The Nation April 22, 2012

REVOLUTION WILL CONSUME PDP IN 2015, SAYS BUHARI –Page 4

PDP reacts, says Buhari is a frustrated despot and serial loser

•Buhari

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Vol.06, No. 2103

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

N200.00

APRIL 22, 2012

FG sacks auditors over fuel subsidy payments Names Access Bank MD, Imokhuede to head panel verifying 2011 claims Presidency may not implement Lawan panel recommendations Gombe gov, Dankwambo, Reps on collision course over report –PAGE 2

Asiodu, Ayoola, Balarabe, fault call to scrap EFCC, ICPC •Fishermen dragging their net during Nwonyo Fishing and Cultural Festival, Ibi, Taraba State yesterday Photo: NAN

Kidnapped Spanish doctor freed in Enugu –PAGE 6

• Over 25,000 jobs may go –PAGE 5

France elects new president today –PAGE 61

Tambuwal: No tension in Osun State –PAGE 4

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NEWS THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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HE report of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management claimed its first casualties yesterday.

The Federal Government, apparently taking a cue from the panel’s recommendations,sacked two accounting firms responsible for certifying fuel subsidy claims by marketers.

Sacked were Akintola Williams and Co and Adekanola and Co. It also stopped withdrawal from the Excess Crude Account. Only $3.6billion was left in the Excess Crude Account last night, down from the $20billion in the account in 2006.

Highlight of the panel’s recommendations is that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Petroleum Products Pricing and RegulatoryAgency (PPPRA), oil marketers and others should refund a total of N1.07trillion being the amount they allegedly collected as subsidy.

However, The Nation gathered that government is not disposed to implementing most of the key recommendations of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee at least until the Senate concludes its own probe.

Senior Special Assistant to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said last night that the sack of the accounting firms followed a review of the management of the subsidy regime in the last two months.

He said: “Concerned about the management of the subsidy regime, the Federal Ministry of Finance has, for the last two months

FG sacks Akintola Williams, others over fuel subsidy payments • Access Bank boss, Imokhuede, heads body to verify 2011 claims • Presidency may not implement Lawan panel recommendations • Dankwambo, Reps on collision course over report ,been reviewing aspects of the implementation of the subsidy regime related to its functions.

“The review has produced a lot of useful details on what was wrong with the system and what needs to be done to ensure improvement going forward.

“The review process kicked off in February when the ministry and relevant government agencies held a meeting with bankers and marketers at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan. This was followed by a subsequent session with the accounting and auditing firms to reevaluate their work.

“Based on the review, the Ministry has taken the following steps: “The services of the audit and accounting firms responsible for certifying the documents and claims of marketers before payment have been terminated. The companies are Akintola Williams and Co and Adekanola and Co. “The Ministry has established a committee made up of credible and experienced persons from the private and public sectors with strong technical component under the chairmanship of Mr. Aigboje Imoukuede to examine the claims of payment arrears for 2011 currently being made by marketers.

From: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

This is to ensure that only genuine claims are honoured.

“The ministry is also finalising a new and more effective system to replace the current arrangement and, in

this regard, a second committee has been set up to propose a good way to forward.

“Based on other outcomes of the review, the ministry will take further actions as necessary.

“In a related development, the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee

(FAAC) has put on hold further depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA).”

A government source contacted yesterday on the House of Reps Ad Hoc Committee report said the presidency may not take action on the report until the Senate has concluded its own

• L-R: Vice-President Namadi Sambo inspecting the passing-out parade of Direct Short Service Course 20 (Navy) in Kaduna... yesterday.

Photo: NAN

Lawan Report: Dankwambo, Reps on collision course

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OR disclaiming the report of the House of Representatives committee which probed the fuel subsidy regime, Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, may have stirred the hornet’s nest.

The Reps are set to draw the battle line with Dankwambo when the report of the committee is discussed at the plenary session on Tuesday.

The report, which was released Wednesday last week, had revealed seamy details of fuel subsidy abuse, running into trillions of naira. The section that affected Dankwambo, who was Accountant-General of the Federation between 2005 and 2010, stated: “Curiously too, the particular Accountant-General that served during the period 2009 was found to have made payments of equal instalments of N999 million for a record 128 times within 24 hours on the 12th and 13th of January 2009, totaling N127,872 billion.

By Our reporter

The confirmed payments from the CBN records were made to beneficiaries yet to be disclosed by the OAGF or identified by the committee.

“We, however, discovered that only 36 marketers were participants under the PSF Scheme during this period. Even, if it were 128 marketers, it was inconceivable that all would have imported the same quantity of products to warrant equal payments.”

Responding, however, Dankwambo had denied any malfeasance, stating that it was impossible to make that type of alleged disbursements under the electronic payment system he operated as AGF. “Let me mention clearly that the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation does not pay subsidy,” the governor stressed in Gombe on Thursday.

“When I heard the information, I quickly called the office of the AG, and it was found out that the statement

that was issued was a statement of the PPPRA, that is, Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, which the Accountant-General does not control.”

However, the areas that irked members of the House of Representatives committee, headed by Hon Farouk Lawan, was where Dankwambo insinuated that they were playing politics with the report.

“I’ve done my best to ensure that I demonstrate accountability and transparency in the way I operate,” the governor said, adding: “But you should not forget that Dankwambo today is also a politician. So, there can be so many factors that will be added to ridicule Gombe State’s name.”

It was reliably gathered that the House committee took exception to what they called “an attempt by the governor to tar us with the brush of infamy.”

Speaking with journalists in Abuja at the weekend, one of the committee members, who sought anonym-

ity, said the plenary session on Tuesday would show whether the panel played politics with the role of the former Accountant-General of the Federation in the fuel subsidy saga, or not.

“Many attempts were made to ensure that the result of the probe panel did not see the light of day,” the lawmaker added. “But we rebuffed all the pressures.

Now, the next strategy is to try to ridicule and question the integrity of the entire exercise. We take serious exception to it, and we expect the Gombe State governor to have been very sure of his facts before rushing to the media. He has taken the battle to us now, and we have no option than to defend the integrity of the entire probe and the report released.”

The lawmaker stressed that since the plenary session would be broadcast live, “there will be no opportunity for monkey tricks. The facts are clear, the documents are all there to back up our conclusions. We have no doubt that the en-

tire House will uphold our recommendations, and the executive arm of government will have no option than to implement the recommendations.”

Dankwambo, referring to Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, who waived his immunity to testify during the probe of the power sector, as a former Minister of Power, had wondered why he too was not invited to explain his own side in the subsidy disbursements.

Taken up on this, the fuel subsidy probe committee member simply said: “We know the facts at our disposal, and the whole world will see when the time comes.”

The Gombe State governor has promised more detailed reaction after reading the entire committee report, and with the debates tarting on Tuesday, flak may definitely fly between the lawmakers and the former Accountant-General of the Federation.

probe into the subsidy regime. “Acting on the report now will pre-empt the Senate probe,” the source said.

“It is much tidier for the government to consider the report of the Senate too before embarking on any steps to sanitize the system.

“As far as we are concerned, the subsidy report from the House is incomplete.

“The government is actually following developments in the National Assembly as regards the subsidy probe closely. We are concerned about the need to cleanse the oil sector but the government needs to get a clear and complete message from the lawmakers so that we don’t act in isolation.”

Asked what government would do to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke whose ministry supervised PPPRA, DPR and NNPC where the fuel subsidy scandals were perpetrated, the source said: “let us wait for the Senate report. The House report did not indict her.”

“A number of persons are of the view that the probe report cannot be said to have indicted the Petroleum Minister because she is not seen to have directly violated the laws.

“She herself suspected some wrong doings in the sector and instituted probes.

The probe committees are still sitting, so the report of the House Committee might just have pre-empted those committees she inaugurated.

“I can tell you that any action that will be taken will follow due process. The government is not known to act without following due process. Those calling for the head of the Minister and other heads of parastatals were attempting to sideline due process.”

Former US Congressman Jefferson begins 13year prison sentence

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FORMER Louisiana congressman who infamously was caught with $90,000 in cash hidden in his freezer will have to begin serving a 13-year bribery sentence within the next two weeks, a judge ruled Friday.

Democrat William Jefferson, who represented parts of New Orleans for nearly 20 years, was convicted and sentenced back in 2009 for taking roughly $500,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Nigeria.

Column

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

A Centipede at Work I F for nothing else, Nigerians may have to thank Goodluck Jonathan for his pained honesty. He has gone about his duty with a cheery clumsiness which is quite endearing. Not for him the volcanic incompetence of his mentor and predecessor. What else do we want? He has told us that he is neither the brightest nor the best but that God chose him ahead of the more deserving. That is the nature of history and a tribute to the mysterious ways of God. Ahead of 2015, let all of those questioning the will of God beware.

But let us leave God out of this matter for once. Let us depart to the realm of insects and Entomology.

There is something about Jonathan which reminds snooper of a particularly unsettling and dangerous species of centipedes. Centipedes are a funny and nasty lot. Unlike the gamey and bold scorpion which does not leave you in doubt about its intention, the centipede is outwardly drab and colourless but it packs some dangerous poison in its venom claws. When it hits you, you go benignly berserk.

All of this may well be the demented outpouring of a novelist imagination gone haywire, so you have to pardon snooper. In Yoruba rural folklore, there is a variant of centipedes which operates mainly in dark and dingy corners. When it hits a child, it begins to shout for more wraps of cold pap. It is known as Tamosánko. Has anybody noticed the sudden scarcity of cold pap in the nation, particularly in the old north and the fabled west? A political centipede is on the loose.

When a centipede combines the memory of an elephant with its natural venomous advantage, the result can be very devastating indeed. Revenge is then elevated to statecraft.

There is a lot of wailing and crying for cold pap in the land. If the wail-

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NOOPER is not in the habit of dabbling into local state matters but where developments in a particular state are being deliberately and mischievously programmed to achieve a preordained end, alarm bells must start ringing. We had thought that we had gone past the ugly days of yore when state security agents with robust imagination and the aptitude of novelists were deployed to churn out fictional reports.

Every personality is unique.

Although it is true that all the ACN governors buy into a welfarist programme of emancipation from want and life more abundant, the implementation of the programme and local political inflection reflect the unique personality of each presiding governor. Snooper does not, and cannot, hold brief for the Osun governor’s irreverent baiting and frank disdain for the contemporary status quo and its impudent champions. But it is a leap of devilish imagination and an absolute flight of malignant fancy to accuse him of nursing a secessionist agenda. Worse still, it is particularly rich to accuse the man widely known as “symbol” of plans to Islamise the most cosmopolitan and secular of the Yoruba states.

The leaked security report on Aregbesola must have borrowed widely from E.M Forster’s classic, Aspects of the Novel. It is dripping with venom and fantasy and brimming with imaginary fairy tales. How will Aregbesola pull his landlocked enclave out of the old West not to talk of Nigeria? How will he convince his militantly one-

•Centipede

ing coincides with the cry of vengeance in the nation, then all is well that ends well. But if it is due to the motiveless malignity of a centipede, then good luck to Goodluck.

In a post-colonial state, dysfunction has its own functions. But political dystopia also has its own wages. The events of the past two years in Nigeria have clearly shown that it is not only revolutions that consume their children, malignant retrogression also does. We may yet have Jonathan to thank for this. It may well be that while contributing his own quota to the national mess, some higher mysterious forces are at work, using the same Jonathan to illustrate and illuminate the order of disorder and why political irrationality must come consume its own patrons.

Three years ago, if anybody had told James Ibori that he would end up as a lone prisoner, a convicted thief in a metropolitan jailhouse, he would have laughed the person to scorn. At that point, he was at the height of his power and glory, determining who went in and out of Aso

Rock and who got what appointment. With the hulking gait of a master crook, he held Jonathan in particular contempt. Where and who was Jonathan when he ruled the roost in Delta?

The formerly shoeless one from Otueke was a lowly sidekick and spare tire to the “Governor General” Squadron Leader D.S.P Alams. In fact the tire was so spare that it was considered practically useless. The story was told of how an unlucky Jonathan had heedlessly wandered into a room where visiting governors were being entertained by his boss only to be summarily ejected after some verbal rockets from his affronted master. The shoeless one slunk away with a frozen grin.

But it is obvious that it is Jonathan who has had the last laugh over all of them. Having secured its territory, the centipede went after Ibori with quiet but relentless determination. Like the rogue Pablo Escobar, he was hounded and hunted down the creeks. When the creeks got too hot,

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nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu Ibori jumped canoe and headed for the Middle East. With the globalization of policing against money laundering, it was like jumping from frying pan to fire. The Metropolitan Police were waiting.

Ibori’s conviction is a historic indictment of the Nigerian judiciary and legal authorities. Our corrupt judges have brought shame and dishonour to the nation’s judiciary.

It is only in Nigeria that a convicted thief can become a governor, courtesy of the Nigerian judiciary. But as we noted in this column only two weeks ago, when a society reaches an ethical or political dead end and in the absence of internal revolutionary forces for radical changes, the resolution is brought about by an antagonistic logic supplied by outsiders. This is what has happened in the particular case of James Onanefe Ibori.

Once again, it is obvious that Nigeria cannot just continue like this.

When some cruel scoundrels cream off and make away with pensions meant for the aged and the elderly even as some of the pensioners perish on queues while waiting for the miserable stipends, it is clear that something drastic will have to be done to instill elementary humanity into these animals. A nation which treats its aged work force with such callousness cannot claim membership in the comity of civilized countries.

The revelations from the various panels show that Nigeria is in a historic mess. Even if the political elite want the status quo to remain, it is obvious that we cannot continue this

Who is afraid of Rauf? nation boss and mentor in Lagos of the desirability of such a project, assuming it has ever crossed his mind? The danger in this kind of report is that it may actually help to polarise a state that incarnates the secular tolerance and religious plurality of the traditional Yoruba society.

Those who know Aregbesola very well will testify to the fact that he is too preoccupied with efforts to transform his state to a model for other states to harbor separatist thoughts. The real separatists are those whose ethnic constituency has come to power for the first time but who are bent on holding on to the power irrespective of the democratic wishes of the rest of the country.

Their morbid fear of Aregbesola can be understood. The political centipede and master of sly revenge is at work again. Aregbesola does not take political hostages. It was in Osun that the PDP received its worst political hiding in the last election. In a state in which it had fraudulently claimed political supremacy just a year earlier, the PDP was wiped out root and branch.

Having been undernourished in their pleasure and frustrated in their ambition, it is not easy to be charitable. But unless they are seeing stars from heavy beating , total politics is not about secession or Islamisation.

Okon takes a beating in Edo State

Snooper has often warned the feckless Okon that a culinary toga

is no excuse for mandibular wakaabout. Snooper often cautions the crazy boy not to dabble into political matters beyond his ken. But it is the monkey that will kill itself. It appears that Okon’s irreverent musings last Sunday about a certain Baba and the governor of Edo State has elicited a robust response from the innermost sanctuary of power in the state of proud and noble warriors.

The first sign of trouble came shortly after Okon’s wild insinuation appeared in print. A text message came crashing through from the Pentagon in Benin. “Please tell Okon, your foolish cook, that political confectioneries are too important to be left to cooks”, it began tersely.

“Okon will soon hear from us, both physically and metaphysically”, it continued. “When the electoral kitchen gets too hot, even the cook must find his way”.

Snooper started trembling in trepidation at the disaster this boy has brought upon the household.

True enough, Deep Throat forwarded this blistering rejoinder.

“There are two clans in Esanland- 1 Agbazilo (Anenih and his lickspittle, Odion Ugbesa). 2 Okpewho.

(Professor Osariemen Osunbor— OBJ’s in-law; Ambrose Ali, Augustus Aikhomu, Tom Ikimi.

Leveraging his clout, Anenih has always oppressed and worked against those from Okpewho. He betrayed Ali in 83; he edged out Ikimi out of PDP despite luring him from ANPP in 2001. He humiliated Osunbor in the last PDP primaries

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in Edo by allocating only 22 votes to him, a supposed ex-Gov! Osunbor came last while Anenih’s stooge Gen Charles scored over 400 votes. OBJ came to Oshiomhole to spite Anenih, already made political vegetable by Oshiomhole.”

When snooper ventured to ask Deep Throat as to why General Obasanjo, an old military kingpin, would venture to visit everybody in Benin but not his former junior colleague and the presumptive gubernatorial candidate of his own party, the old codger whispered, “General Obasanjo is an old military pensioner”and swiftly hung up.

Nosing around Abakaliki

Last weekend, Snooper was nosing around Abakaliki, the ungainly capital of Ebonyi State, in stately disguise. Thirty seven years after snooper first passed through this ancient town on an NYSC familiarisation tour of the then East Central State, fate brought town and tourist together again. This time, it was to attend the convocation ceremony of the Ebonyi State University.

Abakaliki retained its quaint rural ambience, but there has been a lot of development brought about by state creation. The road from Enugu still remained a veritable death trap.

The federal authorities must find the means to urgently dualise this important road. The university itself was a depressing sight: overcrowded and choking with humanity and unsightly structures.

The Vice Chancellor’s office reminded one of an old Tax hovel

way without tipping into total anarchy. This is the time Nigeria needs a heavy duty leadership. Unfortunately, it is obvious that Jonathan neither has the capacity for the hard slog or the steely character for the brutal confrontation required to move Nigeria forward.

Having exhausted its thirst for revenge, the centipede now appears to have run out of rationale and psychological motivation. While it lasted, the centipede collected some outstanding scalps, the last of which was Timipre Sylva, the gangling and aristocratic former governor of Bayelsa , who could barely conceal his disdain for Jonathan.

But revenge may be elevated to statecraft, it is never a noble pursuit; and while it may sometimes coincide with popular justice, revenge is never a substitute for genuine and impersonal social justice.

In the coming months, Jonathan will be confronted by a convergence of two antithetical political and social quandaries.

Having run out of real old enemies the tendency may be to create imaginary new enemies. This will upset the delicate political equations in some politically sensitive areas of the nation. On the other hand, in order to deliver on genuine social justice, he will have to go after his friends and some close allies. Failure to do this may invite an ethical sandstorm which will transform into a political upheaval. There is mounting popular anger and revulsion out there and how he handles this will determine Nigeria’s immediate future. with bald men decaying among decaying files.

But the pall of depression lifted as soon as the Vice –Chancellor, a much admired model of scholarly sobriety and dignity, took the microphone in a rousing convocation report. It was a triumph of hardihood and can-do spirit in the face of unrelenting adversity. The off the cuff remarks of the state governor, Martin Elechi, were even more uplifting. It turned out that despite its parlous revenues the state government expends more resources on the institution than most state governments combined.

At a state banquet in honour of visiting dignitaries later, Elechi was his cultured and avuncular self, exchanging earthy banters and anecdotes. The dancing troupe from Afikpo were such a revelation. It was said that a visiting Igbo political potentate once beheld one of these comely damsels and was smitten forever. The rest is history.

Snooper averted a direct gaze. The skull of a mammoth is no luggage for a kid. Your Excellency, Snooper will take a rain cheque on that one.

All in all, Abakaliki was a revelation of future possibilities in a properly contextualised and federalised Nigeria in which the creative energies of the people have been let loose. It is a tribute to a hardihood and feisty independence. As this is being banged out on an excellent interstate feeder road leading from New York to rural Sparta in New Jersey, Snooper hopes to live to see the day when a United States of Nigeria will put a much-abused nation on the world map.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

News

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle), the Chief Executive Officer, Aluminum Boat Company, Mr. Stuart Pascoe (right), and the General Manager of the company, Mr. Tommy Ericson (left), during the inspection and signing of Boat Manufacturing Agreement between the Aluminium Boat Company of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and Eko Water Buses Ltd in partnership with the Lagos State Government for the building of 60 ferries in Australia last week.

Boko Haram anti-people and antiGod, says Maku From Samson Ademola, Ilorin

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NFORMATION Minister, Labaran Maku yesterday dismissed the Islamic sect, Boko Haram as anti-development, anti-people and anti-God. Speaking on national issues on Radio Nigeria,the minister traced the origin of Boko Haram to political thuggery in the North and described the sect’s activities as of no benefit to the citizenry. He said: “They are anti-development, antipeole and anti-God” He asked Nigerians to support security forces to fish out the members of the terrorists group, saying: “Every community should interface and cooperate with security forces to expose this terrorist sect.

“Recently, government intercepted many of the group’s attacks.”

The minister assured Nigerians that “government would apply the full weight of the Electoral Act on every one that employs thugs during future elections in the country.”

L-R: Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasia; Osun State Deputy Governor, Mrs.Titi Laoye-Tomori; Speaker of the House of Representative, Hon. Aminu Tambowal; Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola and Deputy Chief Whip, Hon. Muktar Ahmed, during a courtesy visit by members of the House of Representatives to Governor Aregbesola, at the Government House, Osogbo, Osun State yesterday.

Revolution will consume PDP in 2015, says Buhari ORMER military ruler and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the last election, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) has a vision of what awaits the ruling PDP. He says the PDP will be consumed by a political revolution unless it adopts ‘real democracy.’

“If there is no social justice, there will be revolution in one way or the other.

The PDP does not believe in real democracy and I hope they are strong enough to go through the consequencies of their injustice,”Buhari said yesterday in Kaduna at the launch of a poverty alleviation programme of the member of the House of Representatives representing Kaduna North on the platform of the CPC, Alhaji Usman Bawa.

According to Gen. Buhari, the PDP would be thrown into political turmoil by 2015 which would then trigger a revolution that would put an end to what he called the injustice and stealing entrenched by the party.

The PDP,he stressed, was not interested in social justice and transparency and asked Nigerians and his supporters in particular to protect their votes

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From Yusuf Alli and Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja and Tony Akowe, Kaduna

during the elections and avoid being manipulated by opponents.

He said: “The question of the PDP and its leadership, they don’t accept social justice. If there is no social justice, in a question of time there will be revolution in one form or the other. After the last general election, we went as far as to the Supreme Court.

“But after that, what happened in Kogi State, Adamawa and Sokoto states and the bye-elections made us believe that PDP leadership is not prepared for real democracy and social justice. And I hope they will be strong enough to go through the consequences of their injustice.

“I want to speak of what happened in Igabi local government area of Kaduna State. Members of CPC in Kaduna State, the elected members of PDP from the Senate, House of Representatives and the state Assembly, went to educate people in Igabi and made sure that there was free and fair election and the CPC won.

“What I am advocating is for the local government election and 2015 general elections to be free and fair.

Every local government and constituency must behave like Igabi. If you don’t want to win, but to remain as slaves in your own country, then you can go home and sleep. Otherwise, if you must fight for your right, you must wake and ensure that justice is done.

“You must make sure that your votes count. To prove to you that there is not going to be justice under PDP and its leaders, look at what happened in the hearing on fuel subsidy in the National Assembly; pension funds.

“People are dying in twos while others are syndicates of thieves, with people stealing and keeping money in their houses up to the tune of two billion naira. By 2015, whoever steals public funds has automatically sentenced himself to death.

“We know that we were rigged out in last election. Nothing can happen unless there is justice. What I said before, I still stand by it. Akaa’sa, a tsare, a raka, a hana, a taba, (display the election materials, protect, escort, prevent rigging).

“From now, if you want justice politically, you must all emulate Igabi. Otherwise, the situation we are in will continue to deteriorate. May God give you the patience to endure the

hardship that you have been subjected to, the money to educate your children, build roads, hospitals and provide the required security is been stolen abroad. Nigerians must rise against this attitude; it is your right.”

He lamented the looting of pension funds, saying such financial fraud could not take place under a government that believes in justice and transparency.

On its part, Peoples Democratic Party yesterday condemned a former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for predicting a likely revolution in 2015.

The party described Buhari as a serial election loser who does not believe in democratic tenets.

The PDP made its position known in a statement in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Olisah Metu.

The party said: "The Peoples Democratic Party has described the former military Head of State and the Presidential flag bearer of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) General Mohammadu Buhari as a despot who despite pretences has never hidden his disdain for elected government.

Tambuwal: No tension in Osun

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PEAKER of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal yesterday described Osun State as calm and peaceful, contrary to earlier reports of tension in the state.

The State Security Service (SSS) in a recent report had alleged that Governor Rauf Aregbesola planned to islamise the state and even take it out of the rest of the country.The PDP has been adding fuel to the report with its own alleagtions But the Speaker, on a courtesy visit to Gov. Aregbesola in Osogbo said the reports were “mere allegations.”

Tambuwal said he

found no checkpoints or police barricades on the road to Osogbo, the state capital.

The Speaker said he was impressed with the way the governor is managing the affairs of the state.

“I have come to Osogbo.

I have not seen barricades. I have not seen any security checkpoints, which suggests that there is peace and calm here. The governor is a gentleman. He is down-toearth and I believe he is committed to the vision of transformation of Osun State and continued co-existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I firmly believe that.

“I believe that after electioneering, politicians across the country should

forget about what has gone past irrespective of party affiliation and face governance which is why they are elected in the first place.

“Nigeria is in dire need of attention and politicians should rise up to this occasion and move the country forward rather than engage themselves in unnecessary politicking. The Speaker, who said he paid visit to the governor whom he sees as a leader and elder, enjoined politicians to put aside politicking and face governance in the interest of the people.

On the allegation that Osun State is planning to secede, Tambuwal said an allegation would always remain an allegation until its

veracity has been established.

He continued: “Allegations are always allegation until they are proven. If you go to the United States, congress members have the flags of their respective states on their table in addition to the flag of the United States.

So there is nothing special in this.”

Responding, the Governor thanked the Speaker for his visit, observing that the National Assembly is the heart of governance. He noted that it takes a clearheaded, developing mind and a patriot to do what the Speaker has done irrespective of their party differences.

Aregbesola stated that

greater responsibility rests on the National Assembly in steering the country to better direction.

“I saw the National Assembly as a collection of representatives of the people. As representatives of the people, we must ensure that we put in place an untainted, free and fair electoral process devoid of any fault. Nothing can help the country unless federalism is strengthened and its tenets upheld for the peace and progress of Nigeria,” Aregbesola said.

He also dispelled the rumoured secession allegation leveled against his government, describing it as baseless and unfounded.

"Buhari' statement where he said a revolution was imminent against the PDP led federal government, is a frustration of a serial election loser.

"Buhari's statement did not come to us as surprise.

It is a sure sign of frustrations over his inability and that of his Party to win elections. Besides, it is a signature tune of all despots who despite pretences to new ideology often betray the old habit that hardly dies."

"However, what revolution is Buhari looking for?

If after truncating democratic process in 1984, General Buhari today enjoys the fundamental tenets of democracy as in freedom of speech which he denied Nigerians, what revolution is greater?"

"The PDP further said it was unfortunate that the former head of state have not accepted the fact that his ideology has clearly been rejected by the people at the polls and affirmed by the courts.

"What is revolutionary, the statement continued, is the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan; his bold steps in returning our great country to the visions of our founding fathers. What is revolutionary is the passage of the Electoral Act which facilitated general elections adjudged by local and international observers as most credible in our recent history."

"Would Buhari have signed into law, the Freedom of Information Act if he were President? So hat revolution is he referring to?

"What is revolutionary if he must know further is the transparency of on-going probes by the National Assembly, which is a firm step in the fight against corruption".

"We know that Gen. Buhari is artful in truncating elected governments.

His three -time failure on the platform of different political Parties to win election is driving him to the old habit. Unfortunately for him, Nigerians are not interested in his type of revolution."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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HE immediate past Chairman of the Independent Corrupt

Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Joseph Ayoola (rtd),former ‘super’ permanent secretary, Chief Philips Asiodu, and Second Republic governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa have said no to a panels recommendation for the scrapping or merger of the ICPC,EFCC and the FRSC. They said, in separate interviews, that the recommendation is not in the best interest of the nation.

The Steve Oronsaye-led panel on the status of Federal agencies and departments recommended that the existing agencies be pruned down from 263 to 161.

It wants 38 abolished, 82 merged and 14 to revert to departments in ministries.

Another committee has been set up to review the report and draft a white paper accordingly.

It is estimated that up to 25,000 jobs may be lost in FRSC,ICPC and EFCC alone if the recommendation is adopted wholesale.

“I don’t think the Oronsaye committee report is a good recommendation”, Ayoola said.

Justifying his stance, the former ICPC chairman said: “The reason is that the nature of corruption we are dealing with or talking about is different from mere bribery. It is of a larger magnitude and as such needs expert strategy to tackle.”

The police force as currently constituted, he argued, “will not be able to cope with such level of corruption because already the police have many crimes to contend with. You talk of ritualists, kidnappers, armed robbery, terrorism, civil unrest. So, to recommend that so and so anticorruption agency should be

News

Asiodu, Ayoola, Balarabe, fault call to scrap EFCC, ICPC

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

scrapped is not the right way to fight corruption.

“The sensible thing is when you are fighting corruption you can’t fight it by slimming down resources.

You either fight corruption or forget about it outright.

Oronsaye committee was thinking only in terms of money. That is where it got it all wrong.

‘Take a look at the British government in the James Ibori case. Although they made substantial recovery in terms of the looted funds, what they expended in prosecuting the case is much more compared to what was recovered. So, in pursuing corruption, you don’t think in terms of cost but the benefits and returns of the fight against corruption.”

Asiodu shared his sentiments,saying the Oronsaye committee report would cause more harm than good on the long run.

“You’re talking of slimming down the staff of agencies when you know the unemployment situation in the country. We must do positive things to grow the economy such that when we are shedding staff from some organisations, we are not throwing them into a hopeless situation”, Asiodu warned.

Alhaji Balarabe Musa described the proposed scrapping of the anti-graft agencies as ill-motivated.

“I’m sure the intention is to kill the anti-corruption agencies completely and allow the thieves to get away with their loot. Of course, we expected all along because

the whole anti-corruption war is just a sham under this administration. It is the process of destroying all credible evidence.

“If the government is saying that it is trying to cut down on cost, are we saying that the cost of running these two anti-corruption agencies is huge compared to the high cost of criminal waste in the country? That is the question. I believe that the intention clearly is to let the thieves have a smooth escape.”

The chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), said Nigerians should be prepared to embark on a public protest should the Federal Government decide to implement the committee’s recommendation.

The scrapping of these

• His Lordship, Most Rev Dr V.V Ezeonyia, Catholic Bishop of Aba Diocese presenting the award of Ezienyi Ukwu of St Benedict Parish Aba Diocese to the Inspector General of Police, MD Abubakar, represented by the Commissioner of Police, Abia State Ambrose Asibor on Easter Sunday

anti-corruption agencies, Musa reiterated, was capable of destroying the country.

“Two things will destroy this country more than anything else, namely this wanton level of corruption and privatisation. So I recommend that something must be done about it.”

Dr. Foluso Ajadi, senior lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Lagos, however, has a different view.

He believes the proposed recommendation of the Oronsaye committee is in order so long as the motive is not suspect.

According to him, “I think the committee report is good if they made us to believe, it is intended to lower the cost of governance.”

The Federal Government,he stressed, should “ consider compensation programme for people that are likely to become worse off if the Orosanye committee report is implemented.”

Fear has already gripped employees of the affected agencies .

Speaking with The Nation yesterday, a highly placed source in the FRSC who would not be named, said over 18, 000 staff may be thrown into the labour market if the Oronsaye recommendation is implemented.

The ICPC has 550 workers and the EFCC 6, 000.

When contacted for comments Mr. Nseobong Akpabio, FRSC’s Public Education Officer, in Abuja, Mr. Wilson Uwajaren, and EFCC spokesman, Folu Olamiti of the ICPC said they would issue statements at the appropriate time.

Nigerian military not yet world class —Jonathan

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is displeased with the quality and professionalism of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

He believes the nation’s military lack the quality of the best in the world.

The President in a message to the passing out parade of the course 20 of the Navy Direct Short Service at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, yesterday said the armed forces were lagging behind their counterparts from the other parts of the world in terms of welfare, equipment and professionalism .

Represented by the Vice President, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, the President said it was on account of this that his administration was working to transform the armed forces to meet the world’s best standard and He asked the passing out cadets to shun acts capable of jeopardising the peace and unity of the country.

He said: “I have repeatedly assured members of the Armed Forces of my desire to transform the Armed Forces

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From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

into a modern military institution that the nation can be proud of.

“The transformation will make it comparable to other Armed Forces in advanced world in terms of welfare, equipment, training and professionalism. I have always been proud of attending this ceremony because it clearly indicates hope and progress for Nigeria.

“The recent acquisition of NNS Thunder and approval for additional platforms are part of the implementation process and practical demonstration of the commitment of this administration to the restructuring of the Nigerian Navy.

“As the NDA provides equal opportunity for our youths from all over the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to train, irrespective of their cultural and religious background, I also urge all of you to utilise the friendship you forged while in the Academy to discourage any act of tribalism, promotion of religious or politi-

cal differences to cause disharmony in our collective unity and peace.

“You must work in synergy with other maritime stakeholders in the cause of your duty in order to achieve our national objective. I believe that you will not be found wanting in this regard.

“The parade I have witnessed this morning is an indication of the high stand-

ard of training and discipline that the cadets received during their stay in this Academy. Today’s occasion is indeed unique in that the DSSC training is made up of only Naval cadets who for the past nine months have received the best military training comparable to any similar academy in the world which has imbibed in them the best Naval tradition and discipline. There is no doubt

that both the physical and mental training received have prepared you to make meaningful impact in your chosen career.”

A total of 85 cadets, including female cadets passed out from the nine months direct short service military course with three of them receiving Navy Gold Medal, Navy Silver Medal and Commandant’s awards respectively.

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Leave Aregbesola alone, Shehu Sani tells FG From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

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IVIL Rights activist, Mallam Shehu Sani , told the Federal Government, yesterday, to concentrate on addressing the state of insecurity and the persistent religious crisis in the North, instead of instigating such problems in other parts of the country.

Reacting to the allegations by the authorities against Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State of trying to Islamise the state, Sani said it was unfortunate that a government that has accused groups such as Boko Haram of manipulating religion is now using the same religion to achieve political gains.

Sani,President of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress (CRC),in a statement in Kaduna ,entitled “No harm should happen to Aregbesola” described the allegations against the Osun governor as mischievous and false propaganda aimed at destroying the progressive forces in the country.

He said : “The mischievous and false propaganda against Governor Rauf Aregbesola by the Peoples Democratic Party is an all out war to destroy the progressive forces in Nigeria.

“The PDP is simply desperate to silence him and others by whipping up religious sentiment and sowing religious divide in the Southwest with a view to achieving a political goal.

He said: “Governor Rauf’s independent mindedness, consistency and principle intimidate the PDP at the state, zonal and national levels. It’s ironic, unfortunate and tragic that the same PDP that has pointedly accused some groups like the Boko Haram of manipulating religion have now found themselves deep in it for political expediency.

“The false accusations against Governor Aregbesola are grievous, provocative and inciting and with a serious security implication in a religiously fragile nation like Nigeria.

PDP’s style opposition is dirty, crude, deprave, nihilist, anarchist, fatal, thuggish, primitive and lunatic.”

NECA sues Reps over company tax reform

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HE Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has filed a suit against the House of Representatives over its decision to audit and inspect books of private sector companies.

The House Committee on Finance had directed its Consultants, Olusola Adekanola & Co, to commence audit and inspection of the books of companies in the private sector as a step towards exposing tax defaulters.

NECA says the House

By Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu

move is beyond its constitutional duties.

Counsel to the plantiffs, Tunji Abayomi in the originating summons filed at the Federal High Court, is praying for an interpretation of Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.

It specifically wants: “A declaratory judgement that the investigatory powers of the House of Representatives granted by Section 88 and 89 of the Consti-

tution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended and exercisable through the House Committee on Finance does not extend to the Plaintiff (NECA) member Companies for the stated purpose to wit ‘to ensure that all revenues accruing to the Federation are remitted fully and appropriately’ “A declaratory judgement that the stated purpose of the investigation of the House Committee on Finance ‘to ensure that all rev-

enue accruing to the Federation are remitted fully and appropriately’ is inconsistent with the powers of the House of Representatives having regard to Section 5 of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Section 3 (1) of the companies income Tax Act Cap 21 Laws of Federation (2004), Section 2 (1) of Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act, Cap 72 Laws of the Federation (2004) and all other relevant laws.”

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20-year-old Okada rider hangs self From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

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20- year- old commercial motorcyclist popularly known as Okada, Onuigbo Nwode, hanged himself yesterday in Awka for losing his motorcycle to armed bandits.

Sources said the deceased relocated to Akwa to engage in Okada business about three years ago from Ezza in Ebonyi State.

The motorcycle, it was learnt, was stolen in Awka town along Zik Avenue around 1am yesterday.

He reportedly hanged himself around 2.30am.

The State Police Command through its Public Relations Officer, Emeka Chukwuemeka, confirmed the incident.

He refused to speak further on the incident.

It was gathered that the victim’s body had been removed from Ichida road in Umudioka where the incident happened by the police and deposited in mortuary.

A source who claimed to be a relation to the deceased said Nwode came to their house weeping and looking dejected after finding out his motorcycle had been stolen.

The 22-year-old said, “We were three from Ebonyi in that room and when we saw how he was feeling, we started consoling him and at a time all of us fell asleep, we never knew he had other plans.

“When I eventually woke up to go and ease myself, I found out that Nwode was not around and I went outside with the other brothers to urinate. That was when I saw something dangling which I drew their attention to.

“When we flashed a touch- light towards it, we found it was Nwode’s body. That was how we raised alarm and neigbours started trooping out.’’

Firm launches drug to prevent cholesterol From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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NICITY International and its Nigerian counterpart, Unicity Nigeria is to launch Bios Life Slim, a new health product capable of decreasing cardio vascular health risk to the Nigerian market this week in Abuja and Kaduna.

Spokesperson of the company, Toyin Akinwale, said the new product has been clinically tested, effective, natural and proven to be safe for human consumption.

The product, she added, is capable of reducing appetite and cravings, losing fat and inches, decreasing bad cholesterol while increasing good cholesterol, lowering triglycerides, balancing blood sugar and energy without any stimulants.

FG resuscitates teachers’ training scheme T HE Federal Government has revived the Technical Teachers’ Training programme suspended about seven years ago in a bid to improve the quality of education in the nation.

The scheme was suspended due to non-release of funds for teachers, students and institutions involved in the programme.

Launching the programme, Minister of Education, Prof. Rukkayyat Rufai, said that though there was no budgetary provision for it in the 2012 budget, the government was looking forward to collaborating with donor agencies to make it work.

She said the revival of the scheme was a clear indication of the commitment of the

From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

present government to develop the education sector.

She disclosed that about N163.5million has been obtained to settle outstanding debts owed participating institutions and their students.

The Minister said some positive measures were being taken to fully resuscitate the programme.

According to her: “I am very happy to have been part of this event of bringing back programmes that are of great value to the nation which was abandoned and which we now have cause to resuscitate and bring back. I am particularly happy because it involves teachers’ education.

“We know that our major problem in the sector has to do

with teacher quality and teacher development. We hope to expand this programme in the near future”.

The Minister, however, assured that the leadership crisis rocking the National Examination Council (NECO) will soon be over as the Ministry is doing everything possible to address it. The crisis in the Examination body, she argued, was not up to the magnitude being reported.

She added, “If we have to be going to the public every time to address these issues, you will not have time for us.

“We know where the problem is coming from. The

SSS in Niger State has done their work and has given us a report which we are looking at. The problem is not up to the magnitude you are talking about and it is not true that the ministry is not doing anything about it”.

Director General of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr Aminu Sharehu, said there was no better time to resuscitate the programme especially when efforts were being made towards attainment of the objectives of the National Policy on Education which places a high premium on technical education.

Participating institutions in

the scheme include the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; University of Jos, Jos; Federal University of Technology, Minna; University of Benin, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and the University of Uyo. Others are the Kaduna Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba; Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka and the Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo.

Kidnapped Spaniard released in Enugu

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SPANIARD abducted by unknown gunmen early this month in Enugu State has regained his freedom.

Dr Joe Machimbarrena, a medical practitioner at Niger Foundation Hospital Enugu, was abducted on April 4 and whisked to unknown destination by his captors.

A release by the Police Public Relations Officer in Enugu State, Ebere Amaraizu, disclosed that the Spanish national was released by his abductors last Friday.

Amaraizu further stated that the medical practitioner was said to have been seen “around Thinkers Corner axis of the state on 20/04/12 at about 9.35 pm.”.

According to him, Machimbarrena had been reunited with his hospital community.

The released added: “The hospital community on their

From Chris Oji, Enugu

own part had thanked all the relevant security agencies in the state for all their efforts in the aggressive search to get back Dr Machimbarrena whom they described as almost a Nigerian because of his length of stay in Enugu.

“They also thanked members of the public and all the relevant stakeholders as well as all the media outfits for the awareness created so far which had made his captors to change their mind while giving the Almighty God all the Glory for his safety throughout the duration of his stay in the hands of the abductors.

“The state police command has intensified its manhunt on the pursuit against the hoodlums as getting the doctor hale and hearty and alive was the paramount thing.”

Baptists kick against dialogue with Boko Haram

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ENERAL Secretary of The Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev (Dr) Olasupo Ayokunle, has kicked against any form of dialogue or negotiation with the Boko Haram sect.

Boko Haram, he said, is a criminal terrorist organisation that should not be dignified with dialogue.

The cleric spoke last Friday preparatory to the 99th annual convention session of the church, which took off yesterday in Lagos.

He said any group or organisation that takes up arms against the state should be dealt with ruthlessly, regardless of their grievances.

According to him, ‘’Why are you dialoguing with Boko Haram and not armed robbers?

How are they different? You bring them to justice first and think of re-integration during rehabilitation’’.

He said dialoguing with the sect amounts to pampering its members.

He also faulted the American government for attributing the sect’s insurgency to poverty and years of long neglect in the North.

Ayokunle said the US cannot possibly know the sect

By Sunday Oguntola

more than Nigerians, stressing that if it was a case of poverty and neglect, everybody in the nation would have become a terrorist.

He attributed moral decadence to negative exposure to technology and warped societal values.

Nigerians, Ayokunle pointed out, value materialism and affluence more than honesty and integrity.

He said the convention session will afford Christians an opportunity to access divine intervention through anointed messages and songs, while assuring that logistics have been concluded to make it a memorable one.

•L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; The new Alawe of Ilawe, Oba Ajibade Alabi; his wife, Olori Abimbola; Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Mrs. Funmi Olayinka; and Special Adviser to the Governor on Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief George Akosile, during the presentation of Staff of Office to the Oba, in Ilawe-Ekiti... yesterday

Nigerian universities producing illiterates, FORMER presidensays Utomi make for progress. The tial candidate, Prof.

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Pat Utomi, yesterday carpeted the nation’s universities.

Many of them, he said, are producing certificated illiterates.

He spoke at an International conference and book presentation in honour of a foremost Professor of Mass Communication, Sylvanus Ekwelie at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in Rivers State.

The conference, with the theme: “Advocacy Journalism and National Development,” was organised by UNIPORT’s Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies (LCS).

The Director of Lagos Business School, spoke on: “Critical Journalism and Development.”

He said: “Most Nigerians are busy doing wrong things and expect right answers and development. It is not possible.

From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

‘’Development must be built around institutions, which are important for growth. Investment in human capital is also essential.

Making right policies alone may not bring about development.

“The wealth of the nation must be based on human capital. Those at the helm of affairs are not adhering to the UNESCO’s recommendation on budgetary allocation for education, with meager funds being allocated to education and responsible for the present rot in our educational system.

“Values shape human beings. Culture shapes humanity. Politics can shape culture.

Leaders shape the country.

The challenge in Nigeria is that we have collapse of culture. Investments in infrastructure alone will not

funds may end up in the pocket of one man.”

Utomi, a Mass Communication graduate of UNN, also expressed concern over the low quality of training of journalists in Nigeria.

The Head, Department of LCS of UNIPORT, Dr. Walter Ihejirika, said: “The need for journalists to do their work with style and dedication is most needed today in our country. It is unfortunate that many people are beginning to think that the media profession is an all-comers’ affair.

“Anybody with some cash in his or her pocket can wake up and set up a media house. This is unacceptable. ‘’We make the call for proper training of media workers.

Government should endeavour to weed out charlatans, who are dabbling in the media world without “requisite qualification.”

Disaster averted as bird strike hits Arik Air DISASTER was averted when a bird strike hit a 12.30 pm Lagos-bound Arik aircraft at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, the Cross River State capital last Thursday.

It was gathered that a bird flew into the engine just as the plane was taking off.

Workers at the airport, who witnessed the incident

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From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

and pleaded anonymity, said the expertise of the pilot saved the day as the plane, a Boeing 737 800 series, that was already speeding down the runway had left the ground and was bought down immediately the bird flew into the engine.

It was learnt an equip-

ment normally used to scare birds away before planes take off was not used that day.

The incident left the passengers visibly shaken and stranded as no other plane was available to fly them to their destinations immediately.

Engineers were flown in to fix the affected plane at about 6pm.

It was later cleared for

flying by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

When the plane was eventually fixed, some of the passengers refused to board.

It was gathered that of the nearly 100 passengers, less than 20 agreed to fly with that same plane to Lagos.

Efforts to get comments from Arik Air and airport officials proved abortive.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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Why house officers can’t receive teaching allowance, by Chukwu H

EALTH Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, yesterday cleared the air on why House Officers employed by Lagos State government should not be paid teaching allowance.

He said the House Officers themselves are learning and should not receive allowances meant for those teaching.

Chukwu spoke during a condolence visit to the family of Late Prof Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, in Lagos.

He condemned the Medical Guild which is the um-

By Wale Adepoju

brella body for all doctors in the state for embarking on a warning strike and demanding teaching allowance for house officers.

He said: “I’m aware that doctors in Lagos state are on strike. I had interaction with the Permanent Secretary; he was actually the one that let me know some of the issues.

One of them was payment of teaching allowance to House Officers.

“If the truth must be told, who is the House Officer

teaching? We had that problem at the federal level but why they are receiving up till now was that at the time they proceeded on strike I wasn’t around but the people on ground decided to let them receive the allowance to allow peace, while they look into it. ‘’We got the National Wages Commission to give an interpretation which it said the House Officers are not entitled to the allowance. But they have not presented the report up till now.”

Chukwu supported Lagos

state government’s resolve not to pay the teaching allowance He said “I agree with the state government. Ordinarily there is no reason a house officer should earn teaching allowance.

“It is good to be honest with ourselves. The house officer is there to learn. It should be a learning allowance. If they are struggling for anything it should be a learning allowance. It could make sense in some ways but not teaching allowance.”

He said the state was do-

ing fairly well in the health sector. “I think all they need is further discussion. There could be other way and they can be better compensated,” he said.

He paid glowing tributes to Majekodunmi, who he described as a great man.

Chukwu said: “He was the first Nigerian Minister of Health. He started the job I am occupying now. When it comes to the past minister of health he is number one and one of the longest serving ministers. He was second only to Dr Olikoye Ransome-Kuti who spent seven years.

MDG office seeks support on 2015 targets From Olugbenga Adanikin, Abuja

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•State Commissioners for Finance,Ezeh Echezi of Anambra(left) Albert Akpan Bassey,(Akwa Ibom) and Chambastine Peterside of Rivers State during the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja ... at the weekend.

PHOTO ABAYOMI FAYESE

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ISTORY was made in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia on Thursday as Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), pushed ahead with another electoral promise of accelerating inter-modal transportation through the extensive use of the state’s waterways, when he witnessed the signing of the Ferry Manufacturing Agreement for the state between Aluminium Boats Company of Brisbane, Australia, and a consortium of water transportation practitioners, Eko Water Buses Limited.

The agreement signing event, which was preceded by an inspection and a ride on one of the prototype ferries, being manufactured for the state, by Fashola and his entourage, is for the initial batch of 60 ferries each, with a 200 passenger capacity to be deployed on various routes.

These ferries are like the water buses because of their passenger carrying capacity.

The inspection and agreement signing followed a recent Memorandum of Understanding between the Lagos State Government, represented by the Private Public Partnerships Office and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) and the consortium, Eko Water Buses Limited, which aims to deploy one ferry for a pilot scheme by July this year. According to the agreement and production schedule, five more of the purpose built and fully fitted high capacity fer-

Lagos to get 60 ferries ries will be deployed by December this year, making a total of six.

A release signed by Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser to the governor on media, about 50 Nigerians will benefit from a comprehensive training programme in marine operations, boat services and repairs in the expansive boat building facility of Aluminium Boats Company in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia as a prelude to the full commencement of the ferry services operations in December.

Fashola and his entourage were received in Brisbane by a representative of the Premier of Queensland, the Trea-

surer and Minister for Trade, Mr. Tim Nicholls, the top management of Aluminium Boats Company of Australia, including its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Stuart Pascoe and General Manager, Mr. Tommy Ericson as well as representatives of the consortium, Eko Water Buses Limited, led by its Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Omololu and their technical partners including Mr. John Waterhouse and Captain Elgin Mckilop.

Also on hand to meet with the Governor and his entourage which included the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Private Partnerships, Mr Ayo Gbeleyi and Managing Director of the

Lagos State Waterways Authority ( LASWA),Mr Yinka Marinho were representatives of international financial institutions backing the landmark project, including Westpac institutional Bank of Brisbane, Commercial Banking of Australia and the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation ( EFIC).

Apart from a test ride on the prototype of the ferry demonstrating its versatility, durability and safety features, the Governor and his entourage also undertook an extensive tour of the company’s boat yard during which he inspected one of the boats being built for the Lagos operations.

HE Millennium Development Goal (MDG) office has assured that the Federal Government is capable of meeting the 2015 MDG target with the support of other stakeholders.

The Special Assistant to the President on MDG, Dr Precious Gbeneol gave the assurance at the weekend in Abuja during a sensitisation workshop on MDGs in Nigeria.

She noted that with the time frame of the project, there was need to ensure that efforts are relentlessly re-kindled and continuously re-appraised for the attainment of the goal to fast track service delivery for the people.

Gbeneol, who was represented by a Director at the MDG office, Mr. Babalola Olawale, urged participants to take advantage of the workshop to positively contribute towards attainment of the MDGs. Dr Seyifa Brisibe, in a paper titled Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS): Home Grown Strategy for Accelerating MDGs in Nigeria a Partnership Working attributed inadequate capacity building in project management and implementation at the local government areas as a major setback.

He said shortage of skilled labour and fund also affected the office from realizing some of its projects.

Brisibe said: “inadequate funds have been a major challenge and weak capacity units particularly in project implementation, monitoring and evaluation at the local government areas”.

‘Mobile money services may fail without contact centres’ From Augustine Ehikioya and Olugbenga Adanikin, Abuja,

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IRECTOR of Consumer Affairs of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Mrs. Mary Uduma, yesterday called for adequate provision for contact centers in the country for the mobile banking and cashless economy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to be effective.

She made the call at the formal launch of the Association of Call Centre Operators of Nigeria (ACCON) in Abuja.

Harping on the need for the federal government to establish the service centers across the country, Uduma, who is also the President, Executive Board of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), maintained that contact centre operations would thrive if Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) service could operate successfully in the country.

She said: “CBN planning to bring in mobile money and services could be a source of problem but with the availability of contact centers, this can be minimised. If mobile services succeeded then call centres would succeed.”

She however lamented the incompetence of service providers in the country to address the daily complaints of subscribers, assuring that the issue will soon be addressed.

The Chairman of ACCON, David Onu, disclosed that call centre operations are capable of generating employment and contributing to economic growth of the country.

He said that the association was established to promote the industry and ensure compliance with standards and regulations.

Kogi to partner Skye Bank on IGR From Mohammed Bashir Lokoja

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HE Kogi State government is to partner with Skye Bank to improve on the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Governor Idris Wada, who stated this when the management of Skye Bank paid him a courtesy visit in his office, said the state needs to look inward to generate revenue for development of the state.

GTB partners foundation for media workshop

‘Five million living with sickle cell ’ A

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O fewer than five million Nigerians are living with sickle cell anemia, the chairman Board of Trustees of Dabma Sickle Cell foundation, Pastor Emmanuel Ibekwe, has disclosed.

Nigeria, he said, cannot continue to ignore a disease that affects so much people and families.

He revealed that roughly 75% of children with the genetic disorder die in the country before their fifth birthday.

Ibekwe made these disclosures last week at a media parley ahead of the Sickle-

By Sunday Oguntola

Cell social dialogue conference with the theme: social change and the challenges of sickle cell anemia disorder.

The conference slated for Afe Babalola Hall, University of Lagos on the 26th of April, is a collaborative effort among Sickle-Cell Advocacy Management Initiative (SAMI), Progeny Foundation and DABMA Sickle-Cell Foundation.

Ibekwe attributed the unchecked prominence of genetic disorder to lack of adequate drugs, superstitions and ignorance.

He called on the National Assembly to enact legislations that will protect Nigerians with genetic disorder from discrimination in the workplace.

He said with liberalised education on genetic counselling and genotype testing, people can make balanced and informed choices.

Coordinator of SAMI, Miss Toyin Adesola, appealed to governments and the society to mitigate challenges faced by those living with the disorder.

She canvassed for total eradication of the disease

through concerted efforts from all stakeholders. ”Government through the education ministry must formulate policies which will make it mandatory for schools to incorporate the study into the curriculum.

We can eradicate it if people are made aware of the dangers of partners who are both AS getting married,” she added Adesola argued that if Sickle-cell anemia gets half of the funding and publicity HIV and AIDS organisations attract, it would have been reduced in Nigeria.

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ONE-DAY capacitybuilding workshop for journalists holds next Wednesday in Lagos.

Omololu Falobi foundation is organising the workshop in partnership with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).

It holds with the technical assistance of Innate Communications at Topaz hall, Sustainability training centre, Elephant house, Alausa by 9.30am.

Facilitators include Online Editor of The Nation Newspaper, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, who recently returns from a training at the Poynter Journalism Institute Florida USA and Director of International Press Centre(IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade.

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Ibori’s conviction exposes corruption in Nigeria - Cleric From Mohammed Bashir, Lokoja

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HE Anglican Bishop of Lokoja Diocese and Chairman of the State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Egbunu, has said the recent conviction of former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, by a British court, clearly exposes the rot in the nation’s democracy and judiciary.

Egbunu stated this last Thursday while receiving the new Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner for Kogi State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje.

He said Ibori’s saga also “speaks volumes of the country’s security system.’’

The cleric expressed dismay over the widespread of corruption in the public and private sectors, stating that it was more shocking and embarrassing that such a high level of immorality was taking place in a country with a heavy population of Christians and Muslims.

The First Vice Chairman of the State chapter of the Council of Ulamau,Alhaji Bajini Muhammed, while receiving the INEC Resident Commissioner, promised that the council will assist the INEC with men and materials in all the 21 Local Government Areas in the state during the forthcoming voter education.

He also commended INEC for a successful outing during the April 2011 general elections but called for improvement come 2015.

MDG office seeks support on 2015 targets From: Olugbenga Adanikin, Abuja

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

News

HE Millennium Development Goals (MDG) office has assured that the Federal Government is capable of meeting the 2015 MDG target with the support of other stakeholders.

The Special Assistant to the President on MDG, Dr Precious Gbeneol gave the assurance at the weekend in Abuja during a sensitisation workshop on MDGs in Nigeria.

She noted that with the time frame of the project, there was need to ensure that efforts are relentlessly re-kindled and continuously re-appraised for the attainment of the goal to fasttrack service delivery for the people.

Gbeneol, who was represented by a Director in the MDG office, Mr. Babalola Olawale, urged participants to take advantage of the workshop to positively contribute towards attainment of the MDGs. Dr Seyifa Brisibe, in a paper titled Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS): Home Grown Strategy for Accelerating MDGs in Nigeria a Partnership Working, attributed inadequate capacity building in project management and implementation at the local government areas as a major setback.

He said shortage of skilled labour and fund also affected the office from realizing some of its projects.

Hold governors accountable for non-performance-NOA DG T T

‘Amnesty Office not a security outfit’

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

HE Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, has advised electorates to hold state governors responsible for non-performance.

This, he said, is necessary because more money is available to all the tiers of government with the recent removal of fuel subsidy.

He gave this advice when

From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

chatting with newsmen after a workshop on ‘Good Goverance and Post Fuel Subsidy Appraisal’ organised by NOA in Minna, Niger State.

Omeri said the financial status of the 36 states has improved with the decision of the federal government to stop subsidising fuel.

According to him: ‘’Our

state governors have the wherewithal to deliver dividends of democracy. They have all it takes to deliver their budgetary provisions and if they fail, people should hold their governors accountable for non-performance and ask them questions for their inability to improve on infrastructural deficiencies in our communities.’’

He noted that the decision

to remove fuel subsidy was bitter but necessary, insisting that the federal government should be commended for taking the bull by the horn.

The NOA boss also called for total support for the federal government’s ‘’transformation agenda’’, which he said is aimed at total paradigm shift that would ensure and enhance attitudinal and value change.

•L-R; The Chief of Staff to the Governor of Enugu State, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo; Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Amechi Okolo and Chief Press Secretary, Barr. Chukwudi Achife at a parley by State Executive Council members of Enugu State with reporters….at the weekend.

PHOTO: OBI CLETUS

Why firms are closing down, by MAN

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HE Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has blamed multiple taxation for the shut down of many companies in the country.

Its Vice Chairman in the

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

South East, Dr. Emmanuel Nwankpa, said the nation’s economic growth has remained stunted over the years due to many negative

factors.

He spoke with reporters yesterday in Awka ahead of a forum organised by MAN for top government officials, economists, industrialists and other

Truck crushes three students to death

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HREE male students of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, died on Friday night when a truck hit the bus carrying them and some others from behind.

The incident, which happened at Aramoko, Ekiti West Local Government around 10 pm, left five other students of the institution seriously injured.

They were rushed to University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti.

The Public Relations Officer of the Polytechnic, Mr

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

Adeyemi Adejolu, disclosed that about 38 students of the institution were in the coaster bus when the accident happened.

According to him, the students were returning from an excursion to Lagos when the coaster bus conveying them to Ado-Ekiti was hit from behind by a truck belonging to Dangote Group of Companies.

Eyewitness account said the driver of the truck fled, leaving the truck which was heavily laden with white sand

•The truck at the scene of the accident....yesterday

behind after realising the magnitude of the accident.

Ekiti State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Engr. Kumven Rimdon, who was at the scene, said the accident resulted from over-speeding and lack of concentration on the part of the truck’s driver.

But the State Traffic Officer, ASP Olalekan Fatola, said the accident occurred when another truck on high speed overtook the Dangote trailer and in the process had contact with the truck.

He said: “It was the effect of the abrasion, which actually pushed the Dangote truck forward and made it hit the coaster conveying the students from behind, leaving the coaster swerving off the road and crashing into the fence of Aramoko Comprehensive Health Centre just beside the road.’’

The spokesperson of the Polytechnic noted that arrangements were being made to reach families of the deceased whose remains had been deposited at the Teaching Hospital mortuary.

stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

The forum holds next Thursday at the Tourist Hotels and Gardens in Awka, Anambra State.

According to Nwankpa, the sector’s contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined significantly from 9.5 percent in 1975 to 6.65% in 1995, 3.42% in 2005 but with a marginal increase to 4.21% in 2010.

He, however, said manufacturing capacity utilisation declined rapidly from 70.1% in 1980 to 29.29% in 1995.

52.78% was recorded in 2005 before it declined to 46.44% in 2010, he added.

His words: “Currently, most businesses in Nigeria perceive the tax environment as unfriendly and a disincentive to businesses because it increases the cost of doing business in Nigeria.

“In their quest to enforce tax compliance, revenue officials often employ unorthodox methods where they harass business concerns which most often disrupt industrial and economic activities”.

He hoped that the reforms in taxation matters by the National Assembly ‘’will enrich debate on such bills and fast track the passage into law.”

HE Presidential Amnesty Programme has reiterated that its mandate does not include curbing crime or enforcing laws in the region.

In a statement by its Head, Media and Communications, Henry Ugbolue, the body said: “The Presidential Amnesty Programme has aided the stabilization of security conditions in the Niger Delta by successfully overseeing the d i s a r m a m e n t , demobilization and currently reintegrating the entire 26,358 Niger Delta ex-agitators who accepted the offer of amnesty and enlisted in the Amnesty Programme in two phases.”

The statement further reiterated that: “The Amnesty Office neither has the powers, competences nor wherewithal to stop any person who willfully decides to commit crime in the Niger Delta. ‘’The Amnesty Office neither has guns nor ammunitions; thus cannot physically combat willful crime or criminality in the Niger Delta. The very critical role of enforcing extant laws that deal will crime in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country is constitutionally vested on the Nigeria Police, the State Security Services and of course the Armed Forces as currently represented in the states in the Niger Delta by the Joint Military Task Force (which now goes by the name Operation Pulo Shield).”

APGA chieftain faults arrest order on Aba bishop

By Joe Agbro

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HE Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the April 2011 election in Abia State, Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba, has condemned an arrest order allegedly placed by Abia State on Most Rev. Valentine Ezeonyia, Catholic Bishop of Aba Diocese, over a rumoured visit of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha to Abia.

In a statement, Ufomba also described the alleged banning of the Bishop from holding mass in Ariara as condemnable.

“I and other Catholic faithful would not tolerate such primitive, and unprovoked and unwarranted acts against the Catholic Church and her Bishop in the State anymore,” he said.

While denying knowledge of any meeting between Okorocha and the Bishop at the diocese, he said the Nigerian Constitution allows for freedom of speech and association and wonders why a Bishop and a sitting Governor would be denied access to their people if and when intended.

NEWS REVIEW

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

N4bn Onitsha port set to revive S/East economic fortunes A

FTER several decades of neglect, the Onitsha River Port is revving back to life. During the administration of former President Shehu Shagari (1979-83), it was one of the strategic projects conceived by his government to ease transportation of goods and people across the River Niger to the South East.

However, after the overthrow of the government in 1983, the project was abandoned until the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua awarded the contract of the dredging of the River Niger.

A lifeline project Following the award of the contract for the dredging of the Lower Niger, the rehabilitation of the Onitsha River Port was also awarded by the Federal Inland Waterways Authority to ease the growing transportation bottleneck confronting the business community in the South East.

Today, the Onitsha River Port is 100% completed and will soon be commissioned for use. Already businessmen and other stakeholders in the South East, especially Anambra State are upbeat and ready to seize the advantage of the port to facilitate their business activities that were grappling with high cost of haulage of goods from the Lagos and Port Harcourt sea ports.

The Nation reliably gathered that arrangements between the Anambra State Government, the Federal Ministry of Transport and other stakeholders have reached advanced stage on the date for the commissioning and other mutual agreements on how the River Port will be put to best and optimal use.

The Port rehabilitated at the sum of about N4billion, will promote trade and commerce in Onitsha and open a direct transport line from Onitsha to Lokoja, Port Harcourt, Warri and other major industrial cities with functional sea ports.

Speaking with The Nation, an official of the Federal Inland Waterways Authority, who pleaded for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said that big vessels and ships will not berth at the Onitsha River

From Okodili Ndidi, Onitsha

Port. According to the source, only light vessels and badges will transport goods and heavy equipments from Port Harcourt to Onitsha where the containers will be offloaded and either carried away or stored in the large warehouses.

The source added that two brand new cranes with capacity to offload 40 ton weight containers have been purchased and installed, adding that already the port has commenced activities while awaiting the official commissioning, which will take place later this month.

“Already the port is in use, badges have brought cement and tiles from Port Harcourt to Onitsha via the River Niger to Onitsha River Port where they were cleared by their owners who expressed satisfaction with the swift handling of the containers.

“We have two cranes that can effectively handle 40ton containers and large warehouse that can take over 1000 containers so when the port becomes fully functional, the impact will create jobs and boost business in the country and the South East in particular.”

In preparation for the commencement of full operations at the port, the Anambra State government has opened up new roads and repaired existing link roads to aid the movement of heavy duty vehicles to and from the port. Most of the motor parks around the entrance to the port have been demolished to decongest the area.

In like manner, the Federal Ministry of Works has also expanded the dual carriageway from Upper Iweka to the bridgehead to facilitate easy movement for the anticipated influx of heavy duty vehicles and trucks in the commercial city.

Economic benefits The port when operational will, no doubt, impact positively on the economy of the South East. According to an Onitsha-based business mogul, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, it will enhance activities in Onitsha, Aba and other commercial cities in the South East and reduce the cost of transpor-

tation of goods from Lagos and Port Harcourt and the attendant challenges.

He said that the port will also reduce accidents and traffic gridlock on South East roads. “The benefits are too many; we pay through our noses to haul our containers from Lagos or Port Harcourt and given the nature of Nigerian roads, some of these trucks break down on the roads and will take weeks to be repaired and this is not too good for business and in some more severe cases the trucks get involved in accident that will result in the total damage of the goods.

But with the Onitsha River Port now in place some of those risks will be drastically reduced,” he added.

Another businessman, Chief Cletus Onah, described the opening of the port for business as a major step towards reviving the dwindling commercial fortunes of the South East, stating that the intimidation and harassment suffered by businessmen from the zone at the hands of security operatives and other agencies will be over, while customers who come to Onitsha from the North and other neighbouring countries will also benefit immensely from the project.

He said that the port will also serve as a viable income earner for the Federal Government and the host state.

“Anambra State government will be better for it, because the revenue that will be generated will go a long way to cushion the meagre Federal allocation to the state, he said.

Another immediate beneficiary of the project is the neighbouring city of Asaba, the Delta State capital, which will witness increased commercial activities and tourism development. Asaba is reputed to have great tourism potentials and large hospitality industry, which will certainly thrive with the increased commercial activities in the port.

Apart from a large warehouse, fully equipped with state of the art equipment, the port also has two brand new 40 ton cranes, harbour with steel embankment, fully equipped administrative block and a police post.

Other features are an expansive estate with detached bungalows that will serve as taff quarters, a fully equipped restaurant and a serene environment that will certainly play host to fun seekers.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

News Review

Ibori goes to jail and a d Polio still endemic in Nigeria, says global body

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IGERIA still ranks among the four polio endemic nations according to Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). It is said to have 17 cases this year with 11 type 1 (WPV1) and six type 2 (WPV2). Pakistan with 15 cases, Afghanistan six and Chad three, are the other countries. The GPEI said the most recent case had onset of paralysis from Borno State.

South Sudan withdraws troops from disputed oil field

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OUTH Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has ordered the withdrawal of his troops from the Heglig oil field in Sudan. But Sudan’s leader Omar al-Bashir later said his forces had retaken Heglig town.

South Sudanese forces captured the area last week, accusing Khartoum of using it as a base to launch attacks. UN chief Ban Ki-moon had described the occupation as illegal and also called on Sudan to stop bombing the South. Mr Bashir on Friday told supporters at a victory rally in Khartoum: “We thank God that he made successful your sons; and the security forces and the police force and the defence forces - he has made them victorious on this Friday.” On state TV, his defence minister said Sudan’s armed forces had entered Heglig 11:20 GMT.

Fuel subsidy fraud: NNPC, PPPRA, marketers to refund N1.070trillion

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HE House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management submitted its report to the House on Wednesday with a recommendation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA),oil marketers and others should refund to the Federal Government N1.070trillion.The committee, led

by Mallam Farouk Lawan, also called for the unbundling of the NNPC and the prosecution of top officials of the PPPRA. Other recommendations of the panel are: the investigation of 72 oil companies and recovery of N230billion; refund of N41.936billion by18 oil companies that benefitted from the Fuel Subsidy Scheme but refused to appear before it.

A SKYSCRAPING CATWALK A model from the Boston Rock Gym walked face first down the front of the Revere Hotel Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of a vertical fashion show during the week.

Committee wants EFCC, ICPC, FRSC, 35 others scrapped

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HE Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies has recommended the scrapping of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),Federal Road safety Commission (FRSC) and 35 other agencies. Submitting the committee’s report in Abuja on Monday, Mr.Oronsaye, a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation said there is, at the moment, a lot of duplication of efforts by many of the agencies citing the Police whose efforts, he said, are being duplicated by the ICPC, EFCC and FRSC. The committee sought the scrapping of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversion of 14 agencies to departments in the relevant ministries to bring the number of such agencies from the existing 263 to 161.The Federal Government immediately constituted a 10-man committee to study the report and draft a white paper on it.

SENTENCED

Ibori jailed 13 years in London

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ENS of thousands of protesters massed in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Friday to demonstrate against continuing military rule. Supporters of a variety of political groups, including Islamist, liberal and leftist forces, entered the square - a regular focal point for rallies. Many were angry at the disqualification of popular presidential candidates. The first presidential poll since Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year is due to be held next month. When the military took power it promised only to hold power until the election results were announced in June. The gathering is yet another warning to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) that if there is not seen to be a proper transition to democracy then Egypt could be in for a second revolution.

DISASTER

Pakistan plane crash kills 127

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IR crash investigators are combing the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing all 127 on board during the week. The plane came down in the village of Hussain Abad on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday evening, scattering debris over a wide area.

There are so far no reports of villagers being among the casualties. Rescue teams working through the night identified 72 bodies and found the jet’s flight recorder, officials said. The Bhoja Air Boeing 737, which had flown from Karachi, crashed on its approach to the airport during a storm.

At a news conference on Saturday, Nadeem Khan Yousafzai, the head of Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the plane suddenly dropped from 2,900ft (883 metres) to 2,000ft as it was preparing to land.

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ORMER governor of Ogun State, Otunb arraigned on Monday at the Ogun State H 38-count charge of corruption. He was a fraudulent conversion of public landed proper to declare his assets truthfully and allegedly s His Conference Hotel in Ijebu-Ode and his A Sagamu were allegedly built on government l pleaded not guilty and was granted N500mi sureties in like sum.

QUIT NOTICE

CJN Musdapher serves retirement notice

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LONDON court on Tuesday sent the immediate past governor of Delta State, James Ibori to jail for 13years after admitting fraud of nearly 50pounds. He will however spend about four years and eight months in prison as the period he spent in detention was deducted from the jail term. Judge Anthony Pitts in handing down the sentence said: “Total sentence which I impose on you is 13years.You are to serve half of that. The 625 days which you have spent in custody are to be credited to the amount of years to serve.” The court, in addition, ordered the confiscation of properties acquired by Ibori with the stolen money.

They are to be returned to the government of Delta State.

Daniel re-arra on 38 coun

Egyptian protesters return to Tahrir Square

HIEF Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher on Thursday served his notice of retirement to the presidency.

Musdapher, who was sworn-in by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in September last year dropped the letter ahead of his formal exit in July.

The CJN will clock 70 in July, the specific retirement age for judges in the country.

Meanwhile, Justice Musdapher has nominated Mariam Aloma, a Justice of the Supreme Court as his successor.

Aloma’s appointment however depends on President Jonathan’s ratification. If she is nominated she will become Nigeria’s first female Chief Justice.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

News Review

a deadly crash I’m yet to indicate interest in 2015 race –Jonathan

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has declared that he has neither indicated nor announced he will run for the presidency in 2015 as being speculated in some quarters. The president, in a counter-affidavit to a suit filed by a member of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Mr. Cyriacus Njoku, seeking to stop him from contesting the election, said the Constitution allows him to seek a second term if he so wishes. He dismissed Njoku’s suit as frivolous and vexatious as he is doing his first term of four years.

Jim Yong Kim beats OkonjoIweala to World Bank post

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HE American, Jim Yong Kim, expectedly emerged President of the World Bank on Monday after beating Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the post. Jim, a health expert, succeeds his compatriot Robert Zoellick. Dr.Okonjo-Iweala in a statement soon after the announcement expressed confidence in the bank’s objective in fostering development in emerging nations and thanked all those who supported her candidature.

Sylva loses at Supreme Court

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ORMER of Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva’s, hopes of returning to office were dashed Friday as the Supreme Court threw out the suit he filed challenging his ouster from the 2012 gubernatorial race in the state. Sylva had approached the Federal High Court Abuja to stop PDP from replacing him having won the primaries for the governorship contest much earlier. The embattled former governor has grudgingly accepted the Supreme Court ruling calling it a ‘dark day for democracy’. A statement signed by Doifie Ola, his media aide, said: “As a democrat, Chief Timipre Sylva accepts today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He, however, considers the decision of the apex court as dark for democracy and justice in Nigeria”.

Nigeria’s break-up won’t hurt North, says Ango Abdulahi

THE WEEK IN QUOTES “We lacked the political and judicial will to convict Ibori. We should be ashamed as a country that it took the English court for him to be convicted.”

– Rotimi Akeredolu, former President of Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA) on the conviction of James Ibori for corruption by a London court.

“Jonathan promised Nigerians during the oil subsidy protests that he was going to cut down on his travelling and that he would reduce cost of running government. Today, has he fulfilled the promises? Where are the palliatives he promised?”

–Buba Galadima, National Secretary, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on the state of the nation.

“Those who feel that a conference will break up the country are the ones actually trying to break it up.”

–Oba Rilwanu Akiolu, Oba of Lagos on Nigeria’s socio-political problems.

“I don’t think we know what is happening...Boko Haram is a franchise; all sorts of things are happening inside the sect.

About five elements are in the mix: some political ...others religious and others socioeconomic. But there is no thorough intelligence and dossier on them.”

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Dr. Usman Bugaje on the nation’s security challenge.

ORMER Presidential Adviser, Professor Ango Abdullahi, says the North has nothing to lose in the event that Nigeria breaks up. The former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and member of the Arewa Elders’ Forum (AEF) said on the Hausa Service of the BBC on Wednesday that the North has not gained from the present structure of the country. He was reacting to calls for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) by some Southern leaders .He said while the North would not be the “cause” of the country’s disintegration, it would not say no to those who want to go their own way.

el re-arraigned n 38 counts

f Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was rey at the Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta on a corruption. He was accused of breach of trust, public landed property to personal use, failure hfully and allegedly stealing over N211million.

Ijebu-Ode and his Asoludero Court home in uilt on government land. The former governor was granted N500million bail bond with two

Senate to Govt: Crush Boko Haram

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HE Senate, on Tuesday, asked the Federal Government to crush the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, as its activities are inimical to the nation’s territorial integrity. In a resolution against the backdrop of the recent terror attack in Kaduna, the Senate said the Federal authorities should realise now that “these terrorists have declared war on Nigeria, which is a threat to our sovereignty, existence and economic well-being,” and should respond accordingly “with all instruments of national power at its disposal.”

PEOPLE OF THE WEEK

Rauf Aregbesola

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HE Osun State governor must have won a few more supporters in the last one week given the all round condemnation of the ‘security’ report on him by agents of the Federal Government. The ‘report’ talked about a plan to secede from the rest of the country because of the adoption, by the state, of an anthem and a flag. It also equated a change of school uniform with a plot to Islamise the state.

Expectedly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been fuelling the situation but a good number of Nigerians are not sucked in by the ‘security report.’ While Gov Aregbesola himself has responded, point by point to the allegations, the most damning reactions came from the Christian community in the state which declared that the alleged plot of Islamisation exists only in the imagination of the ‘security report’, and the Jama’atta ‘Awuni Muslimeen which the report claimed has a link with Boko Haram and its members used as body guards for the governor. The group said it has no link with Boko Haram and since it is not a security outfit its members could not have been protecting the governor.

•Galadima •Akiolu

•Akeredolu

•Bugaje

Farida Waziri

Ngozi Okojo-Iweala

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LTHOUGH the Finance Minister lost on Monday to the American, Jim Yong Kim, in the race for the presidency of the World Bank, much of the globe acknowledged her brilliance and competence. Moments after the announcement of Jim as the new president of the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala issued a statement saying her participation in the selection process was, in itself, history for Nigeria and Africa. “We have shown what is possible,” she said, adding : “Our credible and merit-based challenge to a long-standing and unfair tradition will ensure that the process of choosing a world Bank president will never be the same again.”

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T’S been five months since Mrs Farida Mzamber Farida lost her job as the boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). She has spent the period in utter silence to the surprise of many who had expected her to speak on her tenure. All that, however, changed on Tuesday when she appeared before the Senate Committee probing the management of the pension fund. She said she had to leave the country immediately after her removal because of the death threats she was receiving apparently from suspects under investigation by the commission while she was there.

She described the fraud perpetrated in the pension fund offices as ‘monumental’ and ‘unbelievable’ and cited instances where “we discovered that many ghost names, including dead persons, were being paid. There were no addresses, no local government areas, but money was being paid to dead persons”. She also told of how a bank laundered N350million in 30minutes.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

COMMENT and ANALYSIS

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Nigeria tested by rapid rise in population

Lekan Otufodunrin Otufodunrin@thenationonlineng.net 08050498530 (SMS only)

Has Jonathan influenced you?

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•Overcrowded cloth market at Oke-Arin in central Lagos. PHOTO: Benedicte Kurzen for The New York Times

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N a quarter-century, at the rate Nigeria is growing, 300 million people — a population about as big as that of the present-day United States — will live in a country roughly the size of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. In this commercial hub, where the area’s population has by some estimates nearly doubled over 15 years to 21 million, living standards for many are falling.

Lifelong residents like Peju Taofika and her three granddaughters inhabit a room in a typical apartment block known as a “Face Me, Face You” because whole families squeeze into 7-by-11-foot rooms along a narrow corridor. Up to 50 people share a kitchen, toilet and sink — though the pipes in the neighborhood often no longer carry water.

At Alapere Primary School, more than 100 students cram into most classrooms, two to a desk.

As graduates pour out of high schools and universities, Nigeria’s unemployment rate is nearly 50 percent for people in urban areas ages 15 to 24 — driving crime and discontent.

The growing upper-middle class also feels the squeeze, as commuters from even nearby suburbs can run two to three hours.

Last October, the United Nations announced the global population had breached seven billion and would expand rapidly for decades, taxing natural resources if countries cannot better manage the growth.

Nearly all of the increase is in sub-Saharan Africa, where the population rise far outstrips economic expansion. Of the roughly 20 countries where women average more than five children, almost all are in the region.

Elsewhere in the developing world, in Asia and Latin America, fertility rates have fallen sharply in recent generations and now resemble those in the United States — just above two children per woman.

That transformation was driven in each country by a mix of educational and employment opportunities for women, access to contraception, urbanization and an evolving middle class. Whether similar forces will defuse the population bomb in sub-Sarahan Africa is unclear.

“The pace of growth in Africa is unlike anything else ever in history and a critical problem,” said Joel E. Cohen, a pro-

By Elisabeth Rosenthal

fessor of population at Rockefeller University in New York City. “What is effective in the context of these countries may not be what worked in Latin America or Kerala or Bangladesh.”

Across sub-Saharan Africa, alarmed governments have begun to act, often reversing longstanding policies that encouraged or accepted large families. Nigeria made contraceptives free last year, and officials are promoting smaller families as a key to economic salvation, holding up the financial gains in nations like Thailand as inspiration.

Nigeria, already the world’s sixth most populous nation with 167 million people, is a crucial test case, since its success or failure at bringing down birthrates will have outsize influence on the world’s population. If this large nation, rich with oil, cannot control its growth, what hope is there for the many smaller, poorer countries?

“Population is key,” said Peter Ogunjuyigbe, a demographer at Obafemi Awolowo University in the small central city of Ile-Ife. “If you don’t take care of population, schools can’t cope, hospitals can’t cope, there’s not enough housing — there’s nothing you can do to have economic development.”

The Nigerian government is rapidly building infrastructure but cannot keep up, and some experts worry that it, and other African nations, will not act forcefully enough to rein in population growth.

For two decades, the Nigerian government has recommended that families limit themselves to four children, with little effect.

Although he acknowledged that more countries were trying to control population, Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue, a professor of development sociology at Cornell University, said, “Many countries only get religion when faced with food riots or being told they have the highest fertility rate in the world or start worrying about political unrest.”

In Nigeria, experts say, the swelling ranks of unemployed youths with little hope have fed the growth of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has bombed or burned more than a dozen churches and schools this year.

Internationally, the African population

boom means more illegal immigration, already at a high, according to Frontex, the European border agency. There are up to 400,000 undocumented Africans in the United States.

Nigeria, like many sub-Saharan African countries, has experienced a slight decline in average fertility rates, to about 5.5 last year from 6.8 in 1975. But this level of fertility, combined with an extremely young population, still puts such countries on a steep and disastrous growth curve. Half of Nigerian women are under 19, just entering their peak child-bearing years.

Women Left Behind Statistics are stunning. Sub-Saharan Africa, which now accounts for 12 percent of the world’s population, will account for more than a third by 2100, by many projections.

Because Africa was for centuries agriculturally-based and sparsely populated, it made sense for leaders to promote high fertility rates. Family planning, introduced in the 1970s by groups like USAID, was initially regarded as foreign, and later on, money and attention were diverted from family planning to Africa’s AIDS crisis.

“Women in sub-Saharan Africa were left behind,” said Jean-Pierre Guengant, director of research at the Research Institute for Development, in Paris. The drastic transition from high to low birthrates that took place in poor countries in Asia, Latin America and North Africa has yet to happen here.

That transition often brings substantial economic benefits, said Eduard Bos, a population specialist at the World Bank. As the last large population group reaches working age, the number of adults in the labor force is high relative to more dependent groups — the young and the elderly — for a time. If managed well, that creates capital that can be used to improve health and education and to develop new industries.

And that has happened elsewhere.

Per-capita gross domestic product in Latin America, Asia and North Africa increased between three and six times as population was brought under control, Dr. Guengant said. During that same period it has increased only marginally in many African countries, despite robust general economic growth.

Continued on page 18

F only TIME Magazine editors knew how displeased many Nigerians are about the lack-luster performance of President Goodluck Jonathan, they would probably have left out his name from the list of the Most Influential People in the World released last week.

President Jonathan’s inclusion in the list has agitated many who have wondered what he has done to deserve it.

With the state of insecurity in the country, poor economy, high level corruption, poor electricity supply and myriads of challenges Nigerians have been trying hard to cope with, the news of President Jonathan on the TIME’s list came as a surprise to many Nigerians who see it as an undeserved endorsement for a leader who has not lived up to his electoral promises.

Not many were impressed by Liberian President, Johnson Sirleaf’s citation on Jonathan in which she noted that “Jonathan exemplifies the African political renaissance at a time when the people of the continent are starting to reap the fruit of their resources and their hard work.

“President Jonathan, 54, possesses the qualities needed at this moment of great challenges, having come to power at a crucial moment in the history of Nigeria. The country has grown out of its past of corruption, mismanagement and brutality, but the foundation of good governance is still fragile,” Sirleaf stated to the surprise of many Nigerians who have faulted the basis for selecting the nominees.

I share the concern that this listing may indeed give President Jonathan the false impression that he is doing well with his much hyped transformation agenda. I concede to him that he may be trying hard to solve the country’s various problems, but so far, his best is not good enough and he and his team has to really have to double up instead of being distracted by the TIME Magazine’s listing . Like Professor Pat Utomi wondered in his reaction to the nomination, what is the worth of the nomination if the situation in the country keeps getting worse by the day in virtually every sector?

For whatever it is worth, President Jonathan should see his nomination as a challenge to really be the kind of leader those who nominated him think he is and what Nigerians want him to be. Contrary to Sirleaf’s claims, corruption and mismanagement at all levels of government is still the order of the day. The Pension scam and the report of the House of Representatives Ad hoc committee on the controversial fuel subsidy are more than enough evidence of how we have lost whatever anti-corruption battle the successive and present governments claim to have launched.

Beyond the controversy of President Jonathan’s nomination however, is the fact that the TIME list contains many people who without any government leverage have contributed in no small way to making the world a better place.

Despite the various challenges people have to overcome worldwide, we indeed live in a world of possibilities as Rick Stengel rightly stated in his Editor’s letter on the special edition of the magazine. Reading through the citations of most of the nominees, I was really inspired about what many did in their own little way to be the change they wanted in their community, country and the world.

“Statistician, Hans Rosling made this year's list not only because of his years on the front lines of public health in Africa, but also because of how he uses statistics to change people's perceptions of the world. "I am not an optimist," Rosling says. He describes himself instead as a "possibilist." The TIME 100 list is about the infinite possibilities of influence and the power of influence to change the world,” Stengel wrote. I totally agree with Rosling and Stengel.

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Ogochukwu Ikeje ohgeeoh@gmail.com 08084235961 (SMS only)

B

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Comment & Analysis

UT for the most powerful country in the world, Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala would have been returned as World Bank president. Instead, the position went to South Korean-born but naturalised American Dr Jim Yong Kim. Why? He was anointed by President Barack Obama.

Is anyone worried or disappointed by that? Yes. Many believe Kim’s victory portrays the United States president as the man with the most muscle in the world, and his country as the land of might is right.

Going to the World Bank, Kim’s CV was clearly inferior to that of OkonjoIweala. He is a medical doctor, a university teacher, former health campaigner and the apple of the US president’s eye.

The Colombian Jose Antonio Ocampo, the other candidate who also wanted the World Bank job, was a finance minister in his country.

But Okonjo-Iweala combines practical experience of running a developing nation’s economy as finance minister with nearly two and a half decades of managing the World Bank whose essential brief is to cut down poverty across the globe.

The job went to America’s man, nevertheless, prompting concerns that the process of electing or selecting the boss of the global bank is murky and unfair.

Who will whip America, the bank’s biggest donor, into line? Okonjo-Iweala has offered the obligatory congratulatory

If America were not America Okonjo-Iweala would have been World Bank president, but why worry? message to Kim but she also urged all stakeholders to make the process “more open and merit-based”.

That was a disciplined and subtle protest registered in the hopes that the world would amplify it. But who will? President Goodluck Jonathan, who backed his finance minister, has already congratulated the new World Bank chief. The African Union (AU), another backer, will have no choice but to welcome Kim to his new office.

And so will virtually everyone including Chief Theodore Orji who governs Abia State from where the finance minister’s husband hails.

It is clear that big America has had its way. But Nigerians should not worry that powerful America has shut out the best candidate for the job and prevented her from making history.

There is better history to be made here than at the World Bank. There are mountains to subdue. There is more work to be done on home soil and the labourers seem short.

In these parts, the renowned 58-yearold economist is clearly the irresistible pearl of commanders-in-chief. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in his time, prised her from the World Bank to help fix our ailing economy.

She got the noose of foreign debt of our neck. She is also credited with plugging holes through which funds have been flowing into the pockets of unscrupulous officials.

The business of governance is now said to be more transparent, thanks to the super minister who also coordinates the president’s economic team.

But in spite of her efforts, the country

“Nigerians should not worry that powerful America has shut out the best candidate for the job and prevented her from making history.

There is better history to be made here than at the World Bank. There are mountains to subdue. There is more work to be done on home soil and the labourers seem short”

still looks mired in corruption and its people as deprived as ever. The cloud of sleaze looks comparable to the odour of sin and wickedness in biblical Noah’s world and in Nineveh of Jonah’s time. It is so dark and thick that you fear it IS going to burst and drown everybody someday soon.

It leaves you with a sense of despair.

Probes are revealing staggering fraud in every direction. Last year, Okonjo-Iweala herself went to straighten up the ports.

This month alone, probe panels are digging up stunning thefts in the oil industry. Billions of naira is going into people’s pockets illegally.

The other day, 69 oil marketers were said to have cornered N241b as oil subsidy. A few days later, The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary, the Petrol Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and oil marketers were told to refund over N1 trillion.

A peek into the police pension funds has also thrown up stunning facts. Billions of cash are traced to banks. In all this, officers who were supposed to help the country stay afloat are helping to sink it.

Last week, Okonjo-Iweala warned that the country was going broke because any cash that comes into the federal purse is promptly shared, and that nobody is saving for the future.

Well, that’s her job: to straighten up the economy. If she succeeds, she would have made better history even if no one succeeded in straightening up the process that produces the World Bank president.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Comment & Analysis

15

Secession as scarecrow An intelligence report never appeared so unintelligent

N

IGERIA’S Fourth Republic appears to have entered a new high-low in reckless politicking: with the rather grim business of secession so laughably trivialised; and the apparent suborning of a state security agency thrown into the combustible mix. This gambit is to be decried by all right- thinking patriots and all democracyloving Nigerians.

Saturday Sun of March 14 reported the story of an alleged secessionist agenda by Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun State. Part of the “proof”, according to the report, quoting from an intelligence report gathered by the Department of State Security (DSS) and allegedly passed to the federal authorities by Ekpeyong Ita, DSS director-general, was the governor changing the name of the state from Osun State to “State of Osun.”

Other grievous “proofs” were the governor unveiling a crest for his state to rival the federal coat of arms, composing a state anthem to rival the national anthem, designing a state flag to rival the national flag, and procuring the services of Jama’atu Ta’awunil Muslimeen Society of Nigeria (TA’WUN) musclemen and bouncers to rival the security personnel attached to his office by the Nigerian state.

And the treachery of treacheries: the governor has recruited a 20, 000-strong secessionist foot soldiers in O’Yes and O’Clean volunteers, unemployed youths, most of them tertiary school graduates, who the state had employed to clean the streets and do other menial jobs, just to make the point that there is dignity in labour and there is joy in serving one’s community.

Ironically, while this “intelligence” report sees these patriotic youths as demons of secession, a global development agency like the World Bank sees them as part of a worthy model to combat crime and youth joblessness.

And wonders of wonders: even states, across party lines, are studying the model, with a view to adopting it to ease their own unemployment problems!

Still, according to the intelligence report which looks every inch patently unintelligent, the O’Yes and O’Clean volunteers are state police to rival the Nigeria Police; and would form the fulcrum of the secessionist army, after the governor must have islamised the state with his TA’WUN bouncers. He would then lead his Islamic State of Osun, outside both the Southwest and Nigeria, at full gallop!

Could anything sound more ludicrous?

But even assuming there is substance in these allegations, what exactly are they? Supposing indeed, O’Yes were some state police. Are there not Hizbah, the

A

POSTLE John, one of the beloved disciples of Jesus Christ was banished to the Island of Patmos. It was persecution that drove him into this island where he was lonely and deprived of every good thing that could make life comfortable. But he was neither dejected nor did he lose his heart. His right attitude to cope with the difficult condition made him to be the writer of the book that concludes the Holy Bible the Book of Revelation.

What is Island of Patmos?

Spiritually or figuratively speaking, the Island represents a condition or a place of difficult conditions, depravity, sickness, poverty, inequalities, injustice, near-success, premature abortion of good things, spiritual, financial or biological miscarriages or any condition that may make life unbearable to a person or any group of people.

A man in his middle age who is yet to be married (not because of biological or spiritual reasons) is living in a form of Island of Patmos. Same goes for an unmarried beautiful woman with a good career in her late 30s, 40s or even 50s. No matter how successful, a man or a woman is not really complete without a compatible spouse to complement each other.

There is no doubt that Nigeria as a nation is at present passing through her own Island of Patmos. Or how do you describe the condition of a coun-

enforcement agents in the Shari’ah states of the North?

Does that translate to secession? Or are they Islamic armiesin-waiting too, being Shari’ah agencies and with the exploits of Boko Haram all over the place? If they are, why has the DSS not generated “intelligence “to throw intense security watch over these northern governors and their Shari’ah loving people?

And the issue of alleged rival flags, anthems and security personnel: the first two are patently laughable, for there is nothing in a federal state precluding constituent parts from their own official totems and symbols to rally and mobilise their people. Lagos, one of the original 12 states created in 1967, still has its crest till today. So did the other 11 states in that generation of states, though when Gen. Yakubu Gowon was overthrown in 1975, stifling uniformity back then by the new Murtala Muhammed regime, led to most of the states abandoning these totems.

But it was not because they were illegal. It was because of the misguided military command mentality that has ruined Nigeria’s federal set-up. Even now, states like Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, aside from Osun, have specific state crests, along with the Nigerian coat of arms. Why are these states not also accused of plotting secession? It is simply that the secession charge is as real to the eye as gas! It is simply non-existent.

The crest argument also goes for the allegation of a rival anthem. Just like flags, societies, clubs, even business houses have and can adopt anthems. Indeed, if Nigeria is a federation, and a federation comprises different peoples living in a formal political territory, what is wrong with peoples of the constituent parts adopting an anthem that fires their local dreams, aside from the general national anthem? Besides, the lyrics of the anthem, is it in any way anti-Nigerian or subversive? Again, this is another empty

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

•Editor Festus Eriye •Deputy Editor Olayinka Oyegbile •Associate Editors Taiwo Ogundipe Sam Egburonu

•Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Kunle Fagbemi

charge.

But the rival security personnel are a serious issue, if it is true. But why would the governor abandon state security for some alleged Islamic rag-tag bouncers? If he did, would he not be endangering his own life? The governor’s party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has counter-alleged that the SSS operatives attached to the governor have been doing disappearing acts. It would appear therefore that there is some dissonance between the security personnel and the governor.

This is a grave situation, which the security agencies concerned ought to take with much more seriousness. The implication of anything untoward happening to the governor’s person would be dire indeed, as ACN has alleged some plots by political opponents in the South West. It is time therefore to quit this juvenile play on secession and intelligence, and face the serious business of protecting the governor as the law stipulates. On this score however, both the governor and the security agencies must closely work together.

All of these, however, are coming from the peculiar politics of Osun State and the ever-recurring use of illicit federal power in settling issues between the dominant bloc in South West politics and the opposition, aligned with the ruling federal party.

In the First Republic, the desperate plot to destroy Chief Obafemi Awolowo smashed that democracy and consumed the principal officers involved in the plot. In the Second Republic, the federal ruling party, not unlike now, accused the late Bola Ige, governor of old Oyo State (now Oyo and Osun states) of training subversive militants, simply because he was training youths in calisthenics. It was a phantom charge. Even when Aregbesola was campaigning in 2007, there were whispering campaigns by those who could not match his professed ideas that he was a Muslim fanatic (because of his beard!) and a Tekobo (Lagos returnee), with no root in Osun State, simply because he was based in Lagos.

All these were, of course, targeted to distract the candidate and divert attention from the message his opponents could not match. The strategy, it would appear, is more or less the same. But the turning point –and a very dangerous one too – is the apparent mix-up of a state security agency in partisan exchanges.

The Federal Government must call its agencies and partisan hawks to order. Mixing politics with security matters is an ill wind that blows no one no good. Let this monkey business stop right now!

LETTERS

NIGERIA: A nation like the Island of Patmos

try that is tremendously endowed by God with human and natural resources and yet find it difficult to guarantee food security or adequately protect

R

ECENTLY, my dog bit a neighbour accidentally while engaged in a territory fight. While trying to get the young girl first aid, we equally needed to confirm that the dogs involved were rabies- free. I had to call my veterinary doctor to be sure of the date on the green card of the dogs.

I dialled Mallam Ado’s number, that’s what we all call him at home. None of us knew whether Ado was his first name or surname. It did not matter. He was just Mallam Ado to all of us, and not until his death did we know, he was Maman.

I had met Mallam Ado some 15 years ago at the Jos Veterinary Hospital, Polo Jos. He had accompanied me home to give injections to the puppies.

Over the years, Mallam Ado was responsible for all my dogs’ health needs. He was a veterinary health practitioner par excellence on the

lives and properties of her vast populace? A country with a wide expanse of arable land and yet an importer of food stuff.

How best can you describe the condition of a country that is a major producer of crude oil and natural gas and yet a great importer of refined petroleum prod-

ucts? A nation where the government and the security agencies always claim to be on top of the situation each time a bomb explodes despite the es-

Tribute to Mallam Ado payroll of the Ministry of Agriculture. I recall several times the stipend called salary that was not paid as at when due.

We shared together; the little providence blessed us with whenever I was around.

He would come home, and my wife Fatimah, would make one of her many local snacks and any variety of Kunu available to wash it down. There were also times when tuwo was available; Mallam Ado was a humble guest.

Very recently ‘Musty’, one of the patriarchs of the house had become grouchy; I dare say old age was at work. The dog bit Mallam Ado as he was injecting it. Mallam Ado had a smile even as the spot bled He had said, “It wasn’t serious”. For days Musty was quarantined, and since then, he has been a good dog.

Apart from that incident I cannot recall any scare, or

tale in what otherwise was a near perfect relationship spanning 15 years.

So what happened to Mallam Ado As I dialed his number, woman picked—his wife, I asked after him and the wife blurted out—”Ya mutu” meaning he was dead. Getting over my shock quickly, I asked what happened, why, how? The other facts sunk in bitterly.

Mallam Ado was killed in one of the religious riots in Jos. At this point, I will quickly state the following for the records. I do not intend to open old wounds or court controversy.

On that fateful day, I was on my way from Kano to Jos, and could also have been killed .

Mallam Ado was a devout Muslim; he was from Plateau State, precisely Kanke Local government area, married to a lovely wife with seven kids. I am Mallam Charles, an Igbo from Abia and Christian, but what should be important is that we are Nigerians,

who loved each other. My home was a safe haven for him and I trusted him with my life.

He was around for all my kids, and his state Plateau had become my adopted home.

I would send him Friday prayers at least thrice a month, and he would reply at least once in two months via a call. We had not spoken in a while and I took it for granted. The dogs were healthy and lately, I have been on the road.

Mallam Ado was killed by his own people either by error or on intent. We have murdered sleep and yet we crave rest.

People tamed the cruellest beasts, but to date they have failed to tame their own passions to exterminate their “brothers and sisters” that pray, eat and dress in different ways.

May the soul of Mallam Ado rest in peace.

By Charles Dickson Jos

calating causalities. But are they really on top of the security challenges or on top of dead bodies and the massive destructions that have almost become a reoccurring decimal in our land?

Notwithstanding, the good news is that these unbearable conditions are not meant to be permanent. Despite the fact that most Nigerians are group of well-cultured, patient and very contended people yet the harsh socio-economic conditions are bringing out the beasts in some of our people.

By God’s grace, as we continue to pray and wait on God to visit our land, He will soon move us away from this uncomfortable island and lead us to our final destination and destiny. And for the information of those who are not aware, we are using this medium to declare that this country is destined to be great and become a nation to be reckoned with spiritually, economically, politically, militarily and technologically.

The bane of this nation is our inability to get able leadership that can harness the given potentials to move us forward into our Promised Land. God, at very crucial moments of this nation, has been intervening in our affairs.

By Oluwagbemiga Olakunle, General-Secretary National Prayer Movement

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16

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Comment & Analysis

World Bank Presidency: The factor of Nigeria?

Ropo Sekoni ropo.sekoni @thenationonlineng.net

T

HIS period should deservedly be devoted to finding out why and how Nigeria’s most accomplished World banker did not get a job that Nigeria had enthusiastically campaigned for and on which African Union had got one of its few consensuses in the history of post-colonial Africa.

Those who ought to know have already started giving reasons for the failure of Nigeria’s most stellar female economist to get the votes needed to win. Some have said that it was because all the BRIC countries that had argued for a candidate from the developing zones of the world did not even vote for her.

Okonjo-Iweala herself had said that the race was not necessarily about merit as much as about might. On their part, the voting countries had not failed to acknowledge that the three candidates were all good for the job and had enriched the selection process. With this, the bank’s voting directors have reinforced Okonjo-Iweala’s

Nigeria’s negative image can be an excuse for turning our finance minister down notion that “Africa has shown that it can produce people capable of running the entire architecture.” No one should ask why Okonjo-Iweala called herself an African, rather than a Nigerian candidate.

Without doubt, most Nigerian citizens must have been proud that one of them is credited with Okonjo-Iweala’s accomplishments at the World Bank, particularly without having the regular godfathers or godmothers that she would have needed if she had grown her career back home in Nigeria. Many of her fellow citizens must have wondered why she did not get the job, despite her unmistakable qualifications for the job. But her failure to get the job falls into a familiar pattern regarding Nigerians seeking high positions in global agencies in recent times. Could her failure to get the job have been Nigeria’s rather than OkonjoIweala’s?

It looks more like the failure of Nigeria than that of a Nigerian citizen who did everything that a patriotic Nigerian and a global citizen should have done. She obtained the best of education possible. She worked in one of the most challenging global agencies for enhancing global development. She is seen by Nigeria and other nations to have done very well during her tenure at

the World Bank. This explains why she was invited to come and serve as minister of finance under Obasanjo’s first civilian presidency.

Recognition of her outstanding performance also explains why the World Bank moved her to the position of vice president a few years ago. There is no doubt that she must have worked very hard to prequalify for the world’s most coveted bank’s job.

What she could not have done is to form or mould the character of her country of birth. Not even majority of citizens of her country have been able to do that before and during democratic dispensations. Many pundits may be right to point at the wielding of America’s power and Europe’s endorsement of that power as the reason for not picking a Nigerian for the job. One question that has been missing in the post-mortem so far is whether the image of Nigeria globally could have been a factor in the preference for Jim Yong Kim . Apart from hegemonic politics of Western powers, it is conceivable that Nigeria’s negative image can be an excuse for turning our finance minister down. That Okonjo-Iweala comes from a country better known globally for how not to govern or manage resources profitably for

owners of the resources must not be ignored as a possible reason for voters at the bank to look in another direction.

Seriously, how many countries with any sense of self-preservation would readily vote for a Nigerian for a job that requires managing resources garnered from most countries of the world for development? Particularly, when such people know that less attractive resources under the management of politicians and public servants in Nigeria are usually badly managed or stolen, and hardly ever punished in the country that projects as Okonjo-Iweala’s primary sponsor? How many serious nations would readily forget that Okonjo-Iweala’s Nigeria is a country where management — governmental or corporate – is directed at achieving little or no development for the sponsoring community and more for those charged with managing such resources? Certainly, it was not Nigeria’s finance minister that must have scared World Bank directors a few days ago. Those directors must have been very familiar with her transparency and professionalism. But they must have had their reservations about Nigeria’s image at home and abroad.

Similar decisions regarding top positions in continental or global development agencies had happened before. Obasanjo of Nigeria was believed years ago to have had interest in the UN Secretary-General’s job.

The world, including sensitive Nigerians, felt safer with Kofi Annan of Ghana. Another Nigerian wanted to become president of African Development Bank during Obasanjo’s presidency. Other Africans preferred a Rwandan. Is Okonjo-Iweala’s case an illustration of a Yoruba proverb: Eniti o fe d’aso fun ni ti orun re laa wo (someone that wants to clothe someone else deserves to be scrutinized properly).

It must be hard for Nigeria as a nation to do the self-audit that is likely to indicate the likelihood that Nigeria with its present designation as one of the world’s failing states may constitute an albatross around the necks of the country’s most vertical and stellar candidates for premier positions in global governance and development. In addition to enriching the World Bank’s selection process, Okonjo-Iweala’s failed candidature signals the need for Nigeria to embark on self-cleansing before the top job in African Development Bank opens for nomination, to avoid similar last-minute national disappointment.

This continuing demonisation of Aregbesola Femi Orebe femi.orebe @thenationonlineng.net 08056504626 (sms only)

T

HE recalcitrant Ekiti branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) is at it again quarreling, needlessly over government prescribed examinations for teachers. I think they have to be told in plain words that in the Armed Forces and the Federal Civil Service, examinations for promotion to the next rank are routine. In Lagos State, all categories of teachers, as well as Civil Servants, up to level 17, and,indeed, to be appointed Permanent Secretary, go through promotion examinations.

I will like to advise the state government to sponsor these various Ekiti Union leaders to Lagos for a few days’ training to educate and sensitise them to the new realities in the hope that, rather than writing stupid, threatening letters to government officials who are doing everything to make things better or threatening to embark on ill-advised strikes, they will face up to their responsibiliies.

It certainly did not come to me as a surprise that these grandchildren of DEMOS (Pre-Obasanjo main streamers), are back at their progenitors’ game –always wishing the worst for Yoruba leaders that are clearheaded and far-sighted. They did it to Awo when they played acolytes to Arewa/NPC leaders and railroaded him into jail. The other day they thought it was the turn of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and, before you could say Bola, they were already dragging him before a packed Code of Conduct Bureau even when, on the testimony of its chairman, other former governors so accused had

Aregbesola has had a fulfilling life of activism and humanitariasm been invited for negotiation by the commission. But having been once beaten, the good people of Yoruba land and other well-meaning Nigerians rose up like one man in Asiwaju’s support and, encouraged by that massive rally, it took Wole Olanipekun, one of the very best in the country’s legal profession today, and a proud son of Oduduwa, no time in making a mince-meat of all the conniving ragamuffins.

Now, in trying to accomplish the impossible task of warming the PDP into our lives ever again in Yoruba land, the new South-West leadership of the party has, very ignorantly, zero-ed in on Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Osun State governor, as the weak link in the stellar assemblage of A.C N governors in the zone,in the belief that they could over awe him. How egregiously they miscalculated!

This, essentially, is in continuation of the excruciating persecution he suffered in the hands of the former Osun State militrician and his conniving federal authorities. But should Oyinlola not have reflected on how badly Aregbesola worsted him in that long-running framedup bomb case in which he failed ever so miserably even as a governor, to unlace Aregbesola’s shoes? Of course, they never learn from history.

Now, rather than face up to the daunting task before them in the South-West where they are treated no better than pests, they are chasing a chimera, believing they can unsettle a man like Aregbesola.

Again,you can hardly blame them having not had the opportunity nor the inclination to know who Rauf Aregbesola really is as they were not privileged to have gone through the normal structured educational processes of primary school, through secondary school to either a university or polytechnic. Given this lacuna, even where they might have at-

tended higher institutions, they were too timid to have been involved in student unionism or, subsequently, in political activism.

Unlike these political parasites, Aregbesola has had a thoroughly fulfilling life of activism and humanitarianism. Before letting them into Rauf’s background, it is apposite to let them know that for well over a decade and half now, Engr Aregbesola, though Ijesa by birth, has attended my Are-Ekiti Development Committee meetings in Lagos and for our maiden Are-Ekiti Day in 2001, he stayed 2 whole days in the town, in company of my cousin, who is a close friend of his. That, for instance, demonstrates the seriousness Engr Aregbesola attaches to whatever he sets his mind on.

I wrote the above to enable the PDP errand men know that I am not out here toasting Aregbesola, as I do not have any reasons to do that, but rather, to show that I know the man like the palm of my hands.

In educating Aregbesola’s traducers,I shall only have to quote from one of the many contributions of Wale Adeoye, Senior Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to the Ekiti state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to the extremely rigorous interrogation of my last week article: ‘SOUTH-WEST PDP: LIES AS TACTICS’, on our highly vibrant ekitipanupo web portal.

Wrote Adeoye: ‘The Yoruba people are very sophisticated politically and so do not get carried away by euphoria. You may not understand why Aregbesola controls Alimosho and, in fact, Lagos politics like a colossus. He has paid his dues in many ways beyond offering bread or butter. Like Dr Fayemi, he has for many years shared with the ordinary people of this country their pains and agonies. That is why he is followed religiously. In 1993, when a family

of 8 were killed at Oko Oba, Agege, Aregbesola was one of the few Nigerians that stood up, even as an ordinary citizen, organising rallies and protests against the injustice.

He did the same thing in solidarity with the family of the Dawodu brothers who were again needlessly shot dead by police in Lagos in 1987. Aregbesola was a leader of the Anti-SAP rallies and protests in 1986 during which many were killed and he very well could have been killed. Aregbesola was right at the heart of the Nigerian Tenants’ Association, led by Femi Ahmed, now Pastor Femi Israel, which was involved in mobilising tenants against cut-throat house rents in Lagos. For many years, he was with Mallam Aminu Kano, mobilising workers for change and against military rule. As a journalist with The Guardian in 1992, I covered an anti-IBB rally, trekking from Marina to Yaba and Aregbesola was one of those who led the rally. Again in 1994/95 against Abacha, the man (these Judases would like to see crucified- my words), was a fighting spirit. Aregbesola is a hero to the most outstanding social movements in Nigeria and Yoruba land.

Since 1990, he has been a member of the Nigerian Automobile Technicians’ Association, NATA, a leader of the students’ movement since the ‘70s, Farmers’ movements, Peasants’, the labour movement, tenants’ Associations, the Media, and if you as much as ask any OPC person, he will tell you Aregbesola’s contributions and confirm the kind of respect they have for him. And this should not surprise you because when Aregbesola speaks in the Yoruba dialect, even the trees and flowers would bend down for his oratory’ I have deliberately chosen not to breathe a word of his superlative performance and assistance to the

ground-breaking government of former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which laid the foundations for the huge infrastructural miracles Fashola is performing in Lagos and in praise of which literally every PDP leader who visited Lagos has developed a verbal diarrhea. Aregbesola was key, not only to planning but the actual execution of those massive engineering feats. Yet those who claim there were no bitumen the world over when they had the opportunity to make a contribution, now go about caterwauling.

Now this is the quintessential, clear-headed Yoruba leader these loafers want to mess up with; being themselves neophytes, with no worthy background, whether in social engineering, students’ or political activism of their own to fall back on. You cannot remember them for anything other than being beneficiaries of serial election robberies which we were recently told is the only qualification to be a PDP leader in Yoruba land. Those among their leaders who have anything resembling a credible pedigree were guillotined on the way to their recent sham convention, since only the deep can call to the deep.

One thing has kept this PDP shenanigan running for some time.

And it is no other than the decision of both governors Fayemi and Aregbesola to let sleeping dogs lie rather than ensure that their illegal predecessors were going from one court room to the other to answer to their serial philandering whilst in office. These serious governors have elected to be positively engaged in bringing development to states which had been sunk low by the rapacity of their predecessors and rather than show gratitude, they are going about the land, spewing one lie after the other, intent on returning the South-West to their days of mayhem and gross insecurity. It is time they were given the ‘Amosun’ treatment.

Enough, as they say, is enough.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Tunji

Adegboyega tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only) OVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has been in the dock in the last few weeks.

This is neither the dock that we are all familiar with nor that of public opinion. Rather, it is the dock of those I referred to as ‘children of perdition’ in the south-west in my article last week. Having got to their wits end in the struggle to reclaim the people’s mandate that they initially stole in the state to no avail; they are now resorting to subterfuge, bothering on the laughable, to rattle the governor. But in this, they are not alone; they are now trying to soil the hands of the country’s security agencies, in order to bring them to ridicule and opium that has been their lot (the children of perdition) since the stolen mandate was retrieved from them about 18 months ago.

The charges as alleged by the governor’s traducers are best referred to the Kootu Asipa (Asipa’s Court) of old. Kootu Asipa was one of the drama series by the renowned Oyin Adejobi of blessed memory. It was a weekly television programme shown on NTA, Ibadan, until about two decades ago. Kootu Asipa was a drama series to watch; and people closed early to go home in order to keep a date with it on days that it featured. It was a comedy series that sent people rolling with laughter as a result of the kind of ‘cases’ that were brought before the ‘court’ and the hilarious way the matter would be decided. You will soon see what I mean when I reel out the ‘charges’ against Governor

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Comment & Analysis

17

Aregbesola in Kootu Asipa

Like the sea, political rogues in the South West remain restless Aregbesola.

One, that you, Rauf Aregbesola, are planning to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria; two, that as part of the process of actualising this agenda, you Rauf Aregbesola, have sent to Cuba some 20,000 youths for military training.

Three, that you (Rauf Aregbesola) have also adopted a new flag, crest and state anthem in furtherance of this objective; that you, (Rauf Aregbesola) are also making efforts towards islamising Osun State; fourth, that you, (Rauf Aregbesola), have dispensed with the services of State Security Service (SSS) operatives attached to you and replaced them with Islamic extremists called ‘TAW’UN’; that you, Rauf Aregbesola have officially changed the uniforms of secondary schools in Osun and made the wearing of ‘hijab’ compulsory for female students, and that this is being enforced through Islamic militants. I have lost count of the number of charges; that happens when the charges are frivolous, as in the issue under discussion.

But these are the reasons for which the country’s security agencies have been reportedly monitoring the governor. Wonderfu! One would have thought there are far more serious problems facing the country for which the security agencies are

yet to find any clue. If the report is true that they have been detailed to monitor Aregbesola because of these reasons, then the Federal Government should waste no time in scrapping and merging these security outfits, if this is the best their intelligence could gather. It means they have nothing serious to do.

Now, ask those accusing Aregbesola of these charges to produce evidence, for instance, to buttress their ‘charge’ that the governor is trying to islamise the state, I won’t be surprised if the only evidence they would be able to cite is the governor’s beards! In the Kootu Asipa that we knew, this was enough to convict the governor!

On the count that the governor wants to islamise the state, every sensible Yoruba person knows that this is impossible in any part of the south-west. I wonder how anyone can accuse Governor Aregbesola of attempting to islamise Osun State, when even in his nuclear family, there are Christians. His cabinet has more Christians than Muslims. The same applies to the state house of assembly, etc. Apart from that, when you even look at the caliber of people crying wolf over this religious issue, you wonder whether they are so religious. These were the same people who robbed the Yoruba race

“What we are seeing in Osun State is a rehearsal of what the 2015 election would look like. I have said it before, and I am restating it that those who stole the votes of the Yoruba people in 2007 are die-hard criminals. We will be making a big mistake if we see them as pick-pockets or petty thieves. But the good news is that the Yoruba race has its peculiar way of dealing with such renegades”

of their mandate and are unrepentant; the same people who went to church to celebrate elections that they rigged to become governors and what have you. It was these same people who underdeveloped the state, nay the region, in the years of the locust that their tenures represented; both the ones they spent legally and the terms they stole from the Yoruba people.

Is it not surprising that it is these same people that are pretending to be what they are not, whether as true Muslims or as devout Christians, given their immediate past activities?

Where we really have effective an anti-corruption war, most of them would be behind bars now.

What we are seeing in Osun State is a rehearsal of what the 2015 election would look like. I have said it before, and I am restating it that those who stole the votes of the Yoruba people in 2007 are die-hard criminals. We will be making a big mistake if we see them as pick-pockets or petty thieves. But the good news is that the Yoruba race has its peculiar way of dealing with such renegades. We had examples in the First Republic and we also had in the Second Republic.

Those who will rise to their defence when the time comes and want to rewrite the history had better warn them now. History is already recording the accounts of their deeds and misdeeds.

The truth is that they appear to have been intimidated by Governor Aregbesola’s performance and programmes for the state, which, if pursued to a logical conclusion, would signal the death knell of these people politically, not temporarily but for all times. That is if they are not walking corpses politically already. The agenda for the entire

south-west, that was a pace setter in the country in the First Republic, set back by the unitary system foisted on the country by years of military rule and eventually perpetuated by the vote robbers in the ruling party, particularly after the 2003 elections, is enough to make them jittery.

Moreover, their party has lost significant allies in the north-west and north-east; in which case the south-west would be sorely needed to make up for part of the shortfall from these lost areas in 2015. And they know they cannot get that except by hook and crook.

But there are two things Aregbesola has to be mindful of. One is that he has four years to spend in office, renewable subject to the decision of the people of the state. By November, the governor would have been half-way through into his tenure. Those who are pulling all these stunts know what they are doing. They want to sufficiently distract him that he would spend so much time and resources trying to defend himself and his actions, unmindful of the fact that time is money and that it waits for no one.

Before we know what is happening, it will be four years and it is these same people that will be at the forefront of criticisms that Aregbesola has done nothing for the state. As it is too late to cry when the head has been chopped off; so it would be too late for the governor to convince the Osun people that he would have done much for them but for the distraction caused by these enemies of the people who are masquerading as friends. That would be too much a price to pay for the liberation of the state from the political bandits.

What ho! Mr. President, this mass illiteracy is a time bomb, no?

Postscript, Unlimited!

By

Oyinkan Medubi 08187172799 (SMS only) puchuckles7@gmail.com

E

ACH week, dear reader, I have to resolve a dilemma. While serving you something new, I must make sure you appreciate the thread of continuity between it and the old one you have digested.

One way of solving this problem is to start my new discourse with ‘Last week, we talked about ...’ but that is so reminiscent of the classroom situation that it puts me in danger of taking you, my esteemed reader, for my student and telling you sharply to please sit up while you read this piece instead of slouching and falling asleep on it. Another way is to repeat myself by providing a summary, but that would take up my space.

By the time I start the business of the day, I would likely hear the editor’s winged chariot at my back telling me, ‘Time (sorry, Space) up!’

So, I have resolved to depend on your goodwill, O blessed one, to keep faith with this column and make the connections yourself, if you will, between the previous weeks’ discourses and the new one, much like the one noticed between an entree of Chicken Soup and a

main dish consisting of Roast Chicken breast. Mm! Someday, we’ll talk food I promise you.

Today, you must join me to convince our president to make mass literacy the cardinal centre of his social reformation programme for reasons set out below.

As we said last week, most, if not all, Nigerians are crouched uncomfortably in self-defeat between the violent armed robber at one end of the continuum and the non-violent, unarmed robber at the other end. So, most of us are middling somewhere in the middle and comforting ourselves with one major or minor crime against the state.

One serious reason is this lack of education, or at its mildest form, literacy.

It is the reason people do not know their rights or are not getting jobs; farms are not getting mechanised; farm hands are remaining farmhands; militants are either Boko Haram or Niger Delta; market women are not becoming CEOs of their own tomato factories; and men are still marrying more than one wife. Anyone who can read 1, 2, 3 ... or A, B, C ... would be able to read T. M. Aluko’s novel, One man, One wife to learn some mathematics: if one man who has one wife has one trouble, how many troubles will a man who has two wives have? There is nothing like education to sharpen one’s truth horizon.

The reason western countries are described as developed is not only because they have raised living to a fine art; it is because as soon as a child is born, s/he is given his/ her book of rights containing what s/he is entitled to: mother’s milk, nursing attendant, social welfare, social welfare officer, a house and a

lawyer (to sue or divorce his/her parents for insufficient care). You will notice their first words over there are ‘I know my rights!’ Nigerians, on the contrary, have no rights. Presidents and their deputies, governors, Assembly men, Army generals, and so on, push them off the roads with their vehicles and the ones that will not move are dragged off. Politicians tell them lies. Policemen harass the life out of them; the greatest fear any village has now is to have policemen visit their village.

So, Nigeria is a third world country not just because it has not got living down to an art but largely because when a child is born, s/he is given a book of needs: food, clothing, shelter, air, and a lawyer to help him/her win elections or embezzlement cases when the time comes. But then, since s/ he can’t read or write, these needs go unmet. This is why we need mass literacy programmes: so that the Nigerian child/adult can at least read this important list.

Sometime in the week, I heard it said on the radio that the country has about two hundred and sixty-something Departments and Agencies which it seeks to reduce to one hundred and sixty-something through mergers and scrapings. Truth is, many of those departments came into being as exigencies in response to some emergency or the other; ‘the other’ being to please a political or blood crony, not national ones.

Trouble is, many of them duplicate each other’s work. In reality, the most essential departments are those directed at solving food, energy and literacy problems. Much of our submissions on this page have focused on this triumvirate which, together, still dominate and rule over the pub-

lic ill in this country. It is difficult to say which the country needs most but if the government can just please take a look at the literacy programme to step it up, it would do us a great deal of good. For the sake of democracy, I believe the Mass Literacy agency is one that the country stands most in need of right now. Any number of other agencies or departments can be merged to create that one for some very good reasons.

To begin with, any reformation programme requires the will and involvement of the people to succeed. The people’s participation depends largely on how much access they have to information; served directly to them and not filtered through the hands (or mouths) of thieving, greedy politicians.

When people can read newspapers, books and other materials in the language of enlightenment or even in one of Nigeria’s national languages, then they can take informed decisions on their own. The direct result of this is that the country’s reformation will be a natural, peaceful process where people will find their own self-fulfilment in accordance with the level they desire.

A direct corollary of this is that the country is driven naturally towards growth. Ultimately then, it is in its interest to accomplish the literacy of its people soonest or one of two things can happen.

The people will remain in the dark, not knowing whether the government is coming or going, while the government will continue to mumble to itself. This is indeed dangerous for both the government and the people, but more for the government, because it will be difficult indeed to predict just when the people have had enough. This is exactly what

happened in Tunisia where the Arab problem began. No one saw it coming because the government was ensconced in its own cosy cocoon where it made itself very busy reading its own lips. Whereas it had reformed the government house, it had failed to reform its people.

The second thing that can happen is that democracy will fail yet once more. I suspect our politicians here will not really care if this happens since they are all scrambling over each other preparing for that eventuality by garnering for themselves lucrative posts to get money for taking and keeping their families abroad.

I believe the more advanced democracies have developed on the premise that democracy is better served when truth comes from many mouths and can only come forth when the people are informed. Then, people can actually contribute to national discourses intelligently. Conversely, withholding literacy from the people will lead to a situation where truth comes from only one mouth, which is as good as the half-blind leading the blind until everyone falls into the ditch. A government is actually safer when the people have literacy, but I guess not many Third World countries know this.

For the government’s reformation programme to succeed, it must be people-directed. If the last Subsidy Removal protests have taught us anything, it is that the people, literate and illiterate, are ready now to hold their governments to account. Since a literate person can be more easily talked to, it is better to aim at making the entire country literate. Believe me, sir, illiteracy is a time bomb looking for when to happen.

18

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Comment & Analysis

Osun’s template for youth employment

“I

T is better to employ people on useless project like pyramid building or digging holes and filling them up again, than not to employ them at all...Any of these may be better than doing nothing at all. Those who are taken into useless employment will by what they earn and spend, give useful employment to others… Enforced idleness is a waste of real resources and a waste of lives, which cannot be defended on any financial ground” - William Beveridge, the post-World War II British political economist.

Throughout the world today and Nigeria in particular, youth unemployment has become a significant marker in assessing the situation of both the society and the economy. It has contributed a lot to the increment of crime rate that has characterized the current polity, however, in the State of Osun; the engagement of 20,000 through OYES has put the state on a good record of security agencies as one of the states with the lowest crime rate in country.

The emergence of OYES scheme and its success within the last one year has shown that it was not just about the employing 20,000 volunteers who have been deployed for social services and public works, but also about integrated economic development in the state. The success of the scheme since its inauguration has become a reference point to the Federal Government and most of the states of the federation whose representatives recently converged in the state of Osun on the recommendation of the World Bank to learn from the scheme.

The benefits that the scheme had brought to the state of Osun since its inauguration were in fold and can never be over-emphasized. Through the stipend being given to the OYES cadets, the state government is on monthly basis injecting N200 million into the economy, summing up to N2.4 billion annually, which has helped improved the socio-economic activities in the state.

This success has endeared the World Bank, Federal Government, whose programme Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) is yet to take-off, and, even states like Niger, Cross River, Kwara and Kogi among others, apart from the states of the south-west who have key into the programme, to the state to un-

•Governor Rauf Aregbesola reviewing a parade of OYES graduates

By Oyintiloye Olatunbosun

derstudy the model, with a view to recreating it in their various states. The representatives of these state and the FG during their discussion described the scheme as laudable and efforts to ensure the eradication of unemployment in the state and the country at large.

The team went around the state and established the fact that the volunteers of the scheme were indeed trained on hardwork, leadership and dignity of labour, while the scheme has rebuilt self-esteem in those who had been idle for years and opened the window to a new world of honour and integrity.

The World Bank Sector Leader, Human Development Unit, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa described the OYES initiative, as a unique programme of which no government has achieved in the history of youth employment in the world, saying that OYES is the most creative job creation initiative in Nigeria.

He explained that the Federal Government and some states sought the assistance of the bank on youth employment and subsequently, the bank believed that there was the need for the participants to gather knowledge on how the state of Osun was able to engage the youths through public works and maintain the scheme.

He said: “The attraction to Osun State is that it is the pioneering state. Though other states are trying it, it is on the scale of Osun.

More importantly, the state has provided template for us to guide other states which may want to go into the youths empowerment programme.

“On a daily basis, the OYES team is coming up with innovation of how to make it more effective and we are very proud of it and that is why we feel very comfortable to bring other states to learn from it because substantially, it is a very successful programme.

We believed that in some years to come, this kind of programme will be a selling point

that some other countries will come to Nigeria to emulate”, he said.

The Deputy Project Director (Public Works), Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr Martina Nwordu and Mrs Roseline Olaomi, the leader of the Directorate of Employment team, also said that from what have been seen and heard from the participants, “the scheme is wonderful”, saying that the most interesting aspect of the scheme was that the volunteers were re-orientated to focus on hardwork and leadership.

Contrary to insinuations that the cadets were being trained as militants, Nwordu said that “with what we have seen, there is no any impression that they are being trained for militancy. Infact, we saw them working with their tools and they look quite decent.

“Report and observation will be compiled and a template will be designed to guide the Federal Government on youth employment. OYES is commendable and with this kind of scheme, youths unemployment will become history”, she said.

Meanwhile, the Governor has reiterated his commitment to ensure that as long as he remain in office, the programme remains a continuous phenomenon, as the state is working on a legislation to ensure it sustainability, with a view to ensuring that the problem of unemployment is solved. He also said that he would continue to echo the initiative to the ears of other governors across all the states of the federation for the benefit of the entire people of the country.

With the foregoing, if the FG and other states of the federation sincerely recreate the success of the scheme in their various domains the era of youth restiveness would be bided farewell, as most Nigerian youth would not only be given a gainful employment, but also be trained in leadership, social and community development initiatives.

This would go a long way to inculcate a deep sense of responsibility in the younger generation.

Oyintiloye Olatunbosun John, Assistant Director, (Community Forum) Bureau of Communication and strategy, office of the Governor, state of Osun.

• Olatunbosun is Assistant Director (Community Forum Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Osun State

Nigeria tested by rapid rise in population Continued from page 13 In Nigeria, policymakers are studying how to foster the transition, and its attendant financial benefits, here. In the ramshackle towns of the Oriade area near Ile-Ife, where streets are lined with stalls selling prepaid cellphone cards and food like pounded yam, Dr. Ogunjuyigbe’s team goes door to door studying attitudes toward family size and how it affects health and wealth. Many young adults, particularly educated women, now want two to four children. But the preferences of men, particularly older men, have been slower to change — crucial in a patriarchal culture where polygamy is widespread.

At his concrete home in the town of Ipetumodu, Abel Olanyi, 35, a laborer, said he has four children and wants two more.

“The number you have depends on your strength and capacity,” he said, his wife sitting silently by his side.

Large families signal prosperity and importance in African cultures; some cultures let women attend village meetings only after they have had their 11th child. And a history of high infant mortality, since improved thanks to interventions like vaccination, makes families reluctant to have fewer children.

Muriana Taiwo, 45, explained that it was “God’s will” for him to have 12 children by his three wives, calling each child a “blessing” because so many of his own siblings had died.

In a deeply religious country where many Roman Catholics and Muslims oppose contraception, politicians and doctors broach the topic gingerly, and change is slow. Posters promote “birth spacing,” not “birth control.” Supplies of contraceptives are often erratic.

Cultural Factors In Asian countries, women’s contraceptive use skyrocketed from less than 20 percent to 60 to 80 percent in decades. In Latin America, requiring girls to finish high school correlated with a sharp

drop in birthrates.

But contraceptive use is rising only a fraction of a percent annually — in many sub-Saharan African nations, it is under 20 percent — and, in surveys, even well-educated women in the region often want four to six children.

“At this pace it will take 100-plus years to arrive at a point where fertility is controlled,” Dr. Guengant said.

There are also regional differences. The average number of children per woman in the wealthier south of Nigeria has decreased slightly in the last five years, but increased to 7.3 in the predominantly Muslim north, where women often cannot go to a family planning clinic unless accompanied by a man.

The United Nations estimates that the global population will stabilize at 10 billion in 2100, assuming that declining birthrates will eventually yield a global average of 2.1 children per woman.

At a rate of even 2.6, Dr. Guengant said, the number becomes 16 billion.

There are signs that the shifting economics and lifestyles of middle-class Africans may help turn the tide, Dr. Ogunjuyigbe said. As Nigeria urbanizes, children’s help is not needed in fields; the extended families have broken down. “Children were seen as a kind of insurance for the future; now they are a liability for life,” he said.

Waiting in a women’s health clinic, Ayoola Adeeyo, 42, said she wanted her four children, ages 6 to 17, to attend university, and did not want more children.

“People used to want 6 or 7 or even 12, but nobody can do that now. It’s the economics,” said Ms. Adeeyo, elegant in a flowing green dress and matching head wrap. “It costs a lot to raise a child.”

Dr. Eloundou-Enyegue worries that Africa’s modestly declining birthrates reflect relatively rich, educated people reducing to invest in raising “quality” children, while poor people continue to have many offspring, strengthening divisions between haves and have-nots. “When you have a system with a large degree of corruption

•Minister of Health, Prof. Chukwu

•Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin

and inequality, it’s hard not to be playing the lottery because it increases the chances that one child will succeed,” he said.

In Nigeria’s desperately poor neighbor, Niger, women have on average more than seven children, and men consider their ideal to be more than 12. But with land divided among so many sons, the size of a typical family plot has fallen by more than a third since 2005, meaning there is little long-term hope for feeding children, said Amadou Sayo, of the aid group CARE. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund and a former Nigerian health minister, said he is optimistic for a turnaround if governments better support education for girls and contraceptive services.

“We can see rapid changes, but that’s up in the air, because you have to be aggressive and consistent.”

Birthrates have edged down to about four children per woman in Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana.

One recent morning in Lagos, hundreds of patients waited at the Ketu district clinic for treatments like measles vaccines, malaria pills and birth control.

“Of course when the population grows so quickly, that stresses hospitals,” said Dr. Morayo Ismail — although migration from rural areas has also swelled Lagos’s population. A mother of one herself, Dr. Ismail said many poor women still want four or more children.

That evening at the clinic, Bola Agboola, 30, gave birth to her second child. After nurses swaddled the boy, dispensed with the placenta and declared Ms. Agboola well, they whooped, praising God. Then, as Ms. Agboola’s husband entered, some started another chant: “Now start another one. Start another one.”

Courtesy: New York Times

POLITICS

19

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

2015: Much ado about Buhari’s return •Buhari

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Former Military Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, recently recanted his earlier resolve not to contest for presidency again. Already, that decision has raised dust in the polity as the North and the opposition consider the implications of his return, reports Dare Odufowokan

AM still in until the polity is sanitised and people enjoy the fruits of democracy at all levels of government.” With these words, former Head of State and serial presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, renounced his earlier decision never to contest for the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria again.

Buhari, who announced his return while receiving a crowd of political supporters at his Kaduna base recently, had indicated his withdrawal from future presidential elections in the country last year, following his failure to get the Supreme Court to invalidate the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan at the 2011 presidential election.

Expectedly, his decision, which technically means he will be contesting the 2015 presidential election, generated a lot of debate. While supporters and admirers of the general, rejoiced over his sudden change of heart, many felt Buhari’s announcement smacks of inconsistency and political miscalculation.

The two divides have been articulating their arguments for and against Buhari’s return. Consequently, a lot of issues have been thrown up and one of such is the issue of how relevant Buhari is today, and much more, how relevant he would be in the politics of Nigeria by 2015 when he intends to make another run for the office of the President.

Given the uproar that greeted his loss at the Supreme Court last year, many of his ardent supporters who applauded his decision to quit politics altogether because they shared his disillusionment are today wondering why the general suddenly changed his mind.

While quitting, Buhari had cited the alleged malpractices that has led to his failure at the polls on three different occasions; and on his return, he said the desire to lead the people out of suffering motivated him. But some analysts are of the opinion that there is more to his return than has been told.

The facts

Should Buhari enter the 2015 presidential contest, it will be his fourth time of vying for the position. The Katsinaborn retired soldier and former military Head of State contested in 2003, 2007 and 2011. And on all three occasions, he alleged he was rigged out by the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

Unlike in past elections, Buhari will be entering the race with some factors to contend with.

For one, by 2015, he will be above 70 years old; something that is increasingly criticised in Nigerian politics. In fact, Buhari will be 74 when the curtain is drawn for the kick off of the next presidential race.

Though Buhari had the issues of his military background and his activities while in office to deal with during his first coming, it didn’t take long for people to overlook his weaknesses and accept him as a strong candidate for the job of a president.

But the situation may have changed now as the events and utterances of the past few years seem to have thrown up fresh challenges on the General’s way to Aso Rock.

For example, the violence that trailed his loss at the last election is one of such issues. A lot of Nigerians still blame the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) leader for the carnage that trailed the announcement of last year’s presidential election.

On the bright side however, Buhari, will have going for him, a stronger political family, a fast growing platform and able lieutenants.

These were luxuries he couldn’t boast of in his earlier comings; at least not in the first and second attempts.

This is as a result of the political structure that sprang up and grew around him when he declared his ambition to contest the 2011 presidential election. The CPC, with a governor and several members of both national and state legislatures, is a product of that development.

His relevance in 2015 politics All this asks questions about whether the returning sol-

dier-turned-politician still has much sway in the country anymore, much less with an electorate he stunned a year ago with his decision to quit his age long dream of ruling the country.

And as the debate over his decision showed, it may be too early for anyone to predict what shape things will take in 2015 following the return of Buhari into the fray of presidential hopefuls. If anything, he appears to have altered the calculations once again.

Of course, a number of commentators have written him off. Even some of his fellow politicians, especially within the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) feel there is nothing to worry about his return to competitive politics.

On Monday, the Katsina State chapter of the PDP, apparently reacting to Buhari’s announcement of his intention to run in 2015, had said the retired General is no threat to the party in the state. According to the PDP in Buhari’s home state, his decision will not in any way disturb the peace of the party within and outside the state.

The party said it is poised to retain its hold on state and the federal elective positions come 2015 with or without Buhari contesting. It reminded those celebrating the return of the General that Buhari was the Presidential candidate of the CPC in 2011 when the party was roundly defeated by the PDP. But the National Secretary of the CPC, Malam Buba Galadima, will have none of the above reasoning. To him, Buhari’s chances of winning the presidency in 2015 general elections were ever bright owing to his integrity, patriotism, incorruptibility and competence.

Galadima argued that genuine politics should go with realistic policies geared towards providing succour to the majority of the electorate in the true spirit of democracy. This, according to him, is what differentiates Buhari from any other presidential candidate.

•Continued on Page 24

20

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Politics

•Tukur

•Babangida

Why IBB is angry with PDP F

ORMER Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, is known for his measured and calculated statements.

He is not given to frivolous or reckless speeches. This is why whenever he deems it fit to talk, not a few know it must be on something of importance for which he is passionate. When his spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua, criticised the process that led to the emergence of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as National Chairman of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), many thought the statements were too weighty to have been approved by IBB. Afegbua, many thought, was probably speaking for himself, not IBB. Afegbua did not only criticise Tukur’s emergence but also declared the PDP will be worse off for his chairmanship. Tukur, according to him, cannot “look straight into the President’s face and challenge him if the President is seen to be deviating from the efforts of the political party.” He said: “The process that threw up Bamanga Tukur is undemocratic. Democracy is all about elections. Now, it is being discussed further in developmental terms as all-inclusive and participatory. You have to allow people to test their popularity at elections. When they are defeated, they will know in their hearts that they have gone through a process seen to be transparent, free and fair and that they lost the election of our country.”

The statements were considered too damning and frontal to have originated from IBB. The fact that Afegbua made them gave room for political watchers to believe IBB could not have authorised it.

Ever a schemer, IBB chose to erase any doubt about his position. He chose the Hausa service of the Voice of America (VOA) radio to dispel any doubt. It is easy to fault signed statements but never broadcast interviews, he must have reasoned.

What he said only corroborated Afegbua’s statements on his behalf. There was no dissension or watering-down.

“A situation where some people would sit and select someone by consensus is undemocratic,” he began. In a true democracy, he explained, all interested people should be allowed to contest for elective positions without hindrance. That way, losers would know they lose fairly,

Sunday Oguntola writes on why former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has chosen to openly challenge developments in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). he reasoned. He went on: “If we could remember, it was in this country we have seen there was an election in Kano, for example, during NPN regime, there was an election between Abiola and Akinloye. There was convention and everyone was given chance to go round for campaign and stated all their missions and visions for the development of the people and votes were cast and in the end Akinloye won.’’

Undone, he added, “Even in the United Nations, if there are people, let’s say 10, contesting for a particular position, all those 10 people will be allowed to contest. The highest three for example will go for second round up to the time when one person will emerge as winner. That way, everyone has been given a chance.

“But in something like what happens now, people will be suspicious and there would be accusations that some people were given money. So if 20 people show interest, (the party should) provide 20 ballot boxes, and in this process the winner will emerge even after the second or third round.”

Shooting down IBB Expectedly, his strong statements drew flaks from many quarters.

An aide to Tukur, Mallam Ahmed Gara, responded swiftly. The emergence of Tukur through consensus was better than a military coup, apparently referring to the manner through which IBB became president in 1985, he said. Gara pointed out the 10 other candidates for PDP chairmanship “voluntarily” withdrew for Tukur on the convention day. He said: “If that statement that is coming from the former Head of State is on print and not on electronic, I would have said he was misquoted. But the airwaves don’t lie. After listening to what he said, I was shocked.

“If IBB is complaining about the process that brought Bamanga Tukur to office now, then it’s belated. He could have reacted earlier than now. Also, what does he gain to achieve by this statement: that PDP should go back and do another convention or to go

back and review the process because the Almighty emperor has spoken?

“I believe the worst consensus in any democratic arrangement is far better and more honourable than a military coup. He is an architect of a military coup; a beneficiary of a military coup.

“I will like to say that the last PDP convention that produced Bamanga Tukur is one of the most organised, most keenly contested and most interesting PDP conventions in history. The convention that produced about 13 chairmanship aspirants and all of them voluntarily withdrew for Tukur….

This time around, the candidates were given free hand.”

National Chairman of the PDP Transformation Frontiers, Emmanuel Nwosu, also said the consensus arrangement was democratic. His words: “Without any fear of contradiction, consensus arrangement anywhere in the world is part of democratic process, most especially the one adopted during the just concluded national convention of the PDP, where all national delegates were allowed to affirm or reject their support or otherwise for the consensus arrangement through voting, where all the national delegates voted in affirmation of the consensus arrangement that brought forth the present members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.”

A PDP chieftain, Alhaji Salisu Magaji, also condemned the former military president. “This same IBB that is now saying that Tukur’s emergence through consensus, why did he not complain when Atiku was chosen as consensus candidate,” I think the general has something up his sleeves,” he said. Magaji who is a close associate of Bamanga Tukur, said rather than cause division and rife within the party, IBB should join hands together with the new national leadership of the party to move the party forward ahead 2015.

National Publicity Secretary of the PPD, Chief Olisah Metuh, said the attitude displayed by Babangida fell short of standard relationship between former Presidents and

incumbents the world over. According to him: “The statement credited to the former President is surprising because known tradition the world over is for former Presidents to tow the path of maturity and decorum in criticisms of perceived lapses of the incumbents. We know of George Bush Jnr. and President Obama and we also know of Tony Blair and Prime Minister Cameron.

“It is therefore an embarrassment on the person of the former President of Nigeria for his spokesperson for recourse to a recipe of media relations that subsists on public acrimony and less noble language.”

Metuh, added in his statement, “We must state for the avoidance of doubt that there is nothing wrong in the electoral consensus option through which our National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Turkur, emerged that constitutes an inhibition in the effective discharge of his functions as the National Chairman of our Party.

“That other aspirants, having noted the likely trend of voting, decided on their own, to withdraw from the race and support an aspirant does not translate to incapacity on the part of the consensus candidate.”

He recalled that even Babangida subjected himself to the agreement reached under the Northern Presidential Consensus which produced Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

IBB’s grouse with PDP There is no doubt IBB is aggrieved. He has left no one in doubt he is ready to fight the party big and dirty. Observers said this is why he has adopted a combative approach instead of going through party’s internal mechanism. In the run to the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as PDP’s candidate at the last election, IBB was a beloved leader in whom the president was pleased. He was courted by the presidential team and allowed to play leading roles.

•Continued on Page 24

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Politics

21

BATTLE FOR ENUGU

Chime holds his breath Tension, uncertainty have enveloped the politics of Enugu State ahead tomorrow’s court ruling on the last controversial PDP governorship primaries, reports Sam Egburonu

T

OMORROW, Monday, April 23, 2012 has emerged a very important date in the political calendar of Enugu State.

It is the day Abuja Federal High Court will give its much-awaited judgment on a suit challenging the legality of the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, which produced Governor Sullivan Iheanacho Chime as candidate of the party for the April 16 general election.

The primary issue for determination in the suit is whether there was a valid special congress or primary held in Enugu State on January 11 or 12, 2011 in which Chime was nominated as the PDP governorship candidate.

Considering the choking political tension and high wired intrigues that have enveloped the political heartbeat of Enugu State in the past 15 months, over Chime’s successor, it is believed that the court ruling will either consolidate Chime’s government, which some insiders admitted has been largely unsettled, or terminate it and create a new political climate in the state.

For Chime and many powerful political Lords angling to grab political power in the state, the hands of the clock, unemotionally ticking close to judgment time, is rather threatening. Afraid that the court’s ruling may alter previous permutations both for the governor and his opponents, everyone is holding his breath.

Justice Adamu Bello had fixed tomorrow’s date after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dramatically joined forces with the plaintiff, Chief Alexander Chukwuemeka Obiechina, a PDP governorship aspirant, to fault the controversial primaries, alleging that it did not comply with provisions of the Elec-

toral Act. According to the Commission, “with respect to primary elections said to be conducted on January 11 and 12, 2011, it can be said that what was passed as the “Notice’ was the plaintiff’s exhibit addresses to the Resident Electoral Commissioner at Enugu, which most certainly is not the same as the 1st defendant, who by the clear terms of section 85(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 must be the Commission itself. This apart, the letter is dated January 10, 2011 and apparently was received on January 11, 2011, the very next day. It gave notice of primaries scheduled for the same day. Certainly no one should be left in doubt that the envisaged notice of 21 days was not complied with in obvious violation of section 85(1]). Added to the foregoing is the fact that the resident Electoral Commissioner cannot be regarded as the Commission, which presents a further violation.”

“It stands to reason that a notice of primary election dated January 10, 2011 for the events to be held on January 11 and 12, 2011 has the potential of violating the right to equal opportunity to be voted for. Be that as it may, what really transpired within the party ca n best be considered intra party, which must be ventilated by affected members of the party.”

It would be recalled that Obiechina, through his counsel, Oba Maduabuchi, had asked the court to declare that the primaries held on January 12, which produced Chime as the governorship candidate of PDP in Enugu State did not comply with the Electoral Act 2011 as amended.

Arguing that the condition precedent for nominating a candidate for the governorship position in sections 85(1) and 87(1)(4)(b) of

•Chime

•Nwodo •Ekweremadu

the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) was not fulfilled, he submitted that the only date set for the governorship primaries in Enugu State was January 9, 2011 as per exhibit ACO 9 and that whoever won that governorship primaries is the valid candidate for the 2011 governorship election in Enugu State.

According to Obiechina, he was cleared to contest the primaries alongside the governor and other aspirants. But, while he was still campaigning, he heard on the state radio that Chime had won the same gubernatorial ticket to fly the party’s flag in the election.

He alleged that he later discovered that the party did not fix any primaries for January 11 or 12 and that it did not also notify INEC at least 21 days to the primaries as required by section 85 (1) of the Electoral Act before such primaries could hold.

He therefore claimed that Chime conducted “a jamboree with his commissioners and town’s men on January 12, 2011, and it was on the basis of this that he had been parading himself as the candidate of the PDP for the April 2011 poll.”

Chime and PDP however urged the court to strike out the suit on the ground that it lacks the jurisdiction to entertain it.

Power blocs and Chime’s seat Although Chime’s swearingin as governor for a second term seemed to have marked the end of an era of an explosive political rivalry that characterised the build up to the April 2011 general elections, The Nation investigation shows that the various stakeholders, including Chime’s political machinery and other power blocs in the state, never went to sleep.

For example, as soon as Chime

was sworn in, some politicians who thought they could be settled began a frenzy alignment with the administration in the state.

That move, rather than nailing the opposition, fired it to action. In fact, a top PDP official in the state, who refused to be named, said Chime-led faction of the party got it wrong as it has failed to reconcile with the Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo political bloc, a powerful PDP faction in the state, which enjoys unalloyed loyalty of both Onwuamegbu and Obiechina PDP groups.

As a result of this reality, there are two bitterly opposed factions of PDP in the state, with Chief Vita Abbah, leading Chime’s faction and Chief Ceaser Ogbonna, leading Nwodo’s. Recent moves made in Abuja to counter these factions and possibly advance the alleged ambition of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, suggest a possible emergence of the third faction of PDP in the state.

It would be recalled that the political battle between Chime’s group and Okwesilieze loyalists has been traced to pre-2011 elections, when Chime and his estranged political godfather and former governor of the state, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, battled for the control of political power in the state.

It was at the peak of that skirmish that the opposition political parties in the state allegedly teamed up with the former PDP National Chairman, Nwodo, who felt Chime had not accorded him the deserved respect.

The governor, in his desperate bid for a second term suddenly found himself fighting formidable opponents, including, but not limited to Nnamani, Nwodo, Anayo Onwuegbu, Okey Ezea of Labour Party and later, Obiechina, who instituted the current suit.

Besides the allegation that Chime failed to accord Nwodo the respect he demands and the alleged betrayal of his estranged political godfather, Nnamani, some loyalists of Nwodo, including Onwuegbu, have also claimed that the governor breached the agreement they had with him over the duration of his tenure.

Added to this bitterness is the issue of the senatorial zone that should produce the next governor of the state, after Chime.

Powerful political Lords from Nsukka zone, believed to be the zone to get the next shot at the governorship, are said to be suspicious of Chime’s alleged plot to install a stooge. So, such forces, including the Nwodo Dynasty, which Chime allegedly disabled, are not taking chances.

Ekweremadu’s factor Insiders to Enugu Government House said one of the most worrisome headaches of the governor is the inevitable emergence of the third PDP faction in the state, led by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who has allegedly flexed muscles with Chime over the control power in Enugu State.

Our source said Chime’s worry stemmed from the fact that the new group is believed to have reached an agreement with Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani.

A close associate of the governor however said over the weekend that all these alleged headaches “are non issues as the governor is only interested in delivering dividends of democracy to the people of Enugu State.” On tomorrow’s court ruling, the associate, who is also a top government official said “there is no fear in Government House over the impending court ruling as we all expect the court to give a fair judgment.”

22

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Politics

Political Politics

Political

turf

ripples

with Bolade Omonijo boladeomonijo@yahoo.com

2015: Should Jonathan run?

Day Asiwaju turned the table

T

P

•Tinubu

RINCE Rotimi Agunsoye, an aide of former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, could not believe his ears, last Thursday, when he watched, with unbelief, as the man he adores so greatly, showered seemingly endless praises and commendations on him.

For a man who is used to being praised by others over the years, Tinubu stunned the crowd gathered to celebrate the 50th birthday of Agunsoye, when he told the audience that he was there to sing the praises of the former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. And before you could say ‘Jagaban,’ the ACN leader commenced a superlative description of the celebrant, showering unending praises laced with enviable adjectives.

But it wasn’t long before the table turned again. For before Dr. Leke Pitan, former Commissioner for Health, who read the speech on Tinubu’s behalf, finished his assignment, the crowd was singing the praises of the former governor’s humility.

Irrespective of this, there was no doubt that Tinubu’s speech left Agunsoye, the celebrant, stunned.

REA scandal separates two friends

F

OLLOWING the recent revelation that many members of the Na tional Assembly were involved in the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) scandal, two lawmakers (names withheld), who were good friends and business associates, came close to exchange of physical blows last weekend, as one of them, from North-Central, accused his colleague, from South-South, of trying to ‘ruin’ him.

The brawl, which took place in a function in Abuja, almost got out of hand, but was curtailed after exchange of hot words, an incident that almost disrupted the high society event, attended by many politicians and senior civil servants.

Ripples gathered that the aggrieved lawmaker accused the other (his friend and associate of many years) of dragging him and their business into the REA mess without his approval.

It would be recalled that one of the witnesses in the case instituted against Samuel Ibi Gekpe and six other senior officials of REA by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Ahmed, a Police officer attached to the Commission, said politicians, especially federal lawmakers, hijacked the public procurement process.

•Lamorde

•Orji

Screening palaver in Abia House

T

HE last has not been heard of the security breach in Aba during the burial rites of the late Igbo leader, Dim Emeka Ojukwu, which led to the suspension of 10 commissioners and the 17 Transition Local Government Chairmen.

The matter took a new turn recently, when the governor, Theodore Orji, recalled eight of the suspended commissioners and 15 transition chairmen.

But that is not the crux of the matter. Tongues are wagging, not just because some of the suspended aides were recalled and others still left in the cold but because the State House of Assembly asked them to come for screening before they would return to their different offices.

While some are wondering why the lawmakers are angling to rescreen officials who were never removed from office but only suspended and council chairmen, whose councils were never dissolved, there is rumour that the officials may have been asked to pay N1million screening fee, each.

For this, the Abia State House of Assembly, has been under intense criticism from commoners, who are insisting that the lawmakers are expected to screen Eze Chukamnayo and Donatus Okorie for the office of commissioners and not the entire eight commissioners, who have been recalled, while the two chairmen, who are being used to replace the Aba North and South chairmen, are to be screened and not the entire recalled 15 chairmen.

HIS was the same question that nearly set the nation on fire in 2010. On the eve of the 2011 general elections, it became a matter for determination whether legally, politically and morally, the accidental President should fly the flag of the ruling party.

The question was pertinent then because Jonathan emerged the President in May 2010 following the death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. The poser was whether, in view of the zoning arrangement in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Jonathan should be allowed to stand the presidential election on the party’s platform. It was argued, I think quite correctly politicall, that the party had zoned the office to the North after eight years of Obasanjo administration. Yar’Adua came in in 2007 for a renewable four year term, and died only two years into the term. It was argued that, while Jonathan, as Vice President, was the rightful person to succeed his boss, the office should revert to the North in 2011. The South South would hear nothing of that.

Now, the debate is back. The country remains polarized along regional lines. The ruling party is feeling so uneasy and the battle for 2015 has been joined so early into the life of the Jonathan administration. The questions have popped up again: Is Jonathan legally qualified to run? Is he in his first or second term? Is he caught in the web of constitutional bar that limits a President to two terms in office? Morally, shouldn’t the office revert to the North that had “graciously conceded” it to the South in 2011? It promises to be a big, perhaps titanic, battle.

But, it is a shame that the country is once again seized by such banal debate at a time when we should all be concerned by the quality of leadership being offered by the man who came into office only last year. It is only one year into the life of this federal government, we are yet to see things done differently. We are yet to see the government tackling grave issues of state with the seriousness they deserve.

Any country that wants to develop should not be held down by letters of law. The law only convicts, it does not set free. If every issue should end in court as is the case now, we can only have a heated polity. Advanced and disciplined countries lay larger stores by conventions, ethos, traditions and institutional framework. Backward countries insist on the narrow dictates of the law. Every question ends with what the constitution says. It does not matter that the National Assembly is about to amend the supreme law of the country once again.

There will always be grey areas if we are to be held hostage by the letters of the law. More important is the spirit behind the provisions. It is this reality that makes seekers of high offices in other lands to concede defeat even before the final results are collated and declared. This is missing in Nigeria. Every politician, every official, every aspirant and all candidates start the race by assembly teams of lawyers to study the laws and come up with loopholes that can be exploited. Courts are bogged down by resort to technicalities and the voting public is thus precluded from making the necessary choice.

Agreed that in 1999, there were hardly conventions and traditions to go by, what about 2012, 13 years after? We must halt this drift. We must redirect the debate? We the people must take control of the polity.

Yes, Jonathan is qualified to contest. The fact that he did in 2011 is an indication that he has the basic credentials.

Is he into his second term already? Of course, not. What the constitution says about those barred from contesting is that the person must have been previously elected twice. To the best of my knowledge, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has only been elected once. Common sense also dictates that this is the only sane interpretation of that section of the constitution. Would those now arguing that he is into his second term have held the same view had Yar’Adua died a week to the expiration of his tenure? In the eyes of the law as it stands, it does not matter whether the previous occupant of the office died, was removed or resigned a week into the administration or a week to the terminal date.

So, Jonathan is qualified, legally, to run. But, should he, in view of the political implications and the circumstances that threw him up? Ought he to have reacted to the debate the way he has? If he wants to be a great President, shouldn’t he have doused the tension in the land by simply telling his supporters that he has no intention of offering himself for the office again?

More importantly, the most valid question that should be asked the President, his supporters and members of his government is whether he has demonstrated the capacity to move Nigeria forward. In what ways has he shown that were we even to invest him with the power to handle affairs for ten more terms, Nigeria would be safer for us and our children? These are the relevant questions. The future is important, but what we are doing now should be the pointer and thoroughfare to that future.

23

COVER THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

In spite of recent peace agreements between neighbouring Fulani and Tiv settlements in Taraba State, Fanen Ihyongo, in Jalingo, reports that the Fulani herdsmen are still killing their Tiv brothers and burning their villages in a mad rage of tribal hatred.

T

YODOO Toryila was working on his farm in Tse-Ugbaa, Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State when he heard the staccato sound of gunshots.

He turned round and noticed a billow of smoke and fire fluttering into the sky. It was his house that was on fire! Suspected Fulani militants had attacked and set his entire village ablaze, after killing five persons at noontime.

Toryila’s 27-year-old younger brother, Solomon Toryila, was also killed by the invading Fulani arsonists. Toryila now has a double responsibility: to cater for his late younger brother’s wife and three kids, and his immediate family, even as he is turned a refugee in his own country home.

Toryila, like many of his brothers and sisters who are victims of the Fulani attacks, lost everything. Through hard work, the 30year-old farmer had bought a motorbike for mobility and a grinding machine, whose proceeds could complement his annual earnings in the farm. But all that were destroyed in one day, including food.

“I lost several bags of corn, groundnut and yam seeds, which I stored for this year’s farming season,” he whimpered.

Residents of Tor-Tser also woke up penultimate Wednesday only to see their settlement taken over by Fulani militants.

Nicolas Utoo, 35, first spotted them and took to his heels. Without being told, the rest followed. In the bush, they watched helplessly as their village was being torched by the marauders.

For 50-year-old Samuel Shaagee, “I have been sleeping in the bush, with one eye unclosed, since Fulani herdsmen started burning Tiv villages in Takum.”

“I was still sleeping in the bush when they invaded Tor-Tser in the morning,” he said.

Before the attack on Tor-Tser, the Fulani militants had attacked over 30 Tiv villages and killed over 43 persons, including men and women. The attacks have caused some hundreds of Tiv to flee their homes in the area. Some displaced Tivs have been holed up in the bush, while some are taking refuge in Peva-Chanchanji, where Tiv folks are quartered. Besides priced property, Tiv farms have been destroyed too.

The affected settlements include: Demevaa, Ugbaa, Wende, Akenawe, Tor-

•A Tiv village destroyed

Taraba’s month of bloodbath, destruction Tser, Agoor, Gerchi, Akanyi, Adam, Ii-Mke, Kwaghkule, Tse-Kulurgu, Adeega, GbokoKpaake (the new Gboko), Dooshima, Agbaaye, Ayu, Mbakiriki, Akwaya and Num Bagu, among others.

Fulani and Tiv used to be good neighbours with many common traits. But now, they have turned “brother enemies.” So, what went wrong? Why are Fulani herds-

•Part of another Tiv settlement destroyed in Takum by the Fulani militants

men attacking Tiv farmers, whom history says, shared ancestral origin with them?

Investigations have shown that a prelude to the crisis followed the eating of some crops in a farm by some cows. Fulani herdsmen led the cows to graze on the farm, despite reported warnings. In annoyance, the Tivs attacked them. The attack led to the missing of some cows and two shepherds.

•Part of Tor Tser village razed down by the Fulani militants

•Danbaba-Suntai

The bodies of the missing Fulanis were later recovered in a stream, which Tiv leaders apologised, even as the attack was found out to have been perpetrated by criminals who happened to be of Tiv extraction.

However, Fulani and Tiv leaders held a peace meeting and agreed not to fight one another. But Fulani militants went behind and launched a retaliatory attack on a Sunday, on eight Tiv villages. Fifteen persons were reportedly killed.

Police spokesman, Ibiang Mbasike, confirmed the attacks and the killings to The Nation.

“We were informed that a large group of Fulani militants were launching an attack on Gboko-Kpaake. On getting to the scene, the settlement was already set ablaze by the invading Fulanis,” he said.

Mbasike said, “Seven people were (officially) reported killed in the attack”. The casualty figures however, rose to 15, as more bodies were discovered.

As if that was not enough, the Fulani militants continued their offensive, killing Tivs and torching their villages, in a move to annihilate them in the area.

A 22year-old boy was shot dead at IiMke, Tse-Adam, while an aged man, 77, was shot down at Demevaa. The death toll rose drastically by the day, culminating in the killing of a Tiv woman and a mobile policeman by the Fulani herdsmen.

•Continued on Page 24

24

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Cover

Bloodbath, destruction in Taraba Why IBB •Continued from Page 23

This was followed by a reconciliatory meeting, held at the Police Officers’ Mess, Jalingo. In attendance were Fulani and Tiv leaders, the Special Adviser (SA) to Governor Danbaba Suntai on Security Matters, Group Captain Sule Gani (rtd), the Commissioner of Police, Mamman Sule, and all the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) in the crisis zones.

The meeting was also attended by officials of the Tiv-Fulani Peace Committee, which was inaugurated penultimate week, with Alh. Gambo, a Fulani from Donga local government area, as Chairman, and Chief Samuel, a Tiv from Takum, as Vice Chairman.

Tiv were led by the Tiv Cultural and Social Association (TCSA), while Fulani attended on the umbrella body of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA).

After hearing from each, the two communities agreed to embrace peace. They blamed the crisis on criminals, whom they said cashed on a misunderstanding between them. Sule, who led the peace discourse, ordered the Fulani and Tiv leaders to produce the culprits, since the criminals live with them.

It was after the meeting that Fulani militants launched another attack on Tor-Tser.

While they were setting the village ablaze, five soldiers engaged them in a gun battle.

Sources said “there was exchange of fire between the soldiers and the Fulani militants for several hours. In the end, the Fulani militants, numbering over 300, overpowered the five soldiers with their sophisticated weapons.” The soldiers retreated, after two of their members were killed and another soldier sustained gun injury in the hand.

The riffles and uniforms of the deceased soldiers were taken away by the Fulani militants, after their private organs had been removed. They also inscribed on the bodies of the slain soldiers: “Boko Haram”. On the walls of the destroyed buildings, the Fulani militants wrote: “Boko Haram enter TorTser”.

After the killing of the two soldiers, who were deployed in the crisis area by Governor Suntai, to maintain law and order, the army were said to have carried out a reprisal attack the following day. They combed the hide-outs of the Fulani militants and angrily gun down over 45 of them and arrested a few others.

The Nation visited the scenes of destruction at the weekend. Buildings and other

is angry with PDP •Continued from Page 20

•Toryila, who lost a younger brother

•Samuel Shaagee lost everything, lives in the bush

properties were reduced to rubble. A stench from the decomposing bodies of some of the deceased Fulani militants filled the air. It was a quiet, horrifying and fusty sight.

At Tor-Tser, Mr. Samuel Shaagee, whose house was also burnt, had sneaked to the debris to examine the degree of damage. He spotted The Nation reporter and took cover.

But when he noted that the intruder was taking photographs, he came out to have audience him. “I have been sleeping in the bush, since this crisis began”, he said and added that “the government should please come to our aid”.

The Tiv in Taraba have one man to thank: Danbaba Suntai, who is the state governor.

Imagine if he did not want peace, or if he had poked the war fire with the state’s resources in favour of their attackers? Suntai has been the big brother to both tribes, particularly to the Tiv, knowing well that the Tiv were not interested to fight the Fulani. It was learnt that the governor spent over N15million in a futile attempt to end the skirmishes. He even detained Tiv traditional rulers in Takum over the early attack on the Fulani shepherds, but released them when he learnt it was not their fault. He then released over five million naira to the Fulanis,

for their alleged lost 45 cows, while urging them to throw the unhappy past behind. It was gathered that some Tiv leaders also sought truce with Fulani, with fat yams and bush meats, with the plea that they would not go to war with them.

Yet the Fulani militants refused to pleas for a ceasefire. It was then that Suntai deployed armed soldiers in the crisis zone.

But despite the presence of soldiers in Takum and a communiqué signed early this month by Fulani and Tiv leaders, Fulani militants are still attacking Tiv villages and killing anyone at sight. They come at any time: at night, in the morning and or afternoon. Eye-witnesses said most times they go on motor-bikes. “Some time they wear army uniforms”, one military official told The Nation. He said “the Fulani militants are many. Some of them are hired mercenaries.” He alleged.

Takum shares boundary with KatsinaAla in Benue State. The area has become the focus of numerous ethnic crises and is the site of one of Nigeria’s most fertile lands, for all-purpose agriculture.

The crisis however, has not spilled to other local government areas of the state, where Fulani and Tiv people are still mixing freely.

2015: Much ado about Buhari’s return •Continued from Page 19 He said Buhari’s involvement in politics was for life to enable him exercise his right to push the Federal Government into catering for the basic needs of Nigerians yearning for a new lease of life.

“It is those things he stands for and defends with his whole life that makes him ever relevant to the politics of this country.

If the present government wants to enjoy massive support, they should show more interest in the things affecting the common people. This is what makes Buhari the peoples’ candidate anytime,” he said.

“It does not matter who provides these basic needs, where the man comes from or which religion he professes,” the CPC scribe said.

Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu Usman, frontline politician and PDP governorship aspirant in Bauchi State said it is not time for Buhari to bid farewell to presidential contest.

“As of now, Buhari himself should know that the people still need him to come to their aid. After all, what has endeared people to him is that he brought discipline into the system.

“We also believe that if he becomes a civilian president he would bring about rule of law so as to restore the dignity of the country. Therefore, in my view, it would be a mistake for him to quit the contest when he is alive,” he said.

Implications for the opposition and the North Adamu Usman has argued that Buhari is a critical opposition leader to the PDP-led government in the country. “He is still relevant as the symbol of the opposition,” he noted. That is why we won’t let him abandon the contest as long as he is alive. The battle will be sustained and we do not want a repetition of what happened. We want to do away with those who are hungry for power or money. We want people who will use our resources to promote the lives of Nigerians,” he said.

Dr. Maxwell Oku of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) is another person who sees Buhari in the same light as Adamu. The former CNPP scribe says Buhari’s return is a good omen for the ongoing effort by opposition parties to unite and present a common front against the PDP. “We must understand that politics in Nigeria is peculiar. It has its own dynamics that may not be applicable to politics elsewhere. Buhari’s return is a boost for the effort of the opposition to displace the PDP. You talk about relevance? Which of the presidential candidate is today as relevant as Buhari? Buhari maintained his relevance the moment he refused to bend his rules even after losing the contest three times,” he said.

But even as Oku and his likes will want the opposition parties to see Buhari’s return as a good omen, there are indications that the statements credited to Buhari over the 2015 presidential race is already generating

ripples among CPC partners in the ongoing talks to form what is tagged “granite coalition.”

The apprehension of coalition partners, according to reliable sources, is coming on the heels of insinuations that the CPC, which has joined other opposition parties in the search for a common front against the PDP, intends to field the retired General as its candidate in 2015 irrespective of the outcome of the granite coalition’s ongoing search for a viable candidate.

Though the CPC has issued a statement issued in a bid to clarify its position on Buhari‘s assertion, not much has been achieved in calming the nerves of worried coalition partners who have expressed fear of a repeat of the 2011 attempt that saw Buhari and CPC insisting on having both the candidate and the platform contrary to the suggestions of other parties in the coalition.

Aside this, there is also the argument that the decision of the General to run in 2015 will throw spanners into the works of ongoing effort by northern politicians to present a united front should Jonathan decide to seek re-election.

“This decision is not a good one. We all know Buhari and his brand of politics. At a time our region is seeking a united front, a Buhari’s candidacy will scuttle that effort because he will never agree to step down for any consensus candidate the region may decide to present apart from himself,” a former minister from Kaduna state said.

This, it was learnt, was in compensation for his withdrawal from the consensus arrangement of the Adamu Ciroma-led The Northern Political Leaders (NPL) that produced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its candidate.

IBB, sources said, was miffed by the choice of Atiku, a development which made him pitch his tent with Jonathan.

Sensing his disgruntlement, Jonathan’s men quickly won over IBB to the campaign train. He was seen as a major Northern leader that could sway votes in favour of the President. IBB not only enjoyed the patronage but also the acknowledgement of his political savvy. He became a leading Northern light in the run to the elections.

But things have since changed. Elections have been won and lost. Jonathan has settled down as President. He has a new agenda that runs contrary to IBB’s interest.

Jonathan wants to be in charge of the party’s machinery ahead of 2015 presidential polls. He is convinced that it is key to remaining the candidate to beat. One of the smart moves he made is to insist on the emergence of Tukur as PDP chairman. The calculation is that it will be hard for the PDP to pick its presidential candidate from the same zone that produced the chairman. Curiously, he chose Tukur from the Adamawa State where Atiku, who is still considered a formidable opponent, hails from.

PDP’s sources said IBB is incensed the president no longer consider him a valuable political asset. He is increasingly being sidelined in party’s affairs these days.

For example, he never supported Tukur for the chairmanship position. Though Tukur was a friend when he was in power, IBB is scandalised the shipping magnate changed camp when he left office. Tukur, a businessman, is known for hobnobbing with sitting governments. That he jumped IBB for new friends is unsettling for the retired general.

This was why he supported Dr Musa Babayo against Tukur. Babayo emerged the winner at the North East caucus primary but PDP pulled a fast one to secure the emergence of Tukur at the convention ground.

IBB, sources said, is one of the many Northern leaders that the President thinks is not doing enough to fight the Boko Haram insurgency. The thinking in the presidency is that had Northern leaders stepped in, the sect’s activities would have become history. It is alleged that some Northern leaders secretly hail the sect’s operations in the hope that it could win the region the presidency come 2015.

For now, IBB is a wounded lion. His authority has been challenged. As a general, he is certainly ready to slug it out. This is why he has chosen to openly challenge the party. He is also taking a shot at the President. At the heat of the fuel subsidy protest, IBB openly condemned the policy.

He said it was ill-timed and wicked. This time again, there is no let-up. He will take on everything the party stands for. The next few weeks and months would confirm his battle strategies.

•Babangida

•Tukur

SUNDAY INTERVIEW

25

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

JOHN ODIGIE-OYEGUN

‘Jonathan should talk less and work more’ Chief John Odigie Oyegun, former Governor of Edo State in the Third Republic, has served the nation in several capacities in different dispensations. Oyegun, before emerging as the first civilian governor of Edo State, rose through the ranks to retire as a permanent secretary in the federal civil service. In this interview with Dare Odufowokan, he admonishes President Goodluck Jonathan to reduce the spate of crises rocking his administration by talking less and paying more attention to the task of delivering on his promises to the electorate among other issues.

L

ET me start with your recent resignation from the All Nigerian People’s Party. So much has been said about it; can we really hear what happened from you?

I think it is a very cumulative thing; the main issue is that when you are in a party there must be challenges, friction and unity of purpose among the top leadership as to the sense of direction. We must know what our objectives are; where we are going and we must all be united behind our leadership both in terms of leadership potentials, resource harmonisation and the rest.

Unfortunately, one did not get that kind of satisfaction and in the process you get a lot of challenges. If you are in a group and you don’t have a sense of challenge, a sense of satisfaction, a sense like yes we are all are united behind a vision, then what really is the point sitting up with such a situation?

ANPP had tremendous potentials. As a matter of fact I think if properly run, mobilized, it is one of the forces of good governance. But I think the total leadership of the party has not been able to get itself together and in a situation like that it becomes very difficult for somebody like me to feel a sense of satisfaction.

There are those who think that your resignation at this time has to do with Edo governorship election. How true is this?

No. That is just a trigger; it is part of what I call aggravations. Again, I am a different type of politician. I do not call black white and white black. I grew up in this country when there were still ethics. I see a governor that is obviously performing. In terms of my vision for this country, which is for this country to move forward, Oshiomhole is performing. So my proposal was let us adopt Adams Oshiomole who has been nominated by the ACN as our own candidate in the

ANPP and campaign for him. Even a blind man can see what that man has done. I could not imagine myself on a rostrum campaigning against him. What would I say? Will I say that Governor Adams Oshiomole hasn’t performed? When a blind man can see that he has done so much. But I don’t think I was able to convince the party that that should be the path that we should thread. And if you consider the weakness of our own structure on the ground nationwide, I will say it was just a trigger.

Can it be taken now that you are now in ACN? No, I am not in the ACN; I am just taking a sharp break. To use Babangida’s worlds, I am stepping aside temporarily. I am a supporter of Governor Adams Oshiomole, no question at all about that.

You also said that the ANPP at the national level couldn’t really find its bearing. What do you think is actually responsible for this?

Believe me I don’t know, I wish I could tell you. There is so much suspicion at the leadership level. There is serious lack of unity of purpose. One can have all sorts of reasons. It is also

very bad that they never sat down to know what the differences are. At the leadership level, people are moving in different directions. There was no common front. No sense of unity.

I think that is the main thing. There was no commonality of purpose and they have not been able to iron that out. At my age you cannot keep me sitting in a cabin without knowing the destination of the train.

So you are optimistic that Comrade Adams Oshiomole will win the Governorship election?

Well, I don’t want to use rude words but I don’t think anybody, whatever party he belongs to, will not agree with me that for a long time now, we have not seen the kind of leadership Oshiomhole brought to our state. He has been the best thing that has happened to Edo state. And if a man has performed that well, all reasonable people must reward him accordingly by even making his reelection stress-free. I am even surprised that he is campaigning so hard because what he has done is more than enough campaign.

•Continued on Page 26

26

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Sunday Interview

•Continued from Page 25 As a former governor, how did you feel when you heard of the sentencing of former Governor Ibori?

Not as a former governor but as a Nigerian. I felt sad. It really grieved that it took a British court to do what is right. We still have a lot of cases in Nigerian courts of some people of equal status and stature. The cases are not making any headway. You can see the reactions of Nigerians to the Ibori matter. But I think we should all be very worried. More worried than we are now. Nigerians seem not to be angry. It is as if there is nothing that can shock us anymore and it worries me intensely.

You mean the public show of support for Ibori’s sentencing is not enough?

Not just that. We are becoming unconcerned by lots of other important things and it worries me. Look at the pension scam probe going on; in the face of what we have seen on television, shouldn’t we be more concerned? You see people queue up for their pensions; some die in the process; people are being brought in wheel barrows and wheel chairs to come and verify before collecting peanuts. Meanwhile, some people are stealing millions.

Yet Nigerians are calm in the face of all these. When they are found out, these criminals go to court they are granted bail. I don’t know what kind of law we operate here. Our laws are beginning to be detrimental to the corporate existence of this nation because people are angry.

They look at this and begin to lose faith in governance and the ability of government to help them. So, the whole fabric of the society is being destroyed by a government that does not seem to be able to cope with the tremendous challenges. Sadly, we are getting totally immune to the things happening around us. You cannot shock a Nigerian anymore.

We are beginning to accept it as a fact of everyday life. People have started giving up the hope that things will ever be better.

What do you think are the implications of all these for us as a nation and even for our democracy?

What is happening is that we have a cancer and if that cancer is not treated it becomes terminal. If we do not grapple with these very shameful problems in our nation, then we are not getting anywhere. I just read today that Niger Deltans are asking for forty-five billion naira as expenses to be spent on former militants. We can’t go on like this.

By the time we have one or two groups who used insurrection as a basis to wealth and recognition, you are going to have many more insurrections all over the country and the nation won’t survive it. We are not creating the conditions for prosperity, probity and the right type of ethics or morality.

The federal government is talking about dialogue. Do you think it is a way out of the Boko Haram issue?

The solution must be multi-faceted. He cannot allow bombing all over the place and say he is into dialogue. Our security agencies must be up and doing. While they are curtailing the physical menace through physical military actions, dialogue can be on to find out what is it they want; what are their grievances? It is then that a compromise can be reached.

Are you advocating the use of force in tackling the Islamic group?

We must move simultaneously on several steps. Our intelligence must be beefed up. We must try to prevent it before it happens and if it is going to happen, God forbid, we must be quick in apprehending the planners. That is the only thing that will bring the perpetrators to the conference table easily. It is when they

Why I resigned to support Oshiomole “

Well, I don’t want to use rude words but I don’t think anybody, whatever party he belongs to, will not agree with me that for a long time now, we have not seen the kind of leadership Oshiomhole brought to our state. He has been the best thing that has happened to Edo state. And if a man has performed that well, all reasonable people must reward him accordingly by even making his reelection stress-free. I am even surprised that he is campaigning so hard because what he has done is more than enough campaign.

“

themselves realise that they are not getting anything with violence and they are being offered an olive branch, that they will embrace dialogue.

But if they are making headway and the security agencies are not making any breakthrough in stopping their activities, and they feel strong, you cannot get them to a conference table.

Looking at it so far, do you think the president has really done enough to counter the menace of insecurity in the country?

Well, I cannot honestly judge the President. The trouble with situations like this is that a lot will be happening discreetly that those of us out here may not know about.

One will only hope and pray that he does everything humanly possible to bring that menace under control. He cannot be telling the press everything he is doing to counter terrorism. That is no way to act on delicate matters like this but we have to just trust that he is doing everything humanly possible to contain the menace first and foremost.

And then we must all seek to reach a peaceful resolution as soon as possible.

You just said the government appears unable to cope with the situation. What do you mean by that?

The challenges in our nation are very great and they are getting greater every day. Challenges are coming from everywhere on a daily basis. The level of corruption within the top echelons of the government is one major challenge for this government. We have the issue of oil subsidy, pension scam etc. Now we have Boko Haram; we still have the Niger Delta issue. You can see what I mean by challenges. I was only try-

•Oyegun

ing to show understanding when I said the government appears not to be coping with the situation. We have to understand the challenges he faces daily. To be able to cope, he will have to fix all the broken institutions in the nation. Yes, I think they can do a lot more than they are doing now to bring some form of order into the system.

Still talking about the presidency, a church was built in the home town of Mr. President and there was so much uproar. What is your take on the entire scenario as somebody who has been in government?

Those things do happen. But on this specific issue, I think it is more about the president than the church gift. I think he needs to talk less and just do what the people want. The crisis was triggered by something he said. A few days ago I also read in the paper that President Jonathan said “I may not be the best but God chose me.” He shouldn’t make statements like that. The people have chosen him. God of course made it possible and the people who voted for him think he is the right choice.

That was why they voted for him.

He should just listen to the people and do what they expect of him. His modesty is somehow becoming a problem for him. He is a very modest man and he tries to talk modestly. Once the people say it is you they want you are considered the best. So, talk less; listen to the same people that put you there; find out what they want and try to satisfy them.

So you don’t really think the church gift issue is as serious as it became?

Well, it has become serious matter but those things do happen. It could have been totally an innocu-

“We are becoming unconcerned by lots of other important things and it worries me. Look at the pension scam probe going on; in the face of what we have seen on television, shouldn’t we be more concerned? You see people queue up for their pensions; some die in the process; people are being brought in wheel barrows and wheel chairs to come and verify before collecting peanuts. Meanwhile, some people are stealing millions. Yet Nigerians are calm in the face of all these.”

ous thing but because of the way Mr. President presented it, it became a crisis. It happens every day. People say thank you all the time in various ways. If you have done a good thing and people decided to thank you by doing something good back for your village and your people, it is a common occurrence. But like I said, the way it was put unfortunately triggered a crisis.

Recently, the Northern caucus of the House of Representative made a call for the reduction of the allocation given to states of the south-south in the federal budget. One of the reasons they adduced for their action was that the funds are largely mismanaged. How do you see the action of the northern lawmakers?

The issue of fund and mismanagement is none of their business. It is the business of the electorates of that area. They have no business making blanket allegations. But I agreed with them that Nigerians have not been too good at punishing non-performing governors wherever they are whether the south-south or any other part of the country. The point is that they have made a claim rightly or wrongly.

As it is we all agree that look we have to sit down and talk. If they have that kind of grouse amongst others, they should feel free to come forward and talk about it. Then those in the south-south, south-east and the west will also bring their grouses to the table and we will all sit down and hammer out compromises as to what we want our country to look like and how we want to relate together. So it is of no benefit to be carrying out this discussion on the pages of newspapers; abusing each other; insulting each other and aggravating the mutual mistrust amongst us. But the whole scenario just proves that Nigeria is structurally inadequate.

Are you making a case for the Sovereign National Conference again?

I don’t know about sovereign or no sovereign, but this debate needs to take place with all the stakeholders sitting around the table. If the discussion takes one year or even two years, so be it. But at the end of it we will have a country that we cannot lose and we will

not have this permanent state of insecurity; permanent state of uncertainty as to whether this nation will survive or not. If we discuss as a people, we will no longer move from one crisis into the other. There is nothing that is crisis-free today in Nigeria. Every time we choose a president, there will be crisis. Anytime a party needs to choose a presidential candidate, we see crisis. We can’t go on like that. Something is fundamentally wrong. Let us sit down and address it. Let them bring their grievances to the table.

Whether a group makes a proposal on the pages of newspaper to threaten the other is not getting us anywhere. It is only undermining the very foundations of the Nigerian polity and that is why we need to engage in constructive conversation. Let us have a conference but I won’t use the word sovereign because people hang on the word sovereign to side-step a very important issue.

Recently, various groups of Northern leaders came out to say they are ready for a National conference, be it sovereign or not. But their declaration is being viewed with suspicion in some quarters.

What is your take on their readiness?

I have a feeling that they are very serious with what they said.

They are Nigerians too and they now know there is no way we can continue like this. As the national chairman of the South-South Peoples Assembly, we responded to that initiative by praising their patriotism. We were very glad and they too went ahead and started establishing committees on different issues. It is a positive move. That is not to say there are no suspicions. We can see that something is wrong with the nation; we can see that there are stresses in all aspects of our national life and we can see that if those stresses are not attended to, like cancer, they will prove to be terminal. Before the situation get that bad, let us sit down and talk. I think all reasonable people now see that that has become inevitable. I want to buy into the sincerity of the north on this matter.

There is this issue about which term is President Jonathan actually serving…. (cuts in) Look, all I can say on that matter is that they are at it again. This is the problem particularly with the PDP. Instead of allowing President Jonathan to make his mark in the four years that he has, they are already scheming for 2015. And depending on how he is reacting to them, he may not be able to achieve much in his current term. These people urging him on are not doing so for his own benefit, they are after their own benefits. They want to be in power as the power brokers for as long as possible. I hope he is not giving them his ears. Let him face the job he has at hand.

Nigerians have given him four solid years. With one year almost gone, he should know the expectation is high. If he performs well, Nigeria will even beg him to stay.

We should not be listening to the barons. These are power brokers who just want him there because they are profiting and benefiting from his position. Everything depends on what he makes of the four years that he has. He should please steer clear of these people who are trying to make him a lame-duck president by introducing a situation where he would spend the next three years scheming on how for another term instead of working for the people who elected him. Nigerians have elected you for four years, try to win their confidence. That is my advice. The bible says seek ye first the kingdom of God and all others things will be added unto you.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

I was never scared of losing Malaika while I was ill –Sikiratu Sindodo

–Pages 36-37

30

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

Kehinde Falode Tel: 08023689894 (sms)

E-mail: kehinde.falode@thenationonlineng.net

•Animal print bangle

Animal print still hot on the runway!

•Diane-von Furstenberg gracey animal print scarf

•Animal print leather strap wrist watch

•H & M animal print swimsuit

•Chinelo

W

ILD animal prints have come roaring back onto the fashion scene of late. From handbags and shoes to hair bands, hair ruffles to all manner of accessories. They are the popular choice at cocktail gatherings and parties.

Animal print shoes especially snake, zebra, cheetah and leopard - have become very popular in women's pumps, sandals and ballet flats.

So, make a bold statement this season with this timeless trend and take a walk on the wild side!

Animal print do's and don'ts •Be sure to keep it simple.

Begin the trend with just one power piece, like a dress, handbag, blouse or scarf.

•Stay with just one animal print.

If you mix leopard with zebra, or leopard on leopard, it makes you look funny.

•Head band accessories

•Leopard ankle wedge pumps

•Sasha

•Vanessa Banigo

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

31

Get the look I

don't know about you, but I am off to get myself a new floor-sweeping maxi dress! Maxi dresses made a quiet reappearance on the fashion scene at the beginning of the season.

I seriously just love those maxi dresses topped off with Egyptian hairdo!

•Snood floral print long sleeve maxi dress

•Animal Print Sunglasses

•Roberto Cavalli Leopard print belt •Ndidi Obioha

•Halle Berry in animal print Dolce & Gabbana

•Bring out your animal instinct with the must have accessory

•Jump on the circus fashion bandwagon with these cutesy cool animal print clip

•Black leather strap

•Gold chandelier heart earrings

•Kors by Michael Kors Gold Sandals •Motel Jean animal print dress-slim fitting jersey skirt creates the perfect contrast to the loose fitting chiffon style top

•Animal print headband-Boho chic hair accessories

•Gold barrel clutch bag

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

Elegant l e e h h g i h shoes W

HILE some of us may not be heel crazy, high heel shoes are still a popular choice. Class and style are the words that describe the dazzling range of fashionable and classy high heels we have today. Although high heels are a fashion classic, they keep changing, adapting to the latest fads. They are essential items for every woman in order to look and feel good at any point in time.

Well-designed, urbane and sexy shoes with solid heels will always have their place. You can't afford not to have one in your shoes rack because of their great versatility Stylish shoes attract comments: so, don't be afraid to experiment with shoes of any style, hue and pattern. You can tell a lot about a woman by her shoes.

High heel tips •Avoid places that are difficult to walk on.

•Be very careful when walking on uneven roads-especially un-tarred ones.

•Modupe Ozolua

•Coco

•Sexy high heel sandals

•Chika Okeke

•Rocker meets chic in Emilio Pucci cutout studded leather sexy high heels

•Annette Cole

•Exude galactic sexy in Christian Louboutin ulona platform high heels

•C.L alta nodo platform

Lanvin chain detail suede pumps Supper sexy ladies high heels

•This Camilla Skovgaard saw plateau leather pumps have a unique look.

Christian Louboutin altadama water-snake shoes

•Christian Louboutin colourful diamond pumps

•CL slin

Giuseppe Zanotti chain detail peep-toe-pumps

gbacks st

ar prive

•Christian Louboutin lady claude shoes

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

33

The grand finale of the Nigerian Idol lived up to its billing, with music enthusiasts and popular artistes fully registering their presence. The highly rated show, which produced Mercy Chinwo as winner, also had fashion side attractions that just can’t be ignored. Kehinde Falode presents the hits and misses Photos: Olusegun Rapheal •Though she looks gorgeous but DORA ENWERE’s shoes were all wrong for the outfit, Oops!

•OYILOLA BAMGBOYE played it safe and looked absolutely fabulous in this mixed Ankara knee-length dress. Kudos!

•MERCY CHINWO looked gorgeous in this multicoloured mini dress with lemon green pumps.

Kudos!

•Kudos to OLIVIA EDEH; she rocked a sexy monochrome mini dress on the red carpet.

•TIWA SAVAGE turned heads in a skintight oneshoulder black shimmer dress.

Kudos!

•Kudos to AJIRI OKPOSU for her coordinating-power, as she looks striking in this simple but super monochrome tie top.

34

Glamour

Beauty treatment for smooth skin •Homemade face mask

D

O you care for a smooth, •Velvety cleanser. Mix equal enriched and vibrant skin? amounts of jojoba oil and coconut oil You need three basic things and then double the mixture for this: moisturising, cleansing with water. Shake and toning. You really cannot thoroughly before use. stop the aging process, but The cleanser will you can slow it down a bit emulsify the dirt and make your skin look without stripping its best all the time. your face's oils.

•Mix two tablespoons •Egg yolk and of potato flour with two honey mask. Mix tablespoons of glycerin one tablespoon of and half a cup of water. Fill almond oil, one up a pot with water; put the tablespoon yogurt and mixture in a pan and cook one egg yolk and apply over the pot with the water. on the face.

Make sure it's not boiling.

Cool and apply on face as a face wash.

•Mash and s t r a i n cucumbers.

Smear the juice on clean skin a n d leave it for 10-15 minu tes, then rinse w i t h water.

•Form a paste with fresh tomatoes and honey; apply the concoction on face for 20 minutes and •Tonto Dike wash off with water. The result will be a cleaner complexion with improved skin tone.

•Melt some yeast in water and apply on face once a week.

• D r y s k i n moisturiser. Mix the fleshy part of an avocado pear with one tablespoon of honey.

Grind the mixture until it becomes smooth, apply the solution on the skin and leave for 20 minutes, then •Seye Shodeinde wash it off.

•Oily skin moisturiser.

For oily skin, squeeze the gel from one clove or leaf of Aloe Vera; mash it and mix with one tablespoon of olive oil.

•Exfoliant. Simply mix finely ground oats and almonds or almond oil with enough extra virgin olive oil, for the mixture to fuse without crumbling.

•Banana facial mask for dry skin. Crush a quarter of a ripe banana and mix with half a cup of natural yogurt and one tablespoon of honey.

Apply the mixture on the face and neck and leave for 20 minutes, and then wash with water.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

THEATRE

With VICTOR AKANDE

t

BIGSCREEN

SOUND TRACK

plus

Tel: 08077408676

Adora Oleh t u b e d s e k a m on FOX TV

e-mail: victor_akande@yahoo.com

W

Sound Sultan, Teeto, Chidinma for ‘One Mic Naija’

because the identity of the lady in question was kept secret. But we can authoritatively reveal that the name of the lady is Jean Oduah.

Further checks revealed that Jean is the younger sister of Nigeria's Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi Jean is also the daughter of Igwe D. O. Oduah, Akili Ozizo of Ogbaru, Anambra State.

Their wedding will take place in Lagos on April 28, with the reception at Muson Centre, Lagos.

O

NE Mic Naija, a fast-growing artiste showcase is back this month with a line-up of some of the biggest, best and most interesting live performers in Africa.

Not only have Nigeria's Sound Sultan, Teeto and Chdinma signed up to perform, but Dee Moneey, hailed as the Ghanaian Wonderkid, will also be performing at the event on April 29th!

Dee Moneey is currently one of the youngest acts making mainstream music in Ghana. Born Desmond Kwame Amoah, he is a gifted songwriter, rapper and performer.

Rounding off the list of performers is another gifted rapper from Ibadan, Fela Yomi-Layinka a.k.a Phizzle.

The event which is scheduled to hold at the GET Arena, Lekki Expressway, Lagos, will be hosted by Kel and Kunle KB Bello.

O'jez honours Lancelot Imasuen

U

K-born Nigerian TV presenter, Adora Oleh of "The Adora Oleh Show” and “MTN Project Fame West Africa", has made her debut on America's TV FOX News as an entertainment correspondent.

The television beauty was accompanied by the cast and crew of FOX and friends as she shared “what's hot” and “what's not” in the world of entertainment.

When asked about her experience, Adora said, “it was an amazing experience and a great opportunity for me, everyone was so friendly and made me feel at home.”

She added, “I got to meet a lot of inspirational people and this is definitely one of the highlights of my American trip. I really enjoyed it.”

Adora Oleh and Chiad TV Productions Ltd are currently in America working on various projects and preparing for ‘The Adora Oleh Show’.

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HEN news leaked weeks ago that actor Chidi Mokeme would soon be getting married, the question on the lips of many was, "who could the lucky girl be”?

That's

HOC Boy rapper, Ice Prince Zamani added another feather to his cap recently at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards held at Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre.

Ice Prince was made the African Act of the Year at the awards ceremony, which was well attended by top Ghanaian celebrities.

The rapper was so honoured on Sunday after performing with other Choc Boys' artistes, MI and Brymo at the event.

He beat the likes of Naeto C, Duncan Mighty, D'Banj, Cabo Snoop and Wizkid to win the award.

Pawpaw A acquires N7.5m SUV

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Chidi Mokeme's wife-to-be unveiled

Prince shines Ice Prince shines Ghana Music at Ghana Music Awards C

CTOR Osita Iheme, popularly known as Pawpaw, has acquired a new automobile. The actor recently took delivery of a LR3 Land Rover SUV. It was gathered that the actor, on Sunday, April 15, took the wonders on wheel to the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Righteous Parish, Ogba for dedication. The car, we learnt, is worth the sum of 7.5 million naira.

GISTS

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•Adora Oleh

WARD-winning Nollywood Director, Lancelot OduwaImasuen will be the special guest in this month's edition of the O'jez Entertainment Forum Awards series. Scheduled for Sunday, April 29 at O'jez Restaurant, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Organisers of the monthly forum stated that Imasuen is being honoured for his immense contributions to the growth of the nation's film industry otherwise called Nollywood.

Chief Executive Officer of O'jez, Chief Joseph Odobeatu, described Imasuen as a very creative and energetic filmmaker. “Imasuen is an exception in this new generation

of filmmakers,” Odobeatu said.

The producer of the award winning film, Adesuwa, will be made to dance to the music of highlife veteran, Fatai Rolling Dollar, backed by the rejuvenated O'jez Band while comedians Plenty Mouth, Elenu, Elder O and MC Shakara will spice the evening with jokes.

•Lancelot

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Entertainment

r e v n e a s Iw scared of a k a l i M a g n i los l i s l a I w while

o d o d n i S u t a r i k i —S

Nollywood actress, Tayo Odueke popularly referred to as Sikiratu Sindodo means so many things to different people. She is regarded in some quarters as a talented actress; others see her as controversial and proud thespian. In all, she has not allowed hearsays to slow her down as she seems to have taken off from where she stopped after suffering a near-death experience. Tayo opened up on her recent ordeal, plus her love affair with Fuji artiste, Malaika, in this interview with AHMED BOULOR.

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OU recently threw a thanksgiving birthday bash for the ordeal you went through while you were still in hospital…

I have granted so much interviews concerning that ordeal and I think that is my past now. I would really not like to dwell much on that; City People celebrated my birthday for me which I really appreciate but what I went through is in the past.

What have you been up to in recent times?

I have been preparing grounds for my new movie and in a couple of months I will be neck deep in shooting the film.

What's the title of the movie?

The movie is still in the works like I mentioned earlier, but I wouldn't like to disclose the movie title at this moment.

When the movie is released, you'll be one of

the first to know the title; for now I would like to keep the title under wraps.

At the time of your ordeal, did you get the needed support that you expected especially from people close to you?

My family stood by me throughout the period, but sometimes you expect to get so much from people but you don't get what you expect from them in return. My sickness started like malaria, I was having severe headache and I was a bit tensed and I was diagnosed with typhoid. But the sickness kept resurfacing and I was subjected to series of tests until they later told me I had liver problem. True, I was really ill; I was struggling to be alive and I wasn't happy, but I thank God that I am still alive, which, for me, is most important.

While you were bedridden did you miss acting?

Honestly, I did…I was tired of the hospital and I remember telling my mum that I couldn't wait to leave the hospital. I was also watching a lot of Nollywood movies in the hospital and I felt really left out. On the other hand, I felt I didn't miss too much at all after I was discharged from the hospital. I had already carved a niche for myself and that fact came to the fore when I was discharged after spending over 18 months in the hospital. People accepted me and showed love; I immediately felt I had not lost anything.

What was particularly going through your mind when you were bedridden?

Everyone around me then weren't happy because they thought I was not going to be okay eventually. But I knew I was not going to die. All the while I was sick I didn't look at the mirror and I didn't know what I was looking like. People came to see me and they were surprised at my state. But immediately I was discharged from the hospital, I compared pictures of when I was still in the hospital with when I was discharged, and I must tell you that the difference was really clear. The only way I could recognize myself was my voice; it was that bad. I used to shy away from people because I lost so much

Entertainment weight. I was a shadow of myself while I was ill and I thank God all of that is behind me now.

At that period, did life teach you any valuable lesson?

Obviously, I did learn a whole lot. At that time I was not aware of time or even the date.

I was just on the sick bed for so long. A day before my birthday last year while still sick, it was my mum that reminded me that I would be a year older the next day. Life thought me a lot but you know we are humans and for me, I forget things easily. There are some people I am supposed to stay away from because they said so many negative things about me but when they see me now, they can't believe their eyes that I am back on my feet. I have learnt to listen to people when they talk because I used to argue a lot but tend not to argue that much again.

Were you ever scared that you were not going to act again?

It was when I was sick that I discovered that I was popular. People called me from different parts of the world wanting to know how I was faring and how they could help me. That was when I really knew that people were really watching my movies and they knew who Sikiratu Sindodo was. They didn't even know that my real name as Tayo Odueke. Maybe they know now but I knew I wasn't going to lose out at that point. When I was discharged from the hospital everybody wanted to see me.

Would the movie that you are working on be related to what you have been through?

Not at all because I wouldn't like to recall those moments anymore; it is on something different entirely and the script was cooked up before I fell ill.

One of the first events you attended after your ordeal was Malaika's birthday. How supportive was he while you were still in the hospital?

That's my baby now and I know that is why you are asking (general laughter). He was there for me all through…

So you expected him to be there?

Though I was shocked initially when I saw him but I didn't feel he was going to leave me because the love we shared was real and we had a serious relationship. The thought of him leaving me never crossed my mind and anytime he comes we talk at length and sometimes we argue because I am the naughty type.

We only argue when he doesn't come on time. For 15 months while I was in the hospital he always came to see me. He is just a very good guy.

Did you ever harbor any fears about losing him while you were still sick?

Not at all…I wasn't thinking of anything emotional at the time but I could do with it because I was always going into shock and they were always administering drip and oxygen on me sometimes. I didn't even think he was going to leave me but he was there and he is still there.

Now that you seem to have gone through that illness, what are your projections?

I have so many ideas in my head; I would love to go into the fashion world because I love clothes. I have so many things on my mind and I am just praying that things pan out in good time.

What has fame offered you?

It has opened a few doors for me; it has taken me places that I wouldn't have ordinarily gone to. Fame has also brought me so much opportunity and access.

What has fame taken away from you?

I have lost my privacy and that is one thing that I cherish a whole lot…

While you were still sick there were rumours making the rounds that you had contracted HIV/AIDS. Did that rumour hurt you in any way?

It didn't hurt me in any way; HIV/AIDS is a disease being contracted by human beings and not animals. I didn't allow such rumours to affect me in any way; I saw so many people that were admitted for HIV/AIDS and I also saw people that died of the disease while I was still admitted in the hospital. If human beings do not have AIDS, then who will have it? I was not disturbed at all but the only thing that shocked me was rumour that I was dead.

I had so many calls when that particular rumor was making the rounds and the three phones I had at the time didn't stop ringing.

My mother got scared at a particular point in time and she was worried that people could peddle such rumours about me. But that was just the height of it…

With that rumor and most of the circumstances that you went through at the time, did your perception about people change?

Yes it did… People are not nice; life is so flexible but some people see it as rigid because you don't know who you offend sometimes.

People feel I am proud but I am not. It is when they get to meet me that they discover that I am not. Some people judge you before they know you and people easily get angry these days. Life is not that complex but I have learnt to be more down-to-earth.

Will your affair with Malaika end up in marriage?

(Laughs) I can't say when that will happen, but when the time comes you will know.

Are you a controversial actress?

That is what they call me and I don't know why; I don't fight and I don't snatch people's boyfriends. I don't go beyond my boundary but people step on my toes sometimes.

What plans do you have in place to ensure that the movie you have in the pipeline is not pirated when it is eventually released?

I have not shot the movie yet and it is not easy to raise as much as N10million. You know I just recovered from that illness and I spent a whole lot of money to ensure that I get back on my feet. There is a known filmmaker as Ebun Oloyede who shot a movie worth N36million and the movie is not out yet. But he has taken measure to ensure that his movie is not pirated because the movie will be released in a day in Lagos, Ibadan, Cotonou and all over. CD's will all have a code; they'll all be locked and you will only get the code after purchasing the movie. That way piracy would be reduced to the barest minimum.

That's what I want to do if I have the money.

Did you get into acting by chance?

I never knew I was going to end up acting; my mum wanted me to be a lawyer while my father wanted me to be a newscaster. But there was a day I was at home; I was still in the university then, when a friend of mine came and told me that there was an audition going on at Charles Novia's office at Adeniran Ogunsanya in Surulere. So I went there and I was auditioned for the role of a body guard and I was so skinny at the time. I was Segun Arinze's body guard in the movie and I was carrying a big gun. After that movie I started getting calls to come feature in movies and the rest like they say is history.

What was your first love like?

Ah! My first love; it was terrible. My first love deflowered me and I didn't find it funny.

I don't want to remember him.

disease HIV/AIDS is a d by being contracte d not an human beings 't allow animals. I didnaffect me such rumours toI saw so in any way; at were many people th /AIDS IV admitted for H eople that p and I also saw ease while died of the dis ted in the it I was still adm al hospit

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Nadia Buari, Bimbo Manuel romance

N

ADIA Buari has added another feather to her cap as she gave a good account of herself beyond many people's expectation in a new movie, Heroes and Zeros.

According to Niji Akanji, director of the movie, Nadia was very professional on set and remains one of the best among her contemporaries that he has ever worked with.

“Nadia was very professional, I was impressed,” Niyi Akande said.

Heroes and Zeros is the story of the destructive pursuance of Tonia (Nadia Bhuari) by Amos Fele (Bimbo Manuel).

Ten years ago, Amos Fele was a wealthy celebrity director in the Nigerian film industry. Now he lives in a ramshackle flat, doing occasional lowpaying TV Commercials for nameless products. He is a daily comic relief on the local soccer practice pitch: because though he is already 45 years old, he nurses a new, insane dream of making it into the dollar-soaked world of international soccer!

His joyless marriage to Tinuke, a junior bank

worker, is crumbling fast, especially after the death of their only child. A boost to his sagging spirit comes when a big-budget French-Nigerian film project appoints him as director. Suddenly, the Press begins to (re)celebrate him. Top actors and producers begin to call him up. To his wife's distress, Fele also quickly reestablishes his wane reputation as a first-class womaniser.

Fele becomes obsessed with Tonia, a ravishing beauty and lead actress of the Nigerian-French film project. Ignoring the warnings of his best friend, Nnamdi, a psychology professor, Fele pursues his obsession with Tonia to its tragic conclusion: losing his new job, ending his marriage and ending up in a mental hospital. Unknown to him, Tonia and her sister, Bisola have something up their sleeves.

Other members of the cast are: Olu Jacobs, Tina Mba, Akin Lewis, Funsho Adeolu, Norbert Young, Linda Ejiofor, Gabriel Afolayan, Jude Urhorra, Brigette Cherile and others.

BIG A signs Ruffcoin few years back.

Although the much anticipated big break did not come with the fame from his last effort, he remained doggedly focused until mother luck finally smiled on him with a mouth-watering deal with an American based record label; Big A entertainment.

The artiste is currently in the studio putting finishing touches to his third album, titled Diamond in the Ruff.

Besides the down low single and video, work has also been concluded on a new single and video, the way you dance •Ruffcoin featuring multiple award UFFCOIN also winner, Tuface. Other known as Nwa great singles on the album Aba, has been includes: Sweet Music and lurking around the music Onye Eze. Ruffcoin is also industry for a few years as scheduled to be on a U.S a prolific rapper and song tour where he will be writer. His smash single; performing live in Dallas, Nwa Aba, meaning Aba Houston, New York, Son, earned him Minneapolis and others significant reckoning a cities.

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Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

The war of words between Don Jazzy and D'Banj has assumed another dimension as both acts fight it out for the soul of the defunct label, Mo'Hits.

AHMED BOULOR takes a look at the new twists and the likely losers of the split which most fans are finding hard to come to terms with…

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OME fans are still in doubt as to the authenticity of the split between music heavyweights, Don Jazzy and D'Banj, despite the fact that both stars have confirmed the separation in the media.

A recent confidential email believed to be leaked by one of the disgruntled parties has now opened a fresh can of worms as both parties are somewhat ready for a showdown as to who wins the battle for the soul of the once thriving outfit.

Below is an excerpt of the full text of the leaked mail:

Don Jazzy's e-mail to D'Banj

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D'banj and Don Jazzy’s worsening drums of war

O'HITS Records does not already own 100 per cent of the songs. Note that Mo'Hits Records only owns 60 per cent of the songs and 40 per cent belongs to the individual artiste. So, 40 per cent of the songs are not mine to give.

That I am giving him (D'Banj) my share of the catalogue does not and will never include him having the right to stop them (the artistes) from performing the songs or give him the right to claim any monies for live performances of these songs. And any loans or debt owed by Mo'Hits records as at today will be cleared by D'Banj as I am clearly not aware of any.

So, songs like Wande Coal's 'Go Low' and 'Been Long You Saw Me' are not part of this catalogue he is receiving. Also, for an artiste like D'Prince, not only has he not released any album, he has not signed any contract whatsoever with Mo'Hits Records. He has no right to claim any monies for deals that have been brokered already as at today with the catalogues or stop their usage. It is important to note that any unreleased song done by any artiste (including D'Banj and KSwitch) MUST NOT be released and is not part of the catalogue I am giving away.

With these few points, I do hope that you all realise that I have been generous enough to facilitate the End of the “D'Banj and Don Jazzy” era as a team. After this new deal has been signed and sealed, I do NOT look forward to seeing any email whatsoever or hearing from the DKM (D'Banj, K-Switch, Mo'Hits) crew, and all is well again.

I

say D'Banj will be the biggest loser because he seems not to have worked with any producer aside Don Jazzy who has succeeded in cooking up beats that have made him (D'Banj), one of the most sought-after artistes in Nigeria.

Others feel that Don Jazzy will lose most because his biggest power is his mystique which has steadily waned.

But another school of thought is of the opinion that fans that have followed the duo in the last eight years would be worse hit more so as the split was greeted with widespread disbelief, even though such break-up isn't unheard of in the world of music, as peculiar cases such as that of the Plantaishun Boiz, The Remedies, X-Appeal, Maintain, and KUSH, readily come to mind, The business of music is rife with uncertainty and sometimes drastic changes. And like every other relationship, the business is characterized by inter-camp domestics, the back and forth media rebuttals and the usual ego trips.

One of the few reasons making rounds that influenced D'Banj's decision to break up his romance with Mo' Hits Records and Don Jazzy is that, the latter allegedly gets a whopping 50 percent of all the money that comes into the music outfit, leaving the other members which include not just D'Banj but also Wande Coal, D Prince, Ice Prince, Dr Sid, et al with just 50 percent to share amongst themselves.

This, according to sources, has become unbearable for D'Banj in the wake of their new contract with international record label, G.O.O.D Music. The tension between them seems to be so bad that the duo, who used to be practically inseparable, have actually been spotted sitting well apart from each other at recent award ceremonies.

The split has also been blamed on creative and personal differences. The source confirmed the disparity in the deal's structure and revealed that D'Banj's involvement is peripheral which has led to major problems between the two. The deal also involves a financial commitment of up to $3M, which Mo'Hits has not yet fully mad e up.

Attempts by their parents, close friends, business associates including the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola to get the once inseparable duo back together has not produced any meaningful result and now that the label is on the brink of self destruction, the battle for who gets what is left of the once thriving music empire has reached fever pitch.

D'Banj's reply…

N case he (Don Jazzy) forgot, this is the arrangement! 50/50 for song writer/ production, which means for a song X for artiste Y, 75 per cent as per production is fully owned by Mo'Hits and writing is shared 25/25 with the individual artiste cowriting. So, that's the deal! So for him (sic) saying 40 per cent is not his to give away is more like 75per cent for me and 25per cent for each artiste.

What do you mean by any bills or loans would be cleared by Mr. D'Banj? That will never happen because when I ran the company, I ran it perfectly and well.

So, if I give him my shares he is left with 100 per cent liability. My catalogue is everything that has been done with the Mo'Hits system and under the normal agreement we have, that means everything I have recorded or that has been recorded whether new or old, or even classic, whether beat with concept or even idea without beats, anything we did as a team and sponsored by me throughout, then, is mine. That also includes K-Switch's clause; even Wande's singles till the date.

And now, (I) want to clear the air on

this Samsung deal! I would expect by now that you understand that me keeping quiet is being GENEROUS because this is a deal structured under Mo'Hits Records, (and it is) the first deal and income you would ever bring into the company in eight years. We shared the first 150k (One hundred and fifty thousand dollars) the right way, 1/3 down and that was cool. But after you collected another 130k and did not say anything (that) is and could be described as theft! I only refused to contact them (Samsung) directly because of your reputation. But please don't call me a fool and let's know who is generous!

Please, please, will he (Don Jazzy) return the Bentley because I bought it for him and it was N5.2m more than mine? And Prince that he claims has no signed contract but is actively involved and signed via engagement I win his catalogue too all recorded whether released now or not! This is because no one questioned me when I bought D'Prince N11m naira car (LR3/Range) without releasing any album just to boost the image of the boy and it worked for him! So, let's get the facts straight, I am being more than generous…

G the

Conclusion: OING by the content of both mails, it is obvious that this may not be the end of the war of words between disgruntled parties.

But who stands to gain the most of both partners' split? Some

MTN Pulse kicks off with Celebrity Faceoff

A

LTHOUGH in its third edition, premium celebrity basketball event tagged Celebrity Faceoff was ignited like never before, courtesy of MTN Pulse, a new youth value offering by the telecommunication Company that was launched only recently.

With the sponsorship of the recent star-studded Celebrity Faceoff held at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos on April 15, 2012, indications are clear that the youth offering is indeed forward looking.

The event was packed with top celebrities drawn from various segments of the Nigerian entertainment world. The all- star team of Alist celebrities engaged the Dodan Warriors in a match which ended 12-7 in favour of the Dodan Warriors.

Beat FM Sports Presenter, Jimmie, emerged the best celebrity player and was presented with an ipad.

Speaking while presenting the prize, the Segment Manager, Youth and Trendy, MTN, Kelvin Orifa explained that “MTN identifies the youth segment as the backbone and future of the Nigerian economy and therefore provides them with products and services that will be of immense value.”

He further stated that the MTN Pulse is loaded with more freebees as it offers the lowest call rate to the largest community of youths, provides unrestricted access to SMS and internet freebies.

The Face-off 2012 Basketball Celebrity was graced by top artistes like Don Jazzy, Sound Sultan, Wande Coal, Noble Igwe, Muna , Tosyn Bucknor, Tiwa Savage, Darey and his son Femi , Mo-eazy, Kaffy and Papy J, Don Flexx, Dj Jimmy Jatt, Tee A, Dj Neptune, Dj Vinnie, Dj Spinall, Dj Shawty, Teni, Dotun cool fm, Flowwsick , Saeon, Brymo, Iyanya, Presh of KC Presh, Dr Sid, N6, Jimmy beat fm, Olisa Adibua, Mai Atafo, Toke Makinwa, Toni Payne, Dencia , Tunde Ednut, Michael Word, Yvonne Vixen, Kunle Afolayan, Ay Makun, Sauce Kid, Kevin orifa, lynxxx, may D, Gbenro Ajibade, Olu Maintain and others.

Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

‘Adesuwa’ goes to cinema

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HE latest effort of filmmaker, Lancelot Imasuen, Adesuwa, is set to begin its cinema run come May 4. Produced and directed by Imasuen, the movie, after a hugely successful premiere in Abuja and Lagos, will be available in all cinemas across the nation from May. In the words of the producer, it was time Nigerians saw the movie that “would change the face of Nollywood.”

He said: “My whole life at the moment revolves around Adesuwa. The truth is I am in love with Adesuwa. My wife has leased me to Adesuwa till after the cinema run around May. She has no choice. It's funny but true.”

Despite warnings that the

beau was betrothed to the war lord, Oba Akengbuda, Eze Obi Olisa vows to take Adesuwa by any means necessary. As a ploy to draw her into his bed of lust, Eze Obi Olisa employed trickery and uncommon diabolical means.

The intrigue goes on, leading to the death of an Edo princess.

Adesuwa is a riveting tale that reveals the dangerous power of unbridled lust and its psycho-sociological implications. The movie treats this powerful emotion as a potent force capable of turning an otherwise sane human into a brutal beast and set on fire two otherwise friendly and peaceful neighbours. Adesuwa also vividly capture s rich African culture at its most magnificent, pristine simplicity.

Featuring celebrated actors such as Olu Jacobs, Bob ManuelUdokwu, Ngozi Ezeonu and Iyobosa Olaiya, who played Adesuwa, the flick got 10 nominations in the oncoming African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, and had won awards and endorsements from the Federal Inland Revenue and National Film and Video Censors Board even before the official release.

Ghanaian's Ama K. Abebrese storms Nigeria for AMAA

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speak for her. She is known to feature only in high budget movies.

Ama K. was in Nigeria last year among the Ghanaian contingent that came for AMAA. She won the award for the best actress in a leading role. Will she win it again this year? Time will tell.

The screen idol has said she will be very active and more visible in Nollywood as she has seen the industry as a very viable and big platform for professionals to hit it big, an ambition the darling of Ghollywood is not taking with a pinch of salt.

HANAIAN'S Ama K. This year's AMAA is been Abebrese is set to storm powered by telecoms giant, Nigeria for the African Airtel and will feature musical Movie Academy Awards performances from Tuface Idibia, (AMAA) 2012 in style. The Asa and Senegalese singer, award which aims to recognize Vivian with one of Hollywood's and honour African movie finest actors, Jimmy Jean-Louis as practitioners who have the event's host on the night. distinguished themselves in Morris Chestnut of The Brothers their respective movie fame will lead other Hollywood industries will hold in Lagos. acts to the event.

The actress has been Speaking on this year's AMAA, nominated for the Best Actress Ama K. Abebrese speaks of her in a leading role alongside expectations at the awards ''I movie heavyweights like expect it to be a very classy event Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Uche with a lot of style and finesse.

Jombo, Yvonne Okoro, Rita Coming to Nigeria for awards Dominic, Millicent Makheido and like this is always special and I Kudzai Sevenzo-Nyarai. Ama has really look forward to enjoying been widely tipped to land this myself, I hope to take the award category as her recent works vividly home.'’

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•Abebrese

All set for ‘Nnena & Friends’ Children's Day show LATED for May 27, 2012, Wale Adenuga Productions' Nnena & Friends is gearing up for yet another live show to celebrate children in an event which will take place at the National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos.

Organisers say the two sessions show will parade the different aspects of entertainment including music, dance, comedy and style.

Face of Nnena, Yinka Olukunga who said that top musicians and comedians will be there to thrill their fans just like they did in the just concluded Easter show, expressed her gratitude to sponsors and everyone especially parents who brought their children to the Easter show. “We look forward to the May 27 Children's day show. It is an opportunity to show love to our young ones. We are committed to celebrating every child because the

39

future belongs to them,” she said.

It would be recalled that at the Easter show, Arambe Crooner, Brymo was unbeatable in his acts. So was the much loved DJ Zeez. The inspiring N-Stars staged a spectacular medley of songs and dance. The evergreen Papa Ajasco & Company kept the audience laughing with reckless abandon. The hilarious Helen Paul's rendition was so much fun. So were the Explicit dancers with their stunning stunts. Many children won mouthwatering prizes in the various dancing competitions.

Limelite Records unveiled

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T was a celebration of music in the Nigerian entertainment scene last Easter Sunday as Limelite Records formally threw its doors open to established and upcoming acts, to formally start the business of a record label, recording studio and a lounge in Lagos.

Introducing the two artistes under the label, Le'mmon and Oshmann, to guests and the media, General Manager of the label, Nosa Omoregie, said they are ready to make their mark in the Nigerian music space with their unique style. “Le'mmon is an R&B singer who sings from the heart in a unique way, he infuses various Nigerian language slangs into his songs. He is also a great performer on stage with his dance

•Limelite artistes

steps and the drama he brings on stage. He has two singles ‘Celebrate and Sweat’ and they are garnering massive airplay and downloads on radio and social media platforms, he explained.

Also on hand to receive guests were the CEO of the label, Kunle Abiola-Ige, who took them on a tour round the label's premises and facilities. Omoregie, in his remarks, explained that

the label has signed two artistes and producers, built two brand new studios, open a Lime Lounge mostly for artistes who work in the studios to relax and a basketball court.

Celebrities that graced the event were DJ Zeez, Vector, Wale Adebayo, Doris Simeon, Zeb Ejiro, Chico Ejiro, Mercy Aigbe and Taiwo Aromokun among others.

Industry Nite to host NET anniversary •Nnena

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NDUSTRY Nite, the weekly platform for showcasing talent, networking and engagement, has been chosen as the platform to mark the second anniversary of Nigerian Entertainment Today newspapers.

The event, which will be hosted by Tee-A, will hold at Oriental Hotel in Lekki, Lagos, on Wednesday April 25, and will feature an exclusive

listening session of Tuface Idibia's upcoming album, as well as performances from some of today's most promising music stars.

“We're beyond excited. We're only just two and it looks like we've been here forever. The celebration isn't really for us; it's for the entire media and music industry. It is a celebration of our readers, friends, advertisers and partners,” says publisher Ayeni Adekunle.

NET, which clocks two on

April 26, 2012, was founded by media entrepreneur Ayeni Adekunle. Before establishing NET, Ayeni had been a journalist with Encomium, Thisday and The Punch.

Apart from Tuface Idibia, who will give guests the rare opportunity to listen to materials from his upcoming album. The special NET anniversary event will have performances from other musicians including Praiz, DammyKrane, Iyanya, Moeazy, Brymo, Skales and Da LOS

40

Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

CINEMA GUIDE

BIG

LAGOS

PICTURE Supported by: SILVERBIRD CINEMAS

John Carter

A

mix grill of action, adventure, horror, science fiction and fantasy, this flick, Directed by Andrew Stanton, also a co-writer along side Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon, and Edgar Rice Burroughs will carry the young adults and children through a trilling cinema moment A sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars), John Carter is based on a classic novel

t c i l f Con s r a M in

by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present.

The film tells the story of warweary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic.

The film looks great, a proof that Stanton is used to working

with cartoons. The action sequences are terrific, and so are the aerial sequences and enough hand-to-hand slaughter to give even Conan pause.

A violent trip to hell A

starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Rosamund Pike, and directed by Jonathan Liebesman, is a remake of Clash of the Titans, dwelling more on the split-personality hero, Perseus who is half god and half human, but with perhaps stronger characters and more interesting plot.

In what looks like an

Worthington, Liam Neeson and Rosamund Pike Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time: 99 min Best Exortic Marigold Hotel Genre: Action/Adventure Contraband Genre: Action/Adventure John Carter Featured Actors: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and Willem Dafoe Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time132 min Man on a Ledge Featured Actors: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks and Jamie Bell Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time102 min

ABUJA

Wrath of the Titans

decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus-the demigod son of Zeus-is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans.

This 99 minutes mythical story,

Titanic Featured Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane Genre: Drama Running Time194 min Trespass Featured Actors: Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and Cam Gigandet Genre: Comedy Running Time: 91 min Dr Seuss'- The Lorax 3D Featured Actors: Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny DeVito Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time86 min 21 Jump Street Featured Actors: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube Genre: Comedy and Sequel Running Time109 Mins Machine Gun Preacher Featured Actors: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time129 min Phone Swap Featured Actors: Wale Ojo, Nse Etim Ikpe, and Ghanaian Superstar, Lydia Forson Genre: Comedy Running Time Wrath of the Titans Featured Actors: Sam

adventure, the viewer is taken along the journey by Perseus who goes to hell and back to rescue his bearded pappy Zeus (Liam Neeson), a full-blooded god who has fallen on hard times.

Wrath of the Titans is a story of gripping emotions, and a nonstop vilent clash that keeps you wondering about the reality of hell.

Genre: Action/Adventure Dr Seuss' the Lorax Featured Actors: Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny DeVito Genre: Drama Running Time: 86 min Wrath of the Titans Featured Actors: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Rosamund Pike Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time: 99 min The Scores Featured Actors: Aremu Afolayan, saheed balogun ,Eniola olaniyan , Olumide Trespass Bakare,sunkanmi omobolanle Featured Actors: Nicolas Cage, Genre: Drama Nicole Kidman and Cam Phone Swap Gigandet Featured Actors: Wale Ojo, Genre: Drama Nse Etim Ikpe, and Ghanaian Running Time: 91 min Superstar, Lydia Forson True Citizens Genre: Comedy Featured Actors: Uti Man on a Ledge Nwachukwu, Alex Usifo, Featured Actors: Sam Brian Okwara, Clareth Worthington, Elizabeth Banks Onukogu, Keneth Okolie, and Jamie Bell Clara Iweh, and Melvin Odua. Genre: Action/Adventure

PORT HARCOURT The Ides of March Featured Actors: Paul Giamatti, George Clooney and Philip Seymour Hoffman Genre: Drama Running Time: 101 Mins True Citizen Genre: Drama Running Time: 97 Mins 21 Jump Street Featured Actors: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube Genre: Comedy and Sequel Running Time: 109 Mins Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Featured Actors: Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny DeVito Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time: 86 Mins Trespass Featured Actors: Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and Cam Gigandet Genre: Action/Adventure Running Time: 91 Mins Wrath of the Titans Featured Actors: Sam

Worthington, Liam Neeson and Rosamund Pike Genre: Action/Adventure Phone Swap Genre: Drama Running Time: 70 Mins Machine Gun Preacher Featured Actors: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon Genre: Action/Adventure

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour SOLANGE KNOWLES

Coming out of Beyonce's shadow

Beyoncé's little sister, Solange Knowles, is ready to step out of her sibling's shadow and into the spotlight.

W

HILE Beyoncé is the better-known Knowles sibling (there are just two), with the more famous husband, baby, and everything else, Solange, 25, has quite a story of her own. She's released two albums, working with producers including Timbaland, Pharrell and Cee-Lo Green, toured the world as a dancer with Destiny's Child and has written album tracks for Kelly Rowland and four songs for her sister, including 'Upgrade U' and 'Get Me Bodied' (when she was just 15). She has starred in two films: Johnson Family Vacation (2004), and the cheerleading flick Bring It On: All Or Nothing (2006). And at 17, she married her high-school sweetheart and had a baby.

She's happy and contented, living with her new boyfriend, the video director Alan Ferguson, putting the finishing touches to her third album, which she hopes to release in June, and raising her son Julez, now seven.

Recently, of course, she also became an aunt: 'That was really, really insane,' she says of the press coverage of her niece Blue Ivy's birth.

'Such an invasion of privacy.' Has she offered Beyoncé any parenting advice? 'No, I really feel like because I had my son so young, I didn't want everyone's help,' she says. 'I think people felt entitled to give advice, so I'm always very sensitive to mums and letting them feel their way out. But there have been times when she'll ask, “Did Julez do this? Did this ever happen with Julez?” And I'll gladly give her advice. I'm in a really good place, and I think things are evolving because of that. Professionally, personally, I think that over the last three years I've just had a lot more stability, a lot more clarity about where I want to be and how I want to get there.'

Finally, it seems, Solange is ready to step out from her sister's shadow into a spotlight very much her own.

The Knowles sisters grew up in the affluent Third Ward neighbourhood of Houston, Texas, with a record-manager father and costume designer mother. One of Solange's earliest memories is being twoand-a-half and going with her mother to collect Beyoncé from ballet class. 'I really fell in love with dance. By the time I was seven, I had dance class six times a week. I was obsessed.' By then, her sister was already in a pop group Girl's Tyme with, among others, Kelly Rowland, who moved into the Knowles household when Solange was five.

'Her mother was a nanny for another family, so Kelly lived with us when they first moved from Atlanta. She was like a second sister,' Solange says. 'It definitely was tough, having your sister have a built-in BFF, and me being five years younger. But my sister was very protective of me, and we were very sweet with each other. I'm sure if we were closer in age we wouldn't have gotten along so great.

But we've been super-close ever since I was about 13.'

When she was nine with her parents now working full-time on her sister's new group, Destiny's Child Solange began quietly writing songs. 'I grew up seeing my sister in the studio. I would go to recording sessions and take notes.' More publicly, she was still dancing and one day, when she was 13, a pregnant dancer pulled out of an imminent Destiny's Child tour (supporting Christina Aguilera) and Beyoncé asked Solange to come on the road with her. A few weeks later, Solange found herself on a world tour: 'I was just totally blown away,' she says.

Solange stayed on the road for two years, but when she was on the MTV TRL tour with Destiny's Child, aged 15, she collapsed during a soundcheck. Her knees, so used to

ballet, had given in under the strain of complicated hip-hop routines, and she was told not to dance for six months. Her father arranged for her to host the tour instead, introducing the band to soldout 40,000-seat amphitheatres. 'I had no experience,' she says. 'But I didn't ever have a fear of people as a teenager. Now it's a different story.'

One night, she sang some of her songs to her father. 'And he told my mother, who said, “Oh, no. We don't want you doing this, too.

You can do anything in the world! You're so smart.”?' But why would her mother say that, when she'd been grooming her sister for stardom from day one?

'I think she was nervous about me losing my childhood,' says Solange. 'My sister started at such a young age that this was her life for as long as she could remember.' Did seeing the extremes of celebrity and success first-hand discourage her? 'From a very early age I decided that I wanted to be able to do my music but still be able to live a normal life.' She recorded a song and sent it to Columbia Records, who offered her an album deal.

'I went into the meeting and said, “I want it to be clear that I want to write all of my music. I want to have control of that.” I had grown up around this.'

After a disagreement with the label, Solange had to promote the album, Solo Star, on her own.

'I didn't care. I didn't need the money…' She pauses. 'It wasn't very successful.'

She had started dating a high-school football player called Daniel Smith (her son's full name is Daniel Julez Smith Jr) when she was 13, but although he had visited her on tour, it was only when she moved back to Houston that the two were able to spend a lot of time with one another. 'I just loved being at home and being domestic,' she says. 'We would have gotten married for sure anyway, but then I found out I was pregnant.

We were crazy, impulsive teenagers and I w a s obviously craving some sort o f stabilit y.' Her family,

•Beyonce Knowles and Solange Knowles

41

she says, 'were alarmed and frightened that their 17-year-old daughter wanted to get married and have a kid, but I'd been working since I was 13. I was making my own money. I wasn't really asking permission, and once they found out I was serious about it, they were supportive and amazing.' When Smith accepted an offer to play college football in Idaho, Solange went, too. In the space of a year, she had gone from recording with Timbaland and touring the world, to being a mother living in the sticks. How does that happen exactly? She laughs. 'If I could help you figure it out, I'd have all the answers.'

Although she and Smith broke up in 2007 (Solange moved to LA, where she completed her second album, a 1960s-inspired concept record informed by the Motown she had been listening to in Idaho), the experience of living in the countryside proved a formative one, and Solange continued her songwriting in a local studio. 'I'd have to time it around the baby's naps,' she says. 'And make sure he wasn't crying in the background on demos.'

She continued writing 'all of these Sixties songs... I would send them to my publisher [EMI] and would check every day if someone was interested.

This was before the retro vibe of Amy Winehouse and Adele... they were not very well received.'

I ask if sometimes she wants to keep the songs she writes for herself. 'No, I actually get the same thrill from seeing someone else bring [my songs] to fruition,' she says.

'Especially someone like my sister who's going to turn them into cultural milestones... I don't enjoy all of the things that come with that. Like not being able to ride my bike here today and not being able to walk and pick up my son f r o m school.

I ' v e been so scared t h a t someone's going to s n a p a picture of me with my hair like this!' (It's tied into little twists that fall listlessly around her angular, flawless face.)

Why isn't she signed to a major label? 'I don't think there's a need if you are able to fund it yourself and have a strong sense of development as an artist. It means you aren't dependent on some A&R dude to position you with writers or producers or figure out your next direction,' she says. 'Major labels act as banks in terms of how they produce and release your album. No major label is really good or bad, they just 100 per cent operate as a business, which makes sense… no hard feelings.'

So how does the new album sound?

'There's a lot of sexual vibes on it. I think I just finally started having good sex,' Solange says, before smiling a touch coquettishly. 'This woman came up to me the other day and said, “You know, I think people dress a lot better when they're in love with themselves, with other people, or with where their life is.”?'

I ask how she plans to reconcile her increased visibility with her desire for a normal life. 'I think there's a way to protect yourself,' she says firmly. 'I think the fact that I live here is very helpful. It's about working it and not letting it work you, about being very selective about what you do and who you do it with.' As we get up to leave, I ask if she gets to see Beyoncé, Jay-Z and her new niece a lot. 'Yes. Actually, I invited them over for dinner tonight. I'm excited to see her; I haven't seen her in a week and half.'

She wraps her coat around her, bracing against the weather. 'You know, my sister and I truly are best friends.'

Courtesy: London Evening Standard

42

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

L-R: Bride’s mother, Mrs Sarah Jubril, Speaker, House of Reps, Aminu Tambuwal, the couple and Groom’s mother, Hon. Jumoke Okoya-Thomas

&

OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL (08033572821) raphseg2003@yahoo.com

Jumoke Okoya-Thomas' son marries Sarah Jubril's daughter

L-R: Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas and former Minister of Aviation, Babalola Aborishade

I

T was a gathering of the creme-de-la-creme in Abuja a few days ago when Olayemi, the good-looking son of Hon. Jumoke Okoya-Thomas quit bachelorhood in a society wedding that attracted the power brokers in both chambers of the National Assembly. The lucky bride, Asimi, is the daughter of Mrs. Sarah Jubril, the Special Adviser on National Orientation to President Goodluck Jonathan. Among the dignitaries present were the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, Senate Minority Whip, Ganiyu Solomon, the groom's grandfather, Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Honourable Farouk Lawan, to mention but a few.

Photos ABAYOMI FAYESE Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi

L-R: Hon. Farouk Lawan and Senator Ganiyu Solomon Hon. Nnena Elendu-Ukeje L-R: Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa and husband Segun

L-R: Hon. Victor Nwokolo and Hon. James Faleke

L-R: Hon. Solomon Adeola and Hon. ( Dr) L-R:Deputy Speaker, House of Reps, Emeka Ihedioha, Samuel Adejare Hon. Mohammed Bala and Hon. Betty Apiafi

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

43

When the Okafors & Okenwas unite in marriage

T

HE cities of Nnewi in Anambra State and Lagos were agog on Saturday, April 7 and 14 respectively when dignitaries from across the country converged to witness the traditional and white wedding of Dikanna, the first son of Chairman of Chikason Group of Companies, Chief Chika Okafor to his wife, Onyiye, daughter of Mr and Mrs Joe Okenwa. Olusegun Rapheal was there •The couple:Dikana and Onyinye Okafor

•Bride’s parents, Mr and Mrs Joe Okenwa

•Groom’s parents, Chief and Mrs Chika Okafor

•Mr. Emeka Ugwu-Oju and his wife

•L-R: Liberia Ambassador to Nigeria, Al-Hassan Conteh, Mrs Clavendar Bright-Parker and Chief (Mrs) Opral Benson.

•L-R: Hajia Bola Shagaya and Senator Joy Emordi

•Odion Ajumogobia (SAN)

•L-R: Chief Okey Ezibe and Prince Arthur Eze

•L-R: Coscharis boss, Mr. Cosmas Maduka and Dr •Former Governor of Anambra State, Dame Virgy Etiaba and Barr Emeka Okafor Ausbeth Ajagu

•Hajiya Zainab Maina

Ex-minister, Gen. Henry Adefope buried

T

th

HE remains of Major General Henry Edmund Adefope (rtd), was laid to rest on the 30 March, 2012 after a funeral service at the Anglican Church of Ascension, Ikeja, while the reception took place at The Haven, in GRA, Ikeja. The deceased was a former Federal Commissioner for External Affairs and Labour respectively a former President of the Nigeria Olympic Commitee (NOC) and a long time member, International Olympics Committee. The retired top military brass is survived by seven children, including Mr. Olufemi Adefope, Managing Director, Skylogistics and Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie .

•L-R: Aderonke Esho, Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, •Otunba Olasubomi Balogun and wife, Mr. Olufemi Adefope and his wife, Mrs. Adebola Adefope Erelu Abimbola Balogun

•L-R: Justice Ayo Philips, Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Inumidun Akande and Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. •Grandchildren of the deceased at the church service.

Joke Orelope- Adefulire.

44

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Glamour

Social KAYODE ALFRED

(E-mail: kayflex2@yahoo.com, Tel: 08035733605, 08099400057)

Francis Inegbeniki lavishes millions on son's birthday

E

DO State-born industrialist and politician, Chief Francis Inegbeniki and his wife, Helen on Saturday, April 7, 2012, staged a lavish first-year birthday party for their son, Osemuahu Aaron Inegbeniki.

Many would remember September, the previous year when the same child being celebrated was dedicated. It was simply put, a carnival. The birthday had all the trappings of class and affluence on display.

Hip hop artistes and raves of the moment-Davido and Wizkid, who at different times thrilled the guests to no end. Sources say the young artistes were paid N2.5million each for an approximately three hours performance. Guests at the event included lawyer-turned-event planner, Funke Bucknor-Obruthe; prolific Nollywood director, Chico Ejiro, his wife, Joy, Island big girl, Lisa Omoridon, to mention but a few.

Alakija

Binta Sukai relocates to UK again

A

BOUT five years ago, former beauty queen, Binta Sukai returned to Nigeria from the UK with high hopes of turning a new page in her private and business life. However, her well scripted plans to make things work in these two areas have yielded unsavoury experiences. Though excited that she gave birth to a lovely baby girl, Sukai's wish to commit her daughter's father, alleged to be the son of a former female bank chief to a permanent relationship was rebuffed by the young man. More agonizing for the former beauty queen, was the collapse of her dream to have her range of beauty products in the Nigerian market, a project she was working on in partnership with a UK-based, Nigerian-born fashion designer.

And so frustrated was Sukai about these setbacks that sometime early this year, she relocated back to the UK to cool off and regain her groove.

Sukai

Princess Cynthia Adeyemi retreats

A

PROMINENT member of the high society, Princess Cynthia Adeyemi is the estranged wife of Kola Adeyemi, son of the highly revered Oyo monarch, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

Many also know her as the cherubic-faced lady behind Unlimited Sizes Fashion House.

For a while now, the stylish woman has completely shunned celebrity parties and shindigs that used to be her thing. Her new found life of serenity and anonymity is very unlike her. SC findings revealed that Cynthia's messy divorce a few years back has taken its toll on her, forcing her to recoil into her shell.

Early this year, rumours of reconciliation between the once loving couple rented the air, but Cynthia's friends were quick to dismiss the story as mere hogwash.

Folorunsho Alakija plans fairytale wedding for son

H

IGH society is currently abuzz with news of Folorunsho Alakija's son's wedding which many believe would rank among the high-octane parties that would take place this year. The prominent businesswoman, who is the former President of the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria and also the Executive Vice Chairman of Famfa Oil & Gas and her loving husband, Modupe, are currently preparing for the wedding of their son, Ladi, who is set to wed Ololade Cardoso, daughter of Yemi and Bimbo Cardoso and granddaughter of late T.O.S Benson. The wedding, a 2-tiered affair, is slated for 5th May, 2012, at the Expo Centre, Eko Hotel & Suites, where the Engagement will take place, while the white wedding comes up on the August 24 at Hilton Park, United Kingdom.

A thanksgiving party would be held later in September in

Dapo Adelegan turns golden

H Adeyemi

E is a quiet entrepreneur who has done so well for himself.

The pioneer of beach concerts via his Lekki Sunsplash, a musical concert that was the toast of fun lovers in Lagos, Dapo Adelegan also through his company, Benjamin Black & Co., introduced electronic outdoor advertisement into the Nigerian market many years ago. Last weekend, the successful businesswoman clocked 50, but vehemently against the entreaties of friends and associates refused to throw any big party. However, Adelegn's younger brother, Akin, hosted a classy shindig in his honour at his Omole, Ikeja residence.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

47

VOL 1 NO. 037

The dancing bank (2) S

TILL on the target audience consideration, in relation to the TVC in consideration, let us consider it from the consumer stand point: who is likely connected with the TV commercial as it is? We took a small but representative sample size of our (a a fair consideration of the commercial's target audience. For purposes of logic and relevance let us say we looked at the following as the TA: Primary TA - male and female income earners with the resource or will to save part of their earnings in form of bank savings. They are either salaried people or are self employed, highly educated young adults.

They are trendy and love to entertain themselves in the company of friends in an atmosphere of freedom.

They live a lifestyle of conviviality. They love music and plenty of fun; they 'hang-out' with friends at weekends. T Part of their savings is to support their lifestyle.

They are between the ages of 28 and 42, quite active.

SECONDARY TA men and women in their active work years; they use banks as a means of transacting businesses, making payments and such essential transactions that makes it imperative for them to use a bank, including payment of their salaries. They are between age bracket 40 – 55/60, not given to adventure, a little on the conservative side, careful and calculated. They are family-focused and will engage in saving for old age and retirement. They are target-driven in their saving pattern. They are majorly career people working towards retirement. Those of them that are self-employed or business people will use banking services as of essence. They are literate and barely literate.

On the whole, this group will appreciate a bank build on modern service structure, yet reliable. They tend to be conservative in some ways not expressly manifest.

Perhaps THE PERIPHERAL TA corporate bodies/ institutions: they are run by the new generation of managers, young, highly educated, exposed to cultures and banking system in developed economies. They have since moved on from the traditional banking systems.

They are quite sophisticated.

To this TA group, they will rather that their corporate accounts are domiciled in a 'friendly and modern' bank.

Hypothetically, pre-research position is that a bank that is positioned as the modern-day bank, considering the TA expectations will immediately connect with the TA at those value touch-points. We were not part of the creative team behind the commercial under review, but watching that commercial from our position, we think the TA profile as above is very likely to be very close to that of the creative team that put that TVC together.

On a broader scale, we then tried to consider what the Client's brief would probably have related to the Agency as its marketing and campaign objective(s). For

the marketing objective it looks like: break into the critical mass market – that of the largest group of the working/ productive age bracket. They like to be free to express themselves, they are adventurous in lifestyle, trendy and given to entertainment. They will like a banking environment different from the old traditional system, by far. Given this scenario as probable, the ultimate marketing objective would be to connect with this single most active group within the productive population segment and lead them onto such commission-based banking services to include funds transfer, payments, business financing and even financing property acquisition. What with the emergence of cashless

Nigeria. In that case, the present set of campaign materials will likely be the first in a series to be unveiled.

For the campaign objective, we envisaged a line like the following: position the bank as the bank for the new generation – youthful, unconventional, trendy, sophisticated, friendly and always responsive – a bank for the new generation.

The other assumption we made is on the common interest binding the various TA sub-sect, and that is a friendly and responsive bank – a modern bank, far for from traditional banking system. They like to relate with a bank that runs on new world models, devoid of cumbersome and time-wasting process. Immediately, they will connect with that experience with more than 65% infusion of IT/online platforms. (well, let us leave the TA profiling at that for now, because something tells me I am already over-shooting Fidelity's run-way).

With all of the above in mind, we tried out some questionnaire administration, to test out the hypothesis and help (for purposes of learning and information gathering) Fidelity conduct free campaign effectiveness check.

Mechanics – a focus group study involving a total of 24 participants divided into two groups of 12 participants each. Both groups were exposed to the TV commercial at different times in same location and in similar environment, preparatory to post-exposure discussion session. After exposing them to the TV commercial,

they were each given pen requested to write a brief narration of what they saw (immediate recall), write a summary of the campaign message as conveyed by the TVC/their understanding of the message (clarity of message/TA connect) and finally the impact the campaign had on them (effectiveness).

Recall we had mentioned that each of the FGD groups was an admixture of the first and second TA profile.

The reason we did that was to eliminate the fine divide in psychographics about these two groups since was not supposed to be a case for study. Secondly, we did not want that inconsequential consideration to distract from our main focus.

Our findings were quite interesting.

For the purpose of this article we shall limit them to two major categories – recollect and effective message communication/ delivery. On recall, 15% of participants were able to fairly playback the TV commercial. 25% found it difficult to recall what they saw. They complained of too many distractions in the commercial, when the brand logo registered to indicate the commercial was about a bank. From then on, they could align their observation about the musical band as it were, with the image of a bank. So, to them, there was too much distraction. All they could recollect was the set up and performance of the ''musical group'.

Finally, 60% of participants were prompted to remember a few aspects of the commercial. According to them, they were not too sure what the commercial was about.

On effective message delivery of participants did not make out the message intended in the commercial. All they took away was that the commercial is about Fidelity Bank, because of the corporate logo representation. 15% deduced the commercial is about Fidelity trying to identify with the youth market (brand repositioning), while 10% was totally. Their take was (perhaps) is promoting a type of reality show on TV focused on music and concert.

At this point we cease to mention the bank which TVC we have considered all along. To this point, we have only anchored on the narration to make a case for articulate creative process for efficient deployment of professionalism. Our worry is the rate at which we tone down on professionalism in the creative process. Our market suffers from all such compromises from both the client and the target audience end. Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria – AAAN - must begin to help build hedge around registered practitioners, to enable a clear and distinctive separation of professionals from non professionals on the one hand, and to begin quality control among professionals so as to check the quality of their output.

Until that is done, and clients begin to appoint agencies based on merit, we would keep sell banks in dance halls.

48

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

t ' n a c o h w n e m 'Wo d n a k r o w e g a man ’ s e r u l i a f e r a r e care Folashade Mabadeje is the Chief Executive Officer of Elimpalms Limited, a foremost management development and capacity building company. The former broadcaster rose to become a director with Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry before setting up her company in 1998. She shares from her wealth of experience in this interview with Rita Ohai.

C

AN you shed light on the intricacies of the human development sector?

It is a very interesting job because it is the kind of career where you do not retire. It is a lifestyle of teaching your experiences to people so that they can grow to become better people. In the beginning of my career, you would find me reading from books to teach the participants during a training course but right now I do not do that anymore because of the increase in my level of exposure especially in business management.

So it is easier for me to impact knowledge right now and it has help the participants change their focus and move in the right direction.

What are some of the challenges you have

found to be associated with the human development sector in the country?

A major problem is the quality of trainers we have here. A lot of people claim to be trainers but all they do is 'train-books'. When people are out of jobs and they feel they know somebody who runs a training outfit, that is the first place they turn to and they think that they can do the job just as well but being able to train must come with a p a s s i o n f o r developing people and helping them become better. It is not always about the money.

For instance, I train because I love people and I want them to

The unpleasant truth is that organizations do not develop employees to be useful after they retire. It is up to the employee to decide that he or she has got to live a healthy and productive lifestyle

improve and even if you do not pay me that much, I will be happy to change lives but with most people, once they see that a particular kind of business is bringing in money, they all want to rush into it.

Can you name some of the successes you have recorded while running your business?

Over the years, there have been a lot of people who I have been privileged to train in the enterprise development, business improvement and start-ups.

My joy is to see somebody who has been in one of my classes setting up his or her own business, no matter how big or small it is because there is a beautiful thing about life in being able to earn a living by running your own organisation without depending on people. Once you can handle it, you will lead a good life.

With respect to personnel efficiency, what do you think corporate Nigeria can do to improve the state of their employees?

The unpleasant truth is that organisations do not develop employees to be useful after they retire.

It is up to the employee to decide that he or she has got to live a healthy and productive lifestyle. If you check the employment profile of companies, organisations do not look for old people instead they will hunt for young people that they can use for a while, after which they will drop you. But if you know this and start early to take care of yourself and prepare, by the time you get to a particular stage you can move out of that system and still be useful to yourself.

On the part of organisations, it is necessary for them to look into the health and welfare of their staff because it is a staff that is healthy that can be productive. No matter how expensive it is, if you invest in them as an entrepreneur, their productivity level will improve, which will in turn translate to naira and kobo for your company. If you choose to ignore them and they start leaving your company or dying from illnesses, in the process you may lose your best or most qualified hands. Organisations need to get to the point where they value people.

How have you been able to sustainable grow a business especially in this part of the world where women are often relegated to the back ground?

I have been in this business for quite a long while and I can tell you that as a young lady you have to know how to take care of your home and combine it with your profession. If you are unable to do that you are a failure. Make sure that your family is happy because if you are not happy at home, you cannot be happy at work. Staying healthy is key and in the process of caring for your family, do not remain idle, instead get busy and try to build your career so that when you leave a paid employment, you can stand on your own.

What are the key skills a person must possess to be a personnel trainer?

You must love people. You must be interested in their growth and development. You must be creative because you cannot just sit and be writing things. You have learnt or want to teach rather you must put it in practice and that way you will be happy training people.

As an Executive Director, can you highlight some of your pleasurable moments?

I absolutely love my job. I love it so much that even if I fall ill and you put me in front of people and ask me to talk, I would instantly get healthy. It is my life. It is a deep source of joy.

What advice would you give young ladies who want to tow your line?

First, they should be willing to learn.

They have to be humble and be submissive at all times. Young women need to realize that money is not everything rather they should consider their career path and work towards it because when they are able to build they career, they can stand on their own.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

New WOMAN

Career advancement

Relationships Deola Ojo 08027454533 (text) Pastordeegfc@yahoo.com

killers for women

I

F you are not advancing in your career as a woman, things you've never thought of could be hindering you. Take a look at these career advancement killers to see if you fall into one of these categories. If you do, take the steps you need to take to get out of these categories. If not, you may be in the same position you are in now for a while.

“It's Not My Job” If there are things to do around your work place and you don't step up to the plate from time-to-time and extend yourself to help out, this could be one reason why you are not advancing in your career. People who have the 'it's not my job' mentality aren't viewed as team players and they are often overlooked for promotionsno matter how well they excel at their job. Even if you may not have said the words 'it's not my job' out loud, it is picked up on by your co-workers and managers.

This pitfall to career advancement is often one of the easiest to overcome.

All you need to do to overcome this unhelpful reputation is to show a willing spirit and pitch-in and help out your place of employment when it is in a crunch. When you do this consistently, times, you will be proving to the powers-that-be that you have a giving nature and you are able to work for the greater good of everyone.

Resistance to Change What works one year may not work the next year. For a business to remain viable in today's marketplace, it must be open to change. If you are someone who is resistant to change, this may be one of the reasons why your career is not advancing. It may be that you haven't gone out to acquire the updated skills you need to be a competitive force amongst your peers, or it could be that you show or display

I

resistance when your company implements new policies and procedures.

The bottom line is if you want to advance your career, you must not let change rattle your cage and mess you up. You must be open to change and take it by the wheel and flow with it.

Don't cling to old waysno matter how comfy and loyal you may feel about them. For you to be viable in today's marketplace as an employee, you must be open to change.

Unreliability Take a serious look at yourself in both your personal and professional life and be completely honest with yourself. Are you truly a reliable

WEDDING BLISS

•Staff Officer, Media Relation Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC headquarters Mr.Ohaeri Osondu, (left) his brother/groom Mr. Ohaeri Mike and his bride, Mrs. Ohaeri Ibiso and Mrs. Ohaeri Grace after their wedding at St.Nicholas Anglican Church, Port Harcourt Rivers State recently.

person? Are you consistent? Do you do what you tell people that you will do?

Can they take your word and bet their life on what you tell them?

If the answer is not a resounding yes, then perhaps the reason your career is not advancing is because people don't think you are reliable. Even if they know you are reliable in your professional life, if they know you are not reliable in your personal life, it will impact your career.

If unreliability is your problem, it's not too late to change. Find out where your unreliability comes from and work to change it. For instance, maybe you are someone that loves people and you have a hard time telling people 'no'. Believe it or not, some of the most unreliable people are truly people pleasers who have overloaded themselves with too many commitments.

Your heart may be in the right place when you tell people that you will things, but if you don't follow through with what you say, you will be labeled unreliable. This label can spread into your workplace. While it can take a while to get this label off your back, it is doable.

Procrastination Procrastination is not unreliability, but it is its cousin. If you are the type of person that puts deadlines off to the last minute, this could be one reason why you are not advancing in your career. While it may be true that you always turn in good workand you turn it in on timeyour procrastination to start can make others anxious and worried. This anxiousness and worry doesn't bode well for you when it comes time to hand out promotions.

If you think procrastination is what is holding you back in your career, get a handle on it. Change up your mindset and your work routine and methods. Doing so can open the door for advancement later.

Source: FemaleForum.com

49

If you have a million dollars?

asked my husband this question recently “What will you do for me if you win a million dollars?” His answer was “If I win a million dollars, I would pay my tithe and put the remaining money in your account”.

I thought that was fantastic, so I am asking God to give my husband a million dollars. What would husbands do if they have a million dollars? I think this will depend on the kind of person they are and the kind of relationship they had with their wife before they got the money. A man who has had a close loving relationship with his spouse is likely to want to share everything with her.

When Tire got a grant of twelve million naira from his company, he handed over the cheque to his wife Chika and told her that she should decide what they should do with the money. Chika had always felt that her husband loved her, but she did not know that he also trusted her judgement about what to do with this kind of money.

She decided that they should buy land and build a twin bungalow with the money. They are now proud landlords.

Husbands, if you receive a million dollars this week, can you give all the money to your spouse?

Most women are very good financial managers. Part of it is the inbuilt desire to safeguard the family against danger. A woman would naturally sacrifice virtually everything for the sake of her family. Most women would think of the security of a home and would want to buy a house or buy land and build a house. Some women would think of how to turn the money into making more money by building a house that has an apartment that they can also let out. Other women may use the money to start a business which should yield the same amount in a few short years.

Would I advise every husband to give all the money to their spouse? While it would be the kindest thing to do in most circumstances, it may not be the wisest thing to do. Suppose a man is married to a wife who has no savings, or assets, even though she has been working in a multinational company and earning the equivalent of half a million naira for the past fifteen years. Most husbands would not hand over a cheque of over one hundred and fifty million naira to her. As far as they are concerned, she is a spendthrift. A woman may appear to be a spendthrift, but when one examines what she has been spending money on, it is obvious most of the money has been spent on the spouse, the children and the home. If a husband cannot give the whole cheque to his wife, I would still expect him to give his wife half of the money. She can spend her own half anyway she chooses, no questions asked. This is love at its best.

Money that one receives as a gift, grant or won through a promo or competition should always be used to acquire assets. This hardly happens for most people, such money is usually spent within a few months or a few years.

Suppose a wife wins a million dollars, should she give all the money to her husband? This depends on the kind of relationship they have had and the kind of person the man is. A couple who have had a wonderful marriage up till this point, may want to collectively decide what to do with the money. A woman who has absolute trust in her husband may hand over the whole cheque and allow him to decide what they should do with the money. This will be an opportunity to prove that their love for one another is genuine. A woman who has been severely maltreated by her husband would be unlikely to hand over the money to her husband. Some women would even consider giving their husband out of this money at all. A woman who feels she cannot trust her husband because of his antecedents may not want to share the money with her spouse. A woman who feels that her husband spends money on other ladies is unlikely to want to share the money with him.

What should a couple do if one of them receives an unusual amount of money, something neither of them have ever had before? I would expect them the person who has received the money to share this bounty with the spouse. This does not mean that the money has to be shared equally between the two of them. Some husbands would not even want to take out of what they consider to be her money. Both most husbands would expect her to involve them in how she wants to spend the money. Should a wife share money with her husband even if he used to beat her and maltreat her?

Yes, I think she should. This may even be what will turn the man around. Irrespective of the kind of relationship married couples have had in the past, I would advise couples to share and demonstrate that love is more important than money. Would you share a million dollars with your spouse?

50

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Arts & Life

SUNNY SIDE

Cartoons

By Olubanwo Fagbemi deewalebf@yahoo.com 08060343214 (SMS only)

POLITICKLE

Akinnrin’s reckoning

CHEEK BY JOWL

OH, LIFE!

THE GReggs

The tale is told of a fighter who found fame at a time when men warred for everything – honour, land, wealth, women, and peace. It is a fascinating saga of one man’s unusual defence of his town when it most mattered.

FOUR days after the ill-fated campaign against the barbaric Patas, Akinnrin found himself at the edge of Korinigi, a peace-loving town in eighteenth century southwestern Nigeria, following his eventful journey from the battle scene alone. He had no serious wound on him and thus lived to fight another day. Exhausted, he lay down to rest for the first time since the end of the clash beneath thick foliage by a stream. Memories of preceding events immediately flooded.

In his thirty-seventh year and while Akinnrin’s third child yet crawled, Korinigi had gone to war – the third in a series of confrontations with their hill-dwelling neighbours. Akinnrin made ready for battle, whetting his reliable sword and battle axe as usual. Then he observed a peculiar ritual that never failed to ensure protection in battle. He took care, as he habitually did, to avoid notice or contamination.

He had extraordinary staying power and some actually thought he could not die. He seemed favoured by Sapatara, the god of war, for how else could a man who generally led the charge in battle always manage to return from the bloodiest of engagements? Even when the last bleeding, disfigured warrior had trudged in, someone was sure to scan the horizon and glimpse Akinnrin’s weary, sinewy form descending from the hills that bordered Korinigi.

His penchant for late return only deepened the myth surrounding his longevity and rumours soon flew about his source of power. No one got near the cause of his famed endurance, however, as he took such meticulous precautions that Sadi, his beloved first wife, was as clueless as anyone. Still, he served the town well and as long as he helped protect the people with the permission of the gods, he was reverred by all.

But in the Patas, the warriors from Korinigi encountered their fiercest opposition ever. Riding anticipated ambush, they fought gallantly with Akinnrin at the head of every charge but were thrice repelled until they were thoroughly outmanoeuvered and outnumbered. At that point, retreat rather than surrender was the most sensible option.

Thoroughly decimated, they returned by secret paths utterly drained of spirit and strength. In place of the proud group that stomped off brandishing knives, spears, and swords crept back leaner individuals. In stead of guttural war songs and battle cries escaped sighs of dejection and resignation from the men’s lips.

Now, after sleeping for much of the afternoon and feeding on game trapped and roasted in the wild, Akinnrin found a stream to drink from and chanced upon the reflection of his face on the water’s surface – for the first time in days. He was stupefied. Feeling his features for confirmation, he realised his square jaws were flabbier and rounder. His skin, formerly smooth, was rough and the high cheek bones that endeared him to all was no more.

Worse, he bore the deepest long-running scars imaginable on a face.

No one in Korinigi bore significant facial marks, and Akinnrin immediately realised the source of his new look. How could he explain to his people that he practiced the ancient magic of limb and organ replacement?

Who indeed would accept his claim of regularly replacing his severed head with a fallen warrior’s at the end of battles? He was never found out because he often caused a head chosen from the opposition to look like his with appropriate incantations and charms.

No one knew his secret yet. And no one was about to if he moved fast enough. He knew what he had to do. He was sorry he would no longer be there for the people, or Sadi and his children, but a man could only cheat death for so long. Without a moment to lose, he destroyed his charms and reversed the process of replacement.

With its talisman missing, Korinigi faced humiliating conquest. But one house suspended all emotion. In the course of a week, expectation gave way to frustration, and then desperation, but Akinnrin never returned.

QUOTE We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.

—Aristotle

Jokes Humour Doctor-patient Slips “DOCTOR, are you sure I’m suffering from pneumonia?” said the patient. “I’ve heard once about a doctor treating someone with pneumonia and finally he died of typhus.”

Said the doctor, “Don’t worry, it won’t happen to me. If I treat someone with pneumonia he will die of pneumonia.” ********* “DOCTOR, please hurry. My son swallowed a razor blade.”

“Don’t panic, I’m coming immediately.

Have you done anything yet?”

“Yeah, I shaved with the electric razor.” ********* “DOCTOR, doctor, You’ve got to help me – I just can’t stop my hands shaking!”

“Do you drink a lot?”

“Not really – I spill most of it!” ********* A MAN speaks frantically into the phone, “My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!”

“Is this her first child?” the doctor queries.

“No, you idiot,” the man says. “This is

her husband!”

********* “DOCTOR, doctor, will I be able to play the guitar after the operation?”

“Yes, of course ...”

“Great! I never could before!” ********* DOCTOR: “I’ve got very bad news – you’ve got cancer and typhoid” Patient: “Well, at least I don’t have cancer.” ********* THE SURGEON told his patient who woke up after having been operated on: “I’m afraid we’re going to have to operate on you again.

Because, you see, I forgot my rubber gloves inside you.”

“Well, if it’s just because of them, I’d rather pay for them if you just leave me alone.” ********* A MAN walks into a doctor’s office. He has a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear and a banana in his right ear.

“What’s the matter with me?” he asks the doctor.

The doctor replies, “You’re not eating properly.”

•Culled from the Internet

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H O R T Writer’s Fountain s t o r y Once you get the story idea, draft your specifics: Try to get as many ideas you can about the plot of your story. The story according to a proper format. Your inspiration for the story could come from story should be divided into proper anything from a small local event to just Introduction (Introduces characters, setting, some interesting personality in your time, etc.), Initiating Action (The point of a neighbourhood. Carry a notebook with story that starts the rising action), Rising you wherever you can and write down Action (Events leading up to the climax/ snippets as and when they strike your turning point), Climax (The most intense point of the story/The turning point of the mind. story), Falling Action (Your story begins to conclude) and a Resolution/Conclusion (A Random facts: •Did you know you share your birthday satisfying ending to the story in which the with at least nine other million people in central conflict is resolved – or not –).

However, the story does not necessarily the world?

•Finland is also known as “the land of the have to follow the same pattern and series thousand lakes,” because of the over 188,000 every time. You can always introduce novelties in it. lakes found in this country.

Characters make up a story. So, design •The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system which employs over your characters with care so that they feel believable, realistic and such that the 1.6 million people in India. readers can associate with them. Draw •Mosquitoes have teeth.

•If you mouth the word “colourful” to inspiration from people you know and someone, it looks like you are saying “I love borrow their attributes. Make sure your you”. characters’ personalities are not perfect. In •Hair and fingernails are made from the real life, nobody is perfect. Everyone has same substance – keratin. their flaws.

THE ARTS

51

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

•The Slave History Museum, Calabar

•A slave in shackle

•A slave-raidingscene being dramatised

Sights and sounds of slavery Edozie Udeze takes you inside the Calaber Slave History Museum where you practically relive the harrowing experience of the past

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HE Slave History Museum located at the Marine Resort, Calabar, the Cross River State capital, is indeed a story full of emotions and traumatic excursion into time.

Apart from having the relics of the several stages of slave raiding, slave trade and the transatlantic journey into the new world replicated in forms of artworks, there was deliberate effort by the state government to reproduce the actions of each of the sections in audio form. The moment you enter the foyers of the museum you’ll hear noises announcing the commencement of activities on the west coast of Africa and informing you in very blatant and provocative ways that some people are in trouble.

The voices you hear are those of slave raiders and merchants deeply involved in their trade.

Then you hear the agonising cries and weeping of the slaves in total bondage. What follows is the stern and wicked instructions coming from the white man telling them to keep quiet. Then the Ocean roars and sends some kind of bliss into the nerves of both the slaves and the merchants. At this point, the slaves had been packed into the lower chambers of the ship, ready to commence its nine months journey across the Atlantic to either Europe or America.

What the state government did was to construct the ship in such a way that you see actual feet and ankles of people surging out of the ship.

The place is so crowded that as soon as you enter the museum, you’ll think that the feet are real.

The movement of the artisic devices propelled by electronic

gadgets will move you to tears and sober reflection. In fact the place is a unique destination for lovers of history.

According to Fidelis Dosun, the tour guide at the museum, the artistic impressions in human forms with sound effects were purposely done to bring life to the past and to show people in practical terms what slaves and fellow Africans suffered in the days of yore. “Each ship here contained 400 slaves, all cramped into the smaller spaces beneath. They would be tied and chained both in the hands and in the legs which made movement difficult,” Fidelis said.

The significance of the Marine Resort in Calabar as the major transit point of slaves bought from the hinter land and moved in canoes through the Calabar River to the high sea, gave rise to the development of the Slave History Museum. As at today, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized the fact that about 30 percent of the slaves from the West Coast of Africa passed through the Calabar routes. Indeed from 1414 when the first slaves were taken from Africa till 1807 when it was finally abolished, about 776,400 slaves had been shipped through the Bight of Biafra namely, Calabar.

In order that these historical memorial issues are kept in one form, UNESCO in conjunction with the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) organized a one-week conference to look into ways to improving on the preservation of these routes.

This was what made the Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke, to ask UNESCO to consider both the museum and some of the sites as UNESCO historical heritage.

“We’ll cooperate with you in this wise,” the governor promised.

Beyond that, however, there are also the actual relics used for the prosecution of the trade, some of which have been collected and preserved over the years. Some of them were chains, guns, spears, swords and so on used to chase, hunt and capture the slaves. The chains and shackles were mainly used to confine the slaves in baracoons enroute to America. At

other times too, the chains were used by fellow Africans or what is called in history collaborators to capture their enemies or neighbouring, communities for sale.

The museum is organized in historical sequence for easy assessment and appreciation by visitors. Each section depicts an aspect of the era with equally symbolic objects and emblems to tell the story. For instance, in the section of the public sale of Negroes, a notice like this was posted: ‘On Tuesday, March 15, 1833 at 1:00p.m the following slaves will be sold at Potters Hart, in Charleston SC. Miscellaneous lots

of Negroes, mostly house servants, some for field work. Conditions: half cash, balance by bond bearing interest from the state of sale…’

The consequence of this was that at every point, slaves made attempt to escape to freedom. The punishment meted out to those caught ranged from cutting their feet or hand, castrating them to utter elimination of their lives. The museum also contained names of those who fought to stop the heinous trade and the dates each country finally agreed to abolish the trade. But UNESCO said more work will be done to update the sites and make them more historically relevant.

A carnival of colours

•A scene from the Lagos carvinal.

B

EYOND the usual frills and thrills occasioned by street carnivals all over the world, the Lagos Heritage Festival stands out as the one that really

PHOTOS: EDOZIE UDEZE

carries the people along. During the last occasion, over 16,000 youths were involved and all the Local Government Areas in the state had one or two schools

representing them.

The MTN sponsored the carnival, according to it, “to simulate commerce and create awareness in the minds of the youths.” Many programmes were infused into it to attract the youths.

Da-silva Taiwo, a Lagos resident who was one of the organisers of the Lagos Heritage Festival said: “It is equally to bring our brothers in the Diaspora into Lagos.” He added: “Lagos is a dynamic state and we have so many of our people who reside outside the state. And so this is one of the best times to make them come home.”

“Apart from that,” Da-silva said, “we have about 20 million people living in Lagos, and we need to keep them in tune with the culture of the people. It mustn’t be all work and no play.

Our carnival is meant to keep you away from serious official matters for a few days. This is why it is more of colours, displays, costumes, acrobatics, celebrations, et al,” he explained.

52

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Arts/Reviews

Books Festivals for national Talking about people development I

•The Benue troupe entertaining guests.

A stakeholders meeting on festivals and carnivals finds common grounds to make the celebrations more meaningful and people-oriented reports Edozie Udeze

W

ITH the advent of both the Calabar and Abuja annual carnivals, there is a resurgence of carnivals and festivals in almost all the states of the federation. But how healthy is this development for the promotion and growth of tourism and culture in Nigeria?

Must states organise annual festivals and carnivals when they do not have the need for them or even when the people for whom these celebrations are meant do not understand and appreciate them.?

These and more were some of the issues raised during a one-day stakeholders’ meeting held at the National Theatre, Lagos, to thrash out some of the problems militating against the culture sector and ways to harmonize and streamline tourism and culture programmes to suit the whims and caprices of the people.

Entitled The Meeting of Carnival Organizers/ Stakeholders, the idea, in the words of Professor Ojo Rasak Bakare, the Artiste Director of Abuja carnival, “is to have a common calendar that inculcates all the festivals and Carnivals from the states to make it easier to attract investors, tourists and sponsors.

There are so many discordant voices in the sector regarding festivals and carnivals. What we are saying is that states can’t just wake up one day and

begin to do festivals. No, it is not done that way,” Bakare stated.

He went on: “Before any state can conceptualize and start its own carnival, we at the federal level ought to be informed. In the first place, we do not have to make the whole thing look as if we are in a competition. As serious culture technocrats, we should have a central calendar which we will let the world know so that every month, tourists who want to visit Nigeria will know what carnival or festival they would like to attend. If we do it that way, we will then create jobs, generate revenues and attract investors.

“After all, the states’ culture and tourism representatives had presented their programmes for the past years.”

Bakare mandated the representatives to fine-tune what they have for the year and send them to his office for proper assessment.

The meeting, however, commended the efforts some states had been making to keep the people’s culture in public eye. Lagos, Osun and Cross River States were singled out as ideal places where carnivals and festivals have been used to promote people’s heritage and empower the people.

Lagos State representatives made it clear that what they do in the state is to create jobs for the youths.

All the materials so far used for all their previous carnivals were sourced locally so that people were offered the opportunity to sell what they had. For now therefore, the Lagos State carnival has been termed domestic tourism, a development that has made the outings one of the most people-oriented street jamborees where school children and youths have had time to learn and dance to their cultures.

In his own response, the Culture and Tourism Minister, Chief Edem Duke, said that the dynamism of culture has made it one of the best instruments of unity and progress in

PHOTO: EDOZIE UDEZE

Nigeria.

He enthused: “Have you seen people fighting while celebrating their carnivals or doing street dances? This is the sort of thing we need as a people to move forward. We need to continually celebrate who we are, what we possess as a people. We must cherish our heritage, preserve them and use them to make money and be happy.”

He charged states to go home and fashion out programmes that will always hold spectators and the local people spellbound.

“You are closer to the grassroots, so give us what is original to us. Let the people see you as seriously promoting and preserving what is dear to them. This is one of the ways you can get the attention of the state government to invest in the sector,” he said.

Responding to all the contributions made, the Federal Director of Culture, George Ufot, said: “Yes, the federal government has identified the Abuja Carnival as a key factor for development and transformation – a sort of rallying point for the people.

And we have to keep giving our support to it. This is partly why we are here and to encourage others to follow suit.

Culture is an everlasting heritage that belongs to the people and it is through their total involvement that we can make it a buoyant source of revenue for the nation.”

On hand to entertain the august gathering were members of the Benue State Performance Troupe who kept the hall perpetually warm for more than five hours. They danced many traditional Tiv, Idoma and Igala dances to show the rich cultural heritage of the people.

A new Abuja Carnival team was equally constituted and inaugurated a few days before the meeting was held.

The minister explained that it was to give new impetus to the dream and to make it more appealing this time around. The team includes Ojo Bakare, Arnold Udoka, Taiwo Oladokun and others.

N this rich compilation of articles originally published in her column in the New Nigerian newspapers, Ramatu AliOhioma takes the reader on a journey.

It is a journey of the issues that have helped to shape discourses on various aspects of the Nigerian state and society – economy, international affairs, policy formulation, health, education, women and children and even personalities as well as transition of certain individuals. The articles not only show the author’s perspectives on the issues at the time they were written, they also reveal, when read today, how those issues have mutated over time.

One of the significant revelations is that the issues that have dominated discourses appear to have remained intractable, such that several years down the line, virtually same issues remain topical, sometimes without any form of mutation in the trajectories of the arguments.

Take for instance the article: ‘The Dangerous Lokoja-Abuja Road’ which the author first published in her New Nigerian column on September 16, 2006.

In that piece, Ramatu wrote: “Today I had wanted to comment about the 100 days

By Jideofor Adibe

in office of our elected representatives but changed my mind at the last minute because I felt there was a pressing issue at hand. It has to do with the alarming rate of road mishaps presently.

“The frequency with which we are losing large number of lives in these accidents even before the end of the year when the situation is normally terrible is quite frightening.

“The recent accident that claimed the lives of seventy people last week on AbujaLokoja road is a sad reminder of the long standing problem. This particular route has become a death trap over the years because of the heavy traffic that struggle for space on that narrow road.”

More than five years after Ramatu first wrote the piece, the Lokoja-Abuja road remains a hot spot for not only accidents but also armed robbery. So what has government been doing since then, one may ask? How come that virtually nothing has changed on a road that attracted such an attention more than five years ago?

Journalists, especially those who maintain regular columns, are often said to write ‘history in a hurry’. For experienced writers who take out time to do research before writing, that does not mean that what they write is factually wrong.

My understanding of that phrase in its positive sense is that such journalists/columnists are able to infuse into their writings the passions and emotions that go with the issues they write about as they unfold.

There are sufficient doses of such passions and emotions in this compilation.

In this sense, unlike the analyst or the historian who writes several years after the incident they write about occurred and can therefore afford to be detached, the journalist/columnist, as someone often affected by the issue he/she writes about, is more of an activist writer. Yes, they can be neutral and objective, but detachment in the mould of the historian and the analyst is often a luxury they cannot afford.

Obi’s travails

O

BIAGELI Nneoma Igwegbe in this wellcrafted children book tells the story of Obi and Ada. The story is very instructive for children who indulge in bad habits and indifferent attitude to their studies. Until Obi paid a visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, he was a playful boy who could not read his books but preferred to play football and other pranks.

At school, Ada was doing better and hoping to

By Edozie udeze

be a medical doctor. By the time Obi realised where he was, it was almost too late for him. On the second impulse, however, he recalled his visit to the Villa and vowed thereby to become the president of the country.

When he told his classmates that he wanted to be the president of the nation, they snubbed and mocked him. But, with determination and courage, he later rose to

be very important in life, even to the chagrin of his peers and critics.

‘We have been short-changed in Bayelsa’

H

E feels the need to operate around his Niger-Delta base.

But, to Seleprei Tonbie, a Bayelsa-based theatre arts practitioner and entertainment promoter, the current level of the entertainment sector of Bayelsa State is not one to be happy about. Put simply, he believes Bayelsans have not been benefiting as it should.

“It seems we have been short-changed by the state government,” Tonbie said recently.

He also hammered the oil companies, breweries, and telecoms companies for neglecting Bayelsa State.

“Whenever they hold shows, they hardly ever come to the state,” Tonbie, who also manages artistes, said, citing shows like the Star Trek which does not come to Yenagoa. “Is it that the people of Bayelsa don’t consume Star Beer, or they don’t use Glo and MTN?” he queried.

Though, Tonbie agreed that the level of security could be responsible, he, however, said there is good

By Joe Agbro Jr.

security in the state as the African Movie Academy Award (AMAA), which from inception used to be held in Yenagoa. This year, however, the show for the first time is taking place in Lagos, outside Bayelsa. This peeves Tonbie.

“How does this AMAA benefit the people of Bayelsa State?” he asks. “None of the films slated for the awards have been made in Bayelsa State. And you know for every movie, they would need carpenters, drivers, electricians, hoteliers, and all other people. But you know there is no injection of this sort to the state.”

He is also urging the Governor Seriake Dicksonled state government to support home grown artists and to come up with a holistic approach to supporting the arts and entertainment in the state.

Tonbie trained as theatre artist at the University of PortHarcourt, Rivers State and he established the Providence Global Resources (PGR), which has forayed into the entertainment sector in the

•Tonbie

Niger delta. A playwright, Tonbie has written several plays which include Give them a chance, A day in the dark, The black gold, A new dawn in the delta, The scourge, and Too young for love.

His recent play, Offsprings of the creeks highlights the frustrations of Niger Delta youths.

Tonbie staged the first edition of the Bayelsa Peace Carnival on August 22, 2010, which featured a peace walk to commemorate the first anniversary of the submission of highest return of arms by Niger Delta militants in Bayelsa.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

53

Burnt Boluwatife cries for help —PAGE 55

•Ema

PHOTOS: TAIWO ABIDOUN

•Magaret

•Sandra

Human Bazaar Despite efforts by governments and organisations to stop child trafficking, it still continues especially in places like Shaki in Oyo North. Taiwo Abiodun, who was in the area recently, reports •Road to Lome from Shaki Oyo State

A

FULLY loaded trailer covered with tarpaulin and loaded with smuggled goods such as petroleum products, irons rods and other materials was headed to Togo. An okada rider confided in the reporter that whoever challenges the drivers will be attacked. “They are armed. They usually hide their riffles when not challenged.

With their arms and ammunition they can do anything and these are become apparent when there is crisis at the border.’’

Another fully loaded trailer painted in blue colour was sighted where it was neatly parked at the border. The reporter’s attempt to take some snap shots of the lorry was advised against by the okada rider, he warned sternly, “Don’t take any picture here except you are ready to die!’’

Veritable escape route The road that leads to Togo is not tarred. It is a bush track and is reputed to

be the favourite route of politicians and intellectuals seeking to escape from the country during the brutal reign of the military, especially under Gen. Sani Abacha.

In fact, it was said to be the path through which the Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka sneaked out of the country posing as a hunter! The late Chief Adisa Akinloye, former chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the second Republic was said to have used the same route when the military struck in the 80s.

But now the route has become notorious for human trafficking The most notorious border Among Nigerian borders especially in the South West, Shaki in Oyo State, is noted for having the most notorious and porous routes thus making it a favourite lair for human traffickers and smugglers.

The many routes serve as entry points to

many of the neighbouring countries. Here ordinary villagers act as security agents.

They wear no uniforms nor bear arms.

They only ask those who want to cross the borders innocuous questions and collect tolls from drivers and issue receipts.

They do not check loads carried by vehicles, nor such entry documents such as passports. All they require is for the person seeking to enter the country to grease their palms and then cross to the other side. Though they are not armed, their stern look and vigilance ensure they keep an eagle eye on all that transpires at the borders, which is mostly populated by petty traders, food vendors, mendicants, women of easy virtues and liquor sellers.

Methods and new dimension To secure a house maid there are many methods the traffickers devise so as to evade the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons’ [NAPTIP]

campaign against human trafficking.

One of these is through the use of motor or bikes, cars, or trekking through the bush path.

The Sango Motor Park is where many of the Togolese are brought to begin their journey to their final destinations. At the park are the old and mostly rickety Peugeot 504 cars used for conveying them. Many sit on the vehicle’s rooftop along with the loads placed on them. The reporter’s guide explained that “Many have fallen off like this and have died in the process. Some go by taking an okada from Lome or to Shaki.” When approached, the Lome bound driver told the reporter who posed as a potential client that to get a maid “Is based on arrangement and proper negotiation between the customer and the driver. We charge N6,000 per head to bring a house help •Continued on Page 54

54

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Life •Continued from Page 53

from Togo to this Sango Motor park while the customer will have to negotiate with them on how much she or he would be paying the house help at the end of every month’’, the driver who identified himself as Yusuf explained with confidence.

He was enthusiastic to assist bring the reporter to bring some maids from Togo over an agreed price.

Further investigations showed that Thursday is the ‘market day’. On this day, maids are brought to the ‘market’ and the whole thing is organised like a bazaar.

According to the guide, “Thursday is always the best day to find these Togolese.

You will be able select and pick. It is like a bazaar market, and there you need a strong bargaining power and again there are agents waiting there too.’’

Most of the streets in Shaki are noted for this kind of business. When The Nation met some women sitting on the pavement of a shop and when approached by the reporter he was rebuffed and told “Please go away, we know whom we are waiting for. We are not coming to meet you because you did not invite us.’’ According to Mr. Sikiru, a native of the town, the women and their children were waiting for their agents to take them to Ibadan, Lagos, Port Harcourt or wherever their services are needed as house maids.

“They are everywhere in Shaki and they have confidence and move around freely as if they are Nigerians.’’

He added that the police authorities are aware of their presence and allowed them to roam the streets and motor parks without hindrance. According to investigation there are agents noted for this business. “There are some people who come here to demand for them. He would assure them of where to stay even with their kids. They are recruited in Togo before they get here. Many go into prostitution to make a living. Some agents would pose as car dealers or merchants but their job is recruitment of human beings. The recruitment agency would take them in and employ them in companies, hotels, beer parlous and joints.”

Most of the deals in Shaki are carried out in hotels and beer parlous so as to escape from the scrutiny of security agencies. At a beer parlour, the reporter asked the bar manager to link him with an agent, but he said, “If it were yesterday [Saturday] that you came you could have seen some they brought here, they were looking for people to hire them. Anyway let us know when you will come back again and we would have arranged for you.’’

At the bar were three young Togolese: Sandra Asha, Magaret and Yunsia were attending to customers. They were conversing in a Togolese language. Two of them said they came from Bassa in Togo, while the third spoke smattering French. They all chatted with the reporter and asked him to come back for a house maid who will follow him to Lagos.

Another Togolese, aged between six or seven was served as a maid in one of the bars in Shaki. She told the reporter, “I be Togo, I dey work for mama’’, when asked whether the woman was her biological mother, she shook her head to say ‘no’ No fixed address Many of these Togolese, according to Mr. Joseph Ade, entered the country without having any immigration papers or records, “This is dangerous as many do commit crimes and leave without giving any address and if nobody checks it could be fake thus making it difficult to trace them when they commit crimes.” Corroborating Ade’s words recently, a woman [names withheld] in Ajah lost over N30million worth of jewelleries to a Togolese. The woman begged for anonymity. According to her, she recruited a Togolese as the driver, chef, security officer and house help. However, one day after she came back from church, she discovered that all of them have absconded with her treasure! The addresses they gave were all fake and the owner of the agency who recruited them for her had also bolted away.

Booming trade in human trafficking

•Chief Omofoweyo and Chief Adekunle

Age and gender has no barrier at all and depending on what the clients want, another Togolese girl of about 12 told the reporter, “I come from Togo, my mama no money, my papa die, e long. We no get nothing and we go eat. I trekked from my place, enter okada come to Nigeria. I dey work.

Dem dey pay N4000 for month.’’

Why Nigerians prefer them Getting a house maid or help among Nigerians is now tough as most parents prefer to send their wards to school or to learn a trade. This has made a recourse to Togolese and other nationals in the West

•Shaki Garage in Oyo North.

“Another fully loaded trailer painted blue was sighted where it was neatly parked at the border.

The reporter’s attempt to take some snap shots of the lorry was advised against by the okada rider. he warned sternly: “Don’t take any picture here except you are ready to die!’’

African sub region attractive coupled with the fact that they are cheaper to maintain.

Most don’t need to go to school and only return home once at the end of the year.

Madam Mary Okafor said she has lost crave for foreign maids because of their duplicity. “Before now you can trust them more than your siblings, but not now they are too smart and cannot be trusted any longer.’’

Segun Kayode a business man in Shaki said the town is known for bunkering business “Look my brother, this town is notorious for bunkering and some other illegal business, and it is always difficult for them to arrest since they connive with the security officers.”

When contacted, Chief Omofoweyo Azeez Adeleke, the Bakoja of Shaki confirmed that the town has been noted for human trafficking and other things because of its closeness to the borders. It is a business that has continued to grow in dimension and new tricks devised to beat the law against human and child trafficking.

When The Nation visited the zonal head office of NAPTIP in Lagos, the head, Mr. Odetunde Taofeek confirmed that Shaki has the highest number of human trafficking because of its proximity to other neighbouring towns. He said, “We are aware of the high rate of human trafficking…we know people move in and out.” He added that most of the immigrants were deceived by the traffickers by being told ‘sweet tales’ about Nigeria. He observed that “There is the assumption that Nigeria is Eldorado, where they will get all the good things of life. So they would be bringing people; both old and young into the country. Stories to convince them of the possibilities of life here. They will tell them that they would get good job, good shelter, good food and even live the best lives. Of course, when they pay for transportation, shelter and feeding, they would first believe it is rosy until when they come in to face reality of life. They are exploited, abused and given or paid peanuts to their chagrin. It is sheer wickedness.’’

Taofeek said NAPTIP has organised series of workshops and advocacy campaigns to curb the act, “We do sensitization / advocacy visits to the towns. Presently, we are working together with our State Working Group in Oyo State, anti- trafficking groups that comprises the State Security Service, Immigration, the police and relevant recognized Non Governmental Organizations.”

So far, the efforts of the organization have led to the rescue of more than 1,700 victims of human trafficking. Its activities are not restricted to Nigeria alone, it has spread its campaigns across the West coast. This led to the holding of a three-day meeting held with the Benin Republic at which the Executive Secretary of NAPTIP, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba led the Nigerian Consultative Meeting in Abeokuta ,Ogun State, while Mr. Ekpinse Emile represented the Benin Republic.

At the meeting held on February 6-8, the issue of how to curb the menace was discussed extensively “We are working day and night and any where we hear of any such information we would go there and do the necessary things. We need to rescue these people and stop them from being exploited and abused.’’

On what constitutes human trafficking, he describes it as “When you move a person from Point A and take him to Point B, C and D; you have already enslaved him for if you feed, transport and give him reception… you have enslaved him and that is human trafficking! That is what all these traffickers do and in the end they will end up paying them pittance. Shaki is a notorious route for trafficking.”

The question then is: who will stop this notoriety?

Life

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

T

O take Boluwatife Arowolaje’s picture was a harrowing experience. What would have been considered a simple act of clicking at a camera’s shutters was for her agonising. She squirmed with every touch on her body, wincing in pain and groans with every move she made. Swathed in bandages from her left bum up to her neck, draping her arms, and her scalded face, one could easily mistake her for an Egyptian mummy! Totally naked, save the bandages which covered severe burns sustained via a kerosene explosion, she lay in the children’s ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, when this reporter visited her on Wednesday evening.

For Boluwatife’s benefit, her father, Muyiwa Arowolaje, maintained a cheerful mien. As Bolu, as she’s called, croaked that she wanted to lie down after eating some fried rice, her father chirped happily to her. While Bolu’s scarred face and scaled skin and loud groans reflected her pains, the father’s cheery appearance hides his pain. But, in between a meal of amala and ewedu soup, his first for the day, he couldn’t hold back his tears. “I know the Lord would help her,” he gushed, wiping away tears from his eyes.

The road to injury Her ordeal started innocuously at about 8:30pm on April 5. She had gone to light a kerosene lantern in the one-room apartment she and her family stayed in Ijoko, on the boundary of Lagos and Ogun States. In that area, as in other parts of the country, epileptic power supply was the norm.

Hence, Bolu who would be ten years old on May 19 was used to lighting the kerosene lantern which many families resorted to, to combat darkness. It was a task she had performed over and over before. But, nothing prepared her for the explosion which licked at her face, making the fire sear her nylon blouse to burn her skin.

According to Segun, Bolu’s 16 year-old older brother, she was in a ball of fire as she fled, heading for the highway. “It was only when a man used a chair to block her that she was able to be stopped,” he said.

Segun said she refused to speak to anyone until he arrived on the scene. It was later that it was gathered that as she struck a match to light the wick of the lantern, Bolu just realised she was engulfed in flames, prompting her to scream and dash across the streets.

Bolu’s father said he suspects that the keg the family used to store kerosene had been earlier borrowed by an unknown person to buy petrol and the fumes from the petrol caused the explosion.

From a first aid treatment in a nearby hospital where raw eggs was rubbed on her body, she was rushed to the General Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State. The authorities there rejected to admit here on the grounds that there was no facility to treat her burns. Still reeling in pains and the crude first aid treatment of raw eggs applied on her, Bolu was brought to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH), Ikeja, where she couldn’t be admitted due to a doctors’ strike. It was from there that her family took her to the Lagos Univesrsity Teaching Hospital, (LUTH), IdiAraba, where she was admitted on April 7.

Upon arrival at LUTH, she underwent surgery immediately. The surgery, her equally little but elder brother continued, “is to allow her recover the use of her hands,” in a frank adult way. Though, she’s healing but as she stands at the moment, her upper body is without a layer. To urinate, a rubber tube is passed from her private parts to a plastic bag.

Since being admitted, Segun who has assumed responsibilities usually foisted on adults, said Bolu’s bandages are changed daily, a process that takes more than an hour.

No doubt, this must be agonising for Bolu.

But, it is all part of the treatment.

Outside the ward, Segun joins his mother and father to maintain watch. On his Facebook account, he posted pictures of his sister on his page. Speaking in fluent English with a small voice, the 16 year old Segun casts a mien of wishing to rewind back the sad incidence of that April 5 night.

But, at the moment, the family has taken to camping on the corridors of LUTH. At night, father and son keep vigil while Bolu’s mother who is still breast-feeding the last child goes home to sleep to return the next day. When he is not allowed in the ward at night, the father has a piece of carton he uses as bed. But, he knows how worse things could have been.

“What if school was on and my son (Segun) is

55

Burnt Boluwatife cries for help

•Mr. Muyiwa Arowolaje and his daughter Bolu at LUTH

PHOTOS: JOE AGBRO JR.

•Bolu on the sick bed

By Joe Agbro Jr. here with me,” he said.

Bolu’s mother, a petty trader looks overwhelmed as she goes about caring in her little ways for her family. Her father wishes he can take his daughter’s place. “I wish,” he said, “that it’s me with the pains.”

But, for Bolu’s father, a house painter, perhaps his greatest worry is how to raise the funds for the huge medical bills which Bolu’s treatment is set to gulp. Not in steady employment, he is nearly at his wit’s end. For a man who has to work as a night-guard to

earn extra income for his family of five children, Bolu’s predicament is surely throwing him a herculean challenge. He has resorted to borrowing from friends and family members to cough out about N400, 000 for Bolu’s treatment so far. But, the costs are very far from being over.

Though, Bolu’s parents are poor, from the elocution of Bolu and Segun, it is evident that they have spent good money to educate their children.

Described by her grandmother, Mrs. Sanbe, as a “very intelligent girl,” school for Bolu who was in primary five at Glory Kiddies Model School, Ijoko, is not in the radar anytime

soon. She will literally need to have her skin back before that is possible.

But, with a prohibitive cost of treatment which has taken its toll on the Arowolaje’s finances, hope is dimming and they are hanging by a little thread. The family is now calling out on we-meaning individuals to reach out to them. Trusting on the usual Nigerian goodwill and milk of kindness, the family believes their daughter is going to pull through this ordeal with the assistance of all.

For information on how to help, contact; Muyiwa Arowolaje: 08084360508 Segun Arowolaje: 07084404408

56

Your HEALTH THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

The survivors of the trovafloxacin test attempted to bring a number of legal actions against Pfizer in the United States. These attempts resulted in a 15-year legal battle against Pfizer after which the parents of four Nigerian children who died of meningitis became the first set winners of over the fiercely controversial drug trial receiving about $175,000 (£108,000) each. The other families are yet to be compensated.

Since the disease is known to be potentially fatal, it should always be viewed as a medical emergency explains Dr. Braimoh.

Offering advice on treatment, he expresses, “Every patient that we receive with an illness of meningitis is classified as a high risk patient. A range of antibiotics can treat the infection but it is important to rush to the hospital as soon as possible to prevent the disease from worsening the internal state of a patients system.”

It is hoped that all 25 countries in the African meningitis belt will be free from the disease by 2016 therefore eliminating this

Meningitis on the rise

LIKELY VICTIMS •Anas-Mustapha one of the children given experimental drug, Trovan

W

ITH cases of deaths stemming from meningitis on the increase around the country, health officials have begun raising the alarm on the impending catastrophe if the situation goes unchecked.

In the last four weeks, a total of 14 cases, nine admissions and three deaths had been discovered, says the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care (NPHC) Development Agency, Ado Mohammed, at a media briefing in Abuja.

This figure, however, does not include a newly reported outbreak of Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) which has infected 24 others in Adamawa State with more than seven people declared dead from the disease.

According to another director in the city primary healthcare department, Malam Muhammad Iya-Hammawa, “So far the Local Government Healthcare Department has reports of 10 cases of meningitis from the Federal Medical Centre, Jos, out of which two deaths were recorded. The affected areas included Damare, Jambutu and Wuro Hausa wards.”

Although the Executive Director, NPHC Development Agency had, in his briefing, assured Nigerians that the agency was stepping up efforts to combat the reported cases of outbreak of meningitis in parts of the country, Iya-Hammawa revealed that “the health department needed about 250,000 dosages of vaccines to immunise the people

By Rita Ohai

in the area and that the Hepatitis B Virus and yellow fever vaccines were in short supply in the area, making it difficult to carry out immunisation.”

Dr. Seun Braimoh of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital shed light on the nature of the deadly disease: ”Meningitis is a contagious infection that occurs when the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord is crossed by the micro-organism.

This often leads to the inflammation of the tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and can be caused by viral or bacterial infections.”

Explaining its mode of infection, he said, “The organism is transmitted from personto-person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions from carriers. It spreads mainly through kisses, sneezes, coughs and in close living quarters or sharing eating utensils, a toothbrush or a cigarette. You're also at increased risk if you work with someone who has the disease.”

Giving insight to some of the indicative symptoms, Dr Eunice Alegbe of Health Sinai Diagnostic Clinic narrated, “Meningitis is such a dangerous diseases that once a person is infected, the patient will notice a difference in the way he or she feels. Usually, the most common symptoms of meningitis are headache and neck stiffness associated with fever, confusion or altered consciousness, vomiting, and an inability to tolerate light or •Fiddausi Abdullahi Madaki, a victim of the Trovan drug tested on children during a meningitis epidemic

loud noises. Sometimes, especially in small children, you may have cases of irritability and drowsiness. If a rash is present, it may indicate a particular cause of meningitis; for instance, meningitis caused by meningococcal bacteria may be accompanied by a characteristic rash.”

Highlighting one of the reasons why the spread of the disease is rapid in parts of Nigeria, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) posits, “Basic healthcare is limited in rural parts of Nigeria, where most people live on less than N300 a day, despite the country's huge oil resources.”

The increase in reported cases generally begins around the start of the year and peaks in the February to April dry season because of dust, winds and cold nights, before dipping around May when the rains come.

In a 2009 report, Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health recorded 23,528 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 1131 deaths with sixty-six local government areas in Nigeria crossing the 'epidemic threshold'. The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the emergence of an epidemic in Nigeria and stepped up vaccinations and other management measures.

According to the governing health body, WHO, this disease was an epidemic in over 50 areas of the country. Stating that the outbreak of 2009 was bigger than usual, tagging it 'the worst known meningitis outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa'.

In response to the distress call, WHO released 2.3 million doses of vaccines to Nigeria. Nearly 13 million doses were stockpiled and in 2011, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad launched a vaccination campaign for their citizens using a new vaccine, MenAfriVac, which was created to target the deadly Group A meningitis.

Parents and guardians have been advised to vaccinate their children since successful test trials of MenAfriVac have reportedly been conducted to prevent a reccurrence of the 1996 incident where 11 children died in a clinical trial in the northern state of Kano due to Pfizer (now Niemeth PLC), a Sam Ohuabunwa-led pharmaceutical company's decision to conduct tests of Trovan (trovafloxacin) and Ceftriaxone, both antibiotics, on 100 children. Many others were afflicted suffering blindness, deafness, and cognitive damage, life-altering injuries characteristic of meningitis.

Meningitis affects both men and women equally. For unclear reasons, AfricanAmericans seem to develop meningitis more frequently than do people of other races. Risk factors which place people at higher risk for bacterial meningitis include the following: 1) Adults older than 60 years of age and children younger than 5 years of age 2) People with alcoholism problems and drug (marijuana, Indian hemp, prescribed, e.t.c) users 3) People with sickle cell anemia, diabetes and cancer (especially those receiving chemotherapy) 4) People who have received transplants and are taking drugs that suppress the immune system, 5) Those recently exposed to meningitis at home by living in close quarters (military barracks, dormitories) or in other crowded public places.

PREVENTION Meningitis is usually caused by a number of micro-organisms. The most common is Streptococcus pneumonia. Some of the others are Neisseria meningitides, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib).These steps can help prevent meningitis: Wash your hands: Careful hand washing is important to avoiding exposure to infectious agents. Teach your children to wash their hands often, especially before they eat and after using the toilet, spending time in a crowded public place or petting animals. Show them how to wash their hands vigorously, covering both the front and back of each hand with soap and rinsing thoroughly under running water.

Stay healthy: Maintain your immune system by getting enough rest, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy diet with plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Cover your mouth: When you need to cough or sneeze, be sure to cover your mouth and nose.

Cooking practices: If you're pregnant, take care with food. Reduce your risk of listeriosis if you're pregnant by cooking meat thoroughly and avoiding cheeses made from unpasteurized milk.

Immunizations: Some forms of bacterial meningitis are preventable with vaccinations. It is necessary to present yourself for vaccination especially in the dry season to help your body resist infection.

Avoid congested areas: The microorganism which leads to the disease spreads rapidly in crowded areas especially when an infected person is present. Staying away from such places can reduce the chances of getting Meningitis.

57

BUSINESS

‘Nigeria’s maritime potential remains untapped’

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Sanusi’s stream of reforms T

HERE is no doubt that Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi believes in the philosophical mantra: ‘The largest room in this world is the room for improvement.’

This perhaps explains why his administration has witnessed a deluge of reforms, churned out with speed and rapidity, as though his whole life depends on it!

A governor obsessed with reforms His obsession with reforms is such that he has no qualms at all in making policy pronouncements once he is convinced towing such line would help to further realise the set objectives of his reforms agenda in the banking and financial service sector.

Corroborating the foregoing, Mr. Stanley Ojo, an economist, cited the new account opening with zero amounts, a policy which took effect last Tuesday.

The apex bank, Ojo recalled, had last week ordered all banks in Nigeria to allow new customers to open account with zero amount to attract more people into the banking system.

Usually, banks request new customers to open account with a specific amount of money referred to as minimum account opening balance.

But the CBN in the new monetary, credit foreign trade and exchange policy guidelines said that banks should no longer request for such amount of money.

It said, in line with the financial inclusion initiative, banks shall be required to demand zero balances for opening new bank accounts so as to make banking services accessible to the unbanked public.

Accordingly, banks are encouraged to develop new products that would improve access to credit. Banks are, therefore, required to simplify their account opening processes, without necessarily compromising the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, Ojo stressed.

The apex bank also disallowed banks from adopting any interest rate calculating method that can result into customers paying higher effective interest rate. It also said there should be no ceiling on balance on savings account for payment of interest rates.

The policy stated, “Banks shall continue to pay negotiated interest rates on current account deposits. Where special purpose deposits are held for more than seven days, banks shall pay interest at a rate negotiated with the customer.

“The reducing balance method shall be used for calculating interest charges on loans repayable installmentally. The use of any other method for calculating interest on loans payable in agreed installments, such as the discount method of the simple interest straight line method; that would result in the payment of higher effective rates of interest than the contracted rate is not allowed.”

The policy, Ojo stressed, was spot-on considering the fact that

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, under Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the last three years has initiated a number of reforms geared towards deepening the banking and financial service sector. But have these policy initiatives being worth the trouble?

Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf reports

•Sanusi

it would help to further deepen the financial service sector.

Echoing similar sentiments, Gbenga Durosinmi said the CBN deserves a pat on the back for helping banks in the country to grow healthy unlike what obtained abroad in the wake of the global financial meltdown.

According to Durosinmi, “We have a lot to be thankful for the reforms introduced by the CBN. You will recall that unlike the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, where many of the banks literarily collapsed under the weight of the global financial crisis, most Nigerian banks are out of harm’s way and gradually returning to profitability.

“But for some of these reforms, like the limiting of tenure of banks CEOs to a maximum of 10 years among other initiatives, the rot in the banking sector would have since consumed the economy.”

Genesis of reforms It is also instructive to note that the CBN banking sector reforms was a response to not only the devastating impact of the global financial crisis but as well as the proven rot caused by the absence of corporate governance in most banking institutions.

Determined to right the many wrongs in the sector, the CBN and NDIC commissioned special examination of 24 banks in August 14, 2009. The inquisition revealed that eight banks had serious deficiencies in capital adequacy and liquidity require-

ments, poor corporate governance practice, non-existence risk management The CBN subsequently took some decisive steps such as sacking the affected banks’ CEOs, injecting the sum of N620 billion as bailout into the banks.

Besides, the CBN also set machinery in place to pursue loan recovery, cost minimisation, deposit stabilisation, liquidity management and implementation of recapitilisation plan with strategic partners.

This of course, was made possible by the creation of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, which took over non-performing loans and further injected the sum of N679 billion to the three nationalised banks, namely, Keystone, Mainstreet and Enterprise Banks respectively.

Speaking on the entire reform programmes at a public forum in Abuja recently, Sanusi said “the blueprint for the reforming of the Nigerian financial system in the next decade was built around four pillars” which he said, in some cases the CBN needed to take the lead, while in others to play key advocacy role.

He outlined the four pillars to include enhancing the quality of banks, establishing financial stability, enabling healthy financial sector evolution and ensuring that the financial sector contributes to real economy.

Sanusi said the reform was meant to encapsulate a holistic set of strategies and initiatives de-

signed to stabilize the banking sector and promote long sustainable growth of the sector and the economy as a whole. He outlined the strategies and initiatives to include fixing the problems of the banks, tighter regulation, and adoption of risk based supervision, effective consumer protection and reform of the CBN itself.

Development of the real sector The CBN, like other banks in a developing economy, cannot restrict itself to monetary policy alone. The development and sustenance of vibrant real sector is germane to the efficacy or otherwise of monetary policy tools; hence quest by the CBN to striving to develop the real sector.

In view of this, the CBN has been involved in many developmental roles geared towards revamping and growing the economy.

These include: establishment of N200 billion Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs); Establishment of Commercial Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (CACS) by the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance & Water Resources to finance agricultural value chain; Provision of N200 billion Refinancing and Restructuring Facility (RRF) to create credit and support for the development of the real sector; and Establishment of N500 billion power and Airline Intervention Fund (PAI), a facility for investments in a debenture issued by the Bank of Industry (BOI).

Specifically, the CBN in 2010 established SME Guarantee Scheme with the aim of promoting access to credit by SMEs in Nigeria. This intervention fund of N200 billion is being managed by the BOI for the for purpose of fast tracking the development of the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy by providing access to credit as well as providing guarantee for credit from banks to SMEs to manufacturers, among other objectives.

The fund was meant to complement other special initiatives of the CBN in providing concessionary funding for Agriculture such as ACGS which was mostly for small scale farmers, interest draw back scheme, Agricultural Support Scheme, etc. The economic benefit of this scheme was the improved lending rate to the real sector.

The entrepreneurs under this scheme enjoyed cheap source of finance (7 percent) and easy access to credit. It further empowered the SEMEs by providing access to funds. As such jobs that would have been lost were stable as a result of intervention.

-- Page 59

Briefs Tom Associates organises media training

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EDIA practitioners were intellectually engaged in an educative session during the week as Tom Associates held its one day pre-retirement, leadership training course tagged ‘Managing a new beginning’ at its Development Centre in Anthony, Lagos.

Facilitating the course was the Executive Director and Consultant, Mr. Abiodun Toki, who says, “The training is geared towards encouraging the growth and personal development of communications personnel in a bid to help them prepare for a life after retirement.”

Toki further stressed the need for media executives to display positive attributes such as the ability to take decisions, integrity, enthusiasm and willingness to work hard, innovativeness and a thorough understanding of people.

Also functioning in the teaching capacity was Mrs. Folashade Mabadeje as she gave insights to the importance of proper health management.

The programme was part of the company’s line-up of events to mark its 20th anniversary. Tom Associates, a leading management development institution, was formed in 1992.

Jonathan, Obasanjo for national security confab

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RESIDENT Goodluck will declare open a two-day national conference on Culture, Peace and National Security which holds from May 7 and 8, 2012, in Abuja.

The conference, which is to be chaired by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, will also have the Niger State Governor, Aliyu Babangida, the 774 local government chairmen, and state commissioners and traditional rulers in attendance.

The Director-General of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, (NICO), Dr. Barclay Ayakoroma, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja over the weekend, said the conference is aimed at finding lasting solution to the security challenges in the country.

He said, “The peace and security in Nigeria has come to the fore, there is a cultural dimension in our communities and the best way to solve it is through the traditional rulers. Culture has to be maintained for peace to reign. With that, security is guaranteed.

“The traditional rulers know everybody in their community and if anything happens, there is always a security network bringing all the community to book.

From observations, these things are not there any-more.”

“There has to be synergy between the traditional rulers and the communities to ameliorate this problem,” he stressed.

Ayakoroma stated that at the end of the conference there will be a working document which will be presented to the government.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

Business Intelligence

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O recapitulate the prophetic words of Victor Hugo, “You cannot stop an idea whose time has come.”

The foregoing just about summarises the raison d’être behind the establishment of the Ministry of Trade and Investment by President Goodluck Jonathan barely a year ago under the supervision of Dr. Olusegun Aganga.

Among other things, the target for the ministry was to create about three million jobs annually, attract foreign direct investment, support the small and medium enterprises as well as grow the economy.

The Presidency at the time, said the choice of Aganga to head the new ministry was based on his outstanding private sector background, resultoriented growth initiatives in his one year as Nigeria’s finance minister.

But as with everything new, many people had deepseated animosity as well expressed mute indifference as to how the new ministry was going to turn the tide towards the country’s socio-economic development.

Critics particularly expressed fears that the Federal Government had not shown the political will to pursue some of these so-called laudable objectives being mooted as justification of the setting of the ministry.

But indications are that Aganga and his team may have proved the bookmakers wrong and perhaps also surpassed the expectations of many Nigerians.

Investigation by The Nation revealed that the ministry has designed a blueprint capable of laying the framework for the harmonisation of the nation’s enormous potentials as well as help in no small measures to galvanise local and foreign investors and ultimately drive the economy.

Unfolding of N34trillion investment inflow Few weeks after its creation, Aganga unveiled a roadmap towards achieving a N34 trillion investment inflow in Nigeria within four years in line with the vision 2020:20 agenda.

Towards this end, the minister, early this year, announced that between July and December 2011, a whopping investment package totalling N4.89tn

Aganga’s trade and investment agenda A year after the creation of the Ministry of Trade and Investment, hitherto known as the Ministry of Trade and Commerce, stakeholders give an assessment of the minister, Dr. Olusegun Aganga ministry touted as a key factor in the realisation of President Good Jonathan’s transformation agenda, Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf and Toba Agboola report had been secured from local and foreign investors by the ministry.

Of this amount, local investors accounted for N2.67tn, while the balance of N2.22tn was being expected from foreign investors.

According to the minister, the investment commitments were secured during the over 60 investor meetings held in Nigeria and abroad.

A breakdown of the proposed investments from foreign companies showed that an American company, Vulcan Energy International, had finalised plans to invest N620bn in the oil and gas sector within the next one year.

Besides, GE Healthcare from the United Kingdom and GE Electric from the United States, have made a combined investment proposal of N379.12bn targeted at the health and transport sectors of the economy.

Also, a consortium of European investors commenced the process of investing N240bn in the power, petroleum and housing sub-sectors within the next five years.

Creation of Trade and Investment desks at embassies As part of efforts to achieve the set objectives of the ministry, the nation’s embassies all over the world will soon have Trade and Investment Desks set up to handle issues of international trade.

Aganga who announced the plan at a meeting with exporters in Abuja, said one of the ministry’s targets is to double Nigeria’s export capacity to the United Kingdom, United States, China, India and several other countries.

The minister further said the ministry had been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that this will fur-

•Aganga

ther serve as a fillip towards attracting foreign direct investment.

Review of the trade policy The minister recently received the report on the review of Nigeria’s trade policy.

The committee, headed by the Chairman/Executive Director, Centre for Trade and Development Initiatives, Prof.

Ademola Oyejide, was inaugurated last year to review the country’s existing trade policies. The last time Nigeria reviewed its trade policy was 10 years ago.

A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the minister, Mrs. Yemi Kolapo, noted that the report, which was ready for the input and approval of stakeholders, would lead to the birth of a workable and result-oriented trade and investment policy in the next few weeks.

Receiving the committee’s

report, the minister noted that the new policy would provide a comprehensive roadmap for boosting Nigeria’s domestic, regional and international trade as well as facilitate the inflow of investments into the country.

Bill on made in Nigeria goods underway After so much publicity on the made-in-Nigeria campaign, the ministry is putting finishing touches to a bill that will enforce compliance as well as the patronage of made in Nigeria goods.

Speaking in Abuja recently, Aganga assured that the proposed bill will focus on patronage of products that Nigeria has the capacity to produce when passed into law.

Intervention funds for the manufacturing company The Central Bank of Nigeria N200billion intervention

funds which is being disbursed through the ministry by the Bank of Industry (BOI) for re-financing and resuscitation of the manufacturing sector has been a success with over 400 companies as beneficiaries so far.

According to the Deputy Director, Development Finance, CBN, Mr. Akintunde Sowunmi, the scheme has been a success.

“We expect the banks on their part to play their roles. Due diligence is expected from them. All these is been done in order to transform the industrial sector, most especially the manufacturing sub-sector,” Akintunde said.

Fight against substandard goods Another area which the ministry has recorded success is in the fight against fake products.

The ministry, through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) launched zero tolerance campaign against substandard products in the country.

The campaign against substandard products, Aganga said, is in tune with the transformational agenda of the government which places emphasis on deepening trade, increasing productivity of local industries, encouraging foreign investment, focusing on the growth of small, medium enterprises (SMEs) among others.

Registration of businesses within 48hours The ministry is working on modalities that will reduce the cost and procedures of starting a business and make it possible for both Nigerians and foreigners to start their businesses within 48 hours.

Aganga disclosed this during the first Doing Business Workshop in Abuja. He said government was intensifying efforts at removing the bottlenecks associated with doing business in Nigeria by harmonising taxes collected by both local and

state governments in line with the Federal Government’s efforts at improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria He said: “Our long-term goal is to ensure that businesses can be started in this country within 48 hours. A number of state governments are also harmonising taxes and levies among themselves and the local governments in their domain to avoid saddling companies.”

Stakeholders’ assessment According to the former Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mazi Sam Ohunanbunwa, Aganga holds the promise of good fortunes for the industrial sector based on his antecedents.

“Aganga as Minister of Trade and Investment has shown that he has a mind for results. I mean, he has demonstrated that he is a person who does not just believe in economic theory, but loves to see the impact of this in real terms.”

“With his international exposure, he knows that jobs are created through investment, that every kobo you put into an investment will ultimately create jobs, especially if put into a productive activity,” Ohunabunwa said.

Echoing similar sentiments, the President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Goddie Ibru lauded Aganga for his efforts at repositioning the economy.

In the assertion of Ibru, the nation’s economy has not received the right kind of attention in the last few years. A development, he regretted had left the economy in dire straits.

On his part, the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Kola Jamodu commended the ministry for the positive impact and the way it has carried out some of the Federal Government policies.

He lauded Aganga on the steps towards opening multilateral economic windows for Nigeria with other countries.

Jamodu, however, urged the ministry to look into the challenges facing manufacturing such as the problem of deficient infrastructure, low public-private-partnership, and uncoordinated activities of government regulatory agencies among others.

MARBLE AND GRANITE CARE Maintaining your counter tops - Marble and Granite

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ANY people are so fond of the beauty and shine that marble or granite countertops radiate. It has been valued for hundreds of years as a building content; it is a spectacular addition to any house, wonderful to observe, including a touch of style and magnificence to any room. Its luminous effect is incomparable and having granite pieces installed as countertops on your kitchen or any parts of the house can truly add exquisiteness and value to your home.

Aside from being tough with longer lifespan, granite stones or marble are easier to maintain or clean all throughout.

With proper handling and cleaning methods, you can surely restore the beauty and radiance of your countertops for a long period of time.

Although marble and granite are naturally less complicated to deal with in terms of cleaning, they too can wear you out. And if you don’t know what to do in order to remove stains, spills and the like effectively without causing additional damage to the surface, then you might put yourself and your stuffs at risks.

Aside from that, the application of inappropriate and unsafe cleaning products or marble granite cleaners can make your countertops dull and frail.

If you have playful children at home, don’t let them play with stuffs that can etch your marble surfaces or don’t let them scratch them. Have them avoid your floors or countertops when they are playing with pointed objects or those which can inflict damage to your marble and granite. See to it that you get to clean their mess afterwards.

Crayon marks and even shoe marks left untreated on your floors can cause dullness or an unsightly appearance thus it is a must to take notice of such things.

For routine preventive measures • Use coasters under drinking glasses, particularly those containing alcohol or citrus juices to avoid etching.

• Do not place hot items directly on the stone surface.

Use trivets or mats under hot dishes and pots.

• Use place mats under china, silver or other objects that can scratch the surface.

• Avoid cleaning products unless the label specifies it is safe for natural stone. This includes glass cleaners to clean mirrors over a marble vanity top or a liquid toilet bowl cleaner when the toilet is set on a marble floor.

Treating Spills Some spills will turn out to be detrimental to stone if unattended. Orange juice, lemonade, wine, vinegar, liquors, tomato sauce, yogurt, salad dressing, perfume, after shave, the wrong cleaning products and so on, through a long list, most likely won’t damage “granite” and “green marble” surfaces (at least in the short run), but will ETCH polished marble.

Therefore, pick up any spills as quickly as possible. Don’t rub the spill, only blot it. Don’t use cleaning products on or near your natural stone unless the label specifies that it is safe on natural marble (cultured marble is man-made, and it’s basically a plastic material).

Treating Dried on Spills Don’t use any green or brown scouring pad. The pres-

ence of silicon carbide grits in them will scratch even the toughest “granite.” You can safely use the sponges lined with a silvery net, or other plastic scouring pads. REMEMBER, it’s very important to spray the cleaner and let it sit for a while to moisten and soften the soil, before scrubbing. Let The Cleaning Agent Do The Work!

It will make your job much easier and will be more effective.

If you experience any problems that you cannot fix with the above recommendations,

you should contact Maldini for additional support. However, granite is a very resilient diamond, and with the right amount of appropriate care, your Granite and Marble Countertops will look gorgeous and perfect for decades to come.

For more information on Marble/Granite Care, Sales and Delivery contact:Mike Anazodo – Email: info@maldinimarbles.com, Tel: 01-8934967 . Maldini Marble and Granite Company

Business

59

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

‘Nigeria’s maritime potential remains untapped’ INTERVIEW

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AN you tell us why you want the ministry of maritime and fisheries created?

The important thing is for the Federal Government to be able to look at the entire shoreline and find the political will to harness the hidden treasures. In fact, Nigeria is highly endowed speaking of maritime.

Creating the maritime ministry or fisheries ministry or both of them as one ministry is not necessarily a way of saying that we have succeeded in harnessing the maritime endowments. It is simply a point; we can do without having a ministry because most of the ministries are not very successful. But it is only a way of bringing people together to consider the opportrunities inherent in the aquatic flora and fauna. This, in my opinion will attract the right kind of investment into the maritime sub-sector.

What will you suggest should be done to harness the nation’s maritime treasure?

The Federal Government, state government or any of the group can come together to look at all the possibility starting from what we know as the channel, east and west moas. In fact, human capacity is more important than anything else with resources to pull all these together. And the timing is essential if we need to deal with the shoreline as it is, to deal with piracy, security, vessels, storage, hinterland, turnaround time and everything that is important to make the maritime what it should be. That’s what we are looking at.

You have drawn up a proposal on how to harness the maritime treasures. Can you tell us what is in your proposal?

One of the essential component of the proposal is to be able to look at the possibility of capturing data live, process data online, zero wait status, produce the information real time that is 24/7 and have everything dove-tail and web-enabled so that we don’t have to say that we are carrying physical files home and then when people come tomorrow there may be no light. If you go to marketing section they will tell you that wait until this person comes or go to do this or that or go to log room because the customs are yet to clear and all that. DHL could lift a pin from California to Calabar maximum 24 hours , two days. Each time you’re tracking the movement of that pin you would use a code and it would be there.

Mr. Kenechukwu Imachukwu, a maritime expert, is the Executive Director, African Maritime Conference and Exhibitions (AMCOEX), one of the frontline organisations seeking for reforms in the industry. He speaks with Nduka Chiejina, on what should be done to develop Nigeria’s maritime industry But in Nigeria, it takes time for the ship to arrive, for the corruption, anxiety and for everything. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala went and sacked the people who are busy clogging the smooth processing of things at the port. She didn’t do enough.

The most important thing that could have been done is to use broom to sweep them away and imprison them for the things they did wrong. In Venezuela, they are facing the Atlantic Ocean there is a Swedish’s camp simply making fishing vessels, fishing trawlers, modernised fishing vessels they don’t suffer anything. What they buy doesn’t even get to the harbours, they sell it all off.

Your proposal also addressed the problem of disappearing shrimp. How do we go about solving the problem?

In fact, the West African coast has the highest concentration of sea foods in the whole of the continent.

Now Egypt is the largest producer and the exporter of fish. What makes them more important or knowledgeable than we are? The problem is not organising the people but having the licences to deal with the people, the law like I said in shrimp, trawl fisheries, by-catch. By catch may be defined as anything the fisherman does not intend to catch and may include the shark, fish, weed and seabed debris. Sometimes, it is called incidental or accidental catch whereas the dis-catch are part of the by-catch that are realised or returned to sea either dead or alive. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has recently estimated that nearly seven million tonnes of by-catch are discarded globally by commercial fishermen every year which is equivalent to about ten per cent of the global catch.

Now multitude of species in the tropics presupposes high by-catch and discard rates the sea fishery decree No 71 of 1991 recommend that the ratio of fish to prawns should be maintained at 75:25. In practice this is never maintained and more fish relative to shrimp is caught and in sharing them the discard policy is ignored. There is something called over exploitation, lack of substantial data which implies poor management and the trend of shrimp catches as in other captured fisheries is on the decline due to over harvesting among other factors.

• Imachukwu

According to millennium eco-system assessment, in 2006 capture fisheries is at the border of stock depletion. The pink shrimp the one we know as pinner lupitus has been the dominant target and supportive species in Nigeria. Prior to the end of the 20th century, the shrimp fishery was

quite lucrative resulting in bumper harvest by trawlers. Perhaps the licencing of vessels without ensuring that trawl owners respect the state of existing stocks contributed to the collapse of the shrimpfishery which resulted in the winding up of some trawlers in Nigeria around 2000.

Senate to probe Customs over inefficient database

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HE Senate may have begun probe of the Nigeria Customs Service over the latter’s poor database, which stakeholders say has brought hardship to Nigerians.

The National President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and Managing Director of Eyis Resources Limited, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, had in a petition addressed to the Senate president called the attention of the National Assembly to intervene in what he called the “forceful and illegal imposition of fictitious and arbitrary value on trade goods by the Nigerian Customs Service.”

This action of the Customs leadership is in clear contravention of the Customs and Excise Management (Amendment) Act 20 of 2003, (CEMA), Amiwero stated.

Among other prayers, Amiwero seeks to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the static Data Base (DB) on 26 commodities imposed by Nigerian Customs Service as well as the contravention of CEMA. He stated in that letter to the President Goodluck Jonathan, which was

Stories by Uyoatta Eshiet

copied to the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary to the Federal Government as well as the Minister of Finance and coordinator of Economic Management Team, and made available to The Nation that the Customs Act which Customs in Nigeria is contravening is the critical aspect of Customs reforms globally on

the treatment of valuation of imported goods.

The letter declared that the implication of the static data base on commodity as introduced by Nigerian Customs is that goods are valued on the basis of containers and not on the product. This, the letter said, is strange in the history of valuation globally and not backed by any instrument or statues. “That means a 40 foot container whether it containers 10 cartons of

an item will attract the same value as the container with 5,000 cartons”, the letter explained to the government.

The President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, in a letter to Amiwero, which was signed on his behalf by his chief of staff, Senator (Amb.) Anthony G. Manzo made available to The Nation, has referred the Council’s petition to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance for further necessary action.

said that the council does not have any right to arrest or prosecute any practitioner as long as that person has been registered by the Nigeria Customs.

According to Osuala: “CRFFN does not have the right to arrest anybody who is not a registered member of that body”, adding: “The statute that set up CRFFN defines a freight forwarder as somebody who must necessarily handle goods for the importer across international boundaries.”

Expatiating, he said, “Even transporters who put their trucks on the road from Cotonou to Lagos are freight forwarders.

Anybody who is licensed by Customs is free to practice as a licensed Customs Agent in any port within the country without necessarily registering with the CRFFN as a freight forwarder. Therefore if CRFFN goes ahead to attempt to harass anybody for not registering with them, such a person has the legal right to take them to court and seek redress.”

Council, group square up over registration

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OLLOWING the plans by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to arrest anybody engaged in the business of freight forwarding in Nigeria, who fails to register with the body, the legal adviser to a maritime stakeholders’ group, the ‘Save Nigeria Group’, a coalition of importers, exporters, maritime lawyers and others (SNFFIEC), Barrister Osuala Nwagbara and the Secretary General of the group, Chukwumalu Emeka have

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Business

THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2011

COMPANY NEWS

KPMG projects $2.6tn GDP in Africa in 2012-13

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NVESTMENT hungry Africa has become one of the fastest growing regions in the world, now firmly positioned as a global investment destination of choice. In 2012-13 alone, the continent is expected to grow by 5 percent and it is estimated that Africa’s GDP could be US$2.6 trillion by 2020. While it is clear that individual countries perform economically with different levels of suc-

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf with agency report

cess, there are significant business opportunities across the continent driven by an insatiable demand for Africa’s resources, a rapidly growing population with an unprecedented rise in consumer demand, and the related infrastructural development that is urgently required in all areas.

Reflecting on these mega-trends shaping Africa’s future, Tim Bashall, Head of Strategy, KPMG Africa, says: “We are obviously dealing here with long term investment strategies. The African story still has elements of political and economic uncertainty but overall business opportunities are greatly improving. Investors are therefore thinking in cycles of 15-20 years”.

Raman Dhawan, Managing Director, Tata Africa, explains that they took a conscious decision to expand into Africa since the leadership of the Indian conglomerate acknowledged the need to export.

“We came to South Africa and Africa to build a footprint on the continent, and we are looking at sectors which are untapped, such as the telecoms. We have successfully managed to establish ourselves in about a dozen countries including South Africa which we consider as a benchmark for our operations in other African countries.”

Unilever unveils new Omo at golden jubilee

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NEW “Omo multiactive with new improved formula” has just been unveiled to mark the brand’s golden anniversary, giving Nigerians a better product that has better performance and better cleaning properties

for fabrics.

Speaking with journalists, the Brand Building director, Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. David Okeme said that as part of the activities to mark the brand’s 50 years of production and continual change in the im-

provement of the product, they feel this is the time to give back to Nigerians and to say thank you to them for making Omo, their brand.

He added that the company did not build the brand, Omo, overnight but

over the years, the brand has remained new and active all the time as the powder gets more improved, thus, simplifying laundry processes and allowing for child development - parents now allow their children to play and then, explore.

Honeywell , donates equipment to widows

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OR widows to be economically viable and self sufficient, Honeywell Flower Mills Plc has partnered with the Widows Mind Project of The Oasis Association to make life better and bearable for the women.

The company, which bankrolled a one week empowerment workshop for the widows which ended at the weekend in Ogun State, donated materials worth several thousands of naira to the widows. The items included sewing machines and pepper grinding machines. Cash donations were also made to assist the widows in their businesses.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Honeywell Flower Mills Plc, Mr. Babatunde Odunayo, speaking at the event held at OGS Plaza, Ajuwon/Akute, Ogun State, said Honeywell was delighted to be part of the empowerment programme where about 50 widows went through rigorous training on soap making and basic skills required to succeed in busi-

•L-R: President, The Oasis Association, Engr. Gladstone Longe; Director, Marketing, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr. Benson Evbuomwan; Founder, Widows Mind Evangelism, Mrs. Flaurence Babatunde and Company Treasurer, Honeywell, Mrs. Doyin Ibrahim, at the presentation of equipment to Oasis to facilitate widows’ empowerment, at OGS Plaza, Ajuwon/Akute, Ogun State recently

ness.

Lauding Honeywell’s gesture, President, The Oasis Association, Engr.

Gladstone Longe urged other corporate organisations and well-to-do individuals to support the Association in its

quest to impact meaningfully and positively to the society by alleviating human distress and destitution.

•L-R: Ekiti State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, Chief Dayo Fadipe (left), Chairman, Association of Local Governments in the state, Rotimi Ajidara and Chief Consultant, Supreme Management and Consultancy Services, Yinka Fasuyi at a training workshop on community development held in Ekiti, at the weekend

Beyond Talent

By Adetayo Okusanya Email: adetayookusanya@hotmail.com

A hot plate of beans

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HO do you trust?

Do you trust your manager? Do you trust your colleagues? Do you trust your subordinates? Do you trust your supplier? Do you trust your employer? Do you trust your employees? Do you trust your government? Do you trust your pastor? Do you trust your banker? Do you trust the police? Do you trust your spouse? Most importantly…who trusts you?

The dictionary defines “TRUST” as the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing. It is closely related to confidence and both are products of credibility. Trust is not a right. It is a reward. It is an intangible currency you earn over time for the value that you consistently create for others. Every day, we transact in the currency of trust whether or not we realize it. Every interaction we have with others can either increase or decrease our trust in them or their trust in us. The author, Marsha Sinetar, very aptly said “Trust is not a matter of technique, but of character; we are trusted because of our way of being, not because of our polished exteriors or our expertly crafted communications.” Integrity, truthfulness, transparency, competence and track record are the building blocks for trust based relationships.

The concept of trust has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now and I have been contemplating the essential role that trust plays in the sustainable long term success of professionals, entrepreneurs, business leaders, organizations and the Nigerian society at large. Think about it.

When there is credibility-based trust between you and your manager, colleague or employer, then both parties will be able to collaborate effectively, rather than compete, because both parties believe the outcome would be mutually beneficial and are equally working towards making it so. Time that would otherwise have been spent “covering one’s back” can now be channeled into value-creating work that benefits all. When credibility-based trust exists between you and your customer, that customer is not only willing to remain in relationship with you for a long time, he will buy more from you and advertise you to his family and network. I went to a grocery shop recently (first time visit) to buy vegetables and fruits and the experience left me with a lingering feeling (not fact) of being taken advantage of that I will never go back to that shop or even speak positively about it to anyone.

Trust has become a rarity in our workplace and society. Yet it is an essential necessity for sustainable success. I see in this problem an opportunity for “BUSINESS UNUSUAL”; an opportunity for a new breed of workers, professionals, leaders and business owners to gain competitive advantage by trading on credibility-based trust. When credibility-based trust is exchanged, innovation and creativity thrive, efficiency and productivity increase, the capacity for transformative change is enabled, business relationships last longer, premium pricing/ compensation is welcomed, initiative increases, sales revenue “goes through the roof” and profits “soar”. One of the greatest things that another human being can give to you is their trust, not money. Trust is a seed that has the potential to yield a vineyard. Do not underestimate its value to our career and business.

We are bombarded with stories we hear every day that signal the collapse of trust in our society. Stories that show that many are willing to enrich themselves even if it will erode the trust that others have in their integrity. I have heard stories from my parents, colleagues and clients about how they have been defrauded by business partners and employees. We read stories in the newspapers everyday about billion naira frauds, lack of accountability and subversion of justice. These stories and experiences do not help Nigeria because they decrease our capacity for trusting each other, color our perception of the intentions of others and model the wrong values and behaviors to the youth. The collapse of trust has a crippling effect on collective progress, whether as a family, team, organization or country.

My dream is to see our society evolve from a culture in which people who do the right things are labeled “mugus” and those who do the wrong things are given accolades, to a culture of living and doing business that is powered by a credibilitybased trust engine. The fact that everyone is doing something does not make it the right thing to do. If everyone walked through fire, or threw themselves off a building, or injected themselves with the aids virus, would that make you do the same? Stop the vicious cycle of trust erosion in your home, work teams, organization and business. Stand for something…other than money or temporary pleasures. Remember Esau. When you sacrifice your integrity, name and reputation for fast money or uncertain riches (here today and gone tomorrow), you are giving up something that is priceless and often times irreplaceable. You may just be mortgaging your future for nothing but “a hot plate of beans”.

• Okusanya is CEO of ReadinessEdge

61

WORLD NEWS THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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HE first round of French presidential elections holds today. Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy is facing the lowest approval ratings of a modern president, largely due to distaste with his style, not platform.

In France, to a degree unique in Europe, presidents wield enormous power. The position is only half-jokingly likened to an elected monarch, a kind of British queen and prime minister combined.

Today, French voters will decide among 10 candidates for that top job in the first round of an election that will finally be finalized on May 6 in a two-person runoff.

Every poll indicates incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely to face the Socialist Party frontrunner Francois Hollande on May 6.

But Mr. Sarkozy, who has regularly made international news since getting elected in 2007, faces a serious likability problem at home, where his approval rating is, at 36 percent, the lowest of any modern French president.

So far the French elections

the French French presidential elections How election works will be referendum on Sarkozy F have been criticized in and out of France as trivial and an exercise in petty and divisive attacks among candidates, and the candidates themselves have been slammed for manipulation of voter sentiments at a time when the French unemployment rate is at 10 percent. Polls show that turnout in round one is projected to be low.

But the French election outcome is increasingly seen as critical in a tightly interwoven Europe that continues to have serious economic woes. Mr. Hollande, a moderate in the social democratic mold, has vowed to rethink the Berlin-led fiscal austerity that Europe has signed onto as its way out of a debt crisis.

Such an outcome could signal, analysts say, a middle way in Europe, led by France,

between the debt, lack of growth, and social despair in Greece and Spain and and the prescription of ever deeper cuts favored by Germany, Europe’s powerhouse.

“A Hollande victory could be a blow to the proponents of absolute austerity in Europe,” says Karim Emile Bitar, a senior fellow at IRIS. “Hollande is not against austerity, but he wants a minimum equilibrium between growth and fiscal austerity, and does not want an arbitrary German criteria in deciding how and when to reach zero percent.”

Round one elections are important, political analysts say, since momentum is the most important factor in the second round. For months polls have had Sarkozy and Hollande in a microscopic see-

saw, both at around 28 percent, flanked by the far right and far left candidates, Marine Le Pen and Jean Luc Melenchon, at about 15 percent.

But in recent days Sarkozy has shown signs of losing his political mojo, even after large rallies in central Paris in which he unusually humbled himself, calling for the French to “help me to protect you.”

Seven out of eight polling firms have Hollande with at least a 10 point lead over Sarkozy on May 6. Even former president Jacques Chirac, a member of Sarkozy’s party who was his mentor at one point, has made it clear he is voting for Hollande – citing Sarkozy as a divisive force in France.

“We do not share the same vision of France, we do not agree on the basics,” Mr. Chirac, a symbol of the

moderate center right, said of Sarkozy in his recent memoirs.

In an interview with Le Figaro this week, Sarkozy argued that the real fight begins after round one. “I am engaged in a fight where, for the past four weeks, I have been alone against nine candidates…. [Round two] will be a whole other story. I will go from 10 percent to 50 percent of airtime. We will finally be fighting platform to platform, character to character.”

Should the flamboyant and irrepressible Sarkozy lose, he will be the first incumbent since the 1970s not to be voted into a second term. Should the self-styled low-key moderate Hollande win, it will put the Socialist party in power for the first time in 17 years.

•courtesy/AP

The ten candidates contesting the French presidential election, in order of their poll standing

1 •FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: The 57-year-old parliamentarian and former leader of the Socialist Party says he will end special treatment for the rich and powerful. He has pledged to create 60,000 new jobs in education and 150,000 jobs for young people in poor areas, mainly by increasing taxes.

Hollande is separated from Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate defeated by Sarkozy in 2007. The two have four children. His current partner is journalist Valerie Trierweiler.

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•NICOLAS SARKOZY: The 57-year-old incumbent has won praise for his leadership on the eurozone debt crisis and on international dossiers, such as Libya, but failed to implement many of the reforms he promised at home.

The ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate says in a second term he would halve the number of immigrants arriving each year and make French labour more competitive. Sarkozy is married to former model and singer Carla Bruni, his third wife. The couple have a sixmonth-old daughter.

•MARINE LE PEN: The 43year-old leader of the National Front (FN) has attempted to soften the image of the party founded by her father JeanMarie Le Pen, while continuing to campaign principally on immigration and security. She has warned agaist what she sees as the “Islamization” of France and says France should abandon the euro. She is divorced with three children.

4 •JEAN-LUC MELENCHON: The 60-year-old candidate of the Left Front, a coalition of parties including the Communist Party, is the big surprise of the election. A former Socialist senator, he has attracted huge crowds at mass rallies where he calls for people to take back power from big business and bankers.

Melenchon says he would increase the minimum wage by 20 per cent and ban ratings agencies from rating sovereign debt.

5 •FRANCOIS BAYROU: The 60-year-old former education minister is contesting his third presidential election on behalf of the centrist MoDem. In 2007 he came third. Bayrou has presented himself as the “truth” candidate, who levels with the French about what needs to be done to tame the country‘s debt. He promises to cut spending and increase revenue in equal measures and tackle unemployment by promoting French products.

6 •EVA JOLY: The 68-year-old Norwegian-born former investigating magistrate made a name for herself in the investigation of scandals surrounding the defunct oil company Elf Aquitaine but she has struggled to get a handle on the political game.

Her bright red spectacles, which she recently swapped for a bright reen pair, give her a slightly comic aspect.

8 7 •NICOLAS DUPONTAIGNAN: A former member of Sarkozy‘s party DupontAignan, 51, says he would withdraw France from the EU and promote “intelligent protectionism.”

•PHILIPPE POUTOU: An employee of Ford motor plant near Bordeaux the 45-year-old candidate of the Trotskyist New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) supports “working as little as possible and earning as much as possible.”

9 •NATHALIE ARTHAUD: The 42-year-old teacher and candidate of Lutte Ouvriere (Workers‘ Struggle) proposes to ban redundancies, among other measures.

10 •JACQUES CHEMINADE: A self-described leftist Gaullist, Cheminade, 70, says his aim is “a world without the City and Wall Street”.

•courtesy/europe online

RANCE holds the first round of its presidential elections nationwide on Sunday, which - provided no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote - will be followed by a second and final round on May 6. Here is how the first round works and what’s at stake: •WHAT IS HAPPENING: French citizens go to the polls to choose the country’s president. Just over 43 million people are eligible to vote. The new head of state will begin a fixed five-year mandate until 2017.

•WHEN: Polling stations in municipal buildings around the country will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. In some urban areas polls remain open until 8 p.m.

French electoral law outlaws any publication of voting estimates before all polls close at eight. The idea is that those voting late should not be influenced by knowing the likely outcome.

The Paris prosecutor’s office this week said that they’ll slap transgressors who publish the results before 8 p.m. with a fine of up to (EURO)75,000 ($98,000).

Voters in some French overseas territories will vote on Saturday, although the results won’t be made known until Sunday night.

•CANDIDATES: There are ten candidates on the first round ballot paper. The incumbent president, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, is running to be reelected for a second, and final, term.

His main adversary is Socialist Francois Hollande, who polls show in the lead.

Hollande hopes to become France’s first socialist president in 17 years .

Polling at third and fourth are, respectively, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front, and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon of the Left Front.

•ISSUES: Jobs are the primary concern of the French, with unemployment near 10 percent. The stagnant economy is also an issue with rival candidate proposing alternative solutions: Sarkozy has stressed austerity, Hollande wants to stimulate growth.

•WHY IT MATTERS: The choice that French people make will affect not only France, Europe’s second largest economy, but is likely to also have a profound impact on the European Union and its attempts to manage the eurozone debt crisis.

France is also a permanent UN Security Council member and nuclear power and has troops from Afghanistan to Congo.

Presidential candidates plan to withdraw French troops stationed in Afghanistan under different timetables.

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World News

Eight Turkish officers arrested in 1997 coup probe

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IGHT active and former Turkish army officers were jailed pending trial in connection with the forced resignation of an Islamist-led government in 1997, in the latest inquiry into army interference in politics, news channels reported yesterday.

Retired major-general Erol Ozkasnak, four active officers and three retired officers were formally arrested overnight pending trial for allegedly “obstructing a government from carrying out its duties,” NTV said on its website.

Four ex-generals and dozens of officers were arrested in the probe last weekend.

Prosecutors have charged hundreds of officers suspected of plotting against current and former governments in a series of trials that has Turkey, a Muslim, secular democracy, examining a past littered with military interventions.

Those have included three outright coup d’etats and subtler interference from the military, which had appointed itself the guardians of secularism.

Turkey’s secularist military staged three outright coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980. Generals pressured Erbakan to quit without taking power or suspending the constitution in what was nicknamed a “postmodern coup.”

The trial of former president Kenan Evren, 94, who siezed power after a 1980 coup, began this month. He is not in prison during his trial.

Bahrain opens probe into death in protest area

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AHRAINI opposition groups claimed yesterday that a man was killed during clashes with security forces, threatening to sharply escalate the Gulf nation’s unrest as officials struggle under the world spotlight as hosts of the Formula One Grand Prix.

At least 50 people have died in the unrest since February 2011 in the longest-running street battles of the Arab Spring.

Bahrain’s Shiite majority seeks to break the near monopoly on power by the ruling Sunni dynasty, which has close ties to the West.

Persistent protests have left the country’s rulers struggling to keep attention on the buildup to today’s Formula One race — Bahrain’s premier international event. It was called off last year amid security fears and Bahrain’s leaders lobbied hard to hold this year’s event in efforts to portray stability and mend the country’s international image.

A statement by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said a probe was under way, but gave no other immediate details. The death, however, was likely to intensify a wave of expected protests to coincide with the F1.

The body was found in an area west of the capital Manama, where clashes broke out after a massive protest march Friday. Opposition factions said riot police and demonstrators were engaged in running skirmishes around the village of Shakhura, about five miles (eight kilometers) west of the capital Manama and known for its burial mounds dating back more than 5,000 years.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Afghan forces seize 10 tonnes of explosives A

FGHAN security forces have detained five insurgents who planned to use ten tonnes of explosives to inflict “large scale bloodshed” in crowded areas of the capital Kabul, an official said yesterday.

Three of the men are Pakistani nationals and two are Afghans, Shafiqullah Tahiri, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, told

reporters, adding that they had brought the explosives from Pakistan to Kabul.

Hidden in the back of a potato-laden truck, the explosives were intercepted in Kabul just two days before a wave of attacks in the capital and surrounding provinces last Sunday left over 50 dead, he later told AFP. “If the explosives had been used, it could have caused large

scale bloodshed,” Tahiri said.

“The detained men have told investigators that they planned multiple attacks in crowded areas of Kabul city using the explosives.”

Kabul was hit by lethal attacks last Sunday, with embassies and foreign military bases coming under fire in what the Taliban said was the start of its spring offensive.

The attacks were one of the

biggest assaults on the capital in 10 years of war in terms of their spread and coordination.

In September last year Taliban attacks targeting locations including the US embassy and headquarters of foreign troops in Kabul killed at least 14 during a 19-hour siege.

And in August, nine people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the British Council cultural centre.

•PAKISTAN, Karachi : Mourners offer prayers for a passenger who was killed in a Bhoja Air Boeing 737 accident in Islamabad, during his funeral in Karachi yesterday.

AFP PHOTO

Pakistan families mourn air crash victims

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I S T R A U G H T relatives wept yesterday as they collected the remains of loved ones after a Pakistani passenger jet crashed in bad weather near Islamabad, killing all 127 people on board.

The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of capital Islamabad at around 6:40 pm on Friday evening (1340 GMT) — the city’s second major fatal air crash in less than two years.

The airline said the Boeing 737 was carrying 121 passengers, including 11 children, as well as six crew.

Civil aviation official Junaid Khan told AFP: “All 127 people died. No one survived. There was no possibility of any survivor in this crash.”

Rows of coffins, some sprinkled with rose petals by hospital staff as a gesture of compassion, were lined up in a room with handwritten notes identifying the dead by name, TV images showed.

Police officers and soldiers at the hospital consoled the relatives as many, overwhelmed with emotion, wept uncontrollably on receiving the coffins.

The Boeing 737-200 was 28 years old, a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official who asked not to be named told AFP, but Bhoja Air insisted that despite its age, the plane was safe to fly.

“The aircraft was old and second hand but it is not something unusual. The fleet of state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) also runs old aircraft,” Bhoja Air official Masham Zafar told AFP. “Airlines rarely have brand new planes, and this aircraft was also refurbished.”

She said there was no technical problem with the plane and added that the plane left Karachi with CAA approval and was given clearance to land at Islamabad.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, visiting the hospital, told reporters a judicial commission would investigate the crash, which came less than two years after the worst ever air disaster on Pakistani soil.

In July 2010 an Airbus A321 operated by the private airline Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land in heavy rain and poor visibility, killing all 152 people on board.

Debris from the crash was scattered over a twokilometre (one-mile) area, with torn fragments of the fuselage, including a large section bearing the Bhoja Air logo, littering the fields around the village of Hussain Abad.

Military and aviation officials said bad weather was probably behind the crash, as there was a hail and thunderstorm over the city at the time.

S. Sudan pulls out of Heglig

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OUTH Sudanese forces were pulling out from Sudan’s main Heglig oilfield yesterday, an official said, as US President Barack Obama called on both states to resume talks.

“Our troops are still withdrawing; it will take three days,” Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told AFP. “We are responding to the request of the UN Security Council and others, as a member of the UN and the African Union.”

Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP yesterday afternoon: “Now the fighting in Heglig is finished.”

While the 10-day occupation, which UN chief Ban Ki-moon branded illegal, appeared to be coming to an end, each side had its own version of events.

On Friday, Sudan said its soldiers had “liberated” the oil field by force, speaking after South Sudanese President Salva Kiir had already announced that “an orderly withdrawal will commence immediately.”

Border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan escalated last week with waves of air strikes hitting the South, and Juba seizing the Heglig oil hub on April 10, sparking fears of a wider war.

Obama said late Friday that “the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan must have the courage to return to the table and negotiate and resolve these issues peacefully.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2012

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EBERE WABARA

WORDSWORTH 08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

Cap, not caps, in hand AILY INDEPENDENT of April 18 circulated eight solecisms: “Lagos Assembly gives marching order (orders) on standard of public toilets” “Seven staff of a popular hotel along (on) OzoroAsaba expressway…were confirmed dead following a ghastly (fatal) motor accident.” There is a clear distinction between both words!

“Oscar Onyema: One year on (in) the drivers’ (driver’s) seat” “First Bank eye (eyes) more deposits…”

The next set of infelicities is from Nigerian Tribune of April 18: “”Kogites are looking up (looking up to) their governor as he seeks….”

“India set to test long distance (long-distance) missile” “The untold side of late Godwin Daboh” Back Page: the late TRIBUNE EDITORIAL of April 18 rounds it off for the Ibadan-based medium with these two blunders: “It is on record that before the military incursion which distrupted….”

Spellcheck: disrupted “Stakeholders to converge in (on) Huston (sic) to explore new energy opportunities” (THE GUARDIAN, April 18) “NUBAN: CBN to sanction banks over noncompliant” (THISDAY MONEY GUIDE Banner, April 18) This way: noncompliance “…the defunct regional governments were able to sustain themselves without petroleum resources or going caps in hand for Federal dole.”

States and insolvency: cap in hand (fixed/stock expression).

“When Okopoly students, masquerades went to war” (Daily Sun Headline, April 17) News Plus: masqueraders “Nigeria losses (loses) $120bn on agro-allied export—Minister” (Vanguard Headline, April 17) “Okorocha condoles (condoles with or consoles) IG over mother’s death” BUSINESSDAY of April 16 threw up strands of commercialese: “…a situation that is further worsen (worsened) by the high cost of PMS….” “…it appears the administration has begun to address the problem of infrastructure (infrastructural) deficit in the state.”

“Four months of heavy air bombardment

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by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) aimed at weakening….” ‘Bombardment’ cannot be light! (DAILY INDEPENDENT, April 18) ’10 armed bandits held in Borno” (THE NATION, April 18) This is not news: there is no banditry without arms.

“And that was the point at which politicians opened the floodgate or military incursion into (upon or on) our national politics.” (THE GUARDIAN, April 18) “Nigeria, history is replete with stories of great men who, due to extraneous considerations, found themselves not opportuned to play the role they are best suited.”

(Vanguard, April 18) ‘Opportuned’ is un-English. The word does not admit ‘d’.

“Like (As) I said earlier at the beginning of the programme...” (COOL FM Sound Express, April 18) “And it is such an appetite that predisposes the officers into (to) scheming for political power.” (National Mirror, April 18) “You will not fail to shade (shed) tears when the story of the death of....” (Daily Trust, April 18) “Apart from the mayhem rival cult members unleash on themselves (on one another)….” (Leadership, April 17) “The objective then was to put pressure on the colonialists, shake off colonial mentality, assert the identity of true independence and to instill university culture into (in) members.” (Daily Sun, April 18) “But while the governor was savouring the euphoria of his new office and putting his acts (act) together for the tasks ahead….” (The PUNCH, April 18) “There was a unique feature of that day which I would not have easily overlooked even if others do (did).” (The Moment, April 18) “…the same man that was singing Hosanna in the synagogue yesterday had suddenly became (become) a cheer leader among the Ogboni confraternity.” (Source: as above) “Accusing fingers have been pointed at wellto-do people and the government for not doing enough to curb the activity.” The finger has been pointed at….

“Will the Igbos (the

Igbo) be convinced that even with an exclusion of one of their own in the country’s top political leadership….”

“Indeed, the most endangered specie (species) since movement in the area returned....” “…the road to peace in (on) the African continent.”

“And that was manifested in the magnitude of white elephant projects and unexpected contracts that littered the whole place during that era of graft and institutionalized corruption.”

“To get to the point, all the groups concerned must sheath (sheathe) their swords and give peace a chance.”

“Why did INEC obey those injunctions and rulings, knowing fully (full) well that it had the legal powers to ignore them?” “…the 1999 constitution simply reverted back to the provisions as contained in the 1979 constitution.” When you revert, you don’t need ‘back’.

“The governments though elected in many cases become oppressive, repressive and irresponsible because electorates became helpless in the proper monitoring of those they put in places of authority.” The mystique of June: the electorate.

“The three were obviously having a great time walking almost hand in hand, trading banters over the unfolding drama among humans back on earth”. ‘Banter’ is uncountable.

“NSE loses bid for seat in (on) SEC’s board” “It looks like the IMF is demanding for conditions likely to slow down the pace and the exercise.”

Yank off ‘for’. When used as a verb, ‘demand’ does not take ‘for’, except in the noun form.

“Bayelsa commissioners sworn-in (sworn in)” “Every decision of government is subjected to the magnifying lenses of interest groups that invariably include ethnic and geopolitical gladiators and champions of all manners (manner) of group interests.”

“Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman and Professor ABC Nwosu have (had) earlier been named as special advisers on Petroleum and Political Affairs respectively.”

“The efforts of the police command in identifying the dangerous areas and in alerting the residents is (are) acknowledged.”

•Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi

Majekodunmi: A Tribute

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APA was genius, greatness and humility personified. He was first and foremost my father’s friend and ally – in building bridges across race, tribe and religion.

However, he graciously transferred that mutual affection to me to the extent that I sometimes wondered what I had done to merit his trust and confidence.

Alone, in his bedroom we talked for hours – just like father and son. I could not but marvel at the vastness of his knowledge about virtually every subject – from medicine to politics,philosophy,culture and above all his sense of history combined with his great sense of humour.

From the age of twenty – six when he qualified as a doctor he ran the marathon of distinction in several areas of human endeavour for almost seventy more years. He was truly a legend and an icon. His optimism about Nigeria and its immense potentials was boundless and on numerous occasions he mandated me to pass on his wisdom to the powers that be.Sadly, they were not listening!!

By J.K. Randle For me, the defining moment was when after the June 12, 1993 election he put his life at risk by leading twelve other eminent Nigerians to protest against General Sani Abacha’s subvertion of the democratic process.

Sadly, a few weeks ago when I last saw Papa ,he was very subdued and somewhat melancholic about the state of affairs in our dear Nigeria and the litany of woes – no electricity; no security of life; bombs going off everywhere ;Muslims versus Christians, north versus south, east versus west and vice versa ,corruption galore ;impunity and oppression.

For the first time ever, he had no message for me to pass on to the powers that be. What pained him most was the realisation that this is not the same country for which he and his generation strove to build on the tabernacle of justice and fairness. Others have decided that there will be no peace until the country is broken into pieces. He reminded me of how he and

the Late Chief S. O. Adebo, Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, had ended up with tears in their eyes lamenting what had become of Nigeria late one evening at Ibara in Abeokuta over a decade ago – but not much has changed since. Instinctively, both of us knew that it was time to say farewell.

Back in my car, I could not hold back the tears, what a great life he has lived .Success and pain came in equal measures but he was always at peace with his loving wife Auntie Katsina, devoted children, grand children, great grand children and above all his creator.

The great doctor that he was he reminded me that when my father died in 1956(at the age of 47) life expectancy in Nigeria was 47. Here we are in 2012; our average life expectancy is still hovering around 47!!

The good Lord in His bountiful mercies endowed the great man whom my father, Chief J.K. Randle, Lisa of Lagos fondly called “Young Majek” with a double portion. He lived to be 95 and deserved it.

Brief

Orimobi for burial

B •Orimobi

ARRISTER Titus Orimobi is dead.

He died in a Lagos Hospital on March 30, 2012.

Orimobi was survived

by a son and relations.

He would be buried on April 27 at his home town, Ikeji-Ile after a funeral service at Saint Jude’s Anglican Church.

Actor reveals plans for AGN

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OLLYWOOD actor, Steve Eboh, has expressed his readiness to become the next president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN).

Eboh spoke in Yola during a campaign visit to the

Barnabas Manyam, Yola

North East zone.

He promised to establish a cooperative society for the benefit of founding fathers and members of the acting community.

He regretted that many actors are idle because AGN’s leadership has failed to deliver in critical areas.

Eboh said he was in the race to revive the industry.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

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WORSHIP THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

NEWS Why some clerics don’t speak against bad govt, by Umunna

By Joseph Jibueze

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ENERAL Overseer of the Bible Life Church , Bishop Leonard Umunna, has said some religious leaders do not speak against bad governance because they may have been compromised by corrupt politicians.

He said the clergy have major role to play in transforming the society from the pulpit by pointing out wrongs in governance.

That, he said, would be impossible where “money” and others “gifts” have exchanged hands.

Umunna said: “I am not saying ministers of God should stand against government, God forbid. They should always be on the side of God and do only that which God tells them to do.

“Ideally, religious leaders have a great role to play in the leadership of the country through the pulpit. In the days of yore when men of God were really men of God, they delivered God’s message and impacted the lives of political leaders.

“Today, many run after gifts. They have been compromised with bribes of all kinds – contracts, universities approved for them, landed properties and ‘shut up’ money.’’

He went on: ‘’For some, their hands and feet are enmeshed in evil. Some of them have been doing all manner of things in the name of playing role in government.

“Some of them tell politicians to give them money to buy ‘materials’ for prayer.

They recommend to them who to appoint as ministers and commissioners. The irony of it all is that when things go wrong, they don’t tell people that they ‘prayed’ the politicians into power and of their role in appointing wrong hands.

“So, when religious leaders are so compromised themselves, they lack the moral high stool and conscience to tell those in government: ‘Thus says the Lord.”

The cleric denounced bombing of churches and other places by the Boko Haram sect, saying: “The killings are, to say the least, condemnable.”

On call for the convocation of a sovereign national conference, Umunna recommended a referendum to know the opinion of the masses.

He said Nigerians expect more from President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Nigerians want Jonathan to perform after they willingly and massively gave him the mandate at the general election last year.

“They are worried about too many committees without positive delivery. Nigerians are bothered that recommendations of past panels have not been implemented. ‘’The people are saying they want a pro-active leader and they are not satisfied with the quality of leadership they have.

“The petrol subsidy removal on January 1 was badly-timed, a few days after the bomb blast in Madalla. It was a good policy that was badly delivered. He believes he does not have all the ideas, so he recognises some people he believes could help him.”

On the removal of police roadblocks, Umunna said the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, must have acted based on information.

“He may have seen more than we are seeing; so, I do not blame him, but they should ensure the step does not prove detrimental. The IG believes this approach will help; so it is not for anybody to fault him or begin to castigate him.

“He has more information than most people so he must know what he is talking about. There is no where in the world where roadblocks exist. The IG does not need to carry everybody along in some matters that demand speedy action because not everybody will see things the same way with you.”

Ekiye drops new album

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IGER-Delta-born gospel music maestro, Asu Ekiye, is set to release a new album after an impressive tour of Europe.

Ekiye was the centre of attraction at the annual Blestival Praise and Worship concert in the UK. He thrilled the multi-racial teeming music lovers with his old and new songs.

The only African three – time consecutive Channel O award winner performed alongside Detrick Haddon among other foreign artistes.

He rounded off the tour with successful concerts at Manchester Halal concerts and Dartford.

Ekiye, in a chat, said he is working on his new album

INTERVIEW

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OUR theme for the convention is ‘’taking it back’’. What have we lost that should be taken back?

As a matter of fact, we have lost so much. There is nobody that has not lost something. We have all lost the Word, which is the power of God for redemption of mankind. So, for this convention, we are focusing on recovery of losses of our faith, family and finances. In our faith, we have lost so much.

The enemies have been attacking us a whole lot. In our families, we are far from where God wants us to be. Many are divorcing and turning their back against their homes. It is the same in our finances. So, we need God really to help us recover all.

The enemy syndrome has become a concern in the Christian community. How powerful really are principalities and powers?

I agree the enemy syndrome is a major problem.

Recently, I was teaching in the church that really there are principalities and powers.

They are special demons that promote principles, which when accepted can manipulate and control our lives. That is the function of principalities and powers. And one of the major principles they are transmitting is the principle of fear.

Once you are afraid, you cannot believe God. You live in fear and become paralysed.

You see our enemy is strong but our God is stronger. It is up to us not to emphasise the strength of our enemy but the infallibility of God. I see these days that our prayers are more focused on enemies. This is a great trap that will take us no where.

When I wasn’t saved, I was afraid of the enemy. But once I was saved, I became aware that the enemy is a creature while God is the creator. So, I am shocked we are placing the enemy on the same pedestal with God. I think it’s an African thing. We grow up heavy on demonic activities and powers.

But we have adapted that to Christianity. I asked a pastor why he preaches so much on enemies and he said, ‘’you know our people and what they want’’.

How much damage has this caused to the Christian faith?

It has cost us so much my brother. These days, it is so convenient to blame others and the devil for our failings. We no longer accept responsibility for our lives. When some-

‘Only the church can handle Boko Haram’ General Overseer of The Stone Church, Ibadan, Pastor Alex Adegboye, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on challenges in the Christian community and how to stop Boko Haram. Excerpts:

• Adegboye

thing happens, we see the devil and not our own fault. This is a big trap that is destroying lives. In our church, we have had to address this lot. You know the Christian community shares borders. Church members have access to many preachers and teachings. That is why we don’t pray over oil here, except we are directed by the Holy Spirit. It has been so bastardised.

Despite that, some members still bring oil for my blessing and I am like ‘’haven’t you been listening to our teachings?’’ So, you see some of these compromises and get really touched.

Are you overwhelmed by these?

Honestly, it gets at you sometimes. I remember a member once had a challenge.

She went to a church where she was told to prepare yam for three people praying for her.

According to them, she will overcome once we eat the yam. So, I just saw her in the office bringing my portion. I was so shocked to know people could come up with such ideas. You feel you are banging your head against the door. But sometimes, you get some that gladden your heart.

Recently, in our church, God answered a couple believing

God for a baby in the last 12 years. I married them and they stayed faithful. Sometimes, you are encouraged and other times you are discouraged.

How about men of God being hero-worshipped to the extent that every testimony is attached to the man of God? You see that also is a problem. I speak against it. I tell our members to only believe God. If you say God answered you because I prayed, how are you sure it was my prayer God answered? How many people do you know are praying for you? No man can perform miracles. When you attribute a miracle to a man of God, you are setting that man against God. He said He will not share His glory with any man.

It appears men of God also enjoy the adulation and attribution I agree with you but they have a problem. They should be very careful. I have seen where men of God became nothing. There was a time a man was mightily used in deliverance. It was like it was his name that was casting out the devil. It was so easy for him to cast out demons. He frizzled out because he became larger than life. A man of God does not need testimonies to be vali-

dated. He only needs to obey God. There is why I tell members they must know God for themselves. I ask them what will happen when I am not here. What is a man when God is there? People must be dependant on God and not his servants.

These abuses by church leadership are very damaging, aren’t they?

Yes they are but they are not new. If you are a student of church history, you will realise people have always been like that. That is why God always changes His leaders. Many people disappoint Him and fail away. From America to Nigeria, you see men of God that were so prominent suddenly disappearing.

Should we expect that again?

I don’t know. But if people keep doing what they are doing, then God will be left with no choice than to intervene again.

What is your reaction to the Boko Haram insurgency?

I see Boko Haram as a spiritual upsurge manifesting in Nigeria. I believe we will overcome it. The onus is on the church to confront the issue.

You see government has no clue at all. If despite all the churches we have in Nigeria, we can have this demonic group rampaging everywhere, then we should check our gospel. The gospel is the power of God. It is the vehicle of God for transformation of lives and societies. Whatever power God has is in the gospel. So, if we preach it and Boko Haram is still operating, then we should be saddened that this is happening in our days. We should be bothered that despite our anointing, these people are still in operation. So, we should pray and revisit our message. How can someone come to your church and bomb and nothing happens?

Then he moves to another church and wrecks havoc again. I think it is time we checked the gospel we have been preaching.

NEWS

T •Ekiye

entitled “Eniye’’, which means my own (or my style) in Ijaw language on his private new label.

The video of Eniye is making waves on Y-tube and some electronic media.

HE Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) South West Region, Archbishop Magnus Atilade, has described allegations of secession and religious fundamentalism against Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as baseless.

Aregbesola, he said, is neither a fundamentalist nor a secessionist but a patriot and nationalist.

Atilade, who is also the President of Christian Welfare Initiatives (CWI), said the alle-

Allegations against Aregbesola baseless-Atilade

By Sunday Oguntola

gations must have originated from political opponents uncomfortable with development strides being championed by Aregbesola in Osun State.

He described Aregbesola as a personal friend who has never allowed their religious differences to take anything away from their friendship.

Atilade, in a statement last week, said ‘’Governor

Aregbesola and I have come a long way despite our religious differences. He is a personal friend who is always welcomed in the family and church. ‘’I found allegations that he is planning to Islamise Osun State as laughable as reckless.

He has been a firm supporter of the gospel and has many Christian friends that I am aware of. ‘’Though he is a Muslim, he tolerates divergent religious opinions and surrounds him-

self with friends from both divides.’’

He urged political opponents not to distract Aregbesola from the business of governance and improving the lots of Osun people. ‘’They should look for something else to say and do.

If they have genuine causes, let them present instead of raising dust when there is none whatsoever,’’ Atilade advised.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

Worship

H

E is not just a living legend, but also a living wonder. At 112, founder of Gospel Apostolic Church Worldwide, Lagos, Rev Samuel Akinbode Sadela, is showing no sign of slowing down. He preaches every Sunday and dances vigorously during services. Acclaimed the world’s oldest preacher, Sadela has said he will live to celebrate another birthday come 2020. But some are wondering if it is not time for him to take the back seat and watch younger ministers take over. His church, they argue, would have grown better with a younger, dynamic overseer.

But will Sadela ever retire?

It does not seem he is thinking in that direction at all.

Popular American pastor and radio preacher, Chuck Swindoll is 78. He is currently the senior pastor of Stonbriar Community Church in Texas. His radio programme is aired in over 2,000 stations simultaneously in 15 languages worldwide. Swindoll, in a conference at the famed Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va, advised pastors against thinking of retirement. He said, ‘’One of my great goals in life is to live long enough to where I am in the pulpit, preaching my heart out, and I die on the spot, my chin hits the pulpit – boom! – and I’m down and out. What a way to die!’’

He added, “I don’t want to hear one of you say ‘I’m living for the day I’m going to retire.’

A pastor doesn’t retire. We got to keep that oar in the water,” he noted. “When they think of you let them remember you kept your oar in the water.”

But are pastors immunised against wear out and old age? Can they always carry on even when it is obvious it is better to step aside? Is it a bad idea to retire and watch others take on from where they have stopped?

General Overseer of Holy Ghost Assembly,

69

CONTROVERSY

With Sunday Oguntola (08034309265) Email: shinystarontop@gmail.com

Should pastors ever retire?

• Iloh

• Adejumo

• Douglas-West

•Ayanlowo

‘’What will a pastor retire to? Retiring to do what?

When you retire, you will die quickly. God has given me good health and I will not slow down at all.

This strength is not in vain. It is to serve God”

‘’You don’t retire from purpose because it is a lifetime commitment but when your energy begins to fail, you consider rest and gradual withdrawal. You then empower others to continue with whatever God has asked you to do’’

Refusing to retire smacks of failure to be creative and redirect acquired experiences into other useful enterprise. Senility comes with latent degeneracy in effectiveness and alertness which could impinge on performance. Retirements will neither excommunicate nor exclude one from the mainstream, but you would become an enviable elder in an advisory capacity’’

‘’Retirement in secular world has no place in spiritual service. Physical energy may diminish but spiritual wisdom will increase even at old age.

Younger people should continue to learn from old men. Moses worked until he was called home. In the New Testament, Peter himself worked until death. They provided spiritual leadership and cover until they died”

Sagamu, Ogun State, believes God’s ministers are chosen to serve for life. He said retirement is never an option as long as pastors can relate with God and still carry on. He said older men of God have spiritual wisdom that is invaluable. His words: ‘’Retirement in secular world has no place in spiritual service.

Physical energy may diminish but spiritual wisdom will increase even at old age.

Younger people should continue to learn from old men.

Moses worked until he was

called home. In the New Testament, Peter himself worked until death. They provided spiritual leadership and cover until they died.’’

Older ministers, he said, ‘’must be useful to the church of God and the body of Christ. They can delegate and provide monitoring while still working, supplying guidance and wisdom. I don’t know where you will be retiring to when you are still alive and communicating with God.’’

General Overseer of Soul Winning Chapel, Ebute Metta Lagos, Rev. Moses Iloh, was 82 some months ago. He said he is not considering retirement at all. ‘’What will a pastor retire to?

Retiring to do what? When you retire, you will die quickly,’’ he began. The tireless Iloh said he is as fit as fiddle and prepared to carry on with the gospel. ‘’God has given me good health and I will not slow down at all.

This strength is not in vain.

It is to serve God.’’ He noted

that Caleb asked to be engaged at 85, saying ‘’I will ask God to give me Nigeria If I live to be 85.’’

The Parish Priest of St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Lekki, Lagos, Rev. Asoliye Douglas-West, disagrees. He said retirement should be pre-determined and mandatory. This, he said, will allow ministerial work to survive for generations. DouglasWest said: ‘’The relay race is usually run by a team of sprint athletes who pass the baton from one runner to the

other team-member to complete the race. Bio-psychologically, there is an optimal limit the human mind and body can be subjected to physical and mental exertion. ‘’Beyond that limit, diminishing returns would set in and the output would be sub-optimum and value will be eroded. The scripture clearly recorded that upon the completion of creation tasks, God rested. Regardless of the perspective this might be interpreted, the fact is obvious that God rested! Also, Apostle Paul had to tutelage Timothy after he considered himself to have duly completed his assigned portion of the great commission.

He said pastors do not consider retirement because of fear of succession and idleness. ‘’ Refusing to retire smacks of failure to be creative and redirect acquired experiences into other useful enterprise. Senility comes with latent degeneracy in effectiveness and alertness which could impinge on performance. Retirements will neither excommunicate nor exclude one from the mainstream, but you would become an enviable elder in an advisory capacity.’

General Overseer of Agape Christian Ministries, Akure, Ondo State, Bishop Felix Adejumo, said the issue of retirement depends ‘’on your assignment.” According to him, ‘’you don’t retire from purpose because it is a lifetime commitment.” He, however, said when ministers fall into poor health, they should consider stepping aside for others. ‘’When your energy begins to fail, you consider rest and gradual withdrawal. You then empower others to continue with whatever God has asked you to do.’’

He emphasised that men of God must learn to rest or be prepared to be laid to rest. ‘’You should raise successors and allow others to step into your shoes while still alive,’’ he counselled.

NEWS HE Regional Pastor of Gospel Faith Mission ‘Government, churches should Group offers 29 orphans scholarship International

A

GROUP, Praise Family Ministry, has offered scholarship to twenty-nine orphans.

It also facilitated free medical tests sponsored by Messiah Arena Medical Section and Ministry of Health.

The scholarship was awarded to the orphans at the fifth edition of Easter Royal Banquet 2012 with the theme: ‘Brightening the dark paths’ organised by The Praise Family Ministry in collaboration with Messiah Arena.

Beneficiaries in primary schools got N10, 000 each while those in secondary schools received N20, 000 each.

Those in tertiary institutions were given N100, 000 each.

President of Praise Family Ministry International, Deacon Bayo Jesuniyi, said the gesture was in furtherance of the group’s commitment to uplifting the lessprivileged.

He canvassed support for orphans, saying they will become great if assisted.

Jesuniyi said: “They too

By Sunday Oguntola

are God’s children and among them are future governors and presidents but they cannot fulfill their destinies except they are educated.

“God asked us to lend a helping hand to these downtrodden so that they can live a fulfilled life.

He said the next target is to extend the scheme to 100 orphans in the next three years.

Jesuniyi expressed happiness over the scheme, saying it will save the future and destiny of the beneficiaries.

According to him, ‘’This is important because many of them are dropping out of school because their mothers, guardians or surviving parents are not able to sponsor their education.’’

He informed that another scheme christened ‘adopt-achild’ would soon be launched which would afford families opportunity to adopt a fatherless child whose education they would be responsible for.

He called on churches to

incorporate into their programmes, ways of assisting the poor, needy and the less privileged.

The President, Messiah Arena Global Mission Development Fellowship International, Mr. Michael Abimbola Siyanbola, harped on the essence of the banquet.

He said: “Apart from offering scholarship, it is also an occasion to bring this set of children together to have fellowship with others, eat and drink and make merry like every other privileged children.

“We are calling on Nigerians to support a noble cause like this to give life a meaning to the less privileged.’’

Mrs. Olanike Olaosebikan expressed delight that her son, Sulaimon, a student of Bowen University, benefitted from the scheme.

“My family deserted me when I gave my life to Jesus and today, it has paid off as the Lord will never forget His own. I also thank the organisation for its noble gesture,” she stated.

T

(GOFAMINT) Region 1 Lagos, Pastor Emmanuel Ogunyemi, has called on government to collaborate with religious institutions on workable strategies that will provide employment for teeming jobless youth at the grassroots.

He spoke at the Lagos State Empowerment Summit organised by the region in partnership with Impact House International.

The summit attracted over 200 youths, students, entrepreneurs and medium scale business owners drawn from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo. There were sessions on the salient principles, resource mobilization, how business starters get it wrong, developing proposal writing, experience sharing and prophetic ministration.

Ogunyemi argued that government’s efforts in tackling insecurity in the country can be further strengthened through quality education and mass employment opportunities for rural youths.

partner for youth development’

By Adeola Ogunlade

He said: “Nigeria has the highest rate of unemployed youth in West Africa with over 45 percent of our youths either unemployed or unemployable in both public and private sectors of our economy.”

He attributed the recent onslaught by Boko Haram in most parts of the north and other criminal practices among youth to long years of neglect.

Religious institutions and other civil societies groups, he asserted, can complement government’s effort in training and capacity building of youths in various business ventures when they received sufficient support from government agencies.

“The significant role of the church in the personal development and economic redemption of young people in the face of increasing economic hardship in our com-

munity today is imperative,” Ogunyemi stated. ‘’The church envisions a long term plan of incubating and mass-producing young mega business class in our community and also draws on existing experience renowned business ice breakers builds new knowledge and sound practices for wealth creation, while offering innovative, practical tools and mentoring for business starters,’’ he explained.

Executive Director of ImpactHouse International, Femi Aderibigbe, said that the programme was to reposition youths toward improving their self worth and economic capabilities.

He said “in the context of a global economic crisis, expanding youth populations, and rising youth unemployment, access to appropriate bottom-up capacity development for improved economic growth for youth has become more urgent than ever before.”

70

Worship

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

A city on a hill (1)

God will destroy humanity again (2) Pastor Lazarus Muoka

HEAVEN AT LAST

J

ER.7 : 7- 9 says, “The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. 8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations. 9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth” Brethren are you enjoying sin and assuring yourself that God cannot destroy humanity again? Have you not heard or read what He did in the Bible days, in the days of Lot, Noah, etc? It was their iniquities that provoked God to destroy them. And the iniquities of this generation have superseded all the iniquities of other generations thereby begging for destruction. He drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and punished them when they sinned. When Satan as the angel Lucifer became so proud, God judged him and drove him and other disobedient angels from heaven and prepared hell for their punishment for eternity. Yet, God has not changed. Our days of grace are about to expire and if there is no repentance, God will destroy humanity again.

Zeph. 1: 14 says, “The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the

LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly” Beloved, this warning of approaching destruction, is enough to make the sinners tremble. The great day of the Lord is coming, the day in which He will manifest Himself by taking vengeance on careless sinners.

That day, which is a day of God’s wrath, wrath to the utmost is very near. It is a day of trouble and distress to stubborn sinners who have lain asleep by the patience of God. They shall justly be left to walk as blind men, in the dark, in doubt and danger, without any guide or comfort, and falling at length into the consuming wrath of the Lord. Because they have sinned against the Lord He will deliver them into the hands of cruel enemies, that shall pour out their blood as dust, so profusely, and their flesh shall be thrown as dung upon the dunghill. On that day of the Lord’s wrath, there shall be no escaping, neither their silver nor their gold, which they have hoarded up so covetously against the evil day, or which they have spent so prodigally to make friends for such a time, shall be able to deliver them.

But what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?

And what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? I warn you reading this text to flee from the wrath to come, and choose the good part that shall never be taken from you; then be prepared for every event. For I am sure God will not forsake His people who obey His commandment.

If you have departed from righteousness, God is angry with you. He wants you to be holy. Repent therefore and give your life to Christ to avoid the punishment and destruction of humanity again.

Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” It

may seem right for you to initiate or support the legalization of abortion, adultery, homosexualism and prostitution. Nevertheless, you should understand that the end of that path is destruction. Amend your ways for tomorrow may be too late.

God is the owner of this world and will decide as it pleases Him what He wants in the world and from His creatures. He is not a respecter of person. If you repent of your sins, God will forgive and welcome you to His kingdom. But if you choose to remain adamant, then prepare to incur the ferocious wrath of your Maker.

I don’t know the kind of life you are living now whether in secret or open; neither do I know if you have resolved to remain unrepentant and resolved to continue in that evil. What I know is that the Scripture says in Hebrews 10: 31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God.” Brethren, to fall into the hands of God are to fall under His displeasure; and He who lives forever can punish forever. You can imagine how dreadful it would be for one to have the displeasure of an eternal, Almighty Being to rest on his soul forever! All the apostates, persecutors of God’s people and enemies of God’s cause, should assuredly expect the heaviest judgments of an incensed God and not for a time, but through eternity.

Beloved, God is a consuming fire, although very merciful and loving, but does not overlook willful disobedience, and will destroy those who despise His commandments. We should endeavour to avert His wrath by having a genuine repentance.

NB: Next, we shall discuss the way of escape in the event of destruction of humanity. Respond to email: heavenatlast2003@yahoo.com

Pastor Afolabi Samuel Coker

SETTLE ME OH LORD

“Y

E are the light of the world. A city that is set on as hill cannot be Mat.

hid.”

5:14 KJV “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?

I’m putting you on a light stand.

Now that I’ve put you on a hilltop, on a light stand- shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” Mat.5:14-16 (MSG) One quality of Light is that it’s ‘righteously’ white.

God is Light; pure, glowingly, gloriously and thoroughly righteous. Unmistakably, the so much depravity in the land is the result of the detachment of the so-called ‘cities’ (Christians) of our day from the ‘Hill’ (God). It’s only righteousness that can exalt a nation. At a time like this, this nation is in dire need of the enthronement of light in all the high places. In both private and public sectors, we need complete overhauling of our paradigms through the embrace of righteousness.

And who else will reflect these light but true heavenbound believers.

Do I need to remind us from the content of our text that every true Christian is typically a glowing creation of God because he carries His ‘light-gene’ within. From the opening text, Jesus Christ confirms you have been born

a ‘Reflector’ of God’s glorious light. This is more so as every genuine product normally carries the insignia of its manufacturer, if we have abundance of true Christians here, the insignia of our Maker (LIGHT) will be evident in, through and all around us. Our God is the ‘Hill’ while we are the ‘cities’.

In John 8:12, Jesus Christ said; “I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The implication of this is that, the true light carrier must be a follower of Jesus. Jesus is the only one who defines their path in the order of light because “the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” Prov. 4:18 (MSG Translation) From this text, Jesus Christ is speaking both figuratively and in the prophetic sense to heaven-bound believers.

There abounds a compelling conviction to write on this considering the level of darkness and depravity in our land even when we claim there are believers. In public and private sectors, even in religious circles, Wanton hypocrisy and lip-service to what is right has become the order of the day.

Light seems to be receding while gross darkness looms.

There is no better time for true believers to ascend and take the center stage and then influence their world for God. In the spiritually figurative sense, the King of kings compared a true believer to ‘a city on a hill that cannot be hid (covered, brought low, put down, despised)’. He’s in this sense affirming the authority of believers to live as glorious sights in glorious heights.

As Message Bible puts it; “…God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.” The evidence of God’s indwelling presence in a believer’s life is that he would stand-out and be outstanding. You cannot have God and remain low.

The height belongs to you. No unrighteousness should exist wherever you belong or go because your light deflects unrighteous darkness. Jesus was

therefore conveying to us that a believer is spiritually positioned for prominence, visibility, colourful preeminence, uncoverable glory, elevation, shining, outstanding place, glowing victory, rising, radiance. He is actually also conveying to us how as believers, we’re being highly spiritually wired to reign as SHINING light which cannot be COVERED or kept UNDER. This He confirmed in His preceding sentence; “Ye are the light of the World”. You are according to Matt.5:14 a light, a light carrier and a light reflector.

With God, your SHINING and RADIANCE is not negotiable. If you then have become a SHINING light, you cannot be ignored; it’s becomes an error for you to be found in the valleys. It’ll be incomprehensible to the Hill (GOD) for any house (YOU) located on it to be hidden.

You have been located in God; therefore, you must RISE to Prominience and take charge of your environment. .

This is what makes you ‘a city on a Hill that cannot be hid.’

And the singular well-loaded word that can convey Jesus Christ’s knowing of your untapped capacities is that ‘you are the light of the world…..People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.’

If we take a cue from these texts, we can infer that all puzzles and challenges of our nationhood will melt away if we submit entirely to God and His righteousness, if we can embrace the Light. Light exposes all liars, hypocrites, greedy men and selfish men. If Christian ascends to the Hill and can shine forth, the confusions and the clouds will fizzle out. This is the paradigm shift we need. Whether as individual or as a nation, a declaration and determination to embrace and to reflect the Light of God is war unleashed on darkness and all its allies.

You’re the one the world is waiting for! afocoker@yahoo.com 08033374095

NEWS Be decisive, cleric tells Jonathan

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•L-R: Michael Shobowale, Asst. Sec, His Grace Most Special Apostle Hezekiah Amusan, and General Secretary Special Apostle Reuben Fabiyi at the press briefing on 50th Anniversary of C&S ‘Jesus Saves’ Church held in Lagos … last week

HE General Overseer of Passion and Power Church, Ogba, Lagos, Pastor Felix Nwachukwu, has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to muster enough courage to tackle fundamental challenges facing the nation.

Jonathan, he said, needs strength of character to take Nigeria out of the wood.

Nwachukwu, in a chat last week, lamented the massive poverty afflicting Nigerians.

He said corruption has been the greatest bane of the nation, calling on President Jonathan to do all within his powers to stem the tide.

According to him, ‘’What Nigeria needs at this point in time is a leader with strength of character. Everybody knows the challenges facing us. We know where things are wrong with us but we have not had the courage to confront them. ‘’President Jonathan should challenge corruption

By Sunday Oguntola

and mismanagement. If he does this, we won’t have Nigerians running out of this country.’’

He also identified regular power supply as a major hurdle that Nigeria must cross.

Nigerians, he explained, will do much better with provision of power.

‘’Costs of doing businesses are abysmally high because you have to include fuelling into pricing. If Nigerians get power, they can move mountains and do not need much help from government again.’’

He said government must stop mass frustration, warning many Nigerians are hungry and angry.

WHAT AND WHERE

Church holds anniversary

T

HE Anniversary/ Thanksgiving service ceremony of the True Covenant Church of God (TCCG), otherwise known as

Omo Majemu ministry, holds on Sunday, 29th April.

The theme of the anniversary is “From Grass to Grace”.

BSN 45th national board meeting takes off

T

HE Bible Society of Nigeria [BSN] holds her 45th Annual National Board Meeting in Owerri, Imo State from 23rd – 26th April, 2012.

The Board Meeting, which will be declared open by the Imo State Executive Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, will

start with a Divine Service scheduled to hold at Christ Anglican Church, Christ Church Road, Owerri on 24th April.

The meeting will be presided over by the National President of the Society, Dr. Aaron Nuhu.

THE NATION SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

71

SPORT EXTRA

Madrid beats Barcelona 2-1 to move 7 points clear C R I S T I A N O RONALDO'S late goal dealt Barcelona its first loss in 54 home games and put Real Madrid on the cusp of breaking the Catalan giants' three-year hold on the Spanish league crown with a record-setting 2-1 win on Saturday.

Sami Khedira opened with Madrid's league-record 108th goal of the season and Ronaldo sealed the victory with his own league-record 42nd goal moments after Alexis Sanchez leveled for Barcelona.

Madrid's 19th league game without a loss lifted it seven points clear of Barcelona at the top of the standings with just four rounds to go.

After managing only a single win in nine previous games against Barcelona since joining Madrid, coach Jose Mourinho finally guided his team to a long-coveted victory over its fierce rivals on their ground.

• Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the winning gaol against Barcelona yesterday

Milan free Taiwo for QPR

A

C Milan may have freed Nigeria defender Taye Taiwo for Queens

Park Rangers on a permanent basis after agreeing a deal to sign Bakare Traore from Ligue 1 club Nancy come summer.

The 27-year-old Mali international, is a free agent and Milan are once more leaping at an opportunity to snap up a player without spending too much money, the same way Taiwo joined them from Olympique Marseille last summer.

Traore, who is expected to cross over on a Bosman transfer, is renowned for his adventurous tendencies from his left-back position and has scored four times on his last five outings with Nancy He is expected to sign a threeyear contract with the Rossoneri . He is already relishing the prospect of donning the colours

EAGLES’ CALL

Nedum must pledge future to Nigeria—Keshi

S

UPEREAGLES headcoach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi says he will be delighted to see Nedum Onuoha pledge his international future to Nigeria but warned he will not force any player to dorn the green and white colours of the two-time African Champions.

Onuoha who has 21 England U-21 caps,was born in Nigeria and is still eligible to play for the West Africans, but is yet to make up his mind on his international future.

And Keshi who recently admitted difficulty in getting another Nigerian born player,Sidney Sam, to play for the Super Eagles said from his base in the United States of America that he recognized the immense talents of Onuoha who linked up with Queen Parks Rangers from Manchester City during the winter transfer window and stated that he will consider the player only if he shows interest in playing for his country of birth.

“I recognize the fact that Nedum is a good defender , but he has to show interest in playing for Nigeria before he can be considered”, said Keshi.

of the San Siro giants.

“Along with Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid, I think Milan are the most important club in the world. I am honoured to hear the Rosseneri are interested in me,” he told French newspapers earlier in the week.

Reports in Italy indicate that Milan have to plans on recalling Taiwo from his season-long loan stint at QPR. The 27-yearold Nigerian is desirous of making his stay at Loftus Road permanent and should be thrilled by this piece of information.

PREMIER LEAGUE RESUL TS RESULTS Arsenal 0 - 0 Chelsea Aston Villa 0 - 0 Sunderland Blackburn 2 - 0 Norwich Bolton W. 1 - 1 Swansea Fulham 2 - 1 Wigan Newcastle 3 - 0 Stoke C. QPR 1 - 0 Tottenham

2012 CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP

CAF clears Chibuzo Okonkwo for Heartland

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HE Confederation of African Football (CAF) has given the representatives of Nigeria in the CAF Confederations Cup, Heartland Football Club, the nod to feature Super Eagles’ defender, Chibuzo Okonkwo in the club’s subsequent matches of the African club second tier competition.

The Naze Millionaires received the news in a letter sent to the club through

RAISO get LDFA’s approval

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HE Razaak Ayoola International Sports Organization (RAISO), otherwise known as “Warrior Bombers” have been officially approved as an affiliate of the Lagos Divisional Football Association (LDFA) for the 2012 season.

In a release made available to NationSport at the weekend, the confirmation qualifies the Sport Organisation to participate, promote and develop football within the jurisdiction of Lagos Divisional Football Association.

According to the statement, signed by its Chairman, Primate Razaak Omonigbehin, the organisation’s main goal is to transform the youths in all areas of sports, especially football.

“The youths will be trained and prepared for greater leadership role in line with the goals of the organisation. We call on the youths to avail themselves of the opportunity to attain great heights in their chosen sporting career,” he said.

From Tunde Liadi,Owerri CAF’s secretary General, Essam Ahmed who informed Heartland that the application submitted in January this year to have Okonkwo registered has been considered and that he is now eligible to play in the club’s round of 16 tie with AC Leopards of DR Congo which comes up in Owerri on April 29.

The media officer of the club, Cajetan Nkwopara informed NationSport that Heartland received the information with joy because Chibuzo Okonkwo will no doubt add quality to the star studded side.

“I am glad to tell you that the application to have Chibuzo Okonkwo registered by our club in our subsequent matches of the

ongoing CAF Confederations Cup has been granted. We submitted the application since January but we got the reply from CAF on Friday (April 19). With this information, Okonkwo is free to play for Heartland in the CAF Confederations Cup game at home to AC Leopard of DR Congo next Sunday,” an elated Nkwopara told SportingLife.

It would be recalled that Okonkwo was initially omitted from the list of players registered because he was away in England on trials with Championship side Reading Football Club, while the club was compiling names of the players to send to CAF and only for him to resurface to the team after he was unable to seal a deal.

First Bank: Why we sponsored NIPOGA 2012 • Youths urged to pursue excellence

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PORTING competitions centered on youths are important platforms for ensuring sustainable development of champions for the nation in several regional and global events, Nigeria’s Number One Bank Brand, First Bank of Nigeria Plc has said.

The Bank said its decision to support the ongoing 17th Nigeria Polytechnic Games (NIPOGA) holding at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State and several other youthbased sporting events is hinged on its commitment to youth empowerment and desire to promote and position homegrown talents for global achievements.

FirstBank, it would be recalled, is already driving the nation’s participation and expected impressive performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games as Official Banker to the Nigerian Olympic Committee.

Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney said the Bank’s role as “Official Banker to NOC” and sponsorship of NIPOGA 2012 represents its conviction of the role of sports as a vehicle for promoting unity, youth

empowerment and excellence.

“As a national icon, FirstBank considers it a privilege to be part of efforts geared towards repositioning sports development in Nigeria,” she said.

She noted that FirstBank was proud to be associated with the Polytechnic Games in Ede, adding that Nigerian youths should take advantage of such platforms to pursue their dreams of being world champions.

“The competition in Ede represents another opportunity for youths to demonstrate their abilities as the nation looks to restoring its glory in sports.

FirstBank salutes all the athletes and restates its commitment to enhancing capacity building for youths through robust partnerships and initiatives,” she said.

According to Ani-Mumuney, FirstBank, in line with its corporate social responsibility policies has remained a promoter of various developmental and professional sporting activities through partnerships with individuals, communities and organisations.

Dolphins still in title contention –Balogun

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S Dolphins take on Ocean Boys in one of this weekend’ Nigeria Premier League games at the Samson Siasia Stadium, General Coordinator of the Port Harcourt-based side, Rasheed Balogun believes the team has all it takes to retain the title at the end of the season.

The NPL champions are currently on third spot on the league with 32 points, the same with leaders Kano Pillars and second placed Rangers International.

Balogun revealed that Dolphins have put the disappointment of their CAF Champions League exit behind them and are now focused on defending their league crown.

“It is painful if one considers the huge money spent on the team by the Rivers State Government to ensure Dolphins qualify for the next round, even more so the support received by Commissioner for Sports in Rivers State, Barrister Fred Igwe was magnanimous”, begins the

former Julius Berger Football Club of Lagos team manager.

“We are out of the continent but, we are not out of the league contention, we have learnt our lesson and we will put in place the lesson we learnt in the continent in the league and see if we can still win the coveted trophy again.

“We have resolved to focus on our domestic league and if you look at the table log we are not doing badly but, it is not enough because we will like to defend the trophy we won last season and still go back to the continent next season.

“The commissioner has said it that the only thing we can do to complement the state government and his efforts on the club is to go back to the continent next season. We don’t like boasting on whether we are going to defend the trophy or not, but I believe we are in contention and we are not doing badly, we will try our possible best and see if we can defend the trophy well.”

2012 IMO FA FEDERATION CUP

IMO FA rules on Heartland versus Police Machine today •Odds favour Naze Millionaires

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FINAL decision on the inconclusive quarter final match of the 2012 Imo State Federation Cup between Heartland FC of Owerri and Police Machine team will be made today.

Heartland were losing the tie 0-1 before the match was abruptly ended after the centre referee awarded a late penalty to the 2011 Federation Cup winners. The Naze Millionaires then refused to enter the field of play to continue the match and take the spot kick awarded them despite overtures from the match officials for them to do so.

The Organising and

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri Disciplinary Committee of the Imo FA sat yesterday at their secretariat inside the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, and threw out for lack of merit the protest filed by Heartland FC that it was the Police Machine team that abandoned the encounter, but a new twist surfaced when Heartland lodged a protest on the eligibility of a certain Franklin Mbonu who was between the sticks for Police Machine.

Heartland averred that Mbonu featured in last year’s Federation Cup for Owerri

United FC but was not properly cleared to play for Police Machine.

Owing to this development, the O&D of the Imo FA under the chairmanship of Sir Emma Ochiaga and his deputy, Ndubuisi Opara suspended all decisions on the matter till today to allow Police Machine FC who pleaded for a 24-hour grace to produce the clearance of Mbonu and his licence that made him eligible to play for Police Machine.

Mbonu played for Owerri United FC in the 2011 State FA Cup and kept when his team narrowly lost to Heartland Comets FC on penalties in the first round.

“A decision will be taken tomorrow (today) because besides the fact that Heartland FC protested that Police Machine abandoned the match which we have thrown out for lack of merit, there is also another issue bothering on technicalities on the eligibility of a certain Franklin Mbonu who our record shows played for Owerri United FC last season in the Imo FA Cup. Heartland filed a protest that the said Mbonu was not properly cleared to play for Police Machine. We have told them (Police Machine) to go and produce the clearance of the said player before a ruling is made tomorrow (today),” Ochiaga told NationSport.

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QUOTABLE "Some unscrupulous doctors and health practitioners, because of money being made from such medical trips, often refer patients abroad. There is a commercial motivation because once somebody has chest pain, they will tell him it is a heart disease and thereafter refer him or her abroad for treatment. It is as bad as that…"

SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 6, NO. 20103

—Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu on rich Nigerians' penchant to seek medical treatment abroad

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WO weekends ago, the federal government, obviously operating through the State Security Service (SSS), and in tandem with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), released a report indicating that the government of Osun was planning secession from the federation and Islamisation of the state. The report was leaked to a supposedly neutral newspaper perhaps for effect. Since then, the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been on the defensive, straining anxiously to persuade all lovers of democracy that the report from the Department of State Security was more political than security, and probably more designed to soften the ground for a PDP onslaught at the next governorship polls.

The SSS report reminds me of the 1941 American drama film, Citizen Kane, directed

by Orson Welles. Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles, the biographical film, voted as the best film ever, was based in part on the life and legacy of William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper magnate who owned the New York Journal, a newspaper he used to coax the United States into war with Spain over Cuba in 1898. It was said that because he anticipated a war between the US and Spain, Hearst sent his reporters to Cuba, among whom was Frederic Remington, a distinguished artist.

According to a popular account, Remington was soon bored that nothing remotely resembling disquiet or war was happening between the two powers, and so he sent a telegram to his publisher asking to be allowed to return to the US. That telegram and Hearst’s terse reply form an evocative part of the film. “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return,” Remington was quoted as saying in the telegram. “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war,” Hearst was said to have replied in a memorable indication of the power and arrogance of the yellow journalism of the time. Though it was not clear whether such an exchange actually happened between reporter and publisher, a number of events did happen, including the sinking of the US battleship, Maine, in the harbour of Havana, to provoke the Spanish-American war.

On reading the SSS report on the alleged secessionist plans and other matters in Osun, I immediately recalled the famous telegram exchange between Hearst and Remington depicted in Welles’ film à clef. The SSS has been made to furnish a colourful and vivid report on Osun; and the increasingly clannish federal government seems eager to furnish the war. Hardball, this newspaper’s daily back page column succinctly took the SSS report apart and reflectively ascribed motives to the federal government’s intention for Osun in a piece it entitled Secession Made Simple. Permit me to quote from the piece published on April 17.

“Who would have thought that in our lifetime, we would be shown an easy way to plot and carry out secession? We have the Department of State Security (SSS) and the federal government to thank for this discovery. It took the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu about three years to organise a secessionist movement, but in spite of all the money, population, and support from a few countries, the effort collapsed in a heap after millions were slaughtered. Now, according to the secret service and the federal government, which seemed to have allowed the leakage of the report, Osun State government has taken steps and planned policies all designed to pull the landlocked and basically agrarian state out of Nigeria. If secession were this easy and so practicable without resources – crude oil or industrial – even Hardball would have tried his luck.

“Well, now, thanks to the secret service, we have a manual for Secession Made Simple. Osun State is the first case study. The requirements are neither complicated nor expensive, nor yet covert. First step is for the state to rename itself, sort of, from the usual Osun State to State of Osun.

Of course the constitution did not say Osun State or State of Osun, but since the state was known as Osun State, and was changed by the governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to State of Osun, this must be for the sole purpose of secession. Second

Osun’s secessionist bogeymen

•Aregbesola

•Oyinlola

step is to create an anthem for the state, not necessarily to replace the national anthem, but to complement it. Even as a complement, it would still amount to a dangerous step in the direction of secession, according to the secret service manual.

“Third step is to design a flag. In many other democracies, states of course have flags in order to differentiate one another in a federal set up. But in Nigeria, according to the manual, this is another fateful step towards secession. The final step is naturally coat of arms. According to Secession Made Simple, since Nigeria as a country has a coat of arms, no state should. And if a state did, it must have secession on its mind. Even Aristotle would chuckle.

“The manual did not tell the wary and distressed public why Osun, a Yoruba State, would want to secede from Nigeria without the cooperation of its fellow and contiguous Yoruba states.

Even the short-lived Biafra Republic proclaimed

by Ojukwu in 1967 embraced contiguous Igbo states. The manual was also silent on why less than two years into his tenure, Aregbesola would take an inchoate state economy, which still largely depends on revenue allocated from the centre, out of the federation. Nor did the secret service manual on secession tell us why a state that has no weapons and no arms industry, and is smack in the middle of nowhere, can hope to pull off such a mighty stunt as secession…

“Worse is how to fathom the intention of the federal government. Is it so meddlesome that in spite of Boko Haram in the North, MEND in the South-South, MASSOB in the Southeast and other security threats in other parts of Nigeria, it hopes

to open another front in the Southwest? Was it goaded into that needless action by the ruling party from which the presidency has proved unable to detach itself? Or was it thinking malevolently and calculatingly with 2015 in view? The security report on Osun could not have been leaked if it had not made a significant impression on the presidency. Could the president not for once leave bad enough alone?”

But perhaps nettled by the report, Aregbesola has gone into overdrive with coordinated activities all over the state, denouncing the SSS report and making a state broadcast reiterating his bona fides and urging Osun to ignore the federal government’s nefarious political designs. The governor is justifiably anxious about the dark intentions of the Presidency, for as we have started to see in many parts of the country, President Goodluck Jonathan has become unpredictable, inconsistent and intolerant. Any other president would be wary of fomenting additional trouble anywhere, given the insecurity that has enveloped a large swathe of the country. But Jonathan’s sense of proportion not only leaves much to be desired, it is weighted against moderation.

I think it is absolutely nonsensical to say Osun is planning rebellion or Islamisation of the state. But there is no doubt that Aregbesola’s lawful boisterousness has armed his enemies. They would seek to press their advantage by continuing to distract or needle him. He is however fortunate that his enemies are baring their fangs early in the

“Surely, even Aregbesola must understand that the ordinary Yoruba voter is overrated, and requires cajolery at all times to vote with the sophistication vouchsafed him by his compatriots. The Yoruba may be more politically conscious than voters from other parts of Nigeria, but he is still at bottom flogged and tormented by the same common demons that gnaw at the liver of his countrymen.

The Yoruba is as impressionable as other voters, subject to the same irritating dubieties that lure Nigerians to appalling choices, and, in spite of his progressivism, is more spiteful, less forgiving and even sometimes fatalistic. Osun must see in Aregbesola not only a doer and a thinker, it must more importantly see him first as a politician blind to colour, class, creed or politics – indeed a paragon of the incomparable virtues of democracy. So far, I do not get the impression that the Osun governor has formed a concise, compelling and enduring image of himself”

day, rather than in an election year. It should give him time to adopt strict moderation in public policy and properly tame his highly idiosyncratic style of governance. In one of his replies to the tendentious SSS report, Aregbesola for instance proudly proclaimed that it was futile to use religion to divide the Yoruba, for the Southwest people were not only truly cosmopolitan, they had successfully achieved a divorce between state and religion. He is right; but that is precisely why he must understand that any public show of religious frills grates on the sensibilities of his people. He must appreciate that the Yoruba are a uniquely irreverent and iconoclastic people. They want a demonstration of public morality as a part of the content of government policy, but they resent a public show of morality or puritanism in their public officials, elected or appointed.

Aregbesola has at various times proudly talked about his mentor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, recalling how he was similarly traduced, and how he overcame his enemies in Lagos. The Osun governor may need to examine more closely his mentor’s nuanced politics and lifestyle. Tinubu has an instinctive grasp of politics. He is religious, but you would need to strain hard to know what faith he professes. His joie de vivre, his approachability, and his infectious love of life make him a man for all seasons and of the people.

With a grin that has almost become a permanent fixture on his face, his abiding interest in every person he meets, and a sociableness that makes him almost irreverent and not averse, like Albert Einstein on the precincts of Princeton University, to winking at fair….

Oh well, I better haul up before I am challenged to a duel.

The plain fact is that the Yoruba, and indeed most Nigerians, want their politicians warm, homely, human, and sociable. They get uncomfortable when there is a hint of the puritan in their political leaders. Rather than work himself into fury, Aregbesola must see the deployment of religious antagonisms against him by the federal government and the PDP as an encouragement to return to the middle, neutral ground, to the simplicity and approachability that have characterised Yoruba politics and politicians for decades.

His enemies read his motives wrongly and mischievously, but he now has the opportunity to seize upon that hurtful fact to reclaim his understanding of the Yoruba archetype.

His enemies, taken enthusiastically under the patronage of the presidency, have tried to instigate unidentified enemies against him and his party, but he must know that he has a responsibility to his party and all progressives to break the budding Osun jinx, which sees competent, hardworking and frugal political leaders spurned at the polls for flimsy and untenable reasons.

Surely, even Aregbesola must understand that the ordinary Yoruba voter is overrated, and requires cajolery at all times to vote with the sophistication vouchsafed him by his compatriots. The Yoruba may be more politically conscious than voters from other parts of Nigeria, but he is still at bottom flogged and tormented by the same common demons that gnaw at the liver of his countrymen. The Yoruba is as impressionable as other voters, subject to the same irritating dubieties that lure Nigerians to appalling choices, and, in spite of his progressivism, is more spiteful, less forgiving and even sometimes fatalistic.

Osun must see in Aregbesola not only a doer and a thinker, it must more importantly see him first as a politician blind to colour, class, creed or politics – indeed a paragon of the incomparable virtues of democracy. So far, I do not get the impression that the Osun governor has formed a concise, compelling and enduring image of himself.

Aregbesola is the only one who can package himself fittingly as a modern, moderate, temperate, tolerant, progressive and democratic politician. The guileful and distasteful attacks orchestrated against him by the government and the intelligence community should challenge him to create a perception of himself that even his enemies, as miserly as they are with praise, will grudgingly acknowledge.

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Editor - 08033510610, Marketing: 4520939, Abuja Office: Plot 5, Nanka Close AMAC Commercial Complex, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja. Telephone: 07028105302 E-mail: sunday@thenationonlineng.net Editor: FESTUS ERIYE