April 19, 2014

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NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

DOUBLE TRAGEDY

was rushed, however, was caught by the bullets while trying to run for his life.

He felled down in a pool of his blood and died immediately.

His 45-year-old wife, Bolatito, did not survive the shock of the news of her husband’s death. She •The late Mr & Mrs was said to have died at OIundegun the hospital when told of her husband’s death. She was buried on April 1 and is survived by two children.

An eyewitness, who asked not to be mentioned, said: “Olundegun was hungry when he n Kunle AKINRINADE n returned from hospital where his wife was rushed. He wanted RAGEDY shattered a jolly evening to send someone to buy food when blood mixed with a feast on from a vendor when he was told Lagos Island on Saturday, March 29, that the food being prepared to 2014. entertain guests at the party was The feast was to celebrate the arrival of a ready. He was just about going to baby by a couple living at No 168, Adeniji take the food when the police offiAdele Street. The guests who turned out in cers started shooting and was pink ankara had wished for an encore as they felled by their bullets. danced to melodious music wafting from the “I was talking with someone at giant speakers placed on the premises of a the party when the teargas canispublic vocational and skills acquisition centre ters fired landed near my foot. The where the event was held. policemen later started shooting as But the joyous mood soon paved the way if those at the party were criminals. for a pall of grief when some policemen from The late Olundegun had not even Area ‘A’ Lion Building allegedly fired indiseaten the food he was given criminate shots into the crowd. The hot bulwhen he was shot dead. His lets allegedly hit one Rasheed Olundegun, wife who was admitted to a an employee of the Lagos State Waste Manhospital died from the shock of agement Authority (LAWMA) and he died her husband’s death when she on the spot. received the news.

The policemen, according to sources who A community leader, who spoke in confidence, exasked not be named, had visited the venue plained that another resident was shot in the arm during of the ceremony and were said to have been the incident, while the policemen fled leaving the lifeless handed food and some amount of money by body of Olundegun on the spot. the celebrant called Lanre. They allegedly left, but reA neighbour, who was identified as Saheed Dosunmu, turned a few minutes later accusing some men of smokalso had his left arm shattered by bullets during the inciing Indian hemp. Attempts to persuade them to leave dent. one of the men wrongly arrested failed as they started A resident, Gbade Lawal, said:“One Saheed Doshooting sporadically to scare away people. sunmu, who was seated quietly was also shot and he is The shooting was said to have caused pandemonium as people scampered for safety. Olundegun, who by then battling excruciating pain on his arms. The anti-robbery team led by one Inspector Asubiaro hurriedly left the had just returned from a hospital where his ailing wife

INSIDE

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Living on the fringe s •Travails of Bauchni’ities highway commu Pages 17,18,47&48

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40-yr-old woman dies after husband was allegedly shot dead by police

scene as soon as the implication of their action dawned on them.”

Peace further took a flight as aggrieved residents protested the gruesome killing of Olundegun. It was at that stage that a patrol team of policemen from the Adeniji Adele Division was attacked by a mob. Their vehicle was set ablaze while the men called for reinforcement to contain the fearless protesters.

“Angry residents took to the streets to protest the killing and ambushed men of the Adeniji Adele Police Division who were patrolling the area. They burnt their patrol van and the confrontation lasted many hours,” Lawal said.

“In order to cover up their misguided action, the policemen went to town with stories that they were attacked by hoodlums and that Olundegun was killed during the incident. They arrested the celebrant and other innocent residents mostly of Igbo extraction.

The truth is that Olundegun was shot dead by an officer called Ola, aka Up Chelsea, who is now walking free.

Meanwhile, a community leader, Prince Mukaila Akinsemoyin, has written a petition to the office of the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, asking him to intervene in the matter.

A copy of the petition obtained by our correspondent reads in part: “It will be extremely hard for police to lie their way out of this…on March 29, 2014 about 10 pm, at FSP Centre, along Adeniji Adele Road, Lagos Island, there was a naming ceremony going on when a group of policemen from the Lion Building Area ‘A’ Command headquarters stormed the party on the excuses that they sighted someone smoking marijuana in the street. As a result of this, the celebrant, according to eyewitnesses, gave the police the sum of N5000, so that his party would not be disorganized. The policemen collected the money from the celebrant and left.

“A few minutes later, the same patrol team came back to the party and started shooting sporadically into the crowd as a result of which one Rasheed OIundegun was shot dead instantly, while one Saheed Dosunmu was also hit by bullets on his left hand. When the news of the death of Olundegun filtered to the hearing of his wife who was on admission in a hospital, the woman died. ‘’This is not the first time this so-called antirobbery team from the Area ‘A’ Command has been carrying out their nefarious activities in the area…the entire patrol team involved should be arrested and investigated and brought to justice.

This is about ending impunity. ” Attempts to get the response of Lagos police spokesperson, Ms Ngozi Braide, failed as her phone was switched off, while a message sent to her phone line by our correspondent was not replied at press time.

When her deputy, Mr Damasus Ozoani, was contacted, he declined comments, saying: “As I speak, I am attending a training programme outside Lagos, hence I cannot speak on the matter.”

His 45-yearold wife, Bolatito, did not survive the shock of the news of her husband’s death. She was said to have died at the hospital when told of her husband’s death

,

ed my d i a t a h t Factors ernor v o g s a s s succe eter Obi P v o G a r b m a –Ex-An Pages 50&51

NEWS 3

THE NATION

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

APC governors: It is dangerous to politicize national security matters

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•Passengers at the Ido Terminus of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Lagos waiting for a free train ride to Osogbo, courtesy of the Osun State Government for the Easter celebration ...yesterday

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WO Catholic and An glican Bishops in Anambra State yesterday told President Goodluck Jonathan to do more to secure lives and property across the country in the face of increasing terror.

The Anglican Archbishop on the Niger and Bishop of Aguata Diocese,the Most Reverend Christian Efobi, and the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese,the Most Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, said government’s efforts so far have proved to be inadequate.

Ezeokafor who addressed newsmen at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Awka, said that this week’s abduction of about 100 students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State and the bomb explosions at Nyanya, Abuja in which at least 75 people died were clear indications that more needs to be done by government to protect the citizens.

Both are believed to be the handiwork of terrorists.

Ezeokafor charged Nigerians, especially security agents, to rise up to their responsibilities.

He said: “We should free ourselves from those things that are holding us back.Enough efforts are not being made, and I believe that if more efforts are put in place by those in authority, things will not be the same again.

“Nigerians must be together; that is the way God has made it and the National Conference is the best thing that has happened to this country in many years, if the people will put the interest of the nation first without greed and corruption which has been the bane of our society.

“They should discuss everything to know where our problems are, but what I do not like is the idea of no-go areas.How do we arrive at our problems and getting to solve them?

“Governance is a very difficult thing in Nigeria. Those in authority have done their best, but that is not enough for now.We have not arrived anywhere, though there is no perfect society in the world, but more efforts should be put to remedy this kind of situation,” he said.

HE Progressive Gover nors Forum (PGF) yesterday said that its members were duly notified that Thursday’s controversial meeting of the National Security Council had been called off.

The forum's Chairman and Governor of Imo State,Owelle Rochas Okorocha, in a rejoinder entitled : " It is Dangerous to Politicize National Security Matters," expressed worry over insinuation that APC governors boycotted the meeting.

He said that contrary to statements from other

Anambra Bishops to Jonathan: Your security efforts not enough Nwanosike ONU,Awka

The Anglican Archbishop of the Niger, the Most Rev Christian Efobi, asked Nigerians to use the Easter period

to pray for peace, progress and unity of the Nigeria nation.

Efobi, who is also the Anglican Bishop of Aguata Diocese, asked the federal gov-

ernment to beef up security everywhere in the country, especially in the North.

Condemning the Nyanya bomb explosions and the Borno abduction of girls from

school by Boko Haram,Efobi said that prayers should be held for President Goodluck Jonathan to enable him actualize his agenda for the country.

APC to Jonathan, PDP: You’re making political gain out of Nigeria’s woes

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) yester day accused President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of politicizing the nation’s security by engaging in outright deception to exclude APC governors from the Thursday national security meeting the President himself had called.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in Lagos that after deliberately excluding the governors from the meeting, the presidency and the PDP then engaged in outright disinformation and distortion of facts to make it look as if the APC governors deliberately boycotted the meeting, apparently in an effort to make political gain from the whole issue. ‘’It is now clear that despite their inability to protect lives and property and to stop the terrorists attacks in the country, the presidency and the PDP are not interested in any genuine efforts to end the worsening security situation. It is patently obvious that their aim is to make political capital out of the tragedy that has befallen Nigeria, rather than to ameliorate the cruel fate being daily suffered by the citizens,’’ the APC said.

According to it,the same presidency that invited all state governors to the expanded National Security Council meeting as announced by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, had no qualms in duping the APC governors out of the meeting and turning it to a parochial meeting of gover-

nors of the PDP and its satellite parties, only to shift the blame on the same governors who were conned.

The APC party said that after the presidency publicly invited all state governors to the meeting, it then clandestinely reached out to the APC governors to say the meeting had been called off, only to turn around and blame them for shunning the meeting.

It added: ’’The Kwara State Government confirmed that its Chief Detail received a call from the presidency to the effect that the meeting had been called off. Then, the deputy governor of Borno State, who had already arrived in Abuja for the meeting, also learnt that it had been called off. Curiously, the meeting that was announced publicly by the presidency was not even listed among the President’s official engagement for Thursday. ‘’Despite all these glaring evidence of a grand plot to exclude APC governors, the President’s assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri, the same fellow who tried to malign the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria using a fake name, took to Twitter to tell the world that the APC governors shunned the meeting and to accuse them of playing politics with national security. ‘’Unfortunately, while the fallacious Omokri was twitting lies, the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Gov. Godswill Akpabio, was telling journalists that the APC governors were not invited to the meeting, and that it was initiated by the PDP gover-

nors (not minding that the governors of states controlled by the APGA and Labour Party were in attendance). ‘’Who then is lying between the presidency and the Chairman of the PDP governors’ Forum? Why would the presidency engage in such a grand design just to make the APC governors look bad? Is this a part of the plan to shift the blame for the state of insecurity on the APC and to make the party look bad ahead of the 2015 elections and the preceding ones? Is this in furtherance of President Jonathan’s improper blame of the governors of the worst-hit states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe for the insurgency in their states? Can any genuine efforts to resolve the crisis exclude the governors of the three states? ‘’The presidency is playing a dangerous game by seeking to make political capital out of an insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and done incalculable damage to property and the economy. It is now clear that this presidency has its eyes firmly fixed on benefitting from the insurgency, and that it had no interest in any genuine measures to end it. ‘’Were it not so, the presidency and the PDP would not have attempted to deceive the whole nation into believing that the APC governors shunned a meeting to address the issue. Were it not so, President Jonathan would not have been dancing in Kano, where he went on an illegal electioneering campaign, less than 24 hours after 75 of his compatriots were

killed in a bomb blast in Abuja, and even as school girls were being abducted in Borno. Were it not so, the PDP would not have acted to insensitively and irresponsibly by blaming the opposition even as the nation was still grieving.,’’ it said.

APC, however, reiterated its earlier statement that in the overriding interest of the nation, it is willing and ready to be part of all genuine efforts to end the terrorist attacks, and that only a nonpartisan approach could end the security crisis.

John OFIKHENUA, Abuja quarters, the APC governors were informed on Tuesday night by the presidency that the meeting had been postponed.

He said it is unfortunate that “ a meeting as important as that of the meeting of National Security Council at this trying moment is reduced to a partisan status."

He recalled that as at Tuesday night, 14 APC governors were in Abuja and on Wednesday morning, visited victims of the Nyanya bomb blast in Asokoro and National Hospitals where “we announced our intention to set up a trust to support victims of terror.”

He added: "As a matter of fact, after the visit, we stated categorically ‘This is a time that we must all close hands to ensure the safety of lives and property. This is not a time to talk about politics with people's lives’. “ It is, therefore, shocking and in bad faith that we are being accused of boycotting a meeting we were duly notified that it had been called off.

"We want to reiterate our call to President Goodluck Jonathan to ‘deepen that particular section of our constitution which guarantees safety of lives and property of ordinary citizens. We urge him to show leadership at this moment and do whatever it is within his capacity and capabilities as President to fish out those who are involved in this act.’

"We stand by this position and, hereby, re-affirm our commitment to work with the Federal Government and all Nigerians to resolve our national security challenges."

Jonathan, family at Good Friday service, pray for an end to Boko Haram’s attacks

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, on the occasion of Good Friday, led his family and other Christians in a prayer session seeking an end to Boko Haram’s reign of terror in parts of the country.

They also prayed for peace across the country.

The service held at the Presidential Villa chapel was anchored by the Reverend Obioma Onwuzurumba.

Intercessory prayers were said for Nigeria and Nigerians, especially as the country is going through trials following incessant attacks by terrorists.

The church prayed that the bomb blasts in the land would come to an end and that the transformation agenda would

not be derailed.

Other worshippers were the President’s mother, Eunice, and others.

The nine lessons were shared out as usual and read by key members of the congregation who also took time out to share exaltations from the scriptures and lessons.

The lessons and preaching were interspersed with melodious traditional songs as well as praise and worship Reverend Onwuzurumba described the death of Jesus as unique and said it was designed to reconcile man with God and called on all the Christian faithful to continue to reflect on the things they heard after leaving the chapel to enjoy the Easter holiday.

THE NATION

4 NEWS

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OURTEEN more stu dents of grieving Gov ernment Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State are out of danger in Boko Haram’s camp.

The girls had been held hostage since Monday along with about 86 others.

The state Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Inuwa Kubo, giving an update on the abduction said 11 of the girls escaped to a town on the Damboa/Biu Road, while the remaining three found their way to the school.

The commissioner, who has relocated to the school to take charge of the situation, said: "I am glad to say that fourteen (14) more students have escaped from their abductors.

"Out of this number, three are currently with me at Government Girls’ Secondary School,Chibok, the scene of the unfortunate abduction, while my Governor, Kashim Shettima, has confirmed to me today that 11 girls have escaped to a town along Damboa/Biu Road in Borno State after they escaped from captivity.

"The 11 ladies were immediately moved from the location to other parts of the state to reconnect with their families.

"The remaining 33 students in Chibok have also been moved out of the school to different parts of the state to join their families. The steps were taken to safeguard them.

"Meanwhile, with this development, we have 44 out of

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Abduction: 14 more girls escaped Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation our 129 students at the hostel on the day of attack on the school. This means that we have 85 students yet to join us.”

Thirty students had returned from the custody of the terrorists by Thursday.

Of that number, 14 escaped from their abductors, while 16 were returned by their parents and guardians after they ran home on the day of the attack. The 16 were not abducted, he said.

He asked parents whose children and wards ran home to return them to the school so “we could take proper account of our 129 students to know the number of those missing.”

85 of the abducted students are believed to be still in captivity.

He said that the combined efforts of the security agencies and civilian volunteers for the intensive search “may have piled up pressure on abductors and possibly contributing to the escape of 28 students from captivity.”

He added:"We continuously pray that all our students return in good health as well as all the security agents and volunteers safely return.

"We are indeed grateful for the patriotic efforts being displayed by all those involved

•Total of 44 flee Boko Haram’s terror zone

in the search and rescue operations. We are also very grateful to all Nigerians, institutions and governments within and outside our country for their unflinching support that has remained indel-

ible to us in the education sector of Borno State.

"We once again call on parents and all sympathises to remain prayerful and hopeful that by the grace of God all the students will safely return to

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CADEMIC Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana, Ebonyi State chapter, yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike.

The union described as dishertening the interference of the minister in the appointment of a new rector for Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana, Ebonyi state.

They also accused the minister of imposing a university professor to be appointed as Rector of the institution against the law.

They, however, passed a vote of no confidence on the minister.

The ASUP Uwana Polytechnic Chapter Chairman, Comrade Edmund Eze Onyeneho, made the call in a briefing at the polytechnic.

He alleged that the minister wrote to the Governing Council of the institution to appoint a new rector from the university against section 7(1)-(6) of the Federal Polytechnic Act 1979 (amended 1993) which stipulates that the person to be appointed rector must be a chief lecturer.

He noted that appointment of Rectors from outside the polytechnic is one of the issues responsible for the ongoing 10month ASUP strike.

The union also urged the National Assembly and President Jonathan to call the minister to order.

Onyeneho said that the minister was trying to rubbish the good work of the president and the critical stakeholders in the sector and called on the Governing Council to resist any intimidation from any official no matter how highly placed.

They said: “ASUP Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic demands the immediate removal

•’Every ethnic group has right to Rivers governorship’

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Bisi OLANIYI, Port Harcourt it means because the reason for doing that is 'oh they are claiming we have xyz number of votes in Obio/Akpor, xyz number of votes in Port Harcourt, xyz number of votes in Ikwerre and Emohua.

“So only Ikwerre people, if they sit together they can be electing themselves always for governorship and I have told Ikwerre people that that young man whose ambition is blinding him must be thrown out, all Ikwerre people must rise against him and vote for a candidate from another ethnic group.

“If you people allow him and he succeeds, then forget your children, they will never be governor again because all it will take is when he finishes, another Ikwerre man will say I will run and go and tell Ikwerre people: ‘I’m your son, don’t allow these people take it from me’ and Ikwerre people will back him, so we must show justice and ensure that it is equitably distributed even if you are one ethnic group of 20,000 persons, you have a right to the governorship of the state.

“So Ikwerre people have had their turn and I’m an Ikwerre son, my mother is Ikwerre, my father is Ikwerre, I’ve no blood from any other relationship, so Ikwerre people can't say I am not Ikwerre”.

He said the Ikwerre people and other ethnic nationalities should work together to vote out the supposed Peoples’ Democratic Party governorship aspirant from Ikwerre ethnic nationality for next year’s election.

appreciate the Nigerian and international media organisations for their most helpful support. " I will keep updating any time there is something new which I hope will be positive".

ASUP calls for sack of Education Minister

2015: Wike won’t succeed me —Amaechi

HE race for the 2015 Rivers State governor ship poll should be open to every ethnic group in the state other than the Ikwerre, Governor Rotimi Amaechi said yesterday.

Gov. Amaechi who is Ikwerre said that it would be unfair if he were to be succeeded next year by another Ikwerre.

He spoke when chiefs and elders of Ogu/Bolo paid him a solidarity visit at Government House, Port Harcourt.

He described Ikwerre politicians who are warming up to take over from him as desperate people.

He said such politicians should be shunned at the poll.

He mentioned no one in particular, but the Minister of State for Education,Chief Nyesom Wike,an Ikwerre, is aspiring for the office.

Amaechi said:“For those who want to be governor, I will not by law be allowed to be governor again. I have served my two terms, so from next month, we just have 12 months to hand over.”

He said the essence of his current political battle is to “give the Okirika man, the Ogu/Bolo man a voice after we leave office and I can tell you why I say so.

“If the PDP is bringing an Ikwerre man to run for governorship when an Ikwerre man has run for eight years, it means that what the PDP is trying to do because Ikwerre has about 1.1 million votes in the four local government areas, then Ikwerre would dominate the governorship of the state.

“It means that you will never have a chance of being governor again, that’s what

school.

"Once again, on behalf of the Borno State Government, my ministry, staff and students of the affected school, parents and relations of affected students, I very well

Amaechi said even the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state would toe the line of justice and fair play by not fielding an Ikwerre as candidate for the governorship race.

“I will not support governorship to go to Ikwerre in the APC, but as the governor of Rivers State and a frontline member of the APC, if I help to ensure that we don’t allow an Ikwerre candidate in the APC to allow others to take it, it means that the way to protect yourselves and your children is to vote for that candidate and not for the candidate they are bringing in the PDP because Ikwerre cannot govern for another eight years”.

He gave assurance that the access road to Ogu/Bolo would be completed as the contractor would be mobilised next week to complete the project and other ongoing projects in the state.

He also pledged to build a new model secondary school in Ogu/Bolo to advance education.

Earlier, High Chief Jonah Tamuno, on behalf of Ogu/ Bolo chiefs and elders thanked Governor Amaechi for his inspirational and courageous leadership.

He expressed appreciation that the governor has demonstrated high level of liberality in providing democratic dividends for all Rivers people.

While commending Governor Amaechi, High Chief Tamuno as well as Chief Frederick Anga and Chief Marshall Oforibo Kakaka who gave goodwill messages, assured the governor on behalf of the people of Ogu/ Bolo to remain firmly in sup-

port of his administration and leadership direction, especially as next year’s election approaches.

of the Minister of State and Supervising Minister of Education.

"The question re-echos-why Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic only, why didn’t the minister interfere in the process of appointing rectors in Ilaro, Birnin Kebbi, Nasarawa and Mubi?

"It is disheartening, therefore, to learn that the minister is advising the Governing Council of the polytechnic to go against the law and do

what is unlawful.

"Perhaps the minister is equating the sector to a political primary election where he can manoeuvre and sell tickets to the highest bidder. Please Mr Minister, academics is not politics the Nigerian way.

"We, hereby, pass a vote of no confidence on the person of the supervising minister. He should honourably resign, else Mr. President should remove him without further delay."

Abuja bomb blast: APC chieftain condemns attack

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LL Progressives Con gress (APC) chieftain and Lagos governorship aspirant, Chief Hakeem Alobo-Bakare, has condemned Monday’s bomb blast which killed 75 people and left scores injured in Abuja.

Alobo-Bakare said the attack was unwarranted at this period in time when the nation is marching towards consolidating its democratic governance.

“The attack is not only uncalled for, but certainly not in our interest as a nation, especially at this period of national reconstruction and consolida-

tion of our hard-earned democracy. The motive behind the attack cannot be justified because human blood is sacred and should not be shed by anybody in order to prove a point.

While condoling with the bereaved families, AloboBakare urged the perpetrators to shun evil and embrace the spirit of love and peaceful co-existence.

He said: “May God grant the family of those who lost their lives in the attack the fortitude to bear the loss, while wishing the injured a speedy recovery.”

News 5

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Nyanya bomb explosion: SSS, police look beyond Boko Haram •Screen handsets, documents recovered from blast scene •Force Headquarters interrogates suspects

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HE State Security Service (SSS) and the Police are not restricting their investigation of Monday’s bomb explosions at Nyanya,Abuja to the Islamic sect,Boko

Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation Haram.

They are widening the scope of the investigation to

as many sources as possible,it was gathered yesterday in Abuja.

Already , the agencies have been screening information contained in handsets,vehicle number

•Passenger's travelling for Easter celebration at a park in Nyanya, Abuja... Friday

plates and documents recovered from the scene of the blast.

Several suspects have been quizzed at the Force Headquarters with some moved into detention at

PHOTO: NAN

the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit in Abuja pending the conclusion of the probe.

The decision to look beyond Boko Haram,according to well placed sources,stemmed from what is seen in security circles as the ‘unusual’ silence of the sect following the bomb blast.

Sources recalled that the sect never wasted time in claiming responsibility for similar bomb blasts in the past.

They are therefore curious to find out whether some other people may have been the Nyanya incident.

A highly placed source said: “Investigation is being intensified but security agencies are also looking beyond Boko Haram since the sect is yet to own up.

For a major blast like this, it is unusual for the sect to keep quiet. “ This development has raised more inquisition into the dastardly act.

“So, instead of narrowing our probe, all the agencies resolved to dig deep about groups behind the blast.

We are considering Boko Haram and other likely factors or groups responsi-

How military men, oil firms aid illegal bunkering

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IGER Delta activist and chairman of the Itsekiri Regional Development Council, Chief Ayirimi Emami, has alleged the active involvement of some military men and oil companies in illegal crude oil bunkering deals in the region.

Emami also slammed oil bearing communities in the region for “actively and passively” aiding the illicit trade, which has resulted in losses of up to 300,000 barrels of crude oil (or about $30.5m) daily.

Speaking at the 2nd Delta Oil and Gas Stakeholders Conference, held in EffurunDelta State, Emami, Governor Uduaghan and other stakeholders said the Joint Task Forces, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and

•Stakeholders open can of worms on crude theft Shola O’NEIL, South-south Regional Editor

host communities could not feign ignorance of the situation.

Emami said: “Poverty is the origin of oil theft; we (host communities) are all suffering. Everybody is involved actively and passively. The communities, oil multinationals and the armed forces, are all involved.

“The host communities cannot claim ignorance about those involved because those doing it are not ghosts; they are humans who sometimes live in the community. So, they are either actively involved or passively through

their acquiescence.

“Most members of the host communities benefit through handouts and other forms. So, they keep quiet and would not offer information or report those involved.

“When I say the security agencies are involved, it is very simple: Delta State for instance has three exit/entry points. They are at Escravos, Forcados and Ogheye (in Warri South West, Burutu and Warri North local government areas respectively).

There is no way a vessel can enter or leave without the military seeing them.

“If they are not involved how do the illegal bunkering vessels pass?”

His position was supported

by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State who said: “All boats are stopped at these checkpoints. I have been stopped every time I travel in the area. If I, a governor, can be stopped how does the criminal pass unhindered?”

On the involvement of oil multinationals, Emami said the technical skills needed to carry out some of the illegal bunkering operation are beyond a layman. He advised the IOCs to also look inward in the quest for answer to illegal bunkering.

“The oil companies are also insincere in reporting illegal bunkering activities and the resultant loses. For

sinstance, in a situation where the crime does occur, they would exaggerate for obvious reason.

“If one barrel of crude is stolen, they (oil companies) would say it is 10 and the balance goes into their account and through that they are benefiting from the crime.”

For his part, Mr Joel Bisina of Leadership Initiative For Transformation and Empowerment (LITE) wondered how illegal bunkering could thrive in the area despite the high end security network around the oil facilities ”Where does the technical expertise reside?” he wondered,adding: “Some members of the JTF operatives tasked with preventing crude theft collect levies on cargo by cargo basis (from illegal bunkerers).”

Nollywood seeks cooperation with Indians to take on Hollywood

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CCRA - Nigeria is keen to collaborate with the over $2-billion Indian film industry to promote better understanding between the two countries and provide competition to Hollywood.

“I am just excited at the prospect of a future collaboration between a Nigerian filmmaker and one from India,”

Femi Adeniye, a Lagos-based Nigerian film producer, told IANS on phone.

“Indian filmmakers have the know-how and the experience and that can combine to be a threat to the Hollywood industry,” added the filmmaker.

Recently, Abuja hosted the first Indian Film Festival and screend a number of Hindi

movies including “Lagaan”, “Pardes”, “Chak De! India”, “Stanley Ka Dabba”, “JodhaaAkbar”, “Sholay”, “Devdas”, “Dhoom 2” and “3 Idiots”.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria A.R. Ghanashayan sees a vast scope for mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in filmmaking by virtue of complementing comparative ad-

N’Delta students call for release of abducted girls

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TUDENTS in the Niger Delta yesterday expressed shock at the kidnap of 100 female students from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok,, Borno State by suspected members of Boko Haram.

The students, under the auspices of National Association of Gbaramatu Students (NAGS ), described the action as barbaric and urged the Federal Government and security agencies to ensure the safe release of the hapless girls.

Shola O’NEIL, Southsouth Regional Editor National President and Public Relations Officer of the group, Comrade Jackson Timiyan and Joel Tonjoh respectively, said the group condemned “ in a strong term the barbaric and inhuman abduction of the girls.”

The group also condemned last Monday’s bomb explosions at the Nyanya bus terminus in Abuja.

It said the attack was “a

dastardly act of bloodletting of innocent and defenceless Nigerians who were going about their legitimate businesses and activities,” and urged the federal government, security agencies and all well meaning Nigerians to “join hands together and work round the clock in bringing the perpetrators of this bastardly acts to justice for insecurity anywhere is insecurity everywhere and injustice to one is injustice to all. All Nigerians must wake up to this challenge.”

vantages and experiences.

He believes the hosting of the film festival in Nigeria would lead to a reciprocal Nigerian Film Festival in New Delhi.

India is currently Nigeria’s second largest trading partner while Nigeria is the largest trading partner of India in Africa.

Nigeria is also the largest market in Africa for Indian exports with a large number of Indian companies operating in the country and some of them making substantial investments.

India is one of the largest film producing nations in the world and Indian films have also been a part of the country’s history and are very popular in Kano, Kaduna and other northern States, and local channels regularly telecast Indian films.

The First Lady,Dame Patience Jonathan, who attended the film fest, said that the two countries have a

shared relationship and similarities in an enterprising film culture.

She feels the film industry provides an avenue for growth for the two countries and says: “Just like Nigeria with a population of over 160 million people, India is equally blessed with a huge population of over 1.2 billion people. We can therefore imagine what this translates into economic terms.

“There is the possibility of stakeholders in the film industry from Bollywood and Nollywood (Nigeria’s film industry) engaging in partnerships or exchange programmes that will yield mutual benefits and promote better understanding between our two countries.”

A further boost to relationship between the two countries in films is likely to increase trade between the countries. Some of film producers are already looking at collaboration between Nigerian and Indian film makers.

ble for the explosion.

“We are doing a lot of forensic analysis of the IED items for comparison with samples where Boko Haram struck in the past.”

Responding to a question, the top security source said: “We have been screening information in some handsets, number plates and documents retrieved from the scene of the explosion.

“These items have provided substantial clues which have led to the arrest of some suspects. Some of them were interrogated at the Force Headquarters and some taken into custody in SARS unit.

“Those who have no issues to clarify have been set free and a few others with doubt have been detained.”

Meanwhile, the Police yesterday said they have commenced special operations all over the country as part of the ongoing war against terror.

Spokesmand for the Police, CSP Frank Mba said the move was to “ensure a seamless and secure Easter Celebration and beyond.”

Mba added:The operations encompass extensive counter-terrorism sweeps, detailed overt and covert surveillance operations, intelligence-driven raids, arms mop-up exercise, special stop and search exercise, amongst others.

“Police operatives involved in this exercise which will be drawn from the Bomb Disposal Squad, Counter-Terrorism Units, Police Mobile Force and Joint Border Patrol Units, Force Intelligence Bureau, Police Dog Section and conventional Police Teams, are expected to pay special attention to Motor Parks, Airports, Seaports, Border points, Recreation Parks, Major Markets, Shopping Malls, etc.

“In ensuring a successful execution of this special operation, the IGP has ordered all Zonal AIGs and CPs including other Commanding Officers to ensure effective deployments of men and resources throughout the period of the operation.

“In addition, these Commanding Officers have been directed to remain on ground and personally supervise the special operation throughout the Easter holidays and beyond.

“The Police High Command strongly advises owners of unregistered vehicles to withdraw them from the highways immediately.

“Persons and companies operating vehicles painted in Police colours or bearing Police insignia are also advised to withdraw them from public roads forthwith as field operatives have been directed to arrest and bring to book all such violators.

“Similarly, owners of uncompleted buildings are to keep them clear of undesirable elements and to report to the Police all unauthorized persons inhabiting such places.”

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NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Utomi, Guinness MD, others advise on globalisation renowned professor of political economy and management expert, Pat Utomi, has said that for Nigerian leaders to command the respect of the international community, they must imbibe the ethical principles governing global relations.

He spoke on the concept of globalisation, while celebrating Nigerian leaders who had headed and are currently heading multinational companies on the global scene.

He said this at a recent seminar on professionalism revolution organised by Poise Nigeria at Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

According to him, “Such Nigerian leaders have exhibited the values of integrity and good judgment, in addition to expertise in their various fields.”

In defining a global leader, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, the HR Executive, MTN, noted that “competence in a job is only an infinitesimal part of the needed criteria.”

She stated that a global executive must possess what she described as a corporate citizenship, which implies a high degree of “versatility and agile-mindedness.”

She added that leaders needed to be highly intelligent emotionally, socially and intellectually, in order to create, shape and transform the world.

In his paper, Mr. Seni Adetu, the Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, said a leader must be global-minded to succeed in today’s world.

Adetu, who was represented by Mr. Micheal Onuoha, Head of Public Sector, Guinness Nig. Plc, further stated that that only solutions that had been provided by a collaborative and multicultural approach would transcend time.

However, Mrs. Akosua Agyeman, the CEO of Cross Bridge Consult, Ghana, highlighted the crucial value of improving the thinking of business executives.

According to her, “Most organizations fail not for a lack of human resources, but for the dearth of quality employees, particularly performance- oriented mindset.”

She, therefore, urged organizations to begin the training process of their employees from the starting point.

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Mob beat boy over sexual assault n Vivian OKORIE n NGRY family members of a five-year-old victim of sexual assault and bystanders descended on the suspect simply identified Chineye, penultimate Monday at No51, Olasonde Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin, Lagos State.

Chineye was said to have taken the girl called Suliyat to a corner of the house where he inserted his fingers in her private part.

He was caught by an eagle eye neighbor who raised the alarm that attracted other occupants of the building.

He was said to have been given the beating of his life by bystanders before he bolted into thin air.

The distraught mother of the girl, Remilekun Labake, said: “I had just returned from the market when a neighbour told me that Chineye had sexually abused my daughter by dipping his fingers in her private part. I quickly rushed outside to look for him but he was nowhere to be found.

“Chineye does not live in this compound but his father who has a shop outside the house. Chineye happens to be the first child of his father and has been misbehaving lately.

“I have taken my daughter to the hospital. I just thank God that no harm was done to her private part because that would have caused her a lot of pain.

When I met with Chineye’s father, he did not stop me from reporting the case to police and instead encouraged me. He said that he was tired of the shame his son had brought to his family lately. Çhineye will not go unpunished and he must suffer for what he has done to my daughter.

Our reporter contacted the Lagos police spokesperson, Ms Ngozi Braide for comment but her phone line was switched off while a text message sent to her was not replied.

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Author donates books BOUT twelve schools have benefitted from books donated by the author of ‘My Nigeria…. Peoples, Places and Culture,’ Constance Omawumi Kola – Lawal.

The event which was held in Lagos was attended by students and teachers from different schools. The occasion was spiced up by former kid musician, Tosin Jegede, who thrilled the guests with her evergreen song ‘Children, obey your parents’.

The author said the book would go a long way in making Nigerian children connect with culture and people of the country. She advised students to make sure that they make use of the book as it would assist in their understanding of the country.

The 98 page book is a compendium of people, places and culture of Nigeria.

The occasion was also used to announce ‘The Pride of Nigeria Annual Poetry Competition’. According to the organizers, the competition aims to build skills and appreciation in Nigerian children, by encouraging them to write poetry.

On the submission timelines, the organizers said the entry submissions should be collated and submitted between September 30 and December 16 adding that no entries would be accepted after the deadline.

Prizes would be awarded to the best three entries, judged according to competition criteria.

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•From left: Parents of the groom; Alhaji Moshood Ladi Ogunneye, his wife, Nurat; the groom, Mr Saheed Oluwaseyi Ogunneye, his bride, Nusirat; the bride’s parents, Alhaja Kudirat and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, interim National Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC) during the traditional wedding of their son and daughter at GRA Ikeja, Lagos...yesterday.

Don’t import war to the Southwest HE All Progressives Congress in Osun State yesterday rejected what it called war intention of the PDP in the Southwest ahead of the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State and the August 9 governorship poll in Osun State.

Vice President Namadi Sambo speaking in Abuja on Wednesday had declared that the impeding elections would be a ‘war’ which the PDP will ‘fight’ to regain the two states.

However,reacting to the Vice President’s statement,the Director of Publicity,Research and Strategy of the APC in Osun,Mr.Kunle Oyatomi said “ this is a sadistic declaration of war by a government, on its own people and it is also patent evidence that the PDP is the actual cause of the war

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–Osun APC tells Sambo Nigeria have been having in recent time, including that of Boko Haram.”

Mr. Oyatomi warned the PDP to think twice before it imports war to the Southwest which,according to the APC, has been the most peaceful area since the return of democracy.

'We reject this war proposal of the VP because it will spell disaster for the country', the APC said.

It said the Federal Government already has a series of wars on its hand which it has “failed woefully to win.” “ To therefore start a new war on a peaceful people in the West will be biting more than the government can chew.'It will be inviting anarchy,”

Oyatomi said.

The APC reminded VP Sambo that he has enough troubles in his home state in Kaduna which he desperately struggled to win in a rigged victory against the defunct CPC in 2011.

'Namadi Sambo should bother more about Kaduna than scheming for a war in the West. It will be a very unpleasant experience for him and his party,' the party said.

On the PDP governorship candidate in Osun, Mr. Iyiola Omisore, the APC described the ex-senator as 'a politician who lacks electoral value in the State'.

It said, “for instance, Omisore was comprehensively defeated in 2011 by the youngest Senator in Nigerian Senate today, Babajide Omoworare.

‘Warn Obanikoro, Adesiyan against brigandage’ HE Coalition of Self Determination Groups (COSEG) has called on the Federal Government, the Minister of Defence, General Aliyu Gusau and Director General of the State Security Service to instruct the Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro to stop what it called brigandage in South west.

The group in a release signed by Mr. Ifedayo Ogunlana and Rasak Olokooba, Chairman and Secretary of COSEG respectively urged relevant authorities to call Senator Obanikoro and his counterpart in the Ministry of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan to order on their arbitrary use of military and police personnel to disturb the peace in the Southwest of Nigeria.

COSEG described the act of the two ministers as that of one that is no befitting their status as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

According to COSEG, "We, as an organization, have noted with regrets his recent actions in Lagos and most recently at the inconclusive Ilaje/Ese Odo bye-election. We are of the opin-

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ion that with Obanikoro’s meddling with electoral matters using his office as the Minister of State for Defence, Nigeria may be in for another season of inconclusive elections.

"It was widely reported how the Minister of State for Defence allegedly turned a vandal and mastermind of the crises that dogged the Ondo electoral processes.

"We must state very clearly that the Presidency must be seen to promote peace and orderliness in any region.

However, from all indications, anarchy is looming in the South West of Nigeria which as of today, is the most peaceful region in Nigeria". The organisation pointed out.

The Organisation warned that it shall not take lightly to various illegal activities of any of the ministers from the part of the country, saying It was Senator Obanikoro who stopped some Lagos officials from performing their official assignment with soldiers two weeks ago.

Speaking on the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan said he was

alleged to have slapped a governorship aspirant and a former Governor of Osun State.

"It is in this light that both Obanikoro and Adesiyan must be reminded that the Yoruba are not cowards and we refused to be cowed or intimidated by the shenanigans of these unpatriotic sons of this part of the country.

"We also wish to remind the Presidency that it would amount to deliberate act of sabotage of the peace of the South West should the activities of these two remain uncurtailed immediately lest Nigerians begin to see that the Presidency itself has a plot to further extend the field of carnage it is yet to cope with in the North, South East and South-South parts of the country".

COSEG posited.

The Organisation however commended the Ondo State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Akin Orebiyi for his courage in telling the truth and standing by it despite various unruly attitudes and illegal activities of Obanikoro.

Kwankwaso launches new C-of-O for Kano OVERNOR Rabi’u Kwankwaso of Kano State says the on-going demolition of illegal structures in the state is aimed at making Kano more habitable, modern and cosmopolitan.

Presenting the new Kano State Certificate of Occupancy to the public in Kano,Gov.Kwankwaso said it was imperative for government to initiate land reforms.

A new agency, Kano Geographical Information System (KANGIS) has been

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n Kolade ADEYEMI, Kano n established to make the new C-of-O easily obtainable.

“As a departure from the past, people can now get their land documents with ease and guaranteed security”, he said ,explaining that the technology of KANGIS will be used to sanitize and secure the state capital and rid it of ghettos.

Consequently,he said that even petty traders and artisans will be able to ob-

tain loans from financial institutions by using their certificates as collateral.

This will help in increasing their capital and improving their living conditions.

He advised residents state to take advantage of the services offered by KANGIS and urged property owners to pay their outstanding ground rents and other statutory charges to enable government provide more amenities and services.

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

COMMENTARY

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‘

Yet Nigeria has a vibrant army with a reputation of getting its duty done according to its history and pedigree. So why the pervasive security inability to contain Boko Haram or eliminate its threat altogether?

HE abduction of about 90 girls by Boko Haram in a boarding house in North East of Nigeria, and the decision of some of the parents to search for their daughters, in spite of the dangers inherent in that effort, is a clear sign of a lack of confidence in government ‘s actions on the search and that is that is also a potent sign of failure of government. A government, anywhere and by definition must be able to guarantee the security of lives and property in its territory and must have the confidence and trust of its citizens in carrying out this onerous and legitimate duty. If citizens usurp this major duty of any government, then they are questioning its authority and legitimacy to protect them and that again can lead to a breakdown of law and order as well as the machinery of governance.

On the global scene, a similar situation to the Nigerian one is slowly but surely evolving in the stand off between pro Russia rebels in Donetsk in East Ukraine who seized government buildings and refused to vacate them, even with the presence of federal troops sent from the capital Kiev to dislodge them. The Donestk rebels are challenging the authority of the Kiev government and provoking it to attack them in the very good hope that this will make Russian strongman President Vladmir Putin fulfil his promise this week to use force to protect Russian lives in Donetsk, just as he did when he invaded an annexed Crimea very recently.

On the other hand the North Atlantic Treaty OrganisationNATO - through its Secretary General was doing its own sabre rattling on Ukraine. The SG announced that NATO has more planes in the air and more ships on the high seas to deter Russia on the Ukraine crisis.

The Nigerian government and the Kiev government in Ukraine have a lot in common in their handling of these two crisis and that is impotence in confronting the challenges they face on this matter. In Nigeria the government is just unable to stop Boko Haram killing innocent lives in N E Nigeria and the the terrorists struck in Abuja during the week killing 79 people and causing the president to pay a visit to the gory site and postpone his planned visit to Ibadan for an important political rally. Yet one needs to look at the available resources and strategies of these two beleaguered governments to appreciate why they seem so powerless in asserting their authority in their environment as expected of any government worth its salt.

We start with Nigeria which is facing an insurgency in the NE of the nation where Boko Haram has committed some of the worst atrocities known to mankind in killing sleeping school boys in their dormitories, bombing transit passengers at bus stations and now kidnapping school girls from their dormitories. The government has created state of emergencies in the three states most affected namely Yobe, Borno and Adamawa but this has not lessened the fury and horror of Boko Haram and one can indeed expect Northerners to constantly pray like the ancient Europeans once prayed on the approach of marauding Norsemen and Vikings that – From the fury of Boko Haram good Lord

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Failure of government, ‘ security and legitimacy deliver us.

Yet Nigeria has a vibrant army with a reputation of getting its duty done according to its history and pedigree. So why the pervasive security inability to contain Boko Haram or eliminate its threat altogether? Ostensibly the tempo and success of Boko Haram bombing has increased because a high security chief boasted that Boko Haram terror should be over by April this year when the president changed his security chiefs recently.

To me however the major challenge facing the military over Boko Haram is the vastness of the land mass of the North East of Nigeria from which six states had been carved out and the inaccessibility of the Cameroon Mountains spreading from Gwoza to Mubi and beyond, which Boko Haram has turned into a veritable hideout and a terrible danger zone from which the frustrated parents of the captured school girls have now gone to retrieve their daughters in the face of evident government incapacity to rescue them from their Boko Haram captors.

The poor government security performance in this abduction episode has been complicated by inconsistent statement by the military on the number of girls freed leading to a retraction which has created a global credibility problem for the Nigerian military. Evidently Boko Haram is conducting a guerrilla warfare against the Nigerian army which is used to regular warfare. Admittedly it is difficult for the army to know when and where Boko Haram will strike next. But the military needs to get intelligence by penetrating Boko Haram cells and anticipating their raids. Secondly and most importantly it can ask for US aerial military support and drones to bomb the mountain forests in Gwoza and beyond to snuff Boko Haram out of its mountain hideouts. This was what the US did in the mountains of Afghanistan after 9/11 in 2001 to drive Al Quada out of its mountain hideouts when the US discovered that Al Qada leaders including Bin Laden were hiding in those mountains. The government must carry the fight to Boko Haram in its hideout and show evidence that it is capable of maintaining the territorial integrity and peace of the Nigerian nation by eliminating its threat swiftly and efficiently or be ready to carry the stigma of inability to protect the lives and properties of its citizens, which unfortunately is its global sovereign reputation at present. Indeed this is the only way this government can save face especially with a highly concerned APC, the opposition party which asked its governors not to attend a security meeting of all state governors called by the President of the republic. By their reported decision not to attend the President’s security meeting they have distanced

themselves from failure of government of the day in securing the Nigerian state and that is a major challenge for the ruling PDP as the much touted 2015 elections approach, with the Boko Haram terror dangling dangerously like the famed sword of Damocles over the neck of the incumbent Jonathan presidency.

The government in Kiev like that in Nigeria is also trying to redeem its security record to be worthy of that name as expected by its citizenry but it faces an uphill task in its contiguity to Russia the super power of the region trying to create a bi polar power world, long since the demise of the former Soviet Union. The diplomatic laxity of the US over the Syrian crisis and the lack of the enforcement of the red line drawn by the US in punishing the Assad regime in Syria has emboldened Russia to annex Crimea and now move towards the dismemberment of a sovereign state like Ukraine. Very soon the US and its hard working Secretary of State John Terry will realise that Russia is using democracy to buy time and secure the security of Donestk rebels in Ukraine. Although a deal was struck in Geneva, Switzerland with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier, the rebels have said they did not give their mandate to Lavrov to sign any deal for them and that they are not leaving the occupied government buildings in Donestk. John Kerry reminds me of a certain British PM Neville Chamberlain from 1937 – 1940, who flew back to Britain from Germany after a meeting with Hitler waiving a piece of paper and saying he had ‘secured peace in our time’ just before Hitler reneged and started the Second World War after signing purportedly not to invade Poland. I think the message of NATO on the readiness of its ships and planes is more relevant than the diplomatic chicanery that Russia has used to befuddle the US Secretary of State to be busy negotiating with a Russian Foreign Emissary whose principal and boss is speaking the language of war. Unless NATO goes through on its deterrent threat of military preparedness to protect Ukraine from dismemberment through Russia, any agreement with the Russian Foreign Minister will not be worth the paper on which it is written. This is because Mr Putin is ready to use force to undermine the legitimacy and authority of the Kiev government and he can only be stopped by an equal, immediate and opposite force which only NATO, if it has the stomach for it, can provide, and not any diplomatic negotiations between the US Secretary of State and his wily time buying Russian counterpart Sergey Levrov.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

COMMENTARY

The chicken before the egg hich came first, the chicken or the egg? The answer to this age old conundrum had baffled scientists and riddle lovers for centuries. The challenge has always come from the fact that a chicken can only come from an egg, but an egg, on the other hand, has to be laid by a chicken, and that chicken had to have come from an egg...you see what I mean?

Well, sometime ago, a group of scientists cracked the ‘SHELL’ of this riddle by ‘FRYING, BOILING AND UNSCRAMBLING’ (pun intended) the mystery to give a fully ‘POACHED’ answer to one of the world's oldest riddles. Their answer was… (drum roll)… the chicken came first before the egg!

In a bid to find out more about how animals make eggshell, the scientists researched the process in microscopic detail by programming the ingredients that they thought chickens use to make egg shells. By the time the results came up, it revealed the presence of a particular protein in a chicken’s ovaries, unidentified by the researchers, which acts as the tireless builder on an eggshell. Without this protein, the eggs would not exist.

This, in their opinion, meant the bird must have come first.

Which came first questions, such as that of the chicken or the egg may not seem such an important one to ask or find a solution to. Especially in our society where the majority are living under such poverty that the only fact most Nigerians care to know about chickens and eggs is how to attain and eat them. But like most occurrences in life, almost everything happens as a consequence of something else and sometimes certain outcomes can only be guaranteed by the function of a certain criterion. Much like the fact discovered by the scientists that an eggshell cannot be created without a certain protein produced in a chicken; it is a fact that in order to conduct a free, fair and people representative election in Nigeria, certain measures must be put in place by INEC. Recently, the Independent National Electoral Commission, said it has detected and removed multiple registrants from the Ekiti and Osun States voters registers, ahead of the governorship elections in the states. If that is the case, although it may be late for the Ekiti and Osun elections coming up in June and August respectively, there may be an absolute need for INEC to conduct a credible nationwide voter’s registration exercise.

Even with the statement of Professor Jega, that “the consolidation and de-duplication of the biometric register of voters have been completed and the voters register now has integrity that surpasses the register with which 2011 elections were conducted,” quite a few of us would beg to differ.

By making this statement to say, “The voters register now has integrity that surpasses the register with which

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Knucklehead With

Yomi Odunuga E-mail:yomi.odunuga @thenationonlineng.net SMS only: 07028006913

n yet another week of madness and senseless rage, Nigeria bleeds further. The peaceful ambience that usually pervaded Nyanya, one of the popular satellite towns in Abuja where millions of residents hide their heads after the hustling and bustling in the city, was blown up in bombs of sorrow and tears. By the time the capital city woke up to count its losses, over 80 innocent lives had been cut short and hundreds were battling for dear lives at different hospitals. The pain was not just in the sickening Monday morning violence that shredded them into bits of human flesh and the horror that greeted the living in that early morning bomb blast. The pain lies in the fact that these ones, like many others in the past, died without knowing what sins they had committed to deserve such an inglorious exit. They were among countless others who have been failed by a state where leaders know nothing about the state’s duty of guaranteeing our right to life.

There was that father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt and breadwinner that rushed out just to eke a living that would probably feed many hungry mouths. There was the truck pusher, the bus conductors, the commercial driver, the local cobbler popularly called shoe shiner, petty trader, nail cutter and the jobless graduate brimming with hope in the face of so many odds. They all perished, some burnt beyond recognition. The images that confronted us were gory but we were forced to look at them. They were grim reminders of how low we have sunk, how unfeeling we have become and how fast we are losing our humanity!

And then, you ask: did the perpetrators of this evil have blood, no matter how dirty, running in their veins?

We yelled, cried, cursed with teeth deeply buried in the tongue, railed and ranted. Yet, inside us, we knew these ones would never come to life again. They are gone forever, to be remembered by those who truly loved them—the husband that has suddenly become a widower; the wife who would have to adjust to living without her man by her side; the parent who would never see that child he had

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2011 elections were conducted”, which gives a veiled admission that the voters register wasn’t credible, it would follow that using that same voter’s register to be used in the 2015 elections won’t be credible either.

Fifteen years since the birth of our fourth republic, it is no secret that our democracy is but a shambles in Nigeria.

And as we charge towards ‘Nigeria 2015’, the crucial questions we need to ask ourselves before any discussion of a credible election are, what is the worth of democracy to us and what framework do we hope to pursue in order to progress it? The answers to these are basic and will not take a team of scientists centuries to decipher, as with the chicken and egg conundrum. With a lifetime of military rule, repression and poverty, the worth of democracy to a Nigerian is priceless and the framework needed to progress it lies with the conduct of an election that allows every eligible voter in Nigeria to pass their sovereign verdict on each person that seeks public office. But can that truly be possible given this repetitive lack of preparation from INEC. The prospect of an authentic process, amidst the present arrangement looks very slim and unlikely. It is one thing to promise credible elections and another to conduct it.

Any credible election must be predicated on several fundamentals, with the most important being an authentic voter’s register that will represent genuine voters. By Professor Jega’s own admission now, the current voter’s register is allegedly tainted. By law, the commission is obligated to compile, maintain and update, on a continuous basis, a National Register of Voters, which shall include names of all persons entitled to vote in all elections.

With talk that the general election may hold early 2015 despite all these inadequacies and more, the prospect of a free and fair election is looking like a nonstarter. If, by law, the election has to be conducted at least 150 days before the May 29th handover date, then by all means we should strive to meet that deadline. But in the event we are unable to, then we have to consider amending the law so that the handover date can be moved to a time that will accommodate the preparations that are needed to conduct a credible process. If the commission is committed to an earlier election date, it would mean that there would only be three to four months to register eligible voters, prepare a credible Voters Register, print ballot papers, secure ballot boxes, disseminate the proper information so that the Nigerian public know the precise number of polling booths to be used and the number of voters registered in each ward and do every other thing that has to be done.

And unless we are 199% committed to doing this, then it is unlikely that we will be ready for very early 2015 elections. The importance of a credible election has honestly

got to outweigh a desire to meet up with some handover date deadline.

It has become urban legend that a majority of those presently in political office did not fairly win their elections.

If this is true then we must know that we cannot grow beyond the point that we are stuck now if we do not have the power to elect competent leaders to care for us, lead us and help us and sack them when they don’t. The type of subversion and violation of process we saw in past elections is most definitely unacceptable this time around. Nigerians cannot depend on the hoary and corrupt stencil of conducting elections that was used in the past and if it means that the May 29th date set for the swearing in has to be moved further ahead in order to ensure a credible process, then so it should be.

But to advance moving the election closer to this end of time when we may not be ready somehow doesn’t seem right. It exhibits an apparent apathy to the formidable and apocalyptic issues facing the preparations for the elections.

The 2015 election is incredibly valuable to the future of Nigeria; it may be the turning point we have been waiting for. Everything possible must be done to get it right.

Eggshells are very strong yet very smooth and lightweight; I guess it’s due to the ingredients inside chickens that make eggs. Since it has been found that the egg is the result of the combination of specific ingredients in the chicken, this notion serves as another example of the importance for INEC to combine the compulsory prerequisites of an election if they are to be strong, smooth and credible.

An election is like an egg; it can be fragile and can turn out to be a ‘GOOD-EGG OR BAD-EGG’ (pun intended), based only on the ingredients the chicken or INEC use to produce it.

Never again will I underestimate a chicken, its ability to produce something as fascinating as an egg and the significance of the chicken and egg poser and neither should INEC. I hope that I am not ‘EGGSAGERATING’ or being offensive by ‘EGGSPLAINING’ about INEC in the same way I would a chicken, but I also hope that INEC does not ‘CHICKEN-OUT’ come 2015, but instead ‘EGGSERTS’ itself to hatch an ‘EGGSTREMELY’, ‘EGGSTRAORDINARILY’ and ‘EGGSCEPTIONALLY’ credible electoral ‘EGGSCERCISE’…

If it was to happen, it would be an ‘EGGSCEEDINGLY EGGSCITING EGGSTRAVAGANZA’.

(ALL PUNS INTENDED!)

In times like this... placed so much hope on; the child who would have to hold on to memories of a parent that would never be there again; the brother who would never see his sister again and the sister who knows that that dotting brother has departed to the land of no return. Sadly, that’s the reality that confronts us.

Those who have made it a habit to condemn one dastardly act after the other would feature prominently in the papers. They would embark on the familiar drill of visiting the hospitals, consoling the wounded, throwing money at the problems and vowing to bring the demented souls that wiped out a generation to book. Doesn’t it sound like a familiar refrain?

Those who never get tired of offering platitudes would be at their melodramatic best, feigning pain and anguish at the loss. In times like this when we are united by an unmitigated sorrow, nothing is impossible. Not even crocodile tears that would belie that of that Valentine’s Day shooter, Oscar Pistorious!

And so, while we were still struggling to fathom a reason why the Nyanya mass murder succeeded in spite of the detailed security network in Abuja after a number of tragic moments in the past, the killers of our collective dream were said to have, on a single night, abducted over 100 girls from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.

In our usual manner, we went into riotous rage. How could that be in an environment that was under heavy security surveillance? Could it be true that students are still being exposed to the maniacal operations of insurgents after the deadly attacks in Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, where 43 students were killed and 16 abducted in March?

How ‘secured’ is an environment where insurgents could invade settlements for six hours, packing abducted students in trucks, setting homes on fire and slaughtering residents?

Strangely, no one doubted the story. How could we? Were we not told to go about our ‘normal business’ as our ‘safety is assured’ even when hundreds of lives have been cut short in this maddening space? How many lives did marauders waste in Zamfara State recently? How many villages have been raided by gunmen in Benue and what is the casualty figure?

How has Nasarawa State fared in the hands of attackers who steal, maim and kill? How about Wukari in Taraba State?

What about the daily haulage of dead bodies in Borno, Yobe and other parts of the North? And what is the contribution of armed robbers, ritualists, kidnappers and hired killers to this sea of blood?

We may never know the answers to these questions. But we do know one thing for sure. It is the responsibility of the Jonathan administration to rein in the criminal in our midst,

no matter their political affiliations, and instil order. It is a sacred duty he owes the nation and not tendering tendentious excuses for his failure! We cannot continue to hang on to a promissory note that devalues our lives as depraved minds take the centre stage. The Nyanya killings, to my mind, sends the message home that the enemy within is not just baying for more blood but that he is audaciously doing it right at the President’s doorstep. I’m sure that message is not lost on the authorities and that probably explains the President’s visit to the blast scene few hours after the light went out for the 80 souls. It is just as well that Jonathan has promised to wipe out the insurgents and their sponsors. He definitely cannot afford to sleep on his hands while the greatest threat to his tenure as a President continues to hit him below the belt.

Yet, in times like this, we do not expect that some of the President’s men would be playing to the gallery in the name of political correctness especially when lives of innocent Nigerians are being wasted in an orgy of unmitigated violence. So, with all the bloodletting, one funny character called Olisa Metuh, still had the presence of mind for insensitive politicking in a season of mass sorrow, blatantly accusing the opposition All Progressives Congress of being behind the killings, bombings and slaughtering! And if members of the party were truly behind the horror, why should a ‘caring’ President feign such indifference and avail them the template to elongate our anguish? So impudently, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, could relish us with an incredible story about how Jonathan has been undergoing ‘psychological’ anguish due to the killings at a time when his party’s spokesman was busy justifying the President’s singing and dancing at a political rally barely 24 hours after the Nyanya mass murder. Psychological anguish indeed! So, the best way to send a ‘loud statement to terrorists that government cannot be stopped from working’ was for the President to attend a political rally a day after the shredded bodies of innocent citizens were denied the decency of being packaged in body bags to the morgues? So, there is no line of distinction between the cheap politics we play here, the cheap deaths that pervade our land and the hare-brained ranting in high places? How long would this unfeeling mass continue to dance on the graves of the dead?

In times like this, words do fail me. I can only shiver at the banality embedded in official indolence in this season of anomie. May God heal our land.

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Ogochukwu Ikeje ohgeeoh@gmail.com 08084235961 (SMS only) HESE are days of savagery. In subtle, bizarre and brazen ways, this country of prodigiously endowed citizens and uncommon resources has been consistently revealing its dark and frightening underbelly. And each time this cruel brutality rears its head, it snaps at the very cord that holds our sanity and humanity. Perhaps the worst form of the savagery is the fact that precious little is being done by the authorities whose mandate it is to keep the country as sane and humane as possible.

For some time now, to cite one example, we have been seeing pictures of dizzyingly long lines of young women, some of them in their early teens, nursing varying degrees of pregnancy. Are they married? No. Are they bearing love-children, those conceived by sometimes young girls in love? Not quite. The young women are in effect baby-making factories, bearing babies for the owners of squalid and unlawful facilities where they are quartered. We have seen this in the Southeast and also in the Southwest.

Now, some have said that the so-called baby factories exist to fill such needs as providing childless couples with babies they can call their own. It is also said that some of the young women, that is, the real baby factories, are themselves beneficiaries of certain kind gestures, and that upon finding themselves pregnant but unwilling to bring the shame home, they resort to putting to bed quietly and peacefully at a “home” where some godly woman would help look after the unwanted child. But we also know that our country has

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COMMENTARY 9

A time to shiver long been unfortunately associated with ritual killings and the sale of body parts to rich folks or those who want to become rich very quickly.

The fact that these baby factory reports are not isolated incidents in one part of the country, but are indeed widespread across the land, makes it imperative for state and federal governments to treat the matter with the urgency and thoroughness it deserves. Relevant agencies in the states and at the federal level should, among other things, determine who runs such facilities, the purpose to which they are put, how they recruit the young women, who patronises them, and especially what becomes of the babies born in those places.

There is one other matter: allow the law deal with owners and operators of such facilities.

So far, it is unclear how these issues raised are being tackled, whether or not operators of baby factories are in custody or are being, or have been, tried, set free or sentenced in accordance with the law. If there is no clear vision or concerted effort to stamp out these criminal and unwholesome practices, the whole country will steadily slide into one huge dump of bestiality, which will worsen by the day and keep drawing closer and closer to the doorposts. If the authorities cannot or will not halt this slide, their bona fides and claim to governance will forever be in doubt.

Now, consider the evil forest of Ibadan where scores of people were rescued from their captors and where it has been reported that trade in human parts booms. This is strange. One latest report said the place may have been in operation for about 10 years. The same report said people work near the place. Will the police, who have been busy since the Soka forest was discovered, nab the brains behind its activities and appropriately bring them to book? One other thing: will the public be obliged with the facts of such justice? It is important for such corrective measures to be taken, otherwise the country and its people will, wrongly, be

classified as one savage whole.

Consider also the savagery of the Boko Haram sect, and why it is imperative for the Jonathan administration to work harder, and beyond working harder, avoid being perceived as insensitive. After the Nyanya Park blast in which 150 reportedly died, although police said 71, and health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu 72, respectively, it became clear that the Islamist sect was sworn to causing as much damage as possible, and that its fighters are not afraid to strike anywhere they please. Before that attack, the Federal Capital Territory had known some peace. It was in mid 2012 that they had last struck. In that attack, outside an upscale nightclub, there were no casualties. Before then, ThisDay office was hit, in April 2012, claiming some souls. It was in June and August 2011 that the sect carried out their most devastating attacks, the police headquarters and the United Nations buildings, in Abuja.

Since then the security community strengthened their forces and managed to keep the insurgents at bay, until April 14. Now President Goodluck Jonathan’s security team must do what it did to keep the FCT calm before the Nyanya blast and not just in the nation’s capital but also across the North, especially its eastern flank. In that part of the country, if pupils are not murdered in their sleep, school girls are abducted. Thankfully, most of the 100 girls seized and taken away from their school in Chiboki, Borno State, have regained their freedom, but the search for and rescue of the remaining ones must continue in earnest.

Some questions remain, though. Why do the insurgents seem to attack with such ease and at such frequency especially in the Northeast in spite of the presence of a battery of federal and state security teams?

And why did the president fly to Kano the day after the Nyanya tragedy obviously for political reasons?

These developments give you the shivers.

Shell manager, businessman lured, killed by internet ‘lovers’ manager in Shell Development Petroleum Company (SDPC) Nigeria and a businessman have been allegedly killed in Rivers State by fraudsters impersonating as women on a dating site.

The corpses of the victims and one other unidentified person have been recovered in a bush by the police in the state.

The late Shell manager, Mr. Progress Benin Disi, went missing on March 7, while Shola Olaseinde, the businessman got missing on March 26.

Police, it was gathered, were initially working on kidnap until investigation led them to the discovery of a syndicate said to specialise in luring people, especially rich men through dating sites with a view to ripping them off.

The detectives reportedly opened communication with the gang and were able to arrest five of them including a pregnant woman.

The expectant mother, it was learnt, was the bait used by the gang to engage their victims in sweet talks by phone.

The leader of the group identified as, Micheal Eneji a 27 year- old footballer said they were unaware of Olaseinde’s death until their arrest.

Asked how they killed their victims, he said: “We will take their ATM cards and go to the bank with the pin number they gave us and begin to withdraw N100, 000 every day until the account is blocked.

“We did not know that Olaseinde and Disi were unable to untie themselves like others before them and escape”.

He blamed his involvement in crime on hard times.

“When I couldn’t afford to pay my school fees, I decided to go into love dating scam. I dwell mainly on Badoo that many Nigerian men visit regularly.

“I surf the net and select pictures of black models and impersonate them by using them as my own so that the men will think they are dealing with a woman. As soon as they see the picture, some send a message to me and I will respond. “ They will ask for my number and I will give them. I have a Techno phone that has a special voice prompt that allows a man to sound like a woman.

“Once I establish contact, I will go to the next step which is to convince them that I will satisfy their sexual urge.

Pretending to be a big girl, I will tell them to meet me at a petrol station on Eleme Road while one of my boys, Chibueze, will go there and meet them as my domestic servant and direct them to my house.

“To convince them to come, I will claim that I live in one of the estates alone and it will be safer to meet there so that they will not be caught by their wives or girlfriends. While in their cars, Chibueze will tell them to drive towards a deserted place where we would lay ambush for them, dressed in police uniforms. We will stop them and demand to know what they are doing in such a deserted place.

“We will over power them and tie their hands and legs while we take their valuables including their ATM card.

“Two of us will go the bank and withdraw money from their account through their ATM. If there no much money in the account, we will release loosen the rope and disappear this will enable the person to untie himself and go home.”

Eneji confessed that the gang had defrauded a lot of men before they were arrested.

He said that the gang kept Olaseinde and Disi for several days to enable them (gang) deplete their ‘huge’ accounts.

On how Olaseinde was killed,he said: “I told him to come around 7pm and he told me that it was the perfect time to hang out. At about that time, he drove to the spot with his driver and Chibueze who was on ground joined him.

“He directed them to the spot and we took over the car, tied

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• The suspects

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Jude ISIGUZO

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him and his driver up. He did not have much cash with unlike the others. When we got to the bank, I realized that he had about N4.5million naira in his account.

“Blindfolded, we took him further into the bush and decided to keep there for some days to enable us empty that account. A few days later we were arrested. I never knew that he did not escape.

“The second victim, Mr Disi was not my contract. It was Elijah the leader of another group that contracted me to help execute the job. I became interested when he told me that the maga (late Disi) worked in Shell Petroleum.

“All I did was to lure him to visit by promising him good sex. I do not know if they killed him because of the huge amount that was found in his account. The truth is that we do not kill, but rob them of their valuables. We will sell the car, withdraw as much as we can from their accounts and disappear. We know that such crime might not be reported because the man will not tell his family or the police why he was robbed to protect his image.

“It is unfortunate that they died; they were still breathing when we left them there. The only difference is that we did not loosen the rope so that they could easily escape.”

On the role of the lady in their midst, Eneji said: “She is my fiancée and I normally use her to further convince our target to assume that we are real. If the target insists that I should come and see him, I will send my girl to go and meet him.

She would be the one that will lure them to the spot where we can take over.”

He goes by the names Cindy and Empress on Badoo.

“Once you search for beautiful models on Goggle search, you will have so many options. If you want so many toasters, select the ones that expose their breast. I am terribly sorry that these men died in the process. We found out that it is easier to collect money in exchange for sex. I dropped out of school because my rich relatives refused to help my mother to train us. I can only get money from them if I send a woman to go and seduce them. I am terribly sorry.”

A member of the gang , Lekia Emmaden Isaac, said his

own duty was to tie their victims.

He said: “We have done that severally and when we return, we found that they have escaped.

“I did not kill Olaseinde. All I did was to tie him up very well so that he would not escape immediately. I was shocked when I heard that he was found dead. It is possible that a snake attacked him since he was kept in a deserted area.”

Chibueze, a 17 year-old, who acted as domestic servant said his duty was just to take the victim to a spot where they would be attacked by the other members of the gang.

“I did not participate in the main robbery; all I did was to take the suspect to the point where he would be robbed.”

Gift Princess, the expectant mother said: “Olaseinde called, requesting that I should direct him. I then told him that my domestic servant would wait for him at the agreed spot.

“He later called back complaining that he was not comfortable with the route that they passed through. Unfortunately, he was already at the spot and my fiancé, Eneji and others took over from there. “ I was only helping my husband to raise enough money to pay for my bride price.”

The State Command Commissioner of Police, Tunde Ogunsakin said operatives acted based on a report by the family of one of their victims, Olaseinde that he had been kidnapped.

“When his family waited for him and could not reach him,they lodged a complaint and I instructed the officer in charge of Anti Kidnapping, CSP Akan to hunt for the missing father of two. Through Intelligence gathering, we were able to arrest the gang . They led us to Ebubu, Eleme, in Rivers state at an abandoned Shell pipeline borrowed pit where the corpse of Shola was lying decomposed.

Ogunsakin said the suspects posed as women in most of these love dating site. As soon as they lured their victim, they would arrange a meeting. The lady’s duty is to meet with the men who are normally very rich. As soon as they get them, she will lure them to a secluded place and alert members of their gang. They would come and tie the person and then go ahead to withdraw money from his account through ATM”.

10 COMMENTARY

THE NATION,

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Renewing Awolowo’s vision and remaking Nigeria Being text of a speech by ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU as Chief Presenter at the public presentation of Wale Adebanwi’s Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency at Agip Hall, Muson Centre, Lagos on Thursday, April 17.

I

AM personally delighted to be here today to celebrate the memory of one of the greatest political leaders of Af rica in the 20the Century and the progressive political movement in Nigeria which he was a key founder. There cannot be a better moment in our current political climate to celebrate, but perhaps more poignantly remember the lessons that this man, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, has taught us, the man Dr Wale Adebanwi describes him in this book as a “corporate political agent.”

This moment in our national life is the kind of moment that Awo lived for and relished as a brilliant political organizer and social thinker. Throughout his political life, when the country seemed to be in a quandary, whether in the late colonial era when the country was searching for the best political structure and the most formidable modernist ideas and ideals, or in the postcolonial era when the country was faced with the daunting problem of building a democratic society and a party system that would provide the pathways for creation of a great country, Awolowo was always there. He was there not only to build practical political organizations that would confront these challenges, but also to supply the most brilliant ideas about how the task should be done.

When the nation was gripped by the uncertainty of imperial domination in the late colonial era, and by the gloom of imminent collapse of the democratic order, or of the nation itself, Obafemi Awolowo was not only always at his desk thinking about the most profound solutions; he was also always in the field networking to create a political platform, as well practical programmatic scheme, that would rescue Nigeria.

Therefore, at this moment when Nigeria again is faced with the urgent challenge of creating an alternative order at the federal level, when the logic of power that has dominated federal politics since independence has exhausted itself, we can learn important lessons from the ideas already provided by Chief Awolowo, as well as the force of his examples.

Wale Adebanwi, the author, in the preview interview with The News magazine captured it perfectly when he said, “Even though he was a man for all times, Awo was also a product of a particular period of history. You cannot recreate it...therefore, rather than trying to recreate another Awo, what we need are resourceful leaders who can face the challenges of their own time by using the ideas and examples of a visionary like Awo, and also reconstruct those ideas...”

I cannot agree more with Dr Adebanwi.

Before I reflect on these lessons, I must especially salute Mama, Mrs. H.I.D. Awolowo, and Papa’s “jewel of inestimable value,” who stood firmly by our departed leader throughout his life. Despite our differences, this is also a moment to greet all the members of the Awolowo political family. I greet all the “political agents,” as the author of this book describes them, who made Obafemi Awolowo phonomenon possible and continue to sustain his legacy.

I salute our indefatigable elders who worked closely with Chief Awolowo and continue to sustain the ideas of this great leader and celebrate his memory of this great leader.

I acknowledge the tireless work of members of my own generation in pushing the frontiers of democratic freedom and good governance. And I also acknowledge the members of the younger generation who continue to make sacrifices to ensure that the dominant political elite will never flinch from the goal of taking Nigeria to the Promised Land.

I will like to reflect briefly on a few key and relevant points that make this era momentous and why, I believe, Chief Awolowo would have been excited to live in such an era. As you are all aware, he lived through all the most challenging eras in Nigeria’s 20th Century history.

He lived through that era as a newspaper reporter, trade unionist, entrepreneur, political thinker and organizer, trailblazing Premier of Western Nigeria, Leader of the Opposition in the Federal House of Representatives, a political prisoner, jailed on charges that cannot stand close scrutiny, Minister of Finance in General Yakubu Gowon’s Civil War Cabinet, and as Leader and twice Presidential Candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria.

He was plucked from light he helped lit, and jailed on charges that cannot stand close scrutiny. That act plunged he nation itself into darkness, and he emerged from prison to help end the darkness and restore light Indeed, his political life, personal fortitude and the force of his ideas represent guideposts for confronting our present challenges as political leaders.

The first reason, therefore, why, I believe, Chief Awolowo is very relevant to our present era is that he was a great alliance builder. Contrary to what those who are ill-in-

•Chief Obafemi Awolowo

•Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

formed about Awolowo’s politics would say, even though he did not always succeed, there was never a point when Awo discouraged or dismissed the possibility of cross-national alliance to save Nigeria. Even though he started in Western Nigeria.

Awo never limited himself and could never have been limited to Western Nigeria. The evidence is there in history. Even before the alliance with opposition political parties in the other three regions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he first tried to have an alliance with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC).

The first meeting between the Action Group (AG) leaders and the NPC leaders was held in Chief S. O. Gbadamosi’s house in Ikorodu, here in our great state of Lagos in March 1953. Two subsequent meetings were held. Even though the alliance and understanding did not succeed, the most important point I want to draw here is the perpetual commitment of Awo throughout his political life to reaching across political, and sometimes, even ideological lines to build understanding and create a platform for the political salvation of Nigeria. Perhaps the most prominent example of this in the Second Republic was the alliance with a faction of the so-called “Kaduna Mafia” in the Second Republic which led to the emergence of Alhaji Muhammadu Kura as his running mate in the 1983 presidential election.

Therefore, let us remind ourselves that, despite all the constraints, Awolowo never abandoned the search for cross-ethnic, pan-Nigerian alliance building to defeat the dominant forces which have made it difficult for Nigeria to live up to her potential. Chief Awolowo was a nationalist per excellence and sought a more perfect and workable union for Nigeria. His was a fierce proponent of federalism as the best form of political arrangement for Nigeria. For this, he was described as a “Pakistanist”.

Decades after, Federalism remains top of the agenda for Nigeria.

Another reason why Chief Awolowo is very relevant to this era, and why he would have relished such opportunity, is that he has already provided us with the programmatic ideas on how to confront the most fundamental of our national challenges.

The challenge before those of us who have been tasked with responding to the peculiarities of this moment is clear. What we need to do is to build on those ideas, modify them where need be, and then concretize them in the context of the strategic and tactical challenges of our own time. There is absolutely no doubt that if Chief Awolowo were alive today, he would have been scandalized by the incapacity of the ruling party to transform Nigeria’s enormous human and material resources into what he called “freedom for all and life more abundant.”

Those of us who are his followers are equally scandalized. And we must, and we will, do everything in our power to realize Awolowo’s vision for Nigeria.

Yet another reason why Chief Awolowo is very relevant to this era is that he was the greatest believer in the national unity of Nigeria and in the country’s manifest destiny. Not one of those who have accused Awo of all sorts of things has pointed to a single instance when he worked to break up Nigeria. Indeed, Awo’s vision of Nigeria’s possibility was as continental as it was global. He believed firmly and fervently that Nigeria had a God-ordained role in the future of the continent and of the black people of the world. When many of those who later

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We will have our political and personal disagreements. That is to be expected. But the mission to renew Awolowo’s vision is to remake Nigeria by organizing to win political power. Chief Awolowo was always attentive to the uses of political power which was why the political party for him was always the most important instrument for capturing power

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became most eloquent about Nigeria’s unity were working towards national disintegration, Awo was methodical, and also unruffled, in his belief in and exertions for the consolidation of the unity of a country that would take up the challenge of leading Africa and the black race.

Another vital point is Awolowo’s understanding of the role and processes of the emergence of leadership. Reading this book again reminds us that leadership is about competence, and a grasp of the core issues. Chief Awolowo emerged as leader by the force of his ideas and by his incomparable capacity for political organisation. There were many who sneered at him, especially in the earliest years, as a man from the provinces. But Awo remained undaunted and even converted the abuses into a drive for success. ”Ebudola” (which can be translated as “insults turned into prosperity”) was his personal motto. He never wavered in his personal, political conviction despite all the distractions and name-calling. Leadership is hard work, it is vision, it is demonstrable commitment to public good; also leadership is the capacity to make uncomfortable compromises based on reality in the pursuit of larger goals.

Above all, what Chief Awolowo’s political life and social philosophy teach us is to have an unflinching and unremitting commitment to the pursuit of freedom, democracy and human dignity. Whether in his commitment to social welfare, including education, health, and good housing, or in his informed analyses and proposals for the best political structure for Nigeria, Awo was incomparable in his commitment to finding the best ways to make life better for all.

From “freedom for all, life more abundant,” which was the motto of his Action Group, to the “Four Cardinal Programme” of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Chief Awolowo exhibited not only a philosophical, but also a practical and methodical commitment to a social policy that focused on human development.

He was committed to creating a society that generates opportunities for radical human dignity. Because of his persistent commitment to freeing Nigerians from the shackles of ignorance, want, diseases, superstition, etc, Chief Awolowo has remained the greatest embodiment of the Enlightenment project in modern Africa.

I would like to conclude by emphasizing how all that I have been saying relates to us as those who are not only the beneficiaries of Chief Awolowo’s “corporate political agency,” but are also charged with carrying the banner of his enlightened vision.

Our challenge is to take Awo’s fundamental commitment to a truly egalitarian state and society and redesign it for our era. Let us march forward, not backwards. What the author of the book which we are publicly presenting today calls Awo’s “corporate political agency” was geared towards ensuring that Nigeria lived up to what Awo called the country’s “birth-right” and “destiny” as Africa’s leading light. The vision of the man who critically engaged with the challenges of his age and interpreted them to his compatriots and the rest of the world must be transformed into reality in our own time.

We can no longer wait for the future. There is urgency about Nigeria’s fate. The future is now The younger generations and generations yet to come will not forgive us, if we allow this to remain a vision and not concretize it for all Nigerians, irrespective of creed and identity. Awolowo comes to us today not merely in the spirit, but through the force and continued relevance of his ideas, to ask from us what do we propose to do in transforming a country that has remained a geographical expression into the greatest expression of egalitarian socio-economic and political life in the black world.

He passed on the torch to us so that freedom for all and life more abundant shall cease to be a slogan, but a reality in our national life. As for me and my associates, we are committed to ensure that Awolowo’s vision of a greater Nigeria, becomes a reality in our own time.

We are committed to building on the examples of good governance in Lagos, Ekiti, Edo, Osun, Ogun, and Oyo states by federalizing that unsurpassable vision of collective social good that, even in death, Awolowo continues to represent.

As we approach the democratic opportunity that will be offered to us to rebuild and remake Nigeria in the image of an egalitarian country that Chief Awolowo envisioned, we cannot afford to let cheap insinuations, divisive distortions, limited vision, and the degrading diminution of the country by the incompetent and the visionless to distract us from the mission for which we live now.

We will have our political and personal disagreements.

That is to be expected. But the mission to renew Awolowo’s vision is to remake Nigeria by organizing to win political power. Chief Awolowo was always attentive to the uses of political power which was why the political party for him was always the most important instrument for capturing power. Let us, therefore, reconcile our differences as the political heirs of Awolowo’s progressive politics and ensure that Nigeria is retrieved from the quagmire and placed on the highest pedestal at both continental and global levels.

We can do it. We will do it.

This book, Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, by one of our brightest scholars, again reminds us that posterity will record and recall our actions and inactions as political leaders. It challenges us to rededicate our lives to the task of creating the society that Obafemi Awolowo envisioned, one in which all will be free with the attendant abundance of life.Awolowo must not remain only the best president we never had. We must ensure that he becomes the type of president Nigeria MUST have. I thank you for your attention.

THE NATION,

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

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THE NATION,

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

13 THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

BOMB BL AST:

TALES OF BLOOD AND TEARS Stories on pages 14,15&46

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

14

‘God saved our lives because

•Nyanyan Motor Park, scene of the bomb blast AST Monday, was indeed a black day for residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. It was a day that the expectations of the people were shattered by an early morning bomb blast that claimed over 70 lives and left several others severely injured.

The dastardly incident occurred at Nyanya Motor Park.

Many of the residents had left their various homes with high expectations on that fateful day for the Nyanya Motor Park to commence the day's activities in preparation for the Eater celebration without any premonitions of the evil that was lurking around the corner for them.

The park as usual was filled with travellers who wanted to beat the normal traffic that is associated with the Nyanya/Abuja road. While some of the passengers queued up to buy their tickets, some others were already seated in the various buses, looking forward to the rosy welcome that they would receive from their family members when they eventually arrived at their destinations.

Suddenly, the bomb went off and instantly turned the beautiful atmosphere to a heap of wreckage. A number of the popular El Rufai buses, the passengers and others within the vicinity were torn into shreds by the blast within a space of time. The mangled bodies of passengers and passersby littered the whole place causing commotion all over the area.

The blast occurred at about 6.50 am, where hundreds of workers were boarding buses to their respective work places inside Abuja city.

There were however different accounts of how the incident occurred. The most common account, however, had it that a suspected bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle to the front of the Marcopolo buses and vanished from the

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car before the bomb went off, killing the passengers at the terminal, petty traders , passersby and other motorists and their passengers held in the usual gridlock along the Nyanya-Maraba route.

The impact of the blast created a deep hole at the spot where the bomber allegedly parked the explosive-laden vehicle.

Ambulances and vehicles of security agencies later rushed to the scene of the incident to move the dead victims and survivors to Maitama and National hospitals.

At the Maitama Hospital, the victims were first attended to at the entrance of the hospital before some of them were admitted. The medical personnel who were on night shift joined their colleagues to attend to the victims. Every of the departments was represented.

One of the victims had a deep cut around his throat. Every effort by the doctors to stop the bleeding failed. He was eventually referred to the National Hospital.

At a point, some of the medical personnel almost betrayed emotion as a result of the magnitude of injuries sustained by the victims and the quantity of blood flowing out of their bodies.

One of the attendants was overheard telling a colleague that his heart melted when he saw the severity of the situation and that he was shivering while trying to use scissors on one of the victims.

Deceased victims were first separated for identification before they were deposited at the hospital morgue.

At the end of the day, 75 people were confirmed dead and over 200 people seriously injured. A nine-month old baby, Goodness, who was separated from her mother by the blast, sustained a minor injury. She has since been reunited to

her mother who was initially presumed to be among the dead victims.

There was also the story of a grand mother who died in the blast. She was said to have accompanied her grandchild, who had come to Abuja to celebrate with his grandfather marking his 60th birthday. It never occurred to him that the occasion was the last time he was going to see his grandmother.

He boarded a vehicle heading to his destination, while the grandmother waited for the vehicle to take off. It was shortly after the bus took off and the grandmother set to return home that the bomb went off. One of her children later

heard about the blast and rushed to the scene, where she was found on the ground writhing in pain in the pool of her own blood. Her two legs were badly affected. She was thereafter rushed to a hospital by her son but she could not make it as she died as a result of the large quantity of blood she had lost.

The case of eight-year-old Elizabeth Emerson was another pathetic story. Her lap was affected by the bomb blast and she is presently receiving treatment at Pan Raf Hospital in Phase IV, Nyanya.

The mother, Mrs. Emerson, and her uncle, Prince Abel, were left with the only option of amputating her legs in order to save her life.

Continued on page 46

‘The blast flung me into N the midst of the pains of the Nyanya blast, what many religious faithful would describe as miracles still happened. Apart from the miraculous escape of Goodness, an eight-month-old baby from the incident, some victims saw death but also came out alive.

A 40-year-old job seeker, Aungwa Saater from Benue State, was heading for an interview with an NGO in Wuse zone 3, and had already purchased his ticket and was on the queue when the bomb went off.

He had his body flung into the air before landing on top of the decapitated bodies that lay on the ground. He later regained consciousness and found himself in the midst of dead bodies. Beside

I

n Grace OBIKE, Abuja n

him lay people who were screaming for help in the fire caused by the blast but unfortunately, he could not help them.

Ironically, he was taken to a hospital drenched in other victims’ blood. It was eventually discovered that he did not sustain serious injury. He only sustained a minor injury caused by a tiny iron that pierced his head. He was soon taken care of by the doctors.

When The Nation visited his hospital bed in Asokoro General Hospital, Saater was sitting up on his bed, talking and laughing with his brother and wife as if nothing had happened to him.

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

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I’ve truly laboured for Him’ ,

Many people that queued behind her (sister) and several others in front of her, died in the incident. She was number seven on the queue alongside her three children, including Elizabeth. We were in between them but ours was not serious.

Nothing touched two out of the three children. God wants to prove that I have truly laboured for Him and He has rewarded me by saving our lives...

,

•Top & bottom: some of the vehicles burnt in the blast

the air and I landed on top of dead bodies’ able to get out.”

Another victim of the blast, Alhaji Dauda Garba, an old man who was selling kola nuts at the park, explained that he had visited the park that morning with his tray full of kola nuts before he got exhausted and decided to go and rest for a little while. He said he was preparing to return to his business place from a mosque adjacent the park, where he had gone to relax, when he heard the blast.

According to him, iron rods from the blast flew all over Nyanya to several meters away from the blast site. Garba claimed that most of the victims of the blast were not actually at the park. He said some of the victims were either killed or injured by iron debris.

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While speaking to reporters, he said: “It was actually like a movie to me. I had purchased my ticket and was on the queue waiting to board a bus. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of fire. I actually found myself on top of dead bodies. When I got here, my cloth was drenched in other people’s blood but I was not really injured.

“I watched people crying in the fire but there was nothing I could do. I even forgot about the interview that I was going for completely. I am just grateful that I am alive. ‘’I was going for job interview to enable me get a job to take care of my family but if I had died, what would have become of them? It’s just God because in the midst of the fire and the dead, I was

It was actually like a movie to me. I had purchased my ticket and was on the queue waiting to board a bus. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of fire. I actually found myself on top of dead bodies

,

He told the story of a woman who was selling Okpa (beans cake) at the park, who was decapitated and her body flung into a gutter.

He said: “Some people who were not even inside the park were seriously injured by the debris from the cars that flew everywhere. Someone’s head was blown apart by the iron rod that flew across the road. I thank God that I was spared.

"In truth, the figures given as the death count are false because no one can really ascertain the number since many bodies were burnt beyond recognition. At least, three to four of the El-Rufai buses were filled with people sitting and standing.

That did not include those on queue. It was really painful and scary."

•Oba Isiyemi

REG. NO TN 275 KJA BDG 137 AW LND 717 BD GGE 532 AR AKD 681 BV AKD 502 BG BS 660 KWL DR. 12 LSD EKY 55 CQ JJJ 695 AV

•Oba Oluyomi

MAKES VEHICLE TOYOTA CAMRY TOYOTA CAMRY HONDA ACCORD HONDA CRV JEEP MAZDA 626 S/CAR FORD ESCAPE TOYOTA COROLLA B.M.W S/CAR TOYOTA SIENNA TOYOTA COROLLA

COLOUR GOLD ASH GREEN BLACK ASH SILVER GOLD D/BLUE WHITE BLACK

LOCATION SHOMOLU DIV DENTON DIV ANTHONY DIV ISHERI DIV ELERE DIV ELERE DIV SABO DIV MOSAFEJO DIV IKOTUN DIV OJO DIV

Kunle AKINRINADE

S/N 1 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9 10

Ebele BONIFACE

Shola O'NEIL and Precious DIKEWOHA, Port Harcourt

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Continued on Page 18

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I would not have gone near him for a million dollars. But that evening, as Letty and I had prepared for the 'job' we had been full of excitement, brimming with plans on what to do with the windfall we would get. As things turned out, we were in for the worse Experience of our lives!

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‘I live a double life — angel by day, hustler by night!’ (4)

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The changing face of ILORIN •First Fly over bridge along Post Office Road, Ilorin

LORIN, the capital city of Kwara State, is wearing a new look. As if in a race to catch up with other cities of similar status across the country, Ilorin is gradually shedding its garb of a ‘civil servants’ town for a modern city with all the trappings of a capital city.

And with the new look comes new opportunities hitherto unseen to the eyes of investors and tourists who now flock into the ancient town ready to cash in on the changing trend.

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Popularly called ‘Ilu Afaa’ (the town of clerics) because of its predominantly Muslim indigenes, Ilorin has tasted and embraced modernity and is not willing to let go. Perhaps, as proof of its new status, Ilorin is witnessing a sudden boom in the volume of human and vehicular traffic.

Today, traffic gridlocks, which were never thought possible in the city are everyday experience.

Speaking on the new trend, a resident, Sherrif Animasaun, expressed a mixed feel-

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I never thought we would ever have the type of heavy traffic that we have in Ilorin today. In those days, whenever I visited Lagos, I was always in a hurry to return to Ilorin. But I don’t really see much difference today. However, I am happy with the development because I see it as a sign of development for us...

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n Adekunle JIMOH, Ilorin n

ing of surprise and joy. “I never thought we would ever have the type of heavy traffic that we have in Ilorin today. In those days, whenever I visited Lagos, I was always in a hurry to return to Ilorin. But I don’t really see much difference today. However, I am happy with the development, because I see it as a sign of development for us.”

Side by side the boom and in vehicular and humans traffic is a growing number of modern shopping malls and event centres springing up across the city. Commercial activities in Ilorin have witnessed a meteoric rise in the last decade, leaving many residents doing the catch-up in their bids not to be left behind.

Activities at the popular South African Supermarket is an eloquent testimony to the beautiful transformation going on in Ilorin. Shoppers and fun-seekers now get attracted to the Fate Road office of Shoprite as a moth to a candle light.

Much of the credit for the transformation being witnessed in the state capital has been laid at the feet of the state government’s massive investment on road rehabil-

Ci

itation and reconstruction which started during Dr Bukola Saraki administration.

His successor, Abdulfatai Ahmed, has creditably sustained the momentum.

The Governor Ahmed’s dictum of ‘operation no pothole’ is ensuring that all the pothole-ridden roads in the town are repaired.

And towards this end, the state government has empowered the Kwara State Roads Maintenance Agency (KWARMA) to be alive to its responsibilities.

Some of the projects completed by the current government, which to a large extent, have added to the beauty of Ilorin, include the International Aviation College, Kwara Advanced Diagnostic Centre, Ilorin Cargo Terminal, New Ilorin General Hospital, Kwara Mall (Shoprite), Fate-GSS Roundabout Road, Umaru Audi road and the GRA Stadium road, Ejiba Road.

The administration has also carried out the beautification of the Muritala/Unity junction, Ministry of Works roundabout and Fate roundabout, among others.

Under its urban renewal drive, the state has provided street lights in areas like Maraba, Zango, Geri Alimi-Abdulazeez Attah and Offa Garage-Michael Imoudu

Pe a c tYs

roads, all in the metropolis.

To further make the city one that everybody would be proud of, the state government said it had expended a princely sum of N30 billion on construction and rehabilitation of rural-urban roads in its almost three years in office.

According to the state Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Abubakar Amuda- Kannike, the state government would complete all inherited road projects in all parts of the state by December.

Some of the ongoing projects in the town include the Catchment-Agba Dam road, Umar Audi road, Flower Garden bridge, GRA road network, Oke-Andi-Taoheed road, Akerebiata channelisation, Opo Maalu-Isale Maliki road and AlawonlaDad road.

Others include the Abayawo-Guniyan Asalapa road, Kokoronkan road, Henry George-Mini Campus road, Apron-Taxi way road, NAMA building, Lao-Airport road, Garage Offa-Dangote Road, NNPC Pipeline Bridge and Abdulsalam Alao road.

According to Amuda- Kannike, "Part of the reason for embarking on the projects was the need to facilitate development that would contain better economic activities, leading to better Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and better infrastructure for the people that elected us into power.”

The commissioner also said that the state government planned to commence tariff-

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•New Ilorin General Hospital

•Kwara State Advanced Diagnostic Centre

Side by side the boom and in vehicular and humans traffic is a growing number of modern shopping malls and event centres springing up across the city.

Commercial activities in Ilorin have witnessed a meteoric rise in the last decade, leaving many residents doing the catch-up in their bids not to be left behind...

,

driven all-street systemic parking in the metropolis, adding that there is need to manage high influx of vehicles and make the city organised.

As part of the efforts to cater for the health needs of the people, the government recently commissioned a diagnostic centre, which the governor said he hoped would generate considerable internal revenue by providing advanced medical diagnosis at competitive rates. The glittering and exquisite centre has added to the architectural beauty of the emerging city of Ilorin.

The governor had added that the centre would be run through a Public-PrivatePartnership with a highly reputable firm, describing the commissioning as another milestone in the history of the state's and Nigeria’s health sector.

“I am pleased to note that the state-of-the art center has some of the most modern diagnostic equipment in this country.”

Exuding joy at the maiden graduation ceremony of the state-owned Aviation College, Ahmed said: “Today, well-trained aviators and allied professionals remain premium in the aviation industry in Nigeria and abroad. As the aviation sector expands, due to a global increase in requirement for air travel and the consequent increase in aircraft, so does the demand for well-trained aviation professionals to run the industry.

“On 30th June 2012, when I flagged-off the flight training of this college, I charged

the board and the management to strictly adhere to all training and safety procedures, in line with regulations and to also ensure students graduate on schedule.

“I am happy to hear that this crop of students graduated in 16 months as opposed to the advertised 18 months due to the management’s emphasis on high training standards and the high calibre of its trainers. I therefore charge the IAC to maintain this high standard of safety and quality in its operation.

“It is equally pleasing to note that the IAC intends to expand its operations in the coming year through the introduction of aviation management and engineering courses leading to the award of degrees by the Kwara State University, Malete.

“The college will also build additional hostels, expand the hanger, provide a sport complex and a workshop for aircraft repairs and maintenance.’’

Former governor of the state (Dr Saraki) whose administration started the aviation college at different forum said that "the college is adequately equipped to train pilots and aircraft engineers that can compete with their colleagues in Europe and America in international best practices.’’

The former governor also played a major role in making sure that the Nigeria Air Force sited its multi million naira ultra modern maintenance hangar in the state where airline companies can come to maintain their fleet.

Dosu joseph celebrates with teammates and coach Bonfere jo after winning the gold medal in the football event of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

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’

Inside The

Glass House WITH AMINU MAIGARI

L a L i g a Ta b l e

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

•Hernandez

•Caballero

Premiership Top scorers

AKINLOYE

AT LARGE

08050246155 atlarge84@yahoo.com

THE NATION SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

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with KAYODE ALFRED E-mail:kayflex2@yahoo.com

“

Tel:08116759807

THE NATION SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

41 with KAYODE ALFRED

E-mail:kayflex2@yahoo.com TEL:08116759807

Blessing OLISA

46

NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Survivors’ hurrific tales OME of the survivors who are recuperating in hospitals have spoken of how they narrowly escaped death in the explosion which killed scores of persons.

One of the survivors, Anna Bako, said she had left home early to board a vehicle to Minna at the Nyanya park when the incident occurred.

Narrating the incident, a survivor, who would not want to be mentioned, said she had barely crossed the road separating the urban mass terminal from the Nyanya Motor Park when the incident occurred. “ I heard a deafening sound from the El-Rufai Bus Stop (Abuja Urban Mass Transit terminal) and fire was everywhere. I had never seen such a thing in my life before. I was scared and almost fainted. You can’t stand the sight of human body parts flying everywhere,” she said.

“I had never seen such a gory sight but I thank God Almighty for saving

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‘How God saved us’

n Bukola AMUSAN n

me. I would have died like others because when I got myself back, what I was seeing everywhere was blood, burnt dead bodies and piece of human flesh,” a resident of Mararaba, who had to cancel her trip, said.

Another survivor, Mrs Lucy Okpanachi, said she had driven her car very close to the troubled spot to drop her son when the explosion occurred.

“We were almost at the scene of the blast. I was going to drop my son, who was supposed to board one of the mass transit buses going to Wuse-Berger route at the motor park and proceed to my office, which is along Aso Drive. Suddenly, there was an explosion and immediately, thick fire enveloped everywhere. The impact of the explosion shook our car vigorously.

“We only managed to find our way back home from the road. Everywhere was jammed completely because of the incident, and movement was almost impossible. God saved my son because what would have happened if I had dropped him off at the park before the

bomb went off? Thank God this never happened. He would have died with the other passengers. Both of us survived the blast by God’s intervention.

We did not sustain any injury, we only felt serious vibration but many lives were wasted today,” he said The Medical Director, Nyanya General Hospital, Dr Frank Idegwu, who also spoke on the incident, said: "We feel that what happened on Monday could happen to any of us as Nigerians. We therefore feel that it is important for us as Nigerians to rally round these ones that need our care at a time like this."

He added: "The truth still remains that we would not have been able to do anything if there was no understanding between the several stakeholders who showed so much love, care and support when things of this nature come."

He stated that the bombers apparently thought that they could cow the residents of Nyanya, but they have not succeeded.

"Things have started picking up as at yesterday. It was really more or less a pit of hell that we saw here. Of all the hospitals, it was here that that we re-

ceived the highest number of causalities. ‘’At a time, I was so afraid because the pressure was so much that they could even pull down the fence. God really helped us to put things in order, " he said.

According to him, one of the major problems that the hospital contended with on that fateful day was crowd control.

"We thank everybody for really helping out. As at yesterday, we had only about 32 of the victims still within the hospital premises. People were able to help out with their vehicles, including our own ambulance were equally on the ground and now we have 11 remaining, while others had been treated and discharged. ‘’This is apart from those that were coming from their homes. Officially, the number of patients left in the hospital are three but unfortunately, two women who earlier received treatment in private clinics, were sent to this place because they didn't feel better and that brings the number to five and they are all in stable condition,” he stated.

Continued from Page 15 Mrs Emerson, who narrated that she did not want to visit the North because of the incessant bomb blast, said she did not know that she and her kids would ever turn out to be victims.

She said she was okay with the South South where cases of kidnap were rampant. When the incident occurred, she narrated that she did not know what it was as she was asking if it was tyre that burst. She expatiated that it was the confusion that later ensued that confirmed that it was more than that.

Speaking, the embattled uncle said: “I just dropped them at the park because they were going back to Benin from Kano. It was where I parked my car that the bomb was planted. I was already on the bridge returning to Keffi when I heard the blast.

“It is just God that saved our lives.

My sister was even lucky to have escaped unscathed. Many people that queued behind her and several others in front of her, died in the incident.

She was number seven on the queue alongside her three children, including Elizabeth. We were in between them but ours was not serious. Nothing touched two out of the three children.

God wants to prove that I have truly laboured for Him and He has rewarded me by saving our lives.

Speaking further, he said: "NEMA and other government agencies have come. They sent NEMA to come and take our names.I learnt that they promised to take care of our bills. My sister came out and was asking if it was tyre that burst. She was not normal; she was confused. I just stuck to Psalm 91. ‘’After the incident, I rushed her to the general hospital but it was filled up. The emergency unit was just coming to drop both the dead and the injured together. It was a lady that told us to bring her to Pan Raf Hospital. I had to donate blood to keep her going because she lost a lot of blood. ‘’We refused her to be amputated because it will be a life shock for her. She will feel inferior and the pain she will go through. We will be here for a while but we hope to take her to Benin very soon. There is an Indian who has an Orthopaedic home, and we have heard of the good work he has done and we hope he will be able to treat her well.”

The mother who only sustained a scar from the bomb blast said she is grateful to God.

•Another scene of the blast

The other park: Commuters, others worry over lack of seccurity ECURITY operatives are still positioned at Nyanya Park, the scene of last Monday’s explosion which killed 75 people and left scores in-

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jured.

As witnessed by our reporter who visited the scene, there was restriction of movement around the burnt park by security operatives.

However, while heavy security was mounted at the park, the same could not be said of the Second El-Rufai Park opposite the scene, which was devoid of any security presence.

The development has started generating fears among hawkers, commuters, drivers and residents.

A cross section of those who spoke with our correspondent expressed fears that the second park is vulnerable to attacks by the insurgents if adequate security measures are not taken.

Vehicles were seen moving in and out of the park freely without any security check on them.

n Gbenga OMOKHUNU, Abuja n

A recharge card seller, Ikechukwu Ibe, condemned the lack of security measures at the park. He said: “One would have expected that security operatives would be deployed to safeguard the second park opposite the scene of Monday’s explosion. But what we have seen is that security officials have paid attention only to the bombed park leaving us here to danger. It is not fair. Even here, my mind is not settled. Nobody is searching any vehicle entering or going out of the park.

Government should please do something; we need security operatives here more than the other side.

“It is God that saved me; I would have been part of those that died. I came out late to sell that sad Monday because I usually go to the park around 5 am. The explosion is an unfortunate incident and is usually busy from dawn till the wee hours of the next day. I lost a friend whose name was Noah. He died in-

stantly.”

A commuter, who simply identified herself as Bukky, lamented, saying: “I am entering bus here with fear. How would people’s mind be at rest when there is no security in this park? People just enter here at will without any security check.

Urgent steps should be taken, otherwise people may start looking for alternatives to get to their various destinations. This park should be heavily protected because you do not know what will happen next.

While we are security conscious, government should do the right thing.”

Expressing his worry, a commercial driver at the park, Aliu Musa, said: “I am a commercial driver from Keffi and I come to Nyanya everyday. We need security operatives here to save people’s life because what happened on Monday caught everyone unawares. We should avoid reoccurrence. President Goodluck Jonathan should look into this matter.

People are scared of coming to this park now.”

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Why people think I’m stingy —Ex-Anambra Gov Peter Obi The immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, in an interaction with some journalists, spoke on his achievements in office and life outside public office, among other issues, on the sideline of Champion newspaper awards held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, where he was honoured as the “Outstanding Igbo Personality of the Decade”, INNOCENT DURU, was there. how would you rate yourself?

I have never rated myself because I believe it will be selfadulation. Nobody marks his papers after examination.

Even in universities, they invite external examiners now and then. For the sake of objectivity, it is better for others to do the rating. I recall when some people came from the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) on a study to Anambra, they asked me to convey people to a particular place for interactive session with them in order to know what people feel about our government. I insisted they should rather go to the markets with me and we did so, without security. I think what they saw marvelled them.

The responses from people about government activities in the state were most cheering. If I had conveyed people to them, the chances were that it would be party supporters that would interact with them and they would not get objective responses.

Why did you place emphasis on education?

Though we believe that education is the most viable currency for competition in the world, we did not neglect any other sector. I have often told people the story of a philosopher called Zeno, who, upon seeing an uneducated man sitting on a stone, said “Behold a stone sitting on another stone.” When asked to differentiate between the educated and the uneducated, Aristotle said it was at best the differences between the living and the dead. What these people said many years ago is still the truth today. Education is very important but other sectors are equally important.

We fashioned our vision for the state along the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We came up with Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (AIDS), by which we developed all sectors simultaneously and we did this faithfully. Beyond education, there is no facet of life that we did not touch.

In health, we built the first teaching hospital for the state, built new hospitals and rehabilitated selected general hospitals. We collaborated with the churches and massively rehabilitated their hospitals – St Charles Borromeo, Onitsha; Holy Rosary, Waterside, Onitsha; Our Lady of Lourdes, Ihiala; Iyienu Hospital, Ogidi; St. Joseph Hospital, Adazi-Nnukwu; Diocesan Hospital, Amichi; among others.

We also bought and distributed close to 100 ambulances in eight years. Some are life-saving ambulances that cost close to N30 million apiece. We did this because those hospitals are in the state and offer medical care to the people of the state. We built healthcare centres in all the communities in the state. By the time we left, Anambra, which had no accredited hospital or health institution, had about 14 accredited hospitals and health institutions.

In the area of road construction, today, without fear of contradiction, I can say that Anambra has the best road network of roads in the entire country. We constructed over 800kms of roads. This was collaborated by the Federal Ministry of Works. We built roads in places that had none since creation, such as Umueze-Anamb, Nmiata. We built about 30 bridges some of which are Odo, Oghomili, Ebenebe, Agulu lake, Okpuno while other projects are still ongoing.

•Obi In the area of the environment, we worked on many erosion sites and at the same time kept soliciting external assisongratulations on the successful handover of the reins of tance because of the enormity of the problem in our state. government to your successor.

In the area of Commerce and Industry, we attracted While thanking me, I must also thank all those that cooperFortune 500 companies to Anambra State. Today SABMiller ated with our government and assisted us in all that we did, espehas completed their facility and is expanding. Distell is cially the Press. Without you people, it would have been difficult building theirs, Glaxo Smith is building theirs and Niemeth for us. I cherish the good relationship I enjoyed with you and I am Pharmaceutical Company is building theirs, among others. inclined to say I was very fortunate to have you people around Go to Harbour Industrial Area of Onitsha and see our own me. contribution by way of providing infrastructure- roads.

Again, congratulations on the first position attained by In the area of agriculture, we have also done a lot. We got Anambra in WASSCE and NECO examinations ... the Federal Government to transfer the giant Omor Rice My attitude to the news like this is that the new governor Mill to us. We are partnering with Rainbow Chicken to should actually be congratulated. I have done my own part, he is come to the state. We also secured and distributed loans to now in charge. Henceforth, he should take credit for farmers. the successes and failures of the state. But our prayer In the area of provision of public utilities, we did our Those who know me over the years will tell is that Anambra State will never fail again. best. Within our eight years in office, we bought, disThe new governor is barely a month in office and tributed and installed over 1000 transformers in rural you that I am allergic to money being spent we believe it is right to congratulate you because the communities. We took electricity to parts of the state wrongly.

It is not about being stingy.

Some even feat is a direct manifestation of your investment in that had none. We are partnering with a foreign comeducation. May we know how you succeeded in have the good sense to call me “araldite” to my pany on Independent Power Project, for which we had turning education around in the state? about N250 million. face. All I request is that money should be spent contributed If you recall, 10 years ago, Anambra schools were There is no area that we did not touch. Beyond the closed for over a year. At that time, things were really properly. Not just money, we have the moral tangibles, we also did a lot. We succeeded in clearing bad. The problems confronting education in the state the areas of pension and gratuity owed workers in the obligation to do things properly.

As a former were legion; from lack of teaching materials to nonsince 1999. We spent over N35 billion on this. As at governor, I was not expected to be sharing the the time I left, Anambra State did not owe arrears of payment of teachers’ salaries. When we came on board, we took time to study the factors militating pension and gratuity to any category of workers up to money of the state to people who would not against the progress of the state. At that time, many 2013. utilise it to add value to the state. I am finically December people accused us of being slow, but I argued that a Talking about the intangibles, we made value re-oriperson taking over the governance of the state should entation part of our policy. Over the years, our peoresponsible and not stingy first and foremost understand the state before ple’s values had been bastardised. People now take

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embarking on actions. I argued that it was better for a man planning to cut down a tree to take time to sharpen his machete and do it in minutes than use a blunt knife and take days to do the job. All I was emphasising was planning and having discovered that the state had no Ministry of Planning, I set up one.

In education, which is your specific question, we returned schools to the original missionary owners. In doing this, we did not abdicate our responsibilities of paying the salaries of the teachers and providing needed facilities. We followed it up by granting billions of naira to them to rehabilitate the schools. Today, if you visit schools in the state, you will marvel at the level of transformation.

One unique thing we did was to take money directly to the schools rather than go through intermediaries with their accompanying toll gates. Contractors frowned at this, but it achieved the desired results. We also committed billions of naira to buying and distributing about 30,000 computers and laptops to schools in the state at various times. We connected the schools to the internet, bought generators for them; equipped their laboratories, provided them with Microsoft academies, sickbays, libraries, among others.

With what I have said, you would agree with me that Anambra State coming first in 2013 WASSCE was not by accident.

In fact, considering the efforts we put in to revive our schools, what we should be talking about is the margin with which we overtook other states.

In saying this, may I say with all humility that a lot still needs to be done by the present governor. If we scored 67% in WASSCE examination, it means we still have 33% left to be conquered and he(Governor Obiano) is now leading that army of conquerors.

Talking about coming first in WASSCE, may I happily let you know that it has become the same thing in all external examinations. For 2013 NECO organised National Common Entrance Examination, an Anambra indigene came first . I think her name is Agbasi Praise Chinemelum.

While our cut off was the highest – 159- some states had 2.

You can see for yourself that we are on the right path to regeneration.

After eight years of being the governor of Anambra,

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despicable things for the measure of values. People look up to we have the moral obligation to airports have completely changed. He is particularly beholdcharacters of questionable pedigree as role models. We tried do things properly. The other en by my people for making Enugu airport an International through various ways to change this. We honoured those that day, I was at the airport and Airport and starting the Second Niger Bridge. We today witreally deserved to be honoured; the Achebes, Chike Obis, a cleaner offered to carry ness the commitment towards providing power to the counChimamamdas and those that made first class in universities, my bag, I refused. I made it try. among others. This is how it should be. People should be clear to her that she was Under Jonathan, we see the rule of law in operation. We measured in terms of ennobling values and not in terms of paid to clean the airport now have a democracy properly so called. Today, everybody how many private jets they were able to acquire, as any fool and not to carry people’s says what he fancies without anybody harassing him. Today, who comes across money by mistake can buy those things. bag. By carrying bags, we no longer link deaths to politics. Jonathan has introduced You keep referring to the Millennium Development she hoped to be given decency into governance. It is not in the best interest of the Goals, how did Anambra key into that? tips, but in the course country when people criticise him unfairly.

I said it earlier that we modelled our vision after that. For of doing that, her How do you mean? Perhaps he should not be criticised? instance, the first goal is the eradication of extreme poverty. work suffers. All I do is to If you look at Nigeria today, one is appalled by the quality In this regard, we did Poverty Mapping and were able to insist she should do what of the opposition. The aim of opposition is to make the ruling determine the poorest parts of the state. This informed our she is expected to do. As a government awake to her responsibilities and not to pull it intervention. Realising that most of those poor areas had the former governor, I was not down. In Nigeria, most of what passes for opposiproblem of access, we provided them with roads. The first expected to be sharing the tion is pure ill-will that ends up hurting the road I flagged off as governor on the 1st of May, 2006, was the money of the state to people country and not the President. China is 43-Kilometre road traversing the entire Anyamelum. With who would not utilise it to a good example of what multi-party that, we connected them to the rest of the state and their situadd value to the state. I am finidemocracy should be. During ation changed. Today, Ogbaru area that was accessed in hours cally responsible and not stingy. electioneering, parties in China can be accessed in 15 minutes. You can ask Prof. Ben Talking about donations, I are opposition parties, but Nwabueze, he is from Atani and can confirm this to you. have even seen newspaonce elections are over, Your successor recently organised a security summit. As pers use it for carthey become supporting the immediate past governor, how would you access securitoon. Immediately parties, offering advice ty situation in Anambra State?

I started my even if in the form of On the 17th of March, a journalist met me at the Akanu second criticisms on how Ibiam Airport and wanted to know the secrets of our relation- tenure, we the state would be ship with international development partners. I merely told entered properly governed. him to go to the rising sun, Governor Willie Obiano, because into In Nigeria, what my gubernatorial sun has set. I am no longer the governor, colwe see is parties Obiano is and it is appropriate you go to him for such quesopposing the tions. most noble of We ask the question because during the decisions summit, the Inspector General of Police, because they Mr. Abubakar Muhammed, advised the want to be new governor to seen as the follow in your opposition. footsteps on What is security. the situation I also listened in your to the IG. He did party not say you APGA? should come to Would it me for questions support •Obi on security in Jonathan’s Anambra State. bid?

He merely commendAPGA is ed what we did, the over 500 much vehicles we purchased for security more than agencies in Anambra. He linked the cordial a party. It is working relationship to the low crime rate a mass in the state. I remember he talked about movement.

Anambra State not experiencing any bank robbery in five laboration with the churches. Having returned their schools Like all organisations founded by fallible sons of Adam, we years. I think if the same cordiality is maintained, Anambra’s to them in 2010, we started offering them support in the form had our challenges. At a point, I disagreed with the national safety is guaranteed. I am particularly happy over the sumof grants. We also supported their health institutions as well chairman of the party, but following the judgment of the mit. If nothing, it is early signs that the present government in as organisations that contribute one way or the other to the court, we all came together and forged ahead. There is no the state has security at heart. development of Anambra State. It is wrong to call those supdoubt that Chief Victor Umeh remains the National While Nigerians have applauded you for a job well done port “donations”.

Chairman of APGA. As for supporting Jonathan’s bid, it is in the state, some people published in the newspapers that I am happy that the effect of what we did has presently led not a decision I would take right now. All I can tell you is you did not leave the money and investment of about $86 the Federal Government to consider direct support to instituthat our party will meet and collectively take a decision on Billion you claimed to have left. How would you react to tions. The Coordinating Minister for Education, Barr. Nyesom that. this?

Wike, said so when he visited Anambra State and witnessed Let us go off from politics and ask you what life has been I often say that there must be the lunatic fringe in all reform the distribution of generators and computers to schools in the outside government? movements. People told me about the publication, but the state. Even the World Bank commissioned a team of experts I am one person who had never missed any post I occupied only thing is that I refused to read it because they are minor in education led by Prof. Paul Collier to visit Anambra and in the past. Life itself is transient so is everything else. It is distractions intended to snare the lowly minded. As far as I study what we were doing. They recommended other states those that see permanence in appointment that are disturbed am concerned, I should not comment on such inanities to do the same, having taken the fruits it is yielding into cogonce they relinquish their positions. All I have tried to do is to Pardon our disagreeing with you. It is not about the pubnisance. live, my normal life wherever I found myself such that on lishers of the advert, but about clarifying issues to It has become a tradition for past governors to go to the leaving I will not miss anything.

Nigerians.

Senate. Are you nursing such ambition?

When I was the governor, I did not use sirens; I carried my My brother, on the 8th of March, I called Nigerians from all I have said it repeatedly that I will not go to the Senate. bags, checked into hotels myself, bought my tickets and did walks of life and presented what I called my “End of Tenure Those aspiring to go have their reasons much as I have mine. my bookings. I queued like other Nigerians and flew busiReport”. I explained where I met Anambra State and where What of taking up a ministerial appointment as being ness and economy classes. Now, I am no longer the governor, we are leaving it. I made it clear that we did not borrow a widely rumoured? basically the same life style goes on. There is nothing to miss. dime, neither did we issue any bond. I mentioned our investLet me start by saying it loud and clear that I am not lookI am one person who does not eat as if I would die tomorrow ments and savings in banks. For example, I mentioned that ing for job. However, I believe that public service remains one or build edifices as if I would leave forever. we saved $156 million through buying local and foreign of the highest callings because if one is genuine, through it, Recently, against your principle, you took the title of denominated bonds. The managing directors of the banks one will serve humanity. Nigeria belongs to all of us and we Okwute and received award from Champion newspaper. where this money are- Fidelity, Access and Diamond Banksowe it as a duty to support the President in the task of goverWas this a change of principle or what? were present. It baffles me that some people would come up nance. If I am appointed a minister or directed by the First of all, let me say that no principle is cast in iron. to cast doubts on people’s mind just to pull Peter Obi down.

President to assist in any way possible, even at local governEvents dictate principles at all times. Having said this, let me All I can say is that what we said we did, the money we said ment level, I will answer the call. set the records straight: I have never been against granting we left and all that were properly documented and certified.

How would you rate the Presidency of Dr. Goodluck honours and dignities to people. All I said was that I would With the Freedom of Information (FoI) law, one can actually Ebele Jonathan? not suffer the epidemic of receiving awards whilst I was the apply to those institutions to know if the money is there.

I pity him governor as I believe that genuine honours come when one is Let me take this opportunity to clear one misconception, I Is that all? out of office. Thus, I had to reject hundreds of awards that did not say I left all cash in the banks. I made it clear that Yes came by my way. Occasionally, I received some. However, at some were by way of investment. For example, Anambra Why? the end of my tenure, all the traditional rulers in Anambra State invested money in some of the companies we attracted Each time I remember him, I am reminded of what Niccolo came together and said they would honour me with the title to the state. It is important to let you know that we were able Machiavelli said about introducing a new order. He said that of “Okwute” for my service to the state and I accepted it. I to save money in the state because we made a law that those introducing new orders are never popular, because they also accepted the honour from Champion newspaper, Anambra must save the minimum of N100 million monthly will have opposition from those that benefitted from the old because the gesture came after my tenure and it was evidentand I obeyed it religiously. order and lukewarm defenders in those not sure of his sucly not informed by any ulterior consideration. This is my As a governor, I supported savings by the country. Look, no cess. President Jonathan took over this country when it was stand. matter the situation, one must save even if kobo kobo every lying prostrate on the ground. He is making a lot of efforts to What is your relationship with your successor? month for the rainy day. Unfortunately when one says so, one revive it. Today, under Jonathan, our roads are changing. Our It is most cordial and will remain so as far as I am conis reminded by some people that it is already raining cerned. My only interest is in his success and I am here. The irony is that the same people saying this happy he has started well. In Igboland, fathers pray When I was the governor, I did not use sirens; I have private savings. When one witnesses the mindthat their sons surpass them and that is my prayer for set of some of us, one shudders. Many of us are only him. If you do not know, I am one of his guarantors carried my bags, checked into hotels myself, interested in the next post and not what the future and no guarantor wants the object he guaranteed to bought my tickets and did my bookings. I holds for us as a country. fail, because the guarantor will be held responsible. queued like other Nigerians and flew business You were noted for financial prudence, “stingiWhat is your advice to your successor? ness” some say, but towards the last days in office, I will only appeal to him to remain focused on the and economy classes.

Now, I am no longer the you donated money to many organisations. Was it a job. As a governor, many tendencies would be peramgovernor, basically the same life style goes on. bulating around him. Many people will be holed up strategic move?

Those who know me over the years will tell you different hotels writing one empty proposal or the There is nothing to miss. I am one person who in that I am allergic to money being spent wrongly. It is other. Some will be close to him with the aim of being does not eat as if I would die tomorrow or build given an opportunity to loot the treasury. However, not about being stingy. Some even have the good sense to call me “araldite” to my face. All I request is once he remains focused, he will get it right. edifices as if I would leave forever that money should be spent properly. Not just money,

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Email: counselling@faithoyedepo.org

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014

Easter messages Fear not over security challenges, says Yero n Tony AKOWE, Kaduna n OVERNOR Mukthar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State yesterday asked the people of the state not to despair over the present security challenges in the state.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Ahmed Maiyaki, Gov Yero said: “Only God can ensure the victory of good over evil. I want to urge the people of the state not to despair over the present security challenges because God will surely defeat those plotting to destabilise Nigeria.

Christians should use this occasion to intensify prayers and devotion for God's intervention on the current challenges facing the nation. We are presently facing the evil machination of agents of darkness and it is time to seek the face of God in overcoming this trying period in our nationhood. Only God can ensure the victory of good over evil.

"I therefore believe that this Easter period provides us with an opportunity to move closer to God by asking Him to forgive us all our sins, have mercy on us and grant us divine favour in resolving all our challenges as a nation, especially the unfortunate wanton killings of innocent souls across the country."

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Gunmen kill vigilance chief in Warri NKNOWN gunmen Thursday evening killed the chairman of the Udu Central Vigilante, Prosper Erhinyojare.

He was said to be hanging out with his friends along the DSC Expressway, in Udu council area when the assailants stormed the area and shot him in the head.

The incident occurred at about 9pm.

When reached for com-

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Bolaji OGUNDELE, Warri ments on the development, the Transition Committee Chairman of Udu council area, Hon. Raymond Edijala, regretted the murder of Erhinyojare, describing him as a pillar of security in the council area.

While sympathizing with the family of the deceased, the council boss called on youths in the society to de-

sist from stealing and killing of innocent souls, saying that it does not pay to kill.

When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer, Delta state, Celestina Kalu (DSP), confirmed the incidence, saying that Erhinyojare was killed at a beer parlour close to Ufuoma Street Junction at Ekete-Inland community in Udu Local Government Area of the state by suspected assas-

sins.

She assured that investigation was on at the time of filling this report to ensure that the perpetrators of the heinous crime were brought to book.

It would be recalled that some gunmen also killed a member of the Udu Central Vigilante at Orhuwhorun Junction, Ovwian in Udu Local Government Area a week ago.

Niger speaker urges reflection on life of Christ

n Jide ORINTUNSIN, Minna n HE Speaker of Niger State House of Assembly Barr Adamu Usman urged Christians to ensure that their lifestyle reflect the purpose for the death, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He felicitated with Christian faithful for successful completion of the fasting period and for the celebration of the Easter, which he described as the most important event in the life of a Christian.

Usman's goodwill message was contained in a statement issued in Minna, by his Special Assistant on Media, Malam Usman Chiji.

The Speaker noted that, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest events in the history of Christendom urging them to use the period to look inward for a better relationship with their creator.

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Amosun preaches peace GUN State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has enjoined Nigerians to always resolve their religious differences amicably rather than resort to violence.

The governor, who stated this in his Easter message, noted the triumph of Jesus Christ over death through His resurrection, adding that people of all faiths should emulate the selfless sacrifice of Christ as well as the peace he preached in spite of the challenges confronting the nation.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mrs Funmi Wakama, Amosun said that Easter is an important event in the Christian calendar, which teaches lessons on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"We must not allow the lessons of the season to be lost on us. All faiths must preach peaceful evangelization, by so doing, we will be able to tolerate one another and live in peace and harmony", he added.

The governor condemned the spate of violence in some parts of the country and called on all to eschew violence and in the spirit of the season.

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•A cross section of members of St Theresa's Catholic Parish, Makurdi, Benue State...Friday

Photo: NAN

PPA guber candidate blasts ANSIEC over council polls in Anambra HE Governorship candidate of the Progressives Peoples’ Alliance (PPA) in the November 16, 2013 election in Anambra State, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo ,said yesterday that the January 11,2014 local government election in the state was nothing short of a mess.

He blamed the State Inde-

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Ayamelum by the elections petition tribunal in the state was an indication that there was no voting .

He said: “as a major stakeholder, I will say that there was no election in Anambra and the events in the court go to confirm that”. ``People were deceived by candidates being handpicked against their wishes which

has become the norm in Nigeria politics”. ``For how long will this be?

I hope this will be the last because they did it in Enugu, Imo and some states in the country”. ``We must not imitate what is wrong, it is a pure deceit and a rape of democracy, we did not have local government election here.’’

Emulate Christ, says Fayemi

Death toll in Wukari crisis hits 24-police

KITI State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has urged Ekiti people to emulate the virtues of Jesus Christ who laid down his life for the salvation of mankind.

Fayemi noted that the Easter period offers Christians and the entire people of Ekiti State an opportunity for sober reflection, even while rejoicing with one another for witnessing the season.

He called on Nigerians to imbibe and reflect on the lessons associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The governor urged Christians in the state to use the period to pray for peace, development and prosperity of Ekiti State, especially as the state approaches the governorship election in two months.

He also urged them to use the opportunity to pray for God’s intervention in the affairs of the country, especially in bringing lasting solution to the escalating cases of insurgency which is threatening the peace of the country.

HE Nigeria Police in Taraba said the death toll from Wukari crisis had risen to 24.

The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Joseph Kwaji made the disclosure to newsmen on Friday in Wukari.

Kwaji said 34 persons were injured while 99 houses burnt during the crisis.

Meanwhile, the state's Acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar has said the 24 hour curfew on Wukari

Ohanaeze youth council backs Fayemi’s re-election

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Kalu calls for prayer ORMER Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Kalu, has called on Nigerians not to relent in prayers despite the challenges facing the country.

Kalu made this remark in his Easter message signed by his Special Adviser, Oyekunle Oyewumi.

The former governor urged all Nigerians to remain committed to a united Nigeria.

Kalu said: "This season is special and calls for sober reflection as individuals and as a nation.

"We should re-dedicate our lives to the service of God and humanity.

"Nigeria is presently facing numerous challenges, especially security.

"We need to seek divine intervention.

"Let us use this Easter period to pray for our leaders."

Kalu used the opportunity to admonish those at the helm of affairs to aggressively tackle the security challenges facing Nigeria.

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Nwanosike ONU, Awka pendent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) for conducting what he described as a flawed election.

Mr.Ezeemo, on a courtesy visit to the office of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka said that the annulment of the elections in Ihiala and some parts of

would continue till the security agents were satisfied with improvement in security situation.

Umar said this on Friday in Wukari during a visit to the troubled area to ascertain the extent of damage following the crisis in the area.

"In my opinion, it is not yet time to relax the curfew imposed on Wukari because the youth are still very angry.

"Even this morning a house was burnt close a se-

curity check point in Wukari town," he said.

Earlier the paramount ruker of the town, the Aku Uka, Dr Shekarau Angyu, has appealed to the acting Governor to relax the curfew to alleviate the suffering of the people.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the crisis broke out in the twon on Tuesday night following protests by youths in the area oevr alleged incessant killings in near by villages by herdsmen. (NAN)

Be alive to your responsibilities, NCWD DG urges women IGERIAN women have been urged to stand up and be bold to take on their responsibilities in their homes, to their children, careers and businesses, regardless of the challenges that come their way.

Director General, National Centre for Women Development, Lady Onyeka Onwenu, gave this charge in a message at the celebration of the International Women’s Day in Awka, Anambra State.

Challenges, she said, are to be seen as catalysts that

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should propel us to the next level and not as deterrents.

According to her, challenges should not be taken as excuses for failing in their responsibilities but urged the women to take their responsibilities, careers and businesses seriously as this is the only way they would support their husbands, families and communities.

The celebration, which had as its theme: ****Ëquality For Women- Progress For All*****”, was hosted by the First Lady of Anambra State, Mrs Ebelechukwu

Obiano, and was attended by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, who represented the state governor, Anambra State Governor, Dr Willie Obiano, Chairman State House Committee on Women Affairs & Social development, Hon. Rebecca Udorji, National Council of Women Society, Mrs. Oby Obodozie, Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development, Lady Henrietta Agbata, Rev. Sam Okoli and a host of others.

Innocent DURU HANAEZE Youth Council (OYC), a socialcultural Igbo youth group has pledged to support Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State to seek a second term in office.

The group in a statement signed by the President and Secretary, Board of Trustees, BoT, Prince Francis Oji and Mazi Okwu Okwu, respectively, said the incumbent governor deserves a second term in order to continue the developmental programmes he has started in the state.

“We are moved to support Governor Kayode Fayemi’s reelection because of the good work that he has started in the state. The state has witnessed massive development since he became the governor. He is one of the few governors in the country that run government with human face. He does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. The welfare environment he created for the aged people in the state tells it all that the state is blessed with a man that has human feeling.

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SPORT EXTRA

Ex-Eagle Kaita joins Enyimba

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ORMER Super Eagles midfielder Sani Kaita has joined Enyimba on a three-month loan deal. Club sources confirmed to KickOffNigeria.com that the midfielder has been training with the team already.

"It is a good thing for our league that a player like Kaita, who has played at every international level for Nigeria, is joining Enyimba. He brings a wealth of experience from Europe and from his time playing for the Super Eagles that will benefit the club and the younger players in our club," the source said.

Kaita started his top-flight career at Kano Pillars in 2004 before moving on to Sparta Rotterdam where he spent the majority of his European career.

He moved to French club

Monaco in 2008, but found his opportunities limited and was regularly loaned out to the likes of Rubin Kazan and Lokomotiv Moscow among others before joining Tavriya Simferopol in 2011. His last move was a loan to Olympiakos Nicosia in Cy-

prus.

Despite his club troubles, Kaita enjoyed a steady run with Nigeria, starting at international level where he helped the Under-20 team to a silver-place finish in 2005, then Olympic silver at the 2008 games. He also won two Af-

rican Nations Cup bronze medals in 2006 and 2010.

Kaita last played for Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup when he was sent off for an impetuous retaliatory lunge at Vasilis Torosidis as Nigeria lost in the group stages to Greece.

Injured Fan Ndubuoke discharged from hospital From Tunde Liadi,Owerri EARTLAND'S top officials, Fan Ndubuoke and Oscar Keke who were both recently involved in a road mishap have now been discharged from hospital and are receiving treatment at their respective homes.

Both officials had a ghastly accident at Owerri recently but have been told they could go home after staying at the intensive unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri for some days after the auto crash.

The Naze Millionaires' Media Officer, Cajetan Nkwopara revealed to NationSport that the news of the discharge of both officials was a boost to them ahead of their weekend's tie against El Kanemi Warriors where the Owerri side are targeting first home win of the season.

He said that the players have been told not to rest on their oars after last week's draw against Kaduna United as they strive for their first maximum points of the season.

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•Kaita

Flying Eagles shun holiday for training, drop 3

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IGERIA U-20 male team, the Flying Eagles, on Good Friday shunned the holiday festivities to train at the practice pitch of the Abuja National Stadium.

A statement by the team’s Media Officer, Samm Audu, said Bernard Bulbwa, Chidera Eze and Ahmed Umar trained outside the main squad as they were nursing injuries. ``Bulbwa has a groin injury, while Eze is nursing a hamstring strain and Umar has a knock on his right knee. Chidiebere Nwakali, who also has a knee complaint, took part in all the training drills, but did not

NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL

Coach urges NIS to upgrade technical officials’ skills

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OACH Edet Akan of Cross River State Karate Association, on Thursday urged the Nigeria Institute for Sports (NIS) to organise series of workshop for technical officials ahead of the 19th National Sports Festival.

The festival, tagged ``Paradise Games'', will hold from Nov. 23 to Dec. 3 in Calabar, Cross River.

Akan told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the workshops would upgrade the knowledge and skills of the officials in their various sports' modern techniques. He added that the upgrading would also prevent the officials from committing scoring point mistakes during the festival.

According to him, the state is ready for a successful hosting of the festival and the government has also ensured the provision of enabling environment for participants. He added the state government had also promised adequate support for the state’s athletes in preparation for the

fiesta. ``The state government has promised to provide to support the athletes’ preparations. Our goal is to be at the top of the medals table and I believe that with hard work and God on our side, we will make the state proud,” Akan said.

The coach said the state sports council had organised series of local competitions to select athletes that would represent the state in karate at the festival and other national competitions. ``We have some local athletes on ground and more would be discovered at the Games in different categories before selection for international competitions.

We have very good athletes in karate and of course a lot of them can be trained to become world class karatakers,” the coach said.

He advised the government and corporate organisations to lay more emphases on other sports than football to diversify the athletes career opportunities.

feature in the two-a-side game as he has yet to start kicking a football," the statement said.

It also said that three players had been dropped from the squad preparing for next month’s African Youth Championship qualifier against either Kenya or Tanzania. ``The players are midfielders Uche Okereke and Fidelix Irene as well as

goalkeeper Zaradeen Usman," it said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there are now 34 players in the team’s training camp in Abuja.

The Flying Eagles will play another test match today against Nigeria Nationwide League (NNWL) side, Dabo Babes of Kano. The match will kick off at 7 a.m. at the FIFA Goal Project in Abuja.

Iheanacho, Nwakali pained at City's blip WO members of the

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Manchester City youth team, Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali, have expressed sadness at the recent slump of the Citizens in the Barclays English Premier League.

Iheanacho and Nwakali both impressed with Nigeria’s under-17s at the 2013 FIFA World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and were duly snapped up by City.

A 2-3 defeat at Liverpool was followed by a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland to all but sound the death knell on City’s title charge this season and the two Nigerian youngsters have expressed sadness at the situation.

“I have to feel bad (at the

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recent bad results) because it’s my team. I however know that if the league title is destined to be won by Man City, we will certainly win it,” Iheanacho said.

Nwakali also spoke about City’s recent poor run of results, noting that he had been confident all along that the title was headed to the Etihad Stadium.

“I felt very bad because we were hoping to lift the (Premier League) trophy. We were disappointed that the games we had in hand did not go as planned."

City are currently in third place in the Premier League standings with 71 points from 33 matches.

Playing catch up (My world cup diary 1) •Continued from back page season and it could signpost better fortunes for Nigeria at the Mundial. It is likely that the coaches would opt for the fighting edge that Nosa Igiebor possesses playing for club and country.

My fear is that he is injury-prone and picks up cards from games because of his gutty style. Can the coaches polish this rustic aspect of Igiebor’s game? Let’s wait and see. So, what are the other midfield options for the Eagles? Brown Ideye, Michael Ogu, Nnamdi Oduamadi and Obinna Nsofor.

These are the men who would provide the passes from the midfield for our attackers. Who are these strikers? What is their pedigree in Europe? Emmanuel Emenike is our best. Strong and reliable, only if he is given good passes by the midfielders. Who will pair Emenike upfront? We have seen him play with Ahmed Musa, Ideye, Shola Ameobi and Nnamdi Oduamadi. His partnership with Ideye has benefited both players. Indeed, the chief coach has described Ideye as a player who works for the team. Perhaps, they need to ask Emenike who he prefers. The reliving aspect of our strikers is that they are paying regularly for their clubs. Their return is timely.

What would the Eagles’ starting squad look like in Brazil?

Many have said the coaches should be left to do the selection.

True. But who do we blame if things go awry? Those who say that the people are putting the Eagles’ coaches under pressure must be told that the Argentines are also pressuring their coach to include Tevez, who plays very well for Juventus. Their call for Tevez’s inclusion is based on his current form. And it is justified, even though the Argentines are loaded to the hilt with stars.

Need I name them? They are an awesome bunch of players who have stuck together since their days at the under-17 cadre. No lads have joined them since then, yet they are a delicate side to play against when the chips are down.

An Argentine musician, Daniel Ursini, wrote a tango for Carlos Tevez. According to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report, Ursini is using music to send a message to national team coach Alejandro Sabella, once an elegant midfielder for Leeds and Sheffield United.

Entitled “Sabella, you’ve forgotten Carlitos,” the song’s melancholy tones accuse the coach of having taken the wrong path. “You can’t be so stupid as to leave out one of Argentina’s most popular players,” argues Ursini.

A year ago, Ursini wrote a song to mark the birthday of Lionel Messi, and separate songs for the two stars may well have been a wise move because it could boil down to a choice between one or the other in the Argentina national team. And that is not a particularly difficult decision to take.

The power of soccer, most commentators would say. Soccer truly unites people. The game belongs to them. They follow it with passion. They celebrate when their teams win. They sulk and some even cry when things go awry for their squads. Some take it to the ridiculous level of maiming themselves. Yet the game rules. When the 2014 World Cup begins on June 12 in Brazil, everything will stop for people. They would prefer to follow the event. People will keep vigil to watch their countrymen. Will you blame them?

Will Argentina’s coach bow to the pressure? Not likely because Tevez called it quits with the team. If Tevez is dropped, it would be justified just like the English have told Chelsea’s Captain John Terry to bury the thought of returning to the squad for the 2014 World Cup. Irrespective of what the Argentine musician has done to canvass support for Tevez, the cantankerous midfielder has restated his position about being left out the squad stressing that: “I don’t think I will be with my national team at the World Cup. I’ve already bought tickets to go with my wife and my three children to Disney World. They deserve this trip and I have been very clear in my mind where my place is. Things as they are and that is that,” Tevez said. Tevez on the hindsight has shown that he is man of honour unlike our players who can’t stand by any decision. They can’t because they know that Nigeria’s participation at the Mundial is always a bazaar for the players and coaches. I digress.

The mind games have begun. The Iranians are boasting.

Tagged the weakest in the group because of their pedigree in the game, they have dropped the Asian Maradona from the squad.

The advantage of releasing the provisional list early is for the Iranians to criticise it.

Carlos Quierioz is a tested hand. His 28-man squad has been exposed. His friendly games are known and those on spying mission have begun their exercise. What about Nigeria? Shhhh.

We are still bickering.

Indeed, the Bosnians have started talking. Those invited know themselves and are celebrating. Those dropped have kept quiet, knowing that those picked are better. Our boys are responding to the diatribes thrown at us and those talking won’t be in Brazil.

That is the way we are. Like the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang in one of his hit albums, we are opposite people. Dem go show o; dem go show, dem go show themselves clear, clear, dem go show. Opposite people, dem go show. Everywhere dem go, dem go show.

Olarenwaju claims victory at Ademiluyi tennis tourney

YO Olarenwaju emerged winner at the just concluded 10th annual Lagos Country Club tennis tournament sponsored

by Dr. Prince Joseph Adewunmi Ademiluyi Tennis Foundation, in Lagos.

The final boys’ category was decided on Saturday at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos where Olarenwaju defeated his opponent, Chiemela Apaka 6-2,2-0 to

By Bowale Odukale emerge the winner.

Speaking with Nationsport, Olarenwaju said that it was great to win after participating in different editions of the tournament.

He said:”I really feel honored winning the 10th edition of the tounament because I have participated severally, it was not easy. I had to fight mentally because was there much

expectation from me to win”.

In the junior girls’ category, Esther Nwana defeated Esther Okunosa 10-10, 5-1 to emerge the winner.

According to the Chariman Tennis Section of the Lagos Country club, Ayo Olarenwaju said that the tournament has lived up to expectation of the the foundation and has nurtured tennis skills of the children of Lagos Country Club.

“There is no doubt that the tournament has lived up to the tenets of the Dr. Prince Ademiluyi Foundation where participants have engaged in thrilling and exiting tennis duels and friendly atmosphere.

“Over the years it has successfully nurtured the Tennis skills of the children of Lagos Country Club to become champions in their own right,” he added.

TOMORROWPUNCHLINE IN THE NATION

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL.9, NO. 2823

There are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week and one can only do half or even less of what one would really like to do in the little time that one has. This is part of the great dissatisfaction of writing in extremis, under seemingly dire and impossible conditions

—Biodun Jeyifo

O

NE good thing the institution of the on-going Jonathan National Confer ence (JNC) has done is to stir up a frenetic national discourse both within and outside the conference on the perceived structural ills of Nigeria and a myriad of proposed remedies. Every Nigerian has suddenly become a political scientist and every political scientist a skilled constitutional engineer with magical solutions to the problems of the country. A constant refrain by most of the participants in this debate is that the fundamental problems of the country are primarily structural and that if we seek first the kingdom of political and constitutional re-structuring, every other thing shall be added unto us.

Of course, no one can reasonably underestimate the depth of some of the structural problems besetting the country especially in such areas as effective security architecture, equitable revenue allocation and the devolution of powers from a bloated centre to the constituent units. But it would be grossly misleading to seek to blame a deficient structure for problems of leadership that are essentially ethical in nature. To unduly emphasise the structural problem is to directly or indirectly exonerate poverty of leadership at various levels of government of responsibility for Nigeria’s continued dalliance with underdevelopment in spite of her abundant human and natural resource-endowment.

The substantial and impressive strides in infrastructural development and provision of social welfare services to the citizenry in several states across the country show that leadership can certainly make a difference despite obvious structural constraints. There are two aspects to the political system – the structure and the underlying values that underpin them. When the prevalent values in a society promote impunity, corruption, inefficiency, lawlessness and nepotism, these vices will be subversive of any structure no matter how expertly constructed.

Thus, these vices were as subversive of the parliamentary system of government in the first republic as they were of the presidential system in the second republic as well as in the current dispensation. Without a fundamental revolution in the ethical base of society, the superstructure of economic and political institutions will function perversely.

Returning to the British-type parliamentary system or adopting the French model of the presidential system, as some argue, is therefore not necessarily the antidote to bad and dysfunctional governance. None of these systems will function efficiently and productively in a contaminated moral environment.

There is absolutely nothing, for instance, inherent in the presidential system that compels a President to convoke a three-month national conference like the one currently underway in Abuja at the clearly indefensible cost of seven billion naira including the four million naira monthly allowance to delegates.

It is obvious that a conference that is itself

Beyond structure

‘

Now, what percentage of these mouth-watering promises to Igbos has President Jonathan fulfilled? What is the basis of his enthusiastic endorsement for a second term by Igbo leaders?

Structural change without a change in the way we assess and endorse performance of elected officers will change nothing in Nigeria

•Theodore Orji

ethically compromised in this manner cannot produce an outcome capable of sanitising the country’s moral environment for honest and transparent governance to thrive.

A leadership that keeps a Minister of Internal Affairs in office for even a day after the recent National Immigration Service employment scam and tragic fiasco under a presidential system will behave the same way in a parliamentary system. The presidential system of government is not to blame for the retention in office of a minister on whose watch there have been several alleged scams including the fuel subsidy scam, the kerosene subsidy scandal, the alleged expenditure of N 10 billion on chartered flights or the still unresolved allegedly missing $20 billion. This can happen as easily under a presidential as in a parliamentary system. It is a question of leadership.

Some avowed Awoists have predicated their advocacy for a return to the parliamentary system on Obafemi Awolowo’s ideas.

This is decidedly misleading. The only redeeming feature Awolowo found in the parliamentary system was the separation of the office of the Head of State from that of Head

’

of government. He argued in his book, The People’s Republic that the parliamentary system unduly abridged the principle of separation of powers and unnecessarily restricted the electoral jurisdiction and support base of the Head of Government.

As Awolowo put it on page 255 of the book “Hitherto, we have, all of us, indiscriminately and unscientifically, followed the British democratic practice, as if it was the best method, and, in any case, because our British masters taught us to believe that it was the only method worth emulating. But we now know better. From the exposition we have made, it is quite clear that the American method is better than the British, and that the French method under de Gaulle is better than the American”.

In the same vein, those who advocate a return to a six-regional structure similar to the four regions of the first republic claim Awo as their patron saint. In reality no one worked harder to dismantle and break up the four regional structure of the first republic than Awo. He relentlessly canvassed the creation of states for the minority ethnic groups and advocated a minimum of 12 states and maximum of 18 states for the country. The truth

is that a return to a six regional structure without revamping the ethical context of our politics would amount to nothing but the enthronement of ‘decentralised despotism’.

Now, let me touch on another factor that is crucial if any proposed structural changes are to yield the desired fruit. We must become more exacting and discriminating in our assessment of those we elect into public office while holding them up to the strictest standards of performance. Let me explain. On Friday, April 12, President Goodluck Jonathan was in Enugu to address the South-east PDP unity rally. The governors and key leaders of the South-east seized the opportunity to urge him to declare his second term ambition assuring him of massive support in the region.

Obviously in an expansive mood, the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, said the President should not decline to run because the people of the region would stone them if he did so. Among the President’s achievements in the South-east according to Orji was that “It is during your tenure that our people occupied positions that were forbidden to them.

It is during your tenure that an Igbo became Chief of Army Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Coordinating Minister of the Economy”. This is truly incredible. So these are achievements? In what way have these appointments contributed to the development of the South-east or the empowerment of the poor people of the region?

As the columnist Sonala Olumhense, has carefully documented in The Guardian, on February 12, 2011, President Jonathan promised Igbos in Aba that if re-elected he would “stamp out kidnapping; provide facilities that would boost the enterprising spirit of the Igbo; upgrade the Enugu Airport to international level; dredge the River Niger; build a dry port in Aba for Igbo businessmen; complete the Second Niger Bridge; rehabilitate all the main roads into Aba; tackle the erosion crisis and make Aba the Ground zero of eventual aircraft production in Nigeria”.

Olumhense continues “In Uyo on March 7 (2011), he promised to build coastal roads and rail from Lagos to Calabar. In Awka on February 26, he said he would construct all the major roads which link Anambra with its neighbours; complete the on-going aerodynamic survey of gas in the Anambra River basin leading to power supply and Liquefied Natural Gas industry; complete the second Niger Bridge and complete the Onitsha Inland Port. He vowed that Nigerians would not be talking about generators after his four years in office”.

Now, what percentage of these mouth-watering promises to Igbos has President Jonathan fulfilled? What is the basis of his enthusiastic endorsement for a second term

by Igbo leaders? Structural change without a change in the way we assess and endorse performance of elected officers will change nothing in Nigeria.

Ade Ojeikere on Saturday talk2adeojeikere@yahoo.com

Playing catch up

P

OOR Victor Moses! By now, the im mensely talented star will be ruing his decision to quit Wigan Athletic for Chelsea. He certainly would have asked Liverpool’s manager Brendan Rogers why he had been reduced to cameo appearances in the Reds’ quest for a league title, after 24 years.

Indeed, Moses’ search for a solution to his problems would be further complicated by the fact that he stands the risk of not playing for any big European team next season. His fears won’t be unfounded because Chelsea’s manager Jose Mourinho has listed him for the transfer market. Not playing regularly for Liverpool this season has reduced Moses’ chances of showing other clubs what they would gain by signing him next year.

With the door seemingly slammed against Moses at Chelsea, the poser will be if Liverpool’s manager would keep the Nigerian, who he nurtured at Crystal Palace FC,

(My World Cup diary (1)) years ago. The silver lining in Moses’ predicament is that he gets into Liverpool’s squad for tactical reasons, most times late in the game. It simply means that the Reds would be prepared to keep the Super Eagles star, provided the transfer fee by Chelsea isn’t outrageous.

Looking at the players Moses has to contend with for Liverpool’s shirt makes his case pitiable. Raheem Sterling, aside being an Englishman, has been awesome, playing for the Reds, scoring amazing goals and can be described as the fastest Barclays English Premier League player, since Arsenal’s Theo Walcott is currently out of the season. There is also the smallish Continho from Brazil, who aside performing his creative midfield role like Moses, scores goals.

The Nigerian scores goals but they are as far-and-wide-apart as the dentition of a cen-

tury-old human. Many have argued that Moses’ limited appearances for Liverpool is chiefly responsible for the inertia in his game.

The flipside to this argument is the Demba Ba example at Chelsea. Ba has the same problems as Moses. The difference is that Ba seizes every opportunity to prove his mettle by scoring goals. Today, Ba can count himself as regular at Chelsea, especially as coaches don’t like to change their winning squads. This Ba feat didn’t come on a platter of gold. He fought for it and doesn’t look like one to let it slip since Chelsea look like the team with an eye for both UEFA Champions League and Barclays English Premier League diadems.

Who can bet against Chelsea? Do so at your peril.

Moses played for one minute or more against Manchester City. My joy stemmed from the fact that he is fit and was used as

game-changer, which is quite remarkable. It will be nice if Rogers retains Moses next year with Liverpool as Barclays English League champions. It will guarantee Moses the opportunity to fight for a place next season. The difference this time is that Liverpool players will be having their hands full with matches.

So, Moses can seize the chance to reclaim the shirt and hold on it for as long as his feet can carry him.

Moses will be fresh at the World Cup in Brazil. He is witty and knows what to do with the ball. He will be an asset to the Super Eagles. He will find in John Mikel Obi, another talented player who has not been used regularly at Chelsea due to injury, a worthy partner. Besides, the pattern created for Mikel to perform is defensive. I only hope that the coaches can play Mikel in this role at the World Cup and not throw him into the attacking slot. But will our coaches play Moses in the creative midfield role to complement Mikel?

Oguenyi Onazi is back in Lazio’s first 11.

He scored a goal last weekend, his first this

•Continued on Page 63

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