Aug 23, 2013

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Excess crude cash down to $5.1b NEWS

Page 8

•July salary may be delayed

News Woman buys baby for N1.2m P3 Sports Galatasaray bids N3bn for Mikel P24 Business Govt releases N250b for projects P11 www.thenationonlineng.net

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

VOL. 8, NO. 2585 FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

N150.00

•Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan (front row, fifth-left); President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr Femi Adesina (fifth right); other executive members of the Guild and Delta officials during the Guild’s executive members’ visit to the governor in Asaba…yesterday. STORY ON PAGE 56 PHOTO: NAN

15 companies take over unbundled PHCN firms

We’ve crises in PDP, Jonathan admits

P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has openly admitted the crises rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

But, in his view, the party will sort out its disagreements amicably.

Jonathan, who spoke at the 62nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party yesterday, said disagreements are inevita-

From Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

ble in all human relationships, even at the family level.

“But the key thing that makes life go on is our ability to resolve our crises. No matter the disagreements, no matter the interests, politics, they say, is a game of interests.

“As I came in, the Vice-President whispered something to me about some lapses some-

where. There may be disagreements. In all institutions, even at the family level, there must be disagreements on issues.

“We will resolve these differences amicably to make sure that every member of the party is happy. That is the area I commend the elders of the party via the committees set up by the national chairman for going round to see how some of Continued on page 4

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

T

HE unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has been completed.

Ten Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and five Generation Companies (GENCOs) have been handed the successor companies that rose from the balkanisation of the defunct PHCN. The companies are those which completed the payment of the 75% balance on their bid price for the companies.

Continued on page 4

•Dr. Jonathan

ASUU, govt talks crash Teachers allege insincerity Go back to work, pleads Suswam

H

•Faggae...yesterday

OPES of an early resolution of the government-varsity teachers crisis faded yester-

day.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suddenly withdraw from talks with the government, which it claimed was insincere.

Teachers in the 61 public universities shunned their jobs on July 1 after declaring an industrial action over the refusal of the Federal Government to honour the terms of the 2009 ASUU/Federal Government agreement.

Since then, ASUU has been negotiating with two committees set up by the government.

The committees are headed by Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim.

ISSUES IN 2009 GOVT/ASUU AGREEMENT

•Federal Government assistance to state varsities •Progressive increase of education budget to 26% between 2009 and 2020 •Earned academic allowances of N92b •Amendment of pension/retirement age from 65 to 70 years •Establishment of a pension fund administrator •Transfer of landed property to the universities •Setting up research and development units by companies operating in Nigeria •Budget Monitoring Committee

By Adegunle Olugbamila, Education Reporter

Suswam announced that the government had offered N30b as earned allowances for the lecturers in the 61 public universities.

But the lecturers are asking for N92billion.

Yesterday, ASUU President Dr. Nasir Isa Faggae said the union

would only return to the negotiation table after the 2009 agreement had been honoured. He spoke at a news conference at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

He said: “Our members are left with no other choice than to prosecute this strike to its logical conclusion. ASUU members nationwide are saying this strike will not be suspended until and

unless the government respects the 2009 Agreement and makes concrete efforts to implement it in the best interest of the country.”

The ASUU boss accused government of being blunt, declaring that it neither had any motive to revitalise public universities through committed funding, nor was it ready to pay in full the accumulated Earned Academic Allowances between 2009 and 2013.

“Rather, it (Federal Government) is talking about providing N30 billion to assist various governing councils of federal universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion owed to all categories of staff in the university system. It was a sinister ‘take it or leave it’ threat of grab-the-crumbs or starve-to-death,” he said.

Continued on page 4

•CITYBEATS P7 •SPORTS P23 •N/DELTA P25 •SOCIETY P29 •POLITICS P43

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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NEWS

The new

•From left: Chairman, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (Oyo State) Mr. Joshua Adeoye, Mr. Femi Mokikan and Chairman of the occassion, Sir. Remi Omotosho at the 11th Annual Conference of the CIPM in Ibadan...yesterday.

PHOTO: FEMI ILESANMI

Following the payment of 75 per cent balance for the Power Holding Company (PHCN) successor companies, the private investors will in October take over the entities. They are 10 distribution companies (Discos) and five generation companies (Genco), reports JOHN OFIKHENUA

T

•From left: Chairman, NTA Board of Trustee Patrick Ogbu, Mrs. Modupe Olubolade, Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Deng Bonqinq, his wife Cheng and Director-General, NTA Alhaji Musa Mayaki during Star Times’ third anniversary PHOTO: AKIN OLADOKUN. celebration in Abuja...yesterday.

•From left: Special Adviser to the President on on Niger Delta Kingsley Kuku, with Managing Director of Lufthansa's Pilot Training Network Captain Holger Hoffmann and the Sales Manager, Simulator Training Division Robert Poposki during the signing of a pilot training contract for Niger Delta youths in Abuja... on Wednesday.

•From left: Deputy President, Nigeria Institute of Management Chartered (NIMC) Dr. Uzo Nelson Nwaga , President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Akintayo Olumide Bamidele and President and Chairman of Council, NIMC Dr. Michael Olawale Cole at the Institute’s luncheon in Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: ABIODUN WILLIAMS

HE waiting game is over.

Money has exchanged hands and in October, power will change hands. The 10 distribution companies (Discos) and five generation companies (Genco), which are the successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), were paid for on Wednesday by private hands.

The Yola and Ibadan Discos will from October be run by Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing.

Former Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chairman of the company.

The Benin Distribution Company will be managed by Vigeo Power Limited, a multi-business group with interest in Nigeria. Its chairman is Gbolade Osibodu, husband of the former Managing Director of Union Bank, Funke.

The Eko Distribution Company is now in the firm grip of West Power & Gas, a consortium comprising Alpha Consortium Limited, Atlantic Meridean, Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund 2 Mauritius and Siemens Limited of Germany.

KEPCO/NEDC consortium is now the owner of the Ikeja Disco. The entity will now be under the control of the Korea Electric Power Company.

For Abuja Disco, KANN Consortium Utility Company Ltd is now in charge, while the Enugu Disco had its deal suspended because the preferred bidders was yet to complete their 75 per cent.

Other winners of discos are the Sahelian Power SPV Limited (Kano Disco) and Aura Energy Limited (Jos Disco).

For the generation companies, the former Chief Executive Officer, UBA, Tony Elumelu, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp & Woodlock Consortium, now owns the Ughelli Power Plc. Elumelu is committing $2.5 billion to the power sector in Africa. The investment is being made through his pan-African proprietary investment company Heirs Holdings - the single largest investor included in the White House statement announcing the Power Africa initiative.

Power Africa is a multi-stakeholder partnership between the United States, the governments of Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the African private sector, with the shared objective of accelerating investment in Africa's power sector over the next five years.

The initiative was launched in South Africa during Obama's town hall at the University of Cape Town.

Elumelu's holding company, through its investee company, Transnational Corporation of Nige-

•Abubakar ria (Transcorp), purchased the Ughelli power plant, which it plans to restore to its full generating capacity of 1000 megawatts.

Elumelu said: "The investment we are making demonstrates our intent to become a significant player in the power sector. It also shows in a clear and meaningful way that African capital can and should be part of the solution to Africa's challenges. We need more African companies to step up and get involved in Africa's development.

"Heirs Holdings' investment in Power Africa is not just about creating value for shareholders. We want to conduct business in this strategic sector for the long term, in a way that links economic return to social benefits - a key component of what I call Africapitalism. Access to affordable, uninterrupted power will have an immeasurable impact on the economic ecosystem. The cost of doing business will come down, entrepreneurs will expand and innovate, and jobs will be created as a result. That is a very tangible example of what Africapitalism is about: the private sector creating economic prosperity and social wealth."

Mainstream Energy Solutions owns the Kainji Genco, CMEC/ EURAFRIC bought the Sapele Power Plc. Shiroro is now the property of CMEC/EURAFRIC, while Geregu Power Plc is now for Amperion Power Company Limited.

As the public sector prepares to relinquish the operation of the power sector to its investors, the industry is bound to witness significant changes.

The Ministry of Power said it would meet the timeline slated for the handover of the power successor companies to their investors. Minister of Power Prof. Chinedu Nebo said it would not be business as usual in the industry.

The bidders have honoured their path of the obligations they signed with the Federal Government to complete their payment within six months, what is left to be seen is the government making good its promise.

Only a few days before the August 21 deadline for the payment, the would-be operators of the sector flooded Abuja to request the Federal Government to remove some of the barriers that may affect the smooth

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

3

NEWS

look of the private power sector ‘ The investment we are making demonstrates our intent to become a significant player in the power sector. It also shows in a clear and meaningful way that African capital can and should be part of the solution to Africa's challenges

•Elumelu running of the power sector.

Power supply hovers around 3,000mega watts and as such much is expected for the private owners of PHCN successor companies. The ministry said the transmission network in the country is weak due to years of neglect. The sector is permeated by incessant vandalism and inadequate gas supply. Although the ministry continues to raise the consumers hope that the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) due for operation in the next few years will alleviate the situation, the power producers and consumers have only taken this with a pinch of salt.

For instance, the Independent Power Producers Association of Nigeria (IPPAN) has asked the Federal Government to remove the encumbrance in the power sector before handover of the sector to the operators. One of the salient points the association raised was the issue of the transmission line. It appealed to the government to improve the transmission line.

The IPPAN chairman, Prof Jerry Gana, said: "Viable transmission lines are needed to enable us generate power and it will alleviate the systems problems we had in recent times."

•Nebo

•Osibodu

WINNERS ALL •Yola and Ibadan Discos: Integrated Energy Distribution & Marketing •Benin Distribution Company: Vigeo Power Limited •Eko Disco: West Power & Gas •Ikeja Disco: KEPCO/NEDC consortium •Abuja Disco : KANN Consortium Utility Company Ltd •Kano Disco: The Sahelian Power SPV Limited •Jos Disco: Aura Energy Limited •Port Harcourt Disco: Four Power Consortium •Ughelli Power Plc: Transacorp & Woodlock Consortium •Kainji Genco: Mainstream Energy Solutions •Sapele Power Plc: CMEC/EURAFRIC •Shiroro Hydro Power: North-South Power Company •Kainji Disco: Mainstream Energy Solutions •Shiroro : CMEC/EURAFRIC •Sapele Power Plc: North-South Power Company •Geregu Power Plc: Amperion Power Company Limited •Enugu Disco: the bidders are yet to complete payment The government has approved fund for the upgrade of the transmission line. Nebo said: "Parts of the proceeds from the sale of the NIPP projects, as much as $1.6 billion is being delegated to the improvement of TCN to give us a well-deserved transmission network and that should not be your problem

now."

From the association's perspective, there is no assurance that there is sufficient gas supply to meet the demand of the power plants. So, in terms of gas supply, the discos have no confidence in the gas revolution implementation plan of the govern-

ment.

Nebo said: "Of the 1billon Euro bond, there is about 450 million dollar allocated to improvement of gas infrastructure. Nigeria has enough gas, much more than enough, but there are things that have to be put in place and part of this include right pricing for domestic gas. The price of domestic gas does not encourage producers."

Metering will continue to affect billing in Nigeria. There is a huge deficit in the supply of meters and the power producers have sought government's intervention. The power producers have already complained that the supply would be too enormous for them. Yet, according to Nebo, the country needs over three million smart meters to bridge the existing metering gap at the cost of N77billion.

It is now obvious that Federal Government will in October transfer this burden to the investors.

Besides, the Roundtable of Electricity Distribution Companies (the Disco Roundtable), chaired by the former Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Ransome Owan, demanded that the ministry should provide "extended 510 years special tax holidays for electricity distribution companies akin to

Woman arrested for allegedly buying baby for N1.2m

A

MIDDLE-aged woman believed to be from Cameroon, Evelyn Atemkeng, was arrested yesterday in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, by men of the Nigeria Immigration Service for allegedly buying a three day old baby at the cost of N1.2 million.

Mrs Atemkeng accompanied by her aged mother, Anastasia Fambong, was said to have bought the baby boy from a matron of a clinic in Delta State.

Commander of the Cross River State Command, Mr Samuel Ichoi, said his men accosted the lady while she was boarding a ship to Cameroon.

He said: “The lady came from

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

Cameron to Nigeria on Friday without any sign of pregnancy but she was found to be carrying a baby and when my men examined her there are no signs that she just gave birth. So, she and the baby were apprehended.”

Mrs Atemkeng told reporters she gave birth to the baby and that the money she paid into the account of the matron was for delivery and herbs she gave to her to aid delivery.

“She (matron) said my breast would start producing milk in three weeks but for now the baby is taking baby food,” Atemkeng said.

She said she came to Nigeria because she did not have anybody in

Cameroon to take care of her.

She said: “I am married and my husband is in Cameroon but there is nobody to take care of me in Cameroon; that was why I came to Nigeria to deliver.”

The Anti-Human Trafficking officer of the NIS at the Calabar Port, Mrs Agbor Ojong Ogar, said she took time to examine the woman and she did not have any sign of someone who just gave birth.

She said: “The woman passed here on Friday; she left on Saturday and returned to Calabar on Tuesday and was heading back to Cameroon with a baby and when we examined her, she does not have any signs of having given birth recently.”

‘

the Telecom startup assistance to mitigate tariff increases and high cost."

There is already panic among PHCN workers who have just received their severance packages from the Federal Government. Their fears are basically that although government has promised that they would still constitute part of the private operators' workforce, they know that as capitalists, the investors will only employ a negligible percentage of the workers.

The development of this sector is key to building the economy, which was one of the world's four best-performing markets last year with a 35.45 per cent gain, and a compound return above 10 per cent a year since 2003.

In the last six months, U.S. corporations like Procter & Gamble have committed at least $700 million to build new factories and agricultural facilities in the country while the Nigerian government itself announced a $1 billion fund to nurture the local software industry, which officials think can ultimately capture $20 billion a year from rivals like India. They will all need power to grow and reap their investment.

It is indeed a new dawn for the sector. Nigerians are watching.

•Mrs Atemkeng holding the baby...yesterday.

4

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NEWS 15 companies take over PHCN firms Continued from page 1

•President Jonathan (right) with Dr. Tukur, Dr. Akitoye and Chief Anenih...yesterday

PHOTO: NAN

We’ve crises in PDP, Jonathan admits Continued from page 1

these differences would be resolved at the state level.

“The chairman of BoT Chief Tony Anenih, has been meeting the various groups to make sure that we speak with one voice; and we will continue to speak with one voice”, the President said.

He attributed the renewed tempo in the political sphere to what he described as the “intimidating credentials” of the PDP, which he said had elicited a flurry of political activities in the opposition camps.

He continued: “We had thought that political activities will not start so early in the country. But because of the intimidating credentials of the PDP, people started meeting; parties started coming together; and new parties are being formed.

“It’s a blessing for all of us, all because people are confused about how we would manage PDP; and they will continue to be confused”.

Rating his administration high, the President said positive fruits of the efforts of the ruling party would start manifesting by 2014, adding that

the achievements would confound his critics.

“No matter what anybody is saying, things will be on ground for us; for them to compare what the PDP government is doing.

“A number of things that Nigerians almost forgot about, like railways, we are bringing them back. And I believe that by the time we move into early next year, things will become very obvious.

“So, even those who doubt us will not have anything to say. We promise that we are going to do that with the assistance of the party.

“And those who continue to think that PDP cannot come together, that PDP cannot manage success, will be terribly disappointed”, Jonathan emphasised.

National chairman Bamanga Tukur in his welcome address, stressed the need for the party to lead by example for other the parties to follow.

According to him, the PDP has continued to grow from strength to strength, adding that in spite of the numerous challenges.

He said the strength and success of the party lay in its abil-

ity to resolve its differences amicably in an atmosphere devoid of bitterness, rancor, acrimony and recrimination.

Tukur said: “There are internal organs and mechanisms for conflict resolution in our party. I encourage our members to explore these avenues in ventilating their grievances and to as much as possible, avoid litigations which make a mockery of our stand on peace and stability.

“We need peace and friendly concord in our party. We cannot reach our destination in an atmosphere of bitterness and rivalry.

“I therefore call on all our party faithful and members across the country to sheath their swords and enthrone enduring peace. I want to commend the National Reconciliation Committee for the good work it is doing and encourage our members to take their grievances to the committee or other organs of the party entrusted with the task of restoring peace in the party”.

It was gathered that the proposal to grant right of first refusal to the President and first term governors in the 2015 election, was stepped down so

as no to further polarise the party.

The presence of some of the governors who are critical of the party’s leadership at the meeting, forced those who intended to raise the motion to stop it.

The NEC meeting lasted a little over 30 minutes. Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda described it as a sign of unity in the party.

He said contrary to what people might want to believe, the brief PDP NEC meeting “shows that the family is together and that everybody is working together.

“It is a sign of good things to come. We are now happy with one another. The family is together and If there was a problem, we would have stayed longer to solve it,’’ he said.

Though brief, the meeting which was convened to ratify the date of the party’s national convention “went on well, very short and straight to the point’’.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Acting National Publicity Secretary Mr. Tony Okeke, said the party resolved Continued on page 58

Minister of Power Professor Chinedu Nebo said by Wednesday night deadline, all preferred bidders had paid up, except the Enugu Distribution Company, while the preferred bidder for Sapele Power Station had made substantial partpayment.”

He spoke in a statement by his media assistant Kandel Daniel.

The statement said: “The completion payment now entitles the preferred bidders to take full possession of the 15 PHCN unbundled entities (10 Distribution companies and five Generation companies),” the statement said.

Nebo described this development as a great milestone in the Power Sector Reform Roadmap that should give hope to all Nigerians, and inspire confidence in government’s power reform programme and President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

The Minister said he would soon formally declare open the Transition Electricity Market, to enable the investors commence business in earnest and further drive the process.

Professor Nebo also reassured Nigerians and investors of government’s resolve to pursue the transformation agenda to the end, and monitor the emerging transition

Anambra PDP chair: Court restrains Tukur, AGF, INEC

A

FEDERAL High Court sitting in

Port Harcourt yesterday granted a restraining order on the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from recognising any other executive members of the Anambra State chapter of the party apart from the one led by Ejike Oguebego.

Those listed in the re-

Strike continues as ASUU, govt talks crash Continued from page 1

Dr Faggae who lamented that never in the history of ASUU has it been so ridiculed and embarrassed by governemt representatives during any negotiations, alleged that some government agents were bent on using the struggle to enrich themselves.

The union also accused government of using propaganda by misinforming the public that ASUU’s demand of the Earned Academic Allowances triggered off the strike. Faggae said this has become a recurring decimal at almost every meeting the union holds with government representatives whereas, the unions always sought implementation of the funding of universities as part of the demands.

“The ASUU team was particularly amused that government believed that what our members are looking for is just money to spend. Why else would the minister of finance dangle N30 billion as if it was a dole out when, in

market, in order to protect the interest of both the citizens and the investors.

He said the stability of the national grid was being enhanced to ensure effective transmission of any quantity of power being generated in the new dispensation.

According to the Power Minister, efforts are on to provide more electricity offgrid, especially for the rural areas, while also sustaining subsidy for low income electricity consumers in the nation’s tariff structure.

The new owners paid $2.238 billion.

The successful consortia are: West Power and Gas, the preferred bidder for the Eko Distribution Company; NEDC/KEPCO, Ikeja Distribution Company; 4power Consortium, Port Harcourt Distribution Company; Vigeo Consortium, Benin Distribution Company; Aura Energy, Jos Distribution Company; Kann Consortium, Abuja Distribution Company; Integrated Energy Distribution and marketing Company, the preferred bidder for the Ibadan and Yola Distribution Companies; Sahelian Power, Kano Distribution Company; Trancorp/Woodrock Consortium, Ughelli Power Plc; Mainstream Energy Limited, Kanji Power Plc; and CMEC/EUAFRIC Energy JV, which made the part-payment for the acquisition of Sapele Power Plc.

From Yomi Odunuga, Abuja

straining order include the Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chief Austin Akubundu, a Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

The Oguebego -led executive is believed to be loyal to the Chief Chris Uba faction of the party in the Continued on page 58

Go back to work, Suswam urges teachers

B

ENUE State Governor Gabriel Suswam yesterday urged the striking lecturers to return to work, saying most of the issues which led to the strike have been “substantially addressed”.

Suswam who is the head of one of government’s negotiating teams, spoke to reporters in Abuja at the end of the meeting of the Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Needs Assessment Report on Nigerian Public Universities.

He said: “The contentious issue of the Earned Allowances for which the federal government has approved N30billion for immediate release to the universities to enable them pay their staff after due verification of the various claims of their workers.”

The meeting, which held at the Benue Governor’s Lodge was attended by the

fact, that amount of money was unrelated to the agreement and the work of the implementation committee.

We have said it everywhere, all the time and we still say it here again that our members have earned their allowances by working for them. They are not begging

Ministers of Education; Labour and Productivity; Representatives of both the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Education, representatives of federal agencies involved in funding university education and the various workers unions in the university system.

Suswam said the meeting unanimously adopted a report of its technical subcommittee which had earlier carried out the distribution of the funds to each of the beneficiary universities based on a criteria adopted from the Needs Assessment Report.

According o the governor, at least 59 federal and state universities across the country would benefit from the N100billion fund to address the gross deficit in critical infrastructure, adding that each of the 36 states would have

for crumbs from government. The Nigerian government owes them and they deserve to be paid.

“As a union whose members constitute the intellectual cream of the society and which operates on the basis of principles, we find the events of August 20 and of

one university covered in the first phase of the intervention programme.

He said the the N100billion would be used to build new hostels, renovate existing hostels, provide libraries, laboratories, lectures rooms and theatres, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities, among others.

Suswam explained that the distribution of the fund was done in a fair and equitable manner based on properly defined criteria, adding that a representative of ASUU participated in the technical sub- committee which made recommendations to the main committee.

“Our Committee will present the spreadsheet of the projects to Mr President for his approval after which the funds would be released to the Governing Councils of the benefitting Universities,” he said.

recent positions on the matter by government as embarrassing, bewildering and highly unacceptable. ASUU cannot believe that the agreement, the MoU and the Needs Assessment Re-

port undertaken and endorsed by the highest public officials in the land, would be so blatantly ridiculed by the same people.”

Going down memory

CORRECTION Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo is not a professor as he was referred to in a photo caption on page 37 in yesterday’s edition.

•Suswam

lane, Faggae recalled that the 2009 Agreement captured a funding requirement of N1.5 trillion to be Continued on page 58

ADVERT HOTLINES: 08023006969, 08052592524 NEWSROOM: LAGOS – 01-8962807, ABUJA – 07028105302 COMPLAINTS: 01-8930678

THE NATION FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

5

NEWS Rep urges Jonathan to fix Nigeria

Transcorp Hilton to host World Economic Forum

From Dada Aladelokun, Assistant Editor

A

MEMBER of the House of Representatives representing Ekiti Southwest/Ikere/Ise-Orun of Ekiti State, Dr Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to find solutions to the nation’s problems.

The lawmaker noted that it was better for the President to fix the nation than dissipate energy on the crisis rocking his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Arowosegbe gave the advice yesterday in a telephone chat with our correspondent.

He noted that the enormity of the challenges facing the nation deserved the President’s attention instead of his party, which he said has been fragmented almost beyond redemption.

Arowosegbe said: “It is a waste of time trying to redeem the PDP. It is a hugely fragmented party which has lost colour and relevance. So, it is better Mr President realises this fact and directs his energy to reducing the growing agony of misgoverned Nigerians.

“The 14 years of the PDPled government in this country has been terrible. Besides, the party is grappling with a lack of internal democracy, lack of organisation and utter confusion.”

‘Global economy loses $950m’ •Nigeria to host maiden OPV conference

By Precious Igbonwelundu

T

HE Nigerian Navy yesterday said the world economy lost between $740 million and $950 million last year to piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral IbokEtte Ibas, addressed reporters yesterday on the forthcoming Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) of African Conference in Lagos.

He said the revenue loss might increase in subsequent years, if measures were not taken to curb the menace.

Ibas, who doubles as the Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the conference, said the continent has been witnessing increasing surge in offshore activities in maritime trade and business.

He decried the threats maritime insecurity and illegal activities posed to the continent’s potential, adding that these made an OPV conference imperative.

Ibas said: “The magnitude of these threats is aptly captured by a study of the advocacy group, tagged: Ocean Beyond or Piracy, in June 2013. It estimated that piracy in the Gulf of Guinea cost the world’s economy between $740 million and $950 million last year and this cost is expected to rise this year.

“In response to this, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, aptly advocated for an international conference of naval chiefs and stakeholders to provide credible and sustainable solution to the scourge of maritime insecurity in Africa’s maritime domain.”

•From left: Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) National Treasurer, Dr Demola Aremu; former National President, Dr Dipo Fashina; National President, Dr Nasir Faggae Isa and Vice President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, singing solidarity songs at a briefing of the union at the University of Lagos (UNILAG)…yesterday PHOTO: ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA

How to tame corruption, by IGP, Akanbi, Agabi, others I

NSPECTOR-GENERAL of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar; pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi and two others have suggested ways the nation can effectively tackle corruption.

Abubakar and a senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Abiodun Layonu, advocated an increase in the funding of anti-graft and related agencies.

Justice Akanbi and a former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Kanu Agabi (SAN), said the anti-graft fight required the support of all for the nation to succeed in stopping impunity.

They spoke at the public presentation of the maiden edition of the ICPC Law Report, a compilation of 21 cases (criminal and civil) which the commission prosecuted and won in court, in Abuja.

Abubakar said for the nation to succeed in its

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

anti-corruption fight, the agencies saddled with the responsibility must be well funded.

“How do you fight corruption when you are not well paid, not well trained and not well motivated?” he queried.

The IGP said the fight against corruption was difficult because it required the commitment of all.

He stressed that to succeed in the anti-graft war, the anti-graft agencies’ personnel must be committed.

The police chief said such workers were faced daily with temptation in the course of their duties.

To succeed, Abubakar said such workers should be well motivated, well trained and well paid.

He called for enhanced collaboration among agencies involved in the

fight against malfeasance and other vices to boost their performance.

Justice Akanbi urged public officers to operate with the fear of God and be committed to their duties.

The former President of the Court of Appeal, who recalled the challenges he encountered in ICPC’s early days, said the commission’s major problem was funding.

“You cannot run an anticorruption body if you are not well funded,” he said.

Justice Akanbi, who headed the ICPC between 2000 and 2005, attributed the successes he recorded to non-interference in the commission’s activities by the three Attorneys-General of the Federation under who he served.

He frowned at the reported insistence of the incumbent AGF to oversee ICPC‘s activities. Justice Mustapha said the decision could cost the commission its independence.

He praised the ICPC leadership for the Law Report, which he said would serve as a legacy for future generations.

Agabi, who reviewed the Law Report, published

by ICPC and a private organisation, argued that a few people were leading the nation corruption war.

He called for coordinated efforts to end acts of malfeasance and impunity in the country.

“No effort is too much to fight corruption. Unless we, as a nation resolve that we are guilty and change our ways, we are going nowhere.

“The problem we are having is just from a few people. And they will not prevail. Evil will not prevail. In this country, we behave as if we do not have ears. But on the last day, when God calls you to either His right or left hand side, would you not hear?” he said.

Fed Govt urges health workers to end strike

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HE Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, has accused the striking Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) of being impatient with the government.

The minister said the issues raised by the union were before the Appeal Court.

Prof Chukwu, who addressed reporters yesterday in Abuja, urged the striking workers to return to work in the interest of the masses.

A meeting has been scheduled for Monday involving him, his Labour counterpart, and the health workers, as part of the efforts to resolve the lingering crisis.

Prof Chukwu, who was responding to a question on why the government failed to implement the court ruling, said: “The minister is expected to act under an expert advice. Our lawyers strongly advise that this ruling does not matter. That the judgment is contradictory and they illustrated it to con-

‘Our grouse against Health Minister’

H

EALTH workers of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) yesterday gave reasons for joining the ongoing nationwide strike by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).

They accused the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, of running the health as his personal estate.

The UITH Chairman of the Joint Action Committee Unions, an affiliate of the national body, Comrade Odebiyi Kolawole Ezekiel, told reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, that Prof Chukwu “runs the health industry as if it belongs only to medical doctors”.

He added: “This is a place where we have team work. A tree cannot make a forest. Everybody contributes to the training of workers and to the treatment of the patients.”

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

vince us that it is a bundle of confusion and contradiction. The lawyers, after critically studying the judgment, advised that we should appeal the ruling, because if left unchallenged at the Appeal Court, it will

Ezekiel doubles as the branch chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).

He said: “During his (Prof Chukwu’s) inauguration, President Goodluck Jonathan said he was sending the minister to the health sector to put things right. But he is not doing that.

“The Federal Government is making us feel that it is doing something, whereas it is not doing anything. The government does not implement reports of the committees it even set up. It is being very unserious about health matters.

“We are embarking on strike because we have been directed to go on strike by our national secretariat. The reasons are numerous.”

cause problem and confusion for the government and the entire country in the future.

The Office of the AttorneyGeneral also looked at the ruling and advised that we should appeal. What do you want the minister to do?

“We are, therefore, appealing to all stakeholders to be reasonable and patient.”

Prof Chukwu added: “I don’t see how it is my fault that they would go on strike while the matter is still in court. Usually, for any judgement, there is a small window you have for appeal. For the court to have accepted and registered our appeal means that we complied within that period.”

THE World Economic Forum (WEF), with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, has appointed the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, the official hotel and hospitality partner for the 24th World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA), which will hold in Nigeria for the first time next year.

The three-day event, which will hold from May 7 to 10, next year, is expected to draw over 700 participants from about 40 countries.

The conference will discuss the continent’s integration agenda and a renewed commitment to sustainable growth and development. Delegates will include regional and global leaders from business, government and the civil society.

A team of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), led by former Information Minister Frank Nweke Jnr., met with the Managing Director and member of WEF Governing Board, Borge Brende, last week.

Reps to intensify probe on MDGs THE House of Representatives will increase its monitoring of budgetary allocations to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Speaker Aminu Tambuwal has said.

The Speaker said an effective tracking of budgetary allocations to the MDGs would enable the country to realise the goals.

Tambuwal spoke at the Fifth Annual Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments in Midrand, South Africa.

He said the House established a standing Committee on MDGs to ensure that the strategy is translated into reality because of its importance.

In a statement by his spokesman, Imam Imam, the Speaker noted that meeting the goals has the potential to tackle several development challenges confronting developing countries.

The statement reads: “We believe by adequate budgetary allocation to the programme and effective scrutiny and oversight to ensure full implementation of the budget, the MDGs will be achieved, even if not 100 per cent.

“It is in that spirit that the National Assembly, the House of Representatives in particular, found it necessary to establish a standing Committee on MDGs. “As representatives of the people,” he said, “legislators are better positioned to champion the realisation of the MDGs.” He urged other African parliaments to be involved in the formulation of the MDG strategy at the national level to allow formal and informal input from people at the local level and members of civil society groups.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

6

NEWS Lufthansa to train 20 pilots

Fed Govt directs SON to implement programme

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By Toba Agboola

THE Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has directed the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to within six months, ensure full implementation of the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) on all locally- manufactured products.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ sensitisation forum held at the Blue Roof, LTV 8 Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, Ortom said the ministry is ready to support SON to put in the necessary machinery for the full implementation of MANCAP, adding that the issue of substandard products and its negative implications and impacts on lives as well as the economy of the nation should be of concern to all, particularly when such products are manufactured locally.

CIBN, UI partner on training From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

THE Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and the University of Ibadan (UI) have entered into a partnership that will enable holders of the Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB) professional qualification to undertake master’s degree programmes in the university.

During a visit yesterday by the President of CIBN, Mr. Segun Aina, to the office of the Vice-Chancellor of UI, Prof. Isaac Adewole, the two institutions agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as soon as the arrangements were concluded.

Aina, who was accompanied by the state Chairman of CIBN, Mr. Abiola Alli and other executives, said the partnership was aimed at promoting professional banking in Nigeria as well as supporting the growth of the economy.

Police warn vehicle owners THE Ogun State Police Command has warned owners of accidented and abandoned vehicles parked at the Sagamu Division to remove them or lose them to the public through auction after 14 days of this publication.

They are Toyota Hiace bus marked KX673JJJ; Hyundai car NND376AAA; Chevrolet car MS377AAA; Nissan Saloon car AH149KJN; Vanura bus XM218MU; Honda Accord car ET564LND; Mitsubishi bus ZI977PHC; Toyota Carina II car unregistered; Bluebird car CA863GGE and five motorcycles.

•President Goodluck Jonathan (right), bidding farewell to the outgoing Ambassador of Czech Republic to Nigeria, Mr. Jaroslav Siro, during his visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja…yesterday.

HE Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lufthansa to train its pilots.

This is in line with the Special Scholarship Programme for youths in the Niger Delta.

According to the agreement, some of the pilots, who underwent training in South Africa, would embark on a 14-month training in Germany later this year.

The agreement was signed in Abuja yesterday by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Committee, Kingsley Kuku and the Managing Director of Lufthansa Pilot Training Network, Captain Holger Hoffman.

Kuku said the programme was approved by

Filani, Oni warm up for PDP national vice chairmanship T

HE Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chief Ishola Filani, has declared his ambition for the national vice chairmanship of the party.

The zonal congress, according to the caretaker committee, would hold in Ibadan, shortly before the national convention billed for Abuja.

The outcome of the Ibadan election will be ratified or rejected by the convention, based on the PDP constitution.

Party sources said Filani would slug it out with former Ekiti State Governor Segun Oni, who was shoved aside from the National Executive Committee (NEC), following complaints that the zonal congress that produced him in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, did not follow the laid down rules.

However, a prominent PDP chieftain in Ekiti State said Oni, who was supported by

By Emmanuel Oladesu, Group Political Editor

former President Olusegun Obasanjo, might withdraw from the race for personal reasons. “The position is zoned to Ekiti. Both Filani and Oni are from Ekiti. Oni is a gentleman and since it appears President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, are backing Filani, he may not contest again”.

Before his appointment as the Southwest PDP interim chairman, Filani was a special adviser to Tukur. Although he is not a member of the Obasanjo camp, he has respected the former President as a key factor in the ruling party. Recently, he also engaged the Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Commodore Bode George (rtd), in a war of words, describing him as a drowning politician.

Following the declaration of intention by Filani, who

is the Asiwaju of Egbeobaland, the party has appointed a chieftain from Lagos, Mr. Deji Doherty, to act as the caretaker chairman.

However, the contest for the national secretary has polarised the Southwest, following the moves by Prof.

Tunde Adeniran, Mr. Owolabi Salis and Dr. Remi Akitoye to contest against the zonal consensus candidate, Prof.

Olu Oladipo, who was endorsed for the position at a party meeting in Lagos.

It is believed that the position was zoned to Osun State, where Oladipo and the former national secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, come from. But Doherty explained that if other aspirants-Adeniran (Ekiti), Salis and Akitoye (Lagos)-insist that they will participate in the race, they are at liberty to exercise their rights.

Oyinlola is still in court to reclaim the seat, claiming that the report of the Independ-

ent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the PDP congresses and convention did not find fault with his election as the national secretary at the zonal congress.

Doherty said the zone is ready for the special congress and the convention, adding that PDP will emerge a stronger party after the exercise.

He added: “Chief Filani has stepped aside as the Southwest Caretaker Committee chairman of the party to contest for the position of the national vice chairman. The congress where the election will take place will hold in Ibadan, Oyo State at a date to be announced soon.

“For the position of the national secretary, which is also zoned to the Southwest, Prof. Olu Oladipo is the consensus candidate. There are others aspirants, who are warming up. They have the right to participate in the election too”.

Why corruption persists in Nigeria, by ex-NIM President C

ORRUPTION persists in Nigeria because of poor checks and balances and weak institutions, which are unable to safeguard accountability processes, a former President of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) (Chartered), Dr. Lugard Aimiuwu, said yesterday.

The consequence, he said, is what he called ‘synchronised corruption’ where perpetrators collaborate to wreak havoc on the commonwealth.

Aimiuwu, who spoke in Lagos at NIM’s 2013 Awards, Fellows and Spouses’ Day luncheon, said sometimes even the executive and legislature collaborate to subvert basic operational ethics to achieve personal advantages.

According to him, corruption is widespread that it is inevitable both in the public and private sectors.

“Are politicians solely to blame? Is leadership solely

By Joseph Jibueze and Nneka Nwaneri

political? Is governance mainly government? Is the problem solely the failure of leadership? Followership must share in the blame,” Aimiuwu said.

The former NIM boss said corruption could be reduced through efficacy of control mechanisms, efficient institutions, ensuring more checks and balances and greater accountability.

Aimiuwu said globally, effort to transform a country from under-development requires collective struggles, commitment and creativity of all stakeholders, including the leaders and the led.

Forty-nine persons were conferred with NIM fellowship, joining 660 existing ones on this highest professional membership grade of

the institute.

NIM President and Chairman of Council, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, said: “The Institute guards its Fellowship jealously and is always painstakingly cautious when applying the criteria for the upgrade. This would probably account for the small number of Fellows after 52 years of existence out of total Individual Membership strength of over 170,000.”

Life membership was also conferred on some elder statesmen.

Olawale-Cole said to qualify, one must have attained the age of 70, be financially up-to-date in annual membership subscription, as well as meet other statutory obligations to the Institute.

Among those who bagged fellows award were: Chairman of Obat Oil and Olugbo

of Ugboland, Oba Fredrick Obateru; former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Rotimi Agunsoye; Navy Commodore Abimbola Ayuba; former Lagos State Deputy Governor Princess Sarah Sosan; Registrar, Yaba College of Technology, Dr. (Mrs,) Akubuiro Nkechi; Managing Director, Chenix Oil and Gas Services Limited, Sir Chuks Nwaononiwu; and Lagos State Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje.

Bagging Life Membership were the Mogaji of Ikorodu, Dr. Tajudeen Bawa-Allah and Mr. Samuel Imasuen.

In attendance were: former Minister of Internal Affairs, Odien Gubodia (SAN); former Lagos State Governor Alhaji Lateef Jakande; Senators Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon; Olorunnimbe Mamora and Deputy Chief Whip, House of Representative, Alhaji Muktar Idris.

From Faith Yahaya, Abuja

President Goodluck Jonathan to train youths, who have interest in aviation.

He said: “We went into the agreement to develop the aviation industry. It is not enough to train private pilots, it is better to train those that will in turn develop our economy.

“Twenty pilots from the Niger Delta will be embarking on the first batch of the 14 months training. We are happy that Lufthansa agreed to train them because in the aviation team worldwide, it is rated one of the best. We are amazed that they opened their doors to us.

“The pilots have passed the requisite exams and tests and have secured their Private Pilot Licence (PPL) and Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) from the Africa Union Aviation Academy, Mafikeng and the Flight Training School, Midrand, South Africa.”

Kuku said his office has “deployed 176 delegates to four countries across Africa, Middle East and Europe for training in the aviation industry, ranging from pilot training to aviation maintenance engineering.”

Mr. Hoffman assured the government that the pilots would be well-trained.

He said: “We are impressed about the programme and we are proud that we can give our knowledge to Nigeria. The expectations are high and we will deliver polished pilots to Nigeria in the next 14 months.”

Hoffman, who said 80 per cent of accident in aviation can be avoided if pilots adhere to procedures, hoped that the 20 pilots would improve the safety operations in the aviation industry.

Progressives celebrate Omojola at 75

By Uyoatta Eshiet

P

ROGRESSIVES across the nation will tomorrow in Lagos celebrate an icon and an activist, Baba Oluwide Omojola’s 75th birthday.

The occasion will also mark his 60 years of campaign for liberty and justice in Nigeria.

As part of the celebration, a lecture, titled: ‘An overview of the Progressive Movement in Africa’, will be delivered by Prof. Ansa K. Asamoa, Visiting Professor, University of Ghana, Legon, as guest lecturer. Chief Frank Kokori will chair the session. The chief launcher at the event will be former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola is the host.

Special guests of honour for the birthday celebration are the Governors of Osun, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Jigawa states: Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Alhaji Sule Lamido.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 08023247888

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HE Lagos State Government has shut an illegal orphanage, Saint Stephen Charity Foundation, at 30/32, Abiodun Adebanbo Street, Egbeda, a Lagos suburb.

Officials of the Office of Youths and Social Department, Office of Public Defender (OPD), and the police, stormed the orphanage and rescued 25 children suspected to be victims of child trafficking.

The orphanage's operator, Mrs Rosemary Nwachukwu, was arrested and detained at the Alausa Police Station, Ikeja; the kids are now under the care of the state government.

The Director, Child Development, Mrs Alaba Fadairo, who led the enforcement team

25 kids rescued as Lagos shuts ‘illegal’ orphanage

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro

to the home, said the children were between three months and 12 years.

She alleged that the operator used a room in the residential building as orphanage, adding that investigation showed that Mrs Nwachkwu engaged in what she called il-

legal adoption, trafficking and others.

"Investigation also showed that there are no records on each of the children and no evidence of how the children got to her and no form of police or security report,” Mrs Fadairo explained.

She warned the public to be vigilant and report cases of

child trafficking to the government.

People and organisations found operating unapproved orphanages would be arrested and prosecuted, she said.

Mrs Nwachukwu said she had been operating the home for 18 years, purely on charity basis. She denied being into child trafficking.

7

Task-Force arrests 22 underaged

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro hoodlums THE Task-Force on Environmental and Special Offences Unit, Lagos State, has arrested about 22 suspected underaged hoodlums and 35 others in Oshodi.

Its chairman, Mr Bayo Sulaiman, said the operation followed a report on the nefarious activities of underaged hoodlums in the area.

He said officials of the Office of Youth and Social Department were invited to sort out the under-aged among the suspected hoodlums and take them to remand homes.

Sulaiman said the underaged would first be taken to the "family court," adding that if convicted, they would

be taken to remand homes.

Sulaiman said the task-force did not jail under-aged children as being speculated in some quarters.

Sulaiman said government was determined to rid the state of hoodlums whose activities would no longer be condoned.

He debunked the claim that the task-force took some underaged children to Badagry Prison.

The government always ensured that they, sha said, were taken to the remand homes through the Office of Youth and Social Department. Sulaiman said the 35 others would be arraigned in court.

Nature Hero holds convention THE Nigerian branch of Nature Hero International, United States, Nature Hero Limited will tomorrow reward its loyal customers as it celebrates its first year of thriving business in Nigeria.

The Managing Director, Nature Hero Ltd Cars, Mr Sunny Elem, said: "Four cars will be given out; many will receive $2000 each, among other rewards. The event will hold at our national conven-

By Uyoatta Eshiet

tion at Sky Pavilion (Adebola House), Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos."

Elem said the essence of the celebration is to reward members who have attained certain levels in the products marketing, adding that Nigerians should embrace Network Marketing through which many can make money.

Sona Brewery retiree for burial

• The protesters ... yesterday

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PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

Protest over ‘uncompleted’ projects

HE residents of Ijora/ Badia in Apapa/ Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos State, yesterday protested the tardiness of the World Bank road and infrastructure project being handled by the Lagos Metropolitan Governance and Development Project (LMGDP) under the supervision of the state government.

They stormed the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja with placards bearing inscriptions such as: "Pay the contractor to finish our roads;" "Our streets have become refuse dumpsites," and "Save our soul," among others.

The chairman, Oguntayo North Council Developing

By Uyoatta Eshiet and Bukunmi Ogundare

Area of Ijora Badia, Mr Saka Yusuf, said: "The World Bank, through the LMGDP, awarded twelve community roads and drainages for construction in November 2011; the contract was given to Seg Mahsen & Co (Nigeria) Ltd, but to our surprise, only three roads were constructed - Sule Lame, Giwa Street and Ogunle. The other roads and canals were done half-way because the contractor was being owed N500 million out of which we learnt, only 25 per cent has been paid."

He said the Fadayinmi Obale Road, the only link to

Badia, was abandoned. He added that a school project worth N200 million and eight borehole projects, which were also awarded, "were fully constructed.”

“We like them, but without the road, the school cannot be reached; the borehole is not working. This is why we are here to plead to the Lagos State Government to come to our rescue," he said.

Mrs. Adebisi Bello, Prince Kayode Obadia, and others said some of their houses and shops were demolished, thus opening the area to flooding during the rains.

Government officials who spoke with them promised to relay their grievances to the governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola.

Dejumo Lewis celebrates at 70

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INCE July 28, when he clocked 70, friends and theatre icons have been celebrating with ace actor Dejumo Lewis, the 'Kabiyesi Oloja of Oja' in the rested television drama series, The Village Headmaster.

Lewis had planned a lowkey celebration with the public presentation of his book titled: Project: Afrika by Afrika peoples, and the launch of Adejumo Foundation for Culture, initially billed for October, but his friends had a different plan.

He was 'ambushed' for a

collaborative celebration

by Freedom Park Management and Hi-Life All Stars Club members on August 11.

Also, the Old Students Association of Oke-Are Seminary Old Boys Association of Nigeria (OSOBAN), feted him last Sunday at its monthly meeting in Lagos.

Lewis is an 'old boy' of St Theresa's Catholic Minor Seminary, Oke Are, Ibadan, Oyo State. Its chairman, Alexander Davies and members of the Lagos branch, were supported by National President Ladi

• Lewis Taiwo to present Lewis with a giant birthday card.

The climax of the celebration will hold in Ibadan in October when Lewis' literary work will be launched.

THE remains of Pa Olufemi Justus Oke, a retiree of Sona Brewery Plc, Sango-Ota, Ogun State, who died on July 25, will be buried in his Oremeji, Aradagun, Badagry residence today by 8 am.

A Christian Wake was held yesterday at his residence under the coordination of his

daughter, Mrs Olubunmi Musa.

According to her, the late Oke was born in 1943, adding that he also worked at other establishments before he retired from the brewery into private business a few years ago.

He is survived by three wives and nine children.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

8

NEWS

Excess crude cash shrinks to $5.1bn

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ESERVES in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) shrunk to $5.1 billion following the withdrawal of N115 billion from it to augment revenue shortfall for the July Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements to the federal, states and local governments.

Minister of State for Finance Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama told reporters after a belated FAAC meeting in Abuja yesterday that it became necessary to draw from the ECA because of a massive drop in revenue from N863.026 billion received in June 2013 to N497.984 billion

Nduka Chiejina, Abuja

in July.

Ngama attributed the fall in revenue to continuous theft of crude oil, leakages, pipeline vandalism at various terminals, HP compressor failure and repair work.

Another reason the minister gave is the downward review of some companies’ estimates and a judgment debt by the Tax Appeal Tribunal on Education Tax, which reduced the Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) paid into the Federation Account for the month.

Also, mineral revenue for July was put at N361.935 billion,

•July salary may be delayed representing a shortage of N136.122 billion from the N465.057 billion budgeted for the month.

Civil servants in both federal and state employments may have to wait a little longer to get paid this month because, as the minister explained, the lateness in holding the July FAAC meeting was due to the National Council of Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) meeting, which took place earlier in the month in Minna, the Niger State capital.

For last month, total revenue distributable for the month, including Value Added Tax (VAT), is N715.845 billion.

From this, the net statutory revenue available for distribution after payment of collection costs to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), both of which received N4.1 billion and N2.3 billion respectively, was put at N477.049 billion, representing a N113.457 billion shortfall.

From this amount, the Federal Government got N227.516

billion, States, N145.39 billion while local governments went away with N88.96 billion.

The sum of N45.1 billion was shared to oil and gas producing states as derivation fund.

For the VAT distribution, the federal government got N10.6 billion; states, N35.6 billion; andlocal governments, N24.9 billion.

Also distributed was the N7.617 billion Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) indebtedness to the federation account as well as N35.549 billion under the Subsidy-Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P).

Ex-Lagos judge buried

By Joseph Jibueze

A

FORMER Judge of the Lagos State High Court, Justice Abdul Leigh Balogun, who died at 84, has been buried.

Balogun, who retired in 1993 after 17 years on the bench, died on Wednesday. He was buried yesterday at the Vaults and Gardens Cemetery, Ikoyi.

A funeral service was conducted at the Chapel of the Cemetery by The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

The deceased’s son, Justice Christopher Balogun of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, said the decision to bury his father almost 24 hours after his death was in line with his father’s wish.

At the burial were Justice Peter Ige of the Court of Appeal; Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos branch, Mr. Alex Muoka; a member of the Lagos State Judicial Service Commission, Chief Kunle Uthman; former NBA Assistant National Publicity Secretary Gbolahan Gbadamosi; serving and retired judges, among others.

•Winner of a brand new Mercedes Benz 500, Miss. Blessing Fubara (middle), receiving the key from the Director, Consumer Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Oluwole Rawa (left) and Head, Regulation and Monitoring, Lagos Headquarters of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Mr. Jude Ughuwajabo at the second monthly prize presentation of the ongoing Etisalat/FC Barcelona Promo at the Etisalat office in Ikoyi...yesterday.

PHOTO: ISAAC JIMOH AYODELE.

Akeredolu welcomes defectors to APC Senator: I remain in APC

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HE candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in last year’s governorship election in Ondo State, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has welcomed former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains into the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said the APC holds a realistic promise of redemption for the masses.

In a statement, the former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President said: “The fact that the leaders are not known to be frivolous and their continued relevance as grassroots politicians is not in doubt shows the qual-

By Joseph Jibueze

ity of the personalities who embrace the APC’s philosophy of change. APC is the party with the largest assemblage of progressive politicians in the country.

“I congratulate former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) D.I. Kekemeke, Mr. Tunde Alake, Prof. Olu Aboluwoye, Mr. Ojajuni Philip, Mrs.Yejide Ogundipe, Mr. Olatunde Femi and Mr.Ifeanyi Odili, among others, for their courage and exemplary conduct. It takes a man of conviction to take such a momentous decision in this clime.

“It is our hope that they will join other well-meaning mem-

bers of the APC to wrest our dear state from the shackles of a visionless and deceitful government. The division among progressive forces in the country is directly responsible for the perpetuation of misery engendered by abject want in the lives of our people.

“We call on other progressives, who still harbour apprehension as regards the mission and vision of the APC, to join those who are truly desirous of bringing about quality change in the polity. The Nigerian project must be rescued from clueless elements, who lack basic understanding with respect to governance.”

Lagos explains ‘deportation’ procedure

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HE Lagos State government yesterday explained its welfare policy, including the resettlement of indigent persons to their states.

It said only people who express a desire to return to their states were helped to return.

It said before they are resettled with their families, such persons are housed, cleaned up, fed, given medical treatment when needed, and asked how the government could assist them.

The Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Alhaji Lawal Pedro (SAN), spoke on behalf of Governor Babatunde Fashola at the Christian Law-

By Joseph Jibueze

yers Association of Nigeria (CLASFON) National Conference in Lagos.

The theme of the event was: “Arise and Build”. A paper was delivered on: “Security components for sustainable national growth: Enhancing the macro and micro quotients”.

Pedro said the government was making efforts to ensure that people coming into Lagos do not constitute security threats to residents.

On how the destitute are resettled, he said: “We rehabilitate them, feed them and ask them what they want.

Sometimes, what they want is

money to return to their home states to be with their families. The least we can do is to help them find their route.”

Police Commissioner Umar Manko thanked the state government for equipping the police through the Security Trust Fund.

He said the command had received ammunition and over 300 vehicles from the state government in the past one year.

Manko said: “That is why there is relative peace in Lagos. If this nation wants security, we must pay for it.”

He said an average policeman is well-trained, but cannot perform without equipment.

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

S

ENATOR Bode Ola has said he is still a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ola, a former representative of Ekiti-Central Federal Constituency, spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, at a local government meeting of the APC. He said politics has “an up and down side”, adding that a faithful politician would see both sides as possibilities in his/her efforts to serve the people.

Ola said although he has “a legitimate grouse”, he has decided to rest “every ill feeling” so that the party can move forward.

He said: “I am here to tell members of our great party that I remain part of you. I do not have any other party. Only progressive thinkers can align with a progressive party like the APC. “The party is greater than any individual. The rumor that I have left the party is unfair. It has been circulating since after the 2011 primary election. It was the strategy of opponents, who were desirous of forcing me out of the party.

“I am not here to praise or condemn Governor Kayode Fayemi. As a Christian, I often pray for him to succeed as a leader as urged by Timothy 2: 1-2.

“The experience I had with the party has come and gone. The party will make restitution at the appropriate time. What I want is a greater interest in the unity of the party facilitated by both leaders and members. Only this can assure the success of the party now and in the future.”

APC Chairman in Ado Local Government Pa David Adigun described Ola as one of the reliable politicians in Ado-Ekiti. He, however, complained that Ola stayed away from the party for too long.

A chieftain of the party, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, said “Ola’s legacy will live long in the party and with members”.

Community instals monarch amid confusion From Damisi Ojo, Akure

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HE controversy over the stool of Igoba in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State deepened yesterday with the installation of a new Obalogun, Oba Bosede Bamidele.

The deposed monarch, Samuel Jayeoba, insisted that he remains on the throne, stressing that it was strange for some “fake kingmakers” to remove him “illegally”.

The Local Government Chairman, Mr. Olu Adeluku, declared the selection of the new Balogun null and void, warning that he would not condone any act that could threaten the community’s peace.

Jayeoba was removed for alleged misconduct.

Bamidele was yesterday installed by the kingmakers after necessary rituals and prayers were conducted.

One of the kingmakers, Chief Johnson Aladegbaye, said: “Ifa endorsed him before his selection. Oba Bamidele has the full backing of the “Iare”, the highest hierarchy of kingmakers, and the Council of Obas in Akure North, under the chairmanship of the Okiti of Iju, Oba Amos Farukanmi.”

Oba Bamidele said: “I am now the recognised Obalogun. My predecessor was removed because he refused to show remorse for his wrong doings.”

He said the kingmakers did not contact the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs before removing his predecessor because it was not within the purview of the ministry, but that of Akure North Local Government Council.

Undergraduate runs amock in Ibadan From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

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EOPLE in Eleyele, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, yesterday watched with pity as a young man lost his sanity.

The incident happened shortly before noon around Eleyele Roundabout.

The man, who wore a jean trouser and a multi-colour Teeshirt, was said to have alighted from a taxi and headed towards a bread seller near the road.

Eyewitnesses said he started uttering incoherent statements after buying a loaf of bread and later tore his clothes.

Noticing the unusual behaviour, some sympathisers were said to have rushed to his help when he fell into a drain. They reportedly took him to an unknown destination.

Though his identity could not be confirmed as at press time, the bread seller said he is a student of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

She expressed surprise at the development and prayed for his healing.

Traders in the area said the young man was of average height.

Man held for ‘attempted kidnap’

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25-year-old man, Tosin Ajayi, was yesterday arrested by officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, for “attempting to kidnap” Benjamin Okizi (14).

Tosin, who lives at No.2, Idemo Street in Ado Ekiti, is

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

being held at the NSCDC headquarters.

Tosin and another suspect at large allegedly stopped Benjamin, who was said to be running an errand for his mother in Adebayo, and started ques-

tioning him.

They allegedly took the money the boy had on him and were about forcing him on a motorcycle when passers-by, including Benjamin’s mother’s landlady, intervened.

Tosin was arrested but the other suspect escaped.

THE NATION FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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NEWS Civil service key to good governance

Supreme Court hears appeal Sept 24

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HERE was tension in Ondo State yesterday as news filtered in that the Supreme Court has fixed September 24 to hear the appeal filed by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its candidate in last October’s governorship poll, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN).

The appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Chief

•Be calm, activist urges Ondo residents From Damisi Ojo, Akure

Olusola Oke, was fixed for the same day.

The date falls outside the 90 days stipulated by law for hearing and determination of appeals.

Section 285 (7) of the Constitution makes it mandatory for the Supreme Court to hear the case within 90 days after the

judgment by the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Akure, the state capital, gave its judgment on July 1 and the Supreme Court was expected to rule on August 29.

Labour Party (LP) supporters danced in the streets, saying the chosen date marked the “constitutional death” of

Akeredolu’s and Oke’s petitions.

Akeredolu’s counsel Mr. Charles Titiloye urged the people to remain calm.

He said the Supreme Court, being the repository of law and Jurisprudence, “would not intentionally fix an appeal outside the days provided by our constitution”.

He urged residents to be prayerful and remain hopeful.

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HE Ekiti State Government yesterday reiterated its commitment to building a virile civil service.

The Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu, spoke in her office in AdoEkiti, the state capital, while receiving the board members and Management of the State Civil Service Commission.

She said the Governor Kayode Fayemi administra-

.Prof. Adelabu (middle) with (from left:) Ekiti State Civil Service Commission’s Commissioner IV, Mr. Sesan Fatoba; Commissioner II Chief Kemi Olaleye; Ogunlayi; Commissioner I Elder Segun Bankole; Commissioner III Elder Yemi Alade and the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Sola Adebayo…yesterday.

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has hailed Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the maiden edition of an interactive programme, “Gbangba Dekun”, a platform where the governor explained his administration’s achievements to the people of Iwo, Ola-Oluwa and Ayedire.

On Tuesday, Aregbesola; his deputy, Mrs. Titi LaoyeTomori; Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Moshood Adeoti as well as Osun APC Interim Chairman Adebiyi Adelowo, fielded questions

tion recognises the civil service as the heartbeat of the government.

Mrs. Adelabu said some of the government’s policies were strategically designed to enable the civil service function properly.

She described members of the commission’s board and management as seasoned technocrats, who have reformed the civil service.

The deputy governor urged the commission to organise capacity-building workshops and programmes for workers.

The commission’s Chairman, Alhaji Afolabi Ogunlayi, said the organisation had the mandate to employ, promote and discipline civil servants, as well as ensure their welfare.

He said the present administration inherited a commission in a shambles, with many vital issues, such as promotion, advancement and complaints, among others, left unattended to.

Ogunlayi said with Fayemi’s support, most of the problems have been resolved. He said most of the promotion arrears and advancement requests have been addressed.

Ogunlayi said the embargo on employment into the civil service was being lifted by the governor and a recruitment process is ongoing to fill vacancies in ministries, departments and agencies.

He said the 2012/2013 promotion examination would be conducted before the end of the year.

APC, don hail Aregbesola on programme From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

from the people.

In a statement by its Publicity Director, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, APC said the programme, meant for all areas, gave the people an opportunity to discuss with the governor.

It said the programme has “further proved” that the governor has nothing to hide.

APC urged the people to come out and receive the governor when it is their turn to host the programme.

The Provost of the College of Post graduate Studies, Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Prof. Wasiu Gbolagade, who is from Iwo, said the programme would help the government evaluate the effectiveness of its policies and programmes.

Police recover stolen Lagos cab in Ibadan

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HE police in Oyo State have recovered a stolen Golf car.

The car, painted in the Lagos commercial colour, is marked YA 107 FKJ. It was stolen from a driver

in Oshodi, Lagos State.

Police spokesperson Bisi CletIlobanafor said the car was abandoned at Ogbere Oloba in Ibadan.

Clet-Ilobanafor said: “A resident, Oyedeji Michael, reported that around 6:30am on Tuesday,

Lagos PDP councillor joins APC

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HE Councillor in Ward D, Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos State, Mr. AbdulFatai Kasali-Ghazal, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He announced his defection during a meeting at Agunbiade Primary School, Somolu.

Kasali-Gazal told The Nation yesterday that he joined the APC because he believes it is the only party that has positive plans for the masses.

He said: “I joined the APC because I want to be part of the progressive party with the love of the masses at heart.”

Narrating his experience as a minority among the majority, Kasali-Gazal said: “It has not been easy being an oppo-

From Dada Aladelokun

sition member. I believe that by joining the majority, my ward and the local government would move forward.”

He was received into the party by the Interim APC Chairman in the council, Alhaji Kolawole Mustapha, who said he was not surprised by the councillor’s action.

Mustapha said: “I am not surprised by the councillor’s comeback. He was with us during the time of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before he defected to the PDP because of some circumstances. Now that he has realised it, his coming back is a great delight to the APC. He is as a loveable man.”

he sighted a Volkswagen Golf car with Lagos commercial colour abandoned in his area.

“When the car was recovered and searched by detectives, it was found to belong to Ogunmuyiwa Adejere of the Cooperative Investment and Credit Society (CICS) Ltd., Ijeshatedo, Surulere, Lagos.

“Further investigation involving officers from the Lagos Police Command showed that the car was snatched from the driver at Oshodi.”

She said no arrest had been made.

The police spokesperson said two herdsmen were arrested for allegedly attacking a farmer, Fatai Alimi.

She said: “Muibi Azeez from Aboriso, near Iseyin, reported to the police on Sunday that some herdsmen attacked and injured his brother.

“Alimi was said to have challenged the herdsmen, who were grazing their cattle on his farm. The herdsmen turned on him and beat him up, inflicting serious injuries on him.”

She said the herdsmen would soon be arraigned.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

We want a SONCAP programme that would serve its purpose; a programme that would be dynamic, where all the identified loopholes would be effectively plugged thereby making it difficult for the plaque of substandard products to continue to dominate the Nigerian business space.

-Dr Joseph Odumodu, DG, SON

Shell contract workers protest sack plan

‘Sanctions for erring foreign contractors coming’

From Clarice Azuatalam,

By Akinola Ajibade & Ambrose Nnaji

Port Harcourt

H

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HE Federal Govern ment will henceforth sanction Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that fail to adhere to laid down rules in the nation’s oil and gas industry, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Ernest Nwapa, has warned.

Nwapa, who spoke on the topic: PIB: Harmonisation and Implementation for Economy Growth at a forum organised by the National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC), said the development became necessary to grow the industry.

He said OEMs have requested for a five-year plan through which they intend to outline their programmes before operating in the country. He said any of the manufacturers that failed in their plans would be stopped from operating in the industry.

Nwapa said a data base has been set up to capture the data of expatriates, adding that an Identity Card has been issued to all expatriates on board any project in Nigeria.

He said the country has the capacity to produce many of the equipment being contracted to foreign firms, adding that it is not proper for oil and gas equipment manufacturers abroad to misuse the concession given to them. He said the country has not done well in the area of local manufacturing of equipment, lamenting that investment in the sector is seven per cent.

According to him, priority is being given to local content development in the industry as evident by the enactment of the Local Content Act by the National Assembly.

He said the Act has resulted in a change of mindset of operators, suppliers and vendors of equipment/facilities

DATA STREAM COMMODITY PRICES Oil -$107/barrel Cocoa-$2,686.35/metric ton Coffee - ¢132.70/pound Cotton - ¢95.17pound Gold -$1,800/troy ounce Rubber -¢159.21pound MARKET CAPITALISATIONS NSE -N12.1 trillion JSE -Z5.112trillion NYSE -$10.84 trillion LSE -£61.67 trillion RATES

Inflation -8.4% Treasury Bills -7.08% Maximum lending -22.42% Prime lending -15.87% Savings rate -2% 91-day NTB -15% Time Deposit -5.49% MPR -12% Foreign Reserve $46.9b FOREX CFA -0.2958 EUR -206.9 £ -242.1 $ -156 ¥ -1.9179 SDR -238 RIYAL -40.472

• From left: Director, Transcorp Energy Limited/Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Tony Chukwueke; Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Engr. Ernest Nwapa; Managing Director, Eko Electricity Distribution Zone, Engineer Oladele Amuda and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Lagos State, Mrs. Regina Obasa, during the 2013 National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC) Conference, held at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

Fed Govt releases N250b for Q3 capital projects T HE Federal Govern ment has released N250 billion for capital projects for the third quarter.

The Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mr Paul Nwabuikwu, said the funds would be deployed to expedite the execution of key infrastructure, security and social projects in the 2013 Budget.

He explained in a state-

•Funds utilisation now 71% From Nduka Chiejina (Asst.

Editor)

ment that the funds were being released, “in line with the priorities set out by President Goodluck Jonathan,” adding that with the release of this new capital project funds, a total of

N850 billion has so far been injected for capital projects this year.

He explained that utilisation of the released funds for capital projects for the year has also attained the 71 per cent mark.

He said all the funds re-

leased so far have been cash-backed, adding that N400 billion and N200 billion respectively were released for capital projects in the first and second quarters of the year.

Nwachukwu said the implementation of various capital projects across the country were on-going, stressing that currently, utilisation of the released funds for capital projects for this year stands at 71 per cent.”

New mortgage scheme’s beneficiaries to access funds in 2014 T HE first batch of ben eficiaries of the new mortgage system being put together by the Federal Government in partnership with the states, will begin to access the low interest mortgages by the first quarter of 2014.

To ensure that Nigerians on the lower rung of the economic ladder are not left out, the government is also focusing on mass housing, especially the lease-to-ownoptions.

The beneficiaries will come from 14 pilot states.

The Nation gatherd that the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-

From Nduka Chiejina, (Asst. Editor)

Iweala, disclosed this at an interactive session with Governors and representatives from the pilot states, as well as representatives from the World Bank, DFID and other partner institutions in Abuja.

It was learnt that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala and her Housing counterpart, Ms. Amah Pepple, hosted the session with Governors Peter Obi of Anambra State, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, Kaduna State Governor, Yero and Rabiu Kwankwanso of

Kano State, with the Deputy Governor of Plateau State in attendance.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala told the Governors that it would take a while to finalise the modalities for a take-off of the scheme, but explaained that the President has given marching orders to ensure that Nigerians begin to enjoy affordable mortgage in no time, adding that the new mortgage initiative, is central to the President Jonathan’s vision of improving the economy and improving the welfare of the citizenry.

“The benefits in terms of job

creation and overall economic development are immense from mortgage companies, to building materials’ sellers, to brick layers and carpenters and mason,”she said, adding that when housing works, the whole economy works.

When reminded about the bad experiences the customers of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria who contributed to past mortgage programmes and did not derive commensurate returns, Okonjo-Iweala assured the Governors “that strong measures are being put in place to ensure that the bad experiences of the past were not repeated in the forthcoming Mortgage Refinance Company (MRC).”

SURE-P sure of Abuja-Kaduna railway date

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HE August 2014 date for the completion of the Idu-Kaduna railway would be met, the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), has assured.

The Chairman, Railway sub-Committee, SURE-P, Chike Okogwu, explained that the team, comprising officials of the Federal Ministry of Transport, SURE-P and the contractors, are committed to delivering the project.

He listed compensation, rights of way, security and flooding as obstacles confronting the modernisation of the standard gauge rail

From Dele Anofi, Abuja

project, adding that these obstacles have been addressed.

He said SURE-P’s interventions in the railway sector have gulped N32 billion so far, adding that the idea behind the interventionis to bolster economic activities between the hinterland and urban centres across the country.

He said: “The 2014 completion date is feasible because we are deploying modern technolog to execute the project as seen during its flag-off. With that, the con-

tractor is delivering twokilometres of rail lines daily.

“The only major challenge we have is the stretch between kilometre 16 and 20 because it has to do with residential areas along Kubwa.

It is not even the entire four kilometres, but just about 300 to 400 metres stretch.

“We have gone far with that, even the contractor is working beyond that to forestall undue delay, by working from the Jere end towards Kubwa so that by the time they get to Kubwa, the compensation issue would have been resolved,” he added.

He said government has confidence in the contractor handling the project,citing instances where about 10 workers, including expatriates of the company were kidnapped and killed, “It took a while to convince the contractor to go back to site, but we have resolved that now.

“At the inception of the project when it was scoped, we were not having security or flooding challenges, though we are faced with these now, but we are determined to surmount them in order to meet the delivery target,” he added.

UNDREDS of con tract workers with Sell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) yesterday in Port Harcourt, trooped out to protest what they described as the company’s “secret mission” to disengage them from work.

The contract workers, comprising those working for about 35 different SPDC contracting firms in its Residential Areas (RAs) along Port Harcourt-Aba road, and the ones at its Industrial Area (IA) East, trooped out en mass to stage a peaceful protest demanding their rights.

Chanting “We no gree o, We no go gree,” the aggrieved workers displayed placards, some of which read: “Shell, pay us N50 million each and go,” “Shell, we are tired of your wickedness.” Chairman and Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers, Shell R.A Unit Operations, Comrade Evangelist David Sudoo, and Comrade Ibinabo Granville, said SPDC has a secret plan to lay off the workers even when they have not been paid their three months backlog of salaries. Workers earlier sacked by management of the oil giant were yet to receive their entitlements, the union leaders alleged.

In its reaction, SPDC said: “Some community contract workers have access issues which they are trying to resolve with their contractors.”

It insisted that it was an issue between the labour contractors and the workers and not with Shell’s management.

‘Nigeria needs selfless leaders, not funding, to develop’ From Tayo Johnson and Diamond Adebowale, Ibadan

Nigeria needs selfless and committed leaders to achieve sustainable development, THE Executive Director, 7-Up Bottling Com pany Plc, Femi Mokikan, has said Mokikan who spoke yeterday at the 11th Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Oyo State Branch, Ibadan, argued that if the resources available at the disposal of the leaders were ued judiciously, achieving Vision 20:2020 will not be wishful thinking. He spoke on: The Contributory Pension Scheme and Socio-economic Development of Nigeria: The HR Perspective.”

He said: “If our leaders will use the much we have for the pursuit of the greatest good for the greatest number of people, our desire to rank among the top 20, or30 most developed nation of the world will not be a pipe dream. We need selfless leaders who choose to serve and not to be served to pursue this.”

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NEWS

Lagos’ next tranche of N275b bond coming

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AGOS State Government will soon launch the next tranche of its N275 billion fixed bonds issuance programme, the State’s Commissioner for Finance, Ayo Gbeleyi, has said.

Gbeleyi, who broke the news yesterday at the 4th Annual General Meeting of the first N50 billion Fixed Rate Bond programme series issued in 2009, explained that in 2008, the government launched a N275 billion bond programme with N50billion in the first series, N57.5billion and N80billion in the second and third.

He said the application on the development is with the regulatory body, noting that it would be launched as soon as the process is completed and approved.

“We will soon be coming out

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro

with it. We currently have our application with the regulatory body and will roll out as soon as we have their consent.” he said He commended the investors for the confidence reposed on the government and assured them of the government’s commitment to the provision of an enabling financial policy framework and public debt management.

He said: “Permit me to quickly affirm that we remain committed in our disposition to consolidating the policies that have helped in promoting our performance ratings. This is borne out of our conviction of the incontrovertible pivotal role finance plays in a cosmo-

politan city such as Lagos, yearning for accelerated development as we march on to becoming Africa’s model megacity.”

The commissioner said the present antecedent is a further demonstration that Lagos State is a responsible issuer in the Nigeriancapital markets, having successfully issued bonds of an aggregate value of N187.5 billion.

He said the money raised in the three Series Bond so far have been diligently applied to projects such as the AdmiraltyAlexander (Lekki-Ikoyi) link bridge, the Adiyan Waterworks Phases I & II (on-going), the ongoing Lagos-Badagry Dual Carriage Way and the Blue Line of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Project.

Others include Jetty and Terminal Building at Osborne Foreshore, the Ayinke House (Ikeja) and the construction and equipping of twelve (12) Maternal & Child Care Centres across all the five divisions of the state, construction of trauma and burns centres, rehabilitation and construction of various arterial and inner roads across the state, renovation of various schools across the State, and construction of various housing projects pursuant to the Lagos HOMS programme, among others.

Permanent Secretary, Debt Management Office, Mrs. Olabowale Ademola, in her vote of thanks assured investors that the government will not disappoint the confidence they have reposed on it.

American Chamber seeks transfer of AGOA from BoI

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IGERIA is losing billions of naira annually to the bu reaucracy following the transfer of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to the Bank of Industry (BoI), RESIDENT of the Nigeria/ America Chamber of Com merce and Industry, Sam Ohuanbunwa, has said Ohuanbunwa, who spoke while commissioning the Kaduna office of the chambers, called for the return of the AGOA to the Chamber for effective management so that Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (SMEs) can benefit from the opportunities offered by the initiative.

He said if the authorities in the country were concerned about creating employment and adding value to the economy through the

From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

SMEs, AGOA provided a window that should be exploited for such purposes.

He said: “AGOA is administered

by USAID and it was under the purview of our chamber, but suddenly it was moved to BOI because of Nigerian factors. Now AGOA is as efficiently and effectively managed in BoI as other Nigerian bureaucracy you can think of.

“We have written several letters to various authorities stating our position, particularly on the need for its retrieval. The BoI does not know much about the operators of our SMEs, so how can it assist them through AGOA? he queried.

“If you are advocating the growth and development of the

economy through the SMEs, and if you are serious about employment generation, how can you keep an opportunity like AGOA under the management of BoI? It is our prayers that government will look into this matter, call the stakeholders together and let us work things out for the benefit of the country.”

He noted that since the administration of former President Bill Clinton established AGOA, Sudan, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mali have benefitted more than Nigeria from it, lamenting that it is only the country among the benefitting countries that has not maximised the full potentials of the Act. Ohuanbunwa the country has not made good use of AGOA programme which the Obama ad-

ministration is expected to extend, adding that the American government is impatient with Nigeria because it has all it takes to launch itself into the leadership position of the African continent.

He disclosed that the Executive of the Chamber would soon hold a meeting to explore various business opportunities available in the northern states and expressed satisfaction with the improved security situation now prevailing in the region. while describing the volume of business between Nigeria and America as large, he said that Nigeria earn in excess of 30 billion dollars annually from sales of crude oil alone with America accounting for the largest chunk of the sales.

Firm unveils auto top-up services for businesses

By Bola Ajetumobi

A

N IT firm, OneCard Nigeria, has unveiled a top up serv ices called MyTopUp Business for small- and medium-sized businesses and individuals in Lagos.

Speaking on the occasion, General Manager of the firm, Mr. George Offem, said, “MyTopUp Business is the one-stop service with Auto TopUp and Bulk TopUp features that enable businesses and individuals to easily make automatic payments of mobile accounts, cable TV subscriptions, toll fees and other utility bills – all in a single transaction, using a validated e-payment account. Small businesses and individuals performing N50,000 to N100,000 worth of top ups monthly can now enjoy the numerous benefits of MyTopUp Business.”

With Auto TopUp, monthly or weekly payments can be scheduled in advance for as long as desired.

Auto TopUp also permits users to schedule low credit top ups, that is, automatic top ups when the designated account balance goes below a set amount. In one transaction and two simple steps, MyTopUp Business customers can pay for: multiple staff mobile accounts across all networks; PHCN bills, cable TV subscriptions across the country; toll fees for official vehicles; utility bills irrespective of location, as well as top up accounts when they go low.

Bulk TopUp allows small- and medium – sized businesses that want to buy bulk airtime on multiple networks, as well companies that top up accounts for their staff, consultants, branches, do so quickly and easily, using a validated e-payment account.

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COMMENTARY FROM OTHER LANDS

EDITORIALS

Gowon’s proposal •Nigeria needs prayer and action; not prayer alone

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UR leaders are apparently overwhelmed by the nation’s numerous problems, and instead of rolling up their sleeves and going to work, they are hoping we can pray the country out of these problems. The latest request for prayers as the solution came from former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd). He made the call for prayers during a visit to Gethsemane Prayer Ministries, Ibadan, Oyo State, presided over by the National Coordinator, Nigeria Prays, Rev. Moses Aransiola. In his speech, Gen. Gowon urged God to uproot all the leaders with evil intentions, and prophesied that the prediction that Nigeria will break by 2015, will fail if Nigerians stand against it in prayers.

Interestingly, General Gowon ruled Nigeria relatively well, compared to the wobbling and fumbling leaders that have, largely, imposed themselves on Nigerians in the past decades. Yet, instead of General Gowon speaking truth to power by urging concrete actions to solve the myriad of challenges, he extols, “we believe that only prayers can solve it”. The general, instead of naming the bad leaders with evil intentions and asking them to desist from their evil ways, is asking Nigerians to pray against the intentions.

Again, Gen. Gowon instead of naming the over-ambitious politicians that he referred to in his speech merely asked Nigerians to ignore them. Yet, these people are having a tight hold on the nation and unless directly challenged, will continue hemorrhaging the country.

So, our dear general, we beg to differ on your call to prayers as the solution to our national problems. What Nigeria needs is quality leadership; for, no amount of prayers will cure our infrastructural deficit, nor will it stop the criminal despoliation of the country, championed by the same politicians and the economic elite that Gen Gowon referred to.

Specifically, prayers will not give us a single more kilowatt of electricity; it will not tar one kilometre of road; it will not provide needed equipment for the hospitals; it will not gift the country quality education; it will not give us functional democracy; it will not stop the ruling class from over-pampering itself at our common expense; it will not prosecute the thieving politicians and economic despoilers, and it will not provide affordable food and housing for Nigerians. Indeed, it will only give the soul false comfort, instead of galvanising it to action.

But General Gowon is not alone in this crusade for prayer without work. About this time last year, President Goodluck Jonathan had ministered that ‘with prayers, we will overcome Nigeria’s problems’. We note that Jonathan has been president for more than three years, apparently praying more than working, and the result is that he has not made any significant difference in the lives of Nigerians. As we have noted, what Nigerians need is purposeful leadership, unfortunately President Jonathan and most of the present political actors have shown the lack of capacity to deliver.

What Gen. Gowon can do for the present leadership is to teach it how he was able

to accomplish the economic achievements he recorded as head of state. He should tell the Federal Government that most of the infrastructural leaps achieved during his era are all rotting away: the National Stadium, National Arts Theatre, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which he initiated and several other achievements. He should tell them Nigeria needs maximum quality in leadership, to steer the country away from the predictions of doom which increasingly look like a foresworn tragedy. As a general, he must not suffer fools gladly; after all, he has nothing to lose, but all to gain, if he says it as it is.

‘What Gen. Gowon can do for the present leadership is to teach it how he was able to accomplish the economic achievements he recorded as head of state. He should tell the Federal Government that most of the infrastructural leaps achieved during his era are all rotting away: the National Stadium, National Arts Theatre, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which he initiated and several other achievements ... As a general, he must not suffer fools gladly; after all, he has nothing to lose, but all to gain, if he says it as it is’

Echoes of Fagunwa •Indigenous language under threat, though this master of Yoruba language lives on, 50 years after ITERATURE provided a forum for an examination of culture at the international conference held recently in Akure, Ondo State, in remembrance of Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, the acclaimed pioneering figure in the production of Yoruba fiction who died 50 years ago. This fecund master of Yoruba language, better known to the literary world as D. O. Fagunwa, was not only a veritable vehicle for the rich verbal resources of his race; he also represented an instructive repository of indigenous philosophy.

As things stand, he has acquired the image of unrepeatability.

It is ironic that the celebration of his lingual charm and imaginative fertility is against the background of an observable present-day context that reflects the trivialisation of his mother tongue by native users who would rather associate with English language. Regrettably, there is no

L

‘It is a testimony to his genius that Fagunwa’s place in the literary pantheon is assured, even though he wrote in an indigenous language in a world dominated by so-called international languages. It is the ultimate tribute to his cultural assertiveness that he chose to write in his native Yoruba language, although he was sufficiently educated in English language, having trained as a teacher’

doubt that Yoruba language, which Fagunwa so brilliantly championed through his writings, is faced with a potent challenge of survival. Indeed, it may not be an exaggeration to describe the situation as a crisis.

The tragic import of this perceivable decline in linguistic pride is the concomitant loss of cultural capital, for language is the fundamental carrier of a people’s way of life. Sadly, in a world of globalisation and unrelenting Western influence, indigenous languages appear to be disadvantaged. It is interesting that, in Fagunwa’s case, the centrality of language in culture can be demonstrated in reverse. For, while translations of his work in English and French may have extended circulation and readership, especially in the foreign market, there is no denying the fact that much must also have been lost in terms of originality and essential fabric of Yoruba culture.

When the threatening implications of the “visual age” are considered, this further complicates the production and patronage of indigenous literature. Not surprisingly, the Fagunwa Foundation is reportedly interested in film adaptations of the late writer’s work, which is heart-warming and deserves the support of culture-conscious individuals and organisations.

It is a testimony to his genius that Fagunwa’s place in the literary pantheon is assured, even though he wrote in an indigenous language in a world dominated by so-called international languages. It is the ultimate tribute to his cultural assertiveness that he chose to write in his native Yoruba language, although he was sufficiently educated in English language, having trained as a teacher. His 1938 mag-

num opus, Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale, widely regarded as the first Yoruba novel and one of the first to be written in any African language, was in 1968 translated into English as The Forest of A Thousand Daemons by Wole Soyinka. It is noteworthy and bespeaks the quality of this debut that a stage adaptation of the work by Wale Ogunyemi, Langbodo, was Nigeria’s entry at the monumental Festival of African Arts and Culture hosted by the country in 1977.

His later works, which include Igbo Olodumare( 1949), Ireke Onibudo (1949), Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje ( 1954), translated as Expedition to the Mount of Thought by Dapo Adeniyi, and Adiitu Olodumare (1961), translated as The Mysteries Of God by Olu Obafemi, reinforced his stature. Fagunwa’s alluring forte was the highly creative use of folkloric material to weave fantastic and gripping adventure tales that mirror the journey of life with a didactic slant. It is no accident that Fagunwa remains the most widely-read Yoruba-language author, and a major literary influence.

It is a measure of his enthusiasm for Yoruba language and a felt need to encourage its use that, among other works eclipsed by his main fictional writings, Fagunwa co-authored, with L.J. Lewis, a primary school Yoruba reader, Taiwo ati Kehinde. Though significant, it is inadequate that Fagunwa, born in Oke-Igbo, Ondo State, and honoured with the distinguished award of Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1959 for his services to Literature, is being celebrated for his cultural contributions without convincing efforts to sustain Yoruba language.

Saving Egypt from Syria’s fate

I

N THE spring of 2011, Syrian dictator Bashar alAssad responded to the first massive protests against his regime with unrelenting violence.

Security forces opened fire on unarmed civilians who joined demonstrations. Proposals by Western governments and neighbors for democratic reforms or negotiations with the opposition were evaded by Mr. Assad, who insisted on tarring all opponents as terrorists.

The scorched-earth policy soon prompted the United States and many of its allies to impose sanctions on Syria, and two years ago this month President Obama called for the end of the Assad regime.

Now Egypt’s military-backed government appears to have embarked on a frighteningly similar course.

Rejecting U.S. and European proposals for a deescalation of its conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood, the armed forces have brutally attacked the group’s supporters, killing hundreds. The regime is orchestrating a propaganda campaign labeling the Islamists as terrorists, even though there is no evidence that the movement’s leaders — many of whom are being held incommunicado — have given up a decadeslong commitment to nonviolence. Critical Egyptian media have been silenced and foreign journalists attacked. Meanwhile, security forces have failed to protect Christian churches from assaults by mobs.

This is not only a moral challenge to the United States. If continued, Egypt’s crackdown may lead it toward the catastrophe Syria has experienced: civil war; massive flows of refugees; the appearance of a powerful new branch of al-Qaeda. While it may be difficult for outside powers to restrain the generals, the Obama administration and its allies are not doing all that they can. The crisis demands the delivery of an unambiguous message to the regime that a continued attempt to repress the Muslim Brotherhood by force, or the installation of a new autocracy, will leave Egypt isolated from the West. That means the immediate suspension of all aid and the promise of further sanctions if the deliberate killing of civilians does not stop.

Some argue that if aid is suspended the United States will lose influence with the military. But the past seven weeks have clearly shown that maintaining aid has bought the Obama administration no favor with de facto ruler Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who has repeatedly disregarded U.S. counsel. Some worry that Egypt would react to an aid suspension by backing away from its peace treaty with Israel or its fight against the real Islamist terrorists based in the Sinai Peninsula. But those policies are in the country’s vital interest, and the armed forces will not abandon them.

In reality, Egypt is far more vulnerable to U.S. and European pressure than is Syria or most any other Arab state. Not only is the military dependent on U.S. weapons, spare parts and training but the economy, based on tourism and foreign investment, also has no chance of recovering without Western support. The billions in cash supplied to the new regime by Saudi Arabia and other Arab supporters is a temporary salve; in the end, any government seeking stability will need to come to terms with the International Monetary Fund, where U.S. influence is strong.

A forceful and united stand by Western governments against the course the Egyptian military is pursuing could bring the generals to their senses before it is too late. They must be made to understand that a new Egyptian autocracy will never be accepted by the United States or Europe. At the moment, they believe otherwise.

There is an opportunity this week, as European foreign ministers meet to discuss Egypt. They should resolve to suspend all aid and cooperation until the crackdown is halted and a credible movement toward democracy begun, and the United States should join them.

Washington Post

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

20

CARTOON & LETTERS

S

IR: Reviewing the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s book Tactics and Strategy of People’s Republic in the New Nigerian some 40 years ago, the late Dr Ibrahim Tahir grandly declared the work “a welter of muddle and confusion.” I did not get to read the book then, so what I learnt of its contents came from the intense exchanges Dr Tahir’s irreverent conclusion set off among members of the country’s vibrant intellectual community. I have however perused The Nation’s In Touch column of Monday, August 22, and have no hesitation in applying Tahir’s pithy put-down, quoted above, to the viewpoint canvassed therein.

A lament on the absence of history in the current curriculum of Nigeria’s secondary schools became the occasion for another excursion into the “scatological details” of the Nigerian Civil War. The write-up, liberally spiced with quotations, neglected to make a case for the re-introduction of the teaching and study of history, but veered into familiar territory, tearing into the reputations of some of Nigeria’s finest soldiers - and statesmen.

S

IR: I refer to Sanya Oni’s piece in The Nation of August 20.

Why is that when you people write about poverty reduction, industrialisation and job creation in Nigeria your focus is always only on the federal government and Jonathan? You people give the impression that the federal government is the only tier of government that can and should do anything. But there are 36 states that collect fabulous amount of money monthly.

Do they not have roles to play in industrialisation, modern agriculture, job creation etc? The military centralized system of government we experienced for many years

EDITOR’S MAIL BAG SEND TYPEWRITTEN, DOUBLE SPACED AND SIGNED CONTRIBUTIONS, LETTERS AND REJOINDERS OF NOT MORE THAN 800 WORDS TO THE EDITOR, THE NATION, 27B, FATAI ATERE ROAD, MATORI, LAGOS. E-mail: views@thenationonlineng.net

Re: History, Civil War and our haunted house The interview with Major Iluyomade ran by The Nation a fortnight ago was a mix of the tragic and the comical. The tragedy was in the brazen effort of the panel of interviewers to put words into Iluyomade’s mouth by asking leading questions. The comical part was in the follow-up answers the interviewee gave in response to further prodding. The old war-horse’s expatiation would negate the oneliner answer he gave to the original question.

Asked for his views on the killings of Igbos during the civil disturbances in the North in 1966, Iluyomade naturally condemned the tragic events. Pressed further by the interviewers, the Major questioned why such a reaction should not be expected from a people who had witnessed the decapitation of their political and military leader-

ship. In not exact words Iluyomade conceded that January 15 was the original sin. It is appropriate here to ponder what the reaction would have been in the Western Region had Awolowo died in Calabar prison before his release by General Gowon in 1966.

The Battle of Ore was not won by the motley group of cooks and other tradesmen in the army mustered and flung into the fight. They had the decisive support of “Hausa troops” hurriedly withdrawn from already very short training into what must be seen as the Nigerian equivalent of the Battle of Britain in its impact on the course of the conflict.

What was the point of listing the battles in which Federal forces were defeated or suffered severe reverses? All great armies have had their fair share of reverses and de-

feats; the important thing is that they ultimately, mostly prevailed.

The failed crossing at Asaba and the disaster at Abagana for the Nigerian Army had their earlier echoes in the British Army’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign and the string of defeats before El Alamein. Or even the American misadventure in Vietnam. The animus against the trio of Generals Gowon, Murtala Muhammed and Shuwa and the constant effort to rubbish their reputations are clearly the product of personal prejudice.

The last time out Gowon was portrayed as a bumbling commander in chief, ignoring the maxim that one can’t argue with success. For the umpteenth time, Gowon was not a compromise Christian candidate for head of state. The indaba that convened impromptu at the Ikeja military barracks that fateful week-

has produced the image of the big daddy in Abuja that should handle all problems.

When the street by your house is untarred, most Nigerians will blame Jonathan in Abuja but their state and local governments collect staggering amount of money from the federal on monthly basis for these problems.

ASUU is now on strike as a result of a so-called agreement reached with the federal government in 2009. This is supposed to be a federal affair, yet all stateowned universities whose financial responsibilities should be with the state governments have joined the strike and are all waiting for ASUU

negotiation with the federal governments. Are they expecting the federal government to take over funding of even state universities too?

What are the states doing about the universities they established with all eyes now focused on the federal? People should stop all these endless criticisms of Jonathan and the federal government and also direct their searchlight on the states. Every body talks of PDP as if PDP is in control of every state in the country. Each state in Nigeria has certain area where it has comparative advantages, some can initiate an agricultural revolution, some have very good tourism

potentials etc; all these silly overdependence on the federal should stop if Nigeria is to make progress.

Some states in Nigeria are bigger than some independent countries in the world! The State of California in the USA is richer than many countries put together. This is not necessarily because of Obama, but because of the aggressive foresightedness of its governors and private industrialists and businessmen, but in Nigeria every one talks of Jonathan and Abuja.

If the states are insignificant then let us abolish it and concentrate only on the federal government!

• Okobia Michael Asabia

Re: FG vs. AfDB

end of July 29, 1966 was not about the headship of the country but whether the North would remain part of Nigeria.

And those who took part in those pivotal discussions were, to rephrase JFK, “all Northerners.”

Gowon exercised the same level of control over Murtala and Shuwa as he did over Col Adekunle. The negative fixation with the “strategy and tactics” of Shuwa’s 1 Division is simply ludicrous.

Like it or not, Gowon is Nigeria’s Abraham Lincoln. He fought a war to prevent the disintegration of his country and quashed attempted secession. He strove to achieve reconciliation and reconstruction.

“Cunny” is not part of Gowon’s psyche. He is a Wusasa gentleman for goodness sake, their dominant character trait is earnestness.

The unwaning interest in history in the West is the product of the stock their societies place on their past, on what could be learnt from it and how it places them in the comity of nations. In the euphoric period before independence and shortly after, the study of the history of African societies was an urgent necessity in order to debunk Western theory about Africa’s lack of history before the arrival of the White Man. That was the era of prodigious output from the pioneers in the study of African history: Professors Adu Boahen, Kenneth Dike, J F Ade Ajayi, Tekena Tamuno, and Dr Robert Adeleye. Their successors were Professors Obaro Ikime, Osoba, Yusuf Bala Usman, Mahdi Adamu and many others.

Perhaps governments in Africa thought the work was done so they down-graded the study of both history and geography to general studies. The need for a return to old certainties in Nigeria’s education system is never more urgent than now, and a campaign in that direction is a worthy undertaking.

• Mohammed Tukur Usman <aboumahmud@yahoo.com>

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 16

21

COMMENTS

Just me…being self-righteous (3)

W

E belabour the ‘Nigerian dream.’ We abuse the idea that life will get better, that progress is assured if we keep faith, obey the rules and work hard, that prosperity is guaranteed if we continue to tread the slow, steady path to progress and a prosperous future.

And in pursuit of these lofty ideals, we pervert the steady, measured, impartial course of the universe; hacking pliant paths to our dreams, from the crossroads where gluttony fosters depravity.

Eventually, we awaken to a cold, bitter truth: We are being sacrificed.

The Nigerian dream we are sold isn’t worth our sacrifice. And the individual dreams we pursue, aren’t worth a smidgen of what we make them out to be. By the time we all struggle to achieve our dreams; Nigeria will be finished. Given that each tribe may finally achieve its dreams of nationhood via secession, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw to mention a few may establish their new nations.

When we do, the swollen belly of our idiocy and pride shall become clearly visible to us. When it does, it shall suddenly dawn on us that, all along, we had been blindly acting to a script prepared by career

predators from Western nations of Europe, America and our ruling class.

The truth shall become clearer to us in intensity and impact and we shall hopelessly realize that we are being sacrificed. We will all be sacrificed; some of us much quicker than others. As it is now, so shall it be in our new nations, the Biafran youth, Ijaw youth, Oodua youth and Arewa youth to mention a few, shall become disposable indices in the scheme of things.

But until then, we will continue to have today and squander it on the altar of racism and greed. Today, it’s impossible to see any offspring of our ruling class engage or become embroiled in the familiar tragedies that mar our lives. It’s always the children from the breadlines, struggling middle class and backwaters that are involved. We are the youth divide traditionally expected and required to function and serve as unquestioning muscles and ordinary cannon fodder in the ruling class’ blueprint of pillage and destruction.

The decline of Nigeria is a story of gross injustices by the ruling class to the citizenry. But that is only an aspect of it, the greatest injustice is

‘Everyday encounters with gluttonous gangs of struggling youth reveals among other things, that many of us are the same social products as our peer from the aristocratic divide.

T

HIS year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Norman Washington Manley, a world-class high school athlete, Rhodes Scholar, decorated First World War military hero, prizeman of Gray’s Inn in 1922, acknowledged as the Caribbean’s finest legal mind, and the first Jamaican to appear before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Manley, a bi-racial Jamaican, was born on July 4, 1893, in Roxborough, Manchester Parish, Jamaica. He attended the famous Jamaica College, Kingston, and later, as a Rhodes Scholar, read law at Jesus College, University of Oxford, where he took a first and was second on the list in 1921. He saw much frontline fighting in Northern France and Flanders (including at the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917, the First World War’s bloodiest battle), and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery.

Manley entered politics in 1938 when he formed the People’s National Party. A moderate democratic socialist, he spearheaded the fight for universal adult suffrage, constitutional reform and self-government, and the establishment of a West Indian federation. He also sought to infuse a sense of national consciousness and unity into a Jamaican society bitterly divided along class and colour lines. He lost the first election under the new constitution of 1944, which he, more than anyone, fought so hard to bring about. He therefore remained in opposition between 1945 and 1955, as his cousin and chief political rival, Alexander Bustamante, and his Jamaica Labour Party (a party that had, despite its name, a conservative philosophy), formed the government.

Manley’s opportunity came in 1955, when he won the general election by a slim margin, and became chief minister of Jamaica.

He was re-elected in 1959, when Jamaica attained full internal self-government, and was re-designated the premier of Jamaica.

His period in office was characterized by progressive social change, of the type seen in Western Nigeria under Chief Obafemi Awolowo; in India under Nehru; and in Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew as he created instruments vital for planning. Under him, the indigenization and training of the civil service took on an unprecedented pace. By 1958, he was spending 15% of government funds on education, the result of which was an unprecedented widening and diversifying of educational opportunity. His agrarian reform saw, through the Land Bond Law, a more equitable distribution of land among Jamaica’s poor and landless. However, his attempts at increasing agricultural production by offering incentives and facilities for soft loans yielded disappointing results.

Manley was more successful in skilfully renegotiating the rates of royalties and taxes paid by foreign multinationals mining bauxite in Jamaica, as revenue from bauxite mining grew six fold by 1960. Manley’s strategy for economic development called for government intervention, and in some cases, direction, in order to increase the productive powers of the country.

Like so many Third World countries, Jamaica did not have the resources to finance its development. It was without capital.

that meted out by individual citizen to self – the youth particularly.

And this predominant malaise often plays out in our corruptibility and disinclination to foster a more humane leadership and society.

Today, we suffer declining standards of living, stagnant and falling wages that are hardly paid at due time; we suffer curtailment and absolute denial of our basic wages, long-term unemployment, slave labour, escalating crime wave, among other ills.

Together, we perpetuate gruesome realities of the weakest being crushed decisively and maniacally by the affluent and strong. Together, we perpetuate a story of unbridled sectarian, ethnic and corporate power that has taken our government hostage, overseen the dismantling of our cultural heritage, societal and entrepreneurial values.

But if the ruling class, in connivance with predatory nations and institutions from the so-called ‘first world’ is responsible for plundering our natural resources and bankrupting the nation, we, the youth, are responsible for even worse atrocities.

We serve as the tools by which the ruling class and its cohorts overseas plunder and destroy our nation. The virus of political corruption, the perverted belief that only political and material profit matters, has spread to distort our thoughts and understanding of right and wrong. Today, it manifests in endemic proportions plaguing our communities with religious and political terrorism, economic and cyber-terrorism to mention a few.

Today, the Nigerian society dies a gruesome death basically because we lay to waste, our youths and we, the latter, by our suicidal actions

and thoughts, submit ourselves as hopeless prey to the Nigerian ruling class and their cohorts overseas.

Everyday encounters with gluttonous gangs of struggling youth reveals among other things, that many of us are the same social products as our peer from the aristocratic divide. Conditioned by life’s harshest vicissitudes to survive at all cost, we lay in wait, striving and bidding our time until we are ably positioned and strong enough to serve or rob the rich whose life we earnestly covet and decry.

A visit to any night club, party, religious organization or office still attests to this fact. Ambitious and upwardly mobile youth from the breadlines or struggling working class families engage in a variety of excesses to the applause of mates yearning to be in their shoes. Either as advance fee fraudsters, bankers, journalists, accountants, secretaries, factory hands or ordinary clerks, youths from the breadlines daily engages in a bitter, desperate struggle to chance on the shortest possible cut to sudden and stupendous wealth.

We seem beset by a greater and unexplainable fear beyond the fear of poverty amongst other harsh realities of their lives. Fear plays a greater part than hope: we are infinitely buoyed and obsessed with thoughts of the money that we could make or the possessions that might be taken from us or elude us, than of the joy and value that we might add to our own lives and to the future of our fatherland.

Most of us, like our more privileged peer crave the best of everything without actually sweating for it. And when we do sweat for it, our industry is tainted by vigorous dashes of impatience and duplicity.

In our work, we are haunted by jealousy of competitors, and a fleeting

interest in the actual work that has to be done. We spend greater time and passion defending unjust privileges that we are desperate to enjoy.

Such appalling youth constitute a greater segment of the human element expected to salvage Nigeria from eternal ruin and bloodbath.

Consequently, our society becomes more rudderless and unstable and vulnerable, on our watch. Now that Nigeria as our fathers, ‘the wasted generation’ made it, and we the youth, aggravate it, have begun to collapse, we withdraw from the possibility of rebirth, and instead choose to exploit the infinite possibilities in our fragility and predicted collapse.

It’s about time the Nigerian youth started postponing immediate gratification and endure hard sacrifices spurred by conviction that the future can be better than the past.

Beyond the politics and inanities of our existing ruling class and political parties, we face far more difficult questions at our moment in history: How do we reconcile reality with promises that have been made to us? How do we make the best of our circumstances at the backdrop of indefensible leadership failure and disillusionment of the citizenry? How do we evolve and nurture to fruition, a new vision to help us deal with our gruesome realities, even as we chart a promising story of the future? How do we divorce ourselves from the pains and disappointments of the past – particularly those that many of amongst us had no stake in but yet internalize and perpetuate unexplainable miseries thereby?

How do we redefine “Peace, Unity and Progress” with our lust for “Life, Liberty and Happiness?”

How do we become more human than we are now?

• To be continued...

Life and times of Norman W. Manley

By Akin Ajose-Adeogun The process of internal capitalization and of re-investment had to be started. Manley tried “industrialization by invitation,” as his National Plan for 1957-67 aimed at providing incentives for private investors and offering as many inducements as were reasonable to attract as much capital as possible. This policy produced such results that the people gave Manley and the PNP an increased majority in the general election of 1959.

Manley, a long time advocate of a West Indian federation, had always linked the economic and political development of Jamaica with the establishment of this federation.

Unfortunately, the pursuit of this ideal was to be his undoing.

He was forced by Bustamante’s opposition to agree to a referendum in 1961 on the issue of federation. He made a tactical error in agreeing to this, and lost the referendum, which weakened him and contributed to his narrow defeat in the general election of 1962. He therefore lost the opportunity to Bustamante, who was described by Harold Macmillan, the British premier, as “old and ruthless, and the most attractive demagogue in the area” of leading Jamaica to independence, which was attained only six months later.

It was a sad and ironic end to an illustrious career, as he had done more than any man to lead Jamaica to Dominion status.

He continued to serve as opposition leader till he relinquished that office in 1969. He died a few months later on September 2, 1969. His second son, Michael Manley, subsequently took over the leadership of the PNP, leading it back into government and serving two terms as prime minister of Jamaica between 1972-1980 and 1989-1992.

Manley was a man who tended to be reserved and formal, and did not suffer fools gladly. Former Gleaner editor-in-chief, Theodore Sealy, described him as, “Gamin and genius, shy yet arrogant, coldly analytical yet given to much emotion.”

He was also quick-tempered and could be combative. His greatest legacy to Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Third World, was the nobility that he brought to the art of politics. He was a high-minded and very honourable (he had the opportunity of coming to power in 1949, when five members of the government approached him and opted to cross the carpet on the condition that he gave them ministerial positions in the government he formed. An agreement had been reached and all was set for the announcement, but Manley changed his mind at the last minute and said it would be wrong to come to power by such trickery.

Sir Arthur Richards later Lord Milverton, an exceptionally able colonial administrator who later became Governor of Nigeria, 1943-48, after serving as governor of Jamaica, made the following observation, in a letter to the Colonial Office,

about Manley, with whom he had a difficult relationship: “...I wrote him a private note offering to see him and talk over privately the possibility of his co-operation with this administration unless he felt it per se to be impossible. He accepted readily and stayed from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It was a brilliant performance. He is a very complex personality and he talks on such occasions with all the ascetic aloofness of an Indian saint. The highest principles and the loftiest motives, with no mundane flaws to stain their radiance....Talking to him it is difficult to feel anything but admiration for the selfless patriot who has given up everything that makes life worth living....No wonder he fascinates all comers….”

Harold Macmillan, the British prime minister between 195763, described him, in his memoirs, in the following terms : “...In the afternoon we flew to Jamaica, where there were the usual receptions and guards of honour, followed by a formal dinner in the evening. From the political point of view, by far the most interesting experience was my hour’s talk with Norman Manley. I had heard much about him from Stafford Cripps, who had a great admiration for him, but I was hardly prepared to meet such a remarkable figure....He is head and shoulders above any other politician in the West Indies.”

Sir Philip Sherlock, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, recorded the following about Manley in 1962: “....Manley happened to be in Trinidad on business with the federal government, and he came out to see my wife and I. I knew that he had spent everything he had in supporting the People’s National Party, but I was moved beyond words when, on leaving, he turned to me and said quite simply, without a trace of bitterness, ‘I am practically bankrupt. I must sell Drumblair.’ It was his true home, and Edna’s (his wife) also; the place where she began her creative happy life in Jamaica.” And this was in 1962, when he had just relinquished the office of premier of Jamaica! Such integrity and selfless sacrifice would be unthinkable today in many Third World - particularly African - countries! Unfortunately, Manley, who was Jamaica’s leading lawyer between 1922 and 1955, when he entered government, was never able to recover his former pre-eminent position at the Bar. In my opinion, the greatness of Manley’s political leadership outstripped practically that of any other political leader that emerged in the 20th century from the Third World. The greatness was wider and based on firmer foundation than that of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lee Kuan Yew, or Obafemi Awolowo. I would assert that even amongst leaders of the industrialized Western nations in the 20th century, only Franklin D. Roosevelt, Clement Attlee, and Konrad Adenauer (the West German chancellor, and architect of his country’s miraculous post-war recovery) challenge comparison. May his great soul continue to rest in peace.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

22

COMMENTS ‘Only a life lived for others is worthwhile Albert Einstein’ OTHING is more assured in the country today than a sense of empirically nauseating feeling of general public profligacy and corruption of etiquette. It is an evolving perilous quicksand-laid foundation that portends an ominous sign which if not halted, can accelerate the ripeness of the Nigerian society for political perdition. Our people yearned for a good form of government in a democracy - we got it but owing to bad leadership, the government has found it impossible to correct the putrid system that has been in place for some time. And to worsen the situation, the country’s constitution has become ineffectual in halting this avoidable systemic rot.

The Nigerian Republic that was created through the lofty dreams of our great nationalists is falling to the lucre of graft and public consumption. Those in positions of authority are running a spendthrift economy. Rather than cuddle moderation in governance, they have imbibed profligacy and the society at large is bearing the brunt through official denial of good infrastructure and perquisites of admirable wellbeing.

The foregoing clearly conjure the image and message that Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister in the ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s era and former vice-president of the World Bank in Africa was conveying when she said: “Since 2005, National Assembly members alone have been allocated N1trillion.” She made the remark during her keynote address at a recent one-day dialogue on the cost of governance in Nigeria that was jointly organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and the Federal Public Administration Reform Programme, United Kingdom (UK).

She reminded Nigerians of a highly deleterious habit of governance whereby 82 per cent of Nigeria’s budgetary cost goes for recurrent expenditure and that 69 per cent of our citizens, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, are befuddled by poverty.

She restated the contents of The Economist magazine of London’s recent publication which the lawmakers and others in government at the moment never thought could ever be read by the populace because of the unaffordable cost of the magazine to the hoi

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Profligacy in governance polloi that are in the majority in the country.

The magazine reportedly stated that federal legislators in Nigeria are the highest paid lawmakers in the world with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum (N30.6m). Could somebody imagine what the odious allowances and other perquisites of the post would be?

The breakdown of the Statutory Transfers between 2005 and 2013 to the national assembly showing its spendthrift, which she claims she got from the Ministry of Finance are: 2005 (N54.79billion); 2006 (N54.79billion) 2007 (N66.4billion); 2008 (N114.39billion); 2009 (N158.92billion); 2010 (N 150billion); 2011 (N150billion); 2012 (N150billion); and 2013 (N150billion). Lest l forget; the national assembly has 109 senators and 360 representatives. Just 469 lawmakers, their retinue of aides and other staffers of the legislature are consuming these large sums which l prefer to term as senseless depletion of public till by most of these elected men and women that engage largely in grandstanding rather than legislative duties.

These legislative noisemakers could not make a reasonable response to the challenge

by Ezekwesili but merely described it as a “simplistic and escapist way of addressing a problem”. The national assembly reportedly draws its N150billion annual budget from the first line charge since 2010. But these mostly legislative noisemakers could not in all conscience say that such huge budget, in view of the rampant poverty and poor infrastructure in the country, is not a waste or mismanagement.

EXPRESSO

T

HERE is dagger in men’s smile,” that is how William Shakespeare captured a similar plot as this in his days. Though this Anambra situation seem insignificant and indeed many would rather play it down, but the deft shafting of Prof.

Chukwuma Soludo in his quest for the Anambra State top job portends deepreaching augury not just for the individual in the mix of the shenanigans but for the entire Igbo race. In other words, the back-stabbing and emasculation of Soludo in his quest to lead Anambra is a knife in the back of Ndigbo.

But the stab is deeper and more injurious because it is obviously self-inflicted.

There is no doubt that Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is the man to beat in Anambra State’s governorship election coming up in November. Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who acquitted himself most remarkably well on the job; a first class scholar and an economist of international renown Soludo lost narrowly to the incumbent in the last election in 2010 flying the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. This time, the political calculations in his party has changed and the new powerbrokers of PDP are out of his league and they seem easily discomfited by his intellectual prowess, self-assuredness and the strong Igbo libertarian world view. It was apparently long decided that not only that the now tenuous umbrella of the PDP would not provide him cover, his contesting the Anambra guber would be inimical to PDP’s interest.

APGA-cadabra Having determined that, Soludo was promptly nudged out of PDP as a first step, he was then lured into the supposedly Igbo party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. Having been reassured, he promptly purchased APGA nomination form for N10 million and was fine-tuning strategies for participating and triumphing in the primary when his detractors moved again. The fear of Soludo must be the beginning of wisdom for the PDP hawks. He was reportedly approached to jettison his quest for the top job but he insisted on going through with it having gone so far.

But not wanting to leave anything to chance, a jankara screening committee was set up by the APGA hierarchy whose primary target was obviously Soludo. Pronto, Soludo and

It is true that those that live in glass houses should not throw stones. But in matters of state affairs, it is always in the best interest of the society that there should be conflict among the ruling class so that they expose the secrets with which they misgovern the nation. Yes, Ezekwesili truly needs to tell Nigerians how much it takes the country to maintain her and retinue of aides during her ministerial stewardship. The effrontery to do that shamefully eluded her during the vainglorious regime under which she served.

Doing that, in my view, will confirm the reality that the executive arm is equally guilty of what Ezekwesili has accused the national assembly of, and that such financial recklessness cuts across successive administrations in the country. However, this should not forbid the federal lawmakers from coming out with accurate figures of what the nation spends on them and how they fleece the country through outrageous allowances and rakeins. Even at the state level, this financial recklessness by legislators is the order of the day.

The acerbic haul of the national assembly at Madam Ezekwesili, though evasively puerile, has now exposed the conspicuous public consumption of the executive arm of government under President Goodluck Jonathan.

But for this, how would the public know that a minister appointed by this president had spent N2billion on air tickets? How could we have known that when the President recently visited China, she travelled as a member of the Presidential team to that country in a separate private jet at the cost of$300,000

STEVE OSUJI

SMS 08111526725, email:steve.osuji@yahoo.com

Anambra guber: Who killed Soludo?

•

Soludo

some unknown quantities had been screened out; they are not fit to contest even in the primary. How is it that someone who was corralled into joining APGA and who was promised a fair shot at the contest? Someone who had bought nomination forms for such huge amount and who had started setting up campaign structure is suddenly not fit to attempt the primary?

Of course we are not told why he is not eligible apart from the mutterings from some quarters that he had declined to join earlier when he was approached and that he came around too late. But they forgot that until a few weeks ago, APGA had been a banana case running from one court room to another. It can even be conjectured that Soludo was

instrumental to the rapprochement in APGA or that APGA was reconciled for the sake of arresting Soludo’s ambition. It does not require a pundit to see that the race for Anambra’s number one job is a three horse one between Andy Uba, Chris Ngige and Soludo. If PDP would grab Uba and APC flies with Ngige, why would APGA shun Soludo if it is not a marionette dangling from another man’s strings? If the APGA clowns fool themselves successfully, do they by any chance imagine that they can fool the generality of Ndigbo who had hoped that they had a party in APGA? Which of those motley fellas they have pre-qualified will expect to beat Uba or Ngige in any election in Anambra State?

APGA’s nunc dimittis The PDP will take no prisoners in this Anambra election having serious implications for 2015. It would not brook to share its glory in a southeast in which Anambra is the most strategic. On the other hand, APGA’s loss of Anambra would mark its demise and the passing into history of a once upon a time Igbo party. Maybe it is just as well that APGA should die because it never served the Igbo cause for which it was supposedly founded. It will be trite to say that APGA finally sold its wretched soul and litigation-wracked body for a pot of porridge; it is quite self evident now what we had only conjectured all this while.

Just because we are traders does not mean that everything we have is for sale. Some

to the nation? She reportedly repeated the same style in a private jet during Mr President’s trip to South Africa at the whopping cost of $300,000.

This super minister is reported to be using private jets any time she goes on assignments.

Even her alleged Easter break trip to Dubai with members of her family was in a private jet at the cost of $300,000. A parastatal under her ministry reportedly maintains a private jet, Challenger 850 Visa Jet, at a monthly cost of $500,000. The presidency has remained mum since this newspaper broke the story early this week. And it is not unlikely that other ministers might be engaging in this insensitive act of gross financial mismanagement and vain-gloriousness. In better managed climes, heads would have rolled since the break of the heart-rending story.

Just like the federal legislature, the presidency does not have any meaningful thing to say on this issue because its hands are not clean. Can the presidency explain how the House Committee on Finance’ recovered N108b on remittances of the Federal Government share of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) are spent? Where are the IGR loots preceding this discovery?

The president cannot defend the misnomer of reportedly spending an estimated N9.08bn annually on the Presidential Air Fleet of 10 aircraft. Even the estimated value of all the aircraft is put at $390.5m (N60.53bn). This is absolute insanity in a country where unemployment has reached an astronomical level while social safety net is non-existent. This is a country where the aged are on their own while pensions of retirees routinely get siphoned by individuals that still freely move around in our midst when they should be rotting in jail. What a gross conspicuous public consumption!

This insensate spending cannot continue for long before the violent repercussions starts staring everybody in the face; and those that have something to lose are the people that have so massively looted the public till and are already used to opulent lifestyle and special treatment at the expense of taxpayers of this country. The day of reckoning beckons if this legislative and executive malady does not stop! things are supposed to be priceless, only to be nurtured and preserved for national pride, for posterity and for collective edification and well-being. But the leaders of this APGA – the incumbent governor of Anambra, Mr. Peter Obi, the chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie and all the other dramatis personae in this farcical epic will have to answer to the Ndigbo and her posterity for they rode on our back; they will have to answer to history some day when all this hurly-burly is done.

It will be recorded that at this critical juncture of Igbo history, they failed us; at their moment in the sun when they had the opportunity to stand up for Ndigbo, to uplift them, to help them reclaim their dignity and manhood, they chose to trade it off.

Though Soludo may have been killed politically, it is only a momentary setback.

In fact this deadly blow could serve as a wakeup call for him to begin anew; change his template, review his strategy and return to the arena. The entire world beckons, Nigeria calls and Igboland yawns for an authentic, honest and fearless leadership. It may well be providential that APGA would achieve its expiry date soon. Away with the imp, away with the ogbanje party; this rascal abiku has served its inglorious time, it must move on into its pre-destined oblivion so that Ndigbo may begin to pick the pieces of their political lives. There is need to find a new, genuine Igbo voice, a new Igbo spirit and a new Igbo body that will negotiate our place under the Nigerian sun standing on our feet, using our head and not our stomach.

‘Just because we are traders does not mean that everything we have is for sale. Some things are supposed to be priceless, only to be nurtured and preserved for national pride, for posterity and for collective edification and well-being’

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

‘My husband killed our son to hurt me’ From Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt

Pages 25

Website: http://www.thenationonlineng.com

Will NDDC board free Niger Delta of ‘failed’ projects?

A

CHIEF Magistrate’s Court 3, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has heard how a fight over a pot of soup made a man, Cosmos Itoro, kill his two-year-old son.

Itoro, 27, was arraigned in the court presided over by Mrs. Felicia Amanze for allegedly hitting his little son with a plank and killing him.

He told the court: “I came back from where I went to and came back hungry. I noticed that they had eaten; so, I asked my wife to dish some soup so I can eat.

“She refused, complaining that the quantity of soup in the pot was small and would not be enough for the children in the afternoon. I pleaded to her to assist me that I was very hungry. When she bluntly refused, I went to the pot to dish the soup myself; she came after me.

“Her mother and younger brother who came to the house that morning supported her.

While I was struggling with the pot of soup with her, her brother came and hit me on my eye. In the pains I rushed for a piece of plank around the house to hit back at my in-law. I did not know that my son Miracle was around. The plank landed on his head; he slumped and fainted. Before we could get to the hospital, he had died.”

Mrs. Dorothy Itoro told the court her husband deliberately killed their baby, alleging that he had earlier threatened to kill him to hurt her.

She said: “My husband is very lazy. He does not want to do anything for a living. I am shouldering the responsibilities in the house alone; pay house rent and take care of our three children.

“That morning, he went out and came back to complain of hunger, and requested to be served his food. I told him that the quantity of soup that was remaining was small and should be left for the children but he insisted and went to take the soup. I went to stop him. Then we began to struggle over the pot of soup. At a point, he left it to me and said he was going to kill Miracle to hurt me.

He rushed after the plank and hit the boy, he slumped and later died.

“My brother did not fight him; he was the person who was struggling with him over the pot of soup.”

Continued on page 39

I N S I D E

•One of the several NDDC projects either abandoned or failing in Edo State

Any moment from now, a board is expected to be constituted for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) . Will it see to the completion of the abandoned projects in the oil-rich region? PRECIOUS DIKEWOHA reports.

P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is expected any moment from now to announce a new board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The board is coming in at a time there are concerns over abandoned or failing Federal Government projects in the region.

In Akwa Ibom, projects in deplorable conditions include the EastWest Road, which passes through Ikot Abasi, Onna, Eket and Oron and the Eket-Ibeno Road.

The Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District Assembly, a group of opinion leaders in the area, said the slow pace of work and shabby handling of some federal projects have become worrisome.

The group said: “The haphazard execution of the roads, notably the East–West Road, and the Eket – Ibeno road has made it impossible

for economic and social activities between communities affected by the re-construction of the projects.’’

The group doubts the completion of the Akwa Ibom section of the East – West Road before the December 2014 deadline.

It said: “We doubt very seriously the possibility of attaining this promise on this stretch of road which traverses Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enin, Onna, Eket, Nsit Ubium, Urue Offong Oruko, Okobo and Oron in Akwa Ibom State. Kindly take a look at the proposed Bye-pass where work has not started and the Qua Iboe River Bridge being constructed at snail speed.

“On the Eket Ibeno Road, they maintained that the road which links the operational base of Mobil Producing Nigeria with the rest of the state has been in a sorry state for the past two decades, and despite the

Justice Ndu retires in grand style

Policeman cries after wife, kids die in explosion

•PAGE 26-27 •Justice Ndu

fact that contract for its reconstruction having been awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission, the road still remains a perpetual death trap.

“In view of this we believe that the Good Governance Tour currently is a step in the right direction, as this exercise affords the Federal Government the opportunity to have inspected projects across the countr and thereby address the challenges associated with the implementation of projects.”

The state is also home to the inland water jetty that has been neglected by successive governments.

There is also the abandoned NTA Channel 39 Eket. The project, which commenced in 2001 as part of the Federal Government’s Rural Broadcasting Programme, was billed to start in June 2003.

The group said: “The building was

Continued on page 38

‘My wife’s rapists nearly lynched me’

•PAGE 39 •Joseph Mbu

completed, transmitters installed and generators provided but the station has not been commissioned ten years after completion. We strongly suggest that the minister should find time to visit this project of his ministry and use his good office to ensure the smooth take-off of this viable media outfit, which could be of immense importance to the transformational leadership of the president, as well as sensitise the people as at when due.”

Recently, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) expressed concern over the abandonment of projects by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

President of NUPENG, Igwe Achese, in a statement, said: “It is sad to state that despite the huge

•PAGE 37 •Mr Stanley

•MEN WHO WANT TO REPLACE EWHERIDO P27•WIDOW: COP WHO KILLED MY HUSBAND MUST BE ARRESTED P39

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

26

NIGER DELTA REPORT

Rivers Justice Ndu retires

Valedictory ceremonies were held in honour of the immediate past Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Iche N Ndu on Monday at the St. Cyprian's Anglican Church, Hospital Road, Port Harcourt. It was followed by inspection of valedictory guard of honour and court session at the Chief Judge's Ceremonial Court Hall, New Court Building, Port Harcourt.

He was the sixth CJ to serve the state since it was created 46 years ago(1967).

He served in the office for 12 years.

The ceremonies were witnessed by lawyers, politicians and government functionaries, including Justice Ndu’s successor, Justice Peter Agumagu, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Okey Wali, Justice and Mrs. Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Anambra State Chief Justice Justice

Peter Umeadi, Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike, Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chair Felix Obuah, the Eze Ekpeye Logbo II of Ekpeye Land, His Royal Majesty (Flt Lt) Robinson O Robinson and former Head of Service in Rivers State Dame Esther Alucha.

Dr. Ndu used the opportunity of the ceremonies to advise his colleagues.

He urged judges to be wary of politicians. He accused the executive of gross abuse of power and urged the judiciary especially the judges to be cautious in dispensing of justice.

He condemned indiscriminate seeking of exparte motion order of injunction by politicians saying it amounts to abuse of the judiciary.

PHOTOS: SHOLA O’NEIL •From left: Justice Agumagu, Justice Ndu and wife Dame Ngozi

•From left: Justice and Mrs Karibi-Whyte and Justice Umeadi

•HRM Robinson

•Abiye Sekibo (left) and

•Justice Daisy Okocha

•Dame Alucha

•Obuah

Will next NDDC board free Niger Delta ‘

Continued from page 25

funds allotted the NDDC from oil revenue to develop Niger Delta, there is nothing really on ground to show for its existence. We have had many cases of NDDC contractors collecting mobilisation fees and abandoning the projects. The objective of setting the NDDC has not really been met, as the roads in the Niger Delta are still in deplorable state. The NDDC is just another avenue for its officials and government cronies to enrich themselves. The NDDC has failed to transform lives in the Niger Delta.

“It is only its signboards that are seen, with no noticeable progress in the contracts awarded. A case in point is the reclamation project in Gbaramatu area where the contractor was reported to have removed its equipments even when the project has not been completed.”

NUPENG urged the Federal Government to review

the mandate of the NDDC to make its impact felt by the people whose soil has been destroyed by the activities of oil multi-nationals.

Achese added : “It is a pity that the NDDC has not lived up to expectations despite the huge billions of naira voted for its activities every year.

The Federal Government must, therefore, set up a special task force to monitor all its activities, projects and make sure that they are commissioned on time.”

The report of Presidential Monitoring Committee on NDDC is also a testimony that the next NDDC board must make a difference. It indicted the management of the commission of abandoning 285 projects in the region. The projects are at different levels of completion.

The projects were executed between 2005-2011. The report said 609 projects in three states were physically inspected and evaluated. Of the 609 projects monitored, 222

(36.5 per cent) were completed, 102 (16.7 per cent) were on-going and 285 (46.8 per cent) were abandoned at various levels of completion.

The report indicated that “the committee interacted with host communities, stakeholders, the NNDC contractors and officials and discussed grey areas, with a view to correcting the anomalies identified in the course of the project inspections”.

Critical issues in the report include: “The abandonment of a large number of projects and the refusal of NNDC to address the issue of abandoned projects with no evidence of any attempt to recover the funds using appropriate government agencies such as EFCC and ICPC; the failure of the NNDC, to complete all Civic Center projects over an operational period of 12 years; The failure of NDDC to complete all shoreline protection projects over an operational period of 12 years; the failure of NDDC to complete

It is a pity that the NDDC has not lived up to expectations despite the huge billions of naira voted for its activities every year. The Federal Government must, therefore, set up a special task force to monitor all its activities, projects and make sure that they are commissioned on time

‘

all University Hostel Projects over an operational period of 10 years. It is noted that the federal government has allocated billions of Naira on the projects listed in ii-iv above and above as spent these monies; the unjustifiable introduction of astronomical variations on the contracts

sums of most projects awarded by the NDDC over short periods of time. Some of these variations are effected prior to project commencement; The deliberate exclusion of some meg projects from the list of projects submitted to the Presidential Monitoring Committee for

evaluation; the refusal of NDDC to sanction incompetent contractors such as Messrs Fountain Construction Company Ltd handling the Eket-Ibeno road in Akwa IBM state. It was noted that the incompetence of this contractor led to the strike action embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mobil Producing Nigeria Branch ( PENGASSAN-MPN) on 28th August 2012. most of the water projects embarked upon by NDDC are non-functional; the approval and execution of some projects that are completely outside the statutory operational scope of the NDDC, such as renovation of Port Harcourt Club and study on the generation of electric power from gully erosion sites amongst others; the refusal of NDDC to provide accounting records and records of beneficiaries of NDDC mass transit boat and bus scheme embarked upon since 2004; and the uncooperative attitude of

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

27

NIGER DELTA REPORT

in grand style

Men who want to replace Ewherido The race is heating up as the Urhobo of Delta Central prepare to elect a replacement for the late Senator Pius Ewherido. OKUNGBOWA AIWERIE reports

t) and Emeka Woke

•Mayor of Port Harcourt City Chimbiko Akaralo

• Wike and Wali (SAN)

of ‘failed’ projects?

NDDC management to the committee by refusing to provide records of some critical financial transactions of the commission such as the bank statements, payment vouchers, and their supporting documents, the stores records and accounts and the insensitive response of the NDDC management to the problems of contractors as related to the execution of their projects”.

Jonathan, on receipt of the report, said: “One of the key issues you raised that we will also looked into it and see how we can cement it is that there is a gap between the managing committee and the management of the NDDC and they suppose not to see themselves as cat and dog. They functions suppose to complement because the NDDC cannot monitor itself.

“From the establishing law the feeling is that let a body be established that could monitor and it could even help the management because you can never see what they are doing

behind you. So we expect a robust relationship between the committee and the management and if you have a robust relationship if the committee observes certain things you can even discuss with the management even before reports are sent to the Presidency. And if there is an area where is not properly understood, there will be the basis for explanation.”

But, there are the issue of the government and others not giving the NDDC its dues. The Federal Government is said to be owing the commission no less than N500 million. When the House of Representatives Committee on the Niger Delta toured some states in the region in June, it made it clear that the commission needed the money to function well.

By the Act establishing the Commission, the Federal Government is to contribute an equivalent of 15 percent of the sum accruable to the nine oil producing state from the Federation Account for its opera-

tions. But the government had defaulted on this on several occasions. As at 2009, what had been denied the Commission was put at about N500billion approximately.

Chairman of the House Committee on NDCC Nicholas Mutu said: “We now appreciate the need to commit more funds for the rapid development of the oil-rich region. What we have seen convinces us that the NDDC is making tremendous impact on the lives of the people. We will, therefore, urge the Federal Government to give the commission the financial muscle to be able to handle more big ticket projects.

“We commend the NDDC for working against these odds and still delivering on its mandate of fast-tracking the development of the Niger Delta. In the light of this, we call on the Federal Government to encourage the commission by releasing the over N500 billion it is owing on outstanding statutory allocations to it.”

A

S the by-election into the vacant Delta Central Senatorial District seat draws closer, political activities have reached a crescendo with over 20 aspirants already in the race.

Although none of the aspirants have publicly declared their intention to run, their ambitions are a poorly-kept secret.

Posters of some of the aspirants have flooded the streets of Warri and other major cities in the Delta Central senatorial district.

The parties involved are Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and Justice Party (JP).

Among those in the race are ex-House of Representatives members Halims Agoda (PDP), Napoleon Gbinije, (DPP), wealthy businessman and politician O’tega Emerhor, (APC), Ighoyota Amori (PDP), Festus Keyamo (APC), Ede Dafinone, (DPP), Charles Obule (JP), Faith Majemite (PDP), Joe Omene (PDP) and Prof Adegor Eferakeya (APC).

Prof Eferakeya, who ran on the platform of the defunct ACN, was a distant third in the April 2011 election, won by the late Senator Pius Ewerhido.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan raised the stakes in Asaba when he stated that the ruling PDP was determined to win Delta Central senatorial district from the opposition.

He said his party would leave no stone unturned in its efforts to win the election.

Uduaghan said he had not endorsed any candidate for the election.

He charged party members to work assiduously to produce an acceptable candidate to enable the PDP work as a united team for its success in the election.

According to Uduaghan it was the responsibility of PDP members in the senatorial district to nominate a candidate that would fly the party’s flag.

His words, “I have not anointed anybody in Delta Central Senatorial District.

Any candidate that wants to vie for that position must be nominated by PDP members from the district and should be acceptable to all members of the district. We are ready to

come out to campaign for that person.”

But Delta DPP Chair, Chief Tony Ezeagwu disagrees, according to him, Delta Central Senatorial District is DPP stronghold. He said the ruling PDP will be defeated again.

His words, “The bye-election to be conducted by INEC is a simple issue. Even if we field an unknown quantity the DPP will win resoundingly.

We have no fear whoever we field will emerge victorious .We are already ready for the election, even if INEC calls for elections tomorrow.”

But does the DPP possess the political clout to reclaim senatorial district? Will the warring factions led by the now deceased senator Pius Ewherido and Chief Great Ogboru close ranks in order to reclaim the position which fell vacant at the demise of Senator Ewherido?

Political pundits believe the DPP has lost its appeal considering the crisis in the party.

Another school of thought disagrees pointing at the remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the party since 2011.

It enjoyed remarkable transformation from a fringe party to the main opposition in Delta politics.

Many attribute the rise of the opposition DPP to the charismatic Great Ogboru. Pundits believe the “People’s General “may work his magic once again to clinch the coveted Delta Central senatorial district position.

Great Ogboru’s appeal appears strong in Delta Central Senatorial District -a mainly Urhobo heartland, and may tip the scales in favour of the opposition DPP. But the entry of All Progressive Congress (APC) into the race appears to have changed political calculations in the State.

Just before his untimely death, Ewherido had led a faction to join the APC, a move which earned him a suspension order.

Analysts think APC’s ascendancy will further weaken DPP leading many to fear for the party’s chances in the forthcoming election.

But the crisis appears to have continued unabated with the late Ewerhido’s faction endorsing wealthy business man O’tega Emerhor to lead the political legacy left behind by

Ewherido But there is growing agitation among the Ethiope West and East people that the Delta Central senatorial district position be zoned to them.

Delta Central is made up of Okpe/Uvwie/Sapele, Ughelli South/North/Udu and Ethiope West/East constituencies. Some argue that of the ethnic groups that make up the Delta Central, only Ethiope (since 1979) has failed to produce a senator.

Okpe, through Senator David Dafinone, served two terms in 1979; Felix Ibru (Ughelli North) served a term, late Senator Fred Brume (Ughelli/Udu) served in 1999, Senator Adegor Eferakeya (Okpe) served in 2003, leaving Ethiope as the only group not to have assumed the seat.

Of all these aspirants, Chief Ighoyota Amori, Chief Joe Omene and Halims Agoda is the trio from Ethiope Federal Constituency aiming to rewrite history by winning the prized senatorial seat.

Of the three aspirants, Chief Ighoyota Amori appears to be the most prominent. He has served variously as Delta Commissioner for Water Resources Development and Commissioner for Education and Political adviser to James Ibori. He is currently Special Adviser to Gov Emmanuel Uduaghan on Political Affairs.

Although he lost the last elections to the late Pius Ewherido, Amori chances at grabbing the position is considered bright.

With well-oiled political machinery in place, Amori is odds on favourite to win if he is successful in the PDP primaries.

Another aspirant that may upset the applecart is Agoda who represented Okpe/ Uvwie/Sapele constituency at the lower legislative chamber of the NASS. Agoda is young, dynamic and articulate. It remains to be seen whether these attributes can stand him in good stead in the forthcoming elections.

Chief Joe Omene, Idjerhe born chief , is seen as a dark horse in the race. He was a Commissioner representing Delta State on the Board of Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC). He is a wealthy businessman and PDP chieftain. Does he have the political structure to cause an upset?

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

28

NIGER DELTA REPORT

One Urhobo kingdom, seven monarchs Ughievwen, a popular Urhobo kingdom in Delta Central Senatorial District of Delta State, is in turmoil. Four clans have ceded and have crowned their monarchs. Southsouth Regional Editor SHOLA O’NEIL reports on the high stake local politics, suspense and drama at play

T

HE famous Ughievwen Kingdom in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State is embroiled in crisis.

Eight monarchs are jostling for recognition after four of the clans that make up the old kingdom broke away and installed their own kings.

More than one monarch has also emerged within some of the subclans.

Chief Thomas Oketete of UhurieSubclan is Okutu l, Ovie of Uhurie Kingdom; Mr Felix Ofuru of Ughevwughe-Uhurie Subclan is Ovie of Ughievwen Kingdom; Chief Thompson Apah of AgbowhiameUkpedi Subclan, is Adjasaba l, Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom; T.E.O.Oviri of Okwagbe-Ukpedi Subclan is Mosumo-Okwagbe l, Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom and Dafe Bukeroro Kogbodi of Egbo-Ideh-Owahwa Subclan is Ode l, Ovie of Owahwa Kingdom.

Others are William Kushone of Iwhreka-Orhowhe Subclan, Ovie of Orhowhe Kingdom and David Okome of Otor-Edo -Orhowhe subclan, Edo l, Ovie of Orhowhe kingdom.

The kings have their crowd of supporters and opponents within the larger kingdom and their own clans.

They also have personal trouble and challenges they are contending with.

But none faces as much headache as the Okobaro of Ugheivwen, HRM Mathew Egbi Owawha II, whose sphere of authority has been greatly reduced by rebellious subjects. He faces war from seven fronts.

Two of the contestants to the various thrones are in trouble over their aspirations; while one of the ‘kings’ has been declared wanted by the police, another has been arrested and in custody.

Although the Secretary of

Ughievwen Traditional Council of Chiefs, Olorogun Benson Tietie, told our reporter that there is only one Okobaro (king), Owawha II, in Ughievwen, our investigation revealed otherwise.

Among the newly emerged kingdoms is Ukpedi, which leaders recently crowned His Royal Majesty Tony Evwiroro Maka Oviri (JP) (Okwagbe I) as king.

Throwing a light on the crisis that led to the disintegration of the Ughievwen Kingdom, the sectional monarch said the development was the product of 20 years of internal bickering over the throne of Okobaro (king) of Ughievwen.

It was gathered that the emergence of the current monarch, Owawha II as the Okobaro of Ughievwen did enjoy the support of other clans. It was gathered he enjoys the support of the state government, which Deputy Governor, Prof Amos Utuama hails from the kingdom.

Although Owawha II received a staff of office from the state government in 2011, he failed to receive the respect of other clans. The grievances of those opposed to him, our finding revealed, stemmed from the fact that he hails from Owawha clan (as his title implies), the same as the last occupant of the throne.

Olorogun Tietie clarified that the case went to court and a ruling affirming Owawha II as king was obtained.

He said rather that appeal the ruling, various sub-clans came up with their iown kings, stating: “As at today, there are seven kings.”

“Thomas Okotete declared himself king of Uwhurie. We went to court to challenge it and the judge referred the matter to UPU (Urhobo Progress Union) for settlement. Other clans are declaring themselves kingdom. Now there are seven. One of the ‘kings;

have been declared wanted, one remanded in custody. Others are moving up and down parading themselves. But it is illegal.”

But speaking with reporters at Eyara, the ancestral home of the clan after his coronation, Okwagbe I said it was agreed that the various clans should go their separate ways to restore peace among the people.

The ceremony was witnessed by the 11 communities that make up the kingdom.

He said: “The division all started as a result of the struggle for the succession of the Okobaro seat, particularly when His Royal Majesty Dase from Owawha Kingdom passed on.

It took the kingdom over twenty years to find somebody to succeed him and, as a result of the wrangling that occurred, the counsel from men of God and other men of wisdom, the communities came to the conclusion that it was better that the four subclans that made up the Ughievwen Kingdom go their separate ways.

“The meeting led to another round of meeting which (was) thought wise

by High Chief Kenneth Gbagi (former Minister of State for Education) and other sons of the kingdom that led to the unanimous decision that the four sub-clans should go their separate ways.

“As I speak to you now, the Uwurhie at that time which felt offended as a result of not having a bite of the kingship were the first to have succeeded, and they have their own king.”

Okwagbe 1 told his supporters that his reign would attract massive development and usher fresh breath to the people of the kingdom. He added that he was aware of the problems facing his people.

He said: “Our community felt that enough is enough for the wicked

•Okwagbe I with his wife

•HRM Mathew Egbi Owawha II ones, they selected me and crowed as a king. To them, I have the grassroots support; I have the middle class, the women and men, youths. Iit was an overwhelming support my people showed to me. And as at yesterday (on Monday) the elders and leaders of the 11 communities that make up the Ukpedi Kingdom, crowned me in a very groundbreaking ceremony as their Ovie, and I will not disappoint them.

“I want to commend one of our High Chiefs, Olorogun Kenneth

Gbagi who I would say midwife this kingdom and by the grace of God, we are grateful to him for his very bold step. With this, it is going to be a new dawn for the kingdom.”

He urged the people of the kingdom to give the monarch the needed support to succeed.

Nevertheless, our independent investigations revealed that there is crisis even within the Ukpedi Kingdom.

Sources, who asked not to be named, said a section of the chiefs in the kingdom have elected their own king.

“Tony Oviri, no doubt, enjoys the support of some prominent members of the kingdom, including the former minister and a prominent clergy, who is an executive member of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), but the truth remains that there are other persons in the kingdom. The opinions of these other persons are also important,” our source said.

But, some are also backing Apah of Agbowhiame-Ukpedi Subclan, who has also been crowned Adjasaba l, Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom.

How long the crisis rages may determine how many monarchs finally emerge. But, Tietie, who backs his position with the Delta State Traditional Rulers Council and Chiefs Laws, Section 20 (2a), warned that those parading themselves risk being sent to jail.

He said: “...they shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment of two years or a fine of N5,000.”

What is certain though is that the last has not been heard of the Ughievwen monarchs and their kingdoms.

Parties battle Cross River’s electoral body over council polls

T

HE first indication that all was not well with the September 21 local government elections in Cross River State emerged when the National Conscience Party (NCP) and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) raised the alarm over the decision of the State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) to shift the date of the close of nomination forms and submission of candidates.

Their grouse was that it was to favour the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which failed to meet the deadline. The parties said the umpire had “benevolently” agreed to shift the date under the guise of trying to accommodate the merger of some political parties.

The NCP and PPA dragged CROSIEC to court over adjustment to the election timetable.

According to the timetable issued by the commission, the period for the submission of candidates’ names was to last from May 17 to June 17.

Also the period for sales of nomination forms was to last from May 20 to June 21.

CROSIEC chairman Patrick Otu said the deadlines were extended to the first week of July. This, he said, followed a meeting with political parties where they agreed that the extension should be allowed to accommodate the merger attempt by some political parties.

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

Since then it has been a barrage of complaints against the commission.

An originating summons 3 dated July 9 from the High Court in Calabar shows fhat the NCP and PPA want an order restraining the defendant from selling on or acting on or processing any nomination form sold to any political party candidate after June 21 and the issuing of CROSIEC forms LGE001A and LGE002 to any political party after June 17.

The defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) accused the electoral umpire of arbitrary charges of which it had instituted a case in court to protest the development. Otu said the only money collected from candidates were N90, 000 for chairmanship and N30, 000 for councillorship candidates for security fee, election deposit and processing fee, which he said applied to all parties.

Chairman of the defunct ACN, Hiilard Eta had also protested against the voters register which he said would disenfranchise a lot of Cross Riverians who had attained the voting age of 18 between when the last elections was held and now.

Also, the defunct Congress for Democratic Change (CPC) has instituted a legal action in the Federal High Court seeking to bar the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) from handing over the Voters’ Register to CROSIEC for the con-

•Otu

duct of the Council election without first carrying out a comprehensive review of the register.

The CPC is querying INEC’s power to handover the voter register to CROSIEC to organise the local government election in Cross River State on September 21 without a revision of the Voters’ Register.

CPC also wants an update of the register by INEC. With the merger of the ACN, CPC and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) into the All Progressives Congress (APC) registered on July 31, Eta said the commission’s legal advisers would advise on the way forward.

Speaking at a meeting convened by the chairmen of the three defunct parties, he said they were already harmonising their structures.

However, the fate of the APC hangs on the balance as to whether it will be eligible to present candidates in the local government elections with the deadline for submission long due, a situation CROSIEC has refused to comment on. But with the adjustments of the timetable severally to accommodate various interests, it is believed they may have a case.

In a surprising development, PDP jumped into the fray of parties attacking the umpire.

PDP Chairman John Okon told reporters in Calabar that the umpire has lapses. One of his grouses was CROSIEC’s failure to publish the list of screened candidates at the time stipulated by the timetable. He raised fears about the commission’s readiness to handle the elections.

Okon said: “Our candidates submitted themselves for screening and from CROSIEC time-table stipulated

that the screened list will be published at area offices between 15th19th July, 2013. As we speak today, the list of screened candidates is not published.

“We demand that CROSIEC publish the list of screened candidates and the parties that sponsored them immediately. We don’t want to believe that CROSIEC wants to smuggle names of candidates of parties that did not submit nomination as at 7th July, 2013.”

On why is the PDP was worried over the umpire’s noncompliance to timetable when it had been a beneficiary of an alteration to timetable before to accommodate their own interest, he said the first instance was done in a “transparent” way.

When The Nation visited Otu on Wednesday, he was unwilling to talk. But after being persuaded, he wondered what the PDP was fretting over.

He said: “It is just that they were expecting the list and they have not seen it yet. Whenever they see it, let them take it. This thing is not easy.

We are working towards it. It is not easy screening all the candidates.

Maybe it would be out next week. I will not say more.”

Already, with the elections less than a month away, the umpire’s hands are already looking full. There are speculations that the local government elections would be shifted.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

29

PEOPLE THE NATION

A FIVE-PAGE SECTION ON SOCIETY

The General Overseer of Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM), Dr Obiora Ezekiel, has celebrated his 70th birthday at the church headquarters in Ajao Estate, Mafoluku, a Lagos suburb. NNEKA NWANERI reports.

•The celebrator Dr Ezekiel (middle) with (from left) Rev Omobude and wife Abiola; Bishop Okonkwo and Dr Mercy Ezekiel

The Lord’s ‘General’ at 70

T

HE auditorium of the Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM) in Ajao Estate, Mafoluku, a Lagos suburb wore a new look. The members of the church could not believe their eyes when they saw it. The evening wasn't for casting and binding the devil; it was for wining and dining.

A mini-red rug lay on the central aisle and the blinking disco colour light.

What was happening? many wondered. CMP’s founder and General Overseer Dr Obiora Ezekiel was marking his entry into the septuagenarian club.

With his wife, who calls him the Lord’s ‘General’, Dr Ezekiel danced into the hall and went straight to the altar, where other guests were seated.

It was a dinner to climax the week long events to celebrate him.

People came from far and wide to honour him.

He does not look like a septuagenerian; he looked 20 years younger than his age. Decked in a black suit and red tie, he sat beside his wife, who donned a pink hat.

It was worn on a shiny black blouse.

The General Overseer of Trinity House Churches, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, anchored the event.

The church ushers stood out. The men and women were clad in black suit. The men had on white

inner shirt with red bow ties; the women used red scarves.

There was a performance from Ethans Mass Choir, after which the celebrator cut his cake with his family members, friends and brothers in the vineyard.

Bishop Mike Okonkwo gave the toast. All guests raised their hands and just before the clicking of glasses began, Bishop Okonkwo said: "To joy and gratitude to a man who is an icon and committed to the gospel; a man with heart for humanity and a man that has left a legacy".

The celebrator's wife, Dr Mercy Ezekiel, believes that their union was an act of God. "I wasn't expecting to be married to him since we had nothing when we met. The first day I set my eyes on him, I looked at him as nobody. As a young girl that was just coming up, I had great dreams...my head was full. I wanted to do this and that. I really wanted to be a detective or an air-hostess. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit grabbed me and told me he was the man for me. It wasn't palatable or easy for me to accept. The suffering was much because he had just began the ministry. No honeymoon on the Saturday we wedded because he went back to the field the next Wednesday," she recalled.

She enjoined women looking up to get married to be led by the

spirit and listen to God before judging what they see.

"Do whatever the spirit leads you to do and one day, you will have God to thank for it .“ Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) described Dr Ezekiel as a friend. He said the wife, Dr Mercy, like the biblical Esther.

Pastor Adeboye said: "I have many sons and daughters and I have less than 10 friends; he is one. Though there are very few men of God and many I have met with titles, my testimony of him is true. He is a man that is consistent and that is why I celebrate him."

The only daughter of the celebrator, Ogechi, said the tribute she and her siblings can give their father is to thank him for the love and lessons he has instilled in them.

The celebrator was full of thanks and praises to the Almighty. He described the celebration of his 70th birthday as remarkable.

"My soul, mind, strength and body give glory to God. I feel it that Heaven honoured me because this anniversary is a flower I didn't know will come true...this flower is a commendation.

"This is a new level of life God wants me to do and at 70, this is a new beginning and it carries blessing."

Dr Ezekiel knelt at the altar and gave a very long prayer and proph-

•From left: Chairman Lagos State Christain Association of Nigeria (CAN) Rev Ale Bamigbola; Secretary CAN Lagos Archbishop George Amu his wife Rev Modupe Amu

•General Overseer of Word Base Assembly Bishop Humphrey Erumaka and Abia Co-ordinator of CPM Rev Ego Daniel

esy.

Also in in attendance were the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) President, Rev Felix Omobude; Rev Helen Akpabio

from Calabar; Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Masters Oil and Gas, Dr Uche Ogar, among others.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

30

S OCIETY FIDAU FOR ALHAJI GANIYU IPAYE, FATHER OF LAGOS STATE ATTORNEY-GENERAL MR ADE IPAYE IN LAGOS

•Children of the deceased (from left) Chief Saheed Ipaye; Attorney-General of Lagos Mr Rahman Adeola Ipaye; Mrs Monsurat Owoseni; Mr Taofeek Ipaye and Mrs Ganiat Onajobi.

•Olu of Agege Oba Akimu Agbedeji (left) and Akinrogun of Agege Chief Sakiru Olaku

•From right: Senator Oluremi Tinubu chatting with wife of Lagos State Governor Mrs Abimbola Fashola and Secretary to the Lagos State Government Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule

•Former Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Musiliu Smith (left) and Hon Bashir Olori

•Senator Muniru Muse

•Alhaji AbdulHakeem AbdulLateef

•Chief Judge of Lagos State Justice Ayotunde Phillips

•Mrs Adesola Ibirogba

•Lagos Solicitor-General Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN)

•Prof Adebayo Afonja

•Chairman, Agege Local Government Alhaji Jubreel AbdulKareem (left) and Chairman, Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area Hon Abiodun Mafe

•Chief Moshood Tijani (Tijaco) PHOTOS: NIYI ADENIRAN

BIRTHDAY

WEDDING

•From left: Member, House of Reps Hon Abiodun Faleke; daughter of the celebrator Omolola; the celebrator Hon Olubunmi Oluyadi and his wife Adeola; his son Temiloluwa and Hon Wale Ajala at Oluyadi 50th birthday in Lagos

•Olisa Agbakoba and Associates Chief Librarian/Media relations executive Niyi Odunmorayo and his wife, former Miss Beatrice Oluwayomi Alabi during their wedding in Ilorin, Kwara State

SHOPPING

31

THE NATION

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.net

e-mail: toniaitose@yahoo.com

07035302326 Shopping@thenationonlineng.net

•Inside Shoprite.

Seven years ago, retail giant Shoprite landed in the country when it opened its first outlet at The Palms in Lekki, Lagos. Between then and now, it has opened other outlets in Ibadan, Ilorin and Enugu. It still wishes to have more outlets, but it says it is being constrained by space. TONIA ‘DIYAN reports.

The rise and rise of Shoprite R

ETAIL giant Shoprite is contemplating expanding, but it is being hampered by space. Its parent company, Shoprite Holdings Ltd (SHL) claimed in its South African home country on Wednesday that it was being slowed down by lack of sites in Nigeria.

Nigeria, with more than 160 million people, could eventually carry about the same number of stores as Shoprite has in South Africa, Chief Executive Officer Whitey Basson said in a presentation in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s largest retailer, which has more than 800 stores in its home market, is in the process of adding 37 stores to the seven it already has in the West African country.

“Nigeria could handle 600 to 800 stores if you look at the size of the cities,” Basson said. “Growth in Nigeria can go quickly, but that’s not dependent on Shoprite, but on sites. Non-South Africa property development is slower than we like.”

As food retail in South Africa is becoming saturated and more competitive, Shoprite is expanding in the rest of Africa. Sales for the year through June climbed 28 per cent to 11.7 billion rand ($1.1 billion) in supermarkets outside its home market as the rand weakened against the dollar and some African cur-

• Retail giant seeks space for expansion rencies, making imports from South Africa more affordable. Supermarkets in the region contribute 14.2 per cent to total revenue.

In addition to a lack of available property, supply lines outside of South Africa “remain a huge challenge,” Basson said.

Shoprite’s lead time in Nigeria is 117 days and the retailer is considering building a distribution center in the west African country.

According to Mr Whitey Basson , the chief executive officer, “Several cities in Nigeria have populations of more than eight million people. I can’t say all of them have the same spending power, but Nigeria can support the same number of supermarkets as South Africa.”

“Even if you have 60 per cent of the population living in poverty, 40 per cent of the Nigerian population is still bigger than the South African population,” he said Mr Basson said the grocery store made a 19 per cent rise in first-half earnings and has about 950 supermarkets with 729 of them in South Africa. It plans to open more stores outside of South Africa, preferably in Nigeria soon but for the lack of properties. It also plans to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Given its population and potential for growth, retailers are increasingly targeting Nigeria. The country’s population cannot be compared to South Africa’s 50 million, according to World Bank estimates.

Shoprite turned the tide of grocery shopping in the country when it opened in 2006 as an anchor store at The Palms, Lekki, Lagos.

Consumer spending is improving in Africa’s biggest economy due to decadeslow interest rates and above-inflation wage hikes, but the outlook is uncertain due lack of property in choice areas.

Shoprite, a domestic merchant seen likely to lose the most from discounter Wal-Mart’s entry into the country, has been on an aggressive expansion drive in Africa.

It said sales increased 13.2 per cent to 41 billion rand ($5.4 billion) after increasing prices by an average of 4.6 per cent and gaining nearly 30 million rand from favourable currency swings.

Shoprite the leading retailer across Africa and the brand choice for many consumers across the African continent work hand in hand with many local Nigerian suppliers, buying in bulk in order to pass the cost savings onto shoppers. So this way,

shoppers can continue to enjoy a world class shopping experience whilst saving money.

Its large following of loyal shoppers can be attributed to their ability to offer the widest range of products and the highest standards of freshness and quality while maintaining the lowest prices.

The past few years have seen the rise of modern shopping malls in Nigeria with Shoprite as the anchor tenant. It is just a natural progression from what has always been a way of life for an average Nigerian. Some Nigerians are great spenders.

The potential buying power of Nigeria was recognised with the advent of democracy in 1999. There is recognition by the outside world that there is a lot of wealth here and there should be a market here. But the potential for more malls in Nigeria is hindered by insufficient access to land. A certain amount of land is required for a shopping mall, it is has to be a land in the right location and in the right place.

According to Erejuwa Gbadebo, chief executive officer Broll Nigeria, there should be support from financial houses such that would provide access to finance for projects such as the shopping malls.

These are projects that create jobs and stack up a revival in the micro economy around a place.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

32

SHOPPING

Activities peak at Lagos nine-day market

T

•From left: General Manager Grand Oak Ltd Mr Brajesh Kumar; MD, Mr. Akshay Kumar; Dr Nwosu and Mr Odesile at the event.

Oak Grand relaunches Lords Dry Gin

G

RAND Oak Limited has repackaged Lords Dry Gin to meet consumers’ taste and beat counterfeiters, the Managing Director Mr Ashkay Kumar has said.

He spoke at the launch of the brand in Lagos.

He noted that the firm’s successes over the years have become a source of envy and challenge for some unscrupulous people, who have introduced some fake products.

On how they intend to check the counterfeiters, Kumar said they have gone back to the drawing board to checkmate fake products peddlers and manufacturers through a new mobile authentication.

He urged consumers to look for the sticker on the cap with 13 digits, text it to a given number for authen-

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

tication.

He enjoined consumers to report through a toll-free number or to any of the regulatory bodies or law enforcement agency.

He said the counterfeiters cannot beat the intelligence network built into re-branding the gin.

Asked if the campaign would cover the country, he said yes, adding that it would be more pre-dominant in the Southeast because of the company’s presence in the region.

He assured the distributors that the firm would recall their old stock after authentication.

A distributor and Managing Director of LATBAK Enterprises, Alhaja Latifat Baruwa, complained that some unscrupulous traders con genuine distribu-

tors by buying some bottles from them as a cover up after buying substandard lorry loads from counterfeiters only to direct law enforcement agencies and regulatory officers to them as their source.

The Grand Oak boss urged the distributors to use the toll free numbers on the bottle to call the company or the regulatory officers for action.

The Country Manager of Sproxil Technology, Mr Lawrence Nwosu, the firm in charge of the mobile identification number and other security features on the repackaged drink, also urged consumers to report suspected cases of counterfeiting to the police and the brand owner for action.

He added that it would be impossible for the counterfeiters to copy the new label.

HE Iworo and Ejina market in Ikorodu, Lagos opens once every nine days.

Activities begin at 7am with traders displaying their wares, mainly food items.

At 8am, the market opens for customers who like to buy food items and other household items.

The market stocks various useful and cheap things. But, traders complain that people who don’t live in Ikorodu do not know about the market and they don’t patronise them.

“Only people who live in Ikorodu know about this markets,” said the market leader, Alhaja Suliat Amoo.

“We want people living outside Ikorodu to patronise us too.We stock more of fresh farm produce every nine days.

Traders from different markets come together to make available what people need.

But, we have a challenge, our market is congested and there is limited space to display our items. More traders are coming in every market day,

By Olajumoke Azzan

making small space for the first set of traders.”

One thing that attracts traders to this market is the bountiful sales they are sure of making. They believe if they have a bigger market and people know more about them, it would help promote sales.

Mrs Ajoke Lawal said: “This market is a blessing to us, we make huge sales but if only we can have more customers from other places outside Ikorodu, we will make more sales. We are putting heads together to inform people concerning the market, trying to convince them patronise to us. “ Mrs Bukola Majekodunmi is a regular customer at the market. She said: “I visit this market every nine days; it is something I look forward to doing because, it allows me buy cheap bags of garri from Alhaja Modina who comes from Ijebu Ode every nine days to sell here.”

Another trader Alhaja Modina added: “I come here

to trade every nine days because sales are huge and there are customers to buy what I have brought here. As a trader, if you come to the market early, you’ll get space to display goods inside the market. But if you are late, space even outside the market by the roadside might no longer be available.

Mr Sunday Eze sells food stuffs in bulk in the market.

He said: “I own shops at three different markets in Ikorodu but every nine days I still come here to make money. Sales here are outstanding and I don’t return home with my wares. For me, the only challenge we face is lack of space.

The market is small and cannot accommodate all of us.”

Mr Aliu Mustapha, who sells pepper, said: “I get to the market by 6am and finish selling my wares before noon.

What I sell here in a day is what I sell in other markets in two or three days. People from different places come to buy from us . I sell pepper in bulk to those who resell in other markets.”

•Traders at the market

Vitafoam unveils products

F

OAMS giant Vitafoam has unveiled music pillows, latex pillows, spring mattress and memory/ visco elastic foam that regulates blood circulation.

Speaking at the launch of the products with reporters in Lagos, the Managing Director, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Mr Joel Ajiga, said the music pillow was made from high quality user friendly fibre and could be connected to phones, iPods and other musical gadgets.

He said: “It lures you into sleep in a short time with high resolution music gadget and the memory/visco elastic foam regulates blood circulation.

“The good thing about the music pillow is that it gives you room to listen to your choice of music without disturbing anybody else and it is

T

HE Cocoa Mall is opening in Ibadan, Oyo State in October.

Its owner Chief Tokunbo Omisore said the strategic location of the popular Heritage Mall to the mall is of advantage to it.

He said: ”Cocoa Mall is of

•Mr. Gabriel Okoli MD, Mr Ajiga and National Sales Manager Vitafoam Mr Sola Owoade at the event.

By Tonia ‘Diyan

also health friendly because the phone or Ipad is not directly on your head or ear.”

Also, he said the latex pillow provides soft feel comfort and air flow through the air vents provides additional ventilation, which is therapeutic to sleeping disorders and also highly durable.

He said the memory/visco elastic foam are good, provides adequate support to all parts of the body, reduces the pressure points of the body thereby relieving joint pains, usually high weight and density benefits, regulates blood circulation, superior thermal comfort, open all releases body heat and temperature and also reduce motion transfer be-

tween two people.

He added: “In response to global emphasis on the need to conform to the requirements and protocols for environmental protection, Vitafoam has decided to embrace the project of spring mattress as the product that represents the change to environmentally friendly products ensuring sleeping comfort.”

Cocoa Mall to open in Ibadan October

By Collins Nweze

international standard in terms of structure and pricing and it is first of its kind in Oyo State. Pricing not just of space acquisition but also

of the goods and services rendered by the occupants which is an affordable development to the area. ‘’Though the mall is a huge investment, we have set reasonable time for re-

turn on investment on the project. That the mall is 80 per cent allotted and paid for by prospective shop operators of repute in the growing country’s retail industry.”

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 2013

33

COMMENTARY

D

EAR Legislator, “Let there become of you a nation that shall call for righteousness, en-

join justice and forbid evil. Such men shall surely triumph”.

Q. 3: 104.

This is the second time in three years that a letter of this kind is coming to you from this column. The first was in 2008 barely nine months after some of you resumed in your respective legislative houses. Though the contents of both letters are hardly different the need to write again is informed by the fact that a genuine preacher should never be tired of repeating himself even where and when the addressee chooses to be deaf and dumb as in the case of some of you.

“Conscience”, according to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where it has not become cancerous. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) told us in one Hadith that hypocrites are known by three signs: “When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege and when they are trusted they betray”. Most of you so much typify that Hadith as if the Prophet had Nigerian legislators in mind when he expressed that axiom.

You will recall that when you started nursing the ambition to become legislators, whether at the federal or state level, or even as chairmen or councillors in local governments, your first announcement was that you wanted ‘to serve your people’. Based on that announcement, people rallied round you and embraced you as their representatives. That announcement was your first political covenant. It was not between you and the people in your constituency alone. Since it entailed your promise and the trust of the people, Allah’s hand was in it and He will surely hold you accountable for it because you made such promise voluntarily. It does not matter whether you were genuinely elected or rigged into office thereafter as usual.

Deception Your original intention for making the announcement will be weighed against your action on getting to office. And you will be judged accordingly when you leave the office. That is quite different from the actual rigging that brought you into office (if you are part of that abominable gambit) after depriving your fellow human being of that position which rightfully belongs to him. Just as you will call on God for justice if you were in his shoes so he will take your case to God’s court. And the prayer of a cheated person, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), never suffers divine denial.

You must remember that it is only God’s judgment that can neither be manipulated nor appealed. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s judgment will be executed perhaps when you least expect. On that, you are left to your conscience if you have one.

In Islam, two issues are exceptionally fundamental which Allah does not treat lightly.

These are sacredness of life and justice. It is a great iniquity for any human being to engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extrajudicially in the name of religion is nothing but a pagan. In Islam, killing of a fellow human being deliberately is such a grievous sacrilege that cannot and should not occur without commensurate punishment.

Besides paganism, nothing draws the wrath of Allah as fast as these two crimes which Satan may continue to ask you to ignore at your own peril. Murder is physical termination of the life of a fellow human being. Injustice is to kill a person mentally, psychologically and spiritually by denying him his right.

In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is built. Those who voluntarily chose to legislate for others must see themselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not, deliberately or inadvertently, betray the course of justice. Can this be said of you?

How honourable?

Honourable legislators, you are addressed as honourable today neither because you are more qualified intellectually than those for whom you are legislating nor because you are wiser and more experienced than them. What makes most of you legislators is sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which gives room for gerrymandering. If such opportunity comes your way illegally, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike in future. And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the ex-

FEMI ABBAS ON Femabbas@yahoo.com 08122697498,

Memo to legislators tent of its effect. At least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of Nigeria even after two decades of licking her wound.

Due to lack of conscience, most of you may not have noticed, but you need to be hinted that shortly after you took oath of office, most of you started subverting the covenant you voluntarily reached with the people who elected you.

That covenant is to serve them (the people). And those who serve are nothing but servants. But no sooner had you been sworn into office than you started calling yourselves leaders. That is why most of you often find it difficult to bend a little backwards and report to your constituencies on how you are serving them.

The focus of some of you, as soon as you reach Abuja or your state capital or even the headquarters of your Local Governments automatically shifts from service to the people (which was your promise) to self service. And the betrayal is not of the electorate alone. It also affects your matrimonial homes.

Surrogate spouses Since most of you are in those headquarters without your spouses, the first thing you do after settling down is to search for alternative but illegitimate sexual partners who act as surrogate your spouses. And the cost is borne by the same betrayed electorate. Not only that. You also began your primary duty of legislating by first fixing your own salaries and allowances against all norms of morality and at the expense of those who made it possible for you to become legislators. We have started hearing of the varying figures of amounts of money you are regularly sharing as inconvenience allowances even prior to the commencement of your legislative duty.

You turn the privilege of legislating into a right and use it to intimidate the poor masses and ride roughshod over them. When you occasionally pretend to interact with those masses it is for the purpose of preparing their minds for the next election in which you hope to be returned, possibly, unopposed. And for this reason, you cunningly pay them pittances while making another fake promise to improve their well-being during your second or third term.

Some of you have spent twelve or eight years in those legislative houses. Yet, there is no sign at all in your immediate constituencies that anybody is representing the people of those constituencies. You are satisfied with their milling around you for pittance even as you assume that they are satisfied with such pittance.

Self aggrandisement When you travel abroad officially, at people’s expense, you are never alarmed by the way political or economic systems work in those countries. The primary concern of some of you is the latest cars plying the roads of those countries and the most magnificent mansions in their estates that you consider as befitting to your new status. Thus, when you return home, your next goal is acquisition of those elements of vanity.

That is why every political office holder in Nigeria today is riding or eager to ride the newest jeep from the European, American or Japanese factories even as you own or want to own mansions in the choicest estates in Nigeria. Why won’t corruption be legislated into legitimacy?

And now, Nigeria is held to a standstill because you must doctor the annual budget presented to you by the executive to your own favour so that the largess generated by the executive arm may be jointly shared in the spirit of ‘rub my back I rub yours’.

Most of you as fathers and mothers will want your children to grow up as responsible men and women, yet, most of you have nothing in you that can serve as good examples for those children.

Reminder Perhaps it is necessary to remind you that everything in this world is based on condition.

The world itself did not come into existence without condition. Man was originally created to be Allah’s servant in the garden called the earth. And all other things in that garden were ordered to obey and serve man on condition that he (man) would also obey and serve Allah.

That service was not an imposition. It was voluntary.

Before putting man in charge of the world at all, Allah had consulted far and wide with all the stake holders concerned. Each of them declined responsibility except man who, out of greed and arrogance, volunteered to take charge and be responsible for it.

Allah states this clearly in Q. 33 V. 72 thus: “We offered the ‘TRUST’ (of the world) to the heavens; to the earth and to the mountains; but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it.

Man who undertook to bear it, has proved to be unjust, foolish”.

By consulting so far and wide, Allah had elicited and got covenant from every creature. Those among them, that declined responsibility cannot and will not be asked to account for the occurrences therein. Accountability of the world solely rests on man’s shoulder according to the covenant he reached voluntarily with Allah.

Covenant with Allah is the most fundamental law of existence. It is not one sided. As man has responsibilities to bear so does Allah has obligations to fulfil. It is from the covenant with Allah that all other covenants in the life of man, including those of marriage, trust and confidentiality, are derived. That covenant is what others call oath.

Oath of office In Islam, oath, whether private or public, does not necessarily require Muslims to carry the Qur’an in one’s hand as done in Nigeria particularly at this time when oath of office has become a meaningless symbol. No oath is ever made without Allah being a witness to it. Besides, He has assigned two Angels (Raqib and ‘Atid) to every human being as secret police officers. The duty of these Angels is to record all utterances and secret actions of each person to whom they are assigned. The one records good deeds, the other records evil deeds. Their recordings are both in video and audio forms.

This is fact contained in Q. 50: 16 where Allah states that: “We surely created man and ‘We’ know the promptings of his mind and are closer to him than his jugular vein. We assign two guardians to watch him, one on his right and the other on his left. No utterance (from him) or action shall escape the records of these vigilant guardians….”

It is from the functions of these invisible police that researchers came about the idea of video, audio and other technological devices used especially for espionage.

Blind trust With this scenario, you can see what damage some of you (legislators) are causing to the present and future generations of this country in a bid to display your illegally acquired loot through corruption. By interpretation, the problem of corruption engendered by gross indiscipline in Nigeria today is not with the youths alone. It is rather more with the parents, some of whom are in the legislative arm of government.

Nigeria remains in darkness today after 50 years of independence because the priorities of those of you in government are permanently at variance with the country’s national priorities. For instance, one would have thought that rather than fighting corruption the way Obasanjo presumably started it, what a focused and sincere government should have done was to initiate a re-orientation revo-

lution to enable all Nigerians know why corruption is evil. The Murtala Muhammad and Buhari/Idiagbon regimes experimented this successfully and Nigeria was briefly better for it.

Fighting corruption haphazardly as Obasanjo did during his agonizing eight year tenure is like starting the building of a house from the roof. Nigeria wasted those eight years chasing shadow in the name of fighting corruption while the monster kept feeding fat on the blood of poor Nigerians using ‘BLIND TRUST’ as cloak.

That method must change.

Rare opportunity Legislating is a rare opportunity to serve one’s nation meritoriously. But some of you seem to have turned that opportunity into one of selfenrichment as well as that of securing the future of your own children at the expense of the lives of other children. All these are done at the expense of the wretched people around you whose role in democracy has been relegated to voting once in three or four years. You have forgotten that wealth is Allah’s endowment which cannot be inherited except by Allah’s will.

Who inherited the expansive wealth and kingdom of King Solomon? Haven’t you ever seen some money bags of yester years wallowing in abject penury today? When will you learn your lesson?

My dear honourable legislators; search your conscience and fear God. Remember that some people had legislated for this country in the past. There were even those who usurped the roles of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary together, in the name of military rule, made possible by coup d’état. Where are they today?

Legislation, like governance, has its tenure.

Four years may look endless, but for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening which only a fool may want to rely upon while walking his way through the darkness of the night.

Peculiar factor You are in the house of legislation to make laws for today and tomorrow. Ordinarily, that duty should be on part time and not full time basis in a serious country where patriotism holds sway. But since everything in Nigeria has a peculiar factor, it has become a rule that those who are legislating for us must take the lion’s share of our national cake even through the budget. That is why you randomly roar to the total embarrassment of the country that the President or the Governor must be impeached.

Such impeachment becomes a serious business only when your salaries, allowances or social welfare are not provided as at when due and as you want. It does not matter to you whether or not the entire workforce in Nigeria remains unpaid for years or all the Universities in the country close down completely and permanently. It is rather shameful and disappointing that even some of you (especially Muslim legislators) can participate in such evil charade despite your proclamation of Islam.

Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know of. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And that is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) admonished thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are a nonentity who can even strip naked in the market place. We can all see the example of this in a former President of this country.

Service to humanity Honourable legislators, let it be kept permanently in your hearts that the only thing which keeps people alive in history even long after their demise is service to humanity. Prophets Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad (SAW), had neither bank accounts nor estates to bequeath to anybody. Their heritage is more than any material wealth for the entire world today. That heritage is service to humanity. What is your own planned heritage if only for posterity? That is a big question which only people with conscience can answer.

Remember that you are in a ship already voyaging on the high sea towards the shore. At the shore are the customs officers waiting to check the contents of your cargo. Be always at alert.

Remember that if you cultivate friendship with Satan he will favour your wish. But if he grants you one favour, he will take ten from you in return. Be Muslims by name, conduct and mannerism. Whatever you do as Muslims will affect the image of Islam in one way or the other.

I hope you will return home as Muslims that you claim to be and not as renegades. Remember all this and adjust now that you may be able to raise your head aloft when others will be losing theirs.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

34

S OCIETY Doifie Buokoribo, the Chief Press Secretary to former governor of Bayelsa State Timipre Sylva on August 10, got married to his long time friend Violet Obutor Agwana. The wedding attracted the cream of Rivers and Bayelsa politics, who came to honour one of their own in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. SEUN AKIOYE was there.

T

HE wedding, those who know the couple say, was long on coming. They met over 12 years ago at work and on all those years there were “break ups” and “make ups” before they ended up at the altar on August 10. This is the love story of Doifie Ola Buokoribo and Violet Obutor Agwana. As the couple made their way into the expansive hall of Recneps Events Centre in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the hit song: "You don make me fall in love," blared out from the music box. The hall became charge and the guests stood, making a ring round the couple, who danced all the way to the podium.

The event was colourful both in execution and attendance; the hall was tastefully furnished with the right colours and lighting. There was no musical band but a standby disc jockey was on standby.

There were beautiful and smartly dressed ushers who ensured that things went well. At the opposite ends of the hall, were two long tables lined with a sumptuous three-course-meal, where guests had their fill.

Ola, as the groom is fondly called, and Violet met over 12 years ago at the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN), an environmental justice organisation, which is the forefront of the fight for environmental justice, especially in the Niger Delta.

While Ola was the head of the organisation's Lagos office, the bride,Violet, worked in Port Harcourt office.

"The first time I saw him was during an international conference we both organised for our organisation. He has strong character and he is very intelligent. I wasn't at all intimidated by his presence, but I also engaged him intellectually.

We later became good friends and we used to debate a lot about many things and we found we have a lot in common," Violet told The Nation.

Buokoribo was lavish in his praise of his bride.

"We met more than 12 years ago but our relationship began about 10 years ago. We actually met while we were both planning an international conference. So you can say it was a partnership that began in the office, Violet is special, she combines beauty and brain and she is one of those few people I really can debate with. I can say I am blessed to have her as a wife."

Their moving love story was amplified by Dr. Isaac Osuoka, who gave the toast. Osuoka is Buokoribo’s colleague.

Violet worked directly under him when the

•From left: Sylva and wife Alayingi and the couple Doifie and Violet

A union made in office

couple met.

"One evening in Lagos 10 years ago, amid an international conference we were both organising, Doifie whispered to me that he has found his woman. Her name - Violet. Violet equally confided in me that she had met a man in my friend. So, the friendship of Doifie and Violet blossomed. I waited for this day, it was a long wait within which time there were breakup and makeup. One thing I have learnt from all these episodes is that neither Doifie nor Violet would let go," he said.

Some people say the couple left it a little late to do the needful but according to the chairman of the occasion, Hon. Uche Onyeagocha, "the soup left to cool overnight is actually most delicious."

The long courtship helped the couple to mature and be determined to make their marriage work.

Former Bayelsa State Governor Timipire Sylva under whom Buokoribo served as chief press secretary, came with his wife Alayingi. Sylva de-

•Akinbami and his wife, Shola

The Rotary Club of Ikoyi District 9110 has installed its 29th President at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos.

OLATUNDE ODEBIYI reports.

scribed his former aide as a man to trust. He said: “It's a day we have expected; finally Doifie Ola and Violet have gotten married. I have some experience in government and in tribulation. My advice to those who are in tribulation is to give you one prayer, that the gracious Lord should send them a Doifie Ola.” The hall clapped to a public endorsement of the groom by his boss, but he was not done yet.

"He has shown himself to be a solid human being who would stand with you in plenty and lean times. My prayer is that this marriage, though coming a little late will be sweeter than other marriages; this soup will be sweeter than all the other soups, "he said.

Praying for a stable marriage for the couple, he threw a jab at Onyeagocha when he told him: "You will be the chairman of the 50th wedding anniversary," leaving the audience in a fit of laughter.

The wedding also brought together people

from different political leanings in Bayelsa and Rivers states. Sylva described the union as a marriage of unity.

"Nigeria and the Niger Delta have not been more divided in history than now. Today in Bayelsa State, a group of Bayelsans are being ostracised even though they are Bayelsans. Doifie and Violet are a symbol of unity. Today, the celebration of their wedding has brought people together on the high table; the APC and the PDP are sitting side by side. Let us turn a new leaf.

What we need in Nigeria is equal rights and justice," Sylva said.

The couple and guests later hit the dance floor.

Sylva and his wife and the couple delighted guests as they danced to the rhythms of classical and contemporary songs, joined by others.

Many of the guests expressed joy at the union.

Tony Iyare, former aide to Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole said: "This is the day the Lord has made. I am very happy that after a long time the couple has come together in a union. Doifie is so dear to me; I had to bring all my family here.

We pray for fruitfulness and prosperity for the couple."

•Mr Chris Okonkwo (left) and Mr Ade Osideinde

New President for Rotary

T

HE Rotary Club of Ikoyi district 9110 has installed a Manager with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Mr Loye Akinbami, as its 29th President.

The ground hall of the Golden Gate Restaurant was a beehive as members and well-wishers of the club gathered for the event.

The day also featured investiture of new Board of Directors and a fund raiser for the club.

Many of the guests shone in native attires; a few wore English dresses.

With the hotel decorated in the Rotary blue and yellow, friends and various cliques occupied a table each.

Beautiful ushers welcomed guests into the expansive hall. They wore Ankara dress of the same colour with the club.

Jolly Jay Entertainments supplied music.

Shortly after the opening prayer and Rotary Anthem, chairman of the occasion, Christopher

Okonkwo, welcomed the guests.

To him, it is a matter for joy to witness the event.

The immediate past president, Jimmy Evbuomwan, in his farewell message, said the year had been exciting with the club’s attendant expectations and accomplishment of projects.

“The club enjoyed the privilege of having a very strong and supportive council of past presidents”, he said.

Evbuomwan also gave a summary of the club’s achievements.

The investiture the new President followed. It was done by Evbuomwan.

All eyes were fixed in one direction as Evbuomwan installed Akinbanmi.

Claps, screams and a session of photographs followed.

Akinbami clad in blue agbada with cap to match was all smiles as he read his acceptance speech.

From left: Mr Charles Okonkwo, Lurlyn Osunkoya and Mr Isichel Osamgbi

Akinbami expressed gratitude to God, the members and friends of the club.

An elated Akinbami promised to take the club to greater heights.

He listed some of the clubs projects to be undertaken during his tenure. He also spoke about what the club stands for, saying that the members and friends should be ready and willing to take the club to the next level.

He sought for their supports.

After the speech, Akinbami installed nine Directors of the club, saying: 'I charge you to go

forth and change lives'.

The guest speaker Adegboyega Osideinde took the microphone.

Osideinde, the General Manager (marketing and commercial services) Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), an engineer and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers spoke on the topic, Where are the glibertarian and their friends.

He hailed the spirit of selflessness that has been demonstrated in the club, saying that they should more.

35

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

S OCIETY

COMMUNICATE YOUR IDEAS

The Best Westown Hotel on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos was agog when the Rotary Club of Ikeja inducted Mr Olagoke Olayinka as the 47th President and Directors of the club. AMIDU ARIJE reports.

Change of baton at Rotary

Types of Humour (2)

L

AST week, we discussed some types of humour you need to understand to make your speech interesting. Having stated that humour was indispensable to entertaining speech, we examined the following types of humour: pun, malapropism and parody. We also learnt

“T

HE supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” These words of Dwight Eisenhower aptly captured the investiture of Mr Olagoke Olayinka as the 47th President and the induction of the 2013/2014 Board of Directors of Rotary Club of Ikeja.

The event drew dignitaries from far and near.

The Rotarians came with their family members for the once-in-a-year event.

They looked resplendent in their attires.

Olayinka, who was the cynosure of eyes, was dressed in black suit with bow tie to match.

Pleasantrieswere exchanged as guests crept into the hall.

The hall was beautifully decorated in various colours.

The opening prayer was said and the club song was sang to kick-start the occasion. It was followed by the recitation of the National Anthem.

The crème de la crème of the society were invited to the high table.

Among them were Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru; Chairman, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr Babatunde Savage and the Paramount Ruler of Yewa Land, Ogun State, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle.

Savage, who was the guest speaker presented a paper on Integrity in service.

The paper focused on restat-

•From left: Mr Olowu; Mr Osidele and Mr Olayinka

•Ambassador Ashiru

•Mr Savage

ing the core values of the Rotary Club and to challenge the leadership pattern in Nigeria to refocus its attention on values and ethics that guides leadership ideas.

He reminded guests and well-wishers of the tripod that holds Rotary Club. Rotary Club, he said, represents the greatest potential for transforming Nigeria from poor to great.

“I say this because Rotary, among other clubs in the world, represents great principles and great values,” he said.

Savage added: “You have something that is very unique, which is the four-way

test, which members are expected to apply in all situations. You are expected, no matter the type of situations you find yourself, to ask: is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and friendship? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? What a wonderful set of questions to ask for a decent person who wants to do a decent work. You have one of the greatest policy thrust of any civil organisation I have ever heard of”.

He urged Rotary members to remain on track and extend their noble service and values of integrity and leadership in service into the fabric of society.

This, he said, would begin to have positive impact and inspiration that brings excitement that invariably creates the power to change our society for good.

The investiture was conducted after the lecture.

Amid flashing of camera lights, the new president, Olayinka took the ‘staff of office’ from his predecessor, Niyi Osidele. It was followed with cheers.

Olayinka promised to consolidate on the works on his predecessor and to better the lives of the lessprivileged.He also promised to visit the schools in the area.

He applauded the successes of his predecessor and further restate his readiness to work above board with every member of the club to deliver service that will benefit humanity and promote the ideal society that support equality and moral values.Some of the projects, he highlighted include education, health, environmental development as well as developing human capital to support economic growth.

Guests were treated to choice food and drinks.

They took to the dance floor till the light faded.

MEETING

•Wife of Imo State Governor Nneoma Okorocha chatting with Dr Toe Ekechi during the kick-off of 2013 Imo Women August Meeting at Ngor-Okpala, Owerri

AMODU LANRE OLAOLU

(Ph.D) sospeak2lanre@yahoo.com.

07034737394

that we should not conclude that being funny was not our thing; rather, we should work on ourselves to be funny.

Now, I don't suppose I'm writing this for professional comedians. I assume they are already good at it, such that I may have one or two things to learn from them. However, I believe I'm writing this for people who want to be better in their communication skills, and who want to interest their audience in an exciting speech. If I am correct, then you must understand that your audience does not expect you to be perfect. For instance, the guests at an investment practitioners' luncheon cannot expect the MC, whom they know to be one of them, to make them laugh as a professional comedian would do. This is not to make you settle for a weak performance with the excuse, "They know I'm not a professional"; rather, it is to make you know that your listeners are ready to accept you. Forget about the tension, relax and enjoy it as much as everyone else.

They are ready to appreciate your effort, no matter how little.

If, however, you succeed in being quite funny, they will appreciate you even more by responding favourably.

Ok, so let's consider some other types of humour that you can use for your "funny" speech. This is a continuation from last week; so, permit me to continue the numbering from number four.

•Mixed Metaphor: this is a type of humour that permits the user to mix up a common saying in order to achieve a comic effect. Of course, the audience must be familiar with the saying that is being mixed. Here are a few examples: a car comes up behind you, flashing his horn (Aaron Colwick). We all know that you flash light and not horn, and that you don't use "his" for a car! A leopard can't change his stripes (Al Gore)- Leopards have spots, not stripes. Biting the hand that rocks the cradle (Sherri Barber)- this should be biting the hand that feeds you.

There are many more. You can mix yours based on the occasion you want to use it for. For instance, you may ask a couple to kiss at their wedding reception, and then ask the guests to block their ears so that they don't see it.

•Irony: this involves making statements that imply the opposite of their literal meanings. This is a very effective way of generating humour. When you make such statements, your tone, mode of presentation and use of words will make it clear to the audience that you mean the opposite. For instance, if you are presenting an award to an unusually tall person, you may say to the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, join me as I kneel to present this award." Also, you may say this about your rich friend at a charity event, "My friend is a really poor man. He is so poor that he has donated five million naira to this orphanage without even writing a cheque!"

• Understatement: here, you are deliberately reducing whatever you are talking about to a ridiculous size in order to create humour. Since your listeners know the real value or size of what you are talking about, they find your speech humourous. For instance, you may ask, "What's wrong with holding a lion by its collar?" or "I don't have a good appetite today, I've only been able to eat ten loaves of bread, a crate of eggs, fifty liter juice and three whole barbequed chicken."

•Overstatement: yes, you got that right! I can imagine you saying that it is the opposite of understatement. In this case, you deliberately maximize or exaggerate the size or value of a thing. For instance, you may say, "You can't imagine how much it cost me to buy this dress; I practically closed up my account to buy it. In case you want it too, it costs N150. 00, VAT (value added tax) included."

You may also say this about a groom at a wedding reception, "When Mike first met Tina, he was really fat. He was so fat that she was scared…he stood on a weight and it read zero! Today, you can see that the story is different."

•Stating the Obvious: this is an interesting technique because it involves you telling your audience what they know already. It is the "ridiculousness" that makes the audience laugh. For instance, you may say, "I was shocked when I looked into the mirror this morning and realized that I'm a male!" or "Do you know that airplanes fly? I just discovered that today!"

These are some of the types of humour that can serve your purpose. Like I usually say, there are several others that we cannot explore within the time and space available to us here. So, go right ahead and read further and I'm sure you will find more useful and interesting materials.

Dr. Amodu teaches at the Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, Ogun State.

36

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

SOCIETY

A dinner has been held for the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 81 Division Major General Obi Abel Umahi, for his posting to Lagos. PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU was at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, venue of the event.

I

T was an evening set aside to honour Major General Obi Abel Umahi, General Officer Commanding, GOC, 81 Division turned the ceremony into a soul-winning gathering.

The venue was the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was organised by the King’s Court Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victoria Island.

Although the event attracted the high and mighty within and outside Lagos, not many of the guests knew that aside being a brilliant officer, Umahi was also a dedicated pastor.

The hall was decorated with glamorous décor; attendees were treated to a six-course meal with assorted non-alcoholic drinks, just as the Master of Ceremony (MC) ensured there was no dull moment.

The event began on a prayer note. After which, there was rendition of the National Anthem.

Devoid of the usual high table setting, guests were ushered into a circular table, full of various drinks, pepper soup and small chops.

There were few jokes delivered by the emcee and a pictorial documentary of the celebrator was shown to the crowded hall.

RCCG King’s Court Parish Senior Pastor Ben Akabueze. He admonished men of fame and power to cease from being arrogant as well as stop neglecting men of God. Using the biblical Naaman as an example, he said: “They (influential men) are always looking for the logical, sensible and high sounding solutions. Often times the solutions God provides sound too stupid and simplistic to men of fame and power-they always think themselves wise.

“So many of them pretend like they have got it all right and have no need. God can send help through someone you least imagined. Do not be so arrogant that you miss the needed help.”

He described Gen Umahi as a unique officer and a gentleman.

“A dedicated Christian; someone who reveres God and blessed with a wonderful family,” he said.

Ebonyi State Deputy Governor Dake Umahi, who is the celebrator’s younger brother said: “Ever since our father died, Obi has held the family with unity and love such that my boss, Elechi Amadi describes him as ‘My own General’.

“Obi’s kindness and dedication to the family endeared him to all, especially our mother who blessed him; he has the best of family, I envy him.”

He described him as a man of character and high integrity.

Also speaking, Mrs Joyce Adebola, a family friend of 20 years, praised Umahi’s love for God. She said: “His (Umahi’s) advice to my family has kept us moving forward. He does not have questionable character. I wish him the best.”

Guests were stunned and sober as Umahi spoke of his challenging moments.

•Maj-Gen Umahi (middle) his wife; Umahi (second right) and other guests

The other side of an Army General While many, who were touched, answered the ‘altar-call’, the audience could not help but salute the General with resounding applauses after his practical instances of the benefits of holding unto God. He stressed that the differences between Christians and Muslims were created by manipulation.

One of such touching stories was Umahi’s testimony of how his mother was miraculously healed over 40 years ago, from the point of death, as well as his confession of how ‘juju’ failed him during his first ECOMOG operation in Liberia.

Although he became ‘born-again’ while in primary school, Umahi said he backslided later in the years because he lacked counselling, especially because his father believed in ‘juju’.

Although Umahi’s passion was to be a professor of international repute, fate had another plan for him as he went to the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to teach but was commissioned into the army.

“I went to Liberia for ECOMOG operation in 1989, but before I went, my father took me to a place to be fortified and given a ring, which I wore on my left finger. After that, he took me to another place and I was given an amulet, which I also put in my left pocket.

“I was full of confidence that nothing will happen to me in Liberia but surprisingly, I was shot by rebels on my left side, the very side I had the charms. I returned to Nigeria in

WHAT AND WHERE

T

Funeral

HE service of songs for the late Mrs Eunice Ayodele Fajuyi, wife of the late Adekunle Fajuyi will hold today at the Adekunle Fajuyi memorial park AdoEkiti.

Her funeral mass will hold tomorrow at St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, AdoEkiti. Reception at Trade Fair Complex ground Iyin Road Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

Installation

R

OTARY Club of Ikorodu Metropolitan will tomorrow installed Rotn Kamaldeen Ibrahim Adedeji as the club’s president for 2013-2014 and induction of the board of directors and launching of club projects at Harmony Castle Hotel, Aga Ikorodu Lagos.

The chief host is the club’s District Governor, Rotn Olugbemiga Olowu.

•Pastor Akabueze

•Brig-Gen Edeh Gabriel Ode

1990 and kept wondering the essence of the black power that was not effective. I told myself there must be another way out.

“Fortunately, on November 1, 1991, I came in contact with God. Divine partnership with God is the ultimate in life. I have had challenges in my career but God has seen me through. When God releases his finger to fight for you, no power can stop you. When he partners with you, he can use anybody to

bless you,” he said.

At the ceremony were the Chief Executive Officer, (CEO), Diamond Bank, Alex Otti; Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Wale Ahmed; Nolloywood stars, Stephanie Okereke and her husband, Linus Idahosa; Segun Arinze; Shan George; United State’s Consul-General, Jeffery Hawkins; Army Generals, A.A. Sangotade, Edward Nze; Mr. Shola Adebola, among others.

BIRTHDAY

Covention

A

YOUTH convention with the theme: Vigorous youth, of Grace Finishers Assembly will hold on Sunday at Unity Crescent Akowonjo, Lagos.

Conference

T

ODAY the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) is holding the Ninth edition of its conference in Asaba, Delta State.

It has as theme: Nigeria beyond Oil: the role of the editor.

Entertainment

C

OMEDIAN Julius Agwu will tomorrow launch a video titled: Mission Impossible, in London.

•COMPILED BY ATUKPA GRACE AND RITA ONYEKERE

•The celebrator, Mr Segun Joseph (middle) and his wife Lion Folashade, President, Okota Lions Club assisted by members of the club to cut his 50th birthday cake

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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NIGER DELTA REPORT

‘My wife’s rapists nearly lynched me with machetes’

‘

Over two years after the video of the rape of his wife erroneously tagged ‘Abia rape’ went viral, Sunday Stanley is still seeking Who am I in the justice. On Tuesday, he spoke with SHOLA O’NEIL and society that my outcry should ROSEMARY NWISI on the threat to his life and other issues.

What has been the reaction of the government to your plight since the last publication?

Government is government; they know what to do. In a matter like this, I cannot tell them what to do, but one thing I know is that God is watching and members of the public, both locally and internationally, are watching. The humiliation, as I said before, was not done to me but the entire human race and women at large.

One of the suspects at large called me on phone; he confessed and condemned what they did and apologised to me. But, all I could answer him was to stop confessing and apologising to me, rather he should do all of those to God. My wife is God’s creation and not mine. So, he should repent and surrender his life to God; so, he will not enmesh himself into such act again.

Let me also use this opportunity to inform the government that by my experience on pregnancy and HIV/ AIDS, and the campaign against transmission to unborn babies, I have some wise solution to it and will like to make myself available to them if I am called upon to proffer wise and workable procedures to preventing the transition from mother to child.

What is your feeling on the way the government and the judiciary are handling the case?

I have not heard anything about the matter since. Who am I in the society that my outcry should be taken seriously? Who do I have that will stand to ensure the matter is taken up?

My fervent prayer is that the suspects (rapists) should repent from what they did. If they repent, the government should forgive them.

Do you really mean that?

Yes, if they repent, they should be forgiven.

So, why are you concerned that nothing has been done about the matter?

I was in Magistrate’s Court Nine,

here in Port Harcourt the first time they were arraigned, and the case file was referred to the DPP. Since then, I have not heard any other thing about it.

I want to tell the whole world that God is the ultimate in whatever we do on earth today and should not be ignored. Let us fear God; that is the beginning of wisdom.

What is the reaction of your kinsmen, your community leaders and family members and is it true that you were banished?

Nobody banished me. Indigenes of my community, the young, the old and the chiefs, were and are solidly behind me up till date. They totally condemned the act. Some of them described it as abomination while others said it was an act of gross wickedness, which bears grave consequences on the actors and the community, being members of my family and community.

Knowing the consequences, our chiefs attempted to wade into the matter but unfortunately it was already with the police; so, I asked them to go to the police and discuss with them. It is no longer my matter.

Every member of the community has been raining abuses on the criminals; I was not banished at all.

They have continued to pray that God should visit and pay those people back in His own way. I believe they have begun to reap it. What is happening in that community now proves to me that they are on top of it.

The only thing is that because of the continued threat to my life by the suspects and their cohorts, elders of my community advised me not to frequent the village as I used to, or if I must come, I should come in the company of security personnel.

The last time I went there, they came after me with machetes, clubs and other weapons to attack me, if not for the community members that intervened and rescued me; I don’t know what would have become of me

now.

They were angry that I went to the press. They were asking me the reason I took the matter to the media, saying that I have disgraced them. My problem now is that I can’t go home as I wish to see my aged mother of over 70 years because of fear of their attacks.

I was not actually banished.

Why did your wife go back to her parents and how did she get to the police with the information about her rape?

After I reported the matter to the police and made statement, police from the Rivers State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) traced my wife to her parents’ residence at Owerri and arrested her.

After the discovery that she and our about five month’s old baby boy were positive to the deadly disease, the parents invited her over to be with them for a while. It was there the police went to arrest her, brought her to their office in Port Harcourt, took her statement. It was in her statement that she mentioned the names of the people that raped her. Unfortunately, some of them are my cousins of the same surname. Before she was arrested, the boy had died.

It was at this point that the police, led by a very senior officer, a Superintendent of Police (SP), Eneje, with the support of the DC/SCID ,Mr. Sam, led the investigations. As I said earlier, my wife was about two months pregnant when the incident happened.

I am very grateful to God for the SP and his team; how they followed up the matter is worthy of emulation. The SP showed in that matter that he is a God-fearing man. I use this medium to express my heartfelt gratitude to him; he is an example of what policing should be. Efforts by the suspects and their sponsors to bribe their ways out and foreclose the matter were resisted by him.

How is your wife coping with her status?

be taken seriously? Who do I have that will stand to ensure the matter is taken up? My fervent prayer is that the suspects (rapists) should repent from what they did.

If they repent, the government should forgive them

‘

•Mr Stanley

Knowing that what she was diagnosed with is yet without medical solution, we resorted to seeking divine interventions. I took her to the Synagogue Church in Lagos, but unfortunately, we could not see the man of God, Pastor T. B. Joshua. The reason was that we did not go with her medical report.

What is the position of your marriage?

No comment on that.

When was the last time you saw or called your wife?

She is my wife. I don’t have comment on that still. My prayer is that God should show us mercy and heal her. She should also understand the fact that nobody other than God can heal her in this situation and her faith in God is very important at this point in time.

When we went to Lagos, I bought a copy of the Bible for her. I never

discriminated against her. We slept on the same bed, ate from the same plate, drank from the same cup. At my brother’s house where we stayed in Lagos, he provided different rooms for us but I left my own room for hers and we slept on the same bed. All to encourage her to be prayerful and study her Bible to build up her faith; because that is where lies the solution we need.

My prayers always are that God may extend that divine mercy He has shown to me also to her. She is my wife.

If God heals your wife of this disease today, will you take her back?

(Smiles) I never divorced my wife.

She is still my wife. I still give her courage. I always communicate with her elder brother even though I barely reach her. The last time I went to their Owerri residence I was told they had moved. The brother always denies knowledge of where she is.

Provost urges Rivers residents to embrace medical imaging course

R

ESIDENTS of Port Harcourt and other towns in Rivers State have been advised to take advantage of the new Medical Imaging Technology course introduced in the State College of Health Science and Technology, Port Harcourt The provost of the college, Dr. Victor Nnanna Onyekwere, gave the advice at a workshop organised by the institution in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), last Thursday.

He said taking advantage of the programme would provide easy employment opportunities for graduates of Medical Imaging Technology.

The provost said manpower on Medical Imaging Technology is lacking, adding that there are ready jobs for graduates of the course.

He said the essence of the workshop was to fashion out the curricular for the Higher National Diploma programme.

Dr. Onyekwere said the college is already accredited for two-year National Diploma programme on the course, adding that the HND curriculum resulting from the workshop would be top notch to facilitate the easy accreditation of the course in the future.

The programme director of the NBTE and leader of the board team for the workshop, Mr. Alloysius Mpieri, said they were in Port Harcourt as part of regulatory activities for courses run in polytechnics

Onyekwere (arrowed) flanked by Mr. Ifejika Iken (fourth Right) and Mrs Owanate Lawson (third right) and the NBTE team during a visit to the college

From Shola O’Neil, Port Harcourt

and monotechnics.

He explained that since the RCHST is monotechnic, their board regulates the institute, the NBTE board regulates its technical education in terms of curricular and conduct accreditation for quality assurance and standard.

He said the college is a trailblazer

because it is the first to have such workshop and commended the management for successfully hosting the workshop.

He maintained that the workshop was meant to beef up the ND programme in preparation for the take-off of the HND programme.

In separate speeches, the Bursar, Mrs Elfrida Mene; Director of Medical Imaging Technology, Rev Akiene

Nunyor and Ms Patrician Owanate, Registrar, expressed gratitude for the cordial work relationship they enjoy with the provost.

They also commended him for initiating programmes like the course regulating and accreditation workshop and called for its sustenance.

Similarly, they charged on the authorities of the board and other institutions concerned to provide the col-

lege with modern medical equipment for training students to ensure that the gap in medical industry is bridged.

They also cautioned members of the public against patronising quack organisation, advising that they should go to the institution which is approved as the first monotechnic running medical courses.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

38

NIGER DELTA REPORT

Itsekiri in US worried over humanitarian

•Some Itsekiri indigenes sleeping on the mattresses donated by their kinsmen abroad

O

VER two months after suspected Ijaw militias razed dozens of Itsekiri communities in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta Delta State, an Itsekiri socio-cultural group in the United States of America, Ugbajo Itsekiri USA Inc, has expressed concern over the humanitarian crisis in the areas.

The group expressed the concern when it donated multimillion naira relief materials to the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in the area. The Ugbajo Itsekiri remarked that

From Shola O’Neil, Warri

relief efforts by government and other public-spirited individuals did not reach the suffering victims.

A member of the group, Mr. Bawo Akonu, who led the team’s visit to six crisis-ravaged Itsekiri communities of Eghoro, Ebrohimi, Obaghoro, AjaAmita, Tebu and Tebu-Kporo communities, said in spite of recent peace shuttles, hundreds of victims remain homeless, face hunger and are vulnerable to attacks.

ACON raises alarm over hijack of airwaves

M

EMBERS of the Association of Cable Practitioners of Nigeria (ACON) have raised the alarm over the porous state of the airwaves.

Its Chairman, Kunle Oyisaya-Afolabi, spoke at the end of its third quarter general meeting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

He expressed concern about the possibility of the country losing its media airspace to foreign operators if quick intervention was not made.

According to him, international cable network service providers, especially those from China and South Africa, are fast taking undue advantage of the situation to spread their culture into the country to the detriment of Nigeria and her citizens.

He accused two South African Cable Networks of being at the forefront of this abuse and called on the authorities, especially the National Broadcast Commission (NBC) and the Ministry of Communications to rise up against this trend and save the country’s heritage.

Oyisaya-Afolabi said: “Nigeria airwaves are being seriously abused by foreign networks; the airwaves are being abused, culturally, morally and otherwise.

“Unless government realises that this airwave belongs to us and should be managed correctly, effectively and efficiently to deliver dividends of democracy, we will have a serious problem.

‘

Our culture is being gradually eroded by influx of these foreign cultures. It was South Africa before, but now, Chinese culture is fast coming in now

‘

From Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt

“Various cultures are crimping into Nigeria, at a very fast rate. Initially it was South/African culture, now you find out there are degradation in families.

“Our culture is being gradually eroded by influx of these foreign cultures. It was South Africa before, but now, Chinese culture is fast coming in now; what we get on our television are Chinese news, culture, food and all that on our television, that is what is presently going on in families in case we don’t know.”

In a communiqué at the end of the meeting, the group appealed to the government to take the plan to digitise Nigeria seriously and stressed that it would save the country from several hazards and also create employment for the citizens.

Akonu was accompanied

by Mr. Amorighoye Mene, a representative of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, which facilitated the visit.

He lamented that over one thousand locals including children and women who fled their homes in the wake of the incident are yet to be resettled.

The group observed that a few of those who remained in the communities lack food, shelter, water, health care and adequate sanitation.

Our correspondent observed that tension is still high in the

•Representative of the Itsekiri abroad addressing his kinsmen

communities despite the nearness of security checkpoints in the creeks as the small amount of people still remaining in the communities are subjected to heavy military scrutiny.

Akonu said that the Itsekiri people in the US believes there are humanitarian services that could be rendered hence they intensified efforts to gathered resources for the donations made.

“We were able to identify those that were directly impacted because we were made to understand that relief mate-

rials sent here were not taken to the grassroots people so this time around we wanted it to get to the grassroots”.

He said that the visit was just a way of ameliorating the immediate needs of the people which included shelter and medical care saying that they would take time to evaluate the situation in order to address the injustice in the area.

“The visit was just like a tip of the iceberg; it was not enough to address the issues because we observed there is a lot of suffering among the

people. There have been a lot of injustice and from our experience a whole of people were dislodged, the pains and grievance are still there”.

“What we have done is just a first aid treatment so we are calling on the government and other humanitarian agencies to go in there and address the issues of lack of food, water, health care and many more plugging the people because the people are truly suffering”.

While describing the incident as unfortunate, he said that if the government was up

The Paramount Ruler of Rebisi, Port Harcourt, His Majesty Eze Victor Nnanna Woluchem II, the Eze Epara Rebisi XII and his wife Queen Felicia Woluchem after the monarch's coronation on Tuesday.

Bayelsa prepares to host NAFEST

T

HE Chief Executives of Culture of the Federation (CEC) met in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital to brainstorm on ways of leveraging on culture to promote a united Nigeria.

The meeting held at the Ijaw House had in attendance chief executives of culture from the 36 states, Federal Capital Territory and heads of Federal Cultural Parastatals and Federal Department of Culture.

The gathering afforded the cultual experts an opportunity to deliberate on ways of packaging the forthcoming National Festival of Art and Culture to douse the tension.

The 2013 edition of NAFEST with the theme, Culture, Peace and National Transformation, is to be hosted in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Governor Seriake Dickson, who declared the meeting open

•As cultural CEOs meet in Yenagoa From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

appealed to participants not to relent in their efforts to map out strategies of promoting national unity and cultural diversity.

Dickson who was represented by the state Commissioner for Culture and Ijaw National Affairs, Dr. Felix Tuodor, said the government made culture and tourism its priority.

“As a first step, an autonomous ministry of culture was cated forbthe first time to maximally address the and harness its potential.

“I have no doubt therefore, that this meeting of our cultural giants would deliberate and fashion out policies that would outlive NAFEST 2013, such that would further

strengthen our national unity and promote our cultural diversity in Nigeria.

“Again, I am delighted to be part of this as we have mandated the ministry to tap the abundant potential inherent in our culture for the development and growth of our people,”he said.

He described as great honour to give the state a hosting right for the event.

The Executive Director, National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr. Nwajim Maidugu, said the forum was organised to enable members discuss and profer ideas on culture as a vehicle for national unity.

He lauded the state government for hosting the event and for supporting the State Min-

istry of Arts and Culture.

He said such encouragment was responsible for the state cultural troupe’ distinguished performances both within and outside the country.

He said: “This year NAFEST is designed to consolidate children’s participation as a major plank for transmitting the values of the country’s cultural heritage to future generation.

“This forum generally offers opportunity for members to interact, discuss and profer ideas towards repositioning the culture sector to key into the overall government development programmes.

“It is also a platform on which the strategies of implementing national cultural events such as the NAFEST amongst others are discussed and adapted.”

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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NIGER DELTA REPORT

crisis in Warri

and doing with the security in the area the ugly incident may have been averted and therefore urged the government to brace up to tackle the security challenges confronting in the area.

“There is a government in the state but it is rather sad that the government is not responding according though they have promised to erect the built houses, they have not critically condemn this attack even come to the aid of the suffering people of the area”.

Mene said the destruction was most regrettable.

He said: “You seen how communities were wiped from the ground level, this were people who are naturally poor and no matter how poorly built this houses were to them, they value them but the houses were levelled to foundation and it is most unfortunate that a thing like this is allowed to happen in a country like our.”

He lamented that despite the series of correspondence done to the state government, the state government have not responded accordingly saying that government has failed.

‘My husband killed our son to hurt me’ Continued from page 25

Itoro was arraigned on a one-count charge of murder. He was, however, discharged with caution after the complainants, (his inlaws), applied to the court for settlement, in the reason that he has two other children to take care of.

The court struck out the case discharged and released the accused person on the condition that he would maintain and sustain peace in their home.

Mrs. Amanze also ordered that they produce their two children to the court every first Monday of the month beginning from September.

She said the couple must learn to live peacefully together as husband and wife, expressing regrets that they could kill their child over a pot of soup when other couples were looking for children.

After the incident, the family of the wife invited the police who arrested and detained him for several weeks before his arraignment in court.

His charge read: “ That you Itoro Casmos ‘m’, on the 2nd June, 2013 at Eligbolo at Port Harcourt Magistrate District did murder one Miracle Itoro by using woody plank to hit on his head and thereby com-

THE CHAR GE CHARGE

That you Itoro Casmos on June 2 at Eligbolo, Port Harcourt Magistrate District did murder one Miracle Itoro by using woody plank to hit on his head and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 319(1) of the criminal code cap 37 volume 11, laws of Rivers State of Nigeria 1999 mitted an offence contrary to section 319(1), of the criminal code cap 37 volume 11, laws of Rivers State of Nigeria 1999.”

He was not allowed to take plea of the charge against him apparently for lack of jurisdiction.

The couple was allowed to go home after signing an undertaking to live in peace.

My ordeal, by policeman whose wife, kids died in kerosene explosion A ‘ petiWe have police officer with the Rivers State Anti Bomb Squad, Inspector Maxwell Samson Etuk, has petitioned police authority over perceived injustice done to him after his wife and children died in a kerosene explosion.

Etuk said since the incident, which happened while he was at work at night, he has been sleeping in an abandoned vehicle at the police headquarters, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt.

In a three-page petition addressed to the Inspector-General of Police by his lawyer, Mr. Higher King, Maxwell is asking the police to show concern over his predicament.

He said it was painful losing his wife and four children in the kerosene explosion at night while on duty and being abandoned by the police authorities.

King told Niger Delta Report in Port Harcourt, the River State capital, that before his client petitioned the Inspector- General of Police.

Several appeals were made to draw the attention of the police but all efforts proved abortive.

The human rights lawyer

•Joseph Mbu From Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt

said the authorities should to come to the aid of his client to cushion his anguish and suffering.

He said: “We have petitioned the Inspector-General of Police. All we are expecting by this week is to receive reply which will determine our next line of action. As for justice, I know we will get justice over the matter.

“Let me state clearly here that we are ready for any legal battle to ensure that justice is done and that will de- •Four of the victims of explosion pend on the response to our petition.”

tioned the InspectorGeneral of Police. All we are expecting by this week is to receive reply which will determine our next line of action. As for justice, I know we will get justice over the matter

‘

Widow wants killer cop arrested

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HE widow of Anthony Obisike, who was killed by a policeman in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Police Service Commission.

The alleged killer cop was a member of the Anti Terrorist Squad.

The incident occurred in 2012.

Mrs. Obisike said her husband was allegedly shot by the squad at Etche junction by Eleme flyover in Port Harcourt.

She said police investigation identified the shooter as one of the policemen in the squad.

She said: “The officers that rode in the bus include Ocheni Ihiabe, Ogban Kanu, Joseph Udele, Abraham Agande, Daniel Ayuba, Darlington Ukachukwu, Onunghakpo Benson, Uwgwo Uche, Emmanuel Zork, Peter Junior and Atanfut.

•The late Obisike’s family.

From Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt

“Since the incident that led to the death of my husband, the police have not arrested the officers accused of the crime.

The police authority knows the

•The late Obisike.

officers behind the killing but failed to prosecute them.

“I am presently suffering, with the children my husband left behind.”

She urged the InspectorGeneral of Police to order the arrest of those behind the

death of my husband and to ensure that justice is done.”

Police Public Relations Officer Mrs. Angela Agabe said she did not know anything about the petition but promised to find out and get back to our reporter.

‘Resist western influence on Bini culture’

W

IFE of Edo State Deputy Governor, Deaconess Endurance Odubu, has urged the Bini people to resist western influence on their culture.

She said the culture was unique and worth preserving.

Mrs Odubu spoke at the unveiling of the female version of the Bini traditional attire “Ewu Iwu Oghikhuo” which took place in Benin City.

Deaconess Odubu, who was represented by Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Blessing Maigida, said the Bini traditional attire for women came at the right time when the youths seem to be losing grip of their cultural values and ethics.

From, Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

She noted with sadness that Benin moral values were fast being eroded by western culture and appreciated the designer of the traditional attire for Bini women, Dr. Helen Uhunmwanagho, for the initiative aimed at giving the rich cultural heritage of the land its pride of place.

Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism Mrs. Ainena Jemitola said the introduction of the traditional dress code for women would reduce the threat of extinction posed to African culture.

The chairman of the occasion and Iyase of Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam Igbe noted that the Benin, traditional attire re-

mains the pride of the Benins all over the world, and called for more unity among the Benins.

President, Benin Cultural Heritage Centre (BCHC), Dr. Roland Ehigiamosoe said the traditional outfit for women is a derivation from body tattooing as practised in Benin Kingdom.

The initiator and designer, Dr. Uhunmwangho, explained that the attire had been designed into blouses and robes, which can be worn at formal or informal settings.

She said the new IWU dress Code was not introduced to do away with the notable Benin attire of wrapper and beads but to enhance what is already on ground.

•Mrs Odubu

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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NIGER DELTA REPORT

F

Glorious day for Calabar Archbishop

ROM his humble beginning on June 30, 1979 when he was ordained a Catholic priest at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, Archbishop Joseph Ekuwem has made a glorious return to the city as the Archbishop of Calabar.

From that day when he was ordained along with four others on that faithful June day, Archbishop Ekuwem has steadily climbed the ladder in the vineyard of God and with his new position is charged with shepherding the flock in the Calabar Archdiocese.

He took over the responsibility from Archbishop Joseph Ukpo who retired having attained the canonical age of 75.

Members of his flock who spoke with Niger Delta Report said Ekuwem is particularly noted for “his humility, deep understanding nature tolerance and keen foresight rooted in his early Catholic upbringing.”

It was therefore not surprising that thousands of Catholic faithful in the Calabar Archdiocese drove all the way to the CalabarItu bridge, the border between Cross River and Akwa Ibom States (about an hour away from the state capital) to usher him to the city recently.

Ekuwem had been the first Bishop of Uyo Diocese since 1989, where his achievements included creating many parishes, quasiparishes and autonomous communities bringing the total number of parishes to 66 from the 32 he inherited.

On February 2, 2013, the Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to succeed Ukpo.

Ekuwem’s canonical installation as Archbishop of Calabar took place in the same venue where he was ordained as priest 34 years ago – the Sacred Heart Cathedral, where the Archbishop Emeritus, Ukpo expressed satisfaction over the cooperation he received from priests, religious and laity during his time.

Ukpo called for the same cooperation to be extended to the new Archbishop.

Ekuwem was installed by the Papal Nuncio to Nigeria, Most Reverend Augustine Kasujja alongside, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev Dr Ignatius Kaigama.

In his first address, Ekuwem’s words called for unity among all to work and forge ahead together.

His words, “I will watch over the unity of the universal church. That the truth should be held and put into practice and passed to all. I would show paternal affection to those who err in faith and I would make every effort to guide them to the fullness of the truth. Having before me the image of Christ, the Supreme and eternal priest, I would conduct myself conscientiously and reverently and thus fulfil

•Some bishops at the event From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

the ministry entrusted to me so having become myself become an example to the flock I would be able to confirm the faith in Christian perfection.

“I would uphold the discipline and carefully uphold the observance of all ecclesiastical laws particularly those contained in the code of cannon law. I would prevent possible abuses especially with regards to the ministry of the word and the celebration of the sacraments “I would diligently work after the administration of the Church in terms of growth. In carrying our mandate given to show I would show particular account. I would take care to promote sacred vocations so that the spiritual needs of the whole church would be appropriately met. I would recognize and promote the dignity of lay people. I would be especially concerned to promote missionary work and evangelization of people.

When the occasion demands I would give an account of my personal office in the apostolic field and to the best of my ability, I would respectfully accept the mandate and counsel.”

Ekuwem was born on December 18, 1949 at Afi-Uda in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

•Archbisop Ekuwem, left, with Archibisop Emeritus Ukpo

Akwa Ibom indigenes sweep computer quiz competition

T

HREE Akwa Ibom indigenes have been honoured by the State Government for winning the 2013 Olatunji Odegbami National Information Technology Quiz Competition for All Tertiary Institutions.

They emerge first, second, and third in the competition. The students are Emmanuel Essiet; Ebenezer Ekere and Aniebet Emmanuel.

Essiet is a 200L Computer Science student at University of Uyo, Ekere is 100L Computer Science Student at Akwa Ibom State University while Emmanuel, the only female winner is in Higher National Diploma 2 (HND2) at Uyo City Polytechnic.

The 11th edition of the quiz competition was held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital with the theme and has “e-Government and National Security” as its theme.

Presenting the cash prizes to the winners through a member representing Nsit Ubium State Constituency, Onofiok Luke, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Student Matters, Ini Ememobong, said the 2012 competition in Uyo, has had Akwa Ibom indigenes emerging first and third position in the quiz competition.

Ememobong, a former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS), stated that the results had justified the efforts of Governor Godswill Akpabio in developing the youths through free and compulsory education in the state.

His words: “At the Le Meridien Hotel in 2012, we saw something that God did for the state by

From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

making sure that the efforts of the governor in developing the youths in the state through free and compulsory education is not in vain.

“In that competition when we had other universities in Nigeria, including the first generation universities, Akwa Ibom clinched the first and third position through a student from the University of Uyo and the other from the IMFI Academy, also in Uyo. “We encouraged them and took them to Osun State from July 24 to 26 for the 11thInternational Conference of the Olatunji Odegbami National Information Technology Quiz Competition for All Tertiary Institutions in the Federation.

“In Osun State, of all the higher institutions that competed: in the first and second round of the competition, all students from other universities were knocked out. The competition was only left with students from institutions in Akwa Ibom State.”

In his speech, Essiet, who came first, said it was his determination not to let down the state that made him excel in Osun competition.

He said: “I did not sleep throughout the night.

When we entered the competition, I knew almost all the questions the quiz masters asked.”

He explained that after the competition the first, second, and the third place winners were rewarded with laptops (first and 2nd position) and two printers – one for the first place winner and the other for the third place winner.

•Special Assistant to the Governor on Student Matters, Ini Ememobong presenting cash prize to one of the winners, Aniebet Emmanuel.

•The winners Emmanuel Essiet (middle); Ebenezer Ekere (Left) and Aniebet Emmanuel (Right).

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Friday, August 23, 2013

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

POLITICS THE NATION

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E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

Taraba State is on edge, following reports that Governor Dambaba Suntai will return on Sunday, after 10 months of absence. Correspondent FANEN IHYONGO captures the excitement and anxiety of the people.

Excitement, anxiety as Taraba awaits Suntai’s return T ARABA State Governor Dambaba Suntai is expected back on Sunday, after 10 months of absence. The ailing governor was hospitalised in Germany and the United States (US) hospitals, following the injuries he sustained in a helicopter crash last year. His doctors, according to sources, said he was now fit to resume work at the State House, Jalingo.

Suntai was flown to Hannover, Germany, from where he was evacuated to the US on the advice of his Chief Physician, Prof. Zakari Yusuf Aliyu.

The governor piloted the ill-fated Cessna 208 aircraft, which also had onboard his Aide-de- Camp (ADC), Iliya Dasat, the Chief Detail, Joel Danladi, and the Chief Security Officer (CSO), Tino Dangana. The security aides, who were treated in Germany, have since returned home.

Suntai, who is said to be hale and hearty, is expected to depart the Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and Home in New York, for home on Sunday. The acting governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, has been officially informed.

During his long absence, there were moves to remove him, on claims that he was either incapacitated or dead. His associates say his return will disprove reportsthat his condition was sad.

In Taraba, there is unease. Many people are anxious; some are confused. There is panic in the antiSuntai camp. Suntai’s men ,who shifted loyalty to the acting governor are also panicky. While the governor’s family and political associates are happy, his antagonists are afraid.

Some people actually jubilated when the accident occured on October 25, last year. To them, Suntai’s return is bad news. To those who wept, planned his return calls for celebration. In other words, it is defeat for his opponents, but triumph for his loyalists, supporters and well-wishers.

Suntai’s deputy, Umar, who was sworn in on October 5, last year, succeeded Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, who was impeached .

When he became the acting governor, he prayed for speedy recovery for his boss. He is however, surrounded by fanatical supporters, who wanted him to be sworn in as governor.

Umar’s supporters mounted pressure on him to assert himself. A source said that the deputy governor always cautioned his supporters saying it was wrong to betray a benefactor.

He also explained that through providence became he deputy governor and acting governor. Umar also said that, even as acting governor, he has been exercising the powers of the governor as prescribed by the Constitution.

But, some party chieftains accuse him of pretending. The former Secretary to the Government (SSG), Ambassador Emmanuel Njiwah accused him of trying to manipulate the governor, without success.

Njiwah was among nine members of the State Executive Council sacked by the acting governor for allegedly failing to account for the N400 million Federal Government’s intervention funds for victims of the flood disaster in the state last year. But he claimed

• Governor Suntai, his wife, Hauwa, and children outside the hospital in Hannover, Germany.

that he was fired because he refused join those who said that Suntai was incapacitated. “I cannot betray my governor (Suntai)”, Njiwah said at a press conference.

The sacked commissioners are Anthony Jellason (Agriculture), Rebo Usman (Water Resources and Rural Development), Yakubu Agbaizo (Education), Charity Green (Women Affairs) and Jonah Agyo (Works). The sacked Special Advisers are Joshua Augustine (Revenue Matters), Mannaseh Kaura (Border Development), Tonyonga Binga (Education) and Joseph Magaji Tahwa (Rural Development).

Apart from Binga and Tahwa, other sacked officials were indicted by the House of Assembly, which adopted the report of its investigative committee on the utilisation of the flood funds.

“They were fired for failing to account for the N400 million federal government intervention funds provided for victims of the flood disaster in Taraba state last year”, Umar said in a statement.Binga and Tahwa bitterly, but Umar said their services were no longer required.

The Commissioner for Health, Prince Mustapha Hammangabdo, who was also indicted by the report, resigned few hours before the acting governor’s axe. Njiwah alleged that it was the acting governor who advised Hammangabdo to resign.

The sack has been heating up Taraba.There have been protests and counter protests.

Njiwah said the sacked officials only spent N300 million out of the N400 millions. He accused the acting governor of trying to feast on

the remaining funds. But Umar said he acted in the interest of the state.“My boss (Suntai) would have done same”, he said.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fact-finding panel of the on Taraba which visited Suntai in New York, was impressed with what it saw. Senator Hope Uzodinma-led panel was set up by the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. The committee members told the party that the governor was still fit to rule.

A lot of political changes have taken place in the last 10 months.

The House of Assembly Speaker Istifanus Haruna Gbana, was impeached and replaced with Hon. Haruna Tsokwa. Gbana was removed along with Deputy Speaker Abel Peter Diah and the Majority Leader, Charles Maijankai.

Umar, explained that the impeached House leaders were planning to remove him. Gbana and Diah denied the allegation.

The political situation in Taraba changed when Gbana and Diah, who are strong allies of the ailing governor, were shove aside.

The Gbana/Diah-led House impeached the former deputy governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Danladi, to pave the way for Umar. Danladi went to court to challenge the impeachment but he lost.

Njiwah and his group have sued the government. The sacked officials were accused by the flood victims of feasting on the relief funds.

Their cries prompted the House to investigate them.

In their suit, the sacked officials are seeking a declaration that their sack is null and void, and an order setting aside the ad hoc committee’s

report of the House.

They also want the court to restrain the acting governor from appointing other public officers to replace them. They are also praying the court to issue an order compelling Umar to apologise to them “for defamatory and/or libelous publication”.

The defendants include Speaker Haruna Tsokwa, the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee that investigated the sacked officials, Tanko Adamu Maikarfi, and other members of the committee-Edward Baraya, Yahaya Abdulrahman, Ibrahim Adamu Imam and Yohana Iratsi Adaki.

They alleged that the House denied them fair hearing. They also want the court to determine whether or not the failure of the ad hoc committee to invite them to respond to the allegations levelled against them did not breach their fundamental rights to fair hearing, as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.

But Speaker Tsokwa has stood his ground, saying that the sack officials were given enough time to defend themselves.

Umar appointed Mr. Garvey Yawe, the former Chief of Staff, as SSG. The acting governor also appointed Ahmed Yusuf, an engineer, as the Chief of Staff. Yusuf had been an opposition leader in the state for many years. He was urged to defect to PDP by Suntai in May last year. The governor later appointed him as the Chairman, Board of Taraba Investment and Properties Limited.

Umar however, has not replaced other sacked officials, apparently to dispel the claims by Suntai’s loyal-

‘In the last 10 months, a lot of political changes took place. The acting governor instigated the impeachment of former Speaker Istifanus Haruna Gbana, who was replaced by his ally, Hon. Haruna Tsokwa. Gbana was removed along with former Deputy Speaker Abel Peter Diah and the Majority Leader, Charles Maijankai’

ists that he is “over ambitious” and that he was subverting his boss.

The acting governor has directed other commissioners to oversee the affected ministries.

The Commissioner for Finance, Iliya Wanapia, is supervising the Ministry of Works. Information Commissioner Emmanuel Bello oversees the Ministry of Agriculture. Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation Isa Musa is supervising the Ministry of Education. The Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, G. T. Kataps, is in charge of the Health Ministry. Environment Commissioner Danfulani Kwetaka is in charge of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Commissioner for Social Welfare,Youth and Sports Abdulhadi Haruna Lau is supervising the Ministry of Water Resources.

Majority of the commissioners are pro-Suntai; they were appointed by him. This makes Umar to believe that they do not want him to be sworn in as substantive governor. “But being pro-Suntai does not mean being anti-Umar”, one of the commissioners said.

“Ours is loyalty to the state government. Whoever is in the saddle has to be supported. We hear a lot of stories, such as; the acting governor is reshuffling the cabinet tomorrow, next week and so on. We don’t actually understand him”, he added.

The Muslim elite from the Northern geo-political zone had wanted Umar to take over, so that he could run as the governorship candidate in 2015. Their belief is that, if the acting governor contests as an incumbent, he can muzzle the ruling party to give him the ticket, so that he can become the first Muslim governor, since Taraba State was created on August 27, 1991.

As Suntai returns, he is likely to relinquish power to the Southern Zone. Although Taraba does not practice power shift, the governor had promised the zone that he would handover to one of the indigenes of the area.

But there are still ‘doubting Thomases’, who think that Suntai will not come back. They ask: Is Suntai is returning, or an impostor?

Will he be physically and mentally strong to carry on as governor?

The pro-Umar group is angry with the acting governor for not being “decisive”. They allege that Umar is playing along with Suntai’s loyalists to shield the governor.

Suntai will return to meet a divided state and party. His stickers are on his supporters vehicles. But Umar’s supporters also carry the acting governor’s sticker.

Umar has allegedly opened a campaign office, where his supporters meet to plot Suntai’s fall. The office, claimed to be a PDP Youth Vanguard Secretariat, is located a few metres from the party’s office, at No 29, Barde Way, beside the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), in Jalingo.

Suntai’s loyalists, including the PDP chairman, Mr. Victor Bala, have frowned at the move. Bala’s fate as chairman is hanging in the balance.

Some stakeholders are plotting his removal.

There has been a lull in party activities. Suntai’s absence and politics of succession have polarised the party.

The camps work at cross purpose.

Will the governor’s return re-unite the divided fold or deepen the crisis?

Time will tell.

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POLITICS ‘APC will make a difference’ Foremost Awoist and associate of the former Ondo State Governor Adekunle Ajasin in the Second Republic, Dr. Akerele Adu is the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. He spoke with LEKE AKEREDOLU on the challenges confronting the newly registered party.

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S the APC leader in Ondo State, how would you compare the politics of Awolowo’s era and that of today?

I have spent a long time in politics and I can say there is no basis for comparison. They are dramatically opposed to each other. Politics in the days of Awolowo was based on sincerity, service to the people, principle, transparency, and the concept of human capital development. But nowadays, it is politics of money. The politics of today is simply dominated by money.

You will see politicians, who will tell you that you can’t win an election without spending money and that is why, it is now so difficult to have credible politicians in the country because money has taken over. For instance, if someone wants to contest a political post in a party, instead of the party leaders to look at such person’s credibility, performance, background and previous records, they will ignore all these and focus on how deep his pocket is. It wasn’t like that during Awolowo’s era. We do not care about money and that is why, till today, most of the infrastructure put in place in the Southwest by these great men are still in existence. That is why people are still agitating for such people to rule the region again.

What is your reaction to the registration of the APC? We are really excited because this is the first time in the history Nigeria, even in Africa, we are having workable merger. It has never happened before.

Most of the time, they will do it to a certain level and it will collapsed. This time, we have a successful merger, which I think is now ready to unseat the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) come 2015.

However, leaders involved in the merging issue should be very careful because the PDP has a very strong foundation, the ruling party is just like a big tower that has a concrete foundation and which we are trying to pull down.

They must be very careful in the sense that the PDP building, which will are trying to pull down, should not be allowed to fall on smaller buildings surrounding it. What we are saying is that the leadership of APC must be very careful because politicians from PDP are coming enmasse to join the new party. They must be very careful and prepare to make sure that those who have the dream of joining the party are progressives minded people. They must not leave the party to any fallout of PDP to come and take up the party.

I commend the leaders of ACN, ANPP, CPC and factional leaders of APGA for ensuring that the merger worked out.

What is your advice to the leaders of the APC as 2015 general elections draw near?

My advice is that they should not put their ambition above the party’s interest, if they want the APC to maintain its present popularity. If they don’t heed this advice, that will be the end of APC. The party must be very careful because it is the new bride and every man will like to woo it. Starting from the ward level, they must be very careful. Like the case of Ondo State now, that is why we are careful before selecting our leaders.

Any comparison between APC and the proscribed SDP? The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in those days is like the APC now, they are the progressives. If you remember very well, during the era of SDP and NRC, that was the first time Nigeria has the freest elections. We can say that APC and SDP are the same. I am seeing the APC as peoples’ party that will take us to the promise land. Immediately after the party was registered, I learnt that some governors were busy calling the interim national chairman of the party. I won’t like to mentioned their names. There was jubilation at the National Assembly and all over the country because the people are tired of PDP. PDP is already sinking. If not for the merging of APC, Nigeria would have been seating on a gun powder because of the issue of insecurity, particularly, in the northern region but for the merging now people are now looking at APC as the unifying factor bringing the northerners and southerners together to discuss on how to salvage the country from ruling PDP. Not the release of El-Mustapha that Fasehun was claiming was to bring unity among the northerners and Yorubas. APC is the only bridging factor that want to bridge Nigeria together.

If not APC was registered the 2015 would have remained the same, where PDP as usual will use its usual method to retain in power, but the emergence of APC, things will change totally. I must thank Jega for using his own wisdom and independent mind to ensure APC was registered. The Presidency tried to ensure APC was not register but we thank God their mission failed because people who were in PDP were happy that APC was registered, market women, civil servants, students and others were also happy because they do not believe any good thing will come out from PDP again and they look at APC as the new beautiful bride but if you are a beautiful bride, you must be very careful so that you won’t marry the wrong man. My believe for APC is that the leaders are sincere to re-write the history of Nigeria properly.

Despite the contributions of some Northerners to the emergence of theAPC, some politicians still believe the party is still a Yoruba party. What is your reaction?

It is not about Southwest, though, ACN may has the lion’s share but they have submitted their pride in order to make the merging work. It is not about Southwest alone but all progressives parties that is why we have governors from the Southwest, Southsouth, North and Southeast who are working in building the party. Not only this, like I said earlier governors from the ruling PDP are also knocking that they will like to join the APC. Do you think their move was because of Tinubu or Akande? The party has gone beyond that. If it is the leaders of ACN from the Southwest who are driving the force is there anything bad in that? You should note that Yoruba always lead in terms of performance while others follow.

I am really excited that leadership of APC have been able to identified some progressive leaders in the north and also in the South, look at Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha is performing and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is also doing well. All these governors, particularly, those who are in PDP are tired of their party. With this, we should believe that APC is in the country for good.

•Akerele

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Senator Emmanuel Bwacha represents Taraba South District in the Senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU in Lagos on why the acting governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, cannot become the substantive governor.

‘Why Taraba acting governor can’t be substantive governor’

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HE acting governor of Taraba State was expected to act for 21 days before assuming full power, but it is over a year now…

The deputy governor can be in an to acting capacity, but the constitution did not define the time frame for the acting capacity. Get this very clear. You should also remember that a precedent has been set. The case of Taraba State governor is similar to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was out of office for a period of time. President Jonathan is showing some measure of concern in this matter because there was a similarity to what happened when he was the Vice President. He wasn’t pronounced as the Acting President, until Yar’Adua died.

We amended the constitution that empowers the Vice President or the deputy governor to assume the acting capacity, once the President or the governor is out for 21 days and this is what happened in Taraba State.

The question people should be asking is whether the acting governor wants to be substantive governor because some of these controversies are coming from the opposition, who couldn’t get the thing through the ballot. So, they are trying to come through the back door.

Let the acting governor tell the world whether he want to be substantive governor. We should ask whether the governor is in a permanent state of incapacitation because some people are playing politics with his health. I visit the governor regularly and I can tell you he is recuperating fast. The committee that was set up by the party to fast-track processes to adhere to the constitution visited him in New York and we saw the pictures in some of the newspapers.

There is nothing to worry about. The governor will soon be here. The people in the state never like the committee to visit the governor because they regarded it as illegality. Their argument was that the party has no business to delve into the processes as it affects the office of the governor. It is within the power of the PDP to decide how it can reconcile its members, but certainly not how it will take decisions on constitutional matters. That was strictly a matter for the House of Assembly, which was very clear in Chapter 6, Part 2, Section 190 of the Constitution. How long the acting governor is going to act is not clearly defined in the constitution. The deputy governor can act as long as the regime last.

Is it true that you don’t want the acting governor to assume full capacity because you also nursing the ambition to contest for the post?

I have never heard that. Our worry is that some of these calls are not coming from the state, but they are coming from outside. Taraba State is working; the acting governor is doing everything to move the state forward. I don’t know whether he is complaining that he is not being given the chances to act as the substantive governor. I really don’t know what people want?

What is the situation now with the governor?

First of all, an accident took place. It was all over the place that the governor is dead. It was first reported by Sahara Reporters. Even, some television houses reported he was dead, but they changed the news the following day.

Later on, they said he was in a vegetable state and from there, they said he could no longer recognise people and later, they said he was talking.

They said he spoke with the President and the Vice President. But later, we saw him walking out with the team

• Bwacha

that visited him in New York. I don’t know which story will follow again.

Maybe, finally, when we see him in the Government House, Jalingo, they would say he is not the one. There was a time they rumoured it was his brother that was holding forth for him.

I now begin to imagine the kind of mischief surrounding the governor’s accident? When has it become a crime for someone to get involved in an accident he never bargain for? This could happen to anybody. People should rather thank God and celebrate with him, instead of the politics they were playing.

Would you like to contest for the governorship?

When people ask me this type of question, it amazes me because I have put in 23 years in active politics. In a developed democracy, senators show interest in the Presidency. You should ask me whether I want to contest for the Presidency. If the call for me to serve as the governor is coming from the people, I will not mind. I have been hearing this from people, but if God is going to promote me, let it not be a hindrance to my journey to heaven.

But if it is going to be the type that will get me involved in the things of the world, I don’t like it.

Would you want Jonathan to continue in 2015?

Jonathan has served one term. He is coming from the Southsouth and the President is qualified, even on the basis of rotation, which has become the common language. In our political terrain, it is as if the Southsouth would have got its second term after 2015 and any other region can have that opportunity.

It is not strictly on the basis that the entire South brings one side and the entire North brings one side. We are looking at Nigeria from the perspective of regions. If it goes to the North, it will either be to my own northern region or the Northwest. If it moves to the South, it is either to the South-

‘The deputy governor can be in an to acting capacity, but the constitution did not define the time frame for the acting capacity. Get this very clear. You should also remember that a precedent has been set. The case of Taraba State governor is similar to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was out of office for a period of time’

west or the East or Southsouth.

Now the Southsouth has taken its first term and it is going to take another term in 2015. We believe Nigerians should give him that opportunity so that all of us will have that sense of belonging.

How did you see the threat of the opposition to dislodge the PDP from power?

Well, the opposition is good because it will put the government on its toes, but I can assure you it is not a threat. I can see the opposition as strange bedfellows. The presence of the opposition is good for our democracy because it puts the party in government on its toes, but I am not looking at it as a threat that is capable of unseating the PDP government in 2015.

The argument is that Jonathan is not doing enough…

These are individual opinions. But irrespective of whatever anybody is saying, I am a Northerner and I can tell you the preponderance of opinions; that an average northern minority wants Jonathan to continue in 2015.

If those northerners, who were saying Mr. President cannot continue, like Ango Abdullahi, are expressing our opinions, I wouldn’t be saying something different.

What about the five Northern governors who are saying that, if the PDP fields Jonathan in 2015, they would leave the party?

If they would allow me to advise them, I would have simply encouraged them to back Jonathan because the southern minorities at different intervals backed them. Therefore, I think this is an opportunity for them to reciprocate so that Nigeria can be stable.

Should the fact that Jonathan comes from the minority group be used as excuse to support him while he has become unpopular?

I do not know the yardstick you are using to measure his unpopularity. Is it that many people have expressed their opinion in the papers or is it that you have gone round to conduct opinion polls and discovered that he is not popular.

The feeling is that the President has not lived up to expectation...

My view is that Jonathan is qualified to run for a second term. The reason being that Mr. President has achieved.

If you say contrary, I would like to know the yardstick through which you are trying to measure his achievements. The instability, insecurity, which people are talking about, is already taking shape in the Northeast.

Apart from this, what are those spectacular things other leaders have done that Jonathan has not done? Can you point out one?

Critics say that he has failed in transportation, power sector, infrastructure and many others…

In the rail sector, the Kaduna-Abuja rail has been awarded. We have a member of the committee and we witnessed that award. For the first time, the rail sector has been rejuvenated.

When you are assessing a regime, it is essential that you dwell on those areas that you know him to have failed but of course you must also highlights these areas there are improvements too.

The power sector, we know we are progressing. Is there any plan or progress that the past administrations made that Jonathan has departed from?

The power challenge is a recurring problem in the history of Nigeria. Since independence, the traditional problem is power instability. Government comes in and goes out without being able to solve the problem. So, you cannot say it is a problem that was created by the Jonathan’s presidency.

ADVOCACY

PROTEST

Residents decry high cost of kerosene

‘Adult literacy can drive nation’s growth Ekiti

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Enugu

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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REWARD

Council chief lifts youths with N6.4m Cross River

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Email: news_extra@yahoo.com

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OW best can you help the needy? Do you throw some cash their way and wave them away?

A non-governmental organisation, Jesus Abandoned Charity Organisation has a better approach.

In reaching out, the NGO based in Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, pays closer attention to the weak in the society.

They have given food and clothing to over 3,000 physically-challenged persons.

Those that were ill among them received free medical treatment. And they were not all from Anambra State; some came from Imo and Enugu.

The beneficiaries came expecting but the benefactors were prepared with a 40-ft container loaded with rice, clothing, medicaments and wheelchairs, among others.

Making the donations at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Umuohi Okija, the founder of the organisation Reverend Fr Anthony Ananwa said it was the fourth time the centre was making this kind of charity effort.

Fr. Ananwa said that free medical treatment also involved Acupuncture, the ancient Chinese medical alternative, which came in handy for over 1,000 patients. The Reverend Father added that the organization partnered God Heals Medical Centre for the free medical treatment.

“It is a wonderful outing and we give glory to God,” he said.

“We underestimated those who came because many of them didn’t get all they anticipated. People came from Enugu, Anambra and Imo states and because of the receiving culture we have in Nigeria, everybody wanted to re-

•Fr. Ananwa gives out a wheelchair to a beneficiary

Succour for the weak in Anambra 3000 fed, clothed, treated by NGO

From Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, Nnewi

ceive one thing or the other. We distributed 200 bags of rice. We bought 400 buckets and filled them with rice which we distributed. We gave them food and drinks. All the homes and centres went home with specific items they needed because we took an inventory of their needs before making appeals for the donations you are seeing today;

even the Rotary Club Nnewi, District 9140 equally collected wheelchairs for some people.

“The theme of my homily was, ‘Who Are You?’. I challenged them not to lose hope and faith in God by having self-pity but to be challenged and do their best at all times in any circumstance since God has the perfect plans for their lives. I pleaded with them not to see themselves as challenged or handicapped but

as perfect creatures of God and be happy at all times for only God can have answers to their worries and nobody else. I urged them to look unto God at all times and be more prayerful.”

Fr Ananwa traced the history of Jesus Abandoned Charity Organisation to Australia where he went for studies, adding that it was formed to give hope to the hopeless especially the destitute and less privileged. He said that their organisation is non-profit and open to everybody.

Joy as Emir reclaims throne

By M.L. Ismail

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•Alhaji Ahmed

Muhammad

Seyoji

HE entire emirate of Pindiga in Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State came alive as Alhaji Mohammed Seyoji Ahmed was reappointed to the traditional stool he vacated nine years ago.

He was received amidst celebrations. The palace and its surroundings were filled to capacity. Residents of the emirate, young and old, scrambled to catch a glimpse of him.

Others sang his praise, expressing their joy for his return. They sang and danced from one end of the town to the other as well as in and out of the palace. Some even wept for joy.

The groundswell of merriment witnessed on Monday, August 12, 2013 upon the return of His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ahmed seemed to have obliterated the memories of his then successor, Alhaji Adamu Haruna Yakubu who was removed about two weeks before.

“That could only mean one of two things or both; either Seyoji is far more popular or his successor left much to be desired or both,” said a member of the community, Malam Isa Adamu as he spoke about the celebration of the reception of the new traditional ruler.

Alhaji Adamu Haruna Yakubu had been on the throne for the last nine years. But within the last couple of years, his antics regarding

public interest daily pointed to his eventual fate, especially when they assumed an intolerable dimension of late.

It therefore did not come as a surprise when he was asked to step aside to give room for credible investigation after which he was found wanting and ultimately sent packing and Alhaji Ahmed Jauro, Galadima Pindiga was appointed to oversee the affairs of the emirate pending the appointment of a substantive Emir.

Adamu Yakubu was, among other things, accused of causing disunity, disaffection and ill-feelings among the people of his emirate, inciting the public against government and gross insubordination

The Father said further that the organisation has previously given out wheelchairs, clutches, clothes, shoes and other life-enhancing materials to thousands of destitute and physically challenged persons.

He added stretchers were also donated to RECDOT home in Ozubulu, and bags of rice to Okija Leprosy Centre.

The organisation also has challenges, one of which land but Ananwa explained that is •Continued on Page 46 to constituted authority – the government. And when the powers-that-be could not condone his gross breach of the rules any longer, he was eased off the traditional seat for peace and development to reign.

But this was not until he was duly investigated and found guilty of the indictments levelled against him. This was confirmed by the Secretary to the Gombe State Government (SSG), Alhaji Abubakar Sule Bage at the Emir’s Palace in Pindinga when he said a committee set up by the government to investigate the many complaints brought against the former Emir, Alhaji Adamu Haruna Yakubu, found him guilty.

He added that “the committee investigated and found the •Continued on Page 48

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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Succour for the weak •Continued from Page 45

soliciting for about 15 to 20 plots of land from the Anambra State government to build its permanent site which would contain a hospital for free medical care.

The facility, he said, will equally be a centre for distribution of relief items as well as Adoration ground for worship.

He also requested the Peter Obi administration to appeal on behalf of the organisation to the Federal Government to remove import duties and other charges on their containers since it is given free of charge to uplift humanity in the country.

In his remarks Governor Peter Obi assured the Jesus Abandoned Charity Organisation that his government would give them every required support to actualise its mission and objective since their desires.

Obi, represented by Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Pat Obi, requested for prayers for hitchfree governorship and local government elections in the state in October and November. They prayed that humane people, one of whom better than Obi, to be elected to improve upon what the incumbent administration has done.

He commended them for championing the course of abandoned people in the society and donated an undisclosed sum to the organisation.

Also speaking Rev Fr Linus Okafor who came with physically challenged people from Ukpor appreciated Fr Ananwa for thinking about others’ welfare, especially the less privileged and abandoned in the soHE Ekiti State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology Mr. Kehinde Ojo has said that the adult literacy programmes can contribute to Nigeria’s socio-economic development.

According to him, with adequate training and enlightenment, “the informal school participants can be empowered to be more active as players in today’s world.”

The Commissioner said this at a six-day training of 111 non-formal education (NFE)

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•Participants at the event

•The parishioners

ciety.

The partnering medical team from God Knows Medical PR.T.Zeph led by an Acupuncture, Dr Dieudonne Timti treated various ailments including Fibroids, Hernia, prostate cancer, to mention a few.

He informed that Acupuncture treatment for Fibroids lasts for ten days in which the patient is cured. He was seen using medical pins to operate without cutting open the body.

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke admitted that they were coming to St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Umuohi Okija, for the fourth time to benefit from the largess of the Jesus Abandoned Charity Organisation.

They prayed for the sustenance of the gesture.

•Bags of clothes given out at the event

‘Adult literacy can drive nation’s growth’ From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

facilitators drawn from the 16 local government areas of the state.

In his speech entitled “Revitalising Adult and Youth Literacy Programme in Ekiti State,” Ojo urged governments across the country to give adequate attention to adult lit-

eracy programmes, even as he noted that “any government that toys with the training and development of its workforce gets mediocre, unproductive and redundant service.”

He further explained that achieving the goal of education for all (EFA) requires innovation in pattern of teaching of adult education partici-

pants, saying “the excluded and marginalised people (out-of-school youth and adults) in our society must be reached and made to participate in the country’s development process.”

He stated that the Ekiti State government entered into partnerships with relevant stakeholders such as UNESCO, NMEC and other agencies to provide teaching and learning materials, vocational equipment and capacity building in favour of youth and adult literacy programme.

He listed the benefits of the training programme to include improvement of the participants’ knowledge on the concept, scope, challenges / constraints of NFE programmes in the state; having a clearer view and meaning of NFE components, behaviours and characteristics, acquiring necessary skills for advocacy,

sensitisation, mobilisation, and registration for adult literacy programmes and attaining the EFA goal of being literate before the year 2015.

Welcoming the participants, Chairman, Governing Board of the Agency Chief David Adeyanju, noted that the “psyche of most stakeholders in adult and non-formal education has been steadily traumatised in the past due to inadequate attention, poor funding, lack of motivation, training and re-training of the workforce in the system.

Others in attendance at the opening session were the Owajumu of Omuo-Ekiti, Oba Joseph Ogundeji and Elejelu of Ijelu, Oba Oguntoyinbo Ajayi and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment who represented the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Olu Ogunsinmi.

Achieving the goal of education for all (EFA) requires innovation in pattern of teaching of adult education participants...

The excluded and marginalised people (out-of-school youth and adults) in our society must be reached and made to participate in the country’s development process

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

47

Kidnap girl’s parents cry out over delay in suspect’s trial

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HE parent of a kidnap victim, Miss Tejiri JegedeIkpen has cried out over the alleged delay in charging the kidnap suspect to court by the Delta State Commissioner of Police.

The 11-year-old victim and a JSS 3 student of Presentation National High School, BeninCity, Edo State was kidnapped on June 28, 2013 on Adonophe Road, Ughelli, in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.

The father of the victim, Mr. Samuel Jegede-Ikpen, stated that on June 28, 2013, his daughter, Miss Tejiri JegedeIkpen returned from school after her JSS 3 examination and was kidnapped the following day.

Narrating the incident to reporters, Mr. Jegede-Ikpen explained that he took his daughter from school on June 27, 2013 after she had finished her examinations and on June 28, she went to her mother’s shop where a motorcycle rider who came under the pretext of buying drinks, deceived the little girl and took her away after telling her that her mother asked him to bring her.

Jegede-Ikpen said: “The suspect, on a motorbike, came to our shop and asked the

E

XPERTS have warned that current approach to disaster management must be overhauled in order to significantly scale back its adverse effects.

At a two-day seminar organised for journalists by an NGO, ActionAid and the International Press Centre (IPC) in Lagos, it was agreed that government at all levels need to rise above the ‘charity’ approach with which they are currently handling disasters to the level of ensuring adequate budgets and structure to minimise their occurances.

The lecture whose theme was: ‘Disaster C o m m u n i c a t i o n , Accountability in Disaster Management and Conflict’,

From Polycarp Orosevwotu, Warri

salesgirl that he was buying drinks worth N11,400 and he paid only N10,000 and requested the salesgirl to come with her for the balance. While they were going, the salesgirl complained that the distance was much that she could not go further and the bikeman dropped her and demanded that his money be given back to him.

“The bikeman immediately returned to the shop where he asked little Tejiri Jegede-Ikpen to come with him that the mother asked him to bring her.

She followed him until they got to a village called Ophorigbala in Olomu, Ughelli South Local Government Area before she realised that she was being taken elsewhere. She started struggling on the bike until she was taken to an abandoned building in the village in a vehicle in the company of three persons.

“It was a man who was going through that path that heard my daughter’s screams and confronted the suspect. Before then, they had asked my daughter to hide somewhere, but the man went ahead and saw the little child in the house and immediately alerted the community people who came and appre-

•A truck falls into a ditch while offloading sand in Gombe

hended the suspect and handed him over to the police in Ughelli A Division after a face-off with the man.”

Jegede-Ikpen, who lamented that since the suspect was taken to Asaba, nothing has been heard about the case, even upon promises and expectations that

the boy was going to be charged to court.

He alleged that the boy who allegedly confessed that another person gave him information that led to the kidnap of the girl, was neither investigated nor did the house the girl was taken to demolished, adding

that he does not even know if the suspect has been released or not since there was no information about the present state of the suspect.

When contacted on the incident, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer Mr. Lucky Uyabeme said that the suspect would soon be charged to court.

How to manage disasters, by experts

By Precious Igbonwelundu

was delivered by ActionAid’s Human Security Manager, Gbenro Olajuyigbe.

It highlighted the ills of disaster management in the country.

He decried the lack of accountability in disaster management in the country, noting that most states in the country do not have functioning State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA).

Olajuyigbe decried practices where politicians spend money meant for SEMA and incapacitate the agencies such that they lack logistics to carry

out their daily activities.

He lambasted the federal government for doling out the sum of N17.6 billion to states after the flooding incident in 2012, insisting that the federal government failed to monitor how such funds were used or managed.

In 2012 alone, natural disasters killed nearly 200,000 people, affected more than 300 million others, and caused a record $366 billion in economic damage worldwide, said Olajuyigbe.

In Nigeria, Olajuyigbe noted that some of the most widespread incidences of catastrophic flooding were

•An official of Jama’tul Nasril Islam (middle) presents a gift to Christian Association of Nigeria leader in Jos

recorded from June 2012, such that about 70 per cent of the states were affected.

According to him, this was in addition to various violent security challenges and outbreaks of conflicts in various regions in the country.

“Reports and studies have clearly demonstrated that the impact of future disaster is likely to be even more devastating. Disasters are expected to become more frequent in the future and to take a greater toll due to climate change, a growing world population, and more people settling in hazardprone areas”, Olajuyigbe noted.

Since Emergency Preparedness/Disaster risk reduction are multifaceted and long-term works Olajuigbe said media and women groups are central to the effort as encapsulated in the Hyogo Framework of Action.

He said there was need for accurate disaster mapping as well as data, adding that stakeholders need to be proactive and put adequate infrastructures in place.

“There is need to ensure accountability and transparency in disaster management, so as to enhance people and state action to understand and reduce vulnerability, access support

and embrace the culture of sustainable development.

“Documentation is also necessary because it helps to manage post-camp integration. The government has to know it has duty to the affected persons and not rendering them favour, hence, there should be a responsibility framework in place and capacity building to develop personnel should be encouraged.

“Failure on the part of the government to take necessary proactive steps in disaster management leads to the abuse of people’s rights; weakens donors and actors; promote corruption as well as reinforces vulnerability,” he said.

Also speaking, Director, IPC, Lanre Arogundade highlighted the role of the media in disaster management and declared that the training could not have come at a better time than now when Nigeria is passing through a lot of security and disaster-related challenges.

He urged journalists to uphold media ethics as well as social responsibility in disaster reporting. He also urged participants to go the extra mile to investigate and write stories that can hold the various stakeholders accountable.

There is need to ensure accountability and transparency in disaster management, so as to enhance people and state action to understand and reduce vulnerability, access support and embrace the culture of sustainable development

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

48

Our mission is to build a better Nigeria through the use ICT to promote socio-economic development and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in order to alleviate poverty

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HE Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State has given out cheques of N100, 000 each to 64 of its youths to invest in various trades.

Presenting the cheques at the council’s secretariat, the council chairman, Mr. Dennis Nkiri, said one of the most effective ways to stem youths’ restiveness is by making sure they are meaningfully engaged.

He said: “In every community, the youth form over 70 per cent of its population. So, if you do not take care of them, you are in trouble. We have an arrangement in which they help to collect the revenues at the wards. We are using a percentage of the internally-generated revenue (IGR) they raked in to empower them.

“We have a programme of youth integration which is in line with our earlier promise during campaigns. So far, this is the third phase and it is continuous because our internallygenerated revenue has increased to about N10m monthly. So, each of the 64 youths has been given cheques of N100, 000. ”Those wards that produce more IGR will get more empowerment and this empowerment will be a continuum. Before now, we could hardly get N50, 000 as IGR per month because the villagers were taking over the revenue collection. It was only recently that the state gov-

•Continued from Page 45 former Emir to be disloyal and among other things not supportive of Government.”

The SSG further explained in a press release that “in exercise of the powers vested in him by the Creation of Emirates, Districts, Villages, Wards and Appointment and Deposition of Emirs and Chiefs (Amendment) Law of 2004, His Excellency Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, OON, (Talban Gombe), Governor of Gombe State has approved the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Seyoji Ahmed as the Emir of Pindiga with effect from 12th August, 2013.”

Adamu Haruna Yakubu was replaced exactly two weeks after by Alhaji Mohammed Seyoji Ahmed who was unjustifiably thrown out nine

•Dennis Nkiri (right) presents a cheque to a beneficiary

Council chief lifts youths with N6.4 million From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

ernment assisted us to get this formula that has helped to improve our collection impres-

sively.”

He also said the council has so far empowered 120 women in different fields of endeavours

since 2011, adding that the latest beneficiaries are expected to utilise the funds given to them on farming.

Joy as Emir reclaims throne years ago by the immediate past administration in the state, using the instrumentality of the Emirate’s kingmakers constituted by the same government without taking public interest into cognizance.

But the good thing here is that Seyoji (as the new Emir is fondly called) has not just returned, but his then successor, now his predecessor was removed in the most neutral and just manner which reflects the principles of fairness, equity and justice Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has always preached.

The new Emir was appointed on the recommendations of the reconstituted Kingmakers Council of Pindiga Emirate which received interest from six candidates within the three ruling houses of the Emirate

•Beautified Under-Bridge area of Ijora, Lagos

that included the House of Shuaibu, Hassan and Yakubu, explained the SSG. Alhaji Sule Bage then charged the new Emir to be responsible to all persons within his emirate and to avoid revenge or discrimination of any sort because his enthronement was ordained by God. He also drew the attention of the new Emir to the need for obedience to constituted authority by ensuring that he takes permission before traveling out of the state at any point in time or for any reason.

The SSG also announced some adjustments in the Emirate where one of the contestants to the Emir’s

throne, Alhaji Mustafa Aliyu Hassan was appointed the District head of Kashere while Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Jauro was moved from being the District Head of Kashere to Gwaram, also as its District Head.

But it was the Wazirin Pindiga, Alhaji Samaila Mua’zu Hassan who made it clear to traditional leaders that their stool should not be mixed up with politics; rather, it should serve as a unifying factor and a bridge between the government and the people.

The Waziri of Pindiga, equally from a ruling house in the emirate reminded all and sundry that Seyoji’s recent re-

Beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the council, even as they promised they would put the funds to good use.

instatement should not be seen as a continuation of the initial reign that was truncated nine years ago but an entirely different ball game.

Rightly reacting to words of wisdom, the new Emir promised to be that pillar on which the people could actually rest on and be rest assured of the needed support, a rallying point and a symbol of unity with an assurance to be guided by the rules of his engagement.

Alhaji Mohammed Seyoji Ahmed was deposed as a Second Class Emir and by providence returned as a ‘First Class’.

M. L. Ismail writes from Bolari Quarters of Gombe metropolis

Nsukka residents decry high cost of kerosene

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ESIDENTS of Nsukka in Enugu State have decried the high cost of kerosene, which costs between N145 and N170 per litre as against the official pump price of N50.

Mrs Joy Ugwuja, a civil servant, who commented on the situation in an interview with newsmen, criticised its dealers for selling the commodity above the official price.

“It is unfortunate that owners of filling stations have continued to exploit residents by selling kerosene that many families depend on to cook and light their lamp at exorbitant price.

“For the past two months, kerosene has been selling for between N145 and N170 and relevant government agencies have done nothing to call petroleum marketers to order.

“To compound the situation, public power supply is not there; we sometimes stay for three to four

Enugu days without seeing electricity,’’ she said.

Also reacting to the situation, Mr Sunny Ezeugwu, a commercial bus driver, urged the government to intervene to save the residents from further exploitation.

“What confuses me is that there is no strike by labour unions in the power sector or by NNPC that may warrant such hike in the price of kerosene.

“The commodity is not scarce; filling stations are selling it at their own price because nobody is monitoring them. I do not know why the poor in this country have continued to be the object of exploitation.

“I spend almost all the profit I make from my motor business to buy kerosene to enable my family cook and light our lamp at night since PHCN cannot be relied on,’’ he said.

•Governor Chime Mrs Charity Onu, a widow, said the high cost of kerosene had added to the suffering of her family.

“Because of the high cost of kerosene, we put off our kerosene lamp when we go to bed in order to preserve kerosene.

“Last week Thursday, I could not cook our dinner because we had no kerosene and no money to buy the fuel.”

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NEWS

Travails of a new wig A paper delivered at the graduating ceremony in honour of the final-year law students of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State on June 15, 2013 by WAHAB SHITTU •Continued from Tuesday F you think you dare not, you don’t If you like to win, but think you can’t It’s almost certain you won’t…

Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man But soon or late, the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can.” (d) Belief in your mission The other variable of belief in yourself is belief in your mission in life. This will enlarge you and determines your expectations. The formula is simple.

“You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside.”

You must never be afraid of making mistakes. Indeed there are two kinds of people in this world, those who want to get things done and those who don’t want to make mistakes. I challenge you to make your choices without fear of making mistakes for not to decide is to decide. (e)Passion Another important element that would guarantee success in your legal career is your passion for the job. Indeed what carries people to the top, what makes them take risks and go the extra mile to achieve their goals is not their talent but their passion. You must love the legal profession and enjoy working as a lawyer or else you may miss it. This is because your passion is the first step to achievement. It increases your will power. Please ask yourselves these questions: “What do you sing about?

What do you cry about?

What do you dream about?”

Your answer to the last question is what determines what will bring you fulfillment tomorrow. Therefore, if there is any of you in this hall who thinks he/she does not have passion for law, then it is not too late to engage the reverse gear as you can only be successful in legal practice if you have passion of the job. This is because passion produces energy and is the foundation to excellence as well as the key to success.

In the words of Tim Redmond: “There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few that catch my heart. It is those I consider to pursue.”

Having identified your passion, then you must take steps to protect your passion and pursue same with everything you have got. (f) Take Initiatives The third ingredient of success apart from passion is initiative. I enjoin all of you not to ‘siddon look’ but to take initiatives. Chief GaniFawehinmi took initiative when he started the Weekly Law Reports of Nigeria to fill a lacuna in legal practice. And this was one of the factors for his greatness.

Please note that initiative is the first step to anywhere you want to go and opens the door to opportunities. Please ask yourself is there a decision you should be making?

Is there a problem you should be solving? Is there a possibility you should be examining? Is there a project you should be starting? Is there a goal you should be reaching? Is there an opportunity you should be seizing or a dream you should be fulfilling? Do not wait a minute longer seize the initiative today.

In the words of Dawson Trotman: “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started.” Do not wait

1

till tomorrow to take your initiatives. This is because the best way to begin is to begin. (g)Be Focused One other element of success that you need to have is focus, as this directs your talent. Let me illustrate this issue of focus with the reality of our profession. When you are called to bar as a lawyer, there are several doors open to you for access. You can decide to stay back here and lecture, you may also decide to embrace private legal practice, some of you can also decide to go into corporate world and contribute to the economy. There are also windows of opportunities available in non-governmental Organisations, other may choose to embrace consultancy, yet others may veer into politics and politicking, yet others may also choose to go to legislative houses of assemblies or render support services to the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary including the Civil Service etc.

Let me assure you that there is none of these windows of opportunities that cannot guarantee you success in the long run. But you must make up your mind today which of the windows of opportunities you want to access and stay focused on that window if you want to achieve meaningful success in the long run. In other words, you cannot afford to aprobate and reprobate at the same time or imagine you can access all of these windows at the same time without dire consequences. Therefore, if you want to stay in private legal practice as your passion, stay focused in private legal practice if indeed you want to attain great success as a lawyer. This is because focus lifts you, expands your life and must be intentionally sustained. Indeed if you want to be successful, you must focus on what you can do and not on what you can’t. In the words of Hank Aaron: “I think what separates a superstar from the average ball player is that he concentrates just a little bit longer.”

Therefore, stay focused on the present, focus on your strengths not your weaknesses, focus on results and focus on your priorities.

I know for instance that great lawyers in Nigeria are really very focused people. From the East, one can mention OlisaAgbakoba SAN, Awa Kalu SAN, O. J. Okocha SAN, etc. In the South South, one can mention; Austin Alege SAN, Chief Mike Ozekhomeh SAN, Charles Edosomwan SAN etc. In the South West, one can mention, Late Chief Rotimi Williams SAN, Chief AfeBabalola SAN, Late Chief GaniFawehinmi SAN, Chief WoleOlanipekun SAN, Femi Falana SAN and many others. In the North, we have such great lawyers as J. B. Dawodu SAN, A. B. Mamood SAN, Abdullahi SAN, RikiTarfa SAN. One thing common to all these great lawyers is that they remain focused on private legal practice. (h)Preparation The other ingredient of success in your legal career is the element of preparation. You cannot overcome great challenges if you are unprepared. This means constantly, you must read, research and consult authorities well ahead of proceedings, whether in court or elsewhere. You must see the value of preparation before action.

Preparation allows you to tap into your talent and is also a key to suc-

cess. The questions you must ask yourself always are: What work is to be done?

How is it to be done?

When is it to be done?

Where is it to be done?

How fast can it be done?

What do I need to get it done?

Your answers to these questions will prepare you for the task ahead.

The only thing that relieves pressure is preparation. (i) Practice as a vehicle to perfection The next element of success is practice as practice makes perfect.

As lawyers you must always oil your skills and be prepared to step up your game. It is practice that enables development and leads to discovery. Practice also shows and builds commitment and to be effective, practice demands discipline. In the words of Andrew Carnegie: “There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself.” Therefore I challenge all of you to embrace pupilage, learn the art of lawyering from the masters who are on the job ahead of you. Consult widely, watch constantly court proceedings, make use of precedents, go through law reports and judgments, embrace continuing education, attend seminars, workshops and conferences, keep up to date with current legal problems and solutions, take advantage of information communication technology, be willing and ready to undertake constant research and generally be prepared to improve yourselves. These are all elements of practice.

Therefore, the rules are, you need to embrace the five pillars of practice; (1) you need an excellent teacher or principal.

(2)you need to deploy your best effort.

(3)you need to have a clear purpose.

(4)you need to identify your greatest potential.

(5)you need to make use of the right resources.

These imply a little extra effort, a little extra time, a little extra help and a little extra change. (j) Perseverance Gentlemen, to be successful you need the element of perseverance.

In the words of John Maxwell, in his book “Beyond Talent”, “Perseverance is not an issue of talent. It is not an issue of time. It is about finishing. Talent provides hope for accomplishment, but perseverance guarantees it. Playwright Noel Coward commented,”Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power?”

I want to assure all of you that the road to success in legal practice is very rough indeed. Let no one deceive you that it can be easy.

Therefore, if you are looking for a short cut to success in legal practice, you stand the risk of not succeeding or running foul of the rules of professional ethics or at worst, losing your wig and gown or ending up in jail. I do not wish for any of you any of this misfortune. In the words of Thomas Edison: “Many of lives failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when

•Wahab Shittu they gave up.”

Therefore, if you want success in legal practice, you must persevere believing that perseverance recognizes that life is not a long race but many short ones in succession.

Gentlemen, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Do not give up if for the first two to three four years you are yet to hit gold in legal practice. Indeed giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter. Persevering through adversity makes one better.

Robert Strauss captured the issue more clearly when he said: “Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired you quit when the gorilla is tired.”

You should avoid the five enemies of perseverance. John Maxwell listed these enemies as follows: “A lifestyle of giving up a wrong belief that life should be easy, a wrong belief that success is a destination, a lack of resiliency and a lack of vision.” (k) Courage The other element of success that you must possess as a lawyer is courage. Let me mention some few examples of lawyers not lacking in courage to illustrate this. In the United States, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are a lesson in courage and they are lawyers. In the UK Margret Thatcher was an example in courage and she was a lawyer. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela confronted the evil Apartheid regime with courage he is a lawyer.

In Nigeria, GaniFawehinmi, in my view, the greatest lawyer that has ever lived was a man of high courage and that is why we remember him with fondness every time. There is no way you can defend the interest of your client decisively if you are lacking in courage. Courage is an everyday virtue that every decent professional must possess. In the words of Sydney Smith: “A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage”.Ourown Professor Wole Soyinka also alluded to this trait when he said: “The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny”.

Make no mistakes about it, in your career as lawyers, your courage will be tested, the faith of your convictions will also be tested. But in saying that you should have courage, one is not implying that you should be stupid. At all times you must observe, act, evaluate, readjust, and strategize even as you maintain the courage of your convictions.

(L) Hunger for Knowledge The other element of success is the hunger to learn. First of all rather than develop hunger for

money at the onset, you must rather develop hunger for knowledge as a prerequisite for enduring success in legal practice. Therefore the formula is not money first and knowledge later rather it is knowledge first and money later.

Tied to this element is the parable of the crown and the cross. Ironically today, many of the new wigs want the crown but they are not prepared to take the cross. There is no way you can have the crown without the cross and this is the reality of human existence. And at the risk of sounding philosophical, the crown and the cross are birds of the same feathers who are always flocking together. There is no way you can separate one from the other without dire consequences.

On the need to develop hunger to learn, nothing is interesting if you are not interested. In the words of Goethe: “Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading in part some great book.”

Syney J. Harris echoed the same sentiments when he wrote: “A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others. A loser wants to be considered an expert by others, before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.” (m) Core values However, one crucial issue that you must have in addition to your degree no matter how impressive is character. Character protects your talent. If you ask me, I would say character, character and character. There are a lot of fundamentals tied to this element of character in guaranteeing the success of the lawyer. One of such elements is integrity. One example of this factor is late Honourable Justice KayodeEso who left the Bench as a distinguished jurist with his integrity intact. Who amongst you does not want to be like late justice KayodeEso who was an epitome of integrity of the highest order?

He was also revered as extraordinarily brilliant, hardworking and honest.

There is also the element of principles and the best exemplar here is late Chief GaniFawehinmi. This was a legal practitioner who stood on the side of principles throughout his life. He was reputed to have said that ‘you should always stand on the side of principles even when you are standing alone’. Gani anchored all his struggles on principles and no one can fault him on the side of principles. Who amongst you would like to be like Gani? He was also extremely knowledgeable and honest in his crusades.

Let me also mention the element of hard work and use our irrepressible Chief AfeBabalola SAN as an exemplar. I recall a period when I had to work closely with Chief AfeBabalola SAN at his Emmanuel’s Chambers in Ibadan in respect of a matter in which those of us who look up to him were eager to benefit from his wealth of professional expertise. I recall that we had worked up to 12 am midnight in company of the erudite Chief after which he made arrangements for us to be checked into our respective hotels to enable us rest and resume work the following day. We were all shocked when upon arrival in the chambers by 7am in the following morning we had met Chief AfeBabalola SAN at his desk already working. We had wondered aloud whether the old man went to bed at all. Our investigation was to reveal that the erudite Chief is obsessed with the theory of hard work. No wonder he became such a monumental and unprecedented success in the legal profession and in the realm of the larger society.

• To be Continued

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NEWS

‘How Ombatse burnt N297.7m houses, killed six’ The Justice Joseph Gbadeyan panel on the killing of security operatives in Nasarawa State yesterday heard how the Ombatse group allegedly burnt houses worth N297.7 million and killed six people at Kwandare, reports SANNI ONOGU, Lafia

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HE panel probing the killing of security operatives in Nasarawa State was yesterday told how the Ombatse group allegedly killed six persons in Kwandare community and burnt houses worth N297.7 million.

These revelations were contained in the petition submitted to the Commission by the Kwandare community.

The petition was signed by Alhaji Musa Darinya (Ubangarin Kwandare), Alhaji Aliyu Maigida (Makungijin Kwandare), Alhaji Iliyasu Galadima (Wambai Kwandare), Mallam Abdullahi Galadima and Mallam Aliyu Oboshi.

However, the Eggon, in a memorandum taken in absentia by the Commission, alleged that Fulani mercenaries attacked and killed nine persons in its village in Kadarko Railway.

The petitioner, Comrade James Ali Manzah (JP), on behalf of Eggon Community of Kadarko in Keana Local Government Area, also accused the State Government of deliberate refusal to act on their demands after the incident.

Also yesterday, Chairman of the Commission, Justice Joseph Gbadeyan, said the panel would on Monday commence visit to communities that were affected by the various crisis in the state to ascertain the extent of damage.

Justice Gbadeyan said a “committee of experts” has been constituted to tour the affected towns and villages and evaluate properties destroyed during the attacks.

Governor Tanko al-Makura constituted the panel following the killing of over 50 policemen and operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) allegedly in an ambush by members of the Ombatse in Lakyo village, on May 7.

Those allegedly killed by Ombatse in Kwandare community include Yahuza Maigida (a judiciary staff), Hussieini Abdullahi (student), Mohammed Kasimu Attah (student), Nasiru Abu Angu (farmer), Inusa Akye (blacksmith) and Haruna Baba (fisherman).

The Wambai Kwandare, Alhaji Iliyasu Galadima, 77, in his evidencein-chief adopted the memorandum.

The community attributed the remote and immediate causes of the attack to hatred from the Eggons following the elevation of the Kwandare Chiefdom to First Class status.

They also blamed the incident on the alleged desire of the Eggons to produce the governor of the state in 2015.

The community demanded the invitation, questioning and thorough investigation of all elected officials, political appointees and civil servants of Eggon extraction in the state.

The petition reads: “On 7th February, 2013, the Eggon ethnic militia known as Ombatse with impunity attacked the good and loving people of Kwandare town, Lafia North of Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State which led to the desecration of their traditional institution, loss of lives, properties and displacements of entire people of Kwandare town.

“The execution of the act of violence and the manner of reinforcement of the attackers has left the people with the conclusion that, the attack was well planned and premeditated.

“It is believed that it was at that pe-

riod of religious oppression that Karshi believed to be the son of Chief Mohammadu Rumfa left Kano with his group of hunters and their dogs.

“Some sources gave the name of the leader who led the group out of Kano as Karshi and he was the founder of Karshi town in Southern Kaduna and Abuja FCT. They moved Westwards to form the origin of the Gwandara people.

“On their arrival they conquered all other smaller tribes and established their ascendancy over them.

From Karshi Chiefdom, the Gwandara people spread to other chiefdoms within and outside Nasarawa State. They have towns and villages numbering over 110.

“The Gwandara settlement that are close neigbours of Karshi Chiefdom are those settlements of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where the few original towns of Karshi were created. They have settlements in Niger, Kaduna and Kogi States.

“In Nasarawa State, however, there are Gwandara settlements in Karu, Kyankpa, Toni, Keffi, Lafia, Nasarawa, Obi, Nasarawa Eggon and Keana Chiefdoms.

“It is worthy to note that Kwandare town existed from around 1500 when they migrated from Kano with their leader at Karshi.

“After settling in Karshi, some of them moved to a place called Kunari in Lafia Local Government of Nasarawa State which later came to be known as Kwandare.

“They allowed many villages that came to seek for permission to stay around them because of their hospitality. These villages are Dankan Sarki, Dankan, Bako, Randan Sarki, Randan Madaki, Angwan Azara, Aridi and Aridi Agwalaga all under Kwandare Emirate Council. The ward heads of these villages who are all Eggon are usually appointed by the chief of Kwandare.

“It is a known fact that the present paramount ruler of Kwandare is the architect of Eggons in business and politics. He single handedly installed local government chairman of Eggon extraction in 1987.

“Thus, this militia group known as Ombatse from the Eggon tribe are not indigenes to the old Lafia Division.”

On the remote cause of the attacks, the community said: “The upliftment and upgrading of the Kwandare Chiefdom to first class status marked the beginning of disaffection amongst the Ombatse militia who are from the Eggon ethnic group.

“Indeed, the installation and presentation of the first class to the Kwandare led the Eggons to develop hatred against the Gwandara people. In spite of the so many under ground plans and vicious instances by the Eggon people, the Gwandara people have always remained peaceful. The Eggon people have naturally opposed coexistence with their host community and preferred to be Alpha and Omega in terms of superiority.

“The Gwandara people wish to

•Justice Gbadeyan (left), with members of the commission, AIG Hamisu Ali Jos and Malama Zainab Bayero... yesterday.

•Galadima (right) and other community members

at the hearing... yesterday.

•Ibrahim Moyi testifying... yesterday. PHOTOS: ABAYOMI FAYESE

formulate the following issues assumed as the remote causes of the attack: “Where does the Ombatse, an Eggon ethnic militia acquired this kind of rapacious value and insolence behaviour that appear to have no end by killing, burning and destroying the wealth of Kwandare people?

“Is it the upgrading of the Chiefdom or the abuse of the peaceful nature of the entire Kwandare people?

“Is the motive for that unparalleled genocide and destruction of properties a prelude in ethnic cleansing to enable them take over Kwandare town?

“Is the resort to avoidable violence the only means for dispute resolution known to Eggon people?

“Why must the Eggon people persistently flaunt their numerical superiority through the vehicle of violence in an era of rule of law, constitutionalism and due process?

“The attack on Kwandare community has left so many dead, their properties destroyed and all sources of comfort that make life worthwhile and worth- living destroyed.”

On the immediate causes of the attack, the community said it was due to arrogance and the show of numerical superiority by the Eggon.

The community added: “In respect to the incident of attack on the people in Kwandare by the Eggon ethnic militia on 7th February, 2013, it was simply due to arrogance and the need to show their numerical number, thereby deliberately attacking the entire people of Kwandare in the morning in their farms, homes and various places of business.

“As a result of the attack by the Eggon ethnic militia on the innocent Kwandare people on the 7th February, 2013, thereby using the mercenaries of Ombatse unleashed serious terror on the Gwandara people of Kwandare where both old, young and incapacitated were attacked with sophisticated weapons.

“The group that is virtually responsible for all the mayhem is called the Ombatse which is an Eggon ethnic militia from Eggon settlements.

“Some were dressed in black militia attire, armed with sophisticated weapons, acquired petrol in jerrycans, used disposed and disused tyres, went

along with vehicles looting, burnt and killed people irrespective of age and sex. Selected properties of people within Kwandare community were destroyed.”

They noted that the case of Kwandare was quite succinct, adding that the “reign of terror speaks for itself. No Eggon man was killed and neither was any property of the Eggons destroyed.

“The destruction visited was on entire Kwandare people and their community and this leaves us with one conclusion, that the Eggon people are guilty of the genocide unleashed on the peace loving community of the Gwandara people.

“It must be put on record that Gwandara people are the most peaceful and hospitable community in Nasarawa State and anywhere they are found. We submit that the verdict of guilty as charged should be passed on the Eggon people.

“All available evidence points to the fact that Ombatse militia group of Eggon people is culpable in all respect and should be arrested and prosecuted in the law court for instigating crisis in the state.”

It stated that it based its assumption on the fact that the Ombatse has “formed the slogan for 2015 which means they must rule Nasarawa State.

“This slogan has led to their establishing and developing self acclaimed ascendancy on all other indigenes of the state. The same group attacked Migili at Agyaragu and also Alago of Asakio town, Gwandara of Iggah in Nasarawa Eggon and Burum-Burum and Doma Local Government Area.”

On how to end the incessant bloodletting, the community noted that “all legal instruments and history point to the fact that Kwandare is the seat of the Government of Gwandara people.

“Therefore, government should come out with a white paper to reinforce this position of law to nip in the bud the quest by Eggon people to conquer and make Kwandare their own town.”

They called on the State Government to further proscribe the Ombatse militia, both locally and internationally.

They urged the government to use intelligence and security reports to proactively forestall future occurrence of such crisis.

“Government should state clearly its policy relating to land. All elected officials, political appointees and civil servants of Eggon extraction should be invited, questioned and thoroughly investigated,” the community demanded.

Also yesterday, a memorandum submitted by Eggon Community of Kadarko in Keana Local Government Area to the Commission was taken in absentia.

The petition was signed by Comrade James Ali Manzah .

Justice Gbadeyan ordered the Secretary of the Commission, Abubakar Sadiq Ishaq, to read the petition following the absence of the petitioners in court.

Manzah and Eggons from Kadarko had earlier withdrawn from the proceedings of the commission.

The memorandum reads: “Thursday, the 18th day of October, 2012 was the saddest moment in the history of the Eggon settlement in Kadarko Railway and Angwan Kuje area of Keana Local Government Area.

“The people of these communities were put not only into mournful mood, but were thrown out of their homes and business for over three months or the fear of further attack.

“The unfortunate scenario resulted to the death of nine adult members of the Eggon extraction in the hands of their assistants without any provocation while enroute their farm work.

“We state with pains that, the incidence left the corpses not only lifeless, but mutilated as the victims’ eyes and private parts were all cut off.

“Our complain is that, immediately the incident occurred, we met as a body and informed the State Government and the security personnel about the fact of the unholy incidence.

“We sincerely wish to state that the Government deliberately refused to act on our demand when in fact, they were served with our letter communique and pictures of the deceased corpses through the Governor personally and directly during his visit to Kwara but till date we have seen no response.

“We felt neglected and dumped when the State has clearly shun our demand as they failed to intervene even as our people still suffer security challenges in the hands of insurgency suspected to be Fulani mercenaries.”

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

52

NEWS •From right: Governor State of Osun Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Vice President, National Center for Arts and Technology, Maria Anderson, inspecting some exhibitions, during the formal opening of Osun Trade Investment and Culture Conference in commemoration of Osun Osogbo Festival, held at Center for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo.

•Vice President Namadi Sambo (left) presenting National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award to Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Managing Director of Mr George Uriesi during the 13th NPOM Award, Abuja.

•Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (right) receiving a Certificate of Honour as Special Ambassador of Bible Society of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter from the Chairman of the body, Pastor Peter Adewunmi, during his decoration at the Governor’s Office in Abeokuta. With them is a National Board member of the society Pastor Emmanuel Ademuyiwa (left).

•From left: Representative of Lagos State Governor Mr Babatunde Fashola Major Tunde Pannox (rtd); Director-General Lagos State Safety Commission Mrs Omolara Odebunmi; Hon Lola Akande and Chariman Yaba Local Government Councl Development Area (LCDA) Hon Olajide Jimoh during the council security awareness forum, Lagos.

PHOTO: DAYO ADEWUNMI

•L-R: Trustee of New Era Foundation, Chief Molade Okoya Thomas; Chairman, Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Comrade Ayodele Adeweale and the Executive Director, •Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly Adeyemi Ikuforiji (second right); Hon Lola Akande (third right); New Era Foundation, Mr. Yemi Osilaja during the ongoing 2013 New Era Youth Camp Francis Chairman, Onigbongbo Local Council Develoment Area Babatunde Oke (fourth left) and other party (NEYOCA) Tagged: “The Power of Leadership” at the New Era Foundation Camp, Eleko Town, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State. leaders during the glag off of All Progressives Congress (APC).

•Medical team from Pfizer Nigeria East Africa attending some staff of Vintage Press Limited, publisher of The Nation newspapers during a free health service organised by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) The Nation Chapel to herald its Health Week..

PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

•Executive Tour Guide Chairman Themba Modjaji (middle) flanked by senior staff of the company during the launching of new fleet of buses for tour operations in Johannesburg, South Africa recently.

•The Founder of Kami-J Hearing and Speech Impaired Foundation, Mrs. Motunrayo Williams-Johnson (left), with some of the hearing and speech impaired children when the foundation celebrated its one year anniversary at Calvary Bible Church, Idimu, Lagos. On the right is her husband, Pastor Folorunsho Williams-Johnson.

•Zakat and Sadaqat Foundation Executive Director Imam Shuaib Abdullahi flanked Operation Manager Ahmed Ma’aruf (left) and Accountant Aliu Garba during the distribution of N30 million worth Zakat proceed at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

53

NEWS Okada kills NSCDC man in Jos

‘Opposition has infiltrated Plateau PDP’

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

VOLUNTEER member of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Jos, the Plateau State capital, Nanjul Aliyu, has been killed by a commercial motorcyclist (Okada) on the TudunwadaMado Road in Jos North Local Government Area.

The late Aliyu was reportedly crossing the road when he was knocked down by the commercial motorcyclist.

There has been a ban on commercial motorcycles in Jos township since April, last year.

But the ban has not been effective because some of the operators still operates in communities within the metropolis.

The Public Relations Officer of the state command of NSCDC, Chris Santos, confirmed the incident.

He said Aliyu was a volunteer under the state command of the NSCDC. Santos said the late Aliyu was posted to a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega station, on the Jos-Bukuru Expressway, adding that he was returning from duty when the accident occurred.

Santos said: “The accident occurred at 5.30pm as the deceased attempted to cross the road to buy a loaf of bread, after returning home from his beat. The accident occurred near the deceased’s home in Tudunwada.

“Aliyu went into coma immediately and was rushed to the Plateau Specialist Hospital. But when his condition became critical, he was referred to the Bhingham University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Jos, where he died.”

HE Plateau State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has decried some abnormalities in the arrangements for the party’s national convention.

The state chapter, in a statement by its secretariat in Jos yesterday, said it discovered that the ruling party has been infiltrated by members of the opposition.

The statement, by the state Secretary of the PDP, Prince Pam Saleh, alleged that some of the names included in the list of the Convention Planning Committee were not those of members of the ruling party in the state.

The statement said: “Former governor, Sir Fidelis Tapgun; the Senator who represented Plateau North at the National Assembly, Timothy Adudu and Alhaji Ado Datti are nonparty members.

“We are writing to express our surprise over the inclusion of non-PDP members from our state in the 2013 convention electoral sub-committee as released by the national secretariat of the party.

“As a party, it is our firm belief that the inclusion of these persons is not only a great disservice to us but also a negative signal to our teeming supporters who have been faithful to the PDP since the beginning of our democratic dispensation.

“One of such non-party members and former governor of the state, Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun, left the PDP since 2011 to join the Labour Party and has not returned since then.”

A

Police: motorcyclist’s killer policeman arrested From Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

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HE police have said a policeman who killed an commercial motorcycle (Okada) rider, Olalekan Ajayi, at Ikorodu, Lagos State, has been arrested.

The policeman, it was learnt, is being investigated.

A statement yesterday by Force spokesman, Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), said the InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar had directed the Lagos State Police Commissioner Mr. Umar Manko, to ensure that justice is expeditiously done on the matter.

The statement said: “Following the unfortunate death of a commercial motorcyclist, Olalekan Ajayi, on August 20, and the ensuing protests yesterday (August 21) at Ikorodu, Lagos State, by aggrieved citizens, the IGP has called for calm to enable police authorities wade into the matter and ensure that justice is served.

“Meanwhile, the police officer linked with the killing of the late Ajayi has been arrested and detained; he is presently undergoing investigation.

“The IGP condoles with the bereaved relations, friends and colleagues of the late Ajayi.

While promising that the Force will do its utmost best to ensure that the investigation into the death is properly done and concluded in record time, the IGP urges all aggrieved persons to remain calm and patient.”

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•From Left: Kaduna State Deputy Governor Nuhu Bajoga; former Head of Service, Kaduna State, Mrs Hannatu Ugah and Permenent Secretary, Bureau of Establishement, Management Services and Training, Alhaji Adamu Kagarko, at the 13th Productivity Day and Merit Award Celebration in Kaduna...yesterday

Taraba agog for Suntai's Sunday return

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ARABA State is in the mood for celebration.

The Northeast state appears set to receive its longabsent governor, Danbaba Fulani Suntai, on Sunday.

The governor, who was seriously injured when the aircraft he piloted crashed near Yola, the Adamawa State, on October.

Suntai has received treatment in German and United States hospitals following the injury he and some of his aides sustained in the crash.

His scheduled return has become the major issue across the state.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Muslim Council in the state have urged their members to pray for the governor's safe return.

Security is also being tightened, particularly in Jalingo, the state capital.

The governor's wife, Hajiya Hauwa, told a New York Cor-

T

From Fanen Ihyongo, Jalingo

respondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that arrangements have been concluded for the governor to return on Sunday. It was the first time Hauwa was addressing the media on her husband's health and return.

Suntai was flown to Hannover, Germany, on October 27, from where he was moved to the United States in March.

The governor piloted the illfated Cessna 208 aircraft which also had onboard his Aide de Camp (ADC) Iliya Dasat; Chief Detail Joel Danladi and Chief Security Officer (CSO) Tino Dangana.

The Chief Detail and the CSO returned to Nigeria last November after successful treatment in Germany.

Suntai's ADC also recovered and returned last month.

The governor's return has been long awaited.

Suntai is expected to leave the Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and Home in New York for Abuja, where he will meet President Goodluck Jonathan; the Peoples Democratic Partys (PDP) National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and other stakeholders from Taraba who are resident in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He is expected to be flown from Abuja to the Government House in Jalingo.

Some Nigerians in New York, according to Mrs Suntai, will accompany the governor.

The governor's Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Hassan Mijinyawa, told The Nation yesterday that the governor's scheduled return is not a joke.

Mijinyawa said: "He is coming back on Sunday, surely."

Information Commissioner Emmanuel Bello also confirmed the governor's return

on Sunday.

"We are expecting the governor. We have been telling the world that Governor Suntai would someday return to the country as soon as his medical handlers authorise it. The entire state is excitedly expecting him this Sunday."

The Senator representing Taraba South, Emmanuel Bwacha said he and other members of the National Assembly from the state will relocate to Jalingo today, to organise the reception for Suntai.

The governor's home in his village, Bali, has also been renovated.

There are dresses - wrappers and T-shirts - emblazoned with the governor's portrait - all in the anticipation of his arrival.

A source yesterday quoted Acting Governor Garba Umar as saying: “I want to make the reception (of Suntai) very special.”

Kwara to sponsor doctors’ training on bond

HE Kwara State Government has said it will sponsor the training of doctors on bond to produce more doctors for government-owned hospitals.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed spoke at the Government House in Ilorin, the state capital, when he received the Management Board of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

He promised that on graduation, the bonded doctors would serve the state for specified years in fulfilment of the terms of agreement.

The arrangement, the governor said, would ensure that the state has enough doctors for its health institutions on sustainable basis.

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

The governor, who identified decay and deficiency in infrastructure as the major challenge confronting the health sector, said his administration was upgrading facilities in five general hospitals across the state, adding that another specialised hospital would be established in partnership with a hospital in New Orleans, the United States of America.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, the governor said part of his administration’s policy is ensuring access to qualitative

health care within 500 metres radius.

Ahmed said his administration was also pursuing a vibrant drug revolving scheme.

According to him, the scheme has the potential to reduce access to fake drugs in the state.

The governor, who described qualitative health care delivery as critical to the actualisation of human capital development, promised that quality of infrastructural development in the sector would not be compromised.

He also said his administration would carry out regular monitoring of projects.

Ahmed said the

•Ahmed

government was ready to partner the UITH in community health care support scheme to create access to the rural communities.

“We want to make health service delivery at the rural areas a lot more comfortable for medical personnel to encourage them to work in the rural areas,” he said.

Funeral for ex-Editor’s mum

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HE mother of Elder Bola Aragbaiye, the Editor of defunct Sketch and Press Secretary to the late Ondo State Governor Adekunle Ajasin, will be buried tomorrow in Owo, Ondo State.

Madam Comfort Folake Aragbaiye died on April 28 in Owo. She was 90.

Her remains will be buried at St. Patrick’s Anglican Church, Owo, after a funeral service at the church.

The body will be moved from the Federal Medical Centre( FMC), Owo mortuary for a lying-in-state today at her home at 26 Idimepen Street, Owo. There will be a Christian Wake at the same venue.

A service of songs will hold at St. Patrick’s Anglican Church, Ijebu-Owo, tomorrow, while interment will follows immediately. There will be entertainment of guests at Imade College, Owo.

Ezekwesili struggling for limelight again, say Reps

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HE Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, Victor Ogene, has said the former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, was merely looking for national spotlight by taking swipes at members of the National Assembly over their allowances.

Ezekwesili challenged the lawmakers to a debate on their spendings in the last eight years.

The former World Bank official said she stood by her

From Dele Anofi, Abuja

claims that the lawmakers spent N1 trillion during the period.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Ogene said there appeared to be no let-up in the former minister’s crave for a return to national consciousness.

The lawmaker said Dr Ezekwesili was doing this by randomly throwing misplaced shots in the hope that her actions would elevate her to the status of a moral crusader.

He said it was not the first time the former World Bank executive was making unsubstantiated allegations.

Ogene said: “As an institution, we ought not to be responding to the tirades of Mrs Ezekwesili, especially as they are anchored on wrong deployment of figures, weird generalisations and outright falsehood.

“But as elected representatives, we owe it a duty to the Nigerian people to always seek to conduct our affairs in an atmosphere of openness,

candour and a fidelity to the truth. Indeed, if there is any point we are agreed upon with Mrs Ezekwesili, or anyone else for that matter, it is the promotion of transparency in governance and ensuring that democratic institutions of the state function optimally for the benefit of all.

“On the basis of this shared vision, the Seventh House of Representatives wholeheartedly welcomes her request for a public hearing on the stated ideals. In doing so,

however, the former minister must be ready to comply with some basic ground rules so that we may all not be fooled by the guerrilla tactics of someone plagued by an out-of-office syndrome.

“Nigerians would remember that in the course of a similar misadventure, in January Mrs Ezekwesili made wild claims bordering on the alleged frittering of $45 billion of the country's external reserves and $22 billion in the excess crude account...”

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

54

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 22-08-13

Investors scramble as Transcorp takes over $300m Ugheli Power Plant •Elumelu promises long-term socio-economic values

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NVESTORS scrambled for the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc, the only publicly available window to participate in the privatisation of the power sector, as the conglomerate completed the acquisition of the Ugheli power plant.

Transcorp was the most active stock at the Nigerian stock market yesterday just as the scramble pushed the share price of the conglomerate up by 8.13 per cent. The positive market situation for Transcorp and renewed interests in several stocks that had fallen below intrinsic values halted the successive bearishness that had pervaded transactions since Monday.

Aggregate market value of all equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by N69 billion from N11.510 trillion to N11.579 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the common index for all equities, recovered by 0.60 per cent from 36,345.33 points to 36,563.89 points.

Transcorp, through its subsidiary, Transcorp Ugheli Power Limited (TUPL), completed acquisition of Ugheli power plant with the payment of $225 million to complete the $300 million bid price for the power plant.

Transcorp had earlier made initial payment of $75 million, being required 25 per cent initial payment by bid winner.

Transcorp recorded a turnover of 34.87 million shares worth N45.29 million in 215 deals. Market consideration of the conglomerate rose by 10 kobo to N1.33. Many analysts said they expected Transcorp’s share price to continue on the upward as it consolidates its new power business.

On the back of successful acquisition of the 972 megawatts

By Taofik Salako

Ugheli power plant, chairman, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu said conglomerate’s power business would create long-term social and economic values.

He said the conglomerate would leverage on the successful acquisition to consolidate its growth strategy in Nigeria’s power sector.

“We can now embark fully on our strategy to contribute to the development of Nigeria’s power sector, whilst creating long term economic and social value for our stakeholders and the greater community. We fully expect our engagement on this world-class project to improve the living standards of all Nigerians as well as impact positively on our country’s GDP,” Elumelu said.

In his remarks, president, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc, Mr. Obinna Ufudo enthused that Transcorp’s ability to achieve set goals and objectives propelled it to target even larger investments in its selected business sectors with the potential to contribute significantly to Nigeria’s development.

According to him, TUPL has extensive worldwide power sector experience in Africa, Europe and the Middle East which underscores its unquestionable capacity to effectively manage the plant profitably in line with international standards.

He said the new investor plans to increase the power generation of the plant from 300 megawatts to more than 1070 megawatts over the next five years.

“Following this remarkable milestone, we shall now take

over the operations and management of the plant, deploy our strategy to ensure a smooth transition and in the near term, create a profitable business that will deliver greater outcome in terms of power to the nation.

Our inclination to success consistently translates to value for all our stakeholders, one of the goals which we pledged from the outset,” Ufudo said.

Chief executive officer, Transcorp Ugheli Power Limited (TUPL), Adeoye Fadeyibi added that the company plans to deliver on capacity targets and sustain the momentum using highly efficient people and resources to achieve operational excellence.

Transcorp, the only quoted investor in the privatized power companies, already has more than 300,000 shareholders. The conglomerate’s businesses include strategic investments in the hospitality, agribusiness and energy sectors such as Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja ; Transcorp Hotels, Calabar; Teragro Commodities Limited and Transcorp Energy Limited, operator of OPL 281.

Meanwhile, total turnover at the NSE yesterday stood at 252.18 million shares worth N3.56 billion in 4,904 deals.

Zenith Bank trailed Transcorp on the activity chart with a turnover of 30.54 million shares worth N611.14 million in 239 deals. Unity Bank placed third with a turnover of 25.88 million shares valued at N13.32 million in 90 deals.

Banking subsector accounted for 126.43 million shares worth N1.41 billion in 1,829 deals.

There were 29 advancers against 25 decliners. Flour Mills of Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N6.81 to close at N76.29. Cadbury Nigeria followed with addition of N1.70 to close at N52.95. On the other hand, PZ Cussons Nigeria led the decliners with a loss of N3.10 to close at N34.50. Presco followed with a drop of 90 kobo to close at N33.60 per share.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 22-08-13

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

55

MONEY LINK

MasterCard‘s 13m cards for cashless banking coming

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) moderated cashless banking initiative will be boosted by planned issuance of 13 million cards by MasterCard, for the nation’s e-payment market.

Ann Cairns, president of international markets for MasterCard told Bloomberg that the firm is working with Nigeria government on the issuance of the cards, which will also act as identity documents.

Already, MasterCard, the secondbiggest United States payments net-

Stories by Collins Nweze

work, has distributed 10 million South African debit cards that replace cash for social grant recipients as it boosts market share across Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

The company is also expanding in Angola and Mozambique and working with local partners such as Kenya’s Equity Bank Ltd. for growth, she said.

MasterCard is counting on the continent’s expansion and rising levels of wealth to help it distribute fi-

Diamond Bank partners women group

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nancial products to the more than 200 million people in Africa still without access to banking services, according to McKinsey & Co. Mobile operators like South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. (MTN) and banks like Togo’s Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI) are also trying to reach Africa’s poorest by offering easier access to bank accounts and the ability to transfer money without going into a branch.

“We think financial inclusion can be brought by different instruments,”

•CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido

Cairns said. MasterCard will be able to realize the “big promise of Africa” if it can grow its payment systems, Michael Miebach, MasterCard’s president of Middle East and Africa, said.

Ecobank creates unit for SMEs’ funding

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COBANK has established a microfinance department to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

In a statement, the bank said the customer segment is still unstructured, and are for entrepreneurs whose businesses fall below N1 million range.

It said the development finance department of the bank would give out small loans to this category of entrepreneurs at special and flexible rates and the use of identification methods.

Ecobank Head, Development Finance, Felix Oyakhamoh who stated this during a chat with the media in Lagos, said small business owners that cut across artisans, traders, small time farmers amongst others qualify for this special window. He said beneficiaries do not necessarily need collaterals, but guarantors to collect the loans.

According to Mr. Oyakhamoh the

bank has dedicated staff in its selected branches in the six geo-political regions of the country to attend to customers who fall within this loan bracket. “Our ultimate goal is to empower as well as provide financial services to the otherwise down trodden, being part of our financial inclusion drive,” he said.

He encouraged small business owners to embrace the opportunity

by walking into any Ecobank branch for detailed information on how to benefit from the special scheme. Mr. Oyakhamoh noted that the beneficiaries will also get all other bank incentives like debit cards, mobile banking and all other e-banking services that go with being a customer of the Pan African Bank.

Mr. Oyakhamoh reiterated that this gesture by the bank is in line

with its vision to build a world class pan-African bank and contribute to the economic development and financial integration of Africa.

“Ecobank is a full service bank that caters to the corporate, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the micro, and the growing middle class. The bank has something for everyone’s needs; that is why we are the pan-African bank.”

Naira declines to month low

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HE naira fell the most in a month against the dollar, snapping two days of gains, on speculation that sales of the dollar eased. The naira retreated 0.3 per cent, the most since July 23 on a closing basis, to 161.70 per dollar. The naira has declined 3.4 per cent against the dollar this year.

Oil companies, which sell the dollar mainly at the month’s end to pay domestic expenses, are the second-

biggest supplier of dollars after the Central Bank of Nigeria. The CBN auctions foreign exchange on Mondays and Wednesdays. It sold $548.4 million this week from $521.6 million in the previous five days.

“We’ve not seen significant flows from the oil majors. This is a period when oil companies should be selling dollars to fund their naira obligations,” Abiola Rasaq, head of research at UBA Capital, said.

FGN BONDS

The CBN occasionally sells dollars directly to lenders on the interbank market outside of its weekly auctions.

While buyers had been getting more of these offers in recent months, “we’ve not seen so much of that over the last two to three weeks,” Rasaq said.

Borrowing costs on Nigeria’s domestic bonds due January 2022 fell three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 13.58 percent, according to Wednesday’s data compiled by Bloomberg.

DATA BANK

Tenor

Amount N

Rate %

M/Date

3-Year 5-Year 5-Year

35m 35m 35m

11.039 12.23 13.19

19-05-2014 18-05-2016 19-05-2016

WHOLESALE DUTCH AUCTION SYSTEM Amount Offered ($) 350m 350m

MANAGED FUNDS Initial Quotation Price N8250.00 N1000.00

NIDF NESF

Current Market 5495.33 N552.20

Price Loss 2754.67 447.80

350m

INTERBANK RATES 7.9-10% 10-11%

PRIMARY MARKET AUCTION (T-BILLS) Tenor 91-Day 182-Day 1-Year

Amount 30m 46.7m 50m

Rate % 10.96 9.62 12.34

Date 28-04-2012 “ 14-04-2012

GAINERS AS AT 22-08-13

SYMBOL THOMASWY JOSBREW FLOURMILL NASCON RTBRISCOE TRANSCORP NPFMCRFBK COURTVILLE WAPIC UBN

O/PRICE 0.80 1.52 69.48 10.70 1.27 1.23 0.75 0.68 0.75 10.12

C/PRICE 0.88 1.67 76.29 11.70 1.38 1.33 0.80 0.72 0.79 10.59

CHANGE 0.08 0.15 6.81 1.00 0.11 0.10 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.47

TRANSEXPR ABCTRANS VITAFOAM PZ MULTITREX ETERNA UNITYBNK JOHNHOLT ASHAKACEM PRESCO

O/PRICE 1.20 0.81 4.30 37.60 0.66 2.63 0.52 1.30 21.26 34.50

C/PRICE 1.08 0.74 3.93 34.50 0.62 2.52 0.50 1.26 20.66 33.60

NGN USD NGN GBP NGN EUR NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N) (S/N) Bureau de Change (S/N) Parallel Market

Current Before

Current After

Exchange Rate (N) 155.2 155.8

2-7-12 27-6-12

113m

113m

155.7

22-6-12

CUV Start %

147.6000 239.4810 212.4997

149.7100 244.0123 207.9023

150.7100 245.6422 209.2910

-2.11 -2.57 -1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

152.0000

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

153.0000

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

DISCOUNT WINDOW Feb. ’11

July ’11

July ’12

MPR

6.50%

6.50%

12%

Standing Lending Rate ,, Deposit Rate ,, Liquidity Ratio Cash Return Rate Inflation Rate

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 1.00% 12.10%

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 2.00% 12.10%

9.50% 5.50% 30.00% 2.00% 11.8%

NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

NSE CAP Index

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

Date

Rate (Previous) 4 Mar, 2012 9.0417 9.6667 11.2917 12.1250

Rate (Currency) 6, Mar, 2012 10.17% 11.46% 11.96% 12.54%

Movement

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

CHANGE 0.12 0.07 0.37 3.10 0.04 0.11 0.02 0.04 0.60 0.90

Amount Sold ($) 150m 138m

CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Year Start Offer

LOSERS AS AT 22-08-13

SYMBOL

Amount Demanded ($) 150m 138m

EXHANGE RATE 6-03-12 Currency

OBB Rate Call Rate

IAMOND Bank Plc is partnering Women’s World Banking to map out strategies that would advance financial inclusion in Nigeria.

In a statement, the bank’s executive director, Uzoma Dozie said the lender is committed to empowering its customers. “We are also interested in ensuring that the unbanked and under-banked segments of the society are reached,” he said.

Mary Iskenderian, president, Women’s World Banking said it is exciting to add Nigeria to the 28 developing countries where the organisation works in providing access to finance to low-income women.

“We work around the world with financial institutions who see the financial and social value in delivering products for Low Income people, particularly women. Diamond Bank with its strong human resources and technological capabilities is an excellent partner to help us reach the population who are unbanked and under-banked,” she said.

Iskenderian also noted that since women in developing countries were usually responsible for managing household budgets, gaining access to a safe means of saving money is often a critical step out of the cycle of poverty for the whole family.

Women’s World Banking is the global non-profit organisation devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources essential to their security and prosperity. For more than 35 years Women’s World Banking has worked with financial institutions to show them the benefit of investing in women as clients, and as leaders.

“We are pleased with the BETA Savings Proposition from Diamond Bank, particularly the concept of the ‘BETA Friends,’ Iskenderian said.

Offer Price

Bid Price

ARM AGGRESSIVE GROWTH 9.17 9.08 KAKAWA GUARANTEED 1.00 1.00 STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE INVE 140.65 140.16 AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND 157.46 155.73 LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL 0.80 0.78 BGL SAPPHIRE FUND 1.16 1.16 BGL NUBIAN FUND 1.18 1.16 FBN MONEY MARKET FUND 100.00 100.00 FBN FIXED INCOME FUND 1,000.00 1,000.00 NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. 1,808.48 1,794.68 PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND 14.73 14.01 CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST 1.39 1.33 CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST 1.87 1.80 STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY 11.386.29 11,045.54 • ARM AGGRESSIVE • KAKAWA GUARANTEED • STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE • AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUNDARM AGGRESSIVE • OPEN BUY BACK

Bank P/Court

Previous 04 July, 2012

Current 07, Aug, 2012

8.5000 8.0833

8.5000 8.0833

Movement

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

56

NEWS Ogoni assured of govt projects THE Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), Mr. Leyii Kwanee, has assured the Ogoni that the Governor Chibuike Amaechi administration would deliver more dividends of democracy to them.

Kwanee, who spoke during the inauguration of water projects in Khana Constituency 11 in Khana Local Government, said the projects are part of the many projects the Ogoni would benefit from the present administration.

He said although the projects were nominated by him as his 2013 constituency projects for the area in fulfillment of his campaign promises, the Amaechi administration deserved commendation for their expeditious completion.

The water projects, which are seven in number, also have six-inch size borehole with full treatment plant spread in seven communities: Luude, Seme, Ka-Loore, BaaLoore, Yae, De-Luebe and Lua-Luebe in Khana 11 Constituency.

Inaugurating the projects, the Commissioner for Works, Chief Victor Giadom, urged the communities to protect the water installations in the area.

Uduaghan: editors’ role crucial in shaping democracy D

ELTA State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said yesterday in Asaba that editors have a role to play in shaping and sustaining democracy.

He spoke when the leadership of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), led by the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, visited him, as the ninth edition of the NGE’s Annual National Editors Conference begins.

The governor said members of the Guild could shape and sustain democracy by ensuring that the media organisations they work for hold government accountable to the people.

He hailed the Guild for its recent successful election and said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could learn a lot from it.

Uduaghan also thanked the editors for choosing the state as the venue for the conference.

He urged them to discuss the issues relating to the 2015 general elections and proffer solutions to possible problems that could arise.

“I believe the editors have a big role in shaping democracy in the country,” Uduaghan said.

He enjoined the visitors to set a period aside to go round the state and assess what his administration has done.

Adesina assured the governor that the meeting would be a special one and thanked the state government for accepting to host the conference. He

lauded the governor for the infrastructural development in the state capital, adding that members had already seen the work done by the government. The theme of the conference is: “Nigeria beyond oil: Role of the editor.”

At the opening ceremony yesterday, former Ogun Governor Segun Osoba hailed the Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Pius Anyim Pius, for being a rallying point of parties.

Osoba, who is the chairman of the conference, said Anyim had been discussing vital national issues with the political parties, irrespective of their affiliations.

He recalled a discussion held by major stakeholders on the eve of the conference where it was agreed that Nigeria “must survive as an entity”.

Osoba also praised the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, for his support to democracy.

He said Maku had been a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) since his youthful days.

Osoba said with Maku, NADECO had a representative in government.

He hailed Uduaghan for his support to the NGE’s annual conference.

APC inaugurated in Edo North From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

THE people of Ekperi in Edo North yesterday inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) and announced the collapse of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) structures.

The Inauguration Committee Coordinator, Prince Greg Ogiogwa, outlined the background of the events and inauguration of new leaders from Ugbekpe Ekperi Kingdom, Zone 2, which comprises wards 6, 7 and 8, Etsako Central Local Government Area.

He described the event as a milestone, and hailed the leadership of the umbrella union under which the people articulated their views, the Ekperi Progressive Union.

Community leader dies at 107 THE death has occurred of a devout Christian and community leader, Madam Susannah Ajolade Odusote (nee Dina). She was 107.

She died on July 25 at the General Hospital, Lagos.

Madam Odusote is survived by children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and relations, among who is the CEO of Multi-Purpose Oil Services Ltd, Mrs. Kemi Oni and the Chairman, Lagos State Medical Guild, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote.

Funeral rites will begin on August 30 with a wake at her home, 3, Oke Mosa Street, Oke-Agbo, Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, from 5pm.

Her remains will be interred the next day at the Christian Cemetery, OkeAgbo, after a funeral service at St. John’s African Church, Oke-Agbo. Entertainment of guests follows at the same venue.

•Mr. Oko-Jaja, speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt.

NBA backs Rivers acting chief judge

T

HE Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Rivers State chapter, yesterday backed the appointment of Justice P.N.C. Agumagu as the Rivers State acting chief judge.

The NBA said no law was broken in the acting CJ’s appointment.

The Rivers NBA Chairman, Lawrence Oko-Jaja, spoke yesterday when he led a delegation to the Acting CJ at the Rivers State High Court complex, Port Harcourt.

Oko-Jaja said: “The judges were here yesterday to congratulate him, so we are just replicating what they did.

And if the judges, who are more experienced than us, did not say his appointment was a controversy, then who are the NBA to do otherwise?

I think he deserves the appointment as the acting chief judge of the state.

A

From Precious Dikewoha, Port Harcourt

“All what the NBA is saying is that within the short period of his tenure as the acting chief judge, he should try to carry the judges and the Bar along and ensure that those issues affecting the judiciary and the Bar are taken care.”

The head of NBA Human Rights Unit, Port Harcourt branch, Austine Efe Ojekudo, said Justice Agumagu’s appointment was not against the law as being speculated.

Ojekudo said: “The Customary Court of Appeal law recognises that the President of the Customary Court of Appeal at anytime shall rank next to the chief judge. Of course, in order of precedence, he shall rank the highest to the other judges both in the Customary Court of Appeal and in the High Court;

so, the appointment of My Lord is in order.”

Senior lawyers, represented by Granville Isetima Abibo (SAN), also said the appointment was legal.

Adibo said: “We want to congratulate you and believe that God will continue to protect you. You have done well in the past in setting up the Customary Court, because there was a time when it was who will go but you volunteered to go and for that reason we will not forget you.

“You made it possible for us here to achieve our success.

We are solidly behind you, but pray that you will sustain the tempo and the relationship between the Bar and the Bench must be extended to your office as long as you carry us along.”

Justice Agumagu thanked the NBA and promised to live up to expectation.

He said: “I want to congratulate all the past and present chairmen of NBA who are here to congratulate me. I want to assure you that I will look into your requests, but most importantly I can now boldly do my job, knowing quite well that the Bar is solidly behind me.”

A socio-political group, Rivers Peoples Forum (RPF), condemned the Felix Obuahled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for criticising the appointment.

RPF President Charles Bekwele, in a statement, described Obuah’s comment as “irresponsible, and an embarrassment to Rivers State”.

He said:” There is no controversy on the appointment. Governor Amaechi did the correct thing by appointing Agumagu, who is the most senior judge.”

Edo Library worker killed

N Edo State Library Board worker, Mr. Felix Ebowe, has been murdered by unknown gunmen in Benin City.

The Nation learnt that the gunmen stormed his home at 1, Inne Lane, off Ehizomwangie Street, off Eghosa Street, Erhunmwunse Road, Benin City, about midnight yesterday.

It was gathered that the gunmen, who broke into his apartment through the window, shot him in the head.

From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

His neighbour, Mr. Abraham Osaro, was reportedly injured by the gunmen, who also broke into his room.

Narrating the tragedy, the deceased’s daughter, Loveth, said when the gunmen started breaking the slide glass and burglary proof of the window of the sitting room, she woke up, thinking they were armed robbers.

She said when her father

ran to the sitting room to see what was happening, the gunmen jumped inside their apartment and shot him at close range.

She said the gunmen did not take anything away from their home and she overheard them cautioning themselves not to take anything.

The deceased’s daughter appealed to the state government, the police and other security agents to arrest and question a man in their

neighbourhood, who had allegedly threatened to kill her father following a dispute between his family and her father.

The late Mr. Ebowe’s colleagues at the Edo State Library Board, Sapele Road, Benin City expressed shock over the incident.

Police spokesman Moses Eguaveen could not be reached for comments. The police from Evbotubu Division reportedly took the body to a mortuary in Benin City.

Court grants two Rivers PDP members bail From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

A

N Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court in Wuse yesterday granted bail to two members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Charles Amoefule and Godwin Leo. The court on Tuesday ordered that they be remanded in Kuje prison after their arraignment for offences relating to impersonation and acts capable of breaching public peace.

They were accused by the police of making false claim to the leadership of the party in Rivers State.

Ruling on their bail application yesterday, Magistrate Babashani Abubakar granted bail to Amoefule (Chairman, Omuma Local Government Area, Rivers State) and Leo (Assistant Secretary, PDP, Rivers State) at N1 million and two sureties each.

The magistrate directed that the sureties must be resident in Abuja, one of whom must be a Level-12 civil servant with a landed property in Wuse Zone 6 Abuja, where the court is located.

The civil servant is to produce an introductory letter from his/ her superior in office; his/her letter of employment and title deeds of the landed property, to the court.

The magistrate further ordered that the documents produced by the sureties must be verified by the court before the accused could be released.

“Two of you will go home only when these conditions are met. I hope they are not too stringent?

“The essence of bail is to provide security for the attendance of an accused to trial. “Let me also warn that this court will not hesitate to invoke its powers under Section 343 of the Criminal Procedure Act and summon the sureties to take the place of the accused should they jump bail,” the magistrate said.

Before the court adjourned further hearing till September 20, prosecution lawyer, Usman Jubril, told the court that the police were on the trail of the third accused, Onwukwe Anyanwu, who he said was still at large.

Dickson reaffirms commitment to youth development

B

AYELSA State government has expressed its commitment to the development of youths.

It presented an 18-seater bus to the state chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN).

Speaking during the handing over of the vehicle to a representative of the council at the Ministry of Transport, Governor Seriake Dickson said the bus would enhance its activities.

Urging the youths to use the bus judiciously, the governor noted that the gesture was an affirmation that the government would ensure their welfare.

Represented by the Commissioners for Transport, Mrs. Marie Ebikake and Youth Development, Mr. Salo Alamieyeseigha, Dickson hailed the NYCN for its support to his administration.

He also lauded the efforts of the Restoration Youth Network (REYNET) in making the event a reality.

THE NATION FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2013

57

NEWS Six killed in Enugu cult clash

Soludo sues APGA for disqualification F

ORMER Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo has sued the the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for disqualifying him from contesting the governorship primaries in Anambra State.

He filed a motion at the Abuja High Court, seeking a judicial review of the party’s decision.

APGA’s screening panel on August 16 disqualified Soludo and five others from participating in its August 26 primaries.

The primaries will produce the party’s candidate for the November 16 governor-

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

ship election.

The screening panel’s decision was upheld by the party’s appeal body.

In a motion exparte filed yesterday by his lawyer, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), Soludo urged the court to grant an order of certiorari, removing and setting aside the decision of the party’s screening panel, on the grounds that the decision violated APGA’s constitution and the country’s con-

stitution.

He also urged the court to order parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum.

Soludo pleaded for an order of interim injunction, restraining APGA from preventing him from participating in the August 26 primaries, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

Yesterday, the court’s vacation judge, Justice Peter Affen, refused the oral submission by Ezechukwu that the case could be heard in

S •Soludo

Abuja, where the party’s headquarters is located.

The judge ordered the lawyer to file further affidavit, citing cases to support his argument that the case could be heard outside Abuja.

The court resumes today.

IX people were killed and five others injured in a clash between vigilance group and suspected cultists on Wednesday in Enugu.

But the police said only two people died.

It was gathered that suspected cultists invaded Ogwuagor in Abakpa Nike and were rebuffed by the vigilance group.

Four suspects- Peter Nwankwo, Udeh Chimezie, Osita Onyia and Frank Ezewere arrested.

The police did not confirm

F

From Chris Oji, Enugu

if the victims were members of the vigilance group or suspected cultists.

Police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu said the bodies have been deposited at the Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu.

The survivorsUwadiegwu Onyegwu, Anayo Ifeji, Ani Basil, Hycianth Ugwu and Ozioma Ezekwem- are being treated in a nearby hospital.

He said the suspects are helping with the investigation.

Kalu condoles with Abia PDP

ORMER Abia State Governor Orji Kalu has commiserated with the families of eight members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, who died in an accident on the Anambra-Enugu Expressway on Tuesday.

Kalu, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Oyekunle

Oyewumi, said: “I was shocked when I received the news of the death of some members of our party, who were on official assignment ahead of the Anambra State governorship election.

“It is a painful exit coming at a time the members’ input and support to the party was much needed.”

Ohanaeze secretary suspended From Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan

T

HE Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Southwest zone) has suspended indefinitely, its Secretary, George Iheonunekwu, for alleged anti-group activities.

The group said the activities of the suspended scribe were inimical to the peace and progress of the organisation.

In a communiqué at the end of its meeting in the palace of the Eze Ndigbo of Ondo State, Eze Gregory Ilo, the group adopted the resolution of the tenure of the present executives headed by Emmanuel Ndidi Nzeako.

The communique by its president, Nzeako and Publicity Secretary, Tony Opara, described the purported removal of Nzeako without due process and his consent as “illegal, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”

The communique directed that the Ohaneze national body and all the presidents of the group in the Southwest, as well as the Association of Ndieze Ndigbo in the region, should be duly informed of Iheonunekwu’s suspension.

•Anambra State Governor,Peter Obi (left) with the Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike at a meeting to discuss the building of a vocational and technical school in the state at the Ministry of Education , Abuja...yesterday.

16 ‘pipeline vandals’ arrested in Imo

I

N what appears to be a major breakthrough in its fight against crime, the police in Imo State yesterday paraded 16 suspected oil pipeline vandals, three NITEL equipment vandals and six suspected cultists.

Parading the suspects, police spokesperson Mrs. Joy Elemoko said the suspected vandals of the NITEL optic cables, Emmanuel Aniche, Ike Odogwu and Samuel Ukachukwu, all from Oguta Local Government Area were arrested on August 17 at the Enyis/Trinity Junction Road, Oguta.

Recovered from them

From Okodili Ndidi, Owerri

were a Mercedes Benz truck loaded with optic cables worth about N10million and a Toyota car.

The 16 suspected pipeline vandals were arrested on August 8 by soldiers, who were deployed in Agip Flow Station at Ikiri.

She gave their names as Orji Best from Umueze Anam in Anambra Local Government Area of Anambra State; “gang leader” Ugochukwu Onuigbo, Emeka Ezuonyekwueje and Chukwuemeka Udeh. Others are Josiah Samuel, Akachukwu Onyebuchi.

Recovered from the gang were “vandalised pipes, a Mack Truck with registration number XH 539 AAA, L300 bus and a trailer load of 40ft 8inch diameter pipes, valued at N5million.”

The command’s Ambush Squad also arrested some suspected cultists.

They are Nnaemeka Iweanogo of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu, Armstrong Mazi of the Benue State University Makurdi, Obinna Dick of Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri.

Others are Ifeanyi John

also of Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Uzoma Ike and Nwadike Uzoma .

Mrs. Elemoko alleged that the suspects “were involved in the killing of Mbachu Samuel Chigozie, a corps member serving in Cross River State.”

Also paraded was Chinedu Atufule, who was found with three electronic fuel dispensers.

Onuigbo admitted to the crime. The suspected optic cable wvandals said they were hired in Onitsha to transport some items to Oguta and were arrested by the police on their way.

Abia restricts tricycle operators to forestall crimes

T

HE Abia State government has limited the operation of tricycle operators to 9 pm.

The government reminded those holding illegal meetings and rallies of the state law banning such meetings and rallies.

Such meeting or rallies must be held with the permission of the police, it said.

A statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Mkpa Agu Mkpa, said: “The Abia State government has noted some reported cases of robbery and kidnapping in Aba and Umuahia.

“Security reports have linked this to some tricycle (keke) operators.

“We also got information

•Bans illegal meetings and rallies From Ugochukwu UgojiEke, Umuahia

on the frequency of unauthorised clandestine meetings by some groups, whose intentions are inimical to the peace of Abia.

“Security agencies have been placed on the alert to combat the menace so that the state will maintain the premier position of being the most secured in the country.

“The government directs as follows, with effect from August 21, all tricycles shall cease to operate in both Aba and Umuahia from 9pm.

“The extant law prohibiting unauthorised meetings

‘The extant law prohibiting unauthorised meetings and rallies in all parts of Abia State is still in force and must be maintained. Such meetings and rallies must be held only with the permission of the commissioner of police’ and rallies in all parts of Abia State is still in force and

must be maintained.

“Such meetings and rallies must be held only with the permission of the commissioner of police.”

The SSG said the government has set up a committee to take a census of all private buildings, filling stations and open spaces being used as illegal motor parks.

Mkpa said those found to have defaulted would be prosecuted.

“Any revoked Certificate of Occupancy will not be returned to the original owner(s).

“Security agencies have been directed to take necessary action to implement government’s directive,” the SSG said.

‘Why I’m running for PDP Deputy National Chair’

A

HEAD of the elections to fill the 18 vacant positions in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC), a Southsouth Deputy National Chairmanship aspirant, Silva Opusunju, has spoken on his agenda for the party.

Opusunju, who lamented the crisis rocking the Rivers State PDP, said his first priority would be to unite all aggrieved members from the Southsouth, especially Rivers.

Opusunju who hails from Opobo in Opobo/Nkori Local Governemnt Area of Rivers State, has been a member of the PDP since 1998.

He said: “We have had and seen enough crises in Rivers PDP. It is time for us to come together and work as a family to ensure the growth and development of our great party.

We are all stakeholders in the PDP. The Southsouth, as a zone cannot afford to fritter away the gains we have made over the years as members of the PDP family.”

Opusunju, who described himself as a bridge builder, said: “I will do everything within my power as deputy national chairman to rebuild the PDP as a great party to achieve the dreams of its founding fathers. As a zone with an incumbent president, we have to be a sterling example to others in terms loyalty to the party as well as its supremacy.”

NRC moves containers from Lagos to Kano

By Oluwakemi Dauda

T

HE Nigerian Railway Corporation has said it will begin today the movement of container freights from APM Terminal in Apapa Port to Inland Container Nigeria Ltd (ICNL) depots in Kaduna and Kano.

A statement by the NRC spokesman, David Ndakotsu, said it will start with 20 wagons, which will carry 20 to 40 containers three times a week.

“The beginning of the container traffic will, no doubt, help in decongesting the ports as well as facilitate the establishment and use of Inland Container Depots (ICDs) along the track corridors” The Managing Director of the NRC, Adeseyi Sijuwade, said the container traffic was a strategy demonstrating the carriage ability and readiness of the Corporation to enhance the development on the nation’s economy.

“Single train haulage of 20 containers is equivalent to 20 trailers or 40 trucks on the road and this goes a long way to improve the economic, health, safety and environmental sustainability of the nation,” he said.

58

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NEWS Strike continues as ASUU quits talks with govt Continued from page 4

spread between 2009-2001, noting that the three years lapsed without government doing anything.

He said this gave rise to the the MoU it signed last January when government also promised to stimulate the university system through N100 billion intervention fund and another N400b each for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

However, he said for government to know universities areas of priority, it initiated the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities (CNANU) which submitted its report to the Federal Government in July 2012. “”It is important to stress that by our own estimation, the MoU should have fetched Nigerian public universities a total sum of N500 billion by now if government were to faithfully implement the understanding reached with ASUU. A continuation of that process would have yielded a revitalisation fund of N1.3 trillion by 2015.

“In the alternative, government could have set the estimated sum of N800 billion required to implement the short term recommen-

dations of the Needs Assessment Report for 2012 and the 2013 put together. But alas, all the government is gloating over now is N100 billion which is nowhere near the scientifically-arrived congruent sums in the 2009 Agreement, the 2012 MoU and the 2013 technical report on the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities. What further evidence do we need to establish government’s bad faith?”

Faggae lamented that ASUU has had countless meetings with Suswam’s committee, noting that recently, government reverted to its old song of ‘no fund’.

“We are at pains to report that this epitomises a grand design to frustrate the 2009 Agreement and all other procedures related to it. This is highly unfortunate. How could the same federal government that within the last three years, generously supported private concerns like the airlines and banks with trillions of naira from the public vaults as ‘bail outs’, suddenly turn around to say it has no fund to conscientiously revitalise its own public universities? The government largesse, which was extended to Nollywood is still fresh in our memory”

Faggae described the Suswam committee as a smokescreen “to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians” on the N100 billion carrot government is currently dangling for the implementation of the Needs Assessment Report.

He added that the union discovered that government had already perfected plans to divert 70 per cent of the yearly allocation by Tertiary Education Training (TETFUND) to make up the N100 billion, a situation he said is unacceptable to the union.

“And unless or until the Suswam Committee gives the union a guarantee that it will not serve as another means of recycling TETFUND money and of diverting funds meant for universities, ASUU representatives will not continue to participate in deliberations with that committee.”

He said ASUU had it on good authority that 75 per cent of the money to be released would not be released directly to ASUU but handed over to the federal ministry of education or the National Universities Commission. He described such move as ‘illegal’.

We’ve crises in PDP, Jonathan admits Continued from page 4

to obey the court order stopping the August 24 congresses of the Southwest zone.

He also said the NEC resolved that the August 31 mini convention should hold as scheduled.

Governors that attended the meeting are: Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe); and Martin Elechi (Ebonyi).

Others were: Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Sullivan Chime (Enu-

gu); Idris Wada (Kogi); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Mukhtar Yero (Kaduna); Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara); and Garba Umar (Taraba).

Deputy Governors at the event are Murktar Shagari (Sokoto) and Alhaji Ganduje ( Kano) who represented their governors.

Governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Gabriel Suswam (Benue); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa); Theodore Orji (Abia); and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) did not attend.

Notable party chieftains at the meeting were: Vice-President Namadi Sambo; BoT chair, Chief Tony Anenih; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; and Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

Others were: Secretary BoT, Alhaji Walid Jibrin; Acting Deputy National chairman, Chibudom Nwuche; Acting National Secretary, Aderemi Akitoye; Chief Bode George; Professor Jerry Gana, among others.

Court restrains Tukur, AGF, INEC Continued from page 4

state.

Uba’s brother, Senator Andy Uba, is one of the leading aspirants for the party gubernatorial ticket in the primary slated for Saturday.

In an ex-parte motion brought before the court , the defendant, Prince Ken Emeakayi, sought, among other things, an “order restraining the respondents

and comtemnors from further refusal to maintain status quo, that is to say from further refusal to recognise only Ejike Oguebego PDP-Exco and Congress Committee (governorship) in Anambra State., notwistansdinh anything or pronouncement to the contrary.”

In granting the order, Hon. Justice S. A. Aliyu, ordered the respondents to comply with the directive

“ pending the determination of the substantive originating summons”.

INEC had earlier issued a statement recognising the Oguebego-led executive while the party’s national leadership had declared its support for another faction of the executive in the state.

The case has been adjourned to August 27 for hearing of the substantive matter.

Assessment of PDP political office holders in Rivers begins

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IVERS State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has commenced performance assessment of political office holders.

Chairman of the Committee, Osinakachukwu Ideozu, said the essence is not to witch-hunt anybody but to examine how these officers elected to oversee the welfare of the people have discharged these responsibilities in line with public expectations and to

be better informed in preparing for future elections.

He said among those invited are Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru, Commissioners , the Senators, of the House of Representatives members.

He explained that Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the 27 other members of the State House of Assembly were not invited because of the issues associated with their suspension.

The former National Organising Secretary, and former State Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus has described the performance assessment as an excellent idea.

Prince Secondus said he deemed it necessary to submit himself to the committee to render the account of his stewardship as a loyal party member and because the order is from the party, noting that he had just done that and very well too.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

59

FOREIGN NEWS

China: Bo Xilai denied bribe-taking charges T appeared to be a lastditch effort by the former political star to repair the reputation he had so carefully cultivated of being a man of the people.

Prosecutors ended months of suspense about the details of his charges, rolling out accusations that featured a villa in France, a hot-air balloon project and a football club, giving a glimpse of how colorful corruption can look in China.

Bo’s verbal sparring displayed the media-savvy politician’s keen sense of how to portray himself well in tough situations. He thanked the judge for letting him speak, asserted that he was pressured into making a confession and was selectively contrite.

“I’m not a perfect man, and

I

not a strong-willed person, I’m willing to take responsibility for that,” Bo said. “But as to the basic facts of whether I am guilty or innocent, I must say my piece.”

Once the powerful party boss in the megacity of Chongqing, the charismatic Bo fell into disgrace early last year following revelations that his wife had killed a British businessman, and that he had allegedly attempted to cover it up.

Thursday marked the first time he was seen in public in 18 months, since shortly after the scandal emerged.

The trial is widely presumed to have a predetermined outcome: conviction.

But in an unusual display of openness for a major political trial in China, court officials released frequent

microblog updates on the testimony, suggesting ruling Communist Party officials are confident of minimizing damage from a scandal that exposed a murder and machinations among China’s elite.

Prosecutors said Bo used his wife, Gu Kailai, and his son, Bo Guagua, as intermediaries in accepting $3.5 million in the northeast city of Dalian, where Bo Xilai once held key posts. They also alleged that Bo instructed an underling to keep quiet an $800,000 payment to the city, and that Bo diverted the money into personal funds with the help of his wife, according to updates on the microblog site Sina Weibo posted by the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court.

In response, Bo said he had

been coerced into falsely confessing to party investigators that he had taken payments from a general manager of a company owned by the Dalian government.

Prosecutors also said Bo helped a Dalian businessman, Xu Ming, in efforts to buy a football club and obtain land for a hot-air balloon project without proper procedures. They said Xu helped Bo’s family finance the purchase of a villa in Nice, France, and that Xu bought a Segway, an electric stand-up scooter, for Bo’s son.

Bo denied the accusations and said the two were not even friends.

In denying the corruption charges, Bo seemed to be using the trial to make a final stab at ameliorating the damage the scandal has done to

his image, which he honed in Chongqing with an anticrime crackdown that gave him nationwide fame.

The trial went into recess after about eight hours of testimony and was to resume at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Bo entered the courthouse Thursday in a convoy under police escort. Though kept far away from the media, some of Bo’s supporters gathered outside a security perimeter, intermittently yelling, “He served the people!” and “He was a good cadre!”

Despite Bo’s feisty defense, a verdict of guilt against Bo is all but assured because the outcome of trials involving high-profile politicians in China are usually decided in backroom negotiations by politicians and handed down by the court.

USA: ‘I am female’ claims Manning

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DAY after being sentenced to 35 years in prison, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning announced in a statement to “Today” that she identifies as female and wants to be known as Chelsea Manning.

“I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.

I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back,” said Manning.

Also read: Bradley Manning’s Attorney Asks Obama to Pardon Him On Tuesday, David Coombs, Manning’s attorney, called on President Obama to pardon Manning or commute her sentence to time served.

It was unclear whether Manning identifying as female would change the location of her imprisonment.

During his trial, Manning’s attorneys presented evidence that their client struggled with gender identity disorder, a strong feeling of being trapped in the body of the opposite gender. They presented evidence of Manning’s struggle that included a picture of the private in a blond wig and lipstick (above).

Also read: WikiLeaks Mole Bradley Manning Convicted of Espionage, Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy.

•Salafist Palestinians carry Islamic flags and shout slogans during a demonstration against Egypt’s Defense Minister and PHOTO: AFP Syrian President in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah...yesterday

Syrian forces bomb area of alleged chemical attack S YRIAN government forces pressed their offensive in eastern Damascus yesterday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed more than 100 people the day before in a chemical weapons attack.

The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as “absolutely baseless.”

The U.S., Britain and France have demanded that a team of U.N. experts already in Syria be granted immediate access to the site.

Syrian opposition figures and activists have reported

death tolls from Wednesday’s attack ranging from 136 to 1,300. But even the most conservative tally would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in Syria’s civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had no word on casualties in the Thursday morning bombing. It said warplanes conducted several air raids on eastern and western suburbs of Damascus, including three that took place within five minutes.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activ-

ist group, also reported several air raids on the suburbs, and added that President Bashar Assad’s forces were shelling eastern Ghouta from the Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus.

Wednesday’s alleged chemical attack was said to have killed scores of children, seen in amateur videos as small, lifeless bodies, wrapped in white cloths, their pale skin unmarked by any wounds.

Images of dead children lying shoulder to shoulder in rooms and of others being treated for breathing problems brought world-

wide condemnation and shock.

Mohammed Abdullah, an activist in the suburb of Saqba, told The Associated Press via Skype on Thursday that most of the dead were buried hours after the attack in collective graves in different areas in eastern Ghouta.

The burials took place quickly for fear the bodies might decompose in the heat, he said.

Relatives identified some of the dead before burial.

Unidentified victims were photographed and their graves tagged with a number in case their loved ones come to collect their bodies in the future, Abdullah said.

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 24

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RESH insurgent attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bombing targeting a Shiite wedding party, killed at least 24 people yesterday, authorities said.

Attacks have been on the rise in Iraq since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 24 Violence also has stepped up in strikes on socalled soft targets - like civilians at coffee shops or shopping along busy commercial streets. On Thursday night in the northern town of Dujail, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt in the midst of a wedding party for a Shiite family, killing nine civilians and wounding 27, a police officer said.

Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, is a Shiite Muslim town surrounded by Sunni areas. Tensions between the two branches of Islam have grown as Sunnis feel locked out of the country’s Shiite-dominated government.

In another bloody attack, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden fuel tanker into a military barrack in Iraq’s western Anbar province. The attack killed at least nine soldiers and wounded 11, a police officer said.

A former insurgent stronghold, Anbar province is one of the areas where militants have intensified their attacks to undermine government efforts to increase security.

Also Thursday, gunmen in two cars killed a local leader for pro-government, anti-al-Qaida Sunni militia in Madain, as well as two of his guards, another police officer said. Another guard was wounded, the officer said.

Madain is about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Sunni militiamen, or Awakening Councils, fought al-Qaida during the country’s brutal sectarian war. Many of its fighters were former al-Qaida members and are seen as traitors by the insurgents.

In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb went off next to a police patrol, killing two police officers as gunmen shot dead a tribal sheik in another attack, police said.

Mosul is about 360 kilometers (220 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

UK mounts criminal inquiry into NSA leaks

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RITAIN has launched a criminal investigation into Edward Snowden’s leak of classified material to the Guardian newspaper and is sifting through documents it seized from the partner of one of the paper’s journalists, a government lawyer said yesterday.

The revelation by lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw came at London’s High Court, where lawyers for David Miranda the partner of Guardian jour-

nalist Glenn Greenwald unsuccessfully sued to stop police from combing through digital material seized from him Sunday at Heathrow Airport.

It was the British government’s first mention of a criminal investigation linked to the seized material, which included a laptop, cellphone, DVDs and memory sticks.

Greenwald has been at the center of the Guardian’s disclosures about the National

Security Agency, which have pulled back the curtain on the American government’s secret domestic espionage program. Miranda, a 28year-old Brazilian student, was detained for nearly nine hours as he flew through the London airport after meeting in Germany with a journalist working with Greenwald.

Laidlaw said British police had already begun scanning through Miranda’s tens of thousands of pages of docu-

ments, which he described as “highly sensitive.”

“The disclosure of (the material) would be gravely injurious to public safety and thus the police have now initiated a criminal investigation,” Laidlaw said.

“There is an absolutely compelling reason to permit this investigation to continue.”

The exact target of the investigation was not clear.

The Guardian said it was unaware of any criminal investigation and had yet to

hear from police about the matter. London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement that its counterterrorism command had only just launched the inquiry Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what link a British investigation would have to American efforts to prosecute Snowden, who has won temporary asylum in Russia and is still being sought by Barack Obama’s government on charges of espionage.

PUBLIC NOTICE ON STREET NAMING I, Mr. ANTHONY CHRISTOPHER EKWENUA wish to inform the general public that i have applied to Isolo Local Council Development Area, that the street lying opposite AKANU OHAFIA STREET, by best time road Ago palace way be named in my favour as EKEANUA CLOSE. This is for the information of Isolo Local Council Development Area and general public.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

60

FOREIGN Mexico officials find mass EXICAN authorities grave in city said yesterday that

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they have found a mass grave east of Mexico City and are testing to determine if it holds some of the 12 people who vanished from a bar in an upscale area of the capital nearly three months ago.

At least seven badly decomposed corpses have been recovered so far from the grave in Tlalmanalco, Mexico City prosecutor Rodolfo Rios told reporters in a press conference. He said the victims can’t be identified so far based on clothing, nor can they tell the cause of death.

“We will look at DNA tests that have been taken ... to confirm or discard scientifically if the bodies found are the people who disappeared from the bar,” Rios said.

About 10 relatives of the missing marched into the press conference before it began to demand that they be informed first of what was going on. The families have criticized authorities for their lack of leads or explanation of what happened in the three months since their loved ones disappeared.

“We’re the ones affected, the rest of you after,” said Eugenia Ortiz, aunt of the Jerzy Ortiz, one of the missing.

Rio said there were more bodies and the work would continue in an area near Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park in the state of Mexico.

He said the excavation is difficult because of terrain and weather, which has made the

ground muddy. He also said two people who live in the area of the mass grave have been detained.

The young bar-goers vanished from the after-hours Heaven club at midday on May 26, just a block from Mexico’s leafy Paseo de Reforma, the city’s equivalent of the Champs-Elysees.

Prosecutors say the abductions are linked to a dispute between two rival drug gangs, one in Mexico City’s dangerous Tepito neighborhood, home to most of the abducted. The families of the disappeared, however, say they were not involved in drug trafficking.

Surveillance cameras showed several cars pulling up to the bar and taking the victims away. A witness who escaped told authorities that a bar manager had ordered the music turned off, told patrons that authorities were about to raid the establishment and ordered those inside to leave.

The 12 have not been heard from since.

So far, six people have been arrested in the Heaven case, including club owner Ernesto Espinosa Lobo, known as “The Wolf,” who has been charged with kidnapping. Among the arrested are another bar owner, a driver and security guard.

The bizarre disappearance resonated across the city of 9 million because many had come to believe it was an oasis from Mexico’s cartels and drug violence.

Japan upgrades nuclear plant incident level

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APAN is poised to declare a toxic water leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant a level 3 “serious incident,” its gravest warning since the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sent three reactors into meltdown.

The country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said the leak was expected to be classified as a level 3 incident on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale pending confirmation from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The current situation is at the point where more surveillance won’t be enough to keep the accidents from happening,” Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the authority, said at a news conference Wednesday.

“Our job is now to lower the risk of these accidents from becoming fatal.”

The leak previously had a level 1 “anomaly rating” on the scale, which ranges from zero, for no safety threat, to seven, for a major accident like the meltdowns at the plant after the earthquake and tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, which is in charge of the plant, has struggled to manage the vast quantities of contaminated water at the plant since the tsunami, which swamped the facility.

Water pumped out of the stricken reactor buildings is being stored in large water towers at the site.

In response to the latest leakage of 300 tons of toxic water, a TEPCO spokesman said Wednesday the company has finished removing radioactive water from a leaky tank and transferred it to another tank at the plant.

The leaky container is designed to hold as much as 1,000 tons of water, TEPCO said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was aware of reports that the Nuclear Regulation Authority plans to rate the leak as a level 3 incident.

“The IAEA views this matter seriously and remains ready to provide assistance on request,” the agency said.

Scientists have pointed to high radiation levels in the waters off the plant for more than a year as evidence of problems with the company’s efforts to contain the water.

In July, TEPCO admitted that radioactive groundwater was leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the plant, even though an underground barrier was built to seal in the water, underscoring a growing sense of crisis at the site.

The authority said in a statement on its website that the plant “remains in an unstable condition, with various risks to be addressed, and in particular managing the issue of contaminated water as a high priority.”

Michael Friedlander, a nuclear engineer and former U.S. power plant operator, said the level 3 classification was warranted for the type of situation faced by TEPCO, but he said the risk to the public outside the plant was very low.

•An Egyptian supporter of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak raises up his portrait outside the Tora prison PHOTO: AFP

Hosni Mubarak now released, in house arrest

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GYPT’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, wearing a white shirt and loafers while flashing a smile, was released from prison Thursday and transported to a military hospital in a Cairo suburb where he will be held under house arrest.

Prime Minister Hazem elBeblawi had ordered that Mubarak be put under house arrest as part of the emergency measures imposed this month after a wave of violence sparked by the ouster of Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi, who had succeeded Mubarak as Egypt’s first freely elected President.

Footage on private TV stations showed the helicopter carrying the 85-year-old Mubarak landing at the pad outside the military hospital, which sits on the banks of the Nile. He was immediately transported to an am-

bulance and moved across the street to the hospital.

An Associated Press photo shows Mubarak on a gurney being transported onto an ambulance amid tight security. He was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a white shirt, beige pants and white loafers. He flashed a smile and held his arms behind his head while medics pushed his gurney into the ambulance.

As the ambulance drove across the street and into the main gate of the military hospital, guards, some with their handguns drawn, and soldiers ran after the vehicle, possibly for fear that the ex-president could be the target of an attack.

Thursday’s move followed a court decision ordering Mubarak’s release in relation to charges of receiving gifts from a state-owned newspaper.

The release threatened to

stoke the unrest as the Arab nation is already roiled in a crisis over a military coup against Morsi.

But the decision to place him under house arrest instead of letting him go free appeared designed to ease some of the criticism over releasing Mubarak and to ensure that he appears in court next week for a separate trial.

Despite his release, the 85year-old ousted leader still faces retrial on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising against him, which could put him back behind bars. His court case resumes next week. He also is being investigated in at least two other corruption cases.

State TV said a medically equipped helicopter transported Mubarak to the military hospital in the southern Maadi suburb.

Mubarak was held for sev-

eral weeks of his two years detention in the same hospital as he underwent medical check-ups. His lawyers had cited bad conditions in the prison facilities. Prison authorities had renovated a ward where he was later kept.

Since his ouster, Mubarak’s supporters have released conflicting details about his health, including that he suffered a stroke, a heart attack and at times went into a coma.

His critics called these an attempt to gain public sympathy and court leniency.

His wife, Suzanne, has been living in Cairo and keeping a low-profile, occasionally visiting Mubarak and their two sons in prison.

The prospect of Mubarak being freed, even if only temporarily, would feed into the larger crisis bedeviling Egypt: the violent fallout from the July 3 coup that unseated Morsi.

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, 89, sworn in for another five –year term

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IMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader at 89, began a new five-year term on Thursday by calling the West “vile” for questioning his re-election and vowing to press ahead with nationalist economic policies.

After taking the oath of office before bewigged Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku at a sundrenched soccer stadium in Harare, Mugabe praised African countries that endorsed the July 31 vote and told his critics to “go hang”.

“Except for a few Western dishonest countries, our elections have been hailed as peaceful, free, fair and credible,” he said in an hour-long speech to thousands of cheering supporters, diplomats and six African presidents.

“For those odd Western countries who happen to hold a different negative view of our electoral proc-

ess and outcome, there is not much that we can do about them. We dismiss them as the vile ones whose moral turpitude we must mourn,” he added.

As he was sworn in, former colonial power Britain and the European Union repeated serious reservations about the credibility of the vote, already rejected by Mugabe’s main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, as a fraudulent “coup by ballot”.

The new term will be Mugabe’s fifth as president and extends his 33-year rule.

He also served as prime minister after the end, in 1980, of white minority rule in the country previously known as Rhodesia.

Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner in the July vote, putting an end to the unity government cobbled together after a disputed and violent poll in 2008.

That power-sharing deal with Tsvangirai’s MDC party brought stability to an economy crushed by hyperinflation. Analysts are worried that with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF now back in full control, the government may roll back reforms that had helped spur some growth.

Mugabe said his ZANU-PF party would advance an “indigenization” policy that forces foreign mining firms in the country to turn over majority stakes to local blacks, making it the centerpiece of its post-election economic revival program.

“The time has now come for us to extend our dominion to all those resources which the Almighty has been generous enough to give. That is the next revolution whose first step is this administration, this new government,” he said.

His opponent in the last three elections, Tsvangirai, who has branded the election a “huge fraud”, boycotted the ceremony.

A Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman said the party did not want to be associated with “election thieves”.

ZANU-PF has rejected all allegations of vote-rigging.

In his speech, Mugabe praised Tsvangirai for helping ensure a peaceful vote and being a partner in the coalition that produced a new constitution in March.

Britain said on Thursday Mugabe’s re-election could not be deemed credible without an independent investigation into allegations of voting irregularities.

U.S. officials this week said the election was flawed and Washington had no plans to loosen sanctions until there were signs of change in the country.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

EXTRA

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SPORT

McLaren wins in 2013 'will be very challenging' T

•Mayweather Jr

Mayweather Jr rules out Pacquiao bout

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AYWEATHER Jr is set to fight Saul Alvarez in Las Vegas on September 14, but the unbeaten welterweight champion appears to have put an end to years of speculation that he will enter the ring with Pacquiao.

"Manny Pacquiao had a chance to make the fight in the past and basically, that's the best place I'd like to leave it," Mayweather Jr told MLive.

"Now, I'm feeling like I wouldn't even give him a chance... He had a chance, he blew it, so that's what it is."

Mayweather Jr had said in the past the only way he would fight Pacquiao would be if the latter were to move from Top Rank

Promotions to Mayweather Promotions.

With a tussle against Mayweather Jr not on the cards for the time being, Pacquiao is set to go toe-to-toe with Brandan Rios in November for the vacant WBO welterweight title.

There had been suggestions Pacquiao would retire following a loss to Timothy Bradley and being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez last December, but he has insisted he still has "two or three years left" in boxing.

And he is still hoping to take Mayweather Jr on one day, saying: "For me, that's important. It's going to be an important part of my boxing record."

No positive dope tests at Swimmig Worlds

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HE recent swimming World Championships in Barcelona provided no positive doping tests, the International Swimming Federation has announced.

The International Swimming Federation (Fina) confirmed on Wednesday there had been no positive doping tests at the World Championships in Barcelona earlier this month.

During the competition, 378 urine samples, including 69 tested for banned bloodbooster EPO, and 84 blood samples were taken.

Before the competition 358 samples were taken to test against biological passports that Fina had put in place before the Olympics in London last year.

A total of 2,195 competitors took part at the championships that included diving, water polo, synchronised swimming and open water events.

Australia finished fourth overall in the medal tally behind the US, China and France, winning three gold and 10 silver medals.

•Ye Shiwen

URNING the MP4-28 in to a race winner "will be a real challenge" according to McLaren's managing director Jonathan Neale.

Having had a poor start to the season, McLaren has been making gains over the past few races but is still unable to challenge for podiums. While Jenson Button said prior to the mid-season break that he believes McLaren can win a race this season, Neale told a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in that he doesn't share that view as the team focuses on next season.

"I think that will be a real challenge, if I'm honest," Neale said. "The areas that we're working on this car are areas that either directly or indirectly are relevant to our 2014 campaign. Most teams by now will be switching the greater proportion of their resource and much of the design organisation across to next year's car; we're almost through August so it's four months until the end of the year. There's a lot of work to be done to get ready for next year so I think inevitably teams will start being increasingly focused on 2014."

Neale was also keen to play down the optimism displayed

by Button at the Hungarian Grand Prix but said McLaren would hope to make further progress with its upgrade package in Spa. "I think I'd want to underplay [our chances of success] a bit more than that. Jenson was interested in some of the learning and understanding that we've developed over the last couple of months on the car. We've worked incredibly hard to take a package of upgrades to Hungary; we didn't get everything from the package that we were expecting so there's still some outstanding work to do and we will continue that work over Spa and Monza. The work that we're doing is not circuit specific, it's general car development.

"Spa is a fantastic race; the drivers are always excited to get there and we love it as a circuit as well, but it's notoriously difficult. The weather forecast that I've seen so far says that qualifying and the race could well be wet this weekend, so Spa is tricky and I don't think anybody would go to Spa feeling that they were confident. I think we'll struggle to be right at the front but nevertheless we are hoping to make some further gains."

•Neale

Andy Murray a 'hunted' player, says John McEnroe

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I M B L E D O N champion Andy Murray must get used to being "the hunted" as he prepares to defend his US Open title, says John McEnroe.

“People are going to be gunning for him even more. I think he's found that a little bit since playing Wimbledon” American, a four-time winner at Flushing Meadows, believes that as the reigning champion Murray, 26, faces a different kind of pressure when the tournament begins on Monday.

"On the one hand he's done it, so that's amazing," said McEnroe.

"On the other hand, you're the hunted more than you were in the past."

Murray, 26, has reached the final of the last four major tournaments in which he has competed, but has not made it past the quarter-finals in his two events since his victory at Wimbledon.

He remains in with a chance of ending the year as the world number one but slipped behind the in-form Rafael Nadal to third in the rankings on Monday.

McEnroe, 54, managed to follow Wimbledon victories with success at the US Open twice during his career, in 1981 and 1984, and both times ended the year as the world number one.

"This is the first shot where Murray's got a legitimate chance to finish number one and be number one for the year if he can get two majors," added McEnroe, now a regular on the ATP Champions Tour that culminates at the Royal Albert Hall in December.

"So that's a different type of approach and people are going to be gunning for him even more. I think he's found

that a little bit since playing Wimbledon."

McEnroe also believes the fact that Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open, Nadal won the French Open and Murray won Wimbledon, means the US Open could effectively decide who has been the best player of 2013.

"There's three different guys, obviously Rafa, Novak and Andy, that have won the three majors," said McEnroe.

"All three of them feel that if they win the US Open - I think

- that they're going to deserve to be called number one for the year."

The US Open has been disrupted by bad weather for the past five years, with the men's final being postponed to a third Monday on each occasion, and McEnroe has welcomed the news of plans for a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"I don't want to say too little too late because I don't think it ever is," said McEnroe.

"It would fall under the

category of better late than never. It's been five years in a row, which has hurt the ratings and hurt, I think, our sport a little bit, that our final was not played on the Sunday.

"Clearly that's bad luck, but at the same time the USTA [United States Tennis Association] makes a lot of money at this event, it's a huge event, and they have the resources, so I'm glad they seem to have finally figured out a way to put a roof over a huge stadium."

•Andy Murray

Adam Scott, Justin Rose partied in the Bahamas

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HIS is great, this is the kind of stuff I would do if I was a rich professional golfer.

According to this report by Brian Wacker of PGATour.com, Justin Rose and Adam Scott made a bet when they were in their early 20s that whoever won his first major would fund a victory party which each would then attend.

That party took place last

weekend at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. Here's a photo of the place from its website: The problem (if you can call it that) is that Scott and Rose both won majors within two months of each other.

Technically Scott's came first but they were close enough that the debate needed to be clarified by each man.

"When we made that bet, the check wasn't quite as big,"

joked Scott in a recent interview with PGATOUR.COM. But I think he's on the hook for it, too, and I guess I'm on the hook for it."

"The bet that was a young, childish bet we made when we were about 21 years old. I think Scotty should be on the hook for that."

You can file this one away under "problems I would love to have."

62

EXTRA

EURO FOOTBALL

SPORT

Samuel Eto'o's future undecided

I •Iker Casillas

Iker Casillas could leave Real - Schuster

I

KER Casillas' former Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster has suggested that the Spanish goalkeeper might prefer a transfer to sitting on the bench during a World Cup year.

Casillas -- who infamously fell out with ex-Blancos boss Jose Mourinho during the 2012-13 season -- surprisingly found himself a substitute again for Madrid’s opening game of the current campaign, when new manager Carlo Ancelotti chose Diego Lopez for Sunday’s 2-1 home win over Real Betis.

That decision sparked another media storm in Spain, with pundits analysing his body-language both before and during the Betis game, and discussing what a blow it must have been for ‘San Iker’, who has made over 600 appearances for Madrid. A few even looked at teams which might be in the market for an experienced top class keeper -- such as Arsenal -- and suggested a move could even take place before the current transfer window ends.

El Confidencial reports that well-placed sources suggested the club captain was unhappy to learn he would be a substitute just two hours before Sunday’s match at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but plans to fight for his place.

Ancelotti’s selection dominated Sunday's postgame press conference, where the Italian repeatedly told reporters that he had yet to decide on a first-choice between the posts. Casillas is expected to start Thursday’s ‘XXXV Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu’ exhibition game against Raul Gonzalez’s current team AlSadd, with all eyes then on who Ancelotti picks for Madrid’s next league fixture -- at Granada next Monday.

Schuster, who was Madrid boss during the 2007-08 season when the team won the title and Casillas claimed the league’s ‘Zamora’ title for best goalkeeper, said it was difficult to imagine his former player appearing anywhere else, but then recalled that nobody thought Raul would leave either.

"I would understand if Iker wanted to leave, but on the other hand he is such an emblematic player," the German said on Tiki-Taka. "I could not see Raul playing for another team, and Iker too, it is difficult to think he could play somewhere else.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NTER Milan are still in the hunt for Anzhi Makhachkala forward Samuel Eto’o, although they only have a one in three chance of getting him, according to the player's agent.

Claudio Vigorelli, who represents the Cameroonian, revealed to Italy’s Sportmediaset TV that three clubs currently come into question for the 32-year-old.

Inter are one of them, although they will have to take their place in line behind Chelsea and Manchester United.

Vigorelli is reported to be

touting his client to the Blues, where he would link up with his coach from the 2010 Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League Treble with the Nerazzurri, Jose Mourinho. A move to London hinges on whether or not Wayne Rooney arrives at Stamford Bridge.

Were the England international to head south, United would then emerge as the frontrunners for Eto’o’s services. Should a move to Old Trafford also fail to materialise, then Inter would be next up.

"I’d say there is a 30% chance of Eto’o returning to Inter,"

Vigorelli said.

Eto’o enjoyed a successful two-year spell at Inter, scoring 33 goals in 67 games before making a big-money switch to Anzhi, but now he is no longer wanted by the Russian club because of cost-cutting.

Meanwhile, Inter did complete one deal on Tuesday with Saphir Taider arriving from Serie A rivals Bologna.

"I’m very happy and I want to thank Bologna and Inter for giving me this opportunity," the midfielder said on his new club’s official website. "Inter are a great club who have won everything and I’m delighted to be here."

Guardiola did not force me out of Bayern, says Luiz Gustavo

T

HE Brazil international has dismissed suggestions that left the reigning Bundesliga champions due to the former Barcelona coach.

Wolfsburg midfielder Luiz Gustavo has insisted that Pep Guardiola did not force him out of Bayern Munich and added that the 42-year-old will forever have a place in his

heart.

The holding midfielder left the Allianz Arena for Dieter Hecking's earlier this month, snubbing a move to Arsenal, and has stressed that the Spaniard was not the reason for his departure.

"It's never easy to say farewell. I met a lot of friends at Bayern and a lot of people will always have a place in my heart, including Pep Guardiola," the Brazil international told Sport Bild.

"He did not tell me that I did not have a chance at Bayern.

He also shook my hand and

said me farewell on the Sunday of my goodbye.

"I could have stayed at Bayern and fought for my place. I have no doubt that I would have achieved something.

"I felt that something had to change. That feeling got even stronger after a first meeting with Guardiola. I then spoke with the people who are important to me and made my decision."

Gustavo, 26, made his official Wolfsburg debut at the weekend, helping them to a 4-0 win over Schalke.

•Samuel Eto'o

Allegri warns Mario Balotelli over conduct

A

C Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has told Mario Balotelli to accept refereeing decisions and stop answering back to officials in future.

The Italy international was booked for a foul on Jeffrey Bruma in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven

•Luiz Gustavo

and he risked receiving a second warning by constantly questioning the referee. While Allegri has praised the former Manchester City forward for his overall improved conduct, he says he must still learn to keep his mouth shut in certain situations.

"He played well and, apart

from his technical quality, which is incredible, I was also pleased with the way he was when not in possession," Allegri said. "He’s improved a lot too in terms of his character, but the referees have got to be left alone because, in the long term, these yellow cards start to

Lazio fans to end 'monkey noises'

A

group of Lazio fans at the centre of a racial discrimination row claimed the allegations against them are “ridiculous”, but said it was time to put a stop to their “famous monkey noises” despite maintaining the chants had been misinterpreted.

The Curva Nord of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico will be closed to Lazio’s most fanatical followers for Sunday’s Serie A opener against Udinese after persistent racial chants were reported during Sunday night’s 4-0 defeat in the Supercoppa against Juventus. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he welcomed the "firm stance" over the matter.

•Sepp Blatter

It is not the first time Lazio have been punished for the racially discriminatory behaviour of their fans: last year, the Olimpico was closed twice for Europa League matches due to fans’ misconduct.

However, a group of supporters claiming to represent the Curva Nord say they are simply being misinterpreted.

“It’s really ridiculous and disgraceful to accuse our Curva of racism,” a statement from the fans, which appeared in Gazzetta dello Sport, read. “We are a Curva who have never turned black lads away from our section and have always accepted the progressive rise in

lads from different ethnic backgrounds emerging in our club, even making them become idols. Just look at [Fabio] Liverani, [Ousmane] Dabo, [Ogenyi] Onazi, [Michael] Ciani, [Djibril] Cisse etc.”

To prevent further issues, they say they will put an end to the chants that have got them in hot water time and time again.

“Our attempts to make people understand that the famous monkey noises are not offensive racial chants, but rather simple banter to irritate our opponents, have all been in vain,” the group said. “We will therefore ask our people to avoid using such monkey noises in future.”

Meanwhile, a senator from the city of Naples is to seek clarification as to what comes under the category of racism, claiming that his club is often insulted by rival fans in a manger that is similarly offensive but as yet unpunished.

“Since the season starts on Saturday, it would be nice to find out if the Lega Serie A will only be punishing racial insults relating to a person’s skin colour,” Antonio Gentile, secretary of the Italian senate, said in comments reported by Tuttosport. “Racism has got to be fought severely. The shameful remarks towards a capital of culture like Naples have always been tolerated by

the Lega and we need to do something about this."

Gentile claims chants such as “Naples, Italy’s disgrace” and calling for the Vesuvius volcano to erupt and eliminate the city are equally offensive and racially discriminatory and should also be punishable.

•Mario Balotelli

mount up and suspensions arrive so he’s got to avoid certain behaviour."

Balotelli was booked six times in 13 Serie A appearances for the Rossoneri last season, missing one game through an automatic suspension and a further one for insulting an assistant referee at the end of Milan’s defeat to Fiorentina. He was therefore ruled out of important league clashes with Napoli and Juventus.

He risked missing the decisive second leg against PSV next Wednesday on what he said was a frustrating night in Eindhoven.

On Wednesday morning Balotelli offered his own assessment of the game from his official Twitter account.

THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

63

SPORT EXTRA 2013 AFROBASKET

Bakare: Team Nigeria ready for Congo

T

HE national male basketball team’s coaching crew led by Ayo Bakare last night concentrated on the defence which it has identified as the weak link as they prepared for tonight’s second group match against Congo.

Coach Bakare said but for the defence which allowed the Malians to shoot freely from the perimeter, the scoreline could have been different but still gave kudos to their West African brothers for their

powerful play.

Today against Congo who lost their first match 74-43 to Cameroon, coach Bakare said “we are not going to take chances at all”, hoping that the players would display all the tactics they have learnt so far.

He said that he would joggle the team to take care of the absence of a key player, Richard Oruche who picked up an injury during the grueling match against Mali on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Cameroon will battle Mali in the second group match today as the Malians have vowed to tackle the Central Africans known for their power play grit for grit.

In some of the matches decided last night, Cape Verde who made their debut in Angola 2007, beat Central African Republic 90-82, while Egypt continued their poor run in the competition with a 6763 loss to fellow North Africans Algeria in a group A tie.

FEDERATIONS CUP

NFF congratulates Enyimba, Wolves

T

•Bakare

HE Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) has congratulated all four teams that have qualified for the grand finale of the 2013 Men and Women Federation Cup competitions, which holds at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos on Sunday,

Aregbesola flags off International Open Taekwondo Championship HE 11th edition of annual Panamai International Open Taekwondo Championship will come up in Osogbo, State of Osun, capital today.

The Government of the State of Osun in conjunction with Nigeria Taekwondo Federation organised the 3Day event that will be competed for among the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory and representatives are in the ancient town from Mali and Ghana.

Governor, Rauf Aregbesola and other top government functionaries will flag off the International championship at Charity

T

Hotel Hall.

The yearly championship according to the Acting General Manager, State of Osun Sports Council, Akin Adio, is to further popularise the combative sport celebrate sports and to select athletes that will represent Nigeria in Cotonou, Benin Republic later in the year.

Adio, further stated that Osun was given the hosting right because of the state performances in previous Panamai Championship and he also appreciated the state government for their support.

All categories of events are expected to take place from age groups to adults.

CARGOLUX SQUASH TOURNEY

Junior players dazzle as battle for honours hots up NTENSE squash action

I

continued yesterday at the on-going 9th Annual Cargolux Inter-Club Squash Tournament with junior players slugging it out for points in the Under 16 and Under 19 categories.

The young players who trooped in from different states across Nigeria had taken over the courts since Wednesday and continued to display incredible squash skills in their quest to win the title in their individual categories.

The two days of tough fixtures in the junior tournament have produced finalists in the Under 16 and Under 19 girls categories, while players that would feature in the semi finals have emerged in the Under 16 and Under 19 boys categories.

In the Under 16 girls category, Kirnan Simon from Plateau State beat Charity Afokhai of Niger State 11/4, 9/11, 11/3 to qualify for the final of the tournament while Akintade Toyin of Ondo defeated Bonny Ejiro also of Ondo 11/6, 11/2, 11/1 to get to the final. The Under 19 girl category produced Adebayo Kehinde of Ondo who trounced Kirnan Simeon of Plateau 11/9, 11/6, 11/3 and Akinleye Titilayo of Kwara who defeated Oatah Irenuse of Ondo as finalists.

Abel Shadrak of Ogun would take on Onaopemipo Adegoke of Lagos in the first semi-final of the Under 16

boys, while Dele Pratt of Lagos would face Oladipupo Ayomide also from Lagos in the second semi-final match of the Under 16 boys.

In the Under 19 boys category, Adamu Abubakar of Niger State would pair Dele Omotayo of Lagos in the first semi-final match, while Abubakar Durosinlorun of Kwara would play Edward Bette in the second semi-final match of the category.

•Amazons, Angels too 15th September.

Two-time CAF Champions League winners, Enyimba FC of Aba pipped hard-fighting Lobi Stars 1-0 in an exciting semi final duel at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Wednesday, while Warri Wolves FC edged Akwa United FC in the other semi final played over two days at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi.

Heavy downpour led to stoppage of the Wolves/Akwa United match in Bauchi 15 minutes to the end, with both sides locked at 1-1 in a match watched by visiting FIFA Senior Development Manager (Africa), Mr. Francesco Bruscoli and FIFA Development Officer (West Africa), Mr. Sampon Kablan.

The last quarter-hour was played out on Thursday with Wolves grabbing a goal to qualify for the showpiece grand finale in Lagos.

In the women’s event, Nasarawa Amazons pipped Bayelsa Queens 1-0 in Ado Ekiti, at the same time that Rivers Angels were turning back Pelican Stars 2-0 in Abuja.

“The NFF duly congratulates all the four teams and let me say clearly here that we are looking forward to a very colourful grand finale. All four teams are quality sides and will bring so much panache to that big day in Lagos,” said Chief Emeka Inyama, Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee.

Inyama added: “The Federation Cup has certainly gained much more glamour with the women’s event being played alongside the men’s competition. The NFF and Lagos State anticipate great games in the finale in Lagos.”

EUROPA LEAGUE PLAY-OFF

Ideye scores in Dynamo's 3-2 win

S

UPER Eagles ace, Brown Ideye was in fine form for Dynamo Kiev on Thursday and netted one of their goals in their 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan Premier League side, FC Aktobe in a UEFA Europa League play-off game on Thursday.

16 minutes into the match played on a rather bad quality pitch, Dynamo opened scoring. Dudu put a low cross into the box which Yarmolenko calmly placed into the net. Several minutes later, the White-Blues' leftback, Benoit Tremoulinas scored an own goal.

After the break Oleh Blokhin’s men began a fast tempo style of play. Haruna assisted Ideye, who, finding himself in a one-on-one situation, fired the ball into the net in the 52nd minute.

Five minutes later,

•Haruna sees yellow Belhanda scored Dynamo's third goal of the game.

Moroccan player hit the far bottom corner from the box.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE RESULTS Aktobe 2 - 3 Dynamo Kyiv K/Krasnodar 1 - 0 Feyenoord Pandurii 0 - 1 S/ Braga Tromsø 2 - 1 Be_ikta_ Jablonec 1 - 2 Real Betis Qaraba 0 - 2 E/Frankfurt D/Tbilisi 0 - 5 Tottenham Atromitos 1 - 3 AZ Minsk 0 - 2 Standard Liège M/Haifa 2 - 0 Astra Giurgiu Molde 0 - 2 Rubin Kazan’ Esbjerg 4 - 3 Saint-Étienne Grasshopper 1 - 2 Fiorentina St. Gallen 1 - 1 S/Moskva Kalju 1 - 3 Dnipro Dniprop Salzburg 5 - 0 •algiris Kukësi 0 - 2 Trabzonspor Apollon 2 - 0 Nice Elfsborg 1 - 1 Nordsjælland

TODAY IN THE NATION

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

VOL.8 NO.2,586

‘‘Everyday encounters with gluttonous gangs of struggling youth reveals among other things, that many of us are the same social products as our peer from the aristocratic divide. ’ OLA TUNJI OLOLADE AT

C OMMENT & D EB ATE EBA

P

LURALITY defines the Nigerian state.

It is a state endowed with plural nationalities, plural languages and dialects, plural religions, including plurality of intra-religious sects, and plural sensibilities.

Since plurality and diversity are synonyms, we might as well say that diversity is the reality of the Nigerian state. But this is no news to anyone. Indeed, we acknowledge it in many ways including in the lyrics of our first National Anthem: though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand. The question that we have yet to settle is how we should deal with the plurality that defines us. Do we simply wish it would go away? Do we actively suppress it? Do we celebrate it?

Or do we actively engage it in a productive way and make it a blessing rather than a curse?

Last week, I agonised over the most dreadful disease of problem-denial that ails the country. Today I deal with the specifics and offer a way out of the dilemma of an eagle that is incapacitated by the weight of its wings.

Back in 1960, we acknowledged our plurality and actively engaged it, ensuring that each region managed its human and natural resources in ways that were beneficial for its peoples and the entire country. If one determined that it needed to invest in the development of the human talents of its entire people, we let it be. If another focused on benefitting the elite cadre and sustaining the hierarchical ordering of the society, we didn’t stand in the way. We acknowledged the fundamental right of each to manage its resources with the recognition of derivation as an important principle of revenue allocation.

The country was on the right side of the discourse on the management of plurality. But then something wasn’t right and things fell apart.

In a genuine effort to deal with the ringworm that afflicted the political system, we applied a medication suited for leprosy. We chose to kill an irritant ant with a sledge hammer, and in so doing we killed the dream of unity-in-diversity by denying diversity and embracing uniformity.

The reality of the menace of political ringworm was not in question. It had to do with the tone of political debate and the intolerance of the players in the political arena. But we failed to treat that ailment talk less cure it as is evidenced by the nature and tenor of current political debates. Political leaders still take pleasure in hypocritically heating up the polity with diatribes concerning the other.

The leprosy medication ended up destroying the nerve of our nation-space, causing debilitating pain that has impacted our drive and militated against our flight into the space of giants which we are supposed to be.

SEGUN GBADEGESIN gbadegesin@thenationonlineng.net

From plurality to what?

•Map of Nigeria

‘ For far too long, we have fallen prey to the political manipulation by the elite who exploit national sentiments for political advantage. But that doesn’t mean that nationality is unreal. It means that it needs to be actively and productively engaged for the good of the nation. ’

Centralisation and unitarisation is the Achilles Heel of this republic, and like every weak spot, it can spell its downfall. We may pray as we want, but even the scriptures attest to the need to combine faith with work and wonders aloud if we could multiply grace while we dwell in sin. The singular sin of a political structure is the deliberate distortion of the relationship between its component parts and this is what we have managed to do in the last forty-seven years.

Consider the following. We have centralised all security services including the police, but we have not seen any improvement in our security situation. One rationale for centralisation of security is that states executives may use the police for political purposes. It’s unclear how that rationale squares up with what’s going on in Rivers State now.

And assume that the tendency to politicise state police is real. Are we so out of ideas for dealing with such scenario? Are there no constitutional means of ensuring that the management of state police is kept out of politics?

There have been proposals for the centralisation of all elections, including state and local government elections. The assumption here must be that states cannot be trusted to conduct free and fair elections into their local governments. But we have witnessed cases of election fraud, rigging, and manipulation with elections conducted by INEC. And now the new idea is for local governments to come under the federal authority through direct funding. For, if state governments have no budgetary relationship with their local governments, the reality is that they will have no political relationship with them. Yet local governments are units within particular states.

Recent events show clearly that some options are not available to the Nigerian state in the matter of dealing with the plurality of its component parts. The reality of geography ensures that nationality groups cannot be assimilated one into another. That reality seals our fate as a plural state. Political leaders and actors affirm it in various ways when they are sincere and honest. They

RIPPLES I WON’T RESIGN AS PDP CHAIRMAN – Tukur

Nigerians don’t RESIGN, they’ll rather DIE IN OFFICE

S

OME fellows who go by the title, protocol officers in high public offices can take their jobs to derisive lengths sometimes. This observation is more so with those who serve governors, presidents, ambassadors or even in great royal courts who appear sometimes comical when they are in full flight. I have seen for instance, a protocol man pointing out to a governor the path to veer or the exact spot to step on when he arrived at a public function as if the governor was blind. Protocol, by the way, is a system of rules about the correct way to act in formal situations especially by public officials and modern world has made a wonderful vocation of the art of managing protocol.

Because high public officials are prone to blundering at public functions – of course not because they are stupid but because even the most gifted of us are bound to commit errors should we rely on our spur of the moment judgment - they must be chaperoned and guided through the delicate moments when they are under intense public glare. The whole exertion of the protocol officer is to avoid a breach of protocol which does not only have the portent to mar a state function for instance but one bad breach could ruin an entire political career or worse. The story is told of how

embrace their kith and kin especially when they thrive no matter where they may reside in and outside the country. Of course, they can be hypocritical if and when they are sure of its political benefit.

There is another way we show that nationalities and ethnicities rule our space. Residency rights should normally come with responsibilities. But we claim the rights in various ways and then renege on the responsibilities. Census times and election times see the most inter-sate and inter-zonal movements of people across the nation. Yet both of these are politically essential and sensitive activities in a republic. Consider the case of Lagos. If many of its residents go back to their home states for census only to come back after, Lagos is shortchanged and placed in a position of disadvantage in the allocation of resources that are essential for residents. What has been the response of political leaders to such a reality?

It is also not an option to exclude, excise, or alienate one nationality or another from the assembly of nationalities that make up the republic. Every nationality has a unique contribution to make to the upliftment of the nation’sprofile and deserves an adequate space to do so as well as the respect of all. To do this, however, we must recognise the uniqueness of each, what it brings to the table, and what it needs to make its contributions. For far too long, we have fallen prey to the political manipulation by the elite who exploit national sentiments for political advantage. But that doesn’t mean that nationality is unreal. It means that it needs to be actively and productively engaged for the good of the nation.

If neither assimilation nor excision is an option in our engagement with our diversity and plurality, what is? From the foregoing, it seems clear that our option is to acknowledge the reality, embrace it, welcome it, and make it work for the good of the nation. This is sometimes referred to as the pluralist approach to nation-building. Pluralism recognises, affirms, and respects plurality. What holds together members of diverse cultural, linguistic, and religious nationalities that comprise the Nigerian state is the right and privilege of citizenship. Since none can assimilate another or be assimilated, and since none canexcise another or be excised, we must devise an ingenious way of inclusion and recognition of all in the varieties that each brings to the fold. The political arrangement that best deals with this is federalism in its purest form. That, in all seriousness, is the task that we have to perform successfully.

•For comments, send SMS to 08111813080

HARDBALL

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

Dame’s downer

all Dame Patience cared. She decidedly ignore them, her security details shielded them while her protocol officers veered her toward the preferred column headed by the wife of the Bayelsa State governor in the company of whom Dame drove off the scene leaving Ikuru and company chagrined and wooden footed.

If Dame’s action was a downer, her responses to it were even worse. First her aides denied that Ikuru was snubbed. A few days later, they made a release which suggests that Ikuru was shunned because no official of the Rivers State government had paid the president’s wife a condolence visit on the demise of her mother. “It should be noted that while several groups and individuals from across the country came to condole the First Lady and Mr. President on the death of her mother, no official of Rivers State Government deem it fit to pay the first family condolence visit, yet they claimed the First lady is a daughter of Rivers State,” according to a statement from her office.

But even if the above claim were true (even though we know it is not entirely so as the wife of the Rivers’ governor had paid a condolence visit), shunning Ikuru in public was utterly indecorous; a protocol gaffe that can only diminish the status of the president’s wife; it’s a downer for her.

an erstwhile Nigerian president who was in the company of foreign dignitaries and ex-heads of state at his farm house, had veered off to a corner of the vast complex to, strike a pee-pose and proceed to wet the grass the natural way to the utter discomfort of his guests. Some have wagered that this singular protocol hara-kiri may have made a big blot on this leader’s quest for a top UN job. Though that is difficult for Hardball to determine but the scene must have remained lasting memorial for those visitors.

A more recent protocol debacle was as enacted by the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, last Sunday. Dame Patience Jonathan was visiting her home state and a motley crowd of government officials had thronged the airport to welcome her as it is the practice in this corner of the world. Among the reception team included the Rivers State deputy governor, Mr. Tele Ikuru and the secretary to the state government, to mention a few.

However, Ikuru and his team could well have been an ugly installment, an unsightly artistic impression of a welcome band, for

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