The Nation December 09, 2012

Cracks in South-South over 2015 presidency

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•Amaechi

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Babalakin: EFCC’s LUTH siege continues till Dec 12

•Dickson

•Babalakin

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Vol.07, No. 2334

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

DECEMBER 9, 2012

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How Boko Haram split wrecked FG, sect talks US AFRICOM Commander to meet Jonathan, Ghana security chiefs over insurgency –PAGE 2

awaits election results as polls close

• Observers hail exercise –PAGE 5

Kaduna stands still for Sambo’s daughters wedding President Goodluck Jonathan, left, consoling children of his late brother, Meni, following the burial ceremony at Otuoke, Bayelsa State yesterday.

BUY AND WIN A BRAND NEW CAR SEE PAGE 71 FOR DETAILS

• Govs, IBB, Buhari, others storm event –PAGE 7

My brother’s death by cardiac arrest painful, says Jonathan –Page 6

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NEWS THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

How Boko Haram split wrecked FG, sect talks C

RACKS within the leadership structure of the terrorist Islamist sect, Boko Haram, may be responsible for the failure of the much-publicised dialogue between it and the Federal Government.

Since the killing of the group’s former leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody in 2009 following a violent uprising in Borno and surrounding states, Abubakar Shekau has been the widely acknowledged leader of the militant group.

But sources say the arrest of one of the group’s leaders in Kano by the Joint Task Force (JTF) may have sparked the division.

It was learnt that not less than three factions of the sect have now emerged. This is complicating any further contacts and negotiations with the group.

One of the splinter groups, Yusufiyya Islamiyya, has distanced itself from the efforts to resolve through dialogue the insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives across Northern Nigeria. The group has warned members of the sect to be wary of people with selfish intentions claiming to be negotiating with the government on their behalf.

Yusufiyya is said to be under the leadership of Sheik Abu Usamata Al’Ansari who, before now, was well known as commander of Boko Haram in Kano. Sources even described him as the sect’s leader in the North West comprising Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi and Jigawa States.

Al’Ansari, who sources claimed was in Dubai recently as part of Boko Haram’s delegation for talks with government, is said to have pulled out following the refusal of the JTF to release Suleiman Mohammed,

• US AFRICOM Commander to meet Jonathan, security chiefs over insurgency

By Dare Odufowokan

his aide and deputy, who was arrested some weeks ago.

The continued clampdown on members of the sect by the Police and the JTF is another reason given by Yusufiyya for backing away from the dialogue. It is believed that Al’Ansari and his men are the ones behind recent bombings across the North.

A reliable source who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “The truth of the matter is that discussion was opened with the Boko Haram sect. However, following internal disagreement within the group over how to handle the dialogue with government, it has become difficult to continue the discussion as the sect is now in factions. One of the factions said it is no longer interested in dialogue until all its men are out of detention.

“There is also the issue of who the authentic leader of the group is. Our suspicion is that the aggrieved faction is the one behind the recent spate of bombings. This explains why nobody has come out to claim responsibility. Unless the internal crisis is addressed, it may be difficult to know who to discuss with among the factions.”

Apart from Yusufiyya, another faction of the Boko Haram sect which goes by the name “Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan,” meaning Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa, is said to have denounced the call for negotiations.

The group whose logo shows the Qur’an, with a gun on both sides, said it will continue to wage a war for justice and truth. It said it will not negotiate with the authorities as it is sure of victory.

“We are more determined to continue the fight for the blood of our founder Mohammed Yusuf and other leaders who were slain in cold blood by your leaders. We are not part of any negotiation. We will continue to attack the aggressors,” the group said in leaflets distributed in Kaduna during the week.

The sect has been engaged in a bloody campaign of bombings and killings in parts of the North in the past few months. A blistering crackdown on suspected

members of the sect by the military and police has failed to end the reign of terror.

But against all expectations, a senior member of the Boko Haram, Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, in November requested talks with the government, a day after a double suicide bombing blamed on the sect killed at least 11 and wounded 30 in an army barrack.

Abdulazeez said he was speaking on behalf of Abubakar Shekau, the sect’s leader. The group set conditions for peace talks in the teleconference and nominated former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, among its mediators.

It equally requested that the talks take place outside the

country.

Buhari has since declined the offer. Following Buhari’s refusal, the sect through a letter said to have been sent to the Federal Government through the Borno State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), nominated as mediator, Imam Gabchiya, an official from the University of Maiduguri.

After initially welcoming the offer of dialogue enthusiastically, President Goodluck Jonathans had during his last nationwide television media chat dismissed all notions that talks had been taking place. He said government could not discuss with a faceless group.

This denial notwithstanding, sources close to the two divides claim discussions were actually opened between them. One of such dialogue, The Nation

•Former Vice President and Guest Speaker Atiku Abubakar delivering the 2012 Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Memorial Lecture at the Yar'Adua Centre, Abuja on Saturday. Seated Right to Left are Director General Yar'Adua Foundation, Jacqueline Farris, former Minister of State for Defence, Mallam Murtala Yar'Adua and National Publicity Secretary of ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (representing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the chief launcher).

on Sunday learnt, took place in Dubai and the two parties agreed on modalities for further meetings. It was learnt that both the sect and the authorities were well represented at the Dubai talks.

However, indications that all was not well emerged when shortly after the encounter, leaders of the sect started speaking with discordant tones. According to sources, the arrest of one of the group’s leader in Kano by the JTF then disrupted all calculations. And by the time the discussants met in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, for another round of talks, not less than three factions of the sect had emerged.

Meanwhile, Gen. Carter F. Ham, Commander, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) arrives in Nigeria this week for talks with President Jonathan, National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and other security chiefs over the threat posed by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

Ham disclosed this yesterday at this year’s Chinua Achebe Colloquim on Africa with the theme: ‘Governance, Security and Peace in Africa,’ which took place in the US city of Providence, Rhode Island.

The general had said last week that the terrorist organisation - Al Qaeda’s - affiliate in North Africa was operating training camps in northern Mali and providing arms, explosives and financing to Boko Haram. He revealed that members of the sect had travelled to the camps and have, most likely, received funds and explosives from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). “We have seen clear indications of collaboration among the organisations,” he said.

2015 presidency splits South-South govs

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HERE are strong indications that President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015 has caused a major division among South-South governors, his home region.

Although the parting of ways over Jonathan is still a carefully guarded secret at the top, The Nation learnt that some of the governors are so crossed with the president that they have entered into political alliances with other possible contenders, a move that is certain to rattle Jonathan’s return ambition in 2015.

Unlike what obtained in the 2011 general elections when all the South-South governors threw their weight behind Jonathan’s election as President, the 2015 election is poised to be dicey. This time around, ex-

By Remi Adelowo

cept Jonathan acts fast to save the situation, it seems two, out of the five South-South governors, are no longer queuing behind him.

The South-South governors that may have withdrawn their support for Mr. President, according to impeccable sources, are Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke.

According to sources close to Amaechi, he is of the view that the next presidential race should not be based on ethnic considerations, but that the best candidate from any of the regions in the country should emerge as the next

president.

But beyond his opposition to ethnic affinity in deciding the 2015 race, sources close to him revealed that Amaechi’s cold war with the president is a fall-out of the alleged plan by federal authorities to cede about 45 oil wells in the Kalabari area of Rivers State to Bayelsa, the president’s home state.

Despite the president’s assurances that he was not using his executive powers to favour Bayelsa State in the oil well controversy, Amaechi, according to sources, feels otherwise.

At a town hall meeting held in Port Harcourt recently, Amaechi, according to a source, told the audience that the reason some powersthat-be have decided to deny Rivers State of the oil wells

boils down to the politics playing out ahead of the 2015 elections. He allegedly accused the president of attempting to clip his wings so as to stop him from supporting an opponent in the 2015 presidential election.

Imoke’s grouse is also connected to oil wells. We gathered that Imoke’s anger

is traceable to Mr. President’s alleged indifference to the plight of Cross River State after it lost substantial oil wells to the neighbouring Akwa Ibom State in a case that dragged on to the Supreme Court. The decision of the highest court of the land deprived Cross River State of huge revenue.

A source told The Nation that “The unanimous opinion of many Cross River State indigenes, including the governor, is that the president, after assuming office in 2010, should have used his exalted office to broker a political solution to the oil well issue, rather than allow the state to lose out completely.”

Mandela hospitalised

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OUTH Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela was yesterday admitted to a military hospital for medical tests.

A statement by President Jacob Zuma’s spokesman said there was “no cause for alarm” over the 94-year-old icon’s health. It said the former president was doing well and was

receiving medical care “which is consistent for his age.”

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term. He later retired from public life to live in his village of Qunu, and last made a public appearance when his coun-

try hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

“We wish Madiba all the best,” Zuma said in the statement, using Mandela’s clan name. “The medical team is assured of our support as they look after and ensure the comfort of our beloved founding president of a free and democratic South Africa.”

Column

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

The dangers this time A

S the Nigerian ship of state enters turbulent and uncharted waters, we must be careful in which direction we push the troubled hulk. The troubled early years after Independence appear to be back with us, but with heightened and more critical contradictions. This time around, almost everything that can go wrong in a fragile nation and a more fragile democracy has gone wrong and without powerful countervailing institutions.

As it was the case in the First Republic, we have a military stretched to the limits of its fabric and professional tether by internal security operations. We have a bitterly divided political elite. We have a situation in which a section of the country has been rendered virtually ungovernable by armed insurrection, with the other sections besieged by social, economic, political and religious vampires and vultures.

But now in addition to these ancient woes, we have the alarming situation in which ordinary and normal military postings are judged and condemned through the prism of religious and ethnic coloration. We have warlords and powerlords jostling for contention. We have a ruling class that has become a byword for a bizarre and berserk variant of kleptocracy. Never in the history of this country has the run on the Exchequer been more openly defiant and in your face. Presiding over all this is a president who reminds one of a boy-emperor handed an empire as a toy rigged with explosives.

In politically divided and ethnically fractured nations where zero sum politics is the name of the game, the struggle for power is often seen as a struggle for the soul of contending nationalities. No wonder then that democratic contests are framed as a battle for the survival of the ethnic group in a hostile environment rather than a struggle for office. In such circumstances, elections are nothing but an ethnic census or a tribal referendum. They solve and resolve nothing. In fact as we have argued on this page and it is now apparent in the plight of the nation, elections tend to worsen the contradictions.

If it is of any help and comfort to us, primordial scare mongering is not restricted to developing nations alone, but with an important proviso.

As we can see in the tragedy of the Republic of Congo, the other African giant with which the chaotic mess of Nigeria is often compared, developed nations are not colonial amalgamations or overseas plantations and mega-mine crematorium put together for the sole purpose of extractive predation. In about sixty years, Congo has had only four rulers: Patrice Lumumba, its murdered and iconic founding president, Joseph Mobutu and the two Kabilas. The first three were either violently overthrown or murdered. Every election has been followed by a civil war.

Now if gold can rust, what is dross expected to do? During the run up to the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles and the knotty issue of German reparation, an American negotiator was so affronted by the unrelenting hostility to the Germans of Georges Clemenceau, the French prime minister, that he was forced to ask him.”Pray sir, have you ever been to Germany?”

“No sir!” Clemenceau, a.k.a The Tiger, shot back. “But twice in my lifetime Germans have been to Paris!”. He was of course referring to 1870 and 1914. Had The Tiger tarried a bit longer, he would have lived to witness a more comprehensive German “visit” during the Second World War when Hitler’s Panzer Divisions overran France in a question of days. One can then imagine what would have happened had the

•Jonathan

French and the Germans been boxed together in a nation-space by colonial fiat, and without a road map.

But it can be worse. And some nations have paid terrible prices as a result. If the rhetoric of injustice and marginalisation succumbs to dark, paranoid fantasies; if passions are inflamed to a point where they lead to a bitter scape-goating or stigmatisation of other ethnic groups, civil wars or genocide often result.

Nigeria, Rwanda and Kenya come to mind. In Kenya in 2007, the entire country dissolved in ethnic mayhem after disputed presidential elections.

But as soon as an internationally driven acceptable formula for post and power-sharing was found, all became quiet on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Although often mainly executed by ordinary people, all the genocide

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ORE than any other Nigerian nationality, the Yoruba nation often suffers this periodic backlash arising from traumatic stress and disorder. On at least three occasions, it has led to low intensity civil wars resulting in the liquidation of many of its illustrious children, particularly during the “Wetie” civil insurgency, the revolt against massive rigging that sank the Second Republic and the uprising that marked the annulment of the June 12 presidential election.

Yet despite all this , and all things considered, there are those who argue that Akintola was a better focused and more realistic politician than Awolowo. In their estimation, SLA probably discovered very early enough the gigantic fraud that the post-colonial nation was and how every heroic effort to reform it is doomed to tragic failure. Since politics is ultimately about who gets what and at what time, it is better to let the status quo be as long as the Yoruba elite were allotted their fair share, after all what the bird eats is what it flies with no matter the complexion of the skies.

This was the early prototype of the later mainstream argument.

Akintola acquiesced in the feudal supremacy of the old North. It should be recalled that his battle cry of “Ekiniani” and Ekejiani was directed against the dominant Igbo elite whom he felt were greedily gulping up what should belong to the Yoruba elite but which was denied them as a result of Awolowo’s political intransigence. In fairness to them, Akintola and his colleagues did manage to claw back some concessions.

But there were also many who

in post-colonial Africa are driven by elite hate propaganda and are often the nuclear fallout of bitter contention for state largesse. Genocides do not descend suddenly from heaven. The principal role of intellectuals in fanning the embers of hatred and inflaming genocidal passions is often ignored by intellectuals who write on genocide.

Once again, Nigeria appears to have arrived at a critical juncture. Political battles are almost always preceded by intellectual contestations. You can almost tell when a nation is headed for a major showdown whenever certain key cultural and political codes, eg, genocide, demonology, terrorism, federalism, devolution of power, sovereignty etc become sites of fierce intellectual combat.

In the old West, even when the battle field wears a new garb and fresh mutants of the old tendencies emerge, the contest is still structured around the ancient ideological divide which showed up fifty years ago when the Action Group fractured irretrievably. Whether as seen in the struggle between federalists and anti-federalists, between the demos and their demonologists , between Afenifere patriots and Abacha collaborationists and now between the so called mainstreamers and the champions of regionalism, the ghosts of Awo and SLA have always stalked the battle field.

Unflinching loyalty to a cause, a group or the communal ideal is a timeless phenomenon since humanity first socialised and civilised. So is political treachery which is arrant disloyalty to the communal ideal. Just as no alchemy can transmute base metal into gold, no verbal alchemy can trans-

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nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu form treachery to loyalty. From the Jews to the Japanese, it has been shown how loyalty to the group and established communal ideals promotes good virtues, particularly resilience, industry, generosity of spirit and the cult of heroic self-denial in the service of the society.

Every human society has a way of dealing with dishonourable dissent and outright disloyalty and political treachery. The disincentives range from stigmatisation, demonisation and when all else fails the employment of Political Terror. Terror ranges from physical coercion to other more subtle forms of economic, spiritual, metaphysical, artistic and intellectual intimidation.

In the old Yoruba society, there were certain institutions which acted in concert to protect the integrity of the communal ethos and ideals. These ideological apparatuses of the old Yoruba state include the Ogboni Confraternity, the oro and Osugbo cults which employed the efficacy of physical, intellectual and spiritual terror to ensure strict compliance with societal norms. It was not for nothing that a baffled and bewildered Peter MortonWilliams described the Ogboni as “mystery-mongering greybeards” The problem with Nigeria, and with all colonial creations, is the clash of competing loyalties, that is loyalty to the old organic community and loyalty to a new nation that is yet to be properly founded, one that remains an artificial contraption and a mere geographical expression as Awolowo famously noted. Although loyalty to the new modern nation ought to supersede loyalty to the primordial community, that is only where and when the state acts out its true histori-

cal role as an arbiter, arbitrator and mediator of the competing and countervailing demands of the different factions of the ruling elite.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian postcolonial state has proved itself to be incapable of arbitrating or mediating anything, except when it comes to the deployment of gratuitous and autistic violence against different constituting units and nationalities. Like a childlike monstrosity, the Nigerian bandit state is frozen in conception as an instrument of Colonial Terror against captive nationals, utterly incapable of coming up with an organic organogram that will satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of its captured natives.

In such circumstances, rather than being an ameliorative clinic of national clarity and charity, the state becomes a theatre of chaos and confusion in an absurdist drama of national entropy; a Bazaar of buccaneers where every ascendant group barricades the door as the feeding frenzy of political hyenas commences. To the faithful, come and chop is the warcry and there is no difference between the colour of blood and the colour of red wine. Each must flow abundantly.

As every outbid or smashed nationality retreats to lick its wounds, the ethnic igloo welcomes back its own at great costs to national consciousness and cohesion. In the event, the embattled nationality, particularly if it retains some residual cohesion from its pre-colonial political formation, begins a process of internal purgation. Conscientious objectors and opportunistic “one-Nigeria” dissidents alike are branded as traitors and harsh sanctions often follow.

Four Yoruba and Nigerian Avatars saw through all this as sheer political chicanery, an attempt to appease the greedy palate of a few Yoruba right wingers even as the entire Yoruba society lay under the hammer of the feudal oligarchy and with its authentic leadership in jail. In sharp ideological contrast to Akintola, Awolowo heroically believed that Nigeria was redeemable but that it would know neither peace nor development until feudalism was smashed in the north.

Prolonged and protracted military rule stalemated the argument, with the Yoruba society oscillating between confrontation and guarded collaboration with the military-feudal complex. After Chief Awolowo’s departure, and in a significant play of signifiers across rigid ideological divides, it took a habitual right winger who had transited to the left to break the deadlock.

Before his Pauline conversion, M.K.O Abiola’s apostasy knew no bounds or limits. But he brought immense rightwing resources to bear on a leftwing cause. These are the resources of immense wealth, wide contacts across the political spectrum and a liberal attitude to political impurities. Abiola triumphed but panicked an outfoxed military high command into annulling the freest and fairest presidential election in the history of the country.

In retrospect, it can be seen that it was Awolowo’s tradition of heroic defiance which facilitated Abiola’s dramatic victory. Awolowo’s courageous opposition made it possible for the Yoruba nation to maintain its position as a hegemonic power

bloc even while being out of power and contention. The northern power masters knew where the real threat to their hegemonic stronghold on the nation lies. In turn, it was Abiola’s heroic defiance and selfmartyrdom coupled with the NADECO insurrection which made an Obasanjo presidency possible.

Of the four Yoruba titans, Obasanjo, the lone soldier, is arguably the outstanding political games-master. It will be recalled that Akintola’s supine deference led to a stiffening of feudal arrogance which in turn invited a violent military reprisal. Awolowo’s disdain and defiance led to a cycling of the wagon by his adversaries which prepared the Yoruba for a long siege.

Abiola’s in your face conversion panicked the military feudal complex into a nation-destroying annulment.

But Obasanjo stooped to conquer, feigning bucolic ignorance and enduring humiliation and indignities along the way until he acquired enough leverage of power to wreak untold havoc on his feudal tormentors.

It will be left to future historians and psychoanalysts to ponder whether Obasanjo was in the best psychological state to lead a nation shortly after he was sprung from jail by his wily benefactors who had looked the other way as Abacha summarily impounded him. A man with the legendary memory of an affronted elephant, Obasanjo simply returned the toxic compliment in full measure. By the time he had finished with them, the hallowed aura had vanished and the feudal power mon-

gers were looking very ordinary and most politically vulnerable.

For the first time in the history of the country, we have what looks like an open playing ground among the ruling class.

But it is also obvious that Obasanjo lacks the temperament, the political skills, the psychological disposition and the intellectual wherewithal to build and sustain a mass political movement or even a regular political party. More shattering is the fact that having ruled the nation for the longest period as a civilian and having been able to impose the last two presidents on the nation, the current chaotic mess is a damning testimonial against the substitution of benign, visionary and transformative statecraft for petty and vindictive score settling. Rather than being the solution, the general is part of the problem.

With the old pacted consensus gone, with no overriding pan-Nigerian statesman in sight and with no dominant power broker in the horizon, it is clear that once again Nigeria has entered uncharted waters. Yet our story of avatars shows the immanent rationality of history, how unjust visions of human development will ultimately succumb to bitter reality, no matter how long and what it costs, and how different people with different goals, in a different, contradictory and even adversarial manner, can end up contributing to the same historical cause without their ever being aware of the end result.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

News

L-R: Former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd); Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), Former I.G.P., Alhaji Gambo Jimeta; Gov. Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State, and Vice President Namadi Sambo, at the wedding Fatiha of the Vice President's daughters in Kaduna yesterday

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ORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for a radical shift in the administration of education in the country, saying free and compulsory secondary education should be provided for all.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the 2012 Shehu Musa Yar’Adua memorial lecture and presentation of the book,: Shehu Musa Yar’Adua neither North nor South nor East nor West: One Nigeria, he proposed for decentralisation of running education in the country.

He asked the federal government to concede education

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L-R: Vice Chairman, Kaduna State Council of Chiefs, Chief Ufuwai Bonet; Traditional Ruler of Umudioka, Imo, Eze Thomas Obiefule, and chairman, Benue State Council of Chiefs, Tor-Tiv, Dr Alfred Torkula, at the wedding reception of Vice President Namadi Sambo’s daughters in Kaduna yesterday.

Photos: NAN

Atiku calls for free secondary education From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

as a responsibility for state/ regional and local governments with the federal government, at best, setting standards and providing financial support.

The former Vice President who is the founder of American University of Nigeria, Yola (AUN), also advocated for the enactment of a law that mandates anyone under the age of 18 to be in school and

• Says cash alone can’t solve Boko Haram insurgency to hold parents accountable for non-compliance.

He said, these will help address the high number of children of school age who are out of school.

Nigeria, he revealed has the highest number of children of school age who are not in school, as according to him, about 10.5million children of school age are not in school. This figure he said is besides the 75million unem-

ployed youth in the country.

The number he said is the worst in the world.

The former vice president also revealed that the country has too many uneducated adults whose lives would likely have been better with education.

The figures, he said vary across the country with his home zone of the North East faring the worst. He blamed the situation on the general

level of corruption in the country, which he said is entrenched in the society.

Delivering his lecture titled Rebuilding public education as a bridge to Nigeria’s future, he said the remedy is not in throwing in cash just as what happened in the area of security where security budget has been increased yet the problem of Boko Haram persists.

Rather, he said, what was needed was a change of

policy and strategy. He also noted that professionals and not politicians be allowed to implement policies in the educational system.

Besides, he said the country is in a dire need for the expansion of school spaces across the country. He insisted that a revolutionary law to ensure that most citizens complete secondary school education is needed.

Visionless leaders bane of Nigeria –Tinubu A

SIWAJU Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has again decried the ill-luck that has befallen the country.

According to him, Nigeria has had the misfortune of being governed by leaders with no vision and who regard the country as a personal farm to plunder.

He spoke yesterday at launch of the book Neither North nor South, East nor West: One Nigeria at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

The former governor said, “The present government and the direction it is leading the country is a repudiation of all that these great patriots lived and died for. Because they are reaping where they never sowed, they do not value the power they hold. Rather, they hold Nigerians hostage by their actions and inactions in full glare demonstration of their cluelessness and anti-people orientation.”

He assured that Nigerians would “Soon enough take their country back. We must reflect on this because the times are challenging.

Suddenly, Nigerians see each other as enemies because of the kind of policies and actions the current government has embarked upon. The tide rises high and beats roughly against us. But we must remember that we are not enemies. As a nation, we are each other’s extended family.”

The former governor re-

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

iterated his call for unity, saying, “Families talk, resolve issues, and move on to better things. That is why Nigerians must unite to demand to be governed properly and responsibly by those they have elected. It is impossible that we agree on all things.”

On the purpose of gathering, he said, “We can vow that the spirit of closeness and cordiality that permeates this hall shall not be left here when we go. That spirit serves no purpose in an empty venue. We must carry this with us.

“In doing so, we best honour the life and legacy of

Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua. In doing so, turn the name of this book Neither North, Nor South, Nor East nor West from being just a clever title to becoming our national reality.

With that thought in mind, I do hereby launch this excellent book and contribution to the civic education of our children.

“We all know General Yar ‘Adua died for Nigeria.

More importantly, he lived for Nigeria when most of us did not. Yet, he never became dispirited.

“This man lived for Nigeria and he did so heroically, even to his last day.

Here was a man born into the status and privilege of a noble family. If he simply focused on his own interests,

democracy would not have any appeal to him. He did not need democracy.

“Yet, he never looked at himself first. He looked at others and realised that they needed democracy. He looked at his people, the poor, the weak, the ones who searched for a champion yet seemed unable to find one.

In him, they found what they were searching for. His moral conscience would not allow him to sit in comfort while the rest of his countrymen wandered the alleys of poverty and backwardness.

Thus, he deposited all the private advantages and privileges he could have enjoyed into the public undertaking of cementing this nation into a unified, demo-

cratic whole.

“It speaks to the measure of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s extraordinary greatness that a military general born of high social station would become one of our nation’s most revered democratic figures. In many ways, he is Nigeria’s parallel to America’s George Washington. He broke new grounds, engendered new political re-alignments between the North and the West and demonstrated to all that strategic thinking is the name of the game. “ Shehu Yar‘Adua was a brilliant political strategist and visionary. Founding the People’s Democratic Movement, he brought together like-minded demo-

crats from all corners of Nigeria to fight for justice, for good governance, for the people’s right to determine who shall lead them.

“The bonds that he built then, still live on today among so many key Nigerians. The spirit with which he carried himself enriched all who came near him. He mentored so many people, including me. What struck me most was that when he looked at a person, he did not place that person’s ethnicity, religion or region in the balance to weigh the person. He merely looked at the person’s character, abilities and commitment to the democratic cause.”

Ghana awaits election results as polls close

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HANA electoral workers tallied ballots yesterday in elections troubled by technical hitches, but which authorities hoped would ultimately burnish the country’s reputation as a model African democracy.

ECOWAS and AU observers led by former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday hailed the process despite a few challenges. They called for speedy release of results to forestall rumourmongering.

Ghanaians had queued up for a second day in parts of the West African nation to vote after hundreds of newlyintroduced electronic fingerprint readers - used to iden-

• Observers hail exercise tify voters - malfunctioned.

The decision to extend polling into yesterday was broadly accepted by voters and rival parties, easing worries the problematic poll would trigger the kind of street violence common during elections in West Africa.

“I was happy they extended the time,” said Yaw Krampah, a 29-year-old metal worker, as he waited in line on the outskirts of the capital Accra. “But I couldn’t sleep at all - this election means so much to me.”

Three decades of peace combined with a recent oildriven boom have made Ghana a darling among in-

vestors who say its growth prospects contrast sharply with the economic woes of Europe and the United States.

President John Dramani Mahama, who replaced the late John Atta Mills after his death in July, faces main rival Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who has vowed to provide free education and root out graft.

Early tallies from polling stations point to a tight race, raising the prospect of a repeat of the near-deadlock of the 2008 elections, in which Mills defeated Akufo-Addo in a run-off with a margin of

less than 1 percent.

Hundreds of electronic fingerprint readers malfunctioned on Friday, causing some people who had waited hours to vote to burst into tears as they were told they had to come back the next morning.

An election commission official said 1.6 percent of the country’s 26,000 polling stations had to reopen yesterday to clear the backlog, adding that officials would launch an investigation into why the machines broke down.

“We are trying to find out what caused this situation,” said spokesman Sylvia Annor.

Results are expected

within two days with a second round possible at the end of December if no one wins an outright majority.

Ghanaians are also electing a parliament, where Mahama’s National Democratic Party has enjoyed a slim majority.

“I would like to ask the Ghanaian people to remain very calm...We are on course, and there should be no apprehension,” Mahama’s campaign director Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah told a news conference.

“Our people should be law-abiding, they should follow the rules of the game...The electoral commission will speak, and when it speaks, we will listen,” he said.

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How my brother died of cardiac arrest,

by Jonathan

By Isaac Ombe

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

News

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday explained that his younger brother, Chief Meni Innocent Jonathan, died of cardiac arrest.

Speaking shortly after the funeral service at the St. Stephens Church Otuoke, the president said that his late brother appeared frail during his last private visit to his country home, prompting him to ask him to follow him to Abuja for treatment.

In an emotion laden voice he disclosed that the late Meni even drove himself to Government House, Yenagoa where he joined him in his helicopter.

He noted that his younger brother walked to his house unaided in Abuja and that there was no sign that he was going to die suddenly.

“What worries me is that he died so suddenly. This was a young man. I came home on a Friday, he came to my house, no body carried him, he moved down just from his house across the road. We discussed, he was a bit frail, I said he should follow us so that he could do medical check up. He drove down to Yenagoa to board the Chopper to Abuja”.

He added that “He got to Abuja that Saturday so he was admitted in the hospital. The following Monday I said let us make arrangement to get him out to let him get treatment outside. So an arrangement was being made, unfortunately he had cardiac arrest and inflamed heart at the State House Clinic. We were making arrangement to move him to National Hospital.

“It is, very sad thing he has been covering the home front for us. He was a very humble person, he was a reliable and trustworthy person that you can ask to handle things for you. He is dead, there is nothing we can do.”

While thanking all for coming to share the grief with the family, he noted that though by tradition he was not supposed to bury his younger one, the community is not strict with such traditions .

“I must thank all of you who have come to join the Jonathan family to give us this respect, in some traditions I’m not supposed to be in church.

It is tradition that you don’t bury your younger ones, luckily for this community we don’t have too many of these cultural and traditional things.”

Bishop James James Oruwori, Bishop of the Anglican Church Ogbia Diocese, in his sermon, while describing death as a separation from the physical world to the spiritual, noted that there is life after death.

“Our period on earth is a period of probation, it is time for preparations, how are we prepared for life after death.

Where you will be is determined by your preparations on earth? How prepared are you is what matters,” he added.

Governors present at the funeral service included the host Governor Seriake Dickson, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) Theodore Orji (Abia) and others.

Babalakin: EFCC’s LUTH siege continues till Dec. 12 T

HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is to retain its surveillance team on the Chairman of BiCourtney, Dr. Wale Babalakin, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) till December 12 when the businessman will be arraigned in court, it was gathered yesterday.

Also, it was confirmed that the operatives of the Commission were still keeping a close tab on him at the amenity ward where he is receiving treatment.

The surveillance has impeded the movement of Babalakin who found it difficult to move out of his ward. His associates have, however, expressed concern that the surveillance has amounted to “House arrest.”

Babalakin and four others have been charged to court over N3.4billion allegedly laundered through Mauritius for ex-Governor James Ibori to buy a Challenger Jet Aircraft.

The others are Alex Okoh, Stabilini Visioni Limited, Bi-Courtney Limited and Remix Nigeria Limited They are also to face 27count charge in the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja Division bordering also on alleged siphoning of $11.3million abroad for Ibori through Erin Aviation Account in Mauritius.

But when the suspects were to be arraigned last week, Babalakin was said to be ill and on admission in LUTH. The sudden illness however forced Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo to adjourn the case to December 12, 2012.

But on Monday, EFCC operatives mounted surveillance on LUTH to ascertain that Babalakin was actually on sick bed.

The anti-graft agency is however not in a hurry to “reduce the noose on Babalakin.”

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the EFCC decided to retain its surveillance on Babalakin to make sure that he respects the court by appearing for arraignment on December 12.

From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

A reliable source in the Commission said: “We are still retaining our surveillance on Babalakin in LUTH and we will do this till December 12 when he is due to appear in court.

“Babalakin had given us his words that he would come to court for arraignment, we hope that he will honour his promise now that the court has given him

enough time to attend to his health.

“It is a good thing that he is in a government hospital where the court could get records of his true state of health. There is no hiding place for him.”

But one of the associates of Babalakin, who spoke in confidence, said: “The EFCC has placed our principal virtually on what can be described as ‘house arrest’ because he cannot move out of his ward in the hospital.

“They are watching over his movement as if he is a prisoner. This is a violation of his fundamental human rights.

What we have is really a siege.

“Even if they are adamant that it is surveillance, what court permitted them to do so? This is illegal and an abuse of the order of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

They have forgotten that there is a subsisting order of prohibition preventing the EFCC and the Attorney-General of the Federation from going

•Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State (left) and former governor of the state, Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, (holding the broom) while receiving PDP defectors into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) held at the party secretariat in Ibadan at the weekend.

Olupona unveils book on Ile-Ife

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•L-R: Mrs Uta Nkposong, graduand’s mother Chief (Mrs) Shola Kuforiji, the graduand Miss Ayosile Kuforiji-Kehinde and Col. Christiana Thomas at the Call to Bar ceremony at the Nigerian Law School, in Abuja recently.

Gunmen kill two teenagers in Kano T WO teenagers were at the weekend shot dead in Kano by unknown gunmen.

The incident, according to an eyewitness, occurred at about 7pm at Yankaba area of the ancient city on Thursday when unknown gunmen, riding on a motorbike, shot the two teenagers to death at close range and immediately escaped.

In separate interviews with Solomon Agazie and Nwachukwu, both fathers of the slain teenagers, they expressed shock and disbelief over the killing of their innocent sons in cold blood.

ahead with Babalakin’s arraignment. Are they saying that the order of a court is useless?

“This is the time Nigerians should cry out. An injustice to one Nigerian is an injustice to all. It could be anybody’s turn tomorrow.”

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, who spoke with our correspondent last night, said: “Babalakin is being watched but you will not see our men there, we are not disturbing his treatment. We are not disrupting activities in the hospital in any manner.

“The image of a siege was a dummy to deceive the public. Babalakin is under surveillance and when somebody is under surveillance, you will not notice it. If it was true that we stormed LUTH, the public will notice it.

“I challenge them to prove the claim that Babalakin is under siege, they should publish the photograph of the operatives that allegedly stormed LUTH. They are just embarking on a campaign to smear the hardearned reputation of the EFCC. It is sheer propaganda to divert the attention of the public from the issue in court.”

As at press time, it was gathered that the EFCC is already getting set for the arraignment of Babalakin.

All the suspects will be arraigned in court for alleged “conspiracy to commit felony to wit: corruptly conferring benefit on account of public action contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code Law, CAP. C17, Laws of Lagos State, 2003.”

From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

In tears, Mr Nwachukwu asked, “Who killed my son?

What offence has he committed to be shot instantly to death without justice?”

According to both parents, the late Daniel Nwachukwu (17) and Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Agazie (16) were both childhood friends who grew up within the same locality in Yankaba before they met their untimely death.

On the fateful day, the late Daniel visited his friend, Chukwuebuka, and while he was seeing off Daniel just 200

metres away from his home, Chukwuebuka’s sister, who was in the bathroom, heard two gun shots, and rushed out to the scene, only to discover that her brother and friend had been shot to death.

She hurriedly alerted both parents, who rushed to the scene. Moments later, operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) arrived the spot and with the consent of both parents carried the bodies of the teenagers to the Bompai Police Station where the incident was recorded and thereafter the bodies were taken to the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hos-

pital mortuary for autopsy.

Meanwhile, both pained parents of the late teenagers are challenging the state government to fish out the killers of their sons, insisting that they are both innocent, adding that one of the deceased, Daniel, recently secured admission to an institution in Imo State and was in the process of proceeding there before he met his death Contacted, the Police Command confirmed the incident and said that investigations have commenced to unravel those behind the crime.

ROFESSOR Jacob Kehinde Olupona, Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, United States, will be hosting the public presentation of his two new books on December 13, 2012 at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, from 11am.

The first book, City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and the Imagination emanated from decades of in-depth research in Ilé-Ifè by the author. The book, which was awarded Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship Prize, is being presented in honour of His Royal Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, the Ooni of Ife, who celebrates his 32nd reign on the throne of Oduduwa on December 6, 2012.

The second book, titled “In My Father’s Parsonage: The Story of an Anglican Family in YorubaSpeaking Nigeria”, was written in memory of Professor Olupona’s late parents, Venerable Michael Alatake Olupona and Mrs. Henrietta Olalonpe Olupona, to honour their mission work in Anglican Churches of South West Nigeria.

The proceeds from the book launch will be used to support the Michael and Henrietta Olupona Foundation which will be devoted to a number of social development projects, including a world class Institute for the Study and Understanding of Culture, Religious Interaction and

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

News

•The Govt of Anambra State, Peter Obi and the Chairman/ CEO Innoson Group of Companies, Chief Innocent Chukwumma (left) during the Small and Medium Entrepreneur zonal conference in Enugu…..at the weekend.

PHOTO: OBI CLETUS

Kaduna stands still for Sambo's children From Tony Akowe,Kaduna

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HERE was heavy security presence in Kaduna yesterday as about 16 governors from across the country stormed the city to witness the wedding ceremony of two of Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo's children.

The wedding ceremony which saw former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim badamosi Babangida representing the Vice President's family took place at the Sultan Bello Mosque and was presided over by the chief Imam, Shielk Abdulhamid Balele Wali.

Vehicular movements along the Ali Akilu road were diverted to other routes while many visitors found it difficult gaining access into the venue of the wedding which began at about 11.15am.

Huwaila Muhammed Sambo was given away in marriage to Muktar Ruma after the payment of a dowry sum of N50, 000 while Aysha Muhammed Sambo was wedded to Auwal Abdulrahman after the payment of a dowry of N250, 000 and eight cows.

Governors at the event include those of Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Imo, Nassarawa,Taraba, Cross River, Gombe, Katsina, Abia, Anambra, Kogi, Kwara, Bauchi, Oyo and Kaduna States.

Others were the Secretary to the Federal Government Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, Senator Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi, the DG NEMA, DG NSCDC, former Chief Justice of the Federal Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Galadima Kano Alhaji Tijjani Hashim, former Presidential Aspirant Alhaji Lema Jibrin, Miniter of National Planning Alhaji Shamsudeen Usman, and a host of other top government functionaries.

•From left: Head of Section, National Vehicle Identification Scheme, Fuomsuk Hyginus, Public Relation Officer Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, representative of Commissioner for Transport, Adeyinka Gbemibade; Zonal Commanding Officer Federal Safety Corps, Zone II, Ademola Lawal, Executive Director, Temidayo Ogan Child Safety and Support Foundation, Mrs Temidayo Ogan, Mr. Asitonka Ogan and Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos State, Nseobong Akpabio during Road Safety Walk and /Road Show organised by Temidayo Ogan Child Safety and Support Foundation yesterday.

PHOTO: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL

Lagos traffic law: Dubai-based Nigerian, two others clean premises

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29 year old Dubai-based Nigerian, Joseph Nwudu, and two others, who were convicted for traffic related offences on Saturday, continued their community service sentences by cleaning the premises of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Task Force at Alausa, Ikeja.

Nwudu, who was convicted by Magistrate E. Johnson, before a Special Offences Court for driving against traffic from Campbell towards J.K Randle Avenue, Lagos, was arrested by Policemen in the convoy of Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on November 2, 2012.

Nwudu and the other two convicts were made to cut the

over-grown grass and weeds in the premises of the State Task Force and to gather the debris before burning it. They were supervised while carrying out the exercise by officials of the state task force.

Speaking with newsmen after the exercise, Nwudu said he does not feel bad about what he is doing because he has done something wrong and that is punishment which he is serving wholeheartedly.

"I think it is a regular thing in Lagos to see people driving anyhow but that is not the norm, we should change it. The change is about beginning from a particular step and no matter where this will start from, we can begin and should just flow with our governor. He is doing

real good," he said.

On whether he would have committed the same offence in Dubai, Nwudu said there are no chances of driving against traffic because the traffic signs are visibly marked.

He also charged all Nigerians to be law abiding by keeping the roads safe, saying Nigerians should rally round to fix the state if they cannot fix Nigeria, adding that "Lagos stands a better chance."

Bayo Osuporu, who was convicted for procuring fake vehicle papers, advised people to desist from patronising touts but should go directly to licensing offices for all vehicle documents.

Mr Sunday Nwafor, who was convicted for riding Okada

on prohibited routes from Idumota to Iddo, urged all recalcitrant motorcyclists to desist from plying the restricted routes.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Lateef Ibirogba, who observed the community exercise, told newsmen that the observance of the punishment by the guilty persons only reinforces that the only way to live in Lagos is to obey the law.

He added that the only way to make the society beneficial for everyone is to understand that everybody has a right to live by the law, explaining that the sentence would serve as deterrence to others who still feel that they have one or two ways to go.

Experts differ on re-award of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

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HE re-award of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway contract to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and RCC Limited has continued to elicit reactions with many expressing divergent views on the propriety or otherwise of the new cost of the project.

The Federal Government had revoked the contract to the concessionaire, BiCourtney Consortium, last month for failure to deliver on the project.

According to the terms of reference, the new contractors are expected to carry out repairs on the road in phases with reconstruction from Sagamu to Ibadan end within the next eight weeks ahead of the yuletide.

The cost allocated for the exercise is N52billion, a cost, which has raised eyebrows in some quarters.

But a cross-section of experts who spoke with The Nation at the weekend said a number of factors determine the cost and valuation of turnkey project of such nature.

Firing the first salvo, Mr. Yusuf Sagaya, Chairman, Yolas Construction Limited, an indigenous construction firm, who would not be drawn into the controversy surrounding the revocation of the contract to Bi-Courtney, said a lot of factors such as

…As Works Minister blames infrastructure deficit on past governments

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

terrain, topography, among others, are what determine the cost allotted to a road contract.

“You can’t weigh cost in isolation. Several factors such as engineering details, design are what determine how and what it would cost to carry out a project, especially road,” he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Mr. Toke Olaniyan, a Civil Engineer and member of the Institute of Facility Management (IFMA) Nigeria, said, “There are many parameters you have to consider before you give a cost,” he said. “One would want to know the existing condition of that road, what are the preparatory works to do on the existing road surface before you can talk of a patch work? And patch works are of many types. So it’s important one knows the parameters, one knows exactly what the client wants before one can arrive at an estimate.”

Corroborating Olaniyan, Engr. Tony Nzeaku, the president of IFMA, while commenting on the cost and time-frame of the project said, “The scope of a project determines the timeline. If you have a project that should take two weeks,

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and you have the machinery, manpower, materials, and you have the window of opportunity whereby you can close the road, or you work only at night, it’s all feasible. It depends on the scope.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen has blamed previous administrations for deplorable situation of roads in many part of the country.

Onolememen expressed the disgust at the Academy of Entrepreneurial Studies (AES) Excellence Club 3 rd Annual CEO’s Dinner/Awards Night in Lagos over the weekend.

The minister said the

poor state of the roads was inimical to the nation’s development.

According to him, the development in America is due to the county’s success in the management of its roads.

He stressed the need for greater investments in the construction and maintenance of good road network to enhance the nation’s economy.

The minister said that investments in road infrastructure were needed to achieve the transformation agenda of the government for Nigeria to be among the top 20 economies of the world by 2020.

He said Nigeria’s road infrastructure had to grow from the current 194,000 Km to about 300,000.

Oyedepo, governors’ wives lead special prayer for Nigeria

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ORRIED by the religious and political crises in the country, Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, yesterday led members of his congregation in special prayer for Nigeria and political office holders.

The prayer was offered at the closing of the annual gathering of the church tagged: “Shiloh 2012” with the first ladies of Ogun State, Comfort Amosun, and Kwara State, Omolewa Hammed, joining the Bishop on the pulpit.

“We have to pray to avert crisis in Nigeria being the largest black nation in the world and the largest African country. It is our responsibility to pray for our country because if there is crisis in Nigeria it will affect many nations,” Oyedepo stated.

He prayed for supernatural turnaround and end of bloodshed in Nigeria and other countries experiencing violent crisis worldwide.

The Bishop also prayed for wisdom, boldness and guidance for President Goodluck Jonathan, state governors, leaders and members of the federal and state legislature.

“At a time like this, our leaders need divine wisdom and we have to uphold them in prayers regularly to ensure they take the right decisions in the interest of the country,” Oyedepo said.

The week-long programme was attended by members nationwide and from 60 countries, including, Saudi Arabia, Israel, United Arab Emirate, India, China and United States.

Auto crash claims six in Ibadan

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ESIDENTS of Mobil area, Ring Road in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital yesterday woke up to face a grim sight of six corpses by the raod.

The deceased were victims of a motor accident which occurred in the early hours of the day.

The victims, who were one young lady and four young men, were said to have left one of the highly rated night clubs located at Ajeigbe area of Ibadan where they spent the night. They dropped off a lady before getting

From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

to the spot of the accident.

It was gathered that the driver of the Toyota Camry moving from Challenge was on top speed. Residents said that the car lost control on getting to the Oni and Sons Bus stop and rammed into an electricity pole before somersaulting to the other lane of the expressway where it blocked and hit a BMW car that was moving towards Challenge.

Residents disclosed that the

owner of the BMW who died on the spot was coming from night vigil around 5 am when the Camry hit his vehicle, leading to his death.

A resident said: “When I got here this morning, I saw the two cars, that is, the BMW and the Toyota Camry. I learnt that the accident occurred around 2.am.

I saw about six people. I don’t know whether they are police or FRSC people but they had towed the vehicles away from here this morning.”

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COMMENT and ANALYSIS THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Joy comes in the morning T

ODAY our nation stands at a crossroad and it is left for us to decide which path we choose to take. Do we take the path of despair and dishonour and give up on our country? Or do we rise above it all and latch on to the promises of God for our land and for our people? With biting poverty, mounting hopelessness, a bleeding economy, youth restiveness, unprecedented violence, brazen acts of terror and all manner of vices and evil thriving in the land one wonders how things got so bad. The foundation for our current situation was laid many years ago and since that time we have seen so much suffering and failure at virtually all levels. We were plagued with leaders who lacked vision, who lacked intellect, who lacked sincerity of purpose and who were antagonistic to those that dared to challenge their visionless and purposeless policies. Our country is currently bedevilled with so much negativity that it is easy to look around and just give up. Yet I say that we must never give up because ‘’hope springs eternal’’. The bible says though the night may be dark yet ’’joy comes in the morning’’. The wise ones say you cannot have a message without a mess. You cannot have a testimony without a test.

You cannot get to the top of the mountain without first going to the bottom of the valley. This is true. And out of Nigeria’s ‘’mess’’ shall surely come her ‘’message’’.

Out of Nigeria’s ‘’test’’ shall surely come her ‘’testimony’’. We have been to the ‘’bottom of the valley’’ and therefore we shall get to the ‘’top of the mountain’’. Our dream for a better Nigeria shall never die and neither can our collective prayers be in vain. I refuse to give up because I know that the God that I serve never fails. He alone rules in the affiars of men. He alone forges the destiny of nations. Out of a deep void and formlessness He ordered the creation of the world. He established it by the power of His word and He gave us dominion over it.

In the same way He created Nigeria for His purpose and for His glory and that purpose and glory shall surely be established. It shall come to pass and it will be manifest to the entire world. We shall see it and we shall be established in it as a nation and as a people. If God can do it for others, He can do it for us too. We can be great and, by the grace of God, we shall be great. This is my dream and this is what I see. And believe me when I tell you that it is prophetic. A Nigeria where every man and woman, regardless of faith, ethnicity, status or political persuasion finds a common cause and relishes in our collective humanity. A Nigeria where the rich have a conscience and the poor have hope. A Nigeria where joy and peace reign supreme and where bombings and killings are a thing of the past. A Nigeria where the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac and the adherents of the two great Abrahamic faiths of islam and christianity live together in peace, harmony and mutual respect. A Nigeria where the secularity of the state is respected yet where God is reverred and honoured by all.

A Nigeria where the knowledge and fear of the Living God reigns in the hearts and minds of the people. A Nigeria where every man is His brother’s keeper, where leaders show compassion to those that they lead, where justice is done to all and where political persecution has no place. A Nigeria where decency is rewarded, where dissent is tolerated, where non-conformity is encouraged and where equity is enthroned. That is the Nigeria of my dream.

A Nigeria where youth unemployment is low and where every individual, no matter how high or low, can aspire to any position and live his or her dream. That is the Nigeria of my dream. A Nigeria where human life and human dignity is sacrosanct and where fairness is the watchword of every soul. That is the Nigeria of

Lekan Otufodunrin Otufodunrin@thenationonlineng.net 08023000621 (SMS only)

‘Our’ corruption rating

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• When will Nigeria’s promise break forth?

By Femi Fani-Kayode

my dream.

I have no fears about the future of this great nation because the God that I serve never fails. The bible says the nations are ‘’as a drop of water before Him’’. He sits above the circles of the earth and He counts the earth as His footstool. Yet despite His sheer awesomeness and majesty, with Him lies great compassion and mercy. Once we return to Him, acknowledge Him, honour Him and are led and guided by Him, He will restore us and shower us with His blessings. The Lord awaits us to make the right choice.

We either continue to wallow in self-delusion, wickedness, greed, murder, the persecution of perceived enemies, the abuse of power, evil and insenstivity or we desist from our wicked ways and turn to Him. I am persuaded that once we make the right choice our date with destiny, as a people and as a nation, will come far sooner than we can possibly imagine. In his book titled ‘’The Wretched of the Earth’’ Frantz Fanon said the following- ”each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover it’s mission and fulfill it or betray it.” Past generations in Nigeria have not lived up to expectation. This is the bitter truth.

Yet there is still hope as long as we have faith. That hope and faith is our blessed assurance and it lives in our minds and hearts. We know that the Lord will fix it.

We know that He is ‘’more than able’’. We know that He is a man of war whom none can resist and we know that He restores, redeems and rebuilds even the most broken and wretched walls. Dr. Martin Luther King jnr., after delivering his celebrated and inspiring ’’I have a dream’’ speech, was felled by an assassin’s bullet on April 4 1968. To those that killed him, his dream died with him.

Yet they were wrong. They did not know that great dreams, once birthed, never die.

That is why the Word of God said ‘’if the princes of this world had known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory’’. If those that murdered Jesus, and the devil that inspired them to do it, had known that He would honour His word and rise up three days later they would not have crucified him. They persecuted Him, they humiliated Him, they beat Him, they tortured Him, they spat on Him and they killed Him yet they could not kill His dream or abort His mission. His dream lived on and became a reality for all mankind to see. It was the same with Martin

Luther King. They killed him but his mission had already been achieved and his vision came to pass 45 years after his sacrificial and selfless death. This is indeed the stuff of which dreams are made. Great things are birthed in great dreams and if you dare to dream nothing is impossible.

I have a dream for Nigeria. I have a dream that one day Nigerians will see themselves as Nigerians before anything else and they will not regard their country and its people as a collection of strange bed-fellows that do not love or trust one another. Yet this dream can only be fulfilled when those amongst us that call ourselves leaders preach, practice and display discipline, temperance, holiness, morality, restraint, tolerance, mercy and the fear of God in the conduct of our affairs.

It can only be made manifest when we stand up and fight against evil, tyranny, injustice, indeceny, bad governance, the abuse of power , political persecution and sheer wickedness. Our dream can only be brought to reality when love is the motivating factor in all that we do. The Lord commands us to love our neighbour as we do ourselves. That is the cornerstone and the foundation of our faith and it is in that faith and that resolve that our hope for a better and greater Nigeria lies. I have a dream that Nigeria will be what God wants her to be, a great and powerful nation that is dedicated to the Living God and that will act as a shining example and a beacon of light for all to see.

I assure you that despite the dashed hopes and unbearable suffering of millions of our people over the last 52 years, our dream still lives and the Lord shall not forsake us. Our land and our people may seem blighted, in despair, depressed, repressed and confused. It may appear as if there is no hope for a better tomorrow and that nothing will ever change. It may seem as if the Lord has forgotten us and it may appear that our story is one of recurrent failure and shattered dreams. Yet this is not so.

I have come here today to tell you that, despite all we see and hear, it is not over for us as a people and as a nation. I have come here today to tell you that we as a people have a date with destiny. I have come here today to tell you that Nigeria and the Nigerian dream lives on and that it shall be made manifest for all to see in the fullness of time. I therefore urge you to be strong, to hold your heads up high, to be proud of who and what you are and to stand firm. The vision is for an appointed time. Though it may tarry it shall not prove false.

God bless you and God bless Nigeria.

HERE is a way we celebrate negative ratings about our country that it is understandable.

Due to our frustrations with the running of the country by successive governments, we are usually quick to accept ratings that confirm our perception about the state of our country.

This explains why the recent poor rating of the country by Transparency International has usual been ‘well received’ by Nigerians as a true reflection of how bad we have sunk on the corruption index.

Like in previous years, Transparency International, (TI), the global corruption watchdog ranked Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nation. In the 2012 Corruption Perception index released on Wednesday, Nigeria scored 27 out of the maximum 100 marks to place 139 out of the 176 countries assessed for the report.

Consequently Nigeria is the 35 th most corrupt country globally.

Many of us would have questioned the outcome of the surveyed if Nigeria’s rating if it has not been that bad. There are even some who would argue that the result is not a true reflection of how bad our situation is.

I have no reason to disagree with the TI like the Information Minister, Labaran Maku over how correct our rating is.

Beyound the expert assessment and opinion survey which are the basis of TI’s verdict, the facts on the high level of corruption in the country are very obvious.

This year alone, cases of misuse of public power and public funds for private interests like the fuel subsidy scam, embezzlement of the pension fund and others have left many wondering how effective the federal government’s anticorruption crusade is.

It’s hard to blame Nigerians who Maku claims are eager to tell the world how bad Nigeria is. Corruption, particularly in ‘high places’ has robbed the country the necessary development that would have ensure better standard of living for the majority.

My only worry about the reactions of Nigerian’s to TI’s rating and other similar negative ones is the erroneous impression that only government officials are to blame for the decadence. We are quick to cite cases of corruption at all levels of government when as an author wrote “corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of our society” and many Nigerians are either involved in one form of corrupt practice or the other in public and private life or are guilty of criminal silence when we should speak up.

If our rating is to improve, we all have a role to play whether we are in government or not. Public officers at all levels have to maintain the highest degree of public trust and stop giving us a bad name when they perpetrate all forms of corrupt practices in local and international transactions. People should stop demanding for gratification for doing what they are officially paid to do.

Nobody should demand for gratification and nobody should give. Merit should not be sacrificed for pecuniary reasons.

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

T

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Comment & Analysis

RAVELLING last month through Delta State, I missed the flood at its peak. But I saw enough to move me and offer a nasty hint of an unforgettable disaster. The waters had appreciably receded, yet parts of the dual-carriage way connecting Asaba, the state capital, to the Anioma area of the state remained flooded and impassable. Residents of nearby communities laid their fishnets in the probable hope that if they lost their farmlands and crops, they should at least catch some fish that came with the flood.

At a primary school where the displaced were quartered in Ndokwa-East Local Government Area, life offered little excitement beyond food provided by the state and donors.

In those two wet months, Nigerians felt the power of water, life’s otherwise precious liquid. No one was comfortable with that encounter. A persistent downpour swelled the Niger River and other rivers and tributaries, causing them to overflow their banks. The result has been utter devastation. Over two million people were reported to be displaced in Kogi and Edo states. Hundreds of houses collapsed under the impact of water. Displaced residents found temporary perching spots on the rooftops of surviving houses, waiting to be evacuated. Women clutched their babies, hoping something would happen to put them out of their nightmare. In Delta and Anambra, misery was widespread, as homes and farmlands were washed away.

In Ndokwa-East, reports suggested no flood ever wreaked such havoc in its history. It left about 22 clans under water, their people in sheer torment, displaced

Does hunger loom after the deluge?

Agric minister thinks not and with little to eat and little to wear, in makeshift shelters, and unsure of what tomorrow would bring. In Onuaboh, for instance, a clan of three quarters, this year’s flooding will be a watershed. No dry grounds at all. Inyi, where I spent two formative years, was a vast body of water.

2012 will be the year of the Great Floods.

Discounting the services of wall calendars, the year will help to set off one event from another. It was an unsavoury encounter with one of man’s most cherished resources.

There has been some response from government. The Emmanuel Uduaghan administration in Delta State has sent relief to the displaced residents, as have individuals and organisations.

But there is need for more work. There is need for the authorities, including the federal government, to assess the situation and ascertain the magnitude of damage.

Next, it will help to determine what assist-

ance is required. Plus, no one should forget that whatever relief is sent should be appropriate, targeted and monitored.

There are reasons for these suggestions. Disaster management can easily be bungled if not properly thought-out, just as relief efforts can be misapplied and wasted if not clearly conceived and monitored. If the right things are not done at the right time, people needing help become hopeless. And that deepens the initial crisis.

For some of the flood victims, their plight has a traumatising impact. Their farmlands may have been flooded in the past, but not their houses or entire communities, as is the case in Ndokwa-East and parts of Isoko in Delta State. These people are struggling with not just economic loss; they are also grappling with psychological shock and need help in that area as well. They need encouragement now, some sort of psychological therapy.

“No one should lose sight of the imperatives of mitigating the unpleasantness of life in a relief camp. Still, it must not be forgotten that tiding victims over the flood season is only one step, requiring another. That second step is even more fundamental. It should resolve the issues of life after the floods. What will the farmer-victims eat when the waters recede? And since these farmers also feed the society, what will we all eat when dry grounds appear?”

They need comprehensive relief consisting of, but not limited to, food, medicine, water, clothing, and, of course, sleeping places, till the water recedes. They will also be happy to see that assistance meant for them actually gets to them, and not to some opportunistic dealers or people far removed from the floods. But beyond all that, they need something permanent, something to start and sustain them after the great waters. They need cash to buy new seedlings and begin all over again.

It is in the interest of everyone if this crisis is well managed. For one, it will show that we can learn from past blunders in disaster management, and that our governments really care for the people they govern.

No one should lose sight of the imperatives of mitigating the unpleasantness of life in a relief camp. Still, it must not be forgotten that tiding victims over the flood season is only one step, requiring another.

That second step is even more fundamental. It should resolve the issues of life after the floods. What will the farmer-victims eat when the waters recede? And since these farmers also feed the society, what will we all eat when dry grounds appear?

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr Akinwumi Adesina has gone to great lengths to assure Nigerians that famine is out of the question. He said there is food and that Nigerians will not starve. Considering that some hefty sums have been raised by billionaires and other donors, perhaps the Jonathan administration is confident that all is well.

The proof of that confidence will however lie in the judicious use and equitable distribution of what is provided. Only that will stave off hunger.

This article was adapted from the one published in October entitled “Life after the floods.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Comment & Analysis

15

INEC goes for the jugular?

Commission’s bid for powers to disqualify candidates is prone to abuse

T

HE likely dangers in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s latest request for more powers, in its proposal to the National Assembly’s Constitution Review Committee, could be gleaned from the parties’ responses.

The opposition parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the opposition umbrella group, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) have all opposed INEC’s bid for powers to disqualify candidates, and to levy a fine of N1 million on erring parties. But Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the federal ruling party, has hailed the move; Olisa Metuh, its national publicity secretary, claiming such a move is needed to deepen democracy.

Why is PDP upbeat about INEC’s power to disqualify candidates? Does it feel, as the ruling party, whose candidate as president appoints the INEC chair, such legal instrumentality could come in handy to disqualify formidable opponents, if INEC lends itself to, or is forcefully lent, to manipulation? That is a legitimate supposition, given the grim reality of Nigerian sickening politics.

On the other hand, the PDP would not stick its neck out, when the issue is full autonomy for INEC and the setting up of the Electoral Offences Commission, as the Muhammadu Uwais’s panel on electoral reforms had recommended, even if it did not outright oppose such a move.

Why? Is it because autonomy would automatically cancel out the appointive advantage the PDP could have thought it could press into illicit service, if a presidentappointed INEC chair is induced to disqualify popular opposition candidates? Ironically too, one of the staunchest canvassers for an INEC not solely nominated by the president is the ACN, the leading opposition party.

The Attahiru Jega-chaired INEC had pushed forward a proposal that the electoral umpire be given powers to gain full autonomy (by the president not solely appointing its chairman and other ranking commissioners), to disqualify candidates, to secure constitutionally guaranteed timelines for pre-election matters and to levy a fine of N1

T

HEY have started work on the so called EnuguPort Harcourt Expressway. The Federal Government said work has started on the road to aid travellers during the yuletide season. But there are more than meets the eye than the much touted repair of the major expressways that the people of the South-East and South-South – the regions that are the economic focalpoint of Nigeria – have.

The ongoing charade called Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway repair should be rejected by the people of the South-East and South-South zones. This feeling is borne out of the fact that the authorities concerned are playing politics with the repair of the road. If what they mean, when they said that they are going to repair the road is to patch any conspicuous spot with cement and low quality materials, then the South-East and South-South peoples are being insulted.

The Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway does not need any ‘repair’ but total re-construction. The entire road is bad.

There is no need cutting eyecatching damaged spots and then patch. What they are doing now on this road, can any of them swear by Amadioha that they can do same in Abuja? You go to the North there are very smooth roads there. How come they are patching the only major expressways in the South-East and South-South zones?

When President Goodluck Jonathan said the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway was going to be rebuilt, one had thought that he meant to build

million on parties whose candidates had been disqualified for not playing by the rules.

In fairness to INEC, none of the parties’ candidate nomination processes can pass the muster. The PDP exhibits its open primaries and goes to the extent of even doing it in the full glare of live television, to show its “openness” and “transparency”. But it has proved at best, the paradox of transparent rigging, given the corruption and executive impunity that have plagued the delegate voting system.

On the other hand, the ACN insists on its right to a consensus system, as opposed to the American system of open primaries. “Is there primary in the United Kingdom or Israel,” queried Lai Mohammed, ACN national publicity secretary, in reaction to the INEC proposals.

“Parties are like clubs, guided by rules.” Aye. But even Alhaji Mohammed would agree that the ACN has come under heavy criticisms, by members and non-members alike, over the perceived opacity of its consensus system.

On balance therefore, neither PDP’s open primaries nor ACN’s consensus system has passed the muster of public scrutiny. The other parties operate within these two extremes. That may, in fairness, have motivated the INEC call to have the final rod to knock the parties

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

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

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

LETTERS

into shape, for not strictly following their own rules.

But not even that can be enough excuse for an INEC censure of party nomination affairs. The reason is simple: you do not remove an abuse by planting another.

Besides, the charges of following or not following laid down rules are the prerogative of the courts, not the electoral commission.

Indeed, with the penchant of Nigerian politicians to take brazen advantage of any slip, and with the president still the sole nominator of the INEC chief and principal national commissioners, the power to disqualify, in INEC’s hands, is open to abuse. The scandalous era of Maurice Iwu’s chairmanship of INEC is still fresh in memory; and military-era impunity to disqualify candidates at the whims and caprices of the powers-that-be still rankles on the memory. Such should never be allowed again.

Still, that does not excuse intra-party nomination abuses. In truth, the gravest threat to the deepening of democracy today is the corruption of party nomination processes. If democracy does not guarantee quality service delivery but only guarantees electoral reward and punishment, it follows that both the nomination processes and the elections themselves must be above board. If either or both falter – and both would appear to be faltering right now – the result would be a loss of confidence in the electoral system; and the dire consequence is a grossly weakened democracy.

That should not be allowed to happen – and the only way is to ensure party nominations and elections are radically improved. So, beyond partisan gains and losses, the political class must, as a sign of enlightened self-interest, as a matter of urgency, work on this twin-weakness. But not much, it regretfully appears, is happening on that lane.

The INEC demand for full autonomy, on the other hand, is fair and legitimate. Indeed, that should be the apogee of the democratic system. An INEC not subject to executive abuse and suborning, but only to the strictures of the law that created it, is likelier to organise sane elections.

Anything done to achieve that end can only strengthen the democratic system.

Insult called Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway a 21st Century expressway, owing to the position of SouthEast and South-South zones in the country, but from what one can see the authorities are doing on that expressway, anyone saying that the federal government is deceitful is not gainsaying.

Rage and anger must characterise anyone with good intention for the South-East and South-South zones on sighting what the authorities have much amplified as work that they are doing on this expressway. It is frustrating as it is also insulting, when one sees the slapdash work that they have started to do.

The federal government can’t give the people who had contributed immensely to the economy of the country something that would always generate issues of good-for-nothing.

P

LEASE pardon my discourtesy in writing this open letter to you, I seek your immediate reconsideration of the membership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria in the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

I know as a fact that one of the paramount aims of the CAN is to aggregate Christian ideals and ideas. This was the primary aim, when it was founded in 1976 by the Catholic Church together with mainline Protestant groups. The Pentecostal Christians were later admitted into the organisation.

And I also know that the leadership of an organisation is

Not even the citation for the creation of an additional state in the South-East in particular has the federal government yielded to. Is the FG doing this because the people of the two regions had always maintained undaunted resolution for the peace of all in the country?

It behoves stakeholders from these two zones to call the attention of members of the National Assembly from South-East and South-South zones to lend their insights to President Jonathan that what was said is not what is seen on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.

The president can’t say that he has responded to the call of the South-East and SouthSouth to reconstruct the EnuguPort Harcourt Expressway, when what can be seen is mediocrity at display. This proves

that the president is not showing the same magnanimity the people of the two zones had shown him during the presidential election, by giving him their votes about 95%. If the passion he would express to the people is to cast slur on them and call it road repair, then the two zones are in trouble till the expiration of his tenure.

In earnest, Jonathan’s theoretical-passion for the South-East and South-South zones is not giving them a sense of belonging. All his promises during the period of his electioneering campaigns have not been met. Rather, he has toasted the people with promises, but failed. The affirmation of this is the abuse that the FG is exhibiting on the Enugu-PH expressway. If this is like this, what will be the fate of other

federal projects in the two regions?

It is unfortunate that the federal government always thinks that anything it proposes for the people of the South-East and South-South zones is good for them, whether they like it or not.

Igbo businessmen and women have always lost billions of naira on this expressway; if their wares in the trucks did not fall and the goods damaged, they would be seized in the gullies, leading to criminals preying on them. Those in charge of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) should be questioned about the twaddle they knowingly or unknowingly feel that is going on, on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. Is this garbage what they promised to do when some

Appeal to Catholic Bishops’ Conference fashioned in such a manner that when its leader speaks, it conveys the impression of the organisation’s position on critical issues.

Of late, I am now apprehensive of the leadership mode of CAN to the extent that it now personifies itself as the spiritual leader of the Christians in Nigeria, inclusive of course, the Catholic Christians. This is appalling and nauseating.

Your Grace, as a Catholic faithful and a Knight of the Church, I have always known the Catholic positions on world and national issues through The

Holy See, The Pope, the Cardinals, The Bishops and of course, our Parish Priests. Whence has CAN become the mouth organ of Catholic Christians in Nigeria? Did the CBCN endorse Catholic Christians in Nigeria to listen to the CAN leadership?

I don’t think so. The remarks and comments of the association, to my mind, on critical and fragile religious issues are injurious and fatal to Christians, particularly, Catholics. It shouldn’t be. It cannot be.

May I, with all sense of humility, appeal to the leadership of Catholic Bishops’ Conference

of Nigeria, to please, as a matter of utmost urgency, put forward for reconsideration, its membership of CAN. Indeed, the Catholic Church must vacate its membership of CAN immediately.

The Catholic Church must not subsume her ordained status by God through St. Peter.

The Catholic Church in Nigeria has an organ such as the CBCN to make its positions on national issues known. This, it has always done and these information are disseminated to all parishioners during The Homily. An example of such was the recent Communiqué is-

of their members appeared before the executive session of the Assembly on September 24 to elucidate what the federal establishments are going to do on the all the crucial Enugu-PH Expressway?

Regrettably, the agitation of many people from the SouthEast and South-South for a facelift on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway has met the brick wall.

The work that whoever is doing on that road is not enduring.

Perhaps, they are doing this now to shut-up the people from speaking out. They have drawn the peoples’ attention to say that that after all they have come to rescue them, when what can be seen is an organised confusion.

The Nigerian factor!

By Odimegwu Onwumere, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria sued at the end of the Second Plenary Meeting of the CBCN in September. The Catholic Christians in Nigeria can listen and hear the voice of CBCN when it speaks. The Catholic Christians in Nigeria can hear the flute or whistle of the leadership of CBCN when it blows it.

There is no doubt that Pastor Oritsejafor is a respected founder and leader of his congregation in Warri but he must not extend his influence beyond the flocks he shepherds in his vineyard.

By Sonny SK Enegbuma, Warri, Delta State

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Comment & Analysis

‘Unity symbols’ and shadow chasing Ropo Sekoni ropo.sekoni @thenationonlineng.net

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T appears that our National Assembly is indefatigable when it comes to cultivating self-distracting issues. If it is not contesting the site of sovereignty with citizens, it is embroiled in disagreement with the executive over which branch of government should supervise development projects in senatorial constituencies or trying to silence the CBN governor when he finds pleasure in criticizing federal legislators’ exorbitant salaries.

When the assembly is not acting as a body, some of its members are quick to engage in, to use popular parlance, heating the polity unnecessarily.

For example, when the legislature finally chooses to countenance citizens’ call for constitutional reforms, the assembly brings to the fore creation of states. Some of their leaders even travel to different parts of the country to promise new states to traditional rulers. When citizens argue that it is not the responsibility of lawmakers to create a people’s constitution, lawmakers claim that as the only site of sovereignty in the country at present, they can manufacture a people’s constitution through tinkering with the 1999 Constitution that has no input from citizens.

No federal legislature has a right to outlaw symbols and emblems of cultural nations within Nigeria The new game in town by federal legislators is to deny citizens their right to information. A few days ago when the Aviation Minister asked the assembly to send out journalists from the hallowed chambers during presentation of her ministry’s budget for next year, legislators quickly accepted to do.

Similarly in the same week, members of the legislature refused to listen to presentation of the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The argument is that the persons representing SEC were acting on behalf of SEC’s directorgeneral who is not considered to be on friendly terms with many members of the legislature in Abuja. Is it proper for legislators to stop the work of government because of a disagreement with the head of an agency? Should lawmakers personalize in a puerile manner whatever conflict they have with a public officer? With this decision, the lawmakers are not only creating distractions, they are also trivializing the role of government, particularly that of the executive and the legislature.

As if all these were not enough, honourable lawmakers are now in the process of spending sessions on the right of states to have flags and coats of arms in a federation. The latest game in the national assembly is the threat to outlaw flags, coats of arms, and anthems of states.

The thinking of lawmakers is that state emblems can detract from na-

tional unity, an argument that clearly confuses the concept of territorial integrity (national unity) with cultural integrity of individual states.

It is hard to know how many of the lawmakers in Abuja or anywhere else in Nigeria are aware that Nigeria before the coming of military dictators used to have national and regional flags flying side by side. Each of the three regions used to have its own coat of arms, in addition to the federal one. There was no threat to the country’s unity because of simultaneous existence of federal and regional flags and anthems. When Eastern Nigeria decided to secede, it was because Igbo leaders believed that people of Eastern Nigeria origin were not safe in northern Nigeria and that the federal government, then controlled by military leaders from the north, were not to be trusted with securing the life and property of citizens from Eastern Nigeria.

Lawmakers have no good reason to feel skittish about the country’s unity simply because states choose to express the cultural diversity of the country. Lawmakers’ attempt to suppress expression of the country’s cultural diversity undermines the country’s motto of unity in diversity. Furthermore, serious lawmakers should have the humility to seek information about other federations in the world before inducing tension between federal and state governments. Our

federal legislators need to know that they are operating in a postmilitary era and that not all the policies and practices bequeathed by military governments can be sustained in a democratic system.

Legislative aides (if any) need to tell lawmakers that most of the countries that operate federalism do have a tradition of at least two levels of symbols of allegiance: federal and state. For example, each of the 50 states in the United States flies two flags daily; the American flag and the flag of each state. Even cities and companies fly their flags daily along with federal and state flags. The same applies to Canada.

In South Africa each of the nine provinces has its own flag and coat of arms.

Furthermore, Brazil has 27 state flags in addition to the national flag.

Switzerland allows its 26 cantons to have flags and coats of arms. Each canton has a constitution that complements the federal constitution.

So does Belgium host 18 flags: one for the country, three for the regions and the rest for the country’s 14 provinces. There are also coats of arms for each level of government. Argentina has one national flag, 23 provincial flags, and a flag for the city of Buenos Aires while Germany has 16 state flags while Austria has nine state flags and coats of arms. India, a co-member of the Commonwealth, has 28 state flags and coats of arms, in addition to the national flag and coat of arms.

There are 14 state flags in Malaysia, etc. Nearer home, Ethiopia, a federation, does not have state flags but has provision for secession in its national constitution.

Similarly, there are multiple flags and coats of arms in the country that created Nigeria, the United Kingdom. Apart from flags in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to complement the Union Jack, many cities in England, Scotland, and Wales have flags to accentuate their identities. Yet Britain has not broken into pieces because of symbols and emblems to express Britain’s cultural identity.

Nigeria cannot afford the myopia or intolerance that is illustrated by the call of lawmakers for abrogation of state flags, coats of arms, and pledges. The world has been (and still is) changing faster than the military dictators that reconstructed Nigeria into a unitary system were (and still are) capable of imagining.

Despite frantic efforts by leaders of sections of the country to dampen the spirit of cultural identity in a federation, Nigeria must prepare itself for change from the blanket of uniformity draped around it by military dictators through the 1999 Constitution. Lawmakers and cultural leaders who refuse to acknowledge the inevitability of change take the risk of going the way of the dinosaur. No federal legislature has a right to outlaw symbols and emblems of cultural nations within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Before Nigeria is gifted another Obasanjo Femi Orebe femi.orebe @thenationonlineng.net 08056504626 (sms only)

G

ENERAL Olusegun Obasanjo, the two-time Nigerian President, is a patriot; a queer one I must say, who remains so only if Nigeria is ruled in his image. In order to ensure he dominates the Nigerian environment, therefore, he first gave us Yar Adua as Obasanjo 11 and not even that gentleman’s cluelessness would deter him from subsequently inflicting reigning Goodluck Jonathan, as Obasanjo 111, having himself held us spellbound the previous eight years, rampaging. Rampaging, yes, that was it. No thanks to the EFCC, which he created and had under his jackboots, state governors like Alamiasiegha of Bayelsa, Dariye of Plateau, Ladoja of Oyo were sent packing via impeachment spuriously using , by far fewer legislators than were constitutionally prescribed. It mattered nothing to him that the courts subsequently reversed some of these constitutional aberrations.

But those were the lucky ones as in Ekiti , he not only rambunctiously sent packing, his own adopted son, Ayo Fayose, who was governor, but flagrantly and needlessly imposed his

kinsman, General Olurin, on the hapless state as Military Administrator, even as there was a sitting Deputy Governor.

Nor was that the limit of his impunity in a curious regime of ‘Le ‘tat, cest moi’ - I am the state.

Today, Nigerians talk to no end about the monstrous oil subsidy scam easily forgetting that the impunity in that industry started way back when Obasanjo personally took charge of the Ministry of Petroleum and ensured that not even the National Assembly could conduct oversight functions there to guarantee accountability.

At least we have the words of Speaker Ghali Na’aba to that effect.

General Obasanjo was not done.

He is, after all, a soldier. Therefore, for him, the appropriation laws were nothing but mere intentions of the National Assembly. For him, no institution should effect changes in his draft budgets whatever the constitution says and when it appeared to him that was not going to happen, he personally went on national television to allege that key officials of the Assembly had padded the budget.

The above is the essential Obasanjo.

But neither those nor the signal failure of Yar Adua and Jonathan as leaders, not even the fact that these two soon became their own men would dissuade him from again wanting to be thrice lucky, inflicting totally unprepared persons on Nigerians as president.

If news currently going the rounds are to be believed, his latest scheme is to divine on Nigeria, the

We must tell OBJ: Not again pair of the Jigawa State governor, the dour Sule Lamido who ran, unarguably, the worst phase of Nigeria’s foreign policy in history as Foreign Affairs Minister, and his River’s State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, the same man Obasanjo said his gubernatorial ticket had what he called ‘K’ leg and who had to be rescued, to OBJ’s chagrin, by the Supreme Court. To make a success of this new scheme, and in his usual serpentine manner, Obasanjo is known to have stopped at nothing to so damage Jonathan he won’t even be able to count on a wholesome support of his SouthSouth constituency in his comeback bid. It is for that sole reason Obasanjo did not cast a mere glance at the South-East but went to the heart of the South -South – Rivers State –to zero in on Amaechi.

It should, however, not be our problem if the duo of Obasanjo and Jonathan should fight to the death, politically speaking. Indeed, Nigeria has a lot to gain from that eventuality as it has the distinct possibility of sparing us all the electoral malfeasance for which Nigeria has become world famous these past many years since the PDP has held the country captive with nothing tangible to show for it. What we have had, instead, to quote Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State governor, mutatis mutandis, is ‘a paucity of leadership and apposite planning; deficits of vision, holistic strategy and service delivery accentuated by poor

infrastructure stock and a level of corruption which today places Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt country in the world.’

It would have been tolerable if that were all the negativities.

Rather, PDP’s last two years in government has witnessed the theft, still to be officially denied, of a humongous N5 trillion, just as its other crowning glory is a rampaging Boko Haram that not only attacks at will, but chooses its mode of inflicting maximum damage, whether by suicide bombing, by outgunning security personnel or simply slaughtering, ram-like, poor villagers, as happened this past week in Borno state.

Long suffering Nigerians must wake up to the reality of what it means for an individual, however seemingly powerful, to continually, single-highhandedly, inflict leaders on the country.

Opposition politicians must lead the way by subsuming their individual political ambitions to the greater good of the country.

They must realise they cannot all be President. PDP has done enough damage that its defeat should ordinarily be a foregone conclusion. But here, things are different, and we are talking here about past masters in election rigging.

Under the PDP, Nigeria has been taken to the very nadir not even the National Assembly can be trusted to deal honestly on behalf of the people they claim elected

them. Its investigating committees are now routinely being caught in corrupt practices. Committees that are conducting otherwise solemn duties on behalf of the people have turned such opportunities to avenues for amassing filthy lucre simply because of our ineffective leadership at the centre. Yet Nigerians are pining for things other countries now take for granted: electricity, water, good roads, security, reasonable health services, but get, instead, misplaced priorities and stolen billions in oil subsidy.

Opposition parties already have their jobs cut out just as Civil Society must not be tired rallying the masses of this otherwise great country to ensure that we achieve our own ‘Rose Revolution’, the type that produced Georgia’s Saakashvili who completely changed the direction and history of that country by turning it to a respectable nation in which corruption is reduced to the barest minimum It can be done. All we need is to be angry enough as a people to vote out those rampaging over us.

We must tell OBJ: not again. From now on, Nigerians must hold his feet to the fire and tell him enough of this monkey business. We must let him know he is only one man, not three. We have had enough of this jolly ride over a country he could have taken to the ‘stratosphere’ in his eight years and which, today, should rank among the leading countries of the world given its God-given endowments, but is simply nowhere.

Comment & Analysis

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Tunji

Adegboyega tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only)

A

TTAHIRU Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), obviously stepped on some powerful toes when last week he asked for more powers for the commission, as well as canvassed for Nigerians in the Diaspora who are of age to vote in future elections. The INEC boss wants Sections 76(2) and 116(2) of the Constitution to be further amended to allow for only two periods in a year within which the commission can conduct elections to fill vacancies so as to engender certainty in the electoral timetable. Jega also advocated the establishment of electoral offences tribunal “to guarantee timely prosecution of electoral offenders,” as well as the disqualification of anybody convicted for electoral fraud from participating in electoral process for 10 years.

According to Jega, “The National Population Commission is, however, given additional independence in its operations in Section 158(2). This should be the same with INEC. The independence of INEC should be constitutionally guaranteed in all its operations and in its management and control of the electoral process, as was the case in Decree (now Act) 17 of 1998 which first established the Commission before the 1999 Constitution.”

Jega made the demands in a proposal he sent to the National Assembly, seeking amendments to the country’s constitution. In making these demands, the INEC boss would appear to have forgotten where we are

17

Like Oliver Twist, Jega wants more INEC boss is seeking powers we can’t afford coming from and, secondly, it would appear that it is yet Uhuru in INEC simply because he is the one in charge now.

Although both INEC and the National Population Commission (NPC) are important, they do not perform exactly the same functions. INEC’s independence in its operations; may be yes. But I cannot understand what Prof Jega means by independence “…in its management and control of the electoral process”. If that includes the power to disqualify candidates, I say an emphatic ‘NO’. It is true that the political parties have largely not been honest in their primaries, to some extent, they have had to pay the price at the polls for not following the due process in selecting their flag bearers. Apart from this, it is dangerous to put such powers in the hands of one man. What Jega is looking for is what we are trying to retrieve from the President who is constitutionally empowered to appoint the INEC boss, subject only to ratification by the National Assembly. No single person should be given such ‘powers of life and death’ in our kind of milieu.

INEC’s intention to make Nigerians in the Diaspora vote, thereby participating actively in the decisionmaking concerning the country’s leadership at all levels is good, at least in principle. This is the practice in many countries. But whether we are ripe for

that is a different question entirely.

Having credible election within is still a big problem, in spite of the relatively free and fair elections we have had in some places in recent times.

Right here at home, we had the names of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton in our voter register a few years ago..

Obama’s name never featured in Kenya’s electoral register, but it appeared in our voter register here!

What all these tell us is that it’s not yet celebration time; we still need to perfect many aspects of our electoral process before seeking more powers for INEC. As a matter of fact, INEC itself is calling for the setting up of Electoral Offences Commission to facilitate trial of electoral offenders. A major challenge we have is that many of the cases still last longer than necessary now that we do not have Nigerians in Diaspora voting. Where will we have the logistics to deal with the challenges to be posed if they are now allowed to vote? We may be surprised that the figures that would be turned in for them might outstrip the total number of Nigerians in whatever countries they are resident. Or, haven’t we had situations at home where the number of voters is more than the total number of registered voters in some polling booths and areas? This is a major challenge that

“So, Prof Jega should stop being Oliver Twist … No responsible mother would put hot soup on her child’s palm (for him) to lick simply because that child sees the mother does same and begins to cry for a piece of the action. So, let Jega tread softly”

the Jega-led INEC has not considered.

It does not make sense to grant Jega’s requests simply because he is Jega. No. We need to build institutions and not rely on people’s integrity, the way we seem to have done in recent times. One Maurice Iwu once led INEC and we all remember what he did. It was because of his discredited role in the commission that President Goodluck Jonathan searched for Jega and the find was applauded across the country because of what we all saw as Jega’s antecedents. But while we should resist another INEC boss in the mould of Iwu, we should never delude ourselves that we would never have a president who might want to impose such character on us as INEC boss again. You can imagine Iwu having the powers that Jega now wants for the INEC. It would tantamount to when a slave becomes king. No one, particularly those whose faces he or those who appointed him do not like would be spared.

Already, INEC has been empowered by the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended) to deregister political parties which fail to win at least a seat in a state assembly. And 28 political parties have had to die, with their deregistration by the commission, on

Thursday. Also, the commission now has its funding included in the first line charge. This implies some level of financial autonomy that the commission needs in order to free it from the apron strings of the executive arm of government. Even this is yet to fully materialise with the reported withholding of the commission’s funds by the Federal Ministry of Finance. We need to perfect some of these freedoms or powers before asking for more. If we grant all of Jega’s requests, even the electoral offences commission that he wants established would be jobless.

So, Prof Jega should stop being Oliver Twist. He cannot get all he wants for the simple reason that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We all love independence or freedom. But, where ‘A’s’ freedom ends, ‘B’s’ begins. Prof Jega can ask for all the independence in the world, it is our duty to set the limit. Even Iwu would have loved to have full autonomy; but with hindsight, we know where that would have led us if we had allowed him.

Even the little power that we gave him, he abused. No responsible mother would put hot soup on her child’s palm (for him) to lick simply because that child sees the mother does same and begins to cry for a piece of the action. So, let Jega tread softly.

Sorry about that, Mr. President

I

T was a 55th birthday President Goodluck Jonathan would not forget for some time. I do not know how the President had wanted to celebrate his 55th birthday on November 20, but whatever the plan was was shattered by the bad news of the death of his younger

brother, Chief Meni Innocent Jonathan at the National Hospital, Abuja, after a brief illness, that same day. Chief Jonathan’s remains were buried yesterday in Otuoke, Bayelsa State. May God grant the President and entire family the fortitude to bear the loss.

For once, let us change the colour of our problems Postscript, I have heard villagers plead passionately that just one school Unlimited! in their village will go a long way in ensuring the continuBy ity of their lives where food cannot do it

Oyinkan Medubi

08187172799 (SMS only) puchuckles7@gmail.com

N

O, people, the line is not original to me, I borrowed it from somewhere; and oh yes, problems can have colours. For instance, when the pocket is empty and the bank account is reading zero, don’t panic, it is only colour blue. That is when the radiogram will croon to you, ‘I’ve got the blues baby, I’ve got the bluuuues’. When there is no food in the house, though, then you are in colour grey. That is when all the edges of life are fuzzy and you find yourself shrugging and waxing philosophical and finding that it is true what they say, life is not all black or white. In between, there are various shades of grey, and there ain’t a single thing you do about the grey areas. However, should Junior make the mistake of taking the car out illegally in his youthful exuberance, then the family is catapulted into the red zone because Daddy can see only red. Everyone had just better scatter; things will get very rough indeed.

So, yes, problems have colours and the colour of Nigeria’s

problems since I have been privileged to know her has been perpetually false. True, her flag may be green and white but believe me there’s nothing green about the way her leaders are bleeding her dry. They are right knowing ‘uns.

Why, for instance, should it take an entire country so many decades to realise that it is not good for the presidency to hoard TEN (10) aircraft in its fleet all to itself.

What kind of country is this? Tell me, IS THIS FAIR?! No, and again, I say, no when little ol‘ me has NONE! From the time I heard the piece of news that Nigeria has about ten aircraft in the president’s fleet, I just thought, no, it is not the president who needs them.

My suspicions are turned entirely elsewhere. I have been sneakily wondering though just what has been going on in the mind of all our presidents’ men from the time of Christopher Columbus down to the present. Normally, the president’s men are carefully chosen to reflect the cream of the cream (never mind that sometimes the cream is quite sour) who would work assiduously to make sure the president did not get into trouble, and also that the country did not get into trouble as a result of the president not getting into trouble. You get that, don’t you, because I don’t? So, they would make their efforts as concerted as

possible to be frugal in their praise of the president (so he does not get so swollen-headed that he gets out of their control) and be equally as frugal in their methods of extracting him from any hot soup he finds himself in.

From our records of the Nigerian scene, it appears that all our past presidents’ men who have not been frugal at all. They have insisted on lapping up all the praise themselves. Lucky devils, they have been riding around in presidential jets!

Ordinarily, and I think this is what happens in saner climes, the saying is if it’s broke, fix it; around here though, the saying is, if it’s broke, get a new one. And this is how Nigeria came to own 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 10 planes in the presidential fleet when countries such as rich, rich Britain has none. No, it was not that they could not afford one, it was that they found that the wiser thing to do was to hire because it is so expensive to actually keep one.

Seriously, our humour is too black in this country; and some would go so far as to say we have none, and that is even blacker.

The typical Nigerian attitude to public utilities does not do credit to our intelligence. Again, some would even say we have none of that either. Well, I say we have a sense of humour. Just look at our leaders at every level from the lo-

cal government councillors to the legislative and executive. That should send you into rapturous laughter. Hem, hem. This is no time to laugh though.

And yes, we do have some intelligence. Just look at newspapers when our leaders are having their annual spats and spits.

Delightful, isn’t it, to hear the fire crackling and the fireworks just going in every direction? So yes, I’m not sure but I think we have some intelligence. The problem though is that this nation prefers to keep what little intelligence it has under wraps. So, all our public stadia go to waste without any input of intelligence to keep them in good shape; all our national fleet of ships, planes and vehicles get to sit out their days under the stars, sun and moon just because we have too little intelligence to spare. Oh yes, and all the presidents’ planes get their early retirements just because we cannot beget the intelligence to get the mechanic take a look at them. After all, there is always a ready answer: yes, you got it, get a new one.

The most painful part of all this is that there are other Nigerians who desperately need the money used to buy these things to sustain their lives. Thirty minutes’ drive from where I live, there are people who have no electricity. There, we are not much dif-

ferent. Half the night and all day through, I hardly have any electricity myself. They also do not have water. Again, we are not much different. I also do not have water from the public utilities in my house. They do not have schools though. Now, the similarities begin to end. Anyone can do without water or electricity or food but not schools.

This is why I think the money spent on accumulating airplanes is being wasted. Please Mr. President; these monies are needed to sustain schools in these villages so that people who do not have a present can at least have a future for their children. It does not much matter that they do not have much food to eat; they really do not mind at all. But I have heard them plead passionately that just one school in their village will go a long way in ensuring the continuity of their lives where food cannot do it.

This is why I think we should begin to change the colour of our problems. The colours we have been used to have been colours of joy where all we appear to have been doing as a nation so far has been to go to the big markets of the world and throw up fistfuls of foreign currencies to the delight of those nationals who have looked at us, smiled, shaken their heads from left to right and walked away.

And we thought they were enjoying the show. How were we to know they were shaking their heads in pity?! So, I think we should change that colour to black: it is the universal sign of mourning: we need to mourn the loss of intelligence in the land.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Comment & Analysis

Kayode Eso: A colossus departs A

S Shakespear stated in his famous play Julius Caeser, through the character of Calpurnia, Caeser’s wife: “When beggars die there are no comets seen. The Heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes In the same play, the character Cassius says this about Caeser: “Why man, he does bestrode the narrow world like a colossus” Shakespear might very well have had the Hon. Justice Kayode Eso in mind when he wrote Julius Caeser; FOR Eso bestrode the legal world like a Colossus.

There are two occasions in which I was truly shocked by the announcement of the passing away of a person. The first was that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in May 1987 and the second was the more recent one of Justice Kayode Eso. In each case, I was shocked, taken aback; and went into a state of denial for a short period. In the case of Chief Awolowo, when the reality of what had happened finally sank in, I realized that subconsciously I did not associate Chief Awolowo with the possibility of death. Thus, he had so overcome and subdued the physical (mortal) aspect of his being by the spiritual, that over the years, I began to regard him more as a spirit, than a mortal man. As we know, the spiritual does not die.

In the case of Justice Kayode Eso, it was not so much the supremacy of his spirit, as much as his unyielding commitment to certain values which have become quaint in Nigerian pub-

By Itse Sagay

lic life; courage, integrity, honour, honesty, transparency, bluntness and not suffering fools gladly. The two men lived by the same code of conduct. But where Awo was an ascetic, a teetotaler, vegetarian; in a sense depriving his physical body of basic pleasures, Eso eat well, drank good wines moderately, and showed up at social events organized by Law organizations. But the belief systems and code of conduct of the two titans was the same. And so I went through that syndrome of unbelief when a journalist called me to confirm whether Eso had passed on. I screamed, “hell NO!” and started calling his mobile phone, without getting any response. Even when confirmation came later, I was dazed.

The man was larger than life.

Everyone has heard of the Wole Soyinka trial in December 1965. As the Judge, Eso faced serious threats and intimidation. The fearsome Deputy Premier of the West, Chief Fani-Kayode, invited Justice Eso to his house and directed him to convict Soyinka. Eso assured him that Soyinka would be convicted, if found guilty on the evidence. He then asked the feared Deputy Premier to be allowed to leave because he had informed his wife that if he was not back home within an hour, the lady should call the police. The shocked Chief Fani-Kayode allowed Eso to depart in peace.

When Soyinka was acquitted ad discharged by Eso, then the youngest and most junior Judge on the

Western Region Bench, he was immediately exiled by posting to Akure, the then judicial boundary station of the West. Very wisely, he never spent the night in Akure. He drove to his Court at Akure by car every morning and drove back to Ibadan every evening, until he was posted back to Ibadan, sometime after the Military Coup in January 1966.

In 1967, Eso was appointed a Judge of the Western State Court of Appeal, which had just been established. During his nine (9) year tenure as Justice of Appeal, he acted on many occasions as the President of that Court and became the substantive President from 1975 to 1976. In June 1976, Eso was appointed the first Chief Judge of Oyo State after western Nigeria had been split into 3 States. It was from that Office that he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1978.

Suddenly, something extra-ordinary and unprecedented started happening at the Supreme Court.

By same strange arrangement of fate or divine intervention, he had sitting with him on the Supreme Court, judicial soul mates, with whom he completely transformed the administration of justice in this country within a few years, before our very eyes. Was this the U.S. Supreme Court under Earl Warren or Justice Marshall? No. This was our own Supreme Court, garlanded and adorned by legal stars; outstanding Jurists, who brought illumination, hope, courage, eru-

dition, learning, philosophy, distinction and activism into our humdrum judicial system. Obaseki, Oputa, Nnamani, Aniagolu, Mohammed Bello, Idigbe, KaribiWhyte, Kayode Eso; all sitting on the Bench of one Court? It was an unimaginable stroke of fortune. I doubt that this will ever happen again. Now Justice was to be the watch word of the Court. The Court’s activism and creativity ensured that every complaint was resolved in accordance with the justice of the case and that where the law did not provide a relief, the Supreme Court would create that relief and apply it.By national acclaim it was agreed that this was the golden age of the Supreme Court, and indeed of the judiciary in Nigeria.

In Engineering Enterprise Contractor of Nigeria v. Attorney-General of Kaduna State [1987] 1 NSCC 601 at 613, Eso, JSC, articulated the guiding philosophy of the golden age Supreme Court in these words.

“One stream that permeates all these decisions and I hold the view that this is a good sign for the administration of justice in this country, is the clear, unadulterated water filled with great concern for the justice of the case. The signs are now clear that the time has arrived that the concern for justice must be the overriding force and actions of the court. I am not saying that ex debito Justiciae by itself is a cause of action. It is to be the basis for the operation of the court, whether in the interpretative jurisdiction or basic attitude towards the

examination of a case.”

A brief summary of some of the decisions by which Eso and some of his colleagues transformed the spirit of the law in this country, taking us to legal Olympian heights of justice in the process, is called for at this stage.

In Stitch v. Attorney-General of the Federation [1986] 5 NWLR (Pt. 46), 1007, Mrs. Chinyere Stitch imported a Mercedes Benz 280 into Nigeria early in April 1982. She immediately applied for an import licence and paid the duty on the car which was 331/3%. The malicious officials in the Ministry of Commerce refused to issue the licence knowing that the duty was about to be increased to 500%. She was now asked to pay the new rate of duty. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal held that she had to pay the new duty.

But the Supreme Court held that the Minister’s discretionary power to issue or refuse to grant import licence was clearly within the reviewable jurisdiction of the Courts.

Whether the Minister failed to exercise his discretionary power or abused it, whether he gave reasons or did not give reasons for his action, it was a principle established by the Courts that once a prima facie case of misuse of power had been established, it would be open to the Courts that the Minister acted unlawfully even if he declined to supply a justification at all. Mrs. Stitch was therefore only obliged to pay at the original rate of 331/3%.

To be concluded next week

Madueke: A minister and her traducers A

RGUABLY, she is the most popular minister of the republic. And this has nothing to do with the fact that she is no doubt a delectable beauty but simply because she ‘mans’ the most strategic ministry in the country and that is the ministry of petroleum resources.

This has put Diezani AlisonMadueke in the eye of the storm so to say. From barrage of attacks from those who feel her ministry riles with corruption to those who feel she is occupying that position simply because she is close to the president and not because of any spectacular qualification. In fact, the recent brouhaha over the Nuhu Ribadu Report on the management of the petroleum subsidy funds has further incensed traducers of the minister who believe that she was part of the conspiracy to rubbish the report even before it was submitted to the president.

Beyond questions on her official conduct are other questions that bother on her integrity both as a public officer and a mother and a wife. Recently, Sahara Reporters, an on-line news medium reported that the minister paid for two rooms in two separate high cost hotels in New York City, USA, during the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly. This, according to the report, was apart from other costly indulgences the minister and her aides engaged in during the trip. In fact, the report said the petroleum minister traveled from London to New York in a private jet.

While the public often swallows reports like this hook, line and sinker, the question is if the petroleum minister is such a reckless and indecent public officer who acts and behaves irrespective of what the public feels or the limitations of her office. Has it been all doom and gloom for the petroleum ministry since she assumed office having been

L

By Funso Adeolu

redeployed from the ministry of mines and steel? Has there been no any remarkable achievement in the ministry since Diezani became the minister?

An Operator’s Testimony Perhaps, one of those who are in the best position to answer these questions is Leemon Agbonjagwe Ikpea, who is the chairman of Lee Engineering Limited, one of the leading lights in oil service business in the country. He said he could not fathom the incessant criticisms the petroleum minister is subjected to all the time, considering her support for indigenous players in the oil and gas industry. He explained that he had never met the minister prior to their encounter when she came to inspect one of the projects his company was handling. I saw a totally different person from what the media have been painting her to be. I think she is a gift to this country and to Africa. She would not allow anybody to oppress Nigerian companies and she has encouraged the growth of Nigerian companies. With this encouragement we have been able to employ a lot of people and also give a lot of people scholarships. We have about 800 workers now. Because of her efforts and the efforts of the federal government, Nigerian companies are no more beggars of foreign companies.”

The PIB Bill One of the things that have given players like Leemon Ikpea some leeway in the oil and gas industry is the Petroleum Industry Bill, otherwise known as the PIB. The bill is as controversial as the oil and gas industry itself. Successive governments have always found it difficult to handle and the reason for this is not farfetched. The bill, if signed into law, will give greater control of the oil

and gas industry to Nigerians. Certain aspects of the industry will be exclusive preserve of Nigerians and will also take some influence away from foreigners who have dominated the industry for decades. Quite as expected, the foreign oil companies have not found many provisions of the Bill funny. And they have been acting accordingly, albeit clandestinely. Impeccable sources close to the corridors of power insist these foreign interests have been doing all humanly possible to see that the bill does not see the light of day. Analysts believe the barrage of attacks on the person of the petroleum minister could be traceable to this. The reason being that the minister has been one of the major supporters of the bill. And a new final draft of the bill has now been sent to the National Assembly for consideration and approval. She is known to be a strong supporter of the bill and beyond that, some excesses of foreign oil companies are being curtailed from time to time.

“I won’t be surprised if the minister is paying the price of standing her ground that Nigerians should have greater say in the way the oil and gas industry is being controlled,” an oil and gas expert stated in Lagos during the week. “For once, this woman has insisted on transparency in the way the foreigners conduct their businesses and above all, the Petroleum Industry Bill, which is staunchingly being pushed pushing to be passed could never be in the interest of the foreigners. I would be surprised if they are behind these incessant media attacks. There was a time they said she bought a house in Vienna, Austria worth hundreds of millions of naira. This has been proved to be a pack of lies.”

Highlight of the infrastructure achievements 130km x 24inch Oben-Geregu completed and commissioned. Open

gas access to the Geregu IPP, Dangote’s Obajana Cement and to the northern corridor.Also completed and commissioned is the 50km Ikpe Annang – Calabar pipeline opening up the Calabar axis to gas. With this pipeline the UNICEM cement plant and other industrial facilities in Calabar now have access to gas. The following three pipelines are also very close to completion; 104km x 24inch Escravos-Warri pipeline doubling capacity to 600mmcf/ d and providing immediate access to 80mmcf/d of gas 24kmX24inch Itoki-Olorunshogo gas pipeline, providing a permanent solution to the challenge of gas supply to Olorunshogo power plants 30kmX24inch Imo River to Alaoji gas pipeline, providing a permanent supply source to Alaoji power plant.

Other ongoing pipeline projects include the 350kmX30inch ObenLagos pipeline doubling the capacity to 2bcf/d and creating a major expansion of supply to the Western Axis by end of the year and The 60km Ubefan-Imo River pipeline reinforcing gas supply to the East by end of July 2012 Perhaps one of the most important infrastructure achievement is the recent award of the Obiafo/Obrikom-Oben East West gas pipeline contract, providing the much needed bridge between the high gas reserves in the East and the High demand in the west. The pipeline is due to be completed within 24 months. More importantly, one of the key strategies of government to create an enabling environment for private sector investment in gas infrastructure development.

In this regard, good progress is being made towards a bankable framework for PPP initiative to fund other pipeline projects such as the CalabarAjaokuta and Ajaokuta-Kano pipelines. This PPP arrangement is expected to facilitate access to over $2bn and essentially enable the conclusion

of the gas infrastructure backbone development. It is expected that this commercial framework will be concluded by the end of the year, creating a basis for private investors to invest in gas infrastructure Realizing. Nigeria’s aspiration for economic growth as a nation requires a robust gas infrastructure. The foregoing shows clearly the steady progress towards achieving this objective More For Localy If there is another area where Diezani Alison-Madueke has been pushing her weight, it the area of bidding for oil blocks. Apart from the transparency that has been brought into it, the minister is said to have insisted that more opportunities be given to indigenous oil and gas companies to participate in the bidding process and take their chances in the same process. Gradually, more and more Nigerians are getting into the capital intensive upstream sector of the petroleum industry.

Perhaps, one area where the minister has shown her love for her country is being able to persuade indigenous oil companies to try and buy into government’s drive to utilise the nation’s abundant gas reserves to generate electricity. In this regard, quite a few of them have signified their interest in the sector and have held productive meetings with top government officials in this regard.

She might be the most controversial minister but she could also have been passed as one of the most productive ones. Only if her traducers could see that to every coin, there are always two sides, and the two sides don’t always look the same.

Alison-Madueke should be encouraged in her bold quest to reform the petroleum sector rather than raining abuses at her on a daily basis.

POLITICS

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

JONATHAN VS OBASANJO:

New battle grounds •Jonathan

T

HERE are strong indications that the political battle between President Goodluck Jonathan and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, which came to the public knowledge recently, following last weeks’s media war, has not ended, notwithstanding the ceasefire declared by Jonathan early this week.

Like or hate him, Obasanjo never shies away from a fight. In fact, his critics say the retired army general enjoys it and will hardly leave a battle half way, whether political or sundry.

According to one of his associates: “though Jonathan, by issuing a stern public warning to his aides not to continue their insults against the former president, has flagged off an official ceasefire, you will agree with me that words are like bullets. Once they are fired against the opponent, they can’t be reclaimed. The battle, the way I see it, has just begun.”

In recent weeks, statements emanating from the two leaders and their close aides confirmed clearly the long speculated simmering war, which sources disclosed started much earlier in the life of the Jonathan administration, but had been carefully hidden from the public space due to its implications on the cohesiveness of their party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The media war: It could be said that it was Obasanjo that fired the first salvos at the administrative style of Jonathan, most especially in the president’s handling of the security challenges facing the country and the running of the economy.

In Warri, the oil-rich town in Delta State, at an event hosted by

The face-off between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan over sundry differences degenerated to open verbal confrontation recently before Jonathan suddenly flagged off an official ceasefire. But it seems the battle has just started, report Sam Egburonu and Remi Adelowo the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, on November 10, 2012, Obasanjo gave Jonathan a thumb down over the deteriorating security situation as a result of the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

In his words: “They (Boko Haram) stated their grievances and I promised to relay them to the authorities in power, because that was the best I could do. I did report. But my fear at that time is still my fear till today. When you have sore and fail to attend to it quickly, it festers and grows to become something else. Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it unattended to.”

Comparing his style to Jonathan’s, the former president in a follow up comments that were interpreted as describing the president as lacking the will to tackle the Boko Haram menace added, “On two occasions, I had to attend to the problem I faced at that time.

I sent soldiers to a place (Odi) and 19 of them were killed. If I had allowed that to continue, I would not have the authority to send security agents, whether police, soldier or any force anywhere again.

‘So, I had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular problem.” The former president also sneered at claims that the Jonathan administration is tackling corruption, adding that only a deranged person will claim that corruption has not assumed a frightening dimension in the country.

Expectedly, the presidency was rattled. And the opportunity to hit back at the former president came via the Presidential Media Chat on 18 November. Asked pointedly

why he has not applied the ‘Odi treatment,’ to solving the Boko Haram insurgence, President Jonathan, who was the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State when the Odi incident occured, in a barely concealed anger, said, “The peak of the activities of the militancy in Niger Delta was when 12 police officers were killed in a coldblooded murder. That made the federal government to invade Odi. “And after the invasion, the governor and I visited Odi…And we saw some dead people, mainly old men and women and also children. None of those militants was killed. None was killed! So, bombarding Odi was to solve the problem but it never solved it.

“If the attack on Odi had solved the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta, the Yar’Adua government, in which I had the privilege of being the Vice-President, wouldn’t have come up with the amnesty programme. So that should tell you that the attack on Odi never solved the militancy problems.”

A counter-reaction quickly followed, this time from Obasanjo’s camp. A former Minister of Aviation under the former president, Femi Fani-Kayode, defended his former boss’ action. He posited, “When President was in power, he handled such (security) matters decisively, with vigour and with the utmost urgency. He brought justice to the perpetrators quickly and promptly…

“The truth is that the strategy that he adopted to fight terrorism and mass murder worked very well and it was very effective. For President Goodluck Jonathan to suggest otherwise is regrettable.”

Days before Jonathan’s re-

sponse to the Odi incidence during the Presidential Media Chat, Obasanjo had at a forum organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the African Development Bank in Dakar, Senegal, carpeted the current administration’s policy on employment generation.

He said, “When I became president, youth employment stood at 72 per cent, which I reduced to about 52 per cent. Now, the situation has gone worse. I am afraid.

And when a general says he is afraid, that means the danger ahead is real and potent. Despite the imminent threat to Nigeria’s nationhood, there is no serious, realistic short or long term solution to youth employment.”

More damning verdict by Obasanjo on Jonathan’s management of the economy was delivered shortly after the former president returned from Dakar. Speaking at his investiture as the first Grand Patron of the Nigeria-China Business Council in Lagos on 20 November, Obasanjo said, “We left what we call excess crude up to $35 billion.

“Within three years, the $35 billion disappeared. Whether the money disappeared or, it was shared, the fact remains that $35 billion disappeared from the foreign reserve I left behind in office.”

Many Nigerians believe these comments were aimed at the Jonathan administration, under which both the foreign reserve and the Excess Crude Account experienced depletion after last year’s election.

Jonathan’s ‘sins’ The first disagreement of the duo happened shortly after

•Obasanjo

Jonathan was inaugurated as president. The bone of contention was the composition of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) headed by former Army chief and ex-Minister of Defense, Gen. Theophillus Danjuma.

The former president, according to sources, allegedly took exception to Danjuma’s headship of the council. He was reportedly angered that he was not consulted by the president, even as presidency sources told The Nation that the president consulted widely with stakeholders before settling for Danjuma.

Another sore issue that has remained intractable revolves around the new power bloc surrounding the president. Obasanjo is allegedly peeved that Jonathan now depends largely on the advice and counsel of individuals, who include prominent Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kaigbodo Clark and former Minister of Works, Chief Anthony Anenih. The former president, it was alleged, feels he deserves a better treatment, not with the major role he played in the emergence of Jonathan as president in 2010.

The appointment of former Senate President, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, as the Secretary to the Federal Government by Jonathan also allegedly took the former president by surprise. Sources revealed that Obasanjo had allegedly nominated another candidate for the position, a request which the president allegedly turned down.

On the heels of that is the victory secured by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the Court of Appeal in the Osun and Ekiti governorship tussles in late 2010, Continued on Page 22

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Politics

‘Jega has disappointed Nigerians’ N

IGERIAN has just celebrated 52nd of independence from British colonialists. What can you say are the dividends so far and will say Nigeria has fared well.

Getting independence mean, getting out of bondage and so it is a blessing in disguise. However, at 52, one is expected to be a fully grown adult that can compete favorably well with one’s peers outside there. So, when you talk of deliverance of dividends of democracy or whether Nigerians have fared well, I will say indicators on the ground have proved otherwise.

So, I will say it has been a failure.

How will you appraise various policies and reforms of the federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan in the last two years? Are we on the right path towards economic recovery?

The economic policies of Jonathan administration are very weak and poor because they are too paradoxical. We as a nation are perpetual importers of virtually everything, even things we have in abundance. We are not exporting much of what we have.

How will you assess the 13 years of democracy in Nigeria as it relates to internal democracy, free and fair election?

The way democracy is being

Hon. Rabiu Idris Funtua is the Deputy Minority Leader, representing Funtua Constituency in Katsina State. In this interview with Isah Idris in Katsina, he bares his mind on the failure of the political class. Excerpts practiced in Nigeria in the last 13 years under the ruling party, PDP, is worrisome and disappointing.

But it is not surprising because PDP does not understand what internal democracy means to us. What it understands and practices is imposition of candidates on the Nigerian people.

Local government administrations across the country are agonising under the Joint Account Revenue Allocations such that they are no longer paying salaries or making repairs and so, they are heading to-

•Funtua

wards imminent collapse. Do you subscribe to scrapping of local councils. If not, what is your advise?

If you look at what is happening to local governments across the country today, they are in serious agony and I will use my state, Katsina, as a reference point. Here in Katsina State, for almost two years of this administration in power, there is no desire on the part of the executive to hold local government election in the state.

So, I am calling on the National Assembly and State Assemblies, to remember that there is a binding responsibility on us to defend the interest of those that elected us, by using our legislative power to enforce autonomy of local governments and the scrapping of Joint Account of local governments and states.

Congress for the Progressive Change (CPC) has been adjudged as a growing political party in Nigeria today, but it has failed to win the presidency and the governorship of

Katsina State, the home of the party leader, Gen. Muhammodu Buhari.

What went wrong?

First of all, the reason CPC has become one of the most rapidly growing party in history of Nigeria politics is because of the hardship that the 13 years administration of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has inflicted on the Nigerian people. Secondly, it was due to the popularity of our leader, Gen. Muhammodu Buhari . But the reason we didn’t make it to the presidency is that there was no election, no proper election.

It was also visible that the ruling party influenced the manipulation of every process through the computer. So, it was the federal government and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that failed woefully to organise a free and fair election as usual. They have failed Nigeria and Nigerians are paying the price.

As I told you earlier, INEC was

never independent. It has been pocketed as one of the ministries of Goodluck Jonathan. It is one of the parastatals of the PDP ruling government in Nigeria. In fact, this is a pathetic thing for Prof. Attahiru Jega who has a hard won credibility before collecting INEC job and many Nigerians had high expectations that Jega would deliver but he has disappointed Nigerians.

Here in Katsina State, we discovered there are some elements who connived with PDP government to buy off CPC victory in the last election. They have cheated us.

That is why the national body and stakeholders of the CPC party first suspended them and finally dismissed them from the party.

Now that the crisis in CPC is continuous and the party has split into two under Hon. Aminu Bello Masari and Sen. Garba Yakubu Lado, how do you think the party will organise itself to face 2015 elections and local government elections likely to come up soon?

Yakubu Lado is no longer a CPC member. CPC now is under the caretaker leadership of Hon. Farouk Aliyu. He is the caretaker chairman of the Katsina State CPC. We are restructuring the party with the support of our members in the National and State Assemblies and we are sensitising the people, and

by God’s grace, by the next six months, CPC will take its proper shape in Katsina.

There was this contentious resolution passed in Katsina House recently, prescribing two year tenure for chairmen of local governments in the state. What is your position on the issue?

I have vehemently condemned that resolution because of its defects.

The resolution is irrelevant because the term of the council chairman should be four years but the House passed the resolution against my interest, against the wishes of my constituency and indeed the wishes and interests of the entire citizenry of the state.

‘Youths must no longer be used as thugs’ Ibrahim Abdullahi, was Senate President of Children Parliament, Federal Republic of Nigeria, from 2005 to 2008. During his tenure, he represented Nigerian and African children on different platforms even at the UN. Abdullahi spoke to ADETUTU AUDU about his aspiration to be President of National Council of Youths. Excerpts

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HAT have you been up to since your tenure as the President of Children Parliament ended in 2007?

I joined the Nigerian Youth Parliament in 2008 when late President Umaru Yar’adua of blessed memory inaugurated the pioneer Youth Parliament of Nigeria. I was the youngest member of the Youth Parliament then and I had the opportunity of airing my views on national issues bothering young people- that is those from 18 to 30. Shortly after that, I left for the United Kingdom to pursue my LLB at the University of Reading. Even at the University of Reading, I didn’t just sit behind to watch, I got involved at the AfroCaribbean Society. After my foundation year, I got elected as the President of the African Caribbean Society of the University which is one of the largest in the institution.

I’m back to the country and I feel obliged to join the movement for new Nigeria project. I know it involves struggle, but then we have two options- it’s either we sit behind and watch or take the necessary step that will lead to the changes we want.

With people who are 60 years and above putting themselves out as youths, do you think young peo-

ple like you have any chance to lead the youths in Nigeria?

I think if we continue watching them from the back seat to do whatever they are doing, they will continue to do it. So, as youths we must step up and demand for our position in the scheme of things.

We must lead the re-orientation of our people and let them know that young people must be given chance because there is no society that can have sustainable development without putting the youths at the forefront.

Many people believe that the National Youth Council of Nigeria, which you are aspiring to lead is a platform for getting cozy with politicians and making cheap money.

Are you not bothered by this perception?

Yes, it’s a big problem. The Nigeria Youth Council is a very powerful body. It is supposed to be a platform for young people participation in governance. We are in democratic era now and we must ensure participation of everybodyyoung people, women, older folks.

Yes, it is true that the Youth Council has been enmeshed in a lot of controversies, but these are things that happen in organisations. But there is also the utmost responsibility of restoring the confidence of the youths in the Council and there

•Abdullahi

is no better way of doing that than using the platform of the Youth Council itself. And that’s why credible young people should begin to get on board the Youth Council.

What will be your agenda if you become the President of the Youth Council?

First, we need to restore people’s confidence in the Youth Council. We need to turn the Youth Council into a platform that young people can use to demand from government of the day the true divi-

dends of democracy. Youth Council will also be a platform for ensuring more opportunities for Nigeria young people in the area of entrepreneurship, education and in leadership. A lot of Nigerian youths are capable, they have the expertise and knowledge to aspire to leadership positions, they don’t have to wait until they are 40 or 50.

Young people contribute to the workforce of the economy and the Youth Council must start to make these things happen. Real changes must happen. We want to be the new face of hope for the Nigerian youths and that is why I am aspiring to come on board of the National Youth Council on Nigeria.

How do you think the Youth Council can help in solving the problem of unemployment which is one of the major worries of young people in Nigeria nowadays?

I think the Youth Council need to embark on a very big campaign to ensure that jobs are gotten on merit because there are a lot of well qualified people that cannot even get the jobs. Aside that, in Nigeria, we do not have a system that em-

powered young people to be self employed. I know that governments at all levels are trying to introduce vocational trainings, but I think it has not been well prioritised.

Do you think the government is even doing enough for the young people now?

I will say government is not doing enough for young people in Nigeria.

What will be your advice to young people given the challenges the country is facing now?

I think this is one of the most defining moments in our country.

We are faced with all sorts of challenges- economic challenges, security challenges, political challenges. And this is the time that young people must come together because we are usually the most vulnerable group during conflicts.

So, young people must come together to demand that government must be accountable. This is not the time that young people should allow themselves to be used as thugs. We must ditch the various religious and ethnic sentiments that have divided us and come together for the sake of project Nigeria. We are the future. The challenges facing Nigeria today will be left for us to deal with tomorrow, so why don’t we start now?

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Politics

Whither APGA’s reconciliation moves?

Courts’ orders have further complicated the already intricate leadership crisis in All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), leaving the fate of the party hanging, reports Sam Egburonu

•Obi

•Ojukwu

•Umeh

F

ship contentions.

This notwithstanding, under his leadership, which enjoyed enormous support and encouragement from the former presidential candidate and National Leader, the Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and his once political soul-mate, Mr. Peter Obi, the party was able to recover Obi’s mandate from PDP and to make serious impact in the polity, emerging as a major political party with elected officials at local governments, state assemblies, national assemblies and at the last count, two state governors.

Explaining further what the party achieved when peace reigned amongst the leaders, a member of the National Working Committee of the party, who do not want to be named, said, “The leadership of APGA under Umeh also successfully supported Obi in his effort to reverse his impeachment and to return to office to complete his tenure after Dr. Andy Uba’s 17 days interregnum as governor.

“Also, recall that because they were working as a team, Umeh successfully coordinated Obi’s re-election campaign that led to his victory in the February 6, 2010 Gubernatorial polls in Anambra State. Of course, Dim Ojukwu threw his weight in the cam-

paign. Their efforts and support were helped by Obi’s spectacular performance in office. All these made Obi’s remarkable re-election possible, the first in the state,” the official said.

He posited that Ojukwu was so impressed by Umeh’s performance that he placed an advertisement in a national daily on March 17, 2010, describing him as “the hardest working party chairman in the federation.”

Regretting the current situation, where Umeh and Obi have also fallen apart so seemingly irredeemably, the official said, “They had a common vision and worked together to build up the party. For example, Umeh’s leadership dared all odds when it offered APGA ticket to Obi when the then INEC boss, Maurice Iwu, had already given the nomination forms to Chekwas Okorie’s faction and the former chairman had given it to Hon. George Ozodinobi.

“Also, it was not a child’s play for us, when Umeh led the rest of us to run the Peter Obi campaign and ensured victory in the face of PDP’s Charles Soludo and ACN’s Chris Ngige’s massive political onslaught,” he concluded.

OLLOWING the seemingly unending leadership crisis in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the party has been made an orphan of some sort. The crisis in the party dates back to December 15, 2004 when the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) met in Abuja and suspended the pioneer National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, over what was described then as “gross antiparty activities.”

The accusation then was that Okorie attempted to negotiate away APGA’s mandate to Dr. Chris Ngige, then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) initially declared winner.

The crisis deepened and dragged as Okorie challenged his suspension and expulsion up to the Supreme Court and lost at the apex court on March 25, 2011. He eventually returned the party’s original certificate of registration in his custody to INEC on March 7, 2012.

Chief Victor Umeh, who took over the leadership of the party from Okorie in December 2004, have since then managed to run the affairs of the party while contending with mind-boggling intrigues and leader-

Political

ripples Advice for Obi, Okorocha

A

HOT gist circulating round All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is that unless Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and his Imo State colleague, Governor Rochas Okorocha, close ranks and bury all hatchets in the interest of peace, the party they both belong to, will know no peace and will continue to suffer.

This is the submission of two national officers of the party in the course •Okorocha of a private discussion on the state of the party during the week.

Contrary to the ‘all is well between us’ display by Obi and Okorocha, these two gentlemen, who should know, given their position as leaders of the party, revealed that it is the frosty relationship between the two governors that is at the root of APGA’s many crises. Ripples therefore appeals to these brother governors to save their party from being considered for deregistration in the near future.

Reminded that for the referred elecContinued on Page 22

Suswam and Benue LG elections

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ORE questions are being asked how the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) allegedly won all the 2012 Benue State local government elections. Ripples gathered that as the opposition parties protest the results, alleging that Gove r n o r Gabriel •Suswam Suswam has many questions to answer over the conduct of the controversial election, grassroots electorates are complaining bitterly over the way they were treated, with some of them threatening never to vote again! The question many observers are asking is what may have changed in the politics and development index of the state between 2011’s general election to warrant the alleged 100 percent victory?

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Political Politics turf

with Bolade Omonijo boladeomonijo@yahoo.com

Lamentation

T

HANK God my name is not Jeremiah. But, today, I have cause, once again, to lament the state of things in the country. It is so easy to see that those who have forced their ways into government, especially at the centre, are up to no good. Sincerity is the scarcest of commodities.

On the one hand, they are busy trumpeting a resolve to drive the national economy to join the league of the 20 most developed in the world in the next eight years, and, on the other, they do things that clearly demonstrate that they are only in office to feather their nests.

As I was about writing this, I had just read the response of the federal lawmakers to the request to spend 15 billion Naira in providing a “befitting” residence for the Vice President.

An initial 6 billion had been earmarked, but the Jonathan leadership felt that was paltry and enjoined the legislators to make provision for an additional 9 billion.

This is in a country where many go to bed without food; where many children learn under the trees; where malaria still kills millions; where pensioners die on the queue waiting to be paid some five thousand Naira.

Those in government are so insulated from the reality of daily living that they could so insensitively budget a billion Naira for meals in the presidential villa in one year. When the big man in government, living on public fund, moves about for functions that have no bearing on the lives of the people, he does so so arrogantly that some could just be moved to commit suicide. The convoy is so long that one is left wondering what all those corralled into following the big man actually do.

What is actually wrong with us, leaders and followers?

Could it be the genetics? Is it the quality of what is packed in the cranium? Is God partial in allocating endowments to the Caucasians and the Negroes? Do we have aspirations? If we blame the leaders for taking us for a ride and misappropriating what belongs to all or for privately accumulating what should be publicly dispensed, are we the followers so helpless that we live with it, shrug our shoulders and merely call for divine intervention? If the Arabs could take steps to free themselves from the shackles of dictators, what are we doing about modern colonialists who have seized the reins of powerhere?

In a country where nine billion naira is being proposed to provide state of the art furniture, fencing, two guest houses, banquet hall and security gadgets for the VeePee’s residence, people are still dying of polio, guinea worm is still a major concern in many rural areas, unemployment rages on and the roads are in such a terrible shape, leading to needless loss of lives.

Perhaps, it is difficult for those in power to appreciate what I am saying. But, let us illustrate with the budget just presented to the Ekiti State House of Assembly by Governor Kayode Fayemi. The total budget size is 93 billion. It is to be sourced from Value Added Tax, Internally Generated Revenue, the allocation from Federation Account and sundry others.

Only about double what is to be expended on the VeePee’s house would accrue to the state from the Federation Account for the 12 months of 2013. Roads are, understandably, the major priority of Ekiti in the year, and, for this, 9.9 billion has been earmarked. This is just what the federal government is proposing as supplementary allocation for Sambo’s house construction.

Ekiti State is hoping to spend a little more than 2 billion Naira for rehabilitation and equipment of its general hospitals and comprehensive health centres. Water resources is being allocated 2.4 billion Naira. All workers will draw their salaries, pensioners will be paid, the elderly will draw their stipends and security will be beefed up. All from a 93 billion Naira budget.

Ekiti is not alone. Kwara’s budget for 2013 is 91 billion, Anambra 84 billion, Adamawa 95 billion. The most pathetic case is presented by Yobe. A state ravaged by security challenges, where bombs and guns boom daily, has only 44 billion Naira to do government business next year. The people live in fear, many are fleeing the towns, yet, succour cannot be provided for those who have no choice but to stay. The total budget for the state is only a little more than double what has been allocated to provide a comfortable residence for Sambo.

We need to begin to take our governments to task. We need to throw away the tag of a docile people. We need the steel that saw the Zikist Youth Movement stand up to break the yoke of the colonial masters.

If Nigeria must turn its potentials to actual development, then the way of doing government business must change.

We need to insist on a thorough review of the electoral system.

Like the Aba women in 1929, we have to show that we know what is good for us. Where a state government decides to oppress us with instruments of power, the people should rise up to challenge it. If things continue as they are, not only would Vision 2020 remain a mirage, Nigeria would be worse in 2099 than it was at the beginning of the century.

On this count, I agree with Professor Chinua Achebe that Nigeria’s problem is inept leadership, but the solution lies with the masses.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Politics

•Continued from Page 19 which nullified the elections of Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Olusegun Oni as governors and declared Rauf Aregbesola and Kayode Fayemi respectively as winners.

The former president, according to sources, had allegedly prevailed on the current president to use the leverage of his exalted office to sway victory for the PDP. His refusal to take this line of action, The Nation gathered, did not go down well with Obasanjo.

Yet another cause of disagreement, a source told The Nation, was the case of the Halliburton bribery saga. The president’s handling of this matter, according to some PDP insiders, was another source of open animosity among different stakeholders within the party. A source claimed that Obasanjo and Jonathan’s interests in this matter differ significantly.

Already, fall-outs of the feud have begun to emerge. First, was the termination of the concession agreement on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway between the federal government and Dr. Wale Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited. It is believed that Babalakin is a close ally of Obasanjo.

As if that was not enough headache for Babalakin to contend with, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged him to court over an alleged laundering of N2 billion for the jailed former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori.

The heat has also been turned on another ally of the former president, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who is facing an alleged N240 million corruption charge at a Federal High Court in Abuja. For the fourth time, the judges handling the case of the former Aviation Minister have been changed. The new judge for the case, which began four years ago, is Justice Rita OfiliAjumogobia.

Given the scenerio, observers

Jonathan vs Obasanjo: New battle grounds source will nt be in the interest of the party. This explains the worry expressed during the week, by the National Working Committee of PDP. “Apart from the political implication of such, we also believe that it could heat up the polity and cause tension in both the party and the polity. Moreover, the party has seen that the opposition is already trying to make gains from the fight and that will not be a good thing either for the two leaders or our party.

“The President respects Obasanjo. He will not do anything that will widen the gap between them. I am sure that the disagreement will be settled. “Besides, there are no plans by the President to witch-hunt Obasanjo with any probe,” a member of the National Working Committee of the party, was quoted as saying recently.

•Tukur

said the battle may have been halted at the public domain, but it has further intensified behind the scene as the various stakeholders prepare for major political battles ahead. Some of the political battles where Obasanjo and Jonathan’s faceoff will play a major role include the election of the party’s Board

of Trustees chairman and election of PDP’s presidential candidate for the 2015 elections.

There is fear today that if Jonathan decides to seek re-election as it is being strongly suggested in several quarters, Obasanjo, on the strength of the current disagreement opt not to support him. This, according to a

PDP’s BOT battle: Since Obasanjo resigned his position as BoT chairman of PDP, there has been fierce intrigues over who or which caucus of the party would produce his successor. Before the media war between Obasanjo and Jonathan, PDP top leaders denied any worry over the matter. But with the current situation, it became obvious that Obasanjo’s associates will rise to the occasion to take possession of the vital position. Since the presidency also understand the importance of that position to the future, everyone expected a tough battle.

To avert an ugly development,

the National Working Committee of PD P moved quickly to douse tension. It quickly postponed the election, giving varied reasons Olisa Metuh, the party’s spokesman, for example, said the party postponed the Board of Trustees chairmanship election to enable those interested in the position to make formal declaration.

Sources, however, told The Nation that the directive came from Aso Rock to “sort out some crucial issues before the election.”

It is a common knowledge that while Jonathan now seems to back Tony Anenih for the top job, Obasanjo is still bent on the return of his long standing confidant, Ahmadu Ali. 2015 presidential ticket Although control of PDP, national power and relevance may constitute some major reasons for the face- off between Jonathan and Obasanjo, the most crucial is the 2015 presidential ticket. Sources said with the current development, taking into cognizance Obasanjo’s influence the president is no longer comfortable with existing plans for 2015 and has allegedly issued new directives aimed at tightening all loose ends.

We also gathered that some northern PDP caucuses had already opened new channels of negotiation with Obasanjo aimed at securing his support to realise their ambition of producing Nigerian president in 2015.

The battle line is still unfolding.

Whither APGA’s reconciliation moves?

•Continued from Page 21 tion, Obi had his self appointed campaign team, he argued that, “that team was subsumed into the APGA National Team that won the epic battle.”

Giving further insight on how the party resolved internal disagreements over the party’s flag bearers and was therefore able to win critical elections in Anambra State, the official said, “Ojukwu at first endorsed Emeka Etiaba for the governorship ticket, a development that rattled Obi’s camp. But when the Umeh-led National Working Committee intervened on behalf of Obi, leading to Ojukwu’s change of heart, Ojukwu later told Anambra State voters that Obi’s reelection bid should be granted as his (Ojukwu’s) last wish. So, when Obi was eventually re-elected and satisfied that his ‘last wish’ had indeed been granted, Ojukwu paid glowing public tributes to Umeh.”

A family divided Today, so much have changed within this political family. Instead of the cooperation that made the family politically strong, their public utterances confirmed that the relationship had gone sour.

Umeh has had course to condemn some public utterances attributed to Bianca Ojukwu, the widow of the party’s late leader. While Bianca and Obi’s associates have tried to argue that all was well in

spite of the verbal crossfire and that Bianca spoke as an individual, a member of Umeh-led executive insisted that Bianca deliberately castigated the party’s National Chairman for some well calculated political agenda and that she was speaking on behalf of Obi-led camp. “She is actually prodded by Dr. Tim Menakaya and Governor Peter Obi to tackle Umeh,” he said.

But if Umeh’s associates feel Bianca had come hard on their leader, Umeh, it seems Umeh is not the only top APGA chieftain she had allegedly tackled of recent, as she tries to play a leading role in her late husband’s political party, perhaps in a bid to revive or re-focus the party.

Not long ago, she also attracted the wrath of the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, when she reportedly narrated how MASSOB leader, Ralph Uwazurike, made Okorocha the governor of Imo State.

Reacting to that statement, Imo State Government described her claims as “baseless,” stating that the relationship between Ojukwu and Okorocha was symbolic as it could be better described as “one between Father and Son.” The statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media (Prints) to the governor, Ebere Uzoukwa, advised Bianca to face her new responsibility as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, adding that: “Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has

much respect for the late Ikemba Ojukwu and the entire family and Bianca should not pose a threat to that relationship with her unholy romance with some disgruntled elements and enemies of Imo State people.”

A concerned top official of the party, who regrets that some top leaders are frustrating reconciliation moves, said, “given her background as a former beauty queen, daughter of a former governor of old Anambra State and wife of the late Ikemba, it is baffling how Bianca, will show public contempt to the APGA National Chairman, Umeh and Governor Okorocha.”

But a top official of Anambra State Government, who however said he was not given the mandate to speak on behalf of the governor or government on this matter, told The Nation off record that “Umeh and his associates are being too sentimental over the current reconciliation moves aimed at improving the fortunes of the party. We are of the view that APGA must open up and allow credible politicians to join us. This they seem to neglect. APGA is a national party and must be so run. What is more, they are making unfair and unsubstantiated allegations against the governor and the wife of the late presidential candidate of the party.

This attitude will not help anybody,” he said.

Reconciliation:

Although several reconciliation meetings have been convened in Enugu, Awka Abuja and other cities, the leadership crisis has continued to deepen. This had led to allegations and counter allegations, giving impression that the crisis may have gone beyond redemption.

The most controversial was the November 6, 2012 APGA SouthEast stakeholders meeting in Awka, hosted by Obi. The governor said he invited party leaders in the zone but Umeh and Okorocha were conspicuously absent, alleging that they were never invited. Umeh, for example, described the report that he shunned the meeting as “mischievous,” alleging that “it was intended to tarnish his image as somebody who was averse to peace in the party.

He accused Obi of frustrating efforts by eminent people “including the Catholic Bishop of Awka diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Paulinus Eze-Okafor, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, Obi’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), and Anaocha Traditional Ruler’s Council, among others, to amicably resolve the party crisis.”

The way out Many concerned individuals and organisations, worried by the prolonged crisis have resolved to help find the solution. One of the latest volunteers is the South-East Christian Association of Nigeria

(CAN). The Chairman of CAN in the zone, who is also the Bishop of Enugu Anglican Diocese, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, has vowed to step in. “I am going to call a peace convention of APGA to see how to reconcile them so that it does not affect other areas of Igbo interest,” he said.

The need for immediate resolution of the dispute became even more pressing since an allegation of forgery was preferred against the party’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Alhaji Sadeeq Masalla. An Abuja High Court had granted the Police leave to arraign him on 21st November 2012. He was charged with forgery of signatures of some members of the National Working Committee of the party.

Justice Peter Kekemeke granted the Order in Charge number RC/ 36/12 between the Inspector General of Police versus Alhaji Sadeeq Ibrahim Masalla after hearing an application brought by Police prosecutor, Francis Irabor.

Given this development, APGA’s fate has become more uncertain. This is because the party may have become an orphan as Enugu and Abuja High courts have separately restrained Umeh and Masalla respectively, from parading as Chairman of the party, pending the determination of the party leadership suits they are handling.

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INSIGHT THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Not my Will The snowballing row over the last will and testament of the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is only the latest in a long line of bitter fights amongst the successors of many of Nigeria's rich, famous and powerful over the sharing of inheritance. YETUNDE OLADEINDE reports.

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HEN famous people die without writing a will, there is usually a lot of confusion and family feuds. It is usually a painful tale of exclusion and inclusion told by heirs, widows and other relatives. Many therefore believe that the trauma would have been avoided if only they had found time to write out a will as well as update such a will from time to time. Unfortunately, a lot of famous people who took the trouble to write a Will for loved ones, could not have imagine the degree of acrimony that very act would engender.

Despite clear instructions in these wills, many do not abide by the last wish of the dead. Instead of allowing sleeping dogs to lie; they prefer to launch vicious lawsuits pitching family members against each other.

Sometimes the fight can be so fierce, and the bitterness so deep, that they last for decades. A case in point is the unending legal battle between the successors to flamboyant First Republic Minister of Finance, the inimitable, Chief Festus Okotie -Eboh.

If his sartorial style was often controversial and much talked about, so has been the long-drawn war over his property. It has been one long tale of pain, hatred and frustration sharing the property of a loved one by widows, children and other relatives and beneficiaries.

The former minister died in 1966: his family has been in turmoil over his riches ever since - close to 50 years. Early this year, an Igbosere, Lagos High Court ordered Dangote Nigeria Limited to stop construction on one of the houses owned by the First Republican Finance Minister.

It was a pre-trial session at which Justice Ayotunde Phillips ordered work on the premises to stop. Listed in the suit was the late minister's company, Festus Okotie-Eboh and Sons Limited, six of the deceased children and a firm, Maidaville Properties Limited. They sued Dangote in 2009 along with Mrs. Alero Jadesimi, one of Okotie-Eboh's daughters and five others. The plaintiffs were challenging the purported sale of the property at 15 Kings Road, Ikoyi, Lagos to the company by Jadesimi.

For a long time in the public eye, the famous Ibru brothers from Delta State always projected a picture of unity. But all that swiftly evaporated following the demise of Alex Ibru, a businessman, newspaper publisher and Minister of Internal affairs during the regime of General Sani Abacha.

For the Ibrus the crisis can be traced to the estate of the late publisher of The Guardian newspaper, and the aggrieved took their case to the court. Here, three of the children from his first marriage who are trustees of the family, as well as some of his siblings, dragged the stepmother, Mrs. Maiden Ibru before a Lagos High Court.

The claimants were Chief Felix Ibru, Miss Grace Ibru and Mrs. Mabel Okolie, nee Ibru, also joined in the suit the registrar, trustees of Omamo Trust and the Probate Registrar, Lagos High Court. So what really was the bone of contention?

They are contesting the will left by Alex Ibru, claiming there are two wills. They submitted that the wills were filed at a Lagos High court, one in May, 1989 and the other was filed in July, 1992.The claimants also said that they discovered that there is yet another will which was read on 31 October, 2012 where they became aware that there was a third will.

Confusion galore and you wonder if there would be a way out of the woods.

However, the children would rather prefer the court to declare that the last will and testament dated 8 September, 2011 made by Alexandra Ibru is void and of no effect and to declare that the one dated 6 July, 1992 is the last valid will of Alex Ibru. The plaintiffs also prayed the court to order Mrs. Ibru to render an account of the estate of her late husband and for the court to award N10 million as the cost of the action.

Like the Ibru's, the family of the late Ikemba Dim Emeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu have been literarily torn apart by his will which was read last week. During the week Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Jnr) accused his father's lawyer, Emeka Onyemelukwe, and his stepmother, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, of playing games with the will of the late Biafran leader.

Ojukwu (Jnr), the senior son of the late Biafran leader, denied that the family was invited to the reading of the will. He also said Onyemelukwe never wrote the will as he claimed. "The issue is not about struggling for property. We the children are doing well. It is about a blatant attempt to subvert the wishes of my father.

It's a matter of principle. I will not take up issues with Onyemelukwe again in the media. If it becomes necessary to issue statements, they will be issued as appropriate. I did not say that I don't know him (Onyemelukwe). I said he is not the lawyer that wrote Ezeigbo's will.

Ojukwu (Jnr) explained that whatever changes Onyemelukwe allegedly introduced into the original will was what he was questioning. "He claims to be the family lawyer, yet it is on record that he is attacking members of that family in the media. When he claimed that I was lying about Ezeigbo's condition, the events of last year proved that I was right.

He adds that: "Furthermore, he claims to be the family lawyer, yet he apparently does not have our phone numbers, based on his own statements. If I did not receive the so-called text message, what of the other family members? Did they also not receive their text messages or are they lying also? When he sent the text message, did he receive any acknowledgment that they were received by anybody? If he did not receive the acknowledgment,

•Late Okotie-Eboh

what effort did he make as the so-called family lawyer to reach out to family members? Were they invited to make sure they attended? Did he send them registered letters? Did he visit them?

The fact that Bianca, his widow and Nigeria's ambassador to Spain got a lion share in his will came as a shock to those like Emeka Junior who said that contents of what had been read out to the public contradicted what his father had told

him. Also the caveat which stressed that she would forfeit some of the properties if she remarries has also generated some controversy.

Interestingly, The Ikemba is not the only famous Nigeria who prefers that their wives remain theirs alone. FRA Williams also stated in his will that : "If my wife remarries or leaves with another man, then I direct that she should •Continued on Page 26

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

THE SUNDAY INTERVIEW

He was a political neophyte when he joined the Victor Attah administration in Akwa Ibom State as Commissioner for Local Government Affairs. When he indicated intention to succeed his boss in 2007, nobody gave him a chance.

Today, the story is different. Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio has come of age politically. By 2015, he will complete his two terms as governor of the state. Since he is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, Akpabio plans to move to the Senate to, according to him, serve his people who have asked him not to quit politics yet.

As governor, Akpabio, who turns 50 today (Sunday, December 9), believe he has touched the lives of his people.

In this interview with Lawal Ogienagbon, Deputy Editor, and Ibrahim Kazeem, Akwa Ibom State Correspondent, Akpabio speaks on his journey in life.

‘My life has been a struggle’ “

I

S your name Godswill a product of your political fortune?

It is a coincidence that my name is Godswill. I think it has more to do with my belief in God. My late brother taught me that everything in life radiates from God and the Bible is clear on that. The ways of prosperity are there, enshrined in the Quran and the Bible, that seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto it. That was what my late mother taught me. My name is God’s will and I believe strongly that God has a divine purpose for every man.

You don’t just come into the world and believe that you don’t have direction. You definitely came into the world for a purpose.

God placed you in your family for a purpose and therefore God gave me the name Godswill for a purpose. And that name He gave me was for me to do His will and to continuously seek His face and say let God’s will be done in my life. In 2007 when we were going for election, I did not say God make me the Governor of Akwa Ibom. I said let God’s will be done. I believe there is a lot of relationship between my name and my action. It is only through God that things are possible. The will of God is in this administration and that is why Godswill is being done and there is a direct relationship between the name Godswill, what is happening and the fortune of Akwa Ibom today.

You always say you are being propelled to perform by anger, what is the source of this anger?

Any Nigerian who has lived to be 50 years knows that the source of our problem is not lack of resources but how to utilise the natural resources for the benefit of all Nigerians. Every research in Africa and in the world shows that the problem of Nigeria is not availability of resources and how to utilise the resources; leadership is the bane of Nigeria. I became angry with the situation I saw and I said I wished God will give me the opportunity to be a leader so as to show the difference. Why was I so angry? I lived in Lagos and each time I came home, I will not be able to drive my car to my village. My village is sedentary, it is on the road between Ikot Ekpene and Aba, the road that comes from Umuahia, in Abia State. For 29 years I had no road to my village.

The federal road between Ikot Ekpene and Aba was totally out of function and all the filling stations on that road were closed down. Even to get Okada to get into the road was a problem. We used to have pipe-borne water in the 60’s and we even saw some of it when we came back from the war. By the 80’s there was no water to drink, people had to resort to streams and I say what is happening in Nigeria. I could enter train in 1973 to Zaria to go and take entrance exam in the Nigerian Military School. Thrity years after, the train disappeared. If by 1990 as a young lawyer I could drive my car from Lagos, from Lagos I could drive seven hours and by the 8th hour, I am in Ikot Ekpene in my state and I would go to a restaurant to eat. From 1990, about 15 years after, the road disappeared between Lagos and Akwa Ibom. Don’t you think there is a reason to be angry? So the question there is what we are going to bequeath to our children if in my own time, the trains the cheapest means of transport have disappeared? I was a young boy of 10 years old when I travelled alone by train to Zaria to attempt to enter Military School. Thrity years after, no train and nothing. So, what about children who are not as privileged? I wasn’t a privileged child, but I was able to find my way to Zaria to take entrance examination. Can you say the same today of children who are orphans? Where would they get money to enter a plane since the roads are no longer there; the trains are no longer there. There was a reason to be angry. That is why when I came, I approached development with anger. I can tell you even as I am talking now the feeling of the anger is coming back but I am trying to reduce it. When I look around and drive round Uyo and I see over 34 to 38 urban roads that we have done, the anger starts reducing.

I was angry because of the decayed infrastructure; I was angry because of the number of children that were hawking in Lagos State from Akwa Ibom. I was angry because every groundnut seller in Port Harcourt was from Akwa Ibom State. I was angry because every single person in Lagos or Rivers states is from Akwa Ibom. I was angry because if you find 50 children that were trafficked from Nigeria to Gabon, 40 of them would be from Akwa Ibom State. I was angry because every house in

What has life been like in the last 50 years?

Life has been a mixture of ups and downs. I have learnt a lot in the last 50 years. First, as a young child it was very traumatic, I had a lot of challenges. Second, as an adult and somebody with a feeling that you have worked hard and succeeded in life, you also learnt the travails of life that the Mexican play, The Rich Also Cry, which used to be on the television, came to mind. While the poor cry, the rich also cry. At what stage would you really say that life has been smooth? It has been very rough. Everything has been a struggle. The struggle to obtain education, the struggle to get school fees, the struggle to look for a place to do NYSC. As a young lawyer if you go to anywhere they will ask you if you have any Executive Director working in a bank. When you say no, they will send you out of the office. I stayed for two months in Lagos looking for where to do my NYSC, but I couldn’t because they wanted to link your name to a manager of a bank, and through you they will get briefs. But I wanted to practice law. Even I went to the oil industry, those to be taken had already been taken. Those in the oil industry want their children or their relations to do NYSC in those places. Sometimes merit is not recognised in Nigeria. It is only connections and we allow mediocrity to thrive in the society. A lot of young bright people are not given the opportunity to display their talent. So it has been a lot of challenges. It is sadness and joy. Joy in the sense that you have been able to graduate as a lawyer, sadness that it wasn’t possible for you to get a place to do NYSC. Joy in the sense that you now surmounted that problem, sadness in the sense that you could not get a permanent job that could give you decent living. Joy in the sense that you are able to surmount that other aspect and sadness in the sense of the absence of a decent job, the struggle must continue and then eventually you get to a point of saying that I’m a state governor then you discover that the rich also cry. The politicians try to paint you in a colour that is not yours. The only thing that has given me sanity is my dependence on God Can we now say that at 50, you are now fully developed politically? In 2007, when we were talking about choosing the PDP candidate for this state, it was a tug of war and God used a particular line Chief Ufot Ekaete. Today we hear that you are your own man now, you don’t have God father. How true is that?

I have never had a Godfather in Akwa Ibom State. Your reading of the Akwa Ibom political situation in 2007 is totally wrong. Please, do a little bit of more investigation. Chief Ufot Ekaete was Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He was not in my political campaign team for the governorship of the state in 2007 before the primaries. The PDP primaries, I believed strongly that he had his own sympathy. When you interview him he would tell you who his preferred candidate was. I never had a Godfather before I emerged as the candidate of PDP in Akwa Ibom State. That was why there were so much troubles but I thank him for being a man of integrity and truth. Chief Ufot Ekaete was among the Akwa Ibom elders that came out in my support and said since he has won the primaries, we must stand by his victory not that he was a Godfather who put me to win the primaries. He was among the elders who spoke the truth that we don’t know how the young man won the primaries, but he won it, therefore, he should be given the opportunity to contest a governor of the state. For that, I remained grateful to him but interms of the primaries I had no single elders in the state of national prominence that was in my camp. Infact, I used to dress up some of my PA’s with their chieftaincy dresses whenevr we were going for meetings.

Let me give you a little bit of clarification so that you can understand. In 2006 we had about 56 to 57 aspirants. There was a

I have never had a Godfather in Akwa Ibom State. Your reading of the Akwa Ibom political situation in 2007 is totally wrong.

Please, do a little bit of more investigation. Chief Ufot Ekaete was Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He was not in my political campaign team for the governorship of the state in 2007 before the primaries

Lagos or Abuja had an Akwa Ibomite as an housemaid because they had no money to go to school. So, with the policy of free and compulsory education and the inherent triple school enrolment and the number of children from orphaned homes being taken care of here in Uyo, Akwa Ibom children are no longer in servitude. My wife is sending them to school and those orphans now have hope that in spite of their situation in life they can become something and the anger starts subsiding. I am happy now that you cannot easily find an Akwa Ibom child that is about the age of five who is still into slavery and servitude. I was angry because I lived as a young lawyer in Lagos and on one, two or three occasions I rescued some Akwa Ibom girls raped by certain expatriates some of whom were Indians. In a particular estate in Ebute Metta a woman used hot iron on the breast of a 12-year old from Akwa Ibom because she dared to say she wanted to visit home because the father was thinking of sending her to school and the woman asked her. Is school for your type?’ and used the iron on her breast. I went to the police station out of anger to represent the girl. The anger is going down.

At 50, according to you, a man should start counting down.

Why? Do you know why I was afraid to be 50, it is because I love counting up but when you are 50, you start counting down. When you are five and 10 years old, you keep counting up but when you are 50, you can hardly count 50 again.

As a young person, you celebrate first birthday, second birthday, 30, 40 but once you get to 50, you are not likely to count to 50 again. It is difficult to count up to 40 again. When the first 50 is over, can you ever count 50 again? Even if you are to count 50, you are to count down. Very few people in our generation count 50. Even if you were to count 50 you can’t count up again. But it is to the glory of God that one should be 50.

“

24

•Continued on Page 25

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

THE SUNDAY INTERVIEW

•Akpabio

particular aspirant from Ikot Abasi Local Government Area that had the blessing of the then SGF before the primaries and ofcourse the incumbent governor had a particular aspirant. I don’t want to name names. The elders that should have come together to support another aspirant all went into the race themselves. They all wanted to be governor.

If I wasn’t politically mature in 2006 as you were saying but I managed to win the primaries out of 57 people then that is the kind of political immaturity that I want. Here is the man, young man that was the chairman of rally and mobilisation committee for PDP re-election in 2003 and chairman of the rally and mobilisation committee of Obasanjo/Atiku campaign mobilisation in 2003 for Akwa Ibom State. I went round the state to canvass support for the governor of the state with the youths of the state for his re-election in 2003. He was not political matured but he was the chairman of all the campaign committees for Obong Victor Attah on rally and mobilisation in the state. I organised the 31 local governments rallies for the 31 local governments in the state. I mobilised support in 329 wards with the youths of the state for the then governor to win re-election in 2003. I also organised the PDP Presidential rally at the Uyo Township Stadium that was second to none, never seen in the history of this state. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was so excited and announced that he had never addressed this kind of rally even in Western Nigeria. This was a young man totally politically immature in 2006 and therefore, he became a Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and they had over 539 cases in court on chieftaincy matters but he sat in judgment in the chambers daily and all the communities in court withdrew their cases from in court and came before him. Also communities that never had Paramount Ruler for 14 years withdrew their cases in court and settled them. A community like Uruan that was in court for over nine years was able to get a Paramount Ruler during my time. People felt that he was a man of justice therefore his pronouncement was respected by all because I gave justice to all irrespective of your status. This was the same young who wasn’t politically matured but he was the last to declare for governorship in the state because of the respect he had for the former governor. When he realised that the former governor had his own preferred candidate he refused to go into the race until women went to the primary school and stayed there. Thousands of Akwa Ibom women said they were going to go naked unless Godswill Akpabio declare for governorship of the state. Grudgingly, he was the last to enter the race and when he entered, he never said he wanted to be governor he just told Akwa Ibom people, let Godswill be done.

Do governors need a summit to come together on regional integration? For instance, we have BRACED commission in the South South and given the incessant border disputes between governors over allocation of oil wells. Don’t you think the regional integration is being threatened?

Also what has happened to the Southern Governors’ forum?

I am actually not an activist at 50. I am a governor at 50. So what you are talking about will be a better question for people who are involved in activism. I won’t know much about it. It is a very good idea but it is not the oil well that will divide the South South. There will always be differences. But we must focus on things that unite us and one of those things is how to integrate ourselves economically. We can do things that will be of general advantage to our people. The oil wells you mentioned are things that could divide the people. Let us not focus on oil well. Let us focus on economic integration.

You talked of economic integration, for instance, Uyo-Calabar/Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road are in the state of collapse? The

roads though federal, can there be an integration between the three states?

I am working on how the three sister states can collaborate for the repairs of the road. I have written to President Goodluck Jonathan and he has given me approval to work with my brother states of Abia and Cross River and ensure that those roads are not only done but they are dualised. I got the approval from the Federal Ministry of Works. President Goodluck Jonathan graciously granted the approval and that for me is how to integrate the state. that is why I said let us focus on things that will benefit our people and not on things that will divide us. The oil well is all about money issues but if we focus on truth then there will be no conflict. The reality is that for instance, I don’t want to speak for Bayelsa and Rivers States but if what I am hearing is true that these were the issues that were done in the year 2000 and not things that were done in 2012 then you can see that the protagonists are a little bit unfair to the president because the reporting tends to give the impression as if it is being dine under the presidency of Bayelsa. For instance, look at the Akwa Ibom issues, it was settled even in the Supreme Court in 2005 when Cross River State went to the Supreme Court. They explained to Cross River State that if Bakassi goes to Cameroun, there is no way you can talk about oil well on the deep sea, yet, the current administration still went back to the Supreme Court. I tried everything possible to stop them from doing so. I even wrote a letter to them saying that it was unnecessary offering assistance at that time but they still went to court. So those are the issues.

It is the individual attitude that could threatened, the unity of the South South because oil wells are not movable assets. They are permanently fixed. If we all believe in justice and speak the truth then there will be no conflict in the regard. As a governor I decided that the best way to move forward is to focus on things that can unite the South South and not on things that can divide the South South. Let the BRACED commission concentrate on economic integration, commonality, and comparative advantage in agriculture and how we can create wealth system for our people.

Right now I am intervening on the road from Arochukwu to allow the people from there get to Akwa Ibom State. so that they can also make use of the Ibom International Airport. That is also what informed my request to Mr. President to grant me permission to dualise road from Uyo to Aba in Abia State and from Uyo to Calabar in Cross River State. I am going to be working with my brother governors in that regard so that we can create com-

“

We used to have pipe-borne water in the 60’s and we even saw some of it when we came back from the war. By the 80’s there was no water to drink, people had to resort to streams and I say what is happening in Nigeria. I could enter train in 1973 to Zaria to go and take entrance exam in the Nigerian Military School. Thrity years after, the train disappeared

“

•Continued from Page 24

25

mon facilities/infrastructure that will enhance the living standard of our people and not to focus on things that divide us. That is why I said at 50 I will never be an activist. I will only be a man who speaks the truth.

What is your position on the call by some sections of the North calling for the review of the Onshore/Offshore dichotomy?

That was a settled issue. We should not reopen old wounds.

Even when that policy was in place the entire Nigerians described it as obnoxious. Obnoxious in the sense that it was a clear case of an unjust policy and then Nigerians decided to find a solution to it. They went through alot of processes before finally arriving at a compromised position. I need to tell you that thousands of oil wells in Nigeria are still offshore. The onshore/ offshore dichotomy is still there but the compromised position was that for oil wells between 200 meters isobaths, we should pay derivation but oil wells beyond 200 meters isobaths, no derivation because that is almost like international waters. So, oil wells within the shadow waters that impacted alot on the aquatic life with the region and affect the livelihood of the people who are predominantly fishermen and the impact of the oil spill also spills on the land and destroyed the possibility of agriculture. Since the people are riverine and depend on the water but the water is already black as a result of the activities of oil exploration. They should get compensation. So, we got to a compromised position. The position was that we should pay derivation up to 200 meters but some of my colleagues in the North when they are granting interview, you hear them saying 200 nautical miles. Nigeria doesn’t even have the capability to police up to 200 nautical miles. So you have to correct some of these distortions. These things are being done and propagated in order to confuse and cause bad blood between the north, the south south and oil producing communities. That is not the correct position.

The reality is that the dichotomy is still there. I give you an example, if dichotomy was totally removed, the highest oil producing states in Nigeria will not be in the South South, it will be Lagos State. That is where you have Bonga Oil field that produces up to 800,000 barrels per day but it is deep offshore. It is beyond the 200meters isobaths. That is why Lagos is not a derivation state. That is the simple truth. There are lots of thousands of oil wells in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom that are beyond 200 meters isobaths that we are not getting derivation on but the ones within 200 meters isobaths that impact on the landmass should be regarded as part and parcel of the land for the purpose of derivation and yet people are not still happy. In 2012, when American decided to quadruple oil production and trying to compete with Saudi Arabia in oil production and our greatest partner is America.

Shouldn’t we be worried that a time may come that oil will have no value? It is a time we should be talking of more dependence on oil instead of thinking about how to diversify the economy?

From Nassarawa to Zamfara we have mineral deposits. From Jos, we have bauxites everywhere in the North. There is no part in this country that God has not embedded mineral resources in the soil. Why don’t we set up corporation and even increase derivation to make it attractive to our sister states to go into major exploration and exploitation of these mineral resources so that we can diversify our economy. We have things embedded in the soil all over Nigeria, we have not talked about that, we are depending on crude oil. Is it the time in 2012 that we should be talking of how to grab more oil so that we can share more revenue while forgetting the environment impact on the people such as oil spill, gas flaring that is affecting peoples’ lungs, acid rain and the rest of them.

I am not into that argument. I want to thank the President and the Attorney General of the Federation who issued a statement and pointed out that that was a settled issue. That Nigeria should move forward not backward. That is an issue that will move the country backward. For me I want to move forward. If we start the issue today, it means that we are moving backward and we are not patriotic. Also that some people are elected to destroy Nigeria and I think it is important for us to bring leaders into this country who will rather build this country than dividing the country.

You have a grass to grace story. What is the greatest lesson you have learnt in life and what impact do you want it to have on the lives of people?

Perseverance is the key. If you persevere you will succeed.

Then don’t depend on your ability, depend on God. Any child no matter the circumstances of your birth, persevere, work hard and realise that there is only one place in the world where success comes before work and that is in the dictionary. That is where you see S before W. In real life, it is work before success.

Before you got married, what was your relationship like with the opposite sex?

I was very timid because I was a very poor man. You know you only have confidence when you have money in your pocket.

So, I congratulate young men who are handsome and rich. But the rest of us who are good looking even when girls try to get close to you, you will think they are trying to mock you. I have not always been a ladies man. Humanity gets attracted to my personality.

That is why when I was a student in the university I didn’t join any cult because I felt I had too many friends and therefore I was a cult onto myself. So, I said how can you carry a cult into a cult. Already the name Godswill Akpabio was an attractive name. I am very sociable and a mixer. I have always been that kind of person all along. In secondary school, I was a general senior prefect and I have the largest number of school sons. Everybody wants to be Goddy A school son. Instead of me having school sons that washed clothes for me. I washed clothes for my school sons. I washed plates for them, they stayed with me and I have to make sure they are clean. I will ask them my friend have you changed your pants today, they would say Goddy A I want to be your school son. I would tell them if you want to be my son you must be clean. I rather served my school sons instead of them serving me. That was why I had many school sons. So, that kind of personality has always been there for me.

I was the speaker of the Students’ Union Parliament in the University of Calabar. The students said I should contest for president but I refused. I pulled out in the last minute because of family considerations. They said they had the money to sponsor me for president but I told them supposing the union is dissolved and I am sent home, will I start over as a poor man?

•Continued on Page 65

Wills of controversy 26

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

INSIGHT •Continued from Page 23

not have any further benefit from my Will other than what she may have had for her maintenance up to that date or a lump sum payment of 500 British pounds whichever is lesser. For the trouble that she would take in the affairs of my estate, I direct a payment of 100 British pounds to my cousin, Queenie Ibironke Doherty.

"I hereby declared that the amount of money standing to the credit of my wife in the savings account of the B.B.W.A. is my own money except any sum that may have being there prior to February, 1953.

I intended it as a fund to cover wear and tear on my car No. LA 2205.

"I ask that my said car be sold at the best possible price and that purchase price be paid into my estate" Many actually thought that FRA Williams would have put in place a 'legally fit will' with estates worth over 26 billion naira. Unfortunately that was not to be.

His four sons are at war and the will battle rages on. It is indeed a battle between Chief Oladipupo Akanni Williams (SAN), Chief Kayode Adekunle Olusegun Williams, Folarin Rotimi Abiola Williams and Tokunboh Eniola Williams.

On one side are Oladipupo and Kayode who want the will enforced. While Folarin and Tokunboh are on the other side favouring an agreement purportedly entered into by all the four sons on the estate sharing formula before the probate registry came up with the will. The agreement had allegedly been made sometime on 26 March 2005, on the erroneous belief that the legal luminary died intestate.

In January 2012, a Lagos 2012, a Lagos High Court refused a stay of proceedings in a case seeking to enforce the will of the legal practitioner fondly called 'Timi the Law'. The court ruled against an application praying that the children resort to arbitration under the Arbitration and conciliation Act, 1990.

This reminds us of Chief Theophilus Owolabi Shobowale Benson, aka TOS Benson, another legal giant whose will has torn his household to pieces.

Shortly after his demise a tempestuous crisis broke out in the family. This was as a result of some irreconcilable issues that emanated from the late politician's will.

At a point it was very glaring that the parties involved were not willing to sheath their swords. The allegations and counter allegations touched on issues like mismanagement, insincerity and threat to lives.

The family which was divided into camps were all interested in knowing which bank had their father's estate account, the number of his shares, accounts in various banks at home and abroad.

Beneficiaries of Benson's will include his widow, Opral Mason Benson, Larry Olusoji Benson, Theophilus Olusoga Benson, Jennifer Modupe Benson, all children of late Mrs. Titilola Ibironke on one side while the aggrieved parties, are pointing accusing fingers at the executor: Mrs. Opral Benson, Lionel Olusegun, Mrs. Abimbola Cardoso and Hewitt Adeboyega Benson.

Interestingly, administering his brother's (Bobby Benson) will was also a herculean task. At a point the Lagos State Government had to bring down the building which used to be a hotel on Ikorodu Road, Lagos because it became home to miscreants.

Bobby Benson had seven wives and sired10 children. They include Tony whose mother is half-Scottish and also has Caribbean roots; Maxwell whose mother is a Ghanaian; Adeyemi whose mother is from Enugu State and Tutu whose mother is Togolese.

The impresario who died at 62 also had two Yoruba wives and some more women who had no children for him. He was a multi-instrumentalist, band leader, hotel proprietor, stand -up comedian,

•Emeka and Bianca Ojukwu

The rich battle over riches

•Late Rotimi Williams

magician and showbiz impresario. The Bobby Benson show on NTA in the 70s was popular and you could understand why women flocked around him then.

Israel Adebayo Ogunyeade Adebajo is another famous Nigerian who left a controversial will behind .The philanthropist and founder of Stationary Stores died on the 25th day of July 1969. Since then the main issue has been the validity of the will. All hell was let loose. To resolve all the controversies a legal suit tagged Irene A. Adebajo V Luke Adepeju Adebajo and others came to the rescue.

More dust was raised and for his wife Irene and the 11 defendants it was the mother of all battles. "What really mattered, however, was the state of health and mental capacity of the deceased when he made the will", says a report by leading counsel, Kehinde Sofola.

Will the controversies over the will of famous people ever end? While finding answers to this question you run into the M.K.O. Abiola household. The catalyst of the turmoil in his household was

•Late Ibru

his will Dated October 25, 1989.The crux of the matter is that the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election insisted that all the children bearing his name and who have been presented to him as his biological children should undergo DNA testing before they can inherit any part of his estate. However, he made exceptions for only six of his children; the five children from his childhood love and first wife, Simbiat, and one other child.

This caveat in the Will immediately caused so much furore within the family with the wives divided into associations of pro-DNA wives and anti-DNA wives.

But once a man has written a Will, it is expected that his last wishes should be respected.

For the first nine years, not much was heard from the Abiola family on the matter of the man's estate. But when the administrators got set they shared the result of the DNA test and behold 25 of the children failed the DNA test. The effect of the Abiola case is that more men are

likely to write Wills, and ask for DNA testing.

In essence, what the MKO Abiola Will has done is not just to make the writing of Wills advisable, it also popularised DNA testing. Even though not much has been heard about the cold war but Kola Abiola and his father's brother, Mubashiru Abiola, have been at loggerheads supposedly over the issue of testing. This is perhaps one of the key reasons why Abiola's will is yet to be read.

What is clear from all these stories is that while a Will maybe a legal document, the thoughts, emotion and motivations that go into creating one are definitely more complicated. Through the ages Wills have not only been used to settle loved ones, but also to settle scores with those who wronged the benefactor while he was alive.

With these complex factors in the mix we are not about to see the of controversies trailing the last testaments of the high mighty.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Elkanah Mowarin is irrelevant now –Shirley Aghotse

–Page 43

28

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

Kehinde Falode Tel: 08023689894 (sms)

E-mail: kehinde.falode@thenationonlineng.net

•Giuseppe Zanotti embellished heel less shoe

Put your

best

foot

FORWARD! •Trendy sandal with heels

•Sophie Gamal

•Wedge

•Peep toe with high heels

W

I T H Christmas around the corner we always need sparkly shoes! Have you ever imagined how our feet would look without beautiful shoes to beautify them? And no other set of shoes has c a p t u r e d t h e imagination of fashion buffs this new season as peep toe shoes, wedge, flat, stilettos and strap sandals. While some look casual and others look classy and sexy, one of the things that differentiates them is the sole. It could be pencil heels, blocked heel, flat, clogged, medium or silhouettes heels etc.

Some come plain while others are studded with stones, sequins, metals etc.

I have always believed that a beautiful

shoe is useless unless it feels as wonderful as it looks. So, make sure that they fit properly in the store before paying for it.

Heelless wedge There are three varieties of wedge that are hotly in vogue now: the Giuseppe-Zanotti wedge shoes, wedge sandals and the wedge slippers. A wedge shoe is guaranteed to make you look chic. But never buy one without trying it out very well and making sure it fits at the store. And some daring men are not left out too!

•Continued on Page 30

•Close up with high heels •Flat shoes

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

•Continued from Page 29

Let your

Peep toes shoes It is a simple yet solid shoe that allows a lady to show off her lovely feet while just revealing a bit of the toes.

hair

glow

Stilettos Everything you could want in a pair of sexy high heels, from strap sandals, peep toe to covered shoes with sexy heel. Stilettos, after the 80s, disappeared and it then reappeared again; they are the most elegant shoes of the season. They are a must-have for women of style, who need to look classy and different.

Flat shoes These well-balanced, trendy and funky shoes are another women foot wear that cannot go out of fashion. The pattern and style may vary per season, but the flat shoes will forever remain in fashion.

A

•Uche Jombo

Pump shoes These shoes have had almost the same shape for ages without changing. It is a fashion material that women can't get tired of.

And Christian Louboutin pump shoes are the king at the moment.

Bow shoes Otherwise known as butterfly shoes.

They are the most elegant shoes of the season. They are a must-have for women of style, who need to look classy and different this Christmas.

this season

S a saying goes, a woman's hair is her glory. And of all body features, nothing guarantees you that special outstanding look than a well-nourished and perfectly styled hair.

With the help of the right hairstylist and good hair products you can move from looking ordinary to looking very fabulous. Lustrous hair tips: Do not expose your hair to too much blow dryer and thong machine; these can actually dry your hair out, if you are not conditioning it properly.

Poor conditioning Conditioned to cut down on splitends and breakage, have it trimmed on a regular basis and moisture your hair with conditioner to keep it in good shape. That is, trim hair after every chemical application.

Eat protein-rich foods like fish, meat, milk and cereals. Proteins will give your hair more strength and will prevent it from breaking and splitting.

Your hair needs Vita min E for shine and you can get this much-needed vitamin by incorporating brown rice, nuts, wheat germ and leafy green vegetables into your diet.

Wash with c o l d water

•Nike Oshinowo-Soleye

•Osas Ighodaro

•Mercy Johnson

29

-A cold-water rinse is a great way to make dull hair shine; the cold water will close and smooth the cuticle, making hair appear shinier.

Apply hot-oil treatment once a week, too much of it can cause hair to become dull and lifeless.

Hair mask - Apply shine increasing hairs mask once a week in order to condition and add gloss to dull ends.

Avoid weighing down your hair with numerous setting and styling products, these can dry out your hair and take away the shine.

Home-made hair mask with eggs Bring instant shine to your hair by evenly beating two eggs in milk.

Apply the fusion to your damp hair, massaging in well, then leave for 10 15 minutes and then rinse with mild shampoo.

Honey for sleek effect - this is good for hair. Mix four cups of warm water and one teaspoon of honey thoroughly, gently massage and wash your hair with the solute, do not rinse out, allow it to dry.

Mix three tablespoon of olive oil with a half cup of honey, coat your hair with the mixtur e and cover with a shower cap; leave on for thirty to forty minutes and rinse with cool water.

30

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

Guys, step out in style J

•Basket Mouth

•DJ Caise

•Joseph Benjamin

•AY

UST as some women have serious issues finding a fashionable look this festive period, some men can have just as many difficulties. Men want to dress as perfectly as women may want to wear their makeup. A good dressing sense can do wonders with the right kind of fashion, cut and colour. One also should be particular about the comfort level despite the fashion, adding confidence which corroborates a high self-image.

Gone are the days when men thought that it was just plain white and black for them, which prevented them from going for patterns, let alone choose a colour. Most old-fashioned men spent whole of their lives without realising that they could have looked strikingly handsome, if only they would have chosen better dressing.

Each shirt in the wardrobe does not need to be of the same outline, design or colour. Each is a different one with a little variation. One can always put hundreds of permutations and combinations according to the choice, occasion and fashion. The men's dress shirts do not have to be of sameness and dulling in outline, fashion, and design.

One should keep in mind that designs are dependent of fabrics.

Fashions are also about style, collar, placement of buttons and pockets.

However, it is more important to have the confidence to carry anything that one wears! Of course, one can look smart with a freshly pressed shirt and neatly smothered pants.

•Lynnx

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Nollywood actress, Toyin Alausa, reveals her favourite things to Kehinde Falode

Glamour

31

1

Favourite shoes Prada

2

Favourite bag designer Chanel

3

Favourite wrist watch designer Raymond Weil & Cartier

4

Favourite Nigerian designer Jewel by Lisa

5

Favourite book My Bible

6

Favourite perfume Elizabeth Arden & Bvulgari

7

Favourite drink Fresh pineapple juice 8

Favourite food Rice with fresh fish

9

Toyin’s

top

10

Favourite car

Toyota

10

Favourite nail colour Shades of red

32

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

In 2003, John Legend became one of the first people to sign to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label. At the time, it seemed like John was just Kanye's go-to hook guy. And then, Legend quickly established himself as a premiere soul artist, with hits like "Ordinary People" and "Used to Love U." Since then, he's worked with 'Ye on several great records (including 2010's "Blame Game) and done a lot of features for everyone from Jay-Z to Rick Ross to Talib Kweli - all the while maintaining a thriving solo career. He spoke with Insanul Ahmed.

JOHN LEGEND

My life working with Kanye West

W

HAT does the G.O.O.D. Music brand mean to you?

It starts with the name itself. We wanted to be known for quality. We wanna be successful and commercial, but we all really care about art and about putting out great art. It's that creativity, that attention to detail, that quality control. That distinguishes us from other folks that might just be chasing a hit, but not be caring about quality in the way that we do. (Kanye) picks artists that really care about making great art.

So Kanye's kind of been able to live the best of both worlds?

Yeah, that's been his genius, as an artist and as a producer. He's known for being on the cutting edge of what's fresh, exciting, and interesting, but also knowing how to capture the zeitgeist of what's going on.

How has G.O.O.D. Music changed from its original incarnation to now?

It's hard to even take my mind back there because it's been quite a while. I signed with Kanye back in 2003, and at that time The College Dropout hadn't even come out, so he was still relatively unknown compared to where he is now. He wasn't a household name, people were still calling him "Kane."

I'd met him in the summer of 2001, when he had moved to Newark. He was living there and working with Roc-A-Fella, producing tracks on Jay-Z's and Beanie Sigel's album.

When I first met him, it wasn't really like: This dude is going to be a huge producer. It was like, this is my friend's cousin and I heard he's pretty good. So we started working together.

At that moment, it wasn't my plan to sign a production company or anything. I was trying to get a record deal, but I didn't expect that I would need to go through a producer or go through another artist. I was just working with him. And I started to see: This dude is onto something.

What was that moment like, before College Dropout came out?

I remember saying to him I felt like it was going to be really important. It made me think of the The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in a waynot that it was sonically the same, but the level of creativity and importance that it was going to carry for the culture. When he asked if I would sign to him as I was seeing where the album was going, I was like, “Yeah. This is going to be a good look.” I thought to myself, This guy is really doing great work. The songs we were doing together for my project and for his, so I was doing songs like “Used to Love You,” “Number One,” and this other track “Do What I Got To Do” that didn't actually make my album.

But the tracks that were forming, like “The

Heart” and “Get Lifted.” I was working with him and I felt like we were doing something special. His star was rising and everything was coming together at the right time so I was like, “Yeah, I should sign with him.”

Did anyone tell you not to sign with him?

My manager and my lawyer were like, “Nah, John, you'd have to give up too much money, you'd have to do this, you'd have to do that.”

Did you envision he would be the artist he is today?

When I first met him, I didn't. It's crazy, because when I first met him, he really wasn't even known as someone who was trying to be an artist. He had to fight and claw his way into record label offices to play his own music. They'd be like, “Manwe want to hear some beats for our artists.” And he was like, “No, I rap.” They were like, “Who's this producer trying to make records for himself?

Why is he keeping the good beats? He should be giving them to Jay.” So at that time people weren't really taking him seriously. It's crazy to see how big he is now, knowing that back then, cats weren't really checking for him. I think him being an underdog, he's always had that kind of chip on his shoulder and that desire to prove himself to everybody because no one believed he could do it. But I started to see it. It felt like, this is not just good hip-hop, this is important hip-hop.

Your albums came out the same year.

Kanye came out in February '04, and I came out in December of '04.

But you were able to establish yourself as your own artist.

A lot of that was set up by the success of College Dropout. I wouldn't have gotten a bidding war going on for me if it wasn't for the success of College Dropout. I got signed two months after his album came out, and I put an album out in December, so it was a pretty quick turnaround. But I don't think I would've had all the labels clamoring to sign me if College Dropout didn't succeed in the way it did.

How so?

I had met with the same people like six months before, with the same demo basically, and all of them turned me down. I was going around with what was Get Lifted essentially, except for a very notable exception: “Ordinary People.” [It] was really the only new song that was done after I got my deal. Everything else was pretty much intact, my sound was already intact and no one was signing me yet. As soon as Kanye's album came out it was like, “Okay, what else does Kanye have coming out of his camp?” It's so funny how the same song sounds a lot better when there's some heat around it. Even more so now.

Why do you think that is?

The record business is slower, everything is scarier for these

execspeople are scared, a lot of people are getting fired. So they feel like they need a lot of validation before they'll sign you. But that strategy only works so far, because there have been plenty of artists signed to artists' labels that haven't had nearly the kind of success that the artist they signed with did. Even with G.O.O.D. Music, we have artists that have done very well, and we've had artists that haven't. Being attached to Kanye is only going to get you so far. You've still got to have the records and the talent and the artistry on your own to carry it.

Right, I think Big Sean is a good example of that.

Yeah, he's a star now. He's like, a legitimate star. It's exciting to see it happen. I remember just hearing that song he had with Chris Brown in the studio. It was crazy seeing it blow up the way it did because it felt like it had the possibility of doing that a few months before it came out. When it came out, it did its thing and it really put him on the map. And he just followed it up with quality, fun records. He's really established his own persona. I think that's really what you have to do.

You have to use that push you've gotten from working with someone like Kanye, and use it to establish your own persona and have your own space in the game.

When you look at some of the other artists in G.O.O.D., what does it mean to have Kanye involved in the production of your album? Because it seems like a double-edged sword…

You have to learn how to work with people. I've worked with him for such a long time, so I understand how to interact with him and get the most out of him.

What do you go into working with Kanye West thinking? What's the mentality?

I know I'm not gonna get a lot of time out of him because I know he's busy. But I like hearing his feedback. I don't agree with everything he tells me, but he's clearly got a great track record. So if you're gonna get advice from anybody, he's one of the main people on earth that you would want to get advice from. That doesn't mean he's always gonna have it exactly right.

For example?

He always tells a story where he wasn't sure “Ordinary People” was a good chorus. He's like, “I don't really like 'ordinary.' I think you should change it to some other word.” Not to say, “Oh, Kanye was wrong,” but to say, you know: Everybody's got an opinion, and sometimes we're not gonna agree. But if you go with your gut and listen to the good people around you, then hopefully you make a good

decision. I forgot who said that, maybe Cudi, but they'll have these discussions with Kanye about stuff and he'd be like, “You should change this.” They kinda went against Kanye, and Kanye was wrong in the end, and Kanye called them up and said, “Yo, man, I was wrong about that, I'm man enough to admit you guys made the right move.” The thing is, it's all out of a place of honesty and desire to make the best art. You get opinions from people. I have artists from my label as well. I know how it is. I listen to all their stuff, and be like “Nah, you shouldn't put this song on the album. Nah, you should change this.”

Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't.

How do you get something out of Kanye, even if your time is limited?

It's just a matter of getting him to focus a little bit on what you're trying to do. He's got so much going onthat's the challengebut if the timing's right, and you do the right things, you get that focus. You just gotta manage his focus.

How do you get his focus?

My thing is: If he has to take a phone call while I'm playing a song, I just play it again when he gets off the phone. You just gotta make sure he's paying attention, and it's pretty easy to tell when someone is or if they aren't. He's always 100 percent honest, but he's very demanding of himself and demanding of others too.

Do you feel pressure when playing a song?

I'm trying to impress him, and I know he's not easy to impress. But if I know he loves it, I know most people would probably love it.

His bar is higher than most people's bar. That doesn't mean everything he loves I love and vice versa. Like I say: Sometimes we agree, and sometimes ultimately it's my album, and I'm gonna do what I want. Honestly, I'd prefer that he loved every song on it because if he did it's gonna be pretty dope because he has good taste.

Your first two albums had a lot of Kanye, but your last album didn't.

It's funny because Get Lifted only had, like, four Kanye songs, but in the marketing and the way we talked about it, it was definitely more influential on that album. But he was just as influential in Once Again. The only one he wasn't as influential in was Evolver, where he just raps on one song. For this new album it's back in the mode of Get Lifted and Once Again.

What's the difference between working with Kanye West and working with all the other producers you've worked with?

I work with a bunch of producers on every album, but the difference for Evolver was that I couldn't get any time with Kanye. I forget what he was doing at the time, but he was all over the place. We were never at the same city at the same time. Everything about making the album was the same except I didn't get any joints with him, really. I definitely missed that, and I wanted to work with him more on this album, and I have been able to.

Has working with him has changed your process?

His attention to detail, craft, and making videos and everything else just sets a high standard. It makes me want to reach that as well.

Yeah and he's changed a lot over the years.

His core hasn't changed. Part of his core is that he's always pushing himself. That's always been part of his core.

The fact that that's at his core is what m a k e s him

Courtesy: Complex

THEATRE

With VICTOR AKANDE

T

t

BIGSCREEN

SOUND TRACK

E-mail:

GISTS

plus

victor_akande@yahoo.com

PAGE

33

Tel: 07029013958

Release my children to me, Zaaki Azzay tells ex-wife, NGO

HE last may not have been heard about the crashed marriage of hiphop singer, Zaaki Azzay.

Though there has been a kind of truce for some time now, with Zaki and his ex-wife keeping mum, in what watchers have described as a graveyard peace. But Zaki has come out to break the silence, by accusing his ex-wife and non-governmental organisation, 'Project Alert', of illegally holding onto his children.

This outcry is coming after his estranged wife was said to have barged in on him at his office without prior notice, demanding to see their daughter (the only of the three children left in his custody).

In the words of Zaaki, “I don't intend to say much because I had to convince my lawyer to allow me talk to you. You know the issue from the beginning. My wife left the house, two months later, she got some support from 'Project Alert'. My anger now is with 'Project Alert' because they sent her with some thugs to come and kidnap the children two months after she left the house. She took the children and kept them under the custody of Project Alert. Now, with the way things are going, it's like they are saying it's not proper to obey the law.

“What Project Alert is trying to tell me now is that illegality pays more than being a law abiding citizen. They expect me to carry thugs and go and do the same thing, but I won't. The court has not granted them custody of the children. Why don't they wait until the court grants whoever it wants to grant custody before they abduct the children? Why I am speaking to you is because last Monday, my ex-wife walked into my office without informing me, without any prior notice, she just walked into my office. I was in a serious meeting with some people in my office. It was Mercy Michael actually in a neighbouring office where we now. In fact, my Christmas is going to be a were having a meeting, a tenant and black Christmas without them. What kind landlord meeting. She walked in, and I of organisation will promote divorce? They asked her to give me five minutes. But she never called me or sent me a text all this declined, saying she wanted to see me while to hear my own side of the story. immediately.

Instead they just saw an opportunity for “I stood up quietly, took her past my cheap publicity and to make money office because my new secretary because all they did was send me doesn't even know her. I took her a letter after they have filed for inside my inner studio and asked My question divorce and asked me to pay her what the matter was. She said now is why is N300, 000 every month and then she wanted to see Zara, that's my 'Project Alert' went to the press. I have not seen daughter, the only one that's with children close to a year now. me. I asked her where the other keeping my my Do they know the pain that is two were, and she said that they children? I causing me? Do you know why were with Project Alert, and that if haven't set I'm sounding like this now?

I wanted to see them, I should go my eyes on These people are intimidating to 'Project Alert'. me.” my children “I take that to mean that she's But reacting to the allegations, for almost a staying elsewhere, while the kids the boss of Project Alert, Mrs. are with 'Project Alert'. Now, is it year now. In Josephine Chukwuma, said she 'Project Alert' that can take care of fact, my did not know that Zaaki's ex-wife my children more than me? What Christmas is went to the musician's office with kind of organisation is this? You going to be a anybody. see, my life is not even safe According to her, “I wasn't black anymore, because they sent the same thugs they sent to adduct the Christmas aware of her visit to Zaaki with men and that I would ask kids to come with her to see Zara. without them three our shelter.”

I didn't even know that she came there with some people. It was She continued, “Hadiza ran to when she was leaving that I the organisation on June 4, noticed that two guys were waiting for her alleging that Zaaki had become a threat to in the car. One was standing in front of a her life. She showed us scars and all that. lock-up shop opposite my office. And So we put her in the shelter. And we were immediately she stepped out, the guy trying to discuss with him, he ignored us. followed her. She then turned to me and We sent him a letter, he also ignored us. said they were her colleagues. But I noticed Anyway, the crux of the matter is that the they were the same guys that came to woman ran to us for help. adduct my kids.

“When she came we gave her shelter, “My question now is why is 'Project because Zaki forced her out of the house.

Alert' keeping my children? I haven't set The woman now, on her own, ran away my eyes on my children for almost a year and grabbed two of their children. She

King Sunny Ade prepares new works

I

…Matter in court- Project Alert wanted to grab the three children, but she couldn't grab the last one. Nobody can determine custody of the children. The only people that can determine the custody of the children is the court.

“You can't divide children into two and say you take half, and let me take half. She has grabbed two, while you have one. Now the woman says she doesn't want the marriage again. Initially, the wife didn't want to talk to the press. But then, do you know what Zaaki was doing? He was using the police to keep watch over this girl because he has a relationship with the police.

“Meanwhile the woman had earlier gone to complain to the police, but they didn't answer her. When she decided to talk to the press in August was when she thought she had had it, and that her life was seriously under threat. That was when she came to us and said, 'I'm ready to talk to the press.'

“We then invited members of the press to tell them that should anything happen to her, Zaaki should be held responsible. That he has been harassing her, using the police.

We now did a petition on her behalf to the inspector general of police, and copied the Lagos police command.

“So she's still with us. At least she has some peace and the children are going to school. The matter is in court, so he should go and wait for the court to determine the custody of the children. Court processes are slow. I have my lawyers that are handling it. It is not our job to ask any woman to pack out of her house. The decision is hers. She decided on her own. “ Meanwhile, the matter is due to come up in court for mention on December 11, 2012.

She disclosed to The Nation that the bailiff has gone ahead to serve Zaaki the notice.

N a manner that looks more of a prophecy, King Sunny Ade is set to launch into the Year 2013 with new works which predict a bountiful and rewarding year for everybody.

According to the King himself; “the work which is titled 'My Year' is packaged to bless my fans particularly and Nigerians in general, encouraging them to hold on to the belief that 2013 is their year of blessings and rewards in their individual endeavours.”

Coincidentally, the work is coming into the market along with the musical video of the 35th year crowning anniversary of KSA as the King of Music which took place in Ibadan few days ago.

Clement Ige, Managing Director of Distinct Associates Ltd, disclosed that “My Year” is a mind-blowing three-tracker which complements the thrilling 35th year crowning anniversary video, assuring that fans of King Sunny Ade should expect the bumper package before Christmas.

A sneak preview of “My Year” indicates another major hit from King Sunny Ade as he goes back into his musical archives for arresting lyrics, technically crafted into moving proverbs of songs and danceable beats that had been his trademark for years.

Mr. Ademola Joshua, in charge of distribution of the three track compilation, said “My Year” is an essential musical work to stimulate those who are looking forward to 2013 as a rewarding year.

Mr. Ademola also added: “In addition to this bumper offer, another set of scintillating musical packages in form of newly arranged live audio recordings of King Sunny Ade from the 70s have just been released to the market in response to the yearnings of millions of fans of the juju music maestro.

34

Entertainment

Interesting, vibrant, energetic, and most times, 'wicked' are some of the adjectives that best describe actress Patience Ozokwor.

Popularly known as Mama G- 'G for General', Patience Nzokwor, who needs no introduction as far as Nollywood is concerned, has endeared herself to her fans for her almost flawless interpretation of the roles of wicked motherin-law in movies. In this interview with MERCY MICHAEL, the popular actress admits that the 'bad woman' role has actually brought more gains than pains her way. She also recounts her experience when she lost her job as a broadcaster with Radio Nigeria, among other issues. Excerpts:

Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Playing the ‘wicked woman’ has helped my career

— Patience Ozokwor

I

T'S hard to spot you at premieres like this. What is A Wish all about?

Sometimes, ignorance makes you think you have cancer when you don't have it. You may even think it is not curable. Cancer can actually be cured at some stages. That's what the story is all about. It's also about people who fall sick to what they are going through. People thought that cancer was contagious and so on and so forth. It also talks about what government is doing to help people who are suffering from this ailment. So the story is aimed at helping people become more knowledgeable about the disease.

You never really know what it feels to have cancer until you have had a firsthand case. Have you ever been close to someone who had cancer?

Oh yeah, my neighbour just died. And incidentally, she was my aunt. She just died of cancer of the breast. It was in the village.

She died about three months ago.

They didn't know what it was.

But it started when she was trying to help someone, and she hit her breast on something, leading to a lump on the breast. And she was attributing it to that accident. Only God knows where the lump came from. And they were treating it locally until the thing got bad. She has so many children that are enlightened, but they didn't know the lump was cancerous and eventually she died.

Do you think premieres are increasing the sales of movie in Nigeria?

Yes, because people are getting more and more enlightened. It is increasing the sales of movies. And it is making people more exposed. If you premiere a movie and people get to watch it at the premiere, they will know whether

or not to bring it home for the children.

For the producer, it's an opportunity for people to criticise your work before it gets into the market. But again, premiere is a way of trying to create night life for the people. There is fun in coming to watch a movie with others. It's like watching a football match in company of others. That's what premiering is doing now. It's making people more attached to movies. And people are beginning to see movies as a classical thing. It's no longer a local thing.

You are one actress that's a producer's toast any day. What stands you out from other actresses of your age?

I wouldn't know. But most of the time, they tell you are a marketable face. I have lots of fans and people want to watch my movies. Every producer wants to use me because at least they are sure of the market (laughs). By God's grace, it's no man's power.

Talking about stereotype, have you gotten to that point where you feel saturated playing almost the same kind of role all the time?

Even Arnold Schwarzenegger has something to play. He's known for action films. Some people are known for stunts, others are known for romance. So it's not a problem. It was when I was coming up that I thought it was going to kill me. I didn't know that it was going to lift me to a height I didn't even imagine. And you know, the roles I play are very vibrant, and it makes people want to watch me. Even if I play a good woman now, my fans will start complaining.

And if your fans start complaining, it means producers will then give the vibrant roles more. After all, I didn't ask for it. And with each script I get, I know that something new is coming, because I know that so many people are out there waiting to watch what I have to offer. I try to make it different from what I have done before. It's not easy to play a vibrant role like mine. I tell you the truth, to cry and shout and do all at the same time is not easy. So it's difficult to find people who can do it. I didn't even know when I walked into it. I didn't know.

Call you recall how it all started?

I think the question should be 'what was that movie that gave producers the courage to start giving me that kind of

39

Double dose of fun with P-Square on Glo Big Friday Show

S

•Tonto Dikeh, Mama G and Van Vicker

role'? It was a gradual process. The role I played in Amina, the director was the late Ndubisi Okoh of blessed memory. And then I played another one that looks like it with late Nelly Uchendu in Odum.

So these two movies now gave producers the courage to talk to other producers about me. He told the producer that if he should watch Amina and Odum, he's sure that he will be convinced about me. So they now gave me a similar role in Authority. I wasn't even paid much. But all the things that I lost in the financial aspect, I got from the leverage it has given to me. As soon as I played that role, oh my goodness! It just took me to where I never thought I would get to.

When I was playing it, I didn't even know what I was doing, but it came out so beautiful. And it was also the work of the director. He really worked on me. He told me I was fast at speech; I could say a lot of things within a twinkle of an eye, you know I worked on radio. And you know on radio, you have limited time to say so many things. So it affected my speech speed. He drew my attention to it. So when we were doing My Husband with late Jennifer Osai, the director called me and said, 'I love your reaction, but you really have to watch your speech speed', that was director Chika Onu. I took it in because I was taught in Radio Nigeria to read to myself. That has really helped me to cut down on my speech speed. Chika Onu was also the director of Authority. He worked on me.

Of course, the reactions will come from you, but the director will always tell you what he wants. At a stage, if I'm working with Chika Onu, he will say 'Mama, I trust you to just give it to me'. He wouldn't even want to direct me on what to do because he builds me up with the help of other directors. It's usually good to learn from different directors. I learnt from the likes of Chika Onu, Andy Chukwu, Afam Okereke, all of them.

In fact, I am lucky because I had the opportunity to work with so many

...The roles I play are very vibrant, and it makes people want to watch me. Even if I play a good woman now, my fans will start complaining.

And if your fans start complaining, it means producers will then give the vibrant roles more

directors.

Almost every movie I shot was from different directors. And you learn from this, you learn from another person and you gather them together. If you are wise enough, you know what this particular director says he doesn't want. It's building a house, removing some bricks and putting some. It really worked out.

You just lost a colleague, Pete Eneh.

What do you have to say about him as a colleague?

I don't even want to remember it. I would want to say here that it was through Pete Eneh that I came into the industry. We were so close. And I don't even know how to face the family. Up till now I have not gone there.

What do you miss most about broadcasting?

Well, what I really miss in broadcasting I get in acting. You know it was retrenchment that affected me. It was like removing a baby's mouth from his mother's breast. That was how I felt when I lost my job in broadcasting, but it was God's will that this one came up.

Did you see it coming?

No. But even when I was into broadcasting, I was also acting on radio. This one came because it was in the programme of God.

ENSATIONAL twins Peter and Paul Okoye (P-Square) lined up as celebrity guests, making it double fun for viewers of wave-making entertainment package, Glo Presents The Big Friday Show this week.

The duo will be linking up with show host, Basketmouth, in Episode 9 of Season 2 of the show which will run on MTV Base on DSTV at 8:30 p.m. and in Nigeria on STV at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Fans in Ghana can hook up with the artistes on Viasat1 TV at 5 p.m., while those in Benin Republic will watch it on ORTB at 9:30 p.m.

P Square were in their sensational best, answering questions from fans in the Ask/Reply segment. There was an exciting dimension to their appearance on the show as they were separated by Basketmouth and asked questions to show how much each twin knew about the other. Each is made to write down an answer to a question about the other and this is revealed only when the other twin answers the question.

The show featured Noel King, singer and dancer, as up-coming artiste of the week. As is customary on the show, he is made to perform a studio task in order to have an opportunity to showcase his talent to viewers at the end of the show. His task is to dance PSquare's “Alingo”

dance step for one hour outside the studio.

Vlogger Stephanie also brings viewers The Big Friday Show Vlog segment with updates and news on what favourite celebrities are up to. In The Top 10 Music Video as voted by viewers, Iyanya's 'Ur Waist' moved up to the top of the chart, knocking off last week's number one song, 'Fine Lady', by Lynxxx. Burna Boy is at number 2 with ‘[Like to Party’. ‘Aboki’ by Ice Prince retains the no. 3 position for the third week running.

Interestingly, Flavour's ‘Oku’ remains in the top 10 for six weeks in a row. The song is at number 6.

On Prank Yo Peoples segment, a Glo Mobile Ghana subscriber Gilbert was pranked by his school mate, Edward, with the help of the Big Friday Show crew.

Lami

drops But You

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EO-SOUL and Afro-pop singer, Lami Phillips, is out with her latest single entitled But You. This is the third single off the sophomore album of the UN Ambassador, entitled 'Pieces of Love'. She had previously released Ori Mi Wu, featuring Ice Prince and Titililai.

The two songs received considerable airplay on radio and enjoyed massive downloads on the internet.

Being naturally inclined to RnB, Soul and Jazz, the diva has strategically branded her style of music, which goes unrecognised as a distinctive style of music.

The new single, But You, is a love song with strings and horns accompanying Lami's smooth vocal delivery. The song was produced by MOBO Awards nominee producer, Femi Tones.

Speaking on the new single, Lami said she wants to help people to believe more in love.

“With this new single (as with the first two), I'm hoping I can help people regain their faith in love.

And many people have stopped believing in love. I'm hoping in my little way I can change that.”

Lami's love for working with live bands has also distinguished her from her female counterparts in the industry. Selected alongside 2Face and Soundsultan as an Oxfam ambassador, the Chicago-born singer cum songwriter has professionally worked her way into the heart of good music lovers.

Her debut album, entitled Intuition, with fourteen tracks, featured MI and eLDee. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Seal and Sade, her fans will definitely be thrilled with this new single and her sophomore album billed for 2013.

THE NATION SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

PAGE 35

EAGLETS COACH, MANU GARBA REVEALS BEST-KEPT SECRET

I didn't have a girlfriend as an undergraduate!

By Morakinyo Abodunrin

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HEY said 'there is no pious like the new convert' and Coach Garba Manu (MFR) has sensationally revealed why he did not partake in lovey-dovey during his undergraduate days and why he modelled his life after Caliph Usman bin Affaan That Garba is the man of the moment after qualifying Nigeria for the African Under-17 cadet championship for the first time in six years is a fact.

That Garba-the coach with the highest national badge as the Member Federal Republic (MFR) of Nigeria- avoids publicity like a plague and that he is highly underrated by the public is an obvious fact.

Garba enjoys life on the slow lane and was very coy about speaking anything beyond his purview as a coach but in his frankest interview ever, he provides a glimpse of his unassuming personality.

“All my life, I don't harbour fear because I fashioned my life after Prophet Usman bin Affaan (may Allah be pleased with him)” Garba, a devout Muslim said matter-offactly.

“I was named after one of the most prominent companions of Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and that was the third Caliph of Islam, Usman bin Affaan. He was very tolerant, very wealthy and a very good leader in his life time and I have fashioned my life after him.”

According to Islamic scholar, Shamaila Zahid, Caliph Usman was born into the Umayyad family, one of the very influential families of Mecca and that could also explain why Garba is becoming influential in his chosen career. A graduate of History from University of Maiduguri, Garba is constantly in search of knowledge and has attended several courses both home and abroad in order t o enhance his professional competence. A silent achiever, Garba was the unseen face behind the Late coach Yemi Tella's all conquering Golden Eaglets that conquered the continent at the 2007 African Under-17 Championship in Cotonou on their way to winning the 2007 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Korea. He had equally demonstrated his appetite for excellence when he led Gombe Youth Team to win the Umbro under-18 Tournament in Manchester in 2005.

So what makes a good youth coach following his recent successes including the qualification of the Nigerian Under-17 team for the African cadet competition for the first time since 2007?

“I know the type of players I needed for this assignment and inasmuch as one follows

the ethics of coaching, you are bond to succeed,” Garba stated. “As far as one does the right thing by picking the right players, exposing them to the right training and as far as one is patient all through, I believe the sky would be one's limit to succeed.”

Yet, Garba has a successful married life and the father of five adorable children has for the first time openly revealed why he married early: “I'm married with a very beautiful and Godfearing wife and I married her early because throughout my undergraduate years, I did not even have a girlfriend. “But immediat ely I graduated, I told my late father that I wanted to get married and I told my parents not to be bothered because I had already made all the arrangements since I was actually saving towards it while in the University.”

The qualification for the 2013 African Under-17 Championship, according to Garba is a stepping stone for many greater things to come to him and Nigeria as he spoke frankly with The Nation Sport Style.

Excerpts....

How did you feel the day you qualified the Golden Eaglets for the 2013 African Under-17 Championship?

Frankly, I don't have a particular word to sum up my feelings but we want to thank Almighty God for using us to achieve this important feat in the history of Nigerian football. I want to use this opportunity to thank the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) for picking this set of coaches and backroom staff for the Golden Eaglets. We all worked as a family and it is that unity of purpose that has helped us with the results we have recorded so far. For Nigeria not to have qualified for the last two editions of the African Under-17 tournament, I feel elated because it would have been so frustrating to see these set of boys not making it after all what they have gone through in the last few months of our preparations.

Contd. on page 38

•Manu

Politics 36

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

37

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

PAGE 38

‘Tolerance and patience sustain me’

•Manu Contd. from page 35 What were your fears when you started this journey?

All my life, I don't have any fear about anything because I believe that whatever would happen would happen. In fact, I believe in destiny and my parents named me after Caliph Usman bin Affaan for obvious reasons. I was named after one of the most prominent companions of Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and that was the third Caliph of Islam, Usman bin Affaan. He was very tolerant, very wealthy and a very good leader in his life time and I have fashioned my life after him. I believe in destiny and I'm of the view that God is aware of anything that happens to anyone of us. I have absolute confidence in the Almighty God, so I don't worry about the future because I have complete trust in Him. How rigorous was the screening of the players at the beginning and what were the challenges that you faced?

Personally, it was an easy job based on the fact that I've had the opportunity of working at this level in the past. I have a FIFA World Cup winning medal because I was the first assistant coach to the team that won the Under-17 Championship in Korea in 2007.With all sense of humility; I actually scouted for three-quarter of the players we picked for that tournament. Of course, we faced challenges associated with this kind of job because so many people wanted to have their children in the team but we gave everybody a level playing field to train with us. Some others brought players who on a facial test were overage but the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Test helped us in this regard. I remember one particular day during our screening exercise in Abuja where we had over 150 players but we were patient enough to look at all of them because we want to give as many youths as possible the chance to show what they were capable of doing. We were focused and luckily, all the four coaches with the Golden Eaglets were former Nigerian players and vastly experienced as to know if a player is good or not.

So at what point did you have a team on ground in view of the fact that there were almost 4,000 players that came for the screening exercise in Abuja?

With all sense of responsibility, I think we had a team on ground the very first day we opened the screening in Abuja in March because I started scouting for players from the day I was appointed.

By the time we started camping, I already have over 100 players on my list and it was from this batch that we invited the first 50 to camp.

Without exaggeration, that pool of players that we started with was far better than the team that won the 2007 Under-17 World Cup in Korea.

At this level, what are the qualities you look for in a player?

The first consideration is to look for players within that age group and I'm so happy that most of the players we initially called for screening passed the MRI Test. You have to look at the technical ability of the players and know if he's good or not. You can always improve on the techniques of a player, so there is no justification for picking a player who cannot even trap the ball. Again, you have to consider the attitude of the player and if he's not disciplined, there is no point in picking him. You have to also pick players based on whether he's a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or a striker. Each position has its own requirement and players are so chosen based on such peculiar qualities.

You played against Niger, Guinea and Mali during the qualifiers, which of these teams was the toughest for the Golden Eaglets?

There was no match that was easy because each of these teams had their own characteristics and we should not forget that every country is fast developing, so no particular game in the qualifier was easy. But I think the Malian team was stronger for obvious reasons. They were bigger than our players and a very good team too. After our first leg game against them in Calabar where we won 2-0, there were insinuations in some quarters that we are not going to qualify but we knew that size alone doesn't play football. We have a very good team and we were able to beat them in Bamako with the same margin.

You have so many different people working with you, how were you able to cope with your assistants and other backroom staff?

Tolerance and patience are good qualities of a leader.

Any leader who is not tolerant and patience might not succeed. Of course, there should also be a sincerity of purpose because as a leader, you must give everybody the opportunity to contribute their quota to the team. All of these are the factors that have helped us in this present set up of the Golden Eaglets.

Little is known about your family, tell us some personal?

I'm married with a very beautiful and God-fearing wife.

I have four children, a boy and four girls. My first born who incidentally is the boy is named Mubarak. Already, he has a Diploma in information technology and he is very versed with the Quran. In fact, we call him Sheik Mubarak because he's quite intelligent. Under one year, he was able to memorize the Holy Quran offhand and during Ramadan, he is one of the very youths that are allowed to preach in our locality. Our plans is to allow him do his Degree programme at the Islamic University in Cairo. His immediate junior sister is in her second year in the Nursing School, she is intelligent as she passed her WAEC Exams in flying colours. Others are still in the secondary and primary school and I thank Almighty Allah for giving me such a wonderful family.

I know fathers are always attached to their daughters particularly if they are the last born, what is the attachment between you and your last daughter?

Frankly, I'm very close to all my children but there is a sentimental attachment with my last daughter. I was actually first person that touched her after birth because her delivery happened at our home! My wife and I was the only one at home that day and she was delivered into my hands. We named her Nadia because she is our last daughter, we are very close and she doesn't want to spend a minute without me. In fact, she has been disturbing me to come back home and I hope to have some quality time with the family when we go on break. I have accomplished my mission of qualifying for the African Under-17 Championship and they are going to have the best of me when I return home this week.

Y V CUR E C N O Y BE

orts p S t a s e l z z Da gala d e t a r t s u l l I

A

FTER her daily Instagram updates, fans of the singer may well have been expecting a bit more effort from the singer on one of her rare appearances.

But Beyonce chose an odd loose-fitting suit which did little to flatter her curves to see basketball star LeBron James crowned Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

Beyonce made an attempt to sex up the look by going with a blouse under the pastel red combo, but unfortunately it didn't save the new mother from the uncharacteristic style slip up.

Beyonce paired the pantsuit for the occasion, paired with towering black platform stilettos with silver embellishment.

She wore her hair twirled atop her head in a bun, with fringe falling around her eyes.

Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, was dressed in a suit and tie, and among the sports elite, the couple smiled at the stage as they watched the evening's presentation. The couple left their daughter, 11month-old Blue Ivy, at home.

The superstar couple sat next to the Miami Heat player as he prepared to accept the honour at the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award presentation at Espace in New York City.

Beyonce, 31, gave birth to the baby girl - their first child - on January 7.

While the pair are known to keep Blue shielded from the public, a newly-released teaser for the singer's forthcoming HBO documentary features Beyonce chronicling her early days of pregnancy long before she announced the news to the public.

The as-yet untitled film, directed by Beyonce, is set for release in February.

But for the evening, all eyes were poised on James.

The Miami Heat star admitted he was surprised to receive the accolade from SI - not because he thought his achievements in 2012 weren't worthy, but because he figured what happened in 2010 was still holding him back.

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Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Ejike Asiegbu fights for Big Souls

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10 Contestants vie for NGT’s star prize

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IRTEL-sponsored Nigeria's Got Talent (NGT) reality show finally comes to an end this weekend in Lagos, thus drawing the curtains on what has been an emotional journey for both the contestants and the viewing public.

The family-oriented show, which is in its premier season, has been a huge revelation with the calibre of talents unearthed across different age brackets and genres of performing arts such as dancing, singing and comedy.

In a related development, the ten finalists at the weekend took to the stage in what was the last opportunity for each act to impress the viewing Nigerian public and upstage one another for the N10 million naira winner-takes-it-all grand prize.

Indeed, it was a heated race as the various acts, lacing up their performances with suitable combination of giftedness, skill, focus and self-belief, attempted to outshine one another.

20-year-old rapper, Chukka, set the tone for the day with a display characterised by a flow of rhythm, rhyme and skills.

He was a much improved performer that appeared to have mastered his trade.

Dancer extraordinaire,

Boniface, was another top quality performer on the night. With a body seemingly configured strictly for dancing, he seamlessly strutted the stage to the tune of Dare Art Alade's “You Are Not The Girl”.

Violinist Godwin Ogechukwu carried on to the finals, his mastery of the violin producing •Amarachi Uyanne excitement and entertainment. He had shone so outstandingly in miscalculated the semi-finals a few display that may mar their weeks back, thus raising chances to emerge the the bar for himself in the nation's most talented act. finals.

For ventriloquist, Crowd favourite, 8-year- comedian and puppeteer, old dancer, Amarachi Dr. Bariyu, it was an off Uyanne, was electrifying day as he failed to re-enact all through the 120 the quality that eventually seconds she had on stage secured him a place in the as she pulled off a surprise finals. His attempt to on the audience with a redeem the day was late in violin, an instrument she coming as Presenter masterfully played to the Andre Blaize had to call delight of all, earning off his time. herself a standing ovation.

Other performers on the DJ Nath, who specialises night whose showings in the use of his mouth to were below expectation produce different musical included Impulse, the notes picked up from acappella group from Port where he stopped in the Harcourt, Jesse and semi-finals as he conjured Oghomene and beautiful, varied entertaining notes but greatly unimpressive to position himself as one Toke, who lacked the of the favourites for the qualities expected from a crown. finalist.

The only surviving Only one act will emerge dance group on the show, the winner of the Airtel The Expendable, did not Nigeria N10 million grand fail to justify their ride into prize through a public the finals except for a voting process.

JIKE Asiegbu turned 50 recently, and for him it served as an opportunity to join forces with Little Big Souls International Charitable Foundation, an NGO focused on advocating for a better deal for babies born premature. Marking the World Prematurity Day on November 17, Asiegbu used the occasion to call for better attention to the plight of babies born premature in order to save seventy five per cent of the one million preterm who die yearly.

The former President of Actors' Guild of Nigeria, who is an ambassador of Little Big Souls International Charitable Foundation, said it is important that efforts are made to save some of the pre-term from dying as nobody knows what a preterm that is left to die, because of inadequate care, would be in the future.

Using himself as an example, Asiegbu, who said he was a pre-term,

agreed that if his parents had given up on him in his early days, he would not be what he is today.

This, to him, is why •Ejike every child must be given a chance to live.

Also, the founder of the foundation, Chief (Mrs) Yvonne Igwe, who called in during the programme, thanked all those who participated in the programme. She said it is important that government and private organisations come to the aid of premature if the country hopes to meet the MDG goals. According to her, she became concerned about premature because her cousin, a premature, died.

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moving moment for the 2010 theatre arts graduate of the University of Ibadan who confessed that her father never wanted her to study her course of choice, much less be an actress.

“It has been a very tough battle convincing my dad that this (acting) is my calling, it is what I am passionate about, but he wanted me to go the conventional route of Law, Accountancy and the likes. I am happy that Next Movie Star has proved me right,” she said amidst tears. Continuing, Halimat stated that beyond the prizes that come with her victory, her ultimate victory is in the fact that her dad can now appreciate the seriousness of her chosen career.

The executive producer of the show, Sola Fajobi, said, “I am happy that another edition of the Next Movie Star has ended on a high note. We promised from inception to give young acting talents that might never have the opportunity a platform to achieve their dreams and we have kept our words.

Despite the challenges of having to organise this every other year without a sponsor, we are grateful that we are still providing that platform many young people need to attain their full potentials.”

On the new winner, he says, “Hearing her story after she was declared winner brought tears to my eyes, all she has had to do to convince her father that acting is the path she chooses, this is the kind of thing that gives me fulfilment. I am sure the viewers who voted her did not even know this story of hers, which points to the fact that she is indeed a strong potential for the global movie industry.”

Halimat is the new ‘Next Movie Star’

AIR-SKINNED, Halimat Aitsegame has emerged winner of the 2012 Next Movie Star. The lithe beauty trumped other contestants in the keenly contested reality television show to win for herself a brand new SUV with cash and movie roles in her kitty, and a lifetime thrust into moviedom.

During the tension-soaked moment when the judges, actress, Bukola Ogunnote and marketing communications expert, Yinka Opadere, called the remaining finalists together, it was pin-drop silence in the typically boisterous House. The runners up were the first to be announced; Olajoju Muse, Babatunde Samuel and Chibufue Bridget, each of who will get different prizes. And when Halimat's name was announced as the winner, she sank to her knees and let loose a torrent of tears. It was a

Engager set to thrill with two new singles

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•Engager

URGEONING singer, simply known as The Engager, is finally set to release his debut album entitled Mummy, under FK Management run by Funke Kuti.

Born Afolabi Tiwatope Ogunleye, this singer cum song writer has just completed two singles which are expected to debut on November 30.

After the release of his first two singles, 'Engage You' and 'Hunny Bunny' which went viral early in the year, the energetic singer is releasing two new singles entitled, 'Mummy' and 'Arawa Ni' featuring Yemi Alade.

According to the head of his management team, Funke Kuti, “Mummy is a feel-good song that will definitely touch people's hearts because it celebrates all mothers. Asides this, Engager has been bidding his time in the industry and he's not in any rush for fame. He's gradually and steadily worming his way into the hearts of several music lovers,” Funke said.

•Halimat

Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Beverly Naya makes MTV's VJ search semi finals

Elvis Chucks steps out with fiancée

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OR long, critics have waited to link enough of the two love birds as they one of Nollywood's finest posed for the cameras. producers, director cum actor, Elvis Asked when he will tie the knots with Chucks, to a woman. Perhaps after last his fiancée, highly elated Elvis was quick Saturday, a number of them may have to tell the press and anyone who cared to had cause to disbelieve the insinuation listen that soon, he will walk Ada down that has trailed the producer for years the aisle. now.

Just like the movie, the premiere Elvis, who recently premie had in attendance a broad red his movie, A wish, array of Nollywood's amidst pomp and crème-de-la-crème ceremony, have often who came out in been rumoured to be gay. droves to support But he surprised many one of their own, over the weekend when and also to have a he stormed Genesis feel of one of Delux Cinema, venue for Nollywood's most the premiere, in company anticipated movie of with his fiancée of many 2012.

No doubt, the years, Ada. movie audience will Clad in blue apparels, certainly find it worth both looked extremely their while by the time gorgeous and good the movie hits the cinema. together. Elvis and Ada A Diamond Groove Picture were the cynosure of all Concept, A wish parades eyes as they went stars like Funke Akindele, round, welcoming and Patient Ozorkwor, Afiz exchanging pleasantries Oyetoro, Bishop Ime Umoh with their guests.

•Elvis with fiancée and Helen Paul, among Paparazzi couldn't get others.

Music Meets Runway to feature 10 designers and 10 artistes

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HE second edition of Music Meets Runway will hold at the upscale Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos on Monday, December 24, 2012.

From the stable of Le Reve Events, Music Meets Runway is a platform that allows music and fashion runway to 'mingle' in order to create a genial atmosphere for lovers of fashion designs and music to relate.

One of the highlights of the event will be the introduction of 10 fashion designers and their models.

There will also be 10 top-ofthe-range artistes performing that day, a rare feat in the

fashion and music industry.

The MMR is increasingly becoming a veritable platform where up and coming acts can be discovered. It is worthy of note that one of the superstars of the year, Davido, was first discovered on the stage of the maiden MMR last year.

Speaking on the readiness to stage a bigger MMR, Jennifer Olize, the brain behind the event, said: “This year's edition of the MMR will be bigger, judging by the events lined up. We are raising the bar with this edition. Having 10 designers and 10 artistes was a deliberate move. It promises to be a memorable event.”

Solidstar, others to thrill at St-Remy Gbedu final run

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HE year 2012 finally winds down and with it comes the final edition of French Brandy, St-Remy's monthly signature event. This time around, brand heads to the exquisite La Mango Club on Adekunle Fajuyi, G.R.A, Ikeja, Lagos carrying with it the pomp, fun and extreme excitement it has come to be known for.

Tagged St.Remy Gbedu Slam Jam, the exciting event has served up some of the hottest fun in the city of Lagos this year since May when it berthed. Come Friday 14th December, the brand invites all to come party, parading a fine blend of established and fastrising acts in the Nigerian music scene.

One in a Million and Skibo crooner, Solid Star leads the line-up this month alongside Ugly Temptation exponent, Eminic. Others include rave of the moment and Kokoma crooner, K9; Taikoon, Chyme, and introducing another hugely talented sensation, Taleen.

The amazing DJ Atte of Naija 102.7 FM will be on spinning the wheels of steel on the night with the ever vibrant Shody on the hype.

According to St-Rémy's Brand & Markets Manager, Antoine Couvreur, “This month's event is kind of special as it's the last for this year. We intend to make it as exciting and memorable for all as possible, so we have put together a lineup of hot, fresh and exciting talents for your total enjoyment as we party together one last time in 2012.”

The St-Rémy Gbedu Slam Jam monthly party is supported by TRACE Urban TV and Naija FM 102.7.

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•Beverly

OLLOWING the Lagos auditions on Saturday, December 1, MTV Base has unveiled the thirty-two lucky qualifiers in the MTV Base VJ Search competition.

Held at Fantasy Land, the auditions saw thousands of young hopefuls turning out.

Among the qualifiers are a diverse group of girls and guys including Nollywood actress Beverly Naya. Fantasy Land was abuzz with ambitious young contenders as they queued up to audition for the gig of a lifetime - a one year contract with MTV Base.

Celebrities BasketMouth, Banky W, Funke Akindele, Toolz, Brymo, L.O.S. and Burna Boy also dropped in to lend their support at the auditions. For the next stage of the competition, all the qualifiers will go on to compete in front of celebrity judges Banky W, Toolz, Funke Akindele and MTV Base's Tim Horwood.

The next stage will be televised on MTV Base and STV in January 2013.

Highlights and funny moments from the auditions will feature in the TV series MTV Base VJ Search - Nigeria which will air weekly on MTV Base.

First Cause comes to cinemas

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RIDAY, November 30, the crème of the Nigerian movie industry had reason to gather at Silverbird galleria as First Cause, a new flick we premiered amidst pomp and ceremony. A movie of struggle for survival, First Cause, Osezuah Elimihe, producer and director of the film, said that it is themed on the fact that the biggest struggle in a man's life is his attitude.

“First Cause is about change, it is about positivity, it is about taking life head-on, understanding that the challenges we face are brought about when we allow then persist. It is a film about love,” he said.

The movie is centred on Frank, a young Nigerian school teacher who realises from his father's death that he has all it takes to succeed in life. One week before his father died, he made it clear to him that anyone can succeed in Nigeria as long as he has four things: faith in himself; a clear cut, wellarticulated idea; a sense of initiative and a powerful belief in himself.

However, Frank's troubles begins when he falls in love with the photograph of his employer's daughter. The employer, who is a senator's •Gabriel

wife, shows her feelings for Frank, but Frank after fully falling for charming woman, recovers himself early enough and begs for an end to the dastardly relationship.

He meets with his employer's daughter on the grounds that if things don't work out between them, she will be available for him. However, the real twist comes when he discovered that he is enamored to a cripple. His father's words, 'It takes sheer laziness and selfishness for anyone to imagine that any mountain is too much for him or her to move. It is routine business for humans to move mountains, so boy, move your mountains' tug at his heart even as he has a decision to make.

Gabriel Afolayan plays Frank and to him, the twists and turns in the plot makes the film desirable. “The character says so much about having putting so much positive energy into what you want to achieve in life. The movie addresses a whole lot of issues socially, emotionally and all,” he said.

When artistes gathered for Praise Altar

H

•Solidstar

EAVEN indeed came down and glory filled the heart of the people present, as Tope Alabi and other gospel singers stormed the Decross Gospel Mission, Iyana Ipaja, for her annual praise night, tagged Praise Altar.

The programme attracted other gospel artistes like Esther Igbekele, Bukola Akinade, known as Sewelejesu, Olorioko, Dunni Olarewaju, popularly known as Opelope anointing, and other crooners.

It was indeed an awesome time in the presence of God, as the congregation of Decross

Gospel Mission, other Christian denominations, friends and families spent hours dancing and jubilating to the songs of Tope Alabi and a whole lot more from other gospel heavy weight singers.

Olorioko, Esther Igbekele and others took their turns on stage to thrill the congregation like never •Tope Alabi before.

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Entertainment

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

CINEMA GUIDE

BIG

LAGOS

PICTURE

Supported by: SILVERBIRD CINEMAS

Talaash:

An unholy entanglement

Dr . Bello Genre Action/Adventure Hotel Transylvania Featured Actors Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Andy Samberg Genre Comedy Running Time 91min Shaolin Featured Actors Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse and Bingbing Fan Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 131min Taalash Featured Actors Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji Genre Drama Running Time 150mins Jab Tak Hai Jaan Genre Action/Adventure ARGO Featured Actors Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman Genre Drama Running Time 120 min Premium Rush Featured Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon and Dania Ramirez Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 91min Twilight Saga 2

Featured Actors Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 115min Sparkle Featured Actors Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo and Whitney Houston Genre Drama Running Time 116 MINS Skyfall Featured Actors Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris

PORT HARCOURT

J

OINTLY produced by Excel Entertainment and Aamir Khan Productions, Talaash: The Answer Lies Within is a 2012 Indian neonoir crime mystery film directed by Reema Kagti.

Talaash follows inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan), who is tackling the accidental death of a film star Armaan Kapoor (Vivan Bhatena). As Shekhawat unfolds the strange case, he gets entangled in a drama that has more to it than meets the

eye. Meanwhile, his personal life suffers as he reels under the repercussions of an almost-broken marriage with Roshni (Rani Mukerji), and comes face-to-face with his suppressed grief of losing his only child.

The flick stars Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Raj Kumar Yadav in pivotal roles. The soundtrack is scored by Ram Sampath along with lyrics by Javed Akhtar.

Whitney Houston takes final bow with Sparkle

A

remake of the 1976 film of the same name, Sparkle is set in 1968 in Detroit, Michigan. It tells the story of a young woman torn between her dreams and her family. Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) has been blessed with a beautiful voice and a gift for songwriting, but she's afraid to perform her songs in public, in part because her mother Emma (Whitney Houston), a former entertainer whose career brought her nothing but heartache, refuses to allow her daughters to sing outside of church.

She however persuades her older sibling Sister (Carmen Ejogo) to sing one of her tunes at a talent show, and the reaction proves that Sister has star quality and Sparkle can write potential hits. An ambitious would-be manager, Stix (Derek Luke), persuades Sparkle and Sister to form a singing group with their sibling Dolores (Tika Sumpter), but while the act clicks wit audiences, the sisters have to contend with their angry mother, Sister gets caught up in a destructive relationship with a short-tempered comedian (Mike Epps), and Sparkle finds herself falling in love with Stix.

Sparkle proved to be the last major project for Whitney Houston, who died while the film was in post-production; it was also the first feature film for American Idol champion Sparks.

Hotel Transylvania Featured Actors Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Andy Samberg Genre Comedy Running Time 91Mins Premium Rush Featured Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon and Dania Ramirez Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 91 M Okon Goes to School Genre Comedy Running Time 90 Mins The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Featured Actors Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 115 Mins Sparkle Featured Actors Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo and Whitney Houston | Genre Drama Running Time 116 MIns English Vinglish Featured Actors Sridevi, Adil Hussain and Mehdi Nebbou Genre Comedy Running Time 134 Mins

Sky Fall Featured Actors Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 143 Mins The Meeting Genre Drama Running Time 120 •Taken (Rating 18) Genre Action/Adventure Single And Married Genre Drama Running Time 141 min

ABUJA

Talaash Featured Actors Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji Genre Action/Adventure Shaolin Featured Actors Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse and Bingbing Fan Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 131min Hotel Transylvania Featured Actors Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Andy Samberg Genre Action/Adventure

Running Time 91min Dr Bello Genre Action/Adventure Premium Rush Featured Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon and Dania Ramirez Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 91 min Argo Featured Actors Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 120 min The Twilight Saga 2 Featured Actors isten Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner Genre Action/Adventure Running Time 115 min Sparkle Featured Actors Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo and Whitney Houston Genre Drama Running Time 116 min Skyfall Genre Action/Adventure The Meeting Genre Drama Taken 2 Featured Actors Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Shirley Aghotse, former Miss Tourism, made headlines with the scandal that rocked her reign. She left the country and has maintained a low profile since then. The Delta State-born ex-queen currently resides in the United Kingdom and will return fully in 2013. She spoke with ADETUTU AUDU on the pains and gains of her crown, especially her rumoured romance with man-about-town Elkanah Mowarin

A

FTER your reign, nothing has been heard from you. What has been happening to you?

Well, after my reign I made a conscious effort to limit activities that might deter me from achieving my set goals, and one of them was to temporarily stop attending all the Lagos parties because I had to concentrate on the things that were most important to me. I went back to school to get a B.Sc. (Ed) degree in Business Education and Accounting, after which I started my ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) exams - I am almost done with it. Lastly, I just finished an M.Sc. degree in Finance and Accounting at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom which is one of the top 20 schools in the UK and top 50 in the world; my graduation ceremony is on the 10th January, 2013. Furthermore, I run an NGO, a jewelry line and a company that is into construction, oil and gas, tourism and consultancy. Thus, I cannot afford to be everywhere at the same time. And to God be all the glory.

What is happening to your (NGO), Nigeria Rebirth, Renaissance and Advancement Initiative?

Firstly, RRAIN is a 'we still believe in Nigeria' project that uses a nip-in-the-bud approach. Catching the Nigeria youths when their minds are young can be likened to a tabula rasa. Our current Chairperson, Board of Trustee is Professor Grace AleleWilliams.

RRAIN is active but on a low scale because it was difficult to raise funds initially, due to the fact that a lot of people have stopped believing in Nigeria and it was a new NGO which made people wary of releasing funds; but few people and companies such as Anthony Idigbe (SAN), Eko Hotels and Suites, the Government of Delta State, Sen. Florence Ita Giwa, Abbah Folawiyo, Alhaja Islar Animashaun, Ausbeth Ajagu, Richard Mofe- Damijo, Magnus Onyibe etc supported us. But things are beginning to take form and a lot of sponsors are coming on board. We have a major event slated for next year and I will definitely update you as things unfold.

I must also add that the launch of RRAIN and the publicity it got - a big thank you to members of the press - made people to start thinking seriously about ways of enhancing our image and reorient people.

Beauty pageants no doubt come with challenges, did you experience any?

Life itself is full of challenges. Prominent amongst which was contesting in Miss Tourism Osun State, organised by the then government of Osun State even though I was not an indigene, but the people of Osun indeed have a large heart and the rest is his-

Glamour

43

‘Elkanah Mowarin is irrelevant now’ tory. Also, the Minister of Tourism's daughter contested in the Miss Tourism Nigeria which made the contest indeed stiff. Then a lot of pressure was on me as a national queen, one of which was that I should come out tops in Miss Tourism World, and thankfully I was 4th runner up.

Above all, so many men thought that it was their birthright that I date them. But I am definitely not that kind of person.

How has the crown affected your life?

The crown was a platform for me to launch myself and in essence launch others; it gave me an unfair advantage, and it opened doors. I will forever be grateful to the people and government of Osun State, especially the Tourism Board, the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and above all Mrs Nike Agunbiade Etiebet for birthing such a great idea.

Someone once said, once a queen, always one. Do you still live like a queen?

Yes, I live like a queen but in the real world where I see with clear glasses, not tinted ones, no illusions.

Many still find it difficult to forget your encounter with Elkanah Mowarin. What really happened between the two of you?

I am amazed that this Elkanah phenomenon will not leave me alone, but I am done with that chapter; it is irrelevant in the equation of things now.

Your reign was crisisridden, how did you manage it?

I was really calm and turned down many interview requests, because it was a delicate period where one could be quoted out of context. I travelled out of the country to cool off at a time, chose not to read most of the stories in the tabloids for my own sanity. My immediate family and friends stood by me and I also prayed hard.

I was young and I made some mistakes, one of which was trusting too much - I still trust people, until they give me reasons to doubt them.

Elkanah actually went to the press to say that I promised to marry him but jilted him after taking his money with the intent of tarnishing my image and that I get dethroned at the end. But that was not God's plan for me, thus that move was void. I must say that was a dumb move that can only be carried out by someone that has nothing to lose.

But I wish him well. I crack up whenever I remember that the papers published a picture of him on the hospital bed suffering from heartbreak- hilarious! I had people calling me to use it to become more popular, that scandal is good for publicity just like they do in Hollywood.

Once again, I am not that kind of person, I will not go out of my way to

seek cheap popularity (or notoriety). I have got good potentials, I want to be taken seriously like Condoleezza Rice, Barrack Obama, Collin Powell, Grace AleleWilliams and Bill Clinton.

What fashion item is hot for you?

My latest Gok Wan cat eye glasses What is your beauty routine?

I wash my face with Clinique liquid soap 3 because I have an oily face, then use the clarifying tonic, after which I moisturise with Corine de Farme baby lotion for sensitive skin. I also use Estee Lauder night repair serum. Furthermore, I do not sleep with make up on, I exfoliate my face weekly, I try to eat healthy, exercise regularly, avoid stress as much as I can, laugh

hard too and never ignore my beauty sleep.

What is style to you?

Style to me is a form of art that involves expressing your personality and emotions through fashion.

Who is your kind of man?

My kind of man is God-fearing, not intimidated by me (I am not your average kind of girl), black African, intelligent, hardworking with great potentials, respects and loves me.

What is your greatest fear in life?

My greatest fear is failure in all aspects - marriage, financial, relationship etc. But as a Christian I know that the thoughts that God has towards me are not of evil but of good to give me a future and a hope

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

44

Social

ADETUTU AUDU (E-mail: crownkool@yahoo.com, Tel: 08023849036)

Hubby bars Ofunneka from press interviews

Benny Obaze breaks hearts

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ITY clothier and proprietor of upscale boutiques, Bevista and Rivista, may have broken the heart of ladies who were hoping to be Mrs. Obaze one day.

The man about town, we gathered, has stormed the city of Port Harcourt to seal a romantic deal with a successful businesswoman, Lizzy Fynecountry, who runs Serenissimo Luxury Furniture in the oil city.

Fun loving Benny had been single for many years. Benny who does not relent when it comes to excellence had been linked with many women in the past.

Sources say the man who opened Jevista, the first hat centre for men, will no doubt break a few hearts.

B

IGBROTHER Africa 2007 Nigeria's representative, Ofunneka Molokwu, is definitely savouring marital bliss. But the mother of one, who tied the nuptial knot with Professor Chika Anyanwu in the late 2010, doesn't have the privilege to grant press interviews again.

Ofunneka, who lives in far away Australia where her hubby works as a lecturer at Finders University, South Australia, we gathered, has been advised by her hubby to face matrimonial matters rather than granting press interviews.

Louise Priddy now focuses on Posh CafĂŠ

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HAT Mulatto born Louise Priddy has dumped Bacchus, Club her claim to fame is no more news. The gist is that the mother of now attention has shifted to Posh CafĂŠ, located inside Mega Plaza since it was established for her by her hubby, Mario, while Bacchus is a family business.

Since the death of the Priddy Patriach, Olu Kereku-Priddy, the family has no doubt been grappling with debt especially in running the funspot.

Babatunde Faseesin rocks with less privilege

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UBLIC Speaker, strategist and entrepreneur,Babatunde Faseesin in a bid to give back immensely to the society that has giving him so much in a very short space of time, had one of his major dreams come true by celebrating his landmark birthday with the most unfortunate set of family in the society. The brand strategist, drove into the premises of the Modupe Cole School of the Disabled, Akoka in Lagos, south-west Nigeria to see, play, eat and dance with the less privileged and physically disabled family.

The birthday boy believed life is only worth living when you are of value to humanity. Babs Faseesin, as he is popularly called, had a tour of the home, spending quality time chatting with some of the children at the various wards. Just after the wards, He visited the showroom where artworks made by disabled children where displayed.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

Lola Edith Jibunoh moves on Adefusika E radiates at 50 DITH Jibunoh is a successful woman who has made her mark in the field populated by men. The daughter of Dr. Newton Jibunoh, the popular adventurer and explorer has worked in the MDG Office of the Nigerian Presidency and the World Bank, where she worked on East Asian countries and External Affairs at the Bank's UN office.

Despite a brilliant career, the younger Jibunoh has not been successful in her love life. Since her short-lived marriage to Stan Rerri was dissolved, Edith has been on her own. But she has remained undeterred.

L

OLA Adefusika, nee AyoKasunmu, businesswoman behind JOED Gardens, recently turned 50. A classy dinner dance mask party to celebrate the milestone early this year is still the talk of the town. A close friend of Maureen Onigbanjo of the famed House of Maufechi, despite losing her hubby many years ago, still radiates glamour, though the memories of her late hubby still linger.

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Chioma Madubuko slows down

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H I O M A Madubuko, Company Secretary, Dangote Salt Plc, has been a staple on the social scene. The lawyer and former banker has slowed down. She is noted for choice attires and matching accessories. Her appearance at gigs always leaves mouth wide open.

Lulu Enaboifo quits public glare

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ULU Enaboifo, man Friday of James Ibori, jailed former governor of Delta State, who was appointed as the Executive Director, Finance and Administration to the Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Authority ( JDA) on the recommendation of Mr. Ibori, and was forced to resign from the plum job after the hues and cries on his questionable character, has been off the social radar for a while after his tenure at JDA The Chairman/CEO, Mega Structures Nigeria Limited, and the former governor were like five and six when the going was good. But following the predicament of the embattled former Delta State governor, Enaboifo has stylishly withdrawn from the public glare.

The fun-loving Edo State-born guy enjoyed his relationship with the Oghara chief before the long arm of the law caught up with the latter.

Sources say Enaboifo, aka Tokunbo, rode on Ibori's influence when he was nominated as the Chief Logistics Officer of the late Yar'Adua's presidential campaign. This paid off, as he was later appointed as Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Nigeria-SĂŁo TomĂŠ & Principe Joint Development Authority by the late President.

To show their level of affinity, Enabaifo, fondly called Lulu, celebrated his 50th birthday in Lagos at his Parkview Estate, Ikoyi.

It would be recalled that when Enaboifo buried his mother Mrs. Cecilia Egonria Enabaifo in Benin City in 2009, he painted the city red on the bill of his friends.

The number of private jets parked at the Benin Airport caused a stir. The path of the two friends, we gathered, crossed during their sojourn abroad and the Delta State Chief became a governor, he invited his old friend home.

Catherine Okpaleke's kids rule Abuja

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HE children of Dr (Mrs.) Catherine Okpaleke, former President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, Elvis, Charles and Jeffrey, are causing stir in the social life of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The trio runs Play Lounge, said to be an upscale sports bar-cum-nite club in Abuja. The hangout located in Wuse Zone 2, we gathered, is a rendezvous for celebrities.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Glamour

&

OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL (08033572821) raphseg2003@yahoo.com

Captain Najomo celebrates wife, Martha, at 50 C

Birthday Girl, Marthar and her husband, Chris Najomo, cutting the birthday cake.

HRIS Najomo, a pilot and managing director of Capital Airlines Limited , penultimate weekend organised a party to celebtate his lover of 21 years at 50. The celebrant, Martha, who dressed in a black and white tube gown, entered the expansive hall of Civic Centre on Lagos Island in grand style for the reception. The party drew the creme-de-la-crème of society among them Delta State First Lady, Mrs Roli Uduahan, Pastor Anslem Madubiko, Modupe Ozolua, ex-beauty queen Rosemary Okereke, among others.

L-R Deola Oyegbade and Pastor Madubiko

L-R: Monsurat Oketunji Elemosho (Montai) and Gbemi

L-R: Modupe Ozolua and Toyin Okpaise

L-R: Sade Balogun, Evelyn Isah, Ifueko and Celyn Toni-Osaju

L-R: Mrs Irene Dabor, Mrs Angela Tometi and Mrs Gift Nwankwo

L-R: Pastor Sarah OlubiJohnson, Tokunbo Olayinka and Camil Najomo

Mr & Mrs Ibiala

Mrs Roli Uduaghan

Hon Olorogun Taleb

ASCON Oil GMD’s, daughter, Ogochukwu Enenmoh's weds Alfred Ohiomoba in Lagos

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LL roads led to Orchid Hotel on Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos, on Saturday, November 17, 2012, where former Miss Ogochukwu Enemoh, daughter of the Group Managing Director of ASCON Oil Company Limited, Barrister Grace Enenmoh, got married to her heartthrob, Alfred Ohiomoba. Reception was held at MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

•The Couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ohiomoba

L-R: Bride's Mother, Barister Grace Olowofoyeku, and Rev. Bankole Olowofoyeku

Groom’s Parent’s: Mr. & Mrs. Francis Ohiomoba

L-R: Mr O. E. B. Offiong, SAN, chairman of the occasion, and Alhaji Aliko Gwadabe, Chairman, ASCON Oil Limited

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

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48

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

‘Power isn’t served a la carte’ For pretty Bukola Soaga Bada, the word 'Aluta' brings happy memories.

Her father, Olayiwola Adisa Soaga, was a unionist with the Nigerian Labour Congress and she grew up learning the ropes from him. She told Yetunde Oladeinde in this interview how she later moved into mainstream politics

T

HE strong desire to be a voice for the voiceless took her into student unionism in the university where she read Mass Communication, serving in different capacities and today she is in charge of Women and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in Igando/Ikotun LCDA. How did you get into politics?

It started back in my days as a student at the University of Lagos where I read Mass Communication. I got into campus politics and some other civil society groups. I was very passionate about student welfare and we were involved in some agitations concerning the state of our hostels and much more.

After my education, I did a little bit of computing and went into business. I travelled to buy shoes and clothes and it was a very interesting experience for me.

During the 1999 electioneering period, I was a stakeholder at Igando/Ikotun as a youth leader under the platform of AD. I later became the state woman leader.

What are some of the challenges you experienced?

Politicking as a profession is very time consuming. But you can make a choice to be a good politician. Luckily, I have been able to combine home and career very well. I read a lot, listen to music and watch international channels. I also discuss intellectually with my husband, a political scientist.

Can you tell us about some of your achievements?

Since 1999, the achievements of the women have been minimal and so I decided to do advocacy for the women.

I brought like minds together and a few of them caught up with the vision tagged Generation Next. When I told them that it was different from the usual, a lot of them ran but a few understood. I think it is the poverty level that made them run.

Let's talk about your role models My father Olayiwola Adisa Soaga used to be a unionist in the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in his days. He was a chemist and my mother was also a politician of some sort. She used to go to all the meetings with my dad.

Do you think women are reaping from the dividends of democracy?

We expect more from the leadership but we are not getting it. But we are not going to keep quiet until we see it happening. If it can happen in Rwanda and other African countries, then it can happen in our time.

What is the problem?

I think it is the will of the men.

Politically, it is the will of the men to actually accept women to serve side by side. Though I understand that power is not given or served a la carte. But yet if they are saying that some of us have given what should be given. We have sacrificed our time and talent, politically.

Yet we are not getting what we should get. I have had times to go to the meetings at night. I have had cause to take decisions with the men. When it comes to office sharing or allocating p o s i t i o n s , t h e women are just not there.

Is it possible for the women to be united to get this?

The women are already united, I think what we need is to continue to be steadfast until things get better.

What are some of the memorable moments so far?

During the 1999 election I was a party agent and I was pregnant. I had my first child a week after that election.

That the child survived gave me great encouragement. I was also very happy that the governor I worked for emerged then.

What would y o u say is your sou rce o f ins pir ati on?

Per sonally, I would say it is my determinat

ion to succeed as well as the desire to touch as many lives as possible.

Sometimes, I find myself doing it without even understanding that I even have the capacity. When it comes to taking up an assignment, I do it with my all and I see that I am able to accomplish more.

A lot of people believe that government needs to do more for the masses?

Well, I believe that there is still so much to do but government can't do everything. Once a person has been empowered it is better to think of what you can do and start. No matter how small or what anybody thinks, start there, if it is worthwhile, somebody will notice. People who appreciate what you are doing will help to expand it and people will start joining in and the number of participants will grow bigger from that point.

If you look around today you find so many things competing for attention. I doubt if there is any Nigerian who is not bothered about our issues. In every way, we all have a sense of either sadness or a desire for things to be done. Despite the problems of our nation, we must still m a k e something of it.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9 , 2012

New WOMAN

Exercise during pregnancy many find tough and uninteresting. One way to push your body forward is to exercise during pregnancy.

Experts advise that you can safely take part in 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise every day, as long as you don't have a medical condition o r complicati on that your doctor or midwife has told you rules out exercise or limits your activity level.

G

ETTING pregnant is something every woman looks forward to and it a stage that prepares them for motherhood. It also comes with some complications, stress as well as the challenge of surviving the odds at this point. The body also goes through changes that

Boost your energy Pregnancy can sap your energy, but regular bouts of exercise will help you get through your daily tasks or cope with a demanding schedule: Exercise strengthens your cardiovascular system, so you don't tire as easily.

With muscles that are strong and toned, you need less effort to engage in any activity, whether that means grocery shopping or sitting through

meetings at the office.

Before you hop on the treadmill or into the pool, make sure you follow these safety guidelines and see our tips on starting an exercise program.

Sleep better When you're carrying an extra 15 pounds (or more!) in front of you, finding a comfortable sleeping position can be a real challenge. But exercise will help you work off any excess energy and tire you enough to lull you into a more restful sleep.

Reduce pregnancy discomfort Overall, regular exercise stretches and strengthens your muscles, which helps your body cope better with the aches and pains of pregnancy.

Stretches ease back pain, walking improves your circulation, and swimming can strengthen your abdominal muscles.

Learn more about these and other exercises recommended throughout pregnancy.

Prepare for childbirth It makes perfect sense: The better shape you're in, the stronger you'll be come labour and delivery time.

Giving birth is akin to running a marathon, which requires stamina, determination, and focus. Though it hasn't been well researched, training for childbirth through exercise may ease labour and even shorten the time it takes to deliver your baby.

Facts about female drivers W

OMEN drivers are more police-reported crashes in the U.S. likely to be involved in an from 1988 to 2007. accident, according to They had expected to find that scientists. accidents involving two male drivers Researchers looked at 6.5million would make up 36.2 per cent of all car crashes and found a higher than crashes, while female/female expected number of accidents accidents would account for 15.8 per cent and male/female 48 per cent. between two female drivers.

Accidents involving male and They also discovered that women drivers stood at 47.6 per cent, have a tough time negotiating female expected. crossroads, T-junctions and slip as The scientists also found that roads. women were more likely than men to Truth to a stereotype? Women drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident, scientists found after analysing data from 6.5million car crashes The results are even more surprising given that men spend more time behind the wheel than women. On average, men drive 60 per cent of the time, and women 40 per cent.

Michael Sivak, of the University of Michigan, said: 'The results indicate that in certain crash scenarios, male-to-male crashes tend to be under-represented and female-to-female crashes tend to be over-represented Dr Sivak and his colleague Brandon Schoettle studied data from a nationally representative sample of

crash at a junction - their cars are often hit on the left-hand side when trying to make a right-hand turn, and vice versa.

Dr Sivak said this might be due to height difference between the sexes.

He said: 'There are three dominant driver-related factors, including the probability of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, one's own driving skills and the driving skills of the other driver involved.' •Culled from dailymail.co.uk

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with

YETUNDE OLADEINDE

molaralife@yahoo.com

Walking on a tight emotional rope

F

OR 24-year-old Tolani, things have fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold. If only she knew it was going to end this way then she would not have taken the love path she took. She actually thought she had found what she was looking for, but along the line she found real love and shifted her emotional base.

Well, she just had to move on with her emotions and her final definition of love.What has love got to do with it you ask? A lot. There are times when you get to an emotional crossroads and you are stuck. You can't understand the reason why the other person keeps pulling away. And of course, there are times when he or she isn't far away, yet all you get are excuses and more excuses.

Excuses that bring emptiness within and somehow you just can't move the love ship forward. Loneliness? The truth of the matter is that loneliness affects many people and it carries with it some pretty heavy consequences.

Virtually everyone experiences some kind of loneliness at one point or the other. Usually, this experience goes unnoticed but it actually becomes noticeable during times of extreme stress.

If you don't agree with this view then you may just need to crosscheck with love's fact file. Here you would discover and find out how you are faring in the love arena. Here you would assess your worth and understand how important you are in his or her heart.

Unfortunately, for many the code has always been no romance without finance. Love many believe can be bought across the counter and dispose of almost before the love train takes off. Fake dosage, fake love medicine and adulterated romance therapies abound. All you need to win a heart sometimes may just be to brandish a few notes and hearts begin to melt like butter and freeze as soon as your economic status changes.

Money, money, money; it's indeed a rich man's world.

Love flows better in this crispy environment you must agree.

But again the big question here is: what happens when the 'vault' goes empty? These days it is quite difficult to convince the guys that it is love indeed.

Imagine this scenario. It's a typical day and you are with two young female undergraduates looking smart and trendy. They look great and the toast of all the guys on the campus. Unfortunately, the young guys just don't qualify at all. They obviously look good and have great potentials but they lack what the babes classify as essentials.

Falling in love? No way, the question on their lips usually is, 'Why do fools fall in love'? To justify their definition of love, they have actually bought into the Aristo system of dating men for money. The more brazen of the two ladies tried to bring in a third, naĂŻve and greedy girl, who on the first date was drugged to stupor and almost raped, save for the timely rescue of the less-brazen girl who fought her predator and ran for her dear life.

For many young ladies within the walls of the university, pressure to conform and be a campus babe is an insurmountable challenge. And most have had to pay with their bodies and dignity. But this need not be so, if only they would not compromise.

Sharing her experience as a lovebird, Stephanie recalled that she had to make sacrifices when she realised that her romance was on the edge.

Then you move into another scenario. Here, it is a guy who was taken for granted by the one he loved. Just while she was finding it so difficult to make up her mind, a sweeter and better heart walked in. While the lovebirds were basking in the euphoria and love 'swagger', the doubting babe retraced her steps. But somehow it was damn too late.

From a sizzling romance, they were back to zero, lonely and almost empty. Research shows that the areas of the brain that deal with social exclusion are the same areas that process physical pain, adding a scientific explanation to the oftromanticised experience of a "broken heart�. One study actually found that lonely people showed more depressive symptoms, and that lonely and depressed people alike tended to experience less "togetherness" in social interactions.

Research has also found that depression and loneliness can feed off of each other, each perpetuating the other.Several studies have linked emotional stress with depressed immunity. Other research links loneliness and depression with poorer health and wellbeing. That means that people who are experiencing loneliness are susceptible to a variety of health issues.

Here we don't need to confuse loneliness and solitude.

Loneliness has negative feelings associated with being alone.

The lonely person wishes they had more friends or deeper connections with the friends that are already in their life.

Solitude, on the other hand, brings with it feelings of peacefulness, reconnecting with spirit, and enjoying one's time alone. The difference between loneliness and solitude is personal preference and attitude. Some people crave and appreciate the time they spend alone, while others feel lost without other people around.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

50

There can be law without justice but there can be no justice without law.

THE ARTS

51

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

•Wood works by Fakeye and others

• Inheritance menu by Alade

Time for rare and large art A

RT collection in Nigeria has since become a booming business. And for this singular reason, visual artists in the country have come to realise that big time art collectors have a lot to do to encourage the profession to prosper. This and more were some of the reasons why artists, art patrons, stakeholders and lovers of the art, gathered at the premises of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Onikan, Lagos, last week to be part of a show tagged Ambassadors’ Nite 2.

Ambassador’s Nite was packaged by Eko Modupe Limited and curated by Mufu Onifade, the Araism exponent, to showcase some of the age-long art collections of Chief John Edokpolo. In the art exhibition which featured the works of some of Nigeria’s foremost visual artists, Edokpolo proved that he is indeed a collector who goes for the best. This was why the theme of the exhibition

John Edokpolo who began to collect art works since 44 years ago, gathered contemporary artists and stakeholders together last week in Lagos to celebrate and exhibit some of his rich collections. Edozie Udeze, who attended the show which had 58 works on display, reports was properly built around the size of the works he is fond of buying from artists.

Rare and Large indeed depicted some of the most revered art works in Nigeria. Edokpolo who has been a dedicated art collector for 44 years now, described his coterie of collections as one of the richest around.

So far, he has developed a pool of sophisticated art works produced by the best and most creative hands in contemporary Nigerian art industry. His eyes for oil on canvas are truly extraordinary.

Onifade said that the Ambassadors’ Nite was begun in 2009 as a platform to showcase some of the collections of art patrons. “It is an ongoing thing.” he explained, “It

was begun in 2009 as a way of bringing to public glare some of these rich works and for the public to show interest in them too.”

Edokpolo has over 400 works in his repertoire but only 58 were showcased. Apart from a few tusks representing antiquities and some aged traditional art pieces, his rich collection comprises pure contemporary works in the genres of paintings. These paintings come in various media and sculptures which encompass woods, bronzes and metals.

What makes Edokpolo far and above his contemporary art collectors is that he goes for the biggest, the most bizarre and the most expensive.

Edokpolo, who is in the oil

and gas sector of the economy, does not spare money when he wants to procure any art work that catches his fancy. Not only that, most of his works throw more light on the person behind the art collection. The works equally research into some sensitive themes that penetrate into the psyche of the society and show the way forward.

In Inheritance Menu by Toyin Alade which is oil on canvas measuring 364cm by 175cm and done in 2005, the issues of social phenomenal imbalance were highlighted.

It is not only a spoken and voluminous work, it is one of the largest oil on canvas ever done by an artist. To Edokpolo the choice of that

Delta hosts international literary session

P

• A cross section of students who participated at the Literary Session organised by the office of the Senior Adviser to the Governor (Foreign Relations) in government house, Asaba

ENULTIMATE Thursday, at the Unity Hall, Government House, Asaba, the crowd that gathered was very different from the one that usually filled the hall. This time, secondary school students drawn from different parts of the states were in attendance for the maiden edition of the Delta State International Literary Session organised by the office of the senior adviser on foreign relations.

Also in attendance were the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the deputy governor, Prof. Amos Utuama, SAN, former minister of Information, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire Mr Odia Ofeimun, former president of the Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA), and Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, poet, activist, lawyer and literary icon.

According to Oma Djebah, senior adviser on foreign relations to the Delta State government, the ses-

sion was to inculcate good morals in youths as well effective deployment of their talents while shunning all forms of social vices. The event also highlighted strides of Delta State and Deltans in the literary communities in Nigeria, and around the world.

The programme included drama sketches and renditions by students.

This preceded the recital of poems

by Dr. Ifowodo, who lectures in Literature and Poetry at Texas State University, USA. Uduaghan gave a car to the teacher and iPads to students who gave outstanding performance at the event. The governor’s participation was indicative of the government commitment to the growth and sustenance of Arts in Delta state.

At the end of the session, a communiqué produced recommended a revival of the arts in schoolss across the state. Participants

work is to show the totality of a society on the threshold of love, peace, progress, squalor, and unity.

Yet what Alade did on it is synonyms with the sprawling nature of Nigerian society ready to see the art prosper and blossom.

Among the artists whose works were on display are Bruce Onobrakpeya, Erhabor Emokpae, Abayomi Barber, Bisi Fakeye. Others are Kolade Oshinowo, Amos Odion, Mufu Onifade, Chika Idu, Smart Owie and many others. Indeed some of the works date back to the 1970s when Edokpolo’s love for art collection was still in its embryonic stage.

Onifade in curating the works also considered their relevance in contemporary times and the messages inherent in them. “This was why we have Ekasa as the star art work here. Done by Bimbo Adenuga, it talks about the myth and traditions of Benin people. It is the cynosure of all eyes in this show,” Onifade explained. also asked that the International Literary Sessions should not be a one off programme but should be maintained as a project for reaching out to and inspiring youth in Delta state.

Participants agreed with the Governor that study of the Arts is very important as it will enable the people to recall the past, properly place the present and reposition the future.

They commended the governor for his contributions, gifts to teacher and students as well as his active participation at the event. They also commended Ifowodo Ogaga for his quick and positive response when called upon to participate at the first Delta State International Literary Session. Members of the Literary Community in Delta State have agreed to work towards improving the study of Arts in Delta State schools and to also use the existing platforms to create more awareness about the crucial role of Arts in the society.

52

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Arts/Reviews

Books Book: Let's Paulse a Little Author: Tosin Akande, 2012 Previewer: Olakunle Abimbola

J

UST imagine: a 21st century Martin Luther smashing Catholic icons, an Immanuel Kant, though a Christian convert, subjecting his faith to the logical rigour of his Categorical Imperative, a contemporary Amos, the Biblical prophet of doom, serving dire notice to dollarfor-miracle pastors, or a neophyte to the Kingdom of Grace, having the temerity to review the gospel of St. Paul, a key plank on which his Christian faith is erected and a Biblical personage credited to have written no less than half of the New Testament!

That is the prospect of reading Tosin Akande's new book, Let's Paulse a Little, a rigorous yet not irreverent critique of St. Paul, a small yet big book: small in size but big by audacity of its scope and the incisiveness of its analysis; and a revolutionary book, but not at all rebellious to the tenets of Christianity.

The book asked a lot of hard questions: how many in the booming Pentecostal assemblies, booming nationwide like fungi growing in the wild, can pass the scriptural muster? How many pastors can pass the test of not misdirecting their flock?

How many of the zestful and frothy congregation under-

Audacity of paulse

stand the nugget of their faith, even if the curtains draping off the Old Testament Holy of Holies had been rent

by Christ's divine sacrifice, epitomised by his crucifixion and resurrection, which in turn birthed the New Testament, the body of divinely inspired works which St. Paul, the arch anti-Christ turned supreme Christian proselytiser, reportedly wrote more than half of?

The title itself is an ar-

resting salute to pun: Paulse, being a suggestion of pause, and linked to Paul, simply means pausing (and mulling) over the message of Paul! The author exquisitely did that, even charging the great St. Paul with "initial gra-gra" (coinage, the previewer's), the irreverent Nigerian-speak for zestful rush that may well end up in a crash. He posits that because Saul turned Paul did not wait for a divine call before blundering into his new Christian proselytising, he nearly ended up in disaster. But the moment Paul's call came, it was easy going - as the same people that nearly nailed him later banded together to hail him to no end.

Moral: never in zestful haste blunder into ministration until you have been called by God. At the turn of the 20th century in Lagos, Mojola Agbebi, a radical cultural nationalist and Baptist convert, decried European missionary cultural infiltrations into the gospel - "surpliced choir, the

Easy way to job-hunt T

HIS is a comprehensive and reliable guide for those in need of jobs.

Job Search Guru’s Job-hunting Manual was purposely written by Olu Oyeniran to guide and sensitise people in search of employment. Oyeniran did not mince words when he stated that most people fail to get a particular job not necessarily because they are not qualified, but because they did not prepare for it very well.

This manual leads you well into the heart of the matter.

So for you to get a job, for you to be in the position to attract a good job to yourself, there are many essential stages to take. You need to know what employers need from you as a job-seeker and then tailor your Curriculum Vitae to suit that purpose.

Oyeniran describes this as the very first important step towards a successful job hunt. It is a process that needs to be mastered and followed conscientiously.

This is why he includes how to write what he prescribes as a powerful C.V and also discovering yourself, skills, aptitudes and interests as the first bold steps. In reading the manual, a prospective job seeker needs to master the following: How to uncover hidden opportunities in the job market. For, to him, the motion that there are no jobs is an illusion; preparing for an interview and negotiating the pay and so on. These are very essential issues.

Therefore, the central

By Edozie Udeze point here is not just to read the manual. The total import of it is to study it, master the ingredients therein and discover truly how to get to that level you desire for yourself.

Although the manual is not meant to create jobs per se, yet it is structured to serve as a leeway in many plausible ways.

To make the manual easy to read, the author divides it into many sections. Each section handles and simplifies the subject-matter it handles. They are: A vital background, Getting a job is a job, Who are you?

Powerful C.V/Resume, face to face interview and lots more.

Each segment of the process of getting a job, in the reckoning of the author, is as important as the job itself. It thrills the employer when a job-seeker truly knows what he wants. Not only that, a job-seeker who is poised for the best ought to be at his best in the process of moving around for the job.

On page 30, Oyeniran says: You probably know this fact. 85% of available jobs are never advertised. So to really get a good job, you need to be proactive. Follow these suggested steps. First analyse the economic and business environment of the society�. Then go into details to master what happens in the different sectors of the economy and the market sectors. In which area of it do you really fit in or are interested in your job-hunt? Study this very well and then convince yourself of what you

white man's style and white man's names." He insisted that these "many non-essentials, so many props and crutches," affected "the religious manhood of the Christian African." That protest later led to a schism in the orthodox missionary churches, and led to local variant of churches that fused African cultures into Christian worship.

Now, early in the 21st century, Tosin Akande is lamenting the many needless props in Nigeria's Pentecostal Assembly, no doubt the fastest growing bloc in Nigeria's Christendom - pastors, superstitions, additions, embellishments, etc - which block the way for many a convert to develop a personal affinity with the Almighty.

What the result would be is buried in the womb of time.

But to avert any untoward disaster in spreading the gospel and promoting salvation, the author suggested Christians get rid of all secular props and barriers - not the least the unbearable conduct of some pastors who assume the airs of infallible spiritual sovereigns rather than humble servants in the vineyard, as Jesus Himself effaced - and discover an intimate personal

relationship with God. Tosin Akande has especially harsh words for money-for-miracle pastors, naming names locally and internationally, and playing Amos in the prediction of their doom. "Unfortunately for such," he roared, perhaps with flashing eyes, not leaving behind prosperity-reeking pastors who zoom about in private jets while their congregation grind in poverty, "I have a heavenly mandate to tell them their time is up!"

Can you imagine the Amos of Old Testament Israel, roaring that every ear that heard the fate of the recalcitrant Israel of his day would tingle?

This is an extremely wellwritten book - novel, analytic, fresh, fearless and daring, in flowing but rigorous prose. The author also gave full play to his training as a lawyer, his vast reading - and, it would appear, deep understanding of the letter and spirit of the gospel; his deep understanding of Yoruba culture and why Christians must be nuanced enough, not to imbibe cultural imperialism posing as Christianity; with the worrying penchant in Nigerian Christendom that anything foreign is good but anything African is bad even age-old African norms.

The book's defect would appear its excessive didactics, with the author often citing his own personal conduct and experience as exemplar.

Also, many would find galling the author's penchant to claim exclusive and intimate divine revelations, as he admirably and brilliantly marshalled his points. The snag is though nobody can prove his claim is untrue; he himself cannot logically prove it is! But then, the forte of faith is belief - uncritical belief and never questioning logic!

It is on this score that the writer is lucky to have written in the 21st century and not during the Medieval Ages. Galileo Galilei (15641642) wrote in theocratic, medieval Rome that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the universe. For that, even if later proved to be true, Pope Urban VIII disowned him and, in 1633, he was tried and doomed for alleged heresy. However, Pope John Paul II would, in 1992 (359 years later), restore Galileo's honour and apologise for the injustice the Catholic Church did to him.

Tosin Akande in this book not only critiqued the works and person of St. Paul, he also hit hard at Pentecostal prosperity pastors who, mouthing scriptural cant, spare nothing to develop their share of the church market. Were he to write in the Medieval Ages, scriptural purists would have got him if combatively ignorant theocrats did not.

That, in a nutshell, is the exciting audacity of Paulse.

Zakki in political intrigue

I

desire or deserve.

After you have done this, try to develop special interest in certain areas where you can then become proficient. Read relevant journals and document thereto. Then open your horizon in terms of attending workshops and seminars and so on. Where necessary, study beyond your scope to be able to know more.

Even though the manual is total and comprehensive in this subject, there are avoidable errors in some pages. These errors though minor in certain respects should have been avoided in the first place. The printing is not clear on some pages because the quality of the paper is low. The author needs to guide against these few errors in the next edition.

Moreover, if these strategies and tactics highlighted in this manual are effectively followed by those who need them, more than 60% of the problem if jobhunt would have been solved. It is a manual that needs the total attention of teeming Nigerian youths in search of employment.

N Fynecountry, anything is possible. This is the notion everyone has about this certain country used by Ethelbert Okere in highlighting the depth of corruption in the aviation industry in Nigeria. Even though certain strange names and characters which the author deliberately invents to give the book its own special blend and colour, the story is a well-known one.

It takes only an author who has been in government, someone who has followed rather meticulously the events in the aviation sector as an insider to do the kind of story Okere did in No Trace of Zakki.

When some domestic airlines were grounded by the government, there arose the urgent need to license new ones to augment the services of the sector.

Government saw the need to do so. But a lot of intrigues came to the fore.

Government was not certain of what step to take to correct the imbalance and help the public.

In the midst of that, the Aviation minister is hooked on an unnecessary politics of bad blood typical of Fynecountry. Not even the claims of NASA, a company that wants by all means to fit into the system is capable of swaying the situation. Then the intrigues and backbiting continue unabated. Even the presidency is equally culpable.

By Edozie Udeze

The author uses the situation to build a story around corruption in the system. To him, corruption is so endemic in Fynecountry that nothing matters any more. Everybody wants to be involved in the dog eat-dog imbroglio which is the bedrock of the system.

The story builds gradually and gets to a point where the overflow of sentiments can even throw the reader into confusion. The emotional hiccups, the dare-devil habits, the grab all the money syndrome and all those negative tendencies characteristic of the system stare the reader in the face. It is a book studded with facts and fictions.

The story is so moving and convincing that one can truly classify it as a faction – a combination of facts and fiction. Yes, for in it, one sees a true society in the deep shit of corruption, in the clutching embrace of backwardness.

The issue of the role of Asians in the economic set up of the country is also raised. The role of Nigerians as directors and collaborators is equally brought to the fore. The whole emphasis is on the need to see why no sector in Nigeria works or can not even begin to work in the nearest possible time.

Then the Aviation minister wangles himself through to obtain the license to operate the new

airline. Not only that, he is not qualified for it, his intention is to fulfill his wanton desire typical of a Nigerian. That pays him handsomely but in a very negative way.

His son, Zakki, who does not want to follow due process obtains his flight ticket but not in a way to identify who he is.

He is a ghost passenger somewhat. The plane crashes and he is one of the victims. How does one then rationalise this sort of waste. Okere provides the answer in this slim but provocative novel. Although it has its flaws in terms of printing style, presentation and inconsistent spellings of some names, No Trace of Zakki shows Okere as an insider in this never ending game of intrigues.

53

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Police officer wants reward here on earth

•Mr. Shedrack Henry on the sick bed Last year, Inspector Moses Eze stumbled on sacks of rice loaded with riffles inside a bush in New Jerusalem, Umuebele community in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State. He decided to pack the riffles and return them to his officers. This decision left him at war with the hoodlums who hid the arms in the bush.

He was threatened and told that his family would be kidnapped if he failed to return the riffles. As a reward for his honesty the police authority promised to reward him.

However, after waiting for several months and still under threats by the hoodlums, Moses decided to demand for his reward from the authorities. On a visit to The Nation's office he lamented, “Had it been I collected money from the hoodlums and allowed them to carry the riffles away maybe I would have been rewarded by them. But I decided to recover those riffles and give them to the police, yet, I have not received the reward I was promised. I am aware that the police do not joke with any officer who loses or misplace his riffle, and I believe the same thing should be applied when an officer recovers arms or riffles.”

He reiterated that he is tired of pleading with police authority to fulfil the promise made to him. “It all started on 15th of November 2011 at Umuebele II, in Etche Local Government Area when I went to New Jerusalem, the land had been overtaken by weeds, I decided to spend a little time to clear it. But while I was cutting the weeds, I saw some riffles loaded inside bags. I thought it was scrap but when I got closer to the bags I discovered that they were riffles inside the bags. As one of the residents in the area, I was amazed, knowing that the community was being terrorised on daily basis.

“A room was built on the land, it was owned by the man who sold the land to me before the suspected criminal illegally occupied the house. Then, I knocked on the door and a woman who identified herself as the wife of the suspect opened the door and

Inspector Moses Eze is a police officer with Eneka Police Station, Rivers State, where he helped in recovering arms from hoodlums, an act which he claims should earn him a reward from the authorities. Precious Dikewoha met him. asked, “Who are you looking for?” I replied that I wanted to know who dropped the bags. She looked at them and asked what's wrong with the bags? I said to her that they don't have the right to keep or own such sophisticated weapons. After some arguments she accepted that the riffle belonged to the husband. Of course, she didn't know I am a police officer, so I left her there and quickly rushed to Umuebele Police Station where I reported the matter and made statements. They gave me some officers, who followed me to the place and arrested the woman and took the riffles.

When she got to the police station she was interrogated and after some time she was

asked to go and bring her husband, but unfortunately both the woman and her husband went into hiding. They have not been seen since then.

Threat to life He continued: “The hoodlums who are in hiding got my phone number and started sending me threat text messages, promising to kill me and members of my family. They also said they could deal with me easily because they have the support of the high and mighty in the state. One day he called me from their hideout and said he knew where I am living. That he would supervise the kidnapping of my family. To be frank, it was a war between us, as an officer who has put

•Inspector Moses pointing at place where the riffles were kept

•Inspector Moses

in 30 years of service; I knew that the least that could happen to me would be allowing my family to experience emotional trauma. I was ready to use my last blood as an officer to end the daily robberies in the area. I live in the same community, and if I should run away, where will I go to? One person I feel sorry for in this matter is Mr. Henry Shedrack, he was beaten to coma by the hoodlums who accused him of disclosing to police where the arms were kept. With the support of some members of the community who were not comfortable with the robberies in the area, I was able to overcome the heat of the threat somehow. The worst thing is that I can't identify the hoodlums If I see them, but according to my conversation with them on phone they seem to know me and my family, which is another risk. When the battle became tougher, I took my wife to Umuebele Police Station where I narrated to the D.P.O everything we were passing through. He appreciated my coming and promised to send surveillance to the area. I also reported the matter to the paramount ruler of Umuebele community, Chief Chimaju Njoku, who also promised to use his caretakers in the area to capture the suspects.”

Waiting for unfulfilled promises According to him, “After that incident I reported the matter to my former station at Illabuchi Mile 1 Diobu, Port Harcourt, where I was posted. My former Divisional Police Officer (D.P.O.) later took the issue to the then Commissioner of Police and to be sincere he was very happy for my courage. One day, the D.O.P of Eneka Police Station where I am currently serving called me and asked if I have recovered any riffles and I told him yes, and went further to give him the details of the story. Without delay, he called the then Rivers State Commissioner of Police Mohammed Abba who he informed that I am in the office with him and the CP through my D.P.O congratulated me for doing a good job.

After the long phone conversation, my D.P.O told me that the CP was very happy with me and promised that any moment from now he

Contd on page 54

54

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

Miscellany

U

NLIKE several other children, Abdullahi, at just six months old, began his earthly life on a bleak note, being born with a life-threatening disorder called spina bifida. When he was born, the mother, Aisha Musa, noticed a brownish patch just above the waistline, with a dimple. The patch of skin looked scorched. Each time the boy cried, and he cried all too frequently, either from pain or hunger pangs, the small depression in the waistline will quiver and deepen still further.

As he grew up, the dimpled area steadily developed into a small mound of flesh the size of a tennis ball. Then all by itself, the swelling ruptured, spilling out some fluid substance that the mother said looked like water. Strangely, there is a connection between the fluid discharge and the topography of the boy's head. As the fluid drains off, the middle of Abdullahi's shaven scalp gradually collapses into a hollow, concave shape.

With the fluid discharge complete, the scalp returned to its previous shape, but the mother also noticed that day-by-day her son's head was also bulging. She took the boy to Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital, which after examining the ruptured mound of flesh referred the case to the National Hospital, Abuja. The National Hospital has recommended immediate surgical intervention, which will cost N500,000. Money that seemed to the indigent mother as fictive as a tale from the Arabian Night. But without this money, Abdullahi's existence is grim and uncertain.

Spina bifida abnormality Spina bifida simply means a split or hole in the backbone (i.e. spine). The abnormality has some varieties, including the mildest type called Spina bifida occulta, but Dr Usman Baba Agaie, now a director with Niger State Ministry of Health, who first described Abdullahi's condition, said the boy presented manifestations of the severe type. It occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy, probably at the end of the first month of conception, when the two ends of the developing spinal column fail to join, resulting in a gap or hole. When this happens, the spinal cord or the tissues responsible for covering and protecting the neural material may push outward through the spinal aperture, developing into a small ball of flesh.

When this bulge ruptures, it leaks out what Dr Baba called cerebrospinal fluid, that is, hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a fluid substance that accumulates in the head as a complication of spina bifida, the reason why Abdullahi's head is abnormally large and distended, his scalp soft. The frequent seepage of hydrocephalus from the waistline opening is, thank God for small mercies, is the reason why Abdullahi is yet alive.

Without this, the continuous accumulation of the fluid in the brain may reach a breaking point, ultimately leading to fatality.

In spite of the frequent leaks, there are

•Abdullahi

Abdullahi and his lifethreatening disorder severe risks, unless the boy got immediate surgical intervention, which Dr Baba described as 'shunting operation', to create an alternative way for cerebrospinal drainage. The open spinal column is also liable to infections from meningitis, which will impair the boy's mental and locomotive capacities.

Other complications include loss of bowel or bladder control.

Poverty and spina bifida Abdullahi Musa is born to a peasant family from Kaduan State, resident in Lambata, in Niger State. The fifth child from her mother's line, he is also the twelfth in the family. The father is married to two women. The father is currently away in Katsina State to eke out a living from small farming opportunities.

Although several factors have been

By Ndama Abubakar implicated in the congenital biological disorder called spina bifida, Dr Baba sees a strong correlation with poverty and ignorance. Dr Baba opines that many poor people shun prenatal care and many for reasons that they are unaware of its significance or cannot afford it. Yet early detection is possible during the first trimester of antenatal care and can be diagnosed. “The poverty relation comes in this way”, explains Dr Baba. “In a situation where there is no antenatal healthcare to check the condition of the child, this could result to children with this congenital defect. If during antenatal visits, a sample of amniotic fluid is taken or ultrasound done, then this very condition would

have been detected and diagnosed. But if the parents cannot afford these services, this condition may arise”.

It is not exactly known what causes this developmental abnormality. Dr Baba suggests a genetic, probably chromosomal defect. He said in many cases, the condition is heritable, meaning that children born from mothers with similar defects or from a family with known or forgotten history or spina bifida were likely to give birth to children with similar abnormality, but in a large number of cases, the incident is sporadic.

Members of the public who want to help little Abdullahi should contact Dr Usman Baba Agaie, a director with Niger Ministry of Health (Tel: 08036172439).

Ndama Abubakar , a journalist wrote from Minna

Police officer wants reward here on earth Contd from page 53 will go to the office of the CP to discuss about my reward.”

However, up till now his loyalty is yet to be rewarded and he is pleading with the authorities to do as promised. He appealed to the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar and the police authorities to consider the trauma his family is passing through.

A visit to New Jerusalem community After telling his story, this reporter decided to visit the area in company of Moses. The scene where the riffles were recovered is close to the swamp which has a boundary with Imo River. It is thus a good place for such a nefarious activity. The area is

far from the major settlement of the people and no vehicle drives through the narrow road. It is common to see young men sitting idly and smoking Indian hemp. It immediately becomes clear that it is a dangerous zone.

Near it is built two rooms owned by an elderly man called Henry Shedrack. He was given a beating of his life by the hoodlums in the area who accused him of giving information to the police, thus leading to the discovery of the hidden riffles. As the reporter and Moses entered Mr. Henry's bedroom, he lay there like a lifeless body.

The atmosphere depicted abject poverty.

In a feeble voice, he asked, “Who are you?”

Moses replied, “I came with a journalist who wants to ask you one or two questions.”

Asked what happened to him, he said, “The night after the police carried the riffles to their station, four young men broke into my house and demanded to know why I informed the police about the riffles inside the bush. Before I could explain, they descended on me and beat me. Since then I have been treating one sickness or the other.

While they were hitting me with their guns and other weapons they came with, one of them pleaded that they should leave me alone but they refused and said I poured sand into their garri. The truth is that I am not aware of the riffles kept inside the bush.

Look at my condition today; I have been bedridden since they descended on me.”

The old man asked the reporter and Moses to please assist him with some money to

enable him feed.

Some of the residents said New Jerusalem has become a hideout for hoodlums.

Christian Ndamzi Dike, one of the landlords in the area, said: “I was the one who advised Inspector Moses to take his matter to the press after so many threats to his life and our lives too. The issue is that I have a land in that area and the hoodlums with their activities in the area are not allowing me to develop the land. But after Inspector Moses' effort to expose them, peace somehow came back to the area. So, I am calling on the Inspector General of Police to reduce crime in the area by rewarding the good work of the officer.

People said the police are corrupt but this officer has proven that not all police officers are corrupt,” he said.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

55

Amobi’s death at dawn —PAGE 57

Akin Ogungbe’s last act Akin Ogungbe, 80, popularly known as Baba Ibeji, his stage name, bowed to death last week. Our Correspondent Taiwo Abiodun visited Abeokuta his country home and reports on his life and times

•The late Ogungbe

H

IS Iberekodo residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State was a beehive of activities as sympathisers from all walks of life besieged the place. Many wore long faces and were in deep grief, with their chins buried in their palms. They were obviously not in a happy mood. For those who were old enough to remember it, it was like a scene out of the play that threw him into national limelight.

In the seventies, Akin Ogungbe had acted the role of ‘Baba Ibeji’ in a Yoruba photo play magazine Atoka. The huge crowd was not there to witness the arrest of the wicked Baba Ibeji who had used one of his twins for ritual to raise money for his pilgrimage to Mecca!

This time around the crowd at the home of the veteran Akin Ogungbe was there to pay homage to one of the last titans of Nigeria’s Alarinjo (travelling)

•Some of his costume theatre. Ogungbe had for long been a household name in the rank of the late Hubert Ogunde, Moses Adejumo (Baba Sala), Duro Ladipo, Baba Ajimajasan, the late Baba Mero, the late Oyin Adejobi, and the late Ade Love. He belonged to the tribe of the pioneers of the Nigerian stage performance artistes who branched into celluloid films before the advent of home videos.

In the play which brought him national fame, Ogungbe acted the notorious ‘Baba Ibeji’ who used one of his twins for ritual and used the proceeds to embark on holy pilgrimage to Mecca. However, after his departure, the unexpected happened: He forgot the key to the ‘sacred’ room where the twin was on his kneels with a ritual calabash on his head!

On his arrival from Mecca he was nabbed. It was this Yoruba photo play that etched his name on the consciousness of many, especially in the South West. Therefore,

when the news of his death was made public last week, many remembered his foray and contributions to what is today a viable industry.

Perhaps, the Baba Ibeji appellation stuck not only because of his deft acting of the character but also due to the fact that he was a father of twins. One of his children, Taiwo, was asked whether it was a real life story that her father acted. She responded “It is true that in real life Pa Ogungbe had twins but he did not use any for juju or money making ritual. It was only acted as a play.” The only thread connecting this is that Kehinde, her twin sister is also long dead. Among the films he produced and acted in are Asiri Baba Ibeji, Ologbo Jigolo, Ireke Onibudo, Lisabi, Igba funfun among others.

Tributes Among the early callers who were to his home to pay tributes are Yoruba artistes such as Jimoh

Aliu, Jide Kosoko, Dele Odule, and the Ogun State government Ministry of Arts Tourism and Culture which sent representatives. From the Lagos State University came Dr. Akin Sofoluwe, a senior lecturer at the University .

In his tribute, Aliu wrote: “It was very painful when I heard about the great man’s death. I thank God for a good life spent.

We came from Him and to Him we shall go back. Rest in peace, Baba.”

The Association of Nigeria Theatre Practitioners’ chairman Ogun State chapter, Deinde Lateef wrote: “Akinkanju Alaranbara Ogbontarigi ere ori Itage Akin Ogungbe, Igbehin yin a dara o, Orun re rere o, ki Oluwa se iku ni isimi, ki iwaju dara ki ehin ma baje o.”

Prince Jide Kosoko, another theatre artiste was brief, he wrote: “Eeegun Agba sunnre o.”

On behalf of the Ogun State

Governor and Commissioners, Mrs Yewande Amosan, wrote: “May his soul rest in peace.”

Ogungbe, according to family sources, was over 80 years. According to Yemi, one of his children, the father was rallied round in his last days by his younger colleagues in the theatre. He added “It was Jide Kosoko, Dele Odule and Ebun Oloyede [aka Ola Iya ] who took the corpse to the mortuary. In fact , they all took care of the old man before he died.”

One of the late theatre veteran’s tenants, Rahman Yusuf Adesina, said he was by his bedside when the old man passed away. According to him, when he was about to breathed his last, “We called one of his children, Taiwo and she came and after a few minutes he passed on. He wanted to talk but could not as he only opened his mouth without any word coming out until he •Continue on Page 56

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Life

‘How we escaped assasination att em

•Sympathisers with the late Ogungbe’s family members

•The late Ogungbe’s driver •Continued from Page 55

passed on. He was a very nice man and accommodating. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

A neighbour, Oladele Omooyebande, described the deceased as a man too young to die.

“It is too early for the man to die.

We are going to miss him; here was a man who would not despise anybody. If he wanted to eat he would call everybody to his table.

He was close to everybody, and he explained things to all not minding whether you are his son or not.” Omooyebande added that the deceased’s three names Akintola Christopher Ogungbe connote many things, “He was a Christian, a Muslim and a traditionalist. His three names are rooted in the three major religions. He went to Mecca and came back and we all believed he was a Muslim.”

Genesis of his acting career According to his younger brother, Claudius Olaseinde Ogungbe,77, “When we stopped our education at Standard Six, my mother left him with our grandmother and he went to learn carpentry but I veered into tailoring.

At a time he used to go and watch Baba GT Onimole as an apprentice. He left in the year 1953, but Ayinla Olumegbon left in 1950. In 1953 he started his own group. We cannot remember his peers now.

The late Hubert Ogunde was his senior then but Ogunde started from here. He was a teacher from this Abeokuta. His contemporaries are Ayinla Olumegbon. He was ranked among Aderupoko, Papalolo, Oyin Adejobi, Ade Love and many others. They were many then but nobody was doing it for money, it was a profession pursued purely out of interest.”

According to him, his brother’s first play was titled A terrible life. The group was then called Oluwa lo See Musical Party.

This he later changed to Oguns Concert Party and later again to Ogungbe Travelling Theatre.

His brother corroborated Ogungbe’s daughter’s assertion that his role as ‘Baba Ibeji’, which made him popular was only a role play and far from reality. He said “The man that acted as a twin

•Claudius: The younger brother of late Ogungbe

used for money ritual later became a popular musician in lkeja, and the other that acted as his twin brother is Oso Fadeyi the first Fadeyi Oloro.

He was Taiye and in Ado Ekiti today. In real life the late Ogungbe had about three set of twins, one of his wives had twins twice.’’

Talking about their upbringing, he continued, “While I bear Claudius, my deceased brother was Christopher Akintola Ogungbe.

Our family name is Ogungbe but we were born into a Christian home. We went to United African Methodist Church at No 40, Eleja, John Street, Ereko, Lagos. In Abeokuta we used to go to Anglican Church. Later one Alfa Shehu Jabaru, who was his in-law sent a lot of artistes to Mecca. My late brother also seized the opportunity and went to Mecca too.”

Despite his age, the late Ogungbe was still acting and direct-

ing till he died. In fact, he acted till last year as he was still performing.

A prolific artiste Yemi, one of the deceased’s children said “My father had over 50 children from about 20 wives. I am the eighth and we all know one another. Today, many of us are also into acting. I also act and produce Yoruba films like my dad. The reason why he had so many wives and children is that in those days no parents would allow their wards or children to go on stage and be acting. And my father needed them.

So he went on having them as wives and having children in order to assist him on stage.”

Taiwo, who said she was not born when her father started acting, observed, “I am over 50 now and I had not been born when my father started acting. I used to perform with him on stage too. His

•Taiwo Ogungbe

plays were to teach morals.’’ She said she was not on the payroll of the old man “But he used to give me feeding allowance but not salary. Some of his wives I know are Erelu, Iya Ibadan, Mummy Temmy, Iya Osogbo, Funke, Afusat, Iya Aduke, and many others.”

Asked whether all the children know one another, Taiwo replied in the affirmative, “Yes, of course.

Some are married and now in their respective matrimonial homes; some are abroad.”

Ogungbe’s struggling days Latoni Ogungbe, the deceased’s younger [half brother] who also doubled as his driver for over 20 years, said the road to stardom was not as easy as many thought.

He recounted the series of difficulties they passed through. “I am now in my 60s. My late brother had over 40 children. I worked with him and was driving Bedford

lorry in the 60s. We used Austin lorry. Whenever we reach a town, we would drive round the town and be shouting, announcing at the top of our voices to announce our show.”

He listed many towns and cities where they had performed.

They travelled to Abeokuta, Owo, Akure, Ilesa, Oyo, Ibadan, Ede and other parts of the country- North and East. “One day, I decided to leave them at Igbara Oke, Ondo State when the suffering then was so much. At times we would spend days without food, for there was no money to buy food and no money to spend. No water to drink. Many times we would be begging for food, begging for knickers, shirts to wear. In fact, I did not inform anybody when I ran back from Igbara Oke, and came back to Abeokuta. Not that we were not making some money

Life

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

tt empt’ but it was not enough to pay the bills.”

Close shave with death He revealed that the group had cheated death many times, “One day we were coming from Ilesha but on getting to the round about our vehicle somersaulted and it faced where we were coming from again! We had an accident and landed in a ditch. For days we were eating from the food our brothers took along.

Another episode was when I went to paste our posters in Sokoto, in the Northern area announcing our play. I was mixing the starch and pasting these posters on the walls when suddenly some Hausa men came to me and asked in their language whether it was cholera that I brought for them. But I did not understand what they were saying yet I kept on nodding my head and saying yes , yes, yes.

They beat me up to the extent that I fell into a coma and was rescued by the Yoruba community there.

They took me to one of the mosques there and hid me because they myassailants were ready to kill me. I spent three months in the hospital. The Yoruba people in Sokoto came out to protest and threatened to return to their towns .It was a serious issue. When Ogungbe came the play was cancelled.’’

According to his younger brother, Claudius, his brother once escaped assassination. “One evening we were in a town I would not like to mention when some armed men with guns came to invite him that the monarch wanted to see him, but we told them that it is a taboo for us to go out at night in our town. We insisted that we would not go with them. The following day we went to see the monarch who denied sending for us, I will not mention the town to avoid embarrassment, but the situation was close to death.”

Yemi Ogungbe said his father was not a happy man before his death because some of his children died before him. “I remember that my older brother Layi and Idowu, Mowumi and one of his wives Erelu died before his eyes. These are some of the problems he had.

He was not also happy with the pirates who did not let him enjoy the fruit of his labour.” He, however, expressed satisfaction that “in the end the state government honoured him by giving him a house. This showed that he was appreciated for his good works.’’

In the meantime, the ANTP headed by Victor Asaolu has raised a burial committee to prepare for the veteran actor’s rites.

He said, “The burial is for everybody to participate, the family cannot handle it alone without the support of the state government while the ANTP too has a role to play.”

Dr Akinsola Sofoluwe, described the late artiste as a genius.

“I joined the NTA in 1976 as a producer with the then WNBS. His group was one of those I first handled with Baba Sala, Oyin Adejobi, Ajimajasan, Aderupoko and Papalolo were all members. It is a pity that he is dead. What one needs is discipline, and he had it and was focussed. Ogungbe was among the first to start the stage theatre.”

He was a legend and has joined the league of pantheons.

The burial rites, according to the family, will take place from February 6 to 8.

T

HE gory homecoming of citizen Chima Amobi began

with an absurd wild chase along Anara-Umuahia Express Road, followed by a fatal gun shot. Silence!

When the front door of Amobi’s L300 bus was finally opened, the young man fell down on the red, sandy road, like a log of wood, dead, his brain shattered and blood everywhere. That was at the dawn of October 31, 2012.

Today, a month after the horrendous incident, community elders are still finding it difficult to contain angry youths in Nkumeato community in Imo State, who are itching to go on an endless rampage even as Amobi’s family has petitioned military headquarters in Abuja over the callous shooting to death of Amobi by some soldiers “for no justifiable reason.”

The family of Chief Andrew Anyaegbu Amobi of Nkumeato in Imo State, in their petition to the Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika, demanded prompt prosecution of some soldiers (names withheld) from Obinze Military Barracks, who they alleged shot the young man. They also demanded payment of N600 million as compensation to the family.

In the petition, dated November 12, 2012, and copied to the Chief of Defence Staff, the Inspector-General of Police, the General Officer Commanding the 82 Division, Enugu, the Commandant, Obinze Army Barracks, Owerri, and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, among others, the family, through their counsel, Theo Nwaigbo and co, pointed out that the victim, an HND holder in Business Administration and a father of five young children, had no criminal record before the tragic incident. They also said no arms or ammunition were found on him at the scene of the fatal shooting and therefore wondered why their son would be treated like a common criminal.

Narrating how Amobi was killed, Barrister Theo Nwaigbo, the Principal Counsel at the Theo Nwaigbo Legal Practitioners Chambers, said in the petition: “We were informed that on the 31st day of October, 2012, Mr. Chima Amobi drove his bus, L300, with registration No. XA 912 EHM along Anara-Umuahia Express Road, whereupon, about 7.40am, he was flagged down by a woman, accompanied by her young son. He stopped and picked them up.

“As he was about to drive off, some members of the transport union tried to stop him, but he drove off quickly and continued his journey. The leader of the union telephoned an army team on road block.

The victim drove past the road block without being stopped by soldiers.

It was only when he had passed the road block that the soldiers got the information based on the telephone call placed by the leader of the transport union and a pursuit ensued. The soldiers pursued him in their Hilux Van. On noticing that the soldiers were after him, the victim became afraid and decided to escape their pursuit.

“Along the way, he diverted in Court Road, Umuihi, within the precinct of Ihitte/Uboma LGA. With a quick divert, the soldiers drove to a parallel site from the main road and as the victim stuck out his head from the driver’s window to ascertain whether they were still pursuing him, the soldiers shot at him at a very close range. The impact of the bullet blew his brains off his head and heaped same meters away from the point of impact and he died instantly.”

Community leaders in the area, protesting youths, eyewitnesses, relations of the dead and the police have also narrated to The Nation how the killing was perpetrated.

One of them is Rev. Fr. Jeremiah Ofoegbu, the Priest of St. Calumba’s Catholic Church, Agbagharandu. He confirmed the killing, alleging that

57

Imo community, soldiers at war over killing Sam Egburonu and Gbade Ogunwale report that the tragic death of Chima Amobi in Imo State, who was allegedly killed by soldiers, is the source of a brewing crisis as the matter has been taken to the army headquarters in Abuja and angry youths back home have sworn revenge

•Late Amobi’s vehicle and the corpse on the floor

•The late Amobi

it was soldiers that shot Amobi. the officers, they asked me to help Asked if he witnessed the shootcalm down the youths. This I did, ing of the victim by the solpromising them we would diers, he said, “No, I did not handle the matter witness the actual shootthrough legitimate ing but I witnessed the means.” incident when the DPO met with the Police awaitsoldiers at the scene ing autopsy of the killing, Mr. C. C. shortly after the Onwumere, a shooting. The vicSuperintendent tim is my cousin. of Police and As at the time he the Divisional was shot, I was in Police Officer in my parish, but imcharge of Etiti mediately it hapPolice Division pened news came to where the crime me and I rushed to was perpetrated, the scene and saw his also confirmed the •Gen. Ihejirika: dead body, his brain incident and told The Chief of Army scattered. Up till today, Nation that his men staff we have not seen one of are however still his eyes. awaiting autopsy results.

“I was there until the DPO Asked if it was true that and some soldiers from the barrack the victim was shot by soldiers came. By that time, angry youths had from Obinze Barracks as alleged gathered, burning tires and ready to by the family or if it was an accifight. When I introduced myself to dent, he told The Nation in a tele-

phone chat: “From physical observation, especially noting the way the victim’s brain was shattered, it is not likely that his death was caused by a simple automobile accident. Yes, the bus hit a pole before stopping but it was not badly damaged and the impact, it seems, could not have therefore shattered the man’s brains the way we saw it. Also, our men confirmed that at the time of the incident, the victim was with another person in the bus but that person was not injured that much. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed until the outcome of the autopsy result. We would need to confirm if indeed some metals are lodged in his head.”

On whether his men arrested the accused soldiers when the matter was reported to the Police, Onwumere said, “When the incident happened, an army lieutenant from Obinze Military Barracks took the accused soldiers to the barracks and said they were being interrogated by the military authorities over the ugly incident.”

What the Army said Contacted for an official reaction to the allegation that citizen Amobi was murdered by soldiers from Obinze Barracks, Director of Army Information and Public Relations, Brig-General Mobolaji Koleoso, referred our correspondent to the Director of Legal Services of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Sunday Agha-Okoro.

In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, Agha-Okoro, however, said he was yet to be briefed on the matter, saying that the petition has not been brought to his table.

According to him, the petition would have been sent to his table if the office of the COAS had taken delivery of it. He stated that the said petition may still be in transit if it was sent by post.

General Okoro, however, pleaded for more time to enable him trace the petition, saying he had just returned to his desk from a weeklong official trip outside his duty post.

He added that there was no way the Army authorities would receive such petition and gloss over it, stressing that the COAS has never taken such matters lightly where infraction cases by soldiers had been established.

Gen Okoro said: “I would plead that you allow me enough time to cross check your information so that I can talk to you authoritatively on the matter. We are not aware of such case for now, apparently because the petition may still be in transit.

“But I want to assure you that the Chief of Army Staff has never taken cases of infraction by members of the Nigerian Army lightly and if a case of infraction is established in this particular case, I can assure you that the culprits will not go unpunished.”

As the police await the result of autopsy and the interrogation of the accused soldiers at Obinze Barracks, and the army headquarters scrutinise the petition from the deceased family, community leaders in Nkumeato and the surrounding communities are still battling to contain angry youths from taking the law into their hands.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

BUSINESS

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

I

T has been disclosed that Nigeria loses $2.166 billion annually due to the smuggling of shea butter across the country’s borders.

This disclosure was made by the Director General, Niger State Commodity and Export Promotion Agency, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora, at the pre-conference press briefing by the Global Shea Alliance in Abuja.

Kontagora said Nigeria produces at least 57 per cent of the world supply of shea with its accompanying derivatives with a global annual value of US$3.8 billion but loses most of the financial benefits that should come to the country as a result of the smuggling of the produce.

Kontagora stated that at least 50 trailers carrying shea butter and its derivatives cross the Nigerian border daily to Benin Republic from Niger State alone, while the Nigeria Customs Service appears unable to check the smuggling activities.

By developing the large scale production of shea in Nigeria, Kontagora noted that Nigeria will be on the right path to diversifying the

Nigeria loses $2.16bn annually to shea butter smuggling From Nduka Chiejina and Ibinayin Blessing, Abuja

economy because shea butter and its derivatives have a very large market in Nigeria alone as well as in other parts of the world.

Kontagora revealed that part of the opportunities open to Nigeria to benefit from the production of shea is the recent directive by the European Union that five per cent of shea must be added to all confectionaries, particularly chocolate in the zone.

The Director General appealed to the Nigeria Customs Service to do more to stop the smuggling of shea products across the border so that the country can reap the maximum benefit of the international trade of the produce.

According to Kontagora, the shea industry in Nigeria is on the path of growth with Nigeria having the potential to mechanically process 6,000 SETs per year and export 50,000 tons of shea nuts per

Envoy tasks Nigerians on Spanish investment

D

EVELOPING economies including Nigeria will benefit immensely from the huge investments potentials in Spain, its Commercial Counsellor in Nigeria, Pablo Martinez, has said.

Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, Martinez said the Spanish economy has been repositioned for Nigerian investors among others who want to invest in the financial, oil and gas, tourism, construction, manufacturing and other sectors.

He said the country’s financial sector offers huge opportunities, adding that its banks are much stronger in the global market.

He said: “If you compare Spanish financial market with other countries, it has deeper assets as evident in its stock

By Ambrose Nnaji

market. So, if the sovereign wealth funds were invested in these banks it would boost the country’s economy.”

The envoy said Spanish companies would continue to invest in Nigeria to create job opportunities for the people.

“From experience, we have learnt that investment creates jobs and we are eager to receive investment wherever it’s coming from. Nigeria has created a sovereign wealth fund and it is now working. I think one of the opportunities of the sovereign wealth fund is to invest in Spanish companies with Spanish public debt so that we can offer this revenue for Nigerians through this sovereign wealth fund while at the same time this fund offers jobs for Spain,” he added.

year. While new processing plants are being constructed every year, existing ones are being renovated to increase capacity and efficiency.

The president of the Global Shea Alliance, Eugenia Akuete, disclosed that more

than 15 million women across West Africa participate directly in the shea industry, and women collect nuts across the Savannah area stretching from Senegal to Uganda and South Sudan.

She added that for every $1

of shea exported, local villages receive an additional 50 per cent of income, while millions of women make shea butter that millions more West Africans consume daily in food and skin care products.

The world conference on

shea which will be held in Nigeria next year is designed to bring together all stakeholders in the production and processing of shea to network and develop mutually beneficial business connections.

Ohuabunwa canvasses tax rebate for real sector

F

OR locally made products to be able to compete with foreign goods there is need for government to adopt the policy of tax rebate for manufacturing companies, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, former President, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, has said.

He made this call at the sidelines of the maiden edition of the Nigeria Quality Summit organised by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in Lagos recently.

According to him, the high cost of doing business in Nigeria has made many local manufacturing companies to compromise on the quality of their products, thereby making Nigerianmade products not to be acceptable by other countries.

He said the tax reduction policy, if implemented, will further boost the financial strength of local companies and will help them to be able to spend more on producing quality products.

By Bukola Afolabi

“Recently, the government through the intervention of the Ministry of Trade and Investments said that if you are generating your own electricity and you are creating your own public utility, there is new code that allows you to take a tax deduction.

Some of the things that make us not competitive are the high

cost of doing business. If government can reduce cost of business through tax rebate, then we are on the road to becoming competitive. The ministry should talk to the business men and manufacturers and understand their response and provide solution. This country cannot continue doing the same thing every year. We must move on.”

We’ll sanction errant stations—NBC boss

T

HE Director General of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Yomi Bolarinwa, has said that the Commission will continue to sanction any radio or television station, whether privately or governmentowned, that goes against the ethical code laid down by NBC Reacting to the accusation that the Commission is biased in the way it deals with private stations, he said NBC is not favourable to government- owned stations

By Bukola Afolabi

when it comes to sanctioning erring stations, adding that any station that violate its rules will be dealt with.

“It is not true that we are being unfair to private stations. You need to go to our websites and look at our sanctions. Take the 2011 and recent elections, you will found out the stations that were sanctioned. They were government stations like FRCN and NTA. NBC is fair and we maintained professional standards which

SUVs, other freebies for DStv subscribers

I

T’S gift galore for subscribers of DStv as several brand-new Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), all-expensepaid trips to South Africa to watch the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations Tournament taking place in January, LCD television sets and many more are among the thousands of freebies that have been lined up for them by MultiChoice.

According to Mayo Okunola, General Manager, DStv Brand, the prizes which are being given to DStv subscribers in its on-going DStv Mega promo seek to thank and

From Left: Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CEO, Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), Ms. Modupe Ladipo and Chairman, EFina, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso during the presentation of Key Findings from the EFInA Access to Financial Services 2012 survey in Lagos recently

He added, “I will advise the ministry to focus on creating enabling environment to make it possible for us to produce in a competitive manner.

The problem with Nigeria today is competition because of the impact of globalisation.

The ministry should create the environment, and I want to tell you they are beginning to listen to us.”

reward customers for their loyalty to the DStv brand over the years.

“On account of the support of our customers, DStv has recorded enormous progress in Nigeria. The current promo is a token of appreciation to our customers even while we continue to avail them of unrivalled content spanning different genres from news and information to movies, drama, documentary, education and learning, music, sports and so much more, across more than 100 different channels,” said Mr.

Okunola.

The Mega Promo he added, is not restricted to existing customers as new customers who purchase a complete DStv system are also eligible not only for an instant gift, but also to be entered into the Mega promo.

All customers, regardless of the bouquet they are purchasing or paying a threemonth subscription for, will not only get instant gifts but will also stand an equal opportunity of winning any of the prizes on offer in the Mega Promo, said Okunola.

is fairness to all the licensed stations whether private or government owned. NBC does not discriminate. The Nigerian broadcasting code is the yardstick for measuring your performance and it applied to every stations whether private or government.”

He added that licensing of more stations and NBC stance on local contents has helped to promote Nigerian programmes.

“We had licensed more satellite, television and radio stations. We have radio stations across the 36 states and six geo political zones of the country. We have ensured that professional standard is maintained in the industry. In this country, between the hours of 7pm to 10pm on daily basis, it is Nigerian programme and that is by the pronouncement of NBC. We have also made it that 80% of the programme on radio is Nigerian content and that has led to the exposure you have in the music industry in this country. We will keep on working on it. When you talk about capacity, it is also the responsibility of the station to ensure manpower development of their staff.”

•From left: Mr. George Ossi,Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Foyinsola Oyebola, Economic Empowerment Manager, MTN Foundation and Brigadier General Oladeji Adeoye, Chairman of the occasion, at the International Day of Persons with Disabilities sponsored by MTN Foundation in Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja...recently

60

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

INSIDE BUSINESS

Jonathan’s vanity projects The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has not only become the butt of derisive jokes but also gain notoriety for reckless spending, a development, many analysts have argued, is responsible for the rising cost of governance and drain on the economy, writes Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

J

OLOMI ADOLPHOUS, no doubt has come a long way. From a humble background, as a poor farmer’s lad from the backstreets of Sagbama, in Bayelsa, young Adolp, as he was fondly called by friends, through dint of hard work and Mother luck, rose above the limitations of his environment to become a success story many parents desire for their wards.

But no sooner did he become a success than he began to subject other members of his household, especially the less fortunate ones, to untold hardship, a development, which soon pitched him against the rest of the community. In no time, he was banished from the community as his people could no longer tolerate his excesses.

The above anecdote, if you may, shares a verisimilitude with what fate possibly awaits President Goodluck Jonathan. From being a “shoeless” young lad, like Jolomi, he was able to rise above all the limitations and obstacles and literally walk his way to success. Today, he doesn’t just have shoes and other ensembles but have tasted the good life and have the indulgences of the privileged few and so much more!

Expectedly, his image is anything but impressive in the court of public opinion, and what better evidence than the jeers and ribald jokes being bandied about in pubs, markets, offices and anywhere two or three are gathered, as discerning members of the public continue to raise their voices above the din to analyse what is largely described as Jonathan’s “Presidential gaffes” in recent times.

High cost of governance under Jonathan President Jonathan is largely touted as running an extravagant government judging by the amount devoted to feeding, refreshments, entertainments and other incidental expenses like trips, etal.

The near-N1 billion allocated for the same purpose in the 2012 budget generated a swirl of controversy big enough to force the Presidency to order a reduction.

In the 2013 budget, the President has tried to come down a bit with allocation, particularly in the area of expenses on food, refreshments and welfare for the State House, the Vice-President and other ministries.

The total allocation to the Presidency in the 2013 budget proposal is N35,545,673,132, with total personnel cost put at N11,476,593,929. Total overhead is N11,569,079,204, with total recurrent put at N23,045,673,132 while total capital stands at N12,500,000,000.

Out of this, the Presidency budgeted N327,154,931 for refreshment and meals and another N406,738,969 to purchase foodstuff, just as Vice-President Namadi Sambo would spend N112, 500,000 to purchase food for the 2013 fiscal year, another N123,405,499 on refreshment and N7,020,750 to pur-

•Taste of good life only money can buy!

chase cooking gas. When added, the total for the Presidency meals is not too far from the N1 billion budget of 2012.

The Presidency has, however, always argued that the allocation include budget for meals and drinks served during the different ceremonies and events at the State House and feeding of cabinet ministers during the weekly cabinet meetings. Even in spite of the boast about improved electricity supply across the country, the Presidency, it appears, is not ready to take chances on the possibility of outage.

Hence in 2013, it proposed to spend N72, 510,832 to fuel its generators while it will also spend N553, 056,411 for honorarium and sitting allowance.s Soaring cost of foreign trips Just like other areas, President Jonathan spent billions of naira on foreign trips in 2012 despite his earlier promise to cut down these expenses, even as he is planning on spending a whopping N2.6billion next year on foreign trips.

The Nation can authoritatively report that the President together with his entourage have spent nothing less that N3.354billion since 2010 on foreign trips.

The President within the first 11 months of this year flew out at least 20 times.

In September alone, the President travelled out of the country four times, including his trips to Addis Ababa.

Within the first nine months when he first became President, he spent N970.891million on foreign travels.

Running cost for the presidency in 2013 Total allocation in the 2013 budget:N35,545,673,132.

Total personnel cost N11,476,593,929.

Total overhead: N11,569,079,204.

Total recurrent: N23,045,673,132 Total capital: N12,500,000,000.

Refreshment/meals: N327,154,931 Purchase of foodstuff: N406,738,969 Food purchase for ViceThe budget did not, however, state explicitly the figures for his travels. But investigations have shown that President Jonathan spent N1.7billion on foreign trips this year alone.

In 2012, N684.74million was budgeted for foreign travels alone.

During his presidency, the President was reported to have flown to different destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, and South America.

In 2011, he visited numerous countries including, United States, France, Uganda, Australia, Ghana, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Ethiopia among others.

The President travels with his entourage, top aides, and officials of the Presidential Villa are usual faces on such trips; ministries applicable to the purpose of his overseas trips also send delegations.

In recent times the president travels with two members of the National

President: N112, 500,000 Refreshment for VP: N123,405,499 Purchase of cooking gas: N7,020,750 Total for meals: N1 billion budget same as 2012.

Power gen sets: N72, 510,832 Honorarium/sitting allowance: N553, 056,411 Foreign trips: N2.6bn Banquet hall in Presidential villa: N2.2 billion Assembly (one from each chamber), depending on the purpose of his visit.

Sahara reporters had in June claimed that Jonathan travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations’ Earth Summit with 116 government officials.

Although the President rebuffed the figures but he never gave out the exact figure.

Jonathan had said in a national broadcast in January, “I have directed that overseas travels by all political office-holders, including the President, should be reduced to the barest minimum. The size of delegations on foreign trips will also be drastically reduced; only trips that are absolutely necessary will be approved.”

Like Jonathan, like Sambo Like his principal, Vice President Namadi Sambo is also not left out of the spending spree.

His new residence being constructed is generating much contro-

versy over its cost.

The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday refused to approve the additional N9bn expenditure budgeted for the Vice President Sambo’s residence under construction.

Refusing the request, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Smart Adeyemi said such amount of money to be spent on a house is not worth it, especially now that many Nigerians are hungry and cannot afford a meal.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Adamu Ismail, told the lawmakers that the contract was awarded in 2009 for N7bn.

Adding, he said the additional N9bn needed was for furniture, fencing, two more protocol guesthouses, a banquet hall and security gadgets.

While explaining, Ismail said, the proposal was not contained in the original plan submitted to the contractor, Julius Berger Nig. Ltd. Adeyemi said, “The National Assembly is not going to appropriate additional N9billion for the project, especially at a period in this country when people cannot get three square meals.

“The N9billion is far more than the original cost of the project.”

The Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Domingo Obende, on the other hand, called on the Executive Secretary to present the added scope of work for which the fund is vital to the committee for inspection.

Ismail said the proposed N9billion was cut down to N6billion by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

He said, “We have worked out the details and passed to BPP for consideration. They (BPP) have sent it back to us with their observation.

“We requested for N9billion but now it came to about N 6billion.”

To Adeyemi, the N14 billion is indefensible, “in view of present realities.”

He said, “Now you are asking us to approve a total sum of about N14 billion and this is just the Vice President’s residence.

“N14billion, to me, is huge for the Vice President’s house. If you are even talking of N10 billion that would be understandable. “The reality is that N14 billion is indefensible and that is our submission. In Nigeria, there are still many people with empty stomach. So, we have to look at budgeting in relation to the needs of the people.”

Presently, Vice President Sambo resides at the Aguda House, a building officially designated as Presidential guesthouses.

During the Yar’Adua presidency, President Goodluck Jonathan also stayed in the Aguda House when he was Vice President.

Continued on page 61

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Jonathan’s vanity projects

•Jonathan

•Sambo

Continued from page 60 Vice President Atiku Abubakar stayed in the house, which the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) currently occupies.

The FCT budget for this year also includes a N300 million for the design and construction of houses for Senate President and his Deputy, David Mark and Ike Ekweremadu; as well as Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal and Emeka Ihedioha, his deputy.

This is despite the fact that David Mark and Dimeji Bankole were sold their old official residences at a giveaway price, only two years ago.

Senator Bala Mohamed’s devotion to the well-being of President Goodluck Jonathan had in the past not been doubted. As Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT with concurrent duty as landlord to the president, he had rustled not a few feathers when he named a new layout in the federal capital after President Jonathan.

Justifying the construction of the new hall, Senator Mohammed had said: “We noticed that it (existing hall) is inconveniencing; it is not in tandem with what is outside the country. Even smaller countries have better Banquet Halls near their Presidential residences.”

As at press time, telephone calls and sms sent to Presidential Spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, to enable him react to the issue did not elicit any response as he neither returned calls nor sms.

Criticisms But as would be expected, a barrage of criticisms have continued to greet decisions announced by the government with many calling for the head of the president.

A cross-section of those who spoke with The Nation had very harsh words for the Jonathan-led administration.

Constitutional lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay described the proposed amount for a banquet hall at the villa as a wasteful project.

According to him “It is absolutely shocking to hear that our leadership are hell-bent short-changing the rest of us. I am shocked because right now, the impression we have is that the government is short of money. And you know there is this big debate going on now on whether the civil service should be reduced so that there will be more money for development. So, I would have thought if we have N2.2 billion, we will use it either for roads, hospitals, universities or other developmental projects rather than a banquet hall. In my view, it is a wasteful project for now given our tight financial circumstances.”

“One would have expected that the government would devote such funds into building refineries, but instead it chooses to build guest-house to host itself and its guests.

“Jonathan, no doubt is running an extravagant government like other successive regimes. We are just persuading Jonathan to move in a different direction.”

Human rights activist and lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, also flayed the decision of the administration, saying “It is unbelievable really that the Federal Government would be talking about spending such a huge amount of money on a hall or enjoyment for Owambe kind of partying, hall at this time.

“I think it is quite insensitive, it does not demonstrate that the government wants Nigerians to believe that the economy is not buoyant and that the government cares about the welfare of the majority of Nigerians given the immediate needs that Nigerians suffer in other areas of life, given the general decay of infrastructure, the lack of good roads, the fact that our educational system has collapsed and the miserable wages that workers are paid.

Dr. Chris Onalo, Registrar/Chief Executive, Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), is hard pressed to believe that the country’s leadership would as much as mouth such demands.

“For those of us in the credit management profession, we’re really worried about the level of transparency in public and private sectors spending.

When you look at the huge spending, it does not reflect on the generation of income. ‘I just think this country is ruled by certain forces which don’t seem to marry reality with euphoria,” he said.

Expatiating, he said: “It is unthinkable that our leaders would even think of putting up a massive edifice for the VP or the President, in a place where the people are wallowing in abject poverty. Corruption, I daresay, has eaten deep into the fabric of our economy and one only hopes and prays that things will not get out of hand before our leaders learn their lessons.

“I think it is high time faith-based organisations rallied round to drive away this madness. They need to really wake up. We need to create jobs. We need industrial revolution. We need to build an empire which the entire black race would be proud of.”

For Professor Sherifdeen Tella, of the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Agowoye, Ogun State, what the government has done amounts to “gross insensitivity.”

Speaking with The Nation over the weekend, the don said, “Most nations of the world are striving to drive capital expenditure above recurrent expenditure.”

He, however, regretted that the reverse was the case in Nigeria. “Even part of the money that was voted for capital projects, part of it is what is being proposed for the banquet hall and other irrelevancies. It shows that the government is not a serious government at all.

According to Prof. Tella, “Whereas the government should be thinking of devoting money into research and development, making the environment conducive for learning and all that, like a typical Owambe government, it is just thinking of hosting itself and people outside the country. It is laughable, “he lamented, adding: “One can only pray that the legislators will prevail on the government to rescind the decision because it is what the lawmakers pass that would become law.”

INSIDE BUSINESS

61

‘More Nigerians now want to be certified facility managers’ W HY should facility managers be engaged to preserve infrastructures?

This was the pivot of the talks at the Institute of Facility Management Association (IFMA) Nigeria’s second Award Night which held penultimate Friday at the Eko Hotels and Towers, Lagos.

Highlighting the importance of facility management, the President of the institute, Engr. Tony Nzeaku said Nigeria has witnessed huge infrastructural challenges.

“The 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with over 800 million people generate roughly the same power as Spain with only 45 million people,” Nzeaku said.

According to Nzeaku, there has to be a conscious effort to “sustain the existing stock of infrastructure while expeditiously working on the badly needed shortfall.”

Failing to do this, Nzeaku warned that “the net effect of development and decline will render all efforts meaningless.”

With the theme ‘Facility Management: The sustainable alternative for national infrastructural development’ the event drew major players in the facility management sector in Nigeria, Ghana, and Canada.

It also featured presentation of awards to deserving persons and establishments.

Awardees included Beachland Estate, Lagos (Best managed residential facility), Churchgate, Victoria Island, Lagos (Best managed office facility), Swiss Pharma,

By Joe Agbro Jr.

Dopemu, Lagos,(Best managed industrial facility), The Palms, Lekki, Lagos (Best managed retail facility), Le Meridien, Uyo, Akwa Ibom (Best managed hospitality facility), Civic Centre, Victoria island (Best managed events facility), and National Hospital, Abuja (Best managed health care facility). Others are the Ikoyi Club 1938 (Best managed recreational facility), Covenant University, Ota, Ogun (Best managed educational facility), Provast Nigeria Limited (Corporate member of the year), Alpha Mead Facilities Limited (Best corporate FM stakeholder, Lagos (Best public FM stakeholder), Jim Ovia (IFMA Nigeria Honours award), and Mr. Henry Ezulu (Best individual IFMA Nigeria member award).

Addressing journalist, Adetokunbo Oso, representing Lagos Commissioner for environment, Tunji Bello said, “we all are facility managers.”

“It has not been easy,” Nzeaku however said, to convince Nigerians to embrace facility management.

“But, the reason why we have been encouraged to continue is that people take out money and pay to come and be certified facility managers. That’s because people are beginning to see that facility managers make a difference.”

Managing Director of Briscoe Properties, Mrs. Folasade Hughes, an architect, described the retail market in Nigeria as emerging and chose to see the lacking infrastructures as

opportunity for facility managers.

“The maintenance awareness in Nigeria is emerging and that is a very good trend,” she said.

Stating that the journey was just starting, Nzeaku said, “We’re really creating awareness in the field of facility management in Nigeria.”

Apart from promoting professional involvement in facility management in Nigeria, some other achievements of IFMA in Nigeria is the introduction of the a Masters degree programme in Facilities Management being run by the University of Lagos as well as the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, which runs first and second degree programmes in facilities management.

Describing the frequent building collapse as a ‘vicious cycle,’ Nzeaku said, “it is a function of corrupt nature that has pervaded all spheres in the country. Many people do not take care of what makes a building to stand. They compromise the materials, they compromise the design, they compromise everything and the building would collapse whether during construction or after some years.”

And to Hughes, “cutting corners is what causes collapsed buildings, people patronising quacks.

And the more it happens, the more we hope people don’ patronise non-professionals.”

IFMA, a not-for-profit organisation, berthed in Nigeria in 1997 and over the years, it has grown to an institute with over 700 individual and 100 corporate members.

Skye Bank boosts agric finance

S

KYE Bank Plc has rolled out a multi-service agric finance package including finances, advisory services and foreign liaison services to support existing and new Nigerian farmers as the nation steps up efforts to diversify its oil-based economy.

Experts and stakeholders in the agricultural sector have all agreed that proper financing of the agricultural sector is the key to unlocking the nation’s economic growth.

According to experts, when properly funded, the agriculture sector will not only create raw materials for local industries but will also promote the development of entrepreneurship in allied sectors and boost foreign exchange earnings.

Skye Bank is increasing its well-known traditional financial supports for agriculture with establishment of a suite of customer-centric agricultural products and services aimed at not only providing finance but also other major success factors such as financial management services, advisory services, guarantees, information services, local and international liaison and other products and services that may be specially needed to enhance the success of the farmer.

Executive Director, Corporate and Investment Banking, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, said Skye Bank realises the crucial role agriculture plays in the life of the nation, especially as the Federal Government pursues a policy of economic diversification.

He said the extensive agriculture support desk of the bank reinforced Skye Bank’s long-standing role as a key player in agricultural project financing with its project financing portfolio in the agricultural sector covering the entire nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

As an indication of the bank’s extensive supports to farmers,

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

Oguntayo cited the Imo Hill Farm as a case study of what the bank has been doing in recent times to ease access to finance to farmers and support them all through to meet the peculiarities of their operations.

The Imo Hill Farm is an integrated farm project in the South Western part of the Nigeria which covers poultry, piggery, feed mill and meat processing. The farm has engaged MP Farms, a German agric firm known as one of leading names in Europe, as its technical partners.

MP Farms would help to oversee the management of the whole farm, with experienced managers in poultry and piggery management already hired to manage each division.

The processing unit is to be run by top class professionals from Germany with over 20 years experience in meat processing and food technology.

With the supports from Skye

Bank, the Imo Hill Farm promises to be a case study in agricultural innovation and livestock development in sub- Saharan Africa.

Oguntayo noted that Skye Bank has through its branch network strategically located across the country, played and still plays a catalyst’s role in the growth and development of its clients’ businesses and projects.

According to him, Skye Bank has been a major partner in the efforts by the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to bring back the glorious year of agriculture. The bank has participated actively in the CBN’s Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme and the N200 billion Agricultural Fund for the purpose of helping commercial farmers to boost large-scale farming.

He pointed out that with Skye Bank’s strong balance sheet and amenable lending rate, farmers would have adequate access to finance to upscale their capacities and enhance their returns.

Olisa heads Rivers signage agency

T

HE Rivers State government has announced the appointment of Mr. Christopher Olisa as Sole Administrator overseeing the operations of the recently established Rivers State Signage Agency.

Prior to his appointment, Olisa was an Associate Director at Mindshare Media Agency, a leading generalist media consulting firm, part of the WPP Global network. A thorough-bred marketing communications and brand building expert, Olisa had during his years of practice in top-rated advertising and outdoor media agencies such as Ogilvy Benson and Mather, Prima Garnet Ogilvy and Mediashare Nigeria, distinguished himself as a rare brand building expert and marketing communications strategist.

Saddled with the responsibility

•Olisa

of designing the blueprint for the take-off of the new agency, industry analysts and experts have been unanimous in their position that the Governor Rotimi Amaechi-led administration is truly one that has mastered the skill of fitting a square peg in a square hole.

62

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

63

CONSUMER WATCH With

JILL OKEKE

jillokeke@yahoo.com, 07069429757

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

Tower Aluminum to repair

damaged products free

NUTRITION

A

S complaints come in over hand carriers of Tower cooking pots, the leading manufacturer of cook ware products, Tower Aluminium, has said it is ready to strengthen its relationship with those customers by repairing their damaged tower cooking wares at no cost to the customers.

“If it is our product, we are ready to fit them with new handles and seal up the leaking holes,” said the Customer Relations Manager (CRM), Tower Holloware, Mrs Amina Kehinde, while responding to a question in an interview with Consumer Watch at Tower head office in Oba Akran, Ikeja.

Some members of the public had expressed their dissatisfaction to Consumer Watch concerning the cooking pots they bought directly from Tower office during some of their promotional sales.

The complaints range from the handles of the pots coming off in less than one year of usage to leakages and the presence of whitish residues in the pots after the pots must have been washed and dried. One of such complainants even expressed fears that the whitish residue may be hazardous to health.

A complainant who lives in Ikeja, Mrs Chioma Iwu, showed Consumer Watch six of such pots she bought at the cooking pot manufacturer's office.

The said pots fall within the top category of Tower pots, and as such do not come cheap. Asked why she did not complain when the handles came off, fuming, she said, “I would have complained earlier but there was

nothing like Consumer Watch then in the Nigerian press and I did not know where else to go.”

She explained that the handles did not come off out of long usage as the handles of the six pots came off within one year she bought them.

She said that she regretted buying that brand of cooking pots, as other cheaper pots she is using have out lasted the Tower pots.

Refusing to believe that her Tower pots may have been damaged out of wear and tear occasioned by long usage, Mrs Funmi Adebayo said, “The only issue I have with some of the Tower pots I bought is with the handles, especially those pots that are fitted with the black hand carriers. Maybe it came off because of fire flame. However, it did not last, and I am not happy,” she added.

Another complainant who pleaded anonymity said she bought four premium Tower pots some years ago, and within one year the carriers of three of the pots came off while the biggest of the pots developed holes.

Asked if she cooks on open fire as flames could burn the black hand carriers, she responded in the negative emphasising that she uses gas cooker or electric burners to cook. However, she noted that the hand carriers of the average Tower pots she uses did not come off as those ones are fitted with just aluminium hand carriers.

Responding to these complaints when Consumer Watch showed the CRM one of such pots, she said that particular pot had been phased out and that the hand carriers could have come off out of long

usage or handling, denying that it was manufacturer's default.

Reacting to other complaints, she explained that the whitish residues in the pots could be as a result of so many things reacting to the aluminum. One of such things, she said, could be hard water or the kind of soap used to wash the pot, adding that they had not received such complaints.

On the leakages, Mrs Amina Kehinde explained that iron sponges and the acidic contents of some foods like tomatoes could cause high quality pots to develop holes faster. She expressed regrets that “some people sponge their pots so hard and in the process erode the aluminum, while others use soaps with high caustic soda to wash their pots.”

Advising Cooks and Kitchen Assistants on how to handle their cooking pots, she enjoined them to use mild soap in the kitchen, keep their food from burning in the pot while also dishing out foods from the pot immediately after cooking. “By dishing out into preserving container, the nutrient contents of the foods are also preserved.”

Tower has been a household name for cookware products in Nigeria for over five decades with three plants producing thousands of tons of aluminium cookwares per annum.

Reacting to the allegations, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said it was receiving such a complaint for the first time as Tower aluminium had met SON's requirements and surpassed the requirements in some cases which is why SON had issued them a certificate.

Tips

Food value of milk

M

ILK is considered nature's most perfect food because it contains nearly all the substances essential for human nutrition. Although milk and milk products are specifically intended to nourish the young, nutritional experts generally include dairy foods to balance diets of humans of all ages. Milk is considered an excellenct source of calcium, phosphorus and riboflavin. (vitaminB2), a good source of high quality protein, vitamin A1, B1 (thiamin) and B12 (cobalamine), but a poor source of iron, copper manganese, nicotinic acid and vitamins C and D. Tips on salt for hypertensive patients The American Heart Association recommends that every one reduces sodium (salt) intake to less than 3grames per day (that is 3000miligrames).

•Choose foods that have not been highly processed •Fruit and vegetables are your best friends when it comes to lowering sodium •Fruit contains no more than 100milligrammes of sodium each. Celery, the highest in sodium of all vegetables, provides only 65milligrames per large stalk. Select at least two fruits and at least three vegetables daily.

•Dairy foods contain some sodium but not much. Milk, whether skimmed, 2percent or whole, contains about 125milligrames per 8 ounces glass. Yogurt has about 150milligrames per 8 ounces, cheese about 175 per ounce.

Choose two servings of dairy foods each day.

•Lean meat, poultry and fish also contain sodium naturally, but not much. A three-and-half ounce portion provides about 40milligrammes of sodium, but pork sausage contains 349milligrammes •A large egg, equal to one ounce of meat, poultry or fish contains 69milligrammes of sodium.

64

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

EBERE WABARA

65

WORDSWORTH 08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

'Same' can't stand alone N ATIONAL Mirror Views, Editorial and Education Today of December 6 created misunderstanding: “…the seeming connivance of the judiciary with those intent in (on/ upon) protecting the criminals in our midst.”

“The suspects are walking free in the society, enjoying their loots and attracting more political patronages.”

‘Loot’ is uncountable. “…in the guise of delivering same (the same) as bribe to the Commission’s officers to ‘kill’ such cases under investigation.” (Editorial) ‘Same’, in formal— and even most informal—contexts, cannot stand alone.

“The highest value of university education is not just about imparting knowledge on (to) individuals….”

“Nigeria loses N533bn to sugar importation” (THE PUNCH Headline, December 5) A rewrite: Nigeria spends N533b on sugar import The Guardian Editorial of December 4 comes next with a pack of foibles amid other offences: “…which also congratulated the SierraLeonean (sic) people for (on/upon) the peaceful conduct of their election and pledged support for their democratic process.”

“The United Nations, which had borne much of the burden of restoring peace in (to) the country….”

“The re-elected president should eschew witch-hunting (witchhunt) of the opposition….”

More mistakes from THE GUARDIAN: “They have proved themselves as medical professionals per (par) excellence.” “…and stand a chance to win an all expense paid trip to South Africa 2013.” (Advertisement by Guinness Nigeria PLC) At least two winners must emerge daily: an all-expensespaid trip….

“For more details (a comma) go to…or call the Guinness toll free (toll-free) line on….”

Can’t this full-page running copy be corrected? “…the labour leaders have decided to bury their hatchets and come together again….” Fixed expression (irrespective of number): bury the hatchet.

“Remarkably (Re-

markable) as well, (needless comma) was the huge success recorded of (in) this year’s Comptroller General’s Annual Conference just concluded in Kastina (sic).”

Finally from the Back Page of The Guardian under review: “Do we have to wait till someone effect (effects) a change?”

“Today, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan sits on (in) the saddle of governance.”

“Israel moves to diffuse (defuse) tension with Egypt” “The objective was attained quite alright.”

‘Alright’ is not all right in formal environments.

“The Zikists are his political offsprings and despite all the betrayals we have witnessed of recent….’ ‘Offspring’ is non-count.

“When the storm rages, men can do nothing about it, but when it has seized (ceased), its destruction could be addressed.”

“Students write exams half-naked.” It is a lie!

They write exams halfdressed/half-clad/halfclothed/half-covered or naked/bare to the waist.

“I stood up, took another naira note and put it near my half-empty (half-full) beer glass.”

“The classroom was filled to capacity (filled) as early as….”

“How did you fair (fare) in your examination?”

“The feeling is that many don’t want to be seen as taking a position which would be interpreted as confrontational and as such they have resulted (resorted) to lobbying….”

“Do not pass the bulk (buck) to anyone….”

“Sanusi explained that it was not the first time that banks would be liquidated and that the history of bank failure in the country dated (dates) back to 1958 or 1959.” There is also ‘dates back from.’

From SMS portal: I react to ‘Eniola Bello’s point’ last Sunday. I say the distinction between ‘contradictory’ and ‘paradoxical’ is a distinction without a difference. Further, to imply, as he did, that it is possible for a person to express the emotions of sadness and gratitude simultaneously is to take, ignorantly or unconsciously, confused verbal imagery to the sphere of intellectual fraud. The ideas, logically and psychologically, are mutually exclusive.

Please let him look up

again the words, ‘sorrow’, ‘gratitude’, ‘contradiction’ and ‘paradox’, in the dictionary and answer the question: Can or should a person be sad over something he is grateful for? Regarding his sexual analogy, I say nobody in their lucid moment says thank you genuinely to an oppressor!

Finally, they can cofunction but only confusedly whereas effective communication must be lucid. Wabara you have my vote! (Hon. Barrister Dave Oputteh/ 08031830352) MIND your language is a guide to reality. Language is not about logic.

Language is not always logical. It is often illogical—it is about commonsense!

Besides, in the instant context, ardent grammarians have come out with the idiom ‘cold comfort’.

Words are but cold comfort at such a time when a member of the family had passed away. Therefore, ‘sorrow’ and ‘gratitude’ can co-function.

I usually write about what I know. Besides, I have about 150 books on the English language alone and not fewer than 12 dictionaries and several English or languagerelated books. I do make mistakes, like any other human being. Nobody knows it all!

However, nothing is final in language. We can only appeal to authority on language. Keep it up, brother! (Baba Bayo Oguntuanse/08029442508 & 08056180046) YOUR persistent efforts to point out and correct the obvious omissions of colleagues of yours are appreciated by some and misconstrued by others.

Today, all caution seems to have been thrown to the winds, and the value of good writing, which should be the hallmark of every respectable newspaper, has become subordinate to the rush for exclusive and sensational stories which lack depth and quality.

This, however, is not to say that mistakes cannot be made in the course of producing a newspaper. But journalists will make fewer mistakes if they read illuminating columns like this and a few others elsewhere.

(Kenneth Ugbechie, publisher, Nigeria Political Economist/08056801124 & 08034364524)

‘My life has been a struggle’ •Continued from Page 25 During that time, all the terrible clubs now on campus were not there. We used to have Pyrate Confraternity and others but not many. But I have friends across board and that has always been me. I will not say that women are particularly interested in Godswill but the women, many of them are alive to talk about whether they like Godswill or not.

What exactly do the South South people want in the new Constitutional review?

Two things for me, one is the derivation. If we must practise derivation, let us make it attractive for states to begin to explore resources in their domain.

Thirteen percent will not attract people to open up resources in their domains. I think we should increase it to 25 per cent. The moment you tell a state you can have 25 per cent in whatever you produce in your state, a lot of states will begin to open up resources in their domain or we practice true federalism. You pay tax to the centre and control your resources. In other words even if the tax is 75 per cent or 87 per cent, all you keep is 13 per cent but you control your resources. What that means in essence is that the federal government will still have its 87 per cent as it is today. Because you control your resources it means you also create more opportunity for your children to have employment opportunity. There will be skilled technological transfer for your people because you control the resources.

The federal government will still make the money.

This is what is being practiced in places like Australia. That will encourage every state of the economy to diversify the economy.

Without true federalism and we continue with this unitary system of depending on one product. There will never be much progress in Nigeria.

The second one is policing system. If we do not decentralise the policing system, we will never have true security. Every community knows the bad eggs in it. Son’t forget that we used to have traditional system of administration before this western system came.

How were they able to settle things, traditionally?

Even the main fact of bring in Juju that will make people not to steal again in that community for fear of not being killed by Juju. Today we must evolve a policy of decentralising policing. So it is difficult to bring in people to police an environment, who cannot even pronounce the name of the area.

So, we must begin to look at how to decentralise the present policing system because it is not working.

People are more interested in speaking grammar and debate. I am not talking

•Akpabio

about debate. I am talking about practicality. If any governor abuses state police in his state as soon as he leaves office he will be tried.

How can people be afraid that a governor will use state policing wrongly? If a governor doesn’t have control over the security apparatus in his state, he will continue to remain a chief security officer and therefore a general without troupes and yet when there is security inversion, who is blamed is the governor. As a chief security officer in the state is like a position of a frustration.

I also think we should also remove alot of things in the federal legislature to allow states to legislate on them.

More functions should be given to the states because they are closer to the people. The federal government should take his hands off a lot of things and rather stay at the regulatory level.

Do you mean more money for the state too?

It definitely means more money for the state and more development for the people because you will touch the lives of the people more. I think we should give more powers to the state, give more responsibilities to the state and more money to the state.

The concept of federal roads is not working. We should give the money that should have been meant for federal roads to the state and the states can link up and work together. Federal government cannot do all. The result is what we are seeing today. At a time when the world is going to the moon through leisure, Nigerians cannot find roads to their houses. Then we must do something differently. The policies must change, the constitution review must be practical. We must not be afraid of taking bold decisions in the interest of the citizenry.

Do you enjoy the co-operation of your wife in what you do?

I owe a lot to my wife and I don’t see myself yet as a successful man because I am just 50 and I am still working hard.

My wife has played a lot of roles in my life. She has been given me tremendous support.

She has been a pillar of support to me and she covers the home ground. She is highly spiritual. She is a very good Catholic and she prays for me on a daily basis. I think that is what every man needs. Every

man needs a wife that can pray and that can also take care of the home and inculcate in the children moral discipline. My children are actually fantastic because they are sacrificing a lot. They miss their father a lot and they have handed me over to the state. For them that is a great personal sacrifice and I am assuring them that I love them and I definitely will come back to them but let me contribute my quota towards serving humanity. It is good because if I make society better for humanity, they will also gain from it and my grand children, their children will also gain from it.

What is your message for Akwa Ibom people?

My message for Akwa Ibom people is as usual. Continue to have confidence in your governor. You haven’t seen anything yet. If you think that I have succeeded in the last six years, wait for the next two-and-a-half years and see how the miracles of God can work. I believe that God’s hands are in the affairs of man and God has chosen Akwa Ibom to remain a small model state of good governance for Nigeria and the leader of the state is determined to ensure that his people never forget the fact these things are possible only through God. What is going to your political future after 2015?

Beyond 2015, I always imagine that with democracy prospering in Nigeria. I will see myself as a senator in 2015.

I have actually been approached by my people and I have accepted their request that I should not just retire immediately. I had wanted to retire but they insisted that I should not retire. So, I will be contesting for the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and God willing, God’s will will be done.

How do you relax?

I relax by gisting and I always say that if I wasn’t a governor I would have been a comedian. I still intend to go into my profession in future. I am a lawyer but I will like to be a comedian because I like making people happy. I don’t like people frowning. I have a lot of programmes with which I assist people.

Anything that can change the lives of youth of this country, I will go into it. If it is talking to them, I am already doing that. I have tried that a couple of times. My story itself is a enough inspiration for the people.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2012

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HIS column has frequently examined the economic hugger-mugger now buffeting the North Atlantic community. I have done this because what happens in that region bears heavily on Africa in two ways.

First, the economic health of Africa still depends on the fate of its former colonial masters. Political independence was granted a half century hind. However, the economic umbilicus has yet to be severed.

Africa still feeds from the fetid conduit that should have been severed and replaced by something more equitable years ago.

We a fifty year old man dressed for the evening in fine suit and sparkling attire yet who persists in sucking his thumb and mumbling about the whereabouts of longlost Santa Claus.

Second, the North Atlantic's economic trials offers a real-life laboratory to test the validity of long-established economic ideas and postulates that hold sway in developed and developing nations. It is a rare occasion when traditional roles are reversed. Instead of Africa being the testing ground and Africans literally being guinea pigs for any number of crackpot ideas and unsureproducts,AfricacanwatchtheWest inflict the harsh experiment on itself. As compassionate human beings, this gives no cause for celebration; we fellow humans will suffer needlessly in the process.

However, the reality of human nature is such that, no matter how loving one might be, we always feels the profoundest relief when the hangman passes us by to select another as the subject of his deadly vocation. It is in this manner we view the current economic trials of the North Atlantic.

Let's see how the experiment has gone so far. On one side of the balance stand the vast horde of orthodox economists and the moneyed elite which collectively is the patron saint of the mainstream economists. These are the people who hold the professorships at the most prestigious universities and the pundits the global media pushes to the fore of your television to tell you what to think on all things economic.

You have heard their voice so often and for so long, that, if not careful, you will begin to think their voice is yours without ever realizing you are thinking such a thing.

You will soon hold to what they say as if you were the one who first thought it. Being duped into believing their words are your own, you invest yourself in protecting what has been indoctrinated in you through voluminous rote and media repetition. In effect, we have hired out our minds for free. That you may come to understand a relatively complex idea does not make it true. It just means you have invested yourself in learning it. The more you invest in it, the less willing you become to question its validity. This is how orthodoxy gains the adherence of generally well educated people who have not paid enough attention to economics. Having gone through the trouble of learning the fairy tales of the mainstream experts, most people reject the idea that the truth may reside in a less orthodox place.

The mainstream experts tell you to believe in unicorns. You believe them. But that unicorn they showed you is nothing but a dumb mule with a cheap horn rudely pasted on its head. In one movement, the horn falls; all is exposed for what it is. Yet, instead of believing what we see, we believe the excuse that the horn fell because the unicorn suffers a pernicious calcium deficiency weakening its bones. With a touch more exercise and tad of bitter medicine, he will be a unicorn's unicorn in no time. Fantasies are presented to us as science. Believing it, we sit back idly and wait for the hocus pocus to produce a scientific product. I tell you, the shamans of the American Indians are more accomplished scientists than these economic mountebanks.

Now, on the other side of the great divide are the heterodox misfits who come at economics from different, often nontraditional angles. They have no moneyed patrons. Their patrons are their pursuit of empirical truth and of a certain humanitarian objective that rankles at steep social inequality. They are not invited to the studios of the international media nor will you ever hear the mouthpieces of the establishment ever refer to them as experts.

The establishment prefers to tag them as renegade or irresponsible so that you will be frightened of what they say. Yet, the elite cannot completely neutralize every platform for discourse. Thus, I am thankful for this one as I am considered among the renegades.

Let's take score of the big issues of the

News Review/World

A primer: The misdesign of African development •History cares little about the obstacles we face.

Its concern is whether we overcome them

•African leaders at the 18th Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

BRIAN BROWNE

day, then determine which side is more the maestro and which is more the mongrel. Almost two years ago, the orthodoxy economists stood before the world blurting that government deficits were monstrous; energetically slicing the budgets was the only path to sure, durable economic growth. The rationale behind this gossamer tale was the less money government had, the more the private sector would have.

Thus, the private sector would enjoy a happy expansion, leading all peoples to free-market paradise. This might have been ascent to the plains of nirvana as described in their economic textbooks; this fantasy had no toehold in reality. UK Prime Minister and his Chancellor of the Exchequer stood before their people, taking the silver spoon from their own mouths just long enough to spew this bunkum. They promisedtheirbudget-cuttingactionswouldspur economic growth. They were applauded by the mainstream gallery. A gullible public accepted the policy in good faith, believing the men they had elected would not be so perverse in word and action as to state an objective only to implement a policy producing the opposite. While orthodox experts predicted azure skies and caviar nights ahead, the irresponsible progressives forecasted recession. Regular victims of this column will remember I predicted a British recession. Sure enough, an unnecessary double-dip recession tore across hoary Albion this year. Zero for the mainstream, one for the renegades.

EU nations were placed on the same miracle diet of "the less you eat, the faster you grow." They predicted austerity measures would force Greece to pull itself up by its bootstraps. Similar austerity would bring zephyrs to Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal. Progressives raised the warning flag. The flag was not even torn down. It was simply ignored. Let' review what happened.

Struggle as it might, Greece could not pull itself up by the bootstraps because the severe austerity imposed on that ancient land forced her to mortgage her last boot

and the straps along with it. Progressives foresaw depression in Greece and Spain and the depressions have come. We predicted recession for the rest of Europe. Recession now hovers over most of the EU. Nonplussed how their glistening theories turned to dross, orthodox experts now y point to tiny Latvia as evidence of a nation that has undergone austerity to achieve impressive growth numbers.

However, the conservatives sweep something important under the Latvian carpet.

Roughly one-third the nation's young adults have migrated because the austere conditions were too onerous. This departure created more economic space for the more sedentary victims of the inhumane policy. Such emigration is possible for a small nation. However, on the grander scale of Spain, Italy or even Greece, a comparable migration would rip the whole of Western Europe from its very moorings.

The lone mark against my predictions came with the United States. I predicted a recession by the middle of this year. I erred in thinking the budget-cutting grand bargain would have taken place late last year.

It did not. Because the American government was so fractured on party lines, the two political parties refused to reach an agreement on cutting the budget although both sides believed the crude hair shirt should be worn. In this instance, inadvertent inaction was the best policy. Thus, America continues to grow tepidly while Europe wrings its hands and wracks its brain how such an exquisitely conceived policy would prove to be a costly ticket to the torture chamber at the Masochists' Carnival and Sideshow. However, if America eventually signs a budget-cutting deal consonant with the magnitude of cuts now being discussed, the recession vaticinated in 2012, will arrive but one year later.

Take a quick view of the scorecard.

Orthodoxy was wrong at each instance regarding the big question. Meanwhile, heterodox progressives were correct in almost all cases. (Not all progressives made the errant assumption I made regarding the US.). Based on this predictive record, which

group should be drinking the champagne and which should eat the cork? Who is the maestro and who is the mongrel? Thus, the next time you see an establishment pundit on television maundering about the economy, regard it as entertainment, not news. You are watching the elaborate spectacle of a now trained, but once wild canine adorned in a suit and baying at the moon, all from the comfort of an indoor studio.

Unfortunately, the flood of conservatism that engulfs the world augurs poorly for African development. Good economic policy cannot answer everything, but bad economics can surely destroy it.

Africa's greatest challenge is to loose its people from the grip of their grandfather's destitution. Penury has been around too long, like the mendicant relative who brings his luggage inside and refuses to leave after the party is over and the food is gone. When most Africans are poor to the point where daily survival is a test they must pass and not a basic social guarantee, we all should go into our private space and shed as many tears as this inequity deserves. Afterward, we must come out and fight it. Our antecedents did not suffer the indignities of colonialism and slavery that we may wallow in poverty.Atsomepoint,somethinghastobreak.

Either it will be Africa's future or poverty's back. I know which rupture I prefer.

Conquering poverty will not happen according to the precepts in a textbook just as wars are not one by generals who tepidly follow the tactics learned in the military classroom. A wise general knows his enemy is equally versed in the same knowledge. He can only outdo his adversary through new tactics. In economics, the situation is worse. Most economics books are written by those whose interests are best served if Africa's interests go unattended. There are a few important concepts we must fully comprehend. If the economic statistics are accurate, most of Africasufferschroniceconomicdepression.

While this might seem obvious, it needs to be stated because the policy implications flowing from this reality are less than obvious. When the 2008 financial crisis and recession hit the mature economies, governments rushed to salvage their banking systems and whole economies with deficit spending. The Great Depression of the 1930's was defeated by active monetary policy and even more aggressive fiscal policy characterized by government deficit spending to build infrastructure and provide employment. Sadly, much of the spending was directed toward the militaries due to the antics of the mustached Aryan Bushman of Berlin. Yet, the larger point is that government deficit spend-

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ing directed at productive endeavors is the most prudent route from depression.

The only other alternative is to hope the people are sufficiently hardy to endure the deluge. This latter option shall not be deemed a policy as much as it shall be called by its proper name: indifference.

When their private sectors go off the rails, governments of developed nations come to the rescue, albeit some faster and with more purpose than others. If strong economies need government subvention to overcome temporary downturns, how much more do African economies need government help not only to get on the rails but to build rails in the first place?

African must reappraise its adoption of austerity first, the people second economic policy. It appears that we misconstrue and underestimate the role of government as currency issuer.

What follows is as important an economic concept as any you shall hear: To the extent a nation's debts are denominated in the currency it issues, that nation need not worry about its ability to pay the debts. The nation cannot go bankrupt in the currency it issues. With regard to these expenditures, inflation is the greater concern. Talk of insolvency in this instance is but vapor. Conversely, a nation handcuffs itself when it incurs foreign debts without having assured itself a supply of that alien currency in sufficient quantities to pay the debt in a timely manner.

This point is important because history shows that a nation can only rise from the lower economic rungs by wise and significant government intervention in the economy. This is how America grew. It is how China now grows. But Africa has been warned off this approach by the very powers that took it themselves. Sadly, we have taken the inaccurate warning to heart. We thus follow the economic orthodoxy that reduced government expenditure means more money in private hands. The opposite is true. Government deficit spending means government gives out more money than it receives. If government gives more than it gets, the beneficiary of this is an expanding private sector. Reducing deficit spending means government is taking in more than it gives out. This government "relative or actual" surplus necessarily means a private sector deficit. Thus, the private sector shrinks because its money has been depleted. If the private sector deficit is steep enough, depression results. Thus, we must ask which sector, government or private, is the agent that can most afford to run a deficit? If government runs the deficit, the private sector has the opportunity to expand as long as deficit spending is used for constructive purposes. At the same time, the deficit does not imperil government solvency because government cannot go bankrupt in its own coin. Conversely, if government runs a surplus, it gains nothings from such a position. The ocean becomes no greater if one pours an ounce of water in it nor does a baker commend the person who gives him a loaf of bread. Such gestures are futile in the extreme. However, the ounce of water or loaf of bread can resurrect a dying man or a prostrate economy.

In conclusion, if African nations are to escape the gravitational pull of underdevelopment, they must eschew orthodoxy. Its theories were postulated not to help enrich Africa but to induce Africa to labor in ways that enrich the writers of such things. Thus, we labor hard to be poorer still. Let no one deceive us that we shall soon drink the wine of prosperity only if we do what they say more efficiently.

That which we do is error to begin with; an error performed more competently is prone to do more harm than one done incompletely. If we are to be foolish, let it be the foolish that we author not one somebody made us listen to. Even better, let us be wise enough to learn from actual history and not from the book of economic fables, tall tales and assorted canards. This means that the educated class must better educate themselves about economics. It also means that we will begin to demand that African governments assume the vital role as platform for our vault from economic depression instead of governments shrinking from this most important date with our collective destiny.

Next week we will examine the fallacy of comparative advantage, the pratfalls of free trade and other issues.

08060340825 (SMS only)

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THE NATION SPORT SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012

SPORT EXTRA

NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL

Team Jigawa leads Northern brigade ...As organisers plan colourful closing

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IKE any other team to the 18th National Sports Festival (NSF), Nigeria's most prestigious sporting fiesta, Team Jigawa driven by share determination and zeal to succeed looked forward to making a mark.

Carting away 9 medals, 3 gold and 6 bronze medals won in different sports at the event, no one except the coaches and officials really gave them a chance to do this much at the games which comes to a close today.

Occupying the 13th spot on the medals table as at Friday, Team Jigawa is leading the Northern pack of 19 states to the festival.

Known for their display of row talent coupled with tenacity, the athletes showed that with a more enabling environment, they can pull surprises at subsequent events.

NationSport investigation revealed that the governor of the state, Dr Sule Lamido was instrumental to the success of the team rendering all forms of motivations preparatory to the festival.

According to sources close to the team's camp, one thing that is going well for this tiny northern state in Nigeria in the area of sports is that despite the dearth of modern facilities, the athletes are resolute in their resolve to

By Innocent Amomoh represent their state with everything, shunning the richer states that come luring them with mega pay.

"The athletes were discovered from the grass root and developed into stars. They are satisfied with represent the state and no amount of money offered by other richer states. They are not after money, and so those states planning to poach athletes should forget it," he said.

Jigawa is a small state with very few sports facilities unlike others, especially Kano and Kaduna that have hosted the festival before.

The governor, it was further gathered, has expressed determination since assuming office to put facilities in place before subsequent engagements so that the athletes can do better in the nearest future.

The state became popular in the past with their darling football team, the Jigawa Golden Stars, taking Nigerian football by storm. in the 90s and early 2000,with exceptional display football artistry.

With the information garnered, Jigawa State is on its way to reaching the top in sports all things being equal.

Results Arsenal 2 - 0 West Bromwich A. Aston Villa 0 - 0 Stoke C. Southampton 1 - 0 Reading Sunderland 1 - 3 Chelsea Swansea C. 3 - 4 Norwich C. Wigan Athletic 2 - 2 Queens Park R. Sunday Fixtures Manchester C. v Manchester U. Everton v Tottenham H. West Ham U. v Liverpool Monday Fixtures Fulham v Newcastle U.

•Lamido

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9-12-2012

QUOTABLE "It is obvious that the scar embedded in the psyche of PDP in last year's presidential election has inspired the fear of authentic opposition parties.

This is nothing short of vindictive purposelessness and transgression of the constitution."

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 7, NO. 2334

—- Pastor Chris Okotie, Founder and Presidential candidate of the Fresh Democratic Party (FDP), on INEC's announcement de-registering some political parties

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IGERIA’S Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is a fairly well-known African leader, having presided over the affairs of his country twice. His reputation as a leader, whether democratic or authoritarian, has however not quite matched his fame as a long-standing ruler.

Even then such fame as he continues to enjoy has made him a prime candidate for African Union (AU) or Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) missions. If he cannot be trusted to carry out those missions with the perspicacity of a true statesman, so the feeling goes on the continent, he can at least be relied on to handle them with the weight of his presence and renown. This probably explained why the AU/ECOWAS appointed him to head their observer mission to the February/March presidential/run-off elections in Senegal. It is a tribute to his disputatiousness and ineffectiveness that he made the assignment a controversial one.

Now, again, ECOWAS has made him the head of its observer mission to monitor the presidential election in Ghana. This time, he is not expected to undermine the little fame he has left, notwithstanding his propensity for the controversial.

If the two continental and regional bodies are serious about advancing the cause of democracy in Africa, it is time they began to search for the right candidates to head their observer missions. It should gladden the heart of Nigerians that their former president is entrusted with continental and regional responsibilities; but they are keenly aware that he is the wrongest candidate for the job on account of his anti-democratic credentials. Nigerians are not so parochial as not to appreciate when the wrong honour is being done them. Nor are they so mystified as not to know that Obasanjo’s repeated and continuous appointment for such delicate missions is a reflection of both regional and continental unease with the principles and values of democracy. Africa may be more democratic than it was some 20 years ago, but such democracy as they now practice falls short of universal standards.

I acknowledge that none of the observer missions Obasanjo led in the past few years has miscarried. His modest successes are, however, less a function of his wise counsel and assiduousness than they signpost the iron determination of the host countries to get their democracy right. In the February/March presidential elections in Senegal, Obasanjo had blunderingly suggested to the angry and restless Senegalese electorate to offer a two-year tenure extension to ex-President Abdoulaye Wade who was hotly disputing with the opposition the correct interpretation of the country’s presidential tenure. Obasanjo had in that instance tried to act as a political scientist or statistician, having observed that Wade wanted three more years while some stakeholders were willing to concede only one year. The main opposition led by Mr Macky Sall had offered none; and Obasanjo struck for the mean by offering two years. For someone sent to Senegal by AU and ECOWAS to mediate a disputatious pre-election period and ensure sound adherence to democratic principles, it was distressing to hear the former Nigerian president talk and seem arrantly self-important. In the end, during the run-off election on March 25, wise counsel prevailed, and the Senegalese electorate booted out Wade, voted in Sall, and disgraced Obasanjo who had prided himself on some unfounded originality and tactical ingenuity.

To prove his diplomatic and political malfeasances were not an aberration, Obasanjo had earlier displayed a stark lack of judgement in Sierra Leone when in 2007 he backed the then vice president and presidential candidate of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), Solomon Ekuma Berewa, for the presidency in that year’s election. He didn’t need to, though he had travelled to that country to dedicate a

Obasanjo in Ghana

•Obasanjo

•Mahama

youth centre named after him. The All Peoples Congress (APC) candidate, the more polished Ernest Bai Koroma, won the election of that year to assume the presidency of Sierra Leone. But after leading a business delegation to the country of six million people last month, Obasanjo simply took sides and declared Mr Koroma as favourite to win the November 17 election.

Many commentators in Sierra Leone concluded that Obasanjo was unprincipled and motivated by wrong and base motives.

Some even said that his endorsements should be watched with care because the former Nigerian leader did not have the reputation of a statesman and democrat, and that electoral malpractices followed him everywhere, including those he engi-

neered himself.

But by far the most important fact that should disqualify Obasanjo from heading any election monitoring group is his own record as an elected president. None of the two elections he conducted while in office was adjudged free and fair. In fact that of 2007 was by universal acclaim dismissed as the worst election anywhere in the world. Observer missions sent by many countries, including the European Union, described the poll as fraudulent and did not reflect the true wishes of the people of Nigeria. Even the main beneficiary of that election, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, declared the election to be flawed. To further demean himself, apart from conducting a fraudulent election,

Obasanjo also strove desperately to secure tenure extension for himself, climbing down from asking for three years, to plaintively asking for two years or even one. Nigeria has still not been able to live down the appalling choices he foisted on the country in 2007 and 2011.

Neither the AU nor ECOWAS will take the wise counsel of always appointing someone really qualified intellectually and temperamentally to monitor elections on the continent, mediate electoral or governmental disputes, and generally serve as facilitator for anything that would advance the cause of democracy.

The reason, as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation has found out in its frustrating effort to award leadership prizes over the years, is because the continent is replete with uninspired leaders, of which, sadly, Obsanjo is the archetype. Until the quality of leadership increases in Africa, the continent’s leaders will continue to be inured to the weaknesses exhibited by their colleagues. And since Obasanjo fancies himself a statesman and has an exaggerated opinion of his capacity and accomplishments, he will continue to angle for diplomatic jobs and offer himself as a champion of causes far beyond his ken.

Monitored or not, and by Obasanjo or any other, Ghana will get its electoral dynamics right. It has a prouder democratic history than Nigeria, and has managed, in spite of its hunger for modernisation, to establish and run a humanistic government, one that is at once as unprepossessing as it is somewhat ruthlessly efficient. Ghana may not be as copiously intellectual as Nigeria, or as boisterously exciting and culturally variegated, but in its seeming staleness and staidness, it has proven to be a better avatar of governance, moderation, innovation and surprisingly piquant traditionalism. People like Obasanjo should go to Ghana to learn a thing or two about the eternal verities of life, not to monitor elections for which they are least qualified. Perhaps a course on Nkrumahism would do them some good and positively redirect and refine the amorphous PanAfricanism they struggled to acquire in their youth, and which pristine version they grew up yearning to embrace, to identify with, and to market.

Federal Government so detached from reality

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S an indication of just how far down on the realty scale the government has descended, huge contracts have just either been approved or budgeted for in the 2013 budget. Among these are N2 billion additional fund for the construction of the vice president’s residence in Abuja, N2.2bn for the construction of a ‘befitting’ banquet hall in the presidential villa, billions more for the maintenance of the about 10 aircraft in the presidential fleet, and stupendous amounts for the official accommodation of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

There are other hefty allocations for all sorts of sundry matters including meals, cutleries, entertainment, etc.

Asked why the VP’s residence was a priority, the Federal Capital City (FCT) minister made this remarkably indifferent explanation: “The Vice-President is staying in a guest house meant for visiting heads of state. It is not right, it is not befitting for the Vice-President...The Vice-President has no accommodation; certainly you will agree with me that it is unbecoming for any government not to provide accommodation for its Vice-President. We will now embark on the construction of a befitting residence for the vice-president.” The minister, you will notice, wasn’t talking of necessity in these dire economic times; he was talking of what is befitting and what is not befitting. It’s the same rationalisation everywhere in government. The Aviation minister, for in-

stance, is also preoccupied with building airports that can compete with the best in the world. Have they been able to run and maintain the ones they inherited as best as they should?

The Goodluck Jonathan government is not just spending billions without rhyme or reason; I am beginning to suspect that the government has run berserk. Only last week, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that some 50 oil firms fraudulently collected N232bn from the government. Only N29bn has been recovered so far through debt swap. Were the gatekeepers sleeping when the crime was being committed; or was it sheer criminal collusion by government officials? In the midst of this horrendous mismanagement and wasteful spending, the president has not spoken with the gravitas the situation calls for. Instead, he has announced that eventually fuel subsidy would have to be removed completely. Neither he nor his ministers could tell us accurately the volume of fuel we consume, how they computed the subsidy, and why they think the economy can survive the social and economic dislocations the subsidy removal would precipitate.

The Jonathan government has not provided fresh ideas on how the country can best manage its resources, develop the economic and political paradigms that are efficient and best suited to our needs, and energise the system to succor the rising

number of poor people who cannot afford to pay for shelter and healthcare, educate their children, and enjoy a decent standard of living. More people are unemployed today than at any time in our history, are cripplingly less skilled, more criminally minded, and die much younger than their counterparts in most other African countries. In brief, Nigeria fares very badly in every social or economic indicator. What plans does the government have to remake the country and its people? Practically none. Instead, the government continues to embark on a spending spree so violently opposed to the reality of the moment, and almost without a care for the future, that it is a miracle order has not completely broken down.

Sadly, as democrats, we will have to cope with this sorry situation for the next two years and more. There is little anyone can do to redirect the government. It believes it has the brightest ideas and the best men and women to run the affairs of the country. Whatever we say will simply bounce off their thick skins. The best we can hope for is to wait for the next polls and vote in rational and realistic leaders who have workable ideas for re-engineering the country. Meanwhile, we must also hope that the damage this band of indifferent and financially reckless politicians will do to the system will not be irredeemable. Indeed, I am not sure we can survive a wrong choice after 2015.

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ISSN: 115-5302 E-mail: sunday@thenationonlineng.net Editor: FESTUS ERIYE