The Nation December 14, 2011

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Alao-Akala re-arraigned for alleged corruption P4 Nigeria’s Olympic medallist Sunday Bada dies at 41 P23 Buhari vs President: Supreme Court to rule Dec. 23 P4 www.thenationonlineng.net

VOL. 7, NO. 1974 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

I wish to reiterate here that the ‘principal objective of my Administration’s fiscal policy in the area of tariffs and trade is to promote industrialisation and the growth of the manufacturing and agricultural sectors of the economy and above all to generate employment for Nigerians.

•President Jonathan ... yesterday

’

PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

Security gets N921.91b Jonathan unveils N4.7tr Budget 2012

N

IGERIANS got yesterday a glimpse into their economic well-being next

year.

Low income earners will get a tax cut, cassava bread will displace flour bread on the breakfast table and waivers and concessions on rice importation will be thrown out of the window.

FACTS AND FIGURES •Tax cut for low income earners •100,000 jobs coming from You Win •Encouragement of investment in downstream sector of oil industry •Agricultural machinery, certain equipment to attract zero duty •Bakeries to get 10 months to transit from wheat to cassava use •Cassava flour equipment duty free •No waiver for rice, wheat importation •Zero duty for power sector equipment •Effective mortgage finance system

SECTORAL ALLOCATION N49.23b •Security N921.91b •Aviation N54.83b •Power N161.42b •Transport •Works N180.8b •Lands and Housing N26.49b •Education N400.15 •Science and •Health N282.77 Technology N30.84b •Agric and rural N59.72b development N78.98b •Niger Delta •Federal Capital N45.57b •Water Resources N39b •Communications •Petroleum N18.31b Resources N59.66b Technology

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Nduka Chiejina, Sanni Onogu, Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

But security will – apparently in the spirit of the times – get priority, with the government voting N921b of the N4.749tr it plans to spend next year.

The proposal is an increase of six per cent over the N4.484 trillion appropriated for 2011.

President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled the fiscal estimate at a Joint Session of the National Assembly in Abuja.

Curiously, Dr. Jonathan did not use the phrase “fuel subsidy withdrawal” as he explained his budget of “fiscal consolidation, inclu-

sive growth and job creation”.

But in what was seen as a veiled reference to the combustible issue, which will surely see fuel prices rising, Dr Jonathan spoke about his administration’s determination to conclude work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

•Analyses - Pages 2,16&17 •Reactions- Pages 16&17 •President’s speech - Pages 14&15

Continued on page 2

•SPORT P23 •LIFE P29 •POLITICS P45 •MONEY P47 •INVESTORS P49

2

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NEWS BUDGET 2012

Will it translate to jobs?

O

NE word that best describes the 2012 Budget presented

by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly yesterday is realism. For a budget expected to trigger the muchtrumpeted transformational agenda, it neither aspires to any appreciable heights in meeting any of the nation’s current challenges nor pretend to any grand ambitions on what it has on offer.

The figures of course say it all. Whereas, the 2011 appropriation figure was N4.484 trillion, the 2012 edition stands at N4.74 trillion ($29.29 billion) – a mere six per cent notch up – an indication of government’s determination to rein in the expansionary course.

Of great interest however are the budget assumptions. Naturally, oil remains dominant. Whereas the 2010 assumed a benchmark crude price of $75 and a production figure of 2.3 million barrels per day, the 2012 figure assumes a more conservative figure of $70 – although on a more ambitious production figure of 2.48 million barrels of crude per day. With crude oil price forecast to

ANALYSIS

By Sanya Oni

remain in the $100-110 a barrel band in 2012, both assumptions, hence the revenue target seems realistic enough.

As in previous budgets, it is the expenditure side that presents the most daunting challenge. The high point remains the preponderantly high recurrent expenditure as against the capital provisions. With a capital expenditure of N1.32 trillion in 2012, there is, on the surface, a modest improvement of 15 percent over and above the approved figure for the current year. A deeper probe of course reveals a staggering differential between capital provisions and the recurrent outlay – the N1.32 trillion represents a mere 28 per cent of the budget total, with the lion share of 72 per cent devoted to servicing recurrent expenses. As against 2011 budget which made provision of 26 per cent for capital costs, the 2012 budget could be adjudged an improvement- if only a modest one.

As far as sectoral allocations go, it is a case of more of the same. Not surprisingly, security tops the bill with a provision of N921.91

billion. Power trails behind with N161.42 billion. With the privatisation of the power plants expected to rev into full gear in the 2012 budget cycle, the comparatively modest allocation seems understandable.

As if to further consolidate its image as an underachiever, works gets a measly N180.8 billion. Education takes N400.15 billion while Health gets N282.77 billion.

Agriculture, on which the government pins its hope to deliver the non-oil growth, gets N78.98 billion. Aviation, Transport, Niger Delta, and the Federal Capital Territory administration gets N49.23 billion, N54.83 billion, N59.72 billion and N45.57 billion, respectively.

What should Nigerians expect from the 2012 budget?

Pretty little it seems. It promises an ambitious growth target of 7.2 per cent; however, if the experience of the last decade is anything to go buy, it seems most unlikely to translate to new jobs. And as for the President’s ambitious job creation target of 100,000 jobs through the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin), it seems clearly no-hoper in the absence of institutional enablers. At best, it might just provide job for the boys!

•Senate President David Mark (left) and Speaker House of Reps Aminu Tambuwal at the presentation of the 2012 Budget to the National Assembly in Abuja ... yesterday.

PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

Security gets N921b in N4.7tr ‘fiscal consolidation’ Budget 2012 Continued from page 1

He said: “With regard to the petroleum sector, the Federal Government is conscious of the need to bring the Petroleum Industry Bill debate to conclusion so as to give investors the comfort and policy certainty that they require.

“My Administration is determined to bring this matter to closure by engaging with all stakeholders and I, therefore, call on the National Assembly to work with us in this regard.”

Jonathan noted that the 2012 budget proposal came at the end of a long consultative process with key stakeholders and “translates the development plans of government unveiled in the Transformation Agenda into concrete actions”.

The aggregate expenditure in the proposal comprises N398 billion for Statutory Transfers, N560 billion for Debt Service, underscoring the real need to address the rising domestic debt profile and N2.472 trillion for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.

Jonathan explained that the government is conscious of the need to control the cost of governance.

“Agencies with overlapping mandates” are to be streamlined “as a way to realign public expenditure”.

The President said the budget is based on a set of assumptions reflecting the government’s determination to maintain prudence in the face of continued uncertainties in the external environment.

“Accordingly, the budget is based on the following: Oil production of 2.48 million barrels per day (mbpd) up from 2.3mbpd for 2011; benchmark oil price of US$70/barrel, a

Govt to ban importation of cassava flour

T

O grow the economy and create jobs, the Federal Government will next year introduce fiscal policy measures that will encourage the purchase and utilisation of locally produced commodities.

Duty on agriculture machinery and certain specified equipment, effective January 31, will be zero.

President Goodluck Jonathan broke the news in Abuja during his 2012 budget presentation to the National Assembly. He said to encourage the substitution of high quality cassava flour for wheat flour in bread-baking, bakeries will get 18 months to transit from wheat to cassava. Besides, they will enjoy a corporate tax incentive of 12 per cent rebate, if they attain 40 per cent blending.

With effect from March 31st, importation of cassava flour will be prohibited.

President Jonathan said: “All equipment for processing of high quality cassava flour and composite flour blending will enjoy a duty-free regime as incentive to bakers for composite flour utilisation. Consultations with the sector to ensure a smooth transition are ongoing.”

The government “will further look at supportive fiscal policies for the rice and wheat sectors to stimulate domestic production”.

From next July, wheat flour will atcautious revision from the US$75/barrel approved in the 2011 amended budget; exchange rate of NGN155/US$; projected GDP growth rate of 7.2%; and projected inflation rate of 9.5%,” he said.

Jonathan noted that based on the above assumptions, the gross federally collectible revenue is projected at N9.406trillion, of which the total revenue available for the Federal Government’s Budget is

By Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor

tract a levy of 65 per cent to bring the duty to 100 per cent.

Wheat grain will attract a 15 per cent levy to bring the duty to 20 per cent.

“There will be a levy of 25 per cent on brown rice to bring it to 30 per cent,” Dr Jonathan said.

To encourage domestic rice production, a levy of 40 per cent will be placed on imported polished rice, leading to an effective duty rate of 50 per cent. From December 31, next year, all rice millers are expected to “move towards domestic production and milling of rice, as the levy of

THE FIGURES

2.48m bpd $70pb N155/$1 N9.40tr N4.749tr N3.47tr N1.32tr

50 per cent will be further raised to 100 per cent”.

The President warned that the era of waivers and concessions for rice and wheat importation are gone.

With regards to the implementation of the Power Roadmap, which aims to create a robust power sector through the privatisation for the generation and distribution of power and the creation of an enabling environment for investment, President Jonathan said: “Institutional arrangements have been made for a Bulk Trader company to in-

forecast at N3.644 trillion, representing an increase of 9 per cent over the estimate for 2011.

Non-oil revenue is projected to grow significantly as recent efforts to reform revenue collecting agencies and the implementation of initiatives to further develop non-oil sectors are expected to yield results.

He said that the declining share of capital is being reversed so it will account for about 28 per cent of total ex-

•Oil production projection

•Benchmark oil price •Exchange rate

•Projected federally collectible revenue •Aggregate expenditure

•Recurrent expenditure

•Capital expenditure

termediate between power producers and distributors in a market setting, thereby giving Independent Power Producers (IPPs) the confidence to invest in generation capacity.”

The government, in collaboration with development partners, has created a credit risk management initiative to provide Partial Risk Guarantees (PRG) to give comfort to gas producers in respect of payment.

With effect from January 31, equipment and machinery in the power sector will attract zero duty.

penditure in 2012 as against 26 per cent in 2011.

“We intend to continue on this path so that by 2015, it will have risen to almost 33%,” he said.

To curtail recurrent expenditure, the government has embarked upon the policy of fiscal consolidation as evident from the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.

He explained that the share of recurrent expenditure in the

proposal is 72 per cent, down from 74.4 per cent in 2011, “and we intend to continue on this downward trend up to 2015”.

The government is also pursuing the biometric verification of workers and pensioners as part of the effort to control cost.

Capital expenditure has an allocation of N1.32 trillion, representing a 15 per cent increase over the amount approved in the 2011 Budget.

The emphasis, Jonathan said,

is on the completion of critical infrastructure projects.

A breakdown of allocations to some critical sectors is as follows: Security - N921.91 billion; Power [including Bulk Trader, Nelmco, and Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO)] -N161.42 billion; Works - N180.8 billion; Education [excluding Universal Basic Education Commission, Petroleum Technology Development Trust Fund (PTDF) & Education Trust Fund] - N400.15 billion; Health - N282.77 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development N78.98 billion.

Others are: Water Resources - N39 billion; Petroleum Resources – N59.66 billion; Aviation - N49.23 billion; Transport - N54.83 billion; Lands & Housing - N26.49 billion; Science & Technology - N30.84 billion; Niger Delta - N59.72 billion; Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) - N45.57 billion and Communications Technology - N18.31 billion.

Fiscal deficit is projected at about 2.77 per cent of GDP as against 2.96 per cent this year.

Jonathan said the projected deficit “is within the threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 and clearly highlights our commitment to fiscal prudence as a way to create more space for the private sector”.

“This will also have a salutary effect on our domestic debt profile, which has risen significantly in recent years,” Jonathan said, adding: “We are determined to rein in domestic borrowing, and through this, ensure that our debt is at a sustainable level.”

Jonathan noted that his administration is pressing forward with key structural reforms.

Continued on page 60

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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NEWS

•Chairman, Elizade Motors, Chief Ade Ojo; his wife, Taiwo (left) and former Industry Minister Mrs. Nike Akande at the conference...yesterday

•Fashola (left) presenting a Tax Compliance Award to former Chairman of Punch Newspapers Chief Ajibola Ogunshola...yesterday PHOTOS: OMOSEHIN MOSES

Lagos will enforce withholding tax policy next year, says Fashola L

AGOS State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has said the government will ensure full compliance to the five per cent withholding tax policy next year.

Fashola spoke yesterday at the Haven Events Centre, Ikeja, during the 5th Conference on Taxation organised by the State Government.

He said anyone who pays for any service is by extension an agent of the government, from the tenant that pays rents to the person who pays legal fees.

According to him, such individuals owe it a duty to deduct withholding tax and remit same to government.

Fashola said: “Everybody who pays rent, for example, is a collecting agent for withholding tax.

And it is five per cent. Everybody who pays money to

•Governor warns against conversion of tax to CSR

By Miriam Ndikanwu

a doctor or lawyer for the services they render to him is our collecting agent for withholding tax.

“And we expect that they fairly collect, issue receipt and account for them. Once we have all of those documents and records, it should be easy for us at the end of the tax accounting year to set off all of these.”

He said the best contribution Lagosians can make to government is the voluntary payment of their taxes.

The governor said: “This is because every time we

try to collect the taxes correctly, using agents, the government pays out some of the money realised. In the long run, both the government and the tax payers lose money.”

Fashola urged religious bodies that generate income from renting halls, for example, to “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what is God’s.”

He said during his days in active law practice, his clients used to deduct five per cent withholding tax from his fees and issue receipt in that sum.

Also yesterday, at an International Conference on

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), jointly organised by the University of Lagos and Kansas State University, Fashola warned private sector operators against using taxes payable to the state government to fund CSR projects.

He also advised Nigerians to probe donations and ensure that they are from genuine sources.

Fashola said no amount of community service could replace statutory tax obligations. He said organisations who engage in such are stealing from the state government and their employees.

Supreme Court to determine Jonathan’s, Buhari’s fate Dec 28

P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s fate will be decided on December 28 by the Supreme Court.

The apex Court yesterday fixed the date for judgment in the appeal by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

The seven-member panel chaired by Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Dahiru Musdapher, fixed the date after parties adopted their briefs of argument yesterday.

The CPC is challenging the Court of Appeal judgment that upheld the April 16 electoral victory of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Jonathan contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The CPC is asking the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal that affirmed Jonathan’s election.

The opposition party is urging the court to order a fresh election between its candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Jonathan.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, sitting as Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on November 1, declared that Jonathan and Vice President Namadi

•Fire in court From Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

Sambo won the April 16 presidential election.

Adopting the brief of argument yesterday, counsel to CPC Mr. Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN), told the panel that the tribunal wrongfully evaluated the evidence adduced before it by the party’s witnesses.

He said: “The return of the 3rd and 4th (Jonathan and Sambo) as President and Vice President by the lower court was wrong and should be upturned by this court because it was unconstitutional.

“There was an application before the lower court that the PW1 (Buba Galadima) be recalled, but it was turned down on the grounds that there was a mix-up in the evidence of the PW1”.

Counsel to Jonathan and Sambo, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal which he described as lacking in substance and merit.

According to him, the Tribunal’s ruling of Sep-

tember 12, which expunged the statements of CPC’s National Chairman, Prince Tony Momoh, after it was wrongly interchanged with that of the party’s secretary, Buba Galadima, invariably rendered the petition null and void.

Besides, he contended that the notice of appeal is amorphous and generic as it disclosed no aspect of the ruling it was challenging.

“The case was dead on arrival,” Olanipekun added.

Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) counsel Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), also urged the panel to dismiss the appeal.

Shortly before the sitting, there was pandemonium in the court room when a fire broke out.

It was from an electrical spark.

The seven-member panel of Justices had not emerged when the fire broke out around 8:43 am.

But the situation was brought under control when a court official rushed in with an extinguisher to put out the fire.

Normalcy was returned to the court room before the sitting began.

He said: “Thus, CSR should not be a means of assuaging the conscience or looking good in the society, while the corporate donor is busy filing false accounting returns.

“In these circumstances, there is obviously a limit to the tax rate increase or tax collection drive that any government can embark upon. It therefore behooves business organisations to step in by assisting government to cater for their host communities.”

The governor, who acknowledged the relevant of CSR towards societal development, said it must not be done through unethical practices that erode the growth of the community in which the businesses prosper.

He said: “A flurry of so called CSR activities is cer-

tainly not okay, when the same company is killing or harming the people through uncontrolled pollution or substandard products.

“Our experience during the era of finance houses’ improperly regulated stock trading points to a subsequent decrease in business share and economic growth; and job losses; which left us collectively poorer.”

Fayemi said where companies are unwilling to make the necessary tradeoffs between short term profitability and social or environmental goals, they should not be allowed to lay claim to CSR. He thanked corporate organisations for contributing billions to the State Security Trust Fund, which he said has led to the reduction of crimes in Lagos.

Alao-Akala, two others arraigned again for corruption From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

•Alao-Akala

F

ORMER Oyo State Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and two others were yesterday arraigned again before Oyo State High Court II for an 11count charge of corrupt practices during his tenure.

The others are former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Ayoola Agboola and a contractor, Mr. Femi Babalola.

They had earlier been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Mashood Abass of High Court 12 in October.

The accused were granted bail on October 13 after spending few days in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS).

It was learnt that some

concerned persons wrote petitions complaining about the manner in which their hearing was handled and this led to the reassignment of the case to Justice Akintunde Boade.

At the hearing yesterday, lead counsel to both parties – Mr. Godwin Obla (prosecution) and Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (defence) - said they did not apply for the transfer of the case and expressed confidence in the ability of the judge to do justice in the trial.

Obla (SAN) said: “We are ready to appear in any court on this trial and we believe that the determination of the case will be based on the material evidence that will be presented.”

Fagbemi, who decried the transfer of the case without application from the parties, said: “The starting point is to tell the world that we have absolute confidence in you.

We are happy to be with you.”

The accused, who were in the dock for over one hour, pleaded “Not Guilty” to the

charges.

The charges against the former governor include the award of N8.5 billion road contract without budgetary allocation and the acquisition of property in Nigeria and England with alleged stolen money.

After taking their pleas, Fagbemi (SAN) pleaded with the judge to allow the bail and terms of bail earlier granted to the accused to stay, even though they were being re-arriagned.

He said in a criminal case, the position of the law is that the availability of the accused is the mother of all other factors.

Fagbemi said the accused came to court without hesitation and that they would continue to do so.

He added that since the accused pleaded “not guilty,” the law assumes they are innocent until the court proves otherwise.

Obla did not oppose Fagbemi’s plea. He said the decision to grant the plea lies with the judge.

Justice Boade upheld the bail earlier granted the accused and adjourned till February 20, 21 and 22.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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NEWS Appeal Court sacks senator

T

•Members of the House of Representatives from Lagos, Yaqub Balogun(left) and Abayomi Kako Are, during President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2012 budget presentation...yesterday

ACN senators to resist subsidy removal

T

WO Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) senators – Babafemi Ojudu and Babajide Omoworare – yesterday vowed to revolt against the planned removal of fuel subsidy.

Ojudu, presenting a paper at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre in Akure, the Ondo State capital, spoke on the proposed removal of fuel subsidy.

In a paper entitled: “The romoval of oil subsidy and the challenge to a nation”, he warned that if the government goes ahead with the planned removal of subsidy without the repair of refineries, the action would be contrary to justice and sound policy.

He said: “I really think such an action will perpetuate misery and further impoverish the people.”

Ojudu urged civil society groups, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its allies to position themselves to resist this “thoughtless” action.

He vowed to vote against oil subsidy removal on the floor of the National Assembly.

“We all know that poverty is on the ascendency in Nigeria. This is unacceptable and calls for action.”

“As a senator who is daily assailed by requests from

From Damisi Ojo, Akure, Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

my constituents, I know that family incomes are the best measure of our living standard.

“It is a painful realisation for me that there is very little that I can do to salvage the hardship of my people, but what I will never do is to fail to register my opposition to the removal of the oil subsidy, because it is a catalyst for sustained economic irregularity.

“I will vote against the removal of the oil subsidy without batting an eyelid.

I will do so in my firm belief that it is a blow against a conscienceless, irresponsible ruling class, it is for me even an obligation to lobby my colleagues at the upper and lower chamber to vote against.”

Omoworare said legislators elected on the platform ACN would not support the move by President Goodluck Jonathan to remove oil subsidy.

The legislator representing Osun East Senatorial District said the decision of the ACN senators was borne out of their determination to be on the side of the people.

Omoworare, who is the vice-chairman of the Senate

committee on Federal Characters, yesterday delivered a lecture, entitled “Checks and Balances: Nigeria in Search of Credible and Sustainable Election,” to mark the 2011 Pen Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), of the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) chapel in Osogbo.

He said:”Campaign for the removal of oil subsidy

by Goodluck Jonathan and members of his kitchen cabinet is a way of glorifying inefficiency of the government and stealing of public fund. Jonathan is by his action glorifying his inefficiency in government because he has no point to justify his action.

“Without a doubt, the removal of oil subsidy would lead to inflation in the country. Nigerian refineries must first work before the President begins to think of removing oil subsidy, and infrastructures must also be put in place to the satisfaction of the masses. Without these, removal of oil subsidy amounts to stealing of public fund.

“President Jonathan has no legitimate right to force his own personal wish on Nigerians. The intention to remove all subsidy is his personal wish and not that of Nigerian

How to curb exam malpractices, by minister

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HE Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Wike, has said emphasis should be placed on merit in the admission of pupils into schools to curb examination malpractices.

Wike, who spoke at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Improving Performance in Public Examinations in Abuja yesterday, also decried mass promotion of pupils.

He said: “Is our current policy of mass promotion of pupils from primary schools to secondary schools helpful in providing better prepared students with strong skills to meet performance challeng-

By Yusuf Sanusi

es in secondary education?”

The minister advocated an end to the appointment of school headteachers on the basis of political and sentimental considerations.

He regretted that despite the huge funds expended by governments on education, the pupils failure rate in public examination has remained high due to poor governance in the school system.

“The difference lies in the determination of the managers to identify fundamental causes in conjunction with the stakeholders and have them comprehensively and

honestly addressed,” he said.

He called on stakeholders to proffer solutions to the high rate of failures in public examinations.

Minister of Education Prof Ruquyyatu Ahmed Rufa’I said no responsible government would watch idly while examination failure rate continues to rise.

She said education is at the foundation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

The summit attracted education commissioners, permanent secretaries, heads of education parastatals, headteachers and pupils from the 36 states.

people, he should allow reasons to prevail on this matter by listening to all Nigerians, irrespective of political or tribal lineage. He should be called to order on this issue as the removal of oil subsidy will spell doom for this nation at this particular time.”

HE Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, yesterday sacked Mrs. Nkechi Nwaogu as senator representing Abia State Central Senatorial zone.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko, the appellate court held that Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area where Senator Nwogu hails from falls in Abia South and not Abia Central Senatorial district she was representing.

The court said that “the 3rd Defendant (Senator Nwaogu) is ineligible to aspire to be sponsored by the 2nd defendant (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) to contest the 2011 general elections to represent the Abia Central Senatorialdistrict”.

It declared as unconstitutional, null and void and of no legal effect the nomination of Nwaogu by the PDP to run for and/or contest for the post of a Senator representing the Abia Central Senatorial District in the 2011 general elections that was conducted by INEC, based on false information/declarations on oath submitted by her.

The court however failed to grant the fourth prayer which sought an order declaring the plaintiff (Hon. Emeka Atuma) the winner of the PDP’s primaries for the Abia Central Senatorial District held on January 8, 2011 at the Umuahia Township Stadium, in Abia State.

The panel said there was nothing placed before the

From Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

court to show that the Plaintiff came second in the PDP primaries.

But counsel to Atuma, Mr. Lami Kanra said he would study the judgment and take the next line of action.

Atuma had prayed the court to hold that that pursuant to the delineation of Senatorial Districts in Abia State

by INEC, Osisioma-Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State did not fall within the Abia Central Senatorial District.

According to him, Nwogu is not an indigene nor resident within the Abia Central Senatorial District as to qualify her to contest the 2011 general elections to the senate to represent Abia Central Senatorial District.

He urged the court to declare that the 3rd defendant (Senator Nwogu) was ineligible to aspire to be sponsored by the PDP (2nd defendant) to contest the 2011general elections to represent Abia Central Senatorial District.

In the objection filed by Mr. Teddy Eruba on behalf of Nwaogu, the senator stated that during the 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections, Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area was part and parcel of the Abia Central Senatorial District and that residents of the said LGA voted in and were voted for in the elections into the senate for the said district.

She asked the court to dismiss the suit.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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NEWS

•Pastor Adeboye

•Worshippers at the Holy Ghost Congress ... yesterday

PHOTOS: NIYI ADENIRAN

Adeboye urges Nigerians to seek God’s face

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HE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has urged Nigerians to seek the face of God. He said for God to do a new thing in peoples’ lives, it would require hard work and sacrifice.

Adeboye, who spoke at this year’s Holy Ghost Congress with the theme: A New Thing, said sometimes people are enemies of themselves through their conduct.

He said challenges facing countries and individuals could be solved with God on

By Nneka Nwaneri

your side. Reading from 2nd Corinthians 5: 17, he said everything with a beginning has an end.

“If your problem has a beginning, it must have an end.

In a man’s life, there is a defining moment where things change. This is your moment of change,” he said.

Adeboye cited several Biblical instances of sick people who received healing.

“Every problem has an end.

Now you will begin to succeed. New is better than old.

A new car is better than an old one. Light is better than darkness. Up is better than down.

Full is better than empty.

Progress is better than stagnation.

“However, for new to begin, old must end. But some of you are afraid of something new happening. Let the old go,” he said.

According to him, when God changed the names of Abraham, Sarah and Jacob, their lives were never the same again.

“Old habits and ways of thinking must go. Your thinking must change. You hori-

zon must be enlarged. Being poor will not take you to heaven, but the salvation is Jesus Christ.

“The separation from the old must be total. Make up your mind and be ready for something new,” he said.

He added: “But something new has responsibilities attached to it. The new is better than the old, so whether you fail to succeed or not, people will talk. So, which do you prefer?

Think very deeply before you ask Him for a new beginning, because a new thing will

bring its own responsibilities.”

Quoting Ephesians 4:22-24, the preacher said sin must be repudiated by putting off its garment, adding that only the faithful would receive blessing.

The Redeemed Choir ministered the Christmas carol: Great is thy Faithfulness.

Former Attorney-General of Lagos, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) anchored the programme.

Present were delegates from South Africa, USA, Kenya, The Netherlands, India, Tanzania, Cameroon and Germany.

DAME honours Ibru, frontline scholar Opubor

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HE Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME), at the weekend, posthumously honoured the publisher of The Guardian, Mr. Alex Ibru, and Prof. Alfred Opubor, with Lifetime Achievement awards.

It was at the 20th edition of the awards organised by Diamond Publications Limited.

They were recognised for their contributions to journalism.

In an acceptance speech, Opubor’s children said: “We, the children of Professor Alfred E. Opubor, would like to thank you on our father’s behalf for bestowing this award upon him.

“He was looking forward to meeting you this evening to receive the award, but unfortunately, due to his untimely death on December 2 2011, this was not possible.”

Other winners at the event include: The Punch, which won Newspaper of the Year.

The Punch and The Guardian won Newspapers of the Decade; Sam Omatseye won Informed Commentary; Ayodeji Adeyemi of Tell won Sports and Development Reporting categories; Solaade AyoAdenrele of The Punch won in

The 20th edition’s Hall of Fame •Babatunde Ogundeji of Nigerian Compass (Action Photography) •Tony Manuaka, TELL (Agriculture Reporting) •Festus Akanbi of Thisday (Capital Market Reporting) •Armsfree Ajanaku Onomo of The Guardian (Child Friendly Reporting) •THISDAY (Child Friendly Media) •Ayodeji Adeyemi of TELL (Development Reporting) •Ayo Akinkuotu of TELL (Editor of the Year) •The Guardian (Editorial Writing) •Solaade Ayo-Adenrele of Sunday Punch (Health Reporting) •Sam Omatseye of The Nation (Informed Commentary) •Olatunji Ololade of The Nation (Judicial Reporting) •TELL (Newsmagazine of the year)

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

Health reporting; The Guardian won in Editorial writing category.

CEO, Diamond Publications and DAME Trustee Mr. Lanre Idowu said: “In the New Year, by the grace of God, we intend to unfold some new initiatives to enrich the DAME idea. We are currently documenting all the inductees into the DAME

•The Punch (Newspaper of the year) •Richard Nwaogbe of Metro FM (Radio Presenting) •Cordelia Okpei of Metro FM (Radio Reporter of the Year) •SO & U (Saatchi & Saatchi) (Press Advert, Consumer Goods) •Rosabel (Leo Burnett) (Press Advert, Services) •SO & U (Saatchi & Saatchi) (Radio Commercial, Consumer Goods) •Ayodeji Adeyemi of TELL (Sports Reporting) •Noah’s Ark (TV Commercial, Consumer Goods) •SO & U Saatchi & Saatchi (TV Commercial, Services) •Deji Bademosi of Channels (Television Reporter of the Year) •The Guardian & The Punch (Newspaper of the Decade) • The Punch (Best Designed Newspaper)

Hall of FAME into a useful resource guide. Who are they? Where are they? And what have they been doing since winning the DAME? It will be a revealing work. I can only say that all those who received the DAME recognition have progressed in their different callings and can be counted as worthy DAME Ambassadors.

“We are also holding discussions that should trans-

late into better funding for DAME activities and better mentoring for younger practitioners. In addition to the annual awards and the publication of Media Review, which have been very useful, we will be more engaged in training, which we have identified as critical if we want to expand the streams of excellence we celebrate at DAME into an ocean of accomplishment.”

“ DAME does not have the tradition of awarding posthumous awards, but the truth is that our selection committee for Lifetime achievements had come up with a shortlist of five names for consideration this year. We had agreed on two before the passage of Mr. Ibru on November 20. But as it is our tradition we don’t notify the honourees until about two weeks to the event.

When we learnt of Mr. Ibru’s transition, we debated whether to replace him with any of the other three names on the list but we concluded that would be unfair just because we wanted to be slaves of tradition. When we wrote Professor Opubor on November 28, he was still alive. But when he did not reply by Thursday, December 1, we became worried for it was out of character for Prof. not to reply emails within 24 hours. So, we sent another letter on Friday, December 2 and phoned his number in Cotonou. We couldn’t reach him. Later that night, Professor Opubor passed on at the Cotonou University Teaching Hospital. So, for us, fate has decreed that our two Lifetime Achievement awards this year would be given posthumously.”

‘Let the refineries function well’ From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

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HE Civil Rights and Development Organisation (CRIDO) has called on the Federal Government to ensure that Nigeria’s four refineries function at installed capacities, before the removal of fuel subsidy is effected.

In a nine-point communiqué in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital today, signed

by CRIDO’s Head, Democracy and Good Governance, Obinna Okoro, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was asked to be alive to its responsibilities to the citizens.

Nigeria has two refineries in Port Harcourt and one each in Warri and Kaduna, which regularly stop production or function below the installed capacities.

CRIDO also frowned on the spate of insecurity in the nation, especially the menace of Boko Haram, which it said must be tackled with more seriousness, rather than the lip service of security operatives, who are fond of always saying they are on top of the situation.

The organisation said: “The Federal Government should commence the rehabilitation of existing refineries, rehabilitate or reconstruct the death traps called highways, especially in the Southsouth and Southeast zones, before talking about the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.

“The current price hike on the commonest, but most important petroleum product, kerosene (between N150 and N200), is aimed at forcing the people to accept the removal of fuel subsidy, a ploy to kill most Nigerians.

“The Federal Government should always consider the suffering people, who have said no to subsidy removal.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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NEWS Environmental revolution imminent, says Akinyemi •Bello: we should be concerned

By Joke Kujenya

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ORMER Minster of External Affairs Prof Bolaji Akinyemi yesterday warned that an environmental revolution might happen soon in Nigeria unless precautions are taken.

He spoke as the Chairman of the 15th annual lecture of Lagoon Hospital Friends, at the Agip Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos.

Akinyemi noted that with the current environmental degradation in the country, “the lives and health of the populace would get so bad there would be an outburst of a revolution”.

He added: “The signs are obvious. We can all feel it. If the coming revolution happens, it won’t spare anyone. It would cut across generations. When it comes, there would be nothing we would all be able to do to prevent it… I feel moved to make this humble submission today because we will all suffer the consequence of the way we are abusing the environment.”

The lecture, with the theme: You and Your Environment, was attended by pupils from public secondary schools, medical doctors, lawyers and environmentalists.

The guest lecturer and Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, spoke on the topic: Environment and the Climate Change and How We Make it Worse.

He noted that for any meaningful impact to be felt on the environment, the people need to first understand the relationship between living and non-living things.

Bello said the environment is the external surroundings, including abiotic and biotic factors that surround and affect the survival and development of organisms or population.

According to him, everyone needs to know the factors that contribute to violating what constitute good living conditions.

He said: “This leads us to comprehending another aspect, which is the natural environment. This encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on earth or in some region thereof. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment…”

The commissioner cited the example of Ikoyi in Lagos, saying the area often becomes flooded because the residents violate the original designs and disrupt the environmental order for a smooth drainage.

Bello said: “We all need to be concerned because the weather is changing. This is why floods, typhoons and earthquakes are occurring in different countries; Nigeria is not spared.

That was what resulted in the devastating flood of July 10, 2011.”

‘Don’t ignore Nigerians’ views on planned fuel subsidy removal’

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HE European Union (EU) yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure proper consultations and educate Nigerians over the proposed fuel subsidy removal before taking the final action on the controversial issue.

Addressing reporters in Abuja, the Head of EU Delegation, David MacRae, noted that there is widespread resistance against the proposed fuel subsidy removal because Nigerians do not have details of what the issue entails.

He said: “Let me try and give you a diplomatic reply.

I don’t want to interfere with the sovereignty of Nigeria.

It is an issue that you know is dividing the National Assembly. I think the reaction of the general public, which is negative, is part of reflection of mistrust.

“There is something regarding the details, the figures. There is need for clari-

• CNPP vows to resist govt plan • David-West challenges economic team, ministers to debate From Augustine Ehikioya, Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja and Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

fication. People need to understand better; actually, what the matter is all about.

I will like to see clarifications on the whole issue.

“Why should there be widespread disagreement on the matter? When an incoming administration comes up with something like this and people lose that sense of sharing an idea, it’s because they don’t have the trust. I think that is the bottom line.

“If the population could be assured and have access to the information, they will be in a better position to judge, if removing it will be the best for the country.”

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has vowed not to agree with President Goodluck Jonathan over the planned removal of fuel subsidy.

It expressed disappointment with the National Economic Council (NEC) for endorsing the planned subsidy removal.

In a statement in Abuja, CNPP said the NEC has, at the expense of the 99 per cent of Nigerians, shown desperation, insensitivity and sheer deafness to public will.

It said these herald and govern President Goodluck Jonathan’s inordinate resolve to remove fuel subsidy next year.

The statement, by its National Publicity Secretary,

Osita Okechukwu, reads: “We are pained over the paradox of their submission.

Speaking on behalf of the NEC, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi said: ‘It is a case of inevitability, considering the level of present level of debt portfolio of the Federal Government and the continuous funding of it’.”

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources Prof. Tam David-West has challenged NEC members to a debate on the planned fuel subsidy removal, which the council approved on Monday.

David-West warned President Jonathan against the plan, saying it would cause more hardship for the people.

He said: “President Jonathan said there is no going back. Even a dictator cannot say so. Jonathan will go back. The voice of the people is the voice of God. People are saying ‘do not do it’...”

‘MTN committed to positive impact on Nigerians’

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HE Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Dr. Pascal Dozie, has said the organisation is committed to making life more meaningful for Nigerians.

He spoke in Owerri, the Imo State capital, when he addressed the disability support project ceremony held at the Grasshoppers Stadium.

Dozie said: “This is the a common trend that runs through MNT’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which is driven by the foundation’s vehicle for strategic goal to make a positive contribution to the

From Emma Mgbeahurike, Owerri

communities within which they operate.”

According to him, under the first phase of the project, the foundation distributed the appliances to beneficiaries in 11 states, and in the second phase, to 12 states.

Wife of the governor, Mrs. Nkechi Okorocha, noted that the less privileged are gifts to the state.

She said MTN has contributed to the nation’s development, assuring that the state government would give priority to the needs of the physically challenged.

‘Bellview, govts have forgotten Lisa Arcade’ •Guards at crash site owed months’ salaries

By Adegunle Olugbamila

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ESIDENTS of Lisa community in Ogun State are unhappy with Bellview Airline for abandoning its proposed Memorial Arcade.

The airline had promised to take care of the arcade and pay the two guards watching it.

The community frowned at the lackadaisical attitude of the Federal and state governments, particularly under the past administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, for allegedly abandoning the town and its adjoining villages, which they had promised to make tourist centres.

In October 2006, a Bellview Airline crashed in Lisa with 117 passengers on board.

A spokesperson for the communities, Baale Odugbemi, recalled countless promises by the Federal and state governments as well as some non-governmental organisations (NGOs). They promised to alleviate the plight of the people following the plane crash.

Some of the promises, Odugbemi said, ranged from fixing boreholes, establishing schools and other relaxation centres in the community.

He added that after the mass burial of the crash victims, the promises have not been fulfilled.

•Guest speaker Mr Bello (third right); Chairman Prof. Akinyemi (fourth right) and Lagoon Hospital Chairman Prof. Ade Elebute (second left) and others at the lecture...yesterday PHOTO: JOKE KUNJENYA

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Judiciary silenced me over CPC internal crisis, says Buhari

ORMER Head of State and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday explained why he has been silent over the internal crisis of the party during and after the April elections.

Buhari said he might get into a big trouble if he had responded to the crisis then.

He noted that it was bad for CPC members to take one another and even the party to court over elections.

The former Head of State said these would have been avoided if there was discipline in the party.

Speaking in Abuja at the inauguration of the CPC Renewal Committee, led by the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasir ElRufai, the presidential candidate said the committee is expected to resolve differences in the party and ensure that it plays effective role in nation-building.

He said: “You know what happened in your constituencies. You suppose to know better than myself

•Bakare: Buhari is most sincere person I know From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

what happened. Those congresses and other issues were supposed to be conducted once and for all. But how many times have you done it in our states? You are either the beneficiaries or the victims of the election process. I do not know why members of the CPC in the same constituency took each to court. Members of the CPC took the party to court. The CPC itself is in court from House of Assembly to the Presidency. You know the position of the Judiciary constitutionally.

“People said I haven’t been talking. The reason I have kept quiet is that the Judiciary would not allow me to speak. Which side should I take? Whatever is before the Judiciary, you dare not say anything about it - for good or for evil - unless you want to be permanently in trouble with the Judiciary. I do not think I am permanently in trouble with the Judiciary. With this

‘As we renew to emerge as a stronger political party, the ruling party and government will have great incentives to clamp down on our members and organisation’ Renewal Committee, we want to look into what the party went through in the last one year.”

El-Rufai described the PDP and its members as “criminals”.

He said: “As we renew to emerge as a stronger political party, the ruling party and government will have great incentives to clamp down on our members and organisation. The first reaction will obviously be to try to infiltrate our ranks.

We must avoid being caught napping, as the

criminals in the PDP never go to sleep. General Muhammadu Buhari, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Mr. Chairman, the task of renewing the CPC cannot succeed without your top level support...”

Buhari’s running mate in the last election, Pastor Tunde Bakari said he joined politics because he believed in Buhari.

According to him, the former Head of State invited him for the race, saying did not regret this, despite all odds.

“We are praying day and night for divine intervention. We must reposition. It is a privilege to serve with great leaders. As an active lawyer, I have served with Chief Rotimi Williams and Chief Gani Faweyimi of blessed memory. As a pastor, I have served with Pastors William Kumuyi and Enoch Adeboye. And in all my life, while serving men, I have not found any other person, when it comes to integrity, better than General Buhari. I stand by those words. The dead cannot challenge me; even the living can’t dare. We should value what we have and leverage on it to save Nigeria.”

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NEWS CJN to create special courts for EFCC From Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

SPECIAL courts are to be created to try economic and financial crime cases, Chief Justice of Nigeria Dahiru Musdapher said yesterday.

The courts which, shall be presided over by selected judges of the Federal High Courts in Lagos and Abuja, will be experimented for two years.

According to a statement by his Media Adviser, Mohammed Adamu, the CJN hinted when he received the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde in his chamber.

“Thereafter jurisdiction to try such cases would strictly be vested in the Federal High courts, which, administratively only those situated in Lagos and Abuja would thenceforth serve as pilot courts for the two-year experiment”.

“To cope with this challenge”, the CJN said, “more judges would be added soon to the Federal High Court. ‘let them hear these corruption cases day in day out for two years and let’s see”.

“This judicial novelty can only be sustained if the EFCC and similar prosecuting agencies become pro-active in their investigation:for this to work you will have to be proactive in your investigations and you may even have to increase the number of your investigators to cope with the challenge”, he added.

On interlocutory appeals and stay of proceedings, Justice Musdapher said courts would be directed to adjudicate in compliance with Section 40 of the EFCC Act which outlaws, subject to the provisions of the Constitution, such practice.

“Even if interlocutory appeals are made let them continue with the substantive case”, the CJN advised.

Replying, Lamorde assured the CJN of continuing in-house training and retraining tradition of the EFCC especially in investigation.

He urged him to encourage the Chief judges of the Federal and States High Courts to comply with the six months recommended period for corruption cases earlier given by the CJN. On plea bargain, there was a consensus that a legislation is required to regulate its application.

•Justice Musdapher

•Alhaji Maida (left), Mallam Mohammed and Alhaji Ahmed on theocassion

•Oshiomhole during the presentation ...yesterday

It’s time to expose managers of Yar’Adua’s ill-health, says Oshiomhole •Book on ex-President presented in Abuja

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DO State Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday said it is time to expose those who held the nation hostage when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was critically ill.

He also said Yar’Adua was one of the finest leaders that Nigeria would ever have.

He recalled that the late Yar’Adua was one of the main sponsors of his campaign in 2007 and insisted on the rule of law to validate his victory.

Oshiomhole spoke in Abuja at the presentation of a book: “Power, Politics and Death- A front row account of Nigeria under the late President Yar’Adua”, which is written by his (Yar’Adua’s) former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi.

The governor said: “As for the illness of the late President, Nigerians have the right to know what happened behind the scene, nobody has been able to tell us.

“I could see how opportunistic a good section of Nigerian political class is. Because of power, national interest hardly matters, which explained the mismanagement of Yar’Adua’s health.

“I see those godfathers, who were opposed to the Doctrine of Necessity and emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as acting President when the vacuum was obvious, still with Jonathan now.

“They were those forces who could not see the danger of the most populous black nation not having a President.

We know those godfathers who asked their Senators and members of the House of Representatives not to support the Doctrine of Necessity.

“Those godfathers are today virtually dead at home but they are on oxygen in Abuja trying to survive. They always try to be in power to mislead successive President.

“I think we need somebody, someday to tell the truth. Segun has opened the way, all of us that are public stewards should emulate, even on matters that were classified. We should de-classify such matters “It is time to expose the

Yar’Adua’s ill-health challenged my career, says Yayale

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FORMER Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed yesterday described the period the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was ill as the most challenging during his career.

He said he would also write his memoir to tell his own side of the story.

Yayale spoke at the presentation of a book: “Power, Politics and Death- A front row account of Nigeria under the late President Yar’Adua, written by a former Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi at ThisDay Dome in Abuja.

He said: “It (Yar’Adua’s ill-health and absence) was the most trying period of my life and career as a public servant. I thank Allah I was able to weather the storm.

“Olusegun Adeniyi has succeeded in diplomatically leaving out some classified matters involving me. But I will reveal these in my memoir.

“Managing crisis is a very interesting one.

But I will reveal the secret of my success. It is only the fear of Allah that made me to survive.

“I fought so many battles, I faced so many challenges. I did all my best for this country to move forward.”

“I respected Yar’Adua, I totally believed in him. Yar’Adua was a very courageous and sincere leader. When Ekiti poll re-run was going on, he was so annoyed with his party (PDP) leaders who were coming to him for one thing or the other.

From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation, Abuja

mystery that surrounds the Presidential Villa and how Nigeria is governed at night by some people or godfathers.”

On the personality of the late Yar’Adua, Oshiomhole said he was a great and large hearted leader.

He added: “I believe that Yar’Adua was one of the finest leaders that Nigeria would ever have as the President. He was one of the few statesmen that have presided over Nigeria. You can be a President and not a statesman. You can be a President and just be an opportunistic man.

“To my recollection, Yar’Adua was the only Nigerian President who passed through an electoral process and he had the gut to say this process could be better.

“It takes courage to admit that a process that produced you could have been better.

That was why he set up Justice Muhammadu Uwais Pan-

From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

“He said ‘why can’t you go and solve your own problem instead of talking about the opposition party?’

“By his death, we lost the opportunity to prove to the whole world that by the dint of hardwork and honesty, Nigeria will be great.

Yayale described the author as a loyal and respectful presidential aide who had faith in him as the SGF. He added: “Olusegun Adeniyi stood by his belief in me even when I was to be dismissed as the SGF.” A friend of the late President, Senator Ibrahim Ida said: “I was close to him, he was my political mentor. We know we are going to meet him one day, we should all prepare for the journey that is inevitable.”

In his remarks, a former Minister of Education in Yar’Adua’s cabinet, Dr. Sam Egwu, asked Nigerians not to blame members of the Federal Executive Council for standing by Yar’Adua.

He added: “Some of the decisions we took were based on the information available from those managing the health of the late President. They said that he was getting better and will be coming back.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the occasion, Ambassador Shehu Malami, traced the history of his relationship with the Yar’Aduas to 1955.

He said: “Since that connection with the family, I have recognised myself as a member of Yar’Adua’s family.”

‘I see those godfathers, who were opposed to the Doctrine of Necessity and emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as acting President when the vacuum was obvious, still with Jonathan now’ el.

“As a leader, he put Nigeria first and Nigerians first. If we are to define issues, Yar’Adua believed that Nigerians should be accorded respect, regardless of their party affiliations.

“We have had leaders who believed that once you do not belong to their party, you do not deserve to live.”

Oshiomhole also revealed how Yar’Adua bankrolled his campaign because he appreciated the leadership qual-

ities in him.

He said: “I was not in the PDP but he called me and said ‘your own candidature is not a party matter.’ He gave me general support for my campaign and when I ‘lost’, he offset the cost.

“When I was brutally rigged out by the Master Fixer, whom we have also fixed out, the NLC wanted to protest. I asked the NLC to take it easy because the intention of those behind the 2007 electoral problems was that Nigeria will not survive the fraud.

“I told the NLC to take it easy because I will pursue my riggers. I said we should not cut off the head because we have headache. Yar’Adua said just take it easy, all Nigerians knew you won the election.

They did their worst but as you can see today, one disappointment could not lead to the end of a political journey.”

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State said: “I believe Yar’Adua served Nigeria with every fibre in his vein. I do not think that Nigerians were unsympathetic to the

•Adeniyi

late President’s illness; I think it was the management of his illness that Nigerians were not happy about.

“Those who were around the President did not allow Nigerians to know the true position of things. We ought to learn how to manage information around public officers.”

Adeniyi said: “The first political appointment I wanted was to be the spokesman of the late President of the Senate, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, who I loved so much. But my publisher, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, dissuaded me by saying: ‘Why will you go and serve as the spokesman of a Senate President?’

“I have no regret for serving the late President Yar’Adua. I left the Villa at a very low moment in my life.

People were attributing what I did not say to me.

“It is not criminal to be sick; it was unfortunate that the late President had health challenge.”

Some of those at the book presentation were the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Dr. Lateef Adegbite; Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Shehu Malami, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Yayale Ahmed, former Ebonyi State Governor Sam Egwu, ex-Central Bank Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo; ex-CEO of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia; former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Alhaji Wada Maida; ace columnist, Mallam Mohammed Haruna; a former Minister of Defence, former Minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Godwin Abbe(rtd); Senator Ibrahim Ida; Alhaji Inuwa Baba; expresidential spokesman, Ima Niboro among others.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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NEWS

REC seeks review of Electoral Act

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HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Mr. Mike Igini has called for the review of the provisions of the Electoral Act governing the operations of INEC. Specifically, Igini said the excathedral provisions of the Electoral Act that makes INEC a mere administrative body without regulatory powers should be reviewed.

Igini spoke yesterday at a two-day conference for INEC commissioners from the 36 states and Abuja. It was held at the Tinapa Conference Centre, Calabar. The commissioner observed that current ex-cathedral provisions of INEC makes it a mere toothless bulldog and this was not okay for our democracy.

Igini noted that other areas

Ibru has served humanity, says Mimiko •LP not afraid of opposition

By Emmanuel Oladesu Deputy Political Editor

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday condoled with the family of the publisher of The Guardian newspaper, Mr Alex Ibru, describing him as a worthy businessman and humanist who used the media and religious centre as platform for service to humanity.

The governor who stormed the Ikoyi, Lagos home of the deceased about 12.45 pm was received by the widow, Maiden, his son, Sylvester, and members of the family. He was accompanied by his Information Commissioner Kayode Akinmade, and other aides.

Mimiko wrote in the condolence register: “The business empire he left behind, especially The Guardian newspapers, will always stand as testimony to his industry. The Ecumenical Centre is an undying acknowledgement of the grace of God in his life”.

The governor, who addressed reporters shortly after the visit, spoke on the defection of some Labour Party (LP) chieftains to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State, saying that their departure has not been felt.

He said: “For one person that has defected from Labour Party, at least, 100 has joined the party in replacement”, adding that his administration has continued to live up to expectation.

Mimiko went on: “For everyone person that has left the party, a hundred has come into the party. It is in the very nature of politics. Some will go, some will come. I can tell you. many more people are coming than the few that are going. But at the end of the day, what matters is the impact we make on the people. For me, that is the ground norm; the number one priority. In spite of what other people say, it is absolutely clear that we have raised the bar in terms of service delivery to the people of Ondo State”.

The governor said that LP, ACN and other political parties are aspiring, but the people of the state would decide the party of their choice at the right time.

of the Electoral Act that need urgent review include: “The challenge posed by the failure of political parties to adhere to the provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the electoral Act 2010 as amended as well as the constitutions of the different parties on matters of internal democracy, nomination of candidates for elections and the attendant plethora of pre-elections suits and the consequences of this to INEC”.

According to Igini, now is the time to deal with the issues of absence of internal democracy in political parties in Nigeria.

He urged the legal officers to use the interactive meeting “to reflect, examine and re-examine the existing provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act as they relate to elections with a view to mak-

ing profound and revolutionalised legislative proposals that the commission should submit to the National Assembly for passage into law for the sustenance of the Nation’s democracy and the subsequent sustainability of the rule of law in Nigeria” Igini said: “Generally as lawyers, our profession is more than just an occupation to earn a living. We have a special relationship with the society in terms of its defined core values and the trust reposed in lawyers, on the basis of which they are engaged by those who seek for justice to represent them.

“Hence we have a duty to use our legal knowledge whenever we work to serve the collective statutory core mandate of our organization and in the best interest of our country”.

Keyamo urges court to order Customs boss Dikko’s trial for alleged fraud

By Joseph Jibueze

•Dikko

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USTICE Yetunde Idowu of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, yesterday granted leave to activistlawyer Mr Festus Keyamo to begin moves to compel the state to prosecute Comptroller-General of the Customs

Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, for alleged certificate forgery.

Keyamo had sought the court’s leave to apply for mandamus compelling the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lagos State to exercise his discretion whether or not to prosecute Dikko.

He said it was in respect of information he submitted on June 29, this year in line with Section 258 (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2007.

Justice Idowu granted the leave after Keyamo’s motion was moved by his lawyer, Mr. Festus Afeiyodion.

She said Keyamo should serve the processes on the DPP. Keyamo alleged that Dik-

ko forged certificates of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

He said: “The Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State has a duty under Section 258(a) of the ACJL of Lagos State, 2007, pursuant to information being submitted to him by a private person, to endorse thereon a certificate stating whether or not he is declining to prosecute an accused at the instance of the public.

“The failure of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State to endorse a certificate on the information submitted to him by the Applicant on June 29, 2011 amounts to a breach of the statutory duty under Section 258(a) of the ACJL, Lagos State, 2007.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

The summary is that the story of the power sector has not changed as far as the end-users are concerned.

Most enterprises still rely on diesel and petrol to power their businesses and the cost of this is simply unbearable.

-Chief Femi Deru, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)

DPR attributes fuel scarcity in Port Harcourt to shortfall in supply

USAID, NEEP to train Nigerian exporters From Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

T

From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

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HE Department of Pe troleum Resources (DPR) has attributed the current scarcity of petroleum products in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and its environs to a shortfall in supply from the depots.

The scarcity made prices of petroleum products to go up, with petrol now selling for N150 per litre, above the official price of N65, in spite of long queues at the few filling stations with the product.

Commuters are also groaning over sudden increase in fares, less than two weeks to Christmas.

The Manager, Retail Outlet and Marketing of DPR, Mr Abdullahi Isah, yesterday in an interview in Port Harcourt, assured that the situation would soon improve.

Isah spoke after the yearly Major Marketers’Meeting with the DPR’s Zonal Office in Port Harcourt, which took place at Juanita Hotel in Old Government Reservation Area (GRA).

He said: “Fuel scarcity can occur whenever the demand for the product is higher than supply. Petrol will flood the filling stations in Port Harcourt before the end of this week.

“Right now, we have some vessels that are discharging fuel. The PPMC’s (Petroleum Products Marketing Company) depots are loading. They loaded 90 trucks yesterday (Monday), which in recent times has not been the case.

“With all these indices in place, I believe that in a few days, there will be no more queues at the filling stations.

To the best of my knowledge, the scarcity is not as a result of hoarding or diversion.

DATA STREAM COMMODITY PRICES Oil -$115.3/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 JSE NYSE LSE

-N6.503 trillion -Z5.112trillion -$10.84 trillion -£61.67 trillion RATES Inflation -10.3% 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 $32.820b CFA EUR £ $ ¥ SDR RIYAL

-

FOREX

0.2958 206.9 242.1 151.8 1.9179 238 40.472

• From left: Mr Yinka Adedeji, MD, Afripay UBA; Mr A. E. Okafor, Assistant Director, CBN; Mr Adewale Sangowawa, Executive Director Globalcom; Mr Obinna Agbajue, Executive Director, Retail IBTC Stanbic and Mr Ayetunde Kuforiji Director, Telebanking Globacom, at the launch of Glo Texcash by Globacom, UBA Afripay and Stanbic IBTC Bank ... in Lagos.

2012 Budget: only surface deep P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan presented his 2012 budget yesterday and while on the surface there are some positive numbers, dig a bit deeper and the picture gets murkier.

Nigeria’s projected fiscal deficit of 2.8 per cent in 2012 would make many developed nations jealous but it is predicated on what Razia Khan, head of African research for Standard Chartered, told beyondbrics were some “very optimistic assumptions” – which Nigeria, only recently been moved to a stable outlook by the ratings agencies, can ill afford.

Jonathan, according to the Financial Times (FT) blog, said the country would spend N4.749trillion ($29.29billion) next year, an increase of six per cent from 2011. That might not sound too drastic but it adds up to an increase of nearly 50 per cent in real terms since 2009.

The economy will grow by nearly 7 per cent this year, mostly driven by the nonoil economy. As Khan said:

FT ANALYSIS

By David Keohane

“If Nigeria can’t get it right in the good times, when can it get it right?”

Nigeria’s budget does contain some marginal positives to go with its narrowing budget deficit.

Jonathan is proposing to bring down the cost of maintaining government – which has been running at nearly three quarters of the national budget – to a still intimidating 72 per cent.

Good, if rather underwhelming, news that doesn’t open much room for much-needed infrastructure spending.

Another positive: the benchmark oil price, on which budget estimates are based, has been reduced from $75 a barrel to $70. With 90 per cent of export earnings generated by oil, this denotes a more conservative fiscal outlook – though it does leave the country exposed if production doesn’t meet an optimistic production target of 2.48m barrels per day (up

from 2.3m bpd this year).

Yvonne Mhango of Rennaisance Capital remained upbeat, saying in an emailed note to clients: “Nigeria’s public debt is very low with domestic debt at 16.4 per cent and external debt at around 2.2 per cent, so there is room, in our view, to borrow for the budget. The budget oil price is conservative in our view – we project an oil price of $100-110 per barrel in 2012 – so they should be able to meet their targets, if they stick to the fiscal programme.”

In contrast, Khan argues: “The nominal growth projection – real GDP growth of 7.2 per cent and inflation of 9.5 per cent may not differ much from the consensus, but the point is that Nigeria is still hugely dependent on oil revenue – and not domestically generated revenue – for the financing of its budget.

Until this changes (and we would like to see more detail of revenue raising measures), forecasts of domestic growth are almost redundant – with little impact on eventual budget outcomes.”

Should budget projections disappoint, the foreign exchange rate may have to take the strain. The monetary authorities will need to do even more to offset the liquidity impact of increased spending, and preserve some measure of price stability.

Then there is the much discussed fuel subsidy, which ministers have hinted will be abolished in 2012. In the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the cost of the subsidy was just over $16billion, fractionally more than the state’s entire earnings from oil revenues this year.

However, even General Sani Abacha, the most ruthless of Nigeria’s former military dictators, withdrew his own attempt at lowering the subsidy in response to public outcry. A recent opinion poll found that 87 per cent of Nigerians still, unsurprisingly, oppose scraping the subsidy. With no mention of the subsidy in the budget, they will have to wait a little longer to discover its fate.

Fed Govt to ban cassava flour import

T

O encourage indig enous farmers and cre ate jobs, the Federal Government will in 2012 introduce fiscal policy measures that will encourage the purchase and utilisation of locally produced commodities.

One of such fiscal policies, is the ban on the importation of cassava and imposition of levies on wheat grain, wheat flour, imported polished rice and brown rice.

President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed these in Abuja yesterday during his 2012 budget presentation to the National Assembly.

Consequently, he said from July 1, 2012, wheat flour will attract a levy of 65 per cent - bringing the effective duty to 100 per cent, while wheat grain will

• Imposes levy on wheat, rice From Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor (Abuja)

attract a 15 per cent levy to bring the effective duty to 20 per cent.

Similarly, the President said “there will be a levy of 25 per cent on brown rice to bring it to 30 per cent.”

To encourage domestic rice production, from December 31, 2012, a levy of 40 per cent will be placed on imported polished rice leading to an effective duty rate of 50 per cent.

He said rice millers are expected to “move towards domestic production and milling of rice, as the levy of 50 per cent will be further raised to 100 per cent.

He said his administration to encourage the substitu-

tion of high quality cassava flour for wheat flour in bread-baking, will give bakeries 18 months to transit from the use of wheat to cassava for bread making. They will also enjoy a tax incentive of 12 per cent rebate if they attain 40 per cent blending, he promised.

“All equipment for processing of high quality cassava flour and composite flour blending will enjoy a duty free regime as incentives to bakers for composite flour utilisation. Consultations with the sector to ensure a smooth transition are on-going,” he said.

Also in 2012, the government “will further look at supportive fiscal policies for the rice and wheat sectors to

stimulate domestic production.

Jonathan said that his government will not entertain any requests for waivers and concessions for rice and wheat importation in 2012.

On the implementation of the Power Roadmap, which aims to create a robust power sector through the privatisation for the generation and distribution of power and the creation of an enabling environment for investment,President Jonathan reiterated that “institutional arrangements have been made for a Bulk Trader company to intermediate between power producers and distributors in a market setting, thereby giving Independent Power Producers (IPPs) the confidence to invest in generation capacity.”

HE United States Agency for Interna tional Development (USAID) and the Nigeria Expanded Export Programme (NEEP) are set to build the capacity of the country’s producers to realise their export potential at the regional and international trade arena.

The NEEP programme Director, Mr Leon Skarshinski, said this is designed to offer exports-related technical assistance to Nigeria’s business community, as the programme will be wound down by the end of 2011, making way for another one to start.

The project, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria, had commenced on January 1, 2010.

The NEEP project was borne out of the need to help the country take advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

This became imperative since nearly 95 per cent of the country’s exports to the United States are oil-related.

He said: “The project was designed to be demanddriven making it possible for interventions to be designed in response to the expressed needs of Nigeria’s export community.

“The programme within its two years of existence had impacted positively on Nigerian producers and exporters especially those in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector.”

The Director Trade in the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Mr David Adejuwon, said Nigeria was yet to fully take advantage of the AGOA policy.

‘Nigeria makes N23b yearly from cashew’

By Daniel Essiet

N

IGERIA earns N23 billion yearly from cashew production, President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Mr Tola Faseru, has said.

Speaking in Lagos with The Nation, he said the revenue comes from 100,000 tonnes produced annually by about 200,000 farmers nationwide.

Faseru said the nation has the potential of improving from her position as the fourth latest producer in the world considering her arable land.

His association’s agenda, Faseru said, is to increase its national production to 200,000 tonnes annually, adding that the development would make Nigeria an important participant in the world cashew market.

In spite of the multifaceted benefits of cashew, he said processing is largely non-existent and that 95 per cent of cashew are exported as raw nuts to overseas countries.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

12

BUSINESS NEWS

NNPC faults alleged 65,000 bpd missing crude

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HE Nigerian National Petro leum Corporation (NNPC) has faulted reports that the corporation is unable to account for 65,000 barrels of crude oil supply out of the 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) allocated to it.

The Federal Government allocated the crude to the NNPC at international market price for domestic refining.

In a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, the corporation stated that the report is a clear misrepresentation of the presentation made by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austen Oniwon at Monday’s session in the ongoing Senate Joint Committee

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

Public Hearing on Subsidy Management and Process.

Ajuonuma said: “We want to emphasise that at no time during his presentation did the NNPC Group Managing Director stated or alluded to the fact that 65,000 barrels of crude was missing or unaccounted for. The fact is 65,000 barrels of crude oil per day is so big in the economy of the nation to be toyed with.”

Providing a breakdown of how the crude is utilised, Ajuonuma explained that what Oniwon said under oath, which was also captured on live television is as simple as follows: “NNPC buys 445,000 barrels per

day from government at prevailing international market price. Out of this figure, Port Harcourt Refinery gets 90,000 barrels per day, Warri Refinery receives 80,000 barrels. Also under the crude for product swap arrangements, Societe Ivoirienne De Refinnage (SIR), receives 60,000 barrels, Duke Oil, a wholly owned subsidiary of the NNPC receives 90,000 barrels and Trafigura gets 60,000 barrels per day. The balance of 65,000 barrels meant for Kaduna Refinery is sold to meet up with commitments since Kaduna Refinery has since been shut down due to vandalism of crude supply pipeline at Egwa village in Warri Southwest Local Government Area of Delta State,” Ajuonuma said.

“If you take time to do the simple arithmetic, you will discover that nothing is actually missing or unaccounted for,” Ajuonuma added.

The NNPC spokesman noted that the corporation is comforted by the fact that the distinguished senators conducting the public hearing clearly understood the explanation provided

by Oniwon.

“From the countenance of the distinguished senators, you could see clearly that they had no misgiving about the accuracy of the presentation made by the Group Managing Director on how the 445,000 barrels are utilised on a daily basis. There is no way the distinguished senators could have allowed that to pass if they had issues with the content of the full disclosure,” Ajuonuma said.

ICAN trains accountants for global jobs

By Daniel Essiet

T

HE Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) said it is training accountants to take up international employment.

Delivering a keynote address at the 16th Annual Conference of the Association of Accounting Technicians in Lagos, its President, Prof Francis Ojaide, said the association is developing a practice-focused professional accountancy qualification that is globally recognised.

He said the association is implementing new standards to grow the profession to meet global demand for high technical competence in accounting practice.

Towards this end, the institute’s training is fashioned along global best practices which will help members build competence for international employment.

He said ICAN professional qualifications are highly rated and in demand for finance roles, adding that the association is determined to maintain standards that sustain chartered accountants in corporate governance.

On the Accounting Technicians’ Scheme, Ojaide said it has generated interest among school leavers in the country and even undergraduates of other disciplines have increased the number of students registering for the programme besides career accounting students.

Shema seeks review of tax system From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

K

ATSINA State Gover nor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Shema, has called for a comprehensive review of the nation’s tax system to boost internally generated revenue (IGR) and enhance socio-economic development in the country.

Shema, who spoke to reporters yesterday in Kano, also stressed the need for government at all levels to intensify efforts to restructure the taxation system for the creation of wealth.

Citing Lagos as an example, Shema emphasised the need to adequately address taxation procedures and processes in the country, pointing out that no nation can develop by relying solely on one source of revenue, as is the case in the country today.

He said: “The collation system of taxation in the country has to be corrected. The taxation system in Nigeria must be addressed adequately not only in Katsina, but everywhere in Nigeria and we must be serious about it.

“Lagos went out to set its taxation processes right, and you can see now that the income being earned by Lagos on its own, has quadruped what it gets from the Federation Account.”

• From left: Associate Vice-President, Business Development, Arik Airline, Mr Lanre Bamgbose; Nigeria Ambassador in Angola, Amb. Folorunso Olukayode Otukoya and Charge D’ Affairs, Angola Counsellor in Nigeria, Oswaldiwo De Jesus Barbas, at the Angola Airport, during the airline’s inaugural Lagos-Angola flight ... yesterday.

PHOTO: ISAAC JIMOH AYODELE

Globacom partners UBA, Stanbic on service roll-out I

N line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) policy of driv ing financial inclusion and to promote the ‘cash-lite’ payment system, United Bank for Africa, (UBA) and Stanbic IBTC Bank are partnering with Globacom to offer mobile payment (m-payment) services on the Glo network.

At a briefing yesterday in Lagos, the companies said the deal would allow both banks leverage the Globacom fibre optic infrastructure to transact m-payment services, targeting the over 23 million subscribers on the Glo network.

Globacom’s Executive Director, Human Resources,Adewale Sangowawa, said the platform will enable Glo subscribers to be reached via the Glo Txtcash, a channel created to connect customers to all banks and mobile money operators,adding that the Glo TxtCash will enable subscribers use their mobile numbers to store electronic value of money conveniently.

By Adline Atili

He said channel will ensure that people no longer carry wallets and mobile phones at the same time, underscoring the convenience and safety of the service.

Sangowawa said: “With this service, subscribers can transfer money to any mobile number; spend the money directly from their mobile money account to pay for goods, as well as buy airtime for themselves and others.”

The service, launched initially in partnership with Afri-Pay, an independent e-payment division of UBA, is available in the remote parts of the country in line with CBN’s objective of enhancing financial inclusion through secure, convenient and reliable mobile money account, Sangowawa said.

He maintained that the objective of partnering the two banks is to

join forces with banks for mobile money services to be available to subscribers on the Glo network.

“This initiative shall bring facilities similar to banking to the unbanked population through their mobile phones and will redefine subscribers’ way of life,” he said.

Also speaking, Globacom’s Director of Tele-banking, Ayotunde Kuponiyi, described the tripartite collaboration as a milestone in customer care and convenience.

“With the combined Stanbic IBTC and UBA outlets, pan-Nigeria, coupled with the wide reach of the Glo network, banking has invariably been brought directly to the hands of Nigerians. The service is designed to encourage savings culture among Nigerians as it requires simple information to register on mobile. Additionally, it does not exclude any customer, regardless of the type of phone used,” he said.

CBN to boost capacity of financial sector regulators

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) wants to increase the capacity of financial sector regulators to tackle any shock to the system.

CBN Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi disclosed this yesterday at a workshop organised by the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in Abuja.

He said chief executives of financial institutions and regulators have agreed on the need to boost the capacity and enhance the skills of operators of banking and financial businesses in the country.

“We must continue to benchmark to international best practices in the compliance to regulatory

From Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor, Abuja

standards and principles. The Central Bank of Nigeria, in collaboration with the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and other stakeholders in the financial sector, have embarked on several reform initiatives to strengthen the regulatory framework of the Nigeria financial system.”

He said the forum should provide a platform for the acquisition of necessary analytical skills and tools for the effective appraisal and assessment of compliance indicators, stating that there are several core principles for an effective deposit insurance system under the platform of IADI.

Sanusi drew the attention of IADA member countries to other factors that are critical for the development of effective deposit insurance that are beyond the sphere of the deposit insurance corporations, saying it would require effective collaboration with other sectors of the economy to actualise.

Earlier, Managing Director of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, said Nigeria is the first African country to implement the IADI assessment method, adding that the workshop, will among others, provide the corporation the opportunity to assess its level of compliance with the IADI core principles as well as serve as a tool for implementing, reviewing or reforming its deposit insurance system.

Flight Schedule MONDAY - FRIDAY LAGOS – ABUJA Departure Arrival 1. Aero 06.50 08.10 2. Associated 07.00 09.30 3. Air Nigeria 07.00 08.20 4. IRS 07.00 08.20 5. Dana 07.02 08.22 6. Arik 07.15 08.15 7. Chanchangi 07.15 8. Air Nigeria 08.15 09.35 9. Dana 08.10 09.20 10. Aero 08.45 10.05 11. Arik 09.15 10.15 12. Chanchangi 10.00 11.00 13. IRS 11.15 12.35 14. Dana 12.06 12.26 15. Aero 12.20 13.30 16. Air Nigeria 13.25 14.45 17. Chanchangi 13.30 14.30 18. Arik 13.45 14.45 19. IRS 14.00 15.20 20. Aero 14.10 15.30 21. Air Nigeria 14.50 16.10 22. Dana 15.30 16.50 23. Chanchangi 15.30 16.30 24. Arik 15.50 16.50 25. Aero 16.00 17.20 26. IRS 16.30 17.50 27. Arik 16.50 17.50 28. Dana 17.10 18.30 29. Chanchangi 17.30 18.30 30. Air Nigeria 17.35 18.55 31. Air Nigeria (T/TH) 18.30 19.50 32. Arik 18.45 19.45 33. Aero 19.20 20.40 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

LAGOS – BENIN Arik 07.30 Associated 08.30 Aero 10.50 Arik 11.45 Associated 13.00 Aero 14.25 Arik 15.30 Associated 16.00

1.

2.

3.

4.

Arik Aero Arik Aero

1. Arik 2. Aero 1.

2.

3.

4.

LAGOS – CALABAR 07.30 11.20 12.50 16.00 LAGOS – JOS 10.55 11.15

LAGOS – KADUNA Aero 08.00 Chanchangi 10.00 Arik 10.00 Arik 15.10

08.30 09.10 11.50 12.45 13.40 15.20 16.30 16.40 08.50 12.40 14.10 17.20 12.15 12.45 09.10 11.00 11.10 16.20

LAGOS – PORT HARCOURT (CIVIL) 1. Aero 07.15 08.35 2. Arik 07.15 08.35 3. Arik 09.00 10.20 4. Dana 09.27 10.40 5. Aero 10.50 12.30 6. Arik 11.40 13.00 7. Air Nigeria 12.00 13.10 8. IRS 13.30 15.00 9. Arik 14.00 15.20 10. Dana 15.03 16.20 11. Air Nigeria 16.00 17.10 12. Arik 16.10 17.30 13. Aero 16.15 17.30 14. Arik 17.10 18.30 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

LAGOS – OWERRI Aero 07.30 Arik 07.30 Air Nigeria 13.40 Arik 14.00 Arik 16.30

08.40 08.40 14.55 15.10 17.40

1.

2.

3.

4.

Arik Aero Arik Aero

LAGOS – WARRI 08.15 11.50 11.55 14.55

09.1 12.50 12.55 15.55

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

LAGOS – KANO Air Nigeria 07.10 IRS 08.00 Dana 08.10 Arik 12.20 IRS 14.00 IRS 18.15

08.50 09.45 09.40 14.00 15.45 19.55

LAGOS – OWERRI 07.20 14.00 16.30

08.30 15.10 17.40

LAGOS – UYO 10.35

11.35

1. Arik 2. Arik 3. Arik 1. Dana

LAGOS – MAIDUGURI 1. IRS 11.15 13.15 2. Arik 15.50 18.00 LAGOS – ILORIN 1. Overland 07.15 2. Arik (M/T/TH/F) 17.30

08.00 18.00

LAGOS – ABUJA SAT/SUN Arik 7.15; 10.20; 2.20; 5.20pm – 7.30; 9.15; 10.20; 2.20; 4.50; 6.45 Aero 07.30; 09.35; 13.10; 14.50; 20.20 – 07.30; 09.35; 13.10; 14.50; 20.20 Air Nigeria 08.15; 14.30; 17.15; 18.30 – 08.15; 13.30; 14.30; 17.15; 18.30

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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14

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NEWS

Why we want to spend N4.7trn, by Jonathan •Text of President Goodluck Jonathan’s budget speech at the National Assembly...yesterday

I

AM delighted to present the 2012 Federal Budget Proposal before this esteemed Joint Session of the National Assembly. This Proposal comes at the end of a long consultative process with key stakeholders and it translates the development plans of government unveiled in the Transformation Agenda into concrete actions.

This budget is a stepping-stone to the transformation of our economy and country in our walk to economic freedom. This esteemed Assembly would agree that this path would neither be easy nor uncontested; but with a sharp focus, hard work, determination and making careful choices we will overcome.

Global economic developments In the past year, the global economic recovery slowed down significantly and downside risks are on the increase as many countries, particularly in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have faced serious challenges leading to fiscal retrenchment and austerity measures in the face of high and rising levels of sovereign debt.

The Euro Zone crisis in particular has time and again thrown financial markets into turmoil as several countries in this economic and monetary union continue to face difficulty in servicing their debts. On the other hand, although many emerging and developing countries, like India and China are experiencing relatively robust growth, downside risks remain as well. In fact, global growth projection has continuously been revised downward and is now 4% for 20122013.

These developments have implications for our economy as, aside from the impact on the inflow of Foreign Direct Investments, they could also lead to lower demand for our primary export commodity. We are living witnesses to the extent of volatility that can afflict the international oil market with prices plummeting from US$147/barrel in July 2008 to about US$38/barrel four months later. Thus, although the oil price is currently over US$100/barrel, there is no guarantee what it would be in the future.

We cannot subject the well-being of Nigerians to such large fluctuations and must therefore protect ourselves by managing our finances prudently including by adopting a conservative benchmark oil price for our budgets.

There are also uncertainties in the area of international food prices which make it imperative that we take steps to safeguard our position through policies that would promote food security. So far, the Nigerian economy has weathered these storms well but efforts need to be reinforced to ensure macroeconomic stability and sustained economic growth.

Developments in the domestic environment This year marked another milestone in our democratic experience, with the successful elections and peaceful transition. We now need to build on the mandate that Nigerians have entrusted to us to deliver the dividends of democracy through stronger economic reforms to deliver growth and create jobs. I have created an Economic Management Team (EMT) that I chair, and an Economic Management Implementation Team (EMIT) chaired by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, to help us deliver on this economic agenda.

The robust growth recorded in the first half of 2011 underscores the resilience of the Nigerian economy and the prudence of our economic policies. Our growth in the 2010-2011 period has been broad-based.

The economy recorded impressive growth of 7.85 percent in 2010 and 7.72 percent as of the second quarter of 2011

compared to 5.2% forecast for sub-Sahara Africa. Medium-term prospects are also bright, with real GDP growth projected to remain strong over the period. Furthermore, we intend to pursue a programme of greater fiscal discipline complemented with appropriate monetary policy in order to help stabilise our declining foreign reserve.

The non-oil sector continues to be the main driver of growth with increased crop production, growth in wholesale and retail trade and increased financial sector activities backed by the banking sector reforms. Contributions by the oil sector continue to improve as average daily oil production rose to 2.45 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2011 compared to 2.35 million barrels per day in the corresponding period in 2010.

At the same time, food inflation has been on a downward trend from 14.1% in October 2010 to 9.7% in October 2011, but it is still a matter of concern as our objective is to move to low or mid-single digit inflation.

Review of implementation of the 2011 budget so far We are approaching the end of a peculiar fiscal year for our nation. The 2011 Elections, the subsequent inauguration of a new Administration last May and the passage of the 2011 Amendment Budget in May 2011 all affected the implementation of the budget in 2011. Provisional data on the implementation of the 2011 Budget as at October 2011 indicate that revenue performance improved during the year over the situation in 2010.

Oil revenue receipts achieved the targeted levels as a result of relatively higher oil prices and production levels than benchmarked while non-oil receipts, though short of the projection for the period, are tending towards the set targets for 2011. As of mid-November, about 67% of the released funds had been utilised and we expect it to reach 70% by the end of December which is fairly good considering the circumstances. You will agree with me that 2010 and 2011 Budgets were relatively expansionary, and we must now inject a dose of caution.

With the support of the National Assembly, the Government is determined to pursue a programme of far-reaching fiscal consolidation so as to reduce our deficit and domestic borrowing to more manageable levels.

We have introduced measures to actualize this programme in the 2012 fiscal year both in the areas of improved revenue collection, recurrent expenditure reduction and increasing the share of capital expenditure in aggregate spending, in contrast with the trend of recent years.

Priorities of the 2012 budget At a time when rating agencies are downgrading countries globally, the Outlook on Nigeria was recently upgraded from negative to stable by Fitch Ratings; this was largely a reflection of two things: a) the new economic programme, including the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework that government has put in place with important reforms and a clear programme of fiscal consolidation; b) the successful political transition following the 2011 elections.

In furtherance of its efforts, the government has significantly scaled up the flow of resources to key areas of priority including Security, Infrastructure renewal and development (including power and roads), human capital development and food security to give a more inclusive growth and attention to job creation. Yet, there is much that still needs to be done. The Transformation Agenda spells out the strategic direction of my Administration.

In this respect, being the first budget under this Agenda, the 2012 Budget has been designed with the theme: fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation.

•Dr. Jonathan laying the proposal before the National Assembly...yesterday

To achieve the above objectives, we have established four main pillars, namely, (a) Macroeconomic stability; (b) Structural reforms; (c) Governance and institutions; and (d) Investing in priority sectors.

Macroeconomic Stability Government is determined to pursue policies that will ensure a stable macroeconomic environment through a strong and prudent fiscal policy, manageable deficits, sustainable debt-GDP ratio of no more than 30%, and single digit inflation, thereby promoting real growth. We believe that these measures would engender a stable and competitive exchange rate and help to reverse the declining trend of our international reserves.

Our domestic debt profile has risen sharply in recent years, currently standing at about 16.4% of GDP. This cannot be allowed to continue and become a new burden on our children. So in addition to looking at the expenditure side of our national balance sheet, we are also paying strong attention to the revenue side.

In this regard, we have initiated steps to increase revenues by blocking leakages from various sources, improve corporate tax collection, and boost internally generated revenue.

We also believe that we should be able to earn a lot more revenue from the maritime sector. As part of the on-going port reforms, government will work vigorously to increase our revenue from maritime and related activities.

Starting in 2012 for the medium term, we shall focus on cutting recurrent expenditure to sustainable levels through reducing waste, inefficiency, corruption and duplication in government. Recent reviews of public expenditures provide a basis for taking such measures. In order to make capital spending more effective, government is introducing a new template for analyzing the financial and other factors including the economic rates of return, job creation, and environmental sustainability.

Similarly, Government will continue to prioritize its expenditures while focus will be on the completion of viable on-going capital projects. It is our intention to fund and bring the large portfolio of on-going projects to completion in the next few years while also taking on flagship projects already identified in the Transformation Agenda.

‘The 2012 Budget, as our collaborative effort, has taken the welfare of Nigerians as top priority. In an environment of global uncertainties and domestic challenges, the strong support of the National Assembly is invaluable for us to achieve our set developmental goals’ From 2012, there will also be a robust programme to strengthen our oil reserves base, and increase oil exploration activities in identified inland sedimentary basins, outside the Niger Delta, with the requisite potential for the production of oil and gas, particularly the Chad Basin.

Structural Reforms My Administration is pressing forward with key structural reforms. We are implementing the privatisation of the power sector based on the Power Roadmap which I unveiled last year. We believe that the power sector can benefit from liberalisation and privatisation by attracting investors in the same manner as the telecommunications sector has done. In the same vein, government will come up with policies to encourage investment in the downstream sector through liberalization so as to create jobs for our people.

We have also embarked on reforming our ports and customs and we intend to continue vigorously on this path so as to reduce the cost of doing business for our private sector actors.

No longer are we going to be contented for clearance of goods in our ports to take 3-4 weeks with attendant demurrage and costs while it takes 48 hours elsewhere.

In this regard, I have set up a Committee chaired by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance with a mandate to remove the bottlenecks at our ports and another Committee made up of private sector users of the ports to monitor implementation. We also intend to work hard to improve the infrastructure at the ports. Other impediments such as those arising from bureaucratic and costly paperwork will also be removed.

With regard to the petroleum sector, the Federal Government is conscious of the need to bring the Petroleum Industry Bill debate to conclusion so as to give investors the comfort and policy certainty that they re-

quire. My Administration is determined to bring this matter to closure by engaging with all stakeholders and I therefore call on the National Assembly to work with us in this regard.

Governance and Building Institutions Our reforms can only endure if they are founded on strong systems and institutions that promote transparency and we are taking steps to strengthen ours. As you are aware, we have already resumed the publication of revenues allocated to the three tiers of Government as this will promote transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.

Similarly, the recent passage of the Freedom of Information Act has further strengthened the hands of citizens in monitoring the activities of government and I acknowledge the role of the National Assembly and civil society, in making this a reality.

The fight against corruption is a collective responsibility and my Administration will strengthen our anti-corruption agencies such as the EFCC and ICPC to enable them discharge their mandate. Finally, we recognize that we can only succeed in our effort to transform the economy if we have a vibrant civil service and we fully intend to embark on reforming the public service for optimal service delivery.

Investing in priority sectors: Creating Jobs Against the background of the above reforms, this Administration will promote job creation and inclusive growth by investing in critical infrastructure, human capital development and security including more support for the police, defence and counter-terrorism operations. We shall also give priority attention to Information and Communications Technology, Solid Minerals development, Manufacturing, Aviation and Creative industries in order to further develop these sectors that are

4, 2011

15

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NEWS

Why we want to spend N4.7trn, by Jonathan

PHOTO: AKIN OLADOKUN

known to be sources of growth and job creation.

Let me now comment on a few sectors. The Agricultural sector is being totally transformed to enable us move from traditional farming to modern agriculture as a business both for our small and large-scale farmers. Our objective is to ensure food security whilst also promoting exports in agriculture value chains where we have a comparative advantage. We intend to process and add value to different crops such as rice, cassava, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, cotton etc.

This approach is central to our transformation strategy. Accordingly, this Administration has adopted enabling measures to support the development of private sector-driven marketing institutions, and push for policies that would promote our agriculture to create jobs.

To unleash the potential of this sector, the Federal Ministry of Finance has put in place a mechanism to share risks with the banking sector by guaranteeing 70% of the principal of all loans made for supply of seeds and fertilizer by the private sector this season. In addition, to get the inputs to farmers at an affordable cost, we are subsidizing the interest rate on these loans to bring it down from 15% to 7% per annum. The Minister of Agriculture and the Central Bank are collaborating to extend these services for credit availability for the medium term.

We are introducing further fiscal policy measures to support the development of the agricultural sector.

In this respect, the duty on machinery and certain specified equipment for the sector will, effective January 31st 2012, attract zero duty. We will further look at supportive fiscal policies for the rice and wheat sectors to stimulate domestic production.

Government is also introducing policies to encourage the substitution of high quality cassava flour for wheat flour in bread-baking. Bakeries will have 18 months in which to make the transition, and will enjoy a corporate tax incentive of 12% rebate if they attain 40% blending. With effect from March 31st 2012, importation of cassava flour will be prohibited so as to further support this programme.

All equipment for processing of high quality cassava flour and composite flour blending will enjoy a duty free regime as incentive to bakers for composite flour utilization.

Consultations with the sector to ensure a smooth transition are on-going.

It is common wisdom that the best way we can grow our economy and create jobs for our people is for us to patronize Nigerian-made goods. This is why we are introducing enabling policies to drive this process. In this regard, we are introducing fiscal policy measures that will encourage the purchase and utilisation of locally produced commodities.

From July 1st 2012, wheat flour will attract a levy of 65% to bring the effective duty to 100%, while wheat grain will attract a 15% levy which will bring the effective duty to 20%.

Similarly, there will be a levy of 25% on brown rice to bring it to 30%. In addition, to encourage domestic rice production, a levy of 40% will be placed on imported polished rice leading to an effective duty rate of 50%. Effective December 31st 2012, all rice millers should move towards domestic production and milling of rice, as the levy of 50% will be further raised to 100%.

Let me add here that no waivers or concessions will be entertained for rice and wheat importation.

We have also commenced implementation of the Power Roadmap which aims to create a robust power sector through the privatization of the generation and distribution of power as well as create an enabling environment for investment. Institutional arrangements have been made for a Bulk Trader company to intermediate between power producers and distributors in a market setting, thereby giving Independent Power Producers (IPPs) the confidence to invest in generation capacity.

Government, in collaboration with our development partners has created a credit risk management initiative to provide Partial Risk Guarantees (PRG) to give comfort to gas producers in respect of payment. Similarly, effective January 31st 2012, equipment and machinery in the power sector will attract zero duty.

The Government recognizes the provision of affordable housing as a social need and, also, a veritable source of socio-economic development and job creation. Owning one’s own home is a basic aspiration of every human being, and our people are no different.

To this end, based on a new housing policy, Government is working with our development partners to create an effective mortgage finance system in the country and to develop value chains in the building materials segment. This will give the necessary stimulant to the sector to accelerate its development and also help to reduce the cost of construction, thereby energizing the construction industry.

It is a well-known fact that government alone cannot solve the infrastructure problem, which is why we have invited the private sector and international investors to partner with us through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements. As estimated in the First National Implementation Plan of the Nigeria Vision 20:2020, we need N32 trillion for the execution of capital projects over a four year-period, of which the private sector is to contribute N13 trillion. In this respect, we are creating the enabling environment to attract private investments by having a clear regulatory framework.

Government will, in addition to ongoing critical infrastructure projects, execute new flagship projects with positive multiplier effects across the country through PPP arrangements in the next three years.

In our continuing effort to improve on our human development index, we are conscious of the need to avoid the trap of focusing on economic growth as an end in itself, but rather, a means to improved human development through ensuring better health care, education and wealth creation.

To this end, my Administration will continue to invest in these sectors to improve on the quality of education for our children especially young graduates from our educational institutions, support Public-Private Partnership arrangements for skills development and

improve the quality of our health service delivery.

Fellow Compatriots, we recognize that we can only achieve the developmental goals in a secure and peaceful environment. Accordingly, safeguarding the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the country is at the heart of ongoing reforms in the security sector. As you are aware, we have since commenced strategic programmes to upgrade the skills of officers in the security agencies while modernizing security infrastructure across the country.

The 2012 budget The 2012 budget is based on a set of assumptions reflecting Government’s determination to maintain prudence in the face of continued uncertainties in the external environment. Accordingly, the budget is based on the following: •Oil production of 2.48 million barrels per day (mbpd) up from 2.3mbpd for 2011; •Benchmark oil price of US$70/barrel, a cautious revision from the US$75/ barrel approved in the 2011 Amended Budget; •Exchange rate of NGN155/US$; •Projected GDP growth rate of 7.2%; and •Projected inflation rate of 9.5%.

2012 Revenue and Expenditure Profile Based on the above assumptions, the Gross federally collectible revenue is projected at N9.406trillion, of which the total revenue available for the Federal Government’s Budget is forecast at N3.644 trillion, representing an increase of 9% over the estimate for 2011.

Non-oil revenue is projected to grow significantly in 2012 as recent efforts to reform revenue collecting agencies and the implementation of initiatives to further develop non-oil sectors are expected to yield results.

The aggregate expenditure proposed for the 2012 fiscal year is N4.749 trillion, which is a modest increase of 6% over the N4.484 trillion appropriated for 2011. I am pleased to note, however, that the declining share of capital is being reversed so it will account for about 28% of total expenditure in 2012 compared to 26% in 2011. We intend to continue on this path so that by 2015, it will have risen to almost 33%.

This underscores the need to intensify our efforts to curtail recurrent expenditure, which we have already embarked upon under the policy of fiscal consolidation as evident from the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework. The share of recurrent expenditure in the 2012 Budget proposal is 72%, down from 74.4% in 2011, and we intend to continue on this downward trend up to 2015.

The aggregate expenditure comprises N398 billion for Statutory Transfers, N560 billion for Debt Service underscoring the real need to address the rising domestic debt profile, and N2.472 trillion for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure. We are conscious of the need to control the cost of governance. Government will streamline agencies with overlapping mandates as a way to realign public expenditure.

In this respect, I have received the preliminary Report of the task force which I set up for this purpose and we shall implement relevant recommendations. We are also pursuing the biometric verification of workers and pensioners as part of our effort to control cost.

Capital expenditure has an allocation of N1.32 trillion representing a 15% increase over the amount approved in the 2011 Budget. The emphasis is on the completion of critical infrastructure projects.

Based on the above, the fiscal deficit is projected at about 2.77% of GDP in the 2012 Budget compared to 2.96% in 2011. This is within the threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 and clearly highlights our commitment to fiscal prudence as a way to create more space for the private sector.

This will also have a salutary effect on our domestic debt profile, which has risen significantly in recent years. We

are determined to rein in domestic borrowing, and through this, ensure that our debt is at a sustainable level.

As I mentioned earlier, government has made significant progress in putting the finances of the nation on a sound footing and laying the foundation for rapid and sustainable economic growth.

Allocations to some critical sectors of the economy are as follows: Security - N921.91 billion; Power [including Bulk Trader, Nelmco, and MultiYear Tariff Order (MYTO)] -N161.42 billion; Works - N180.8 billion; Education [excluding Universal Basic Education Commission, Petroleum Technology Development Trust Fund (PTDF) & Education Trust Fund] N400.15 billion; Health - N282.77 billion; and Agriculture & Rural Development - N78.98 billion. Others are: Water Resources - N39 billion; Petroleum Resources – N59.66 billion; Aviation - N49.23 billion; Transport N54.83 billion; Lands & Housing N26.49 billion; Science & Technology - N30.84 billion; Niger Delta N59.72 billion; Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) N45.57 billion and Communications Technology - N18.31 billion.

Fiscal Policy Fellow compatriots, you will agree that the budget is not an end in itself but rather, an instrument for the promotion of economic growth, wealth creation, poverty reduction and service delivery to the citizenry. Government desires that we should begin to experience a commensurate increase in gainful employment and social well-being of Nigerians with the rate of economic growth.

This Budget seeks to act, not only to create jobs, but to also lay a solid foundation for sustainable economic growth which would deliver the dividends of democracy to our people.

In this respect as you may recall, I hosted a retreat in October this year with the organised private Sector (OPS) at which a number of issues including fiscal policy were extensively discussed.

I wish to reiterate here that the principal objective of my Administration’s fiscal policy in the area of tariffs and trade is to promote industrialization and the growth of the manufacturing and agricultural sectors of the economy and above all to generate employment for Nigerians.

As part of the process to realise this objective, we have commenced the review of the 2008-2012 Customs and Excise Tariffs to correct identified anomalies and introduce policies that will help in the promotion of industrialization in the country when the review is concluded. In addition, to ensure a level-playing field for businesses, this Administration, beginning from the 2012 fiscal year, will where necessary, only grant concessions or waivers on a sectoral basis.

The focus of any concessions will be on expanding domestic production for local consumption and boosting exports, development of value chains, and boosting employment.

The Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme has, over the years, contributed significantly in the diversification of the economy through the promotion of non-oil exports. Efforts have therefore reached an advanced stage to review and streamline the Scheme to make it more effective as an instrument for the promotion of non-oil exports. We shall also aggressively pursue economic diplomacy within the framework of ECOWAS to ensure that the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) achieves its objective of promoting intra- ECOWAS trade and that it is not used as a vehicle for dumping goods in the region. In particular, we shall review the application of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) to the oil palm and other sectors.

For some time now, especially with the advent of the consolidated salary structure, there has been agitation over the lopsided nature of the Personal Income Tax Act and the fact

that the tax free allowances were inadequate. I am pleased to announce that I have signed the Personal Income Tax Amendment Act 2011 into law which amongst others has the benefit of reducing, on the average, taxes paid by low income earners and providing a more equitable tax structure for individuals. This law also provides for Tax Appeal Tribunals to listen to, and address concerns of individual taxpayers as a cost-effective administrative intervention prior to recourse to the courts.

Other fiscal changes to be gazetted shortly, include tax waivers on all bonds and related instruments issued by corporate and other tiers of Government, tax rebates as incentive to companies that create jobs, regulations to support taxpayers’ self- assessment, and regulations to support the growing quest of those involved in social and community development to get tax incentives for those donating to their causes.

As you may recall, Government initiated a new multifaceted National Job Creation Scheme with the provision of seed funding of N50 billion in the 2011 Budget. Implementation of this programme has commenced in earnest.

This Administration believes that it is time to give Nigerian youths an opportunity to enjoy the dignity of a job, the support for innovation, the confidence to be an entrepreneur and, the sheer optimism to be an employer of labour along with the security of an income that can contribute to our economic development. We are conscious of the fact that we have the task of transforming the huge potential of our youths into real, tangible outcomes which all of our people can experience and call their own.

In this respect, Government is focused on stimulating entrepreneurial activity and setting a framework for young people with creative tendencies to showcase their business acumen, build capacity and create jobs. In this spirit, and to move beyond the conventional paradigm of job creation, the Government, partnering with the organised private sector and our development partners, took bold steps to initiate the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme which I launched in Abuja in October and has since been launched also across the six geo-political zones.

This programme is targeted to, not only create a new generation of innovative real sector entrepreneurs in Nigeria, but, in the medium term, also generate jobs for youths across the country.

I believe that this move will drive the future technological and socio-economic development of our country.

YouWin will lead to the creation of about 100,000 jobs through support to our young entrepreneurs.

Mr. Senate President, Mr. Speaker, Distinguished Senators, Honourable Members of this esteemed Assembly, the Proposal I lay before you this day seeks to sustain sound macroeconomic growth that will translate to achieving socio-economic transformation, and gainful employment for our people. But, we can only progress in this course and turn our possibilities into reality when we diligently adhere to the implementation of well thoughtout and articulated developmental policies.

The 2012 Budget, as our collaborative effort, has taken the welfare of Nigerians as top priority. In an environment of global uncertainties and domestic challenges, the strong support of the National Assembly is invaluable for us to achieve our set developmental goals.

As we collectively resolve to create a brighter and enduring future for all Nigerians - a future of hope and prosperity not lack, fear or hatred, we must prepare to overcome any adversity that may arise. Accordingly, we must all be determined and committed to follow through with the difficult but balanced choices that we make in piloting the affairs of this great nation.

•Continues on Page 60

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

16

BUSINESS BUDGET 2012

The 2012 budget announced by the President Good Luck Jonathan yesterday has again opened up areas of focus by the government. Reactions and further analysis on the critical areas are presented

Oil output, inflation too optimistic, say experts

O

BVIOUSLY factoring vari ous positions into the making of the 2012 appropriation, President presented to the National Assembly a budget with aggregate expenditure at N4.749 trillion, which represents 6 per cent increase over the N4.484 trillion 2011 budget.

The budget also seeks stimulating growth in agricultural sector of the economy with the provision of concessionary funds to farmers.

There is also an attempt to be more conservative with the budget benchmark, with a projection of $70 per barrel compared to $65 last year. Does this mean there would now be fresh savings in Excess Crude Account as well as funding for the Sovereign Wealth Fund?

The president said spending to keep the government running would fall to 72 per cent of the budget from 74.4 per cent as the government spends more on capital projects.

Nigeria is often criticised for spending most of its money on running the administration rather than on badly needed infrastructure projects to create jobs and boost growth in the continent’s second-largest economy.

“With the support of the national assembly, the government is determined to pursue a programme of far-reaching fiscal consolidation so as to reduce our deficit and domestic borrowing to more manageable levels,” Jonathan told lawmakers.

Besides, the President said “the 2012 budget is based on a set of assumptions reflecting Government’s determination to maintain prudence in the face of continued uncertainties in the external environment.”

But experts yesterday voiced concern that Nigeria will be depending for its revenue on no disruptions to its crude output, with global economic conditions another key risk factor.

They cautioned that some of these assumptions are too optimistic and may not leave room for response to any downside uncertainty that may impact domestic output.

Analysing the budget yesterday, the Managing Director of Financial Derivates Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, who described it as “tactical with emphasis of fiscal discipline,”

By Ayodele Aminu, Group Business Editor

noted that the assumptions on oil output and inflation are a bit optimistic.

The Government projected fiscal deficit of 2.77 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012 compared with 2.96 per cent last year; exchange rate of N155/US as against N150; oil output of 2.48million barrel per day (mbpd) up from 2.3mbpd for 2011 and an inflation figure of 9.5 per cent. As at last month, inflation figure was 10.5 per cent.

Speaking to The Nation, Rewane noted that the planned withdrawal of fuel subsidy; the expected 50 per cent duty on rice and 100 per cent duty on wheat, would make it pretty difficult for the government to achieve a single digit inflation.

Besides, he noted that oil production assumption is a bit on the high side. “Is the government assuming that there will no disruptions in the oil installations?, he asked.

Rewane also noted that that the budget failed to address structural and underlying problems of the economy. “It is a tactical budget with emphasis fiscal but it not strategic but has failed to address structural and underlying problems of the economy,” he said.

An analyst with Standard Chartered, Razia Khan, also said the oil output assumption is excessive. “While the oil price assumption of USD 70/bbl was largely expected, and remains well below our average oil price forecast for 2012, the output assumption of 2.48mn bpd is higher still than the 2.45 mn previously anticipated, and higher than the more modest assumptions of 2.35mn bpd that had already posed problems for the FAAC allocation in the recent past. Either output assumption might have been excessive, leaving little wriggle room for the budget in response to any downside uncertainty that may impact domestic output,” she said.

The expert also expressed concern about the expenditure profile. “The release of details of the 2012 budget provides much to focus on. While markets may initially react positively to the announcement that the fiscal deficit is likely to narrow further ( to 2.77% of GDP vs. 2.96% of GDP in 2011) as

• Minister of Petroleum Resources Alison-Madueke

well as the slight, 2.4 ppt reduction in the proportion of recurrent expenditure, we caution that there are still significant concerns.

“First, the overall amount of spending - now close to USD 30.6billion if we use the official mid-rate of 155 – still increases from already-elevated levels (in NGN terms, to NGN 4.75trillion from 4.48trillion previously). This seeminglymodest 6 per cent increase in spending in 2012, is nonetheless still over 50 per cent greater than the total budgeted amount of spending seen as recently as 2009, when measured in USD terms. Given global downside risks, this would still

leave Nigeria vulnerable to any unanticipated shocks.

“The nominal growth projection – real GDP growth of 7.2% and inflation of 9.5% may not differ much from the consensus, but the point is that Nigeria is still hugely dependent on oil revenue – and not domestically generated revenue – for the financing of its budget. Until this changes (and we would like to see more detail of revenue raising measures), forecasts of domestic growth are almost redundant – with little impact on eventual budget outcomes,” she said.

Khan also noted that the monetary authorities will need to do even more to offset the liquidity impact of increased spending, and preserve some measure of price stability.

“In all, spending has been raised further during uncertain times globally. The budgeted price of oil falls to USD 70/bbl but this is partly because of FX weakness and the change in the FX assumption. Should budget projections disappoint, the FX rate may have to take the strain,” she added.

CEO, Economic Associates, a Lagos economic consultancy, Dr. Ayo Teriba, however, lamented the government failed to tell Nigerians what it intends to do with the expected savings from the $70 oil benchmark – given the fact that the crude oil is currently sold at about $110

per barrel in the international market.

“With oil price projected at $70 per barrel, it means Nigeria will be saving about $40 per barrel. The Government has failed to tell us how Nigerians will benefit from this savings.

The Government needs to be more transparent.

“Besides, interest rates on Treasury Bills have been increased from about 3 per cent to 15 per cent this year – partly reflecting the global liquidity conditions. This has to be addressed. It undermines fiscal consolidation. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has to look at this.

“If the government is saving about $50 a barrel and going to borrow at 15 per cent through the purchase of Treasury Bills, it is contradictory,” he said.

Teriba was nevertheless, optimistic that Nigeria can achieve a single digit inflation next year.

“This will happen even without the tightening of monetary policy by the CBN because liquidity and credit are already tight,” he said.

He also cautioned that the shocks that were unanticipated this year may crop up next year.

“One of the shocks to be expected next year is financial resulting from the protracted Euro crises. Negative shocks in the financial market will exert pressure on the rate. But we need not worry about trade shocks,” he said.

• President Goodluck Jonathan (middle) being received at the National Assembly by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu (left) and Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha...yesterday.

PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

Monetary tightening and financial markets

T

• Sanusi

HE key assumptions un derpinning the 2012 bud get included an exchange rate of N155 per dollar, projected GDP growth rate of 7.2 per cent and projected inflation rate of 9.5 per cent. Taking into consideration the overall context of the budget and other assumptions, the monetary management assumptions were quite ambitious.

With inflation and exchange rate trending upward, the 2012 budget assumptions were premised around the lowest rates in recent period. Beside the kneejerk decline that the budget assumed, the assumptions on ex-

By Taofik Salako

change and inflation rates indicated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) might sustain its monetary tightening policy, which basically rests on increase in benchmark interest rate and concomitant increase in lending rate.

Inflation rate has in the past 12 months trended between a high of 12.8 per cent and a low of 9.3 per cent and currently stands at 10.5 per cent. While inflation rate had declined gradually from a high of 12.8 per cent in March 2011 to a low of 9.30 in August 2011, it has resumed and sus-

tained the upward trend in the following months rising from 10.30 per cent in September to 10.50 per cent in October.

Also, while the CBN has maintained a defensive strategy to support the naira exchange rate, the apex bank recently buckled under demand pressure and allowed depreciation of the national currency. Naira had closed the first quarter at N151.52. At a current exchange rate of N156.7 per dollar, the naira has been on the decline and many analysts expected the naira to fall further without the prop-up support of the apex bank. This implies that the apex bank would need to con-

tinue the use of foreign reserves to stymied demand pressure and stabilize naira.

With a budget deficit of N1.1 trillion, government would also need to provide an explanatory strategy on how it plans to finance the deficit, especially given the commitment to rein in domestic borrowing. But a slowdown in government’s domestic bond issue would expand opportunity for corporate issuers. The tax waivers on all bonds and related instruments issued by corporate and other tiers of government and tax rebates for companies that create jobs would positively impact on the private sector.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

17

BUSINESS BUDGET 2012

Mixed reactions trail budget SOME members of the House of Representatives yesterday assessed the budget 2012 presented by President Good Luck Jonathan to the National Assembly.

Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN, Lagos) HE intention seems very comprehensive but there are some areas that appear unclear like the 28 per cent of the budget being allocated to capital and at the same time talk about job creation. Now, looking at it from the point of view of last year’s allocation of 26 per cent to capital expenditure with no job created. On that basis I don’t see how 28 per cent translate to creation of jobs. In my view, for meaningful jobs to be created, we need a lot of capital infusion.

“Other unclear areas include the waivers; rice, flour, banning of importation and increasing duties come June next year. But I think those things need to be done by the instrumentality of statute as well as government policies. Notwithstanding, we have to study the budget in detail to fully understand the implications but as the opposition, we will make our official comments in the next couple of days,” he said.

Abimbola Daramola (ACN, Ekiti) “It looks like a hope inspiring budget but again it is not about hope inspiration alone, it is about how well the President is committed to it. The president raised very key issues and for the first time I am hearing a new phrase of flagship projects and I think he is very innovative to have came out with that. I know that if he commits himself to the completion of those projects, Nigeria will be transformed and he identified the key areas, like road, education and the rest and he appropriately suggested forecast on what he presented, I believe strongly that the parliament should be able to rise to the challenge and complement

“T

From: Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

the intentions of the President.

“On fuel subsidy, frankly, we were all looking forward to hearing something on that but the truth of the matter is that he won’t mention it like that. I know too well that right in that speech, the issue of deregulation has been cast in to it, you just have look at the details and see it right there.

The President does not need to say like ‘I have removed fuel subsidy’ but hat budget is premised on something, there must be income, accruable and that budget is predestined on something. He cannot actualize that budget without the revenue and I can guarantee you that the revenue profile and the forecast of that budget is resting on the pillars of deregulation. By the time we see the final copy; I know this parliament will discover it,” he said.

Hussein Abdulkadir (PDP, Jigawa) “I will not make any comment for now until the final copy is seen but looking at what the President presented today (yesterday), I think he made commitment that capital projects, flagship projects would be vigorously implemented unlike previous years when funds for capital projects were released after June or even in December in some cases.

“For attempting to broaden our revenue base by prospecting for oil in the Chad basin is also commendable. By prohibiting importation of some certain items and removing waivers for some while giving incentives to local producers and importers of agricultural equipment can boost the economy greatly. I am optimistic that if well implemented, Nige-

ria would be better for it,” he said.

Moruf Akinderu-Fatai (ACN, Lagos) “This budget presentation is just like the previous ones, very hopeful and just like the Speaker said, it is a beautiful presentation but it one thing to present a beautiful budget but another to implement.

“The seeming silence on fuel subsidy calls for concern but personally I believe that the National Assembly has to do an extra work to find out if the subsidy has been removed or not, and on what projections was the budget based.

This is because in the Medium Term Framework (MTFF) that was sent to the National Assembly, fuel subsidy was materially a source of concern for the funding of 2012 budget. So we have to see if the budget was not based on fuel subsidy and find out what areas the money would be sourced from,” he said.

Minority Whip, Samson Osagie (ACN, Edo) “The budget appear altruistic in its approach to confronting the myriad of problems facing the country. The President did not depart from the tradition of presenting a very beautiful budget that seems very assuring, in all honesty when we look at the emphasis on employment generation, local production and growing the economy.

“The issue of fuel subsidy was actually mentioned though in a manner that appeal serious when the President said he would want an end to the debate on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). But by the time we see the details of the budget, we will be able to know exactly what he has done. In previous years, we used to appropriate for fuel subsidy, so if there is

Power gains ascendancy

T

HE 2012 budget allocation of N161.42 billion to the Ministry of Power substantially surpassed last year’s allocation of N91.02 billion with a differential of N70.4 billion.

Following the understandable need to build power projects and government’s avowed commitment to fixing the power sector, the allocation seems to be a good starting point towards solving the power problem but certainly not a definite solution considering the required capital to create expected stability in electricity supply.

During the launch of the power sector reform roadmap in August 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan said if the country would be able to meet the Vision 20:2020 target of 40,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, it would require investments in power generating capacity alone of at least $ 3.5 billion per annum over a 10 year period. This translates to N542.5 billion per year based on budget exchange rate of N155 to $1.

Besides, the President said large investments would also have to be made in the other parts of the supply chain, such as fuel-topower infrastructure.

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

The roadmap has planned achievement of 4,500 MW from PHCN assets, 4,775 MW from the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants and 3,300 MW from IPPs, all by December 2013. This will translate to 14,000 MW of power generation by December 2013. Although a chunk of the N542.5 billion annual investments in the sector is expected from the private sector investors that have been shortlisted for the generation and distribution companies.

However, in the last year’s budget, the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) didn’t get allocation. In view of the importance placed on manpower development, the institute needs to be encouraged to attain the expected height and achievement like its contemporaries in other countries.

The National Electricity Commission got N1.82 billion and NELMCO, about N117.65 million.

The National Rural Electrification Agency which is being planned to be reintroduced after being scrapped over a N5.6 billion scam, also got N686.7 million last year.

• Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji

These agencies need to be strengthened financially considering their importance.

The government will also pay severance package to workers of PHCN, step up gas supply to thermal power plants, at least in the short term.

In view of these and other factors, there are suggestions that government will have to step-up the 2012 budget for the power sector to realise its set agenda.

• Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

no sub-head for subsidy for this time, it shows that he has very quietly shoved it aside and we will be able to look at the various indices that formed the basis upon which the budget is based.

For me, on the face value, the budget looked very reassuring, even when we look at the emphasis on the completion of on-going and uncompleted projects.

However there is more to budget than mere speeches and rhetoric and that is in the realm of implementation.

For us we are going to scrutinise the budget clause by clause to ensure that it really prove the commitment the President has shown today,” he said.

Dakuku Peterside (PDP, Rivers) “The 2012 Budget presented by President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday can only be effective if properly implemented. though it as a bold step towards achieving the Federal Government

Transformation Agenda.

“The president can only achieve his objectives if the usual problem of implementation is tackled head-on. The general framework of 2012 budget is brilliant. But it needs more priorities, especially with regard to education, agriculture, power, infrastructure, security and so on.

In fact, I also feel that Mr. President’s policy direction is hope generating but the issue of recurrent that continues to gulp a substantial portion of the budget every year calls for a radical departure from the norm.

“Seventy-four per cent for recurrent is still high despite the fact that it is a reduction from the previous year. Domestic debt is equally worrisome even the 23 per cent earmarked for capital project paltry as insufficient to do the work, but I am confident of a better 2012 once the proper things are done,” he said.

The debts imbroglio

T

HE President has said gov ernment would devote N560 billion for debt servicing. Such a staggering figure which translates to more than 10 per cent of the total budget, should be a source of worry to any discerning mind. The figure is about N18 billion more than what was budgeted in 2010.

As Jonathan rightly acknowledged, the development underscores the urgent need by government to address the rising cost of the debt profile. Already, the nation’s debt has surged in the last five years to a high $47.9 billion (about N7.47 trillion) after it was restructured by the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in which the current Minister of Finance and Co-coordinating of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, played a pivoting role.

Nonetheless, the Debt Management Office (DMO), argues that Under the optimistic Scenario, designed within the framework and aspirations of Nigeria’s vision 20:2020, Nigeria could borrow up to $57.4 billion (N8.95 trillion) in 2012 and still remain within sustainable limits. It states that such level would amount to 20 per cent of projected nominal Gross Domestic

By Simeon Ebulu

Product (GDP) ($277 billion) by 2012.

DMO’s reasoning is that at that level next year, the nation’s debt would be five per cent below the country-specific debt/GDP threshold of 25 per cent set for 2010 to 2014, and below the global threshold of 40 per cent of GDP. Agreed that Nigeria is still within the comfort zone in terms of borrowing, the fact remains that the impact of such a huge amount on development is better imagined than contemplated.

According to DMO, between 2006 and 2010, the Federal Government paid an average of $2.2 billion, about N343.2 billion yearly for debt servicing.

To address the issue, among others, Jonathan, said government is streamlining agencies with overlapping mandates as a way to realign public expenditure, a measure, he stated that would also have a salutary effect “on our domestic debt profile,” which he admitted, “ has risen significantly in recent years. “ We are determined to rein in domestic borrowing and through this ensure that our debt is at a sustainable level,” Jonathan, added.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

19

EDITORIAL/OPINION EDITORIAL FROM OTHER LAND

COMMENT

Congo at risk

Disability Act •Time for Jonathan to pull out his signing pen

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s continuing refusal to assent to the harmonised bill seeking to establish a National Commission for Persons with Disability is condemnable.

Such a bill is long overdue in the country, considering that the interests of persons with disability are rarely taken into consideration when our roads, public buildings, living quarters and transportation systems are being developed. Obviously, to rouse the president to action, a group of persons with disability, led by one of their own, Governor Tanko al-Makura of Nasarawa State demonstrated at the National Assembly to solicit their support.

‘An encompassing law to protect Nigerians with disability across the country is most desirable since most of our administrative officials are incapable of doing the right thing unless they are compelled to. Indeed, while waiting for a national law on the welfare of persons living with disability and the necessary funding that would come with it, states that are progressiveminded may as well take the initiative and enact disabilityfriendly laws within their jurisdiction’

Now that the unjustified delay to assent to such an important bill by the president has been brought to public attention, we demand that President Jonathan should either assent to the bill, or return it to the National Assembly for further action. The involvement of Governor al-Makura in the protest at the National Assembly underscores his democratic credentials and we strongly commend his actions to other politicians. We also believe that many Nigerians would want an explanation on why the president withheld his assent to such a critical bill passed by the National Assembly since September 8, last year.

The commission, when established, will have responsibilities for the welfare of members and that include their education, health care, and protection of their social, economic, civil and political rights.

Considering the serious handicap experienced by able Nigerians as they toil for survival in a country where the welfare of citizens has remained secondary to the private interests of their political leaders, there is the urgent need to make laws to protect the physically challenged who are even more vulnerable in the scheme of things. Any further delay to assent to the bill must therefore be interpreted as gross insensitivity by the president to the plight of the handicapped.

We must also commend the Lagos State government, which from all indications has shown recognition to the enlightened need to cater for the interests of disabled

persons when developing access to public places. Many of the new public buildings and highway crossings in Lagos now have an elevation that is friendly to persons with mobile disability.

This attitude must be furthered by enacting a law that no public building plan will be approved unless the special interests of the disabled are taken into consideration. The fate of challenged persons is better left to imagination when there is a stampede in a building built for only able persons.

An encompassing law to protect Nigerians with disability across the country is most desirable since most of our administrative officials are incapable of doing the right thing unless they are compelled to. Indeed, while waiting for a national law on the welfare of persons living with disability and the necessary funding that would come with it, states that are progressive-minded may as well take the initiative and enact disabilityfriendly laws within their jurisdiction.

Such a step would further put pressure on the Jonathan administration to urgently do the right thing.

The Joint National Association of Persons with Disability (JONAP), of which the Governor of Nasarawa State is a member, must be commended for the democratic steps it has taken to realise its demands. The members of the National Assembly that supported them should not relent, so that if need be, they can mobilise to override President Jonathan in favour of a Disability Act, in the interest of our common humanity.

Commendable initiative

• Oyo State toes the line of the laudable past as it employs 20,000 youths

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YO State during the First Republic was clearly the cockpit of Western Nigeria’s revolutionary developmental trajectory under the inimitable leadership of the first Premier of the region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. From the Agodi seat of government in Ibadan flowed a stream of creative ideas that materialised in such landmark achievements as the pathbreaking free education policy, productive agricultural settlements, housing and industrial estates, the multistory Cocoa House edifice, the Liberty Stadium and the first television station in Africa, among others, that rapidly transformed the region into one of the fastest growing in Africa.

The cerebral Chief Bola Ige as Oyo State Governor held the banner of progress aloft in the Second Republic and, in the first phase of this political dispensation, the Alhaji Lam Adeshina’s administration made a modestly appreciable impact. Following the 2003 electoral Tsunami that swept the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power in the region, with the exception of Lagos State, the politics of Oyo State commenced a precipitous decline, plunging to despicable depths with the habitually comical and intellectually hollow Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala administration.

Amidst the euphoria that swept Senator Abiola Ajimobi of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to power as governor in the last general election, many entertained fears that high popular expectations could easily be dashed by the sheer weight of disabilities inherited from the preceding administration.

It is thus heart-warming that on

December 8, the Ajimobi administration took a remarkable stride by fulfilling one of its cardinal promises to the electorate.

Before a huge crowd assembled at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium) on that day, Governor Ajimobi liberated 20,000 youths from the grip of involuntary unemployment when he flagged off the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O). The beneficiaries of the YES-O scheme drawn from the 33 local government areas of the state have been spread across the education, works, agriculture, health, emergency and health sectors and will receive a monthly stipend of N10,000.00 each. Even though this amount appears small, it means a lot to people who previously had no source of income and will play a part in stimulating the local economy.

The initiative will complement similar direct and indirect efforts in Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, and Edo states as well as the job creation component of the ongoing Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta and the You-Win programme recently inaugurated by the Federal Government, to generate jobs through support for entrepreneurial enterprise. All of these demonstrate a commendable sensitivity to the acuteness of the current unemployment challenge in Nigeria; a problem which both President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on different occasions, warned could have revolutionary implications for the country, akin to the raging Arab Spring, if not decisively tackled.

The YES-O and other schemes represent a good start, even though constituting only a tiny drop in the vast ocean of the country’s estimated 40

million unemployed youth. Direct employment by government can at best be only a transitional measure to bring succour to a few in a very desperate situation of mass joblessness. There is in the final analysis no alternative to massive investment in infrastructure renewal and expansion, particularly uninterrupted power supply, to create the appropriate climate for a vibrant private sector that can generate millions of new jobs. Equally critical are the deepening of on-going financial sector reforms that will make credit available to the real economy at reasonable and sustainable cost.

We commend the Ajimobi administration’s initiative as another bold step forward in the bid to tame the monster of unemployment. We urge the administration to pursue with vigour its plans for the Free Trade Zone in Ibadan and the Okerete Trans-Border Market, Saki, planned to create at least five million new jobs.

‘The Ajimobi administration took a remarkable stride by fulfilling one of its cardinal promises to the electorate. Before a huge crowd assembled at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium) on that day, Governor Ajimobi liberated 20,000 youths from the grip of involuntary unemployment when he flagged off the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O)‘

O

NCE AGAIN a poorly run election in a volatile African country threatens an explosion of bloodshed. The setting this time is particularly concerning: Congo, a country nearly the size of Western Europe, with a population of more than 70 million — and a history of civil war that killed millions between 1997 and 2002. An election Nov. 28 pitted the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila, against a 78-year-old populist icon, Étienne Tshisekedi. Poor organization, violence and attempts at manipulation made both the vote and the subsequent count a mess. On Friday, Mr. Kabila was declared the winner, but Mr. Tshisekedi refused to accept the result, and some of his supporters clashed with security forces in the capital, Kinshasa. Though an uneasy calm prevailed Sunday, Congo’s neighbors, the United Nations and outside parties such as the United States will have to keep working to prevent a crisis.

Residents of Kinshasa, a city of 10 million, have been bracing for trouble ever since preliminary returns showed Mr. Kabila with a wide lead in what was expected to be a close contest. Final results gave the president 49 percent, to 32 percent for Mr. Tshisekedi in a field of 11 candidates. Observers from the Carter Center said that the official results “lack credibility,” reporting that there was improbably high turnout in areas where Mr. Kabila is strong and that thousands of polling stations in Kinshasa, an opposition stronghold, had not been counted. Mr. Tshisekedi has been claiming he won since Election Day. One way to defuse the standoff is for outside powers to insist on greater transparency.

Congolese law requires that vote totals be reported from each of some 60,000 polling stations, which would allow them to be checked against the tallies of observers at the stations. A full report that matches observer counts and confirms a victory by Mr. Kabila could put pressure on Mr. Tshisekedi to refrain from mobilizing street rallies. The Obama administration and the European Union appropriately have been pushing for “accurate and timely publication of vote counts by polling station,” as a State Department statement put it.

Mr. Tshisekedi had promised that his followers’ reaction to a loss would mimic the Arab Spring revolts in northern Africa. More likely, the result of taking to the streets would be a bloody contest like those that followed disputed elections in Kenya and Ivory Coast.

At worst, Congo’s multi-sided, transcontinental war could reignite. The United Nations, which has 19,000 troops in Congo, should be prepared to act quickly to prevent a broader conflict, while Western governments and Congo’s neighbors should make clear to Mr. Kabila that excesses by his security forces will not be tolerated. Congo’s election is already a political failure; the challenge now is to prevent it from triggering a humanitarian catastrophe.

– Washington Post

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh • Editor Gbenga Omotoso •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Kunle Fagbemi •Editor, Online Lekan Otufodunrin •Managing Editor Northern Operation Yusuf Alli •Managing Editor Waheed Odusile •Deputy Editor Lawal Ogienagbon •Deputy Editor (News) Adeniyi Adesina •Group Political Editor Bolade Omonijo •Group Business Editor Ayodele Aminu •Abuja Bureau Chief Yomi Odunuga •Sport Editor Ade Ojeikere •Editorial Page Editor Sanya Oni

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

20

EDITORIAL/OPINION

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IR : The plan by the federal government of Nigeria to remove the subsidy on petroleum products with effect from January 2012 has been generating heated debates and unleashing torrent of concerns among Nigeria citizens.

There is no doubt that the existence of subsidy on petroleum products has led to systematic inefficiencies in the downstream sector of our economy, but verbal palliative measures to reduce the negative impact of the policy on the Nigeria citizens by the government can never be the panacea to the effect of its removal.

Subsidy is aimed at inducing high consumption/production of products, offsetting market imperfection, including internalization of externalities, achievement of social policy objectives including distribution of income, population control, etc.

For example, many oil-producing countries subsidise their petroleum products and at the same time provide basic needs for their citizenry.

The pump-price of petrol in Iran is $0.08 (N12), in Ghana is $0.33 (N49.5), in Venezuela is $0.2 (N30) etc. The standard of living in Nigeria is far below that of the aforementioned countries that equally subsidized the petroleum products for their domestic consumptions.

In Venezuela, there is free education from primary school to university level. Just last two weeks, the government of Venezuela commissioned 15 universities for its citizenry in order to make education affordable to everybody.

In October 1994, General Sani Abacha hiked the pump price of petrol from N3.25 to N11 per litre, promising, with Decree 25, to set up a Petroleum Trust Fund to distrib-

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Fix the refineries, remove subsidy after ute the gains from the increase on social and infrastructural projects with an all-encompassing mandate which includes the rehabilitation of roads and waterways, educational and health institutions, providing textbooks and stationery, procuring essential drugs and vaccines, providing water supply systems, reviving crumbling agricultural sectors, connecting outlying areas to the national electricity grid, and ensuring consistent food supply.

General Sani Abacha was able to

achieve the objective of the fund with an honest man of General Muhammadu Buhari as the head.

PTF created jobs and boosted the confidence of Nigerian professionals such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. In many other ways, PTF threw a lifeline to dying sectors of the economy. Most of Nigeria’s pharmaceutical companies were failing, and the foreign multinationals were divesting. But through its drugs procurement programme, PTF turned the balance

sheet of most of them into profit.

To boost their chances of winning in the April 2011 election, President Goodluck Jonathan announced openly to Nigerians the establishment of three green refineries in Kogi, Lagos and Bayelsa states, a project whose proposed sites have never been cleared up till this moment.

Democracy does not mean deception of the people by some people and for the suffering of the people. If the federal government must remove the subsidy then, it should use its re-

Re: OOU’s harvest of crises

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IR: I read with interest the piece with the above title in your newspaper of December 12, written by one Adedeji Solanke.

The story is interesting in that everyone home and abroad shows concerns about Olabisi Onabanjo University. Many of us who attended the university in the late 80s could not believe that it could be turned into chaos within short period. The glamour and prestige that OSU, as it used to be called, exhumed had fast disappeared. Sometimes, I wondered what could have gone wrong. One possible problem I have not paid attention to which was brought out in Adedeji’s account was the role of the former

Vice Chancellors especially Professor Olatunji Oyeneye. Borrowing Adedeji’s words he seems to be the genesis of OOU’s harvest of crises.

Unfortunately many of us initially thought he meant well for OOU when he took over the mantle of leadership going by his ability to move the university to its permanent site but the events which characterised his tenure are huge enough to trace the present decay at OOU to him.

Adedeji claims that Oyeneye’s ‘period was when bickering, nepotism and cronyism became official language at OOU ‘; I could not agree less. What he failed to add is that Oyeneye’s tenure was renowned

future.

It is therefore our viewpoint that President Goodluck Jonathan should use his good offices to call Gov. T.A. Orji to order, to reverse the said policy now before the governor goes the extra-mile of sacking non-indegenes in other walks of life from Abia state – a move which in some sense is what the Boko Haram is advocating for the North.

The Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy,

particularly Sections 15, 17 and 42, of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria enjoins the Federal Government to protect hapless powerless citizens of the country when they are being so shabbily treated. The President therefore has a duty to act to uphold the injunctions of the constitution and to restore order and civility in any part of the country where state or local authorities are doing the wrong thing.

It is our prayer that the President

for admission racketeering because many of us were forced to cough out huge amount of money before our children and siblings were given admission despite meeting the normal admission requirements. The justification then was the school needed money to build lecture rooms and offices. For those who were of age then, that was a time when the popular saying ‘if you have money, go to OSU, you will get admission’ was popular. Honestly, OOU had been dragged into the mud such that it requires concerted efforts on the part of government and alumni to quickly join hands in order to fix the rots if the university must survive the next few

Call governor T.A. Orji to order

IR: Our attention has been drawn to the darkling cloud in Abia state where Governor Theodore Orji has just sacked bona fide workers of the state government that hail from outside of the state. We consider this is a very dangerous development that could compromise the social and political health of the country. There is no gainsaying the fact that if this problem is not nipped in the bud, it could precipitate more dastardly actions across the country in the

sources and restore the refineries and get them operational within the shortest period of time feasible and outsource the management of the refineries to a reputable refinery operator through an open bid process which will run the refineries for a certain period of time. When the refineries are fully in operation at 100% capacity and local demand is met by supplies from the local refineries, the federal government can ban importation of petroleum products and thereafter, it can deregulate the pump price of petroleum products to ensure sustainability. Niger Republic has just commissioned her multi-billion naira refinery this month and the Giant of Africa (Nigeria) is waiting patiently and shamefully to start importation of petroleum products from Niger.

• Onogwu Isah Muhammed Kogi Youth Coalition for Good Governance, Lokoja

acts now to foreclose the dangerous and destabilizing effects of Gov. Orji’s policy. Indeed, we are equally calling on the National Assembly, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Southeast Governors’ Forum to look into this matter.

• Arc. Uchenna Nwankwo & Nobis Ogueri Ndigbo Council for National Coordination, NCNC Abibu Oki Street, Lagos

years. I will subscribe to Adedeji’s call for a true stake holder forum to proffer lasting solution to the recurrent problems of OOU. The forum should form the basis of reforms and re-organisation of OOU. The series of irrational actions that have occurred in the school should be brought to an end. The government should not just set up a visitation panel, but also be honest in implementing the recommendations of the panel to the last letter as long as they are in the overall interest of OOU. OOU has produced accomplished men and women who could put it in the right perspective.

The Ogun State University I attended towered above the present Olabisi Onabanjo University in quality and character. The news that frequently emanate from OOU is disturbing and should be a cause of concern for the government of Ogun State. It is pathetic to note that seasoned professors and dedicated lecturers were sacked for fun when ASUU is clamouring for the need for more lecturers and the older professors to be retained. I hope the university will not be rubbished and thrown into the bin before necessary steps are taken.

• Bolatito Bodunrin (FCA) Ikeja, Lagos

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14 , 2011

EDITORIAL/OPINION

Fuel Maths: Working Refineries=? Local fuel=?

Fuel Imports= No N1.4t ‘Fuel Subsidy’

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HEN does a government scheme become a government scam? Who and what is government if not a collection of people of quesTony tionable motives and Marinho morals, perhaps elected, who convert their wildest thoughts into government orders and actions? Can a government be guilty of anti-government activities, or just anti-people activities? When government does the wrong thing, acting against the interests of the people of the nation, can a government be stopped?

Does government think we are so poor at simple mathematics that government can mislead us? Once again, even Ali Mazuri, a historian, has got Nigeria wrong. There is no ‘fuel subsidy’ to remove –just ‘fuel management incompetence’ to correct! Nigeria is so wealthy that it can pay NASS trillions as salaries and allowances. Yet government and Nigeria have N5t+ or N34b in unpaid domestic debt -equivalent to our foreign reserves. Nigeria received a fee of $1b+, N 160,000,000,000 from just one oil block-OPI 245. Nigeria’s current account went up to $8b from $4.7 in previous quarter. Let Nigerian politicians rush to the aid of a sick Nigeria and cut their cut those salaries and allowances, across party lines, to a more leadership value and not a ‘greedy-ship’ value. Savings of about 50% or N600b on salaries and allowances could be dedicated urgent 2-3month 24/7 repair of the refineries.

Nigerians are weak at fuel mathematics but teach them this: Working Refineries =?Local fuel= ?Zero Fuel Imports = ?Zero fuel Import Companies =Zero ‘fuel subsidy’.

Secondly since 30% of fuel is used to fuel generators to substitute for failed electricity power, it follows that adequate power to 50,000Mw will cancel this ‘subsidy’ need by ‘30% or N4,000,000,000 i.e. N4b.

The government is seduced by the figure of N1.4-3.5trillion it can ‘save’ or ‘recover’ or ‘steal’ direct from the people

if it transfers the burden of pay those contractors it ‘employed’ to round trip our fuel to hide its fuel management incompetence. Nigerians own government and Nigeria. It is time they proved it.

Have you seen the effort by governments at making Nigeria ‘Christmasy’? Many roads in state capitals are being festooned with lights and ‘eyo’-like structures. Of course, people need their spirits uplifted during this national darkness with the government’s non-responsiveness to ASUU, the looming ‘fuel fight’ and the generally too slow emergency repairs to roads et cetera. So, that is where our electricity is going -to road-side ornaments. Of course Christmas decorations are a welcome distraction from daily struggle. People would prefer that the still unsmooth and potholed roads were repaired with that money rather than merely putting lighted trees beside the growing potholes.

List your personal ‘Top Ten Potholes’ that are destroying your enjoyment of the road that you want filled by Christmas Day? Send the list to government.

No one is in doubt that Nigeria is not making progress fast enough. Other countries would have instituted ‘Emergency Measures’ to immediately ameliorate our collective suffering in the areas of power supply, potholes, new roads, education and especially health where women and children are concerned. As a nation, we have a worse electricity situation than even war-torn countries of Africa not to talk of South Africa which has a third of our population and 10 times our available power. Nigeria is the only ‘generator country’ in Africa yet government has not got an emergency plan to give us 10,000Mw. Lagos is again bringing on barges rejected by Obasanjo but why is the Federal Government not addressing the emergency around us? It is addressing the long term but not our today’s suffering - today’s potholes, power cuts, bad roads, 20% pass in examinations. All these would be emergencies in another country demanding the best brains and the quickest solutions. We are ‘managing’ everything from police brutality and checkpoint corruption to no books in your child’s classroom even as we divide trillions. How dare Nigeria take four years to build the Second Niger bridge? Whatever happened to ‘urgent’?

‘Matters of Urgent National Importance’ are not only for NASS. The citizens need some urgent projects to take the pain out of living as a Nigerian. That Second Niger Bridge contract should be cut to 24 or 36 month as we all know that a 48 month contract will take 84 months. Nigerians would be happy to work day and night, in two or three shifts to bring an end to potholes and bring such developmental projects on stream quickly.

It seems Nigerian politics and governance do not have the word ‘urgent’ in their dictionary except when paying their own salaries and allowances. There seems to be no urgency to save lives of fellow Nigerians on the roads. It will be a major miracle if the expressways return to their past status.

Nigeria is dying while some are lying. Our roads are clogged and too few new roads are planned. A country full of potholes which sells the Highway Code but has not erected one single ‘Highway Code Pothole Warning Sign’ in a country of two million lethal potholes is a country waiting to fail.

And this in spite of serial failures of FERMA and even FRSC losing its preventive focus, becoming a driving and vehicle licence operator, against the constitution, and becoming more known for taking bribes than preventing accidents!

Shame on us all! Some wish these structures were never founded! Why does everything Nigeria touches or creates turn to corruption –even its potholes?

Nigeria is dying while some are lying. Our roads are clogged and too few new roads are planned. A country full of potholes which sells the Highway Code but has not erected one single ‘Highway Code Pothole Warning Sign’ in a country of two million lethal potholes is a country waiting to fail

A plea to homosexuals

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AM quite sure that my good friend and brother, Domingo Obende, a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic who proposed the bill on same sex marriage, never envisaged that the subject could ignite such worldwide political convulsion as we are now witnessing. Since November 29 when the Senate passed a bill named the “Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill”, the international community has launched a frenetic campaign to force back the hand of the clock.

The bill provides a 14-year jail term for those found guilty of marrying people of their sex without an option of fine. Besides providing jail term for offenders, the bill also seeks to discourage people from either encouraging or supporting such venture. Under the bill, witnesses to the ‘solemnisation’ of the marriage and promoters or operators of gay clubs risk a 10-year jail term as well. Though passed by the Senate, the bill is awaiting the concurrent passage by the House of Representatives before receiving a presidential assent that will codify it in the nation’s statute books.

But the ink with which the Senate assented to the bill had hardly dried when volleys of attacks and condemnations started flying from all directions. The international community led by Britain, Nigeria’s colonial master and the United States, US, have been particularly vociferous on this issue which many Nigerians have applauded as the triumph of African cultural value. The critics claim that Nigeria’s stance on the

issue will put a large number of people at risk and that it breaches human rights. But as rightly pointed out by David Mark, the President of the Senate, “what is at stake is our values, the values of the vast majority of Africans”.

Early last month, David Cameron, the petite British Prime Minister, must have assaulted the collective sensibilities of Africans when he veered off mark and launched himself into a sermon ostensibly targeted at Africans at the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting held in Australia. In the unsolicited, perhaps, unprovoked sermon, Cameron had espoused the beauty of same sex marriage and even went as far as warning that countries which would not support it stood the risk of losing British aid.

He said his country would not tolerate a law that seeks to punish people because of their preferred ways of life in accordance with their orientations and beliefs.

Like a simmering volcanic eruption, Barack Obama, the President of US, has added his own voice by issuing an executive order through a memo personally signed by him, empowering US diplomats worldwide to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, LGBT. It stated: “The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons is a global challenge and one that is central to the United States’ commitment to promoting human rights. By this memorandum, I am directing all

‘The fact remains that the Nigerian Senate has taken a decisive step against an immoral and satanic practice, which, rather than bring development, will only spell doom for those who engage in it or who tolerate it in the name of civilization’.

agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons”. The signing of the order coincided with a day some handpicked Nigerians posing as gays staged a protest against the same sex bill in their country in front of Nigeria House in New York.

Here they go again. There is no doubt that the advancement of technology has shrunk the world into a global village. It is also true that this technological feat has taken a heavy toll on many African values in recent years. Otherwise, nobody will be talking about same sex union in Nigeria today. All along, we have always had these social, moral and religious deviants in our midst, but they have hitherto engaged in their illicit acts underground, well out of the prying eyes of people. But with technology, the social media and all the corrosive forces of natural values at our doorsteps, these defiant are now about to graduate from doing their thing underground to the open. They have been emboldened by western cultures which the so-called developed countries now see as the only acceptable way of life that other countries in the world should emulate willynilly.

Not a few Nigerians were stunned the other day when a lady advocate for same sex union grabbed the microphone at the public hearing on the bill at the National Assembly to drum up support for the shameful behaviour. Now that Cameron and the other predators have codified these nonsensical behaviours as “beliefs and orientations”, I am afraid that such beliefs and orientations are alien to Africa, its culture and values and therefore, both abominable and condemnable.

The other day, I visited one of the Walmart stores very close to Sugarland, in Houston, Texas.

There, I ran into two white ladies who were busy caressing, kissing, fondling with their breasts and galloping over one another in the open.

Each time I tried not to look at them, I failed because my eyes kept on wandering to the arena where the two ‘unusual love birds’ were entangled. I do not like watching movies but on this particular day, I think it was my disbelief and astonishment that kept my eyes practically glued to a scene which back home, in Africa, is largely a taboo.

Earlier before that visit to the US, news of a constitutional empowerment of same sex marriage in the state of California had taken over the air waves. At a ceremony in San Francisco, more than 120 gays and lesbians had been joined in ‘unholy wedlock’ in one fell swoop. With what I saw in Walmart, I knew that the devil, rather than liberalism, was at work. If such a scene and the San Francesco eyesore had been enacted anywhere on African soil, I mean with such brazen callousness, most, if not all the dramatis personae of those absorb scenes would have been roasted alive.

By and large, Africans abhor same sex unions. African culture evolves between their ancestors, the living and the unborn children. Not even the advent of the dominant religions - Christianity and Islam - has been able to interfere with that fundamental belief. Sexuality and marriage in African context has never been seen as a private affair. Rather, it is a community affair, and that is what gives it essence and meaning.

Christianity and Islam frown at homosexuality. So also is African traditional religion, wherever practiced. In actual fact, African traditional religion does not only frown at it, it imposes severe sanctions and punitive punishments on those involved and even their families. So in all practical purposes, homosexuality is unAfrican and the society

Dele Agekameh condemns it in its entirety and, in most cases, ostracizes anybody involved or passes a curse on such a person or persons.

However, it is good news that Ghana and a number of African countries have rejected any foreign aid that is predicated on the apronstring of homosexuality. The fact remains that the Nigerian Senate has taken a decisive step against an immoral and satanic practice, which, rather than bring development, will only spell doom for those who engage in it or who tolerate it in the name of civilization. Nigerians are waiting on the House of Representatives and the President’s final assent to annihilate the bad influence on our culture, beliefs, tradition and norms.

Therefore, my plea to homosexuals and the so-called LGBT anywhere in Africa is to have a change of heart. There is no African belief or orientation that supports or preaches homosexuality. And no matter the threat, subtle or otherwise, no African government, however poor, will ever give a nod to immoral behaviours on the altar of any “Greek gift” from predators!

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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EDITORIAL/OPINION

Succour for the jobless: the Oyo example T

HE alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria today has, no doubt, taken its toll on the socio-economic fabric of the country. Many of the crimes and criminal activities occurring all over the place could be pinned down to joblessness, particularly amongst the teeming youth, most of whom are able and willing to work but whose doors of job opportunities appear to have been permanently shut.

Piqued by this situation in Oyo State, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, on Thursday, December 1, floated the state Youth Empowerment Scheme tagged YES-O during which 20,000 youths were offered immediate employment.

The sectoral distribution of the youth indicated that 5,400 would be engaged in the education sector while 4,302 and 3,700 would be deployed in the works and agriculture sectors respectively; environment would absorb 2,407 of the youths while 2,676 and 1,515 were deployed to health and emergency services respectively.

The governor, while speaking at the inauguration at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (former Liberty Stadium), Ibadan where all the 20,000 youths were gathered, urged them to be apostles and agents of change.

At the ceremony witnessed by eminent indigenes of the state, traditional rulers, top government officials, members of the state House of Assembly and other stakeholders, Gov. Ajimobi lamented the high rate of employment amongst the youth, saying that the situation, if not addressed urgently, portends danger for the country.

His words: “the menace of unemployment poses great danger, not only to the Nigerian nation, but to the peace of this country at large. As it is said, if we don’t engage the youth, they will engage us”.

He described unemployment as a virus which had eaten deep into the social fabrics of the nation, saying that it had caused social disquiet from the governed to the government and had the propensity to cause a revolt.

According to the governor, unemployment is the harbinger of the spate of crimes, kidnapping, perennial youth unrest and the acutely unstable socio-economic structure that has bedevilled Nigeria.

Sen. Ajimobi noted that before now, many administrations had developed ways of tackling the rising unemployment decimal in the country.

“For some administrations, gathering a few hundreds of pepper-grinding machines and bicycles to the army of unemployed youth was the appropriate response to this men-

I

HAVE always seen the “Sunshine State” at the threshold of an enviable economic growth path. It is a state that is very much capable of brightening the lives of her people tremendously and those yet-to-be-born if the comparative advantages of her strategic placement and her mineral and natural resource endowments could be effectively harnessed. Some policy considerations are therefore worthy of attention of the state government in order to spur growth and development in a relatively short period of time. But before that, the state’s internal system and processes should be the first port of call to be scrutinized in order for the state government to avoid putting some square and outmoded bureaucratic pegs in round holes of economic policy and strategy.

With a seemingly futuristic government of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, one would have thought that the dissolution and recent re-constitution of the cabinet after a little over two years into the life of his administration would have brought a fundamental reappraisal and re-evaluation of the entire structure of government with a view to re-positioning the state for future economic growth through the instrumentality and more effective state bureaucracy. From the standpoint of someone on the outside looking in with keen interest, methinks

By Kunle Adegbite ace”, he said.

“But experiences have shown that these efforts eventually entered into the vortex of hopelessness as they soon became enmeshed in political patronage dispensation.

“Indeed, such efforts soon became a hub of corruption, leaving the recipients of this governmental intervention worse than they were before government’s intervention,’’ he further said adding that only a system that gave dignity and voice to the unemployed could succeed in wiping away their tears.

The governor, who described the provision of employment to 20,000 youths in one fell swoop as unprecedented in the history of the state, said that the YES-O scheme was projected to give the employed a sense of belonging, acting as a resource base for the state in other areas of need.

The governor said that right from its inception, his administration was aware that, for it to effectively affect the lives of a great number of its population of which the youth was key, it must tackle the monster of unemployment headlong.

“This was why, at the outset of this administration, we made it clear that provision of job for our teeming unemployed youth is primary in the list of our ‘firsts.’

He said that the YES-O scheme was just a minute spectrum of his administration’s youth empowerment scheme, stressing “we intend to engage the youth in productive ventures that would take them away from crime and other destructive ventures.

He said that the scheme would serve as an avenue for the provision of jobs and training of the youth in cognitive and entrepreneurial skills that would in turn make them productive agents of change in the state’s economy.

The governor assured that his government would continue to put the fates and future of the youth in the state at the front-burner of all its activities.

“It is unacceptable to us that year in year out, our children are churned out of higher institutions and they end up becoming social liabilities to us and our society. For the preservation of the peace of our nation and the general wellbeing of our people, the youth must be factored into all developmental plans of government.

“In Oyo State, this is our drive; it is our vision and God helping us, we will positively affect and phenomenally too,

the slide into chaos that unemployment in Nigeria portends,’’ he said.

The governor also took time to explain to the mammoth crowd that thronged the stadium that the process of choosing the employed youth was rigorous and painstaking and that political and mundane considerations were bypassed while excellence was upheld.

While urging the youth to comport themselves in the course of their job, he said “you are not only ambassadors of this administration, you are our own Marines.

“Like the Marines in America, you embody and typify all the good projections of this administration. We expect that, as our exports to the rest of the world, you will be apostles and change agents that our administration sermonizes to the whole world,’’ the governor said.

Some of the beneficiaries of the scheme could not hide their feelings as they commended the governor for being sensitive to their plight and for including them in the poverty alleviation programme of his administration.

With the methodical governance that the former chief executive officer of National Oil is giving to Oyo State, there is no doubt that at the end of his four-year tenure, Oyo would have been lifted from the morass of the previous four years and trumpeted to the whole world as one of the wonders of transformation of the century.

•Adegbite is a social worker at the General Hospital, Oyo, Oyo State.

‘The governor, who described the provision of employment to 20,000 youths in one fell swoop as unprecedented in the history of the state, said that the YES-O scheme was projected to give the employed a sense of belonging, acting as a resource base for the state in other areas of need’

Pathway to economic growth in Ondo the first and necessary template that the state government should put in place is effective and functional organs of government in its drive towards economic growth.

Therefore, the goal of these reappraisal and re-evaluation should be to fundamentally streamline these different organs along the lines of well-thought-out policies and economic indicators for the growth and development of the state.

In fairness, the administration started well and has done well but in order to live up to its billing as an administration that has surpassed all the previous administrations since Ajasin in bringing the state into a 21st century economic development.

There must be a paradigm shift in the way people look at governance as well as its system and processes. A rearrangement and realignment of the state bureaucracy to modern-day socio-economic reality should be part of this paradigm shift. This is the ultimate test because government bureaucracy is the first line of both offence and defence in the fundamental objective and directive principles of economic

‘A clear economic growth path uniquely Ondo State but also flexible enough to integrate almost seamlessly with the rest of its siblings in the South-west should be the panacea for the state’s economic transformation’

By Femi Odere policy. It is the “shop-window” of any government.

Ondo state has an excellent chance of becoming a major hub of economic activity second only to Lagos in those states that borders her because of her strategic contiguous make-up to Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Edo, and Kogi states. Because of its contiguous nature, the state can be a strategic hub for manufacturing industries as well as an incredible “tributary” for the distribution of goods to the northern, southeast, or even the south-south geo-economic regions. Her very proximity to Lagos through its waterway which makes the city of Lagos almost a stone-throw from the southern tip of the state gives her an incredible comparative economic advantage. Ondo State is uniquely positioned as a haven for both local and international investments as well as inter-state commerce.

The strategic location of the state, coupled with its water resource endowment that could serve as an effective transportation system for moving goods and people are good enough reasons for a paradigm shift in the characteristics of its bureaucracies and what kind of interface it must have with a 21st century economic activity. It is important to streamline this state bureaucracy now more than ever with the new salary structure (brought on the states by the nonsensical “command and control” struc-

ture of government at the centre), and its accompanying 300pound gorilla relativity which will put a serious downward pressure on state income that is bound to be unsustainable over time. More strains on state income are even in the offing as people continue to agitate for better quality of life and infrastructure which should be expected in a democracy.

As I said earlier, the state has an excellent chance of becoming a robust hub of economic activity in the federation but its bureaucracy must be re-calibrated and re-engineered so that the organs of government would evolve in proportion to the state’s developmental level at any juncture in its history. While some state organs may have to be deliberately created almost in a vacuum in order to trigger growth in specific subsectors of the economy, the bureaucracy cannot be left as is so as not to become a cog in the state’s wheel of economic progress because it is sapping her financial energy and economic vibrancy by its outmoded, colonialist-designed characteristics.

A clear economic growth path uniquely Ondo State but also flexible enough to integrate almost seamlessly with the rest of its siblings in the South-west should be the panacea for the state’s economic transformation. While this is kept in mind, a copycat mentality should be avoided by all means most especially when what’s being copied would not

add more value relative to the cost of its creation. And more so, when what’s being copied lacks the necessary conditions and attributes to fit neatly into the economic growth blueprint of the state at the material time.

For instance, just because there is an existence of, say, a functioning, highly desirable Ministry of the Environment in Lagos or Oyo states does not mean that Ondo State should necessarily deserve a ministry of the environment because the internal socio-economic and behavioural dynamics that exist in Lagos or Ibadan may be quite different from Akure or the entire state for that matter.

Even if the government thinks that this bureaucracy can trigger growth in this sub-sector, it may not be a stand-alone, full-staff ministry also kitted with a commissioner because the dynamics are low in comparison to the state.

At best, this state organ can be a department or parastatal subsumed within an existing ministry because the initial revenue that may accrue to the state from its creation may be too abysmal in relation to its overhead. Because there may also not be much going on in the state in terms of industrial emissions and wastes, moribund or collapsing infrastructure, among others, which are the necessary conditions for creating such a ministry to justify a stand alone, full-staff environmental ministry. This is not an attempt to single out the ministry of the environment (if there’s one in the state) but a random selection to buttress a point about the futility of a “copy and paste” mentality.

•Odere, a media practitioner, is based in Chicago in the United States.

Colleagues bid Keshi storms Yenagoa Bada goodnight for NPL Congress Pg. 41

Pg. 24

Nation Sunday Bada dies at 41

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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Pg. 24

•Late Sunday Bada with wife at an Indian specialist clinic after surgery in 2010

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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41

NATION SPORT CONTRACT TALKS

Moses waits for Wigan to open talks

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IGAN Athletic star Victor Moses is waiting to open new contract talks.

The Mirror says Moses is still waiting for Wigan to reopen contract talks after initial discussions more than a month ago.

The 20-year-old, who has just 18 months left on his present deal, has been one of the few beacons of light in a dismal season for the Latics.

Moses’ advisers are hoping to negotiate Wigan’s opening offer of a five-year deal worth £14,000 a week, but have so far been met with silence.

NATION SPORT Keshi meets NFF on AFCON 2013

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UPER EAGLES’ coach, Stephen Keshi will meet with officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in Abuja this week to discuss his camping programme ahead of the 2013 AFCON qualifiers.

Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2012 of Africa’s biggest soccer showpiece scheduled for January 2012 in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea but Keshi believes early preparations will be vital if Nigeria is to qualify for the 2013 AFCON. “Yes, I will be meeting with the NFF over the camping programme,” Keshi told SuperSport.com.

The Eagles trainer also explained that domestically based players will play an important role as he seeks to hoist

Nigeria’s flag at the 2013 AFCON and the 2014 FIFA World cup in Brazil.

“I will give (domestically based players) an opportunity to prove themselves at the national team.

“I will have a program that will see them coming in before any ‘A’ game.

They will be in camp for about three weeks. I will decide who gets the invitations before the (foreign based) players join us and we take it from there.

“If they are good, they play; if they are not, they have to go back home,” Keshi stressed.

Keshi has two matches under his belt as Nigeria coach since he assumed the mantle on November 2; a 0-0 draw with Botswana in Benin and a 2-0 victory over Zambia in Kaduna.

Daniel Uchechi disappointed in Sheffield move

IGERIA Under-23 forward Daniel Uchechi says he has not really achieved his aim of moving clubs from Leicester City to Sheffield Wednesday.

Uchechi told KickOffNigeria.com that the real reason he joined his current club was to get more playing time ahead of the January transfer window.

"I needed more playing time ahead of the January transfer window and that is simply why I made that change.

"The second reason was to get some match fitness because there was no point really staying at Leicester if I wasn't going to play games.

"Again, many people do not know that Sheffield is really a big club. Up till a few years ago they were in the Premiership so I needed more games

N •Moses

at a good club."

However, Uchechi quite admits that he has not achieved his aim of going to Sheffield.

"Sadly, I found out that League One is not a football playing league. It's tougher than it is made out to be. You have to be well equipped physically to succeed there so I have not really achieved my aim of coming here.

"We all know that Nigerians are more technical but League One and Championship is more like kick and follow and we are not well adapted to that system."

Uchechi was part of the Nigerian Olympic team who failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Long has faith in Osaze’s partnership

W

est Brom player Shane Long has called for patience as he aims to build a long-lasting partnership with Peter Odemwingie, insisting: "It will blossom."

The Ireland international admits the Baggies double-act has yet to spark into life in the Barclays Premier League.

But the Wigan game was only the sixth time the pair have started

together - and the first time in more than two months.

And he is hopeful of finding a way to work with the 15-goal hitman he admired from afar last season now they are both fully fit after injury problems.

"We haven't played too many games together and it takes a while to get it going," said Long.

"Peter is obviously a very good

Lawal claims Spurs’ interest

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IGERIA Olympic team star Raheem Lawal has told MTNFootball.com he has received several offers including one from English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Lawal, who players for Atletico Belares in the Spanish Secunda division, stole the shine in the Dream Team’s 4-1 win over Algeria with the only hat-trick of the entire Olympic qualifying tournament in Morocco.

His treble has now attracted offers from Tottenham Hotspur, Lyon of France as well as top Egyptian club Zamalek.

“I have had several offers coming my way following my performance in the game against Algeria,” the versatile midfielder told

MTNFootball.com “French side Olympic Lyon have indicated interest, so also has English premiership side Tottenham and Zamalek of Egypt, who have been persistent with calls with a mouthwatering offer.”

However, the former Flying Eagles’ star, who can play in all defensive position and as an attacking midfielder, stated that he was in no rush but hopes to make the right move

by January.

“I am not in a hurry, I will take my time and by the grace of God make the right decision,” he said.

This week, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) picked him in the tournament XI for the inaugural U-23 Championship in Morocco.

WAFU CLUB COMPETITION

Rangers return from Togo with bronze •Beats Horoya 14-13 on penalties •As hosts, Dyto wins competition

A

FTER surviving a marathon penalty shootout for a vital victory over Horoya FC of Guinea to claim the bronze medal of the just concluded WAFU Club Cup competition which was stage in Lome, Togo, Enugu Rangers’ players and officials returned to Nigeria on Monday.

The Flying Antelopes backed by the financial boost of the Enugu government had boasted before leaving the country’s shores last Tuesday to reenact the feat set by Sharks FC of Port Harcourt last year, but the club was dumped out of the race for a place in the final by eventual winners, Dyto FC of Togo.

Determined not to return to Nigeria without a medal the Alphonsus Dikeled team had to hold on tightly in the

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri ensuing penalties against Horoya after the regulation time had ended 1-1 apiece to win 14-13.

Horoya actually drew the first blood in the match before Ifeanyi Egwin saved the Nigerian blushes with the much needed equaliser which took the gritty tie into spot kicks.

Meanwhile host Dyto FC of Togo carted home the WAFU Cup competition after the club defeated Gamtel of Gambia 2-1 in the final.

Sharks, New Nigerian Bank (NNB), Ranchers Bees, Shooting Stars and Bendel Insurance were the country’s clubsides that have previously won the competition with the most recent being last year.

striker and he knows what he's doing.

I think I learn a lot off him and it will blossom in time, but there are more options there for the head coach if not.

"We need time to understand each other's runs because it's not been too good up to now. I obviously saw him scoring a goal every second week last season. He's able to cut it at this level.

I set myself standards to get to his level and show that I can cut it at this level too. He's been unlucky with injury, and so have I too.

"Hopefully over the next few weeks we'll get a good partnership going together. He's a good lad, a really nice fella.

"Once we leave training we go back to our own life and our families, but when we're in training we talk all day long. We do a lot of match-orientated training sessions, and a lot of attacking play. It all goes right on the training pitch, it's perfect every time!

"We're still getting to know each other as players, like I am with my other team-mates, and I think in time it will show."

Sunday Bada dies at 41 N

IGERIA’s foremost athlete and sports administrator, Sunday Bada is dead. He was reported to have slumped and died at the National Stadium, Lagos on Monday evening.

Bada was until his death a famed Nigerian athlete and sports

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•Keshi

repeated the same feat two years later in Barcelona, while he won gold in 1997 at the Paris meet.

Bada who was also a police officer was a member of Nigeria’s 4 x 400 m men’s team that won silver at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He was aged 41.

...how he cheated death in 2010, died 20 days to 2012 (June 22, 1969 - December 12, 2011)

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HE late Sunday Bada had cheated death in 2010. The NationSport had broken the news that Bada had been ferried to India for prompt medical attention after he had sustained multiple fractures to his right leg (below the knee) and to the right elbow in July 2010. Though the medical trip had been shrouded in secrecy by the Nigeria Police Force, a place he worked effortlessly until he finally bowed to death at the untimely age of forty-one on Monday evening. Bada had slumped at the National Stadium Surulere(a second home for him) and lost the battle for his life at an undisclosed hospital on the mainland.

InAugust2010, NationSport hadraised an alarm when unconfirmed report of an auto accident involving Bada had filtered into news rooms. The NationSport had sought to verify the story from appropriate quarters which, however, met a brick wall.

Fortunately a female Indian journalist, Sangeetha Nair had come to the aid of NationSport after reading the newspaper’s reports on the internet. She contacted the paper while also dispelling the fears surrounding the now late Bada. She had written a report for the Statesman Newspaper in India: "Newspapers in Nigeria are speculating over the health of their national hero, Mr Sunday Bada, whose whereabouts was unknown to the media until today," The Statesman website, read.

According to The Nation report: "He was flown to India...but no one has been able to establish whether he is responding to treatment", "The Statesman’ would like to put your nation’s worries at ease. Mr Bada is recovering and has a cheerful disposition for someone who suffered multiple fractures to his right leg

Keshi storms Yenagoa for NPL Congress UPER Eagles’ chief coach, Stephen Keshi will storm Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for the Nigeria Premier League Congress holding 16 to 18 December, 2011.

According to NPL acting Executive Secretary Tunji Babalola, the Super Eagles tactician was specifically invited to be a special guest when the Premier League Champion Dolphins F.C. takes on Premier

administrator and the Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).

During his days as an athlete, Sunday Bada won three medals at different World Indoor Championships; he won silver at the 1993 event which was held in Toronto, Canada. He

•Bada’s widow (r) with a sympathiser on Tuesday. INSET: Late Sunday Bada.

PHOTO: John Ebhota

From Andrew Abah, Abuja League selected side during congress.

Babalola explained to the NationSport that the essence of inviting him to Bayelsa State was to watch the best of Nigeria Premier League players. “Look, his presence will add glamour to the event, motivate the players and for the fact that he has declared that he would build his team around home-based players”. Said the acting Executive Secretary.

The head of NPL secretariat further stated that the Super Eagles’ handler will be invited to watch all the premier league star matches when the league commences January 7, 2012. He said the NPL will cater for his accommodation and other logistics to make his stay in Bayelsa hitch-free.

Babalola also revealed that Alhaji Sani Lulu, Ibrahim Galadima, Chief Oyiuki Obaseki, Aminu Maigari and notable football stakeholders have been invited to attend the congress.

By Stella Bamawo (below the knee) and to his right elbow."

“Bada who is on wheelchair presently, underwent a six hour surgery and is expected to walk in six months time after constant physiotherapy.

"He is wheelchair-bound but doctors say with constant physiotherapy, he will walk again, maybe in six months.

Mr Bada, the Technical Director of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria and a former Olympian, underwent a six-hour surgery in a specialty hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. He suffered a bone-crunching fall during a practice session and was suggested to come here by his family friend who underwent treatment at KIMS.” In an interview on his sick bed, Bada had said:" I slipped during a leap from one building to the next and I tried to break my fall with my hand and ended up with a fracture in my elbow and a broken leg."

Sunday Bada did recover in 2010, and had granted an interview to NationSport on the path to recovery at his residence in Ikorodu, Lagos. The late Bada in fact, continued his selfless service in ensuring that athletics in the country regained its lost glory. As the technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), despite still being on crutches, Bada had insisted he was going to attend the2010 Commonwealth Games which was hosted in India. While still on crutches, Bada was not easily deterred as he still found time to attend all athletic events. At one of such Athletic briefings, Bada had drawn the sympathy of the then sports minister, who had pledged to foot all medical expenses incurred by him.

Going by his unflinching loyalty to athletics in the country, during an interview session, the Photo editor of The Nation, John Ebhota had jokingly asked him if he would be able to run after the

athletes on crutches. Bada had waved it off and insisted that the athletes would need his moral support.

It was Bada that raised an alarm over the rot in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Bada had gone ahead to write off corporate organisations who did not honour their pledges to resuscitate a dying sector.

Bada’s last official assignment was at the All Africa Games held few months back in Mozambique. It was the same Bada that had run after the athletes, he had been so concerned about the welfare of the athletes. The NationSport had sought audience with him when the medals came pouring in from his section. Bada a man of few words, was quick to celebrate his athletes has he painted a bright future ahead for Nigerian athletes if, giving the enabling tools.

Adeiu! Sunday Bada. He will be missed by all. Bada before his death was scheduled to pick his wife at the airport. Unfortunately, he never got around to performing that last duty to his wife.

Bada born in Kwara, was a retired Nigerian sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres event. He was the only Nigeria that won medal in all competitions. He never tested positive to drugs.

Bada won three medals at World Indoor Championships, including a gold medal in 1997.Additionally, he was a part of the Nigerian team that won the silver medal in 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2000 Olympics. Nigeria established a national record time of 2:58.68 minutes.He set his personal best of 44.63 seconds at the 1993 World Championships where he finished fifth.

This is the second fastest time by a Nigerian sprinter, after Innocent Egbunike best of 44.17 . Bada's indoor best of 45.51 s is the African record for the event.

LOC mourn Colleagues bid Imoke, ObuduBada's demise C Bada goodnight

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UNDAY Bada, one of Nigeria’s most successful quarter milers, left the earthly shore early Tuesday but his memory lingers on in the hearts of those who were co-travlers with him on the many sporting pilgrimages he went abroad, flying the nations green and white on the race tracks.

Bada, the AFN’s Technical Director until his death was a delight to behold on the tracks. He did what no Nigerian had done before him, winning the World Indoor championship’s 400 meters event in France in 1997, no Nigerian has so far repeated the feat.

On their facebook pages, fellow exinternationals, Fatima Yusuf, Doris Jacob and Enee Enefiok Udo – Obong paid tributes to the former Olympian.

Enee Enefiok Udo – Obong, who was Bada’s relay mate in the 4X400 meters event of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games where Nigeria won the silver medal behind Michael Johnson inspired United States of America posted: “ To

By Olusoji Olukayode my great national hero, my teammate and fellow Olympic gold medalist, former National Sports Festival record holder, former World Indoor champion and most decorated Nigerian sprinter, Sunday Bada, I say rest in Peace. We shall all miss you. Sad, sad, sad day indeed.”

On her part, former Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Fatima Yusuf said of the man who stood tall above many of his contemporaries: “Rest in Peace) Sunday Bada. May your soul rest in peace.” Continuing, she remarked: “Bada was one our (Nigeria’s) best 400 meters (runner), a father, husband and friend of many of us.”

But for Doris Jacob, a member of Nigeria’s team to the 2000 Olympic Games, it was simply a goodnight post.

She wrote: “Bada Sunday, Rest in Perfect Peace!!! Amen.”

2012 CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

CAF INTER CLUB CUP COMPETITIONS

Sunshine to hold seminar for players, officials next year

Heartland, Dolphins others get December 30 deadline for registration of players

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UST like the seminar had last year with culminated in the club’s semi final finish in the CAF Confederations Cup debut outing, Sunshine Stars of Akure has concluded plans to organise another international seminar early next year to help keep the players and officials of the club abrest of what to expect in its maiden Appearance in the CAF Champions League.

Disclosing this to NationSport the Executive Director of the Ondo State Football Development Agency (ODSFA), Mike Idoko stated that it became imperative for the Mimiko Boys to have another seminar of the magnitude of the one had before the commencement of the Confederations Cup owing the successes recorded by the team in the Confederations Cup this year.

According to Idoko, ‘We are going to have another international seminar before the start of the CAF Champions League just like we had it before the

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri start of the Confederations Cup. The club top hierarchy in conjuction with the Ondo government deemed it necessary again because of the high points of the one had early this year.

“First and foremost we shall have a thanksgiving ceremony where we are going to dedicate our achievements last season to God and also commit the about to begin season to his hand.Everything is being done to ensure that we surpass our achievements of last season on all fronts both in the domestic league and on the continent.”

It would be recalled that Sunshine lost the NPL title by the whiskers on the final day of the league season to Dolphins of Port Harcourt after leading the log for most part of the season while the club’s impressive outing in the Confederations Cup was truncated

by Club Africain of Tunisia in the last four.

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IGERIAN clubsides taking part in the 2012 CAF Inter Club Competitions have until December 30, 2011 to send the lists of their players to the Confederations of African Football or risk paying heavy fines.

The duo of Dolphins and Sunshine Stars will be representing the country in the lucrative money-spinning CAF Champions League after finishing the last season’s premier league in the 1st and 2nd postions respectively, while 2011 Federation Cup kings, Heartland and Warri Wolves which ended the league season as third best are both carrying the country’s banner in the CAF Confederations Cup. Dolphins is billed to play Sony de Ela Nguema of Equatorial Guinea in the preliminaries of the Champions League as the trio of Sunshine Stars, Heartland and Warri Wolves got bye into the next round based on their pedigree in the CAF Club Competitions.

Speaking on the challenges before him between now and the Naze Millionaires’ first match on the continent, the General

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri Manager of Heartland FC, Fan Ndubuoke told NationSport that all necessary things were being done to ensure that the club raised a formidable team that would be able to compete for the Confederations Cup title and not just to make up the numbers.

He said that, “My expectation is to raise a very good squad. I don’t want Imo people to develop goose pimples at all when the competition starts. We want to build a team that will be able to take on Africa without problems at all. We have till the December 30 to turn in our registered players for the competition and we are working round the club to ensure that we get players that are worth their salt.

“I know it won’t be easy getting 30 players but I am assuring you that we should by weekend have enough clues about the players we want to register for the continental games and the Nigeria Premier League (NPL).”

ROSS RIVER state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke and the chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the 7th Obudu international mountain race,Sir William Archibong have expressed shock and disbelief over the death of former IAAF World Indoor champion,Sunday Abayomi Olanrewaju Bada.

Bada died on Monday night in Lagos of heart complication.Until his sudden death,he was the technical and performance director of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria.

'Nigeria has lost a fine gentleman and officer as well as an accomplished athlete who served his country meritoriously.My condolence and that of the good people of Cross River state go to the family of the deceased and the entire athletics family,especially the AFN and the National Sports Commission for what is truly an irreparable loss',said Governor Imoke in a message signed

by Patrick Ugbe,the Honourable Commissioner for Information in Cross River state.

Governor Imoke recounted the late Bada's contribution to the success of the annual Obudu international

mountain race as well as his fight to restore the lost glory of track and field in Nigeria wants the athletics family to immortalise him by ensuring he does not die in vain.

'I vivdly remember his always cheerful disposition as well as the perfect manner he handled the technical organisation of the Cross River state/AFN Nigeria Open Athletics Championships last June in Calabar.May God grant him eternal rest'', Imoke said.

In his own message,a tearful Archibong said the athletics family in Nigeria has lost a rare gem,a world champion and a perfect gentleman.

'He was one of the greatest athletes Nigeria has ever produced and one of the best athletics administrators in the last three decades or so.The success story of the Obudu international mountain race will not be complete without acknowledging the late Bada's contribution.May God give his family and the entire athletics family and indeed Nigerians the fortitude to bear this loss',said Archibong.

Akpabio, Salami top Wolves’ transfer list

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ARRI WOLVES have identified one of the striking duo of George Akpabio and Gbolahan Salami as their main target for next season’s campaign in the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) and the CAF Confederation Cup. SuperSport.com was informed by a top official of the club that head coach, Paul Aigbogun’s search for strikers has led to Akpabio and Salami topping the Warri side’s shopping list ahead of next year’s championships.

Aigbogun is said to be interested in signing one of the strikers.

However, SuperSport.com has been informed that no formal contacts have been made with any of the players by Warri Wolves.

The move by Warri Wolves’ coach is to strengthen the side for the coming campaign after the striking of duo of Ekigho Ehiosun and Oke Akpoveta moved abroad to further their careers.

Though Ehiosun’s move to Samsunspor of Turkey is a loan deal, Aigbogun is said to be disposed to bringing a striker in case Ehiosun seals

a permanent deal at Samsunspor.

Warri Wolves finished third last term in the NPL and will play in the 2012 CAF Confederation Cup.

•Salami

APPEAL

ADVOCACY

Sultan urges solution to ethno-religious crisis Kaduna

NGOs walk for vulnerable children

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Lagos

38

FACILITY

Danjuma provides health centre Nasarawa

40

Email: news_extra@yahoo.com

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

Page 25

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T WAS a philanthropist that provided them with shelter. Now, they are also falling back on philanthropy to keep it from collapsing.

Members of the Niger Delta Blind People’s Association are in need. They fear that the four-bedroom apartment at No 5 Olutunfese Street, Ketu, Lagos, used as both home and office, could collapse anytime soon.

When Newsextra visited the compound, parts of the building were dilapidated, with cracked walls.

Speaking on behalf of the occupants, the President of the association, Mr Ben Omietimi, who is visually impaired, called on corporate bodies and well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid to enable them relocate to a safe place.

He said: “A philanthropist helped us to secure this place three years ago and has been paying the rent. This is our headquarters and serves as home for the blind from any part of the country. We need people to urgently come to our aid before this building collapses. This place has restored the hope of many blind people in the country who should not be left homeless”.

Omietimi, who hails from Bayelsa State, founded the association in 2005. He said: “We organised a launching to get an office so as to train people on vocational trade. We were able to buy a van and rent this apartment, which has been sheltering many of our members and enabling us to be organised. This place was set up to fight the cause of the blind. Blindness is not a barrier.

People do not like to associate with the blind because they believe they are worth nothing. If you have a child who is blind, will you kill him? Our mission is to let people know that blind people are not useless and that they can still contribute something to the society.”

He continued: “We commend Governor Babatunde Fashola for helping us in terms of transportation-anywhere BRT stops, we

•Part of the dilapidated structure

‘Our building is about to collapse’ The blind seek Fashola’s help for alternative accommodation

By Janice Nkoli Ifeme

do not pay. We thank him and would like to see him and seek other things he could do for us. If he could give us a property, we would appreciate it.”

He further expressed appreciation to Chevron Nigeria Limited and Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC) for their assistance so far. From 2007, Chevron has been giving scholarship to members of the association, many

of who are now graduates while SPDC recently donated materials for the furnishing of their office.

Speaking on the scholarship, the secretary of the Association, Mr Amos Yamusa said: “The scholarship started in 2007 with 100 peo-

ple who got N75, 000 each. By 2010, it was increased to 150 people who now receive N150, 000 each. At least with this N150, 000 for 150 people, it is getting bet•Continued on Page 26

Wamakko helps robbery victims

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•Wamakko

OKOTO State Governor Aliyu Wamakko has donated bags of rice, assorted grains and cash to victims of armed robbery at Gatawa town in Isa local government of the state.

One of the three victims, Abubakar Malami, 45, married with six children, died at the spot of the attack.

Malami from Luggar Tsara village in Dange Shuni Local Government Area, was said to be a labourer who went to Gatawa for his business when the robbers attacked them.

Two other victims, Abubakar Muhammad and Ahmed Suleiman who sustained various degrees of

From Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

gunshot injuries are now receiving treatment at the Specialist Hospital, Sokoto, the state capital.

Wamakko who was represented on the visit to the two surviving victims at the state Specialist Hospital by his Senior Special Assisitant on Speciual Duties, Kabiru Ahmed, expressed sadness over the situation

We are here to see and sympathise with you over the ugly incident. And it is part of our policies to identify with our people in joy, grief or pains

and prayed against future recurrence.

He said: “We are here to see and sympathise with you over the ugly incident. And it is part of our policies to identify with our people in joy, grief or pains.”

He also maintained that the gesture was to assist the victims especially the family of the deceased.

The governor said the victims of robbery attack went out for legitimate business to fend for their families.

The Special Assistant who was accompanied by a Permanent Secretary, said a team would soon visit the family of the deceased.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

26

‘Our building is about to collapse’ •Continued from Page 25 ter. What we are looking at is how members can be employed, so we are calling on companies to employ them.”

Omietimi said: “Out of 35 graduates, eight are working and seven are married. We thank Chevron greatly for the assistance they have given to us. 10 years from now, what they are doing cannot be quantified”.

We also thank Shell for their recent donation of photocopiers, five fans, five air conditioners, a generator, a refrigerator, a deep freezer, three double-decker beds, six vitafoam mattresses, three filing cabinets, and five office chairs and tables. We have been able to secure necessary office materials so that we can function very well.

We really appreciatiate what they have done”.

Omietimi noted that the association had organised various workshops and seminars for the blind to empower them to face their challenges.

“We do not have to depend on the government or anyone. We do not have to complain that we have problems because without problems there would be no solutions.

Omietimi, who has a son, though not yet married, noted that the association was named after the Niger Delta because a large chunk of the country’s resources come from the area, saying: “I hail from Bayelsa State, a very interior area.

There is no Braille centre in the Niger Delta. Even in Lagos we have few. Many blind people were in schools where they were given handouts and even told to go to the internet.

“I came to Lagos for rehabilitation in 2005. A police lady wanted to marry me so I was motivated to go for rehabilitation at Oshodi Vo-

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HE Christian community in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area has urged Governor. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) to ensure completion of Ejigbo-Ajao Estate Link Bridge despite the protest by some of the residents of Ajao Estate over the construction of the facility.

The Christian community, under the platform of Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ejigbo chapter made the appeal last Thursday during a prayer session organised by the association at the council’s secretariat.

Reverend Fabusoro Peter, the

•Members of the association cational Centre for the blind where I met other blind people. When I saw them I cried; I had never seen them in such a great number. Since this association took off, we have achieved quite some things. With the help of Chevron, many are being well educated and members now have a sense of self worth.

Membership is open to every blind person in Nigeria.”

“People are coming here from different parts of the country and

we should be able to take care of them. I use this opportunity to appeal for help. We are very accountable. Whatever money that comes we record it and always show you what we do with it”.

Mrs Blessing Nwagbo is the housekeeper for the association’s home and also works as secretary in the office. She said: “I don’t even see them as blind. I enjoy working with them. These people are full of life and easy to work with. There is

no dull moment. We are always very busy. This place is open to the blind. When I come in the morning, I check on them one by one; I sweep and tidy the house. If they want to buy anything I do it for them. If they want to go out, I will be their guide. I do all their secretarial works for them.”

She said she saw working with the visually impaired as an opportunity to serve. “I am doing it because I want to challenge God for

my life,” she said, while expressing appreciation to her husband for his understanding in granting her desire to serve.

Those interested in rendering assistance to the members of the association could send donations to Niger Delta Blind Students Association Account Number 0788056282617 at Equitorial Trust Bank (E.T.B). They could also contact Mr Omietimi on phone number: 07032252243 or visit them at N0 5 Olutunfese Street, Ketu, Lagos.

Residents plead for completed of Ejigbo-Ajao Estate bridge

By Duro Babayemi

chairman of the association who led other executive members to offer prayers for the council’s chairman Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan and the local government, stated that the revelation by Bamigbetan that some residents of Ajao Estate had written petitions to Governor Fashola urging him to discontinue the construction of the link bridge is both anti-people and unfortunate.

The CAN chairman added that the Christian community will also work with the Muslim community in the L.C.D.A in ensuring that the project is completed.

To this end, he assured Bamigbetan that CAN as an association, will submit a letter to the governor on the issue as soon as possible, stressing that the link bridge project is part of the infrastructural developments the people of Ejigbo are yearning for.

Reverend Fabusoro commended

•From left: Author, Mr Charles Osibodu (second left); his wife Victoria (to his right); special guest, Henry Adeyemo (second right) and chairman of the occasion, Mr. Ayo Badejo at the public presentation of Osibodu’s book: Planning for Retirement in Lagos last week

Bamigbetan for his numerous achievements in office during his first tenure. They listed such projects to include the monthly public hearing programme where he introduced the principle of accountability and transparency in local government system.

He added that the chairman, during his first tenure, laid a solid foundation for successive governments in the L.C.D.A. He appealed to him not to relent in his effort towards delivering more dividends of democracy to Ejigbo citizens during his second tenure. He also assured him that the Christian community will continue to pray for his success.

The members, during the session, offered prayers for the development of Ejigbo L.C.D.A, Lagos State and the stability of the country.

Earlier in his address, Mr. Bamigbetan expressed his appreciation to members of the association for demonstrating their true love for the development of Ejigbo through their prayers. The council chairman added that the Christian

body has, over the years, particularly since the inception of his administration in October 2008, shown that his problem is its problem and his success in office is its major concern.

On the issue of the Link Bridge project, Bamigbetan urged the Christian community and the people of Ejigbo to rally round his administration in ensuring that the project becomes a reality. He stated further that if the project is allowed to fail as a result of grievances by some residents of Ajao Estate who claimed that the construction of the bridge will lead to the influx of more people to their area, it will serve as a bad precedent for Ejigbo L.C.D.A as regards securing state government’s support for developmental projects.

Bamigbetan commended Governor Fashola for coming to the aid of the council by approving the construction of the Link Bridge, adding that the bridge will reduce, to a large extent, the harrowing experience of motorists plying the Isolo-EjigboIkotun Road.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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D

URING his campaign tour before the 2007 general elections and the 2009 gubernatorial rerun elections in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi promised to involve the people in the preparation of the annual budget of the state. In fulfilment of this promise, he recently conducted village square meetings in the 16 local government areas of Ekiti State.

The full import of the village square meeting came to the fore during the interactive session between him and the people of the grassroots. At every local government area headquarters where the meetings held, he told them that his administration would not work against the people but with them.

The previous practice in the state and which is still the case in most states in the federation and at the federal level is that governors and Mr. President would stay at their offices and hazard a guess as to what the needs of communities within a state or the country are.

In other words, many projects which are not the priorities of the benefitting communities are often imposed on them with many of them ending up as abandoned projects. For instance, it makes no sense to embark on the construction of a stadium for a community longing for a school. A community which earnestly desires pipe-borne water does not need a civic centre.

The above has been the trend in budget preparation and execution in most of the states of the federation and that explains why most communities that constitute the local governments in the states of the federation remain undeveloped with many of them suffering infrastructural decay.

Preparatory to the 2012 budget, the village meetings were organised by the Governor’s Office with each local government area as the meeting venue. Representatives were sent from each town to speak on the needs of the town.

Though a long list of requests had been sent earlier on to the governor by each community through the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Mobilisation and Public Orientation, each representative was limited to make only three requests that would be accommodated in the 2012 budget.

The requests common to all the towns are pipe-borne water, good roads and electricity. It was the first time that the representatives of the communities revealed that the MDG water points project embarked upon by the previous administration were dry taps after N2 billion had been purportedly spent.

The requests were collated, analysed and presented to the governor by the committee on the village meetings. The committee did the cat-

•Governor Fayemi and the people

Preparing a people’s budget in Ekiti

By Hakeem Jamiu

egorisation of the demands of the towns which fell into four categories viz; requests that have already been accommodated, those to be considered immediately, those to be accommodated in the budget, those to be done later (before the expiration of the tenure of the administration in 2014) and those to be kept in view (KIV).

Some requests were so funny and unbelievable that the governor would immediately direct the concerned Ministry, Department or Agency to swing into action. The village meeting afforded the governor and his cabinet first-hand knowledge of the problems of the communities.

It also exposes the weakness and limitations of the local government administration in the country in terms of driving the development of the rural areas. Listening to some of the demands like grading of rural roads so that farmers could bring their produce to the town for sale,

the question that sprang to mind was: is this too difficult to do?

This confirms Machiavelli’s observation about the view of the ordinary man about government when he said in his book, The Prince, ‘‘the people ask only not to be oppressed and scarcely troubles to assign them a speaking part in the drama of political life …and as long as their ruler does not rob the great majority of their property or their honour, they

would remain content and largely governable’.

The joy on the faces of the people and the way they applauded the governor when he granted some of the requests immediately confirms Machiavelli’s observation. The ordinary people on the street and especially the rural dwellers only wanted to feel the impact of government in drinking pipe-borne water, enjoying electricity, driving and riding on

At every local government area headquarters where Fayemi held Village Square meetings, he told the people that his administration would not work against them but with them

good roads, functional hospitals where they can receive adequate treatment when they fall sick and having rural roads to and from their farmsteads.

Any leader who can provide these would have fulfilled the requirements of good governance as espoused by Jeremy Bentham in his famous ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number’ dictum.

Governor Fayemi did not just stop at the village meetings, he immediately directed the committee in charge to commence the task of making sure that the relevant MDAs commence action on the requests of the communities which are categorised as immediate.

For instance, the school building in Ijero Local Government that was threatening to collapse was immediately demolished and a new one is in progress; the water pipe that was damaged was immediately restored while transformers were installed immediately in many communities.

•Continued on Page 39

‘Okorocha must prioritise electricity’

By Jude Isiguzo

•Okorocha EGULAR electricity supply has been described as a major incentive to woo foreign investors in Imo State.

The state governor Rochas Okorocha has a vision to attract

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N150billion investment to the state, but his desire may not be possible except he ensures regular power supply, the Chief Executive Officer of Blue Diamonds Logistics, China, and President of Good Governance Initiative (GGI), a nongovernmental organisation (NGO), Mr Festus Mbisiogu has said.

Mbisiogu said this while assessing Okorocha’s achievements since he assumed office.

The GGI boss commended the governor for his reforms in the educational sector, especially in the area of free education and his proposed plan to build modern European-style schools in the 27 local government areas as well as his plan to build modern hospitals and the construction of new road.

But he said that no meaningful development can be achieved without steady and uninterrupted

electricity supply in the state.

He said that GGI is an NGO plays a leading role in the advocacy for uninterrupted electricity supply in the country, and is poised to assist any state government that is ready to end the power supply nightmare.

Mbisiogu noted that Okorocha’s plan to generate N150 billion for the state through foreign investment before the end of his tenure may not be possible without stable electricity supply.

He explained that no foreign investor will be willing to come and invest in the state without an assurance of stable and uninterrupted supply of electricity as this will reduce the cost of production and create employment in the state.

He added that a lot of Imo indigenes abroad would want to come home and invest if the atmosphere is right, but with the situation of electricity in the

country and the state, they are not ready treturn home.

He said: “If there is steady electricity supply in the state, people will not be investing in hotels. Indigenes prefer to open factories as these will create employment for our youths. One thing that cannot be overemphasised is the benefit of

steady and uninterrupted electricity supply. The governor should start thinking of getting a Chinese firm for assistance.”

Mbisiogu and GGI also called on other political parties, stakeholders and the elite in the state to come together and assist the governor in his desperate move to restore the glory of the state.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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Sultan urges solution to ethno-religious crises

T • Sultan

HE Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has appealed to the Federal Government to proffer a permanent solution to the ethno-religious crisis in some parts of the country to ensure sustainable peace.

Abubakar made the call at the 5th Annual General Conference of Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria (MULAN), in Kaduna, saying: “Islam is a peaceful religion that is promoting the cause of unity, tolerance and not violence.’’

He said groups which had deviated from these principles of the faith were not practising

FCT to stabilise water supply

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HE Federal Capital Territory Administration says it has perfected strategy to stabilise potable water supply to all parts of the territory by April, 2012.

FCT Minister Bala Mohammed gave the assurance in Abuja on Saturday at a meeting with contractors handling various water installation projects for the territory.

The minister commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his intervention on issues that had stalled the successful execution of the entire project.

He expressed optimism that very soon, residents would start to enjoy the benefits of the completed multi-billion-naira Gurara

Abuja Water Transfer Project.

According to Mohammed, the laying and replacement of existing network of pipes will be completed in four months—well in ahead of the April 2012 date for the official inauguration of the project.

He warned the contractors to meet the deadline they had been given as government was not prepared to listen any more excuses.

Responding, the Chairman of SARPLAST (West Africa) Limited, Alhaji Ali Mohammed, assured the minister that his company had enough resources to complete the project on time.

Ex-deputy governor, four others for Ikorodu Hall of Fame

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KORODU Hall of fame has inducted the former deputy Governor of Lagos State Prince Abiodun Ogunleye and four other prominent indigenes of the town in recognition of their positive contributions to the Ikorodu, Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole.

Other inductees include Dr. Bolaji Sanni Ajenifunja (OFR), Late Engr. Wasiu Kayode Erogbogbo, Prince Sunday Olabode Ogunleye and Mr. Olatunji Odusanya .

The induction ,which took place at the Ikorodu ultra modern Town Hall, was also used to rename the main Hall after Michael Olutusen Onafowokan who had contributed tremendously to the planning of the Ikorodu Town and the constructions of the Ikorodu town hall.

In his welcome address, the chairman of Ikorodu Division Resource Development Group, Chief Olusegun Oloruntele Oduloye said the outstanding achievers after being thoroughly examined them, they are of impeccable characters and standing tall among others which made them deserved to be honored.

According to him “each of them, being of an impeccable character, standing tall among others, deserves to be honoured. We are therefore rolling out the drums to usher them into the hall of fame.

With their admission into the hall of fame today, it is expected that they will join their senior colleagues in the hall of fame in facilitating a rapid sustainable growth of the division within a very short time.

Chief Oduloye therefore called on the state government as well as the other stakeholders in the society to come to their aid in the Ikorodu division in order to complete some pending projects in the zone.

While highlighting the criteria of the five honorees for the induction and admission into the hall of fame, the chairman, committee on the

By Jeremiah Oke

4, 500 expectant mothers get free malaria treatment

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O fewer than 4,500 expectant mothers have benefited from the free malaria treatment programme sponsored by the Mubi South Local Government Area of Adamawa State .

The Director, Primary Health Care (PHC) in the area,Mr Mukhtari Muhammad, told journalists in Mubi last Friday that more than 5,700 doses of anti malaria drugs were distributed to women attending antenatal clinic at the 46 health posts in the area.

He added that some 32,000 doses of iron tablets and 1,500 mosquito treated nets were also distributed to the benefiting expectant mothers in the last two weeks.

“The gesture is to combat malaria, enhance reproductive health and reduce maternal mortality.”

Muhammed said that more than 22,019

Kaduna the true teachings of Prophet Mohammed (SAN) and Islam but acting for personal gains.

The Sultan said Muslims were being victimised because of the activities and actions of a few people, who claimed to be part of the Muslim community but whose activities were alien to the tinets of Islamic religion.

He urged the association to use its position to defend and protect the good image and rights of Muslims and Islam in Nigeria.

Earlier, the National President of the association, Alhaji Tajuddeen Oladoja, said the primary objective of the conference was to articulate appropriate strategies for the promotion and protection of fundamental rights and interest of Muslims in Nigeria.

He said MULAN was carrying out the task by identifying rights of Muslims in the context of law and judicial process in Nigeria.

Oladoja said MULAN frowned at the non establishment of Shariah courts by state governments in southern Nigeria.

He appealed to the Federal Government to hasten efforts in establishing Shariah courts in the southern states to ensure the adjudication of certain Islamic personal matters relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance, paternity among others.

The president said the association had joined the labour movement and other bodies to oppose the removal of oil subsidy.

“We are warning the government that the indices that gave rise to the uprising in North Africa and the Arab world are everywhere in Nigeria, “ he said.

•Azuka Okoli of Pacelli School for the Blind (right) receiving a cheque for the school. Others from left are: Prosper Kanayo, Engr. Emman Ossai, Chief Edwin Igbokwe and Austin Isagbo at the Unity Centre, G.R.A Ikeja Lagos.

PHOTO: RAHMAN SANUSI

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Mobile health service for expectant mothers, children

UNE Local Government Council in Yobe State has introduced mobile health services to citizens in its remote areas, especially children and pregnant women.

Under the initiative, health facilities and personnel are ferried across to the areas by motorcycles because of their difficult terrains.

Alhaji Shuaibu Shaban, The Coordinator of Primary Healthcare in the council,Alhaji Shuaibu Shaban told newsmen in Damagum that 52 motorcycles had been mobilised for the operation.

He said that the exercise was being carried out

Ikorodu division hall of fame, Price Jamiu Adio Saka, said it could be attributed to their remarkable selfless service to the community, professionals attainment, integrity, goodwill, Distinction and award by recognized bodies received by them, and consultations with a broad spectrum of knowledgeable indigenes of Ikorodu division and more importantly they are role models not only in their community but internationally.

Group to launch compendium

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HE Institute of Finance and Control of Nigeria (IFCN) will launch a compendium of its essays and articles in Lagos tomorrow.

The event will take place at the Nigeria’s Employers Consultative Association (NECA) House, Central Business District, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

A statement by IFCN’s Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Eohoi Godwin, said the compendium is a compilation of well researched and highly informed articles.

The presentations, Godwin said, are meant to assist IFCN achieving its cardinal objective of “building finance professionals with the right attitudinal frame of mind in finance administration in every sector of the Nigerian economy”.

The event will be the climax of a seminar/ workshop for the institute’s members on “Meeting the Challenges of Functional Control System in Financial Administration for National Transformation and Development in Nigeria” on Friday at the same venue.

• Mr Tola Badamosi, MD, BD Consult (middle) flanked by Santa Robin and Mrs Claus during the Santa Comes To Town Christmas programme in Ikeja

•From left: Dr Abdulhakeem Mobolaji; Mr Bashiru Umar; Alhaji Musiwudeen Bakare and Alhaji Abdullah Shuaib Coordinator Conference of Islamic Organisation Lagos State at the annual conference of Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Area unit at Alausa Ikeja, Lagos PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

Community kicks against alleged protection of criminals by police

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ESIDENTS of Igbokuta village in Ikorodu, Lagos State have accused some police officers of protecting criminals who have been terrorizing the community in the last two years.

They are alleging that a certain Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), who is using the suspected criminals to carry out his dirty dealing have been shielding them from the arms of the law.

Members of the community are threatening to expose the DIG if he continues to protect the alleged criminals who allegedly have been killing innocent citizens.

According to Sodiq Sholeye, the head of one of the affected families in the community who alleged that one of the suspected criminals simply identified as Lai killed his son, Azeez two years ago, the suspects openly threaten to kill anyone who go to the police to give information about what they are doing in the village.

Lais allegedly facing a murder charge before Justice Onigbanjo at court 41 Ikeja High Court. He was granted bail and was recently arrested for another murder case by police officers attached to Area ‘N’ Ijede.

Sholeye alleged that there was an attempt to secure Lais release by another murder suspect simply identifyied as Sir K, who is currently on the wanted

37

By Jude Isiguzo

list of the police.

The special police gazette bulletin which was issued as at the time Sir K was declared wainted has as its serial number CB: 2685/FHQ/ABJ/09/05/ 11.

It was gathered that while Sir K was making attempts to secure the release of Lai, a directive came from Force Headquarters that the suspect should be transferred to Abuja, an order which was immediately complied with.

An SOS petition to the Inspector General of Police dated August 22, 2011, read: “The imminent danger that is looming in Igbo Okuta community as a result of the uncontrollable mayhem orchestrated and caused by these professional criminals and street urchins will consume the entire village if not checked with urgency. The consequences shall be unquantifiable and the damage both physical and psychologically imponderable”.

The residents also accused the Area Commander in Charge of Area ‘N’ Command Ijede, Mr Amos Omuiyadun, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of taking sides the criminals and equally receiving 20 hectares of land in the area, an allegation which the commander denied.

Yobe in partnership with UNICEF, to ensure that women and children in the area had unfettered access to healthcare services.

“UNICEF provided for 10 medical personnel for the fixed health posts in the local government area and the council engaged 16 others to cater for the mobile facilities introduced.

“The programme provides free healthcare services to pregnant women and children; so we will take the advantage of it to reach as many communities as possible”, he said.

Umar Jalo, a resident of Dogon Kuka Village in the area, said that the mobile clinics had visited the village and provided free drugs to women and children.

“I allowed my wife and children to attend the programme and they were given some tablets and enlightened on some basic hygiene issues”, he said.

A pregnant woman, Hauwa Jibrin, praised the council for introducing the facility, saying it had saved pregnant mothers in the village the hassles of travelling to Ngelzarma Health Centre for medical attention.

A resident of Gaba Tasha village, Ahmadu Bakoro, noted that the facility would reduce the reluctance of husbands to allow their wives to visit health centres, either due to poverty or outright ignorance.

The Chairman of the council,Alhaji Maina Digima, said that all the 13 councilors in the area have been deployed to their wards to mobilise people, especially women, to patronise the health centres.

“We also engaged traditional and religious leaders to sensitise their people on the importance of the programme and its impact on the lives of pregnant women and children”, he said.

Caretaker Committee inaugurated

T

HE Interim chairman of Atiba Local Government of Oyo State has advised members of caretaker committee of the council to work in unity and give his administration full support to help better the lot of the residents.

The charge was made by the council chair, Prince Akeem Adeniyi Adeyemi, during the swearing-in ceremony of the caretaker committee members, held inside the Conference Hall, of the council Secretariat, Ofa Metta.

Speaking further, Prince Adeyemi urged the members to see their appointment as recognition of their relevance and a call to higher duty .

The council chair promised to run open door policy, saying that the committee members were not only representing the government but the people of their respective communities.

The committee members sworn in included, Mr. Sheu Badmus, Secretary to the Local Government, Mr. Olusola Afonja, Mr Isiah A. Awujo, Mr. Lateef Salami, Alhaji Mustapha Alesinladu.

Others are Mrs. Oyebamiji Rashidat, Mr. Aderibigbe T. Oyelayo, Mr. Kayode Okedokun and Mrs Sherifat Oladipupo, Mr Abass Oladele and Mrs Adeniran M.H.

Adamawa doses of vitamin A and 22,508 de-worming tablets were also administered to 26,775 targeted children during the last Child Health Week exercise conducted between November 21 and November 28 in the area.

He added that the council had engaged 158 vaccinators and other health personnel during the five-day exercise.

He urged husbands to allow their wives to attend ante-natal clinic to reduce maternal mortality rate in the state.

•Governor Nyako

Local govt to build drainage Kebbi

T

HE Birnin Kebbi Local Government in Kebbi is to complete the construction of 10 kilometres drains and culverts before the beginning of rainy season.

The Sole Administrator of the Council, Alhaji Musa Dan-Illela, told newsmen in Birnin Kebbi that the project had reached 85 per cent completion stage.

He said 111 residents of Tudunwada area in the metropolis lost their houses to flood this year due to heavy rainfall.

The measure became necessary to prevent the destruction of lives and property, DanIllela said.

However, the chairman advised the people to guard against indiscriminate dumping of refuse on drains and streams as part of the initiatives to prevent flooding and outbreak of diseases.

He praised the management of the State Urban Development Authority (KUDA), for enforcing the state environmental laws.

He added that the council would continue to support KUDA to wage war against environmental abuse.

Dan-Illela advised the people to obtain building permits from relevant authorities before erecting any structure to avoid demolition.

PHOTO: ABIODUN WILLIAMS

Council builds 20 classrooms

T

HE Ambursa/Kardi Development Area in Kebbi State has constructed 20 new classrooms in 10 villages to accommodate the increase in pupils’ enrolment in the area.

The Sole Administrator of the area,Alhaji Dahiru Nayaya, made this known in Ambursa when he formally handed over the classrooms to the Zonal Education Secretary,Alhaji Usman Gwamba.

Nayaya, who did not disclose the cost of the classrooms’ construction, however, said that they

Council chief warns owners of illegal structures

HE Chairman of Isolo Local Council Development Area, Hon. Shamsudeen Abiodun Olaleye, has issued quit notice to owners of illegal structures obstructing drainage paths within the council area.

Olaleye, who gave the order while on inspection tour of Okomola Primary School in Ilasamaja and St. Paul Primary School in Isolo, said illegal structure and indiscriminate parking of vehicles are affecting free flow of traffic and drainage along Ajose Street in Ilasamaja and Ugali Street in Isolo, stressing that the council cannot allow this to continue.

The council boss, therefore, gave the illegal occupants one week to remove the illegal structures and abandoned vehicles parked along the road or risk being arrested and prosecuted for constituting public nuisance.

At Okomola Primary School, Olaleye promised to beat the December 31 delivery date of total renovation. Though not satisfied with the pace of work, he enjoined the contractor to speed up the job even as he promised to make more funds available to complete the project on time.

“I have given my people a promise to make this project a Christmas gift; you will be appreciated if you can make this count,” he said.

From Ilasa his entourage moved to St.Paul Primary School, Isolo where he was welcomed by residents for keeping faith with the developmental projects he initiated in their community.

The contractor promised to complete the project on time. Meanwhile, the council boss has promised better life for the residents of the council during his tenure . He made the promise while meeting with members of the Community Development

T

•From left: Alhaji Mukail A. Agbaje Secretary General, Alhaji Wali Ajiboluwa, Vice President, Alhaji Yekini Raji, President Amuwo Odofin Muslim Community, during the Amuwo Odofin Muslim Community 2nd Triennial Congress at the Multipuprose Hall Mile 2 Lagos

By Bode Monogbe

Committees at the council‘s secretariat in Isolo.

Hon. Olaleye said his government will provide basic social and infrastructural amenities for the residents. According to him, “We have sworn an oath of allegiance with the people of the council area in making sure that all necessary amenities that will better the lives of the residents are adequately provided. So we will not renege on our promises to them,” he said He revealed that all roads within the council area would be repaired.

The chairman stressed that the government has found a lasting solution to the incessant traffic along Osolo way and citizens are now enjoying free-flow traffic along the road.

“Our administration will ensure that no stone is left unturned. We will provide good roads, maternity centres, pipe-borne water, construction and rehabilitation of schools and so on,” he added.

Kebbi

were built as part of efforts to sustain the increased enrolment of pupils into primary schools.

“We are happy to note that many parents heeded our advice concerning the need to send their children to school,’’ he said.

Nayaya said that the new classrooms would also alleviate part of the hardship faced by pupils who had to trek long distances to attend schools in faraway places.

Speaking, Gwamba commended Nayaya for providing additional classrooms in the area and assured him that more teachers would be posted to the area’s schools.

He called on other development areas in the state to emulate the Ambursa/Kardi Development Area, in aiding efforts to develop the education sector.

Church holds anointing service

T

HE Prevailers Terbanacle Ministries International (Prevailers Bible Church) has begun a 3 hour nightly programme, lasting seven days from 11pm to 2am daily. The programme ends on Sunday, December 18 when the service will commence at 8a.m. The venue is the churchpremises, Ikoro Bus Stop,Ota Road Ileke Estate, Meiran, Lagos.

Speaking on the theme, Triumphant Life at a rally on Sunday, Pastor Philip Akahomen described the programme as an annual event saying: “This year’s Triumphant Life will be different as the victory of Jesus Christ over all principalities will be manifested in lives of the people”

Police warn vehicle owners The Lagos State Police Command has warned owners of vehicle parked at Shagamu Road Division, Ikorodu to remove them immediately or forfeit same through auction 1.

Honda car – CV321 EKY 2.

Nissan Serena bus – US577AAA 3.

Vanagon bus BJ871 KRD

•Hon. Olalaye (middle)and other council officials during his visit to Oko Mallam Primary School, Ilasamaja

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

Life

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Text only: 08023058761

Challenges in nurturing art in Coal City

‘Xmas feast for ‘Dustbin Estate’ residents

– Page 32

– Page 34

•

J.P. Clark’s rare voyage •From right: Profs Soyinka, Ebun, Osofisan, J.P.Clark and Obafemi

• SEE PAGE 30

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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J.P Clark’s rare voyage The 78th birthday and formal presentation of the biography of Prof.

John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo by award-winning playwright Prof. Femi Osofisan drew scholars, captains of industry, literary icons, artists and students, among others. It was a stylish unveiling of the man J.P. Clark, reports EVELYN OSAGIE.

T

HE Lagos Motor Boat Club, Ikoyi, was the place to be last Tuesday evening. It’s ambiance was right for a book presentation and a party. The waterfront gave a tranquil effect to the literary evening.

The guests were from all strata of society. They came to honour of one of the country’s distinguished writers, Prof. John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo. It was his 78th birthday celebration and presentation of his biography written by Prof. Femi Osofisan. To support him on the occasion were his amiable wife, Prof. Ebun and daughter Emmanuella. It was a gathering of the cream of Nigeria’s best.

Like the book’s title: JP Clark: a Voyage, the definitive biography of ‘the main animating force of African poetry’, friends and loved ones took guests on a voyage into poet’s life. It was a reunion of sorts for most of them.

Many said Clark’s personality breeds a somewhat enigmatic air. The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; former federal culture director, Frank Aig-Imoukhuede; Prof. Abiola Irele, Clark’s friend from university days; Chief Doig Simound, who had wanted to make Clark’s Ozidi Saga into a film; Akin Disu; Prof. Olu Obafemi, family members, among others, took turns to celebrate the poet and his book.

For Soyinka, the poet is living up to his name – Pepper.

“I don’t understand why JP is being described as an enigma. He’s very much like his name – Pepper! With different flavour and texture; he’s peppery. Pepper is multi-varied and has many directions. You take some and leave some; some give you the diarrhoea even. I’m an expert on pepper and on Clark from way back. The problem with JP is that very often, he behaves as if he has no humour”.

Soyinka said Nigerians should note the role of writers in nation building. He described writers as prophets who give analysis on a social situation, human tendencies and history. He observed that writers prophesied the current insecurity bedevilling the country. He urged the government to find lasting solution to the security problem. He hailed the northern leaders for coming together to confront the social menace.

Reflecting on the death of Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, Soyinka said the Civil War ended with the former Biafran leader’s death as all conflicts and elements of disunity are no longer in existence in Nigeria. The war, according to him, is over because Ojukwu has died and Gen.Yakubu Gowon is born again, preaching peace all over the place.

He said the civil war also ended when Clark walked into his house at Idi Araba, Lagos, in 1987. He said they were later joined by Prof. Chinua Achebe to go and plead for those accused of plotting coup against the Babangida’s regime.

Aig-Imoukhuede spoke on the poet’s ‘stubbornness,’and how he started out wearing suits and shoes that echoed down the hall, and eventually discarded them for simple shirts and shorts. He held Soyinka responsible for Clark’s change in sartorial elegance.

Obafemi described Clark as “a profoundly humane personality”, saying Osofisan was mischievous to have made him look like a fictional character in the book. Reading the book, he said, was like “tagging along on a journey I went to enjoy myself”.

For Osofisan, it is Clark’s enigma and the many questions surrounding the poet that drew him on a journey to discover and uncover the man, J.P. Clark. That journey took him to the poet’s hometown, Kiagbodo, Delta State and round his five decades of literary venture.

Osofisan said: “When I met Clark, I found him totally different from this ogre he was supposed to be.

Among other things, I was struck by his palpable humaneness. How and when did he change then?

•Prof. J.P.Clark flanked by wife, Ebun and daughter

•Uncle Sam Amuka-Pemu (left) and Mr Olagbaju

When you read this book, you will find the answer.

But the JP I have come to know is indeed careless, but caring; he is notoriously impatient with fools and hypocrites, but he is uncommonly candid and kind.

Yes, you can accuse him of nursing a big and perhaps extravagant ego, but he is not worse than other

gifted people we know. A genius, we must admit, will have his quirks and eccentricities”.

The book was reviewed by the Co-ordinator of Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA), Toyin Akinosho.

Other guests included Chief Felix Ibru, Olorogun Oscar Ibru, Uncle Sam Amuka -Pemu, Mr Sammy Olagbaju; Mrs Koko Kalango, among others.

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In 1996, he was destitute, begging for survival. But, against all odds, he became a United Nations Youth Ambassador in 2001. In this interview with ADEOLA OGUNLADE, Abayomi Rotimi Mighty speaks on his childhood experience, advocacy and pet project, Creating Avenue for Zealous Youth (CRAZY).

H

ow was your growing up years?

I was born in the barracks in 1985. I hail from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Though I grew up in Keffi, in then Plateau State, we later moved to Ijebu-Ode in 1992, when my father went to Liberia as one of the troops sent from Nigeria in 1989 and I had to stay with my grandmother. I went begging on the streets for survival when my grandmother could not cater for me. I sent a letter to my father for help, but it only got to him after one year in Liberia. I did a lot to survive the hardship. I was master of ceremonies; danced, taught my classmates so that I would be able to eat during break-time.

I went to the Army Children School, Ereko, Ijebu-Ode. Then later, to Mushin Comprehensive High School, Ijebu-Ode for my secondary school education.

Amid these challenges, what inspired you to go on?

Unfortunately, I knew there was more to life even while I was begging, but that was the option I had. I needed to survive. Begging was the only option, though it continued until I discovered a community youth initiative -Youth Action Project in 1995. Then, I discovered I can make a living in life without begging. I was taught self-esteem, entrepreneurship, leadership and how to harness one’s skill for a productive and profitable venture. I remember in one of the classes, I told them I can dance, crack jokes, but that still hasn’t stopped the begging. I beg for food, money till I was made an idol of begging and that is the story of many Nigerian youths.

Why the name Abayomi Mighty?

In 1997, I spoke at an event organised by Youth Action Project, where I said, ‘the voice of youths will one day be heard’. Though I was in rags, the likes of Jimi Solanke and other important personalities witnessed the event. But, a medical doctor, who also spoke at the event, reacted to my statement by saying that though this boy is small, mighty is his dream of a better world for all of us to live in which she tagged on my cloth. That was how the name Mighty came about. Since then, the drive towards engaging youths on issues around governance, democracy, gender equality, HIV/AIDS became so strong on my mind. I felt that at least, for the first time, African children and youths’opinion about the world around them must be heard. In 2001, UNICEF held an event to look at the role of children and youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a few others and I, among who were, Emmanuel Etim, Moses Imayi, Joke Edet, Ishaya and Immanuel Farouk and Yinka Jegede attended the event. It was at the programme that UNICEF nominated me to be the United Nation’s Ambassador for African Youth and children where we requested for youths-adults partnership in the drive for an HIV free generation. We also demanded

•Rotimi

From grass to grace that youths be part of the decision making process at the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union. I was also nominated to speak at the First World Youth Congress in Senegal, which was sponsored by UNFPRA. This led to an invitation by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja where we took the world foremost HIV/AIDS awareness posters.

What defines your personality?

It is patriotism, discipline, excellence, intellectual dynamism and engaging youths within local communities in

YouTube lands in Nigeria

Y

OUTUBE, the place where anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection can share his life, art and voice with the world, has announced the launch of YouTube in Nigeria, showcasing the best and brightest local talent.

YouTube Nigeria will offer some of the most informative and entertaining video content from around the world through a local interface, www.youtube.com.ng, that promotes content that is most relevant to Nigerians. There is something on YouTube for everyone, as shown by individuals, such as Jason Njoku, the entrepreneurial spirit behind Nollywood Love, or companies such as 37th State, which set up an urban, African culture and lifestyle channel. From amateur to professional content, from the unexpected to the emotionally affecting, the educational to the entertaining, Nigerians now have greater flexibility to tell their stories, and find videos most useful to them.

At the YouTube launch in Lagos on Monday, Google Country Manager Juliet Ehimuan said: “With over three billion viewers a day, YouTube is the world’s largest audience, and a mode of communication that allows everyone’s voice to be heard”, said Walker. “Nigerians are passionate about music, entertainment and many other genres that YouTube offers. By launching YouTube locally, we help people to find the most popular videos in Nigeria, along with those that are rising in popularity”.

YouTube Nigeria makes it easier for Nigerian users to find and view the videos most relevant to them. Content uploaded by Nigerian users will show up as “browse pages” on the YouTube Nigeria site, creating a new virtual space for the national community and giving Nigerians the opportunity to increase their exposure online. Also at the YouTube launch event in Lagos, Nollywood Love announced the launch of iRok TV, while Storm360 announced the launch of six new YouTube channels. 37th State announced the premiere of its first short film and documentary, Nkiru, which is

to take place on December 18.

“The power of the internet presents great opportunities. YouTube gives people the power to broadcast themselves,” said Obi Asika from Storm360, a leading entertainment company in West Africa. “Our channel has helped connect us with local and international fans and artists all over the world, and is helping us to achieve our full potential. For users with slow connections, they can use YouTube Feather for better performance”, he added.

One of YouTube’s key priorities, in addition to making the platform a comprehensive destination, is to ensure that videos load and play quickly, even in places where bandwidth is at a premium. Improving Internet access remains a key priority for Internet players across Africa. In addition to the standard, YouTube experience, users have the option to watch videos with YouTube Feather. This “light” version only includes the site’s most basic features, to help ensure that those with low-speed Internet connections are able to play videos play faster. YouTube Feather can be found in TestTube (http://www.youtube.com/testtube), the area on the site where new products are tested.

‘With over three billion viewers a day, YouTube is the world’s largest audience, and a mode of communication that allows everyone’s voice to be heard...Nigerians are passionate about music, entertainment and many other genres that YouTube offers. By launching YouTube locally, we help people to find the most popular videos in Nigeria, along with those that are rising in popularity’

productive and profitable venture. Due to my prowess, deep passion for youth development and uncompromising attitude towards positive values, I have gained the respect and admiration of notable adults in my community and state. I have trained over 850 youths, who have become icons in their various fieldss through my EDUTAINMENT projects that help to unleash the potential of youths in rural areas.

We are coming with Project CRAZY (Creating Real Avenue for Zealous Youths) under Adenike Grange Foundation. It is obvious that from the mountain top of Kilimanjaro to the valleys of Obudu, from the rich city of Lagos to the slums of Africa, there are abundant raw energies of African youths rich enough to bring great changes to Africa and the world.

Hence Project CRAZY is a dream come true as it will open doors of opportunities for the youth of Africa, particularly youth at the grassroots. We are looking at five thematic areas, which are film and music production, football academy, creative invention and literature, scientific laboratory and idea laboratory. We want to provide a place where youths in rural community can be empowered with the right values and their skills for a veritable venture. We will be launching a new film entitled: 1920 to raise funds for the project.

What is the film 1920 all about?

The film 1920 is an intervention prorgramme set out to address the messy situation of the entertainment and television world by a creating platform for the empowerment of possessed youths, who would have been exposed to the teachings of core moral values. It is story of a university student who achieves tremendous success in life through vision and not just ambition. It is being sponsored by Adenike Grange Foundation and shot by young people who are all under 30 with sound broadcast quality. It is a project under the Adegrange Child Foundation in partnership with DePrime Foundation under the Creating Real Avenue for Zealous Youths project. It is a reflection of what young people can achieve when they remain focused, determined and patient in the midst of mounting challenges of life. It was shot by young people to raise funds for the construction of their proposed Youth Centre in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Reports have shown that most of the movies and music released contain unhealthy languages which endanger the psychosocial growth of the children of this generation. We have developed 987 stories ready to be scripted into films and 1, 117 songs and other creative initiatives to be developed for the youth population.

POEM

Warming up The harmattan night!

He knows . . .?

Does he?

Him out there. . .

Downstairs Waiting out there At car park Chilling ?

Does he . . .?

Him out there?

Because it’s night Because it’s dark Because it’s late All your portions Your allotments Your dues and rights You give up You let go

He knows . . .?

Does he?

What hurry you’re in You home guest So honoured Inside?

To make time To make your way . . .

Away . . .

Him, to his home You, to yours

In your hurry You eat not In your hurry You drink not In your hurry You sit not He knows . . .

But he knows not . . .

Does he . . .?

Him out there ? ...II

Then . . .

On your return To him Out there Downstairs At car park Chilling What welcome have you . . . ?

Some mumbling . . .?

Some grumbling . . .?

Some grunting . . .?

Some swallowed hurt?

Or that firm quiet embrace Of choice Risk of business Part of trade Profession’s call In cheerful hums?

But he knows not . . .

Does he . . .?

Him out there ?

Some package For him For take-away Portion of rice Portion of beans Head of fish Drum of chick Plus some pink pouch of drink . ..!

Ah! All’s well That ends . . .

Warm !

•By Prof. Olalere Oladitan

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E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

Challenges in nurturing art in Coal City

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HE Director of Cultural Centre, Enugu, Mr Dominique Fancelli, has lamented the difficulty in organising this year’s Life In My City art festival.

He noted that though the participation of young artists was impressive, the organisers had financial challenge. The festival was held at Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu on November 22. It featured 85 selected art works from various zones of the federation.

For the third time in five years of the festival, the top prize went to sculpture. This year, the top prize of N400,000 went to Eyo Emem Effiong from Uyo Zone whose Save the child, save the world was a moving piece. The second prize of N250, 000 was won by Ngozi Omeje, an art lecturer from Enugu Zone. Ardent Devotees by Sen Sor, an artist from Kaduna Zone came third and got N175,000. Consolation prizes of N20,000 went to winners of fourth to 12th positions Fancelli noted that every stage of the festival has some financial implication. This includes the transportation of the various selected art works from the collection centres to Enugu, arrangement of the services of some competent jury, or the organisation of the ceremony for the award of prizes.

“Each of these stages has its financial obligations and we needed sponsors as it was an uphill task to involve some businessmen who do not understand the importance of sponsoring a visual art festival. They think that art does not have any economic values. I think this is simply a case of ignorance than of bad will. As a matter of fact, an art festival does not concern only the artists.

There are people who are interested in the contemporary art and who are ready to pay to possess some new art works.

Meanwhile, some Nigerian artists when compared with other artists from other African countries are not well known at the international circle of professional artists. These upcoming young artists could be seen as bearers of possible economic prospects and potentials for tourism in the region.

“By this I strongly believe that Life in my City as an event has a real developmental factor which goes beyond that of simple art festival. Life in my City can attract to Enugu a good number of visitors from other states, from neighbouring countries and even from Europe, Asia, and America. In other words if we are able to establish strongly this festival in Enugu, in the near future, the patronage it will promote will be diversified, especially in the hotel business, restaurants, taxi operators, gift shops, etc,” he said.

He explained that in France, every year hundreds of festivals are organised, and the sponsors are mainly leaders in the local government areas; including public and private enterprises. Fancelli identified all those involved in hotel business and tourism as the first beneficiaries of the gains of such business.

He described festival as a rare opportunity to draw attention to Enugu and to contribute to the economic growth of the beautiful city of Enugu.

Horizon of Hope, the theme of the festival was chosen for young Nigerian artists to give visual interpretations to the socio-cultural, economic and political situations of their immediate environment.

However, this year’s festival was different in many ways.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees and former Chairman, Union Bank, Elder Kalu Ukeh Kalu said in his opening address: “We are witnesses to the growth of this effort over the past five years as today’s grand finale closes the fifth edition of the festival. Every year improves on the previous one in quality as the young artists become bolder and more expressive of their artful imaginations. Indeed, it is interesting to see through the works of these youths, how they feel and interpret the life and politics of their environment. We can-

•Ngozi (right) receiving her cheque

By Ozolua Uhakheme Assistant Editor (Arts)

not ignore the statements they are making or we do so at our peril.”

He recalled that when the festival started in 2007, there were only about 180 entries. But the number of entries rose to nearly 400 in 2008 and about 600 in 2009. This year recorded over 800 entries at the collection centre level, out of which 85 finalists were on display at the final exhibition.

Also, the number of prizes has also gradually increased.

This year, for instance, included two new prizes – the Art is Everywhere prize for the best work in recycled material donated by Ayo Adewunmi and the Aniagolu prize for the best work in originality donated by Chief Lorretta Aniagolu in honour of her late father, retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Aniagolu.

Other prizes included the prize donated by Vin Martin Ilo, former media adviser to the Enugu State Governor, for the overall best work from Enugu State.

This year’s festival was adjudged the best organised and the most entertaining. For the first time, the audience was able to view a projection of the winning work as its owner was announced and came up to accept his or her prize. The choir of the Imagery Theatre of Nigeria led by Chukwunonso Offiah was such a high quality choir that it closely matched the quality of the art on display with a repertoire of the best in local and foreign renditions.

The six-member jury for the festival included Ayo Aina (Kaduna), Ellis Oyekola (Ibadan), Bona Ezeudu (Enugu), Mrs. Pat Nkwocha (Port-Harcourt), Mor Faye (Senegal) and Marc Fenoli (French Embassy, Abuja).

According to Mr Ayo Adewunmi, a total of about 800 entries were received for this year’s edition at the various zones and collection centres (Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna, Jos, Abuja, Auchi, Uyo, Port Harcourt and Calabar ). It is important to note that a quarter of these were received by Enugu Zone. At the end of the second stage of the competition at the zones, the following numbers of selected entries were received by the organizers for the grand finale: Lagos - five, Ibadan - 10, Enugu - 20, Abuja, Kaduna/Jos - 10, Uyo - 11.

Calabar - five, Port Harcourt– seven, and Auchi – 15.

“In general, considering the quality of most of the works at the LIMCAF Grand Finale exhibition, it is clear that the creative ingenuity of the young artists in Nigeria are yet untapped and could be said to be largely undiscovered,” Adewunmi said.

•Save the child, Save the world

Hotel De Jordan, NTA drama series, returns

A

HEAD re-launch, popular TV drama series, Hotel De Jordan, screened in the early 70s on Midwest Television (now NTA Benin City) marked its 40th year yesterday at the premises of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) premises in Benin City.

It was at the instance of the creator of the slot, Comrade Jonathan Ihonde, the NTA, Edorodion Ventures (led by the popular Benin musician and art promoter, Eno Luis) and La Mosh Promotions (led by Moshood Ajao Olagunju).

Already, rehearsals have begun to fill vacant parts in the new creation following the death of principal artistes to put life into the format. Among the new entrants are an outstanding Benin based dancer, model, singer and actress, Miss Omos Owegie, a flashy young girl working her way into the life of Chief Ajax (Sam Osemede), the money-bag of Jordan City.

Hotel De Jordan, at its inception in 1971, was a stage production created by dramatist, producer and activist, Comrade Jonathan Ihonde before it hit the then Midwest Television (MTV, now NTA) screen in 1973 under his production and direction.

By Usman Abudah

The slot became a must watch on TV on weekend for many viewers. Those who had no television sets would rush to neighbours and relations that have no matter the distances.

It was like the fever that caught football fans rushing to the stadium to watch their popular football clubs.

The concept of Hotel De Jordan, according to the creator, Ihonde, “is a satirical TV drama, which exposes the ills of the society with a view to correcting them with the theme of class “antagonism”, a constant struggle between the rich and the poor, the battle between good and evil. Its cast was as sturdy as its script in pidgin English, with the main characters of Chief Ajax, an illiterate rural dictator (Sam Osemede), Dr. Milo Moro, an activist and labour leader (Last Eguavoen, a Lagosbased Communications Consultant), Lord Mayor (Musa Yusufu), Rev. Evbrudjakpor, a rural religious minister (David Oteri). Also, there was the duo of Idemudia (Enaruna) and Kokori (the late David Ariyo) and the sarcastic Jordan reporter, whose exploits with his still camera never one day showed prints of his recorded

snaps (Richard Idubor who is now a Professor of Law at the University of Benin) and other characters like police corporal Jonah (Sam Adoko). The cast was so popular that when it went off the screen due to non-sponsorship, according to sources close to NTA Benin Production Centre, people still askedfor its revival.

Members of the main cast that have passed on over the years, include Casino Manager (O Ray Slater) Osiobafo (Emmanuel Oni), Okhue, the native doctor who married the sea-goddess (mami water) for seven days and divorced her. He would blind one’s mouth instead of one’s eyes (Prince Edobor), the bank manager, Gberegdegbeu, infested with financial corrupt practices (Mr. Odibor) and the all round artistic disciple, Chief Ukatabribri (Sam Loco Efe). Other popular Nigerian drama slots like the New Masquerade never had the popularity like the Hotel De Jordan, on this shores.

With the marking of its 40 th celebration yesterday, one hopes that the reappearance of the slot will be a relief for hundreds of its admirers as well as the viewing audience.

•Abudah, is a Benin City-based art writer

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The Mare festival will flag off tomorrow in Akure and Idanre, Ondo State. It will feature leading acts, such as 9nice, Sir Shina Peters, Jesse King (Buga) and the Lord Ajasa, among others, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME.

Tourists converge on Idanre for Mare festival T OURISTS from across the globe are in Ondo State for this year’s Mare Festival, which attracts professional mountain climbers from across the nation and Europe. Also on the train to Idanre are notable musicians, such as 9nice, Sir Shina Peters, Jesse King (Buga), Dammy young, Lord of Ajasa, Ojoro, Eddiekim, Jafextra, among others.

Tomorrow, residents and visitors will be treated to an evening of exquisite musical show and cultural troupe performance at Idanre. On Friday, there will be a marathon race, mountain climbing, raffle draw, musical show, and cultural performance.

The grand finale will hold on Saturday, at Idanre and it will feature Mountaineering, Cultural troupe competition, prizes/awards ceremony, carnival procession and musical concert which will feature prominent artistes like 9nice, Sir Shina Peters, Jesse King (Buga), Dammy young, Lord of Ajasa, Ojoro, Eddiekim, Jafextra among others.

The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr Deji Falae, said $6,000 would be given to the winner of mountain climbing; the runner up and second runner up will go home with $4,000 and $2,000.

He explained that traditional musicians from the state and beyond would also provide a rich blend of music, dance and theatrical performances that would thrill the audience at the carnival.

He disclosed that the Fanti Carnival train from Lagos Island, as well as Atilogwu dancers and acrobats, would be on ground to add colour to the event, which he said would

soon be an international affair. A long train of heavy-duty trucks, which would convey various groups of traditional dancers, would move from Akure to the ancient rocky town of Idanre to start activities carefully packaged to celebrate the festival.

The historic and colourful carnival float and the dancers would display to the admiration of residents who would cheer them as they move in a snail speed to cover the 20 kilometres distance from Akure to the hilly town for the annual mountain-climbing fiesta.

Hero of Mare mountain climbing, 11-yearold Sunday Akinwumi, who recently returned from a trip to Dubai is, indeed, a pride not only to his immediate family or the Idanre people but to the younger generation. The 11-year-old boy, who emerged the overall winner of the mountain climbing competition held in 2009, is full of appreciation to Ondo State Governor, Dr. Segun Mimiko. He said on arrival to Lagos: “I am short of words in the sense that I do not know how I can thank Governor Olusegun Mimiko and the people of Ondo State enough for the trip to Dubai. It was an evergreen life-changing exposure, which I never dreamt of in my life. An eye opener of immeasurable value which I never dreamt of in my wide imagination could happened to me God used Dr Mimko to make it a reality.” He said the trip to Dubai exposed him

to a new level of mountain climbing tactics and techniques, which he was not aware of until now.

The one week experience at Dubai and other major cities in the Asian country afforded Akinwumi, who is enjoying the state government’s scholarship for special students, to travel and meet with international mountain climbers.

Interestingly, the historic return of Akinwumi and his father to Idanre has set the pace for this year’s annual festival as Idanre, is agog with lots of rehearsals by different age groups in preparation for the third edition of the event, creatively tagged Dare the Mare while some people are already producing souvenirs to be sold to fun lovers and adventurers that would grace the occasion from all over the world.

In 2009, the Ondo State government, in conjunction with private tourism outfit, Motherland Beckons, initiated the MARE festival which, when rendered properly in Yoruba language, is “Mare Bo” - meaning Don’t Fall down.

The festival is to promote the assets of Idanre town and its scenic hills, as a tourism destination with the target of attracting thousands of people to the town annually for rock climbing, musical shows, art and crafts, tourism and creative enterprises.

Mimiko said at the grand finale of the event last year, that the state government was determined to develop Idanre Hills as a pilot

•Akinwumi

project to launch the state into the global tourism market. He said: “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is currently working in partnership with the National Council for Museums and Monuments for the enlistment of the Idanre Hills landscape on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is our hope that the enlistment will further boost tourism in Ondo State.”

Adenubi institutes foundation • ‘It’s my 70th birthday gift’

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HE novelist, Mobolaji Adenubi is 70. For decades, Adenubi has captured the hearts of children with her books. Her books are usually laced with morals even as they fire up the child’s imagination.

At the moment, she is still creating interesting titles that children love to read.

She is currently out with four beautifullyillustrated children books. But that is not all.

The septuagenarian is set to launch an innovative creative project that children (who are her greatest constituency), particularly writers, will find interesting and rewarding.

As part of activities marking her birthday, tomorrow, she will launch a foundation worth about N9.7 million yearly, which will publish young writers called the Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation. The event will hold tomorrow at Shell Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos, by 1pm.

The foundation, according to her, will encourage the production of children’s stories by young authors between ages of 11 and 21 that will entertain, enlighten, and ignite the imagination of children aged eight to 12 years. The foundation plans to reach children across the country.

On the inspiration behind the foundation, Adenubi said: “I am a storyteller, who told stories to blind children in Pacelli School for the Blind for 13 years, and continues to tell stories to deaf children in Wesley School for the Hearing Impaired. I have published many of these stories and wish to encourage young people to write and publish stories for children. Instead merrymaking, I have decided to launch the Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation. It will be a non- profit making company which will be worth 9.7million. Any one who shares in the aspirations of the Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation can be a member. There are two categories of membership: Ordinary and Special. The foundation will call for submission of imaginative works by young Nigerian writers of children’s literature yearly.

By Evelyn Osagie

“A body of judges, including renowned writers, literary critics, book sellers, children readers and publishers will be instituted to select stories that satisfy the above requirement. The judges will also select the illustrators for the production of the works.

Each year, there will be a call for entries for unpublished works of children’s literature from young authors (11-21). The scripts received will be reviewed by the panel of judges and six will be selected for publication under the grant arrangement. Every author thus published will be identified as a Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation and each book thus published will be under the Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation Series.”

In addition, Adenubi said, the foundation, also intends to raise literary stars. “The foundation will ensure that its children’s books will be published in time for these to be available for entry for the literary prizes for children’s literature, annually awarded by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), NLNG Prize for Children’s Literature awarded every three years, and other similar prizes. Thus, our authors will have opportunities for validation as serious writers!

“The foundation will carry out the publishing activities inclusive of editing, illustration, book design, printing, promotion and distribution of the books published by it. The authors whose works are published by the foundation will have public presentations of their works, with readings, book signings and tours arranged for them. They will receive adequate and regular royalties for their works. The illustrators, whose contributions embellish the stories and expand the imagination of the readers, will also be publicly recognised and adequately remunerated. Writers and illustrators in each state will be involved in the work of the Foundation, introducing the flavour of the cultures of their peoples. The

•Children on their way from school.

PHOTO: EVELYN OSAGIE

‘The foundation will ensure that its children’s books will be published in time for these to be available for entry for the literary prizes for children’s literature...

Our authors will have opportunities for validation as serious writers!’ imagination ethos of the foundation will permeate its work everywhere.”

•Mrs Adenubi

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• •Residents enjoying a lovely afternoon in ‘Dustbin Estate’.

PHOTO: EVELYN OSAGIE

‘Xmas feast for ‘Dustbin Estate’ residents

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F what LOTS Charity Foundation has in stock for residents of a section of Ajegunle, Lagos, known as the ‘Dustbin Estate’, is any thing to go, then, they are up for a merry experience this season.

According LOTS Founder Tolu Sangosanya, the charity plans to share food items which include rice, chicken, 1 litre of vegetable oil each, fresh and tin tomatoes, onions, and pepper seasonings, cans of drink, among others, to about 100 families on Christmas Eve. Children will not also be left out in the treat. The charity will be giving them a Christmas delight this Sunday at the cinema, among other freebies and fun trip. The charity has been involved with reaching out to families, especially children in the area educationally, among others areas, all through the year. However, these bazaars, she said, is part of LOTS’s activities marking the season of Christmas and its end of year programmes. The children treat has become a yearly event.

She said: “It’s that time of the year when people think of giving to thank God for seeing the end of yet another year.

It is usually an opportunity for many to reach out and put smiles on people’s faces. We, at LOTS charity foundation, give all year round but, we would like to share this season with about 100 families living on the refuse dump, a.k.a Dustbin Estate in Ajegunle. For Christmas, we want to provide a complete Christmas for every family package on Christmas Eve and a carefree Movie Date for our kids on Sunday, December 18. We intend to reach out to families with food items which include rice, chicken, 1 litre of vegetable oil,

By Evelyn Osagie

fresh and tin tomatoes, onion, and pepper seasonings, cans of drink, among others. Living in Lagos, you’ve probably driven past somewhere marred by the stench of rotting garbage and the view of shanty dwellings resting amidst the squalor. Next time you do, please don’t look away. There are families living there, and there are children deprived of a clean environment to live, good education, clean water, food and even the opportunity to have a carefree, happy childhood.

“The LOTS Charity Foundation is supporting 125 of these children, in our center that provides them with education, clothing, balanced meals and experiences totally beyond their current surroundings, all funded by private donations. As part of our tradition, we will be giving our kids a treat at the movies at Silverbird Galleria; take them round with fully air conditioned buses; get them geared in brand new Christmas cloth which will be an African attire, Adire from Abeokuta, because we are trying to promote our culture and we want the kids to be acquainted with it. We will provide them with breakfast and lunch, along other freebies which will make up their take home packs like school bags, books, pencil, biro, eraser, toys, biscuit, caprisonnes, sweet, chewing guns, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorants, body cream etc.”

LOTS, she said, is open for partnership on the two projects.

“We are open to partnership, especially on these projects.

We need more people to be part of what we do. Interested

•Sangosanya

individuals and corporate bodies can partner with us in any of the items that we intend to reach out to families with and of course, the children. A contribution of at least N5,000 will go a long way to ensuring this is done. Or donations of food items. Aside the two projects, we are also working to transform lives of people in the area through our housing project.

We are aiming to provide decent housing for over 50 families out of the 1,000 families currently living on the estate.

You can be part of these and our Dine With Your Future Presidents fundraising event in 2012 by logging on to our website for more information, www.lotscharityfoundation.org.”

Forum backs child-friendly budgeting

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OME media practitioners rose from a dialogue in Enugu, urging financial experts to ensure that budgets are not only about of balancing figures, but that of effective monitoring and implementation. They stressed that budgets must be seen to impact positively on the citizenry.

The media dialogue on Child friendly budgeting was organised by Media for Children in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information and UNICEF. In a communiqué issued at the end of the dialogue, participants resolved that development should be from bottom to top for meaningful growth by providing local government areas (LGAs) with resources

By Ozolua Uhakheme, Assistant Editor (Arts)

to function adequately. They resolved that: • Media should sensitise the public especially the leaders on the right to support children, • A social facility for unemployed family should be set up to take care of children, • There should be a review of LGA system for true autonomy, • Electorates should be alive to the rights to good governance and • The media should focus on stories that will remind government of their respon-

sibility to citizens, children and especially in provision of health care services.

The participants also observed that the nation should not just allocate budget but must look at the impact of budget on children in line with the Child Right Act (CRA) - Right of survival, basic universal education and development.

“Media reports should be made simpler for adequate understanding by the public as well as the tracking for the budget implementation.

A child friendly budget is not a separate budget but an attempt to examine the resources of the Nigeria Government with specific reference to how it is affects the Nigerian child. There is need to build a

Nigeria that is child friendly because it will embody the future of the Nigerian society,” they said.

The media practitioners stressed that over 89 percent of the national wealth belongs to less than one percent of super rich Nigerians and that over 10 million Nigerian youths of basic school age are roaming the streets due to lack of access education.

They identified child friendly budget as the most effective way of using public resources to guarantee future economic growth, human development.

According to them, there was a less budget provision for socio sector as compared to defence in the last five years.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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The camera of proverbs

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E is a different kind of camera: a camera born out of the union of poetry and mythology.

Like a pliable straw, he bends the human figure into question marks, signs, and fetishes. The mark is legible, but the question is unclear. When Victor Ekpuk renders the human figure on paper, canvas, wood, or directly on the wall as a mural, he asks many more questions than he agrees to answer. But his work adds visual weight to the evidence that the human figure is a subject worthy of aesthetic contemplation. A good example is his recent painting titled God Head.

Ekpuk reads the Nigerian figure and presents it in a personal and extraordinary style that invents its own cultural calligraphy. Like many figural artists in Nigeria, Ekpuk has developed a personal approach to reading the human figure, drawing on optimistic and positive values. Using a medium of musical choreography that must be viewed essentially as black and white fonts, Ekpuk writes the human figure like poets write verses.

He is rigorously post-camera: that is, he has no interest in competing with that mechanical medium of expression. His vision is not to present the world the way everybody sees it. Ekpuk chooses to not represent this world as given to us. He strips, bends, and twists the human figure beyond easy recognition, with a compulsion that is all too easy to discern. In his drawings, humankind faces itself in the form of an endlessly distorted reflection in its own monstrously shining mirror image. Because of its capacity for infinite multiplication, the distorted human figure in Ekpuk’s work wrests a measure of respect from the stark darkness of its sheer existence. Within the collective human struggles to survive physically and emotionally, Ekpuk locates the desire to reproduce the human body as a survival instinct, when people herd together, and peel apart as politically expedient or sociologically required.

In Ekpuk’s colored paintings, the human figure is given the grace of divine characters. As found in the representation of Christ in crucifix figures, Gothic art, and stained glass paintings, the human head in its singular intensity, assumes a passionate luminosity in its simplicity, as a divinity. These divinities are not abstract characters resident only in the artists’ imagination. Local deities stand within and without foreign gods in his recent collage drawing, titled God Head.

The picture refers to historic encounters and alliances among distant divinities as they negotiate the loyalty of increasingly fractured devotees. Ink interacts with crayon pigments to define shapes and figures that are conditioned and textured by environmental factors, like a public monument. The colors break the canvas into portions and parts varying from pasted fabrics and paintmade marks.

His work seeks to mend a world broken and pillaged across the landscape of prov-

•Ekpuk’s God Head

By Moyo Okediji

erbs in the days of folklore. Blissful were the days before he found the calabash and gourds of the world broken and fractured, but not lost or wasted. Scattered, the pieces lay languid on the ground of the mind, waiting for Ekpuk to collect and arrange them like a puzzle that only he could solve, because it is the road map of his own journey.

Bathed in simple colors and stable positions, his patterns are complex short stories with happy endings. To weave a delightful tapestry with strikingly geometric elements, Ekpuk searches for the fragments of the broken world, like a bone surgeon healing a fractured thigh. Ekpuk presents the figure as part of a history of natural growth involving physical and psychological connections. He locates his body of work in the resistant calligraphy of LeRoi Clarke, and the decorative baroque of Susanne Wenger’s drawings. The wide arrays of intricate links, shapes, colors, and textures recall Oshogbo art and the Ori Olokun artistic ancestry. But the sensitivity to space is not as loose as in Oshogbo art. The subjects of the painting are often mythological, also borrowed from Uli Beier influences through the works of Twins Seven Seven, Muraina Oyelami, and Jimoh Buraimoh. Ekpuk’s figures seem more playful, but his plays are set in another world. It is a space of multiple dimensions, before the eyes divorced the shins, packed their conjugal wares and tears and migrated to the forehead.

The other world is a world of water and air, where the gravity of the land is left far behind in a lost shore, and nothing in view is familiar. The inhabitants of this world are anthropomorphic figures that float or swim without physical and emotional gravitational restrains. These figures are aquatic and aerial characters enjoying the fountains of immortality. Ekpuk’s figures are drawn from the realm of these folklores, songs, riddles, proverbs, dance, and photography.

He uses the lead-and-chorus structure of folklore, in which a centralized figure is supported by a vast number of community ele-

•Ekpuk’s Composition

ments. He often presents the lonely figure as a dispensable sacrificial lamb that the group slaughtered as funerary substitutes by the community, when a person dies. In other words, you can deny death the satisfaction of victory by using figural art to continue life when someone dies. You can also use drama, film, music, and dance to indefinitely celebrate anyone living or dead. But how could you unite drama, film, music, and dance into a simple visual entity, as a figure? The answer to this comprehensive visual vocabulary is in Ekpuk’s work.

As self-portraits, Ekpuk’s work go as far back in contemporary African art as Ibrahim El Salahi’s early drawings with simple lines and sharp facial features. Jewels of the Sahara, the skeletal sockets of the silent women in Salahi’s drawings are unforgettable. The motif of the haunting women’s eyes in El Salahi’s work later found its way into the Uli art of Obiora Udechukwu and El Anatsui.

They are kindred spirits counting the rosaries of tragic bodies along the banks of swollen rivers, and the dunes of bleached desert bones, all over Africa. The bloated belies and dead stares of the children of Biafra, the victims’ death grin, and the unfathomable sorrow of the survivors, the memories of departures, the songs of cheer, all these and more found artistic outlets in figural works.

They lodged themselves into the body of work in Udechukwu’s train, before finally reaching Ekpuk’s voracious pen, as self-portraits.

If ever an artist was locked in a trance of dance with twirled lines, it is Ekpuk. The figures spill out of him. His entire body is the system of pores through which the divinities pour these figure into the world.

They recall Ibeji figures, ikenga, mbari houses, abakua forms, akuaba figures, Nsibidi writing, Ashanti gold weights, together with the verbal, musical, choreographic, and chromatic allusions associated with these art forms. But these details assume disquiet composure in Ekpuk’s work.

They invoke a restlessness that is reminiscent of LeRoi Clarke’s drawings. Like Clarke’s work, he declares a resistance stance

while evoking a layered ground of questions. Ekpuk’s cryptic rhythm is epic. Because Ekpuk sometimes populates his work with hundreds of figures on the canvas at a time, the viewer is free to take the entire crowd within a wide gaze. But Ekpuk did not enjoy such liberty. To produce the effect of not being interested in each figure, he works carefully and in minute details on every figure to make it look anonymous.

Reproducing the self in any medium is, on the surface just a gesture of narcissism, or a matter of boosting self-esteem. But on a simpler psychological level, it originates in a self-propagating act, because the art product may long outlive the subject depicted in the portrait. Death and the loneliness of power are two major causes of trauma that Ekpuk’s images reflect. As a story line, Ekpuk’s central figure in God Head paints the picture of a marooned god that creates devotees to suit personal preferences. His empathy for the human figure is a real artistic search for depth within our human condition, behind all the costume, mask, and performances.

The atomic human is at the core of every Ekpuk line. The customization of the human figure is the beginning of Ekpuk’s anatomical drawing. Its disembodiment, disembowelment, and dissection is an ongoing end among many artists in Nigeria. The desire to tear the figure into shreds in order to know it is the fate of the anti-loom, the machine for wrenching the weft from the warp. It is also a process of magnification, when the searchlight pours its rays on obscure and interwoven fabrics of culture, in Ekpuk’s figures. As a writer of visual cultural figures, Ekpuk’s calligraphy is elegant, and his prose poetic, luminous, and legible. His writes with urgent and prolific conviction that the human figure matters. But if his drawing is the answer, it is a post-camera proverb. His fingers, however, are the adverbial cameras that only tell the truth according to his mood.

•Okediji is of the University of Texas in Austin, USA

UNICEF, partners meet for children

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•Participants at the event

ROM next year, programmes and policies geared towards improving the lives of children and women will receive a boost, it was learnt.

This formed part of the agenda of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Lagos and its partners under its Social Policy Advocacy and Communication (SPAC) projects who met in Lagos.

At the end of year review forum, organised in collaboration with the Lagos State National Orientation Agency (NOA), participants brainstormed on the way forward as they evaluated the implementation of the approved Multi-year Work Plan (MYWP) for projects that improved on the lives of children and women this year.

It was attended by top officials of relevant government ministries and agen-

By Evelyn Osagie

cies, including NOA, the media from Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos states and Child to Child Network, Lagos. UNICEF officials were also present at the meeting.

Each presented reports on implemented projects in the course of the year.

While outlining their achievements, certain challenges such as funding were named. Owing to the challenges experienced in the year, participants also seized the opportunity to redefine strategies that would help improve projects’ implementation and intervention that would better the lives of children and women for next year.

At the end of the event, officials were briefed by UNICEF on the expected results for the rest of the MYWP.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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Extolling the virtues of Great Nigeria 11

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he wealth and poverty of nations inexorably depend on their domestic productivity and relative competitiveness. Hence the economic welfare of every citizen can only be guaranteed by nation-states that are governed by people who understand this very basic economic thought.

No nation that has developed did so by having leaders who remained complacent in the face of the stark reality of very poor and declining performance of national productivity and competitiveness indices….’’

So starts the second chapter in the much waited book of 2011; Making Nigeria Happen. This new and thought-provoking book is written by Ayo George; a graduate of Psychology from the University of Ado Ekiti, he is a member of the Certified Board of Administrators of Nigeria and other various professional bodies in the country.

He has written several books, and has a writing career that has spanned for a decade. He is also an event & entertainment consultant. So much has been said and written about our dear nation Nigeria in post independence, but this new piece which was endorsed by a diplomat of repute; Ambassador Segun Olusola, puts the book in an entirely different platform from any other. The book is neither partisan nor religious, but discusses the whole essence of what makes us Nigeria. Values, tax, economy, agriculture, education, security, health, women empowerment, youth development, entertainment, culture, tourism, governance, politics etc were thoroughly discussed amongst other issues.

The apt, precise, and expository chapters make for an interesting read. Chapters like cultures others don’t have, buy the future, 50 years of what, etc makes the book a unique type of literature.

As dark as the cloud hovering above the country at present may seem, Making Nigeria Happen exposes ways by which the nation can come out of this quagmire that it finds itself as a nation. Nigeria has been caught between progress and retrogression since independence and all the efforts of stakeholders at redirecting our national lives has been an uphill task. This book brings to the fore topical issues that are capable of getting us back on track as an entity.

The author also goes a step further to profile some of the brightest minds Nigeria has to offer. The author believes that these great 11 have made impact in their respective

•Tinubu

•Tuface

By Our Reporter

fields, and as such, Nigeria reserves the bragging right to have these people as citizens. The book reveals that even in the middle of all the problems bedeviling the country, these 11 have sailed above their challenges to become men and woman of note on the African soil. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has been a political stalwart in recent years, makes this group of 11. Kanu Nwankwo, Bishop David Oyedepo, Tuface Idibia, Ambassador Segun Olusola, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Governor Godswill Akpabio, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Mrs Obiagelli Ezekwesili, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, and President Goodluck Jonathan are the great 11, according to the author.

These Nigerians are believed to be representing critical sectors of our national lives, spanning from culture and tourism, leadership, politics, governance, entertainment, sports, business and investment, motherhood and values, banking, oil and gas, telecommunication etc.

Two indigenous but global brands were also profiled in the book. Dangote Group and Globacom according to the

author need to be celebrated on a yearly basis because he feels proud to be a Nigerian, considering the fact that these organisations have contributed a lot to our national lives.

This is a book that should be endorsed by firstly the National Orientation Agency, and the Ministries of Information, Education, Youth Development, Culture and Tourism should follow suit. The author did a good job by exposing all the tourist sites we have across the country in a state by state order. This book in the hands of a foreign investor is enough to convince him or her to invest in this country.

Suitable as an invaluable Christmas gift, the book comes in a branded bag, and some other souvenirs that may take writing to the next level in Nigeria.

A media parley at Options 24/7 in Ibadan on December 4, 2011 was a day journalists were hosted to an informal gathering to see the book first hand. However, a grand launch to unveil the book is underway on a yet to be announced date in February 2012. The event is expected to host the high & mighty, the crème-de-la-crème of the society, captains of industry, diplomats, and eminent personalities.

Carnival: Bonny Island woos sponsors

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HE Chairman, Bonny Local Government Council of Rivers State, Edward Ebenezer Pepple, has urged multinational companies, corporate bodies and individuals to support the yearly Bonny Cultural Carnival. Speaking at the unveiling of the carnival logo in Bonny, Pepple said the support is crucial if the organisers of the carnival must make it bigger better in future. This year’s carnival will hold between December 20 and 24.

The Chairman, who was represented by his Deputy, Hon. Emmanuel John Jumbo, said with such partnership driven by the multinationals and corporate bodies, the carnival would gradually assume the status of a world class event even as that would serve as part of their corporate social responsibility to their host community.

He said the carnival is an outcome of the partnership between government and the Bonny Historical Society aimed at showcasing the rich cultural heritage of Bonny people while boosting her vast tourism potentials.

Pepple explained that the event in spite of providing an opportunity for the local government to brand her beautiful tourist attractions located all over the island, it would enable her flaunt her beautiful beaches, hotels, best of cultural displays and the fantastic serene nature of the Bonny water ways. He added that it would also promote and revive the lost heritage, and bring in direct economic stimulation that would be of immense benefit to individuals, large, medium and small scale business enterprises on the Island.

“This administration places a lot of premium on tourism and on activities that will revitalise our cultural heritage hence, on assumption of office we strived to ensure the carnival is organised annually obviously the gains are there for all to see, however there is need for others to come in and sponsor the event so that it will be purely private sector driven” he said.

Theme for this year’s cultural carnival is; Consolidating our cultural heritage, according to the Chairman of the Carnival Planning Committee, Hon Valentine Igoni, the theme was conceived out of the urge to consolidate on the success witnessed in the last three years.

He noted that this year’s carnival tagged BONCARN 2011 should not be viewed as dancing and glamour alone, but an event that could contribute and add to the Bonny economy.

The five- day event, according to him, has been well packaged

in such a way that it would be bigger and better than the previous editions. According to the Secretary of the Carnival Planning Committee, Mr Kenneth Banigo events for the carnival include an opening ceremony at Government School and a float parade round Bonny on December 20, a net casting competition at the famous coal beach on December 21, wrestling (Mgbafu) has also been added to this year’s events and would take place at the industrial unit field on December 22 followed by the Eremina Ogbo competition

•Women dancing at a festival.

the same day.

December 23 will be the day the local government will extend its benevolence and magnanimity by sponsoring women above the age of 50 who are widows and have no one to help them tie the traditional wrapper (Bibite) that will permit them attain the status of womanhood. The carnival will end on December 24 with an elaborate gala nite where awards will be presented to victorious and worthy winners in different categories of the competition.

PHOTO: EVELYN OSAGIE

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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T

HE MTN Foundation (MTNF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and Hope Worldwide Nigeria (HWWN) have pledged to continue supporting orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) in the society.

The MTN Foundation is the NGO arm through which the telecoms giant in Nigeria implements its corporate social investment initiatives.

The two organisations made this commitment in Lagos at this year’s Hope Walk worldwide Nigeria.

The Lagos walk which was flagged off at the St. Agnes Catholic church compound, Maryland and terminated at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere featured many dignitaries including Dr. Tunde Ogboye (Lagos State Agency for AIDS Control); Dr Emmanuel Alhassan (National Agency for AIDS Control, Abuja); Mr Julius Ameh (Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja), amongst others.

The Hope Walk was a component of the (MTNF) Partners Against Malaria and AIDS in the Community (PAMAC), which is part of MTNF’s investment in Nigeria. The project, presently in its sixth year, aimed at reducing the spread and mitigation of the impact of HIV in the country.

Chief Executive Officer of HWWN, Mr. Olaoshebikan Clement painted a gloomy picture of the OVC situation in the country, lamenting that after years of undertaking the Walk to bring their issue to the front burner, there is still a great deal to be done.

According to him, “of every 1,000 children born in Nigeria, 230 will die before the age of 5, over 50 per cent of these deaths due to malnutrition; 17.5m children are orphaned and vulnerable, 12.5 per cent of these go to bed without food, 23 per cent of these have no food in the household; 35 per cent of these eat fewer meals than needed; 89 per cent of homeless children are not currently attending school”.

He added, “6.4 per cent of children are dropping out of school due to early marriage; 3.8 per cent of children are not attending school in order to support their families; 49.6 per cent of children have had to work for money due to economic hardship; 20 per cent of young girls have been forced to have sexual intercourse, 13.7 per cent of orphans have been denied their inheritance rights, over 40 per

•The walk

NGOs walk for vulnerable children

By Paul Oluwakoya

cent of children do not have birth certificates. There are no resources specifically reserved for OVC in communities, yet about 51 per cent of our projected 140m population are children between the age 0-17 years”.

On the way forward, Hope CEO recommended a full implementation of the Universal Basic Education Law, full scale-up of the Integrated Maternal Newborn and Child Health Strategy and the im-

plementation of the Child Rights law.

Also speaking at the Walk, Ms Nonny Ugboma, Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation said as a socially responsible corporate citizen, the foundation has adopted 600 OVC in six states of the federation. The states include Kogi, Cross River, Gombe, Sokoto and Imo under the MTNF Children at Risk Empowerment Scheme (C.A.R.E.S) Project in order to cater for their medical, social, psychological and nutritional needs.

She stressed that the Foundation is taking the position because it

believes in the future of these children. “This is why we are passionate about this intervention. We urge everyone present here today to join the Foundation and its partner, Hope World Wide to affect the lives of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in our midst and eradicate the stigma and suffering associated with losing one’s parents especially through HIV/AIDS,” she said.

Apart from addressing issues bordering on OVC, Ugboma stated that for the past five years, the Foundation’s partnership with HWWN has also led to MTNF Part-

ners Against Malaria and Aids in the Community (PAMAC) Project which has created HIV/AIDS awareness, provided six voluntary counselling and testing centres in six states, one each in the six geopolitical zones in the country. She pledged that the Foundation “will continue to seek ways of positively affecting the lives of Nigerians, not only in the area of health, but in the other two pivotal areas of Education and Economic Empowerment.”

The Walk, attracted more than 10, 000 volunteers. It had the theme “Support a Child, Build a Nation”.

of Egbe to please find a quick solution. The contractors handling this road are really not doing their job well and I don’t know what they use

the money being given to them to do because they are not doing anything on the road, and it really affecting us.”

Residents seek help over bad road

R

ESIDENTS of Egbe and Ikotun, Lagos have urged the state government to repair one major road linking them to other parts of the state.

The road has been in disrepair for a long time and continues to cause users a nightmare. There is always a terrible traffic gridlock on it.

Those who cannot stay in the traffic jam, take to the commercial motorcycle popularly called okada, which sometimes costs more than N500 from Isolo to Ikotun, a short distance on which commuters usually paid N250.

A commercial motorcyclist, Mr. Wale Adebayo also blamed others for the pains on road. “Policemen, area boys, council officials are the cause of the bad road in Ikotun,” he alleged. “Because of the money they extort from us, even if the road is being repaired, they go back in the in the middle of the night to destroy what has being done there, so that it will be easy for them to extort money from us. I am very sure that nobody can stop me on the road if am at top speed.”

Transporters have also cashed in on the situation as they now charge

By Shehu Bello

obscene fares.

Okada operators usually jack up their fees even before night fall, as do bus drivers.

Owing to the bad roads, a ride on the road which would normally take about 15 minutes now takes more than one hour.

Where it usually cost the commuter N100, say, he now paid more than triple, in some cases.

A resident of Ikotun, AdeyemiAdekunle appealed to the state governor to come to their aid by repairing the road.

“The government needs to widening this road,” he said. “It’s too small, because the population of people living in Ikotun with cars is much and I also think widening the road will help ease the hardship we face in getting to our homes after coming from our working place.

“The government needs to link some roads out of Ikotun Road to other communities; widening the road will help.

Another okada rider who pleaded for anonymity, said: “Widening of

•Egbe-Ikotun Road the road will not help us; what we need is repairing the road that links to other communities and we are pleading with our Chairman and Oba

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

39

Council holds stakeholders’ meeting

“I

N any budgetary proposal, the local governments should try as much as possible to key into the programmes of the state government, even as they should also try to weave its expenditure around the expected income for the year. This is so because it is unlawful for any entity to spend more than it can earn.”

The above was the view canvassed

by Prince Soji Oyenusi, a Director in the Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget on the importance of budgeting in economic and social development on Friday. He was speaking as Special Guest at the 2012 Budget Preparation meeting with stakeholders of Oriade Local Council Development Area in line with the Local Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (LEEDS).

He noted that the stakeholders’ meeting which aimed at allowing the people to tell government what is of paramount importance to their different communities is a sign of transparency and commitment on the part of government to improve people’s standard of living.

Hinting that each local government has its own set objectives which it intends to carry out, he said that this time round, it has to be in line with the specific needs of the communities because all the communities may not be in need of the same amenities at the same time.

Prince Oyenusi stated that gone were the days when governments at all levels decide what development programme particular areas would have without minding whether the community needs it or not. He further said that the local economic empowerment and development strategy at the local government level, the state economic empowerment and development strategy (SEEDS) at the state level and the national economic empowerment and development strategy (NEEDS) at the national level are new ap•Continued from Page 27 This is a departure from the past when a governor’s directive would either be an empty boast or promise which may take years to implement if not totally forgotten. This has rekindled hope in the governed that at least, they can trust their governor.

The village meeting by the governor and his entire cabinet with the

•From left Leader of the Legislative council Hon. Akeem S. Agbelega, Mr Moshood Badmus Oriade ACN party chairman,Hon. Sanusi and the Council Manager Mrs Bukola Dalumo at the event corded in the first tenure in terms of tory allocation received, totalling commitment to implementing poliN538, 361, 905 as our income.” cies and programmes as well as Disclosing that despite the paucity projects that are people-oriented. My of funds, the council embarked on You shall work with the officials of the guiding principles shall always be several programmes and projects the Lagos State 10-point Developwhich were provision of social incouncil to prioritise the various needs of ment Agenda.” frastructures like roads, bridges, culyour communities…Stakeholders’ He disclosed that the stakeholders’ verts, drainage, and construction of meeting is a means of identifying toilets for schools and riverside meeting is a deliberate attempt to give room ways to improve the standard of livcommunities, amid others. for grassroots participation in the decisioning of the people, reduce unemployHe said the council also embarked ment rate, improve standard of eduon the provision of health and envimaking process because we are all joint cation, youth and sports, rural infraronmental services such as essential stakeholders in building a virile society structure, provide good health facilidrugs and medical equipment, mosquito nets and malarial drugs, electies and enhance agricultural develtricity generating sets to the various opment. primary health centres, among oth“We have gathered here today to ers. present to the council the various the 2012 budget focuses on the peoBy Chinaka Okoro On education, he said the council needs of your communities. You ple. He also said it aims at reducing shall work with the officials of the poverty among the people of the provided logistics for the conduct of council to prioritise the various proaches to determining what the LCDA, even as he added that its ulti- Spelling Bee competition, logistics needs of your communities. peculiar needs of a particular commate goal is to enhance the people’s for the hosting of one-day chairman, supplied exercise books and chalks “Stakeholders’ meeting is a delibmunity are. means of livelihood. erate attempt to give room for grass“This is a deliberate policy initiaReviewing the 2011budget per- to all the primary schools, resusciroots participation in the decisiontive by the Federal Government to formance, Hon. Sanusi disclosed that tated adult literacy centres, funded making process because we are all empower the people economically. the council prepared and obtained annual youth day celebrations, joint stakeholders in building a virIt is a bottom-up approach as well as approval for a budget of N1.7b out among others.

The council, he continued also proile society. We have duties and reparticipatory form of governance. of which N60m was internally-gensponsibilities to perform,” he said.

All suggestions and requests from erated revenue while N1.6b was the vided security and utility services, Various communities and Wards the various communities will form statutory allocation from the Federa- sports and social services such as procomponents of the budget,” he said. used the opportunity to present to tion and State Accounts respectively. viding stipends for the senior citiWhile addressing the the council projects which are vital He, however, noted that “at the zens.

Hon. Sanusi assured the people stakeholders, chairman of Oriade to the development of their commuend of October, 2011 the sum of N47, Local Council Development Area, nities which they want the council 345, 855 was generated internally and that: “My second tenure shall conHon. Ibrahim Babatunde Sanusi said to budget for.

N491, 016, 050 represents the statu- solidate on the achievements re-

Preparing a people’s budget in Ekiti king and leaders of thought in each town was unprecedented in the history of budget making. A popular Ekiti presenter, Akilade Ojo (Erugale) added pep to the village meeting by rendering in beautiful and scintillating language, the panegyrics (Oriki) of each Kabiyesi and

his town across the 16 local governments.

Apart from educating many government officials about the existence, peculiarity and needs of each town in Ekiti, it also afforded them the opportunity to know their oriki. The meeting was so ordinary

•Secretary to the Lagos State Government Mrs Idiat Adebule (representing Governor Babatunde Fashola) flanked by the Provost Micheal Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCOPED), Prof Olu Akewusola (right) and Mrs Risikat Akesode during the convocation of MOCOPED at Noforija, Epe, Lagos last Saturday

that it demystified governance such that villagers were interacting freely with the governor who was patiently responding to their interjections.

The presentation of requests of the towns was also dramatic, frank and fascinating. One man from Eyio Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government sent everybody reeling with laughter when he said in Yoruba, Aye eeyan kii dara ko di ibanuje’ meaning a man’s good fortune should not bring him unhappiness at the same time.

He was referring to how all the pipes that supplied water to Eyio town were damaged when the previous administration were grading the roads. The pipes and their crops were damaged and the roads soon became bad so, it was double tragedy for them. The meeting was not a party affair as many members of other political parties were present and in some towns, notable opposition figures presented their demands.

The Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly and his Deputy accompanied the Governor on the tour so that by the time the budget is presented to the House, it will not be strange to the lawmakers who also listened to the requests of each town. The governor assured the people that every town in Ekiti would have its name mentioned in the 2012 budget for one request or the other out of the three pre-

sented during the village meeting.

Though he made it clear that not all their requests could be accommodated in the 2012 budget, at least the request that shall be considered would be one of those presented as priority by the town while the rest may be done before the expiration of the administration’s tenure.

Though it may be too early to measure the efficacy of Governor Fayemi’s village meeting vis a vis the performance of the 2012 budget and how it would impact positively on the development of Ekiti communities, it is clear that there is a change of approach in budget making and this would go a long way to determine how the budget performs.

Ekiti towns and villages are most likely to be transformed in 2012 more so, when the transformation of the State capital has already begun through the Urban Renewal Project. One unassailable fact is that, village meeting is one way of ensuring participatory democracy which should be emulated by other governors and at the federal level whereby the President and his cabinet embarks on a tour of the states of the federation to know which of their priorities are to be accommodated in the federal budget.

•Jamiu is Senior Special Assistant to Governor Fayemi on Research and Documentation

40

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

The only way we can get value from this health facility is for good maintenance. We must maintain the equipment by training operators to look after the equipment and the entire facility

D

ECEMBER 5, 2011 will remain a memorable day in Nasarawa State University as well as adjoining communities. That was the day a stateof-the-art health facility was inaugurated at the institution. It was donated by Gen TY Danjuma (retd).

The gesture excited the university community.

But they were not the only people at its inauguration.

Former Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu apologised to the general for the accusation he made against some Northern leaders (Danjuma inclusive) who were charged with refusal to help their region despite being in a position to do so sometime ago.

Adamu told the gathering at the event in Keffi that he remembered vividly a conversation with Danjuma when he said that northern leaders were not doing enough for their people.

But seeing the N300m ultramodern medical centre built by Danjuma’s firm , South Atlantic Petroleum Limited and donated to the community which he (Adamu) belongs to, he could not help but say “I am sorry”.

Danjuma inaugurated the fully equipped medical facility in the company of the former governor of Nasarawa State, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Shamsudeen Amali, the representative of Governor Tanko Al-Makaura, traditional rulers and other dignitaries amidst singing and dancing.

General Danjuma who was one of the first Nigerians to be conferred with an honourary doctorate degree by the university in 2005, said the donation of the centre was part of his company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The general said that he was challenged by the honourary degree awarded him by the University and was propelled to execute the project.

He, however, lamented the lack of maintenance culture in Nigeria generally.

He said lack of maintenance culture among Nigerians is one of the weaknesses that have led to infrastructural decay in the country.

He said the project was a major concern of the company

•Danjuma commissioning the health facility

Danjuma provides health centre for Nasarawa varsity From Johnny Danjuma, Lafia

(South Atlantic Limited) and would not be allowed to waste away.

Danjuma further explained that to guard against the failure of maintenance culture, the South Atlantic has made provisions for the maintenance of the health facility, saying that the medical centre is meant to boost

the health of the university community residents as well as their neighbours.

“The only way we can get value from this health facility is for good maintenance,” he said. ”We must maintain the equipment by training operators to look after the equipment and the entire facility.”

Governor Al-Makura who was represented at the occasion by his Education Commissioner,

Comrade Abubakar Hussein, said his administration will further complement the effort of the general by providing the university with an e-library.

The VC, Professor Amali who described the facility as a “onestop-health facility”, promised that the university will “not shirk in its responsibility of ensuring proper maintenance and full utilisation of the centre”.

He said, so far, the university has invested in some value-

added amenities like the procurement of a 250KVA generator, overhead tanks, drugs and reagents, furniture, partitioning of out-patients department (OPD) and laboratories, additional landscaping, recruitment of additional medical staff, and engagement of an experienced facility management firm to handle the cleaning and maintenance of the centre. He commended the donor for the gesture.

NGO restates commitment to children’s safety

C

•Eze

HIJINDU Eze Foundation, a nong o v e r n m e n t a l organisation (NGO), founded to curb the incidence of child molestation and negligence has restated her vision to become the trusted source of child safety advocacy by ensuring that children enjoy the right to safety and life.

The foundation, which was founded on May 8, 2010 following the death of his son who was left unguided by his school while on an excursion at Beno Hotels, Okokomaiko Lagos on the said date.

The group, the founder said, focuses on issues surrounding and affecting the Nigerian child such as negligence, street hawking, right to life and thus educating the Nigerian child on

By Osas Robert

how to make use of first aid kits, with or without the help of their parents or care givers.

Assessing the impact of the organisation in the last one year, the foundation’s originator, David Chima-Eze, said: “Through our activities, a lot of

positive actions have taken place in some schools by way of setting standards for those prospective proprietors and engaging care givers in series of lectures that would enable them to carry out their duties diligently and passionately. We are thus using his death to save the lives of other children.”

Through our activities, a lot of positive actions have taken place in some schools by way of setting standards for those prospective proprietors and engaging care givers in series of lectures that would enable them to carry out their duties diligently and passionately

Mr Eze condemned modern schools, describing them as ‘glorified structures’ without sickbays, first aids and training kits, even as he stressed on the importance of whistle blowers in modern schools in cases of emergency.

As part of the foundation’s future plans, it is expanding its campaign to homes where parents have the larger part of roles to play.

Also, from the first quarter of the coming year, schools in Enugu, Akwa Ibom and other eastern states will benefit from the distribution of the free first aid kits and lectures on child morality and ethics. It will also make sure that children’s swimming pools would be built and adequately protected.

It has so far distributed kits to 20 public schools in Lagos.

SLIDING TACKLE

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

42

"This defeat changes nothing for us. We know we lost this match but the season is very long and very hard.

We did not deserve to lose this game but we did lose and it is finished now. Our next game against Arsenal is difficult and we need to focus on that."

After the start I predicted we would win the game as we played very well. It is unusual for a team to come here and play like this in the first half. The game changed after the sending-off. After that, it was difficult.”

Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini playing down his team’s loss to Chelsea on Monday night.

Mancini plays down defeat

• Kaka

R

OBERTO Mancini declared that Manchester City's first Premier League defeat of the season 'changes nothing' about their title charge.

The City manager felt his team did not get the rub of the green in their 2-1 loss against Chelsea on Monday, citing the failure of referee Mark Clattenburg to give a first-half penalty for Jose Bosingwa’s foul on David Silva.

But the Italian does not expect the loss to derail the Premier League leaders, who still hold a two-point advantage over second-placed Manchester United.

"This defeat changes nothing for us. We know we lost this match but the season is very long and very hard," he said.

"We did not deserve to lose this game but we did lose and it is finished now. Our next game against Arsenal is difficult and we need to focus on that."

"After the start I predicted we would win the game as we played very well. It is unusual for a team to come here and play like this in the first half. The game changed after the sending-off. After that, it was difficult."

Mancini felt Bosingwa's trip on Silva was a stonewall spot-kick.

"There was a big penalty and everyone in the stadium saw the penalty. The referee (Clattenburg) was very close but didn't see it," he said.

• Mancini

Seedorf doubts Tevez deal

A

C MILAN midfielder Clarence Seedorf has suggested that Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez will join whichever club can 'promise him the most money'.

Tevez is expected to leave the Premier League leaders in the January transfer window and City boss Roberto Mancini wants to sell the Argentine.

"Looking back at his career, his agents and every move he has ever made, I think Tevez will go where they can promise him the most money."

Clarence Seedorf Quotes of the week City have already rejected a loan offer, with the option of a permanent deal, from Milan, while ambitious French club Paris St Germain have also shown an interest.

Backed by their Qatari owners, PSG are reportedly prepared to offer Tevez a better salary than the deal which will be on offer at the San Siro.

Veteran Dutch midfielder Seedorf is waiting to see who Tevez will join, but cast doubt on the prospect of the forward ending up in Serie A. "Looking back at his career, his agents and every move he has ever made, I think Tevez will go where they can promise him the most money," Seedorf told Sky Sport Italia.

"Milan would be the first time in his life that he has chosen a club for his career rather than the money. We'll see what happens."

Villas-Boas: Players can celebrate goals anyway they want

A

FTER victory over Manchester City, Chelsea boss Andre VillasBoas scoffed at claims he ordered his players to celebrate goals with him.

Contrary to a newspaper story, the Chelsea players did not make a beeline for the manager when they found the net and nor were they under orders to do so.

"I would never ask my players to come and celebrate a goal with me," Villas-Boas stated.

"Goal celebrations are for the players. I told The Sun that they should get the money back from their informant because it is incorrect.

"What was said to the players is that when they score a goal, they can see that the bench is going through the same emotions as them. It is very unfair that the story was poorly portrayed in that way."

Redknapp plans audacious Kaka swoop

T

OTTENHAM boss Harry Redknapp is lining up a sensational move for Real Madrid midfielder Kaka.

The Daily Express says Spurs manager Harry Redknapp wants another creative player to add to his stable of ball players and Kaka could be available.

Kaka, 29, is again struggling to hold down a place in Jose Mourinho’s Real side and is set to be offloaded at the end of this season, if not sooner.

Real want to recoup about £30million for the former AC Milan player but their long-standing interest in Tottenham’s Gareth Bale could lead them to do a deal if there is some encouragement that the Welshman may be available.

Redknapp wants cover for Rafael van der Vaart as his club embark on the second half of an impressive season, with a title challenge a real possibility.

Benzema named French player of the year

R

EAL MADRID striker Karim Benzema was named French player of the year by France Football magazine on Tuesday.

The France striker won 155 points in a vote of former winners of the award, beating Barcelona fullback Eric Abidal (110) and Olympique Lyon keeper Hugo Lloris (69), who finished third for the third year in succession.

Benzema, who scored the quickest goal (23 seconds) in a Real Madrid v Barcelona clasico in his team’s 3-1 defeat last Saturday, has been in impressive form this year as he finally made his mark at the Bernabeu.

“I had the chance to be with a very good coach, Jose Mourinho. He put me back on the right path,” the 23-yearold told France Football.

OTHER SPORTS...OTHER SPORTS...OTHER SPORTS...OTHER SPORTS...

Djokovic, Kvitova named ITF World Champions

• Djokovic

NOVAK Djokovic of Serbia and Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic have been named ITF World Champions for 2011.

Djokovic won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open in a stellar year in which took over as the topranked men's player, finishing with a 706 overall record.

Djokovic, the first man other than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to be given the award since 2003, says "starting with victory in last year's Davis Cup final, this has been an almost perfect 12 months for me."

The 21-year-old Kvitova won Wimbledon and led the Czech Republic to victory in Fed Cup, ending a breakthrough year as the second-ranked player in the world.

on the wrong end of a controversial split decision.

The post-fight debate centred on the performance of referee • Khan Joseph Cooper and the scoring of the contest, while the Khan team also claimed they were told unofficially he had got the decision only for Peterson's hand to be raised.

AMIR Khan has described his shock The defeat cost Khan his defeat by Lamont Peterson in WBA and IBF lightWashington at the weekend as part of welterweight titles but the a "learning curve".

Bolton fighter, who is The 25-year-old saw his immediate hoping for a rematch in goal of beating the American in his March in Las Vegas, has own back yard as a stepping stone to vowed to bounce back taking on unbeaten superstar Floyd from only his second Mayweather shattered when he was professional loss.

Khan content to start again

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

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POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

The Justice Mohammed Dattijo-led panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has sacked Senator George Thompson Sekibo of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had represented Rivers East Senatorial District in the National Assembly since June. Correspondent BISI OLANIYI looks at his efforts to regain his seat and plans by his opponents to stop him.

Rivers PDP, ACN test strength • Jega

S

INCE the Mohammed Dattijoled three-man Appeal Ttribunal upheld the October 24 nullification of Senator George Sekibo’s election by the Justice Veronica Umeh-led Election Petitions Tribunal, he has returned to the campaign podium. Although it was Action Alliance (AA) that sought judicial scrutiny of Sekibo’s victory, the field is now open to all those who contested against the Senator in April to test their strength again. The state’s political scene is once again agog as none of the parties is taking anything for granted.

How the cookie crumbled Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s judgment, the second-term Senator had approached the appellate court to upturn the decision of the tribunal. The court granted application for accelerated hearing of the appeal and delivered its judgment, just three days after it started sitting.

In a unanimous decision, the court dismissed Sekibo’s appeal for lack of merit.

Dattijo, who read the judgment that lasted about one hour, upheld Sekibo’s sack and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.

The three-member election petitions tribunal had earlier on October 24, unanimously nullified the returning Senator’s election, after three weeks of hearing the petition filed by Mr. Leslie Chizi Michaels-Atata and AA. Michaels-Atata and AA filed the petition at the tribunal against their exclusion by INEC during the April 9 election, flouting an order by a Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja.

But the sacked Senator, has said he was not bothered about the nullification, while expressing confidence of winning the rerun election.

Michaels-Atata, a legal practitioner and a Senior Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), lauded the judiciary for the verdict and expressed optimism of winning the re-run.

The AA’s senatorial candidate said officials of the electoral commission, who refused to obey the order of the FHC, Abuja, were products of Prof. Maurice Iwu’s INEC and should be sacked by Prof. Attahiru Jega, to serve as a deterrent to others.

Michaels-Atata, who hails from Emohua, headquarters of Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers

State, added that the judgment clearly showed that there is hope for the common man and that the era of doing things with impunity had ended.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), hailed the Nigerian judiciary for asserting its constitutional rights to defend the laws of the land and persons whose rights have been flagrantly violated. It described Sekibo’s sack by the appellate court as a step in the right direction.

The Rivers ACN, through its Publicity Secretary, Jerry Needam, said: “The rigging is not confined to the senatorial election. Other categories of the election should be dispassionately looked into, to expose the monumental rascality displayed by the ruling PDP, during the April 2011 general elections. Cancelling a fraudulent election and calling for a fresh one is one thing and ensuring that the ordered rerun election is fairly conducted is another.

“We urge the relevant authorities to prevail on INEC and the powers that be, to observe decorum and ensure that other political parties and persons eligible for the rerun election are given equal opportunities and a level playing ground to exercise their civil rights of voting and be voted for.”

The ACN expressed optimism that if its candidate is given fair opportunities, he would defeat candidates of all other political parties in any election in the state, claiming to parade more credible candidates, with grassroots touch.

It stated that the rerun election should be devoid of rascality, for which other political parties, especially the PDP, were known.

The ACN also urged all the members and supporters of the party in Rivers state to come out en masse and ensure that its candidate emerge as the next representative of the Rivers East Senatorial District.

However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, insisted that the April elections in the state were free, fair and credible.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of the PDP also said that the Rivers electorate massively voted for the ruling party.

The Michaels-Atata petition commenced sitting on October 4, 2011, with judgment delivered on October 24.

The respondents in the petition were: INEC (1st); the REC, the Electoral Officer of Rivers East Senatorial District the Returning Officer

• Sekibo

How the parties fared in April

T

HE ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all the three seats during the April 9, 2011 senatorial election in Rivers State and all the thirteen House of Representatives’ seats.

In spite of efforts by Dr. Abiye Sekibo, candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and his counterpart of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Sir Celestine Omehia, Governor Chibuike Amaechi of the PDP defeated them with a wide margin in the governorship election.

Sekibo consequently contested the result at the Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Port Harcourt, but later withdrew it, citing frustration by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Rivers State government in his bid to access vital documents to prosecute the suit.

Omehia’s petition was struck out by the tribunal, but the APGA’s standard bearer proceeded to the appellate court in Port Harcourt, where he got favourable judgment, with a new tribunal directed to be constituted to hear the petition on its merit, devoid of technicalities.

The case is still on.

All the 32 seats in the Rivers House of Assembly were also won by PDP candidates.

While confirming its dominance in the state, the 23 local government areas of the state are being governed by PDP chairmen following the May 21 local government elections (chairmanship and councillorship) that took place in 21 of the 23 local government areas, excluding Degema (whose officials’ tenure just expired in November and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni councils (because of a court case).

The Degema election was held last month, with a candidate of the ruling PDP winning, while LG poll will hold in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni council next year.

The opposition parties are struggling to survive in the state, although their leaders allege massive rigging by the PDP. Amaechi has however credited the impressive performance of the PDP to hard work by elected and appointed representatives of the party. of INEC, Rivers East Senatorial District PDP and Sekibo.

The FHC, Abuja’s order of April 7 was duly served on INEC,

directing the electoral commission to include the legal practitioner’s (Michaels-Atata) name and his party’s symbol and

logo on the ballot papers, but was ignored.

The petition of April 27, 2011 was filed at the tribunal the following day.

Delivering the judgment, Umeh said: “Ignoring the April 7 order of the Federal High Court, Abuja

by INEC, is an abuse of court process. Nothing can be more devastating than to exclude a candidate, duly nominated by his political party, from an election.

“The petitioner has cause to complain of unlawful exclusion from the April 9 election. The order of the Federal High Court, Abuja was served on INEC on April 8. There is no evidence of appeal. So, the order is yet to be vacated. INEC is under obligation to comply with the order.

“This is a case of barbaric conduct and glaring disrespect of court order. This must be condemned, if we are not to say goodbye to the rule of law. Ignoring orders of courts with ignominy is condemnable.

“The disobedience by INEC, of the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, gave the petitioners (Michaels-Atata and AA) the locus standi. The wrong must be remedied. The conduct of the officials of INEC in this matter leaves little to be desired.

“INEC was duty bound to have obeyed the court order and to postpone the election or appeal the judgment and get the order vacated, which the electoral commission did not do. Excluding a candidate is very sensitive and volatile and can lead to a breach of the peace.

“The petitioner has proved his valid nomination by his party and unlawful exclusion by INEC. The return of the 6 th respondent (Sekibo) as the duly-elected candidate for the Rivers East senatorial district on April 9, 2011 is hereby nullified, in the interest of justice and a rerun election is hereby ordered.

“INEC is hereby ordered to include in the rerun election, the names, symbol and logo of the petitioners (Michaels-Atata and AA) respectively.”

In his response in court, immediately after the judgment was delivered, the lead counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Lex Legia, described the judgment as a welcome development and a rich addition to Nigeria’s jurisprudence.

• Continued on page 46

• Secretary to the Lagos State Government Mrs Oluranti Adebule in a group photograph with former Mongolia Prime Minister, Mr Rinchinyamym Amarjargal (right) and his team during a courtesy call to SSG office at Alausa, Ikeja.

46

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

POLITICS

‘No room for corruption in Lagos councils’ Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Ademorin Kuye spoke with Deputy Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU on Fashola Administration’s plans to reform the local government system.

P

• Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi with some World Bank officials at a Capacity Workshop on Disaster Management in Ibadan ... yesterday.

‘ACN now a national party’ Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Welfare Officer Chief Nwakwe Ifeanyichukwu Regis spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU and ADEJO DAVID on the party’s prospects in future elections. When he visited The Nation’s Lagos Office.

W

HAT is the vision of ACN in the postelection period?

Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), is known to stand for i n f r a s t r u c t u r a l development,transformation, better service for the common man.

We are looking forward to control the Federal Government at the centre in 2015, simply because we are the party of the people.We also want to give the people of Nigeria welfare package they will be proud of. That is why we see ACN as a party for the future that will midwife development in the country.

Are you nursing any political ambition?

No, my hands are full as National Welfare Officer, member of the National Working Committee and member of the National Executive Committee of the party. With these posistions I have played my role to the people of my country.

What do you think ACN should put in place to win more states in future elections?

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has put some plans in place to ensure that local, states and the national as well as constituencies of the National Assembly fully involved in 2015. This is because we are united, focus and determined. We have put our

machineries all over the country, including the Federal Capital Teritory (FCT ) in place and we hope for victory because people see the dividend of democracy in ACN controlled states. We will work harder to claim the states we already have in subsequent elections and improve on them.

That is one of the reasons we are a national party because we give hope to the people.

How many states do you expect ACN to control in 2015?

In my observation, we will win about 25 states, though we were not strong in some states in the last election, but now we are moving in full speed to control more states in 2015. This could be seen by our performance in the last election.

Why is ACN not so strong in the Southeast?

We were not strong before in that region but now we are waxing stronger. For instance, in Anambra State, we made a lot of impact, we have Dr. Chris Ngige and many other members of ACN at the National Assembly. We have our members representing South-east in the National Assembly. With the situation of things now, we will win the next governorship election in Anambra.

What about Southsouth?

We won the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State but it was rigged by the People Democratic

• Nwakwe

Party (PDP). We did very well in South-south, we are in control of Edo State, we are very strong in Cross River State and we will take Rivers State from PDP in the next elections. In the North-Central, we are going to make our impact.

Geometrically, ACN is covering more states and by 2015, the party will make huge in-roads to many areas. We are going to storm Benue State with a view to delivering the dividends of democracy.

What is the position of ACN on fuel subsidy removal?

Fuel subsidy removal will put more suffering on the people, I am on the side of my party. The security situation in the North is very alarming and call for all hands to be on deck. If the security chiefs cannot find lasting solution to it, they should give way for others who understand the nitty gritty of sound security and are capable of finding solution to the crisis in the country and north in particular.

Rivers PDP, ACN test strength • Continued from page 45

Sekibo’s lead counsel, Mr. Tonye Ibisiki, in his response, described the judges’ pronouncements as “particularly thought-provoking,” while urging the tribunal to make the judgment available as soon as possible, in order to advise his client appropriately.

Ibisiki, while later interacting with reporters, hinted that they would appeal against judgment.

The lead counsel to INEC and its officials, Mr. Ferdinand Orbih, SAN, who was represented by Mrs. Sophia Igbanor, declined to comment on the judgment.

The petitioners, in their grounds, stated that they were validly nominated, but unlawfully excluded from the poll,

describing the election as invalid, by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the 2010 Electoral Act, as amended.

Michaels-Atata and AA also described the election as unlawful, null and void, for being in violation of the order of the FHC, Abuja, made on April 7 and duly served on April 8, and that Sekibo was not duly elected and not duly returned.

On the reliefs sought, the petitioners prayed the tribunal to declare as valid and subsisting, the order of the FHC, Abuja, as at April 9, 2011, when the senatorial election was conducted and that the poll was in violation of the court order.

They also sought a declaration

that the petitioners were validly nominated, but unlawfully excluded from the poll and that the election is invalid, null and void, by reason of noncompliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, still in force.

The petitioners also prayed the tribunal to declare that Sekibo was neither duly elected nor returned and the election should be nullified, with by-election or fresh election ordered, while the certificate of return issued by INEC should be either withdrawn or cancelled, which were granted by the tribunal.

Voters in the district now have another opportunity to elect their representative, if only free, fair and credible election will be allowed.

DP has alleged that ACN rigged the council polls in Lagos. What is your reaction?

I believe it is necessary for us to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship in everything that we do. Then let us situate the allegation against recent event.

Just April this year, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), an agent under the Federal government conducted a general election in Nigeria . And in that election, the Action Congress of Nigeria won overwhelmingly in Lagos . We won with the highest votes in Nigeria in the governorship race.

Now having said that, just about six month thereafter, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came with the allegation that they won an election in the same Lagos State. And the question that comes to mind is, what are the testimonial, and the benefits the PDP has brought to this country and particularly to Lagos sate between April and October that would make the people of Lagos change their mind to vote for the PDP? Is it the neglect of the people at the Bar Beach , where many people have been rendered homeless without any support or intervention from the Federal government? Even the President came and saw the plights of the people around that axis. Is the bad Fedral roads like the Apapa Tin Can all the way to Oshodi then to Ikorodu which it is only by the grace of the state government that allows people to ply that route? Is it the mistake our people made in April by saying they were voting for Jonathan and not the PDP? What has Jonathan achieved so far? Is the Federal government intention to increase the electricity tariff in the country? Or is their plan to remove fuel subsidy that is an incentive to the public to want to vote for them? Is the killing of the innocent people, lack of security for the people of this country? Is it the number of the youth corps members that died during their elections that the President compensated with just N5m each?

Common! Let us face the reality, the people can never vote for the PDP. The people here, who cherish free fair and credible election, can never vote for PDP. So, such allegation is false, malicious, libellous and criminal.

But have the council chairmen performed to expectation in the last three years?

The fact, if I am going to be frank with you, is that the local governments did not perform up to people’s expectation, not that they did not perform at all.

And of course, the yardstick for governance, especially the standard set by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), is what is causing the problem.

Other governors across the country found Fashola’s standard beyond their reach how much more Local Government Chairmen. People are making comparison between Governor Fashola’s standard of governance and council chairmen’s.

Fashola’s standard is supposed to be a challenge to the council chairmen. It has been a challenge and will continue to be a challenge, even to the Federal government.

However, on our own part, we will continue to effectively monitor, to give new direction, and give positive administrative guidelines for the administration of the third tier of government in the state. We are going to ensure that it is not business as usual. We are going to ensure financial discipline at the Local Government level. We have got to be watching them. And we are going to make sure they buy into the vision of a Mega City , the first of its kind in Africa .

But then, you will be surprised to discover that the council chairmen performed. When I went round, I saw some of the projects executed by these chairmen and I realised that their problem is that they did not involve the media. They did not utilised the opportunity of the sophisticated pressmen for the wide coverage they could get in the state. I discover that most of their projects were not publicised.

I got to local government where I saw a three storey building primary health centre. I have seen in a Local government some medical tools that can only be seen in General Hospitals. I have seen in Alomosho Local Government, a two storey primary school built from the scratch. I have travelled far and wide and I make bold to say that the standard of governance in local Government in Lagos state is second to none.

In Ibeju-Leki, the chairmen there have even gone as far as taking Federal Government responsibility like provision of transformers. And immediately they install them, the Federal government would come and writeFederal Government Property- on them.

Now that you are the supervising commissioner, how would you monitor the activities of the chairmen and councillors?

We are going to ensure that the councillors are made to perform their functions effectively. And in performing their functions, we will make them act as checks to the excesses of the Executives. And we are going to ensure that whoever goes astray we would use our mechanism to ensure discipline. The party too has its own machinery to ensure discipline in governance at local level.

And that is going to be fully utilised this time round.

How autonomous are the local governments in Lagos State?

Advice was given to Governor Fashola to appoint Sole Administrators and Executive Secretary to man the Local Government, instead of conducting an election. But the Governor stood on the side of the Constitution by reminding that the constitution provides for entrenchment of duly democratically elected government at the grassroots.

•Kuye

47

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

MONEY

More credit coming for SMEs Regulators differ over statutory deposit F T

OLLOWING increasing requests by entrepreneurs who could not access funds from the Central Bank’s initial N200 billion grant for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), the apex bank is considering providing additional lifeline for the sector.

The Director, Development Finance Department, CBN, Paul Nduka Eluhaiwe, said plans are in the offing to bring more small and medium scale enterprises into the credit net.

Speaking with The Nation, Eluhaiwe said the apex bank’s decision is borne out of the need to rejuvenate the industrial sector and further improve the economy.

He said an arrangement would be worked out with the management of CBN on how to make entrepreneurs, who have missed out from the intervention fund, get an opportunity, adding that the level of progress made on loan repayment would determine the period.

He said the CBN would make loans available for the entrepreneurs that did not participate in the N200 billion fund.

“We would ensure that more small and medium scale enterprises owners benefit from the scheme to ensure the growth of

By Akinola Ajibade

the economy,” he said.

He said entrepreneurs wasted no time in applying for the fund, because they know its importance to their investments.

He said the last N300 million was released few months ago based on the requests from the Bank of Industry- the bank officially appointed by the CBN to distribute the fund to the agent banks.

Meanwhile, firms have been preparing themselves, so that the CBN if decides to offer new window of financial assistance for the operators in the sub-sector .

The Managing Director, Site Media Consultancy Firm Limited, Friday Adejube, said his computer firm has improved operations to meet future financial opportunity coming from the apex bank.

Adejube said his company, among others in Akure, Ondo State, has improved relationship with their bankers in order not to miss further credit assistance. He said many firms in the area have contacted the agent banks to inspect their facilities and further get considerations from them.

CBN stipulated that the maximum amount that would be guar-

anteed under the scheme is N100million which could be in form of working capital, term loans for refurbishment, equipment upgrade/ expansion, overdrafts, adding that the guarantee cover shall be 80 per cent and valid up to the maturity date of the loan with a maximum of five years.

It explained that all deposit money banks and development banks shall be eligible to participate in the scheme.

Banks are, however, expected to conduct due diligence on any applications received and ensure that adequate collateral is provided to secure the facilities taken by promoters.

Also, SME promoters and manufacturers must belong to any of the private sector bodies, such as Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and National Association of Small Scale Industries.

On interest rate, the CBN stressed that the lending rate under the scheme shall be marketdriven. However, it added that it is expected that banks would lend at their Prime Lending Rate (PLR) in view of the fact that CBN is sharing the credit risk with them by providing the guarantee.

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insurance firms have disagreed over the release of estimated N10 trillion statutory deposit to their owners.

Out of the amount, Law Union & Rock Plc owns (N315 million), Crystalife Assurance Plc (N200 million), Goldlink Insurance Plc (N500 million), and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc (N300 million).

Several other insurance firms have funds with the CBN. By regulation, the over 60 insurance and re-insurance firms are required to deposit 10 per cent of their capital base as reserves with the CBN. The fund, which serves as a buffer for insurance companies swimming in liquidation waters, has come under criticism in recent times.

A cross-section of stakeholders, who spoke with The Nation, said the insurance statutory deposits are lying fallow in the vaults of CBN and must be released to help the companies cushion the effects of the harsh economic environment.

The President, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sunny Nwosu, called for a law that would enable operators to access the statutory deposits for their businesses. Nwosu said the full weight of the financial crisis has come to bear on insurance opera-

‘CBN didn’t direct banks’ closure in Ogun’

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not direct the closure of banks in Ogun State over security, its spokesman, Mohammed Abdullahi, has said.

The decision by some banks to close over armed robberies and raids of some banks, was purely their personal decisions and assessment of risks in such operating environment, he further said.

“It must be the decision of the banks independent of CBN, probably based on their risk assessment of the situation on the ground.

They are in business and if the environment is not conducive for their businesses, they can close shop, the decision is their own,” Abdullahi, said in a statement.

The increasing wave of bank robberies in the state and the attendant loss of lives and cash, have taken a huge toll on banking activities in the Gateway State. Banks in Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu and Abeokuta last week, shut their gates against customers. The clo-

By Collins Nweze

sure, which the operators said will be indefinite, triggered a biting cash-crunch and panic reactions.

The Ogun State Banks’ Managers Committee (OSBMC), issued a communique after a meeting at the Abeokuta branch of the CBN, saying banks would not re-open for operations in the three senatorial districts until there is an “assurance of safety of lives and cash.”

All 35 members of the committee at the meeting, told reporters that they had pleaded with the state Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, to provide Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), at least 10 Hilux vehicles as well as to urgently convene a security summit to address the incessant threats to banking.

Another meeting has been scheduled for this week at the same venue to review the situation. The managers resolved to write a letter to CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and the Nigeria Deposit In-

tors, adding that the firms need the funds for growth.

He said the decision to leave the money with CBN at an insignificant interest of 3.5 per cent, is inimical to the growth of the insurance industry, adding that insurers need to align with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on how to review the law.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Fola Daniel, said the Insurance Act has stipulated how insurance firms should operate and there is no way the fund can be released to the operators. Daniel wondered why operators are asking for the release of their statutory deposits when they are not liquidating.

Reacting to the development, the CBN’s spokesman, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, said it is going to be extremely difficult for CBN to release the statutory deposits to insurance companies. Abdullahi said the development runs contrary to the principles behind the operation of the fund. He said the money cannot solve the problems of insurance firms, even it is released to them.

I do not think it is right for the insurance firms to demand for their statutory deposits? How much is the money?, he asked.

MfBs target N1t assets

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•From left: Member, Project Review Committee, Alban Ofili Okonkwo; World Bank representative, Michael Wong and Chairman, Project Review Committee of the World Bank Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Project, Prof Anya O. Anya, at the meeting at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

By Akinola Ajibade

HE over 700 microfinance banks in the country have begun a rejig of their operations to position themselves for growth.

Also on the radar of the banks, is the setting and realisation of a target of N1trilliion assets’ base in the next few years.

The Nation gathered that the banks have since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) imposed a new capital regime on them in the second quarter of the year, begun a re-alignment of their strategies to achieve this objective.

The strategies include re-packaging their savings and loans portfolios to accommodate high net-worth investors, embracing a zoning formula to win more customers, training and retraining of workers to meet the growing challenges of micro financing, and keying into the cashless economy initiative of the CBN. The Nation check revealed that banks, such as Owututu Microfinance Bank, Unit Trust Microfinance Bank, FirstBank Microfinance Bank, Blue Microfinance Bank (owned by Intercontinental Bank Plc), among others in Lagos, are putting in place measures to improve their assets to further record growth.

The Managing Director, Money Com Microfinance Bank, Shola Olugbode, in confirming the development, said many of the banks have

fully embraced the cashless economy programme to speed up their growth. He said the decision of some microfinance institutions to apply and win the approval to operate mobile banking payments, is borne out of the need to increase fundamentals across boards.

He said many microfinance banks are ready to utilise non-traditional payment options such as Point of Sale (POS), Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Web banking, to accelerate growth, adding that MFBs are re-appraising their operational strategies, as well as taking steps to improve their activities.

“From the look of things, great changes are taking place in the microfinance sub-sector. Now, the management of the banks are seeing the importance of human resources development by training their staff on sensitive aspects of micro financing. With this, the banks are sure of upping their assets and further grow the sector.

Also, the Chairman, National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), Olufemi Babajide, said the banks would embrace the idea of cashless economy to achieve growth, adding that banks would achieve a lot of success, when policy N150,000 cash withdrawal limit takes effect next year.

UBA Cameroon wins award

U

•CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido

surance Corporation (NDIC) about the security challenges in the state.

They relived the recent experience of a bank, where a year’s profit was lost to robbers in one raid, stressing that they would not “budge” in their chosen cause, until their “demands are met”.

NITED Bank for Africa(UBA) has won another award for its innovation and exemplary performance. Last week, its subsidiary in Cameroon was named Bank of the Year.

UBA Cameroon was adjudged ‘Bank of the Year’ at the Banker Awards organised by The Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times. The award celebrates those banks that have risen to the prevailing challenges in the financial industry, through innovation and economic efficiency. Witnessed by Central Bank Governors, leading bankers and Finance Ministers from several African countries and other parts of the world, UBA Cameroon emerged winner ahead of other notable banks in the country, including Union Bank of Cameroon, Citibank and Ecobank, through a highly competitive voting by global industry

leaders.

UBA Cameroon clinched the top position in recognition of its commitment to support the growth and development of the Cameroonian economy, especially by financing large ticket transactions for corporate customers, thus stimulating economic activities.

Receiving the award, Mr Georges Wega, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, UBA Cameroon, said the bank in its three years of operation has supported Small and Medium Enterprises through needs-based financing and assisting retail customers through innovative electronic solutions. “In demonstration of our capability for big ticket transactions, we recently acted as co-arranger to the five-year $400 million government bond which was oversubscribed,” Wega added.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

48

INSURANCE END OF THE YEAR REVIEW

High hopes, poor output The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and insurers began the year with high expectations. Their goals were hinged on Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) and other schemes. How did they faze? CHUKS UDO OKONTA examines the events that impacted on the sector.

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HE task of growing the industry was paramount to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and operators, that began the year with the hope of leveraging on the enforcement of Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) to achieve their targets.

Developments that shaped the industry are MDRI, issuance of guidelines by NAICOM, directives on International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), directives on money laundry, appointments, and others.

MDRI The MDRI mandates the public to comply with compulsory insurances, such as motor vehicles, buildings and buildings under construction, employer’s liability, medical professional liability, group life for all employers. They also projected that the enforcement of the initiatives would aid the attainment of their N1trillion gross premium income by next year.

NAICOM in January issued the industry’s guidelines to aid the adherence of rules that would regulate the operator’s activities.

The commission also set March for the flagged-off of the MDRI programme, but it could not commence due to technical hitches, which the commission said it identified in the exercise.

Though the initiative is yet to commence ully, the commission has had awareness campaigns in six states and organisations, such as Mutual Benefits Assurance and Leadway Assurance Limited have keyed into it to boost their operations.

Another initiative the operators thought would boost their operations is the electronic certificate project that is being propelled by the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA).

The project was billed to be flagged-off in May, but was stalled by some hitches according to the association.

The initiative is aimed at eradicating paper certificates, which the operators said was responsible for fake insurances, especially in the motor and marine classes of insurance.

Guidelines The industry’s guidelines issued by NAICOM at the beginning of the year introduced new concepts for the operators. The most controversial among the rules in the guidelines was the reduction of brokers’ commission on Group Life Insurance from 10 to eight per cent.

Brokers, who felt slighted about the rule immediately, expressed their misgivings, which they considered inimical to their operations.

The former President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr Teslim Sanusi, condemned the rule, adding it was received with reservations.

He noted that the directive, if sustained, would lead to a diminution in the commission accruable to brokers, and further stem the industry’s growth.

NAICOM promised to consider their request in future guidelines.

Also, in the guidelines NAICOM ordered insurers and reinsurers to report brokers with indebtedness of N5million and submit their statement of premium transitions for verification quarterly.

International financial reporting standard The operators were urged to migrate from their reporting system to the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) to enable them to align with global best practice.

NAICOM demanded that company’s financial statement for the year ending December 31, 2010 should disclose plans and possible impact of IFRS on the opening balances for 2011.

It also said the opening balance sheet for the year and their reconciliation to the closing for the year should be submitted not later than September 1, 2011. It noted that the IFRS opening and closing balance sheets, which should form the comparatives for 2012 financial reporting, shall be audited in line with global standards.

Our investigation shows that companies are complying with the directives.

Experts, who expressed concern on the poor rating of the industry, said the introduction of IFRS, would help raise confidence on the industry, adding that both local and foreign firms would do business with insurers as they align with their foreign counterparts.

The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Accountant Standard Board (NASB), Mr Jim Obaze, told The Nation that the adoption of the IFRS by insurers would help transform their operations and align them with the counterparts across the globe.

He said the industry’s financial reporting falls below international standard, adding that if insurers are to compete favourable in the international market, they must meet global accepted standards.

An Executive Officer of Akintola Williams Deloitte, Mr Oduware Uwadiae, said adoption of IFRS by insurers would increase volatility in financial reporting statements and enable consistency and transparency of reporting across insurance entities.

Education on money laundry To educate operators on the dangers and consequences of money laundry and anti-terrorism financing, NAICOM organised a workshop to sensitise them on how to identify such illicit activities.

The operators were charged to ensure compliance with money laundry and anti-terrorism financing.

• Daniel

• Adepegba

Head, Compliance Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Mr Giwa Sechap, at the forum accused insurers on their poor reporting system, adding that they are a weak link in the financial services sector.

He noted that insurers have poor customers’ identification system and that their reports are often incomplete.The industry’s proposed electronic insurance certificate has also been hindered due to poor submission of data to the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA). The initiative was billed to commence in March, but could not, because many companies were unable to submit their customers’ data.

broker registered in Nigeria under the provisions of the Insurance Act 2003.

Leveraging on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) selected over 40 brokers to underwrite risks in the oil and gas sector. Also, major oil and gas companies have keyed into the Acts, a development the brokers considered good for the growth of their operations.

College of insurance During the review period, the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) began the construction of its college of insurance, which is aimed at increasing the level of professionals in the industry Its Director-General, Mr Adegboyega Adepegba, said the college would help bridge the gap in human capacity development and boost researches in the industry. ”As regards the college, which has been put in place shortly, we will go into operation.

What we have been able to achieve in the last few months is to get a befitting place for the college. We have not been able to complete the administrative blocks, but that does not stop the college from functioning. We have lots of plan to begin to train people at the college. We will start conducting research at the college that will benefit people in the industry and fundamentally make input in the economy through research,” he said.

Local Content Act The Act empowered insurance brokers on underwriting of risks in the country. Section 49 of the Act notes that all operators, project promoters, alliance partners and Nigerian indigenous companies engaged in any form of business, operations, or contract in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, are required to insure all insurable risks related to its oil and gas business, operations or contracts with an insurance company(s) through an insurance

Arrest of fake operators To weed out fake operators, NAICOM in collaboration the police arrested about 20 fake operators in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and other cities. Some of the suspects, according to NAICOM, are being investigated.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel, said NAICOM has also approached the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice office for a fiat to prosecute fake insurance operators.

He noted that the granting of such power would enable NAICOM’s lawyers prosecute fake operators without engaging the police.

He noted that the prolonged investigation, which the police said it was conducting uncalled for as the fake operators were caught in the act.

Daniel said the move to arrest and prosecute the fake operators was to sanitise the industry and restore public confidence, adding that the activities of quacks portends danger to the industry’s growth.

It noted that no person shall transact business as an insurance agent unless he/she possesses a certificate of proficiency issued in the name of the individual applicant by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and duly appointed by an insurer and licensed according to Insurance Act 2003.

Appointments There was a change of baton in the CIIN. Dr Wole Adetimehin was elected president. Also, the Executive Vice-Chairman of Industrial and General Insurance Plc, Mr Remi Olowude, was elected deputy president of the NIA. NCRIB had its first female president. She is Mrs Laide Osijo.

Brokers seek mass local participation in oil, gas

T

HE President, Lagos Area Committee of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr Tunde Oguntade, has canvassed the involvement of more brokers in oil and gas business to meet the requirements of the Local Content Act. The Act stipulates that 70 per cent risks in oil and gas should be underwritten by local insurers.

Oguntade told The Nation that the guidelines on oil and gas make it difficult for most brokers to participate in the business, adding that efforts should be made to encourage mass participation.

He noted that the operators are not slacking in beefing up capacity, adding that giving them access to the business would help boost their knowledge on oil and gas.

He said: “There are requirements spelt out in the guidelines for you to be an active practitioner. But how many of our people can meet the requirement? For instance, for you to participate in oil and gas as a broker, your

licence must include oil and gas and cover special risks. But I can tell you that about 90 per cent of the brokers carry life and general business licences.

“So, with this requirement, NAICOM is restricting entry into the area, because how many people can meet the requirement? It is not an open thing; there is no level playing field. Another issue is how many oil and gas professionals are in the industry? Probably, 10 and these 10 are likely to be with the top five brokers.

“The oil and gas pool created by Nigerian Insurance Corporation (NICON) in the past ought to be a training school for practitioners, but the thing died a natural death because some people form themselves into cartel and the businesses did not spread.

The guidelines are good to check malpractices and distress, but it has not provided a levelling playing ground for practitioners.

“On the part of the NCRIB, we have arranged seminars; HSBC of London came to

the country last year and our members were encouraged to attend the training. There was another training organised by NAICOM and some of our members attended. We have also visited the United Kingdom and South Africa. This year, we are looking towards going to America.

“We will continue to do our best and enlighten our people. The basic thing is that the government should create rooms for participation. It should tell NAICOM to encourage its operators to allow free entry to the market. As it is in Nigeria today, we have only four or five brokers operating within oil and gas market. And these five brokers are not indigenous brokers per se; they are foreign brokers that got indigenised.”

He said the operators are doing well on paper in oil and gas, but in actual practice, they are far off. He noted that operators within the market are still struggling to get into the cartel that exists in the oil and gas business, adding that the rate in the sector is determined

by foreign underwriters.

“There is a cartel. The truth of the practice is that there is nothing fantastic about the local content. It boils down to property, fire and burglary. Those are the packages.

“The truth of it is that it is in dollars and the risks are determined by the offshore practitioners that are foreigners. The local market does not have control of the rates, because they are determined globally and the advantage of rates can not give us the leverage that we require to participate actively.

The multi-nationals that are into oil and gas have their technical partners and affiliates abroad with whom, they do these businesses.

The fact is that they give us the non-oil aspect of it 100 per cent. But the real oil aspect of it still does not stay in Nigeria. Because they will tell you that the total capacity of the industry is not up to 10 per cent of the risk capacity required and what is the recapitalisation required? It runs into billions of dollars.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

49

THE NATION

INVESTORS NSE cuts firms’ public float to 20% T

HE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has compiled fresh rules, reducing the minimum percentage shareholding in quoted companies from 25 to 20 per cent for the public.

The rules, it was learnt, have been forwarded to the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for ratification.

The rules may take effect anytime from now, sources said.

Even with the reduction to 20 per cent public float, some core shareholders may be forced to drop equities estimated at N250billion.

Under the new regime, the public shall hold a minimum of 20 per cent of each class of equity securities of a company; 15 per cent of a company quoted on the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) and 10 per cent of a dual-listed company.

The NSE has met with top management of companies responsible for compliance with listing rules to intimate them with the changes. At the meeting were chief financial officers and company secretaries.

The rules, obtained by The Nation, stipulate minimum requirements and standards for number of shareholders, minimum public float, period of operating years prior to listing, accounting standards, profitability of the company, market capitalisation, forecasts and periodic rendition of accounts, among others.

Public float is technically a synonym for a public shareholder and it refers to the shares of a company held by ordinary shareholders other than those directly or indirectly held by its parent, sub-

•Large investors may drop N250b equities

By Taofik Salako

sidiary or associate companies or any subsidiaries or associates of its parent company; its directors who are holding office as directors of the entity and their close family members and any single individual or institutional shareholder holding a statutorily significant stake, which is five per cent and above in Nigeria.

Public shareholders and public float do not include shareholders or shares held directly or indirectly by any officer, director, controlling shareholder or other concentrated, affiliated or family holdings.

Some core investors in many companies may dispose of part of their equities or dilute such equities to comply with the minimum float. It is estimated that some investors may sell as much as N250 billion, according to market valuations of equities.

Dangote Cement Plc is a major test case for the rule. Its owner may have to give up 15 per cent equity stake worth about N244.3 billion, to reduce his dominant equity stake of 95.03 per cent in the N1.6 trillion most-capitalised company on the Exchange.

Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) holds 94.87 per cent equity stake in Dangote Cement while the owner also directly holds 0.16 per cent equity stake.

Also, the Leventis family, which holds about 88 per cent equity stake in AG Leventis (Nigeria) Plc, may give up at least eight per cent of its equity stakes or promote

supplementary issues to dilute its shareholdings to comply with the 20 per cent float. This implies selling current shareholdings worth about N348 million.

The public float would also prevent core investors in several companies including Conoil, Cadbury Nigeria, Dangote Flour Mills and Dangote Sugar Refinery from acquiring additional equity

stakes. Already, these core investors are holding more than 70 per cent.

But, core investors that do not want to dispose of their shares or dilute such can opt for voluntary delisting.

Executive Director Market Operations and Technology, NSE, Mr Adeolu Bajomo, said NSE would ensure companies comply with

G

growth, strong internal business process and people to put it on a stable growth path.

He said some of the company's strategies include deepening relation with insurance brokers, which according to him, control between 60 and 70 per cent of corporate businesses and prompt customer service.

The company's business plan also includes capacity development to grow retail business, putting into consideration the active branches.

He said the management would develop the capability that would enable it venture into the oil and gas business through Local Content Act. He added that the company would leverage on the Market Develop-

ment Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to provide products that would attract the populace.

He solicited the support of stakeholders in the implementation of the firm’s transformation agenda, noting that the process of change requires painstaking and steady commitments.

"We are determined to make Guinea Insurance one of the most respectable insurance brands in Nigeria that brokers and clients will be excited to do business with.

Therefore, we are focusing on growing our business aggressively through the creation of relationships and establishing alternative

channels of reaching the market," Emiola said.

He said the company has started strengthening its branch network to provide excellent services to its clients while the board has already approved the opening of new branches.

Apart from consolidating on its public sector business, the company is deploying strategy to develop and grow retail business which has been neglected by concentrating attention on corporate and public sector business, he said.

Emiola said although the corporate review led to staff restructuring, the company needed to align its business goal with its human capital and other resources.

Procter and Gamble increases investments in Nigeria PROCTER and Gamble (P & G) Nigeria will continue to explore opportunities to increase its investments and consolidate its strong market share.

It made its plan known at the inauguration of a factory for the manufacture of P&G's safeguard antibacterial soap at New Home Products Industries Limited (NHPIL) Plant, Matori during a visit to Lagos by its viceChairman for Global Business, Dimitri Panayotopoulos.

P & G said the partnership with

NHPIL was part of its long term investment plan in Nigeria, noting that NHIPL's manufacturing plant is a world class facility that would enable the leading global brand to reach consumers.

NHPIL Managing Director of NHPIL, Mr Deeprak Kacher, indicated his interest in a heightened level of collaboration between the two companies. "We are looking forward to taking our partnership with P&G from

•Continued on page 46

•From right: Managing Director, Presco Plc, Mr Uday Pilani; Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology, Nigerian Stock Exchnage (NSE), Mr Adeolu Bajomo; and General Manager, Listings, Sales and Retention, NSE, Mrs Taba Peterside, during a visit by the management of Presco to the NSE.

Guinea Insurance targets N2b premium in 2012 UINEA Insurance Plc will grow its gross premium to N2 billion in the next fiscal year, its management has said.

Its Managing Director, Mr Soji Emiola, said ongoing initiatives by management impacted positively on the performance of the company, citing the top-line of N961 million recorded in the third quarter of this year.

According to him, the management has prepared a corporate growth plan that will make the company continues to improve on its performance.

He said the firm has the potential to be one of the top 10 in the country despite its challenges.

According to him, the management will focus on business

the minimum public float. “NSE monitors closely listed companies that fall below the minimum float requirement and gives a time frame by which it must be met,” Bajomo said.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) recently decided to delist its Nigerian subsidiaryEcobank Nigeria Plc. Under the scheme of merger of Oceanic Bank International and Ecobank Nigeria, it is expected that ETI's

good to great," Mr Kacher said.

Since its establishment in Nigeria, P&G has invested billions of naira in capital projects, including its plant in Ibadan, Oyo State. More than 85 per cent of the P&G products sold in Nigeria are manufactured in the country.

The firm said it was poised to expand its investments, increase its production capacity and introduce latest product technology and new products.

P&G Nigeria serves as the

business hub for West and Central Africa as the company expands across the region.

The company produces Ariel Detergent, Bonux Detergent, Pampers Disposable Diapers, Always Sanitary Pads, Vicks Throat Drops and Safeguard soap in Nigeria and employs over 3,000 direct and indirect employees through its general office in Lagos and manufacturing facilities in Ibadan.

"We are starting the aspect of internal branding by ensuring that our processes are in top shape to meet customers' aspirations for speed, quality and empathy. We are investing in technology to drive our processes in the area of claims administration and policy documentation.

“In addition to this, we are preparing to sign Service Level Agreements (SLA) with our business suppliers and business partners so that in every relationship we are entering into expectations are clear up front," Emiola said.

He reiterated the management’s commitment to meet the expectations of the shareholders, assuring that the investing public and the shareholders will see strong fundamentals and capital appreciation in the years ahead.

Forecasts (Q1 2012) Skye Bank Plc Gross Earnings N29bn Profit after tax N109m Nestle Nigeria Plc Turnover N22.70bn Profit after tax N2.78bn Nem Insurance Plc Gross Premium N4.12bn Profit after tax N1.16bn Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc Gross Premium N2.40bn Profit after tax N238.21m Abbey Building Society Plc Turnover N411.15m Profit after tax N62.96m Etranzact International Plc Turnover N952.91m Profit after tax N125.45m

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

50

THE NATION INVESTORS 'Market abuse, policy changes responsible for market downtrend'

S

TAKEHOLDERS have identified abuse of market processes and changes in fiscal and monetary policies as major causes of economic meltdown.

Capital market stakeholders, who spoke at the National Workshop of the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, said the downtrend was fueled by operators and investors greed. It was compounded by the actions of the financial services, they added.

Speakers at the workshop, including Managing Director of the Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS), Mr Kyari Bukar; Managing Director, Partnership Capital Investment Plc, Mr Victor Ogiemwonyi and Managing Director, DHTL Capital Management Limited, Mr Tunde Adeyemi, were unanimous that the stock market meltdown was closely related to the banking reform.

Bukar, who was represented by Assistant General Manager, Finance, CSCS, Mr Vincent Ukoh, noted that the foundation for the meltdown was laid with the directive that banks should increase

By Tonia Osundolire

their capital to a minimum of N25 billion.

According to him, most of the banks did not actually raise the stated amount, but resorted to book balancing and falsification of returns to reflect injection of new funds.

He said investors were deceived into investing in most of the banks and unknowingly supported the bubble capital that was being created in the banks.

Ogiemwonyi added that subsequent directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria that only banks with N100 billion capital base would be allowed to manage Nigeria's external reserves then exacerbated the mad rush for bubble capital.

According to him, most of the banks resorted to sharp practices to raise the required funds needed to shore up their capital base. A number of the banks engaged in sharp and unethical practices with the huge capital which was found to be idle in their books.

Adeyemi said the approach of the CBN to managing resultant bank-

ing crisis further worsened the market situation.

He noted that CBN criminalised borrowing by publishing the names of banks' debtors in newspapers instead of seeking ways to manage the debts.

He said the majority of the stockbrokers were affected by the credit crunch and many were still unable to woo investors due to fears that banks could swoop on the funds collected from their clients in the name of debt collec-

tion.

He added that the massive downsizing in the banking sector also impacted negatively on the stock market as several bank staff were clients of stockbroking firms.

NSE cuts firms’ public float to 20% •Continued from page 45

shareholding in the enlarged Ecobank Nigeria will increase from its current 85 per cent to approximately 93 per cent, further reducing Ecobank Nigeria's minimum free float to maintain listing on the NSE. The Board of Ecobank Nigeria resolved to address this issue by accepting a proposal from ETI to acquire the shares in Ecobank Nigeria not already owned by ETI and thus convert the bank to a private wholly-owned subsidiary of ETI. Stock markets maintain minimum public float to prevent undue concentration of securities in the hands of the core investors and related interests, a situation

FACTS

TO

that can make the stock to be susceptible to price manipulation.

Besides, it provides the general investing public with opportunity to reasonably partake in the wealth creation by private enterprises.

India recently increased its public float to 25 per cent with companies given stipulated time to comply with the float. Hong Kong also maintains 25 per cent float.

Beside the minimum public float, the listing rules also require a company on the main board to have a cumulative consolidated pre-tax profit of at least N300 million for the last three years, with a pre-tax profit of at least N100 million in two of those years and

the company must have been in operation for at least three years.

Promoters of the company are also required to retain 50 per cent of their shares prior to the Initial Public Offering (IPO) for a minimum of 12 months after listing while the number of the public shareholders shall be at least 300 for equity shares.

Companies are expected to continuously comply with NSE's Listing, Disclosure & Transparency Rules as well as submit quarterly, semi - annual and annual statements provided in line with the International Financial Reporting Standards.

However, the listing rule allows the NSE to grant waivers on some of the requirements.

FACTS

Unilever vs PZ Cussons: Competitive earnings

P

Z Cussons Nigeria and Unilever Nigeria many things including to a large extent business model, foreign ownership and management thoughts. Large manufacturers and marketers of many similar home and personal care products, both parade several international brands.

But while PZ Cussons Nigeria complements its business with a vibrant home appliances segment, Unilever Nigeria differs with its vibrant seasoning brands. Also, PZ Cussons Nigeria is the larger of the two companies with its assets base more than twice that of Unilever Nigeria while PZ Cussons Nigeria's equity funds quadrupled that of Unilever Nigeria. Besides, while Unilever Nigeria runs the normal Gregorian calendar year as its business year, PZ Cussons' business year runs from June to May. Probably, transferring the resemblance to the fundamentals, current audited reports and accounts the two leading fast moving consumer goods companies showed almost similar top-line structure and profitability position. With almost the same growth in sales, the reports of the two conglomerates showed the lull in the consumer goods market as consumers struggled with declining purchasing power and constraints orchestrated by economic depression. With tight topline, both companies had to fell on internal cost management to sustain profitability.

Sales Generation PZ Cussons Nigeria's sales recovered from the contraction in 2010 to achieve modest growth in 2011.

Total sales rose by 5.1 per cent during the immediate past year as against a marginal decline of two per cent in the previous year. These showed average growth sale of 1.55 per cent over the two-year period. PZ Cussons' performance obviously fell below its peer, given Unilever Nigeria's two-year average sales growth of 5.3 per cent.

Unilever Nigeria's turnover rose by 5.2 per cent in 2010 as against increase of 5.4 per cent in 2009.

Profitability Both companies also showed a somewhat similar profit outlook with declines in margins and con-

FACTS TO FACTS

Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

Unilever

PZ Cussons 2011

2010 %

Average %

5.1

-2 -8.2 4 27.6 12.7 10 9 13.7

1.55 -4.1 2.65 13.8 12.4 4.25 8.65 13.2

1.3 12.1 -1.5 8.3 12.7

Pre-tax profit margin (PZ)

By Taofik Salako

stricted bottom-line. On standalone basis as well as peer review, PZ Cussons Nigeria generally fell below averages in the immediate past year. Profit before tax inched up by 1.3 per cent in 2011 as against four per cent in 2010. Pre-tax profit margin fell below two-year average of 12.4 per cent to 12.1 per cent in 2011 compared with 12.7 per cent in 2010. Net profit dropped marginally by 1.5 per cent in 2011 as against 10 per cent increase in the previous year, indicating average growth rate of 4.25 per cent.

Unilever Nigeria meanwhile sustained no-red profit indices in spite of obvious slumps in many areas.

Gross profit inched up by 0.35 per

cent in 2010 compared with 34 per cent rise in 2009. Pre-tax profit also rose by 8.7 per cent in 2010 as against about 37 per cent growth in 2009 while profit after tax limped forward by 2.2 per cent in 2010 compared with a jump of about 58 per cent in 2009. The underlying profitability of the company however remained enduring with gross profit margin at 37 per cent in 2010 as against 39 per cent in 2009 while pre-tax profit margin increased to 13.1 per cent in 2010 compared with 12.7 per cent in 2009 and two-year average of 12.9 per cent.

Actual Returns Both companies continued to sustain positive returns. Unilever Nigeria led on the returns table in

Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

2010 %

2009 %

Average %

5.2 0.35 8.7 37.3 13.1 2.2 16.1 50.2

5.4 33.6 36.6 39.1 12.7 57.6 17.3 49.9

5.3 16.98 22.65 38.2 12.9 29.9 16.7 50.05

Pre-tax profit margin (Unilever)

both actual size of returns and the year-on-year improvement.

Unilever Nigeria's actual return on total assets dropped below average to 16.1 per cent in 2010 compared with 17.3 per cent in 2009.

However, actual return to shareholders improved to 50.2 per cent in 2010 as against 49.9 per cent recorded in 2009 and a two-year average of 50.05 per cent.

On the other hand, PZ Cussons Nigeria witnessed declines in both returns on total assets and equity.

Return on total assets dropped below two-year average of 8.65 per cent to 8.3 per cent in 2011 as against 9.0 per cent in 2010. Actual return on shareholders' funds also slipped below average from about 14 per cent in 2010 to about 13 per cent in 2011.

The Bottom-line With a thin, sluggish industrywide top-line, fast moving consumer goods manufacturers and marketers have fallen on their routes-to-the-market strategies, economy of scale, internal administrative cost management and other cost-cutting measures to keep the bottom-line green. The performance outlooks of the two conglomerates underline the challenges facing manufacturers, especially consumer goods manufacturers, which usually are the first casualties in a depressing and inflationary economy. Overall, the earnings of the two companies remained competitive and underlined their intrinsic advantages as global players and long-established market leaders in Nigeria.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

51

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

52

SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Shoe business will thrive in Nigeria, says Canadian H

E is a model for the youth in entrepreneurship. Famous globally for his footwears, Tai Dehtiar, the awardwinning Canadian entrepreneur and a recipient of the Ontario Global Trade Award, has carved a niche for his business through the Oliberte footwear.

He addressed young Nigeria entrepreneurs at a forum organised by the Canadian High Commission, in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

As a young business owner, Dehtiar is proud of what he has been able to accomplish in Canada and abroad.

He told young entrepreneurs to explore the idea of manufacturing local shoes for the Nigerian market.

The market for shoes, he explained, is so large, considering the nation’s growing population.

To succeed, Dehtiar advised the entrepreneurs to focus on producing high-quality products that are able to compete with other companies vying for market share and consumers’ attention.

In the market, the quality, attributes and brand of the product, he said, should be able to stand on its own merit.

He founded Oliberté Footwear, the first company in the world to market premium urbancasual footwear, that is exclusively made in Africa, from the natural rubber found in Liberia and leather from Ethiopia, by the locals, manufacturing shoes in factories built to ISO 14000 (environmental management) standards, where workers are paid a

• Cooter

By Daniel Essiet

fair wage and no child labour is used.

Oliberté has grown rapidly under his leadership. Models of Oliberté are selling in stores across North America, Europe and Asia.

The company‘s goal is to support one million jobs on the continent by 2025.

Dehtiar was wandering around the Liberian capital of Monrovia, looking for ways to tap into the country’s abundant supply of natural rubber. Then he was off to Addis Ababa, to source leather and find factories that could assemble the various elements into finished products.

Thirty-seven drafts of his business plan later, he was ready to put its crepe-soled rubber to the

• Nweke

• Dehtiar

road. His original plan was to buy shoe-making equipment in North America and build a factory in Liberia. It was too capital intensive for the moment. Besides, the Ethiopian government, eager to prop up its own oncethriving shoe manufacturing industry – hard hit by a flood of cheap Chinese imports – offered Dehtiar some major incentives.

In addition, Ethiopian Airways offered to fly his finished goods to North America for $1.50 per kilo – a bargain price that would get the merchandise to Western consumers in four days, much faster and even cheaper than the 45 days needed for conventional shipping.

The Canadian High Commissioner, Chris Cooter, said Nigeria represents a key market for Canadian companies and helping

their businesses expand investment and trade opportunities.

He, however, said the trade situation between the two countries was dismal, considering the long relationship between Canada and Nigeria.

Cooter said increased trade between both countries is essential to growing the Nigerian economy, and that Canada is determined to follow up on opportunities identified within the economy.

He said Canada wants to increase bilateral trade and is banking on proposed investment in telecommunications and other sectors.

NDE gives N2m to small entrepreneurs

T

• From left: Chairman, AMEN Board of Trustees, Mr Lawal Olatunji; Frederick and Iche.

Group promotes small businesses for youths

T

HE Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN), will address rising unemployment and underemployment among youths; its President, Prince Saviour Iche, has said.

Iche, at an end-of-year business meeting said the association would promote youth-led small businesses.

He said the association has raised awareness in entrepreneurship and is in partnership with the government to improve the means of livelihood of the young.

The initiative, according to

him, is to use a multi-pronged approach, which will include advocacy against obstacles for youth-led micro enterprises to create more jobs, provide relevant training that responds to market demands; gain support for new and established youth entrepreneurs; and enlighten the young to access the credit and savings institutions needed to support their emerging businesses.

The success of start-up ventures will play a central role in spurring economic growth, he said.

The goal of the association, he

stated, is to provide graduates with the opportunity to realise their potential in starting new businesses and this makes AMEN the destination of choice for young entrepreneurs.

The Secretary-General, Nwokeleme Frederick, the association has enjoyed tremendous success in nurturing ideas and innovations into commercial enterprises.

He said the association is interested in turning ideas and innovations into next generation businesses that spur economic growth and development.

He said Canada is committed to helping businesses compete successfully in the international marketplace; export their products and expertise to the world and in the process, contribute to economic growth and job creation at home.

He said his country would increasingly focus on Nigeria as an investment destination, with overall optimism about the economy being on the rise.

Canada, he noted,has a stable economy as well as the economic might needed for expansion.

The High Commissioner said Canada is committed to supporting young Nigerian entrepreneurs as they are vital to economic growth. Small and medium-sized businesses, he said have continued to create jobs while strengthening economic recovery. He said his government will work with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group to support young entrepreneurs.

The Director-General, NESG, Frank Nweke (Jnr), said his organisation supports the ideas, the innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerian youths and is determined to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of young people to generate ideas, expand innovation and create jobs and wealth in communities He said NESG has identified sources of financial support to young Nigerians who want to start their business.

HE National Directorate for Employment (NDE) has empowered entrepreneurs with N2million to boost their businesses.

NDE Director-General Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, told the House of Representatives Committee on NDE that the Directorate is building an ultra- model in skill centre, which has so far, cost N195.32 million.

“The centre comprises vocational and agricultural skills centre, with workshop, classrooms, farm store block, cattle and grasscutter house and two hostels. “Construction of restaurants/kitchen block, pen house, administrative block, equipping both centres, generator and supply of 50kva generating set, motorised borehole with 500 gallons over- head tank, additional toilet and soft landscaping.

“The agency has empowered so many people in one way or the other. These people have also expanded by employing others, which, of course, has generated employment in so many ways,” he said.

From: Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

In a chat with one of the beneficiaries, Mrs Victoria Ironbar, owner of Bee Berry Honey, she said: “NDE has granted me a loan of N1.2 million which I used to acquire a sealing machine. Another loan of N5.2 million is in the pipeline to enable me to acquire another sealing machine that can seal up to 10 honey cups at a time. I supply honey to about 10 hotels in Abuja and at present have eight employees on my payroll.”

Another beneficiary, Petrolina Adaugo, a graduate of engineering, said: “The love, passion and flair that I have to make children look good caused me to drop my academic certificate and opt for self- employment.”

Miss Adaugo came out with a brilliant idea of a Kiddies Hair Salon. “The salon is only for children. This is the first of its kind in Abuja. NDE gave me a loan of N0.8 million in July, 2011. I have two employees on my payroll”, she said.

Adamawa to assist 4,000 artisans

T

HE Adamawa State government is to assist 4,000 trainees under the first batch of its Local Apprenticeship Scheme (LAS). It will provide them tools to establish their businesses.

The Project Manager, Alhaji Sani Jada, said the government has taken delivery of tools ordered from China to be presented to the apprentice during their passing out.

He said the tools are for trades, such as tailoring, carpentry, automechanic, welding, handset repair, hair dressing, masonry and shoe-making among others. The manager said based on the suc-

cess story so far recorded under the LAS programme, the government may look into extending the programme to pupils in secondary schools as well as retired civil servants who want to learn trades or businesses.

“Already, we are planning talks with the Office of the Head of Service and representatives of workers union on the issue,” Sani said.

While urging the first batch of LAS graduates to make maximum use of the opportunity given them to be self-reliant and employ others, he said the progarmme is projected to empowering about 45,0000 people by 2013.

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PENSION

How insurers will achieve N1tr income, by Daniel T HE insurance industry will achieve its N1trillion income target by leveraging mainly on vehicles and buildings, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel has said.

The industry, which has so far realised over N500 billion capital base, has up till next year to meet the target under the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI).

Daniel said the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has picked five of about 15 insurance products to propel the attainment of the N1trillion target.

The commission, he said, is optimistic that when the selected products sell, and people appreciate them, the industry will be transformed.

He said: “About 15 insurance products were made compulsory, directly or indirectly in the country but out of these 15, we picked five. These five products resulted in what we call the MDRI.” “We are of the view that the moment these five products begin to sell, and people really begin to appreciate them, there will be a great transformation. And based on that, the

Stories by Chuks Udo Okonta

N1.01 trillion projections for 2012 will be attained.

“Seriously, if you look at the potential, we have the capacity to generate over N1trillion. How do we come about that? Let’s look at motor insurance alone. We have at least three million motor vehicles on the roads. And if each of these vehicles participates in a minimum insurance cover of N5, 000, multiply by three million that is a lot of money. We have more than four million buildings. If at least 20 per cent of them are insured, then we can draw premium far in excess of our projection.”

Daniel called on insurers to be proactive and embrace the MDRI programme, adding that NAICOM will only open up opportunities for them and would not sell insurance.

He urged shareholders to challenge their companies’ management to improve their performance by leveraging on the opportunities created by the government and

NAICOM. “At one of the Annual General Meetings (AGM), shareholders were so angry, saying if NAICOM is implementing these compulsory insurance, we will be making more money and be sharing dividends. But I think what they did not ask themselves is, how the management of their companies got into the windows that we have opened, we are not meant to be selling insurance.

Hence, I am not expected to go and sell for anybody,” he said.

The industry has set a target to increase insurance penetration from six per cent to 30 per cent by 2012 and grow the nation’s insurance density (purchases) from N1,200 to N7,500.

It also intends to increase premium volume from N200 billion to N1 trillion and boost the industry’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 0.7 per cent to three per cent.This it hopes to attain through leveraging on the MDRI programme.

‘Data base will enhance prudence’

T

HE development of an insurance data base will boost disclosure and transparency, the Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr Sunday Thomas, has said.

Thomas stated this at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) in Lagos. He said the base would serve as an authentic repository for the industry and support production of insurance certificates.

He noted that the base would provide mechanism for verification of insurance certificate issued or presented as evidence of insurance, an enabling environment for submission of statutory returns online and also provide access to all relevant policy underwriten and claims information.

He said: “It would eradicate fake insurances and minimise instances of fraudulent claims provide real time information that would address issues raised by all stakeholders: insuring public, market players, law enforcement agents and regulators.

“Serve as source of historical data for analysis and benchmarking, thereby providing qualitative analysis of industry performance.

“Enhance transparency and accountability to its stakeholders, thereby restoring confidence in the insuring public.

“Creates the basis for scientific management of operations in the industry. It will enable the tracking of transactions in the industry.”

He said it would also provide the platform for enhanced service delivery, enhance standard practice and uniform basis of comparison within the market, development of new products based on empirical studies will be enhanced, provision of platform for adequate risk pricing and expected reduction in the claims made on member companies.

He said the operators are expected to increase investment in technology, effectively deploy their acquired technology, improve the ways and manner of record keeping, deliberate internal training for the workforce and improve trust and confidence among themselves.

Case for vernacular marketing

T

• From left: Chairman, Lagos Area Committee, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr Tunde Oguntade; President, NCRIB, Mrs Laide Osijo and Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Yinka Oladunjoye, at an event in Lagos.

Operators invest N1.2tr pension funds in bonds, equities A

BOUT N1.2 trillion pension funds have been invested in bonds and equities, the Chairman, Pension Operators Association of Nigeria, Mr Dave Uduanu, has said.

Uduanu said at a workshop organised by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in Enugu, that as at December, last year, N950billion and N358billion pension funds had been invested in bonds and equities.

He added that pension assets grew to up to 15 per cent of total banking assets during the period.

Uduanu said: “Of particular note is the investment in fixed income instruments (federal, state and corporate bonds), which grew by 68 per cent between 2009 and 2010 to N950 billion.

“Thus, the critical role of the pension industry cannot be ignored and this calls for necessary and sufficient framework in ensuring the sustainability of the pension scheme.

Pension Funds represent the major source of financing for Federal Government Bonds.

“This helped bridge the funding gap at the federal level, particularly

during the last global economic crisis when oil prices fell from above $100 per barrel to below $50 per barrel. The high deficit financing primarily through bond issuance helped the country managed well and in fact achieved decent gross domestic product growth rates through the crisis unlike most western countries.”

The industry, he said, has created jobs at the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) and third party marketers, noting that over 3,000 jobs were created last year.

“We expect this number to quadruple to up to 10,000 as the industry enters the new growth phase with the introduction of multi-funds and the entry of the huge informal sector into the scheme.”At the state level, up to eight states have raised a total of N251billion in bonds. These state bonds have enabled the state governments to finance the much needed infrastructure required to sustain growth, and to augment al-

location from the federal government. “Pension funds accounts for more than 40 per cent of state bonds issued and are increasingly seen as the main source of financing for these instruments.

“Similarly, pension funds have stepped up to the plate to provide financing to the country’s big corporation by investing in debt instruments issued by these companies.

“As at the end of 2010, Pension Funds had about N51billion invested in Corporate Bonds representing close to 50 per cent of total bond issuance. Pension Funds are increasingly disinter mediating Banks in providing long-term debt capital to corporations in Nigeria.

“From the foregoing, it is evident that PFAs are increasingly contributing to the deepening of Nigeria’s financial services sector. Empirical and theoretical research have shown that there is a strong and significant link between the size and depth of the financial services sector and economic growth i.e. when investments in the financial services sector are increased, it helps develops an economy which reflects in higher

HE use of vernacular languages will help break marketing barriers in a multilingual country such as Nigeria, the President/Chairman of Council Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Dr Wole Adetimehin, has said.

Adetimehin, who spoke at the CIIN Education Seminar in Enugu, said vernacular marketing presents an opportunity for market penetration.

He called on insurers to embrace social media, adding that there are immeasurable benefits to be derived from it.

Adetimehin urged the operators to help mitigate the enormous risk in the nation through the development of products and awareness.

He said: ”Our country like many others is faced with some abiding challenges. Climate change and the challenges of an increasingly volatile environment is manifesting in our country with all-timehigh rains and floods.

“We are also appalled by the spate of terrorism with dimensions not familiar in our country.

In addition, the citizenry are daily under pressure as a result of widening deficits in infrastructural facilities, such as roads, electricity supply and basic health requirements.

“These developments engender causes for concern to our industry.

The threats to lives and property in a country where insurance awareness is less than optimal, remains a serious cause for worry.”

He noted that the institute has started an awareness campaign geared at entrenching insurance as part of the national consciousness.

He noted that there is the need for a reawakening on the part of insurance practitioners in ensuring the continued sustenance of the profession and business of insurance.

“Part of the current efforts of our institute is in enhancing the quality of insurance education in Nigeria.

Expert: IFRS will guide operators

A

DHERENCE to the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) will guide insurance operators on adoption of a product line, Chief Executive Sirius Associates, Mrs Oluwakemi Adeniran, has said.

Adeniran told The Nation that the additional information required by IFRS will show the profitability or otherwise of a product, adding that this will guide every insurer’s decision.

She noted that with IFRS, floundering product lines will become apparent, and life and non-life insurance business will have a better knowledge of accounting for risks and uncertainties as specified in IFRS 4.

She said IFRS provides that an asset must be tested for impairment at each reporting date (i.e. either monthly, quarterly or yearly, etc,) adding that if there is an impairment, the asset values need to be adjusted properly.

She said: “Reversal of impairment losses required if estimated recoverable amount increases; however, impairment losses on equity instruments available for

sale, financial assets carried at cost and goodwill may not be reversed.

“If there is a deficiency of insurance liabilities in the light of estimated future cash flows, such deficiency is recognised in profit or loss “The minimum requirements for liability adequacy test are as follows, the test considers current estimates of all contractual cash flows and of related cash flows such as claims handling costs, as well as cash flows resulting from embedded options and guarantees and if the test shows that the liability is inadequate, the entire deficiency is recognised in profit or loss.”

She said the adoption of the initiative would improve management decision making, better access to capital, reduction in capital cost and facilitation of merger.

She noted that the initiative would also help policy makers in having better access to global markets, promotion of cross border investment and wise investment, especially in capital market.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

54

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 13-12-11 2ND-TIER SECURITIES Company Name LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. PRESCO PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 13 10 6 29

Quotation(N) 0.50 22.41 7.65

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 3,088,067 1,544,033.50 153,074 3,430,388.34 36,200 272,744.00 3,277,341 5,247,165.84

AIR SERVICES Company Name AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC NIGERIAN AVIATION HANDLING COMPANY PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 8 37 45

Quotation(N) 2.08 5.14

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 52,000 110,220.00 349,572 1,793,522.85 401,572 1,903,742.85

Quotation(N) 1.34

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 15,086 19,518.08 15,086 19,518.08

Quotation(N) 4.51 2.41 1.81 4.11 1.28 8.20 13.71 6.94 4.14 0.97 2.28 0.52 0.56 11.50

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 15,034,887 67,608,851.12 999,380 2,419,955.60 85,430 154,010.32 112,700 452,480.00 10,409,837 13,151,250.63 9,753,849 80,904,761.79 6,146,711 84,132,080.93 1,250,891 8,674,920.59 7,648,898 31,303,744.25 840,823 818,586.11 42,061,202 96,638,200.90 4,321,730 2,163,410.53 67,809 38,744.27 69,998,265 804,959,266.19 168,732,412 1,193,420,263.23

Quotation(N) 218.00 96.60

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 67,942 14,748,392.44 973,035 93,854,779.92 1,040,977 108,603,172.36

AUTOMOBILE & TYRE Company Name R. T. BRISCOE (NIGERIA) PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 4 4 BANKING

Company Name ACCESS BANK PLC DIAMOND BANK PLC ECOBANK NIGERIA PLC FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC FIDELITY BANK PLC FIRST BANK OF NIGERIA PLC GTBANK PLC STANBIC IBTC BANK PLC SKYE BANK PLC. STERLING BANK PLC UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC. UNITYBANK PLC WEMA BANK PLC ZENITH BANK PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 106 26 12 23 120 503 302 67 80 15 147 44 15 291 1,751 BREWERIES

Company Name GUINNESS NIGERIA PLC NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 72 188 260

BUILDING MATERIALS Company Name ASHAKA CEMENT PLC CEMENT CO. OF NORTHERN NIGERIA PLC DANGOTE CEMENT PLC LAFARGE WAPCO PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 26 12 56 32 126

Quotation(N) 12.68 4.60 105.10 42.84

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 222,386 2,786,915.62 277,087 1,271,586.85 159,270 16,838,660.08 368,705 15,745,988.05 1,027,448 36,643,150.60

Quotation(N) 8.50 15.63 1.07

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 155,650 1,266,838.20 78,061 1,202,532.92 9,999 10,698.93 243,710 2,480,070.05

CHEMICAL & PAINTS Company Name BERGER PAINTS NIGERIA PLC CHEMICAL AND ALLIED PRODUCTS PLC DN MEYER PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 14 10 3 27

COMMERCIAL/SERVICES Company Name COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC RED STAR EXPRESS PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 1 9 10

Quotation(N) 0.50 2.10

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 500,000 250,000.00 716,700 1,457,650.00 1,216,700 1,707,650.00

COMPUTER & OFFICE EQUIPMENT Company Name NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 7 1 8

Quotation(N) 9.31 2.94

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 50,000 488,500.00 1,560 4,368.00 51,560 492,868.00

Quotation(N) 29.00 0.57 29.20 26.09

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 96,623 2,802,743.20 4,625,890 2,617,797.30 744,763 21,729,216.60 665,672 17,701,934.54 6,132,948 44,851,691.64

Quotation(N) 34.69 8.28

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 346,000 12,009,540.00 117,275 971,037.00 463,275 12,980,577.00

Union Bank’s N10bn rights issue opens today A

PPLICATION list for the much anticipated rights issue of Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc opens today. The deal will give shareholders the opportunity to increase their shareholding in the $750 million-recapitalised bank.

UBN is offering about 1.41 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N6.81 per share in the ratio of five new ordinary shares for every nine ordinary shares held as at the September 30, 2011. The application list for the rights issue will remain open till January 20, 2012.

The opening of application list followed the final approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC. Shareholders had earlier at the extra-ordinary general meeting in September overwhelmingly approved the scheme of arrangement for the recapitalisation of the bank, which included the rights issue and injection of new capital by new core investors.

With the opening of application list for the rights issue, the scheme of arrangement for the recapitalisation of the bank has become effective; putting Union Bank on the path to becoming one of the most capitalised bank with new unimpaired equity funds of about N123 billion.

The rights issue will give pre-scheme shareholders more equity stake in the recapitalised Union Bank. In what was considered by several pundits as the best deal of the recent recapitalisation exercises, pre-scheme shareholders of Union Bank had received three new shares for every 16 shares held to re-

No of Deals 29 37 72 81 219 CONSTRUCTION

Company Name JULIUS BERGER NIGERIA PLC ROADS NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 14 3 17

claim 15 per cent equity stake in spite of the N116 billion negative shareholders’ funds.

The rights issue would further increase pre-scheme shareholders’ equity stake to 21.5 per cent in the fully recapitalised Union Bank, which would reduce percentage shareholdings of other core shareholders which had rallied funds to rescue the bank from brinks of liquidation.

Under the recapitalisation deal, Union Bank would receive about $500 million equity capital and $250 million Tier 2 capital from a consortium of international investors to retain its nearly century-old brand and regain its competitive verve as one of the strongest and reliable banks in Nigeria.

African Capital Alliance (ACA) is leading other partners including many reputable fund managers, investment funds of The Netherland and United States Governments and Nigerian investors under the Union Global Partners Limited, a special purpose vehicle formed for the recapitalisation of the bank.

Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) had already raised UBN’s capital base from negative to zero through funds already deposited for shares while the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US Government’s development finance institution, has ap-

proved the $250 million Tier 2 capital.

Many analysts were optimistic on the success of the rights issue noting that the offer price of N6.81 per share presents huge discount to pre-scheme shareholders.

The new core investors had paid as much prior to the share reconstruction while the current market price at the Nigerian Stock Exchange indicated a discount of more than N4 per share to shareholders.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian stock market sustained its uptrend with the benchmark index rising by 0.41 per cent.

The All Share Index (ASI) inched up to 19,871.97 points as against its opening index of 19,791.00 points while aggregate market capitalisation of all equities rose from N6.257 trillion to N6.282 trillion.

Nestle Nigeria led the bullish rally with a gain of N3.59 per share to close at N404.25.

Nigerian Breweries followed with a gain of N2.60 to close at N96.60. Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria added N2.04 to close at N42.84 per share while Flour Mills of Nigeria rose by N1.50 to close at N64.

On the downside, MRS Oil and Gas led the losers with a loss of N3.19 to close at N60.67. Julius Berger Nigeria lost N1.82 to close at N34.69.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria dropped by N1.18 to close at N22.47 while Okomu Oil Palm lost N1.17 to close at N22.41 per share.

Total turnover stood at 224.2 million shares valued at N2.53 billion in 3,300 deals.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

CONGLOMERATES Company Name PZ CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF NIGERIA PLC UAC OF NIGERIA PLC UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

By Taofik Salako and Tonia Osundolire

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 13-12-11 N.E.M. INSURANCE CO. (NIG.) PLC. OASIS INSURANCE PLC PRESTIGE ASSURANCE PLC. SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC STACO INSURANCE PLC STANDARD ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY PLC INTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INSURANCE PLC Sector Totals

1 1 1 1 1 3 2 4 76

0.50 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50

226,149 500 30,336 1,078,470 5,000 62,499 505,000 24,800 9,271,777

113,074.50 250.00 30,032.64 539,235.00 2,500.00 31,249.50 252,500.00 12,400.00 6,543,081.47

Quotation(N) 0.65

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 300,000 195,000.00 300,000 195,000.00

Quotation(N) 0.68

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 1,044,646 695,390.16 1,044,646 695,390.16

Quotation(N) 1.69 13.28

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 742,003 1,245,887.24 200 2,524.00 742,203 1,248,411.24

LEASING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY Company Name CUTIX PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 2 2

Quotation(N) 1.78

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 19,519 36,305.34 19,519 36,305.34

Company Name C&I LEASING PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 13 13 MARITIME

FOOD/BEVERAGES & TOBACCO Company Name 7-UP BOTTLING CO. PLC CADBURY NIGERIA PLC DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC FLOUR MILLS NIGERIA PLC HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC NATIONAL SALT COMPANY NIGERIA PLC NESTLE NIGERIA PLC TANTALIZERS PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 11 24 53 67 38 11 21 52 2 279

Quotation(N) 48.00 11.00 5.10 4.24 64.00 2.68 4.18 404.25 0.50

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 21,332 975,476.80 300,250 3,301,810.00 896,520 4,570,927.46 2,163,455 9,239,729.02 14,163,437 906,380,414.58 109,380 292,160.40 254,110 1,047,728.80 118,861 48,225,964.42 1,980,010 990,005.00 20,007,355 975,024,216.48

Company Name JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SERVICES PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 41 41 PACKAGING

Company Name NIGERIAN BAG MANUFACTURING COMPANY PLC GREIF NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 24 1 25

PETROLEUM(MARKETING) HEALTHCARE Company Name EKOCORP PLC EVANS MEDICALPLC. FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC GLAXOSMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 1 5 14 12 5 1 38

Quotation(N) 5.05 0.70 0.95 22.47 1.81 1.18

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 1,895 9,096.00 266,930 186,851.00 182,316 177,410.20 153,438 3,448,423.86 84,093 152,208.33 10,000 11,300.00 698,672 3,985,289.39

Company Name MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC CONOIL PLC ETERNA OIL & GAS PLC. FORTE OIL PLC MOBIL OIL NIGERIA PLC. OANDO PLC TOTAL NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

Quotation(N) 2.39 4.32

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 15,666 35,718.48 500 2,055.00 16,166 37,773.48

Company Name LEARN AFRICA PLC UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 3 1 4

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 7,228 48,562.52 66,050 300,648.00 73,278 349,210.52

Company Name UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 6 6 12

No of Deals 3 5 8

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 77,313 4,690,579.71 17,830 579,960.02 3,000 9,870.00 105,597 1,429,925.38 21,697 2,942,443.85 2,444,657 58,046,431.55 25,933 4,910,382.80 2,696,027 72,609,593.31

Quotation(N) 6.85 4.78

Quotation(N) 3.26 3.60

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 201,010 655,312.60 57,500 208,240.00 258,510 863,552.60

Quotation(N) 12.16

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 16,670 198,755.00 16,670 198,755.00

REAL ESTATE

INDUSTRIAL/DOMESTIC PRODUCTS Company Name B. O. C. GASES NIGERIA PLC VITAFOAM NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

Quotation(N) 60.67 33.25 3.46 13.54 133.95 24.30 198.00

PRINTING & PUBLISHING

HOTEL & TOURISM Company Name IKEJA HOTEL PLC TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 9 18 2 30 18 136 13 226

No of Deals 9 9

ROAD TRANSPORTATION INSURANCE Company Name No of Deals AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 32 CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INSURANCE PLC 5 GREAT NIGERIA INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 2 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 2 GUARANTY TRUST ASSURANCE PLC 3 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE COMPANY PLC 1 LAW UNION AND ROCK INSURANCE PLC. 11 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 1 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC 5

Quotation(N) 0.51 2.09 0.50 0.54 1.44 0.50 0.52 0.50 0.50

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 2,996,359 1,528,467.97 872,200 1,993,950.00 4,000 2,000.00 110,000 59,400.00 300,000 432,000.00 652,381 326,190.50 889,493 462,536.36 500,000 250,000.00 1,014,590 507,295.00

Company Name ASSOCIATED BUS COMPANY PLC Sector Totals

No of Deals 2 2

Quotation(N) 0.50

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 12,500 6,250.00 12,500 6,250.00

THE FOREIGN LISTINGS Company Name ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED Sector Totals Overall Totals

Mac 72 - 58-59 - Capital Market FOLDER

No of Deals 69 69

Quotation(N) 10.00

Quantity TradedValue of Shares (N) 6,416,062 62,752,166.30 6,416,062 62,752,166.30

3,300

224,176,414

2,532,894,864.94

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

55

MONEY LINK

DMO targets $2.7b debt servicing in 10 years

T

By Collins Nweze

HE Debt Management Office (DMO), said a total of $2.770 billion of Nigeria’s debts would be serviced, going by its projection over the next 10-year period spanning 2011 - 2020, The debt office disclosed this in its annual report and statement of accounts for 2010.

It said by the end of 2011, $381.25 million out of the total debts would be serviced, following which, the annual debt servicing would hover below $300 million during the remaining projected period. ”The lower projected external debt

service payment after 2011 is based on the assumption that there would be greater reliance on domestic than external borrowing in closing the budget gap in the projection period.

This assumption is however, subject to review in the light of developments in the domestic and international capital market,” the report ex-

plained. It also declared that debt servicing was an important component of the federal government’s expenditure profile.

The DMO however revealed that of the country’s total eternal debt, multilateral debt constituted the bulk of the total external debt last year. The DMO explained that the multilateral loans, which it said were mainly concessional loans, amounted to $4.218 billion as at December 2010.

It also showed that the country’s forex risk was minimal in its 2010 total debt portfolio, saying that as at December 2010, 86.95 per cent of the portfolio holdings were in naira, while the remaining 13.05 per cent were in other foreign currency.

Lagos to start collecting withholding income tax

L

AGOS State would start collect ing withholding income taxes as from 2012 to boost its internally generated revenue, the Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has said..

He said the development would help in bringing more growth to the state. Speaking during the fifth Lagos State Taxation Stakeholders’ Conference yesterday, Fashola said taxes due on dividends, profits, rents and services rendered by contractors are some of the taxes, which the government would be collecting as from 2012.

He said: “Everybody who pays rents to the landlord is our collecting agent for those taxes. Everybody who pays for the services of medical doctors is our collecting agent for those taxes.”

He said it was wrong for investors to be trading billions of naira on the

By Akinola Ajibade

floors of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), without paying their taxes.

He said many companies do not remit their taxes immediately, while others have formed the habits of shaving part of their employees’ taxes.

He said some organisations donate boreholes, among other amenities to their host communities under the guise of corporate social responsibility, after failing to remit their taxes as at when due.

According to him, voluntary payment of taxes is needed to save the government from waste of funds. “ Enforcement of tax payment is into two phases. The first one involves campaigns or advocacy. The second phase requires the enforcement of law. Voluntary payment is the highest obligation required of every taxable person.

Because we use agents to collect taxes,

and that has cost us a lot of money”, he said.

The Governor said taxes on profits has not been coming to the state government as claimed in some quarters, stressing that the state only collect taxes from the employees.

Fashola said the budget estimate was close to N1trillion, before the government decided to change it.

“The budget estimate we had before was about N1trillion, but the question we asked ourselves was where are we going to get that money? If all of us declare our assets, and redeem our obligations, we can work towards that figure”, he added.

He noted that the internally generated revenue has increased from N600million in 2009 to N14billion in 2011, due largely to the efforts of the past and current government in the state.

Stanbic partners Globacom on mobile money TANBIC IBTC Bank, has en

S

tered into partnered with Globacom Nigeria, to make mobile money services available to Nigerians . The product, Glo TxtCash, links about 23 million Glomobile subscribers to the secure and convenient Stanbic IBTC Mobile Money solution.

The bank said in a statement that the solution is an innovative branchless mobile payment solution designed to foster financial inclusion of unbanked and under-banked Nigerians.

It enables customers open bank accounts using their phones.

Obinnia Abajue, Head of Personal and Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC, said the partnership with Globacom Nigeria, will break down the traditional barriers hindering financial inclusion of millions of Nigerians.

“Bringing low cost, secure and convenient financial services to urban, semi-urban and rural areas across the country, opening a new channel of

SMEs synergise to raise funds from fixed-income market

S

MALL and Medium Scale En terprises (SME) owners will approach the fixed-income securities market for growth through synergy.

Speaking to The Nation yesterday, the former President, National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME), Dr Ike Aguda, said the SME operators have agreed to synergies their operations to achieve success.

Aguda said synergy is the only vi-

able option left for the operators, if they want to approach and subsequently increase in their participation in the fixed-income securities market. He said the operators have been looking for means of combinining forces together in order to increase their operational funds.

He said his colleagues have grappled with short-term facility from banks, adding that no efforts would be spared in accessing funds treasury bills, or bonds market.

“Our goal is to synergize when its come to raising funds through any of the available fixed-income market instruments. Though it is not going to happen overnight, there are indications that we are heading towards that goal.

Probably in the next one year, we would achieve that. We cannot really say. How this is thing is going to work or the process involved is something we cannot say no”, he said.

FGN BONDS 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

Initial Current Quotation Price Market N8250.00 5495.33 N1000.00 N552.20

Price Loss 2754.67 447.80

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 28-04-2011 “ 14-04-2011

GAINERS AS AT 13-12-11 SYMBOL WAPCO REDSTAREX IBTC ROADS BERGER HONYFLOUR UNITYBNK BAGCO TRANSCORP NB

O/PRICE 40.80 2.00 6.61 7.89 8.10 2.57 0.50 1.63 0.55 94.00

C/PRICE 42.84 2.10 6.94 8.28 8.50 2.68 0.52 1.69 0.57 96.60

CHANGE 2.04 0.10 0.33 0.39 0.40 0.11 0.02 0.06 0.02 2.60

LOSER AS AT 13-12-11 SYMBOL CUSTODYINS CHEVRON GLAXOSMITH JBERGER FO OKOMUOIL LONGMAN DANGSUGAR CILEASING EVANSMED

O/PRICE 2.20 63.86 23.65 36.51 14.25 23.58 3.43 4.46 0.68 0.73

C/PRICE 2.09 60.67 22.47 34.69 13.54 22.41 3.26 4.24 0.65 0.70

Amount

Offered ($) Demanded ($)

MANAGED FUNDS

OBB Rate Call Rate

financial services delivery and complementing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s quest to usher in a cashless economy in the country,”he said. He said access to the product provides an entry route for people that would not ordinarily come into bank halls.

It also provides the banked market an alternative to cash by getting them to do basic transactions using the Glomobile network.

“We are leveraging the growing pervasiveness of the Glomobile network and the knowledge users have of the mobile phone to deliver nontraditional, low cost financial services to all Nigerians, unbanked artisans, traders, market women and farmers among others, as well as under-banked people,” he said.

Adewale Sangowawa, Executive Director, Globacom Nigeria, said the launch of GloTxtCash in partnership with Stanbic IBTC Bank is in line with the commitment of telecommunications company to empower its subscriber by providing them with innovative applications and services.

DATA BANK

Tenor

NIDF NESF

Commenting on the outlook for the domestic bond market, the report insisted that there were significant opportunities for growth in the market, in terms of number and diversity of bond issuers, range of products as well as the size and diversity of investor base. The current level of Nigeria’s debt is sustainable.

However, the $41 billion debt if higher than the nation’s current foreign reserves of $33 billion. Nigeria exited the Paris Club debt in 2006 after paying $18 billion. There is worry that debt profile is accumulating again, but the authority says it is not. Meanwhile, the DMO has pegged Nigeria’s public at $41 billion as at September 30.

Amount

Exchange

Sold ($)

Rate (N)

Date

450m

452.7m

450m

150.8

08-8-11

250m

313.5m

250m

150.8

03-8-11

400m

443m

400m

150.7

01-8-11

EXHANGE RATE 26-08-11 CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Currency

Year Start Offer

Current Before

C u r r e n t CUV Start After %

NGN USD

147.6000

149.7100

150.7100

-2.11

NGN GBP

239.4810

244.0123

245.6422

-2.57

NGN EUR

212.4997

207.9023

209.2910

-1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

Bureau de Change 152.0000 (S/N)

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

Parallel Market

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

NSE CAP Index

NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N)

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

(S/N)

153.0000

DISCOUNT WINDOW Feb. ’11

July ’11

Aug ’11

MPR

6.50%

6.50%

8.75%

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% 9.4%

Offer Price

Bid Price

9.17 1.00 118.85 98.43 0.76 1.04 0.87 1,642.73 8.24 1.39 1.87 7,351.90 193.00

9.08 1.00 118.69 97.65 0.73 1.04 0.80 1,635.25 7.84 1.33 1.80 7,149.37 191.08

ARM AGGRESSIVE KAKAWA GUARANTEED STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND THE LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL BGL SAPPHIRE FUND BGL NUBIAN FUND NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY THE DISCOVERY FUND • ARM AGGRESSIVE • KAKAWA GUARANTEED

CHANGE 0.11 3.19 1.18 1.82 0.71 1.17 0.17 0.22 0.03 0.03

• STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE • AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND

NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

Rate (Previous) 24 Aug, 2011 9.0417 9.6667 11.2917 12.1250

Rate (Currency) 26, Aug, 2011 10.17% 11.46% 11.96% 12.54%

Movement

OPEN BUY BACK Previous

Current

04 July, 2011

07, Aug, 2011

Bank

8.5000

8.5000

P/Court

8.0833

8.0833

Movement

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

56

NEWS

Police recover N1.5m from suspects of Sagamu bank robberies HE Police in Ogun State yesterday paraded two suspected members of the gang that raided three new generation banks in Sagamu on November 24.

The command said it has evacuated the body of one of the robbers, who died in the bush during a gun battle with the police.

Three persons-Amusa Kareem, Waheed Alaba and Ismaila Olusoji-were killed in the robberies.

The robbers carried out the raids using explosives, rocket launchers and a multi-purpose machine gun.

Commissioner of Police Nicholas Nkemdeme said one of the suspects, Rasheed Ganiyu, was arrested a day after the robberies, while trying to move his share of the loot.

Nkemdeme said Ganiyu and his friend, Tajudeen Alase, were arrested on a motorcycle at Ogere and N1,551,000 was recovered from Ganiyu.

He said one Sienna car marked LT. 671 EKY; one Toyota Hiace Bus marked LA 65 A45, with Lagos State

T

Three feared dead in accident

By Miriam Ndikanwu

THREE people were feared dead yesterday in an accident involving a truck loaded with granite and a commuter bus on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The incident occurred around Isheri in the morning.

An eyewitness said the truck, which was speeding, rammed into the bus loaded with tomatoes.

The eyewitness said: “The truck was carrying granite and was speeding. Suddenly, it started blowing its horn as a signal that something was wrong, and the next thing was a big bang. We started running here and there to try and save those in the vehicles.”

The incident caused traffic jam.

A motorist, Segun, said he spent over five hours on the same spot and had to suspend his journey to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

A civil servant said he could not report at his workplace early because of the traffic.

He said: “I cannot get to work early because of the traffic.

We were on the same spot for a very long time. After sometime, we resorted to taking long distances. But even at that, we still cannot get vehicles because the whole place is blocked.”

He urged the government to station towing vehicles in accident-prone areas.

•Ganiyu From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

Polytechnic inscription; live ammunition and Indi-

•Other suspects paraded...yesterday

an hemp were also recovered from Ganiyu.

Nkemdeme said the suspects are helping the police with their investigation.

Ganiyu denied taking part in the robberies. He said he collected the box containing the recovered money from a boy in his neighbourhood,

who was being hunted by the police.

Ganiyu said he was trying to hide it, when he was arrested.

Ogundare Samson and Gabriel Olagbade were also paraded for allegedly impersonating senior police officers.

Lagos ACN urges support for LASU fees, Lekki toll HE Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged Lagosians to bear with the state government on the increment of fees at the Lagos State University (LASU) and toll collection on the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

The party said the government’s actions were informed by its determination to develop all sectors.

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, ACN said the increment of the fees of incoming students at LASU was necessary to upgrade the institution.

On the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the party said the toll is to ensure that the road is maintained and the project is replicated in other parts of the state.

ACN said: “We assure Lagosians that the state government has always meant well for them and the LASU

T

case is not different. The decision to increase fees for incoming students was informed by the best of intentions.

“It was to ensure that LASU is adequately funded and provided with the necessary infrastructure to raise it to an enviable standard, so that it will be able to compete with the best schools in Africa and the world.

“Many of our people pay higher fees in sub-standard schools in neighbouring countries and we feel that LASU can be made attractive and standardised by charging something commensurate with the expected services the school should render.

“We note that Lagosians pay far higher fees in some private universities that offer sub-standard services to our people. We believe that the new fees will raise the

standard and quality of LASU to a world class institution, which is why Lagosians need to bear with the government on the increment, more so when it does not affect current students.

“On the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the road was concessioned to a company, which provided a world class road. The toll is only natural, since the company must recover what it spent.

“We urge Lagosians to demonstrate understanding on this issue and point out that alternative roads have been provided for those who do not want to pay. We believe this is fair enough to encourage competent companies to invest in our decaying infrastructure.

“Concessioning is a way of saving scarce funds for other sectors and if we acknowledge that Lagos requires over $50 billion to build and upgrade infra-

structure, we will see the wisdom in getting companies to build, manage and transfer some critical infrastructure.

“The population of Lagos is rising by the day and this puts a great challenge on the resources of the state, so the state government alone cannot meet this rising demand.

“We want Lagosians to understand that the toll paid on the Lekki-Epe Expressway is only a little price we all must pay to get standard infrastructure and encourage others to come here and deliver better infrastructure.

“Concessioning is a present economic reality and we do not see anything wrong with the instant case.

“We assure Lagosians that the ACN and the state government are totally committed to their interest. We solicit the understanding of every Lagosian on these issues as we cannot achieve the

PDP accuses Mimiko of plot to destroy party HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State yesterday accused Governor Olusegun Mimiko of plots to cause disharmony in the PDP. Speaking with reporters in Akure, the state capital, Chairman of the PDP Transition Committee, Mr. Ebenezer Alabi said although Mimiko has allegedly planted some Labour Party (LP) loyalists in the PDP, the party has rediscovered its potentials.

Alabi said: “We are aware that the governor has recruited a group of fifth columnists, under the leadership of ex-Senator Olugbenga Oguniya and Chief Segun Adegoke, to do his bidding.

“The plan is that while they remain officially as members of our party, they will be working hand in gloves for LP, with the singular aim to cause disharmony, disagreements and engender strife in our party.

“Mimiko, in pursuance of

T

•Govt: don’t blame your woes on us From Damisi Ojo, Akure

this goal, has so far given this group of disloyal people over N50 million to prosecute this agenda.

“We have it on good authority that Mimiko convened a meeting at the Government House to outline the details of this plot and it was resolved that the strategy to adopt is using the courts to frustrate the growth of our party.

“At the meeting, the Attorney-General was saddled with the responsibility to ensure that the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Sehinde Kumuyi, is recruited into this plot and he gave strong assurance to that effect.

“In view of the foregoing, the Oguniya group of fifth columnists is to approach the court for a spurious interim injunction that will restrain the Transition Committee from

discharging its responsibilities.

“We wonder what interest or stake they have that will make them to approach the court for this injunction. This is because they were no members of the party’s executive, whose tenure was cut short by the terms of the arbitration that gave birth to the Transitional Committee.

“The PDP hereby calls on the Judiciary as the temple of justice to refrain from involving itself in despicable plots that would serve no judicial purpose, but were essentially designed by desperate men.

“We will resist every attempt to emasculate us and delay the achievement of our goals by politicians who are mere birds of fortune and only perch where bread is buttered.

“We are making this appeal not because we are afraid of

going into the prosecution of any legal battle, but because it will be most despicable for the court to serve the purpose of the LP, simply because the governor wants it so.

“The independence of the judiciary is sacrosanct and we believe that only men of conscience and impartiality sit atop it. It will be a sad day for our state and nation, if the judiciary willingly plays a part in this odious game.”

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Eni Akinsola, denied the allegation and warned the PDP against blaming its woes on the LP. Akinsola said: “We are not concerned with what is happening in other political parties, but how the present administration would bring unprecedented transformation to the state.”

He urged the opposition to appreciate the achievements of the Mimiko administration and shun sentiments.

dream of a viable mega city without making little individual sacrifices.

“We assure Lagosians that the government, controlled by our great party, will deliver on the promise of making Lagos an enviable state for the millions of Nigerians that live in it.”

Fashola, Tinubu, Aregbesola, for Ige’s 10th memorial

By Joseph Jibueze

HE 10th Anniversary Symposium of the death of the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige (SAN), will hold on Saturday at the Oduduwa Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU, Ile-Ife, by 11am.

The theme of the symposium is: “A decade without Cicero: What are the implications on national and individual security, and on Nigerian politics?”

There will be a film show: ‘Ofin-Ga,’ on Friday by 6pm at the same venue.

The programmes are being organised by the Bola Ige Centre for Justice and the Osun State Broadcasting Service (OSBC).

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN); Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; and National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Chief Bisi Akande are expected at the symposium.

Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ado-Ekiti, Prof. Akin Oyebode, will be the Guest Speaker, while Prof. Akinwumi Isola will chair the event.

Ige was murdered in his Ibadan home on December 23, 2001. His killers are yet to be found.

T

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

57

NEWS Environmental programme in Abia

T

HE Abia State representative in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Aloysius Nwagboso, has flagged off the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on two major and strategic road projects in the state.

Addressing a meeting on Environmental Impact Assessment on two 10 kilometre Obokwe– Umuekechi- Urata roads, Nwagboso said NDDC consults stakeholders before embarking on any project and maintains such relationships throughout the duration of the projects.

He said the agency would liaise with benefiting communities. Nwagboso sought stakeholders cooperation to ensure that the project is carried out.

According to him, the roads would link the communities and bring about social and economic transformation through increase in mobility of people and goods, heightened agricultural and commercial activities as well as employment.

He directed the design consultant to liaise with the representatives of the communities to ensure that observed omissions in the consultant’s public presentation were clearly captured.

ABSU convocation for Dec 17

T

HE Abia State University, Uturu, will hold its 21st convocation at the weekend.

The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will deliver the pre-convocation lecture.

Speaking with reporters at Uturu, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Chibuzo Ogbuagu, said the convocation would hold on Saturday.

He said 5,000 students would receive first degrees, while 380 would be awarded

From Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

higher degrees and certificates.

Ogbuagu said the institution would install its Chancellor, Francis Oji, former Deputy Governor of the old Imo State.

The VC added that the university will honour Oji; the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala and the Chairman of Bourdex group, David Ogba Onuoha, with honorary doctorate degrees.

Setback for Enugu Pension Bill From Chris Oji, Enugu

T

HE contentious contributory pension scheme bill yesterday suffered a setback at the Enugu State House of Assembly, as the report on the public hearing was postponed

indefinitely . The Bill, which has been in the House since 2008, had passed through public hearing twice.

House Leader S.K.E Udeh-Okoye, who moved for the postponement, said it was to enable the committee on rules and business fix a date for the exercise.

The lawmaker said the postponement would also enable the committee on civil service and labour matters do more research and consultations.

Many interest groups have been pressurising the lawmakers against passage of the bill.

Couple sue police for N6m

J

USTICE O. M. Anyachebelu of the Ogidi High Court in Anambra State has adjourned till tomorrow hearing in a N6 million suit by an Onitsha businessman, Afamefuna Nnaji and his wife, Uchenna, against the Anambra State Police Command.

Nnaji and his wife had instituted a N3 million suit each against the Commissioner of Police (CP), the Divisional Police Officer at Ogidi, Inspector Margaret Amoko of Ogidi police division, Raphael Ezenwankwo and his wife, Ifeoma.

In a statement of claims, filed by their lawyer, M. F. Uzoigwe, the applicants

From Adimike George, Onitsha

are seeking a declaration of the court that their arrest and detention by the respondents is unlawful and illegal.

Nnaji claimed he was arrested and detained from September 30 to October 2, at Ogidi police station because he owed Ezenwankwo and his wife N15,000.

He contended that even when his lawyer bailed him, the respondents came back to his house barely three weeks later and when they could not find him at home, they whisked off his wife and his one year-old child.

Funeral begins

SSS parades three fraud suspects in Rivers

T

HE State Security Service (SSS) in Rivers State yesterday paraded three suspects for attempting to use the names of President Goodluck Jonathan and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, for fraud.

The fraudsters also used the names of the President’s Chief of Staff , Mike Oghiadome and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Christian Oboh.

Parading them at the SSS Command Headquarters, Director Segun Agbaje said: “Between November 30 and December 2, two members of a gang of fraudsters, identified as Amil Ayekimo Av-

From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

ery, from Bayelsa State and Mohammed Ogwurude from Benue State, were arrested for attempting to defraud the Managing Director of a new generation bank of N40 million.

“Their leader, Tony Allagoa, who is at large, had contacted the bank chief on October 17, claiming to be the SGF. “On November 16, Allagoa, posing as Anyim, asked the bank chief to pay N40million into two accounts to assist him and his bank.

“A change in the mode of payment led to Avery’s arrest at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, when he came to collect the money.

“Ogwurude, whose account had been used by the syndicate to receive payment, was also apprehended.

“It was discovered that the gang had used Oghiadome‘s name between December 2010 and March 2011, to defraud prominent politicians in the Southwest.”

The SSS director assured that efforts were underway to apprehend other fleeing members of the syndicate, including Allagoa, Nnamdi Maurice and Charles Bendo.

He said on December 2, Efe Roberts Omojefe was apprehended at the office of the NDDC Managing Director, claiming to be the Protocol Officer to the SGF. Omojefe, according to Agbaje, met with some contrac-

tors in Abuloma to raise money to organise a welcome party for the NDDC chief.

But Ogwurude said he was not a fraudster, but made his account available for the fraudsters, when he needed N200,000 to pay his house rent.

He said the money that passed through his account was N8.4 million (N5 million as first payment and later N3.4 million).

Ogwurude said N430,000 given to him as compensation.

Avery said he met Maurice through Allagoa, and he (Maurice) told him to help pick some money.

He said he was on his way to a commissioner’s office when he was arrested.

Court upholds election of Ebonyi minority leader

A

N Appeal Court sitting in Enugu yesterday reversed the judgment of the Ebonyi Election Petition Tribunal which had nullified the election of the minority leader of the House of Assembly.

The court declared the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate Chukwuma Enyi as the winner of the election for Ezza Northeast Constituency.

The tribunal, headed by Justice Henry Oluseyi, had on October 17 nullified the election of the ANPP candidate and

•Reverses tribunal judgment From Ogbonnaya Obinna, Abakaliki

declared Celestine Nworji of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner.

The tribunal invalidated the exclusion of the election results from Nweke Okpuru polling unit in Inyere ward where the petitioner allegedly scored 706 votes as against 21 votes scored by the first

respondent.

Justice Oluseyi ruled that the electoral officer had no power to exclude the results from the polling unit having been collated and declared earlier by the presiding officer.

He said with the election result of the ward added, the PDP candidate won the election in the constituency.

But Justice Abdulkareem Jega in his ruling yesterday set aside the tribunal judgment

and declared Enyi winner.

Justice Jega said the minority leader was validly elected, adding that the tribunal erred in its ruling on the petition brought by the PDP candidate.

Enyi said he was optimistic that he was going to win at the Appeal Court, noting that the judgment of the tribunal was a show of shame, disappointing and a miscarriage of justice.

State PDP Chairman Ugorji Amaoti described the judgment as shocking, adding that the party would accept it in good faith.

Nigeria fertile for investment, says Obi

T

HE funeral rites for Pa Theophilus Adebayo Animashaun of Durowoju family of Oyo begins tomorrow with a lying-instate at his Gaa Apaara, Oyo, Oyo State home .

According to a statement

by Mrs Bolanle Fagbenro, one of the grand daughters, Service of Songs will hold at 5pm at the same venue.

Service and interment will take place at the Methodist Church, Apara, Oyo on December 16, at 11am.

Reception follows immediately at the Methodist Pri-

•Ekiti State Governor Dr. Kayode Fayemi (middle), Minister of Agriculture Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Ekiti Deputy Governor Mrs. Funmi Olayinka at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state and the Federal Government in Ado-Ekiti... yesterday

A •The late Pa Animashaun mary School, Apara, Oyo. Pa Animashaun died on October 25. He was 103.

He is survived by children and grand children.

NAMBRA State Governor Peter Obi has said Nigeria is a fertile country for investment.

He spoke yesterday at the Governor’s Lodge in Amawbia near Awka when investors from China and Japan visited him.

The governor said the country had no condition or restriction and had created freedom for in-flow of capital and easy reparation of profit by investors.

Obi said Nigeria had the biggest market in Africa that

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

provides viable alternative to the high competitive markets in developed economies.

He noted that Anambra as home of entrepreneurship requires increased power supply as more industries and businesses would soon be established.

Obi urged investors to take advantage of the untapped resources in Independent Power Supply and the huge

agricultural potential in the state to invest.

He said agriculture holds the key to the future of the country in feeding the people, generate revenue and create employment.

The leader of the team, Akuzu Nwokedi, said the team was ready to facilitate the completion of the Anambra refinery project with Orient Petroleum Incorporation, USA .

A member of the team, Mr. Machindin Amatsu said the team was eager to invest

•Obi huge resources in the state and attract more investment.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

58

NEWS Boko Haram ‘member’ killed in Borno explosion

Jos bombing: Battle line is drawn, says Defence Chief

From Joseph Abiodun, Maiduguri

A

SUSPECTED member of the Boko Haram sect was killed yesterday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and another escaped when the sect member threw an explosive at a Joint Task Force (JTF) location at Gana ward.

The explosion occurred at 9am at London Chiki, behind the Gwange II Cemetery.

It was learnt that the two gunmen, in a Volkswagen Golf car, attempted to throw the explosive at the JTF location, but the device reportedly exploded, killing one of the gunmen, while the other escaped.

JTF spokesman Lt.-Col. Hassan Mohammed confirmed the incident.

He said no soldier or civilian died in the encounter.

According to him, the explosive was targeted at JTF members, who were in the area to protect life and property.

Mohammed said no arrest has been made, adding that the JTF has begun the search for the fleeing gunman.

He urged the residents to go about their normal activities without fear, saying the task force is on top of the situation.

Ex-council chief convicted for cheating

A

KANO Chief Magistrate’s Court has convicted a former Chairman of Fagge Local Government Area for cheating.

Suleman Mohammed, aka Sule Chamber, was the council chairman between 1993 and 2003. He was arraigned with Bala Mohammed and Ibrahim Abubakar, all residents of Fagge quarters, Kano, on allegation of cheating.

On August 2, 2005, Alhaji Ila Lawan Umaru reported to the police that the convicts fraudulently sold to him eight plots of land, located behind Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, in Kwachiri Ward of Fagge Local Government Area of Kano State.

The charge sheets showed that the plots were sold through a fraudulent arrangement to the complainant for N320,000.

The convicts induced the complainant to part with his money, the prosecution told the court, as it tendered eight documents as exhibits.

The convicts denied the allegation. But the court said a case of prima facie case had been established against them.

Through their counsel, the convicts made a “no-case” submission and entered

From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

their defence. But the court squashed their submissions.

The court said the prosecution had proved its case against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt.

It berated the former council chief for keeping local government documents after leaving office, saying he should have handed them over to his successor.

But Suleman alleged that the land documents were illicitly removed from his custody, a submission the court frowned at.

Mohammed and his accomplices pleaded for leniency, saying as married men, they had many dependants.

Inspector Bashir Abubakar told the court that the convicts did not have any previous convictions.

Magistrate A. A. Kabara held that since the trio were first-time offenders and have pleaded for leniency, they were to pay N30,000 each or serve six months in jail.

Ruling that they should pay the complainant, Alhaji Ila Lawan Umaru, N320,000, the court gave the convicts 30 days to appeal, if they are not satisfied with the judgment.

PDP conducts ward congresses HE Sokoto State Peoin Sokoto

T

ples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday flagged off its ward congresses ahead of next Saturday’s primary for next year’s governorship election in the state.

The Chairman of the Congress Committee, Tony Akachukwu, urged the state officials and members of the party to abide by democratic tenets.

He said: “It is pertinent for you to show the world that PDP is a party that respects and believes in democratic principles.”

Akachukwu, who led a four-man committee, spoke

From Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

in Sokoto at the flag off of the exercise with the distribution of materials and result sheets at the party’s secretariat at Diplomat area on Sultan Atiku Road.

He warned party officials and members not to allow their conscience to be induced by anyone.

Akachukwu said: “It is your civic right and responsibility. Therefore, use it wisely in defence of the party.

If you make a good or bad choice, it is your responsibility.”

BusinessDay reporter dead From Joseph Abiodun, Maiduguri

T

HE Borno State Correspondent of BusinessDay, Joshua Maidoki, is dead.

He was 51.

The late Maidoki had his primary education in Jos, Plateau State, and Keffi, Nasarawa State. His secondary school education was at St. Moumt Gabriel College, Makurdi, Benue State, and Government Secondary School, Gwoza.

He also attended the Advanced Teachers’ College, Maiduguri, now Sir Kashim College of Education, for his National Certificate in Education (NCE).

The late Maidoki was a teacher before he worked with Union Media.

He is survived by a wife, four children, an aged mother, brothers and sisters. He has been buried in Maiduguri.

T

HE Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Oluseyi Petirin, yesterday said the battle line was drawn between the Special Task Force (STF), code-named, Operation Safe Haven, and trouble makers in Plateau State.

Chief Marshal Petirin spoke in Jos, the state capital, after inspecting the scene of last Saturday’s bombing, where some people died and property destroyed.

He also visited the hospitals where some of the victims are receiving treatment.

The Defence Chief said the STF, under his leadership, would pay the medical bills of the victims being treated in the hospital.

Nearly a year to the anniversary of the multiple bomb blasts, which rocked Jos on the eve of last Christmas, another set of bombs exploded at a television view-

•STF to settle victims’ medical bills From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

ing centre in the city last Saturday.

Chief Marshal Petirin addressed reporters at the STF headquarters in Jos after his tour.

He said: “There are some Godless and evil people who are bent on denying the good people on the Plateau the opportunity to live, work and play in peace.

“Anytime they perceive that the people on the Plateau want to come together and overcome the problems and the mutual suspicion that have affected their relationship, they cause confusion so that progress would not be possible.

“For example, three days ago, this evil people planted an Improvised Electronic Device (IED) where innocent and

law-abiding people were watching a football match.

They murdered a man in cold blood, simply to further their evil agenda. What these Godless people want is for the people on the Plateau to start pointing fingers at one another and start fighting.

“For the few misguided elements, hoping to disrupt the peace during this period, you are warned to desist from your nefarious activities. For the youths, we urge you not to agree to be used in a dangerous game you do not understand. A line has been drawn. We wait for those who will dare to cross it.

“We urge the people of the state to be vigilant, to refuse to play into the hands of these evil people, and to give maximum cooperation to se-

curity agencies.

“We urge the people on the Plateau not to fall for this trick. We urge them to come together so that we can continue to make progress in the security situation in this state. We again want to remind the good people on the Plateau that they must always be security-conscious.

Do not allow anybody to drop or leave a bag, container, polythene bag or any sealed object near you in any public place or gathering.

“Owners of business and other places, where people congregate, must be especially vigilant in this respect.

Don’t be afraid to ask your customers or people pretending to be customers to show you the contents of their bags and other containers, if they intend to leave them in your premises.”

* Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (middle); STF Commander, Maj.-Gen. Olayinka Oshinowo (right); and the Director, Defence Information, Col. Muhammed Yerima, at the scene of the bomb explosion in Jos...yesterday.

Diarrhoea kills two in Niger, says ministry

T

WO people have died in Niger State of diarrhoea in Bangi, headquarters of Mariga Local Government Area.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Ibrahim Chindo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Minna, the state capital, that only two persons, not eight, have died, contrary to claims in

some quarters.

He said the ministry has deployed its personnel and medical supplies in the town to contain the possible spread of the disease and treat the victims.

Chindo said: “I have directed that a query be issued to the affected health officials for not reporting the outbreak to the ministry on time.

“We have also advocated for the prompt report of any

outbreak to the ministry, so that necessary investigations are carried out and medication supplied to the affected communities to contain the outbreak.”

He noted that the situation has been brought under control, saying even those in the hospitals have been treated and discharged.

The permanent secretary said the ministry would in-

vestigate the cause of the outbreak to forestall a recurrence.

Chindo urged the public to always clean their environment and wash their hands to avoid contracting such diseases and report any outbreak to health facilities.

He announced that the treatment of diarrhoea is free in public health institutions.

Appeal Court nullifies PDP Senator’s election

T

HERE was jubilation yesterday in Kogi East Senatorial District as the Federal Court of Appeal declared Attai Aidoko Ali of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) winner of the April National Assembly election.

The Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dangana Ocheje, winner of the April election. This was upheld by the Justice Seline Nweke-led Governorship and National Assembly Election Tribunal, which threw out Aidoko’s petition challenging Ocheje’s election.

But the Appeal Court yesterday reversed the tribunal’s judgment, declaring Aidoko the authentic winner of the election.

From Mohammed Bashir, Lokoja

At Olamaboro, Aidoko’s home town, the residents celebrated the verdict with joy.

The youths sang and danced on the streets and traders left their businesses to rejoice with their son.

It was learnt that many PDP supporters in Idah and some other towns in the senatorial district also joined in the celebration.

A PDP leader in the area, who spoke in confidence, noted that the verdict was the true reflection of the people’s wish.

He expressed confidence in the judiciary, saying: “It is better to have a good non-party member as senator than someone who claims to be a member

but has nothing to offer the people.”

Speaking with our correspondent on phone, Aidoko described the judgment as transparent.

He said he was confident from the outset that he had a good case, adding that this was why he appealed the tribunal judgment.

A former lawmaker, representing Kabba/Bunnu-Ijumu Federal Constituency, Dino Melaiye said more revelations of the PDP rigging would soon be unveiled.

He said: “We will reclaim our mandate one by one, by God’s grace.”

Some of Ocheje’s supporters in Lokoja, the state capital, expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment. They asked for a rerun.

59

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NEWS Appeal Court reverses ruling

Two Libya deportees arrested

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

THE Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, the Edo State capital, has reversed the judgment of the Delta State Election Petition Tribunal ordering a rerun in Ika Federal Constituency Mrs. Doris Uboh had gone to court challenging the declaration of Victor Nwokolo as winner of the April National Assembly election.

The Court of Appeal, headed by Justice Raphael Agbo, in a unanimous judgment, voided the judgment of the tribunal which had earlier called for a rerun in some wards.

Nwokolo, in a statement, urged politicians not to see politics as a do- or-die game but as a project which rests with the people.

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

T

WO persons, who claimed to be deportees from Libya, have been arrested for alleged robbery in Benin, the Edo State capital.

Emmanuel Oteh (33) and Endurance Ogbeide (30) were arrested after their victim recognised the T-shirts they allegedly stole from him.

Commissioner of Police David Omojola said investigations revealed that the suspects have been linked to many robberies in the state.

Omojola said the suspects had on December 1 snatched Rasheed’s car, robbing him of other belongings, including the T-shirts.

The commissioner said Rasheed trekked to a hotel in Okhoro to ask for assistance when he saw the suspects wearing his T-shirts.

He said the victim alerted the police and the suspects were arrested.

One locally made pistol, two live cartridges, one improvised toy gun, N128,600, and Rasheed’s car were recovered.

The suspects confessed to the crime but said it was caused by joblessness.

The police chief said the suspects would be charged to court soon.

APGA appoints interim chair From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

HE All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) yesterday approved the appointment of Dr Casmis Ihegworo as its interim National Chairman.

Gozie Nwachukwu was appointed National Organising Secretary.

It further reiterated its endorsement of a suit filed against its ex-National Chairman Victor Umeh and other officers for constitutional breaches.

These decisions were contained in a communiqué at the end of a meeting of the Interim National Working Committee in Agbor, Ika South Local Government of Delta State.

The party called on the exinterim National Chairman, Dr Frank Ojiako, to step down in line with Article 25(8) of the party’s constitution.

It said he is deemed to have resigned his position by not declaring that he is a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.

It also declared the offices of the party vacant and called for immediate convention and congresses.

The communiqué also adopted the analysis presented by the interim national secretary and constituted a committee, headed

by Dr Mic Adams, to assemble facts necessary to aid the suit.

The Interim National Working Committee also approved a one-week timetable for a national convention.

T

•Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan (left) with former Senate President Ken Nnamani at the maiden public lecture held by staff of the Delta State House of Assembly, in Asaba... yesterday.

15 suspects paraded in Delta

T

HE Delta State Police Command yesterday paraded 15 suspects for crimes ranging from kidnapping, robbery, unlawful possession of firearms and fraud.

Commissioner of Police Mamman Tsafe said his men rescued the abducted wife of the ex-Clerk of the House of Assembly, Mrs. Igho Yavbieri and her four children.

According to Tsafe, the gang collected N7 million.

The anti-kidnapping squad discovered that one of the suspects bought a piece of land at Okpanam-a suburb of Asaba.

He said his men arrested Loius Acholo Etom, who confessed to the kidnap, and led the team to arrest five other gang members.

The other suspects are Andrew Monye, Deesire Nwobi, and Emeka Iwowo.

T

Delta Poly Rector kidnapped From Polycarp Orosevwotu, Warri

T

THE Acting Rector of Otefe-Oghara Polytechnic in Ethiope West Local Government of Delta State, Dr. Clara Fogbaike, has been kidnapped.

The rector was said to have been kidnapped yesterday while driving from the school in the company of a lecturer.

The school’s Public Relations Officer, Force Ofopokun, confirmed the incident. He said there has been no call for ransom.

Police spokesman Charles Muka said one person has been arrested in connection with the kidnap.

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

Ekpopko Samuel Jr and Oranye Kaosisochukwu were arrested as accomplices.

Tsafe said the same gang robbed Nnamdi Celestine Ozoma and other occupants of money and phones at Issele-Mkpitime, Aniocha North Local Government.

He said the police arrested Christian Egbuna, another

gang member.

Three Audi cars with registration numbers LN 885 KDA,AW 253 RBC, and AL235 SLK, two generating sets, three motorcycles with registration number QE 285 KWE, QE 215 KWE and QN 910 RLU were recovered from the suspects.

The suspects will soon be charged to court.

Among the suspects was a 67-year-old PHD holder, Dr

Chris Adigwe, who attempted to withdraw N932,000 from an account belonging to Dr Buba Mshelia Saidu at a first generation bank .

Tsafe said bank officials detected that the signature had been forged and alerted the police who arrested the suspect.

The suspect claimed he was lured into the business by some suspects now at large.

Also, two suspects involved in the kidnap and murder of Edafe Ekpeki, Financial Manager, Nigeria Gas Company, were paraded.

Famous Emesiri and Oghenekevwe Igagah, according to Tsafe, stormed a wedding at Erhuemokowhorien village near Ughelli, abducting their victim.

They reportedly abandoned his body opposite the Ughelli Township Stadium

INEC begins update of voters register in Bayelsa

HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the update of its electronic voters register in Bayelsa State. The exercise will last 10 days.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Edwin Nwatarali, said the exercise would take place in the 105 wards across the state.

Nwatarali said two data capture machines would be deployed in each ward for the exercise.

The update, he added, will capture those who were eligible and did not register in the last exercise this year af-

•REC: only headquarters can confirm candidates From Isaac Ombe, Yenagoa

ter giving credible reasons for not registering earlier.

Also to register are those who turned 18 and persons recently transferred to the state.

“You know that some people have just been transferred to Bayelsa State. We will retrieve their old cards

and issue them another one with separate codes to enable them vote next year.

“The updated register would be displayed between December 27 and 30,” he said.

Clearing the air on the submission of nomination of governorship candidates by parties, he said only the national headquarters of the commission would have the

information.

He said the list of candidates would be made public as soon as the headquarters transmit the information to the state office.

His words: “You know the Electoral Act is very clear on who should submit candidates for the election.

“The National Office of the registered parties will submit the names to our national headquarters in Abuja.

“As of today, I have no update from the Abuja office but as soon as we have the information, we will furnish the public. There is nothing to hide.”

‘Uduaghan not involved in politician’s death’

T

HE Delta State Government has said Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan knows nothing about the death of the governorship candidate of the Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Ogbe Onokpite.

Onokpite (38) was allegedly killed by policemen in the state last month.

A group, the Global Network for NonViolence, Justice, Good Governance and Democracy (GNNJGD), accused the state of his murder.

Its leader, Rex Anighoro, alleged that

one of the policemen, who allegedly killed Onokpite, made a telephone call to someone he referred to as “Your Excellency”.

But the Commissioner for Information, Chike Ogeah, told reporters in Lagos yesterday that there was no truth in the claim.

He said Anighoro was motivated by partisan consideration.

The Commissioner described the allegation as “wicked, infantile, jaundiced and illogical.”

Ogeah also alleged that the opposition

was motivated to launch the attack by ethnic consideration.

“For non-Deltans, this antic might seem strange. This campaign of calumny is yet another level of unbridled ethnic politics being played by some people in the state,”he said.

Ogeah described the group as “a desperate opposition seeking to smear the government and the governor in particular.

“Campaign is over, it is time to deliver the dividends of democracy.”

Aspirant woos voters with rice From Osagie Otabor, Benin

A GOVERNORSHIP aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Kenneth Imasuangbon, has begun wooing prospective voters with the distribution of 7.5kg of rice.

Imasuagbon said the move was to fight food insecurity in the state.

The aspirant, who was at the PDP secretariat to declare his intention to contest, urged the party’s leadership to conduct a free and fair election.

He said: “The PDP today is in the streets sharing rice to Edo people because of the hunger inflicted on the people.

“Young men and women are suffering and that is why we decided to fight food security.”

Why fuel is scarce in Port Harcourt, by DPR From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

THE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has attributed the current scarcity of petroleum products in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to shortfall in supply from the depots.

The scarcity caused an increase in prices of petroleum products.

Petrol sells for N150 per litre.

The Manager, Retail Outlet and Marketing of DPR, Abdullahi Isah, yesterday said the situation would soon improve.

Isah spoke after the Annual Major Marketers’ Meeting with the DPR’s Zonal Office in Port Harcourt.

He said: “Fuel scarcity can occur whenever the demand for the product is higher than supply, petrol will be at filling stations in Port Harcourt before the end of the week.

“Right now, we have some vessels discharging fuel. The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) depots are loading. They loaded 90 trucks on Monday, which in recent times has not been the case.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

60

FOREIGN NEWS ICC refers Malawi to UN over Sudan’s Bashir

Four killed, 75 injured in Belgium deadly attack

F

OUR people died and 75 were injured when a rogue gunman lobbed grenades and shot into crowds of shoppers at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium.

The shoppers, many of them children, ran screaming for safety in the panic as the gunman opened fire.

The dead included a 15-yearold boy, a 17-year-old girl, and

a 75-year-old woman. The attacker, 32-year-old Nordine Amrani, who was a convicted sex attacker and drug dealer, also died.

Among the injured is a twoyear-old girl, who is ‘clinging to life’ in hospital.

In the initial chaos, reports said up to three men had taken part in the attack, but the Inte-

rior Ministry later confirmed only one was involved, adding the incident was not terrorism-related.

Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he attacked a crowd near a bus stop at Place Saint Lambert, a central shopping square which is the site of the city’s Christmas market and its

main courthouse. It was not clear whether he committed suicide or died accidentally.

Gaspard Grosjean, a journalist for local Liege newspaper La Meuse, ran over to the square just after the attack, shortly after 12.30pm.

‘We saw people with bullet wounds in their shoulders, their hands,’ he said, adding that he had seen one dead body.

‘I see people completely scared, people are crying, everyone is on their phones.’

Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo expressed horror at the attack and travelled to the city.

The nation’s King and Queen also arrived on the city this evening to visit survivors.

Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said emergency medical teams were called in from as far away as the Netherlands.

The broadcaster Radio Television Belge Francophone said during the attack that all buses had been asked to leave the city centre and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside.

It said police helicopters were flying over the city and a medical post has been set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops (the court house) located on the site.

Police warned residents to stay in their homes or seek shelter in shops Police were on the scene quickly and sealed off the square. TV images showed blood splattered across the cobblestones.

Place Saint-Lambert is a busy crossroads. Every day 1,800 buses serve the square, which leads to downtown shopping streets.

Russian journalists fired over anti-Putin ballot photo The cover of the latest issue of the Kommersant Vlast weekly magazine sparked the owner to fire its editor and another media executive yesterday over what he called a \”breach of ethics.\” Many media rights activists and journalists described the move as an attempt to block critical coverage of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his party.

•UN Secretary Gnenral Ban Ki Moon

T

HE International Criminal Court (ICC) has referred Malawi to the UN Security Council for refusing to arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.

Malawi hosted Mr Bashir in October in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant for him on charges of genocide in Darfur.

Malawi said Mr Bashir enjoyed presidential immunity, and it would not violate

African Union policy by arresting him.

Three other African countries have already been referred to the Council.

These include Kenya, where a judge last month issued his own warrant for Mr Bashir’s arrest, sparking a diplomatic row, which was resolved after Kenya’s government said it would not arrest Sudan’s president.

Many African leaders accuse the ICC of only investigating alleged war crimes in Africa and ignoring those committed elsewhere.

Mr Bashir was the first head of state to be indicted by the ICC, which accused him of genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

He denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated.

Malawi has ratified the treaty establishing the ICC but said it was not its “business” to arrest Mr Bashir.

NEWS Security gets N921b in N4.7tr Budget 2012 Continued from Page 2

He said: “We are implementing the privatisation of the power sector.

Senate President David Mark, in his opening remarks, noted that Nigerians have over the years “listened to very beautiful and impressive budget speeches eloquently delivered”.

Mark noted that, unfortunately, the implementation of the budgets has not matched the words as economic policies often lack continuity and projects are needlessly discarded or abandoned.

He added: “We have what it takes to be a great nation or a world power. But we have never challenged ourselves sufficiently over the years to attain this desired goal. It is our hope and sincere belief that this budget will challenge us; and to take the challenge we must tighten our belts.

“To do so, we must ensure that all sectors and every Nigerian, irrespective of position or status, is involved. Let me remind us that in 2011 the Legislature led the way in reducing our overhead and recurrent expenditure in order to increase investment in capital expenditure and to lead by example.

“We must lay emphasis on critical infrastructure, reduce revenue leakages, grow the economy, generate employment, encourage local production and promote made-in Nigeria goods.”

He assured that the National Assembly will ensure the comprehensive implementation of the 2012 budget to the letter through oversight functions.

Mark said: “Let this budget be the one that will say let there be light, and there is light; let there be roads and there are roads; let there be water, and there is water; let there be employment and there is employment; let there be mediare and it is so; and let there be food and there is food.”

House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal cautioned against selective and low budget implementation.

Tambuwal, who noted that the 2012 budget came late, hoped that the 2012 budget will not only lead to the revitalization of the economy, but also reposition the country on the path of true development.

He said that it is noteworthy that the executive has made the completion of ongoing projects a critical aspect of the 2012 budget.

He said: “The sheer number of uncompleted and mostly abandoned projects and programmes in this country boggles the mind. It is the single most obvious sign of shoddy government implementation of the national budget over the years.

‘Why we want to spend N4.7trn’ •Continued from Page 15

Finally, I wish to appreciate the enduring partnership between the Executive and the Legislature in discharging our shared responsibility for nation-building and I note, with thanks, the patriotism, commitment and support that Distinguished and Honourable Members of this esteemed Assembly have consistently demonstrated.

Once again, I encourage us to dialogue openly, frankly and in good faith over the challenges that face us as a nation. It is my hope that the National Assembly will consider and pass the 2012 Budget Proposal expeditiously; and I foresee even more productive collaboration to the benefit of all our people.

I am indeed grateful for your kind attention.

May God bless you all, and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

61

SPORT EXTRA Abia Warriors FC unveil new coach

U

MUAHIA based National league outfit, Abia Warriors Football Club have officially unveiled their new technical Adviser in the person of Coach Ifeanyi Onyedika MON ahead of the oncoming Nigeria National League Season.

Speaking while presenting the technical Adviser, the Chairman of the Club Emeka Inyama said the unveiling ceremony was in line with world Class practices adding that hiring with the world class Coach is amongst the latest innovations in the Club geared towards ensuring the club achieves promotion next season.

Inyama charged the coach to bring his immerse experience in his long coaching career to bear on the success of the club and assured him of the co-operation of all at the club.

In his speech the state director of sports Ejikeme Ikwunze extolled Inyama for bringing professionalism to the club through the provision of a standard club House with modern gadgets and virile administration machinery.

Ikwunze, however, enjoined the Chairman to look for Sponsor for the Club ahead of the season as the government alone cannot be left to shoulder the burden of sponsoring about four professional football clubs in the State including the other 27 sporting Associations in the State.

He challenged the coach to enthrone professional discipline amongst the players to excel next season. Contributing, the Special Adviser to the Abia state governor on sport Emenike Kalu, expressed admiration over the way the

chairman, management and staff have been running the club describing the coach as one of the best in the country.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of sports, Sir Onyi Wamah who stood in for the commissioner for sports Chief Mathew Ochiobi, said the hiring of Chief Onyedika has shown the seriousness of Abia Warriors to gain promotion for next season adding that the State Government is solidly behind their ambition to bring premiership action to Umuahia.

Responding Coach Ifeanyi Onyedika described his appointment as an honour and called for all hands to be on deck to make his second stint

with Abia Warriors a success.

In a Vote of Thanks, the vice chairman of the Club Chief Nwoko O. Nwoko thanked everybody fpr attending the epoch-making event with assurance that the coming season will be great for the Club.

Highlights of the event were the presentation of a jerseys bearing his name and number one to Ifeanyi Onyedika.

The Chairman also presented a set of new jerseys to the supporters club members ahead of the new season.

Coach Ifeanyi Onyedika has had brief stint with Abia Warriors and had coached clubsides like; Enyimba FC, Ebonyi Angels and Wikki Tourist.

•Onyedika Ifeanyi (r) of Abia Warriors

FOR SALE Toyota Landcruiser 2008 .....1.6 million.

Honda Accord 1998 ...... 500,000.

Toyota Camry 2006 .....1.3 million.

Infiniti FX 35 2004 .....1.2 million.

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Nissan Primera 2000 ...... 400,000.

Toyota Hylander 2006 .....1.2 million.

Toyota Hiace Bus 18 seater.......700,000.

Honda Civic 2010 .....1 million.

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Contact: 08035004681,08063452669.

62

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

NATION SPORT EUROPEAN FOOTBALL...EUROPEAN FOOTBALL...EUROPEAN FOOTBALL...

Alves rejects Mourinho's claims D

•Mourinho

ANI Alves has rejected Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho's claims that Barcelona's victory in Saturday's El Clasico at the Bernabeu was down to luck and instead said it is because the Catalan club are the better side.

Despite going a goal behind very early on in the game, the European Champions fought back to beat their rivals 3-1 and leapfrog them at the top of the La Liga table.

It was the eighth time Barca have beaten Real in 12 attempts under the leadership of Pep Guardiola but despite the statistics, his opposite number Mourinho attributed a large part of the victory to luck.

"It's his opinion and it must be respected but we played a good game and I think we won because we were better and that's it," Alves said when asked about Mourinho's comments. "We started badly with the own goal but we did not fall apart, quite the contrary.

I want to congratulate Victor Valdes, his performance was incredible and he did not let the mistake affect him.

"Winning El Clasico strengthens you and weakens your rival. Many people had

already given Real Madrid the title but I said we would be fighting until the end. We took three points from a very difficult stadium where the atmosphere favoured them and we hope that strength stays with us until the end."

Meanwhile, Guardiola, resisted the temptation to bask in Saturday's victory after arriving in Japan for the Club World Cup, and instead said there was little difference between his side and Mourinho's.

"Real Madrid were the team of the 20th century and it is true we have enjoyed some success over them recently," he said. "But there's hardly any difference between the two teams. Real Madrid are a great team, we know that.

"We have just have to get the players ready for this tournament now. We are here to win the Club World Cup. I want the players to relax and get over their fatigue properly."

Barcelona play Asian champions Al Sadd on Thursday and victory would set up a final clash with Brazilian champions Santos.

The possibility of a showdown against the South American champions, who play the Kashiwa Reysol of Japan, on Wednesday, has generated a high level of excitement among players at the tournemant.

"Neymar is different class, pure and simple," said Puyol when he was asked about the potential line-up for the final.

"He does things most players can't. He is always trying to score. He's very dangerous, just a brilliant player."

Podolski provoked by Klopp L

UKAS Podolski has described comments from Jurgen Klopp as 'provocative' after the Borussia Dortmund manager ruled out an attempt to sign the Cologne striker.

Klopp said the 26-year-old was not one of his targets, but it is the reasoning behind his snub which has angered the Germany international.

Podolski will be out of contract at the end of the next season and has been targeted by Schalke, however, Dortmund will not be making a move.

"Maybe he is just sad because I have already turned him down twice," Podolski told the Express newspaper.

"They are very provocative

Marchetti out until 2012 AZIO goalkeeper Federico Marchetti will be out until the start of next year after pulling his hamstring, the club said Monday. Marchetti, 28, who deputised for injured first choice Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon at the FIFA World Cup last year, suffered

L

•Marchetti

the injury in Saturday's win at Lecce.

He has been in fabulous form recently and looked set to earn his first Italy call-up since South Africa. Although Marchetti gave away the penalty on Saturday that saw Lecce take an early lead, he then made two crucial stops to keep Lazio in the game before a Miroslav Klose inspired comeback saw them snatch a late 3-2 victory.

He pulled up suddenly during Saturday's game when going to collect a back-pass and had to be replaced.

Albano Bizzarri, who is himself just coming back from injury, is set to step into the breach if judged fit or else the club will again turn to JuanPablo Carrizo, an Argentine who came on in Marchetti's stead at Lecce.

Carrizo was signed from River Plate in 2008 but swiftly lost his place and has spent much of the time since on loan at first Zaragoza and then back at River. Lazio, currently fourth in Serie A, are in UEFA Europa League action against Sporting Lisbon and then face Udinese and Chievo before the winter break.

remarks from Mr Klopp."

While Schalke have confirmed their interest in Podolski, Klopp told Sky television that the Germany international is "an extraordinary player", but too inconsistent.

"I think he is hyped up so much in Cologne that it is hard for him to perform regularly," added Klopp.

"With his potential, he should be one of if not the best striker in the Bundesliga, but he isn't and that is because

he does not perform to his best often enough.

"That makes him too expensive for us - to have him only perform every other week."

Podolski retorted: "I really am too expensive for Dortmund because they have no money coming in from the Champions League.

"Now they have just been eliminated for finishing bottom of their group, I can understand that it would not be worth it."

•Guardiola

Guardiola: Johan Cruyff is my biggest influence

B

ARCELONA coach Pep Guardiola revealed that Blaugrana legend Johan Cruyff has been his biggest influence and also stated that he has picked up a few things from ex-Almeria coach Juan Manuel Lillo.

Guardiola worked under Cruyff during the Dutch legend's spell in charge of the Catalans in the early 1990s, and the 40-year-old has nothing but respect for his mentor.

"Johan Cruyff has been my biggest influence. I spent six years with him and I learned an awful lot," Guardiola was quoted as saying on FIFA's official website.

"Juan Manuel Lillo has also been an essential figure. He was my coach for just six months in Culiacan, Mexico, but we had a great time and I learned a lot. I think highly of him and I’m very grateful to him, because he was very generous and passed his knowledge on to me. And he knows a lot too."

Guardiola then went on to explain his decision to use

midfielders in other positions and stressed that it allows him to work with a smaller squad.

"The midfield is a crucial part of any team. Midfielders are intelligent players who have to think about the team as a whole. They’re selfless players who understand the game better than anyone and the more midfielders you have, the easier it is to slot them into other positions.

"That’s how they become versatile and that helps us to have smaller squads that are still able to offer more options.

"I’ve never been worried about having a small squad.

In fact, being a little short on options is probably better for us than having a lot, especially as I’ve got players with so much quality to call on. I’ve got complete faith in the team and my philosophy is that there’s a solution to every problem."

Barcelona are currently in Japan to take part in the Club World Cup. They lock horns with Al Sadd on December 15 in the semi-finals of the tournament.

Buffon: Too soon to talk Scudetto

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•Podolski

UVENTUS goalkeeper Gigi Buffon has again played down talk of winning the title.

The Bianconeri are top of the table and the only side still unbeaten in Serie A. “We need a great deal of calm here,” the goalkeeper told Tuttosport. “There are too many games to go, including the entire second half of the season.

“The road is too long and I really don’t want to take our fans for a ride. If I said that S word, then I’d be crazy. I’m not just refusing to say it out of false modesty.

“Don’t forget in December last year we were in second place, then bad luck ran us down. So many injuries, at least six simultaneously, saw our season precipitate.

“After all, if we were to lose one or two important players, then we’d have to see if the

•Buffon

team could make do without them,” continued Buffon.

“In those difficult moments, if they come, we can tell how good this squad really is.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

63

Tomorrow in THE NATION

www.thenationonlineng.net

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

The quantum of available global investment is in any case not sufficient. Africa in particular has made a mistake of allowing itself to be persuaded from direct state participation in economic development. ’ VOL.7 NO.19747

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

A

S we all know, the Aso Rock Villa is to Nigeria what the White House is to the US or No. 10 Downing Street is to the UK; each is the residence of their respective No 1 Citizen.

As we also know the penultimate occupant of our own Villa was Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He lived there from May 29, 2007, after his contentious election as president, till May 5, 2010, when he died amidst avoidable controversy that dodged his ill-health from even before his first day in office.

As president he was served by Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, author, journalist and editor at Thisday, as his spokesman. A more thrilling and authoritative account of what transpired inside the Villa during the period under consideration and about their impact on the country and beyond than the one told by Adeniyi in his 294-page book would, in my view, be a tough call indeed.

At least two things are responsible for the book being a thriller and authoritative. First, Adeniyi came to the job highly recommended as an accomplished reporter, editor and well-connected columnist. Second, in the history of speaking for the country’s various No. I Citizens since Independence over 50 years ago, Adeniyi, with his formal title as Special Adviser to the President on Communications, is the first to enjoy the status of a minister. This meant unprecedented access to his principal and routine attendance of all cabinet meetings, among other privileges.

This has prompted some critics to ask if the book is not an exploitation of, or even an abuse of, privilege. I do not think it is, for the simple reason that the public is entitled to know how they are governed, subject, of course, to respect for our laws on the security of the State. And what Adeniyi has had to say in his book has not, as far as I can see as a layman, breached any of such laws.

In any case, even if the book is an abuse of privilege – which I insist it is not – Adeniyi would be in the good company of many public officers at home and abroad, elected or otherwise, who have told their own stories about how they have discharged their briefs.

The difference is that Adeniyi has told his much more quickly than most.

For me it is only proper, even commendable, that he did so when the events are still fairly fresh in our memories and many of the actors in his story are alive and well to challenge his version of the events.

POWER, POLITICS & DEATH is divided into two parts, actually three, if you consider his Dedication, Preface, Acknowledgements and Introduction, and the Forward by Mr. Dele Olojede - the first and so far the only African winner of Pulitzer Prize, American Journalism’s answer to the Nobel Prize and Abbreviations, as one section. I did and I found it somewhat confusing that the book had both a Preface and an Introduction by the author because the two mean the same,

People and Politics By MOHAMMED HARUNA ndajika@yahoo.com

Adeniyi’s thriller about the Villa

•Adeniyi

except, of course, if the author decided to write two introductions. In which case I think he did wrong because the Introduction to me reads more like an epilogue.

The two sections of the book proper are entitled “The Defining Issues” for Part I and “Illness and Death,” for Part II. Part I has nine chapters while Part II has eight making a total of 17. In my view the title of Part I was a misnomer because none of its nine chapters really defined the presidency of Yar’Adua. What defined it from start to finish were his illness and his eventual death.

In each of these chapters the author listed several achievements of Yar’Adua. He also mentioned some of his principal’s personal failings. Even then, he always did so with sympathy and clearly without malice.

Yet in spite of all his bravest attempts at putting the best face to the president’s failings it was obvious that when the chips were down the president lacked the courage of his own convictions.

Nothing exposed this ultimate lack of courage by the president in his own con-

RIPPLES Aliyu: REMOVAL OF SUBSIDY’LL FREE GOVT FROM BONDAGE

… and put NIGERIANS in PERPETUAL BONDAGE?

victions than his unwillingness to sack Aondoakaa in spite of his awareness of the dubious role his minister of justice had played in trying to shield Chief James Ibori, the twoterm former governor of Delta State, from prosecution for sundry acts of corruption.

Ibori, said Adeniyi, regarded the EFCC chairman, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, as his greatest enemy and he (Ibori) projected this enmity to then Chief of Staff of the president, Major-General Abdullahi Mohammed, on grounds that the general was Ribadu’s godfather and therefore someone who had to be pushed out of the Villa if he (Ibori) was to win his war against Ribadu.

“Look Segun,” Adeniyi quoted Ibori as warning him on one occasion, “you know you were not supposed to get this job but the president insisted it was you he wanted but now that you are here, you think you can play politics.

Let me warn you, I have been playing the villa game since the Abacha days so don’t mess with me. Be careful.”

In the end, Ibori proved true to his boast; Mohammed was eventually pushed out of the Villa and Ribadu out of the EFCC. And arguably his biggest ally in his success was Aondoakaa to whom EFCC ultimately reported as the attorney general of the Federation.

It was inconceivable that Ibori and his ally could have succeeded in their war against the EFCC without at least the tacit support of the president. This created serious doubts in the public mind at home, and perhaps even more so, abroad, about the president’s commitment to fighting corruption as a cardinal principle and programme of his presidency.

Throughout the civil war – for that was what it was – in the Villa, it leaked as a sieve. “We would finish a meeting,” Adeniyi said, “and the details discussed would be on the internet in less than 30 minutes.”

One particularly telling case that involved the author was a meeting the president convened to discuss the controversial sale of NICON Insurance to Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, a shipping magnate. “Not more than ten minutes after the meeting ended,” Adeniyi said, “Jimoh

HARDBALL

U

NTIL early next year when President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to brusquely remove what his government describes as fuel subsidy, it is unlikely that anyone can prevent the controversy from dominating news headlines and opinion pages. Reports, including this newspaper’s, suggest that the subsidy will be removed by fiat. That the matter will be presented to the National Assembly as a part of the 2012 budget, and therefore necessitating debate, does not seem capable of delaying the implementation of the deregulation process. That we operate a democracy does not also appear to deter the supposedly elected Jonathan from preparing to use executive order to force the subsidy removal quinine down our sweetened and fattened throats.

If, as the National Assembly indicates, the budget takes nearly two to three months to pass, and Jonathan is in a hurry to begin his deregulation process, we may face a situation where the legislative process could become nugatory. Because of the huge emotions swirling around the issue, with

Governors, NEC and fuel subsidy the government warning of imminent economic collapse, Jonathan has foreclosed debate on the matter and indicated he was willing to be unpopular in order to save the economy. Will the National Assembly, which the president is fervently lobbying, agree to forgo debate on the issue in order to give Jonathan an expeditious approval? If they did, would it matter to them that they were betraying the trust of the people by refusing to subject executive proposals to thorough appraisal before giving assent?

The president has all but shown how he wants to tackle the fuel subsidy issue: he will bathe the controversy in emotions and circumvent or abridge legislative processes to impose his wish on the country. It is not yet certain how the legislature will tackle the impending disaster. Will they allow themselves to be stampeded by the executive, and the proposal to be railroaded through parliament? Could

JIDE OSUNTOKUN

Ibrahim called to express his displeasure at the position I took which he said did not reflect the fact that we were friends.”

On another occasion, the author said, a staff in the office of the president was caught selling documents to a bank executive.

This sorry state of the presidency’s official secrecy must have led to its decision to have all staff in the Villa swear to oaths of secrecy for the first time in the country’s history. Predictably, the swearing attracted heavy media criticisms and, at any rate, proved futile; the Villa continued to leak like a sieve until the president died.

The civil war in the Villa was, however, not without its occasional comic relief. For example, speaking during a Federal Executive Council session in which the issue of declaring the president incapacitated came up, Dr. Sam Egwu, former two-term governor of Ebonyi State and minister of Education and one of those who urged caution over the issue, provoked laughter when he told the session what happened when, as governor, he once had to travel out for medicals at a time his deputy was also outside the state.

Consequently, he said, he wrote to the speaker of the state’s House of Assembly to act as governor. “Hardly,” he said, “did the guy even allow me to leave the state capital before he moved into my office, sat on my chair and started barking orders. The only thing the fellow did not take over was my wife!”

Apparently Egwu’s humour was lost on then acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, who presided over the session; in his first cabinet reshuffle after dissolving the cabinet he had inherited from his erstwhile boss, the minister was among the casualties.

Were the then acting president’s wife, Dame Patience, whose ambition to be First Lady was the worst kept secret in the country, to have been present at the cabinet session, the minister’s humour would have been lost even more so on her. “As early in the administration as December 2007,” said Adeniyi towards the end of the book, “a group of women had paid her a visit and in the course of the discussion, one had asked: ‘how is oga?’

To this Mrs. Jonathan replied: ‘My husband is in the office reading newspapers. Then she added rather sarcastically in pidgin English: ‘Abi no be newspaper Turai (Mrs. Yar’Adua) say make im dey read?’”

POWER, POLITICS & DEATH is truly a gripping and highly readable account of what transpired during the uncompleted and tragic presidency of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Note This is an abridged version of my review of the book at its formal presentation by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole in Abuja yesterday.

•For comments, send SMS to 08054502909

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above they be sure that, if implemented, the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry would not spell a greater disaster for the country than Gen Ibrahim Babangida’s 1986 Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which was similarly pushed through by guile and subterfuge?

Going by Monday’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, which endorsed the planned removal of subsidy, it is now clear that the governing elite have finally drawn the battle line. Are they as ready for the battle as they think? Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, who addressed the press after the meeting made the following shocking statements: “We have all taken the collective decision to support the proposed removal of subsidy by Mr President next year. In respect of this, the federal government has produced a comprehensive document which spells out clearly how the reinvestment funds from next year’s deregulation will be channelled towards creating safety nets and critical infrastructural projects to help the poor cushion the effect.”

•To be continued tomorrow

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