April 02, 2015

Newspaper of the Year

...58 D AYS TO GO DA

•Aliyu, Mimiko, Fayose shun meeting with Jonathan •Ladoja, Akala, others jittery ahead governorship poll •Ambode urges Lagosians to vote for continuity MORE •19 APC lawmakers take over Ekiti Assembly ON•AND PAGES 7&8

•Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

VOL. 10, NO. 3172 THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

•www.thenationonlineng.net

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

Capital market records gain, naira firms up

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IGERIA’s main month high yesterday as marshares index soared kets in Africa’s biggest econto its biggest daily omy welcomed the outcome gain this year and bond of the closely-fought vote. yields dropped as investors “The peaceful conclusion cheered Muhammadu Bu- of the election has allayed the hari’s victory in a presiden- fears of foreign investors tial election that passed about the market,” Ayodeji without disruption.

Ebo, head of research at AfrThe main shares ininvest told Reudex closed 8.3 per cent SEE ALSO ters, referring to higher at a near threePAGE 54 the bourse.

He said most listed firms, especially banks, were trading at a discount to their true value, attracting foreign investors.

“Investors were waiting on the sidelines to see election concluded in a peaceful manner. So everyone is taking positions now while those that are in are not willing to sell,” Ebo said.

Foreign investors fled Nigerian markets starting late last year, unnerved by political uncertainty before the vote as well as the sharp fall in the global price of oil, which weakened the currency, triggering devaluation in November.

The stock index crossed the psychologically important Continued on page 4

•INSIDE: HOLLANDE, CARRINGTON, FISAS, OTHERS GREET PRESIDENT-ELECT P4

Buhari: Jonathan has nothing to fear from me STORY ON PAGE 4

President-elect pays tributes to Obama, UK, Ban-Ki Moon, Obasanjo, Tinubu, others

love and concern for this nation and ‘My what I desire for it extend to all, even to those who do not like us or our politics.

You are all my people and I shall treat everyone of you as my own. I shall work for those who voted for me as well as those who voted against me and even for those who did not vote at all. We all live under one name as one nation: we are all Nigerians

’

•President-elect Muhammadu Buhari displaying his Certificate of Return in Abuja...yesterday.

BUHARI’S VICTORY

PHOTO: AKIN OLADOKUN

SEE PAGES 2,3,17&57

How victory ’ll affect other elections NBA praises Jonathan, Buhari PDP...what next after last Saturday’s defeat? Election for change (Editorial) •SPORTS P23 •EDUCATION P25 •POLITICS P45 •N/HEALTH P47 •E-BUSINESS P50 •FOREIGN P60

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

2

NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

How Buhari’s victory will affect governorship, Assembly polls

I

N nine days, Nigerians will return to their polling units to elect governors and lawmakers. Expectedly, the April 11 governorship and Houses of Assembly elections will have more local appeal than last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

Political parties have put the outcome of the March 28 behind them even as the winners bask in the euphoria of their victories and the bruised, lick their wounds. That notwithstanding, the parties and their candidates are back on the campaign fields, marketing their manifestoes ahead of the polls.

One thing seems certain. It is the fact that the victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at last Saturday’s election will shape the elections on April 11 and effectively determine where the political pendulum swings.

Historically, in Nigeria, where the central remains very strong than the federating units, once a president emerges, any election conducted afterwards is a fait accompli. The voters are often gripped by the fear of being in the opposition.

The Buhari/Osinbajo ticket fetched the opposition APC 15,424,921 votes from 21 states, cutting across the Southwest, Northwest, Northcentral and Northeast to dislodge incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and his duputy, Namadi Sambo, whose Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 12, 853,162 votes from 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The PDP won all the 11 states in the Southsouth and the Southeast, three in the Northcentral and one in the Southwest.

Bandwagon effect Going by elections’ historical trends, a shift is expected in the voting pattern of states that were won by the ruling party on April 11 as the factors that accounted for the PDP victory will no longer be there.

For instance, the five states in the Southeast – Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo and Enugu – gave block votes to the PDP and the six Southsouth states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Cross River and Rivers gave it to the ruling party, believing that President Jonathan would win the election and that the ruling party will form the next government.

With the overall results in favour of the APC, the states may be in the opposition beginning from May, should they retain that voting pattern at the April 11 polls. Looking at the map of Nigeria, Ekiti is the only state in the Southwest geopolitical zone that may be in the opposition in the next political dispensation.

In 1983, the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) re-ordered the election timetable. The Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) as the Independent National Electoral Commision (INEC) was then known, began with the Presidential election and it was a moon’s slide victory for the ruling (NPN). The National Assembly, governorship and House of Assembly elections that followed were mere walkover for the ruling party.

The main opposition party – the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) lost its grip on the states that were under its control since 1979. The states were: the old Oyo and the old Bendel The Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) lost the old Anambra to the ruling party which also dislodged the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) from

By Bunmi Ogunmodede, Deputy News Editor

the old Borno and the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) from Kaduna.

But the moon’s slide victory of the NPN was short-circuited as the military struck on the eve of 1983 to abort the Second Republic. The military intervention was to prevent anarchy as the NPN victory sparked protests in some parts of the country, especially in the West, where the people believed the polls were skewed in favour of the ruling party.

Twenty years after, the election timetable was again reordered and once the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the presidential and majority seats in the National Assembly elections, the governorship and House of Assembly elections were straight wins for the PDP. The ruling party defeated the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in its Southwest stronghold. All the six states in the zone, except Lagos, fell to the PDP. The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) suffered similar fate in the North.

History beckons Since Independence, the Southwest has been indifferent to the government at the central. The people in the zone have always pitched tent with the progressives, and ironically, the progressives never had the opportunity of winning the presidency until last Saturday. The primary concern of the Southwest has been to elect leaders who will develop the region.

The desire to belong to the party at the federal largely accounted for the victory of the PDP in Ekiti State. Now that the progressives have won the presidency, analysts believe the people will detest being the lone voice in the wilderness. They hope the outcome of the April 11 polls will be a departure from what they were on June 21, 2014 and March 28.

In the Southsouth and the Southeast, where almost all the PDP governors will be completing their two-term tenure next month, the desire to guarantee soft-landing will shape the voting pattern. Besides, the fact that some of the governors are on their way out of power, the voters may decide to take their fate into their own hands to chose who they want as the governors and representatives in the Houses of Assembly.

It is an indisputable fact that both the Southsouth and the Southeast have always showed their hatred for being in the opposition. They have, since 1960, forged alliances with the North, a region that has always maintained a hold on the central. The defeat of President Jonathan, their preferred candidate, and the need to avoid unnecessary friction with the Federal Government will shape the voting pattern in the zones on April 11.

Federal might Despite the deployment of federal might in the states, especially those under the PDP control, the results of last Saturday’s elections clearly showed that the wish of Nigerians for change was not subverted. So, it is unlikely that a ruling party that has lost steam and its bearing will wield still enormous influence on the people.

Militarisation of election If the complaints of Governors Adams Oshiomhole (Edo) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), are anything to go by, the security operatives deployed in those two

Southsouth states compromised their oath of office by being partial to one of the parties. The military is yet to learn from the mistakes of Brig-Gen Aliyu Momoh, who allegedly took orders from PDP chieftains to compromise the integrity of the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State. The soldiers and senior police officers who were on election duty allegedly colluded with the ruling party to ensure that the political climate was inclement for the opposition to participate.

In Edo State for instance, a senior military personnel was allegedly detained for refusing to do the biddings of a PDP chieftain.

Governor Oshomhole expressed frustrations after his attempts to get across to the police commissioner for intervention failed. He claimed that a promoter of a private television station stormed the state with full military protection and allowed to move about during the elections.

The reasonable thing for any officer deployed in those states is to maintain neutrality and create a level playing ground for all parties on April 11. Any officer on duty will henceforth be cautious in their conduct and they will not hesitate to rein in any overzealous subordinate.

Resident Electoral Commissioners.

Despite the unbiased position of Prof Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), some highranking officials of the body are yet to shed the toga of partisanship.

They still compromise their positions. But with change of baton, such officers will be more careful and carry out their duties without partiality.

In Akwa Ibom, the INEC officials took orders from Governor Godswill Akpabio on how to conduct the elections. After accreditation of voters, the expectation was that voting would commence, but there was nothing like that. Rather, the INEC officials relocated from the polling stations and thumb printed the ballot at an undisclosed location believed to have been provided by the state government. They filled the result sheets only to return to the units to read the results.

After meeting with the President yesterday, Akpabio told State House reporters that the PDP will maintain its lead and retain the states under its control after the April 11 polls.

But APC leaders accused him of relying on rigging. They said Akpabio was banking on manipulation and wondered how a governor, who failed to win a senatorial district will deliver a whole state.

As it was in Akwa Ibom, so also was it in Rivers State where the residents are insisting that voting never took place in the state. The governorship candidate of the APC, Dr. Peterside Dakuku and Senator Magnus Abe echoed the peoples complaints in their protest at the INEC office, where the police gave protection for the collation of results of elections that never took place. Governor Rotimi Amaechi was told he had no right to demand for the result sheets. The INEC officer said it was wrong of any voter to ask for such document, especially when he was not a party agent and when balloting had not even started.

The question to ask is: Will the electoral officers and the police chiefs be so brazen on April 11, when Nigerians return to choose governors and assemblymen?

PDP...what next after defeat?

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may face some adjustment difficulties in the course of its transition from a ruling party to the opposition.

Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the challenges that will confront the party in the post-Jonathan period.

P

OWER is transient and no condition is permanent in life.

Few years ago, the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, was basking in the euphoria of power. Describing the ruling party as the largest in Africa, he said its sheer national spread, its formidable structure and the number of governors, ministers, legislators and local government chairmen it has produced would make it indispensable. In fact, he boasted that the PDP will rule Nigeria for the next 60 years.

Little did the former Minister of National Planning and other party leaders guess that the eclipse of the octopus was near. On Tuesday, the curtain was drawn on the PDP’s dominance of the national politics. The main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was derided by the power barons at its inception, became the PDP’s albatross at the presidential election. The power of incumbency crumbled irretrievably as former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, defeated the PDP’s candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, at the historic election.

For the ruling party, the journey of 16 years ended abruptly. So were the bravado, the acts of perfidy and arrogance of power. In distress, the party leader summoned the rare courage to concede victory to the victor, urging his party men to take heart.

For now, the ruling party is down.

The outcome of the presidential poll may have thrown spanner into its permutations, ahead of the governorship and House of Assembly elections. According to reports, unlike APC candidates, PDP flag bearers now perceive themselves as orphans as the government apparatus, which were usually deployed to favour them, can only be used for polls with great caution. The Army, the police and other security agencies, who are now gazing at May 29 handover date, would defer to the PDP, but also in utter sensitivity to the imminent liquidation of the PDP influence at the centre in post-Jonathan period.

The handwriting was bold on the wall. But, it was ignored because power was intoxicating. According to observers, three factors led to the downfall of the ruling party. The first is the arrogance of power by the nonperforming PDP-led administration.

The second is that the party has been addicted to crisis, which ultimately led to its ultimate decimation. The third is that reconciliation in the PDP always paled into a shallow step, repeated window dressing and a game plan orchestrated to make it appear to the gullible that the party could undergo a genuine rebirth. Indeed, a proper dialogue was always elusive.

In 1998/99, PDP appeared on the horizon as the party to beat. It had a solid foundation. Its founding fathers were giants of history. Its member-

ship at its inception was a mixed grill of conservative and progressive curators. These frontline politicians came from “G-34,” which stood shoulder to shoulder with the military during the protracted transition programmes of former military President Ibrahim Babangida and Gen. Sani Abacha, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), which continued to wax stronger after the demise of its leader, Major-Gen. Sheu Yar’Adua, chieftains of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC), and military apologists in the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ encouraged by Abacha, and other new breed politicians. Thus, it was an association of strange bed fellows.

The PDP manifesto was said to have been written by the Cicero of EsaOke, the late Chief Bola Ige, who departed from the fold to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD), along with other Afenifere/National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) leaders, promoters of the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), a section of the pro-democracy movement, and other like minds from the six geo-political zones. PDP has not been an ideological party. But, it has two distinct features. It is a large party with taproots across the country. Therefore, the platform is not devoid of a national outlook. Also, in its constitution, rotational principle or presidential zoning is entrenched. Thus, when it was obvious that the doctrine would be violated, ahead of the recent poll, hell was let loose. The party was torn apart by a war of attrition.

But, its problematic journey into the future has been laced with a catalogue of crises, despite its electoral successes. The platform has suffered from self-inflicted wounds arising from its aversion for internal democracy, dictatorial leadership, presidential pressure on the party structures, and politics of exclusion at the federal and state levels.

Late elder statesman Chief Solomon Lar was the party’s pioneer National Chairman. He took over from the interim chairman, the late Senator Sunday Awoniyi, the Aro of Mopa. In 1999, the acclaimed largest party in Africa won federal and state elections without massive rigging.

Under the late Lar, the PDP was a promising platform. The party was sensitive to the protracted agitation for power shift to the Southwest, which climaxed in the wake of the annulment of the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the SDP candidate, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, a Yoruba. However, despite the large number of presidential materials in the party, none was considered suitable for the highest office. The retired Generals connived with military lackeys in the party to woo Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who was not a member of the party, to run

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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BUHARI’S VICTORY

•Dr. Jonathan

for the Presidency. When the former military leader won the 1999 elections, the first step he took was to recreate the party in his own image. The pioneer chairman, was shoved aside.

Lar was a celebrated democrat.

Obasanjo is a retired soldier, who could not easily adjust to the democratic civilian life. The transition from soldering to politics was difficult for the old soldier, who had mastered the hierarchical military dictatorial order and command. His first move was to secure the title of the ‘National Leader’ of the PDP. Few months after he assumed office, he agitated for the change of baton at the party’s national secretariat. That was necessary to limit the party’s influence on presidential activities. It was clear that Lar, the former Police Affairs minister, had to bow out honourably. He spent barely a year in office.

NDER the late Lar, crises were minimal and the par ty was supreme. One of his aides, Dr Solomon Dalung, a lawyer, recalled that trouble started when Obasanjo became the President and the party’s national leader.”When Obasanjo came in, being an African General, he came in with the Machiavellian theory of dispensing with whosoever that might have made him king because it was only him who knows the intrigues that brought him to power. He applied this to Lar”, he said.

After Lar left office, there was a high turn-over of national chairmen. The position was zoned to the Northcentral geo-political zone. Awoniyi, and Chief Barnabas Gemade, former member of the Interim National Government (ING) led by Chief Ernest Shonekan vied for the chairmanship.

Awoniyi, a Yoruba, was from Kogi State. Gemade hails from Benue State.

Other contestants-Senator Ahmadu Ali, Yahaya Kwande, and Sule Usman from Kogi State-were on the fringe.

Awoniyi, who had often described himself as a Yoruba-Northerner, got the shock of his life when Obasanjo from Ogun State declared that, in the PDP, Yoruba could not produce the President and the National Chairman as the same time. Awoniyi was a tough politician. If he was made the National Chairman, he could challenge Obasanjo, if he undermined the party leadership. But, he was harassed out of the party. On his way out, he lamented the collapse of the due process in the party and the derailment of the vision of its founding fathers. The former Private Secretary to Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, said that he was leaving the party of sinners.

In a bid to assert himself, Lar’s successor, Gemade, also ran into problem. He had inherited a party rup-

U

•Anenih

•Mu'azu

tured by post-presidential primaries.

The aspirants, former Vice President Alex Ekweme and former Kano State Governor Abubakar Rimi, who lost the ticket to Obasanjo, were bitter.

Crisis was also brewing at the state chapters because of the presidential directive that the pioneer chairmen should hand over to new officers favoured by the National Party Leader. It was also evident that the idea of the national party caucus could not be adopted by the PDP. Gemade wanted to run the affairs of the party as a democrat. But he was handicapped. The National Chairman complained that certain powerful forces in the party were making unreasonable and unethical demands from his office. To him, the meddlesomeness was uncalled for. A personality crisis broke out between Obasanjo, the power-loaded National Party Leader, and the National Chairman. Efforts by the politician from Benue to secure a second term was resisted by the former President.

As he bowed out in frustration, he cursed the party, saying that the fate that will befell his successors would be worse than his experience. When the tenure of the National Executive Committee (NEC) was extended by one year, there was disagreement over whether Gemade could benefit.

Crisis broke out. Amid the crisis, he announced the suspension of Chief Tony Anenih, the powerful Works Minister. It became his undoing. Although he lifted the suspension, Gemade’s days as chairman were numbered. He was forced out of office.

Reflecting on his tenure, he said: “The way I saw the situation in the party that time, it was clear to me that the mindset of the people who had the party in their control and who had the government in their control that time was such that the meddlesomeness that we were experiencing as the leadership of the party would not change”.

Gemade was succeeded by Second Republic Minister of Communications Chief Audu Ogbeh. Other aspirants were edged out. It was very hard for the chairman to blend with Obasanjo. He felt that the President was elected to run the country and the chairman, in consultation with him, was elected by the party members to run the party. Ogbeh became the chairman as the party was preparing for the 2003 elections. The party was in turmoil. The state chapters were crisis-ridden and the divisions had weakened the fold. In Anambra State, the governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, was abducted. The report of the reconciliation panel headed by Chief Tunde Osunrinde from Ogun State, which recommended the distribution

of party offices among the Lagos PDP caucuses, was not implemented. In Osun State, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, a defector from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to PDP, was standing trial for an alleged involvement in the murder of the slain Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ige. Ogbeh counselled that that he should not be made the senatorial candidate for Ife/Ijesa District to preserve the image of the party. The President disagreed. Some party leaders supported him, explaining that, since Omisore had not been found guilty, he can contest while still in the custody. The parting of ways became imminent between Obasanjo and Ogbeh, when he publicly advised the President to pay more attention to the sliding economy and the cries of the populace for improved welfare. The former President took exception to washing the administration’s linen in the public. He went vulgar, alleging that Ogbeh had made much money after he emerged as the chairman. The chairman was harassed and cajoled to visit the Aso Rock, where Obasanjo demanded for his resignation, ahead of the expiration of his tenure.

GBEH was succeeded by the former Federal Com missioner for Education, Dr Ahmadu Ali of the ‘Ali Must Go fame’. He was the only chairman who enjoyed harmonious relationship with Obasanjo. Both of them are retired soldiers. Under his leadership, the crisis between Obasanjo and Atiku got to a peak. An administrative panel was set up to investigate Abubakar’s activities in government.

It was also clear that the PDP would not organise democratic presidential primaries. Atiku and his supporters left the PDP for the defunct Action Congress (AC), where he emerged as the presidential candidate in 2007. But he lost to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua at the poll.

In 2008, Yar’Adua set up a reconciliation committee headed by Ekwueme. His goal was to bring back the aggrieved members who had de-

O

serted the party. But, the work of the committee was sabotaged by some forces in the party. Its report was not implemented. Following the same pattern, the report of another panel headed by Gen. Ike Nwachukwju (rtd), was thrown into the dustbin.

Also, the pre-national convention rift between former Governor Sam Egwu, who was backed by Obasanjo, and former Senate President Ayim Pius Ayim torn the party apart. A dark horse, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, emerged as the national chairman. In 2010, a corruption case against Ogbulafor was exhumed. He was forced to resign from office. His successor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, the former National Secretary, also had a turbulent tenure. He was locked in a protracted battle with Governor Sullivan Chime over the imposition of candidates for elections. At the PDP primaries in 2011, Nwodo was consumed by the crisis. Nwodo’s deputy, Dr.Haliru Bello, became the acting chairman. When he was appointed as minister, the national secretary, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, became the acting chairman.

The next national convention was fixed for March, 2012. The competing forces were in hot competition for the party leadership. But, President Jonathan wanted to impose his candidate, Alhaji bamanga Tukur. He had his way, But, Tukur was consumed by crisis that started before he was imposed on the party. The zonal congresses and national convention were rancorous. When the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) report came, it was discovered that 16 national officers were elected without following the laid down rules. They were advised to step down. But, Gen. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, whose election as the National Secretary was not faulted, was not recalled from suspension.

The relationship between Obasanjo and Dr. Jonathan later turned sour.

Irked by his handling of party affairs and governance, Obasanjo wrote a letter to him, warning that disaster

‘

Three factors led to the downfall of the ruling party. The first is the arrogance of power by the nonperforming PDP-led administration. The second is that the party has been addicted to crisis, which ultimately led to its ultimate decimation. The third is that reconciliation in the PDP always paled into a shallow step, repeated window dressing and a game plan orchestrated to make it appear to the gullible that the party could undergo a genuine rebirth. Indeed, a proper dialogue was always elusive

‘

was looming. The crisis that had torn the party apart was festering. In Rivers State, there was turmoil. The President and Governor Rotimi Amaechi, had parted ways. The crisis led to the split in the Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF). Although Amaechi won the NGF’s election, the factional chairman, Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, was recognised by the Presidency. Amaechi scored 19 votes. Jang got 16. The Rivers State governor was suspended from the party. Later, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State was also suspended. But the Northwest PDP rallied round Wamakko, who had called for the resignation of Tukur. The suspension slammed on him was lifted. But ,Amaechi’s suspension was not lifted. Other anti-Tukur governors-Admiral Muritala Nyako (Adamawa), Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Alhaji Musa Kwakwanso (Kano) and Dr. Babangida Aliyu (Niger) could not be touched. The reconciliation shuttles by the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, Tukur and Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson, failed to reconcile the aggrieved members and the national leadership.

As the party wobbled on in crisis, it was also preparing for a national convention. Oyinlola, whose election as the national secretary was not voided by the INEC, called for his reinstatement. Delegates from Rivers, Adamawa, Anambra and Nasarawa alleged deliberate exclusion from the convention. Amid the convention, the aggrieved governors and party chieftains walked out. At the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, they set up a parallel NEC. When reconciliation finally collapsed, Kwankwaso, Amaechi, Bukola Saraki, Baraje, Oni, Oyinlola and Adamu Abdullahi defected to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The ACN later fused into the APC along with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Also, last month, Obasanjo left the party.

OLLOWING the mass defec tion, the ruling party became a ghost of itself. Its ex-members fired shots at it from outside.

Ahead of the presidential poll, it has become a discredited platform. Cries of despondency arising from the poor performance of the President in nearly all sectors created an image problem for the PDP. Although the party employed other tactics, including financial inducement and serious appeal to ethno-religious cleavages, the strategies collapsed like a pack of cards.

According to analysts, PDP won power and loomed large on the polity. But, it failed to manage its achievements properly. Critics believe that its legacies, more or less, included its subscription to democratic governorship and parliamentary primaries, when there was no alternative. But, some commentators have also described the PDP as a nest of killers and rigging machine.

As from May 29, PDP will experience an unprecedented decline in power and influence. There will be a leadership vacuum. To move forward, it will require a dynamic, courageous and determined leadership to steer its affairs. Since it will be left in the cold, playing the role of an opposition will require much adjustment. Top leaders may trade blames over the circumstances leading to the colossal electoral defeat. Party funding may become hectic as traditional financiers in the business world may swift allegiance because their focus is return on investment. Since a tradition of reconciliation and crisis resolution is lacking, any crisis may further weaken the platform. party chieftains who may not be ready to weather the storm and stress being in the opposition may defect to the APC in droves.

Indeed, this is not the best of times for the PDP.

F

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

NEWS •President Goodluck Jonathan (middle); Chief Observer, European Union Observer Mission, Mr Santiago Fisas (third left); Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 1, Nicholas Ada (third right) and members of the team, after presenting their report on the Presidential and National Assembly elections to the President in Abuja …yesterday

Nigerian market records gain, naira firms up

Buhari: Jonathan has nothing to fear from me

N

IGERIANS got yesterday a glimpse into how the Muhammadu Buhari presidency will be run.

There will be no discrimination, religion, ethnicity or gender. The president-elect said.

Gen. Buhari promised to work for those who voted for him, those who voted against him and those who did not vote at all.

He pledged to govern instead of ruling.

Gen. Buhari said he harboured no ill-will against anyone despite the rancour of the elections which was occasioned by his eligibility for the poll.

He extended a hand of friendship and conciliation to President Goodluck Jonathan and his team, adding: “Jonathan has nothing to fear from me.”

He said Boko Haram will soon know the “strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror and bring back peace”.

Gen. Buhari made his views known in a speech after collecting his Certificate of Return from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

With Vice President-elect Prof. Yemi Osinbajo by his side, Gen. Buhari said he is looking forward to an environment where Nigerians will go to bed and feel safe.

The President-elect said: “Let us put the past, especially the recent past, behind us.

We must forget our old battles and past grievances— and learn to forge ahead. I

From Yusuf Alli and Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

assure you that our government is one that will listen to and embrace all.

“I pledge myself and our in-coming administration to just and principled governance. There shall be no bias against or favouritism for any Nigerian based on ethnicity, religion, region, gender or social status.

“I pledge myself and the government to the rule of law, in which none shall be so above the law that they are not subject to its dictates, and none shall be so below it that they are not availed of its protection.

“You shall be able to go to bed knowing that you are safe and that your constitutional rights remain in safe hands. You shall be able to voice your opinion without fear of reprisal or victimisation.

“My love and concern for this nation and what I desire for it extend to all, even to those who do not like us or our politics. You are all my people and I shall treat everyone of you as my own. I shall work for those who voted for me as well as those who voted against me and even for those who did not vote at all.

We all live under one name as one nation: we are all Nigerians.”

Amid intermittent applause, said in spite of hate campaigns, he harboured no grudge against anyone. ”Some unfortunate issues about my eligibility have been raised during the campaign. I wish to state that through devotion to this nation, everything I have

learned and done has been to enable me to make the best possible contribution to public life. If I had judged myself incapable of governing I would never have sought to impose myself on it. I have served in various capacities and have always put in my best.

“But despite the rancour of the elections, I extend a hand of friendship and conciliation to President Jonathan and his team. I hereby wish to state that I harbour no ill will against anyone.

“Let me state clearly that President Jonathan has nothing to fear from me. Although we may not agree on the methods of governing the nation, he is a great Nigerian and still our president. He deserves our support and permanent respect by virtue of the office he has held.

“This is how an honourable nation treats its servants and conducts its affairs; and this is how Nigeria should be looking forward to meeting with President Jonathan in the days to come to discuss how our teams can make the transition of administrations as efficient as possible.”

Gen. Buhari repeatedly stressed that he will govern and not rule the nation.

He said change has finally come to the country because APC government will faithfully serve Nigerians.

He said: “I am immensely grateful to God for this day and for this hour. I feel truly honoured and humbled that the Nigerian people have so clearly chosen me to lead them.

“The official announcement from INEC was the moment the vast majority of Nigerians

Continued from page 1

•Vice President-elect Prof. Yemi Osinbajo displaying his Certificate of Return in Abuja...yesterday.

PHOTO: AKIN OLADOKUN

had hoped and been waiting for. Today, history has been made, and change has finally come. Your votes have changed our national destiny for the good of all Nigerians.

“INEC has announced that I, Muhammadu Buhari, shall be your next president. My team and I shall faithfully serve you. There shall no longer be a ruling party

again: APC will be your governing party. We shall faithfully serve you. We shall never rule over the people as if they were subservient to government.

“Our long night has passed and the daylight of new democratic governance has broken across the land. This, therefore, is not a victory for Continued on page 61

34,000-point level to stand at 34,392 points, extending gains to a ninth consecutive session — its longest winning streak this year — as President Goodluck Jonathan accepted his defeat.

The naira gained 0.46 per cent to 217 against the dollar on the parallel market, a black market dealer said.

The currency traded at 197 naira to the dollar on the interbank market, a level it has traded at since February, after the central bank pegged the rate in a de facto devaluation.

Yields on sovereign naira bonds fell sharply, with the five-year bond down 101 basis points.

Nigeria’s economy has been growing by about 7 per cent, but billions of dollars in missing oil receipts and the Boko Haram insurgency that has killed thousands helped to undermine Jonathan’s popularity, analysts said.

Some analysts said the market rally would be punctured by harsh realities that have blighted economic growth.

“Market will rally on the back of elections but after that investors will wake up to the reality that the government needs to borrow more to fund its current account, which means bond yields will have to rise long-term,” a dealer at a major bank told Reuters.

Nigerian dollar-denominated bonds issued by the government and banks rose for a second straight day, with sovereign issues hitting their highest levels since mid-December.

Obama, Ban-Ki Moon, Carrington, Hollande, others greet president-elect

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HE World rose in unison yesterday to endorse Saturday’s election won by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The United Nations, the United States, France and the European Union observer team in separate statements commended the polls’ outcome and hailed outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for being magnanimous in victory.

United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon and other world leaders congratulated President-elect Buhari on his hard worn victory.

In a statement from in New York, Ban said he had spoken to Jonathan and Buhari on the outcome of the polls as declared by the Independent

National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He commended Jonathan for his leadership qualities throughout the electoral process and his statesmanship in upholding the democratic process. He also applauded the INEC for organising the elections in a professional and credible “manner under challenging circumstances”. The UN Chief called on all Nigerians to accept the outcome of the elections Ban also appealed to them to address any complaints they may have through existing legal and constitutional channels. The Secretary-General said the successful conduct of the polls was a testimony to the maturity of Nigeria’s

democracy. He expressed hope that the same democratic spirit would prevail in the conduct of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections on April 11.

United States President Barack Obama also congratulated President-elect Buhari.

In a statement, Obama said: “The last few days have shown the world the strength of Nigeria’s commitment to democratic principles. By turning out in large numbers and sometimes waiting all day to cast their votes, Nigerians came together to decide the future of their country peacefully.

“I commend President Goodluck Jonathan and President-Elect Muhammadu Bu-

hari for their public commitments to non-violence throughout the campaign.

President Jonathan has placed his country’s interests first by conceding the election and congratulating President-Elect Buhari on his victory. I look forward to working with President Jonathan throughout the remainder of his term, and I thank him for his many years of service and his statesmanlike conduct at this critical juncture. I urge PresidentElect Buhari and President Jonathan to repeat their calls to their supporters to continue to respect the election outcomes, focus on unifying the country, and together lead Nigeria through a peaceful transition.

“Nigeria’s Independent Na-

tional Electoral Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Attahiru Jega, deserve special recognition for what independent international observers have deemed a largely peaceful and orderly vote. I commend INEC for its extensive efforts to increase the credibility and transparency of the electoral process. Looking ahead to the gubernatorial elections on April 11, it is imperative that national attention turn to ensuring isolated logistical challenges are overcome and peace is protected, even in the most hotly contested races.

“On behalf of the American people, I extend congratulations to the people of Nigeria and to President-Elect Buhari

and look forward to continuing to work with the newlyelected government on our many shared priorities.”

The President of the Republic of France, Mr François Hollande congratulated Gen. Buhari in a statement issued in Abuja by France embassy in Nigeria. It stated that Hollande welcomed the commitment of the Nigerian people and the professionalism exhibited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the polls.

According to the statement, Continued on page 61

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

5

NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

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Mark, Ekweremadu, Tambuwal, Nwobodo, Ijaw leader greet Buhari

ENATE President David Mark, his deputy Ike Ekweremadu and Speaker of House of Representatives Aminu Waziri Tambuwal yesterday led other eminent citizens to congratulate the president-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for his victory at the polls.

He described the victory as a reflection of the wishes of majority of Nigerians.

Mark, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja, hailed the political resilience of Gen. Buhari.

He noted that Nigerians have rewarded his efforts with victory at the polls.

The Senate president urged the president-elect to be magnanimous in victory and govern Nigeria equitably and fairly, irrespective of party’s affiliation or creed.

He praised the sportsmanship of President Goodluck Jonathan, describing him as a worthy statesman.

Mark said: “President Jonathan has assumed a clear leadership in the comity of African nations, where Heads of Government are perceived to be sit-tight leaders.

“He (President Jonathan) has set a classic acceptance of the aphorism that power belongs to God and He grants it to whoever He pleases. For this, history will be kind to him.”

Ekweremadu, who also reacted to

•Hail Jonathan’s ‘sportsmanship’ From Onyedi Ojiabor, Sanni Onogu, Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja, Chris Oji, Enugu and Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

the outcome of the presidential election in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, in Abuja, said the citizens have spoken through their ballots and praised President Jonathan for conceding defeat to Gen. Buhari.

He noted that such “unprecedented show of statesmanship had gone a long way in rewriting the history of the nation’s democracy and ensuring postelection peace and security of Nigeria.”

He said: “Whichever way we look at the 2015 presidential election, the real winner is Nigeria, and the greatest beneficiaries are Nigerians and our democracy, especially our electoral system.

“I congratulate General Buhari, who no doubt has the experience, popular support, and goodwill to continue with the transformation process, and commend President Goodluck Jonathan for not only bequeathing the

legacy of reformed electoral process, but also leading by example in the quest for the post-election stability, peace, security, and harmony of Nigeria”.

Tambuwal described the presidential election as a watershed in the country’s history.

He said the will of the majority of the people, as expressed in the results of the election should be respected.

Tambuwal, in a welcome speech on resumption from election break, congratulated President Jonathan and the president-elect over the successful conduct and the outcome of the election.

According to him, by conceding defeat, Jonathan has written his name in gold.

He said Jonathan would be remembered for playing a critical role in eliminating tension following the announcement of result of the election.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega and his colleagues were also lauded by the Speaker for not capitulating in the face of mounting pressures.

Hailing the international community, the media and civil society organisations (CSO) for their support, the Speaker urged them to ensure the success of the April 11 elections.

Former Old Anambra State Governor Senator Jim Nwobodo also congratulated the president-elect on his victory.

Nwobodo, a former chairman of the Governors’ Forum during the Second Republic, also congratulated Jonathan for his sportsmanship in conceding defeat.

In a statement in Enugu yesterday, Nwobodo assured Buhari that the Igbo would support and cooperate with him and his government in moving Nigeria forward, “in spite of the way the Igbo voted.”

He appealed to Buhari to reunite Nigerians, as the voting pattern in the last election showed a great divide across ethnic and religious divide.

“The campaigns and elections are over and every Nigerian irrespective of tribe, tongue and religion, would very soon become your responsibility,” Nwobodo said.

Also yesterday, the president’s kins-

men, who are members of the umbrella organisation of Ijaw people, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), have congratulated the president-elect.

They admonished Nigerians to eschew any act that was capable of endangering the peace, unity and corporate existence of the country.

INC, through its president, Boma Obuoforibo, in an online statement yesterday, stated that President Jonathan did well by conceding defeat and congratulating Gen. Buhari, even before the formal announcement of the final results by INEC Chairman.

INC said: “On behalf of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, we commend President Jonathan for his courageous outing in the 2015 presidential election. He made all Nigerians proud by his unprecedented show of sportsmanship in accepting the verdict of INEC. “His telephone call to congratulate Gen. Buhari on his victory at the polls, even before the formal declaration of results by INEC, is a statesmanlike act that has endeared him as a role model for emerging leaders of our country and Africa.

“We congratulate Gen. Buhari on his victory at the polls and wish him divine wisdom and courage to lead our dear Nigeria into a new era of peace and broadly-shared prosperity.”

NLC assures president-elect of positive engagement From Tony Akowe, Abuja

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HE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the election of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has opened an important chapter in the socio-political development of the nation, saying it was prepared to positively engage the new government in defining a new agenda.

In a congratulatory message entitled: “Nigerians as winners”, by the its president, Dr. Ayuba Wabba, said Nigerians have finally broken the jinx of transiting from one democratically elected government controlled by one party to one controlled by an opposition party.

Paying tributes to victims of violent incidents during the elections, the Congress said the least the APC government can do is to build upon the culture of democracy it has inherited.

It praised President Goodluck Jonathan for not only organising a credible, free and fair election, but also promptly accepting its outcome, even though he lost.

The statement reads: “The Nigeria Labour Congress joins millions of our compatriots in congratulating Maj.Gen. Buhari on his victory in perhaps the most keenly contested presidential election in the history of our country.

“We strongly believe that the election of Maj.-Gen. Buhari has undoubtedly opened a new and important chapter in the socio-political development of our nation as we have finally broken the jinx of transiting from one democratically elected civilian government controlled by a ruling party to one controlled by an opposition party.

“We also commend the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for not only organising an election adjudged to be credible and fair, but also for promptly accepting its outcome even though he lost. This is statesmanship and is in keeping with his oft-quoted phrase that his election into the office of President is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.

“The successfully concluded presidential election is a tribute to the patience, enthusiasm, resilience and determination of Nigerians to choose who governs them. It is a demonstration of their abiding faith in democracy and belief in their country. It also marks the beginning of a new era in our democratic experience, where expectations are high.”

•From left: Oyo State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mr. Rufus Akeju reviewing the performance of the state INEC at a media briefing in Ibadan PHOTO: FEMI ILESANMI, IBADAN ...yesterday

Fani-Kayode, PDP’s BOT secretary hail presidential candidates T HE Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign, Chief Femi FaniKayode, Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Board of Trustees (BOT) Senator Walid Jibril and former PDP governorship aspirant in Kaduna State Alhaji Shuaibu Idris Mikati have congratulated Gen. Muhammadu Buhari for his victory in the presidential election.

At a media briefing in Abuja yesterday, Fani-Kayode said: “We start by saying that we commend and we congratulate Gen. Buhari for winning this election”.

On the hate campaign he championed against Buhari and other leaders of the opposition, Fani-Kayode said: “There was absolutely nothing personal as regards this directorate or myself. I had nothing personal against anybody. I was simply doing my job for which I have no regrets and I wish them well and I sincerely hope that they will take Nigeria to a level that we can all be proud of.”

He also praised President Goodluck Jonathan for having the courage to accept defeat at the earliest moment, for being able to stand up and rise above party politics and to speak like a statesman.

According to him, the PDP fought a virile, strong, aggressive and very effective campaign, trying to justify why Jonathan deserved a second term.

Campaign coordinator: Buhari’s victory •Party’s campaign spokesman: I’ve no regrets well-deserved From Gbade Ogunwale, Blessing Olaifa, Abuja

He continued: “It has, however, come to a point that we must tell the world and the Nigerian people about how we feel about the outcome of the election. What we will say here today is basically to reiterate and to reflect the words of our leader and President, President Goodluck Jonathan.

“We, therefore, urge the Nigerian people and our teeming supporters to stand firm and continue to support the democratic process and continue to agitate for a better Nigeria.

“We urge them to continue to support our party, the PDP, as best as they can, even though we lost this election. We ask them to co-operate with the incoming government and to remember that we are first and foremost Nigerians before anything else.

“On the day of the election when I went to vote at Ile-Ife, I held a press conference in which I told the people that more than anything else, that we should try our very best to keep the peace in this country and to keep the country moving forward.

“I also reminded them that in every election, there will always be a winner and a loser. It is a mark of our humanity and it is also symp-

tomatic of the type of people that we are and who we are that when the time comes, we can say we fought a good fight but we lost.

“And having lost, it does not mean that it is the end to the world, it just means that we need to regroup, re-organise ourselves and begin the process all over again because another elections will come in a few years time.

“And that is where we are today.

We have conceded that we have lost.

We acknowledge the fact that we fought a good fight. We do not have any fears about the future.

“We did the right thing during the campaign. We have no regrets about our candidate or the way in which we conducted our campaign and we will live to fight another day.

“May God grant each and every one of us peace. May He watch over our nation. May He guide our President for the next two months whilst he is still in power and thereafter and may He guide and lead the President-elect, Gen. Buhari, in the herculean task that lies ahead of him.

Mikati congratulated the president-elect and Jonathan, describing both of them as patriots and statesmen.

Mikati and Senator Jibril spoke with The Nation in separate interviews in Abuja.

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HE Lagos State Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, James Abiodun Faleke, yesterday described the victory of President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as well-deserved.

Faleke said the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates’ victory at the March 28 presidential election was not only ordained by God, but timely as it came at a time Nigerians were yearning for change.

In a statement, Faleke, who was re-elected into the House of Representatives from the Ikeja Federal Constituency, assured Nigerians that the APC would deliver on its electoral promises.

The statement reads: “We know that the expectations of Nigerians from the incoming administration are very high. They want changes in the delivery of government business and social services.

“Our party planned for the task ahead and with the support of all Nigerians, the APC will not disappoint the nation.

“This is the first time that a sitting government will be defeated and it is the first time that the progressives will be at the helm at the federal level. Since Independence, the conservatives have been controlling the Federal Government.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

6

NEWS

The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Rev. John Cardinal Onaiyekan, blessing the oil of catechumens during the Mass.

PHOTOS: NAN

•Catholic sisters at the Chrism Mass in Abuja...yesterday.

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Court grants Tinubu interlocutory injunction against AIT on documentary

LAGOS High Court sitting in Ikeja has restrained the African Independent Television (AIT) from further airing a documentary on All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Justice Olamide Akinkugbe granted the applicant’s request for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining AIT from airing the documentary on Asiwaju Tinubu.

The judge granted the order while ruling on an application brought before the court by Tinubu’s counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun.

Justice Akinkugbe had earlier on March 16, 2015, granted an interim order against AIT after hearing an ex parte motion filed by the applicant.

Ruling on the matter yesterday, Justice Akinkugbe said the interlocutory injunction was pending the determination of the substantive N150 billion libel suit filed by the former Lagos State governor against Daar Communications Plc, owners of AIT. Justice Akinkugbe held that the

Akanbi to winner: combat corruption with zeal From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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ORMER Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) boss, Justice Mustapha Akanbi has urged the president-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to commit himself to the fight against corruption.

The retired Appeal Court president said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration did not appreciate the enormity of the level of the country’s corruption.

Justice Akanbi said: “It is up to Gen. Buhari to let everybody realise that his government will not condone corruption.”

The former anti-corruption czar, who spoke to reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, added: “I think the people of Nigeria have spoken. They wanted a change and they have got a change. That means he has got the support of the nation; that also means that he has now got an opportunity, which had eluded him in the three previous attempts he made. It is now for him to justify the confidence reposed in him by the Nigerian nation.

“Today, he is the president of Nigeria, although he got it through the instrumentality of his political party; but he is the leader of all of us. Like he himself has confirmed, so much has gone wrong. Corruption has escalated and he said he will fight it. He has little time on his hands and he must commit himself to the fight against corruption, because I have always said that corruption is the mother of all crimes.

“Secondly, there is the issue of abject poverty and unemployment in the land. There is no reason why we should wallow in poverty because they say we are the largest economy in Africa.”

By Adebisi Onanuga

continued airing of the documentary titled: “Lion of Bourdilion”, would affect the res of the suit, which was the reputation of the applicant.

The judge also held that if the court allowed the station to continue with the broadcast of the documentary, which it started on March 1, 2015, the applicant cannot be adequately compensated.

“I hereby order an interlocutory injunction in this suit, restraining the defendant from further airing, publishing, disseminating and broadcasting the documentary, ‘Lion of Bourdilion’, which it started broadcasting on March 1, pending the determination of the substantive suit,” the judge said.

Justice Akinkugbe adjourned the matter till April 16, 2015 for further hearing.

Asiwaju Tinubu had filed the suit against Daar Communications Plc, for defamation of character, following the airing of the documentary, which depicted him as a cor-

rupt politician.

According to him, the documentary was politically sponsored to tarnish his reputation in the eyes of the public He had subsequently asked the court for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining AIT whether by itself, agents, privies and or other persons from producing or continuing to broadcast the documentary.

Chief Olanipekun, while moving the application at the hearing, had asked the court to restrain the defendant from airing the documentary, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He disagreed with the submission of AIT that most of the contents in the said documentary were already on various online publications, saying it was not an excuse to continue to broadcast the document.

But AIT’s counsel Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) had submitted before the court that the said documentary was last aired on March 6, 2015.

Ozekhome said the station had since stopped the broadcast of the

documentary following the earlier order of the court.

The defendant had maintained that the content of the documentary were facts, which had been in the public domain for over two decades and published independently prior to the broadcast.

He exhibited other previous articles written about Asiwaju Tinubu, which he claimed were not challenged by the applicant till date.

He contended that Tinubu was a former senator, two-time governor of Nigeria’s most populous state and the leader of the APC, which claims to be an anti-corruption political party.

He argued that the station has a responsibility to its audience to scrutinise public officers, adding that Tinubu had not shown how the said documentary had damaged his reputation.

He, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the application, emphasising that Tinubu had failed to show that he could not be adequately compensated for the damages if the broadcast of the documentary was allowed to continue.

Fire sparks panic at MMIA’s arrival hall

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HERE was confusion at the arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos yesterday, as fire outbreak in one of the offices belonging to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) forced inbound passengers to scamper for safety.

The smoke from the outbreak enveloped the arrival E finger, forcing passengers to abandon their luggage at immigration and customs checkpoints to avert being choked by smoke.

Most passengers and airport workers that rushed out waited anxiously outside the arrival hall, awaiting fire rescue team to put out the fire.

But , FAAN security officials moved into the terminal to ensure

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

no passenger was trapped.

A combined team of FAAN fire and aerodrome officials as well as the Port Health Unit also mobilised their trucks and ambulance to the terminal.

The MMIA Police Commissioner, Mrs. Dorothy Gimba, deployed policemen to the terminal to ascertain the extent of the incident .

For about two hours, flights that came had to wait in the aircraft before the passengers could alight into the terminal building for immigration and customs clearance .

Confirming the incident, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) Mr. Yakubu Dati said the

smoke was traced to some offices at the E wing section of the terminal on the ground floor.

He said: “There was a minor smoke incident at the “E” arrival wing of the international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 1.13pm today (yesterday).

The smoke was quickly traced to some offices at the E wing on the ground floor of the terminal by a combined team of FAAN’s electrical engineers and fire officers.

“Investigations have commenced to ascertain the cause of the fire.

“The authority wishes to assure the travelling public and other airport users that there was no immediate danger to anyone as a result of the incident, neither did it affect flight operations at the terminal.”

Aliyu, Mimiko, Fayose, others shun meeting with Jonathan

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OVERNORS Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti) yesterday shunned a meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors' Forum with President Goodluck Jonathan.

The forum's chairman and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, said some of the PDP gover?nors could not make it to the meeting because the notice was short.

Among the PDP governors who met with Jonathan were Theodore Orji (Abia); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).

Idris Wada (Kogi); Emmanuel

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

Uduaghan (Delta); Martin Elechi (Ebonyi); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe); Murktar Yero (Kaduna); Jonah Jang (Plateau); and Sullivan Chime (Enugu) attended the meeting.

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting, Akpabio maintained that the party will not lose any of its states during April 11 governorship elections.

The party lost the presidential election last Saturday to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Akpabio praised Jonathan for sacrificing his political ambition for the sake of Nigeria.

According to him, Jonathan has set a statesmanly record in Africa by con-

ceding victory to the opposition despite alleged flaws in the election.

He reiterated the party's position that it would explore possible legal options in seeking redress over the anomalies observed during the election.

Akpabio also said the PDP was glad to have piloted the affairs of the country for the past 16 years and giving Nigeria a very peaceful transition that had shocked all and sundry.

The governor also dismissed reports that the PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, had resigned his appointment.

He said that he spoke with Muazu 30 minutes earlier and nothing of such had happened.

First Lady greets Hajia Buhari From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

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HE First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan has congratulated the wife of the presidentelect, Hajia Aisha Buhari, on the election of her husband, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

According to a statement by the Media Assistant in the Office of the First Lady, Ayo Adewuyi, the first lady appealed to the Nigerian women to work with Hajia Buhari and give her the maximum support to make her succeed in her new assignment.

“The First Lady (Mama Peace) wishes her well in her new task,” the statement said.

Agagu rejoices with Buhari, Osinbajo

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ORMER Chief of Staff to the late Ondo State Governor Chief Olusegun Agagu, Femi Agagau has congratulated the president-elect Gen Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on the victory at the polls.

In a statement, Agagu said: “I wish to congratulate Gen Buhari, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and indeed all Nigerians on this historic victory and the dawn of a new beginning for Nigeria.

“This is indeed a watershed in the political history of our dear nation and I have no doubt that it will usher in the much desired change that Nigeria urgently requires.”

NBA, civil society groups hail Buhari

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HE Nigerian Bar Association and a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) yesterday hailed President Goodluck Jonathan and Presidentelect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for the successful conduct of the May 28 elections.

While they congratulate Buhari for emerging the winner of the keenly contested election, the groups hailed Jonathan for conceding defeat and saving the country from unnecessary crisis.

They also applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for executing the elections in a professional manner despite the challenging circumstances.

They urged INEC to ensure that all lapses experienced during the last elections are not repeated on April 11. They appealed to Nigerians to remain peaceful during the remaining elections.

The NBA President, Augustine Alegeh (SAN), admonished the President and President-elect to work closely to ensure stimulating transition period. He expressed the hope that “the maturity that has characterised their relationship will continue during the transition period.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

7

NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY Ashafa, Ikuforiji, others hail Buhari From Oziegbe Okoeki, Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti,

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HE senator representing Lagos East, Gbenga Ashafa, has congratulated president-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

He said: “Although it was a tough fight, it’s a well deserved victory. Nigeria is over due for change and the change is now. I wish the president-elect a fulfilled tenure.”

A member of the House of Representatives, Opeyemi Bamidele, urged Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic, religious and political leanings, to support Buhari.

Bamidele, in a statement yesterday by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, described Buhari’s victory as a watershed in the nation’s history.

“His triumph is symbolic and will redirect the country’s democracy,” he said.

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly Adeyemi Ikuforiji, in a message by his Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Adebayo, said: “As you emerged victorious in the presidential election, it is with great honour that I and my colleagues, rejoice with you and your running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on your auspicious and well-earned victory.

“We also congratulate the leadership of our party, All Progressives Congress (APC), which worked assiduously by jettisoning their personal interests to salvage Nigeria from collapse.

The presidential candidate of the African Peoples Alliance (APA), Musa Ayeni, prayed God to guide the president-elect in taking decisions that would bring positive change to Nigeria.

The APA candidate hailed President Goodluck Jonathan and other candidates for their magnanimity and display of loyalty and patriotism.

Oyo REC advises candidates From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

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HE Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Oyo State, Rufus Akeju, has urged aggrieved parties to head to the tribunal, if they are not satisfied with last Saturday’s elections.

He spoke yesterday at the commission’s office in Ibadan, the state capital.

According to him, condemnation and rejection of the election is a disservice to the electoral system and an insult to voters, who sacrificed time to participate in the election.

“The current electoral system has a lot of in-built mechanism to checkmate electoral fraud and manipulations. If any political party still assumes that an INEC official can alter or manipulate an election result, the party is surely comfortably still residing in the past.

“The politicians who are condemning and protesting the outcome of last Saturday’s elections are advised to assemble their facts, gather their documents and head for the tribunal. We should be careful not to discourage the electorate with our utterances.”

Akeju promised that the commission would improve on its last performance and work on the noticed lapses i9n next Saturday’s elections.

19 APC lawmakers take over Ekiti Assembly

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FTER a four-month hiatus, the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers met yesterday at the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

They stormed the Assembly less than 12 hours after the APC’s presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, was declared president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Their presence stunned Assembly workers, as they headed for the chambers to hold their first legislative meeting since they were forced out in controversial circumstances last November.

Led by the Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, the 19 APC lawmakers said they were back to assume their official duties in accordance with the people’s mandate given to them.

It was learnt the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction of seven, Dele Olugbemi, was in his office same time the 19 were meeting.

Soldiers and policemen later came to the complex af-

•Soldiers, police shut down complex From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

ter the APC lawmakers had concluded their meeting to put the situation under control.

The Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, who led about 100 policemen and soldiers, ordered the closure of the complex to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

The seven PDP legislators on November 17 last year “elected” Olugbemi as “protem speaker” to screen and ratify Governor Ayo Fayose’s three commissioners and local government caretaker committee members.

They returned to the complex on November 20 and “impeached” Omirin, without the constitutionally-required 18 lawmakers.

Omirin led the APC legislators to the Assembly in a convoy of 14 vehicles at 11.30 am.

They observed a praiseand-worship session with an opening prayer led by the member representing Efon,

Folorunso Ogundele.

After meeting for 10 minutes, the APC lawmakers briefed reporters waiting outside.

On emerging from the inner recesses of the Assembly complex, some of the APC Assemblymen chanted “Sai Buhari…Sai Baba.”

Omirin said they came back to begin their legislative duties, saying the people should not be surprised by their presence.

He described Olugbemi as an impostor, stressing that the legitimate speaker is back and that “nobody dares stand in his way.”

Omirin said: “Why are you surprised that we are here? I don’t expect you to be surprised that we are in our offices because we are duly elected as members of the House of Assembly.

“This is my office and I shouldn’t be asked why I am here. Though I have instituted a case challenging the fake impeachment against me, that will not prevent us from doing what we are sup-

posed to do.”

When asked whether Buhari’s victory prompted their action, Omirin said “no, that is not true. It was just mere coincidence. Don’t forget the fact that because I have not been here since November does not mean I have not been performing my duties. So, whether Buhari is declared or not, we have to do our work.

“I have been attending Speakers’ meetings in Abuja and attending to my people at my constituency, so we haven’t abdicated our duties”.

Efforts by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Operations, to pacify the APC lawmakers not to reconvene failed.

When Olugbemi emerged from his office, he criticised the police commissioner for closing down the complex.

He said: “Commissioner, I don’t think it was right to close down the Assembly.

We have the capacity to contain the APC lawmakers. We are ready to meet them fire for fire.”

• The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (middle), his running mate, Mrs. Oluranti Adebule, with Igbo leaders, after a meeting in Lagos... yesterday.

PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

Celebrating APC members defy curfew in Ado-Ekiti

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UNDREDS of All Progressives Congress (APC) members in Ekiti State yesterday took to the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, to celebrate the victory of their presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The APC loyalists, who were shouting “Sai Buhari”; “Sai Baba”; “APC…Change”, held brooms and Buhari’s posters.

They sang victory songs and gave thanks to God for giving their party, what they called “the coveted presidential crown”.

The members defied the curfew imposed by Governor Ayo Fayose on Monday.

They trooped out about 5.30 am and were joined by commercial motorcyclists, artisans, youths and residents.

They danced to Ajilosun, Irona, Ijigbo, Fajuyi, Ilawe Road, Odo Ado, Okesa, Old Garage, Okeyinmi, Oke Ila, among others.

Commercial vehicles and motorcycles were decorated with APC posters, with their occupants joining in chants of Sai Buhari.

One of the celebrators,

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

Okunola Olumide, said no law in Nigeria forbids people from rejoicing legitimate accomplishments, such as naming ceremony, promotion and electoral victory.

“There is no law that bans us from celebrating the victory of our candidate. This curfew cannot stop us. This is our finest hour and we will continue to savour it for years to come,” Olumide said.

Another APC member,

Mrs. Wuraola Ogunyemi, said the celebration of Buhari’s victory was a national exercise, and wondered why Fayose would hurriedly issue out orders stopping that of Ekiti State.

The APC members advised the governor to allow APC lawmakers perform their duties or “risk another round of impeachment”.

“Ordinarily, we do not have problems with Fayose as a governor as long as he allows our lawmakers perform their duties and stop attacks on our secretariat.

“Fayose had written those

of us in APC off, in the political arrangement of Ekiti State, because he said a few days ago that his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would win all the Assembly seats, we shall see how he will achieve that now.”

Though they praised him for being the first governor to congratulate Buhari, the members said his latest actions were belated and selfserving.

Throughout the period of the road show, policemen provided cover for jubilating APC members and controled the traffic.

Free train ride from Lagos to Osun

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HE Osun State government has announced free train ride for the Easter celebration.

A statement by the Ministry of Commerce, Cooperative, Industry and Empowerment yesterday said the free train ride would convey people coming for the Easter festival from Lagos to Osogbo on Friday by 11am.

A return train will depart Osogbo for Lagos on Monday by 11 am.

The statement reads: “This tradition of free train ride as introduced by the Rauf Aregbesola administration is aimed at

facilitating the easy movement of the citizenry wherever they are.

“And this programme takes care of both Islamic and Christian festivities. Since its commencement, we can say confidently it has been a boost to the economy of the state.

“Therefore, it is the wish of government that our people from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states would seize this window of opportunity by Aregbesola’s government to visit home and celebrate with their relatives.”

Osun APC, ALGON hail voters From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan and Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has congratulated Nigerians for voting for the party and the “change it represents”.

A statement by its Publicity Director, Kunle Oyatomi, said: “It raises hope for greater development, and promises a better, more reliable funding for the state.

“With Buhari’s victory, change has been ushered into the political space, and hopefully it will permeate all spectra of our national life.

“By the outcome of this presidential election, Nigeria has set in motion a truly democratic system, which will place premium on the people as the traditional custodians of power.”

The Association of Local Governments (ALGON) in Oyo State, also known as FORUM 33, praised the people for voting for the APC and Buhari.

The Forum, through its Chairman, Yekeen Popoola, also hailed Governor Abiola Ajimobi for working hard to build the party.

It praised the governor for his unparalleled performance and for allowing internal democracy, which helped the party present its best candidates.

"It is gladdening to see the people of Oyo State come out in large numbers to vote for all APC candidates from Buhari to National assembly candidates.

"Your huge support confirmed our collective desire for continued change which started on May 29, 2011 when you gave Governor Abiola Ajimobi a chance.

"We urge you to continue in the same spirit by casting al your votes for our performing governor, Abiola Ajimobi, and all APC candidates for the 32 seats for House of Assembly election on April 11," the forum said.

The victory, according to FORUM 33, belongs to the people who are not looking back in their resolve to enthrone only leaders that are accountable.

The Southwest chapter of the APC has described the victory of its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as a new dawn in Nigeria.

In a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, Ayo Afolabi, the party said what felt like fantasy has become a reality because of Nigerians’ commitment to forging the country of their dream through democratic means.

It congratulated Nigerians “for the dawn of a new era and plethora of opportunities that Buhari’s election opens for them”.

Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Najeem Salaam, has praised the electorate for insisting on making their voices heard against all odds.

He asserted that with the outcome of the elections, a clear message was sent to the politicians and political actors.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

•One of the vehicles destroyed...yesterday

•Another vandalised vehicle

Thugs attack Ekiti APC secretariat

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HERE was tension in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, yesterday when a gang of thugs attacked the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC), smashing five vehicles.

Party members claimed that the thugs were sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government. They stormed the secretariat in three Hilux vehicles.

The unprovoked attack, which occurred at 3.30 pm, caused panic at Ajilosun/ Mobil. The hoodlums destroyed APC flags and fired bullets at cars.

One of the vehicles smashed was that of the party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun.

APC members at the secretariat named the thugs who carried out the attack.

•Destroy five vehicles •Fayose denies complicity From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

Olatubosun said party members had returned from a road show to celebrate the victory of their presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, and most of them had dispersed before the thugs struck.

He said: “The thugs came in three Hilux vehicles, shooting directly at our party secretariat. They entered our premises and destroyed everything in sight.

“We do not believe that the governor will stop our celebration of Buhari’s victory because we have heard him say that there would be no celebration in Ekiti.

“It was the same killersquad that has been wreak-

ing havoc in the state that came to attack us at our party secretariat. Police can testify to our peaceful conduct; we did not abuse anybody, we did not attack anybody.

“They were fully armed, they came with guns, charms and machetes and the Hilux vehicles carried government number plates.”

But the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, denied the claim that the thugs were sent by Fayose.

Adelusi said: “Such allegation should be disregarded by every reasonable human being, because the governor did not send anybody and has never done such a thing in the past.”

The governor’s spokesman denied the existence of any killer-squad, saying such an allegation exists in the imagination of the opposition.

“We also appeal to the police and other arms of the security agencies to maintain law and order, protect lives and property and never allow any hoodlum to turn this state into another theatre of war.”

The Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, said he deployed a team of policemen to bring the situation under control, saying “our timely arrival scared away the miscreants”.

Lakanu said the police succeeded in flushing out the miscreants from the APC secretariat.

He denied the claim that the thugs were given security cover by some policemen.

Vote for continuity, Ambode urges Lagosians

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HE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has thanked the people for voting out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the presidential election.

In a statement yesterday, Ambode said: “This rare feat achieved by the people is a fulfillment of the prediction of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that a day would come when the best of the progressives and

the conservatives would come together to provide an excellent future for Nigeria.

“This has been made possible by the resilience of the people. I urge Lagosians not to relent but to vote for APC in Lagos to complete the cycle of excellence.

“Lagos must be the first partaker of the massive support of the APC Federal Government that she has been denied by the PDP. The people of Lagos would recall the way the PDP federal government “punished” Lagos for creating

the 37 Local Council Development Areas by withholding the allocation due to the state.

“It was the ingenuity of the crack team of experts, of which I was a member, that led to development of the template on which Lagos not only survived but expanded its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

“The task of governance is not for wishful thinkers and verbose speakers but for thinkers, strategists and tacticians.

“I want to plead with the people not gamble with our future. This is not the time for trial and error. The people of Lagos must continue on the path of excellence which the APC represents. Lagosians must vote for continuity on April 11.

“By the grace of God, I believe that if the people of Lagos give me this opportunity I shall serve with sincerity, integrity and with all the talents the Almighty has endowed me with.”

Aregbesola: APC’s victory fulfils Awolowo’s prophecy

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SUN State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has described the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a fulfillment of the vision of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Aregbesola described the outcome of the poll as a watershed in the annals of democratic elections in Nigeria.

The governor, in a state broadcast, noted that the electoral victory of Muhammadu Buhari is the culmination of the struggle for the enthronement of a people-driven democratic governance in the country.

Aregbesola reminded Nigerians that Awolowo had in 1983 predicted that the progressive elements in the North and South would one day come together for the liberation of the country.

He pointed out that the progressives have always wanted to come together in the past but their plan had always been stopped by cruel fate.

The governor cited the example of intention of the coming together of the progressives under the United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA) in the First Republic that was cut short by military rule in 1966.

Aregbesola also noted the progressive tendency of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that produced the presidential victory of 1993.

He praised the people for their determination, orderly procession and peaceful conduct before and after the polls.

Aregbesola said the pattern of the election in Osun was consistent with

what obtained since the 2011 general elections and last year’s governorship election in the state.

“It is greatly significant how the election went in Osun. Your enthusiastic response, determination, orderly procession and conduct, peaceful disposition and commitment to the defence of democracy all shone through.

“You all willingly sacrificed a day to be able to cast your votes to help shape the direction of the governance of our nation in the next four years.

“You voted and stood by your votes until they were counted and defended the integrity of the election. Your enthusiasm did not wane, even where voting started late and continued till the next day,” the governor said.

Osun residents carry mock coffin of PDP

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OME residents of Osun State yesterday carried a mock coffin of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) round Osogbo, the state capital.

In jubilation, they marched round major streets, following the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, in last Saturday’s presidential election.

Armed with brooms, the demonstrators carried the casket with the inscription: “PDP, Rest in Peace”.

They said: “PDP has been buried politically and rested forever. It will never resurrect again to resurface on the country’s political firmament.

“PDP disgraced itself out of power due to its self aggrandisement, corruption, greed and a lot of untoward inhuman acts meted to the citizens.”

As they paraded the casket, they sang various songs of acrimony, portraying PDP as an institution and symbol of

From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

backwardness, which made life unbearable for the citizenry for 16 years.

They carried the casket from the popular OritaOlaiya to Jaleyemi Hospital Road, Oja-Oba and other streets.

An APC chieftain, Lasun Yusuf, condemned the act, describing it as an abomination.

Yusuf, who was just reelected as a member of the House of Representatives to represent Osogbo/Olorunda/ Orolu/Irepodun Federal Constituency, described the action as uncalled for.

“It is over zealousness on the part of people that you can not control. It is not good,” he said.

He, however, cautioned residents against taking the law into their hands, saying: “There should be limit to celebration, especially at this time.”

Ladoja, Folarin, Alao-Akala jittery From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

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ITH the huge success of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the presidential and National Assembly elections in Oyo State on Saturday, governorship candidates of other major parties in the state are jittery ahead of the April 11 election.

Sources close to Rashidi Ladoja, Teslim Folarin and Adebayo Alao-Akala spoke of the fear in their camps since Sunday when results of the National Assembly elections were announced.

Ladoja is the governorship candidate of Accord. Folarin and Alao-Akala are candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP).

In a surprising development, the APC, under the leadership of Governor Abiola Ajimobi, produced the three senators and 12 of the 14 members of the House of Representatives in the elections. It went into the election without a senator and only three representatives.

The PDP and LP won one House of Representatives seat each in Ogbomoso zone.

Both Accord and LP have begun a new wave of campaign, urging voters not to be deceived by the huge APC victory in Oyo State, attributing it to the general support for Muhammadu Buhari.

The parties are also assuring their supporters not to give up hope, saying the governorship election would take a totally different pattern.

Alao-Akala has issued a statement congratulating Buhari but insisting that he would win the governorship race. He has also rolled out new advertisements showing his achievements in office.

But Ajimobi, who is the governorship candidate of the APC in the April 11 election, has been thanking voters and called on them to seal the massive victory by voting for him and all House of Assembly candidates in the election.

He said such support would ensure that the ongoing transformation of the state is sustained.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

•President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (right) and Vice-President-elect Prof Yemi Osinbajo displaying their Certificates of Return at the International Conference Centre, Abuja...yesterday

• Gen Buhari (second right); Prof. Osinbajo (third right); National Leaders, All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande (right); Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (left), behind Buhari is Dr Saraki, beside Saraki is Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje and others Abuja...yesterday

From right: Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; National Leader, All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande; Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi; APC Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed and former Kogi State Governor, Prince Abubakar Audu in Abuja...yesterday •From left: Governors Adams Oshiomhole(Edo); Ibikunle Amosun(Ogun); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki at the presentation of Certificate of Return to Gen. Buhari in Abuja ...yesterday PHOTO: NAN

Mascots at the presentation of Certificate Of Return to Gen. Buhari in Abuja...yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

•Gen Buhari (right); Prof Osinbajo (second right); Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega (left),Buhari’s wife Hajia Aisha in Abuja...yesterday.

With them is a chieftain of APC

•Supporters celebrating in Bauchi ...yesterday

•Prof Osinbajo with admirers in Abuja...yesterday

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

•APC supporters jubilating in Jos, Plateau State...yesterday PHOTO:NAN

•Supporters celebrating in Lafia, Nasarawa State...yesterday

•Children celebrating in Kaduna...yesterday

PHOTO: NAN

PHOTO: NAN

Supporters in Abuja ...yesterday PHOTO:NAN

• Osogbo, Osun State residents ...yesterday

Gen Buhari (second right) giving his post-election speech in Abuja...yesterday. With him are National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed (right); National Secretary Mr Fidelis Tumza(left); Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; Party leader Dr Ogbonaya Onu; Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi; his Borno counterpart Kashim Shettima and former Governor of Ekiti State Otunba Niyi Adebayo PHOTO: NAN

•Supporters celebrating in Abuja...yesterday

PHOTO:NAN

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

11 What does corporate governance do? It ensures that you have set up a structure and a culture within the institution that can drive the business in line with given rules. That’s what corporate governance does.

BUSINESS THE NATION

-Seplat Petroleum Managing Director Mr Austin Avuru

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

Dangote, Saipem sign Joint Venture in Central, W/Africa

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• Speaking, the Zonal Head, Edo/Benin, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited, Mr. Chinedu Ogosi/ Listening from left are the Financial Secretary, New Benin Market Traders Association, Edo State, Mrs. Doris Eboigbe; Chairman of the Association, Mr Samson Ojo and Chairlady of the Association, Mrs. Felicia Osarhuorhuomwan, at the unveiling of FCMB Personal Business Account with N1million free insurance cover for business owners and traders in Benin, the state capital.

‘Robust Sovereign Wealth Fund ‘ll cushion oil price slump’

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HE Managing Director, Frontier Oil Limited, Dada Thomas has advised the Federal Government to substantially grow the nation’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) to cushion the effects future oil price falls.

He told The Nation that other countries resort to drawing from such funds in times of oil price slump, adding that when oil price goes up again, the drawn funds are replaced. He lamented that it is not the case with the country.

He also lamented that Nigeria grossly underutilises her gas resource.

He cited some countries that turned their economic woes to fortunes through prudent use of their SWF and efficient exploitation of their gas resources. He noted that Nigeria should follow suit by growing its SWF and optimise the utilisation of its abundant gas resource.

• Nigeria’s gas underutilised

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

He said: “I worked in Holland for five years and I helped develop some of the country’s gas resources. Holland was poor after the war but now look at the quality of life of the 14-15 million Dutch people. They generate more wealth than the 170 million Nigerians. They have taken the gas resources and turned it into wealth generating asset. The Norwegians have $800 billion sovereign wealth. They were lucky they were producing good oil at good prices for a long time.

“I don’t think their population is more than Lagos State but they decided not just to provide for today but also for tomorrow. So are the Saudis, and that is the reason they said they have the capacity to sustain the oil

price war with the United States for eight years. But as a nation, we instituted $2 billion SWF in the last couple of years and now I think it has been reduced to about $500 million.

“Government needs to create framework and platform for encouraging people to invest in gas development in Nigeria especially for domestic consumption. We domesticate the use of the gas to power up Nigeria, to improve the economy and the quality of life of all of us.

“How can we be sitting on 182 trillion cubic feet of gas and we don’t have power?

“How can we be sitting on about 33 billion barrels of oil reserves, the seventh largest exporter of crude oil and yet we import refined products and we have four refineries?

“We need to sit down as a nation and re-examine our-

selves as to where we are, where we ought to be, and how we need to get there. As a nation, we will lose many things if the right policy decisions are not made to ensure a long term sustainable energy future. Gas is the key to unlocking Nigeria’s potentials economically, socially and quality of life of everybody.”

Thomas said there is a lot that needed to be done about the exploration and production (E&P) space especially on the gas side. “I started off thinking ahead of a project that is oil but it turned out to be gas. Thank God we didn’t give up. We also linked up with a partner that is not averse to gas business and together we created a brand new gas value chain in the southeast Nigeria where we are taking gas and turning it into power. Ibom Power in Akwa Ibom as it is today is being powered by gas from Frontier Uquo field.

LCCI advises Buhari on cost of doing business, others

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HE Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Indus try (LCCI) yesterday urged president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) to urgently address the fundamental problem of high cost of doing business in the country as soon as his government is inaugurated.

Its President, Alhaji Remi Bello who spoke during Council Meeting lamented that the declining oil prices and its impact on fiscal outlook presents a significant challenge to the incoming administration.

According to him, the outlook for many macro-economic indicators is not bright with foreign reserves dipping below $30 billion and persistent pressure on

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

the naira. He is however hopeful that the success of the presidential election will mitigate the anxiety and uncertainty that characterised the business environment before the elections, adding that investors’ confidence will be positively impacted by recent developments in the political space.

The LCCI boss urged the incoming administration to also address the fundamentals problem of low productivity which he blamed on macro-economic factors, institutional challenges and structural issues, stressing that the government must also prioritise issues such as blocking all fiscal leakages

and wastes in government, especially in respect of the management of petroleum products subsidy. LCCI also called for immediate review of the activities of the Joint Task Force (JTF’s) in the Niger Delta area where revenue is lost daily due to oil theft.

Other issues according to him, are import duty waivers, ghost workers in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and service wide votes. He further stressed the need to prioritise government expenditure to boost investments in critical infrastructure. The challenge of high cost of governance, collapse of the rail system, poor power supply also demand

urgent attention, he added.

He also called on the in-coming administration to sustain the momentum of the war on terrorism and insurgency in parts of the country.

Its Director-General, Mr.Muda Yusuf called for performances audit of key regulatory institutions whose activities impact on the private sector.

Yusuf said the government should ensure acceleration of reforms on the oil & gas sector in order to attract more private investments in both the upstream & downstream segments of the sector. This would save the economy the current huge foreign exchange used for importation of petroleum products.

FRICA’s leading indig enous conglomerate, Dangote Industries Limited has announced a multi-million dollar Joint Venture (JV) agreement with Saipem, the Italian engineering and construction giants.

The agreement has given birth to a new company called Saipem-Dangote E&C. Dangote Group said in a statement that SaipemDangote E&C is a significant new player in the Nigerian and Central/West African market, with high technical and financial capabilities.

Group Executive Director at Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin was quoted as saying that the new company aims to secure complex engineering & construction projects and to execute them at the highest levels of efficiency in terms of costs and timing, while maintaining sufficient flexibility to adapt to different project requirements.

Saipem and Dangote Group have a track record of successful collaboration, drawing on the strengths and competences of both companies. Dangote’s financial strength, expertise and standing in the Sub–Saharan African market will complement

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

Saipem’s unique capabilities in E & C This new partnership confirms the shared commitment of the two groups to both the Nigerian market and sub-Saharan Africa more widely.

“We are confident that our partnership with Saipem will position us as a major player in the oil & gas sector.

“Dangote’s financial strength, expertise and standing in the sub–Saharan African market will complement Saipem’s unique capabilities in E & C in developing new business. Saipem values the satisfaction of its clients in the energy industry, tackling each challenge with safe, reliable and innovative solutions. Dangote Industries and Saipem shall gain mutual benefit from this partnership,” Edwin was quoted to have said in the statement.

Commenting on the development, Saipem Central Africa Regional Manager, Giuseppe Surace said: “The combination of two excellences like Saipem and Dangote in Central Africa creates a new efficient and sustainable (business entities).”

MTN mulls outsourcing stores

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TN Group Ltd. Has agreed to outsource its retail operations to Brightstar Corporation and 800 jobs may be affected as it seeks to cut costs, according to a source close to the carrier.

MTN, which has more than 220 million subscribers in 22 countries including Nigeria and other African countries and the Middle East, has axed jobs in South Africa to reduce costs. The carrier is also trying to boost sales to corporate customers to compete with Vodacom Group Ltd., the country’s market leader in terms of subscriber numbers.

Under the deal, Brightstar will take on management of the mobile-phone company’s chain of shops selling handsets and services in its home country, South Africa and may take on some of the MTN staff, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the contract has yet to be announced.

Miami-based Brightstar will also operate most of Johannesburg-based MTN’s distribution and logis-

• May axe 800 jobs tics operations in the country, building on a services agreement signed with the continent’s biggest wireless operator in 2011.

Erik Hofmeyer, a spokesman for closely held Brightstar, declined to comment when contacted by phone, referring questions to MTN..

South African revenue declined 3.9 per cent to 38.9 billion rand ($3.2 billion) last year after the communications regulator cut the amount MTN and Vodacom can charge smaller competitors to end calls on their networks. That compared with a 6.4 per cent gain in total sales to 146 billion rand.

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COMMENTARY LETTER

EDITORIALS

Victory for democracy

Election for change • Buhari’s victory is at once a watershed and a chance for national healing

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GAINST all odds, Nigeria not only held a presidential election on the controversially rescheduled date of March 28, but also has a president-elect who trounced the incumbent in an electoral battle that was incredibly unriotous.

The countdown to the poll witnessed considerable public anxiety and tension that were thankfully not aggravated on D-day.

Indeed, in a reflection of negative passion, electioneering was marred by a concentration on personality targeting rather than issues, especially on the side of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Understandably, the presidential contest was the focal point, even though the National Assembly elections held on the same day were also important in the context of the country’s democratic evolution.

This election has marked a first in our history in that the nation’s leader has lost to an opposition candidate, and it has happened free of rancour. It is a tribute to the electorate that, despite the fouled atmosphere, an overriding sense of civic responsibility prevailed. In this sense, it was ultimately a victory for the voters who demonstrated a commendable capacity for focused voting, and refused to be distracted by extra-electoral negativities.

Also, it must be said that President Goodluck Jonathan who lost in a striking manner, displayed a remarkable appreciation of his failure by congratulating the winner, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the official declaration of the final result.

On a continent known for political leaders who, more often than not, defy the voice of the electorate, Jonathan’s unproblematic surrender was a positive, which is not to discount his hints of brinksmanship in the period leading to the election.

It is reassuring that Buhari, who had been demonised by his opponents, exhibited a large and generous spirit in victory, rather than unhealthy triumphalism. It is • Jega instructive that he said in his acceptance speech: “At exactly 5:15 yesterday (Tuesday) evening, President Jonathan called to congratulate me on my victory. For this, I want all Nigerians to join me in congratulating and appreciating Mr. President for his statesmanship. President Jonathan was a worthy opponent. I extend my hand of fellowship to him.” Perhaps more importantly, Buhari also said about Jonathan: “He will receive nothing but cooperation and understanding from me, who led this nation to democracy.” It is hoped that the president-elect would keep this promise, which should be helpful in healing the land in the aftermath of a divisive election that played up ethnicity and faith.

Beyond the encouraging conduct of these rivals, the employment of card readers in the election proved to be a plus, especially against the background of contention over the use of the technology. Fundamentally, there is no doubt that the equipment was advantageous in minimising election rigging, despite the reported hitches which may well be insignificant when considered against the benefits. Of course, im-

provement is possible and should be seriously pursued, so that the Governorship and House of Assembly elections fixed for April 11 will reinforce the wisdom of the modern method. By taking advantage of modernity, logistical challenges associated with the old way of doing things would likely become history. Speaking futuristically, it is not far-fetched to look forward to electronic voting in Nigeria, among other modern-day advancements.

To introduce electronic voting should be the natural next step to the card reader and PVCs. It will obviate the cumbersomeness of electoral materials and the hobgoblin of coercive thumb-printing that has shadowed our elections for decades. This is a recommendation that the next National Assembly should take seriously.

The desirable goal of eliminating election fraud must constantly be kept in focus as the country continues on the democratic path. In this connection, it is worth reflecting on a number of complaints that have been made concerning the presidential election. For instance, there are alle-

gations of under-age voting in certain areas as well as manipulation of figures.

The deployment of security forces for partisan designs was reported. In two states, namely Rivers and Akwa Ibom, observers were whisked out of sight.

Such claims of irregularities are harmful to the democratic ideal, and should be addressed with all seriousness. Tackling the allegations of electoral wrongdoing would give further credence to Buhari’s statement: ”We have proven to the world that we are a people who have embraced democracy and a people who seek a gov-

ernment by, of and for the people.”

Regrettably, the presidential election had its monstrous sides; in particular, a nauseating drama designed to frustrate normality, with a former Minister of Delta State, Elder Godsday Orubebe, as the protagonist. A disappointed global audience watched as Orubebe introduced the tactics of a thug when officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were set to announce the anxiously expected results. In a manner unbecoming of any civilised individual, Orubebe disrupted the event with allegations against INEC boss Prof. Attahiru Jega, whose gentlemanly approach to the outrageous development deserves praise because it ensured that the critical business of the day was not aborted. In addition, it is worth noting that Jega demonstrated an impressive sense of duty in the course of carrying out his job. In fact the whole exercise was a personal triumph for Jega who attracted vicious campaigns from the ruling party as well as hirelings who plotted his outer. He still has the next round of elections to prove his competence.

With the presidential poll lost and won, it is time to concentrate on unifying possibilities and shun the influence of centrifugal forces. The religious and ethnic divisions that marked electioneering, and which were unfortunately promoted by sections of the media, must be terminated in the interest of peace and progress. It is food for thought that the presidential poll results largely reflected a historical tendency and pattern suggesting that concrete candidate appeal was less important than provenance, religious beliefs and other sentiments. The country needs to rise above the inconsequential. We hope both the media and ethnic goons would realise that Nigeria is larger than all of us, and such distracting nightmare of belief and place of origin spew hate and take away from the greater fights against poverty, ignorance and disease. Fire-spitting clerics who rattled out ominous prophecies and prescribed electoral choices should also learn the limits of ecclesiastical influences in politics.

For Nigerians, the historic transition from one administration to another, from an incumbent loser to a former-opposition-figure-turned-winner holds a promise that must not be deflated by petty parochialism. It is a time of change and a time for change, which should be premised on a healing that transcends the narrowness of tribe and faith.

‘For Nigerians, the historic transition from one administration to another, from an incumbent loser to a former-opposition-figure-turned-winner holds a promise that must not be deflated by petty parochialism. It is a time of change and a time for change, which should be premised on a healing that transcends the narrowness of tribe and faith’

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IR: It is pertinent to wholeheartedly congratulate the good people of Nigeria for their courage, unity of purpose, perseverance, tolerance, dedication, determination, resoluteness and commitment to democracy that culminated in the successful conduct of the first phase of the 2015 general elections held on March 28th and 29th; as well as the final declaration of the Presidential election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The sacrifice and endurance displayed by Nigerians ensured that the elections held peacefully and orderly in most parts of the country despite the evil plots by enemies of democracy, peace, progress and national unity to truncate the process through incitements as well as the attempt to abort the declaration of results at the national collation centre in Abuja through Godsday Orubebe..

The desperate and despicable show of shame exhibited by Orubebe confirmed the ruling party’s anti democratic plots against the people of Nigeria. It is also necessary to commend local and international observers for their exemplary conducts in monitoring the elections in order to ensure that it conforms to best global practices. Also worthy of commendation so far, is INEC for its untiring, resolute and patriotic efforts in ensuring free, fair, transparent and credible presidential/national assembly elections through innovative mechanisms like the PVC and E-card reader. However, there are concerns about poor logistics especially with regards to deployment of personnel and election materials to polling units on Election Day. Sadly, this has become a recurring decimal in election conducts in the country. The alleged compromise of some of INEC’s election personnel on Election Day in states like Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Imo amongst others should be looked into to forestall future recurrence.

President Goodluck Jonathan should be commended for rising up to the occasion as a statesman by congratulating General Muhammadu Buhari, winner of the 2015 Presidential elections, even before the final declarations of results by INEC. General Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) deserves praise for his steadfastness, discipline, indomitable spirit, doggedness and commitment to democracy. He has to be magnanimous in victory in rallying the country together collectively and rededicate himself to the herculean but surmountable task of nation building.

All Nigerians must remain calm and vigilant because the enemies of democracy are still on the prowl. They must be defeated for the sake of national peace, unity and progress.

• Nelson Ekujumi Ikeja, Lagos

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

18

CARTOON & LETTERS

IR: Few months ago, President Goodluck Jonathan had a fairly good reason to believe he will have a blowout. The opposition at the time seemed to lack proper coordination. There was no threat on the horizon, so the president falsely believed. He was sure the polls would mimic a birthday bash: Everybody would wish him more years.

But that was then. The climate has since changed. And so has the prospects of a sustainable Umbrella.

Today, Jonathan is an endangered candidate. The hysteria in his camp reflects awareness of his vulnerable condition. It accounts for the rich marvel of this season. Trenchantly surreal, it looks like a drama around a swap of traits: The life long civilian pleads election allergy while his main rival, has managed to tap into the frustration of the alienated majority. With one word offer of CHANGE, the All Progressives Congress (APC) opposition party has provoked a Pavlovian hunger for a new reality in the populace.

The dread of staring defeat drove President Jonathan to experimentation in costly antics. He decrees a six-week postponement through the instrumentality of the military.

He moves house to house, under

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The defeat of President Jonathan the cover of darkness, pitching the abominable idea of an interim national government to cajole powerful citizens. He inspires the agitation against the deployment of smart card reader for voter accreditation.

He sponsors the demonization of Attahiru Jega, Chairman of Independent National Election Commission, as a prelude to supplanting the umpire with a puppet. He embarks on a bribing blitz; dumping dollars everywhere he needs affection. Quite simply, Jonathan has been signaling, erroneously, that he is desperate enough to explore any possibility that might help him retain his grip on power!

President Jonathan’s last-ditch efforts have proven insufficient to save his doomed campaign. His establishment and resourcing of the Hate Buhari Cottage Industry has not won him more lovers. His to-

kens of appeasement – especially that masterstroke of a 50 percent reduction in darkness tariff - have not assuaged voter discontent. But the optimist in Jonathan is not ready for his imminent defeat. He still hopes against hope that he will clinch a second term last March 28.

Unlike General Muhammadu Buhari, a veteran of three failed presidential quests, President Goodluck Jonathan is a virgin at losing. Jonathan has won every election he has participated in as a contestant since 1999. His 16-year-long winning streak and a name that is widely promoted as the talisman behind his many quantum leaps, from a shoeless pupil to the pinnacle of power, have consolidated the myth of his own invincibility in his mind. But the news of a defeat will shake the foundation of Jonathan’s sense of personal identity. It will devastate him mentally

Why Ajimobi should be re-elected

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IR: As the 2015 gubernatorial election draws nearer, the good people of Oyo State will do themselves good if they re-elect Governor Abiola Ajimobi for another term in office as he has not only surprised the people of the State but outsiders as well.

Since the former senator came on board as governor of the Pace-setter State, he has left no one in doubt as to his capacity to deliver within the shortest possible time. Right from the beginning, he had a vision for a new Oyo State and commenced work towards making it a reality.

Abiola Ajimobi nipped violence in the bud in the state by first proscribing the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers following the June 4, 2011 unrest at Iwo-Road area of the state which led to the death of the national president of Medical Stu-

dents’ Association and other innocent souls. In fact, it was one day, one trouble, especially in major cities across our dear state before he was sworn-in. He swung into action, telling those who cared to listen that insecurity was the major obstacle to the state’s growth.

After persuasion from several quarters, the governor lifted the ban on activities of the NURTW but not without a warning that they must never resort to violence is settling disputes among its members.

The peace that followed that has given birth to many investors trooping in to the once investorunfriendly state. Before 2011, there was just one private radio station, but now we have seven. Any frequent visitor to Challenge/ Oluyole areas could bear witness to the number of new companies that have evolved there.

Apart from this, the environment

is now a beauty to behold as the state capital, which was listed as one of the dirtiest states four years ago, is now among the cleanest states.

Those who pass through Iwo-Road and Challenge areas of Ibadan before this administration came on board will bear witness to the environmental reform carried out by Governor Ajimobi. The employment of the 20, 000 youths through the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O) is second to none. We should all join hands to commend the governor for this initiative because it is not easy to cough out N20, 000, 000 monthly in this time of dwindling allocation from the national purse.

To be able to sustain this peace and development, the people of the State need to re-elect Ajimobi.

• Gbadegesin Adegoke Ibadan, Oyo State.

and emotionally. And the wounded loser and his reflexes, at that level, will generate chaos.

President Jonathan has a docile demeanor; but he is not known to be a man of depth or erudition. His discretion, as a rule, selects consequential options from the extreme end of impropriety. There is a likelihood that, in the potentially volatile hours after the announcement of a Buhari victory, a shell-shocked Jonathan would let an impolitic utterance slip out of him. He may make a panicky move that telegraphs dismissal of the outcome.

And any of these is guaranteed to turn one man’s job loss into a national tragedy.

But President Jonathan has a record of going for broke whenever he senses that the outcome of a

democratic process would disadvantage him. Jonathan split the Nigerian Governor’s Forum when his proxy lost a free and fair chairmanship contest to his gadfly, Rotimi Amaechi. President Jonathan recently overran Ekiti State because he needed a crucial foothold in the Southwest. A soldier released a tape that implicated the ruling party.

President Jonathan has to take a responsible posture. He has to urgently transmit an instruction forbidding any of his allies from making any post-result reaction that doesn’t follow his lead. His followers will be inclined to resist his defeat. They will interpret his defeat as the end of their access to waivers and free meals. Jonathan needs to communicate to them, ahead of time, in the clearest terms, that he will concede. This footnote, which Jonathan can tag on to his narrative, may temper his legacy of a bungled presidency. It is the only way he can win in defeat.

• Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu immaugwu@gmail.com

2015 elections: Words of caution!

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IR: Politics is a game that is played and enjoyed by the wise. Take it or leave it, politics is part of our everyday affairs.

If you have a doctorate in anything or a Master’s degree in wisdom, without contributing to the political process in your nation, you are considered as ignorant. The worst illiterate is the political illiterate.

He hears nothing, sees nothing, and takes no part in political events around him.

The game of politics suits only the wise that is politically and democratically inclined by showing interest in how he is being governed.

Notwithstanding, respect must be accorded those who fear politics and always want to abstain from its dirty ways. Nevertheless, cap should be doffed for those that have been playing it without bitterness.

In view of this, there is the need to appeal to all citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, home and

abroad not to fold their arms and stand akimbo. We all have a duty to uphold peaceful coexistence of Nigeria as a unified state.

The existence, continuity and maturity of our great nation will be on litmus test as Nigeria decides the future of generation to come with their power of vote in the course of on-going general elections. Nigeria is too big for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of People’s Democratic Party to put in turmoil. The Nigerian state is too big for anyone to consume and destroy while we must not let our hero’s past regret laying down their lives for the nation in vein.

Let us shun political and election violence because Nigeria beyond 2015 and should be our paramount and collective concern. God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria • Niyi Rufai NYC, USA

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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COMMENTS

Nine new Private Universities: One too many

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N the recommendation of the National Universities Commission, the Federal government has approved the take off of nine new private universities mostly in the Southwest, South-South and North-Central areas where there are enough private universities already. The obvious questions to ask is where will these universities find good students, bearing in mind, the number of students who pass in five subjects at credit level, including English and Mathematics is usually not many. The existing universities sometimes have to struggle to find enough students to meet approved quota. Secondly, where will the staff to teach in these universities come from bearing in mind that foreigners would not accept current salaries paid to academics in Nigeria where a full professor earns two thousand five hundred dollars ($2500) a month at current rate of exchange. The result of this is that these new universities would poach staff from existing universities leading to a situation where people who cannot be senior lecturers in existing universities become professors in new ones.

Thirdly, running a university is an expensive venture. If those who are establishing mushroom universities think they would make money, they are definitely in for a great shock.

If proprietors are determined to make money, then they will have to cut corners in students’ accommodation, provision of laboratories and libraries and staffing as a whole. The result of this will be frustration of students and staff to the detriment of the institutions and vicariously to the detriment of our country.

I have not said anything about employment for those coming out of these universities because I do not think this is a strong argument against training of young people. Univer-

‘There is a need for debate about the need of higher education in Nigeria; and this debate was started in the commonwealth universities association centennial celebration; and there is a need for stakeholders in higher education in Nigeria to be actively involved because this is about our future; and our future cannot be left in the hands of a few bureaucrats no matter how highly educated they may be’

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T was a hard fought battle. President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen Muhammadu Buhari threw everything they had into the contest. Being the incumbent president, Dr Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had an almost inexhaustible war chest to prosecute his campaign. Name it; money, men and materials, he had them all.

But, Gen Buhari, an ascetic man by nature, did not have the president’s kind of resources. What he had going into the March 28 presidential contest was enormous goodwill. Many believe in Buhari because of his clean public record.

They see him as the kind of leader that our country needs at this point in time. Nigeria is at a crossroads and many Nigerians feel that we need a man of Buhari’s character to take us out of the doldrums.

A vote for Gen Buhari was therefore a vote for the transformation of Nigeria. The election was Gen Buhari’s to lose. Even though nothing is 100% sure in elections, it was clear as daylight that Gen Buhari would carry the day in the March 28 poll. It was not an easy ride to the presidency for Buhari though.

Thrice he contested between 2003 and 2011 and thrice he lost not because he did not have what it takes for the job, but because his time had not come.

Gen Buhari was fourth time lucky yesterday and his luck may yet rub off on Nigeria. Expectations are high from his fellow countrymen,

353 DAYS AFTER

WHERE ARE THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS?

sity education is for the purpose of training the mind and developing the total man or woman. Getting jobs should be regarded as secondary. If people are well trained no matter what discipline, they would either get jobs or start something on their own. Certainly, they would be in a position to shape the future of their country through critical participation in what goes on in the society as responsible citizens. An educated citizenry is a fundamental condition for development.

I have said it in my column once that by the law of natural competition, a few of our private universities will die but that the ones established by corporate or sectarian bodies are more likely to survive. At least, I know a university that was approved some ten years ago that flew for sometime before crashing out of existence. More of this is likely to happen in the future. Finally, government needs to give itself a breathing space for consolidation of the existing private and public universities before approving new universities. Many of the present new universities both public and private are too small judging by students’ enrolment. Half of the over one hundred and forty universities we have in this country have less than five thousand students each and the entire number of students in the over 140 universities we have in this country is not up to one million. So it is not the number of universities that really matters, what matter is quality universities that can take more students in existing universities while saving cost on administration.

I was at the centennial celebration of the association of commonwealth universities in London last year and one of the trends noticeable is that a few top universities in Europe and America are beginning to establish branch universities in developing countries and offering courses through electronic education and graduating students some of who have never been to America or England with degrees of Harvard, Yale, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge as the case may be. So instead of establishing many universities all over the place, would it not have been better if a few of our universities were made to develop university campuses in other parts of our country?

After all, we have the historical experience of London University having colleges in Ibadan, Legon, Accra; Mona, Jamaica; Makerere, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore, Singapore. The trend now is that some British and American universities are having large campuses off shore in China, Malaysia and the Middle East. Maybe if such branches were established in Nigeria, the cost of going there will be so prohibitive and few of our people would be able to go there and perhaps this accounts for approval of

new universities in Nigeria. Whatever the case may be, the increasing number of mushroom universities in Nigeria, both public and private, calls for caution before we end up producing certificated illiterates who may be a scourge on the society that cannot meet Jide their expectations for Osuntokun jobs and employment.

I hope I will not be misunderstood that I am advocating, shutting the door of education against the teaming millions of Nigerian youths who want to go through the portals of universities. Universities in India and America are of varying degrees in educational quality. We of course, already have these varying degrees in the quality of our universities. This is in spite of the fact that the NUC foolishly imposes on all Nigerian universities homogenised programmes without allowing each university to develop its own character and uniqueness. I do not know how the NUC came to do this because the NUC in its formative years was patterned after the British higher education grants commission. It was meant to receive grants from the government and distribute to universities but overtime, the NUC in Nigeria has become not only a grants commission but an academic standards organisation. The result is that all the universities offer the same programmes whether private or public and there is no room for uniqueness or academic identity. This makes the point I made about a few universities in Nigeria being made to establish campuses all over the country and the present campuses of existing universities being turned into mere tutorial and examination centres. There is a need for debate about the need of higher education in Nigeria; and this debate was started in the commonwealth universities association centennial celebration; and there is a need for stakeholders in higher education in Nigeria to be actively involved because this is about our future; and our future cannot be left in the hands of a few bureaucrats no matter how highly educated they may be. Higher education is too important to be left in the hands of the to be left in the hands of NUC.

Man of the people who have been at the receiving end of bad leadership in the last few years. Nigerians will be impatient with him because of what they are going through under the outgoing President Jonathan. But we need not blame the president too much.

The president’s men failed him and the country. They were given an opportunity to serve their fatherland, but they failed to discharge this enormous responsibility to the best of their ability. They were interested in power, but were not ready to give commensurate service. They were more interested in the perks of office and not the job itself. By the time of the election, Nigerians were fed up with the Jonathan administration. There was nothing they wanted more than for the president to go, with or without election.

When the election was shifted from its initial February 14 date to last Saturday, the electorate felt bad.

They wanted nothing to stop them from exercising their rights to pick a leader of their choice.The six-week postponement on supposed security ground did not save the president from defeat. Rather than stop the Buhari momentum, the shift fuelled the people’s anger against their president.

With the outcome of the election they have forgotten all about the postponement, which delayed their election of the man they believe would bring back smiles on their faces. Truly, these are not the best of times for our dear country, which is in dire need of purposeful leadership, and the electorate chose Buhari over Jonathan because they see that quality in him.

Nigerians rejected President Jonathan at the polls because he lacks what it takes to reinvent Nigeria. For six years, he could not

lay hands on the Nigerian problem, yet he wanted to remain in office. Gen Buhari’s emergence as president-elect, some will say, calls for celebration because it is the dawn of a new era, but painfully there is nothing to cheer about his election because things have gone bad, damn too bad in our country for too long. It is a time for us to ponder over the Nigerian project because the incoming president and his team have a lot of work to do. he mood of our country to day does not call for celebra tion as such, rather we should be full of prayers for the incoming government. Gen Buhari needs our prayers to succeed. After giving him our mandate, it will cost

T

us nothing to support him with prayers in the enormous task of taking our country to greater height.

We cannot end this without commending President Jonathan for his show of sportsmanship in conceding defeat even before Gen Buhari was formally declared winner.

With his action, Dr Jonathan has shown that he truly loves Nigeria.

As he prepares to leave office, we wish him all the best and pray that in the next few weeks to his exit, he will work closely with Gen Buhari to ensure a smooth transition. It was Gen Buhari’s lot, as military ruler, to save us from a drifting democratic government in 1983 and he delivered. Thirty-two years after, fate has, again, thrust on him the

Lawal Ogienagbon lawal.ogienagbon@thenationonlineng.net SMS ONLY: 08099400204, 08112661612

arduous job of repairing the country. May God guide him right. Congratulations, Mr President-elect.

With elders like Orubebe...

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HE show of shame was watched globally last Tues day. As Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega was about starting the business of the day at the National Collation Centre (NCC) where results of the March 28 presidential election from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were being collated, former Niger Delta Minister and failed governorship aspirant Godsday Orubebe, who calls himself an elder, took the floor after being recognised. He and his accomplice, Col Bello Fadile, having seen the handwriting on the wall that their candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, would lose decided to go for broke.

As if possessed, Orubebe started by pouring invectives on Jega. Jega, he claimed was partial. According to him, the INEC chief refused to receive their petitions challenging the elections in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna

and Jigawa states, whereas Jega immediately raised a panel to probe the All Progressives Congress (APC) complaints about Rivers State election. Fadile stoked the fire, saying that he brought the petition, which Jega refused to accept. He also accused Jega of giving the election results to APC before releasing them.

In the face of it all, Jega, who apparently knew their game plan, was cool and calm. When he spoke, he cut both men to the size. To Fadile, who is known to work with National Security Adviser (NSA) whose office engineered the curious six-week extension of the elections, Jega said : “I have not seen any results, I have not given anybody any results. For you to engage me on that issue, I think frankly it is not fair to me... how can I speak on something I have not seen”. The one who calls himself an elder looked so ordinary after Jega finished with him. “Let us be careful about what we say or do and let us not disrupt a process that

has ended peacefully and in a matter of hours, we will be able to finish it. Mr Orubebe, you are a former minister... you are a statesman in your own right, you should be careful about what you say or what allegations you make and certainly you should be careful about your public conduct”. With elders like Orubebe, how can the church and society grow? As for Fadile, we leave him to his conscience, that is if he has one.

‘These are not the best of times for our country, which is in dire need of purposeful leadership, and the electorate chose Buhari over Jonathan because they see that quality in him’

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

20

COMMENTS

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IGERIANS have little faith in their institutions. Except perhaps for the church, today headed by prosperity prophets, who have taken over the socio- economic role the state should perform in society; all other institutions are facing crisis of credibility. The bureaucracy is so powerful that it controls the water we drink, the air we breathe, the education of our children; where to live and where to be buried.

Recently, a theft of N5billion pension fund was perpetrated inside the office of the Head of service just as another director in charge of the police, the most important organ of state, stole over N32b. The legislature has become a parasite living on the sweat and blood of those they are elected to protect through humane enacted laws. The judiciary is for the highest bidder. Those who allegedly stole N1.6 trillion are not in chains but in government because the outgoing President Jonathan government says ‘the wheel of justice grinds slowly in Nigeria’. Until now the picture of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that Nigerians had was that of an umpire that often takes side with one of the competing teams if the price was right.

But with commitment and strength of character, Jega changed that picture leading to the miracle of 28th March 2015. On that day, Nigerians came out in their millions, waited for hours in the sun, others in the rain, determined to cast their vote because unlike the inglorious moment in the First Republic when Chief Remi Fani Kayode said his party would win whether the people voted for it or not, Nigerians trusted Jega and believed their vote would count. He has not let those who put their trust in him down. For Nigerian, it is the dawn on a new day. For the first time in the history of our nation, an incumbent president was defeated ‘round and square,’ through a process that was so transparent that the President could not have been anything but magnanimous in defeat to promptly congratulate the victor.

The battle against forces of darkness that swore to rule for sixty years or pull the nation down on their head had been fierce.

Jega’s most potent weapons were the millions of Nigerians he was able to convince that sacrificing quality time to secure their PCVs, wait patiently for hours on a queue on the election day refusing to be disfranchised by enemies

Jega’s finest hour as Nigerian victory of our nation, spend their resources to rent generators, canopies, chairs or buy refreshments for their compatriots were worthy endeavours for sustenance of the soul of our nation. Thousands of our young corpers who spent Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in mosquito infested open field and unable to take their bath for two days made the sacrifice because of their faith that Jega’s efforts would bring a better tomorrow.

It is gratifying to know that the current INEC is Nigerian made. It is made up of patriotic individual Nigerians. I was filled with admiration as I watched Kayode Idowu, the chief spokesman for the INEC chairman, who appeared not to have slept for days, educating Nigerians on the need for patience and understanding on Channels Television last Sunday. There were many voting locations with neither INEC officials nor INEC voting materials. But Nigerians remained resolute having realized that INEC was engaged in a battle of wits with those who worked assiduously to ensure its failure. At the end, their resilience and patience paid off. Those who had thought Nigerians especially the middle class would give up after a few hours were disappointed. Many in their sixties and seventies patiently waited on Saturday and those who had roles to perform in their churches on the palm Sunday returned briefly to vote when voting started before returning back to their churches.

F

OR the first time, an incumbent president of this great country has stood and lost an election. And for the first time in our beleaguered history, a losing presidential candidate has graciously picked up the phone to congratulate the winner and concede defeat.

This is, indeed, a watershed moment in our political journey. To be sure, this is the culmination of the yearnings and aspirations of a people that has been long over due.

There are many lessons to be learned from this nation’s rebirthing experience.

For President Jonathan, he is both a winner and loser.

First, a winner because he picked up the phone and did the honourable thing – concede defeat. In this sense, he has probably written his name in gold as the father of a New Democratic Nigeria. By rising above the temptations of power, adhering to his better innermost judgments, and unshackling himself from the goading and firm grips of the sycophants around him - I am pretty sure those grovelers would have urged him not to concede defeat by misinforming him on the deceitful need to challenge the elections in some six states of the North. The incumbent president has set an example for others after him to follow.

He has demonstrated an uncommon grace and nobility never before seen in the country.

Yet, he is equally a loser. Here was a man who had the presidency handed down to him on a platter of gold after the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua. In 2011, he was overwhelmingly re-elected. Then, he chose to ride the tiger’s political back and certainly ended up in its belly of defeat. By choosing to perennially run for reelection and forgetting to govern, Jonathan brought today’s defeat on himself. Has he deployed the same degree of commitment like he did in the past six weeks to fighting Boko Haram, it would have long been conquered long before the general elections, and certainly the Chibok girls saga was a stake to which he was inescapably tied

‘He must fix power and road/train amongst other important needs of Nigerians. He should not resort to political vendetta as this may signal a giant failure path and collective dashing of hopes of the many inspired by this moment. He could, for instance, indicate to the South East that the vestiges and incidences of the civil war no longer imperil them by embracing and extending to them a fresh hand of fellowship’

The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) said in preliminary findings that the vote was “conducted in a peaceful atmosphere within the framework that satisfactorily meets the continental and regional principles of democratic elections”.

This is a credit to Jega and Nigerians who have faith in him. Except in the south south where militants, both young and old, often resort to self-help and Lagos where enemies of Nigeria were bent on truncating the transition, the election went smoothly everywhere. INEC’s success came after a hard fought battle with formidable foes beginning with the president, his errand boys and errant elders, his attack dogs, PDP Boko Haram insurgents and the Niger Delta militants whose leader Godsday Orubaba, a former minister of Niger Delta put up a show of shame on Tuesday in the full glare of national and international audience in a futile attempt to derail the transition.

Of course Jega survived all his foes including President Jonathan, his greatest detractor who without proof claimed non indigenes in Lagos were being discriminated against by INEC in the distribution of PCVs; PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu told a delegation of Africa Union election observers led by AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi that his party objected to the use of card readers because “the machine may not make for credible elec-

tions as it is said to easily malfunction especially when the battery is weak”; a former Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who spoke on behalf of Southern Leaders Forum insisted there would be no election except Jega quits and in fact, calls for his sack and arrest. There was also the National co-coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) Otunba Gani Adams, who wanted Atthiru Jega removed ‘on the basis of PVC distribution and introduction of card reader’ There were also 15 political parties that opposed the use of the card readers because “if the card reader should develop some technical problems, there is a possibility that the consequences of such development would affect about forty) or fifty percent of the polling booths nationwide. The national chairman of MEGA Progressive Peoples Party, Dare Falade; the presidential candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria, Kelvin Alagoa; and the presidential candidate of the Alliance represented them. Rafiu Salau amongst others represented them.

The churches were not left out. There was Bishop Abraham Chris Udeh, the General Overseer of Mount Zion Global Faith Liberation Ministries, Nnewi, Amambra state, who had a vision that Jega must be removed. Buffeted and bedeviled by the typical Nigerian problems, INEC has emerged a new Nigerian successful brand and one institution that have made Nigerians proud. Jega’s joy for ending our long nightmare, I am sure will have no bounds. It is his victory as much as it is Nigerian victory.

‘INEC’s success came after a hard fought battle with formidable foes beginning with the president, his errand boys and errant elders, his attack dogs, PDP Boko Haram insurgents and the Niger Delta militants whose leader Godsday Orubaba, a former minister of Niger Delta put up a show of shame on Tuesday in the full glare of national and international audience in a futile attempt to derail the transition’

2015 Presidential Elections: Matters Arising

By Phillip Okey Igwe to. Nor did his inability to tame those around him - from his domestic family to his political one - helped his cause.

Albeit, too little too late and his defeat today has wide reaching repercussions for so many especially his South South peoples.

President-elect Mohammadu Buhari is a winner along with his APC team. By sheer perseverance and shrewd political engineering, he has actualized his tall ambition of ruling the country a second time. He deserves a lot of kudos and commendation, but I will leave other analysts to dissect the factors and indices that galvanized this victory for him. But, I hope his second coming is for all the right reasons. I hope he can rise above the cocoon of ethnocentrism and sticky allegations of bigotry about him to bring all federating units together and forge a new frontier for the entire nation. As a sign of seriousness to the electorate, he must demonstrate his willingness to tackle corruption and insecurity - his chief election promises - by laying the groundwork for the big picture.

First, he must show willingness to fight corruption by caging the Tigers in his inner circle, demonstrably making certain that things cannot be business as usual anymore by for instance taking the cost of governance and slashing same significantly. Elected officials must be made to realize that public service is not a quick path to overnight riches.

Second, he must take on big things, by for instance, laying the blue print to infrastructural development across the nation. He must fix power and road/train amongst other important needs of Nigerians. He should not resort to political vendetta as this may signal a giant failure path and collective dashing of hopes of the many inspired by this moment. He could, for instance, indicate to the South East that the vestiges and incidences of the civil war no longer imperil them by embracing and extending to them a fresh hand of fellowship. This last point is seminal because the general’s worst performance was in the South South and the South East. Understandably, the South South was not expected to vote against their favourite son. The president-elect had been known to have once asserted that the South East refuses to forgive him because

of the civil war. All these ill wills ought to be buried if he wants to rise to the level of, say, a Mandela, the Madiba, instead of choosing the path of pettiness of Chief Obasanjo.

For the reigning and defeated PDP, the reign of impunity and arrogant aura of invisibility has come to a meteoric end. If this serves a heavy dose of deterrence to the incoming APC, the Nation would be the primary beneficiary. The General and his APC must take notice that they are elected to serve, not to make the Nation desolate. In the event that they engage in the same abominations that made PDP desolate including gross corruption, dearth of empathy, political deafness, abuse of office/power, among many other vices. These abominations desecrated the most holy of places - the hallowed chambers of the judiciary, legislature, and executive quarters. The ruling party and turned apostate induced even the most revered of ‘prophets’. The General and his APC must learn from the ruling party’s ordeal or wait for a ready electorate to whip them out when the next general election comes.

Finally, the Nigerian electorate is the biggest winner.

For too long, we have stayed disenfranchised. The electoral process was simply a ruse with politicians abusing the process and the mightiest installing themselves without fear of political reprisal. But maybe, just maybe, the power of the vote is beginning to be restored. The process is still far from perfect, but maybe this shining moment is a glimmer of hope for good things to come. Maybe, just maybe we can now vote and have a say in who truly governs us. Maybe, just maybe, we can now arm ourselves with voter card PVC that is capable of sounding a firm note of caution to any elected official; the voting axe is laid at every elected tree, he that fails to bear good fruits shall certainly be hewn down. That is the first principle of democracy; that is how the blueprint of a national rebirth is established. May God help and sustain Nigeria and the incoming government at the centre.

• Phillip Okey Igwe, Esq is Managing Partner, Lagem Firma & Partners Victoria Island Lagos.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

21

COMMENTS

A

T exactly 1:15 pm United Sates eastern time (6:15 pm Nigerian time) on Tuesday, my daughter called me from Lagos with the news that President Goodluck Jonathan had just called Gen. Buhari and congratulated him on his victory in the presidential election. I have seen Nigerian elections since 1952, have taken frontline parts in many, been a candidate in some, and won some. I can’t remember another election campaign that was so contentious, and so bitter and violent in tone, as the one that ended this past Tuesday. And I can’t remember any other federal ruler of Nigeria who so willingly conceded victory to an opponent as President Jonathan has done.

In the history of Nigeria, the one or two minutes of greetings between President Jonathan and Gen. Buhari this past Tuesday is very likely to go down as President Jonathan’s finest hour as a Nigerian public official. And those one or two minutes may very well go down as the turning point in the hitherto tumultuous path of Nigeria as an independent country since 1960. If Nigeria goes on from this point to evolve into a country with a disciplined leadership, orderly management, openly democratic politics, and a dynamic modern economy, President Goodluck Jonathan could become the initiator of needed change for Nigeria. Some day in the future, our grateful descendants may erect statues to his memory.

Sure, most of us Nigerians have spent the past four years lamenting President Jonathan’s inadequacies. Because he comes from the Niger Delta, where many brave youths have arisen since 1960 to war against excessive centralization of power and resource control, and against an insensitive federal establishment, very many Nigerians naturally looked up to him to start a process of constitutional changes – changes that would give the Nigerian federation a more rational structure, and restore to our federating units much of the responsibility for development and resource management that the Federal Government has been messing around with. But, not only did he not start the needed change, he even seemed for some time to be opposed to it. And when he was finally prevailed upon to take some step and call a National Conference, he did absolutely nothing to give it any direction.

Quite rightly, therefore, when some eminent citizens in Nigeria’s most progressive region rose up during, the now concluded elec-

A

S I woke up suddenly around midnight a couple of days ago, my mind painfully ran through the prevailing socio-economic and political circumstances and predicaments in Nigeria.

I began to imagine what they portend for the future of this country. Once upon a time, there was a country that was the envy of all African nations; one that commanded respect internationally and among the comity of nations.

My heart bleeds profusely when, I recall a country that was once peaceful, but now we ‘hear’ the drums of war being beaten by those who consider themselves greater or more Nigerian than all of us. Thank God that things have changed now with the president’s congratulatory call on the president-elect.

War is a terrible thing! You only know the beginning but not the end. I witnessed the last Nigerian civil war and those who directly suffered the impacts of the war would never wish for another traumatic experience of a civil war.

My heart bleeds when I notice that in the name of politics, those in authority have turned Nigeria upside down. For example, it is only in Nigeria that leaders would mathematically and selfishly consider nine as a greater numerical number than 19. Even the Nigerian Senate did not spare itself the ignominy of setting aside its own rule of procedure by confirming a candidate with serious political blemishes for a ministerial appointment.

My heart bleeds when I observe the Judiciary, regarded as the hope of the common man, being stripped of the respect and the dignity that rightfully and constitutionally belong to it. The law courts have in recent time become the targets of bomb attacks and explosions. The most worrisome problem of the country as of now is the increasing threat to lives and property that has enveloped every Nigerian except the privileged.

Today, every Nigerian is gripped with the fear of insecurity. Kidnappers operate with impunity and boldly cart away victims to unknown locations where they demand and negotiate for plumb ransom and sometimes

President Jonathan’s finest hour

tion campaign and urged their people to support him on the grounds that he would carry out the recommendations of the National Conference; their people were skeptical.

During the same years under President Jonathan, our country has increasingly suffered distress on account of terrorism. At least, in the course of the first years of this century, we Nigerians grew used to believing confidently, and with considerable pride, that ours was the strongest military in Africa. In various trouble spots on the African continent, and even in places beyond Africa, we earned the reputation of being a key factor in international peacekeeping ventures. When Boko Haram began to raise a challenge against our country, therefore, most Nigerians felt sure that our military were more than capable of quickly getting rid of them. But the challenge mounted and mounted, while President Jonathan seemed more and more at a loss on what to do. The crisis attracted the attention of the whole world when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 students in a girls’ boarding school and we seemed to have no meaningful response. Various foreign governments and international agencies came in to offer help, and soon, through them, we got the shocking message that our military were hopelessly inept – as a result of rampant corruption.

This national shame reached a peak when the armies of our supposedly weaker neighbours (Chad, Cameroon and Niger) intervened and began to achieve significant success against Boko Haram – success that seemed beyond the capability of our own military.

From this situation concerning our military, the image of our presidency as commanding chief over corruption assumed huge proportions. In fairness to President Jonathan, it is not right to charge him with being the originator of corruption in our federal government. Corruption was already a mighty power in our public life, and our Federal Government was already a monstrously corrupt entity, and the purveyor of corruption in our land, when President Jonathan was only a boy at school. The very constitutional structure given our country in 1978- 9 was designed to

facilitate corruption – and it has done so more and more blatantly since then.

But the recent stories of our military’s ineptitude due to corruption did a lot of harm to President Jonathan’s image at home and abroad – even though, on the basis of what we know about our former presidents (military and civilian), President Jonathan does not, obviously, have the audacity to do what some of our earlier presidents did in the realm of corruption.

All these tend now to pale into only little significance side by side with what President Jonathan did last Tuesday evening. From all that we Nigerians know, when President Jonathan put that call through to Gen. Buhari, exchanged a few words with him and put down the telephone, he almost certainly saved our country from a major conflagration. For many months, many of our politically influential citizens have been exchanging threats of violence and war if the outcome they desired from the presidential election did not materialize. For years, some influential citizens have been, reportedly, importing and accumulating dangerous weapons for implementing their threats. Among us ordinary Nigerians, fearsome speculations have reigned. Then with one small gesture, President Jonathan commanded the rising tide of lawlessness and anarchy to be still. Soon, we will have another man in the position of president, and it is upon him we will then have to pin our hopes for our country. If he indeed is able to start off peacefully and smoothly, we will find it impossible to forget that it was President Jonathan who did that which made such a start-off possible.

From our present situation, I have a message for our politicians. Because of my principal job as a scholar and teacher, with a significant amount of participation in the politics of my country, and with considerable contacts with politics, governance and development in many countries of the wide world, I am often horrified by the manner in which we Black African peoples conduct the politics of our countries. I mean our tendency to infuse excessively violent passions into our re-

Nigeria: My heart bleeds

By Simbo A. Banjoko with police connivance. Armed robbery incidents have escalated as armed robbers are now more daring with more sophisticated arms. The Boko Haram menace and the way we have handled it has become a national disgrace.

There is no better evidence of the ineptitude, visionless and the failure of government than the growing influence and menace of Boko Haram, which is now belatedly being checked. Had the Federal Government risen with vigour, might and speed which is now belatedly being checked immediately after the invasion of the Chibok Community and in hot pursuit of the insurgents, the parents and the whole nation could have been saved the trauma and disgrace resulting from the incident. Rather, the Federal government waited helplessly and in disbelief for three weeks preferring to rely on its advisers’ assertion that the abduction was the handwork of the opposition parties. This ineptitude is no doubt a clear case of leadership deficiency. The girls have been away for close to 10 months as their parents continue to suffer untold agony and anxiety.

My heart bleeds when I realize that the President’s re-election bid has become more important to him than the rescue of the Chibok girls. In a civilized country, the President would have, while the case of the Chibok girls lingers, covered his face in shame rather than ask the electorate for reelection.

My heart bleeds when I see growing armies of unemployed graduates rooming the streets or resigning themselves to doing menial jobs, like commercial bicycle operators, drivers of motor tri-cycles or even scavenging on waste dumps in order to eke out a living for themselves. Government is neither creating nor encouraging the creation of jobs. In 2009, when I presented my

inaugural lecture at the University of Lagos, on the state of our manufacturing sector, I sounded an ominous warning as I watched the Nigerian manufacturing sector crumbling. Year after year, the government rolled out budgets that failed to demonstrate serious commitment to the revival of the manufacturing sector. This sector is undoubtedly the engine of growth and a strong pillar for sustainable development in view of its potentials for wealth creation, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

I warned against over-depending on oil and the danger that this mono-product malady can have on our economy. Our oil revenue at that time was at its peak and it seemed that our economy had never had it so good. I spoke about the prevailing infrastructural decay, non-availability of steady power supply that have crippled many businesses and bad roads that have become death traps.

There was the problem of putting extra burden on manufacturers through double taxation and other spurious levies and charges. As at today, government has not taken any bold initiative to address these anomalies with a view to wooing back manufacturing companies like Dunlop, Michelin and a host of other potential investors that have left our shores. Rather, the government continues to indulge and deceive itself with the political propaganda of economic growth and transformation.

My heart bleeds when I see the level of moral decadence hitherto unheard of that has now completely enveloped the country. The urge and surge for money and material wealth

by Nigerians at all cost and by whatever means is bewildering. The passivity and helplessness of the law enforcement agents has further emboldened the kidnappers.

Prostitution and other immoral dealings are becoming fashionable practices among our female youths. Female students’ hostels have become brothels in recent time where

Gbogun gboro lationships with one another, especially in the course of election rivalries. Some of the threats of war and violence, which we have heard in Nigeria in recent months, are simply unthinkable in most countries outside Black Africa. Besides, among persons intensely working for this or that presidential candidate, I have watched people say, write, or enshrine, unbelievably vicious and hurtful things about other persons - even persons to whom they are quite close by blood and other kinds of bonds.

Where does this primitive urge to hurt and destroy our fellow men come from? How really does such savagery help our candidate?

And, now that the candidates have ended this more or less amicably, how do we live with the hurt and barbarism that we so thoughtlessly generated in past weeks? Is it true that, as some say, we blacks are less human, and less capable of thought, than other races? We need to think about these things.

‘When Boko Haram began to raise a challenge against our country, therefore, most Nigerians felt sure that our military were more than capable of quickly getting rid of them. But the challenge mounted and mounted, while President Jonathan seemed more and more at a loss on what to do’ promiscuous girls engage young boys to hang around the entrances to their hostels with their pictures to solicit patronage for them as male visitors approach the hostels.

My heart bleeds as I noticed the helplessness of the school authorities and parents in checking the malaise. Students cut corners to pass examination. Honestly of purpose and action has vamoosed from our society. Few people are honest. Corruption has permeated all strata of government. Pastors and men in cassock sacrilegiously take bribes or gifts from politicians for prayers in order to win elections. Even the royal fathers are not exempted as politicians roll in bales of dollars into the palaces of the monarchs in an attempt to seek political favours. I grew up knowing that it is morally wrong and unacceptable to wish a fellow human being dead. Today, the death wish for political opponents is not hidden but is advertised on pages of newspaper.

More painfully is the recent outburst of the First Lady Patience Jonathan on General Buhari, a former military head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. For Patience Jonathan to have made such a brazen, abusive and derogatory comment on General Buhari while Jonathan and PDP chieftains look on and shake their heads approvingly is, to me, the height of moral and politically decadence never experienced in the history of political electioneering.

Four years ago, we took the money and the rice and thereby sold our mandate. It has been four years of excruciating experience with unbearable hardship and hopelessness, rising level of poverty and increasing joblessness among our youths. Can Nigerians endure and survive another four years under the prevailing situations?

Fellow Nigerians, whatever becomes of this country now and in the next four years is in our hands. The survival and the social and economic wellbeing of this country are in our hands. It is in our hands to make it a greater, more prosperous, safe and secure country to live in. God save Nigeria.

• Banjoko wrote in from Lagos.

22

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

25

THE NATION

EDUCATION

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

PAST WINNERS OF THE EXCELLENCE AWARDS 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

•From left: Hasan, Kenyah and Archibald - the Ghanaian scholars who won the 2014 WASSCE awards

The rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana did not start today. They compete in almost everything, including sports, movies, business and education.

In the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), both countries dominated the best students’ prizes. But Ghana is now having an edge over Nigeria. Why?.

KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE examines stakeholders’ reasons for the dominance.

Why Ghana towers over Nigeria in WASSCE Award

L

AST Thursday was a special day for three Ghanaian teenagers who excelled in the May/June 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). They were r ewarded with the WAEC International Excellence Awards during the council’s 63rd yearly meeting at its international office in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos.

The awards are presented to candidates with the best Total Scores (T-Score) in eight subjects in the examination. If they wrote nine subjects, their best eight subjects are chosen for assessment.

The trio of Hasan Mickail (Ghana Secondary Technical School, Takoradi), Kenya Blaykyi (St Augustine's College, Cape Coast), and •Continued on page 26

INSIDE

UI VC worried about explosion of medical schools -Page 28

ASUU-LASU chair: my life is under threat -Page 38

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Ishola, David Adedapo Jonah, Nicolina J. E. O. Adanu, Richard Mawuena K. Garg, Ashu Oduola, Oluwasegun Ilube, Roland Akinpelu, Adebayo Olakunle Anthony, Olufemi Kwetey, Prince Franklin Fifi Carrol, Bidemi Abioseh (Miss) Coker, Daniel Sakyi Tagoe, Cynthia-Clare (Miss) Honu, Kofi Senyo Obaka, Henry Enajite Thorpe, Solade Mallet, Alexander E. K. Adanu, Victoria (Miss) Yirerona, Jaqueline (Miss) Ahmad, Salman Afrifa, Oheneba Ayewa Coker, Dalton Parker, Bessant Allen Okoh, Samuel Osei Kofi Owusu-Ansah, Edward Kwame Agbadzi, Anthony Kewku Tete-Lartey, Alberta (Miss) Griffiths, Abraham Dodoo, Nii Lartey Osafo-Kwarko, Phillip Mortoti, S. Salasie Gilpin-Jackson, Rodliz No winner No winner No winner Okoli, Odinachi Matthew Adeoti, Olatubosun J. Olarewaju, Oluyomi T. Adeyemo, Adekunle M. James, Paul Abraham Akande, Onaolapo W. Abudu, Adebimpe A. (Miss) Sobukunola, Oluwadunni (Miss Arhuidese, James I. Okpaleke, Christopher Odinaka, Cyprian I. Akanbi, Oluwatola Ogunlade, Opeyemi O. (Miss) Onwuali, Augustine O. Omusi, Odoro Anthony Ubachukwu, Eziama Emenike Diko, Said Majekodunmi, Oluwabukola O. Arora, Aman Oyedele, Oluwadetan E. Yusufu, John Akoi, Kwame Juma, Mary-Ann Asafo-Adjei, Priscilla Tsorgasli, Josephine Nyarko, David Kofi Adu-Poku, Frank Ofori, Maame Afua Otua Karim, Fathia No winner Miss Sakyi, Ann Abena Antwiwaa Master Hameed, Irbaz Miss Adeloye, Christianah Ope Miss Yvette Yeboah-Kordieh Master Josbert Abaasa Ayambire Master Bright Seyram Tsevi Miss Ivy Ama Mannoh Miss Rhoda Adu-Boafo Master Mwinmaarong Lucio Der Hasan Mickail Kenyah Blaykyi Archibald Enninful Henry

CAMPUS LIFE Pharmacy student dies on graduation eve -Page 29

(Nigeria) (Sierra Leone) (Ghana) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Sierra Leone) (Ghana) (Sierra Leone) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Sierra Leone) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (The Gambia) (Ghana) (Sierra Leone) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Sierra Leone)

1st prize 2nd prize 3rd prize 1st prize 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd Sole Winner

(Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Sierra Leone) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Nigeria) (Ghana) (Nigeria) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana)

Sole winner 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd

(Ghana) (Ghana) (Nigeria) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana) (Ghana)

1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd

•A 10-page section on campus news, people etc

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

26

EDUCATION

‘WAEC should educate beyond academic excellence’ AKING good grades is good, but not enough, the Liberian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augustine Ngafuan, has said.

Ngafuan who delivered the 20th Endowment Fund lecture of the council last Monday, which was part of the 63rd annual Council Meeting of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), said the time has come for the council to conceptualize new ways to reward excellence beyond just making A1.

Speaking on the topic: "What Else Are We Writing on the Slate? A Call for a Holistic Preparation of the Youth", the Minister said that the high level of illicit funds flowing out of Africa, insurgencies and violence that have underdeveloped the continent could only be addressed by an education that enthrones morals, team work, leadership and other virtues.

In a lecture that was hailed by many as excellent, Ngafuan showed how academic excellence alone cannot help to produce good leaders.

He said: "What are the ideal outcomes we seek on the WAEC exams? Obviously, an outcome where

M

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

every candidate sitting the exams would master the various subjects so well that they would earn an 'A' and fall in the 'Division One' category. We call these top performers in public exams 'excellent students'. But again I ask, is academic excellence in and of itself sufficient in getting the youth of today prepared for the multifarious challenges of today and the future? It is often said that the young people are the future leaders, but are we preparing them so that they can be good future leaders of our countries, our region, our continent, and our one world?"

Ngafuan stunned the audience when he said some of his former classmates were among the rebels that unleashed mayhem during the 14-

year Liberian civil war. He equally said there are many brilliant people responsible for Africa's loss of about $50 billion yearly in illegal funds.

To adequately prepare youth for future leadership roles, Ngafuan said "all players including the family, the peer group, the government, and faith-based institutions must play their part." However, he made a case for proper treatment of teachers. He noted that as strong influencers, teachers must be adequately rewarded so they can teach without being tempted to compromise.

Ngafuan said: “To help close the integrity gap in the system, we need to address a host of challenges that undermine the strength and integrity of the system, not the least of which is the dismal plight of teachers and other

education workers. This will require increased and sustained financial support to the education sector from governments, the private sector, donors, and ordinary citizens.

“Students in their impressionable years do not only learn from what the teacher says in the classroom but also what he actually does in and out of the classroom. Therefore, we should never cause these teachers, examiners, invigilators, test markers and support staff,all positive contributors to the forward march of our countries,to become so desperate for survival that they could easily yield to the slightest temptations. We must change the situation where to pursue a career as an educator is to sign a perpetual contract with poverty.”

‘But again I ask, is academic excellence in and of itself sufficient in getting the youth of today prepared for the multifarious challenges of today and the future? It is often said that the young people are the future leaders, but are we preparing them so that they can be good future leaders’

• Mr Ngafuan

The four-day meeting, which should have held in Liberia, culminated in the election of Dr. Evelyn Kandakai and Mrs. Hawa GollKotchie, both of Liberia, as the chairman and vice-chairman of the WAEC Council. It is the first time in the 63-year history of the council it would be chaired by a woman.

She took over from Prof Pius Obanya, a renowned Nigerian educationist.

Why Ghana towers over Nigeria in WASSCE Award •Continued from page 25 Archibald Enninful (Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast) made A1 in (Mathematics [core], Integrated Science, Biology, Chemistry, English Language, Social Studies, Physics and Mathematics [elective]).

Hasan had a T-Score of 682.0933, compared to Kenyah's 680.4287, and Archibald's 676.9348.

With their performance, they led 2,018,497 candidates who sat for the examination in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Since the establishment of the WAEC Endowment Fund, which has been sponsored by the Sir Augustus Bandele family in the past 29 years, the contest for the coveted award has been between Nigeria and Ghana.

However, Ghana has dominated.

Since 1984, Nigeria has won the top three prizes eight times (1986, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006), while Ghana has won it nine times (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014). In the eight years where the prizes were won by candidates from more than one country (1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2001, 2007, and 2011), Ghana has featured more than Nigeria.

With Nigeria producing the largest share of candidates (and funding) for the examination annually (about 80 per cent of the candidates for 2014 WASSCE were Nigerians, the natural question on the minds of many Nigerians would be why Nigeria cannot produce the winners, if not all, most of the time.

That question was what the Registrar of WAEC, Dr Iyi Uwadiae, said all stakeholders need to ponder on when asked to give reasons for Nigeria's lukewarm performance.

Uwadiae, who was head of the WAEC Nigeria National Office before he was appointed Registrar, said that Nigerian parents, students and their teachers have important roles to play in reversing the domination of Ghanaians in the examination.

He said: "What we should do as Nigerians is that we should go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves that years ago we used to have - at least one - on many occasions, we had two Nigerians out of three. What is happening now that the three positions, none is Nigerian? And this has happened for about three years now. So we should ask ourselves what is happening.

"There are so many factors. We as parents must play our parts; students must play their parts. Parents should take the trouble to ask their

•From left: Prof Pius Obanya, former chairman, WAEC Council, Mrs Etmonia Tapeh, minister of Education, Liberia and Mrs Hawa Goll-Kortchi, vice chairman, WAEC Council.

wards what they did in school, monitor their academic work, that is the first thing we should face.

Education starts from home; we don't leave everything to the teachers. The children themselves must be interested.

And of course those who teach them must impact knowledge.

Facilities are necessary. But there are times you improvise. And that is why there are some schools that are not the best but yet are able to bring out students that win our awards. That is to say that if parents play their roles, students play their role, and teachers also play their roles, with or without those facilities, students would perform."

A public school teacher, Mrs Juli Orukpe, also thinks parents and pupils must do more. She said pupils are not focused on their studies because they are easily distracted, and blamed parents for not calling them to order.

"We have to put in more efforts; and our students have to be counseled. Our students are not serious. There is a lot of distractions and parents are not even helping matters because they do not provide materials for their children. If you tell them to buy textbooks, it is wahala," she said.

However, Principal of King's College, Lagos, Otunba Dele Olapeju is not quick to conclude that Nigerian candidates are inferior to their Ghanaian counterparts. He said since the examination scripts from the five-member countries are not inter-changed for grading, Nigeria should not feel bad for losing the prizes to Ghana. He also said the Ghanaian education system has its own problems.

"There is nothing that has gone wrong. You lose some, you win some. You cannot win all the time.

It does not mean Nigerians are not good. Ghana also has challenges

with its system. That is why they have increased schooling at senior secondary level to four years. Their SS3 is the fourth year.

"Also, the markers of the examination are different. We do not send scripts to Ghana and Ghana to Nigeria. Nigeria marks Nigerian scripts and Ghana marks Ghanaian scripts - so there is no issue. We are not necessarily declining in performance," he said.

Nevertheless, for the founding chairman of the Examination Ethics Marshal International (EEMI), Sir Ike Onyechere, Nigeria can learn some lessons from how Ghana runs its education system and has instituted a culture of ethics.

Onyechere said WAEC Ghana, for instance, named and shamed examination cheats in 2010, which sent strong signals to the citizens that integrity of the examination is important. However, he said WAEC Nigeria has failed to do so, despite

‘And of course those who teach them must impact knowledge.

Facilities are necessary. But there are times you improvise.

And that is why there are some schools that are not the best but yet are able to bring out students that win our awards. That is to say that if parents play their roles, students play their role, and teachers also play their roles, with or without those facilities, students would perform’

announcing each year that there were cases of examination malpractices.

"Years ago, I think in 2010, some students were caught perpetrating examination malpractice. The society condemned it strongly and insisted that they be named and shamed. Since then, Ghanaian parents and candidates have learnt that the fear of examination malpractice is the beginning of wisdom.

"But come down to Nigeria. Every year, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB announce that thousands of candidates were caught in examination malpractices. But that is where it ends. They will even go ahead to announce that so-and-so number of invigilators, supervisors, examiners and others were involved. But when we meet them to give us their names, they say 'no, we have reported them to their employers. Most times these employers are the ministries of education and the cases are swept under the carpet," he said.

Onyechere also said the politicization of the free education policy practiced by many states has not helped the proper running of the education sector as well because quality is compromised.

"Free education is politicized.

Quality is not there. It takes a minimum of four years for the impact of politics in education to show. If you take a bad decision, you do not see the effect until about four years later, which is dangerous.

"For the new government coming in, the change or transformation we desire in Nigeria must seriously start from education so that when we say something is black, it is black. Invigilators, supervisors, others should be made to understand the seriousness of education.

Ethics must be instituted," he said.

National President of the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), a group of private school owners, Mrs Ifejola Dada said government must also put the right people in education.

"The fault has been from our leaders. The round peg must be put in round holes. People are not put in the right places. This is the only sector I discover that professionals are not allowed to work. By the time we allow the right people to perform, we will recover. If we are all professionals, we will all sit down and discuss how we can elevate quality above quantity," she said.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

27

EDUCATION

FUT Minna plans three engineering courses

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HE Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna is to introduce three new courses in Engineering in 2015/2016 academic session.

The courses, oil and gas engineering, welding engineering and material and metallurgical engineering, are expected to take off from 2015/2016 academic session.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Musbau Akanji, who disclosed this in Minna at the flag off of the Module 'C' Welders training and certification programme under the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) said already two of the departments Welding and oil and gas engineering have been approved by the Senate of the institution.

Akanji said government's desire to domesticate the activities in the country's oil and gas industry in-

From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

formed the decision to start the programmes.

He also said that the new courses were designed to enhance the country's developmental efforts in the petroleum industry.

Akanji said that the institution has a lot of manpower in the School of Engineering that would be deployed to the new departments.

"It is our fervent hope that the three new programmes will scale through the National Universities Commission (NUC) verification; and by the next academic session we intend to start the programmes," he said.

The Vice Chancellor praised the PTDF for its continued assistance to the university in the area of infrastructural and human development.

He added that the institution

• From left: Iyanu Oluyale and Chinwe Chukwudi, students of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin in Ondo State, with Mr Adeyemi Akinyemi , Business Development Manager (northern region), of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) (right) and another officer during a one-day leadership seminar for university students in the southwest region. The students won second prize in a debate contest during the programme.

would partner with the agency to train more Welders towards reducing the deficit in the number of skilled welders in the country.

O

• Shekarau (middle) with the winners.

20 pupils win science contest in Plateau

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T least 20 pupils from 28 senior secondary schools in Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State have emerged winners of a science competition organised by a lawmaker representing Shendam constituency in the state house of assembly.

Each of the winners was presented with a Laptop and cash prize of N30,000.00; as well as mathematics textbooks worth N600,000.00.

The participants sat for a written examination in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics that was supervised by science teachers. Johnbull Shekarau, who sponsored the competition in conjunction with Senator Gyang Pwajok, the governorship candidate of PDP in the state, distributed the computers to the beneficiaries.

Shekarau said the competition was initiated to groom pupils to excel in the examined subjects.

"In the year 2012, we had a dream of raising students that can compete and distinguish themselves in mathematics. In the subsequent years we included Physics and Chemistry.

Participants are drawn from secondary schools within our constituency.

Our earnest desire is not just to raise competition winners but to create the consciousness and zeal towards the sturdy of science subject.

"We want to inculcate the culture of I can do spirit in our students and also to raise students that can distinguish themselves in the field of sciences. My desire is for the best science students to come from my constituency, my state and my country

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

Nigeria. I believe science knows no bound and it is a torch that illuminates the world," he said.

Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Isaac Aliyu who is a special assistant to Governor Jonah Jang, praised the gesture.

"This is a laudable gesture from Hon Shekarau which will go a long way in encouraging our students to develop interest in areas of sciences at the early stage of their educational career," he said.

He encouraged all secondary schools in the locality to take the annual competition seriously as it is capable of helping students to master science subject at young age.

Our Lady of Fatima Girls School,

Shendam, produced the top winners in the three categories, namely: Yilong Rangmi (chemistry), Dano Joyce and Obiegue Virginia (Physics), and Saleh Philips (Mathematics).

Other winners in the Chemistry categories included: John Naandat and Dachelem Maandong (Christ the King Centenary College); as well as Nicodemous Nkwap Gabmi (Government Secondary School).

In the Physics categories were: Mudimdong Johnson (Grace of God Private School) and Abigail Albert Ukpai (Government Girls science School); while the Mathematic category had Kwapyen Kwap and Dangyil Dienan (Christ the King Centenary College) and Ranksuk Livinus (Government Secondary School) as winners.

NOWA plans secondary school HE National President of in Calabar Naval Officers' Wife Asso-

T

ciation (NOWA), Mrs Lami Jibrin, has said the association will establish a new secondary school in Calabar.

She made this known when she visited the Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral Henry Babalola at the Command Headquarters in Calabar on Sunday.

She said the school would boost the effort of the Nigerian Navy to expand access to affordable and qualitative education for children of personnel in the barracks.

She said she was impressed by Babalola's support for NOWA

1,500 pupils learn oral hygiene

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

projects in Calabar.

Mrs Jibrin later visited NOWA Nursery/Primary School and inspected the site of the proposed school at Nigerian Navy Barracks Atimbo Calabar.

Speaking at a reception in her honour, Babalola promised that the Eastern Naval Command would continue to work closely with NOWA to ensure quality education delivery in NOWA Schools.

He pledged a computer laboratory with 20 computers and a school bus for the new school.

VER 1,500 primary school pupils had fun learning about oral hygiene during a programme to mark the 2015 World Oral Health Day at the indoor-sports hall of the University of Lagos.

The enlightenment programme sponsored by Unilever's Pepsodent toothpaste brand, featured various fun activities for the pupils drawn from public and private schools from various parts of Lagos State.

There was a dance competition for two teams, presentation of choreographies and dance drama by schools, as well as a contest by four schools to present the most creative oral health commercial campaign.

Vice President of the Nigerian Dental Association, Dr Olufunmilayo Ashiwaju presented a lecture on oral health care during which she did a practical demonstration of how the pupils should brush their teeth. Using the alphabets A-F as mnemonics for the ABC of tooth care, the Consultant Paediatric Dentist, said if the young ones want to smile for life they should: Avoid chewing pencils or anything that isn't food; Brush twice daily using soft bristled toothbrushes; Change their brushes once in three months; make Dental visits twice annually; Eat fruits and balanced diet and avoid sweets and biscuits; use Flouride toothpaste to strengthen their teeth; and Floss instead of toothpick to pick their teeth.

Warning the young ones about neglect and wrong habits, she said: "Sugar and bacteria form acid that

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

acts on healthy tooth and decay sets in; then you have holes in your teeth. You mouth can also smell."

NDA President, Dr Bode Ijarogbe, was delighted at the scale of celebration to mark this year's oral health day. He urged the pupils to teach others what they learnt at the event.

"When a child is taught how to care for his mouth, he can have influence on peers and his parents," he said.

Highlight of the programme was the unveiling of Super Dentists four dental cartoon characters - by the Minister of Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan, to drive the culture of a healthy oral lifestyle among children.

Mr Robert deVreede, Vice President Marketing, Unilever Nigeria said that the firm feels the responsibility being the number one oral care manufacturer in Nigeria.

"We want to give something back to the Nigerian Public. We have set a global ambition to reach 100 million children by 2020 and 10 million of them are coming from Nigeria. In effect, the number we aiming to reach in Nigeria is the largest in Africa.

Bunmi Adeniba, Category Manager, Oral Care, Unilever Nigeria said that not only does tooth decay cause children pain and discomfort, but Pepsodent believes that it also risks having an adverse effect on children's futures, causing them to miss school, potentially damaging their development at school and career prospects.

College to enjoy rejuvenation •Hosts C:AVA training

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HE Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA), Dr Samson Odedina, has promised to transform the college into a leading training institution.

To this end, he said there is already a strategic plan to sustain the position of FECA as a world- class middle level man-power centre.

This strategy, according to him, includes the immediate transformation of all teaching and learning facilities in the 58-year old institution.

Dr Odedina spoke at the opening ceremony of the Cassava Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) Phase II international pre-season training of trainers on Cassava Production Enterprise hosted by the College.

He said the workshop was organised to build the capacity of the service providers.

The Project Director of C:AVA II, Prof Kolawole Adebayo said the if new markets for cassava can be developed and small holder farmers

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

linked to them at scale, they would increase their incomes and adopt new productivity enhancing technologies.

The Project, he said, would also increase the income of at least 200 value chain actors, especially small holder farmers and processors in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi by at least $177 million in five years.

Participants at the workshop included cassava production stakeholders from Ghana and Uganda, and many of the states involved in cassava production in Nigeria such as Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Rivers and Abia states.

C:AVA II is the second phase of C:AVA project initiated in 2008 by the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom.

The project is led by the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

28

EDUCATION KWASU FILE Ph.D in Military Studies soon AS the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, works towards starting a doctoral programme in Military Studies, the ViceChancellor, Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, says the programme would be exclusively for serving military personnel of Nigeria.

Speaking when the Brigade Commander, 22 Armoured Brigade, Sobi Cantonment, Ilorin, Brigadier-General Ali Abdul Nani, visited his office, Na’Allah remarked that when the proposal is actualised, KWASU would be the only university in Nigeria offering the programme.

He said the 21st Century military needs advanced research to address issues of intelligence, insurgency, global crisis and local realities, among other sensitive security matters. The Vice-Chancellor also pledged the institution’s readiness to provide special accommodation for prospective students of the programme.

“We are ready as a university to put this nation on the map,” he stated.

On his part, Nani praised the university for its achievements in the areas of academic and infrastructural development.

“With what I have seen, I know that the university would compete favourably with other universities that had been on ground before it,” he said.

CCTV on campus KWASU will soon begin electronic surveillance of the institution and its environs. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah disclosed this during a visit to the institution’s Safety Office as part of his 2014/2015 visits to offices, units and colleges of the university.

He praised personnel of the unit for their professionalism in ensuring security on the campus and their knowledge of the institution’s host community.

He also promised to solve all the problems they encountered in the course of their duty, including the Chief Safety Officer, Alhaji Saka Ambali’s request for more accommodation, transportation and workers. At the Internal Audit Unit, the Vice-Chancellor urged the unit to constantly map out strategies that would ensure effectiveness of their operations.

The Principal Internal Auditor, Mallam Abdulkadir Olayiwola thanked Na’Allah for giving maximum support to the unit to perform its functions optimally.

He also requested for more personnel, office accommodation, and furniture.

Hon. Biodun Dada Awoleye, (2nd left); Principal, Anglican Commercial Grammar School Orita-Mefa Ibadan, Mrs. Oyenike Ibiyode (middle); Chairman, PTA, Mr. Micheal Taiwo Olawole and others during the inauguration of Computer Laboratory donated by Hon. Dada Awoleye to the Anglican Commercial Grammar School Orita-Mefa Ibadan.

PHOTO: FEMI ILESANMI, IBADAN

UI VC worried about explosion of medical schools •UNILORIN graduates 4,062 doctors

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ICE Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof Isaac Adewole has expressed concern over the proliferation of medical schools in the country.

The professor of obstetrics and gynecology made this observation in a keynote address delivered at the induction of 64 medical doctors freshly produced by the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) College of Health Sciences on Monday.

I

N what seemed a mission to "catch them young", female surveyors in Rivers State embarked on an enlightenment programme to educate the pupils of Holy Rosary Girls College, Port Harcourt on the importance of surveying.

The female surveyors who are members of Women-In-Surveying (WIS), Rivers State chapter said that surveying is a lucrative course.

Delivering a career talk to about 115 science pupils of the college, the

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

In his address titled: "Beyond the Coveted MBBS; Contemporary Problems and Prospects of Postgraduate Medical Education in Nigeria," Adewole said he feared quality of medical care would be compromised.

He said: "The proliferation of medical schools with no strict regulation remains 'a keg of gunpowder' that needs urgent

attention. I am concerned that some of these schools are also making frantic effort to throw their graduates into labour market.

"The implication is that the quality of service and an increasing proportion of malpractice might be too much to contend with. It is an emergency that needs urgent surgical and medical operation in theatre of the policy makers and other stakeholders."

He also said trainee, trainer, government and other stakeholders needed to take postgraduate medical

education seriously. He added that there is no end to medical education.

Adewole, who said training institutions should be reorganised, added that most of them had turned into "glorified tertiary health centres".

He said: "We need to have a comprehensive regulation at the national level that will transcend individual professional associations and disciplines for a qualitative output.

"Training colleges should continue their engagement with National Universities Commission and look for ways to incorporate real academic training into the professional fellowship programme. We cannot deny the fact that the current pressure might lead to a future demand from the incoming generation to have academic exposure before being engaged in the universities."

Meanwhile, Provost of the UNILORIN College of Health Sciences, Prof 'Wahab Johnson, said the institution had churned out 4,062 medical doctors in its 38 years of existence, adding that the doctors had been well trained.

"Our robust MBBS programme has continued to turn out on yearly basis, well trained medical doctors who have continued to contribute quantitatively and qualitatively to the health-care needs of our beloved nation," he said.

Earlier, Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, said the new graduates are capable of improving healthcare delivery system in the country and the world.

Ambali, who charged the medical graduates to be professional always, said: “a professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it. This is very true of doctors whose work can be anytime anyway and the work has to be done well.”

He also urged the new doctors to be humane and caring.

Women surveyors counsel pupils From Clarice Azuatalam, Port Harcourt

Rivers State Coordinator of WIS, Mrs Amina Dienye, said: "Surveying is the first profession that God manifested after creation, because He had to distinctly position everything such as the sea, land and sky in welldefined positions."

Dienye also said no development project could occur without a

surveyor since the positions of all items of structures must be clearly marked out.

She also said the financial rewards of surveying would help them support their husbands and families meaningfully in future.

Making their own contributions, a Chartered Surveyor, Mrs Abiola Madeparum; as well as Sally Akinrinola and Itekenah Akpanah recalled how they made their

incursion into surveying. They all said they were "grateful for being practitioners of such a worthy profession".

However, they urged the girls to work hard if they finally chose to read surveying.

In a vote of thanks on behalf of the pupils, Miss Ruth Lawrence expressed gratitude and hope that the career talk would aid some of them to choose to be surveyors.

New Ag. Dean THE KWASU Vice-Chancellor, Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, has approved the appointment of Prof Adebayo Oladimeji, as acting Dean, School of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management.

A letter signed by the Registrar, Mr Surajudeen Oyebode, noted that the appointment was in recognition of Oladimeji’s exemplary leadership qualities and wealth of experience.

Oladimeji who is also the Coordinator to the Vice-Chancellor on Research and Industry, has been involved in teaching, research and administration for more than 40 years. He has served as departmental head, dean, member of Governing Council and numerous committees in various universities.

He occupied the UNESCO Chair of Environmental Sciences at the National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from January 2000- January 2002,.

His areas of specialisation include Fisheries/Hydrobiology, Freshwater Ecology, Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Impact Assessment.

• The interns after the training.

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HUNDRED Ogun Statebased interns of the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SUREP) aimed at empowering the youths and reducing the menace of unemployment have undergone training to help them perform well in their places of posting.

They are among the 248,104 graduates that signed up for the initiative which provides unemployed and underemployed graduates with internship opportunities that will expose them to skills and experiences relevant to industry needs and enhance their employability.

SURE-P trains 100 interns

By Medinat Kanabe

Speaking during the training and orientation organised by AfriHub Nigeria Ltd, an ICT training and consulting firm, the Director of the scheme, Mr Peter Papka, said the graduates are posted to firms all over the country across all sectors.

He said since 2012 when the scheme started, positive testimonials have been pouring in from firms that have benefitted from the resourcefulness of the graduate interns, especially those that have been employed.

He explained that the objectives of the orientation included: to help the

interns optimize their internship period by developing useful skills and positive work habits; provide opportunity to share experiences with other participants; and expose participants to opportunities after internship, among others.

Papka said he was glad with the interns' enthusiasm in the training.

Most of them said it was the first formal training they were receiving on workplace and work life. He also said many are ready to embrace entrepreneurship.

"They also admitted a clear and present opportunity that the GIS

provides for them to chart the course of their future. Many interns are beginning to jettison the idea of waiting for a job from government, as some are venturing into entrepreneurship both individually and as cooperative groups," he added.

Of those registered for the scheme, Papka said: "22,000 graduates have been deployed, with 68 per cent males, 31 per cent females and 1 percent vulnerable. Over 2,000 have exited the scheme, with over 500 having secured jobs. Some of the graduates have won YouWiN grants to expand businesses they set up using GIS stipends and many have set up cooperative associations, which may transform into SMEs. Rather than seeking for work, they are now becoming employers."

Celebration time at UNICAL

Towards peaceful elections

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Page 31

*CAMPUSES *NEWS *PEOPLE *KUDOS& KNOCKS *GRANTS

THE NATION

CAMPUS LIFE 0805-450-3104 email: campusbeat@yahoo.com THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.net

email:- campuslife@thenationonlineng.net

A Pharmacy student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Kenneth Akibigho Asemu, has died, 24 days to his graduation, throwing his family and friends into mourning. EZEKIEL EFEOBHOKHAN (400-Level Pharmacy) reports.

•The body being moved into the Asemu’s compound in Ughelli

Pharmacy student dies on graduation eve H

E had just completed his final year at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and was looking forward to his graduation. But when the induction held last Wednesday, Kenneth Akibigho was not among the graduands.

He died 24 days before the induction.

His family was planning big for his induction along with 112 other graduands before his death. The late Kenneth was injured in a gas explosion at his Famous Villa residence in Ekosodin, an off-campus location. He died in hospital.

The late Kenneth’s neighbour, Vincent Aifuwa, recounted how the “sad incident”

happened. According to him, they exchanged greetings when he (the late Kenneth) returned from school on the fateful day. Then, they retired to their apartments.

“Suddenly, I heard an explosion,” Vincent said, adding: “Shouts of help came from the direction of Kenneth’s apartment.”

He said he rushed to the late Kenneth’s room, and met him on the floor, screaming for help.

Vincent added: “Kenneth wanted to prepare noodles when the gas cooker suddenly discharged gas, which caused the explosion.

I called other neighbours for help and we rushed him to the nearby Fuller Health Hos-

pital. But, doctors there referred him to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) as they could not handle the case.”

The next day, Vincent said he visited Kenneth and saw that he was responding to treatment. “He even read the drug prescription written for him. Afterwards, he gave me his ATM card to withdraw N5,000 to buy the drugs,” Vincent said.

He added: “I called him on Friday and he told me that they would discharge him the following Tuesday. I was shocked when a friend told me on Saturday that he was dead.

I never believed it. I ran to UBTH but I was disappointed. I don’t understand why he died, despite his response to treatment.”

Vincent said he always called the late Kenneth “the general” for his bravery and smartness. “He had treated my son freely and also saved my younger brother from the adverse effect of a drug he used,” he said.

According to autopsy, Kenneth died of blood clots in his lungs, which doctors said caused breathing distress. A nurse, told CAMPUSLIFE that the late Kenneth gasped for breath and was given oxygen but he could not breathe properly. He died on Saturday morning.

Anthony Ehimare, a 400-Level Pharmacy student, said the late Kenneth was friendly, describing his death as painful.

•Continued on page 30

•Panic in Abraka as fire razes bakery •CAMPUSLIFE man is best Corps member in Kebbi -P32

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

30

CAMPUS LIFE

The Nigerian spirit

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HE March 28, 2015 election was indeed none like any other the country had witnessed; it will go down in history as one of the most watched election on television in Nigeria - akin to watching a world cup final. We saw pictures of women in Northern Nigeria waiting patiently on very long queues in the blazing sun to cast their votes. Some of the women who came out to enforce their fundamental human rights have spent the last four years burying husbands, children, sisters, brothers and neighbours killed by Boko Haram (BH) insurgents. These women - whose children could not go to school because of the threat of kidnap and murder - should be commended. They decided to vote even after BH threats that they should not.

We equally saw pictures of women in the south – I saw some bottle or breast feeding their children as they wait to vote.

The story from Delta State, where the women of Madangho town acted as our heroines of democracy, is quite touching.

After they had cast their votes last Saturday, some soldiers drove into town and wanted to whisk the ballot papers to a neighbouring village - Ajudaiboh for “collation.” It was alleged that a chieftain of one of the political parties was waiting there to conduct the “collation.”

The women resisted. When the soldiers insisted, they stripped naked and harassed the armed soldiers out of town.

This, indeed, is an election like no other. These brave mothers, sisters and wives were vigilant, and most importantly they knew what they wanted. They are tired of environmental pollution; they’re tired of the pains of subsistence living - hand to mouth - in a land of abundance. All they ask for is to have a clean land to fish and farm. Is that asking for too much?

There’s something special about women when it comes to struggle. The civil rights movement in the United States of America got a boost when Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) defied the law to rise for a white man on December 1, 1955. For her action, she was

dubbed “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement.” On that day in with Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Agbo Agbo Blake’s order to give up her seat in 08116759750 the coloured section to a white passenger, after the white section (SMS only) was filled.

•aagboa@gmail.com Being with the late Martin Luther King Jnr, she must have heard times without number that “freedom is praying everything works out well, without never voluntarily given by the oppressor; their input. They’ve discovered it does not it must be demanded by the oppressed.” pay sit on the fence. Today, they are now In Nigeria’s case, the Permanent Voter active participants in the democratic procCard (PVC) became the weapon of free- ess.

There’s also the issue of ignorance. In my dom.

We equally saw pictures of Nigerians opinion, the best way to enslave a people is standing in the rain to vote – like yours to keep them ignorant of their rights and sincerely. We saw the elderly standing, or privileges. An example would suffice here; sitting on wheel chairs to vote. I saw the when slavery was abolished in America, picture of an elderly citizen brought from some slaves in the South were unaware of his hospital bed, assisted by nurses, who their new status and continued working for came to vote! This is the Nigerian spirit their masters. In many ways, the masses in that often refuses to die. Just like the clas- a democratic setting are ignorant of their sic Volkswagen Beetle advert said of years huge powers over the political elite. Again, ago; you can’t kill the beetle; I make bold the PVC has changed things for good.

Poverty is also a fundamental factor and to say you can’t kill the Nigerian spirit!

As we were battling to vote against all will remain one for a long time to come and odds, we also have some of our ex- politicians know this. However, just like we Campuslife writers who were busy serv- are beginning to get the electoral process ing their fatherland in election duties. We right, when the poverty level reduces, peoare all true heroes of a country we all love ple will in turn vote for integrity and perand desire to be great. For once I saw Ni- formance. We will get there someday.

As one leg of the election has come and gerians waiting without much of a fuss despite hiccups with card readers in some gone, I’m glad it has increased the level of polling units. Some had to wait till 2am political awareness among ordinary Nigeon Sunday morning for their votes to be rians. Given what we all saw at the rallies counted; some came back the next day to and the way Nigerians embraced the elections, it appears they have come to realise continue the exercise.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the that it is only by participating in the elecgood thing about this election is that, no Ni- toral process that they can effect a change in gerian leader will take Nigerians for granted the society. We are going to see a greater anymore; and that things would never re- level of involvement in future elections as it main the same again and it won’t be busi- has changed the perception of Nigerians about politics. I hope it will also change our ness as usual.

In the past, we had problem with voters’ perception about governance, especially apathy as most voters believe their votes about holding our leaders accountable.

Our vibrant youth population has become won’t count. But not today; the masses have realised that it is a suicidal strategy for them more politically involved in the democratic to bury their heads in the sand, hoping and process, this is a good sign. More than ever

Pharmacy student dies days to graduation

ESSAY CONTEST FOR UNDERGRADUATES The Nation, Nigeria, in collaboration with African Liberty Organisation for Development (ALOD) and Network for a Free Society (NFS), is calling for entries into the 2015 essay competition.

Details are as follows: Topic: Government regulations and controls are the biggest threat to jobs in Africa today. Discuss using pratical examples Participants must discuss the topic using contemporary examples.

Qualification: Participant must be a student in any tertiary institutions (university, polytechnic, college of education and technical schools) in all African countries. The format of the text should be in Microsoft Word and not more than 1,500 words.

Interested student can visit: www.networkforafreesociety.org for useful background materials on the theme of this contest. Be informed that no participant is allowed to lift materials directly from works of any author and claim to be his/her own. Plagiarism automatically disqualifies any entry, which contains work of another author.

If any text or sentence is copied from another author’s work, it must be shown in quotation marks and writer must credit the original author at the bottom of the paper.

On the first page of the completed essay, participant must write his/her full names, department, and year of study and name of institution. Also include your email address and functional mobile phone number.

All entries should be sent to: adedayo.thomas@gmail.com

•Continued from page 29

His words: “Kenneth was a mentor and someone loved in the campus fellowship for his friendliness. He could handle and teach any topic assigned to him. He had a good knowledge of the Bible and was a great preacher of the Word God. He had this characteristic laugh whenever he talked, after which he would always say ‘you won’t understand’.”

His classmates took to the social media to express their feelings about Kenneth’s death. Odera Unachukwu wrote: “Sun set at noon but we cannot question God’s will and judgment.”

Peter Onochie said: “Ken, I am yet to come out of the shock of your death. You should have lived and got your certificate for which you laboured for six years. ‘’Rest in peace my colleague.

May God bless your soul.”

Ovie Carana posted: “My dear brother, as your body will be laid to rest, you will live on in my heart forever. May your soul rest in perfect peace.”

Penultimate Monday, his family compound in Ughelli South Local Government of Delta State was

Pushing Out

before, they participated in the build-up to the elections by attending rallies, engaging in debates and being at the forefront in mobilisation for campaigns and voting.

Their involvement is not surprising because they constitute about 70 per cent of the population. Their impact was also felt on social media platforms.

This is one election where social media played a very visible role. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were utilised to pass political messages across. As debates went on in the public space, the battle was also fiercely fought on the social media by supporters of the two dominant parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

As effective as this tool was, it was discouraging that instead of using it to engage on issues of national development, the platform was deployed as a tool to hurl personal, ethnic and religious slurs at one another and groups. Ethnic politics, xenophobia and hate mongering dominated the cyberspace. The snag for me is this: if those young people drumming up primordial sentiments on social media are the future leaders we have often talked about, then I am afraid the future is very bleak.

The base level of partisanship exhibited on social media is akin to the campaign of hate we saw at the rallies and campaign circuit, which unfortunately, our youths imbibed from the elders, tribal or religious sentiment were not in short supply. I expect our youths to be more concerned about performance and good governance as a new dispensation begins.

As we celebrate a peaceful election, it is clear that it also exposed and widened our fault lines. The campaigns which were dominated by ethnic and religious rhetoric reflects the deep divisions that still exist among Nigerians. It is sad to see how politicians exploited these cleavages to shore up their political chances unmindful of the danger to our peaceful co-existence as a nation. While the line between religion and politics has often been blurred, this year’s elections deepened the relationship between the two separate entities. For the first time, political positions were determined by religious considerations.

Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s new government should start the healing.

•The late Kenneth

enveloped in grief when his body was brought home for burial.

Many family members were incosolable.

Speaking at the funeral, the Deputy Dean, Dr Tony Waka, said Kenneth would be missed for his simplicity. He prayed God to grant him rest.

The late Kenneth was born 30 years ago. He obtained the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) advanced level certificate in Pure Sciences from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, Kaduna State in 2007.

He was admitted into the UNIBEN to study Human Anatomy but later got transferred to the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Entries will be received between March 26 and June 26, 2015. Late entries will not be accepted.

Winners will be announced on July 29, 2015.

PRIZES 1st-George Ayittey (Platinum Prize): $1,000 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5-9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19-23, 2015 2nd-Anthony Fisher (Gold Prize): $700 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5-9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19-23, 2015 3rd-Franklin Cudjoe (Silver Prize): $500 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5-9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19-23, 2015 4th- The Nation CAMPUSLIFE (Media Bronze Prize): $300 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5-9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19-23, 2015 We also have eight consolation prize of $50 each.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE

Towards peaceful elections The Centre for Peace Studies of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto (UDUS) has organised a seminar and rally in support of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) HALIMAH AKANBI (300-Level Law) and ISMAT ANIFOWOSE (300-Level Economics) report.

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HE Centre for Peace Studies of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) has held a sensitisation rally and seminar to support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in its drive to ensure peaceful elections, beginning with Saturday’s presidential elections.

The university auditorium, was filled as a representative of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar, led guests to the occasion. The Sultan was represented by Alhaji Muhammed Malami Sheik.

The event was chaired by Prof Tijanni Muhammed Bande, and the special guests included the immediate past Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof R.A. Shehu, his predecessor, Prof Muhammed Adamu, represented by Prof Aminu Isiaku, Prof Aminu Salihu Mika’il and representative of the Commissioner of Police.

The VC, Prof Abdullahi Zuru, said the aim of the seminar was to enlighten the electorate on the need for peace during the elections. He said INEC needed the support of all to organise credible elections.

He said the dates fixed by INEC should be seen as significant in the nation’s democratic development, noting that the government has done everything to ensure that voters exercised their

franchise peacefully during the elections.

He urged students to work for peace during and after the elections, saying the success of the exercise would depend on the role individuals choose to play.

In his paper titled: Electoral process, voter education and the enlightenment, Prof Shehu Salihu Muhammed of the Department of Political Science said for free, fair and credible election to be conducted, citizens must see the electoral process as their task.

He called for massive voters’ education, saying it would help to change people’s orientation towards ensuring credible election.

“For there to be credible polls, we must stop to seeing electoral process as the responsibility of the INEC, political parties, religious and community leaders only. Individuals must be seen as partner in the project because we are citizens of this country,” he said.

Presenting a paper titled: Rule of law and electoral process in Nigeria, Prof Mansur Sa’id of the Faculty of Law said the Constitution had its foundation in law enacted by ordinary people. He said every process in the build up to the election must have its root in rule of law to prevent barrage of litigations.

While noting that rule of law is bedrock of any democratic society, Prof Sa’id said INEC must

•Prof Bande speaking at the event

ensure the conduct of the elections is in tandem with the provision of Electoral Act. Political parties, he said, must rein in the excesses of their supporters to prevent violence during and after the elections.

Dr Tukur Muhammed Baba of Department of Sociology, who examined the role of community leaders in electoral process, clarified the concept of community, saying it was a term used to describe every human being living within a given space. Members of the community, he said, must have the same information about any process, noting that outcome of any decision taken would affect every individual in the community because they share the same objective.

He said community leaders are shapers of opinion, who help in-

dividual to interpret and react to a phenomenon. “Community leaders relate opinion on people, events, issues and phenomenon.

They act as social mobilisers and organise the thought of members of their society about issues of interest. They invest time and resources in communicating community affairs and provide guidelines and offer assistance to community members on their goals,” he said.

He listed the roles of community leaders to include contributing to success of electoral process, including sensitising their members on rules and regulations. He added that a good community leader must have acceptability, credibility and available to address members’ grievances at all times.

In his lecture on Role of media in electoral process, Malam

Muhammed Abubakar said the electoral process could not be completed without involving the media.

He said activities of media practitioners must be guided by ethics of the profession, noting that the manner in which electoral process was reported could either make or mar the elections.

Abubakar said the media must report the election accurately, objectively and constructively, urging journalists to promote peace, harmony and love through their reportage. He said the media must focus on issues rather being used to attack personalities.

The session was followed by a rally by members of Junior Chambers International (JCI) and Rotaract Club and some members of INEC, urging people to shun violence and promote peace during the election.

After a two-month rift between the management and the workers’ union, which paralysed academics at the Federal Polytechnic in Ado-Ekiti (ADO POLY), the institution has come alive again. TEMITOPE YAKUBU (ND II Quantity Surveying) reports.

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FTER the Yuletide break, students of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti (ADO POLY) looked forward to returning to school on January 5, but this was not to be. But on the day the school re-opened, workers’ protested demanding the removal of the Rector, Dr Theresa Akande.

Among others, the protesters accused the polytechnic management of failing to implement CONTISS 15 as directed by the Federal Government. They also alleged that the school did not remit staff contributions to cooperative societies. The alleged non-refund of pension deducted from contract and casual workers’ pay.

But, the Rector denied it all, accusing the workers of having a hidden agenda. Dr Akande urged the protesters to wait for the outcome of investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to which the workers sent petitions.

Dr Akande said her administration followed due process in its financial dealings, urging the workers to embrace dialogue.

The disagreement between the management and the workers paralysed academics for more than 60 days. Students’ appeal to the warring parties did not yield results. Students took to the streets, calling for a resolution of the crisis and the re-opening of the school.

The protest was hijacked by the Ekiti-axis of the National Associa-

•Dr Akande

•Owoeye

A poly’s tortuous road to peace tion of Nigerian Students (NANS), which claimed that the Students’ Union Government (SUG) leadership had compromised.

The SUG president, Oladapo Ajibola, denied doing the management’s bidding, saying the union was making efforts to ensure a quick resolution of the disagree-

ment. The protest turned violent as riot policemen were called in to disperse the students.

The polytechnic authorities consequently shut down the school indefinitely.

The Governing Council, after an emergency meeting, suspended staff and students’ unions indefi-

nitely and directed workers to resume or be sacked.

Sir Victor Ebomoyi, the Council chairman, said the decision was taken after a review of the activities of the staff unions, which had disrupted activities in the school in the last three years.

The management also froze the unions’ accounts.

The workers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) urged their members to disregard the council’s directive, saying the management had no right to proscribe unions on campus.

The unions dragged the Council and the management before a Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti over the suspension of their activities.

Penultimate Friday, the Council rescinded its decision, following a directive by the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.

Ebomoyi said the decision was in obedience to the minister’s directive. He advised the unions’ leadership to heed the minister’s directive to keep the school in session before the 2015 general elections, while negotiation continued on the thorny issues.

Last Thursday, students disrupted the ASUP and SSANIP congresses on campus. The angry staff accused the management of spon-

soring the disruption. But Oladapo said the protest was to appeal to the parties to resolve the matter amicably in students’ interest.

SSANIP suspended its strike; but ASUP deferred its congress till Friday, calling on its members to resume work last Monday. The SUG wrote a letter of apology to the workers’ unions for disrupting their congresses.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the workers’ unions agreed to suspend the their action, following a peace meeting with the Supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity, Taminu Turaki in Abuja.

When CAMPUSLIFE visited the school last Monday, the campus was bubbling with activities. Lectures were on.

A lecturer, who spoke with our reporter on condition of anonymity, said lecturers had given their commitment to the management to teach students till after the elections.

Aanuoluwa Omodara, a Quantity Surveying student, said she was excited about the development. “Examination starts next month, so we have a lot of things to do. My project work is not completed yet; I have a lot to do,” she said.

Deputy Registrar for Information Ade Adeyemi-Adejolu said management would abide by the peace terms. The ASUP chairman, Tunji Owoeye said Shekarau had directed the payment of CONTISS 15 to workers in addition to resolving other issues.

2015 polls: Nigerian students meet in London THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE

•Some of the materials displayed at the exhibition

Students showcase products at varsity’s exhibition •The razed bakery

Panic in Abraka as fire razes bakery

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MIDNIGHT fire at a bakery in Abraka left residents and students in the Delta State University (DELSU) host community in distress. The incident happened at 1am on Thursday, last week at Manner Bakery at NEPA Line area of Abraka.

The cause of the inferno was unknown at press time but residents said an explosion followed the fire outbreak, causing panic in the neighbourhood.

A resident, whose house is close to the bakery, said the incident sent a wave of shock to the neighbourhood, describing it as “unex-

From Ese Okoduwa DELSU pected”. He said: “I heard a loud bang and a thick smoke billowed from the bakery. I woke up the neighbours for help.”

The inferno, the eyewitness said, became uncontrollable. “We could not do anything to contain the fire after the explosion. When men of the fire service arrived, the damage had already been done,” he said.

A worker in the bakery said the fire could have been an act of sabotage, noting that there was no

power supply in the area when the incident happened.

When CAMPUSLIFE visited the scene, charred materials littered the place as the building was razed.

A bakery worker said raw materials delivered to the bakery the previous day, including 20 bags of flour, sugar and machine were destroyed.

A 300-Level Pharmacy student, Judith Oghenemaro, who lives in the neighborhood, said: “I was reading when I heard a deafening bang and shout of fire. I was dazed for a moment because I thought it was bomb blast.”

T

HE Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies of the Ambrose Alli University (AAU) in Ekpoma, Edo State, has organised a public lecture and product exhibition.

The event held at Reverend Chris Oyakhilome Auditorium.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof C.A. Agbebaku, described the exhibition as an outcome of effective vocational training embarked on by the Centre.

She said the continuous entrepreneurial seminar being held by the Centre was an indication the university was living up to its billing to produce skilled graduates empowered sufficiently in vocations and academic.

She hailed the Director of the Centre, Prof P. E. Agbebaku and lecturers taking the course. The VC added that the entrepreneurship study was added to the school curriculum to explore students’ creativity and to create of opportunities for graduates in the

From From Kelvin Osakpolor, Louis Uwoghiren, Eghosa and Igbinigie AAU face of unemployment.

She praised the students who designed various products displayed during the exhibition, saying she believed the students would make quality products for international market.

The Director of the Centre said the course would be made available to all students, noting that a paint produced by the trainees was used to paint a building on the campus.

Products displayed included beads, shoes, belts, art works, flowers, tie and dye, paints, body cream and perfume, among others.

At the event were Managing Director, Ray Royal Construction Company, Revd Mathew Okpebholo; Managing Director, Irhebor Bakery, Mr Paul Agbonifo, and Managing Director, Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) Dr Godwin Ehigiamusoe.

Club gets leadership

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AMPUS Ambassadors of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State have dazzled members of the university community with their high sense of coordination when they held their general assembly, where a new executive was appointed to coordinate the activities of the club for another session.

The executive is led by Lade Adeneye, a final year student of Pure and Applied Biology.

The Royal Ambassador of the club, Sheriff Bolarinwa, congratulated members of the executive, urging students to support the new administration for effective running of the club. He said: “The emergence of the new officers was in line with due proc-

•Akintomide (right) receiving the prize from Yusuf (left) and Alhaji Abubakar

A

From Gbenga ojo PTI host community.

Akindotun, who served in Kanta Unity College, Argungu, said he felt the pulse of the residents of his host community to confront the challenges facing them, hinting that he was inspired to alleviate their suffering by keeping their children in schools and enlighten them on accident prevention.

Some of the project carried out

by Akindotun included designing and erection of road traffic signals on major roads, public sensitisation programme on the use of road,

which was organised in conjunction with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), distribution of writing materials to primary school pupils, campaign on mass literacy and girl child education, and corrupt practices, among others.

Governor Saidu Dakingari, represented by the permanent secretary of Ministry of Economic Planning, Alhaji Abubakar Idris, presented the state award to the Corps member at the governor’s office. The occasion was witnessed by the NYSC coordinator, Alhaji Abdullahi Yusuf, among other dignitaries.

Akindotun dedicated the award to God and his colleagues reporting for CAMPUSLIFE.

ess; this is why members must support them. If they fail, every member of the club has failed.”

The outgoing president, Ibrahim Olalekan, expressed appreciation to members for their support, noting that his administration was successful because of students’ cooperation.

Lade promised to build on the success recorded by his predecessor, adding that he would uphold the values of the club.

A pamphlet titled: For Nigeria’s sake was shared to the audience.

The paper urged the students to look beyond ethnicity and religious sentiment before they cast vote in the coming general election.

UI shines at Liberty Movement Award

CAMPUSLIFE man is best Corps member in Kebbi CAMPUSLIFE man, Akintomide Akindotun, has won the Kebbi State Governor’s Award for best Corps member during the passing out ceremony of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) held in Birin Kebbi.

Akintomide, a graduate of Welding and Fabrication Engineering Technology at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun, Delta State, is one of the three outstanding Batch “A” Corps members in the state.

He was honoured for his good conduct and several life-changing Community Development Service (CDS) projects he initiated in his

From Ridwan Adelaja LAUTECH

F

OR the second time, the University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of the African Students For Liberty (ALSO) has been adjudged the best students’ organisation of year.

The honour came at the justconcluded International Students For Liberty (ISFL) conference held in Marriot Wardman Park, Washington DC, United States.

Thousands, who gathered at the event, voted for the UI students’ group as the best libertarian organisation for last year.

Also, the organisation, under the leadership of Miss Odunola

From Oluwafemi Ogunjobi IBADAN Oladejo, won the 2013 Event of the Year award with its drama titled: A letter from Jonathan Gullible. The drama acted in a two-week roadshow in African countries, such as Republic of Benin, Togo, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana.

The ALSO leader, Peter Oluleke, said the feat was a product of hard work and support from students, promising that the group would continue to promote the idea of entrepreneurship and free market among the youth in Africa.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

CAMPUS LIFE

Students get tablet

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HE management of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has kept to its promise to digitalise learning in the school, with the distribution of mobile computer to freshers last Thursday.

The initiative, known as “One student, one PC tablet”, was introduced by former Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, but the project is being implemented by his successor and the current VC, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali.

Ambali said the initiative was to make students active players in the information age, urging them to use the device for their academic benefit through e-learning.

A beneficiary, Ganiyu Quadri, a 100Level Mathematics Education student,

From Taofeek Tiamiyu UNILORIN said was delighted when he received the tablet, noting that he did not have smart phone to search for information on the Internet. “The tablet will afford me to do research online and also widens my knowledge, especially on the mathematics field,” he said.

A 100-Level Microbiology student, Rasaq Olaoye, said the management had set the pace for school’s technological advancement.

Olaitan Giwa, a student of Agriculture, said the device would improve students’ academic performance and complement lecturers’ efforts to impart knowledge on students through modern techniques.

Students, however, appealed to the school management to make the WiFi network available for them to use gadgets optimally.

UNILORIN director shines Nigerian students in UK raise money for IDPs at international during general elections, appealISTURBED by the condiFrom Oluwalosheyi Babaeko ing to politicians to play politics conference tion of living in camps of UNITED KINGDOM with the fear of God. Internally Displaced Peo-

•The students after the concert.

D

ple (IDPs) in the country, Nigerian students studying at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom have held a concert to raise money for the victims of Boko Haram insurgency.

The concert, tagged Verses for peace, was held at the auditorium of St. Mark’s Church in Leeds. Dignitaries at event included the Nigeria High Commissioner to the UK, Alhaji Dalhatu Tafida, represented by Mr Simon Olgah. Others are Pastor Raph Ibiyeye, Mrs Majestic Marvina, Mr Sammy Omotese, Mr Martin Chukwemeka, Mr Osahon Ogieva and other members of the Nigerian community in the UK. The President, Nigerian Students’ Society (NSS), Kelechi Anyikude, a doctoral student of the university, said there was need to alleviate the suffering of the dis-

placed people, noting that the the war on insurgency had deprived them of their livelihood.

Anyikude urged the participants to observe a minute silence in honour of the Nigerian soldiers and the civilians who died in the fight against Boko Haram. He said supporting the military to win the war would be the best honour to the memories of the dead.

Olgah, who spoke on Tafida’s behalf, hailed the students’ initiative, saying the envoy would support all lawful initiatives to assist government in its efforts to cater for the needs of the IDPs. Olgah promised to relate back the students’ message to the ambassador.

Ibiyeye, a pastor of the Redeemed Church in Leeds, enjoined the students not to be used by politicians to arrange false protest for political gain. He also prayed for peace

For Mrs Marvina, the idea of the concert deserved commendation.

Miss Bisola Babalola, the NSS Vice President, said the concert was the student’s way to contribute their quota to development of Nigeria.

The VP, a final year Law student, emphasised that there is need for strong cooperation. She said there were no negotiations to Nigeria’s unity, urging everyone to unite to collectively build the Nigeria of citizens’ dreams.

Anyikude praised President Goodluck Jonathan on his determination to end insurgency in North, adding: “The money raised would be sent back to Nigeria to help the internally displaced people.”

Femi Omoniyi coordinated the concert, while Bamidele Odusote’s dance step attracted people to the event.

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HE Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers (IIME) has honoured the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Deputy Director of Central Research Laboratory, Dr. Baba Alafara, for his research on processing of chalcopyrite ore using hydrometallurgical method, which involves leaching, solvent extraction and precipitation.

The research was carried out to recover copper from its ore and use it for the production of high grade copper oxide. The organisers described the research as excellent and brilliant, praising the work as knowledge-based. They said the product obtained (copper oxide) could find applicable as pigment in ceramic industries, cuprammonium hydroxide solution for rayon, p-type semi-conductor, dry cell batteries production and as safety disposal of hazardous materials.

Alafara attended the 2015 edition of International Conference on Mineral Processing Technology (MPT) in Visakhapatnam, India between March 12 and 14, where he presented a paper on the research.

Other authors of the work include Prof. Folahan Adekola, Dr. Rafiu Bale and Mr. Kuranga Ayinla.

After Alafara presented the paper, the organisers adjudged the paper as the best in Electro- and Hydro-Bio process-

•Dr Alafara

From Aminat Afolabi UNILORIN ing session. He was presented with MISRA Award of excellence in Electroand Hydro-Bio processing research.

It would be recalled that Alafara recently won MTN's prize for best lecturer award, where students voted for a lecturer who they believed imparted knowledge on them in a unique method.

The MISRA Award is another laurel to Alafara's shelf of honours, as the feat was seen as an improvement in UNILORIN's rating in through research and academic excellence.

Scholars from other countries also presented papers in areas, such as Agrimineral, pytoremediation and Green Belts, Coal preparation and flotation, mineralogical characterisation, comminution, agglomeration and sintering, and waste utilisation, among others.

Over 650 participants from various countries, including United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, attended the event.

Tansian varsity matriculates 201 •Ojukwu varsity too From L-R: Mrs Suliat Rantiolu; wife of UNILAG VC, Alhaja Adedoja Bello; National Amirah, Al-Muminaat Organisation, Hajia Nimatullah Abdullateef and Dr Sulaiman at the event

Students challenged on academic excellence

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HE University of Lagos (UNILAG) branch of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) has held its 11th Academic Counselling Seminar with the theme: Education beyond borders. Secondary school pupils and students from various tertiary institutions in Lagos attended the event held in the UNILAG’s main auditorium.

Speaking on the theme, the Acting Head of Department at the Faculty of Education of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), Dr Abdulwasiu Gabadeen, urged participants to create academic values for themselves.

He highlighted challenges facing students, saying dysfunctional institutional, lack of parental control, peer pressure and uncontrolled used of technology were part of the factors contributing to erosion of societal values.

Dr Gabadeen recommended inter-

From Safiyyah Abdur-Razaq LAGOS and intra-institutional collaboration to check the ills in the nation, adding that there was need for reorientation of youths to engender competency and integrity.

He said: “Leadership is a key factor in promoting quality education and good character. Our leaders must practise the ideals of strategic leadership to advocate for needed change in the society.”

Speaking on The cankerworm, a lecturer in the Department of Educational Foundation and Counselling Psychology, Lagos State University (LASU), Dr Airat Sulaiman, said higher institutions had been infected with moral decadence, which he said contributing to the moral failure being seen in the nation.

She said: “Decadence is a cankerworm facing all tertiary institutions and it has five tentacles

which are examination malpractice, indecent dressing, drug abuse, cultism and sexual promiscuity, harassment and prostitution.”

Dr Sulaiman said the vices were responsible for high rate of rape, abortion, killing and spread of HIV/ AIDS disease.

She advised the participants to uphold the moral values, saying the society needed to go back to the basis.

The seminar also featured quiz contest, which had all Muslim students across faculties participated.

The Association of Muslim Law Students (AMLAS) emerged winner of the contest, while Muslim Science Students’ Association (MUSSA) and Engineering Muslim Students’ Society (EMSS) were first and second runners up.

Scholarships were given to eighteen students, who scored highest score in an examination organised by the MSSN.

I

T was a joyous atmosphere at the Tansian University in Umunya in Anambra State when the institution’s held its matriculation. Over 200 freshers took the oath at the ceremony held at the university permanent site.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chima Iwuchukwu, said the institution has zero tolerance for indolence and criminal vices, urging the freshers to face their studies.

Prof Iwuchukwu, whose speech was titled: The new down, advised the students to pursue academic excellence and imbibe moral values, noting that the university would only issue its certificates to students found worthy in character.

His words: “We are striving to give you the best education to make you compete globally and create wealth.

For this reason, we have introduced entrepreneurship course, religious subjects and social studies to develop your creativity and groom you to be morally-upright individuals, who can compete successfully in any circumstances you may find yourselves.”

The VC stressed that the school frowned at vices, such as hooliganism, cultism, indecent dressing and examination malpractice, advising them to approach the Dean of Students’ Affairs

From Emeka Chukwuemeka AWKA if they needed advice on their studies.

The chancellor, Prof John Bosco Akam, said he was satisfied on the ongoing developmental project in the school, stressing that they were in line with the objectives of the institution’s founders.

In similar vein, the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) in Uli held its 15th matriculation for students admitted into regular and post-graduate programmes.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Fidelis Okafor, advised the students to be of good character and shun act that could make them lose the admission. The VC also urged the students to study hard for excellence, saying they must not allow themselves to be distracted by the social activities on the campus.

Prof Okafor said: “Bear in mind that the university’s regulation does not allow students to stay beyond three years after their expected year of graduation. This is why you must face your studies for you to graduate on time.

You must exercise self-control and selfdiscipline.”

Cultism, he said, ruins lives, advising the students not to render their parents’ efforts useless by joining outlawed groups. He said any student caught for cultism would be expelled immediately.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE Over 8,000 graduates were awarded degrees when the University of Calabar (UNICAL) celebrated its 40th anniversary and 28th Convocation last week, report STANLEY UCHEGBU (Accounting), FRANK EJEAGBASI (Medical Physiology) and GILBERT PEPPLE (Political Science).

•Lecturers at the ceremony.

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HE University of Calabar (UNICAL) has celebrated its 40th Founder’s Day and 28th Convocation.

The institution’s management marked the event with Distinguished Goodwill Ambassadors Awards (DIGA).

During the four-day event, the campus was a beehive. Members of the university community rolled out the drums in celebration; politicians were not left out.

It started with inter-denominational service in the International Conference Centre, anchored by Revd Father Francis Offiong, Revd Nsa Eyo of the St. Paul’s Catholic Church and UNICAL Chapel of Redemption.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof James Epoke, led the school’s management, including his Deputy for Academics, Prof Zana Akpagu; his Administrative counterpart, Prof Maisie Etukudo; Registrar, Mr Moses Abang; Bursar, Mr Peter Agi, and the Librarian Dr Ruth SimonBassey.

In his homily titled: Small beginning: A sure foundation for greatness, Revd. Father Offiong spoke on the need to be steadfast and dedicated

•Some of the graduands at the convocation

Celebration time at UNICAL to the service of humanity, urging members of the university community not to look at their days of little beginnings, but to hope for greater achievements through dedication and commitment.

The service was followed by award presentations, which held at the Conference Hall of the UNICAL Hotel. Pro-Chancellor/Chairman, Governing Council of the institution, Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, advised the institution’s alumni to be worthy ambassadors.

Epoke said his administration had recorded remarkable progress in improving the academic status of the university, saying that he had a plan to make learning in the institution to be driven by Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Some of the alumni honoured as ambassadors included Bishop of the Anglican Communion, Calabar Diocese, Rev Tunde Adeleye; Director-General,

Department of State Security Service, Mr Ekpeyong Ita; Dr Victor Ikpeazu; Prof Saturday Etuk and Prof Eno Ukpong, among others.

The third day of the event set the stage for the 28th Convocation, which held at the Abraham Ordia Stadium, where Iwuanyanwu admonished granduands to be of good character. He also hailed the VC’s strides in provision of infrastructure and teaching facilities.

President Goodluck Jonathan was represented by Prof Akaneren Essien; Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Prof Offiong Offiong.

Epoke advised the graduates to strive for excellence, saying the university had given them its best to be successful. He told them to be worthy ambassadors and contribute their quota to the growth of the nation. He urged them to utilise skills they acquired in en-

trepreneurship training to be selfreliant.

The VC announced automatic employment to nine First Class graduates at the ceremony, saying the best way to pay back the school’s gesture was to work hard to touch lives of the people.

Epoke listed his achievement in fixing infrastructure and teaching facilities in the school, saying: “All the gains we have listed would not have been possible without the tremendous support of President Jonathan.”

The VC appealed to the president to intervene in the management’s effort to stop flooding of the campus in the rainy season. Epoke said perennial flood had damaged valuable academic materials in many departments, noting students’ records and materials are washed away whenever it rains in the city.

He added that the Council chairman had made a passionate appeal on the university’s behalf to Ecological Office of the presidency for

help. “We will be happy if President Jonathan kindly directs the Ecological Office to come to our rescue before another rain,” Epoke said.

A total of 8,180 graduates got their certificates. About 6,823 received Bachelor’s degree; 940 and 417 got Masters and Diplomas.

One of the best graduating students at the Faculty of Education, Uju Asuzuo, who is also a CAMPUSLIFE correspondent, described her feat as God’s blessing.

She said: “This is only God’s blessing in my life. I studied like every other student; I burnt the proverbial midnight candle and struggled to do all assignments and examinations. And God crowned my effort by this feat.”

The overall best graduating student, Mkpouto Pius, who graduated from the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, said the institution had given them good training to explore the world. She advised their junior colleagues to be diligent and dedicated to their studies.

dirt.

Students criticised the union officials for poor maintenance, asking the SUG to repair the bus or face students’ wrath.

A SUG official, Justice Nwaigwe, a 400-Level-Physics student, told CAMPUSLIFE why the bus was

abandoned for so long. “We have been explaining to students why the bus is left in the condition it is.

We feel the pain more than the rest of our colleagues. We know it does not speak well about the union, especially under our leadership, but

Students cry out over ‘grounded’ van Students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) are not happy over the condition of their union’s official vehicle. The vehicle has been abandoned for over two months

by Students’ Union officials, reports UCHECHUKWU EKWUEME-DURU (400Level Industrial Technology Education).

W

HAT is the state of the official bus given to the Students’ Union Government (SUG) of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) in Niger State? This is the question students are seeking an answer to from management.

The condition of the 2000 model Toyota Sienna is generating ripples, following an allegation that it has been in bad shape since the school resumed last year.

The bus, CAMPUSLIFE gathered, was donated to the union by Governor Aliyu Babangida Muazu three years ago, when the then union leaders had an accident with the 2002 Honda Civic official vehicle.

Students were prompted to ask questions when the union officials could not use the bus for functions on campus. The bus, students alleged, may have been in bad shape because of improper maintenance.

Some students claimed that the bus engine has been damaged by the carelessness of union leaders.

Some alleged that the bus could not be repaired, adding that this may be why it was abandoned at the Students’ Union office.

“The current state of this 12-seater bus is not only discouraging, but also annoying,” a Chemistry student said, adding: “The car has been parked and abandoned for two months.”

When CAMPUSLIFE visited the

•The abandoned bus

union building to assess the condition of the vehicle, our reporter found dents on it. A patch of engine oil spread under the vehicle.

Also, there was dirt underneath the bus, indicating that it may have been grounded for long. The upholstery was also covered with

•Continued on page 36

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

35

CAMPUS LIFE

March and the shadow of religion

“A

“ND so we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust.” – Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. It is hard for one to look at the on-going campaign across Nigeria without developing deep resentment towards the entire process. Some of us, who follow news closely, must have known by now that our politics is hardly driven by any noble ideals or virtues.

And for the most part, the politicians are committed to themselves above every other thing.

In the quest to win elections, no tool is too unholy and no institution is too sacred to be used. Therefore, the current mudslinging and verbal crossfire by opposing politicians should not take us by surprise. If politics were to be like vocation, such as acting or soccer, which does not have any direct bearing on the quality of life of the ordinary man, its shamelessness would be enough to make most of us ignore it. But as you know, we can ignore it only at our own peril.

As if it is not bad enough to drop the names of opponents, wish them death, try to sabotage efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), or plunge the nation into chaos, there is an ongoing manipulation of religion in the campaign. As a religious individual, I should be wary of commenting on this matter in order to avoid the temptation to end up speaking for my religion alone. But we cannot go on this way. In some parts of the country, the prevailing argument is that a certain candidate would Islamise Nigeria, while elsewhere, the argument is that somebody is out to Christianise the nation.

One must agree even though with a measure of disappointment that, while many of those who populate the political space may have been growing old, they have not grown up. A grown-up person may still be motivated by the same instincts, but he pursues them with great decorum or at least, pretended decorum, because he recognises that society will destroy itself if its members scramble for private interests without deferring to a mutually agreed code of

scrambling. This is not in Nigeria.

For the most part, the Nigerian politician is a desperate creature.

Lacking merit in his own self, he thoughtlessly jumps onto any bandwagon with the most crowds.

Because he doesn’t represent any worthwhile thing, he must put on himself a disguise, using either faith or commitment to a system of values, neither of which he truly possesses.

However, the politicians are not our problem. Instead, they are our own creation – a miniature of the larger society. Do we, the ordinary citizens, not use dirtier and more vulgar language every day on social media when we talk about the same elections? Do we not also draw insulting caricature of those we are not supporting? Do we not often ask our opponents to go “hug transformer”?

Isn’t it unfortunate that even though we know very well that these people are not truly committed to anything – not even faith – except their interests, we still let them manipulate our sense of religion? Isn’t it even more unfortunate that they are just being like us on this religion issue? Like

us, they are not committed to any faith and they know it.

And like us, even though they are not committed to faith, they love to argue, campaign and wage influence based on it. Therefore, in truth, they like us – and we like them – are hypocrites who stick to a certain faith in public, not out of any deep conviction, but out of the mere satisfaction of appearing to represent something.

The tragedy is, unlike them, most of us don’t know this truth. We have become so hypnotised by religious sentiment that we do not realise how far we are from religion we claim to practise. Many of us will fight to the point of death if anyone “insults” our religion, but a few of us even bother about the teachings of the same religion. Isn’t this why decency, honesty, kindness, endurance and love are so scarce in our national life? The truth is, whenever our sense of religion is not threatened, we also forget about the religion itself.

We must not destroy Nigeria with religion. If we are truly religious people, it will not be shown in how fierce we fight over it, but how much of the noble values of faith

Letter to NIJ provost

By Damilare Famuyiwa

F

IRST, I want to commend the brilliant decision of the Governing Council of Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) to appoint you as provost. The appointment has brought to the fore a new dawn; one which, if carefully harnessed, would spur the much-needed transformation in the institution. And going by the statement by the institution’s management on January 24, many

F

OR ages, the universe has thrived amid its flurry of illusion and fantasies which sharply contrast reality. The delusion stares one in the face when you walk on the clumsy streets only to be horrified by the sight of agile souls buried in their singsongs just to get a morsel of food or money. It pinches the soul when these elements dance and twirl around from dawn to twilight; yet trapped within the enclave of stark poverty. Had nature remained sacred and just, destitutes would have rode on beautiful horses. But for their punctured destiny and sorry fate, they end up romancing the nights with assortment of failed prospects, unfulfilled promises, among other personal adversities.

Beyond the figment of our own imagination, providence has really betrayed their mission on earth. Yet, they succumbed to the catchy tunes of nature, navigating the slippery roads with shoeless feet and tainted identities. In their ever-flowing garb of disdain, they catch the pity of gazing eyes with their impoverished mien. These

people believe you are the right person to lead the institution to a brighter future.

Sir, I am addressing this letter to you because many premise the survival of this institution over the years largely on the past achievements of your predecessor. That is cheering news to know.

But we cannot deny the fact that the institution has been deprived of professionalism. Media houses do not value products of the school, especially those of us in communication. Students struggle to get internship opportunities, which are part of the programmes recommended by the National Board for Technical Education. Still, we are made to understand that this is the best Nigerian institution to be reckoned with when communication is placed on the front burner.

NIJ used to be known as a tertiary institution with lecturers that have practised or still practising the journalism. Some lecturers of

the school have no practical experience. They rely largely on paper knowledge, which only fuels the skills gap we see around.

During my programme I could recall one of my lecturers that would never answer any question on Journalism. Whenever she was asked, she just won’t hesitate to retort: “I am not a journalist.”

Whatever that means.

Ordinarily, NIJ is an institution that should be reckoned with not only in professional terms but also in global best practices, which are rare values there; they just seem not to exist. Students want to feel the professional touch of the institution but it has since remained like a tall dream.

As students, we were unable to explore and utilise our creative verve since the environment just did not encourage that. That is not the spirit of 21st century ducation.

Again, I would not forget to remind you that we have had enough under the lone wolf on the prowl, where students’ voices

have been muzzled by a system which seeks its own rather than the general good.

The students’ body functions occasionally.They are only known for organising the yearly students’weeks. Students Representative Council (SRC) should not just be effective during the students’ week. They should be allowed to make helpful input and contribute to the debate in promoting the founding values of the institution.

Everything has changed since the exit of the immediate past provost, Dr Elizabeth Nkem. I won’t also forget to tell you that the gate-keepers usually drive the students away like a gang of insane persons after lectures, claiming to act on your instructions.

That is highly demeaning of the students and we cannot accept that.

Students of the institution in the 90s say to our faces that the school has lost its essence; its spark, its social life. They tell us how rosy life used to be in their own time. I

By Msonter Anzaa we bring into the practice of politics and public life. We must wake up from this buzz and ensure we do not plunge the nation into chaos while we fight over the shadow of religion.

•Msonter, 400-Level Medicine, BSU would have doubted the veracity of those claims if I heard it from just an individual. But many alumni have confirmed this beyond my doubts.

Despite that our school is regarded as the professional hub of journalism training, many tertiary institutions, especially universities, do not admit students of NIJ into their programmes. Every well-wisher of the instutition should reject such baseless discrimination. What is disturbing is that the institution has not related fairly with organisations who would have been willing to sponsor innovations and add value to the school. Healthy partnerships have always remained central to any progressive-minded institution. NIJ has not explored this window of opportunity as expected.

With a great sense of responsibility, if these issues raised here are not properly handled by your administration, the change mantra you have been chanting just won’t fly; it just would be futile. Your appointment has heightened our anticipations and we sincerely hope you will live up to these expectations.

Thank you sir.

The new generation beggars ‘Unlike their fellows in the middle and top echelons of the society, these individuals remain undaunted by the circumstances that envelope their fate. They do not yield easily to the verbiage of a hypocritical society’ sets of strayed bones are everywhere, in the nooks and cranny. They are everywhere.

They are products of dysfunctional homes, psychological confusion, stunted finances in a highly volatile economy and some other misfortunes, which coincidentally reshaped their presupposed bright destiny. In spite of this natural complex, they still remain the new set of discoveries the world never evolved in recent time.

Unlike their fellows in the

middle and top echelons of the society, these individuals remain undaunted by the circumstances that envelope their fate. They do not yield easily to the verbiage of a hypocritical society. They just don’t allow their dreams to die, it seems. They just have to survive or nothing. Armed with this mantra, they take to the streets, appealing to the conscience of generous souls.

Though apparently homeless and bandwagons of pervert hands, they pretend to show reverence

for potential pay masters just to scout the few coins in their pockets. The contentment and camaraderie enjoyed at wilful disposal inundate the whole game with bond of undiluted trusts.

As days run into nights, they serenade the streets with songs of valour, all in effort to grant poverty a befitting burial. Yet they are deluded. Henceforth, the street becomes the stage for their restive soldiery as each decked in tattered camouflage and armed with a begging bow. As dictate of nature, they live for the day and just wont hesitate to squander all that they have gathered in a manner akin to sheer profligacy.

At night, the ubiquitous breeze is at their beck and calls while the warm atmosphere nurtures their souls with soul-stirring tunes. In what looks like a rhapsody of pleasure, the ill-fated realities of yesternights are quickly forgotten as the morning flourishes their dream with unfettered hope.

By Toyin Ali Hence, they are homeless not hopeless.

•Toyin, 300-Level Law, UNILORIN

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

36

CAMPUS LIFE

Body found near varsity campus

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ESIDENTS of Ekpoma, the host community of the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), woke up on Monday to see a dead body.

The deceased, a female, was suspected to be student of the institution but nobody could confirm her identity at the time of this report.

The body was found at One-TFour Junction close to AAU gate.

There was no evidence that the deceased was shot but there was speculation that she may have

From David Ugbesia AAU been strangled and dumped beside the university gate.

There is ongoing cult-related violence in the community, involving students of the school.

Scores of students have been killed in the clash.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that police have begun investigation on the matter. The Dean of Students Affairs could not be reached for comment.

Beauty queen to hold spelling bee contest •Prof Anthony Attama (second right) of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) with his wife and colleagues after he delivered the university’s 91st inaugural lecture.

On and Off Campus By Solomon Izekor 08061522600

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HE queen of Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State, Comfort Ogon, has announced her plan to hold spelling bee contest for pupils in the council to improve their communication skills.

Comfort, a CAMPUSLIFE correspondent, said no fewer than 27 government-owned secondary schools would participate in the contest, which is part of her pet projects.

She said: “It is shocking that technology has robbed many pupils of writing skills. It is a common sight to see students in contemporary times who cannot spell words they pronounce. The use of smart phones has compounded

From Sunny Ibeh CALABAR the decline of standard, because students cannot spell words without using spell-check icon to get the correct spelling. This also impedes them from communicating their thoughts properly.”

The contest, tagged Miss Ipem Ihihe Spelling Bee Competition, would reward winners with mouth-watering prizes, including laptop, cash and scholarship to study in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Comfort said the contest would reawaken the reading culture in the council.

LASU inaugurates union leaders

T

HE new auditorium of the Lagos State University (LASU) in Ojo was filled last Friday for the inauguration of the Students’ Union Government (SUG).

The ceremony was attended by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof John Obafunwa; his deputy for Academics, Prof Sena Bakare, Dean, Student Affairs Unit, Prof Kabir Akinyemi and students.

Adeyemi Onikoro was sworn in as the 25th president of the union.

Also, members of Students’ Parliamentary Council (SPC) took their oaths at the event, which started at 10am.

After taking the oath, Adeyemi said the occasion marked a new beginning for students’ unionism on the campus, praising the courage of students for electing him as their leader. He praised his predecessor for keeping the tradition of the union, noting that the outgoing executive led by Nurudeen Yusuf raised the bar of performance.

“The union remained vibrant under the restoration team led by Nurudeen. He, indeed, restored confidence and trust back to the union, not only in the eyes of the student alone, but also the entire members of the university community,” he said.

Adeyemi said his administration would focus on rebranding of the union and promised to run a violence-free administration. He said he would implement good programmes that would ensure a stable academic calendar. “I promise

•Adeyemi

From Moses Adeyemi, Ismail Adewuyi and Babalola Seyi, LASU to also maintain a cordial relationship between management and students. I believe it is time for us to create together a new union we will all be proud of. We must see strength in our weakness and wisdom in our mistakes. Together, we will all have smooth academic calendar.”

Adeyemi Onikoro is a 400-Level Law student and the 25th union president of the institution.

‘The union remained vibrant under the restoration team led by Nurudeen. He, indeed, restored confidence and trust back to the union, not only in the eyes of the student alone, but also the entire members of the university community’

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

EDUCATION

WASCAL graduates 10 PhD students

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HE West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) in conjunction with the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has trained 10 students in research on climate change and sustainable land management.

The graduands, who bagged PhDs, were from Nigeria, Ghana, Cote Divoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal.

They were trained in two programmes-Climate Service and Research.

Speaking at FUTA’s graduation, the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallan, said WASCAL started in 2009 when the German government proposed to set up two Regional Science Services in Africa.

The minister, who was represented

by Mr. Peter Tafa, noted that the aim of the centre was to develop capacities of African institutions to conduct climate change research.

She said lack of adequate, reliable and verifiable scientific research findings, data and information on climate change in Africa and indeed, in Nigeria, had continued to be a major challenge against effective policies and actions to combat climate change.

She said: "It is for this reason and considering Nigeria's existing facilities, vast manpower and resources that would put the centre in good stead to effectively deliver on its goals, that the Nigerian government vigorously pursued the opportunity

FUNAAB FILE

17 dons named Google scholars

From Leke Akeredolu, Akure

provided by the German government's initiative, which led to the establishment of two centres in Nigeria - one at the FUTA (the Centre for Climate Change and Monsoon to run Graduate Research Programmes for PhD), while the other at Federal University of Technology Minna (FUT Minna) was offered a status to run programmes, leading to Master of Science degrees (MSc) under the WASCAL initiative."

Mallan said the Federal Government installed a state-of-the-art high performance computing (HPC) system in the FUTA centre to further enhance the centre's data management ability.

She urged the university management and the centre to explore options of availing wider spectrum of stakeholders the services of the centre.

The Director, WASCAL Graduate Studies Programmes, Dr. Mamadou Ouattara, said the programmes are intended to provide science-based advice to policymakers and stakeholders on climate impacts, mitigation and adaptation measures.

He revealed that Germany has spent over 50 million Euros on the programmes in West African nations.

The WASCAL Director in FUTA, Prof. Bayo Omotosho, said climate change is one of the key challenges to pave the road to sustainable development, describing the graduands as well equipped to be true West African asset.

•One of the graduands, Folorunso Akinseye receiving his certificate from Dr. Mamadou Ouattara.

Emir of Bauchi is Crescent pro-chancellor

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RESCENT University, Abeokuta, Ogun State has appointed the Emir of Bauchi, Dr Rilwanu Adamu as its fourth Pro-Chancellor.

The announcement was made

• The ViceChancellor, Prof Patrick Oladipo Aina, FAS congratulating the Best Graduating student, Mr Olamide Tawose.

during the ninth founder's day lecture of the university, which coincided with the 81st birthday of its founder, Prince Bola Ajibola.

Prince Ajibola described the new pro-chancellor as a round peg in a round hole, stressing that he was thankful to Almighty God who made the University a 'united Nigeria' in terms of the diversified nature of its students' spread across all states of the country.

The former jurist at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), said part of the vision of the university was to unite the North and South of the country for the future in order that students who lived, worked and played together on campus would be able to live in peace and harmony in different geo-political zones of the country.

Delighted by the university's progress, the new Pro-chancellor pledged to contribute his quota to the development of the university and "to serve as a bridge between our people for unity and progress of our nation".

The Vice Chancellor, Prof.

Ibraheem Gbajabiamila, said the university had produced more firstclass female students, noting that Crescent University was poised to nurture female students to better the society at large.

SEVENTEEN lecturers from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) are among the top 500 profile ranking scientists in Nigerian institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations (GSC).

GSC is a BETA Ranking of the scientists based on their declared or voluntary presence on the Google Scholar Citations Database.

The researchers include: Prof Adekojo Waheed (Mechanical Engineering); Prof Okanlawon Onagbesan (Animal Physiology); Prof Olusegun Osinowo (Physiology); Prof Uwem Ekpo (Pure and Applied Zoology); Prof Oluseyi Oduguwa (Animal Nutrition) and Prof James Oguntuase (Mathematics).

Others are: Dr. Dairo Usman (Agricultural Engineering); Dr. Olajide Sobunkola (Food Science and Technology); Dr. Flora Oluwafemi (Microbiology); Dr. Olusegun Obadina (Food Science and Technology) and Dr. Obayelu Elijah (Agricultural Economics and Farm Management).

Also listed are: Dr. Saka Balogun (Microbiology); Dr. Rebecca Vincent (Computer Science); Dr. Gboyega Adebayo (Physics); Dr. Abideen Adeogun (Chemistry); Dr. Olusegun Idowu (Animal Nutrition) and Mr. Ismail Fasanya (Economics).

'Nigeria needs her youth' THE Dean of Student Affairs, FUNAAB, Prof Yemi AkegbejoSamson, has disclosed that the country cannot attain enviable heights without active contributions of its youths.

Akegbejo-Samson spoke during a students' programme, which featured an inter-collegiate oratory competition, the launch of a motivational book, "A Better Nigeria without Me", and the unveiling of the proposed ultramodern relaxation centre.

The Dean advised young Nigerians not to allow themselves to be used as vandals or political thugs, but stand up for themselves and not disappoint their country because a better Nigeria without them was impossible.

"Other Nigerians might have failed themselves, but I will not fail my country," he said.

The Book Reviewer, Dr Sarah Iyasere, urged Nigerians to take their destinies into their hands because the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable, as the people have roles to play in the development of the country, saying there is no Nigeria without Nigerians.

‘Internet access should be free from basic to tertiary’

A

CARNEGIE Diaspora Fellow at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University (CU) Ota, Ogun State, Prof Tokunbo Ogunfunmi has advocate for free internet access for all learners from basic to tertiary levels.

He said such provision "would expose students to a whole world of information so they can learn and progress very quickly".

Ogunfunmi, who delivered CU's 41st public lecture at the university auditorium, noted that Nigeria has remarkably improved in the IT field, especially in the provision of mobile broadband internet for people with smart phones to browse.

In his lecture titled: 'Technology Convergence and the Promise of Internet of Thing (IoT): Prospects for Developing Economies,' Ogunfunmi however, noted that such internet access to students may pose security and privacy risks, which he believed the government could address.

"Every technology has good and

By Adegunle Olugbamila

bad side. People can use internet for bad things, but that is not what I am proposing here. What I'm proposing is the use of internet for something good; positive things like education, like online courses, like connecting to other people in other parts of the world," he said.

Explaining the relevance of , Ogunfunmi said IoT is the foundation to linking things such as sensors, actuators, and other technologies, which enable a person- to-object or vice versa, and man-to-man communications. IoT, he explained, is the emerging phenomenon ca-

pable of leapfrogging developing economies such as Nigeria into economic prosperity. He said it has implications of how much humans can control situations remotely.

He said: "The computer is only a computer, but it has many devices working with it. The idea of Internet of Things is that the device you have in your hands does not only connect you to people but other things.

"The potential impact of IoT is huge.

Some are predicting a $20 trillion economic effect. Regardless of the financial picture, it is certain that many of the following areas will see tangible changes due to IoT such as

‘Every technology has good and bad side.

People can use internet for bad things, but that is not what I am proposing here. What I'm proposing is the use of internet for something good; positive things’

changes in medicine and health care, smart cities, agriculture, education and manufacturing."

Ogunfunmi said CU has blazed the trail by being the first in Africa to propose a new degree programme in IoT that will be called: 'B. Eng. Internet of Things Engineering'.

He said the university is already in talks with the National Universities Commission (NUC) for its approval.

"Covenant University will be the first in Africa offering the programme and we hope it will be a blue print for other universities in Nigeria and Africa. This would help prepare the next generations of engineers to be able to go into this field to build the devices and build infrastructure that would be needed to support 200 billion devices coming from the Internet of Things," he added.

When finally accepted by NUC, it will, among other things, equip students with thorough knowledge of telecommunications and computer

•Prof Ogunfunmi

science; knowledge of theory, methodology and technique for IoT network assessment and evaluation, good overall understanding of computer and telecoms network development skills, as well as knowledge of the opportunities accruable from monetisation of the IoT in a developing economy.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE EKSU FILE

‘Don advocates ‘entrepreneurship education’ A RENOWNED Geologist, Prof Oluwafeyisola Adegoke, has advocated that entrepreneurial studies should be introduced as a subject in primary and secondary schools.

Delivering the 20th Ekiti State University (EKSU), convocation lecture, titled: ‘The entrepreneurship education initiative: Implication for higher education administration in Nigeria,’Adegoke noted that students of higher institutions should also take interest in entrepreneurship to the extent that after graduation they would likely become employers of labour instead of becoming job-seekers.

Adegoke said entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to embrace entrepreneurial challenge in a variety of settings.

He mentioned several areas where youths could start small manufacturing business such as local foods and drinks, flowers artisanal equipment, hair attachments, farming tools and tailoring, among others.

“The national goal should be that not less than 25-30 per cent of our youths who attend the universities and other higher educational institutions should cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit at graduation,” he said.

How to fight hunger A PROFESSOR of Food Chemistry of EKSU Ibiyinka Ogunlade, believes the government can arrest hunger and food insecurity through proper education on how to make abundant food available to all.

Ogunlade said proper awareness drive and a robust advocacy on abundant food production coupled with research and implementation of its findings would provide an avenue to arrest the situation particularly in Nigeria.

Delivering the 41st inaugural lecture of EKSU titled: “Food and Education: Catalyst for sustainable development “, Ogunlade suggested the establishment of small scale industries for effective mode of utilisation of weeds in food and chemical industries. He stressed that governments must have the political will to take such measures in arresting food insecurity.

She also recommended the establishment of Agro-based industries which could convert farm products into finished produce, such as pounded yam from yam, cocoa and coffee beans to all types of beverages and tea.

Further, she advocated that Nigerians should return to nature food programme in what she described as “Return to Nature” warning against consumption of junks which could result in the occurrence of diseases such as cancer and diabetes, among others.

SCHOLARSHIPS APPROACHING DEADLINE Edinburgh Global Health Academy Master's Scholarship in UK, 2015 THE University of Edinburgh is offering one full-time Master's scholarship. The scholarship is available for students pursuing one of the Global Health Academy programmes. Scholarship will cover the UK/EU "home" rate of tuition fee of up to £8,100. The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is accepted for admission onto an eligible Global Health Academy programme at the University of Edinburgh commencing in 20152016. The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit. The application deadline is 29 May 2015.

Study Subject(s): Scholarship are

T

lim.

Graduates'Association Lagos chapter will come up in Lagos on Sunday.

The event holds at the Lagoon Restaurant, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island.

The lecture themed: 'The Journey of excellence: Making Nigeria a Tertiary education hub for Africa' will be chaired by Prof. Obini Ekpe, of the Department of Physics, Ebonyi State University. The guest speaker is the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs

study on the closing date are not eligible for this scholarship.

•Applicants intending to study part-time or online distance learning courses are not eligible for this scholarship.

Scholarship Open for International Students: Applicants must be both nationals of and resident in one of Nigeria.

Scholarship Description: Edinburgh Global Health Academy Master's Scholarship The University of Edinburgh will offer one full-time master's scholarship for eligible programmes offered by the University.

Number of award(s): It offers one full-time Master's scholarship Duration of award(s): Not Known What does it cover? The scholarship will cover the UK/EU "home" rate of tuition fee of up to £8,100.

Selection criteria: The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit. Candidates must have, or expect to obtain, a UK first class or 2:1 Honours degree at undergraduate level or the international equivalent.

Notification: A Selection Committee will meet in late June 2015 to select the scholarship holders. All applicants will be notified of the outcome in July 2015.

How to Apply: The mode of application is online.

Scholarship Application Deadline: The application deadline is 29 May 2015.

Read more: 2015 Master's Scholarship at The University of Edinburgh, UK Scholarship Positions 2015 2016 http://scholarship-positions.com

ASUU-LASU chair: my life is under threat •Management dismisses allegation

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HE Academic Staff Union of Universities-Lagos State University (ASUU-LASU) chapter, has alleged a plot by the university Vice-Chancellor of LASU Prof John Oladapo Obafunwa to sponsor some hoodlums to attack the union chairman Dr Adekunle Idris.

ASUU said a deposed member of the union Dr Tajudeen Olumoko, is being contacted to execute the plan.

Dr Olumoko was once the treasurer of ASUU but now the sub-dean Management Sciences of the university.

Idris said:"ASUU just received a piece of information now (yesterday) that the Vice-Chancellor (Prof Obafunwa) has already concluded plans to attack me using some students as hoodlums. We also heard that he (Obafunwa) has contacted one of our suspended members, one Dr Tajudeen Olumoko to coordinate the attacks.

"As I'm talking to you now, security is being beefed up around me.

We pray and hope their plans does not sail through but we are telling our members to keep their nose close to the ground in case of any unexpected incident on me or the union."

Though a text sent to Prof Obafunwa was not replied as at the time of filling this report, Olumoko said ASUU's allegations are as baseless and amount to character assimilation.

In a phone conversation with The Nation, Olumoko wondered where the union got the piece of information. He said though he once had issues with ASUU that resulted in his unlawful suspension; he would not on that account orchestrate any evil plan against his colleagues.

"The issues are simple!" Olumoko told our reporter on phone yesterday. "Workers including ASUU are fighting against non-promotion of members, management refusal to set up budget monitoring committee to access Federal Government interven-

OAU Muslim body holds lecture HE annual public lecture/ luncheon of the Obafemi Awolowo University Mus-

awarded in the field of Anthropology of Illness, Family Medicine, Global Health, Global Health and Public Policy, Global Health and Anthropology, Health Inequalities and Public Policy, Health Systems and Public Policy, Science Communication and Public Engagement, Public Health Course Level: Scholarship is available for masters level degree at University of Edinburgh.

Scholarship Provider: The University of Edinburgh, UK Scholarship can be taken at: UK Eligibility: -The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is accepted for admission onto an eligible Global Health Academy programme at the University of Edinburgh commencing in 2015-2016.

•Applicants who have already commenced their programme of

of Nigeria (SCIA) Prof. Isaq Oloyede.

A statement signed by the association's Lagos Chapter's chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Buari, said the association was formed over 20 years ago with the purpose of fostering brotherhood amongst its members, educating and enlightening the general society on topical issues as well as giving humanitarian assistances to the less privileged.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Alhaji Abdul Rafiu Ebiti, and the national president Prof. Abdul Wahab Egbewole, will be chief host and host respectively.

By Adegunle Olugbamila

tion fund and other demands which I also considered legitimate.

"So how will I be against such demands? Truth is we have our issues which border on my unlawful suspension from ASUU. But that has since been thrashed.

"The last time I was in school was Wednesday March 25, and since then I've not come around. Maybe they (ASUU) felt that way because I am more popular with students. Let me also warn that any student that is bold enough to attack his lecturer has automatically placed a curse on himself."

The university PRO, Mrs Ronke Osho also denied knowledge of such plan.

"I'm not aware of this," she told our

reporter on phone yesterday.

Meanwhile ASUU-LASU has condemned in strong terms the recess declared by the management of the university last week directing workers and students to vacate the campus supposedly in view of the ongoing general elections.

A statement made available to The Nation at the weekend and signed by ASUU chairman Dr Idris and secretary Dr Wale Adeyemi-Suenu, noted that aside declaring that management by law, has no statutory right to take such action, the union is more worried that the purported recess bears no resumption date.

The statement states: "The union would like to state, unequivocally, that the open-ended recess announced for the sake of elections is not only unwarranted and disruptive to the academic calendar, it is equally illegal and therefore null and void as the vice-

•Dr Idris

chancellor under the guise of the university management, has no authority within LASU Law to declare such.

"The shutting down of activities in the university when other institutions are undertaking academic activities is an act of impunity that will adversely affect our students- the main purpose of which the university exists. By law, only the Senate of LASU has the prerogative to adjust the academic calendar and declare a recess.

• Ambassador Oladele Akadiri Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, AAUA (second right); Vice Chancellor, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun (first right); guest lecturer, FUTA Foundation Day Lecture and member of AAUA Governing Council, Prof. Jacob Olupona (second Left); and FUTA VC, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola, after the FUTA Foundation Day Lecture.

Clergy proffers pathway to success

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RESIDENT of the International Bible Academy (IBA), Dr. Murphy Akrasi, has advised Nigerian students to consciously excel in their education.

Dr Akrasi gave the advice at the convocation and ordination of students of the academy, which held at the Chapel of Christ our Light, University of Lagos.

He said: "Students must have vision and be focused on what they are looking for and where they are going. If you have a vision and you are determined to be the best, then you will have success. Excellence is not by chance, it is a decision. You choose it, even though distraction and challenges may set in."

Akrasi said the nation needs leaders who are patriotic and faithful to

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

provide solutions to the challenges plaguing the country. He advised Nigerians to shun sentiments during the ongoing election and vote based on leadership qualities possessed by a political candidate.

"Being patriotic is part of faithfulness, but people are not. People want leaders that would meet their selfish interest, and because of this, we have leaders that will not be able to provide solutions to national problems, since people voted them in because they want to share in what they call national cake. We should look out for true leaders," he said.

Akrasi advised Nigerians to make the most of the opportunity to vote, as it is the chance to proffer solutions to

national problems. His words: "The opportunity has come again, that is why we have elections, so that in view of the problems that could not have been solved in the last four years, we should look out for people that would be able to bring solutions to these national problems in the next four years."

Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Elder Joseph Etem reminded the graduands that there is no shortcut to success. He therefore charged them to lead by example.

Dr Akrasi said the academy, which is independent of any Christian denomination, was licensed by the National Universities Commission and offers courses in the School of Ministry, diploma and advanced diploma in Theology.

39

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

EDUCATION

Rivers tourism agency makes case for orphanage

Head teacher signs off after 35 years

By David Adejo

A

T

HE Director-General, Rivers State Tourism Development Agency, (RSTDA) Dr. Sam Dede, has called on the privilege individuals and group in Nigeria to assist in the education of the lessprivileged, especially orphans.

Investing in the education of the orphans can never be described as a wasted venture. If orphans are educated, the pains from their unfortunate condition will melt into a mere testimony, Dede argued while receiving the Susan Brown’s Orphanage home at his office in Port Harcourt.

Dede, an award winning actor and lecturer, said RSTDA is interested in orphans education and would continue to assist in its little ways especially by calling privileged individuals to give equal right to the disabled and orphans.

He noted that the agency under his leadership created a platform on Rivers carnival fondly called

•Dede

•the orphans with RSTDA workers.

From Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt

CARNIRIV to ensure that the orphanage homes in Rivers State are a part of the celebration.

He said:”We want to call on well meaning Nigerians including governments to consider the education of orphans. These children have a right to education like every other child in this country. One thing is

certain; no amount of investment on the education of these innocent children will be a waste.

“I am pleading on their behalf to join hands together to see what we can do to be humanist as far as their education is concerned. Despite their unfortunate condition they have equal right to be educated and it is the responsibility of all to aid their education.”

One of the kids from Susan

• From right: Dr Boye assisted by Chief Ezesobor cutting the tape

WAEC to end delays with customer service centre T

HE West African Examinations Council (WAEC), has taken delivery of a customer service centre donated by Media Concepts International.

With the facility, which is located at the council’s Nigerian headquarters in Yaba, candidates and other clients should expect better and faster responses to issues regarding its examinations.

At its inauguration last Thursday, chairman of the occasion, Prof Pai Obayan, who ended his tenure as the chairman of the governing council of WAEC International, expressed hope that the centre would fulfil the

S

OCIETAL decadence has been attributed as a major factor in the decline in reading culture among pupils in Nigeria.

Founder of Children Education Development Awareness (CEDAR) Foundation Mr Tofeek Ojo, said socio-economic factors- technology, poverty and nonchalant attitude of some teachers have depleted the act of reading.

He spoke at the foundation’s quarterly quiz competition organised for public primary schools within the Mushin Local Government, held at Islamic Model Primary School Complex, Mushin.

Toefeek stressed that though technology is important for a country’s

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

purpose for which it was established – to offer quality customer service to candidates.

He said: “The concept of this type of thing is that first of all the customer who is coming from outside gets service; quick, efficient service delivery. So the prayer is that from today, this will be a place where our clients will have excellent service and go away with a good image of WAEC. “What you then do that adds value

to the building, the equipment is the well informed, well behaved courteous colleagues who will be working there. And that makes working in the tall building more efficient.

The person should be well informed enough to solve as many problems as possible there. So, this is a beginning. We thank God for the building; we thank those who donated it; but we thank you in advance for running it properly.”

The Head of Nigerian National, Mr Charles Eguridu, credited Alhaja Mulikat Bello, former Registrar to Council, for muting the idea of the centre.

Brown’s Orphanage home, Miss favour Orlu said she is excited with the encouragement by the agency.

She said: “I feel happy and excited with the way RSTDA has shown concern on our plight, last year we were given the opportunity to participate at the carnival. We are delighted to hear that the agency is making a case for us to attract support from people over our education.”

He was optimistic that the facility, which has office spaces equipped with computer and internet service, waiting area and conveniences, would improve the council’s relationship with its clients.

“It is heart-warming to note that the problem of delay in response to candidates’ enquiries will soon fade away as it is now possible for a crop of our trained staff and candidates to interact real time. I am sure that our candidates will make the best use of the centre. It is also my hope that this centre will facilitate a favourable interface between the Council and its various publics,” he said.

Eguridu added that the workers to man the centre have undergone training and would be monitored.

He also said there are plans to replicate same in all zonal and branch offices of WAEC nationwide.

On her part, Alhaja Bello, said she hoped that soon, clients would be able to interact with the centre online real time and get results without physically coming to Yaba.

Managing Director of Media Concepts, Mr Tope Agbeyo, said the firm, which is a service provider to WAEC, endowed the centre as its corporate social responsibility to the council.

“Our objective for constructing and furnishing this centre is to help the Council achieve its overall customer relationship management strategy which is in synch with WAEC’s strategic plan,” he said.

Dignitaries at the event included past and present top officials of WAEC, including the Registrar, Dr Iyi Uwadiae; former Registrars, Chief S.A Ezesobor and Dr Silva Boye; former Heads of National Office, Chief J.A. Fagbemi, among many others.

FTER serving in the Lagos local government educational authority for 35 years Mrs. Silifat Olufunke Badmus relinquished her pen from classroom to rest for good. Mrs. Badmus retired as an assistant head teacher at Local Government Primary School, Magbon-Mushin.

The event which was Mrs Badmust send off party brought teachers, pupils and union members in Mushin local government, where she served for many years.

Some of the children she also taught celebrated their heroine with dance presentation among other activities.

One after the other, colleagues and relation stepped forward to give their remarks about the retiree.

Mrs. Badmus was speaking at the send off party with friends and colleagues at Local Government Primary School, Magbon Mushin Lagos when she advice the state government to speed up payment of pension and gratuity to pensioners in the state.

“Fashola government should please take good care of retirees health and warfare since we don’t have any other job to do as fulltime” Mrs, Badmus said.

A colleague and friend Mrs Joyce Ogidan said having known Badmus for over 15 years, she would not be wrong to say the retiree was hardworking and committed to duty.

Similarly, Badmus’ successor Mrs. M.D Olugunna, described her former boss as transparent, truthful, loving, kind, and worthy of emulation.

She said in her short tributes: “I realised you posses some immeasurable qualities of a leader, committed to her work. This in turn resulted in excellence in all your doings while in service. Moreso, you are such a leader that desires the growth, development of your subordinates. Having said these, I am bidding you farewell that as you go, the Grace of Almighty will be with you.”

Badmus’ better half Mr Badmus described her as a lovely wife who combines her matrimonial with ‘Fashola duty work. government In her appreciation, should the retiree all in please take thanked attendance good care of particularly State retirees’ Lagos Governor abatunde health and BFashola’ giant welfare strides in the since we state.

“The goveris workdon’t have nor ing very well any other to see that get job to do as teachers the best waron the fulltime’ fare job” Badmus said.

Foundation decries decline in reading culture

By Jane Chijioke

development, most pupils have psychologically addicted themselves to its negative uses. He said the internet which should be a source of knowledge has become the engine house where all sort of vices are perpetrated.

“Most of our children are using it (technology) wrongly. They hardly read their books, they spend more time surfing the internet, watching pornography, indulging in internet fraud or wasting precious time chatting,” he said.

He said most pupils are influenced

by peer pressure which makes them indulge social vices thereby depleting their mental ability.

He noted that the society once bemoaned the practice, adding that now, it has become a ‘normal thing’ which makes some parents shy away from the truth.

Taofeek explained that some parents also pressurise their children into doing things illegal, when they depending on them to take up certain family responsibilities.

“Some children do not even eat before coming to school; parents also don’t monitor their children’s’ edu-

cation. Some teachers on the other hand are lazy; they don’t motivate these children to read. They forget that they are the moulders,” he added.

Proffering solution, he advised that stakeholders should support pupils by creating an enabling environment for reading, celebrating, motivating and inculcating moral values in them.

He noted that the foundation is focuses on resuscitating poor reading habit, adding that the poor performance in major public examinations gave him a wakeup call

“Our children are no longer reading. This has been giving me sleepless night. When I hear the result of WAEC and JAMB it really touches me deeply, coupled with malpractice our children indulges in. I deemed it fit that it is better for us to go back to the drawing board. Let us catch them young; by so doing, you are giving them a proper environment for learning, and then reading would now become a culture. I believe parents corporate organisations and teachers have to come together to make things work out well.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

40

EDUCATION EDUTALK

with

Re: Ofili and Nigeria’s problems (2)

M • Managing Director Ecobank Nigeria, Jibril Aku lecturing pupils of Government Secondary School, Lugbe, Abuja, on 'How to Grow Your Money' during the 2015 Financial Literacy Day.

Raised by a maid? Your child may be disadvantaged

H

IGHLY-MOBILE parents have been warned that their wards may be disadvantaged intellectually despite their education and status.

The claim is the result of a research that Mrs Dolapo Ogunbanwo shared at a parenting workshop organised

by Caleb group of schools and Sterling Bank Plc in Lagos.

Mrs Ogunbanwo, who is the Executive Director of the schools, spoke on "Understanding Developmental Stages: What Parents must do to Maximise Potential", said the 2007 research conducted in the United States, revealed that factors such as social economic status, parental influence, mother's education, single parentage, month of birth, gender, special needs, and income could affect how successful a child would become.

She said the research also revealed that it would take black African children until 2053 to catch up with their white counterparts.

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

In light of the research, which Mrs Ogunbanwo said she was a part of, she warned educated parents not to think that their wards are more privileged than others as they may be adversely affected by the influence of domestic workers raising them.

"You may think that you are educated; and have a good income; but the maid raising your children between zero and three years have issues if you don't, and can influence your children," she said.

The educationist urged the parents, who numbered about 600 to do their part to ensure that their wards turn out to be high achievers.

She said children who are high achievers have high aspirations, self belief, positive can-do attitude, focus, and seek to learn from experience.

She also said parents should allow their wards to fail and learn from their failures.

"You can learn from your failure.

‘We understand that the economy is in such a situation where definitely parents need to be engaged economically to be able to meet the needs of the home. But this should not be at the expense of raising the leaders of tomorrow’

You need to teach your children to stop, think about what worked well, and what they can do differently. Do not let your children be afraid of failing because when afraid of risk, they won't do anything," she said.

Speaking on why the bank supported the workshop, Mrs Olapeju Ibekwe, Head of Brands, Sterling Bank said with parenting not taught as part of formal education, parents need all the help they can get to raise children who will turn out to be good members of the society.

She said: "We understand that the economy is in such a situation where definitely parents need to be engaged economically to be able to meet the needs of the home. But this should not be at the expense of raising the leaders of tomorrow. There has to be a very fine balance to ensure that we do not go ahead and start raising miscreants, people that will become cultists and thieves."

Mrs Ibekwe said the bank supports educational initiatives because of the importance of the education to societal development. She urged parents and schools to take advantage of various services they can enjoy from the bank.

"We are supporting the schools because we have a very wholesome value chain initiative and impact we want to make upon the schools. We do school fees finance, we do asset acquisition for schools; we support the educational institutions," she said.

$100m donor fund for education in five states

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HE Nigerian government has signed a $100 million grant agreement with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), an initiative partially funded by the U.S. government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The grant will support Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto states to increase reading and writing skills, include more girls in basic education, and create a robust monitoring and evaluation system for the education sector.

GPE focuses on increasing and maintaining equitable access to quality education globally. In Nigeria, GPE's goals are to strengthen com-

munity activism and local governance, expand access to education through community-based education, and increase the number of qualified female teachers in areas with high gender disparities.

The group will help the Ministries of Education train teachers and increase access to quality primary education in the said states.

USAID's Mission Director in Nigeria, Michael T. Harvey, expressed satisfaction with the agreement signed.

"The U.S. government is pleased to be a supporter of GPE, and we are happy to see the agreement with Nigeria finalized. Nigeria has laid

out very ambitious goals under its national 'Education for All' programme, and we believe the GPE agreement will be essential to its success," he said.

In addition to USAID, the GPE consortium in Nigeria includes the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, U.K. Department for International Development, UNICEF, and the World Bank.

The national partners are state governments, local civil society groups, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and the Federal Ministry of Education. The Oando Foundation serves as a private sector observer to the partnership.

Girl Guides chief seeks peaceful elections

T

HE Nigeria Girl Guides Association (NGGA), has lent a voice to the clarion call for free, fair and violent-free elections.

This is contained in a statement signed by the association's Chief Commissioner, Mrs Maria Goretti Sule.

Mrs Sule, who was recently elected Chief Commissioner, described this period as critical and urged Nigerians to show great sense of commit-

ment and patriotism.

"I want to seize this opportunity to lend a voice to the appeal for a peaceful, free and fair elections as the electorates go to the pool come Saturday, March 28 for the presidential election and April 11 for the gubernatorial elections and others.

"As Nigeria's political space is fully charged with regards to the upcoming elections, we advocate peaceful

and violent- free general polls.

"We call on Nigerians to exercise their civic responsibility without going into violence, no matter how provoked.

“In an event if any misunderstanding, our advise to the electorates is to be calm and let justice prevail, all in the benefit of our future leaders and the nation at large,'' the statement said.

AST week, I discussed about the ideas that Okechukwu Ofili shared in his book, How Intelligence Kills, that I thought were really worthwhile. I could Kofoworola not cover what he said about the ignorance of young people about Belo-Osagie Nigeria's history and our lack of appreciation for local Kofosagie@yahoo.com innovations, which are the focus 08054503077 (SMS only) of this piece.

Regarding Nigeria's history, Ofili could not be more accurate about our school children (especially those attending elite private schools) knowing more about American and British history than Nigerian history. This is to our shame. These schools, run on Nigerian soil, in the name of practicing the curriculum of these countries, expose their learners to everything about those countries (even teaching them about foreign currency) while they are expected to function in Nigeria.

But can we blame them? The relevant education regulatory agencies are definitely asleep. If not, we would not have such situations. In our Nigerian curriculum, History is not taught as a subject at primary and junior secondary levels. It is an elective for Humanities students at the senior secondary level. While over one million SS3 candidates register for Mathematics and English; and 700,000 for Government in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), only about 50,000 register for History. How then do we expect our young ones to know about Nigerian history?

In the United States, all students learn about American History compulsorily until their second year in college. It is no surprise then that Americans are very proud and passionate about their countries.

I did not offer history in secondary school. The little I know is from learning Government. I only read about the Biafran War from Chimamanda Adiche's book, Half of the Yellow Sun. Before then, the bit I knew was what my father told me about his experience during the war. He had attempted to trek from Benin to Lagos to meet his father when the war was inching closer to the city.

It is so important that the government makes History a compulsory subject in our schools - at least up to secondary level, so that we can appreciate our heritage; and so that we can be free from this identity crisis that makes us all want to be white people.

It is the same problem we have with local innovations. During the Biafran war, Nigerians were forced to produce bombs from local materials; as well as build local refineries. Today, we always hear of the Nigerian Navy destroying local refineries in the NigerDelta produced by oil bunkerers. I believe we are losing opportunities to develop our local technology. Like Ofili noted in his book, we need to do all we can support local innovation. We cannot develop without it.

Regarding Nigeria's history, Ofili could not be more accurate about our school children (especially those attending elite private schools) knowing more about American and British history than Nigerian history. This is to our shame.

These schools, run on Nigerian soil, in the name of practicing the curriculum of these countries, expose their learners to everything about those countries (even teaching them about foreign currency) while they are expected to function in Nigeria From my Inbox Re: Ofili and Nigeria's problems (Thursday, 26-03-2015) Your write up in The Nation is so wonderful. I wish the government can set up inspectors for our public schools and see how the environment is turned into public toilets. Thanks. From 08038036---.

Re: JAMB oh JAMB! (Thursday, 19-03-2015) Kofo, that was good. Very good. Well done. From 08181793---.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

43

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

44

SHOWBIZ

Actress Ngozi Nwosu decries hate comments

Rashid Lombard to deliver Jazz DAY lecture in Lagos

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ASHID Lombard, the founder of the awardwinning Cape Town International Jazz Festival, South Africa, has been named the Guest Speaker at this year’s International Jazz Day Lecture in Lagos.

Lombard, who is also special guest of honour of the Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015, has over the past 40 years, been recognised with awards, including official recognition with the South African National Order of Ikhamanga Award.

According to the organisers, this year’s International Jazz Day on April 30 is both the culmination of the Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and start of the three day Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 organised by Inspiro produc-

A

By Ovwe Medeme

tions. Mr. Lombard will be speaking on the topic, International Jazz Festivals: A Driver for Tourism and Economic Growth – the South African Perspective.

Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa on 10 April 1951, Lombard trained as an architectural draughtsman and then worked as an industrial photographer before becoming a photojournalist, covering Africa, and, particularly, South Africa, where he focused on photographing the rise of the South African democratic movement.

The International Jazz Day Lecture and Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 will take place at cultural hotspot, Freedom Park, Lagos.

• Rashid Lombard

Sammie Okposo congratulates Aity Dennis on birth of twins

P

OPULAR gospel artiste, Aity Dennis Inyang, has a lot to be grateful for, especially as she has just given birth to twins after 24 years of marriage.

The multiple-award winning artiste who has over 2000 songs and nine CDs under her belt reportedly gave birth to the twins; a boy and a girl, over the weekend.

In a congratulatory message via Twitter, gospel singer, Sammie

By Joe Agbro Jr.

By Joe Agbro Jr.

Okposo, expressed good wishes to her. He wrote: “After 24 years of waiting, God remembered my sister @AityDennis and blessed her with twins, boy and a girl. Awesome God.” Aity, a pastor, is married to Pastor Dennis Inyang, the senior pastor at Sure Word Assembly, Okota, Lagos.

As at yesterday, fans of the artiste were also felicitating with Aity Dennis on her safe delivery.

Artistes react to President Jonathan’s defeat candour

F

OLLOWING Saturday’s electoral defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan by General Muhammadu Buhari, artistes have come out to praise the president for conceding defeat and congratulating his political rival.

Till the election, Jonathan and Buhari were the two major candidates and supporters of both candidates fought bitter through their campaigns, despite peace accord signed by both parties.

Afrobeat musician, Seun Kuti, took to his Facebook account to express his pleasure at the president’s action.

•Seun Kuti

By Joe Agbro Jr.

“I believed I had you pegged from the first of January 2012 but today, you sir, surprised me completely.

You put Nigerians first,” wrote Seun Kuti who was an antagonist of President Jonathan. He added: “Congratulations, President Goodluck Jonathan. I believe that it’s only in defeat that a man’s true nature comes to the surface.”

Nollywood actress and producer, Rita Dominic, a staunch supporter of President Jonathan also praised the president’s action, even as she congratulated his op-

ponent.

Taking to her Twitter account, Dominic wrote: ‘Congratulations to General Muhammadu Buhari.

Thanks President Jonathan for conceding honourably.

God bless Nigeria.”

However, Omoni Oboli, Nollywood actor, director/ producer, who also devotedly campaigned to have Jonathan re-elected was a bit neutral in her tweet. The actress, whose movie, Being Mrs Elliot, attracted presidential attention at its premiere last year, simply wrote; ‘Congratulations to you all! Nigeria won! God bless Nigeria!”

•Rita Dominic

S the collation of votes for the Nigerian presidential election wound down on Tuesday, veteran Nollywood actress, Ngozi Nwosu took time out to caution Nigerians on the need to exercise restraints.

She was particularly concerned about the tension around the country between supporters of the candidadtes of the two leading political parties, that she painted a scenario of a civil war, urging party supporters who have been at loggerheads on the social media, to remain calm and accept the outcome of the election in good faith.

According to the thespian, in the event of the break out of a civil war, those divided along party lines would be united in seeking refuge in neighbouring African countries.

She said: ”Note that the elites you are fighting for on social media will survive with their families, and they will still sit at a peace accord meeting somewhere in Ghana, South Africa or the U.N to still decide your fate and •Ngozi fly back their families with their private jets to continue using those who survived. If I may ask where are their children? They are all abroad in safe keeping. Nigerian youths listen and listen well; we have only one Nigeria, what the radio did to Rwanda is what social media is doing to Nigeria now.

We are all pushing Nigeria to war, there will be no winners or losers,” she said on naijahottestgist, a social media group

By Ovwe Medeme

which has celebrities, politicians and other members of the society as members.

Nwosu, who has tried to be neutral unlike her colleagues, it will be recalled, received the support of the Lagos State government for a medical surgery abroad, recently.

She further enjoined Nigerians to preach love and kindness, saying that “to keep Nigeria one is a task we must all achieve.”

“You and I don’t own oil wells and private jets, then what are we fighting for? They want you to be counted as casualties so there would be a case. Please say no to violence!

If GEJ wins he won’t feed his village. If Buhari wins he won’t feed his village, and nothing will change. There is no time a government will solve all your problems. There are more beggars and homeless people in the U.S than Nigeria even in Obamas backyard in Chicago homeless people queue up for food handouts daily,” she added.

Nwosu

U.S. based Nigerian actor congratulates Buhari, Ben Bruce

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OLLYWOOD based Nigerian filmmaker, Pascal Atuma, has congratulated Nigeria’s president-elect, General Buhari and Mr. Ben Murray Bruce on their victory at the poll.

About a week ago, Atuma had stated his preference for Nigeria’s next leader, saying: “If I have to choose between former President Buhari and President Jonathan Goodluck, and they are the only options available as it stands, I will vote for Buhari.”

He said: “At this moment in time, Buhari is the best option for Nigeria and I am happy that the good and wonderful citizens of Nigeria did the right thing, they have spoken and their voice did the job. I am happy that Buhari will be leading us for the next four years and I believe he will do a fantastic job.”

Speaking further, Atuma said, “I also want to remind the new President to take care of Nollywood , support Nollywood at all cost and levels and remember that Nollywood flies the flag of Nigeria positively across the globe and that we all supported him from day one because we knew he was the best for us and is the best for us. Together we will move Nigeria forward in a positive direction.”

The Hollywood filmmaker also congratulated Mr. Ben Murray Bruce, Chairman of Silverbird Group, on winning a Senate seat.

He went on to say: “I know Mr Ben very well and what he stands for, so with people like him now in the seat of power and involved in decision making, the future of Nigeria is bright, brighter than it has ever been, it is a beautiful season for Nigeria, season of great hope, I am happy and excited and looking forward to the new Nigeria, full of hope and development.

“This election will serve as lesson to all, the days are gone when politics in Nigeria is business as usual, today, this day the people spoke loud and clear, and their voices echoed the

By Joe Agbro Jr.

change that we desire for the future of Nigeria.

“May God bless Nigeria and I wish the new regime the best, and call on all Nigerians, home and abroad to help this new regime to achieve a better Nigeria.”

•Pascal Atuma

45

THURSDAY APRIL 2, 2015

POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

Last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in River State were marred by irregularities, according to eyewitnesses. Correspondent BISI OLANIYI, who monitored the elections in Port Harcourt, the state capital catalogued some of the malpractices that marred the exercise.

Election drama in Rivers

•Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) matching towards the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port-Harcourt, River State, to protest against alleged rigging of last Saturday’s election.

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HOUGH the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, had assured Nigerians that the general elections throughout the country would be free, fair, transparent, credible and peaceful, the reverse was the case in Rivers State.

It became apparent that the presidential and the National Assembly elections would be rigged in Rivers State in the evening of February 27, when it was confirmed that the original result sheets had been released to the leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

With the original result sheets with PDP leaders, colour photocopies were released by INEC to the Electoral Officers, who in-turn gave them to the Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs), for onward distribution to the Presiding Officers throughout the 23 local government areas.

In a few places where elections took place in the state, the fake result sheets were used to deceive the electorate, who queued endlessly in the scorching sun, while the presiding officers mostly displayed ignorance by not removing the protective film on the lens of the smart card readers, which caused delay, before the supervising presiding officers came to their rescue.

The Rivers governorship candidate of the PDP, Chief Nyesom Wike, a former Minister of State for Education, was so sure of “victory” at the polls, not through the ballots, but through massive rigging and writing of results in the homes of the leaders of his party.

Wike was also supported in the senseless rigging by the Rivers Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru, who last week, defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP, and other leaders of the party.

The wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience, an indigene of Okrika in Rivers State, after voting with her husband in his Otuoke hometown, Bayelsa State, relocated to her palatial mansion in the old Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Port Harcourt, to coordinate the rigging.

The First Lady (Dame Jonathan) and Wike, who are of the PDP, were giving instructions to the police and INEC officials to ensure “landslide victory” for President Jonathan. The police chiefs and INEC officials were helpless, considering the threats of losing their jobs and huge cash released to them.

It was alleged that each of the Electoral Officers (EOs) in the 23 local governments were given N15 million to compromise the election and ensure “victory” for candidates of the PDP. Some of the EOs confronted neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.

It was when Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Director-General of Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, got to his polling unit in Ubima, his hometown in Ikwerre Local Government Area for accreditation that the charade was exposed. Governor Amaechi insisted on seeing the result sheet, but the presiding officer could not produce it, he refused to be accredited.

The governor returned home and gave the INEC ad hoc staff little time, presumably for the officials to bring the result sheet. But, the result sheet was still not available when he returned to the unit before the end of accreditation at 1 p.m.

The Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said reports from other parts of the state showed that the problem of absence of result sheets was widespread.

Similarly, the Rivers governorship candidate of the APC, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, equally refused to vote in his coastal Opobo hometown for the same reason: the absence of result sheets.

While responding to allegations of the hijack of result sheets later, Wike urged Rivers people to ignore Amaechi and other APC leaders, insisting that the elections took place and that it was free and fair. He wondered why his former boss (Amaechi) would get to his polling unit and be asking for result sheet, instead of getting himself accredited in the interim before the arrival of the result sheet.

Last Saturday’s elections in the state were marred by violence, killing of scores of defenceless voters, massive rigging, snatching of ballot boxes, intimidation of voters and many irregularities. The INEC officials and policemen connived with PDP leaders in the rape of democracy.

For instance, eyewitnesses said policemen and PDP thugs who were recruited as INEC ad hoc staff were openly thumbprinting ballot papers at the Divisional Police headquarters in Kpor-Ogoni, Gokana Local Government headquarters. The representative of Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Magnus Abe, who is seeking re-election, and the Caretaker Chairman of Gokana Local Government Council, Kadilo Kabari, who were at the police station to lodge complaints about the irregularities, were shocked to see policemen and PDP thugs thumb-printing ballot papers.

Abe and Kabari were attacked by the PDP thugs, with the Gokana council boss given the beating of his life, thereby sustaining injuries and later made to sit on bare floor for so long,

‘

It is a lie and cheap blackmail. It is not possible to hand over original result sheets to politicians, especially with the security numbers on them. They should concentrate on campaigning and allow me to do my job

’

before he was allowed to leave and landed in the hospital.

His nasty experience was one of the numerous cases in Rivers State.

An elderly voter, who is a devout Christian, in the old Port Harcourt Township, popularly called Town, had an unpleasant experience that day. Just because he decided to vote for all the candidates of the APC, the peeping PDP thugs dragged him away and gave him the beating of his life. They only left him when he collapsed and he almost died. The thugs had seen that he placed his thumbprint beside the APC logo.

At another polling unit in Rumuigbo-Port Harcourt, near the Psychiatric Hospital, the PDP thugs were reported to have taken over the voting centres. Eyewitnesses said policemen on election duty were helpless. A decent and well-educated man came to the polling unit to vote for all APC candidates, but the thugs collected his ballot papers and tore them to pieces. They had also observed that he voted for the APC. The gentleman simply walked away.

An election observer from the Transitional Monitoring Group (TMG), Ibrahim Zikrullah, said: “We have Rivers State, where the election did not meet minimal standards of any recognised election. The state security took over the role of INEC. They were beating up people, smashing ballots and falsifying results.

“The problems with the card readers did not help matters, because in some places they could not verify the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). And in our view, the manual verification compromised the purpose of the card reader.”

To show their displeasure over the breaches observed during the election, thousands of APC members took to the streets in Port Harcourt. They took off from the Government House and later got to the headquarters of INEC on the Port Harcourt-Aba-Enugu Expressway, near the corporate headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The protesters called for fresh elections in Rivers and the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dame Gesila Khan, for taking sides with the leaders of the PDP. Khan, an indigene of Bayelsa State, as President Goodluck Jonathan, was described as an associate of the President.

The REC was also accused of releasing the original result sheets to Wike and other leaders of the party, with colour photocopies given to the electoral officers in 23 local governments across the state, which they used to write fake results, while Wike later submitted to INEC for collation, the “manufactured” results on original result sheets.

Khan, however, said: “It is a lie and cheap blackmail. It is not possible to hand over original result sheets to politicians, especially with the security numbers on them. They should concentrate on campaigning and allow me to do my job.”

Among the APC’s protesters were: Dr. Peterside; his run• Continued on page 46

46

THE NATION THURSDAY APRIL 2, 2015

In Ondo State, the APC contended with, and defeated ‘Governor Mimiko, the Southwest Coordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Committee, who spent billions of naira to induce the electorates

’

...58 D AYS TO GO DA

Lawmaker dedicates victory to Buhari, Jonathan, Jega, Tinubu

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MEMBER of the House of Representatives and former governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the June 21, 2014 election in Ekiti State, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, has congratulated the President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari over his landslide victory in last Saturday’s presidential elections.

In a press release made available to The Nation, Hon. Bamidele described it as “a brilliant outing by Nigerians whose determination to liberate themselves from the untold hardship and sheer misrule that characterized the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hegemony in Nigeria is worthy of celebration.”

Bamidele, who returned back to the All Progressives Congress Congress (APC) as the campaign for the

By Raymond Mordi

elections got underway, called on the President-elect to regard the victory as a God-given opportunity to provide a most unique and transformative leadership to the nation. He added that Gen. Buhari should not renege on his promise to ensure a zero level of tolerance for corruption and to commit himself to the security and welfare of Nigerians on assumption of office.

The lawmaker said, otherwise, the efforts of all lovers of democracy at home and abroad to support his bid for the presidency will be in vain.

He said: “In the same vein, I urge Gen. Buhari neither to allow himself to be distracted nor dissipate so much energy in probing past leaders and administrations, but rather encourage those who have looted

public treasury to re-invest such money in the local economy with a view to generating more opportunities for massive employment and financial stability.

“His most urgent assignment must be to concentrate on the critical need to assemble a highly professional and resourceful economic team that has the capacity to rescue the nation’s economy from the doldrums within a reasonable space of time, as the poverty condition among the people of this country is no more tolerable and requires an urgent intervention. He needs this crack economic team to complement his strict leadership posturing in order to move the nation forward.

Bamidele also congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for his spirit of sportsmanship. “He has

demonstrated that he has the spirit of a good sportsman and has acted in the interest of peace, progress and unity of our dear nation. The issue at stake is beyond Gen. Buhari and President Jonathan as it is essentially about the sustainability of our democracy as a nation and the need for us to demonstrate to the rest of the world that Nigeria has come of age and has set her foot on the right path in terms of commitment to global best democratic practice standard.”

He described the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, and the National Leader of the APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as men who would go down in history as defenders of democracy. He said Prof. Jega is a man whose integrity and strength of character “became

the blood and tonic that sustained the electoral process.”

He also described Asiwaju Tinubu as the foremost opposition leader whose selfless and resourceful efforts gave rise to the new Nigeria everyone is celebrating today.

He added: “Tinubu was once referred to as ‘the last man standing’ when he was the only surviving governor following the so-called ‘electoral tsunami’ that swept away his counterparts in the Southwest geo-political region in the 2003 general elections.

“Tinubu did not only leave progressive legacies of socio-economic transformation in Lagos State, but went back to the trenches to rescue the rest of the Southwest region from the PDP between 2003 and 2011 in a tumultuous legal and political battle of heroic dimension.”

Plateau APC candidate congratulates Buhari

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HE Plateau State governorship candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), Hon. Simon Lalong, has described the victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election as a beacon of hope for democracy and for citizens of Nigeria.

The APC governorship flag bearer made the remarks in a press conference in Jos yesterday.

The former speaker of the state house of assembly promised to deliver the state to the APC in the governorship election scheduled for April 11.

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

He said: “I wish to assure that even as the hopes of Plateau people as expressed in the presidential election are been denied by certain forces in power in the state, I wish to call on our supporters not to lose hope.

“In Plateau State, the battle is far from been as we still have a great task to deliver the state to APC in the governorship election. More so that we can’t afford to drag the state backward by by voting another party apart from APC in the governorship election”

Election drama in Rivers • Continued from page 45

ning mate, Okorie Asita; Sen. Abe; Chief Tony Okocha; Rivers commissioners; federal and state lawmakers, among other eminent personalities. The determined protesters ignored the heavy security on Aba Road, especially between Waterlines Bus Stop and GRA Junction, thereby moving to the gate of the INEC headquarters.

The protesters, who were armed with placards with various inscriptions, were chanting: “We no go gree.” Some of the placards read: “Change Rivers REC of INEC now, Prof. Jega”, “Electoral officers in Rivers State compromising with PDP”, “INEC in Rivers State is an arm of PDP”, “PDP members accredited as INEC ad hoc staff” and “Rivers INEC, where are our votes?”

Peterside and some leaders of the APC, who insisted on entering the INEC headquarters to meet with the REC and formally register their protest, were barred by fullyarmed riot policemen. The protesters then decided to sit on the everbusy Port Harcourt-Aba-Enugu Expressway, in front of INEC’s gate, for about two hours.

The Rivers APC’s governorship candidate said: “What you are seeing here (at INEC headquarters in Port Harcourt) are registered voters, who are supporters of the APC. They are here to protect the fact that yesterday (on Saturday), they were not allowed to exercise their franchise. They got to their various polling units, only to discover that there were no result sheets and without the result sheets, the election cannot be conducted in compliance with the Electoral Law.

“In substance, there were no elections anywhere in Rivers State, at least in 20 local government areas.

Apart from the fact that there were no result sheets, the few places where accreditation was done, results were not announced at the polling booths, in accordance with the law. Results were not collated at the various LGAs. We later heard that results are being collated at various homes around the city of Port Harcourt and the suburbs.

“So, we are here to register our protest. There were no elections in Rivers State and violence was visited on our people. Over ten persons died in various locations in Rivers State. Over 55 of our members were arrested by the police and the military. We are calling for elections and not cancellation, because there was no election. All we asking for is that please, can we vote?

There are two different things; we are saying there were no elections at all and not that elections were not held.

“We have been here for two hours and they said the REC is not available. Somebody who identified himself as the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Rivers State received our petition, but we are insisting that we must see the REC, because she played a key role in subverting the will of Rivers people.”

Abe, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), who is seeking re-election to represent Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, also stated that he was manhandled in his Bera-Ogoni hometown in Gokana LGA of the state, during Saturday’s election and did not vote, insisting that nobody voted in his senatorial district.

•From left: Lagos State Commissioner for Transport Hon. Kayode Opeifa, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye, Otunba Yetunde Arobieke, Ayodele Adewale and Princess Bola Kazeem during the victory rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES.

APC lauds Ondo for backing Buhari

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HE Ondo State Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Ife Oyedele, has thanked the people for voting massively for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in last Saturday’s presidential election.

Oyedele noted in a press statement he signed personally that it is gratifying that Ondo people chose to vote for the APC flag bearer in spite of the heavy intimidation and monetary inducement offered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

The Coordinator noted that the victory of the party in Ondo is par-

ticularly significant when viewed against the fact that the progressive camp has not been in government in the state for the past 12 years. He said: “In Ondo State, the APC contended with, and defeated Governor Mimiko, the Southwest Coordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Committee, who spent billions of naira to induce the electorates.”

Governor Mimiko had earlier bragged that he will deliver one million votes to President Jonathan.

Oyedele praised the gallant people of Ondo for standing firm in the face of unrelenting attacks by the gang of thugs deployed all over the state by Governor Mimiko.

He urged the electorate to vote massively for all APC candidates in the House of Assembly election slated for Saturday, April 11, 2015, “so that Ondo State can be finally rid of the last vestiges of a mindless, inept and non-performing administration of the PDP.” He enjoined the Inspector General of Police to ensure that PDP thugs arrested before and during the election for various electoral offenses are prosecuted.

Oyedele said the party leaders would meet to deliberate on the victories won by PDP candidates during the election, to decide whether to go to court or not.

•All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila at the polling unit.

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

47

THE NATION

NATURAL HEALTH E-mail:- health@thenationonlineng.net

Diet, lifestyle, health profile impact manliness D

OES a man’s food play any role in his sexuality? Yes. According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nature Healing Alternatives, Dr Leye Popoola, whatever a man ingest plays active role in his masculinity and reproductive ability.

Man’s prowess, Dr Popoola said, is influenced directly and indirectly by his diet hence, it is good to eat foods that contain muscle and blood building ingredients. A diet that is bad for a man’s heart is also not good for his ability to have erections.

He said: “Research has shown that the same eating patterns that can cause heart attacks due to restricted blood flow in the coronary arteries can also impede blood flow to and within the male sexual organ. The blood flow is needed for it to become erect. Diets that include very few fruits and vegetables with lots of fatty, fried, and processed foods can contribute to decreased blood circulation throughout the body. Anything that is bad for a man’s heart is also bad for his genitalorgan.”

He continued: “It is my candid advice to men to watch what they eat as this may be the cause to their sexual weakness, especially, men suffering from impotence, otherwise known as erectile dysfunction (ED).

My personal study and researches have pointed to the fact that it is due to their lifestyle and the food they eat.

“The food they consume often predisposes them to weak libido or ED. Men should keep off denatured or devalued food, especially bread. They should abstain from smoking and taking of alcohol. I observed that many men complain and actually have ED this day.

It is alarming the rate at which they go for orthodox drugs as respite. I want to state that medication is not the only solution for treating impotence or ED, because there could be underlying factors, such as lifestyle, or stress that should be addressed.”

Dr Popoola said there are herbs, such as gboingboin (Yoruba) and sombo (Yoruba) cayenne which can solve their problem without side effects.

He said there is need to understand how man’s body is composed in order to understand ED and the way out. “When a sub-system is disabled the entire system is affected.

Even headache and cough can affect sexual relationship. Similarly, high blood pressure can also predispose men to low libido. If a man is stressed up; experiences sleeplessness or eat too much fatty foods that clog the blood

Spinach and other Green Vegetables

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PINACH is a potent source of magnesium, which helps dilate blood vessels, according to Japanese researchers. Better blood flow to the genitals, as you’ve learned, creates greater arousal for men and women. Spinach and other green vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, Swiss chard, and bok choy are also good sources of favorite sex nutrient— folate. Extra insurance for good reproductive health, folate may lower blood levels of a harmful substance called homocysteine.

Unsweetened Tea The antioxidant catechin found in tea promotes blood flow all over the body for sex power and brainpower; it enhances memory, mood, and focus. One particularly potent catechin, a compound called ECGC prevalent in green tea, is thought to increase fat burn. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that people, who consume the equivalent of three to five cups of green tea a day for 12 weeks, experience nearly a five per cent reduction in body weight.

Drink freshly brewed green or black tea every day, hot or iced. Bottled teas don’t offer the same benefits. And keep the sugar out of it. Unsweetened tea is an excellent alternative to high-calorie, sugar-laden soft drinks and juices. One 12-ounce can of soda

•Erectile dysfunction can cause tension in a relationship

By Wale Adepoju

stream, impressive libido will be impeded.

“In fact, impotence is an early warning sign that cardiovascular disease (CVD) may be looming. ED caused by narrowed arteries commonly develops years before any symptoms or problems of CVD, hypertension or diabetes become apparent,” he said.

Describing impotence, Dr Popoola said: “Erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotence is sexual dysfunction characterised by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of men genital organ during sexual activity.

Most homes have broken because of men’s inability to attain and maintain erection to carry out normal sexual intercourse. This can also be caused as a result of medication ingested by them.

“Some drugs have side effects, especially hypertensive drugs, which can reduce men’s libido. This is why some men would experience lack of erection.”

Diabetics, he said, experience impotence or have problem sustaining an erection.

“Diabetes affects blood circulation to the extremities of the body, such as the tips of the

fingers, toes and male organ. Most impotent people often have a very high blood sugar level. Tests often confirm this,” he said.

People with heart problems, he said, are also susceptible to poor libido.

According to him, this is because the heart pumps the blood to the body. “When the heart cannot perform its functions effectively, there would be problems with other parts of the body,” he said.

Popoola said people, who have Parkinson’s disease would not be able to have an erection. Backache, he said, may also not allow them engage in any sexual act because the back is the engine room of sexual intercourse apart from the male genital organ.

He said men should not smoke or be hooked on drinks, as “smokers and drunkards are susceptible to ED. These substances will increase estrogen. Excess estrogen could lead to a reduction in the progesterone level. It will affect testosterone and the urge to have intercourse will reduce. Just as ulcer medications can cause impotence or hamper erection, likewise, antidepressant drugs and sleeping pills affect sexual urge and limit libido.”

How to eat for better sex Sexologists, cardiologists, and psychologists agree: how much (and what) you consume has a huge impact on your sexual health. has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it.

Peaches and other fruits If you are looking to add some deductions to your 1040 form, eat more grapefruits, oranges, and peaches. Men, who consume at least 200 milligrammes of Vitamin C a day improve their sperm counts and motility, according to research at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Eggs Over easy, hard-boiled, or scrambled, eggs aren’t the most sensual food on the menu, but it’s hard to beat them for a fit and healthy body inside and out. Eggs are rich in vitamins B6 and B5, which help balance hormone levels and ease stress, and are important for a healthy libido.

Seeds and Nuts Pumpkin and sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, and other nuts all contain the necessary monounsaturated fats with which your body creates cholesterol—and your sex hormones need that cholesterol to work properly.

Beans and Extra Protein Protein is so important to weight maintenance that you should eat it with every meal and snack. Proteins boost metabolism a little more during digestion than any other type of food. Plus protein increases metabolism by helping to build muscle and stall the muscle loss that naturally happens as we age.

Muscle is more metabolically active than fat is, so the more lean muscle on your body the better at burning calories it will be.

Fatty Fish If, as doctors like to say, what’s good for your heart is good for your love life, oily coldwater fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, and tuna should figure heavily into your weekly meal rotation. The omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA found in fish help to raise dopamine levels in the brain that trigger arousal, according to sexologist Yvonne K. Fulbright, PhD. Other health benefits: antiinflammatory properties that fight blood clots and heart arrhythmias, better brain function, and protection against dementia.

Prostate drugs, he said, has some inscriptions on it that it may cause impotence.

“People, who take such drugs will eventually not be able to have an erection again in their lifetime. So, it is expedient for the person with the problem to choose whether he wants to stay alive by taking his drugs or enjoy his sexual life and die afterwards.

The drug may boost their sexual performance in the short run, but later in life it will wear them out ,“ he added.

Any way out? Popoola recommended vitamins A, B, C, E for strong libido and energy.

He said: “Vitamin A, which is beta carotene, is good for the body and it is converted by the body to sexual hormones. So, people who use Vitamin A will have long lasting sexual life. B-complex (B-Co) is very important. B6, B12 and B3 make the heart function properly and as such aid an erection. A functional heart will assist in good libido.

“Vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, repairs the body tissues. It repairs elastin and collagen. It works as a scavenger of any tumor within the body system and as such extracts clog within the vein. Vitamin E, is known as sexual vitamin because it aids good intercourse. It is also a scavenger. It supports the heart. Zinc also ensures that the prostate is in good health.”

Dr Popoola warned that people should consult practitioners to handle their ED challenges, rather than buying over the counter (OTC) preparations or aphrodisiacs that litter the markets. “Sufferers should let their health providers prescribe herbs for them because many have died as a of result drug misuse to aid their sexual performance. For instance, herbs such as Yorinbe is good, but it has adverse effect because it aggravates high blood pressure.

“There is Damiana. It can be used by all. It is good for blood circulation, especially to the genitals. Damiana enhances libido. Also, there is Gingko biloba, which helps blood flow to the brain and the system. Macca helps to enhance stamina. Ginseng promotes reproductive health,” he said.

Popoola said Gboingboin (Yoruba) is a local herb that has been in use for over 100 years to enhance sexual prowess. This, he said, can be given to men suffering from impotence to invigorate their sexual organs without any side effect. “Cayenne is good because it helps the blood to circulate,” Popoola added.

Oatmeal and Other Whole Grains Eating oatmeal is one of the few natural ways to boost testosterone in the bloodstream. The male hormone plays a significant role in sex drive and orgasm strength in both men and women. Oats (as well as seeds, ginseng, nuts, dairy, and green vegetables) contain L-arginine, an amino acid that enhances the effect nitric oxide has on reducing blood vessel stiffness. L-arginine has been used to treat erectile dysfunction.

Like Viagra, it helps relax muscles around blood vessels in the penis. When they dilate, blood flow increases so a man can maintain an erection. Oatmeal and other whole grains like whole-grain bread, brown rice, and barley also qualify as good-for-theheart, better-for-the-gut foods.

Oysters and Other Shellfish In addition to their reputation as the ultimate aphrodisiac (thanks to their resemblance to female genitalia), raw oysters actually do have a connection to sexual function. Oysters hold more zinc than most any other food, and it is believed that this mineral may enhance libido by helping with testosterone production—higher levels of the hormone are linked to an increase in desire. Zinc is also crucial to healthy sperm production and blood circulation.

•Source: www.menshealth.com/sex-md/better-sex-diet

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

48

NATURAL HEALTH

Defeat of Jonathan, depression and allied illnesses

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TRANDED and alone,” Like my name, I remember this 14 September 1974 newspaper headline any day my mind revisits my days on the LAGOS WEEKEND newspaper. The Lagos Weekend sold an average of 250,000 (eyes 300, 000) copies every Friday. It was about the second biggest sale in the stable of the Daily Times newspaper group, after the Sunday Times, edited by Mrs. Gbolabo Ogunsanwo which must have hit or surpassed the 400,000 or 500,000 mark.

These figures should make many of today’s editors green with envy. For it is doubtful if all their daily sale put together exceed 250,000 copies. Yet we have a bigger literate and reading public with more money in the pocket than did the information consumers of those days. Radio, television and the social media may have a hand in this retrogression, no doubt.

I believe, however, that the biggest trouble, as Taiwo Obe never tires of saying, is that the journals of today have no firm roots in the market places and, so, are disconnected from the reading public, like fish with no water to swim in.

This is not a day to debate why some newspapers are thriving while others are collapsing.

Last Saturday’s Presidential election merely reminded me that success has many fathers, and failure, no father, of the loneliness and depression which may have enveloped not only President Ebele Jonathan and his garrulous wife, Patience, but of many aides and kinsmen who loyally stood by them, and the flight of those fair-weather ones who merely hid under the Presidential canopy to fatten their purses.

On 14 September 1974, Mr. Clement Okosun, editor of Lagos Weekend, published his weekly column named THE TIME BEFORE THIS with the said headline, Stranded and Alone.

He was one of the many editors I worked with in my formative years as a journalist. The list included Mr. Henry Odukomaiya, Mr. George Okoro, Mr. Sola Oluwole, Mr. Sola Odunfa, Prince Tony Momoh, Mr. Angus Okoli and Mr. Clement Okosun.

Mr. Clement Okosun said he felt “stranded and alone” because, on that day, I left for the university. There were only two of us who produced the Lagos Weekend.

He was editor, I sub-editor. I doubled as reporter, proofreader and production editor. Yet we had only Monday and Tuesday to assemble the paper, proof-read and okay on Wednesday, print on Thursday and sell on Friday. I do not know how Mr. Okosun coped after I left. But from the things he said in that article, I still have no doubt that he experienced pain of the soul from my separation from him. His employment of Stranded and Alone may not entirely fit my construction of it in this column. But I see in the frameworks of both common destabilising elements in a person’s life. Mr. Okosun was so attached to me because I made his editorship so easy for him.

President Jonathan is so attached to power because, through public office, the school boy who had no school shoes and school bag, has become, arguably, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men. Separation from power must, therefore, bring agony of soul. Mr. Okosun and I had become too attached to each other for him not to feel the pain of my tearing away from him. I may not have felt anything because I was going on adventure and enjoying it. I was later to learn after university, from the experiences of life, that attachment to anything (family, office, work, property, neighborhood, money, power etc), except to ones’ Creator, could be the greatest calamity that could befall a person. It was at this stage of inner experiencing that I began to understand the story of Lot’s wife rendered in the Christian Bible. Many Christians take this story on the face value. Destruction was to befall Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, a Pius man, was to be spared. He and his family were to flee the town and not look back. In their flight, Lot’s wife remembered the jewelry and other valuables she was leaving behind. She looked back… and immediately became a mould of salt. In my view, this was an allegorical rendition of a story which teaches us not to be attached to anything except our goal, which is the return home to Paradise in the Kingdom the Lord has provided for those people who fulfill the purpose of their creation, namely the perfection of their spirits. No man is appointed a judge over other men in these matters. But all can feel to their fingertips cases or situations of attachment to the wrong things.

In this regard, President Jonathan, should have seen this humiliating defeat coming a long time ago. He was, in my opinion, attached to power. He must have spent about eight years in the corridors of power in his home state before the then President Olusegun Obasanjo fished him out for his project of succession of Musa Shehu Yar A’dua.

AYELSA deputy governor Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was to succeed his boss, impeached for financial crimes, at Obasanjo’s behest, as the governor, complexed as vicePresident of Nigeria to Yar A’dua’s Presidential ticket. The match-making cabal extracted from Jonathan a promise that he would not lift a finger for the Yar A’dua Presidency, considered a northern Nigeria slot, should anything, including death, happen to the sickly Yar A’dua before he completed two terms of four years each. Yar A’dua died two years into the first term and Jonathan jetissoned the pledge, supported

by Constitutionalists who puritanically insisted succession had to follow letters and spirit of the Law. Jonathan thus became Acting President. There was uproar in the north then and when Jonathan made a bid for a full four-year term after completing the remainder of Yar A’dua’s first tenure two years.

Obasanjo calmed nerves and sold the north a middle-road agreement in which the north would support Jonathan’s 2011 Presidential bid and Jonathan would pave the way for a northern President in 2015. But, again, in 2015, Jonathan broke the agreement and manipulated himself as a sole Presidential candidate in the party’s presidential primaries.

Meanwhile, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, leader of one of the oppo-

B

sition parties and, arguably, political leader of the SouthWest region, galvanised opposition parties into the All Poeples’ Congress (APC) to produce a northern Presidential candidate in General Muhammed Buhari (rtd), a one-time military strongman of Nigeria who, with only two routine houses and less than N1 million in the bank to his credit, arguably holds Nigeria’s record for the INCORRUPTIBLE MAN or MR INCORRUPTIBLE on the contrary Jonathan did not declare his assets or his wife’s in public.

The Presidential campaign was Nigeria’s fiercest. All the Presidents men who had led or misled him into policies which fattened their estates in the President’s support, even when they knew he could fail against Buhari, urging him to throw or hurl more money at the poverty stricken electorate are now departing from him. Jonathan, afraid and desperate to return to power, hurled and hurled and hurled more money.

Encouraging him on were the same people who swallowed the trillions of naira invested in the energy sector with nothing as yet to show for it. They were the same people who got him to borrow trillions of naira to fight the dissident Boko Haram instead of serving of Nigerian’s 774 Local Government Areas, expecting the rag tag army over four years of his tenure to do the job; whereas Nigeria fought a 30th-month civil war with the secessionist Eastern Region and borrowed no single kobo from overseas to fight the war, even when crude oil income was not available to prosecute the war. That cabal got money pumped like water into practically every security project. In the end, It was foreign troops from Nigeria’s neighbours who helped to liberate Nigeria’s lost local government areas. The stolen girls were not found. No one has been prosecuted for treason. And, as someone remarked, “the myth” of Nigeria’s army in Africa was broken.

So bad did Nigerian life become under Jonathan that the Naira, the national currency, crashed abysmally. The President’s men kept telling him these were not his handiwork but a global phenomenon. And they kept lining their pockets. Corruption came to such unbelievable head that Ibrahim Babangida, whose military junta was thought to fuel the corruption machine most, said when he compared his days with Jonathan’s, he must pass as a saint before the judges in history.

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RESIDENT Ebele Jonathan promised his party he would not pursue a second tenure ambition. But once he became President in 2011, courtesy of that agreement, he canvassed a constitutional amendment that would replace a four-year term with one of seven years. This, again, was evidence of attachment to power. But he never had his way.

Only history and meticulous accountants would be able to ascertain how much money he has flung at voters in this election. I do not see him, in defeat, walking away from office with a broad smile on his face, thankful to the Lord for a wonderful opportunity he has had to be of service to his people. Leaving office grudgingly would mean attachment to office and a forcible tearing away from office by the public will. That would bring nothing but sadness and sadness that may lead the way to depression. President Jonathan would not be alone, downcast and suffering. There would be hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, who would journey in the same train with him. Many of these people would be those followers of Jonathan who clung to him on ethnic and religious grounds irrespective of visible damage he had wrought on the economy or who stood by, believing that another tenure would bring of unlimited access to the treasury. A state of depression which is likely to follow President’s Jonathan’s defeat informs the choice of depression as the subject of this column today. It should offer an opportunity for self-help to everyone who, “stranded and alone,” finds himself or herself in a state of depression….

There are two carpenters who gave me an idea of what the face of depression may look like. The first was to help me knock up wood work in the kitchen. I had known him for many years. He came by money easily because he had many clients who liked the finishing of his job. But he spent money as easily as he earned it, believing the morrow would bring yet another haul. Then one day, he received the shocking news of his life: his younger brother had just built a house and moved in. This carpenter was depressed by the news because he had just been sent out of his single room abode by

e-mail: femi.kusa@yahoo.com or olufemikusa@yahoo.com

his landlord and was living in a market stall. For months, he locked up his workshop, and depended on the generosity of his clients to keep body and soul together. I managed to persuade him not to weigh his life on another person’s scale. So, he came to the house for the kitchen job. But he couldn’t summon his nerves to work and left.

The second carpenter came to make ward robes in the rooms.

He seemed full of life but wherever he settled to work, he never kept his lips sealed. He was always talking to himself, complaining about how his extended family was fleecing him of money. Mid-day through the wardrobes, I stopped him from coming to the house. For he looked like someone who may knock the hammer and the nail in the wrong place someday.

Besides both men, I have been privileged to observe many people whose bodies do not align with their souls. Some of them talk to no one in particular as they walk along on the highway. In buses, some are physically wide awake but do not hear the conductor call their bus-stop. Some are lethagic and feel like doing nothing in life. Some have no appetite, while some overeat. Some people cannot sleep (insomnia) while some people sleep all day (sleep attack). Some people, especially the young, are easily irritable. Some people loose interest or pleasure in almost all activities, including sex.

Some people feel guilty or worthless. Energy loss and fatigue may assail some people. Concentration may be difficult in some cases. In some cases, suicidal or negative thoughts may flourish in the soul. At this level, the patient may be subjected to the receipt of auto suggestions from disembodied but earthbound souls who seek to manifest their desires in the earthly plane by taking possession of any human body whose blood radiations make them vulnerable for such possession. Orthodox medicine would appear not to be familiar with this terrain orthodox doctors simply put the patient to a prolonged sleep to calm the patient. When the patient falls asleep, the invading disembodied soul finds the body unusable and vacates the scene for a while, to return when the patient is awake.

The doctor prescribes another round of sleeping drugs, and the vicious cycle continues. In their own practice, traditional medicine doctors who have a calling in this field merely cast the invader away and the patient normalises. Nutritionally, this can also be achieved by recomposing the blood. To elevate its radiations, particularly with green foods and drinks. The recomposition elevates the blood radiation to the point that it cannot be used by a soul other than the inhabitant of that physical body, that is the patient. In the 1980s, Lagos city witnessed the phenomenon of a bearded man who prowled the metropolis picking insane people in the streets and marching them around all day in a long file. He would buy them razor blades, and they would, with them, cut their hair. Public spirited people donated clothes and money. The once insane people became well. It was unfortunate that the health authorities did not seek to understand his art and integrate it into the hospital health care delivery system. In my understanding, what he did amounted to no more than freeing these once insane people from those entities in the beyond which made them playgrounds of their own pleasures. Many people are subject to auto-suggestion on a middle scale without realising it. People would tell you that something always tells them while on a pedestrian bridge to jump into fast moving traffic below. Sometimes they feel like reaching out for a knife and stabbing themselves. When I teach troubled people how to fight negative auto-suggesting, I let them know that every negative thought they develop is a perversion of a positive thought. When they think negative, they should act the positive end of the continuum. Example, if one has a serious argument with another, and he receives an auto-suggestion to slap or strike that other person, he could turn the table against negativism by telling the other party… oh we need not quarrel over this matter. “I am sorry about everything”. I have found those three words. “I am sorry” a great healing balm in many situations, even when I am in the right.

By the time one has become suffused with positive thinking, the negative auto-suggestions decrease in quantum and frequency. In this season of election block and defeat, those minions of darkness who work with negative auto suggestions will be everywhere instigating quarrels, gun duels, and whatever would not make for the peace of the individual and his or her society.

CAUSES HERE are many possible causes of depression. An underlying feature of them all is sadness. All of us are sad at one time or the other. We may be bereaved, in the heat of divorce, have unresolved emotional issues, be under tension and stress, become financially embarrassed, or our hormones may become unbalanced. Besides this, some drugs, especially recreational substances may cause mind havocs.

Mood swings do occur, also from low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and high blood sugar.

In the specific case under reference, that is depression arising from election shocks and defeat, politicians and their followers will be imperiled in their health if they do not detach themselves from this event and carry on with their lives.

They may become moody, hurtful all day, all night, losing brain chemicals which stabilise the brain. The loss of one of these chemicals, serotonin, has been linked to various states of depression. Depression is a crystal clear word. It means compression or the piling of pressure. The piling is impacted on the mind by forces outside the mind. If forces within the mind cannot match the forces outside, a break down occurs within which rapidly consumes all the nutrient chemicals which keep the brain stable. In the event of these substances not being as rapidly replaced as they are consumed, the brain , too, goes under.

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Tel: 08116759749, 08034004247, 07025077303

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

THE NATION

BUSINESS e-Business

e-mail: lukajanaku02@gmail.com

Across the world, information communication technology (ICT) tools and solutions are being deployed to provide answers to human problems. It is now common to find ICT solutions in areas such as medicine, agriculture, commerce and even in churches and mosques. Experts have commended the introduction of permanent voter cards (PVCs) and the card reader for elections. They urge the Federal Government to fine-tune the tools to allow people vote conveniently, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.

Deploying ICT solutions for polls S

HE woke up early last Saturday, prepared breakfast for her five children and headed for Salvation Army Primary School, Ayobo in the Ipaja/Ayobo Local Development Area of Lagos State where she had done her voter registration, collected her temporary voter card and voted at previous general elections.

Armed with her permanent voter card (PVC), 36-year old Mrs. Esther Kokumo got to the school compound at about 8.15am. She met a long queue of people who wanted to do accreditation with their PVC using the card reader technology which the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) had introduced to enhance the smooth conduct of the election.

When it was her turn to be accredited, she presented her PVC and her right thumb was placed on the machine which brought out all her data earlier captured during the registration exercise.

“I spent less than three minutes to do it and returned home to join my children and to wait for about 1pm when voting proper was scheduled to take place,” she said.

But reports from some parts of the country indicated that the card reader didn’t live up to expectation. For instance, at the polling booth of President Goodluck Jonathan, about four card readers were said to have failed to work in quick succession. That is however not to say the technology was a colossal failure as it was applauded across the country for performing so well and lending credibility to the entire process.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, said: “A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. The first were punched card readers, which read the paper or cardboard punched cards that were used during the first several decades of the computer industry to store information and programs for computer systems. Modern card readers are electronic devices that can read plastic cards embedded with either a barcode, magnetic strip, computer chip or another storage medium.”

When the idea of the card reader was first sold to the Federal Government by INEC, it was bought with excitement but as the general elections inched closer, opposition to its use grew, especially from the ruling party which had earlier gave its approval to it.

INEC had configured and distributed to states, over 154,000 card readers for the general elections.

Experts in the ICT industry have commended the introduction of the card reader technology in the country, arguing that in spite of the little challenges that arose from its use, it should be fine-tuned with a view to making it work more efficiently.

Both the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) and the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the umbrella body of telcos in the country, have urged the upgrade of the technology to a level where a registered voter in Lagos could vote in any part of the country.

•INEC chair, Prof Attahiru Jega

•Card reader

NCS’ position NCS said its position has always been that ICT tools should be sued by government institutions not only to save cost but also enhance efficiency.

The body believes the country is ripe for electronic voting or e-voting, adding that the introduction of PVC and card reader is encouraging as it will one day dovetail to the use of e-voting.

It said if e-voting is adopted, it is not only cost-efficient, it will also erase whatever doubts the electorate might have concerning the electoral umpire in terms of transparency.

Its President, Prof. David Adewumi who spoke with The Nation said there is no basis why the country should not adopt e-voting which the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) have used a couple of time with great success.

He said: “Our position in the NCS remains the same. We are ripe for e-voting. When you look at e-voting, it is no longer rocket science. The major requirement is the infrastructure, I mean the information technology (IT) equipment, capacity building. Then INEC must provide the purposeful leadership that is required to deploy the technology and consequently, e-voting. I think that is all that is needed. There no space science to that.”

On the low level of computer literacy and personal computers (PC) ownership in the country, the NCS chief said it was no true that the level of computer literacy in the country was that alarming.

According to him, the old people in the villages now use mobile phones, adding that keyboard of the mobile phone is even smaller than the ones on the PC. “Yes, the old people in the village now use mobile phones. So what is it about low level of computer literacy you are talking about? The key board for the mobile phone is smaller than that of the PC. I think what is required in this is determination to ensure it succeeds,” Prof Adewumi said.

He urged INEC perfect the use of the card readers for future elections and embark on the training of its workers.

“The lessons here are that INEC should train its workers; liaise with professional bodies such as the NCS for professional advice. Card reader has erased the problem of double voting or voting by people who did not register in the first place,” Prof Adewumi said.

On the possibility of registered voters voting anywhere in the country, he said infrastructure and logistics may make this a wishful thinking.

•Ajayi

•Prof Adewumi

He added that the existence of mistrust among Nigerians may also be a stumbling block in the realisation of the goal.

most 100 per cent coverage. The pilot of such innovation should be run in those states to see how it works. But if we are talking about running it in the entire country, that may not be possible now for obvious reasons, especially network coverage.”

Namibia became the first African country to adopt the e-voting technology with the Southern African country using it during her general elections last year The e-Voting Machines (EVMs) were acquired at a cost of 24 million Namibia dollars from an Indian firm which said the machines were equipped with technology that was designed to eliminate flaws and address the scepticism of some political parties questioning the transparency of that country’s electoral body.

The machines have features such as candidates’ photos, political parties together with other information next to the casting button. Voters will just have to click on their preferred candidate or party during elections to vote.

India also successfully used half-a-million EVMs of the same type during its 2009 general elections.

The EVM was used to choose 96 members of Namibia’s National Assembly and one of nine presidential candidates, ranging from the leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters to the white minority Republican Party. About1.2 million Namibians reportedly cast their ballots at nearly 4,000 electronic voting stations across the country.

ATCON’s views President of ATCON, Lanre Ajayi said technology will continue to simply processes. He expressed delight that public institutions such as INEC have started embracing ICT tools and solutions.

“I congratulate INEC for introducing the card reader technology into the electoral process. It has brought credibility to the entire process by eliminating the menace of ghost voters. INEC should take the technology further. Having said that, time has come for us to do e-voting in the country,” he said.

He however said the dearth of infrastructure may make voting as easy as using the automated teller machine (ATM) card to make financial transactions impossible in the short and medium term.

He said: “Making voting as easy as using ATM card is not rocket science. However, while ATM has infrastructural back up such as internet running on the network of telcos, the card reader does not. So, for this to happen, there must be 100 per cent connectivity to support it. Hopes are not lost because we are investing heavily in building infrastructure across the country. So, it is something that could be achieved in the not too distant future in the country.

“Some states such as Lagos have achieved al-

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e-Business

NCC set to cap transmission I cable price for operators W

Spectranet, iROKOtv partner on free movies

ORRIED by current re gime of denial of access to viable routes, predatory pricing and discriminatory and arbitrary pricing in transmission cable sector of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it will set a cap on its cost.

It warned that it will not hesitate to sanction any operator that breaches the cap.

Its Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eugene Juwah who spoke in Lagos at the stakeholders consultative forum on the determination of cost based transmission cable pricing, said while it is the policy of government that appropriate prices be determined by market forces, it has recognised that in the transition from monopoly to full market competition, there would be periods market forces may be inadequate to bring about efficient market conduct and prices that are close to costs.

Represented by its Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi who spoke on the sideline after

By Lukas Ajanaku

the meeting, he said after the consideration of the report of the study contracted to KPMG, it will develop “strong enforcement regulations and cap the cost price of transmission cable in the country.”

According to NCC, KPMG was contacted two years ago to carry out the study as part of its regulatory oversight function to address competitive dynamics, pricing and related matters in cable transmission pricing among operators.

“In the discharge of our regulatory and oversight functions, we are committed to participatory regulation and shall continue to ensure wide consultation before major decisions affecting the industry are taken,” Juwah said.

He said the commission engaged the services of KPMG to ensure that the execution of the project is guided by current realities in the sector.

He explained that presentation of findings from the study to stakeholders is to further prove the commission’s participatory regulation to gather opinions and inputs

for best pricing regime in the sector’s cable transmission market.

The essence of determining a cost based transmission cable pricing and development is to enable a judicious use of spectrum with minimal frequency coordination. This allows links to be deployed close to one another without interference.

KPMG’s Partner, Management Consulting, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, explained that the primary objective of the project is to develop a cost based option for regulating the pricing of transmission cable in the telecoms industry.

According to him, the greatest challenge encountered in the project was access to data as it took a year before accessing data from the operators.

He said having followed international best practices in carrying out with the study, information given by the telecoms operators was used as benchmark in the proposed pricing regime, adding that it took cognisance of the falling value of the naira and interest rate which kept going up.

NTERNET service provider, Spectranet 4G LTE has launched a partnership with iROKOtv.com to provide customers free movie.To celebrate this, Spectranet is giving the gift of 30 days free iROKOtv.com to existing customers who renew their Spectranet account.

The partnership will give Spectranet’s customers the opportunity to access a wide variety of movies and TV shows for free, including blockbusters such as ‘30 days in Atlanta’, ‘Festac Town’, ‘Poisoned Bait’ and ‘The Antique’, for 30 days. With iROKOtv.com, customers can instantly watch as many TV programmes and films as they want, as often as they want, and on the move.

Spectranet’s customers can access iROKOtv.com by visiting www.irokotv.com on a web browser, or downloading the Android app through the Google Play Store. They will be able to use

their smartphones, tablets, laptops or smart TVs to watch an ever growing selection of titles, with new movies added weekly, and the flexibility to stream or download.

Head of Marketing, Spectranet, Mr Mike Ogor, said this is part of Spectranet4G LTE’s value-addedservices mapped out to enable subscribers to enjoy its reliable, affordable and high speed internet service.

He said: “The partnership between Spectranet and iROKOtv.com gives Spectranet subscribers access to watch movies on iROKOtv.com for 30 days free. This is just one of the ways Spectranet is bringing more value to its customers. Once subscribers renew their accounts, a voucher that enables them watch all their movies free for 30 days is emailed to them. With the Voucher Code, subscribers just log onto irokotv.com, register their details and enter the code to enjoy 30 days unlimited access to watch new and interesting movies.”

Cisco unveils Mobility IQ

C

ISCO has introduced Mobil ity IQ, an innovative mobil ity software as a service (SaaS) analytics solution that unlocks the power of visual network knowledge and drives unparalleled business outcomes for service providers.

The market leading SaaS solution, hosted on Cisco Cloud Services, provides advanced insights and an unprecedented bird’s-eye view across Wi-Fi, 3G and LTE network activity – in real-time. Service providers can identify and capitalise on new business opportunities and deliver exciting new experiences to their customers using a flexible, as a Service consumption model.

According to the latest annual update of the Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2014 to 2019, global mobile data traffic will grow nearly 10-fold over the next five years, aided by the ongoing

adoption of more powerful mobile devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, combined with broader access to faster cellular networks. The forecast notes that global WiFi offload traffic will exceed global cellular traffic by 2019, which underscores the increasing importance of small cell technologies in many carriers’ mobile service delivery strategies.

General Manager, Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dare Ogunlade said: “Mobility IQ is a great example of Cisco executing on its service provider strategy in Nigeria enabling our customers to drive profitable business outcomes through transformation.

This powerful new solution helps service providers and their business customers understand their own networks better, optimize the delivery of their services, and ultimately increase revenue.”

Govt, OEMs to partner in bridging digital divide

I •Vsat

E-PPAN alerts of fraudsters using BVN

E

LECTRONIC Payments Providers Association of

Nigeria (E-PPAN) has warned customers to be wary of fraudsters pretending to be carrying out Biometric Numebr Verification (BVN) registration to access details of customers’ bank accounts.

Its Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Regha Onajite urged bank customers to do their BVN with their banks, warning that unscrupulous elements are hiding under the guise of the exercise to defraud customers.

Mrs. Onajite, who spoke in Lagos during an interactive session with reporters, said: “One thing they (fraudsters) use to catch their unsuspecting victims currently is the ongoing Bank Verification Numbers (BNV) registration. Everybody is supposed to do the BVN and I urge Nigerians to go and do this exercise with their banks. It only takes few minutes to complete the process.

“No bank will send you an email to go online to put in your details all in the name of registering for your BVN. So we must be very careful about giving information out.”

E-PPAN is particularly worried

that as the Easter festivities gather momentum, bank customers are more likely going to use these alternative channels to either withdraw or make payments. It has therefore offered tips to customers so that they will not be defrauded by cyber crooks.

She said banking customers should not be carried away by ongoing general elections and Easter celebrations from taking proper protection of their personal sensitive data connected to their financial activities.

She said: “This is the period of election and there is a lot of anxiety. We are trying to change to a new administration or retain the existing one and because we are anxious about our political future, a lot of people may ignorantly open the flanks of their financial security.

“We should always be on the alert because the fraudsters are always on the prowl. Because fraud happens when there is a state of less security, you be on your guard; protect yourselves, personal details because once you are able to protect our personal details, it reduces your chances of being defrauded by 50 per cent and even by

80 per cent.

“So, the other 20 per cent would be handled by the financial institutions through different measures they have put in place to ensure that their customers are safe. Electronic payments come with a lot of convenience. Speed is one of them.

“It, therefore, means that if somebody is about to get your details or cards and access your channels of payment, the person will also be able to conveniently and speedily steal your money.”

She urged customers to be couscous of the increasing wave of phishing. “You need to protect yourself always. Do not open unsolicited emails; do not respond to them, don’t feel your information online as this may be phishing, and you may leak your personal financial details in the process” She said with electronic payments, a lot of banking customers have got increased financial security since they carry less cash and rely more on electronic platforms for their transactions, warning that during festive periods, cyber crimes always peak because people like to buy things online and do fund transfers to friends, parents and relatives.

HE Federal Government has assured indigenous original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that it would partner with them to bridge the digital divide in the country.

Communications Technology Minister, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson who spoke during the commissioning of the 50KVA 3 phase off-grid solar solution factory of Omatek Ventures at Oregun, Lagos, said the government would continue to support OEMs through the implementation of appropriate policies.

The factory will present the solar solution for factories, banks, telcos firms, government and other organisations that require big power installations.

She said: “I commend the management of Omatek for this initiative. We will continue to come up with policy that can help support your business through our local content initiative. More importantly, we urge Omatek to continue in its two lines of business of computer assembly and solar technology solutions as the two are key to bridging digital divide and ensuring energy consumption efficiency in the country respectively.”

Chief Executive Officer, Omatek, Mrs Florence Seriki, explained that there are both offgrid and on-grid solutions as well as LED bulbs, adding that there are solutions for the 12watts, 20 watts, 500 watts power that could replace the I better pass my neighbour generator for small homes, shops, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), churches, rural electrification and rural system, street lighting implementation, schools and so

son for students, farmers among others.

She said: “These are all-in-one installations assembled locally and packed with Omatek’s solar, inverter, battery, controller in all-in-one carton and can be selfinstalled.

“Omatek Solar Solution, which is a hybrid solution that provides 24 hours lighting/ power Solution by use of our solar-led bulb-inverter hybrid solution; whilst providing 70 – 90 per cent cut/deduction in power consumption and drastically reducing power consumption by an average of 85 per cent on the overall grid; thus enhancing growth in the real sector and general economic development.

“We have installed these solutions in schools, homes, offices and factories and proud to inform you that the education sector welcomed not just provision of power and green energy, the hostels and all reading areas have 24 hours lighting and this bridges the digital gap in our schooling system, as students had stopped reading in darkness.”

Speaking on the key benefits of the solar solutions, Seriki said the solutions provides 24-hours alternate power/green energy for businesses, homes; provides 24-hour lighting solution to all; provides 24 hour solar energy and lighting solution for students, hostels, among others.

“The Omatek LED bulbs will not require replacement for three to five years whilst the solar will last 25 years. Duration of the batteries are for five to 10 years,” Mrs Seriki said.

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52

THE NATION

BUSINESS LABOUR

Don’t dabble into labour’s affairs, NLC faction warns govt

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HE aggrieved faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned the new Minister of Labour and Productivity not to hastily dabble into the internal affairs of trade union movement.

Factional President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajero urged the ministry to also respect the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 87 and 98 with respect to the rights of workers to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Stories by Toba Agboola

“The Central Working Committee (CWC) re-affirms the commitment of the NLC to defend the rights of workers to freedom of association and collective bargaining as enshrined in our constitution and labour laws and explicitly reaffirms the commitment to uphold ILO convention 87 and 98,” Ajaero said.

The group also warned the Federal Government over plans to lay off

workers in the public sector, adding that this will deepen the unemployment crisis.

His said: “The CWC in session noted the moves by the Federal Government to commence the implementation of the Orosanye Report on merger of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

“Labour would resist an attempt to hide under the implementation of a controversial committee report to lay off workers in the public sec-

tor and deepen unemployment crisis. We also observe that some states as well as some federal agencies own salaries for many months. Delayed payment of salaries is wage theft and is unacceptable.”

Ajaero said the devaluation of the naira has impacted negatively on local manufacturing because many factories depend on imported inputs, leading to increased prices of goods and services.

“We want to express our deep

concern about the unending and free fall of the naira against international currencies and the implications for industrial production, job security and the disposable income of workers,” he said.

The unionist pointed out that the growth and development of the real sector and increased value addition in manufacturing are critical for creation of mass decent jobs, elimination of poverty and for building a virile and sustainable economy.

Fashola inaugurates governing council for PSSDC

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HE Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has inaugurated a nine-member Governing Council for the Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC).

At the inauguration ceremony in his office, Fashola said the ultimate dream was to see the institution become the Lagos School of Government in the mould of the Kennedy School of Government in the United States and other such schools across the world.

The Council, headed by a former Head, Lagos State Civil Service, Prince Adesegun Ogunlewe, has other members drawn from both the public and private sectors, including Mr. Abiola Popoola, the immediate past president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Mrs. Regina Olubunmi Fabamwo, Director-General of PSSDC, Mr. Adeshina Mohammed Odeyemi, Mrs. Kikelomo Morenike Sanyaolu, Mrs. Olubusola Ajibola Abidakun, Mrs. Adetokunbo Ogabi, Prof Hakeem Fashina-Bombata and Mr. Idowu Oladipupo John. The Council has three years tenure.

Fashola said the inauguration was coming at a time when there was urgent need for outstanding leadership not only in Nigeria, but across the globe in order to make human civilisation live up to its expectation and achieve its full possibilities.

Fashola, who also expressed delight that the inauguration was coming so close to the end of his tenure, added that his pleasure arose from the fact that he could look back and say his administration was leaving behind not just a strong public serv-

• Fashola

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HE Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Joel Danlami Ikenya and the Director-General, Department of State Security (DSS), Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, have endorsed the election that produced the Comrade Ayuba Wabbaled Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), saying the process was free and fair.

NLC held its election with Wabba beating his sole challenger, Joe Ajaero to emerge as president.

Both Ikenya and Ekpeyong ex-

By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

ice but also a very strong and respected Public Service Training Institution.

He thanked the initiators of the institution which he described as “a far-sighted vision” adding that although it is still work in progress, government had over the last few years committed a lot of resources and time “in first upgrading the infrastructure of the school so that it is an environment that is conducive to learning which has all the tools”.

He noted that the institution was already playing the role of a Lagos School of Government “in a much understated way” pointing out that aside the institution being the place where the state’s teachers now receive their annual courses, it was the place where the government converted graduates into volunteer English, Mathematics and science teachers and sent them to the state’s secondary schools to help train students in those subjects.

He said: “This is also where the reformed programmes for the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) and Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) into the Lagos Law Enforcement cadre of the public service took place.”

Fashola added that a lot of the resources that have been generated by government has been deposited in the same institution where, according to him, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the state’s revenue generation formula were developed.

According to him, the government is happy to invest resources into the institution through which he said government is now developing the leadership qualities of the Nigerian people within the Nigerian territory instead of sending them overseas.

He added that he has been receiving letters from governments within and outside Nigeria asking for his government to send resource persons to share the knowledge with them.

Fashola expressed confidence that the ultimate dream would be achieved, saying: “This is because in the men and women that we have chosen, we have a lot of confidence, there is a lot of experience on one hand, there is a lot of youthfulness on the other side and there is a rich mix also of private and public sector experience going into the governing school.”

• Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mrs Juliet Chukkas Onaeko (right) and Head, Public Affairs Unit, ITF, Mrs. Dorothy Ojaide (left), at a seminar organised by ITF and Organised Private Sector (OPS) in Lagos.

ITF trains 74,000 youths in technical, vocational skills T HE Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has trained 74,000 young Nigerians in different technical and vocational trades, its Director-General, Dr. Juliet Chukkas – Onaeko, has said.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ engagement forum in Lagos on Zero Oil Policy and Economic Growth: The ITF Perspective, she said the programme was ongoing.

She appealed to stakeholders for support and collaborate to consolidate on the ongoing training programmes in the different sectors of the economy.

She said: “So far, 74, 000 young Nigerians have been trained in different technical and vocational trade areas. Most of the trainees secured employment immediately on completion of their training, while a large number of them have established businesses of their own and are doing well.”

Mrs. Chukkas–Onaeko said the technical skills development programme is being run using facilities of employers in different parts of the country and ITF Skills Training Centres, adding that over 2,300 trainees have so far benefitted from this partnership.

She also said ITF has entered into technical collaboration with Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) for the training of craftsmen and artisans in the construction industry.

• Partners OPS

She said the Federal Government has introduced various policies to reform the economy in order to place it on sustainable economic growth and stability.

She said: “As a proactive organisation, we have acquired four mobile workshops to complement our existing industrial skills training centres.

These will increase accessibility to skills training in all nooks and crannies of the country and ensure that our young men and women acquire relevant skills to fit into existing and new jobs.

“The ITF has also refocused its training programme to equip two million youths annually with employable and life skills required for self and paid employment. We hope that the outcome will be drastic reduction in unemployment and restiveness across the country.”

The ITF boss said most of the trainees secures employment immediately after completion of their training, while large number of them have established businesses on their own and are doing well.

“This laudable programme is ongoing and we need your support and collaboration to strengthen and consolidate it,” she said.

Govt receives NLC factional group pressed confidence in Wabba’s emergence when the NLC paid them separate courtesy visits in their offices in Abuja.

Ikenya said: “For us in the Ministry, we want to tell you that you won your election. Actually, our Ministry also supervised it. We have not heard and we have not got any letter from anywhere in respect of any other NLC and it was in the

knowledge of every Nigerian that there was an election here in Abuja and our Ministry participated in it.”

Ekpeyong, who congratulated Wabba, said: “The election was free, the election was very fair and it was in a very conducive environment that you were elected. We want to really collaborate and partner with you. That you said you were going to work with the provisions of the

constitution of the NLC cannot be what is not tenable; so, we are going to hold you to that so that at any point in time, you should always follow the due process and the law.”

He appealed to the NLC to join in the fight against terrorism and other crimes in the country, urging Wabba to ensure that his actions are guided by the interest of workers.

Mrs. Chukkas – Onaeko said ITF is also in partnership with Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) for the training of young Nigerians in various skills, adding that the Technical Skill Development Programme (TSDP) is being run using facilities of employers in different parts of the country and ITF’s skills training centre.

According to her, the seminar is expected to attend to all concerns.

“We shall highlight the key activities of ITF; the collaborations we have made over the years and the various reforms we are putting in place to support the Federal Government policy to transit from oil to other sectors,” she said.

Mrs. Chukkas – Onaeko, said in line with trends in the international community, the Federal Government has introduced various policies to reform the economy and place it on a sustainable economic growth and stability.

Of particular importance was the launch of the Transformation Agenda, which emphasised growth in manufacturing, agriculture, power, solid minerals, tourism, road infrastructure and other critical sectors of the economy. The follow up launch of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) policies were to ensure that our quantitative advantage was turned to productive gains.

She said the NIPR focuses on economic and revenue diversification in industrial sectors where Nigeria has comparative advantage, adding that supporting structures such as infrastructure, skills, finance, investment climate, innovation, standards and local patronage are being initiated to ensure sustainability.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 01-04-15

Nigerian equities soar by N905b in post-election optimism

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S President-elect Gen eral Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) collected the certificate authenticating his victory as Nigerian president at the March 28 poll, Nigerian equities recorded its strongest rally this year yesterday as investors continued to scramble for Nigerian equities.

With the flood of buy orders in the market dominated by foreign investors, market capitalization of Nigerian equities gained N904.5 billion to close at N11.620 trillion as against its opening value of N10.717 trillion. The benchmark index for the stock market, the All Share Index (ASI), indicated a day-on-day gain of 8.3 per cent as it surged by three steps to close at 34,380.14 points compared with its opening index of 31,744.82 points.

The strong momentum raised optimism on the outlook for the Nigerian equi-

By Taofik Salako Capital Market Editor

ties as the average year-todate return, which has sustained double-digit negative return all through the year, nearly turned positive yesterday. Average year-to-date return closed at -0.8 per cent.

Investors staked more than N10.9 billion on 881.58 million shares in 4,611 deals.

Market pundits attributed the strong bullish performance to the success of the national election, the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as president and the statesmanship displayed by President Goodluck Jonathan in his concession.

“The Nigerian stock market stretched its winning streak today on the heels of peaceful conduct of presidential elections. The subsequent announcement of Muhammadu Buhari as winner, with the incumbent conceding defeat also gave the market the needed strong impetus,”

analysts at Sterling Capital Markets said.

According to analysts, the current positive momentum may likely continue as market anticipates peaceful transition devoid of violence.

The release of impressive score cards and dividend benefits may also act as catalyst to spur positive sentiments.

“We expect the positive sentiment to continue as investors’ confidence returns to the market, even as the uncertainties in the polity appear doused,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

Analysts at GTI Securities said the recently concluded presidential election has restored confidence in the Nigerian capital market as investors hurry to take position of cheap stocks.

Analysts at Exotix, a global investment firm, are placing buy sign on Nigerian stocks, noting that the political transition has enhanced the potential of Nigerian equities among the frontier markets.

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 01-04-15

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55

MONEYLINK

‘Why CBN chose bank-led mobile money model’

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it avoided the implementation of the telco-led mobile money model in the country in order to have full control of monetary policy operations.

The policy, it said will also enable it minimise risks and ensure that offering of financial services are driven by organisations it licensed for that purpose.

The CBN said the telco-led model, where the lead initiator is Mobile Network Operator (MNO), shall not be operational in the country, stressing that the overriding vision of achieving a nationally utilised and internationally recognised payments system necessitate strategies to bring informal payment transactions into the formal system.

CBN said the framework identified two models for the implementation of mobile money services namely;

Stories by Collins Nweze

bank led – financial institution(s) and/or its consortium as lead initiator and non-bank led- a corporate organisation duly licensed by the CBN as lead lnitiator.

“The CBN recognises the importance of Mobile Network Operator (MNOs) in the operations of mobile money and appreciates the criticality of the infrastructure they provide,” it said in a guideline.

The CBN said a robust payments system is vital for effective monetary policy implementation and the promotion of economic efficiency. “The introduction of mobile telephony in Nigeria, its rapid growth and adoption and the identification of person to person payments as a practical strategy for financial inclusion, has made it imperative to adopt the mobile channel as a means of driving financial inclusion of the unbanked,”

•CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele it said.

These the apex bank said, underscored its decision to issue a regulatory framework that creates an enabling environment for the orderly introduction and management of mobile payment services in the country. The framework defines the regulatory environment as a policy path towards achieving availability, acceptance and usage of mobile payment services.

CBN said mobile payment has evolved as a veritable channel for facilitating the growth of commerce.

Fidelity Bank redeems promo prizes

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IDELITY Bank Plc yester day gave cash prizes worth N15.9 million and other consolation prizes to winners in its just concluded Save for Scholarship promo.

Addressing winners at the prize presentation in Lagos, its Executive Director, Lagos and Southwest, IK Mbagu said the exercise is focused on supporting education because of the critical role it plays in socio-economic development of individuals.

He said the lender also wants to keep the customers satisfied and committed to the bank.

“We are very excited at what has happened to our savings accounts during this

promo and we will keep on rewarding those who save their funds with us,” he said.

Mbagwu said before the final draw held last month, the lender had given out N64.1 million to over 200 winners across the country and that yesterday’s prizes completed the total prize of N80 million it budgeted for the six-month promo.

Some of the winners are Chigozie Onuoha who won N2 million star prize while Ogbuagu Hycient got N1 million star prize too. Others are Umoh Francis, N500,000; Abdulahi Aliu, N500,000; Charity Shekani, N500,000; Atuanya Daniel, N500,000 among others.

Also, Elekan Segun, Aleem Abiodun, Nike Ayanfeoluwa won N210,000 each even as the bank gave out consolation prizes of refrigerators and generators.

Onuoha expressed excitement over the reward describing it as a ‘surprise package’ and promised to tell others about the promo.

Representative of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Susan Onwuka described the promo as credible and commended the bank for keeping its word.

“The exercise has been transparent. The feedback from winners shows that the bank has kept its promises to customers in the course of this promo,” she said.

Honour for Stanbic IBTC CEO

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HIEF Executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mrs. Sola DavidBorha, has been named among the top chief executives of companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

At the 2015 ‘Top 25 CEOs Awards’, organised by Businessday in Lagos, DavidBorha was honoured for her contributions in the evolution of the Stanbic IBTC Group into a leading end-to-end financial solutions provider, and a blue chip quoted on the NSE. According to the organisers, the awards recognise

personalities whose performance, influence, and commitment have contributed to the growth of the capital market in a given year, while the awardees’ companies must have outperformed the All Share Index of the NSE. The four banking companies, including Stanbic IBTC Holdings, which made the list this year contributed over N93.33 billion to their market capitalisation last year, organisers said.

In her remarks, David-Borha said the recognition reflects the strategic insight that underscored Stanbic IBTC’s

decision to adopt a holding company structure a few years ago. The move, she said, is in line with its vision to provide end-to-end financial services and also build a franchise capable of generating sustainable and respectable returns to its stakeholders.

David-Borha said the future holds great promise for its stakeholders as the group continues to seek opportunities in high growth sectors of the Nigerian economy to grow its business while maintaining its robust business model anchored on the prudent management of resources.

Heritage promotes money mgt skills

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ERITAGE Bank has ad vised students to take full advantage of the Financial Literacy Campaign being championed through partnership between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other banks in the country to become adept at growing and managing wealth from their formative ages.

It said the emerging global economic realities have made it imperative for the leaders of tomorrow to have unparalleled skills in money management matters.

Speaking to senior students of the National Comprehensive Secondary School, Oji Avenue, near Glass Industry Road, Ogbo Hill, Aba, Abia State during the 2015 Financial Literacy Campaign as part of the Global Money Week activities, the its Customer Experience and Analytical Officer, Kikanwa Akpenyi, said the intention of CBN in launching the literacy campaign is to teach children and young adults financial responsibility as well as create a more enabling environment where students can understand what happens in banks where

their deposits are lodged.

She said: “The need to be prudent has never become more important than now. The young generation needs to learn, as a matter of compulsion, why it is important to be knowledgeable about where they keep their funds. So financial management, money management, savings, how to spend, how to be prudent are basically the things that are needed to be able to live a successful and fulfilled life as an adult; these are the things that are taught during the financial literacy sessions.”

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CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827

Fire at Balogun market again

•The burnt market...yesterday

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OODS worth millions of Naira were destroyed in an early morning fire at Balogun market yesterday.

It was the second time in three months that the market would be razed by fire.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the fire which affected lock-up shops, was first noticedat the back of a com-

PHOTO: NAN

mercial bank building.

Quick response from the Lagos State Fire Service prevented the spread of the fire.

Goods destroyed included lace materials, cosmetics, ladies wears, body cream, hair attachments, underwear accessories and refrigerators.

Some traders, who spoke to NAN, praised the firemen for their timely response,

which prevented the fire from spreading.

Mr Cletus Onyema said he lost a huge amount of money and goods.

“When I got a call that there was fire in the shops around this area, I did not know what to expect. I thank God that the situation was not that bad. I lost some goods but I praise the

fire service for work well done,’’ he said.

Mrs Ronke Adebayo told NAN that she had just stocked her shop for Easter.

“I thank God that I was able to save some of my goods. I have a truckload of lace materials parked out there but I was able to save the goods. I lost some goods but it would have been painful if all of them were con-

sumed by the fire,’’ she said.

Mrs Adebayo said the cause of the fire was still unknown, noting that the fire service came on time to put out the fire.

Director of Lagos State Fire Service Mr Fadipe Rasaq said firemen from Onikan Fire Station responded distress call within four minutes.

He said the fire razed a

We use rewire to snatch vehicles, says robbery suspect

Monarch advises Gani Adams to ‘tread softly’

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SIX-man robbery gang, which terrorised Lagos, has been smashed by the Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS).

Its leader, Ismaila Oladosun (29), led the police to arrest other members few hours to an operation in Agege.

The others are Ahmed Salami, 27, Azeez Shonde, 28, Sunday Samuel, 27, Monday Paul, 35 and Gbenga Odunuga, 49.

Parading them yesterday at the command Headquarters at the command Headquarters in Ikeja, police spokesman Ken Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said they were arrested following a tip-off.

They are to be charged with conspiracy and armed robbery.

Officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, a superintendent of Police (SP), said the gang raided houses in Agege, Abule Egba, Meiran and Alagbado areas of Lagos and had perfected plans for another operation before it was smashed.

Oladosun said the gang also robbed people of their phones at gun point.

He said Paul was in charge of selling stolen items including phones, cars, and laptops.

Paul was arrested with a ML Jeep Mercedes Benz, a Toyota highlander and a Toyota Camry.

He confessed to have sold about six cars to a dealer called Gbenga at Agidingbi in Ikeja, Lagos.

When Gbenga was arrest-

storey building which top floor collapsed and destroyed eight lock up shops.

The cause of the fire, he said, was still being investigated.

Fadipe advised traders to organise themselves to buy centralised generators that would be stationed outside the shops instead of using many small generators.

•The suspects...yesterday

By Ebele Boniface

ed, police said he confessed that the only vehicles he bought from the gang were a Toyota Highlander, a Toyota Camry (Orobo), a Toyota Camry (Big Daddy) a Picnic bus, a Honda Saloon Car and a Sienna bus.

Police said they recovered only the Toyota Highlander and the picnic bus out of the six vehicles. The suspect, they said, had sold the others before his arrest.

Oladosun said: “I was a revenue collector in Ikeja Local Government Council in 2013.

It was a contract work. After selling ticket, they pay me about N750 daily. I am from Ikirun in Osun State. When the contract ended, I became a security man in New African Shrine and my monthly

salary is N15,000 till day.

Our first operation was at Oba Akran. We were three, myself, Azeez and Rasheedi who is still at large. We snatched a Toyota Camry from where it was parked and sold it for N230, 000. My share was N60, 000. Monday removed N40, 000 after selling it. The remaining N10, 000 was used for enjoyment.

“The second operation at Ojodu Berger Expressway, we collected a Mercedes Benz from one woman. We also collected one Gulf car which we sold for N120,000, one Sienna which we sold for N180,000 and one Toyota Camry (Orobo), the buyer has not settled us.

“We have a member called Ojo a rewire. His role is to enter any vehicle we want to snatch and rewire it

to start it to enable us move the vehicle.”

Salami from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said: “I was idle and hungry when they told me to join them for operation. I joined them but I was not among those who carry guns. We go from house-tohouse around 2am when people are sleeping. We collect only phones, money and neck chains. Three of my former gang members namely Tajudeen Adeyemo, Akeem and Olunloga died in action in one of our operations. My role is to stand outside and alert others when police are coming.

Shonde, who worked as a barman at Basic Multipurpose Hotel in Oko Oba, Agege between 2012 and 2013 on a N12, 000 monthly salary, said he was lured him into the gang by his roommate, lola.

Samuel from Ikole-Ekiti in Ekiti State said: “They are my friends but I did not know that they were dangerous armed robbers, I was arrested when one of them wickedly mentioned my name as a member of their gang because I quarrelled with him at a smoking joint.”

Odunuga said he didn’t know he bought a stolen vehicle.

“I am a panel beater. I was doing naming ceremony of my child when Monday called me there is a motor for sale and the owner needed money urgently. They said N350, 000 and I said N250,000.

The second day they gave me the documents and collected their balance. I did not know that the motor I bought was stolen. I made a serious mistake,” he said.

BA Rilwan Oluwalambe of Ojokoro in Lagos has described Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) factional leader Otunba Gani Adams as a traitor for allegedly staging a road show in which people were injured and properties destroyed.

Oba Oluwalambe condemned some OPC members for invading Oshodi last week.

He said Adams’ political activities were reprehensible adding: “Gani Adams has become a traitor to the Yoruba people, and by his recent pronouncements, he is on the path of self-destruction.”

Adams could not be reached last night for his comment.

The monarch urged supporters of Ojokoro Local Council Development Area (LCDA) chairmanship aspirant Dr Dipo Okeyomi, a.k.a.

Carry Go, to be peaceful in their conduct, adding that Okeyomi has what it takes for the job.

Earlier, Okeyomi praised the monarch for the peace and security in his domain, promising to bring development to the community if elected.

He said he was motivated to run to transform the area, especially in the areas of employment, security, roads, hospitals and education, adding that as a security expert, he would work with all the security agencies, including Police and State Security Service (SSS) for sustenance of peace.

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NEWS BUHARI’S VICTORY

Buhari: we ‘ll wipe out insecurity soon

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RESIDENT-elect Muhammadu Buhari reiterated yesterday that Boko Haram will be contained within the next few months.

He spoke last night on CNN in his first interview after emerging winner of the keenly contested presidential election.

Gen. Buhari blamed corruption for the poor performance of the military in its war against the terrorist sect, promising to ensure accountability at all levels of governance.

He said: “I do not worry about reconciling the nation because the areas that are most volatile in terms of social instability, insecurity are the Northeast and the Niger Delta, which I think have been with the country long enough that we know how they started and what stage they are now. “ We are confident that we will rapidly give attention to security in the country and I believe we will effectively deal with them in a few months after getting into office.

“Firstly we have to register the cooperation of the neighbouring countries Cameroon, Chad and NigerAlthough some efforts were made by the current adminsutration, it was not good enough and was too

By Precious Igbonwelundu

late.

“The Federal Government was expected to have set that rule at least four years ago with these countries I mentioned to ensure there would not allow terrorists free movement across border and movement of weapons.

“This was only done a few months ago and we have seen the positive side by the way the Chadian, Nigeriens and Cameroonians have virtually fought Boko Haram more than the Nigerian military, until recently.

“Clearly we have seen enough and we have enough reinforcement agencies to face the Boko Haram squarely. I believe our military will live up to the challenge of fighting Boko Haram and if you could recall, the Nigerian soldiers were giving interviews to foreign journalists that they were being sent to face the terrorists and get more doused because of lack of weapons, training and leadership.

“The National Assembly attempted to conduct hearing to find out how much was approved in terms of budgetary allocation for weapons and training in

the last four years.

And they wanted to invite the Service Chiefs and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) but that hearing was cancelled by the military.

“So the performance of the military was and is still being affected by corruption in the system.”

On the allegation that he executed people for crimes that did not attract capital punishment, Gen. Buhari said it was untrue, explaining that the decree to make drug trafficking punishable by death was introduced in 1984.

“I did all what was alleged under military administration and since then I am a converted democrat. I attempted to get to this office three times and three times I ended up in the highest court in the country, Supreme Court.

Asked how he intends to contain corruption, the President-elect said: “This is not very difficult from my experience and it is on record that every ministry and parastatal in Nigerian have documents about administration and financial instructions.

“But those instructions were ignored because leadership at various stages were being held hostage because of their corrupt

practices, but we will make sure that corruption is eradicated in Nigeria.

“The process of enforcing accountability at every step of leadership is the only way. The laws are there, but have been ignored for so long that a culture of corruption has been developed.

“That has to be arrested immediately. People must be held accountable at various levels about public funds and property and I am sure that if we successfully plug the holes of corruption, there will be resources that can be utilised to improve infrastructure, invest in agriculture and mining and provide jobs to the unemployed,” he said.

Gen. Buhari also explained that he was not surprised at his victory in the polls, stating that his party was an amalgamation of experienced political parties and politicians across the country.

“I am not surprised of my victory because of how we came into the merger. The main opposition parties in Nigeria decided to come together to face the ruling party. We have experience political parties and politicians across the lengths and breaths of the country, so I am not surprised.”

Deeper Life Easter retreat begins today

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ASTOR Jerry Asemota, the Secretary of the Deeper Life Bible Church, has said that the church’s National Easter Retreat which begins today and will run till Sunday, will afford participants an uncommon opportunity to experience the supernatural power of God in their lives.

Announcing the retreat with the theme: ‘The Power of His Cross’, Pastor Asemota stated that the programme is coming at an auspicious time in the history of Nigeria when all citizens need to seek divine intervention in their lives.

“As individuals, at this point in time, we need that supernatural power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead to meet the challenges of life. As a nation also, the power of the cross is needed

to redeem us from the socio-economic and spiritual hopelessness to which the country has plunged. So, no matter which angle you may look at it- individual or collective- we need that awesome power of the cross,” he said.

According to him, the retreat will help participants to operate on a higher spiritual frequency, enjoy victorious and abundant life as well as discover the pathway to supernatural living.

He also said that the programme will hold at the Deeper Life Conference Centre (DLCC), Km 42, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, stressing that like other retreats in the past, the Easter gathering will feature concentrated messages from Pastor

William Kumuyi, the General Superintendent and other anointed ministers of the church; seminars, workshops, soul-lifting choir renditions and prayer ministrations.

According to him, the programme will serve to meet diverse spiritually inclined interests and will be beneficial to everyone – sinners and saints – pointing out that it will provide them with the opportunity to make peace with their maker (salvation of souls) and afford believers the opportunity to re-dedicate themselves to the service of God. The retreat which will be residential, he added, will also be streamed live via satellite from DLCC to other centres in Nigeria, Africa, Europe, America and other continents of the world

where the church has its branches.

The Church secretary gave the assurance that, like the previous editions, the Easter retreat will help develop in participants the needed resolve to contend with all earthly challenges,while keeping heaven in view at all times,adding that testimonies of supernatural deliverances and all round miracles had always been a common place at such gatherings.

Over the years, the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) has recognized retreats as important aspect of its programmes. The leadership of the church believes that spiritual retreats are necessary to keep a believer on track while preparing the church for the soon return of Christ.

•From left: Vice Patron, Oliver Johnson; Vice President, Lynn Nedd; Spanish Ambassador, Alfonso Barnuevo Sebastian de Erice; President of Nigerian-Spanish Association, Olusola Dada; Adminstrative Secretary, Jide Bibiresanmi and Special Adviser to President, Paul Ibe, during an official visit by the association to the Spanish ambassador in Abuja

NBA praises Buhari, Jonathan

By Joseph Jibueze

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HE Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has urged President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to do his best to fulfill his electorate promises when he assumes office.

In a statement by its President, Augustine Alegeh (SAN), the association described his victory as “monumental.”

“We wish him God’s blessings and protection as he undertakes the onerous mandate of running the affairs of the country in the next four years. We trust that he will take steps to fulfil and actualise the promises, which gave him the mandate of Nigerians.

“We wish him a very successful and peaceful tenure. We urge him to be a President to all Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliations, as this will be in the best interest of our democracy,” NBA said.

The association praised President Goodluck Jonathan, whose action in conceding defeat helped to prevent postelection crisis.

“We note with admiration and respect the prompt and dignified concession by President Jonathan while the collation of the election results was on and well before the official results were announced.

“This singular act, besides being in line with the best democratic practices in the world, has elevated his status as a statesman and true democrat. He most importantly, put Nigeria first and succeeded in diffusing the tension that had enveloped the country,” NBA said.

The body hailed Prof. Attahiru Jega for successfully conducting one of the most competitive elections in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Emeka Ngige, said he was hopeful that Gen. Buhari represented the symbol of change that Nigerians yearned for, which accounted for the massive support he received.

Said he: “The process for the redemption of our country under the leadership of Gen. Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has just started. All hands must be on deck to support the incoming government to return this country to the path of glory and progress.

“I congratulate Nigerians for this historic election in which an incumbent government at the federal level has been voted out of office through a free and fair election. I must also congratulate President Jonathan for his spirit of sportsmanship in conceding defeat, thus saving the nation from needless post election tension and apprehension.”

MD Yusufu is dead

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ONE-time presidential candidate Muhammadu Dikko (MD)Yusufu is dead.

He died yesterday at 84.

Yusufu, who was Inspector General of Police between 1975-1979 ran for president against former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Buhari’s election is victory for Nigerians, say APC governors

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OVERNORS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have said the victory of Gen Muhammadu Buhari in last Saturday’s presidential election is for the people.

In a statement last night in Abuja, Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum and Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha said the victory also signified the power in synergizing both the voices and efforts of the people.

The statement reads: “The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) wishes to congratulate the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) and the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on their historic victory; the forum also extends similar felicitation to our party, having put up a commendable fight towards victory—this is a sure glimpse into the many victories to be won under this administration.

“Indeed, General Buhari has won the victory for the Nigerian people, making it possible for us to once again believe in the demo-

From Tony Akowe

cratic ideology. This win also signifies the power in synergizing both the voices and efforts of the people.

“We admire the resilience, spirit of fair play and sustained integrity of the president-elect who out of his goodwill for the nation persisted in his effort and have finally saved a place for the nation in the global world space.

“We are grateful to be part of a party, formidable enough to harness strengths for the purpose of achieving greatness. We appreciate the APC’s recognition of the strength in the nation’s diversity.

“PGF pledges its support to the incoming administration, as it will continue to serve as a body of the APC, setting the policy agenda for the party towards bringing to bear its socio-democratic vision for the country.

“We wish to thank all Nigerians who participated in last Saturday’s national elections, as we urge you to throng out again on April 11th to vote for all candidates of the APC in the State elections across the country.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

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NEWS

ACF, JNI, Yero, others set agenda for Buhari

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HE Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), textile labour union and northern youths have set agenda for President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

They said he must fear God, tackle corruption, insecurity and take bold steps towards the success of the New Industrial Revolution plan.

This was as Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero congratulated him. He urged Nigerians to support the President-elect to move the country forward.

The ACF Chairman, Ibrahim Ahmadu Coomassie, in a statement in Kaduna yesterday said: “The election result

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

was expected and we congratulated General Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on his victory. We wish him a successful governance.

We hope he governs with justice and equity.

“We hope Nigeria will move forward. We also expect him to end insecurity and corruption. We advise Nigerians to support the new president to fight insecurity and corruption.”

Commenting on President Goodluck Jonathan’s bravery in conceding defeat, the ACF chairman said: “We hail him for being courageous to accept

defeat. This has shown the maturity of Nigerian democracy.

“We advise his supporters, particularly those who threatened heaven and war if the president loses, to emulate him by joining hand with the new president to move Nigeria forward. We congratulate Nigerians.”

The National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) said: “General Buhari’s victory must undoubtedly usher in new innovative policy changes that must ensure prosperity in place of existing mass poverty.

“We, however, suggest that there must be continuity of

some good labour market and industrial policies of the Jonathan administration, such as freedom of association, right to unionisation, unfettered collective bargaining and the new National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and the national cotton, textile and garment policy among others.”

A group under the auspices of the Northern Youth Council of Nigeria urged the incoming President to meet the expectations of Nigerians, who gave him their mandate.

The group, in a statement by its National President, Comrade Isah Abubakar, which was made available to reporters in Kaduna, enjoined

the President-elect to justify the confidence reposed in him

by Nigerians.

Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) urged the President-elect to fear Allah (SWT) in his stewardship and be just and fair to all Nigerians.

JNI, in a statement by its Secretary-General, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, said: “Following the announcement of results of the long-awaited presidential elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC0, JNI congratulates Nigerians on their doggedness, courage, resilience, maturity and above all, persistent prayers for a credible and hitch-free presidential election.”

Suswam, Onjeh reject Benue senatorial elections From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

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ENUE State Governor Gabriel Suswam and Comrade Daniel Onjeh have rejected the results of Saturday’s senatorial election.

Suswam, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lost to Senator Barnabas Gemade of the All Progressives Congress (APC), while Onjeh was defeated by Senate President Davic Mark (PDP).

The governor has petitioned against the result Suswam is challenging the emergence of Gemade on the allegations of manipulation of result figures and cancellation of election in Mbaded and Mbagbera wards of Vandeikya, and in Konshisha local governments. He spoke to reporters in Makurdi yesterday.

Onjeh questioned the declaration of Mark as winner, saying there was electoral fraud and prayed that INEC should inspect the card readers, certified true copy of the accredited voters captured by each card reader and incident forms used for the election.

Smart Adeyemi seeks cancellation of Kogi election

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F

OUR supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were yesterday feared dead, while many were injured as they celebrated the electoral victory of the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital.

An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymous, said one of the deceased was Mallam Usman, an APC supporter from Akwatashi in Obi Local Government Area, but resident in Lafia.

He said Usman was hit by a motorcycle, which was ridden by another APC supporter (name withheld).

The Nation learnt that the injured were receiving treatment in a hospital, while the bodies of the deceased had been deposited in a public morgue.

It was gathered that the highway was jam packed by the jubilating APC supporters, when the accident occurred.

‘Obiano may defect to APC’ Exco member: it’s untrue From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

T •From left: Newly-elected All Progressives Congress (APC) senators from Adamawa State: Mrs Binta Garba, Adamawa North Senatorial Zone; Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Nyako, Adamawa Central Senatorial Zone and Alhaji Ahmad Abubakar, Adamawa South Senatorial Zone, during a thank you visit at the party’s state secretariat in Yola...yesterday.

Jang stole my mandate, says APC candidate

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HE candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Plateau North Senatorial Zone in Plateau State, Mrs. Ayisa Sambo, has alleged that Governor Jonah Jang was not the winner of the National Assembly election held last Saturday.

She said the declaration of Governor Jang as the winner was done in compromise of credibility.

Mrs. Sambo, who made the allegation at a news conference in Jos yesterday, said: “Gov Jang

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

has stolen my mandate and that of the APC.” According to her, “we received the results and also declarations of the results and received briefings from our agents from across the constituencies, polling units and we have issues with some of the wards.

“In Plateau North Senatorial Zone, as you are aware at the collation centre, issues came up in relations to the massive irregularities associ-

ated with the results of some of the areas.

“We have been briefed by our agents on what transpired and the arguments they raised, which were not entertained by the returning officer, Prof.

Rotgak Iliya Gofwen.

“Due to all of these and some other irregularities associated with the processes and validity, our agents refused to sign the final results that declare the winner for the senatorial zone.

“We are using this medi-

um to also appeal to our supporters to be calm, law-abiding, as the process is not yet exhausted.”

Mrs. Sambo went on: “We are also appealing to our supporters, who are worthy agents of change that we should not renege on our resolve to protect the people’s mandate. Let’s go out and keep campaigning for victory for the governorship election. Let us be focused and not be discouraged by recent happening. “

Plateau APC candidate congratulates Buhari

From James Azania, Lokojo

ENATOR Smart Adeyemi has urged the cancellation of the result of the Kogi West Senatorial District election.

The Senator Smart Adeyemi Campaign Organisation in a statement said the result was not the true position of what took place.

Adeyemi, who re-contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was defeated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dino Melaye.

The leader of the organisation, Mr. Fehinti Dada, told reporters in Lokoja that the feedback from the PDP agents in some units showed that the election was far from being free and fair.

According to him, “it was marred by intimidation, irregularities and multiple voting.”

This among others, he said, had negative effects on the performance of Senator Adeyemi in the election.

Dada said over 2,664 PDP voters were denied voting rights after accreditation, alleging that over 5,000 supporters were denied accreditation.

Four feared dead celebrating Buhari’s victory

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HE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State, Mr. Simon Lalong, has described the victory of General Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election as a renewed hope for democracy.

He spoke yesterday at a news conference in Jos. Lalong, congratulating the

•Promises to deliver state From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

president-elect, said: “While I congratulate Gen. Buhari on the electoral victory, I also wish to salute the determination of the teeming supporters of APC all over the country, who believed and looked up to the party for hope.”

The former Speaker of the House of Assembly promised to deliver the state to APC in the governorship election on April 11.

Lalong said: “I wish to assure that even as the hopes of Plateau people as expressed in the presidential election are being denied by certain forces

in power in the state, I wish to advise our supporters not to lose hope.

“In Plateau State, the battle is far from being won, as we still have a task to deliver the state to APC in the governorship election. We can’t afford to drag the state backward by voting another party besides APC in the governorship election.”

Niger Governor Aliyu concedes defeat

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IGER State Governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Niger East Senatorial District candidate, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, yesterday conceded defeat to the Senator-elect for the zone, David Umaru.

He was defeated in last Saturday’s National Assembly election by Umaru with over 170,000 votes.

Aliyu, who spoke in Minna before a state executive council meeting, said he had attempted to get in touch with the Senator-elect on the phone to congratulate him, but his

From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

calls and text messages were not unanswered.

His words: “I have already conceded defeat to David Umaru. I have called his number about seven times after he was declared the winner, but he did not respond. I sent a text saying ‘this is the Chief Servant calling, please pick’ and I have not received a reply till now.

“I have no qualms about the defeat. I did not see my defeat as an insult to my person but as God’s will.”

The governor hailed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for paying attention to details and advised it to consider the shortcomings in the last election and work towards correcting them.

He lauded President Goodluck Jonathan for being a gallant loser by congratulating the President-elect, saying his action doused whatever tension that arose during the collation of the results.

“President Jonathan’s approach doused whatever tension that might have been cre-

HERE are strong indications that Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano has started moves for a possible defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), following the victory of the party in the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

He reportedly summoned a meeting of the stalwarts of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) yesterday at his Aguleri country home in Anambra East Local Government Area.

Obiano made a state broadcast yesterday at the Governor’s Lodge at Amawbia, where he told the people not to be sad over what happened during the elections.

He congratulated Presidentelect Muhammadu Buhari for emerging victorious in the election, assuring him of the support and cooperation of APGA and his administration.

The Nation learnt in Awka that the import of the meeting by Obiano with APGA stalwarts was to tell them his plans of attempting to defect to the APC, who, according to him, was relevant, having won the Presidential Election.

However, a senior member of his executive council (Exco), who preferred anonymity, told The Nation that he was not aware of such a plan by the governor.

The member representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency and a chieftain of APC in Anambra State, Afam Ogene, said Obiano would not be welcomed into the party if he made such move.

Ogene, who was frustrated out of APGA before he defected to the APC, said the governor must first clean up the mess in APGA before defecting to APC.

‘Be just’

E

•Aliyu

ated. It worked to smoothen whatever rough edge the election would have caused. We hope the transition will be smooth and everyone will see a friendly handover.”

LDER statesmanandNigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, has urged President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to make justice and fair play his cornerstone.

He said with peace and stability, Nigeria would take her place as the leader of the black race.

Sule, who was the first Minister of Oil in 1959, addressed reporters yesterday at his Dawaki Road home in Nassarawa Local Government Area.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

NEWS THE VERDICT ‘Jonathan lost election to sycophancy’ From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

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ORMER Deputy Governor of Edo State Rev. Peter Obadan has said President Goodluck Jonathan lost the election because he surrounded himself with sycophants.

He urged Nigerians to be patient with the incoming administration even as he advised Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to be cautious of people, who may not mean well for his administration.

He said: “We may not have 100 per cent fulfilment of our electoral promises in 2019 but Nigeria will see positive changes. They will know that we are on the right track. “History has shown that Muhammadu Buhari is not seeking the office for personal aggrandisement because he is a man of principle and integrity, but for a just course. Upon that premise and with the calibre of people around, the promises made will be reasonably fulfilled “And unfortunately for this country, oil prices are dropping at a time he is coming into office but I want to appeal that we must be patient.

“We have a problem in this country which is why even the rich refuse to set up industry because they need a quick turn up - you sow today, you reap tomorrow, not having the patience of waiting.

“In Nigeria, we don’t have that patience, people expect a magical performance from General Buhari from the day he will be sworn in but that will not happen. There must be a period of planning and studying the issues on ground before talking of implementation.

“Jonathan was removed from office by the sycophants; it was the act of the sycophants that caused Jonathan to lose his seat, the unguarded and deceitful utterances led to Jonathan’s downfall”.

‘Nigerians made the right choice’ From Shola O’Neil, Bolaji Ogundele, Warri and Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

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HE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said Nigerians made the right choice in voting General Muhammadu Buhari as the president-elect.

In an online statement yesterday by its spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, MEND noted that Nigerians spoke through their votes.

“MEND extends its heartfelt congratulations to the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his victory in the 2015 election.

“The people have spoken and elected General Muhammadu Buhari to be the next president and in doing so, have made the right choice of a new leadership, as well as reaffirmed the strength of our democracy.

“General Muhammadu Buhari’s message of hope, freedom and opportunity resonates with our group, as it does with the people. In these difficult times, with the economic crisis and security challenges, we are confident that under your leadership, Nigeria will regain its peace and unity.“

Emerhor, UPU congratulates Buhari/Osinbajo

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Delta State, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, has hailed the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and the vice president-elect Prof. Yemi Osibanjo for their

victory.

A statement by his Director of Media & Political Communication, Dr. Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, described Buhari/Osibanjo’s victory as a divine democratic phenomena crafted by God to bring a positive

change to the nation.

He enjoined Nigerians to join the APC and its leaders to collectively benefit from the dividends of democracy.

Similarly, Acting President-General of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), Chief Tuesday Onoge described

Gen. Buhari/Osibanjo’s victory as timely and well-deserved, adding that Urhobo, with over one million votes, cannot be in opposition in the present arrangement.

Onoge called on Deltans to vote for Emerhor as governor.

•Hausa indigenes in Lagos jubilating at the Ikoyi Lagos home of the All Progressives Congress(APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu after the declaration of General Muhammadu Buhari as the President-elect...yesterday PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

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From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

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DO State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has congratulated the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s election, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his emergence as the president-elect. He said the victory represents a new dawn in the nation’s polity.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria, Oshiomhole said: “let me congratulate you, on your historic victory at the presidential election, through a process, which has been adjudged as free, fair and credible by both local and international observers. Indeed your victory, on the basis of one man, one vote, represents a new dawn in the democratic governance of our country “The spread of your victory across the length and breadth of the country shows your national acceptance as the man Nigeria needs at this critical stage to reposition it from the 16 years of PDP misrule.

Buhari’s victory a gang up, says Dokubo-Asari

HE Niger Delta People Volunteer Force, (NDPVF) has described the election of Gen Muhammadu Buhari as a conspiracy between the North and the Yoruba of the West against the east and the minorities.

The group is led by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

In a statement by Mr Rex Anighoro on behalf of DokuboAsari the group said: “The election clearly reinforces the fact of self determination and the truth that Nigeria remains a very divided and separated entity whose claim to unity remains a fraud of gargantuan proportion. ”The voting pattern has clearly shown that

the Gambari North and the Yoruba are united in the conquest of the Niger Deltans and the Igbo of defunct Biafra with the Middle Belt now used as pawns. We remain a people separated by our ideologies and interests, we are not integrated nor reconciled.

“The conditions that advanced the need to embrace the creeks have been sadly re -energised, it is clear that a vicious government who may maim and murder the voice of the so called minorities may have just been birthed. Indeed integration is nonexistent as regional gang ups and supremacy is symbolic with this victory.

“The victory of Muhammadu Buhari is a historical reminder that we are a conquered

people who are mere appendages existing at the pleasure of the supremacist and the regional overlords.

“We salute the gallantry and courage of Elder Godsday Orubebe, who spoke the truth to power. He needs not apologise to be politically-correct having demonstrated to the world what a deception the Nigerian union is.. ”While President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan enjoys his moments and basks in the euphoria of a now world-renowned statesman having congratulated Muhammadu Buhari, his conqueror, we must quickly remind that our struggle was never about Jonathan nor about Presidency. President Goodluck Jonathan was an establishment

beneficiary of our struggle, our sweat and blood that many bled and died for.”

“He was never in the struggle and he can never wish away our collective march forward for statesmanship. Yes, ndeed to an extent, he was a mitigating factor in self determination pursuit as we went on sabbatical, this mitigation he seems to have willingly repudiated.

“The days coming will be critical, we shall study all the conditions and consult widely before determining the way going forward for our collective existence and survival as a people. The days coming shall either drive the quest of integration or further separate us,” they added

APC chieftain sues Army, Dokpesi for illegal detention

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ICE Chairman of the All progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State Usman Mogaji and five others, have sued the Army, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, and two others at the Federal High Court sitting in Benin for alleged detention and rights’ infringment.

Joined in the suit are the chief of Army staff and the Commandant, Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Brigadier-General Augustine Odidi.

From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

Other applicants are Aliyu Mogaji, Tony Braimah, Samuel Nandik and Everest Igbolekwe, who are wards, siblings and employees of Mogaji.

Through their counsel, Hilary Oshomah, the applicants are seeking a perpetual injunction against the respondents from “further arresting, detaining, intimidating, harassing, kidnap-

ping, abducting or in any manner, infringing on their rights and members of the first applicant’s household connecting, concerning, pertaining, relating from the masterminding and instigating of the fourth respondent.”

They also seek a public apology in two national newspapers for their harassment, beating and detention by soldiers allegedly on the orders of Dokpesi.

They are asking for N500

million damages against the respondent and N20 million against the third and fourth respondents (Odidi and Dokpesi), jointly and severally in favour of the second to fifth applicants.”

There was anxiety among relations and friends about the whereabouts of Mogaji last Saturday.

Counsel to Mogaji, Oshomah said the soldiers acted on instructions from their commandant and a top politician.

Owo robbery suspect nabbed in Edo

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It’s a new dawn, says Oshiomhole

SUSPECTED robber, Etopa Sadiq, who participated in last week’s attack on banks and police stations at Owo in Ondo State, has been arrested by the police in Edo State.

Etopa was believed to have been abandoned by his gang, which fled after engaging the police in a shoot-out.

Police Commissioner Samuel Adegbuyi said his men engaged the robbers at Ibillo, following reports

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

that the hoodlums were heading towards that area.

Samuel said the robbers fled after minutes of gun battle and abandoned some of their arms.

He said arms 32 AK47 magazines, three LAR rifle magazines, seven TO6 rifle magazines, 23 teargas canisters, three boxes of ammunition, 12 rounds of dummy cartridges, 23 live

•Chinedu ammunition, three police crash helmets and one po-

Etopa lice uniform were recovered.

•Oshiomhole

Residents celebrate Buhari’s victory From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

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ESIDENTS of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, were celebrating yesterday as Gen. Muhammadu Buhari emerged the president-elect.

Coordinator of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), Comrade Ubong Sam, said the victory is a triumph over impunity.

Sam said the victory is primarily of God so that the weak, the poor and the needy would find accommodation in governance.

He hailed the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for his resilience, steadfastness, commitment to service delivery and the imperatives of salvaging the country from the manipulation of a few.

The coordinator hoped that with a good-natured personality like Buhari in the saddle, God would ultimately be glorified.

“We are proud to identify with the APC. We are proud of Buhari and we are happy that God has done it for us and for Nigeria,” Sam said.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

FOREIGN Yemenis rush to buy food and fuel as conflict escalates

Iraq: Tikrit re-captured by govt forces

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S Iraqi forces, aided by Shiite militiamen, took control yesterday of the northern city of Tikrit, they found vehicles laden with explosives and buildings that might be booby-trapped.

CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon, who was in Tikrit on Tuesday, saw a large mechanical digger packed with explosives that Iraqi forces had to disarm. The troops, she said, were cautious when they entered buildings in case they were wired to explode. Plumes of smoke rose from burning buildings in the background.

The potential booby traps were political as well as physical. Officials are concerned about the behavior of the conquerors, particularly the Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen who helped Iraqi troops. Officials fear the militiamen might take “scorched earth” repris-

als for the reported massacre of Shiite air force cadets by ISIS fighters in Tikrit last year.

Much of the population of Tikrit is, like ISIS, Sunni Muslim. And officials fear that reprisals by Shiite militias against the Sunni population could stoke local anger, jeopardizing the government’s ability to hold onto Tikrit and pull the country together. Sectarian resentment helped fuel the rise of ISIS in the first place.

Still, the liberation of Tikrit from the terrorist group, which is also known as ISIL and calls itself the Islamic State, represented a significant victory for the Iraqi government, which had tried — and failed — to retake the city many times before.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived Wednesday to claim the victory, which took place a year after the city

was first attacked by ISIS. AlAbadi, who is also Iraq’s top military commander, had announced the previous evening on Iraqiya TV that the city was under the control of Iraqi forces.

Iraqi forces continued to clean out pockets of resistance Wednesday, said Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban, who was also in the city. But he said the Iraqi government would be in full control shortly.

“The enemy has been defeated, and it has lost all its capabilities,” al-Ghabban said.

“In the coming hours, the battle will end.”

ISIS’ nine-month dominion over Tikrit was marked by brutality. In addition to the reported massacre of the 1,500plus air force cadets at Camp Speicher in June, ISIS is believed to have buried victims in mass graves and to have

destroyed an Assyrian church that had graced Tikrit since the eighth century.

The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city. Al-Abadi said those tactics would now be replicated in other areas.

Brett McGurk, the U.S. deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, tweeted that the coalition’s airstrikes had destroyed numerous ISIS shelters.

“We will continue to support courageous Iraqi forces operating under Iraqi command as they work to reclaim their territory from #ISIL,” McGurk tweeted.

The key to victory in Tikrit this time, the Prime Minister said, was surprise. But help from the coalition of Shiite militiamen and volunteers also played a part.

Egypt president welcomes release of withheld U.S. military aid

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GYPT’s president on Wednesday welcomed the restoration of U.S. military aid, a victory in his

quest to eliminate some of the last international penalties on his government following his 2013 overthrow of the country’s

elected Islamist president.

In a statement, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said U.S. President Barack Obama called him a

day earlier and affirmed interest in enhancing bilateral relations and military and security cooperation.

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EMEN’s war continued to escalate yesterday, with Saudiled airstrikes in most major cities and firefights across the country.

Saudi and its allies are seeking to depose Houthi rebels who claimed control of the capital Sana’a last September.

After another night of heavy bombing on Tuesday, thousands of people scrambled to get out of the capital Sana’a for the relative safety of the countryside.

At petrol stations across the city, residents queued for hours to fill their cars after rumours that the warplanes were targeting vehicles carrying petrol. On Monday, 14 civilians were killed and another 31 wounded after a strike hit a petrol tanker in the central governorate of Ibb. Many petrol stations had run dry by the afternoon.

“We are waiting to get fuel because we heard that Saudi jet fighters started targeting the gas and fuel vehicles. I am really worried because in that case, people won’t be able to move,” Majid Nassar, 22, explained.

Around 120,000 people have been displaced from their homes since the weeklong campaign began, according to the United Nations.

Mohammed Baggash, 48, took his family out of the city as he expects the situation to get worse. “On the first day of the Saudi airstrikes, they [hit] the civilians nearby Sana’a International Airport killing and wounding dozens, and we said that it was maybe a mistake. However when they continued targeting civilians, I was forced to evacuate my family despite a shortage of water in my village,” Baggash said via phone.

While the major food importers said they had enough stock for the coming weeks, in the streets people were panicking.

At one store that IRIN visited, residents waited around the block for basic supplies such as wheat, bread and rice.

Up to 90 percent of Yemeni food is imported, raising the risks of a food crisis. The country is partially sealed off, with airports and many ports closed.

BUHARI’S VICTORY

The die is cast Text of an acceptance speech by President-elect Gen Muhammadu Buhari after his declaration as winner of the presidential election on Tuesday night .

I

am immensely grateful to God for this day and for this hour. I feel truly honoured and humbled that the Nigerian people have so clearly chosen me to lead them. The official announcement from Independent National Electoral Commision (INEC) was the moment the vast majority of Nigerians had hoped and been waiting for. Today, history has been made, and change has finally come. Your votes have changed our national destiny for the good of all Nigerians .

INEC has announced that I, Muhammadu Buhari, shall be your next president. My team and I shall faithfully serve you. There shall no longer be a ruling party again: APC will be your governing party. We shall faithfully serve you. We shall never rule over the people as if they were subservient to government.

Our long night has passed and the daylight of new democratic governance has broken across the land. This therefore is not a victory for one man or even one party. It is a victory for Nigeria and for all Nigerians. Millions of you have worked for this day. So many have risked life and livelihood; and others have died that we may witness this moment.

And it is with a very heavy heart that I report many deaths and injuries amidst the jubilations yesterday. We send our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives; and wish speedy recovery to those who suffered injuries. I appeal to all our supporters to celebrate this victory with prayers and reflection instead of wild jubilation.

May the souls of those who died rest in peace. Let us take a moment of silence to honour all of those whose sacrifices have brought us to this fine and historic hour. As the results of the election have shown, their labor has not been and will never be in vain.

Democracy and the rule of law will be re-established in the land.

Let us put the past, especially the recent past, behind us. We must forget our old battles and past grievances— and learn to forge ahead. I assure you that our government is one that will listen to and embrace all.

I pledge myself and our in-coming administration to just and principled governance. There shall be no bias

against or favouritism for any Nigerian based on ethnicity, religion, region, gender or social status. I pledge myself and the government to the rule of law, in which none shall be so above the law that they are not subject to its dictates, and none shall be so below it that they are not availed of its protection.

You shall be able to go to bed knowing that you are safe and that your constitutional rights remain in safe hands.

You shall be able to voice your opinion without fear of reprisal or victimisation. My love and concern for this nation and what I desire for it extends to all, even to those who do not like us or our politics. You are all my people and I shall treat everyone of you as my own. I shall work for those who voted for me as well as those who voted against me and even for those who did not vote at all. We all live under one name as one nation: we are all Nigerians.

Some unfortunate issues about my eligibility have been raised during the campaign. I wish to state that through devotion to this nation, everything I have learned and done has been to enable me to make the best possible contribution to public life. If I had judged myself incapable of governing I would never have sought to impose myself on it. I have served in various capacities and have always put in my best.

But despite the rancour of the elections, I extend a hand of friendship and conciliation to President Jonathan and his team. I hereby wish to state that I harbour no ill will against anyone.

Let me state clearly that President Jonathan has nothing to fear from me.

Although we may not agree on the methods of governing the nation, he is a great Nigerian and still our president. He deserves our support and permanent respect by virtue of the office he has held. This is how an honourable nation treats its servants and conducts its affairs; and this is how Nigeria should be.

I look forward to meeting with President Jonathan in the days to come to discuss how our teams can make the transition of administrations as efficient as possible.

Here, I want to thank my party for selecting me as its candidate. I thank

our party leaders and members for the steadfast contributions they made to bring our dream to fruition. I thank INEC, the police and all other government agencies for performing their tasks in a proper manner and for refusing to be induced to undermine the election and the democratic process.

I also wish to thank religious Leaders, traditional leaders, the media, labor unions, Civil Society organisations, organised private sector, youths and students for their roles in this election.

I give special thanks to President Obama and his timely intervention and support for peaceful and credible elections in Nigeria and for sending Secretary John Kerry and other United States officials. The European Union - especially the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other nations that were actively involved in ensuring the success of this election are equally appreciated. My sincere thanks to the United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban-Ki Moon. The Commonwealth, China, India and other Asian and Gulf states are also hereby appreciated. Finally our brothers in the African Union and ECOWAS have truly and clearly shown and demonstrate their commitment to our democratisation process. Former Presidents John Kuffour, Amos Sawyer, Bakili Muluzi and his team are well appreciated. I must also add my appreciation for the role played by civil societies, national and International observers, other world leaders in ensuring that Nigeria holds free and fair elections.

I assure all foreign governments that Nigeria will become a more forceful and constructive player in the global fight against terrorism and in other matters of collective concern, such as the fight against drugs, climate change, financial fraud, communicable diseases and other issues requiring global response. I want to assure our fellow African nations that Nigeria will now stand as a more constructive partner in advancing the matters of concern to our continent, particularly with regard to economic development and eradication of poverty.

Former head of state and president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Yakubu Gowon, Alh. Shehu Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Er-

•Gen. Buhari

We will govern for you and in your interests. Your vote was not wasted. This is not the first time Nigerians have cast their votes for us, and this is not the first time they have been counted; but this is the first time that the votes have been allowed to count. With the help of God, we pledge to do our utmost to bring forth the Nigeria you seek. nest Shonekan and General Abdulsalami Abubakar deserve commendations for their statesmanship and words of caution and counsel for peace during the tense moments of this electoral period.

Most of all, I thank the people of Nigeria for reposing their confidence in me at this trying moment. Our nation wrestles many challenges including insecurity, corruption, economic decline. I pledge to give you my best in tackling these problems.

The good people of Nigeria, your obligation does not end with casting your ballot. I seek your voice and input as we tackle these problems. This will not be a government democratic only in form. It will be a government democratic in substance and in how it interacts with its own people.

No doubt, this nation has suffered greatly in the recent past, and its staying power has been tested to its limits by crises, chief among which is insurgency of the Boko Haram. There is no doubt that in tackling the insurgency

we have a tough and urgent job to do.

But I assure you that Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror, and bring back peace and normalcy to all the affected areas.

We shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism.

Furthermore, we shall strongly battle another form of evil that is even worse than terrorism—the evil of corruption. Corruption attacks and seeks to destroy our national institutions and character. By misdirecting into selfish hands funds intended for the public purpose, corruption distorts the economy and worsens income inequality. It creates a class of unjustly-enriched people.

Such an illegal yet powerful force soon comes to undermine democracy because its conspirators have amassed so much money that they believe they can buy government. We shall end this threat to our economic development and democratic survival. I repeat that corruption will not be tolerated by this administration; and it shall no longer be allowed to stand as if it is a respected monument in this nation.

I ask you to join me in resolving these and the other challenges we face.

Along the way, there will be victories but there may also be setbacks. Mistakes will be made. But we shall never take you for granted; so, be rest assured that our errors will be those of compassion and commitment not of wilful neglect and indifference.

We shall correct that which does not work and improve that which does. We shall not stop, stand or idle.

We shall, if necessary crawl, walk and run to do the job you have elected us to do.

I realise that the expectation of our people today is as high as their commitment to change has been strong and their belief in us unshaken. While we pledge to begin doing our best without delay, we would like to appeal to them to appreciate the gravity of our situation, so that we become more realistic in our expectations.

We will govern for you and in your interests. Your vote was not wasted. This is not the first time Nigerians have cast their votes for us, and this is not the first time they have been counted; but this is the first time that the votes have been allowed to count. With the help of God, we pledge to do our utmost to bring forth the Nigeria you seek.

Thank you for your patience and attention.

61

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

NEWS World leaders greet president-elect Continued from page 4

the French President will speak with Buhari today as France intends to continue its cordial relationship with Nigeria.

“France continues to stand with Nigeria to uphold democratic values, fight against terrorism and promote economic partnership between the two countries,’’ it said.

It added: “This is a victory for the president, but it’s also a victory for the people of Nigeria who affirmed their attachment to democracy and their confidence in the future, by refusing to allow themselves to be intimidated by terrorists.

“Today, Nigeria can show the world that it is a major democracy. It is a source of pride for the population and a source of satisfaction to Nigeria’s partners.

“We welcome the spirit of responsibility demonstrated by the political leaders and pay tribute to the action of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“I hope that President Buhari’s term of office will provide an opportunity to further strengthen the friendly relations between our two countries and to put an end to Boko Haram’s terrorist activities. We also hope that Nigeria will be

able to continue its remarkable economic growth, in the interest of the continent’s prosperity.”

President-elect Buhari has been receiving congratulatory messages from other world a and Nigerians leaders. He received former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his wife Hajiya Titi and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield and accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria James Entwistle, among others.

They all pledged their support and commitment to ensuring the success of the Buhari administration and for better relations between their countries and Nigeria.

In his response to the various leaders, General Buhari thanked the international community for working with Nigerians in providing the atmosphere that helped to bring about change through elections in the country.

He promised to work with the international community to restore Nigeria’s full commitment and obligations to the international system.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Walter Carrington in a statement said: “Nigeria has

passed the most important milestone on the road to an enduring democracy – the peaceful transfer of power through the ballot box from one party to another. President-Elect Buhari has achieved a decisive victory. In spite of serious security threats the people of Nigeria turned out in impressive numbers to declare by whom they wish to be governed for the next four years. President Jonathan has set the stage for a peaceful transfer of power through his gracious congratulatory call to his successor. ”I feel great optimism for the future of my wife’s homeland.

A united Nigeria under the leadership of a man so dedicated and capable of curbing corruption and restoring peace and security can reclaim its moral authority as the leader of the continent from which my ancestors came. ”Arese and I pray for the success of the Buhari administration and will do all we can to work for the strengthening of relations between the United States and Nigeria.”

The European Union (EU) Observer Mission for the elections yesterday described President Jonathan as a good example to the world following the way he conducted the

•Obama

•Hollande

•Carrington

polls and conceded victory to his opponent without rancour.

Head of the EU Observer Mission, Santiago Fisas said: “I congratulate him (Jonathan) for that and I seized the opportunity to give to him our preliminary report about the election.

“He was very happy and of course, I will come back in July with the final statement at a press conference and to give it to the new President and our recommendations would be contained in the final report.

“The elections are so important for the people of Nigeria, but it is an African example for all Africa and countries in the

world.

“You know many people didn’t expect that the elections will be peaceful, they expected a lot of violence after the elections but it turned out not to be true.

“Also, I congratulate President Jonathan but I would like to congratulate Nigerian people because they showed a lot of commitment to that election.

“Not in all circumstances would you see such that, people stood in the sun for a very long and hot day, despite some of these problems. It shows that you Nigerians are truly democratic.” he said According to him, it would

remain the discretion of the Nigerian government to decide what recommendations to adopt or reject from the Mission’s findings about this year’s elections.

He said: “It is up to Nigerian government to accept or not to accept the recommendations.

We are observers and we have made our recommendations and I don’t want to advance the final report that will be finished after the gubernatorial elections.

“When we can embark on a new ideas with a new President, probably that will be in July, then we will make recommendations public”, he said.

Buhari: Jonathan has nothing to fear from me Continued from page 4

one man or even one party.

It is a victory for Nigeria and for all Nigerians. Millions of you have worked for this day. So many have risked life and livelihood; and others have died that we may witness this moment.”

Gen. Buhari said while he is not above mistakes, Nigerians should be patient and join hands with his administration to succeed.

He said if it meant crawling or walking, he will get the job done.

His words: “I ask you to join me in resolving these and the other challenges we face.

Along the way, there will be victories but there may also be setbacks. Mistakes will be made. But we shall never take you for granted; so, be rest assured that our errors will be those of compassion and commitment not of willful neglect and indifference.

“We shall correct that which does not work and improve that which does. We shall not stop, stand or idle.

We shall, if necessary, crawl, walk and run to do the job you have elected us to do.

“I realise that the expectation of our people today is as high as their commitment to change has been strong and their belief in us unshaken.

While we pledge to begin doing our best without delay, we would like to appeal to them to appreciate the gravity of our situation, so that we become more realistic in our expectations.

“We will govern for you and in your interests. Your vote was not wasted. This is not the first time Nigerians have cast their votes for us, and this is not the first time they have been counted; but this is the first time that the votes have been allowed to count. With the help of God, we pledge to do our utmost to bring forth the Nigeria you seek.”

Although he thanked Nigerians for voting for him,

Buhari said their obligation does not end with the casting of the ballot.

He sought for input from Nigerians to tackle the challenges facing the nation.

He pledged to wage war against Boko Haram and corruption, among other problems bedeviling the nation.

He added: “Most of all, I thank the people of Nigeria for reposing their confidence in me at this trying moment.

Our nation wrestles many challenges, including insecurity, corruption, economic decline. I pledge to give you my best in tackling these problems.

“The good people of Nigeria, your obligation does not end with casting your ballot.

I seek your voice and input as we tackle these problems.

This will not be a government democratic only in form. It will be a government democratic in substance and in how it interacts with its own people.

“No doubt, this nation has suffered greatly in the recent past, and its staying power has been tested to its limits by crises, chief among which is insurgency of the Boko Haram.

“There is no doubt that in tackling the insurgency we have a tough and urgent job to do. But I assure you that Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror, and bring back peace and normalcy to all the affected areas. We shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism.

“Furthermore, we shall strongly battle another form of evil that is even worse than terrorism—the evil of corruption. Corruption attacks and seeks to destroy our national institutions and character.

“By misdirecting into selfish hands funds intended for the public purpose, corruption distorts the economy and worsens income inequality. It creates a class of unjustly-en-

riched people.

“Such an illegal yet powerful force soon comes to undermine democracy because its conspirators have amassed so much money that they believe they can buy government. We shall end this threat to our economic development and democratic survival. I repeat that corruption will not be tolerated by this administration; and it shall no longer be allowed to stand as if it is a respected monument in this nation.”

Gen. Buhari paid tribute to all his supporters, admirers and those who died during the electioneering.

He said: “And it is with a very heavy heart that I report many deaths and injuries amidst the jubilation yesterday. We send our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives; and wish speedy recovery to those who suffered injuries. I appeal to all our supporters to celebrate this victory with prayers and reflection instead of wild jubilation.

“May the souls of those who died rest in peace. Let us take a moment of silence to honour all of those whose sacrifices have brought us to this fine and historic hour. As the results of the election have shown, their labour has not been and will never be in vain. Democracy and the rule of law will be re-established in the land.”

He thanked President Barack Obama, the UN Secretary-General, other world leaders, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Yakubu Gowon, Alh. Shehu Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and General Abdulsalami Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for making the poll successful.

Gen. Buhari promised a robust diplomatic relationship with other nations on the basis of mutual reciprocity.

He pledged that Nigeria will become a more forceful

and constructive player in the global fight against terrorism.

Gen. Buhari said: “I give special thanks to President Obama and his timely intervention and support for peaceful and credible elections in Nigeria and for sending Secretary John Kerry and other United States officials.

“The European Union, especially the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other nations that were actively involved in ensuring the success of this election are equally appreciated. My sincere thanks to the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban-Ki Moon. The Commonwealth, China, India and other Asian and Gulf states are also hereby appreciated.

“Finally, our brothers in the African Union and ECOWAS have truly and clearly shown and demonstrate their commitment to our democratisation process.

Former Presidents John Kuffour, Amos Sawyer, Bakili Muluzi and his team are well appreciated. “ I must also add my appreciation for the role played by civil societies, national and International observers, other world leaders in ensuring that Nigeria holds free and fair elections.

“I assure all foreign governments that Nigeria will become a more forceful and constructive player in the global fight against terrorism and in other matters of collective concern, such as the fight against drugs, climate change, financial fraud, communicable diseases and other issues requiring global response. I want to assure our fellow African nations that Nigeria will now stand as a more constructive partner in advancing the matters of concern to our continent, particularly with regard to economic development and eradication of poverty.

“Former Heads of State and

Presidents- Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Yakubu Gowon, Alh. Shehu Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and General Abdulsalami Abubakar - deserve commendations for their statesmanship and words of caution and counsel for peace during the tense moments of this electoral period.” “ I want to thank my party for selecting me as its candidate. I thank our party leaders and members for the steadfast contributions they made to bring our dream to fruition. “ I thank INEC, the police and all other government agencies for performing their tasks in a proper manner and for refusing to be induced to undermine the election and the democratic process.

“I also wish to thank religious leaders, traditional leaders, the media, labor unions, civil society organisations, organised private sector, youths and students for their roles in this election.”

Earlier, INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega had said the commission did its best.

He, however, admitted that there was need to keep on reforming and improving the process He said: “We like to use this opportunity to express our appreciation to all Nigerians for the support that they have been given to the commission to see to the successful conduct of this elections.

“We have done our best under all circumstances and we are gratified that a large number of Nigerians have utilised the opportunities and came out to exercise their franchise.

“We believe that it is important to keep reforming and improving the Nigerian electoral process. It is important that we do this for the integrity of our governance process and for dividends of democracy in our country.

“We pledged to all Nigerians that as a commission, we

will continue to do our best under all circumstances to ensure free, fair, credible and peaceful elections. ”I will like to at this point acknowledge the contributions of a number of stakeholders for the successful conduct of the election.

“We urge all Nigerians to continue to exhibit patience and decorum and to be peaceful and orderly because these are essential requirement of a successful conduct of an election.”

The occasion was witnessed by party leaders, governors and dignitaries, including Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; former APC Interim National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande; APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie- Oyegun; APC National Secretary Mai Mala Bunu; Governors Aliyu Wammako, Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola, Adams Oshiomhole, Abiola Ajimobi, Ibikunle Amosun, Tanko Al-Makura, Rochas Okorocha and Kashim Shettima.

Others are Inspector-General of Police Suleiman Abba; Gen. Buhari’s wife, Hajiya Aishat; former Governors Kayode Fayemi, Timpreye Sylva, Olusegun Oni, Olusola Saraki, Abdullahi Adamu and Prince Audu Abubakar.

Also at the ceremony were a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau; former PDP National Chairman Alh. Kawu Baraje; Senator Jibrila Bindow; Sen. Abu Ibrahim, Sen. Robert Ajayi Borroffice, Sen. Aishat Alhassan, Sen. Kabiru Gaya; Sen. Chris Ngige; Senator-elect Dino Melaye; ex-FCT Minister Nasiru ýElRufai, ex-Minister Bolaji Abdullahi, ex-Minister Paullen Tallen, activist Hajiya Hadiza Bala Usman, APC National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senator Olunrunnimbe Mamora and exSecretary to INEC Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed.

62

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, APRIL, 2, 2015

63

SPORT EXTRA

‘We no longer want Keshi’ A

football group known as "True Super Eagles Fans" has rejected handing out-of-contract Super Eagles’ head coach Stephen Keshi a new deal.

According to the fans, Nigerians will descend heavily on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) if

Keshi fails.

The ex-Super Eagles captain is set to be handed a new deal, despite calls from fans, soccer pundits, and advocates to do away with his services.

The supporters have warned that the NFF will be blamed if their

decision to let Keshi remain affects the team’s form.

“We have begged them through the social media to ease out Keshi and go for a foreign coach," president of the body Segun Akeredolu told SL10 Wednesday.

“But now they say Keshi

is returning, fine. But they should remember the bad state the Super Eagles are in now.

"If Super Eagles does well, we will clap for the board but if not we will blame the board headed by Melvin Pinnick Amaju," Akeredolu added.

Raheem Lawal on Besiktas’ radar T URKISH side Eskisehirspor’s Nigerian midfielder Raheem Lawal is reportedly a target for Besiktas after impressing against them in a league game in February.

Lawal was key in helping his team secure a 1-0 win over the second place team and according to fotomac the Black Eagles are on the hunt for an alternative to Atiba Hutchinson whose contract expires at the end of this season and they view the 24 year-old as an able replacement.

The former Athletico Baleares, of Spain, midfielder has so far picked up two assists and two goals from the 20 games he has

•Raheem

played this season but he is currently on a three match ban for a red card received against Rizespor.

He arrived Turkey from Spain and joined Adana Demirspor before his move to Eskisehirspor from where he joined Mersin Idmanyurdu in February for

•1 million.

So far he has picked up six caps for Nigeria the last of which came in an ill fated Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers which Nigeria drew 2-2 with South Africa and missed out on a chance to defend her trophy at the cup

of Nations held in Equitorial Guinea last year.

Caretaker coach of the Super Eagles Daniel Amokachi snubbed him in his squad for Nigeria last two friendly game which Nigeria drew with South Africa after a 1-0 loss to Uganda.

Eagles need to be focused, says Adepoju

E

X-international Mutiu Adepoju, on Wednesday called on Super Eagles’ players to redouble their efforts at winning the confidence of Nigerian football fans.

Adepoju told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the players needed to be focused on building a strong and viable team that can regain its lost glory in the continent.

The former 3SC of Ibadan team manager said that the ongoing problems surrounding the selection of coaches for the national team should not be allowed to cause setbacks for the nation’s football.

“I believe the players need to coordinate themselves more; they should be focused on the game, irrespective of

who the coach is.

“They have so much to do, Nigeria’s Super Eagles is no longer dreaded like they used to be in those days; the team needs to work on that, because football remains one of the unifying factors in the country.

“It should not be the business of the players whoever the NFA appoints to coach the team; the responsibility of the players is to deliver, which I believe they will achieve soon, ” Adepoju said.

NAN r e p o r t s t h a t t h e Super Eagles have not been impressive in their recent matches.

The team failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON, held in Equatorial Guinea.

The Super Eagles also recently lost 0-1 to their

Ugandan counterparts in a friendly in Uyo and played a 1-1 draw against South Africa.

•Adepoju

•Keshi

TODAY IN THE NATION

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

W

HEN some community leaders connive to sell a piece of land belonging to the local deity, they set off a chain of morbid reactions. One after the other, all the conspirators die, but the ring leader, a chief and the King’s second-in-command, Otun, fights a desperate battle to stave off death. He tells the community’s monarch that no dead should be buried in the town, otherwise a prominent indigene will die. “Who is prominent in this town if not you, kabiyesi?” he tells the king, who, apparently not prepared to die, decrees that nobody should bury his dead.

A man dies – from the curse of the deity.

His children take the body to a neighbouring town for burial. The chief, who doesn’t want to die – he is the next in line to go after the body is interred – stormed the funeral, grabs the coffin and sits on it, screaming that it will not be buried.

Strange. So strange. Scared out of his wits, Otun confesses to being one of those who sold the land. The community is alarmed. The king’s right hand man becomes a subject of shame and scorn, roundly derided for his ignoble role in the despicable act that shocks the community.

That is the story of Tunde Kelani’s 1993 classic, T’Oluwa Ni’le (God owns the land), featuring the talented Alhaji Kareem Adepoju, alias Baba Wande, as the lead actor.

A little exercise, dear reader. Substitute the land deal for the just-concluded presidential election. In place of the character Otun (Baba Wande) who led the conspirators, throw in Elder Godsday Orubebe, the former Niger Delta Affairs minister. Orubebe, apparently in a fit of seizure, battled on Tuesday to halt the announcement of the presidential election results.

He raised a point of observation. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega obliged. Orubebe – a dandy in a multi-striped ash blazer, a white shirt, a pair of black trousers, black shoes and a black hat – hurled expletives at Jega. He was screaming, swearing, shouting, yelling, huffing and puffing in a desperate bid to halt the process. He was foaming from the mouth as he threw up his hands. His eyes were red like a piece of coal from the blacksmith’s fire.

“Nigeria will not accept this!”, he yelled and railed endlessly, charging like a Rottweiler and warning: “Don’t come near me.”

Orubebe claimed that Jega rejected PDP’s petition, but set up a panel to examine what the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed went wrong in Rivers State.

Watching it all on television, many were asking: When did Orubebe become Nigerians’ spokesman? Haven’t Nigerians spoken so loudly that even the deaf heard? What kind of elder is this Elder? Won’t his family be watching this on television?

Why did Orubebe choose to do the job? Why not Femi “Amebo” Fani-Kayode, who hours before then was saying on television, with the braggadocio of a Lagos pickpocket, that the PDP had won 22 states and would not be

‘These are not the best of times for our country, which is in dire need of purposeful leadership, and the electorate chose Buhari over Jonathan because they see that quality in him’

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

GBENGA OMOTOSO

EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK

gbenga.omotoso@thenationonlineng.net

•Editor of the Year (DAME)

Our longest 16 hours

•Orubebe

robbed of its gains? Or Ayo Fayose, the rambunctious governor of Ekiti, who is more experienced in such matters? Or Dr Doyin Okupe, who had earlier threatened that Buhari would not be president?

But, if Orubebe had not seized upon the moment, nobody would have known that PDP harboured another talent with the ability to pull off a star performance that will draw great applause any time.

Jega was calm and confident. After Orubebe had exhausted himself, he sank into his seat.

The theatrics over, the INEC chief explained all he knew about the matter that got Orubebe spinning out of control into a rage.

The session continued. Before it ended, President Goodluck Jonathan shocked us all. He called Gen. Buhari at 5.15 p.m. to concede defeat. The Nation broke the story on its website. The tension that had gripped the land crashed and gave way to revelries. Many were screaming Sai Baba in jubilation.

Some women were singing: Ojut’owo, oju ti’resi, oju t’owo (shame to money, shame to rice).

Others were shouting: “PDP…dollar!” –a clever corruption of the party’s slogan and a punchy allusion to the way it painted the town red before the election.

Now, the joke in town is that no woman would like to marry Jega because “if you shout

RIPPLES

Aftermath of Buhari’s victory: I’LL SURELY GO ON EXILE, Says Bode George

•••Have you bought your TICKET, sir?

LAWAL OGIENAGBON

VOL. 10, NO. 3172

D

EAR reader, I, Mr. Hardball, I have had to pinch myself several times since Monday to ascertain which side of the spatio-temporal divide I am. Am I in a day-dream or a hoary nightmare or am I sleepwalking; in which case someone must restrain me lest I bring harm upon myself. It must be a magical epoch we are traversing and it is bound to grow a wing all of its own and soar into the horizon.

As Nigeria waltzes into a new age, is it 60 years yet? That was the time warp, the deadline and indeed death-line for transiting from the PDP morass into a new age. Yes, 60 years they said they would rule us; or did they mean ruin us? Now we have fought the fight of our lives to unshackle ourselves. And what a brawl it turned out to be. As voting was going on last Saturday in an Ejigbo suburb of Lagos, a pregnant woman stabbed her husband in the chest as they argued over the presidential candidates of the APC and PDP. The man died. He did not live to hear the result.

In Omu-Aran, Irepodun LGA of Kwara

at him, he won’t just talk”.

Besides, a new word has been added to the political lexicon, “Orubebe”. The meaning: To attempt to disrupt a peaceful process.

“Orubebed” (past tense). “Orubebebing” (present continuous tense). Example : An elder is trying to orubebe the parliament’s plan to pass the Electoral Act, which will criminalise threats to a Returning Officer.

But, talking seriously, shouldn’t Orubebe face the law for holding the nation to ransom?

Where is police chief Suleiman Abba who threatened to deal with anybody who attempts to disrupt the process?

Even before INEC began to roll out the results, there had been tension in major cities.

Schools closed. Banks rolled back their closing time and left many customers stranded. Other businesses also called it a day. Everybody went home to wait for the announcement of a winner, but that was not to be until some 16 hours after. Our longest 16 hours ever, perhaps.

Apparently excited that the apocalypse that we all dreaded didn’t come, after all, Nigerians have reduced it all to jokes. It is amazing

the fecundity of the Nigerian’s mind.

Consider this which a friend sent me. It is an invitation card, titled “Otuoke Reunion”.

“Doors open at 4.30pm. May 29, 2015. Location: 1, Otuoke Main Road, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, near Mujahid Dokubo’s house. You are invited. MC: Femi Fani-Kayode.DJ: Koro in the house. Sound Track: Money can’t buy love.

Bouncer: Doyin Okupe. Gals: Diezani, Ngozi, Patience and Stella. RSVP: www. ENDS.ng.

Card admits one.”

Another said: “While APC was busy campaigning, PDP was looking for Buhari’s certificate.”

The long night ended at 3.46am when Jega declared Buhari winner of the election. He scored 15,424,921 votes as against Jonathan’s 12,853,162 votes. The President then made a broadcast in which he promised to co-operate with Buhari for a smooth transfer of power.

In his view, the PDP should be celebrating and not mourning. “We created a pan-Nigerian political party and brought home to our people the realities of economic development and social transformation.” Really?

Buhari collected his certificate of return yesterday. He said he bore no grudge against anyone and would not discriminate against any Nigerian. Good. But, as somebody said last night, it is okay to forgive all but history will surely reconstruct the road to Change – the crippling of the economy that has weakened the naira so badly –ah! if only a currency could cry - , unemployment, abuse of the security forces,who often got deployed to rig elections for the ruining – sorry, a slip there – the ruling party, even when there are challenges, such as the need to bring back home the over 200 abducted Chibok girls, harassment of judges and those hate campaigns.

–Can we ever forget?

FOR AMBODE

L

AGOSIANS will go to the polls on April 11 to elect a governor. There are many in the race, but the top contestants are Akinwunmi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

I have never met Agbaje, a pharmacist and politician who many have described as a good guy in a doubtful company, the PDP. Ambode, son of a teacher and former accountant-general of the state, I have met. Of today’s army of politicians, about only a few can you say: “Yes, he surely knows the terrain.”

Lagos is like a cruising aircraft; It needs an experienced pilot to assure us all that the economic turbulence Nigeria is facing will not make us lose altitude. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu revved the engine and took off successfully. Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), the governor, is in the cockpit, ensuring the

HARDBALL An epoch like this…

State, a man had beaten his wife to pulp. According to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, as results trickled in on Monday, the woman of the house named Bose was having one up over her husband but her celebration was punctuated with vicious blows from her hubby who could not bear his candidate’s loss. But there was no fatality; they will live to tell their 2015 election stories.

But about 50 odd Nigerians will not tell any story again ever. They died during last Saturday’s exercise. A total of 80 have died since January this year over the 2015 elections according to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Many had willfully and foolishly put themselves up on the altar as atonement for this epoch while a few were vicarious victims. It could have been worse.

But it was a walk through the night, almost through landmines. Tender was the moment as Nigeria laid her egg. The entire world had to gather to midwife this era and to contain her abiding malevolence. About half a dozen

•Ambode smooth flight we are having. Ambode, I have no doubt, will take us to our dream state – a home for all, an economic giant and an Eldorado of peace where talents will continue to blossom. Let’s vote him in.

•For comments, send SMS to 08111813080

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above former heads of state led thousands of observers ostensibly to monitor our election but they really wanted to avert a debacle long foretold. The entire world had to gather to heave the Nigerian leviathan that had crossed our road for 16 years; the little ghoul that had locked us up in a bottle for so long making sure we did not outgrow it.

Alas! Freedom at last! A gust of new wind blows across the land. A certain Rita Odichinma Orji is the House of Representative-elect for Ajeromi-Ifelodun constituency of Lagos State! Now you may pinch yourself to find out where really you are. A certain man known as Professor Attahiru Jega is the architect of this new architecture (and Hardball stands by his tautology). He is the star of this great story; the man from Mars for only a Martian can conduct an acceptable election in Nigeria.

Finally, we shall have to reconfigure the architecture of a new opposition. Hardball must write a book pronto. I will title it: “A Handbook for Successful Opposition in a New Epoch”. Anyone for a drink...to an epoch like this?

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