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Kingsley Kuku, with the conferment of meritorious life membership of NANS. Making reference to the past NANS leaders, Gbadebo said they fought as opposition to military juntas in order to institute democracy in the country. According to him, some of them are still without meaningful employment because according to him, employers are scared they could mobilise workers against management.

He urged government to get them engaged for the sacrifices they have made for the country. He also urged government to include student bodies in the implementation of its programmes such as SURE-P, U-WIN and others.

Remembering the late president of NANS in 1999, Comrade Moses Oisakede who died on his way to University of Agriculture, Makurdi in 1999 while going to resolve issues involving 100 students expelled by the school, Gbadebo asked that his family and widowed mother be helped out of abject poverty.

While responding to the honour

T

done him, Kingsley Kuku who doubles as Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, urged Nigerians and the youths to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision in granting amnesty to the Boko Haram sect, stating that no price is too much to pay for peace.

He said that though it was painful that the sect had killed many Nigerians and wrecked so much havoc, adding that it was important to support the President to achieve peace. “It’s bitter that too many lives have been lost but the only option left is peace. We must thank the committee set up by the President and pray for their protection and that of their families. NANS and the National Assembly should please support the President on amnesty for Boko Haram and the declaration of state of emergency in the three states”, he said.

The honour of lifetime membership of NANS was conferred on Kuku by several past presidents of NANS who were in attendance including the first president of the association, Comrade David Oladele.

The presidential aide added that he had started campaign to ensure that the Niger Delta amnesty programme ends by 2015 in order to prevent the rising of different insurgency from all parts of the country that will turn the amnesty programme into a mess.

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64 CAPITAL MARKET

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

NigeriaCapitalMarket NSE Daily Summary (Equities) as at Monday PRICE LIST OF SYMBOLS TRADED FOR 20/5/2013

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NSE Daily Summary (Equities) as at 20/5/2013

LOSERS

PRICE GAINERS

Secondary market records marginal yields

By Bukky Olajide CTIvITIES within the week A were influenced largely by the FGN primary market bond coupled with speculation over the April inflation figures released towards the end of the week (headline: 9.1 percent) - and the upcoming meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee scheduled for this week, contributed to the direction of the market during the week under review.

At the monthly FGN bond auction, N110 billion worth of five year (N50 billion), 10 year (N25 billion) and 20 year (N35.0billion) bonds were offered and sold.

In reaction to the current market trend and dynamics, and in view of traders’ cautious approach as a result of the current off shore inflows, marginal rates for the bonds, that is, the 4.00 April 23, 2015 (five year), 15.10 April 27, 2017 (five year] 16.00 June 29, 2019 (10 year) and 10.00 July 23, 2030 (20 year) came out lower than market expectations at 11.60 percent, 12.25 year, 11.77year and 12.799 year respectively.

All auctioned securities were reopening of existing benchmark bonds. Subscription level for the securities was N227.51billion ~206.83 percent.

Consequently, analysts said, we are inclined to highlight that, due to the high subscription levels, marginal yields at the auction came out lower than yields at the secondary

market.

At the Over The Counter market, analysts observed a volatile trend as yields declined earlier in the week (prior to mid-week auction) due to traders’ shift to a “cautious mode” in anticipation of the outcome of the auction.

Subsequently, this was promptly reversed as a result

of marginal rates levels at the auction.

They equally noted the influence of the demand spill-over from the auction on the secondary market. Thus, prices on some of the on-the-run bonds increased by more than 100bps. In our view, there may be a reversal of this trend in the early days of the

current week in the absence of significant demand from offshore investors as the market anticipates the outcome of the MPC meeting, following which we expect a trend readjustment.

Also noteworthy is the appointment of Citi Bank and Deutsche Bank as lead managers and joint book-run-

ners for the planned US$1billion Eurobond to be issued by the Nigerian government.

Amongst the key reasons for the issue is to create a greater window of opportunity for Nigeria’s private sector to access funds internationally at a lower cost.

Analysts believe that the proposed issue will increase the

size of Nigeria’s Eurobond to US$1.5billion taking into account the $500 million issued in 2011, which currently trades at a yield of 4.12 percent.

Against this backdrop, we estimate that the planned Eurobond – scheduled for September 2013 may be issued at a coupon of 3.5 to 4.5 percent.

UBA Capital increases gross earnings by 300 per cent

By Bukky Olajide BA Capital Plc tripled U gross earnings to N890.3 million in the first quarter of the year and grew Profit Before Tax to N617 million, translating to 211 percent growth when compared to N198 million achieved in the corresponding period of 2012.

The Company in its unaudited financial statement filed with Nigerian Stock Exchange last week, recorded a Profit before Tax of N617million for the period ended 31st March, 2013. This represents an increase of 211percent over the N198million achieved in the corresponding period of 2012.

Speaking on the result, the Group CEO, UBA Capital Plc, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa said, “I am pleased to present this set of strong growth numbers, which reinforces our commitment and potential to deliver competitive returns

to our shareholders.

“Notably, the Group’s performance reflects the improved service delivery across all our strategic business units”.

“Our Trustee business remains a dominant player in its niche, with continuous

investment in infrastructure and people to ensure the best experience for our clients.

Our Investment Banking business is growing fast, as we position the business to take advantage of opportunities in the Power, Oil & Gas and Infrastructure sectors of the

economy. As we deepen our relationship and value proposition to our investment banking clientele, we are increasingly harvesting returns. according to him,We will carefully invest in our people and technology to drive the

Securities Trading business, especially as investor confidence improves. As we refocus our Asset and Wealth Management business, we see significant headroom for growth in our mutual funds and overall Assets Under Management”.

Skye Bank records N127.7 billion profit in 2012

By Helen Oji

…plans to invest over $100m million in power sector

bank Plc has achieved SlionKyE gross earnings of N127.7 bilin 2012 operations,

N1.3 billion in 2011.

Addressing Journalists at the bank’s pre-AGM briefing in Lagos yesterday, the Group Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti, explained that the Non -Performing Loans (NPL) of the bank was still under five per cent which is in accordance to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guideline, even as the figure stands at 4.9 per cent from 3.1 per cent of 2011.

against N102.4 billion posted in 2011.

Besides, the bank announced plans to inject over $100 million into the power sector in the current financial year, while 17 per cent of its loan portfolio is expected to be injected in the upstream oil sector The bank’s profit after tax also rose to N12.6 billion, from

He added that the bank recorded N28.1 billion in nonperforming loans in 2012 from N16 billion in the previous year.

On the basis of the impressive bottom-line, the board of the bank recommended an increase in dividend per share from 25 kobo paid for 2011 business year to 50 kobo for 2012.

The bank chief who noted that the consolidation exercise in the banking industry

has strengthened banks’ ability to fund the oil and gas sector, disclosed that the bank has concluded arrangements to raise N50 billion tier one capital.

He added that the fund raising for banks was a continuous process which would enhance its bottomline for long- term growth.

He said, “We will be raising Tier 2 capital before the end of the third quarter, and we also plan to raise some Tier 1 capital too. This is important because as a banks, we need to keep raising capital.

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Opinion The Okota Canal Estate road/drainage

By Luke Onyekakeyah N attempt to construct storm water drainage along some of the badly damaged roads/streets A within the Canal Estate, Okota, in Isolo Local Government Council has put the residents of the estate in severe pain and hardship. The intended construction work along Rev. Adegoke/Ashiata Yusuff/Sanusi and the adjoining streets such as Chidi Okafor, Benson Ojukwu Close, Adeshina Close, Oluwole Close and Akinyemi Street has worsened accessibility within the estate that has no other exit route. The residents are entrapped as Lagos awaits the usual torrential downpour that is bound to occur shortly. The estate actually needs storm water drainages but the problem is the timing of the work at the onset of the rainy season when it will prove daunting.

The commencement of the project at the onset of the rainy season (first week of May) in a flood-prone environment is curious. Is the aim really to do a good job or just to award the contract for the sake of it, to satisfy some selfish interests? Did government and the contractor take the season into consideration? Certainly, the project is ill-timed despite its intended benefits. There is no way any reasonable work would be done on the planned drainages until the end of October when the rains would have subsided. Embarking on drainage construction under the rains is wrong headed.

Within the next two months (June/July), the entire country will be in the peak of the rainy season. Lagos and the entire southern states will experience the first rainfall maximum, which is part of the double rainfall maxima characteristic of this part of the country. The second peak will occur in September after the little dry season that occurs in August. It is not known why the contractor decided to embark on the work at this time. The next three

months are flood-prone in Lagos.

The Nigerian Meteorological Service (NIMET) has warned citizens to prepare for another round of floods that may wreak havoc in parts of the country. The 2013 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) released by the agency recently warned both the federal and state governments to take proactive steps to stem this year’s flooding that may surpass that of last year. With such official prediction in place, the excavation made by the contractor would be washed away by the impending floods. Why was this construction not implemented since the end of the 2013 floods that ravaged many parts of the metropolis?

Ideally, such drainage work is better done in the dry season. It would have been better if the work had been done in the past six months, November 2012 – April 2013. But since it was not done, the right thing would have been to wait till the end of the rainy season around the end of October when the environment would be dry to allow such drainage construction. But none of these realities were taken into consideration before the contract was awarded and the contractor jumped onto the roads to begin excavation.

Those excavations now constitute danger.

Children or even adults and vehicles could plunge into them. They have been filled with storm water and will remain like that till the end of the rainy season except the contractor intends to mechanically drain the water to enable work to continue even under the rains.

But that will compound the problem and bring movement in the estate to a halt. The residents of the estate and their businesses would be plunged into more hardship. They are wondering why government chose to awards the contract at such most inauspicious time.

Canal Estate has roads that practically have never received any government attention since the estate came into existence some three decades ago. This lengthy period of no attention has resulted in what could be described as a “developed slum”, given the appalling state of the roads and streets. The residents have made feeble attempts to make the roads motorable on their own volition to no avail. Only government intervention will solve the problem. The attempt to construct storm water drainage would have been good if the project had been integrated with the road reconstruction.

I cannot understand the engineering knowhow that is being demonstrated at Canal Estate. Here are badly dilapidated roads that are ignored by the government. At the same time, we are talking of storm water drainage to be constructed beside impassable roads and streets. The question is which should come first between the roads and the drainage? The ideal thing is to do the roads first and then have the drains constructed to prevent water logging and erosion. The hardship would have been lessened if the excavation was not made and the mud dumped on the road thereby narrowing the road and impeding traffic.

Right now, two vehicles cannot pass at the same time from opposite directions.

Living in the estate is one hellish experience because of bad roads. Muddy roads make driving difficult. Vehicles break down or get damaged on the roads. Businesses in the area are in jeopardy. The roads are practically impassable whenever it rains. This has been worsened by the obviously unplanned excavations drainage. There will be no end to this hellish condition from now till October, when this year’s rainy season would ease off.

The deplorable state of roads within the Canal Estate paints negative picture in the effort of the Fashola administration on roads reconstruction in Lagos. There is no doubt that the administration has done well in this aspect. Some hitherto dilapidated roads, particularly the main arterial roads within the metropolis have been given a facelift.

But the inner city roads and streets are nothing to write home about. Efforts should be shifted to inner city roads all over the metropolis to make life comfortable for residents.

Canal Estate, arguably, has one of the worst inner city roads on earth! The appalling condition of the roads in the estate is capable of erasing whatever good impression the residents have about the good works of the Lagos State Government on roads.

Prior to the 70s when people began to acquire plots of landed property to build houses, Canal Estate was marshy and completely water logged.

There appeared to be no official development plan for the area. No planned access roads and no piped water supply till date. The result is that people acquired water logged plots of land and managed to wade through to build houses after sand filling.

Three decades later, the entire Canal Estate plots of land have almost been acquired. State-of-the-art architectural edifices have been built all over the place.

But there are no roads or drainage to make the place livable. Canal Estate and similar unplanned residential areas make me wonder what has happened to town planning. Why do estates spring up without the provision of essential utilities? The Ministry of the Environment and the Isolo Local Government Council should use the opportunity at hand to give Canal Estate a face-lift. The roads should be reconstructed along with the drainage channels to give the estate the status of a mega-city residential area.

Democratic governance and federalism in Nigeria (1)

By Salihu Moh. Lukman OPULAR sovereignty, which stipulates, first, that people are the source of any and all governmental powers, and secondly, govP ernmental powers are exercised only with the consent of the governed, is a fundamental principle of democratic governance. In the context of a federal system, popular sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central authority (federal) and constituent units (states).

For us in Nigeria, this is supposedly the guiding philosophy today. As a nation, with all the imperfections, we have been a democracy since 1999 and perhaps since 1967, we have practised federalism with so much distortions and aberrations. Combinations of imperfections associated with democratic governance, distortions and aberrations related to our federal system of governments have reduced democratic governance, especially at state levels in Nigeria into an empty vocation that means very little to Nigerian people.

A major reflection of the distortions and aberrations of our federalism is reflected in our nationally perverted notion of revenue sharing with very little concern about how it is generated or contributions of constituent units. Largely informed by powers to make laws not necessarily informed by any rational economic parameter, the Federal Government legislated to itself 52.68 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue. State governments have 26.72 per cent and local governments 20.60 per cent. What informs the logic of this sharing formula? Is it based on contributions to the process of revenue mobilization?

Certainly, there will be some forms of justifications. They don’t have to be logical or rational. They are predominantly a reflection of crude power play. Largely because it has resulted in short changing Nigerians, the perception is that governments, at all levels, are today our main problem. The fact of short changing Nigerians is largely on account of diminished responsibilities of our governments to discharge basic functions of service delivery including opening up access for Nigerians to participate in the process of revenue generation. Therefore, the reality of oil revenue generation is unfortunately that of monumental fraud, corruption and shoddy deals driven almost exclusively by the Federal Government.

Given the huge resources involved, the functions of governments as facilitators of economic activities in the country are virtually suspended. By the accounts of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria has earned N8.875 trillion between 2002 and 2006.

This has shot to N8.878 trillion for 2011 alone and in 2012, N8.117 trillion. Based on this revenue reality, on monthly basis, Nigerian Federal Government takes over N200 billion, the 36 state governments receives about N100 billion and our 774 local governments receive less than N100 billion. With this, our governments

have no incentive to stimulate economic activities.

As much as governments are our problem, given the huge resources at their disposal, they are also a necessary evil. Why is this so? How did we find ourselves in this bad situation? Answers to these simple questions could be traced to our national headcount. They could also be easily clustered based on our ethno-religious diversity. Not even our so-called party system could change or alter this fact. If anything, it is more likely to entrench it. Depending on the audience and environment, the perspective of a PDP politician may be the same with that of an opposition politician. Objectivity would be difficult to discern. It is simply a reflection of our national paradox; one that promotes biased and convenient interpretation of governments and their responsibilities.

The result is that although under a democratic system of government and operating in a country blessed in every respect, human and natural resources, our citizens are poor. The fact of our citizens’ poor conditions is reflected in rising levels of poverty and unemployment. Contrasted against the background of geometric rise in oil revenue, poverty has increased from 54 per cent in 1999 to 69 per cent today. Unemployment rate has risen from about 17.5 per cent in 1999 to 24 per cent today.

Sadly, our partisan configuration has not been able to define and delineate our poverty and unemployment profiles. This practically means that our parties are completely blind to human development challenges, which produces a situation whereby high poverty and unemployment situations are also the characteristics of states controlled by non-PDP governments – governments controlled by opposition parties.

For instance, assessing profiles of the 11 state governments controlled by Nigerian opposition parties – ACN, ANPP, CPC and Okorocha-led APGA based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2010 Harmonized National Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) and NBS National Unemployment Report, it gives a worrisome pattern, hardly progressive. Out of the 11 state governments, six were reported with poverty incidence higher than the national average of 69 per cent. These are Edo (72.5 per cent), Nasarawa (71.7 per cent), Ogun (69.0 per cent), Yobe (79.6 per cent) and Zamfara (80.2 per cent). This means that some of our ‘progressive’ state governments contributed significantly to high levels of poverty in the country on account of inability to stimulate economic activities in their states. In fact, only Osun has been reported with poverty incidence of less than 50 per cent. Reported to have 47.5 per cent, it means that Osun is the only state with less than half of its citizens in poverty. Things being equal therefore, access to jobs and opportunities could be adjudged to be relatively easier in Osun.

Related to issue of poverty is that of unemployment. And like the case of poverty, six out of our 11 ‘progressive’ states were re-

ported by NBS with unemployment rates higher than the national average of 24 per cent. These are Borno (29.1 per cent), Edo (35.2 per cent), Imo (26.1 per cent), Nasarawa (36.5 per cent), Yobe (35.6 per cent) and Zamfara (42.6 per cent). Again, Osun was reported with the best record of 3.0 per cent unemployment rate. In other words, with such low unemployment rate and less than half of its citizens in poverty, Osun could be rightly described as the most employment and people friendly state in the country.

What this means is that, with reference to both poverty and unemployment, the claim to being progressives by most of our 11 ‘progressive’ state governments could be contested. There may be the temptation to dismiss the NBS report as inaccurate. The source of inaccuracy can hardly be linked to political motive and to that extent therefore the report could have some legitimacy.

The second plank of argument could be the fact of some of the state governments being young and therefore may just have inherited the high levels of poverty from preceding governments.

Related to this second factor is the third consideration focusing on the level to which state governments’ policies could be responsible to high levels of poverty and unemployment. In which case the dispute might not be about the legitimacy of the existence of high poverty and unemployment rates but simply about how much responsibility should our 11 ‘progressive’ state governments take?

Issues or responsibility calls to question the extent to which our parties as represented by the opposition have directed the policy orientations of governments they produced. The truth is that issues of directing policy orientations of governments produced by our parties are not a consideration. And since it is not a consideration, question of monitoring and directing resources towards common goal will just be academic exercise.

Part of the problems that may undermine the capacity of our 11 ‘progressive’ state governments to drive human development agenda capable of reducing poverty and unemployment is the bandwagon culture mainly on account of huge oil revenue. It needs to be emphatically highlighted that the huge oil revenue is the main source of the distortions and aberrations related to our brand of federalism, which are traceable to our experiences under military rule. To be precise, under military rule, functions of governments related with providing services to the people became a subject of benevolent disposition of military leaders. It was not about discharging constitutional responsibilities but a measure of the kindness of military leaders. On account of this even basic function such as payment of salaries to government workers became a source of official propaganda acknowledging the ‘good work’ of military rulers.

• To be continued tomorrow.

• Lukman wrote this as an open memo to Nigerian opposition politicians.

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Opinion President Jonathan deserves pass mark

By Reno Omokri READ Mr. Remi Adekoya’s piece in the IJonathan’s Guardian of the U.K. entitled ‘Goodluck report card for Nigeria? Must try harder’ in which he praised President Jonathan for a booming economy but came down hard on him for failing to help Nigeria’s poor.

When Adekoya says “Infrastructure also remains a problem. Without a modern road network, doing business in Nigeria will remain prohibitively expensive and logistically challenging”, he betrays a surface understanding of recent events in Nigeria. For example, before the Jonathan administration if you wanted to travel from Lagos to Kano you had two choices, you either went by road or by air. Today, under President Jonathan’s direction, Nigeria’s railways have been revived and a traveller planning the same journey has a third alternative.

He can travel from Lagos to Kano by rail at a cost of N1,500, which is less than $10. Nigeria’s rail revival miracle has received praise from some of the major newspapers and magazines in the West. Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press had a string of highly syndicated photos recording this feat. But when you think of it, it is hard for someone reviewing Nigeria’s progress from the United Kingdom to have first hand information.

Under this administration, previously abandoned road projects have been completed. The previously notorious Lagos-Ore-Benin motorway has been repaired and I personally supplied photographic evidence of that feat on social media as well as highlighted testimonials from Nigerians testifying to a reduced travel time from Lagos to Benin since the repairs.

In the Federal Capital Territory, Nigerians are now calling the new Kubwa Expressway our own version of Germany’s autobahn! In his

budget speech, the President listed major roads that have been completed and many that are ongoing.

Still on infrastructure, Mr. Adekoya forgot to tell his British audience that while it may be true that Nigeria still does not generate enough electricity for its population, the Jonathan administration has nonetheless increased generation from the 2800 MWs it met on ground to the present 4500 MWs Nigeria generates today a 35 per cent improvement.

But that is not even the main story. This administration has kept faith with the Roadmap to Power Sector Reforms that the President launched on August 22nd 2010, which in summary charted a course for the privatization of the nation’s power sector.

In keeping with that Roadmap, Nigeria has successfully privatized many of her power generation stations and on April 22nd this year, a Presidential Power Reform Transactions Signing Ceremony was held at the Presidential Villa where the five power generation companies that emerged successful in the bidding process of the privatization of the sector received their certificates. But certainly Mr. Adekoya could not have failed to take note of the praises the power privatization process received worldwide. It was remarkably transparent which is a departure from the past and signals that Nigeria is a safe place to invest which is no surprise given that even the Prime Minister of The United Kingdom, David Cameron, himself led a trade delegation of some of Britain’s top businesses to Nigeria and on return said “We’ve been hearing about China and India for years but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria”. Mr. Cameron certainly knows a great deal more about Nigeria under President Jonathan than Mr. Adekoya does!

And then Mr. Adekoya goes on to say “Educa-

tion is particularly problematic: tens of millions of Nigerians are illiterate. Most cannot afford an education: without government assistance, thus far feeble, they will remain intellectual invalids.” Really Mr. Adekoya! Are you talking about the same Nigeria where President Jonathan initiated a programme to provide 400 schools for itinerant scholars in Northern Nigeria known as Almajiri? The President commissioned the first of these schools on the 10th of April 2012 with almost 100 completed in 2012. The administration has also increased the number of federal universities in Nigeria by 12 as well as completed hundreds of blocks of classrooms in 15 states as part of efforts to meet her Millennium Development Goals.

But the cherry on the education cake is that there has been a 15 per cent increase in pass rates in school leaving examinations in Nigeria in 2012 when compared to the 2011 season, an indication that the government’s efforts are succeeding.

Adekoya thoroughly pooh-poohed our health sector, which I will admit still needs a lot of improvement, but he did not note the improvements which the Jonathan administration made to what it met on the ground. For instance, this administration established a National Trauma Centre in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and the National Hospital Abuja. Mr. Adekoya failed to note recent feats in Nigeria’s health sector such as the commencement of Stem Cell Transplant for sickle cell patients at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Introduction of Laser Treatment of Kidney Stones at Chivar Urological Centre, Abuja.

Adekoya may wish to note that Nigeria’s Life Expectancy increased from 47 years to 51 years according to the 2011 Human Development Index of the United Nations. That represented the highest increase for Nigeria since records were

kept. If anything puts to lie Adekoya’s assertions on minimal improvements in Nigeria’s health sector under President Jonathan, certainly it is this fact.

And then Adekoya wrote that “On security, Jonathan has dithered. Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorist group, has killed thousands on his watch, while he seems unsure whether to use crushing force or grant “amnesty”. It may interest Mr. Adekoya to get the recent statement released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (OHCHR), which praised President Jonathan for considering amnesty for Boko Haram. Yes, if Adekoya were to see firsthand the sufferings our brothers and sisters in the North face as a result of this sect, he would understand that discretion is the better part of valour. After all, the government of the United Kingdom which almost lost its entire cabinet to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Brighton Bomb incidence of 1984 eventually chose to negotiate with them and today there is peace. All the guns and bombs of the British Army could not defeat the IRA as much as diplomacy and negotiation. Is Adekoya saying that it is good for the U.K. but not for Nigeria?

Nations progress over time and not over night; and it betrays a lack of understanding of Nigeria’s past and how far we have come to score President Jonathan poorly in meeting the needs of the poor. It is not for nothing that Henry Bellingham, a Member of Parliament as well as a member of Mr. Cameron’s administration said: “Nigeria is the world’s fourth fastest growing economy”. You don’t achieve that level of economic progress if you have not made reasonable efforts to better the lot of the masses whose productivity is the reason for such a phenomenal growth!

• Omokri is Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on New Media.

Freedom of misinformation (2)

By J.K. Randle Continued from yesterday S confirmation that even in the midst of hope, is no escape from despair and frustration, Italian politicians were the beneficiaries of a narrow escape from a crazy gunman on April 27, 2013. Here is an eyewitness account by Elizabeth Povoledo: “Two military police officers and a passer-by were shot and wounded on Sunday in a crowded square outside the office of Prime Minister Enrico Letta and near the presidential palace, where his new government was being sworn in.

The shooting was shown live by the state broadcaster RAI, which had a television crew in the square in front of Mr. Letta’s office, Palazzo Chigi, where the new ministers were to go after the swearing-in ceremony.

What was supposed to be a day of celebration, marking a government that took nine weeks after the elections to assemble, quickly turned into a national drama. The square in front of Palazzo Chigi was cordoned off, and ambulances and police cars blocked traffic in one of Rome’s busiest downtown areas. Inside the palace, the ceremony continued undisturbed, and most of the ministers were not told of the shooting, which occurred about half a mile away, until after the ceremony.

A man, identified as Luigi Preiti, who is unemployed and is from the Calabria region, was detained and accused of the shooting, the authorities said.

“I heard seven or eight shots,” said Enrica Agostini, a RAI reporter. “I was pushed back into Palazzo Chigi. The police was screaming. ‘It’s an attack, it’s an attack.’ ” Doctors at Rome’s Umberto I Polyclinic said Sunday evening that one of the military police officers, Giuseppe Giangrande, was shot in the neck and was in critical condition after undergoing an operation. The bullet injured his spinal column, causing “important damage,” doctors said in a televised news conference, adding that they would not be able to discuss his prognosis for 72 hours.

The other officer, Francesco Negris, was shot in the leg, but his injuries were not life-threatening, officials said. A woman who was passing by was also hit but was not seriously injured, according to news reports.

At a news conference, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said an

A

investigation would be conducted, but that the shooting appeared to be an “isolated gesture.”

Mr. Alfano said it also appeared that Mr. Preiti had intended to commit suicide, but told officers that he had run out of bullets.

A prosecutor working on the investigation said that Mr. Preiti had intended to target politicians. “He’s a man full of problems who has lost his job, he’d lost everything, he’d had to move back home, he was desperate,” the prosecutor, Pierfilippo Laviani, told the news agency ANSA. Mr. Preiti had planned the attack 20 days ago, according to news media reports.

“He wanted to strike politicians, but when he couldn’t reach them, he shot the police,” Mr. Laviani said.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Letta met with his ministers for a cabinet meeting that had been scheduled beforehand.

The new government will face a confidence vote in Parliament this week.

The former interior minister, Anna Maria Cancellieri, who was sworn in on Sunday as justice minister, told reporters that the shooting had been carried out “by someone who is unbalanced.”

The shooting rattled Italy, already unsettled by a period of instability after the inconclusive national elections, which hobbled efforts to form a government. It also brought back memories of the “years of lead,” the period of social and political turmoil in the 1970s and early 1980s marked by dozens of acts of terrorism that were carried out by left-wing and right-wing radicals.

In recent years, groups that modeled themselves after the Red Brigade terrorists of that time have carried out sporadic attacks and have killed two Italian labour reform specialists. And tax agency offices have been bombed, a protest against a fiscal system that many consider to be onerous. But there has been little social tension.”

As for the Seventy “Senior Elders from Nigeria” who have for almost six months kept vigil in St. Peter’s Square in fervent prayers for our beloved country – that it may not go the same way as Rwanda; Sierra Leone; Liberia; Egypt; Libya; and especially Somalia, the Italians and the Holy Father have proved to be generous hosts. We are being provided with free biscotti and coffee.

Besides, our visas have been extended “indefinitely”. The message is clear – we are welcome to pray for as long as we like.

In addition, the Vatican surprised us by availing us of unrestricted access to its files and documents on our beloved Zim-

boda. It is an amazing treasure trove! Time and space will not permit us to download it all straightaway. Here is a snippet of Zimbodia’s narrow escape.

For obvious reasons the full story of the sudden death of the military dictator on June 8, 1998 followed a week later by the equally sudden death of the choice of the people on July 7, 1998 after drinking a cup of tea in the presence of Ms. Susan Rice and Ambassador Thomas Pickering from the United States of America must remain a secret. The politician who had won the presidential election in June 12, 1993 had been denied his mandate by the military and it was military dictator who clamped him into detention for almost five years. He remained steadfast. Under no circumstances would he surrender his mandate.

It is alleged that the General died after a tryst with three “oriental ladies” and the consumption of an apple (heavily dragged). Several newspapers reported that Viagra was invited to the party.

Anyway what is relevant is that the military dictator died in the early hours of the morning but his Chief Security Officer kept it as a closely guarded secret. All the top military guys were summoned to the Presidential Villa at Aso Rock, Abuja – “for an urgent meeting with the Head of State and Commander-InChief”! The big boss was dead but his lieutenants were sold a dummy. Once they were all assembled, Major Mustapha could easily have declared himself the new Head of State and that would have been the end of the matters – unless they were ready for a shoot out. The major had them covered – with guns and the security cameras.

The major would have pulled off the coup d’etat but he confided in the former military governor (of the former capital of Zimboda). It was the latter who gave the game away. The dead General’s predecessor in office got wind of what was afoot. He moved quickly and with the support of his loyalists he was able to lure the unsavvy major out of his secure enclave at the villa.

The major has spent almost two decades in jail – one trial after another. At one point he faced military style execution (or assassination) according to his supporters. He too had a narrow escape!

• Concluded • Bashorun J.K. Randle, OFR, FCA is Chairman & Chief Executive, JK Randle Professional Services, Chartered Accountants, Ikoyi, Lagos.

69

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Law

Quote of the week In the state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the laws.

———Charles de Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, 1748 French lawyer & philosopher (1689 - 1755) judicialeditor@yahoo.co.uk/ 08033151041 Desk Head: Ibe Uwaleke

‘Democratic structures can exist under emergency rule’ Interview

By Joseph Onyekwere

The Federal Government last Tuesday declared a state of emergency in three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe due to rising insecurity and breakdown of law and order. President Goodluck Jonathan, quoting Section 305 (1) of the 1999 Constitution in a nationwide broadcast, however, failed to remove the governors of the states, saying that they are to continue to discharge their constitutional duties. In this encounter, AUGUSTINE ALEGEH, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) examined the issues involved and concluded that the president’s decision was in order.

N whether the declaration, which allowed all O the existing political structures in the affected states to remain, could be described as a true state of emergency, the learned Senior Advocate said: “The state of emergency as the term connotes is a state, whereby the president finds out that certain things inimical to public good have happened in any part of the country and then, decides to exercise his powers under Section 305 of the Constitution. But if you look at that section very carefully, you will find that it makes no provision for removal of political structures. It just said a state of emergency could be declared and if you understand that a state of emergency could be declared all over the whole country.

For example, if we are at a state of war, there is no necessity to remove the governors. What we are having is the hangover of the past, where we became used to the president declaring a state of emergency and removing the constitutionally established structures.

Was that correct? Not at all! If you look at the Section 305, sub-section 4, it makes a provision that where a governor finds that there is a state requiring proclamation of emergency in his state, he seeks two-third concurrence of the House of Assembly and provided the Assembly passes a resolution, the governor can go ahead and request the president to declare a state of emergency in his state.

A state of emergency and the existence of political structure can co-exist. If the House of Assembly is empowering the declaration of the state of emergency, on what basis then do you remove members of the House of Assembly? Who is going to now say the situation has returned to normal and passed a resolution for there to be an end or continuation to the state of emergency.

So what the president has done is totally within the law. I find nothing wrong with it. I believe that it is a step in the right direction. We are now moving from the military mentality of the past to a democratic implementation of our constitution.”

What is the implication of this arrangement to governors who are constitutionally recognized as the chief security officers of their states?

He said: “The governors are the chief security officers of their states when there is no state of emergency and the Police Commissioner is not under the state governor. He is under the Inspector General of Police who reports to the President. So the way security has been structured in the country, there is no hard and fast rule about it. If the governor is in place and the Chief of Army Staff as had been directed now, sends troops to the state, the governor is still in a position to aid with the implementation of the security plan in that state.

It is not as if the governor has his own security

Alegeh (SAN)

What the president has done is totally within the law. I find nothing wrong with it. I believe that it is a step in the right direction. We are now moving from the military mentality of the past to a democratic implementation of our constitution apparatus different from that of the state.

When you look at the states in question, Joint Military Task Force (JTF) has been operating in those states; the governors have been supporting them. The only thing that has changed is that by the declaration of the state of emergency, the military movement in that area will be higher. Certain issues of right could be curtailed.

If there is a need to declare a curfew, it could be done and your right to move freely curtailed.

Such things can happen, but the governor on his own, ordinarily doesn’t have any security apparatus he was running the state with before. He was working with the Police, the Army and the SSS. They are all federal agencies, all reporting to the president. So, I don’t see any challenge in that.”

On whether the declaration of the state of emergency would solve the problem of insecurity in those parts of the country, he replied: “When you ask me legal questions, I will answer, but when you ask me security questions, I am at a lost. The issue of what will work and what will not work is essentially a security question. I am not competent to say if a state of emergency will solve the problem. Honestly, I am not in a position to say that because if I do that, I will be shooting in the dark. We first of all

heard that the president was meeting with his security chiefs. We must believe that this is the advice he received from his security chiefs. And if those who know security gave him the advice, they must have done that because they believe that it would work. But as to our own opinion to the workability of it or not, we just have to wait and see.”

The issue of amnesty had come up before the declaration. What becomes of the amnesty project with regards to the declaration and whether the security chiefs believe that option would not work?

Allegeh reacts: “The issue of amnesty has been so confused that the only person who has been able to put it in correct perspective was Bishop Hassan Kukah, when he made his comment at Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s birthday. What he said was that an offer of amnesty was not a grant of amnesty. When you go to the Church (I am a Catholic), and the reverend father says those who want to confess their sins should come and confess. He has not said all his church members are sinners. But you have to take the offer first and confess. That is how I look at amnesty. The president to my understanding has offered amnesty. It is when people come forward to say I want to take advantage of this amnesty you have offered that various ques-

tions would now be asked. Assuming a man who had lived in any of the states had killed somebody in a motor accident, and he is declared wanted; and he comes out to say I want to take amnesty, even though it is an offer! I don’t think we should look at amnesty as if it is an offer at large. It is an offer; when you come forward to say I want to take advantage of the amnesty, it is then that the conditions for the granting of amnesty would be discussed.

So far, to my understanding, I don’t know what is happening on the security side. From information available, nobody has come forward to take advantage of the amnesty. But in most situations of conflict, amnesty has always been a useful tool to reduce tension and help solve situations.”

On the propriety of the committee set up by the president in respect of the amnesty offer, he said: “How would the president deal with the amnesty issue by himself? If there is no committee in place, who is now to determine those that are qualified for this amnesty?

Whoever that wants to take amnesty, will the person approach the president directly? Now, there is a committee in place, if any person wants to take advantage of the amnesty offered by the president, the person now knows an identifiable committee that it can reach out to, discuss with and say I am accepting amnesty and these are my conditions. So, a committee is in furtherance of the global idea of an offer of amnesty and how it should be implemented.

An amnesty without a committee in place would have been like a vehicle without an engine.”

On the issue of corruption in the judiciary, allegedly facilitated by senior lawyers, which the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) bemoaned recently in Lagos, the Senior Advocate stated: “There are two schools of thought. Some people say all judges are corrupt! I don’t belong to that school of thought. I believe that if you find a judge that is corrupt, mention his name. To paint everybody with a black brush is wrong. If I say all judges are corrupt, I don’t think that the CJN herself would be pleased with such a comment. S, when you say senior lawyers, it is a wide spectrum of people. All we are saying is that to deal with corruption, we have to be open.

Secondly and very importantly, there has to be a change of our laws. Those things we call corruption are endemic and engrained in our system. Our system of hospitality breeds corruption naturally. Assuming I have a classmate who passed out at a very young age and I have become a judge and I see his son appearing before me, I will do all I can do to assist him. It’s by nature! But it is corruption. It’s engrained.

And even when you go to America or Europe; when you hear about old boy’s connection – I went to Harvard or Oxford, you have a special tag you wear when you are going for an interview. Any member of that panel who went to that school will identify you with your tag. But what they have done in their case is that they have put some laws in place, that there is a limit to which you can exercise that discretion of favour. We are talking about corruption, but we have no bails Act. We have no sentencing law. You can have a statute that says two years for this offence, but you also have another called the sentencing law, which contains guidelines. We have been doing plea-bargain, we have no laws on plea-bargain. So, we give judges so wide latitude of discretion. That is what people are tapping into. Why can we not institutionalize measures that can make it impossible for people to act like that? Has any judge ever been punished for failure to follow precedents? It is not considered judicial misconduct if you don’t follow precedents. It

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

70 LAW

LawPeople

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there’s love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

——Ella Jane Fitzgerald (1917-1996), Jazz Vocalist

Ugwummadu’s resilient activism in legal practice Profile

By Bertram Nwannekanma ALACHY Ugwummadu, a LagosM based rights lawyer, falls within the personality captured by an American comic book artist and writer, Mike Norton, who wrote in one of his works: “Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or any mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. Never be a victim of life; be its conqueror.”

This aphorism aptly represents the resilience and doggedness Ugwummadu weathered through in his quest to become a legal practitioner of note.

He had also deepened the Nigerian legal space through constructive criticisms of government policies considered inimical to the rights of the citizens.

These actions came with a cost as he was made at a point to pay dearly for having the effrontery to confront the powers that be.

But today, Ugwummadu’s resilience in the fight against injustice and his brand of advocacy had not only provided inspiration to many young Nigerians but also endeared him to the heart of the human rights community.

Incidentally, Ugwummadu’s desire to study law was greatly inspired by the selflessness, patriotism, strength of character, depth of knowledge and sheer determination of leading progressive and radical lawyers like the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), Femi Falana (SAN) and Olisa Agbakoba (SAN).

He had admired these lawyers several years before he met them in person.

“I saw and met several people who were victims of oppression and intimidation perhaps because I come from a very small village in Delta State. I hate injustice naturally and I already saw the efficacy of the instrumentalities of law as deployed by the great progressive. So I needed to arm myself with the same tool to effectively engage this decadent society”, he recalled.

He also owed his father, Chief Augustine Ugwummadu, a community leader and retired school principal, a great deal for remaining the actual provenance of what he has turned to be.

As a young man, he was very stubborn, courting trouble particularly in his secondary school days.

In fact, he would have ended up a roadside motor mechanic because it caught his attention at a time, but his father rescued him.

He said: “Invariably my wife doesn’t like to hear this aspect of my story although I have always managed to convince her that the same providence that brought us together as lawyers would have also conspired to enable us meet as mechanic and garri seller somewhere”.

Interestingly, he has a highly cerebral twin brother who is the direct opposite of him. So bad was his case that his father withdrew him from school and enrolled him in his own school for close supervision where, as the principal of the school, he literally became the gate-keeper for the first one month after his admission into the school.

Ugwummadu That worked! In less than three months, he was a completely changed person with better focus, determination and discipline. That led to his successfully passing his examinations in flying colours in 1988.

But Ugwummadu’s ambition of becoming a lawyer came under serious threats during his days at the University of Nigeria.

Although he and his twin brother gained admission to study law and pharmacy respectively in the same university, the same year, his twin graduated with a degree at the end of his programme, while his own degree lingered. He had dragged the University of Nigeria to the Federal High Court Enugu twice before graduation. Consequently, his certificate was withheld.

The cases involved the student’s union over the increase in school fees and a personal matter against the school over the seizure of his certificate. Team of eight lawyers carefully put together from all parts of the country and led by Mr. Femi Falana, who was then the National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), handled the matter and he got judgment in year 2000.

The case Malachy Ugwummadu & Anor v University of Nigeria& 2Ors later became a reference case and was reported in (2000) 13 WRN P.181,

among several other reports and both on human rights.

He said: “ I thought I was completely cured of my radicalism at the secondary school until I arrived the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, during the heady days of military rule in Nigeria. It was a fertile ground for the duo of Generals Badamosi Babangida and the late Sani Abacha to ride roughshod and run amok with dangerous policies that set the stage for the total collapse of tertiary institution and education in Nigeria.

“I had on several occasions mobilised students both at the Enugu and at Nsukka campuses against the obnoxious policies of the university administration, which earned me about a dozen arrests from both the university’s security operatives and Enugu Police Command. None of those occasions, however, were they able to take me away from the institution owing to the highly effective structure of the students’ movement”.

Born on December 29, 1971, to Ugwummadu’s family of Ashaka, Ndokwa-West, Delta State, Ugwummadu attended St. Charles’ College, Abavo, Delta State, between 1983 and 1985 and Ogbagu-Ogume Secondary School from 1986 to 88.

Thereafter, he proceeded to University of Nigeria, (Enugu Campus) for his law degree between 1991/92 and 1998/99; and attended the Nigerian Law School, 2001/2002. He

He had also deepened the Nigerian legal space through constructive criticism of government’s policy considered inimical to the rights of the populace.

was called to the Nigerian Bar and became a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2002.

Afterwards, Ugwummadu was posted to Dutse in Jigawa State but was redeployed to Lagos, where he completed his service in Falana Chambers.

Before then, Ugwummadu during his crisis period at the university, was recruited into the national secretariat of the CDHR as a research officer and later became a senior research officer during which he had the privilege of working with other colleagues.

During this time, he gained a lot of exposure that enabled him to properly discover himself.

For instance, he prepared and presented high profile lectures on behalf of Falana in four different universities that include Abia State University, Uturu 1999; Faculty of Law, Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma; LASU and University of Lagos before he was called to the Bar between 2008-2001.

In 1999, he emerged the national deputy secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON), a coalition of over 70 civil society pro-democracy organisations in Nigeria led by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Mr. Falana, Prof. Toyo Olorode, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, Onitiri Abiola, Shehu Sani, Ayotallamo, Femi Aborishade, Nike Ransome Kuti-Nedum were in that team.

Although Ugwummadu had several interface with the courts even as an undergraduate, it was in Falana and Falana Chambers that he cut his legal teeth, where he spent about two years (2002-2004).

Ugwummadu later went into a private legal practice in 2005 by establishing a chamber at Surulere.

Ugwummadu’s first major case in court was before Justice Awokwulehi of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

He was assigned to a senior colleague in Falana Chambers but before the matter was to be called, his colleague simply walked out of the court pretending to visit the rest room but he never come back.

When the matter was called, Ugwummadu summoned courage and informed the court that his colleague, who was leading him in the matter, had just stepped out and that he would like to call him to deal with the matter.

The judge looked at him, and apparently realising that he was a new wig, urged Ugwummadu to move the motion for extension of time to regularise their processes. He simply falls back on his numerous court experiences and moved in terms of the motion papers. Immediately afterwards his senior colleague walked into the court and asked “how did it go”?

When he sought to know why he behaved that way, Ugwummadu was simply told, “That was how I started too”.

Afterwards, he gained exposure and made some indelible marks in the legal practice, handling many matters against the state or agencies of the state in defence of the downtrodden and

powerless.

For instance, in 2010, he instituted a matter against the Federal Government for the full implementation of the year’s Appropriation Act with little or no cooperation from the National Assembly, who refused to certify and supply him certain documents he needed to move the court to grant the order of mandamus.

The matter was then before Justice Mohammed Liman, who declined to grant the application for want of jurisdiction. He is also on legal battle with the police over the ban on the use of tinted glasses at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Apart from these public interest matters, his chamber is also actively involved in a lot of insolvency and recovery matters.

Only recently, he got a ruling from the Benin Division of the Federal High Court, which upheld his preliminary objection and striking out the suit against the plaintiffs.

He is also involved in the Coroner Inquest into the in the ill-fated Dana Air Crash, that killed his client’s benefactor, Chief Stanford Obrutse, in Lagos.

His love for writing has made him write several articles in the Nigerian media. Ugwummadu, at the moment, has a renewed urge to write on how he spent a decade in the university and the Law School between 1991/92 -2001/2002.

According to him, it was a significant aspect and content of his history, which he wishes to proudly document.

He is currently the legal adviser to the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, Lagos branch and a very active member of the national body.

He is also a member of Nigerian Bar Association.

He is also of the opinion that the delay in the dispensation of justice both in criminal and civil cases has remained a major issue in the legal profession. He is also not happy that the judiciary has recently come under immense pressure from the general pervasive corruption in the Nigerian society with incredible cases of corruption capable of undermining the integrity of the profession and thereby eroding the confidence of the Nigerian people.

The problem, he said, is sensitive because the judiciary remains the hope of the common man. He is also happy with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, for her courageous efforts to rid the profession of the bad eggs because more than ever before, more judges and lawyers are facing disciplinary actions for various cases of professional misconduct and abuse of power, although some of them feel that it is coming rather too late when the more devastating culture of impunity has also crept into the legal profession.

Ugwummadu is happily married to a lawyer, Abiola and the marriage is blessed with children.

Do you know…

Bill of rights: “… is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular…the spirit behind the declarations in the bill of rights of various governments, where such bills have been promulgated, was to eschew arbitrariness, despotism, absolutism or dictatorship:”

See Onwo v. Oko [1999] 6 NWLR (Pt. 456) 584 @ 603, [C.A.].

LAW 71

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

LawReport Only family head, principal members can validly dispose family land (2) In the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, In the Akure Judicial Division, Holden at Akure on Thursday, November 29, 2012, Before their lordships: Kudirat M. O. Kekere-Ekun Justice, Court of Appeal; Chima Centus Nweze, Justice, Court of Appeal; Chinwe Eugenia Iyizoba, Justice, Court of Appeal; CA/B/133/2005 Between Bishop C.A. Ajayi (plaintiff/appellant) and 1.Oladapo Agidi 2. Ijagbemi (defendants/respondents).

OUNSEL noted that the appellant did not deem it necessary to call of these people to give evidence of traditional history of the land in dispute. Indeed, if any of them had come forward to testify, a case would have been made out against the appellant.

It was observed that exhibit “A”, which the appellant tendered at the lower court, is a registrable instrument. The appellant pleaded it in his Statement of Claim. It was admitted and marked exhibit “A”. He observed that Exhibit “A” was executed in 1973 by the parties to the Deed of Conveyance. The instrument was not registered. He urged the court to dismiss the appeal and declare the exhibit “A” void.

It was submitted that the respondents had relied on exhibits D1-D3 as their proof of title, page 22, paragraph 2 of the record. These exhibits had shown that the respondents’ vendor was Chief Molik Aminu who was the head of Osolo/Atantuyin family. On this score, it was further submitted that the status of the respondents’ vendors was well stated that they acted for and on behalf of the entire Osolo/Atantuyin families. In his reply, also treated as having been argued, the appellant, substantially reproduced the arguments earlier canvassed in the main brief.

As noted earlier, three issues were formulated in the appellant’s brief of argument. They had been set out earlier. We have considered the two sets of issues formulated by the parties in this appeal. We settle for the three issues, which the appellant put forward. This appeal will, therefore, be determined based on them. After all, it is the appellant’s appeal.

We shall take them in the order in which they were presented in the appellant’s brief. As noted, the appellant’s contention was that exhibit “A” was tendered, simply to establish a personal contract between himself and Chief Ajongbolo, whom he described as “the head of Atuntuyin family of Akure”.

The lower court, in its judgment, made findings regarding the above exhibit: findings that contradicted the appellant’s claim that Mr. Ajongbolo sold the land on behalf of the family.

By these findings, the main building blocks in the architecture of the edifice of the appellant’s case at

C

Justice Bulkachuwa Acting PCA the lower court were defenestrated. Both in his Statement of Claim and his evidence, he maintained that Mr. Ajongbolo was the head of the Atantuyin family.

On the other hand, the first ground of appeal, from which the first issue was formulated, impugned the alleged error of the lower court for not adverting to the fact that an alienation of equitable interest in land does not prevent the owner from claiming for a declaration of title to a statutory right of occupancy in respect of the same land. Learned counsel for the appellant argued that the above exhibit was tendered as “evidence of acknowledgment of personal contract of payment of money and coupled with specific performance by Chief Ajongbolo the head of Atantuyin family of Akure.

Now, it is true that a purchase receipt, which is sought to be put in evidence as a mere acknowledgment of payment, and not as an instrument affecting land is admissible, Ogunbambi v Abowab (1951) 13 WACA 222, 224.

Again, this contention glosses over the fact that the ingredients of a valid sale under customary law of the said land were neither pleaded nor established in evidence, namely, the payment of the purchase price and handing over of the physical possession of the land, both, in the presence of witnesses, Etajata v Olagbo (supra) at 1017; Adedeji v Olaso (2007) 29 NSCQR 888, 921-923.

The net effect of it all is that the appellant did not prove that Chief Ajongbolo acted as head of the Atantuyin family. As the lower court, indeed, found, the Chief acted for himself. This brings us to the contention of the respondents (page 6 of the brief) on the sale of family property. At page 52 of the record, the lower court had held it to be ‘an elementary principle of law that in disposing of a family land, the family head and one or other principle member or

members of the family can do so on behalf of the family.”

We entirely agree that this proposition is elementary, indeed. The decisions of the point are legion. The date back to the decision of the West African Court of Appeal in Agbloe v Sappor (1947) 12 WACA 187.

Teriba v Adeyemi (2010) 13 NWLR (pt 1211) 242; Otado v Josiah (2010) 18 NWLR (pt 1225) 653, these case have, consistently, maintained that the alienation of family property without the consent of the family head is void ab initio.

There are equally numerous authorities for the view that an alienation of family property by the family head without the concurrence of the principal members renders the sale voidable at the instance of such members, Esan v Faro 12 WACA 135; Mogaji v Nuga (1960) 5 FSC 107.

Thus, he was required to plead and prove: who founded the land; how they founded it and the particulars of the intervening owners through whom he claimed, Anabaronye v Nwakaihe (1997) 1 NWLR 9 pt 482); Mogaji v Cadbury (Nig) Ltd (1985) 2 NWLR (pt 7) 393; Elegbushi v Oseni (2005) 14 NWLR (pt 94500 348.

In answer, therefore, to this issue, we hold that since the lower court found that, in exhibit “A”, the said Chief Ajongbolo purportedly sold the said land as bona fide owner; he was not acting on behalf of the family. In other words, the appellant did not prove that Chief Ajongbolo acted as head of the Atantuyin Family. As the lower court, indeed, found, the Chief acted for himself. We agree with the court’s position that if the land Chief Ajongbolo sold was family property, the sale must be voided because the said Chief was not proved to be the head of the family. We, therefore, find no merit in the contention that exhibit “A” was tendered as “evidence of acknowledgment of personal contract of payment of money and coupled with specific performance

by Chief Ajongbolo the head of Atantuyin family of Akure”.

Finally, having failed to establish his root of title, the appellant’s claim of acts of ownership and possession are, equally, bound to collapse. Thus, his contention that he was in possession, having deposited ten thousand blocks on the land, would, also, be unavailing, Odofin v Ayoola (1984) 11 SC 72, 116; Mogaji v Cadbury (supra) 158.

On issue two, it was submitted on page 8 of the brief, that the evidence of DW1 was at variance with the respondents’ pleadings, citing the evidence of Chief Ogunleye Adebusuyi, the Elegiri of Osolo.

In all, therefore, in respect of actions for declaration of title, facts must be proved by evidence even if they have been admitted in the Statement of Defence, Bello v Eweka (1981) LPELR-SC. 90/1979.

According to Eso JSC (who went the way of all

mortals recently), it would be a wrong exercise of discretion on the part of a court, which is aware of the issues of competing interest joined by the parties, to close its eyes, against those issues, and award declaration to a plaintiff who had adduced no evidence in regard thereto. In His Lordship’s view, to shift the onus to the defendant, at that stage, would be awarding declaration, not on the strength of the plaintiff’s case but, on the weakness of the defendant’s case. The net effect, therefore, is that we find no merit on the appellant’s contention on this point.

We entirely agree with the appellant’s submission that evidence which is contrary to the pleadings goes to no issue, Ojiogu v Ojiogu (2010) 9 NWLR (pt 1198) 1; Adekeye v Adesina (2010) 18 NWLR (pt 1225) 449; Chabasaya v Anwasi (2010) 10 NWLR (pt 1201) 163; S. S. GMBTH v T.D. Ind. Ltd (2010) 11 NWLR (pt 1206) 589; Obineche v Akusobi (2010) 12 NWLR (pt 1208) 383.

However, the fact remains that in claim, such as this, the plaintiff will succeed based on the strength of his case, Orlu v Gogo-Abite (2010) 8 NWLR (pt 1196) 307; Nwokidu v Okanu (2010) 3 NWLR (pt 1181) 362. Hence, where his evidence is unsatisfactory, as the lower court found in this case, his action is bound to fail.

With regard to issue three, it was contended that the lower court “raised the issue of the family status of the appellant as regards Oba Osupa, the Deji of Akure, without giving the appellant a hearing on the issue”.

Certainly, the charge that the lower court “coined and manufactured” submissions is a very grave allegation. It is, indeed, scandalous that learned counsel for the appellant thought it fit to level such a heavy accusation against the lower court without affording it the opportunity to responding to it. This, to say the least, is abhorrent and unethical. Our understanding of the law is that the integrity and sanctity of court proceedings, including judgments and rulings, are presumed until the contrary is proved, Odiase v Agha (1972) 1 All NLR (pt 1) 170; Fororunsho v Adeyemi (1975) 1 NMLR 128; Balogun v Adejobi (1995) 2 NWLR (pt 376) 131.

In our understanding, it is this principle that dictated the rule that the court and parties are bound by the records as certified: certified records which are presumed correct unless the contrary is proved, Gonze (Nig) Ltd v NERDC (2005) 13 NWLR 9pt 943) 643, 646.

In all, we find no merit in the appellant’s complaints in this appeal. We hold that this appeal must be, and is hereby, dismissed for lacking in merit. N30,000 costs in favour of the respondents in this appeal. We, hereby, enter an order affirming the judgment of Fagbe J. delivered on February 17, 2005, just three days after the Saint Valentine’s feast day of that year of Gregorian cal-

Constitutional engineering basis for making welfare of the people sacrosanct Matters arising

By MacDonald Enwere CCORDING to Schattschneider, the hallmark of democracy is the protection of the interest of the people, placing the general aspiration of the people at the centre of democratic priority. Such aspiration and interest are further observed in the constitution, which are the grundnorm and the supreme law of the land. Such interest and the general wellbeing of the people are strictly protected by the government and its institutions. The actions and activities of the government as an institution in guaranteeing the interest of the people is governed and directed by constitution.

Democracy as a system of government, which places sovereignty on the people is incomplete without securing the social welfare of the people.

A

The notion of the welfare of the people as an object of governance has, as a matter of fact, passed through a historical period. It first began with the ideology of Republicanism, which emerged in the 18th Century following the French Revolution of 1789.

Republicanism as an ideology conceived government as the exercise of power not for its own sake or for the selfish aggrandisement of the rulers but for the general welfare of the whole masses. Before the 20th Century, securing the socio-economic welfare of the people was regarded and viewed as none of the state’s business. Not until after the 1st and 2nd world war, the socio-economic effects of those wars proved to be a catalyst, triggered by the Russian Revolution of 1917, which brought into existence the world’s first socialist state- a state in which the demands and aspirations of the downtrodden exploited

Mark masses on the state for social amenities and socio-economic rights. Also, social protection against the exploiting bourgeois class was avowed as an implicit principle and was also accordingly enshrined into the state status

law as part of its ideology and socioeconomic objectives.

However, the Russian socialist state with the socialist socio-economic ideology enshrined in its 1918 Constitution was as a matter of expediency expanded into the extensive Soviet Union. Also, the years after the end of the 2nd world war witnessed the evolution in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world the socialist states built around the same ideology of the principle of “social welfare” of the downtrodden and other dividends derivable from liberal and social democracy.

This, however, formed the basis of its constitutional engineering.

Countries in the Western democracies have in one way or the other guaranteed through constitutional means the socio-economic right of their citizens. Example is the 1946 Constitution of the 4th French

Republic, 1947 Constitution of Italy, 1948 Constitution of India etc.

The 1918 Constitution of the former Soviet Union provided a constitutional framework for the socio-economic rights of the people unleashed since its 1917 revolution. This constitutional ideology of “Socio-economic principle for the people” was further preserved in the 1918 Soviet Constitution, 1924 and 1936 USSR Constitution. The above socio-economic principle was equally observed in the 1978 and 1984 Chinese Constitution. The 1956 Egyptian Constitution, 1926 Saudi Arabian Constitution, 1973 Pakistani Constitution, 1979 Iranian Constitution embraced the ideology of provision of socio-economic right for the people but they unfortunately came under strain due to their inability to recognise the religious makeup of the people of these countries. Some CONTINUED ON PAGE 73

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

72 LAW

FamilyLaw

Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we falter.

——- Brad Henry

Childcare in modern society RE-SCHOOL is often the term used to refer to P child care centers that care primarily for three and four- year- old children. Preschool can be based in a center, family childcare home or a public school. Head Start is a federally funded program for low income children ages three and four and their families.

Similarly Early Head Start serves low income children birth to three years of age. The cost for the Head Start programme is estimated at $9,000 per child. Head Start program provides federal grants directly to local agencies to provide comprehensive child development services for low-income children and families.

Today, Head Start serves more than one million low-income children. Head Start programs aim to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families.

Infants may also be cared for in infant and child care centres.

Resources for Infant Educarers is a non-profit world-wide organization, founded by the late Magda Gerber, a specialist in Infant Care.

Another method of childcare is for before and/or after school: the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) program. There are buses that bring the child to the location. YMCA website claims that its programmes are staffed with people who understand the cognitive, physical and social development of kids, the need children have to feel connected and supported in trying new things, and the caring and reinforcement parents and families need to help each other. The YMCA aims to enable

preschoolers to experience early literacy and learn about their world, and school-age kids make friends, learn new skills and do homework.

Regardless of type of care chosen, a quality care provider should provide children with (a) light, bright and clean areas to play as well as separate sleeping and eating areas and (b) be the kind of person you can have confidence in leaving your child with. Most western countries also have compulsory education during which the great majority of children are at school starting from five or six years of age.

The school will act in loco parentis meaning “in lieu of parent supervision”.

In many locales, government is responsible for monitoring the quality of care. For instance, in Scotland Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education is responsible for improving care and education for children from birth to eighteen. This is implemented by inspections carried out by HMIE itself or by other members of inspection and review teams. Inspection reports include feedback from staffers and parents as well as the inspectors, aiming to provide parents and care givers information to help them decide whether a particular child care setting is providing good quality child care and meeting government standards.

Informal childcare is a variation of childcare that utilizes family members as a childcare system, for example grandparents and siblings. Informal childcare is an especially inexpensive form of childcare, and is utilized typically by those who are considered poor.

Parents may need to utilize informal care for a

variety of reasons. Typically informal childcare is necessary for families who do not have enough funds to finance placing their children in a more expensive childcare facility. Those low income families are also more apt to work longer hours on an irregular and inflexible schedule, which ultimately makes using a childcare facility that has regular business hours unlikely.

A study done by Roberta Iversen and Annie Armstrong explains that due to long and irregular working hours, sometimes including evenings and weekends, poor parents are more likely to utilize informal childcare.

Unlike those children who receive centre-based or home-based childcare, those children who receive informal childcare do not receive the same educational preparation and school readiness that centre-based and home based children receive. In his book Social Inequality and Social Stratification in US Society, sociologist Christopher Doob finds that poor children are less likely to attend the centre-based and home based childcare programs, which Doob finds that informal care thus results in the less developed school-related skills children

need.

Doob concludes that due to a lack of financial capital, poor families are thus subject to substandard amounts of human capital, which results in lower quality childcare programs, and ultimately leaves children at a cognitive disadvantage.

YOU AND THE LAW —-With Dupe Ajayi Fundamental human rights and remedy for possible breach (2) The Scenario N the first part of this article, IRights Remedy to Fundamental Human (1), published last week, we listed the three stages by which an aggrieved person may apply for damages for the breach of his fundamental rights as guaranteed under the constitution. We have discussed the first stage and identified the nature of the remedy or redress available to an aggrieved applicant at that level. This (second) part will focus on the two other stages of remedy available to the applicant.

The second stage at which a person may apply to enforce his fundamental right is the time when the right is being infringed, that is, when the alleged infringement is in progress, on-going or continuing. For instance, in our example to the breach of right to personal liberty used in the first part of this topic, the second stage here will mean that the aggrieved person is still in detention. The available remedy at this stage will be an order of the court to stop the continuing infringement and in the example given, an order to release the applicant from detention.

At this stage, time is of the essence so as to prevent further infringement of the applicant from detention and it requires that the proceedings of the courts leading to the obtaining of the redress should be fast. This accounts for the making of the special rules of procedures for the enforcement of fundamental rights. The current Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure (FREP) Rules 2009 is an

improvement on the earlier one of 1979.

The current FREP Rules aims at fasttracking the proceedings of fundamental rights cases. This objective is to be achieved by adopting the two devices below: The first device being that the FREP Rules approves of the use of originating application as opposed to a Writ of Summons for all cases of fundamental rights action. This departs from the usual practice where the use of originating application is limited to cases where facts, which the courts will pronounce upon are not in dispute. The major advantage is that it is time-effective. This is because the case will be decided upon affidavit evidence, therefore, it will eliminate the need for witnesses of parties to go into the witness box to give evidence and be cross-examined with its attendant delay as is experienced in cases initiated by a writ of summons and statement of claims. All the applicant need to do is to file all the required processes including the written address while the respondent is to file his own counter affidavit along with a written address.

The other device adopted by the FREP Rules to ensure expeditious disposal of human rights cases is to give a short time within which certain steps are to be taken. For instance, the respondent is to file his response within five days under Order 11, Rule 6 of the FREP Rules 2009, while the court is given only seven days to hear the application after all the processes have been filed. The rules also allow the court to deem a process adopted

if a party fails to appear before the court to prove or argue the case.

In spite of the novel objective of the FREP Rules to fasttrack cases brought under it, Fundamental rights action still take longer time for their hearing and determination because of the congestion of court lists and some other related issues.

Another remedy that an applicant can apply for at this stage is an order to restrain further violation of the right of the applicant.

The third stage at which a party can seek remedy for breach of fundamental right is the stage at which the right has not yet been breached but the breach is anticipated, where it is looming, where it is impending. Here, it means the applicant is being proactive to prevent the breach. The available remedy at this stage is to obtain an order of the court to restrain the conduct or action, which the applicant anticipates will result in breach, pending the determination of the court whether the alleged conduct or act will result in breach of the right of the applicant.

For instance, where a party is served with a notice to acquire his landed property and the party is of the opinion that due process has not been fol-

lowed or that the reason for the acquisition is not premised on the constitutionally required over-riding p u b l i c interest or if a party is served with an invitation from the police for an alleged offence and the party anticipates that the invitation will lead to his arrest and undue detention, such party can approach the court for an order of court preventing the police from arresting or detaining the applicant in any manner inconsistent with his fundamental right to personal liberty. This simply implies that if the person is arrested, he should either be released or charged within the constitutionally stipulated period of 24 to 48 hours.

At this juncture, it is note-worthy that the remedy available at this stage is the most abuse by applicants. Sometimes, a party obtains an order of court to restrain his arrest perpetually, whereas, there s no such remedy under the constitution, a person can prevent his arrest and detention in a particular manner that breaches his right but not a blanket order that prevents his arrest. Some applicants also obtain orders to prevent arrest with the ultimate objective of covering up some facts during the period the order is subsisting or to frustrate successful investigation into his misdeeds. It our view that one way to cure this abuse is for the court to be on guard and uncompromising such that an applicant for such a remedy must place tangible evidence before the court to support the application of the breach.

Also, such a remedy should rarely be granted ex-parte, that is, without putting the other party on notice and affording an opportunity to oppose the ground of the relief.

NDIC holds seminar for its external solicitors IGERIA Deposit Insurance Lagos.

Corporation (NDIC) will hold a According to the statement, the N seminar for external solicitors on main objective of the seminar is to Thursday, May 23, 2013 at 8. 30a.m.

In a circular signed by the Head of its Communication and Public Affairs Unit, H. S. Birchi, the one-day event will be hosted at the Colanades Hotels, No. 21, Alfred Rewane Road, (formerly Kingsway Road), Ikoyi,

sensitize the participants on the uniqueness of bank insolvency regime and also to address the misconceptions on the status of the NDIC as liquidator, which is separate and distinct from its role as deposit insurer.

LAW 73

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, 21, 2013

S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria, Vols. 1 & 2 Book Review

By David Ezaga

1,597 pages, plus 176 Roman numerals Chapters: 21 Author: Sebastine T. Hon, (SAN) Publishers: Pearl Publishers, 12/14 Njemanze Street, Port Harcourt Year and date of publication: October 2012 Price: Not stated HE Book, ‘S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria, Vols. I and II,’ which is boldly stated on its cover to be based on the Nigerian Evidence Act, 2011, has no doubt redefined the substantive and procedural law of evidence in Nigeria.

As stated in its preface, the book is an offshoot of the author’s previous publication, which was widely accepted as one of the most authoritative books on the law of evidence, which was then christened ‘Law of Evidence in Nigeria: Substantive and Procedural,’ published in 2006.

The need to give a new title to this 2012 publication, according to the author, is that the Evidence Act, 2011, has introduced bold and radical provisions not found in the repealed Evidence Act, 2004.

Written in clear and well-edited English, S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria, I must emphatically state, remains one of the most convincing texts on the subject matter, which should be a source material for all practitioners of law, the academia, the bench, researchers and all persons that have interest in reading.

Of all the topics treated by the author, Chapter 7, which deals with Computer and Electronically Generated Evidence is the most germane, given the longstanding thirst experienced by practitioners in the field, vis-à-vis its importance not only to the daily life of humanity but also its centrality in almost all written transactions and communications. The author, on page 468 of the book, has clearly stated that section 84 of the Nigerian Evidence Act, 2011, which deals with admissibility of computer-generated evidence, was lifted verbatim from section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, as amended and was a substantial reproduction of section 69 of the English Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984.

Because of its foreign roots, the interpretation of section 84 of the Nigerian Act, according to the author, must per force draw strength from decisions of English and Indian courts. And the author has made good this realisation, by sourc-

T

ing for, relying on and explaining several decisions of English, Indian, American and Canadian courts with respect to the admissibility of computer evidence. To prove the author’s quest for currency and his knack for deep research, the Nigerian Supreme Court decision on admissibility of computer evidence, in the case of Kubor vs. Dickson, unreported, decided on 25/10/2012, even though was made just when the book was being printed, was included and discussed in the preface to the book.

Important topics like admissibility of evidence generated by/from the computer; private documents sourced from the computer; public documents sourced from the computer; accuracy of the computer from which evidence was sourced and is being tendered; the role of experts in generation and tendering of computer evidence; hearsay and computer-generated evidence; evidence from networked computers; admissibility of documents generated by emails and website postings/pages; evidence from GSM telephones and ATM machines; admissibility of evidence generated by/from traffic lights and stop watches; admissibility of faxed messages; documents bearing e-signatures; evidence of things seen through telescopes and binoculars; admissibility of tapes (video and audio), etc., have all been discussed with the backing of judicial decisions delivered up to 2012!

One other area the Nigerian Evidence Act, 2011, has introduced radical changes is in the provisions dealing with admissibility of confessions.

Many practitioners, it must be assumed, still labour under the misconception that the provisions of Section 29 of the Act dealing with confessions are the same with Section 28 dealing with the same subject matter under the repealed Evidence Act. However, the author has clearly shown that there are radical amendments introduced by section 29 of the new Act, which section, according to him on page 232 of the book, is a complete replication of section 76 of the English Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984. This has made the author introduce a great deal of English decisions which were based on the provisions of section 76 of the said PACE Act, 1984, to aid in interpretation of section 29 of the Nigerian Act. Some of the nagging differences between section 28 of the repealed Act and section 29 of the 2011 Act have been highlighted by the author on pages 230-231 thus: It must be noted that by not reenacting the

word “inducement,” the legislature has clearly evinced an intention to discountenance the inducement of a defendant to make a confession as a vitiating factor that would render inadmissible such confession. Also not reenacted, and therefore no more vitiating factors, are “promise” and “having reference to the charge against the accused person.

The removal of the latter phrase from the provisions of section 29 means a confession will, if voluntary, be admissible, notwithstanding that it had, at the time it was made, no relationship with the charge subsequently proffered against the defendant.

The author has also, with the aid of very recent decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, exhaustively treated admissibility of evidence in land litigation. This effort stands out for at least two reasons: First, is the importance and even centrality of land litigation in Nigerian courts. Secondly, there is presumably no other text book in Nigeria so far that has treated distinctly admissibility of evidence in land matters; because all we have are separate text books on land law (without admissibility of evidence on the topic being considered or treated) and on law of evidence generally (without evidence in land litigation being considered at all). This unique and ingenious touch on this otherwise important aspect of practice in

Constitutional engineering basis for making welfare of the people sacrosanct CONTINUED FROM PAGE 71 other constitutions of the world equally accommodated the ideology of “socio-economic welfare” of the citizens, as a social right.

They include the short-lived 1931 Spanish Constitution, 1937 Constitution of Republic of Ireland as amended in 1972, 1953 Danish Constitution, the Hybrid 1958 fifth French Constitution, 1960 Cyprus Constitution, 1971 Yugoslavian Constitution, 1949 Bonn Constitution, the earlier 1919 Weimar Constitution, 1968 Cook Island Constitution and 1919 Luxembourg Constitution. The constitution-making of most African countries guaranteed this social welfare of the people. Thus, government built by the people and administered by the people for the social welfare of the people is absolutely confirmed as a regulatory framework of the democratic state established by the independence constitutions of most French-speaking African countries – 1959 Constitution of Central African Republic, 1963 Constitution of Congo Brazzaville, 1964 Constitution of Benin. 1960 Constitution of Cote D’Ivoire, 1964 Constitution of Gabon, 1960 Constitution on Mali, 1958 Constitution of Guinea, 1960 Constitution of Niger, 1960 Constitution of Rwanda and Burkina Faso. All the constitutions of these countries were re-enacted after their independence as democratic constitution. Even in Nigeria, it was provided and reorganised in chapter II, sec 14(2b) of its 1999 constitutions. Sec 41(1) of the 1996 transition constitution of South Africa in the same way provides that “All organs of govern-

ment shall ensure the wellbeing of the people” Article 36 of the 1996 Constitution of Ghana and Article 215 of the 1996 of the constitution of Gambia categorically admits that” the most secure democracy is the one that ensures the basic necessity of life for its citizens as a fundamental duty”. Article 55 and 56 of the United Nations Charter on Human and Economic rights re-organised the welfare of the people as a cardinal point of respect. Article 22-27 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Right made the social and economic right of the people a paramount factor. International and Regional Human rights laws also reorganised the socio-economic welfare of the people. These laws include the African Charter on Human and People’s Right (Banjul Charter) International Covenant on Civil and Political Right, European Convention on Human Right and American Convention on Human Right. It was also recognised in the 1789 Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen, a key document of French Revolution.

These constitutional provisions of the socio-economic welfare of the people were further elaborated in the constitution of Nigeria, Ghana and Gambia as “Fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy”. This principle was brought in Africa through the concept of Democratisation. It has been enshrined in democratic constitutions of 10 other African countries as a portentous constitutional innovation, the 1991 Constitution of Zambia, 1992 constitution of Ghana, the1990 Constitution of Gambia, the 1995

Constitution of Uganda, the 1984 Constitution of Tanzania, 1992 constitution of Malawi, the 1993 Constitution of Lesotho, 1998 Constitution of Sudan, 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leon and 1997 Constitution of Eritrea.

As a fundamental objective of a state, it is substantial to look into what is required of government in guaranteeing this principle as enshrined in the above constitutions. The state is mandated to channel its policy towards providing for the citizens the following: shelter, health facilities, social facilities for religious and cultural wellbeing of the citizens. The state is also expected to focus its polities on the provision of palatable livelihood and suitable employment for all citizens. This can be in the form of unemployment benefit, minimum living wage, old age care and pension, bursary for students. The citizens should be protected against any exploitation whatever and against moral and material neglect. There should be a conducive economic atmosphere to guarantee a maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equity of status and opportunity. It is against this established premise that all organs of government and its institutions are required as a matter of constitutional expediency to adhere to, observe and apply these principles.

It is unfortunate to say that the objective and directive principles of state policy enshrined in the transition constitution of most African countries as stated there-above remain to all intents and purposes a more con-

Nigeria is, therefore, worth commending. Call such effort the fons et origo (that is the source) and you will not be far from the truth.

One other area of crucial importance in both legal research and practice, which has been lavishly considered in S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria, is admissibility or otherwise of documentary evidence. This is another area the author has, utilising both old and very current (up to October, 2012) decisions of superior courts of record in Nigeria and elsewhere, shown clear and unenviable exertion of energy.

This is the longest of all the Chapters – spanning about 213 pages – from page 831 to page 1044.

Again, in an unprecedented manner, apart from considering settled principles/subtopics under this Chapter, the author has quite ingeniously explored ‘virgin’ areas, such as admissibility of documents executed by dumb persons; admissibility of documents executed by persons without hands; admissibility and evidential value of proofs of evidence; admissibility and evidential value of police case diaries; admissibility of documents from public archives; admissibility of private newspapers and magazines (and the question whether such are private or public documents); admissibility of registered deeds of conveyance; exceptions to the exclusion of oral evidence by documentary evidence; admissibility of minutes of meetings; etc. As simple or general as these innovations look, no author, to the best of my knowledge, has considered and treated these topics in any text on evidence in Nigeria. I stand to be challenged on this bold assertion!

One other important subtopic treated very deeply, I daresay, unprecedentedly, by the author is the frontloading device in civil proceedings before the High Courts. Dedicating over 40 pages to this topic under Chapter One of the book, the author has again proved his deep research credentials by supplying well over 40 current decisions of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and English Courts on the frontloading system of civil justice. Most enticing is the way he has sub-divided the subtopic – into definition of frontloading; cross-examination under frontloading; mandatory nature of frontloading; frontloading and pleadings; frontloading and subpoenas; notice to produce and frontloading, exceptions to frontloading, etc. Again, I must confess that I have not sighted any law textbook that has considered and treated the frontloading device like S.T. Hon’s Law of Evidence in Nigeria.

stitutional provision, which only exist at the pages of those constitution, they have hardly any existence as an active principles in the societal governance.

The ideology of the welfare state remains an illusion in African countries.

In Nigeria, the only implementation of those objective and directive principles of state policy are the universal basic education scheme, poverty alleviation scheme, telecommunications develop-

ment. But these measures have no much significance due to their wrong conception or pervasion and corrupt nature of their executions.

This principle of social welfare should provide a directional and guiding force for democratic obligation as owed by the government to the people.

• Enwere is a human rights activist and a jurisprudential socio-political analyst.

Making case for judicial clerks in Nigeria (3) Matters arising

By Olusoji Omole N Germany, there are two different Iwho, kinds of law clerks. Students of law after law school, have passed the first of two required examinations join the Referendariat, a time of two years consisting of a series of clerkships: for a civil law judge, a criminal law judge or a prosecutor, a government office and finally at a law firm. This clerkship is not to be confused with an internship since it is a paid position that is regulated by law .In the Federal Supreme Courts and the office of the Federal Prosecutor General, the duties of law clerks are performed by wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter (“scientific assistant”). With a few exceptions, they are lower court judges or civil servants, assigned for a period of three years to the respective Federal Court, and their clerkships serve as a qualification for a higher judgeship. However, some justices of the Federal Constitutional Court (who have the right to select their wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter personally) prefer clerks from outside the courts or the civil service, especially those who are or were professors of law and who often hire people from

academia (sometimes even young law professors). The clerks of the Federal Constitutional Court are deemed very influential and are therefore dubbed the (unofficial) Dritter Senat (“Third Senate”) as opposed to the two official “senates” of 8 justices each, which form the court.

For India law graduates from the country’s best law schools go through a competitive process to get accepted as law clerks. The Supreme Court of India and several High Courts of India offer paid law clerkships that are considered very prestigious. These clerkships usually last for one year and may be extended at the discretion of individual judges. The Registry of the Supreme Court of India invites applications in January each year for ‘law clerk-cum research assistant’ positions. The selected applicants are then allocated to work under the sitting judges of the Supreme Court.

Usually, one ‘law clerk’ is assigned to each judge for one year, though some justices are known to engage two or more law clerks at a time.

The ‘law clerks’ usually begin their oneyear service period in July each year, soon after the completion of the LL.B. degree, though there have been instances of ‘law clerks’ serving after having accumulated some work experience.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

74

Sports Confederations Cup is not our priority, says Amodu From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja EWLY appointed Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Shaibu Amodu says the FIFA Confederations Cup should not be used as a yardstick to rate or determine the standard of the Super Eagles.

The NFF technical director, who spoke at the NFF Secretariat in Abuja yesterday, told the Super Eagles to concentrate on the two World Cup qualifiers in the busy June schedule as it would be better for Nigeria to qualify for the Mundial than doing well at the Confederations Cup at the expense of the country’s Brazil 2014 ambitions.

He urged the Super Eagles to use both the Confederations Cup and the international friendly against Mexico as preparation for the task of securing the World Cup ticket.

Amodu, who passed a vote of confidence on the performance of Nigerian players in Europe in the 2012/2013 league seasons, especially Chelsea duo of John Mikel Obi and Victor Moses, said it has never been so good for them in the recent past.

“It will certainly give them psychological boost. Honestly, never in the history of our football have we had it so good in the recent past with regards

to our players doing well at various levels than this year.

So, it is really a plus for Nigerian football. I don’t have fears but I am full of expectations.

“This is because having come back from the Nations Cup, this is another platform and level entirely. I think that the technical crew must have sat back to take inventories properly, realise what happened during the Nations Cup, inspective of whether Nigeria won or not and situate it properly against the future challenges.

“It begins with the Confederations Cup, but it should not be a platform or yardstick to determine what the national team should be. It is not even a competition to prepare the team for better assessment. World Cup qualifying games are most crucial and I think that they should concentrate more in World Cup qualifiers instead of placing too much emphasis on the Confederations Cup,” he noted.

Amodu added that the thing about the national team is “there is a mixed grill of fresh legs both from home-based and foreign professionals with the ones that prosecuted the Nations Cup. For me, it is like forming a new team again.

games this weekend at the Savannah Conference of the DSTV Basketball League, While Bauchi Nets and Nigeria Immigration shared the spoils.

Playing in front of home fans, Pillars took Niger Potters to the cleaners in both games. The first one ended 91-60, while the second one, which was a low scoring game, ended 53-47.

The Potters did well defensively in the second game but could not score the necessary points to win.

Pillars are riding high in the Savannah Conference and would hope to continue in that stride, as they aim to reclaim the title they lost three seasons ago.

Newcomers, Markmentors of Abuja also defeated Kada Stars of Kaduna in both games with the first one ending 90-63 while the second ended 6864. Plateau Peaks also defeated Yelwa Hawks of Bauchi 87-42 and 68-64.

Though, it is still early days, Plateau Peaks are putting themselves in contention for the Conference’s final

in the first game while Immigration won the second 72-70.

The introduction of two games every weekend for each team will see the teams playing more games for the first time in the history of the DSTV Basketball League. Action resumes this weekend in the Atlantic and Savannah Conferences.

N

Action from on going DSTV Basketball League

Everton wants Onazi, Oboabona may join Newcastle

CHAN Qualifier: Eagles hosts Cote d’Ivoire July 6 with the return leg in Democratic Republic of IGERIA’S Super Eagles Nwill host the Elephants of Abidjan to take place Congo emerging champiRITISH media report that DSTV PBL: Kano Pillars, others win between July 6 and 7. ons, while Tunisia was triCote d’Ivoire between July 6 B Everton wants to lure four.

However, Nigeria’s triumphant at the second ediand 7 in the first of a two-leg

By Adeyinka Adedipe Super Eagles’ midfielder, In the last game of the umph at the Africa Cup of tion staged by Sudan in 2011. qualifying fixture for next ANO Pillars Basketball Ogenyi Onazi, to the English Nations in South Africa earliThe biennial competition year’s African Nations K Club, Markmentors and Conference, Bauchi Nets Premiership as they rebuild defeated Immigration 75-74 er this year made the Super had to give way this year Championship, the Plateau Peaks won their two Confederation of African Football (CAF) has decided.

In a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), CAF also stated that the return leg, billed for the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, would come up between July 27 and 28.

The first leg of this qualifying fixture was earlier billed for between June 21 and 23

Eagles eligible for the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, which will be on between June 15 and 30.

Nigeria has never played in the African Nations Championship, which is the continental tournament for players based on the African continent.

The first edition was staged

by Cote d’Ivoire in 2009 with

after CAF moved the Africa Cup of Nations from even to odd years. The third edition will now take place in South Africa early next year.

Next year’s showpiece will be the biggest in the competition’s history, with 16 teams to take part for the first time, double the number that took part in the first two championships.

IAAF Diamond League

Okagbare eyes top spot in 100, long jump

By Olalekan Okusan FTER finishing second in the 100 metres event of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League held in Shanghai, China, Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare is now in pole position for the jackpot in the event and the long jump.

Few days ago, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games bronze medalist at the IAAF Diamond League held

A

in Doha, Oatar, set a new African long jump record of 7.14 metres to finish second behind America’s Brittney Reese, who jumped 7.25 metres.

In the second leg of the Diamond League at the weekend, Jamaica’s ShellyAnn Fraser-Pryce, who ran 10.93 seconds to beat Okagbare and the defending world champion, Carmelita Jeter, who pulled up at the finish with an apparent leg

injury in the women’s 100 metres.

The African queen of the track ran 11 seconds to be listed second in the Diamond League standing with two points behind Fraser-Pryce, who has garnered four points.

In the long jump event, Okagbare is second with two points behind United States’ Reese, who has four points.

Botswana’s Amantle Montsho is topping the

women 400 metres chart with four points with America’s Allyson Felix closely following her.

Aside South Africa’s Cornel Fredericks, who is listed in the men’s 400 metres table, no African made the list in the sprint event, while Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the long distance standings.

The third leg of the Diamond League is the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on Friday.

their team following the departure of Manager, David Moyes to Manchester United.

Moyes is expected top take along with him midfielder, Maroaune Fellani, and defender, Lighton Baines.

The Toffees are reportedly close to concluding talks on the 20-year-old, but they will have to pay at least than €5.5m to take him away from Serie A club, Lazio.

According to Mercato, Everton have already contacted Lazio regarding the midfielder, who has played nine times for Nigeria.

Onazi is far from a regular for Lazio, he has made just five appearances for the club in Serie A games, but he has been a regular for them in their Europa League campaign.

With South African, Daylon Claessen, already on trial at Goodison Park and transfer rumours linking Everton with a summer move for Real Betis midfielder, Juan Carlos in the summer, the possibility of the Africa Cup of Nations hero going to England is not being ruled out.

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

SPORTS 75

Massive 3X championship is coming to Nigeria, says NBA’s Fall

By Christian Okpara MADOU Gallo Fall is the A vice president of the NBA with the responsibility of overseeing the development of basketball in Africa. With his office in South Africa, Fall traverses the length and breadth of the continent in search of ways to grow the game at the grassroots level.

The former scout with the Dallas Mavericks is in Nigeria on a four-day working visit, which involves meeting stakeholders in the game with a view to finding ways of building on the blocks laid down by the country’s recent successes in the game.

Having been to virtually all the basketball-paling African nations, the tall, dark and eloquent Senegalese is of the opinion that Nigeria holds the basketball’s key to success in the continent. Most importantly, he believes that getting the youths acquainted with the game early in life would aid the development of the game. And to achieve this objective, the continent needs new heroes.

According to Fall, “the NBA wants to grow the game from the grassroots and we have been engaged in doing this since 1993. There is a long history with the continent, but

the aim is to get new Akeem Olajuwons, Obinna Ekezies and to do this, we need the cooperation of everybody involved in the game.

“In 2003, we started with the ‘Basketball Without Borders,’ where we bring NBA greats, coaches for a grassroots development programme that gives back to the community.

“We are a business enterprise and at the same time we try to develop the communities through exposure to basketball.”

Fall is thrilled by the bright future of the game in Africa, saying that basketball has grown in leaps and bounds in the continent since the NBA set up shop in South Africa.

“Today we have a full fledged league in South Africa, and we feel that if we can do it there, where the knowledge is still low, we can do better in a basketball country like Nigeria.

“Across the board, basketball is the number two sport in Africa. Another point of motivation is that we have seven players in the NBA, not counting on those born in the USA, who are playing for other countries. These players serve as role models to the young ones, who are the targets of most of programmes,” he said.

The NBA, according to Fall,

wants to ensure that the game is accessible to the people hence it is devising programmes and finding strategies that would make easier for everybody to play the game.

One of these strategies, he added, is the train the trainers’ programme, which focuses on training the coaches, who will in turn train the kids, who want to get into the game.

According to Fall, “we have a partnership that is community-based, which will be announced in the next three months.

“We will also introduce the 3X competition, which will involve all the African countries with then final holding in Nigeria towards the end of the year. The winner of the 3X competition will go to the U.S. to compete with other qualifiers from across the world.”

On the NBA’s relationship with the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Fall said he has been meeting with the leadership of the federation with a view to finding ways of building on the recent successes recorded by the country.

“The potential for basketball development in Africa is huge.

It was a great achievement getting two countries to the

NBA Vice President, Development In Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall.

Olympics in London, where we had concrete achievements with NBA players coming to play for Nigeria.

“Now, more of them want to play for their countries. We want to encourage the players based in Africa to up their game so that we can have better quality teams from the continent,” he disclosed.

Fall, who said Nigeria was chosen host the 3X championship in Lagos because of the enthusiasm shown by the

people and the availability of raw talents in the country, promised that the competition would be a massive event that would draw fans from within and outside Africa.

He added that the Basketball Without Borders, which will hold in South Africa later this year, would be a community outreach clinic for boys and girls, who would be mentored by some basketball icons.

“Our objective is also to draw the African players in the NBA and other big leagues back to the continent to invest in their communities.

“Today, Dikembe Mutombo has built a multimillion dollar hospital in Kinshasha, which is great for his people.

We want to encourage others to do such things for their communities by helping them to come back to the continent.”

Delta, Rivers, 10 others join Lagos for Channels National Kids’ Cup tourney

By Olalekan Okusan N its five seasons, the yearly Iment under-13 football tournais taking a large outlook

Action from the final of the 2012 Channels Kids’ Cup held at Agege Stadium.

PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI.

FMCG Games:

Dufil rules football, PZ dominates table tennis Z Cussons made up in P Table Tennis what their football team found tasking to achieve as the Hot Robb chaps grabbed two gold medals in the single and double categories of the ping pong event of the FMCG Games, which entered Match Day 2 last Sunday.

Following their surprise 4- 3 defeat in the opening football match to Dufil Prima, PZ Cussons returned last Sunday to seek redemption against GSK, but were unable to secure the victory they desired from the clash that ended nil all.

In the Table Tennis event, PZ Cussons, however, made a clean sweep of the men’s singles and doubles event with the Gold in singles won by Abiodun Lekuti, while Ibrahim Adeniji of Dufil Prima won the Silver and the

Bronze went to Razak Musediku of PZ Cussons.

Wasiu Lasisi and Abiodun Lekuji of PZ Cussons took Gold in the doubles and left the Silver for the pair of Yemi Ajibode and Sonowo Olusegun of GSK, while Okunade Adetunji and Azagba Sylvester of Dufil Prima claimed the bronze.

In the other football event, Dufil Prima emerged the team to beat as they put four goals past the Unilever side with Tunde Olabisi joining the Golden Boot chase with two strikes. One goal each from Abiodun Sanusi and Niyi Lasisi completed the goals haul for Dufil Prima, which now leads on the log with six points.

The finals of the FMCG Games come up this weekend at the University of Lagos Sports Complex.

with 12 states across the country joining the host– Lagos for the 2013 Channels National Kids’ Cup tournament.

States like Delta, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Rivers and Edo will converge in Lagos for this year’s tournament taking place at Teslim Balogun Stadium.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Channels Television, John Momoh believes the championship would continue to grow, adding that this year would witness the participation of teams from 12 states that would join the four qualified teams from Lagos in the competition.

Momoh, who spoke passionately about the tournament, affirmed the compa-

ny’s commitment to youth development, while charging the participants to embrace fair play during the championship.

“We are grateful to everybody that had supported and still backing the competition and we believe that each year, it will continue to grow. I want to emphasis that selfimprovement is very vital and the students must also realise that taking part in the competition is not all about sports alone, but an avenue to develop.

“So I want them to know that to be well groomed, sports and academics must go together. It is not how you start but how you finish and ability to constantly overcome adversity and failure is what matter. So I want to charge the participants to give their best as it is all about team work,” Momoh said.

In his remarks, Chairman, Lagos State Football Association (LAFA), Seyi Akinwunmi lauded Channels

for keeping faith with the tournament, while urging other corporate bodies to emulate the company.

The LSFA boss assured of their support to the competition, while promising to assist in keeping data of all the participants.

Explaining the rationale behind the selection of teams from the states, LSFA Vice Chairman, Tade Azeez said invitations were sent to the

states and the 12 states were the ones that showed interest in taking part in the competition.

For the Lagos teams, he said over 44 teams registered for the Lagos qualifiers with four emerging as finalists.

Branded jerseys for the 12 teams were unveiled yesterday, while each participating team in this year’s tournament will get N100, 000 as appearance fee.

UEFA Champions League

MasterCard takes customers to Wembley S part of its continued supA port of the Cashless Nigeria initiative, MasterCard, one of the official sponsors of the UEFA Champions League, is running a spectacular consumer promotion that will bring all the action and excitement of the UEFA Champions League right into the heart of Nigeria.

Chairman Fountain Sport, Gbenga Onabanjo (left), Special Guest of Honour, Onyeka Owenu, and Lagos State FA Chairman, Seyi Akinwunmi, during the draw for the second Fountain Sports 2013 Club Interdepartmental Championship in Lagos… at the weekend.

PHOTO: SUNDAY AKINLOLU

The promotion, which debuted in Nigeria in 2011, provides MasterCard cardholders an opportunity to win four tickets to watch the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, live in London at the legendary Wembley Stadium.

Announcing the promotion, Vice President and Area Business Head, West Africa, MasterCard, Omokehinde Ojomuyide revealed that aside the four tickets to watch the final live at Wembley, there are an additional 500 double tickets to watch the game at the exclusive UEFA Champions League Fan viewing event in Lagos.

“To enter the competition, all a cardholder has to do is use his or her Debit MasterCard, the more they use their Debit MasterCard card, the more chances they have of winning,” she said.

The participating banks in the promotion are Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank Plc, Skye Bank, United Bank of Africa, First Bank, Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Unity Bank, Ecobank, Keystone bank and Enterprise Bank.

76 SPORTS

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

English Premiership

Mourinho made me a better player, Lampard admits RANK Lampard has Fment praised the man-managestyle of former Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho ahead of the Portuguese’s expected return to Stamford Bridge this summer.

Midfielder, Lampard, 34, won five major domestic trophies under Mourinho when the self-styled Special One was in charge from 2004 to 2007.

And Lampard, who recently became Chelsea’s record goalscorer, is making no secret of his admiration for his former boss, who is expected to leave Real Madrid imminently.

Lampard told TalkSPORT: “It’s a presence and an aura and a way with people.

“He galvanises people. His own self-confidence reflects back on his teams. He did that to me personally.Tactically he’s fantastic. He’s very astute.

As a team he sets you up brilliantly.

“But what he does is he gets the best out of players and gets this togetherness that I’d never known until he came to the club and I haven’t seen it again since then.

“He might rub people up the wrong way. (But) as a manager, he’s brilliant with his team, tactically, he’s brilliant with individuals and I think he’s brilliant with the press. I know it creates a storm, but he does protect his players.”

Lampard, who signed a one-year contract extension at Chelsea last week, believes former Porto and Inter Milan boss Mourinho is responsible for making him a better player.

“He made me believe I was better than I was at the time,” added Lampard.

“I thought I was a decent player, but he said to me ‘lis-

ten, you can really get to the top’ and he made me believe it. I tried to take it on and do it.

“I’ve had really good managers and different managers at times. It’s the ones that get the best out of you, individually.

“We’re all human beings and if a manager doesn’t talk to you and tell you what they want or whether they’re happy with you... we’ve all got confidence that is up and down.

“Mourinho was the best.

For me he was. He brought my confidence to a level it had never been.”

Chelsea’s English midfielder, Frank Lampard (left) beats Everton’s Belgian striker, Kevinn Mirallas, during the English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge in London at the weekend.

PHOTO: AFP

Allardyce wants Carroll to stay EST Ham Manager, Sam W Allardyce would love to build his team around Andy Carroll next season - and maintains signing the

England forward on a permanent deal from Liverpool must be the club’s “main priority” over the summer.

The 24-year-old played the

final match of his season-long loan in the 4-2 win over relegated Reading at Upton Park, where Captain Kevin Nolan netted a hat-trick.

Carroll was a thorn in Reading’s side all afternoon, despite not being able to add to his seven goals to mark his recall to the England squad for the friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil.

The striker posted a message on Twitter last night saying how much he had “enjoyed every minute of being at West Ham.” However, with Liverpool set to hold out for a £17million fee for their 6ft 3in frontman, and Newcastle and Monaco also said to be monitoring the situation, the Irons look in for some tough dealings.

It’s difficult to lure Bale away, Villas-Boas boasts NDRE Villas-Boas remains A confident Gareth Bale will stay at White Hart Lane this summer despite Tottenham’s failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Bale bagged his 26th goal of the season to give Spurs a 1-0 win over Sunderland, but it was not enough to earn a place in Europe’s premier club competition as Arsenal defeated Newcastle by the same scoreline at St James’ Park.

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and both Manchester clubs have all been linked with the 23-year-

old, who won every leading player accolade in the country this term.

Unlike Spurs, all four of those clubs will be able to offer the forward Champions League football next season. But that does not mean the Welshman is on his way out of north London, according to his manager.

When asked whether Bale would still be at Spurs next term, Villas-Boas said, “yes, that’s the information we have.

It is very, very difficult to lure a player of this dimension away. You have to hold onto

Laudrup targets another striker “In some games we have not ICHAEL Laudrup has M admitted that the been effective enough in biggest challenge of his sum- front of goal and that’s why mer will be to find another Michu and ensure Swansea are more clinical in front of goal next term.

Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to Fulham rounded off a memorable campaign in disappointing fashion for the Welsh club.

While the loss does not take the gloss off a ninth-place Barclays Premier League finish and Capital One Cup success, it did highlight how reliant Swansea has been on Michu for goals.

The Spaniard scored 18 of Swansea’s 47 Premier League goals during a stellar first season in English football, but when he struggled to find the net late in the season, so did Swansea.

Laudrup is keen to return Michu to his favoured attacking midfield role next season, and Iago Aspas, Romelu Lukaku and Manu del Moral are all targets as the Dane looks to strengthen his striking options.

we have to add some more goals,” he said. “We scored 47 but I think we can easily add 10 or 12 to that next season.

“Again, a major part of that is that our goals this season have had the name of one person so we have to split the responsibility of the goals.

“But we have known that for a while and we have been working on it for a long time but we know it is the most difficult thing to get someone to score goals.”

Laudrup

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

77

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

78 SPORTS

I’m in form of my life, says McDowell FTER winning the Volvo A Word Match Play on Sunday, Graeme McDowell feels he is in the form of his life as he seeks some rare success at Wentworth this week and a second major title next month.

McDowell won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010 and claimed the decisive point in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Celtic Manor a few months later, as well as, victory in the Wales Open on the same course earlier in the season.

The 33-year-old Northern Irishman also won the Andalucia Masters in October of that year, his last European

Tour title until securing the Volvo World Match Play Championship by beating Thongchai Jaidee in the final at Thracian Cliffs in Bulgaria last weekend.

And the world number seven believes Sunday’s triumph, coupled with his victory in the RBC Heritage last month and third place in the WGCCadillac Championship at Doral in March, means he is on top form ahead of this week’s BMW PGA Championship and June’s U.S. Open at Merion.

“I’ve got one event now before the U.S. Open. You could say I’m in the form of

Obianodo pledges support for FHA Tennis Club RAND Patron of the FHA G Tennis Club, Festac Town, Chief Vincent Obianodo has charged the newly re-elected President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Sanni Ndanusa and the National Sport Commission (NSC) to provide a solid blue print in a bid to improve the sports in the country.

Obianodo identified lack of adequate facilities as the bane of tennis in Nigeria. He noted that the country had potentials in tennis just like football but lack of tennis courts has halted the rise of several talented players.

The renowned philanthropist, who is also the chairman of Young Shall Grow Transport Company, urged the tennis federation and sports ministry to provide tennis facilities in all the 774

Local Government in the Country.

“In the U.S there over 2000 tennis courts where parents teach there kids to play, the Williams sisters, Nadal, Federer, Sharapova are all superstars today because good facilities were provided in their countries.

“We have children, who want to play tennis but the facilities are not there. Tennis is not football where you can play on the street. The ministry and federation must ensure we have tennis courts in the country.”

Obianodo further revealed that RockView Hotels Festac Town would continue to sponsor the club ladder tournament. The two-time former president of the club is also in the race to retain the title he won last year.

my life going into an event in which certainly my record kind of speaks for itself,” said McDowell, who finished joint second at Olympic club last year, 14th in 2011, won in 2010 and was 18th in 2009.

“I feel like I’m a substantially better player than I was three years ago. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from this process that I’ve gone through the last two and a half years, winning the U.S. Open, getting comfortable with deserving that U.S. Open, getting comfortable with the player I was trying to become, acclimatising myself to being in the top 10, 20, 30 in the world, a new status in the game.

“Number one scrambler on the PGA Tour this year has been a telling stat. Last year I’ll be the first to admit that my short game was not good and cost me probably the U.S. Open (he finished one shot behind winner, Webb Simpson).

“Hilton Head (for the RBC Heritage) was probably the best I’ve ever felt down the stretch in a golf tournament, just believing I can win.

“I’m feeling more experienced, I feel like I’m learning all the time. I’m comfortable on and off the golf course at the minute. I’m happy with what I’m doing technically, I’m certainly happy with what’s ahead of me this year, getting married and settling down and doing all these good things in life which I feel adds to a stable mind on and off the course which has worked well for me this season.”

THE GUARDIAN, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

79

TheGuardian

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

By Don Okereke N a previous essay, I examined the remote and INigeria immediate causes of insecurity and terrorism in and proffered solutions encompassing social, economic, and political infrastructural reforms. In this piece, I see abysmal poverty or widening gap between the rich and the poor, hopelessness, frustration, and joblessness as the latent causative agents. These can be nipped in the bud through education, scholarship, skill acquisition, capacity building programmes and by ensuring that wealth and opportunities trickle down.

The Nigerian state has not been fair to majority of Nigerians despite the abundant material resources accruable to this country. We don’t have to wait until people pick up arms before we try to pacify them. The former ECOWAS Commission President, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambers recently opined that, ‘‘Nigeria has no reason to be poor.’’ Let me paraphrase the words of Dr. Ibn Chambers, ‘Nigerians have no business being poor’. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo stated the obvious when he lately opined that, ‘’rising unemployment in Nigeria is a time-bomb’’.

Beyond religion and politics, there must be a strong force that will galvanise an individual to waste his life and that of others. That strong force is the trio of abysmal poverty, hopelessness/frustration and joblessness. It’s not simplistic! A hungry man is an angry man. It will take an amazing brain-washing prowess to convince a gainfully employed young man or somebody with a thriving business to abandon the trappings of his work or business and be a slavish stooge for kidnapping or terrorism.

Radicalism An upsurge of religious fundamentalism undermines the social order. Religious organizations churches and mosques in most African countries have unwittingly usurped the roles of the government. Many Nigerians will rather trust or listen to their pastor’s or Imam’s than say a President.

Churches/Mosques dole out money or some other forms of material succour to impoverished members. The flip-side is that he who pays the Piper dictates the tune. Hence, it becomes easy for a run-ofthe-mill Imam or Pastor to brainwash an entire congregation because they depend on him for their sustenance. An average American or Westerner generally, does not have to fast and pray for seven days before he eats a meal or clothes himself. Government at all levels must begin to deliver on their promises and improve the lot of her citizens.

Proliferation of private universities It has become a fad in Nigeria for anybody who is somebody to own a private university. This is a noble vision. One wishes the driving force is skewed towards altruism rather than pecuniary gains. Imagine the prevailing scenario where a church or a political leader builds a private university and children from poor backgrounds cannot afford to attend such schools. How many Nigerian parents earning N18, 000 to N30, 000 minimum wages can send their children to a private university. In addition to building private universities which only children of those blessed with stupendous wealth, should set up Trusts/Endowment Funds through which they can award scholarships to gifted students from poor backgrounds. The Rochas and Kanu Heart Foundations must be commended.

The United States experience The Americans understand and profoundly appreciate the importance of nipping crimes, radicalism, violent extremism and terrorism in the bud hence their immense direct and indirect investments in security/defence and education.

Americans have programmes geared towards prevention than cure; they exterminate the causative agents of a disease rather than fighting the symptoms as we do in Nigeria. I was amazed to discover a cornucopia of academic trusts, scholarships and endowment funds geared towards supporting and encouraging bright and probably poor American citizens and even foreign students and scholars. A few of these academic programmes are: Fulbright Scholarship: The U.S. Student Fulbright grants send 1,500 students to one of 150 different countries for an academic year.

Rhodes Scholarships: The Rhodes scholarship, the oldest international fellowships, awards outstanding students from around the world to study at the University of Oxford.

Harry S. Truman Scholarship: The Truman Foundation awards 75-80 scholarships annually to students who want to Make a Difference.

H.J. Heinz Company Foundation Fellowship: H.J. Heinz Company Foundation Fellowship, for individuals from developing countries who demonstrate potential as future leaders in the public, government, non-profit, private sectors.

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship: The Department of Defense (DoD) annually supports approximately 8,000 graduate students in fields important to national defense needs.

Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship Program The Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship seeks students who wish to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.

Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Programme (PRISP) recruits and trains analysts and linguists.

Not forgetting the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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Forestalling insecurity and terrorism through capacity building

Mohammed Abubakar, Inspector General of Police Undergraduate Scholarships & Graduate Fellowships, the U.S Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate’s $55,000 postdoctoral associateship programme and the FBI’s Intern Programme.

The CIA, DIA, and NSA participate in an Undergraduate Training Programme known as the Stokes Programme which targets bright high school seniors and high performing college sophomores majoring in areas critical to the needs of the participating agencies.

Students selected for this programme receive a government salary and full benefits as well as tuition and other educational expenses.

The United States’ National Security Agency also has several other scholarship and fellowship programmes.

The Defense Intelligence Agency sponsors the National Consortium for MASINT Research (NMCR) Scholars Programme which provides scholarship funding for students attending consortium universities. United States Intelligence agencies also participate in some specialised scholarship programmes such as the Information Assurance Scholarship Programme for students at NSA-designated Centers of Academic Excellence and the NDEA/SMART Scholarship Programme for mathematics, science, engineering, and other critically needed technical skills.

The United States military services offer a number of scholarships and fellowships, including ROTC programmes.

One can see why an average American does not have qualms dying for his country because to a large extent, his country somehow guarantees that her citizens will actualise their aspirations.

Life is quid pro quo!

On the international scene, the United States government through the USAID and a battery of critical counterterrorism capacity building pro-

grammes – Antiterrorism Assistance Programme, Counterterrorist Finance, Counterterrorism Engagement, the Terrorist Interdiction Programme/Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System Programme, and transnational activities under the Regional Strategic Initiatives etc—reach out and partners with other governments and organisations in fighting crimes and terrorism.

In 2011, ‘’USAID worked in Islamiyyah and Quranic schools in Northern Nigeria benefitting 72,350 pupils (41,915 male and 30,435 female), out of whom 15,060 were identified as orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Also in 2011, ‘’the USAID, in cooperation with other U.S. government agencies, undertook programmes that promoted reforms to enable developing and transition countries to allocate resources toward activities to accelerate economic growth’’.

Using the efforts of the United States government, individuals and the private sector as a benchmark, can we say we are doing enough in Nigeria in our hypothetical fight against violent crimes, insecurity and terrorism?

Calling on Nigeria’s super-rich and institutions to set up Endowment Funds/Foundations/Trusts The Mo Ibrahim Foundation supports good governance and great leadership in Africa. Kofi Annan Foundation fights a cause against drug trafficking in the West African sub-region. Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan amongst others are global brands even after they left office.

Envisage the social transformation and positive multiplier-effect that will take place if all Nigeria’s former Presidents/Heads of State, governors, ministers, ex-bank MD’s etc, channel their energies, accumulated wealth and intellect in a humanitarian cause they are passionate about. Imagine the social transformation that will take place if the N6 billion ‘Security Vote’ and

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the so-called ‘Constituency Allowance’ accruable to all 36 state governors and members of the National Assembly respectively are judiciously utilised.

The Obasanjo’s, Babangida’s, Atiku’s, David Mark’s, Dangote’s, Dantata’s, Paschal Dozie’s, Emeka Anyaoku’s, Adenuga’s, Iwuanyanwu’s, Bola Tinubu’s, Otedola’s, Jimoh Ibrahim’s, Wale Babalakin’s, Arisekola’s, Harry Akande’s, Cosmas Maduka’s, Peter Odili’s, Andy/Ifeanyi Uba’s, Oritsejafo’s, Enoch Adeboye’s, Chris Oyakhilome’s amongst others should establish or partner with existing Trusts, Foundations or Endowment Funds that will encourage academic research, and award scholarships to promising but poor students or train people on skill acquisition. Apologies to those whose names appear here that already have such mechanisms. One understands that some of these prominent Nigerians are philanthropists per excellence but most times they lack a well-structured vehicle like a Trust or a Foundation through which their philanthropy will be better harnessed.

Gen. TY Danjuma reportedly earmarked $100 million of his $1 billion ‘Oil Windfall’ for his TY Danjuma Foundation (TYDF). The TY Danjuma, Tony Elumelu Foundations amongst others must not be mere paper-tigers; they must walk the talk and give hope to hopeless people. The vision and philanthropic proclivity of many prominent Nigerians fizzle out after their demise; M.K.O Abiola is a classic example. With a well-knit Foundation or a Trust, these noble visions will surely outlive the individuals that conceptualised them.

Rather than rubbing their wealth in, acquiring/accepting luxury cars and private jets as birthday gifts, other Nigerian Pastor’s/Imam’s should borrow a leaf from Pastor T.B Joshua. Love him or hate him, T.B Joshua enunciates practical Christianity through his philanthropy. One wishes he put in place an enduring framework that will continue to propagate his vision even after his demise.

Borrowing a leaf from the Americans, it will not be anomalous for Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the State Security Service (SSS), Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Police and other sister organisations to encourage internship programmes, award bursaries/scholarships or research grants to scholars. Any student who gets such an offer or opportunity will invariably be an instrument in the fight against crime, social disorder and terrorism.

During my university days, the school authority saw the wisdom in incorporating military/paramilitary students and the Man O War into the university’s security network. Because we were part of the students: We study, live with and mingle with them; it was easier for us to be privy to some goings-on in our school than the formal security officers employed by the authority.

Modernising Almajiri System of Education We are not bereft of well-articulated ideas in Nigeria; our bane is implementing them. One of such ideas is to modernise the Almajiri system in northern parts of Nigeria and integrate it into our mainstream educational system. Not too long ago, President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned a N240 million Almajiri Model Boarding School in Gagi, Sokoto State. One hopes other northern states will replicate such projects.

Skill acquisition programmes must also be put in place across Nigeria to absorb idle and frustrated youths. The much talked about YouWin, SURE-P, Graduate Internship Programmes, CBN’s ‘’Entrepreneurship Development Centres’, Ministry of Communications ‘’Naija Cloud’’ amongst others must not be paper-tigers or instruments of political benefaction. One is gladdened by the prospect of the ‘‘Strategic Philanthropy Summit’’ recently co-hosted by the Goodluck Jonathan government. We earnestly hope that this Philanthropy Platform hits the ground running in view of the exigency of its vocation.

The northern part of Nigeria has produced the most President/Heads of State and political leaders in Nigeria but unfortunately, this aggrandised wealth has not trickled down to the downtrodden.

What obtains in the North and in many parts of Nigeria is a situation where an individual in a community amasses so much wealth and others depend on him for their upkeep. One does not begrudge these folks; we rather wish that they plough back just an iota of their wealth towards a humanitarian cause.

The rich cannot continue to sleep with their two eyes closed until drastic and collective actions are taken to give hope to hopeless and hapless individuals in our midst. At the risk over-egging the pudding, been dubbed a pessimist or a prophet of doom, I postulate that with or without negotiation/amnesty, pockets of sporadic terrorist incidents, kidnappings will persist across Nigeria unless far-reaching measures are taken to shrink abject poverty, unemployment, hopelessness, wanton corruption, religious fundamentalism and injustice.

A situation where you have an army of willing army of unemployed tools is a national disaster waiting to happen.

Security is a collective responsibility; all hands must be on deck. Nigerians Unite Against Insecurity and Terrorism. Let’s make Nigeria great again! Hear it! See it! Say it! Stop it !!!

Okereke, security analyst and consultant, wrote from Abuja.